EC starts legal action over Phorm

The European Commission has started legal action against Britain over the online advertising technology Phorm.

It follows complaints to the EC over how the behavioural advertising service was tested on BT's broadband network without the consent of users.

Last year Britain had said it was happy Phorm conformed to European data laws.

But the commission has said Phorm "intercepted" user data without clear consent and the UK need to look again at its online privacy laws.

In a statement, Phorm said its technology was "fully compliant with UK legislation and relevant EU directives".

It added that it did not believe the Commission's legal action would have "any impact on the company's plans going forwards".

At the heart of the legal action by the EC is whether users have given their consent to have their data intercepted by the advertising system.

'Clear consent'

A spokeswoman from the commission told BBC News that the EC wanted the UK to ensure there were procedures in place to ensure "clear consent from the user that his or her private data is being used".

At present, UK law only covers "intentional" interceptions and requires there only to be a "reasonable grounds for believing" that consent to interception has been given.

"Technologies like internet behavioural advertising can be useful for businesses and consumers but they must be used in a way that complies with EU rules," the EU's Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding said in a statement.

She added: "We have been following the Phorm case for some time and have concluded that there are problems in the way the UK has implemented parts of the EU rules on the confidentiality of communications."

Ms Reding said Britain needed to to change its national laws to ensure there were proper sanctions to enforce EU confidentiality rules.

Unless Britain complies, Ms Reding has the power to issue a final warning before taking the country to the 27-nation EU's top court, the European Court of Justice. If it rules in favour of the European Commission, the court can force Britain to change its laws.

BT admitted last year it had tested Phorm's technology on its network with thousands of customers without asking for their consent or informing them of the trials. It later carried out further trials of the service, which it markets as Webwise, with the consent of users.

BT and Phorm have previously said they sought legal advice before carrying out the first trials.

Phorm's works by "trawling" websites visited by users whose ISPs have signed up to the service and for whom the technology is switched on, and then matches keywords from the content of the page to an "anonymous" profile.

Targeted adverts

Users are then targeted with adverts that are more tailored to their interests on partner websites that have signed up to Phorm's technology.

The technology differs from other behavioural advertising systems which tend to use data only from partner websites visited by users, and do not work in conjunction with internet service providers.

The service has proved controversial for some campaigners who believe it breaks UK data interception laws.

Nicholas Bohm, general counsel for the Foundation for Information Policy Research, which has led the criticisms of Phorm's technology, said he welcomed the EC's intervention.

"It will in effect apply pressure to the information commissioner and the Home Office and maybe even the Crown Prosecution Service in its contemplation of the illegality of the BT trials."

Welcomed emphasis

He said FIPR welcomed the emphasis on user consent, but also stressed that the body felt that website owners too should give their consent for their sites to be trawled by Phorm's technology.

"It is pleasing to see the EC is taking this issue more seriously than UK government departments here," he added.

Last year, Phorm received clearance from the Home Office and police closed a file on BT trials of the technology which looked into their legality.

The UK government said last year the technology could only be rolled out if users had given their consent and it was easy for people to opt out.

The European Union Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications requires member states to ensure the confidentiality of their communications and related traffic data. States must, it says, prohibit interception and surveillance unless the users concerned have given their consent.

The commission has also said it is concerned that the UK does not have an independent national supervisory authority to deal with the intentional interceptions of user data.

Mr Bohm suggested that the Information Commissioner's role could be widened to deal with the issue of interception of user data.

Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group said: "There are big legal questions surrounding BT's use of Phorm, so we welcome the EU taking the government to task.

"BT should respect everyone's privacy and drop their plans to snoop on the internet before they damage their own reputation further. Websites should protect their users and block Phorm now."

BT declined to comment on the EC's actions.

Phil Spector convicted of murder

US music producer Phil Spector has been convicted of murdering actress Lana Clarkson, after a five-month retrial.

The 68-year-old, famous for the "Wall of Sound" recording technique, faces between 18 years and life in prison.

He had pleaded not guilty to the second degree murder of 40-year-old Ms Clarkson, who was shot in the mouth at Spector's home in Los Angeles.

Spector was remanded in custody until sentencing on 29 May. His lawyer has said he intends to appeal.

"I don't think justice was done today," said lawyer Doron Weinberg.

Spector had looked frail as he entered the Los Angeles Superior Court, dressed in a black suit with a bright red tie.

The jury took some 30 hours of deliberation to reach their unanimous guilty verdict.

As the verdict was read out, Spector remained quiet and his wife Rachelle sobbed.

'Legal errors'

The jury had the option of returning a verdict of involuntary manslaughter, but chose not do so.

An earlier trial was abandoned in 2007 after a jury failed to reach a unanimous decision.

Second degree murder falls between first degree murder, which requires proof of pre-meditation, and manslaughter.

Speaking after the verdict, Mr Weinberg congratulated the jury on "trying to do the best honest job they could" with "complete integrity and complete honesty".

But he said the jurors had been flooded with "improper and prejudicial evidence" which made it impossible for them to reach a fair conclusion.

He said he was "very, very certain" that Spector had not been proved guilty "under the proper legal standard".

Mr Weinberg said "the nature of the legal errors" made in the trial were "so significant and so clear that there is every likelihood that this case will be set aside on appeal".

One of the jurors, speaking at a news conference after the trial, said the jury had a "complete picture" from the evidence.

The unnamed woman said they had "gone through all the information and that's what the conclusion was".

Prolific career

Phil Spector worked with some of the biggest names in the pop and rock business, including The Beatles and Ike and Tina Turner.

He produced hits including You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' by the Righteous Brothers and the Ronettes' Be My Baby.

But for all his musical genius, Spector had a dark side.

He was often described as being a bully in the studio, a man with a liking for guns and an eccentric personality.

During the five-month retrial, five female acquaintances testified that Spector had threatened them at gunpoint in incidents dating back to the 1970s.

Mr Weinberg had argued that the evidence from the women should not have been admitted.

The defence said Ms Clarkson's death was a suicide and appealed to jurors not to judge the star on his eccentric appearance.

Spector himself opted not to give evidence.

Stun gun

Actress Clarkson, 40, had been working as a hostess at the House of Blues venue in Los Angeles, and went home with Spector on the night of her death.

After appearing in cult 1980s films such as Barbarian Queen and Fast Times at Ridgemont High, her acting career had hit the rocks.

Spector had arrived at the club with waitress Kathy Sullivan, before setting his sights on Ms Clarkson.

Spector's Brazilian chauffeur, Adriano De Souza, said his boss appeared to be intoxicated and that Ms Clarkson was initially reluctant to go home with the music producer.

She was found dead in the foyer of his house in the early hours of the morning.

A holster that matched the snub-nosed Colt Cobra revolver that Spector used to kill her was found in a drawer in the foyer.

Mr De Souza called the emergency services, saying: "I think my boss killed somebody", after Spector emerged from his home with a gun.

He told jurors Spector had said: "I think I killed somebody." The defence argued he had misheard his employer.

The producer was taken into custody about 40 minutes after the shooting and had to be subdued by officers using a stun gun.

Ancient medicines were alcoholic

A team of researchers in the US has discovered traces of a medicinal alcoholic drink in bottles that are more than 5,000 years old.

The scientists extracted wine compounds and plant-derived ingredients from a jar taken from the tomb of one of the first pharaohs of Egypt, Scorpion I.

This is the earliest sample of a human-made medicine.

The researchers report their findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Patrick McGovern, professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, led the research.

The vessels that he and his team tested came from excavated tombs in southern Egypt - the earliest of which dates from 3150BC.

"This is the earliest Egyptian vessel ever found to have wine in it," Professor McGovern told BBC News.

"It shows that, by trial and error, humans were discovering remedies over 5,000 years ago, and that alcoholic beverages were a key part of the discovery process."

Designing medicine

The team used organic solvents to extract residues from inside the jars.

With extremely sensitive chemical techniques, they were then able to separate the different compounds within the residue.

The jars tested positive for tartaric acid - a reliable chemical marker for grape and wine in the Middle East.

The scientists also found compounds from a number of herbs, some of which have known medicinal properties, and from tree resin.

Professor McGovern pointed out that alcoholic drinks would have been ideal for dissolving these plant-derived substances.

"As well as adding flavour, these compounds were likely to have been used with a medicinal aim in mind," he said.

His team also tested residue from inside a later Egyptian jar, or amphora, dating from between the 4th and 6th Centuries.

He now wants to find out if some of the ancient remedies he found could be revived.

Professor McGovern has started a collaboration with researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center, testing compounds found in ancient fermented beverages from China, including the earliest chemically confirmed alcoholic beverage in the world, dated to 7000BC.

Drug offers hope on Alzheimer's

A new drug which shows promise as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease has been developed by UK scientists.

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports the drug, CPHPC, removes a protein thought to play a key role in Alzheimer's from the blood.

Tests at the University College London found the protein also disappeared from the brains of five Alzheimer's patients given the drug for three months.

Longer and larger scale clinical studies are now being planned.

The protein - serum amyloid P component (SAP) is always present in both the sticky clumps (plaques) and the tangles of nerve fibres that are found in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease, and are thought to damage healthy cells.

It appears to prevent both structures from breaking up, and has also been shown - in lab experiments at least - to promote formation of the amyloid protein which forms the damaging plaques.

There is also some evidence that SAP itself can damage brain cells directly.

Two of the big potential advantages CPHPC are that it is not broken down once inside the body, and it has a very specific action, not interacting with cells at all, thus reducing the risk of side effects.

Molecular process

The researchers expected a depletion of SAP in the five patients' blood - but were taken aback at the drug's apparent effect on the brain.

By using laboratory tests they were also able to reveal both the molecular process underpinning the effect of the drug, and the way in which SAP accumulates in the brain in Alzheimer's disease.

The study also confirmed that use of the drug - and the removal of SAP from the brain - had no side effects on the patients.

CPHPC has already been given to patients with other diseases without any any adverse effects.

Although the three-month treatment period was too short to show any clinical benefit there was no obvious deterioration.

Longer and larger scale clinical studies are being planned to confirm safety and seek evidence of benefit to the patients.

Lead researcher Professor Mark Pepys said: "The complete disappearance of SAP from the brain during treatment with CPHPC could not have been confidently predicted, and the drug, also to our surprise, entered the brain.

"Coupled with the absence of any side effects, these new findings strongly support further clinical studies to see whether longer term treatment with CPHPC protects against the inexorable mental decline in patients with Alzheimer's disease."

Dr Susanne Sorensen, head of research at the Alzheimer's Society, said: "A key characteristic of Alzheimer's disease is the clumping together of proteins in the brain.

"It's very exciting that this drug could potentially interfere with this process, but it's too early to say how much it will benefit people with the disease."

Rebecca Wood, of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, said the study was small, but the results were cause for "cautious optimism".

"New treatments for Alzheimer's disease are desperately needed, and it's possible that this small molecule could be a future candidate."

Bleak prediction for advertising

Worldwide advertising spending could fall by 6.9% this year to $453bn (£304bn), according to media agency Zenith Optimedia.

It put the decline down to the current economic problems, which it said had both hit corporate confidence and put consumers off making major buys.

The agency said newspapers would suffer most, with advertising revenues down 12%, as people turned to the internet.

The internet would be the only medium to attract higher advertising spending.

"Since we released our last forecasts in December the global ad market has taken a substantial turn for the worse," said Zenith Optimedia, whose own customers include British Airways, Hewlett Packard and Nestle.

It predicted that television would boost its proportion of advertising budgets to 38.6% from 38.1%, but the total spent on TV advertising would fall by 5.5%.

Zenith Optimedia also predicted that spending on internet advertising was set to rise 8.6% as shoppers hunt online bargains.

Earlier this month online monitoring firm Hitwise found that visits to classified advertising websites were booming, with visits to such sites in the US up 84% on the same time last year.

Newspapers have been particularly hit by the downturn, from smaller titles in the UK to large papers in the US.

In February, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation announced a $6.4bn quarterly loss, as falling advertising revenues forced it to cut $8.4bn from the value of assets.

Smeared Tories want No 10 reform

David Cameron has demanded a reform of Downing Street's "culture" after a government adviser sent e-mails about slurs against leading Conservatives.

The Tory leader said Labour had "been in power too long" and Gordon Brown had to end "this sort of nonsense".

Adviser Damian McBride resigned after unfounded claims about Mr Cameron and other senior figures were revealed.

The government has defended its response to the e-mails scandal, saying the prime minister had "taken action".

Mr McBride stood down on Saturday, after it was revealed that he had sent e-mails in January to former government spin doctor Derek Draper, containing allegations about Mr Cameron, shadow chancellor George Osborne and Tory MP Nadine Dorries among others.

'Need for change'

It was suggested the smears be published in a proposed Labour-backing, gossip-led website called Red Rag. The idea was later abandoned.

Mr Brown has written to those mentioned in the e-mails, expressing his "deep regret" and insisting no ministers had been involved.

But the Conservatives have continued to question whether this was the case and, in particular, whether Cabinet Office minister Tom Watson knew about plans to set up Red Rag.

Mr Cameron said: "What this whole episode demonstrates is the need for change - not change in the special advisers code but change in the culture at Number 10 Downing Street.

"I do not think we will get a change in culture until we get a change in leadership and we won't get a change in leadership until we get a change of government.

"These people have just been in power too long; they have forgotten who they are serving, what they are meant to be doing, how they are meant to behave and we need some change.

"I do not know what Gordon Brown knew and when he knew it but what I do know is that he hired these people, he sets the culture, he is the leader and we need change in order to change the culture and stop this sort of nonsense."

Earlier, shadow Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude told BBC Radio 4's World at One: "It is perfectly clear that what Damian McBride was doing was massively in breach of the code for special advisers and if ministers and other special advisers were involved, they would be in breach of the code as well, and we ought to know that."

The row highlighted "the whole culture at the centre of government", which Mr Maude said had "surrounded Gordon Brown all of his political career".

Meanwhile, Frances Osborne, wife of shadow chancellor George Osborne, has complained to the Press Complaints Commission after allegations about her were repeated in the Sunday Times and News of the World.

Action pledge

The government defended its response to the revelations, saying there was a "huge amount of frustration" that the controversy was diverting attention from efforts to deal with problems facing the country.

A Downing Street spokesman said Mr Brown had been aware of the story on Friday but McBride had not resigned until Saturday because the PM had not known the exact nature of the e-mails until then.

He added that Mr McBride would not receive any severance pay.

As well as writing to those named in the e-mails, Mr Brown sent a letter to Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell, saying he was ready to take "whatever action is required" to prevent a repeat of the incident.

He called for anyone caught "disseminating inappropriate material" to lose their jobs automatically, and suggested special advisers should not be allowed to use official resources for party political purposes.

'Spinning new rhetoric'

Communities Secretary Hazel Blears told the BBC: "Damian McBride has gone through the door in pretty sharp order. The prime minister's written personally to the people involved, expressing great regret about what's happened, and he's toughening up the code for special advisers.

"Now that says to me that the prime minister, who knew nothing about these e-mails, has taken action on every single front here."

Ms Dorries, who was the focus of some of the e-mail correspondence, said the current code of conduct already included safeguards to prevent such behaviour.

People wanted to see this adhered to rather than "spinning new rhetoric about writing a new code", she said.

Labour MP Stephen Byers, a former cabinet minister, wrote in the London Evening Standard that he had been the victim of Mr McBride's "aggressive and hostile media briefing" several times.

"As a result I have to admit that I made little effort to suppress a smile when I heard about his enforced departure from Downing Street," he added.

Sri Lanka ceasefire 'a deception'

Tamil Tiger rebels have said that a two-day ceasefire called by Sri Lanka's government is an attempt to deceive the international community.

The rebels called for a permanent internationally supervised truce as the ceasefire entered its second day.

The government announced the halt in fighting to allow civilians trapped in the conflict zone to leave.

The rebels' statement said they were ready for open political talks to end the decades of bloodshed.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's foreign secretary said the Tigers were using the truce to force civilians to shore up defences.

'Ready to comply'

The Tigers said the two-day truce was "merely an act of hoodwinking".

They said there should be an internationally supervised truce and that such a ceasefire should also contain a base for political solutions.

"The LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] has for long been requesting a permanent ceasefire encompassing sensible military and political essence. This, the LTTE still reiterates," the statement said.

"The LTTE desires that it should also create a conducive climate for a permanent political resolution to the national question of the Tamils in a peaceful way. The LTTE is ready to comply without any conditions to a ceasefire as described above."

The rebels accused the army of continuing to shell civilian areas on the first day of the temporary ceasefire. The army has denied the accusation.

Sri Lankan military officials said that the frontlines in the north-east had remained largely quiet except for some minor clashes.

Aid agencies say that tens of thousands of civilians have been trapped in a government-designated no-fire zone - though only 18 came out on Monday.

The government accuses the rebels of holding the civilians against their will. The Tamil Tigers say the civilians do not want to leave the safe zone because they fear the military.

Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona accused the rebels of rebuilding defences with civilian labour during the truce.

Dr Kohona told the BBC's Tamil service: "Holding anybody hostage is a criminal act."

He indicated that the government had no intention of extending the two-day truce.

"What is the purpose of keeping it extended if they don't let the people go?" he asked.

Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has urged Sri Lanka not to return to all-out fighting against the Tamil Tigers after the end of the truce period.

In a telephone call with his Sri Lankan counterpart, Rohitha Bogollagama, Mr Miliband said the ceasefire could be an important first step towards the end of conflict without further civilian casualties.

In a statement, Mr Bogollagama said "a longer pause was not possible because the Tigers have so far failed to demonstrate any genuine goodwill on their part in allowing the civilians to have free movement".

The authorities were also concerned that the rebels would use the opportunity to consolidate in the ceasefire zone, the statement added.

He said the stance of government of Sri Lanka remains unchanged in not recognising the appointment of a special envoy by Britain.

US troops 'might stay in N Iraq'

US combat troops may stay in northern Iraq after a deadline for them to pull back by the end of June has passed, the top US commander in the area has said.

Col Gary Volesky said his soldiers would stay in Mosul and other nearby cities where al-Qaeda remained a threat if the Iraqi government asked them to.

US and Iraqi officials describe Mosul as al-Qaeda in Iraq's last major urban stronghold in the country.

Barack Obama has said he wants all US troops out of Iraq by the end of 2011.

"If the Iraqi government wants us to stay we will stay," said Col Volesky in a teleconference with journalists.

He said the US military was conducting an assessment of the situation in Mosul after five US soldiers were killed in a suicide lorry bombing there on Friday.

In January, Ryan Crocker, the outgoing US ambassador to Iraq, warned that a hasty withdrawal of US troops from the country would create "severe risks".

He said al-Qaeda remained a threat and that an overly rapid departure would have a "chilling effect" on Iraqis.

The US currently has more than 140,000 troops in Iraq, and combat troops are due to pull out of Iraq's cities by the end of June.

Under a recent agreement, they are expected to remain elsewhere in the country until the end of August 2010.

Poland to seek $20bn IMF credit

Poland's government is to ask the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $20bn (£13.44bn) credit line to help tackle the economic crisis.

Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski said it would increase bank reserves and make Poland "immune to the virus of the crisis and speculative attacks".

He said the move would increase state bank reserves by about a third.

He said it was not "emergency funding" but rather "a supplementary reserve" available to the Polish central bank.

At the G20 meeting in London in early April, a decision was taken to boost the IMF's lending resources by up to $750bn.

The IMF's managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said: "I am very pleased by this positive response from Poland to the invitation I extended to strongly performing economies to use this new instrument to bolster international confidence."

'Good economic condition'

Poland is the second country after Mexico to take advantage of the IMF's flexible credit line, established to let better-run economies gain access to money with fewer conditions attached.

Once a credit line has been established, a country can draw on it without having to meet specified IMF policy goals.

The Polish zloty was unchanged after the announcement, and Polish central bank Monetary Policy Council member Halina Wasilewska-Trenker said: "The IMF's credit line means more stability for the zloty."

Meanwhile, economist Marta Petka, of Raiffeisen Bank Polska, said it was a positive move by Poland.

"Since the moment the credit line facility was created and after a positive experience of Mexico, Poland was named as one of the first countries to receive this form of financing."

She added: "This is a good information because it creates a buffer for the finance ministry in terms of acquiring financing.

"Because the IMF clearly states the facility is aimed at countries in a good economic condition, it will increase Poland's credibility."

The Polish government recently adopted a stimulus plan worth 91.3bn zlotys ($31.4bn; $20.6bn) to kick-start the economy amid the global slowdown.

Warrants for Thai protest leaders

Thai authorities have issued arrest warrants for 13 protest leaders and the man the protesters support, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The group had been charged with inciting a public disturbance and illegal assembly, the warrant said.

The protests have shut down large parts of the capital, Bangkok, for the last three weeks. Clashes on Monday left two people dead and dozens of others hurt.

But on Tuesday, as troops massed, the protesters called off their action.

Overnight the army hemmed in several thousand activists around Government House.

More soldiers then moved in, prompting the protest leaders to call on their remaining followers to go home to avoid further bloodshed.

The protesters support former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by the military in a 2006 coup.

They want the current government, under Prime Minster Abhisit Vejjajiva, to step down and fresh elections to be called.

Mr Thaksin has been living in overseas exile for much of the last three years. Last year a Thai court convicted him in absentia of corruption.

On Sunday he called for a "revolution"; on Monday he told the BBC he meant a "peaceful revolution".

'To save lives'

The Thai court named the ousted prime minister in its warrant.

"Thaksin and his allies were charged by the court for illegal assembly of more than 10 people, threatening acts of violence and breach of the peace," the warrant said.

The charges were punishable by five years in jail, it added. Four of those named have already turned themselves into police.

The warrants were issued shortly after protest leaders called an end to the stand-off.

Speaking to the BBC from hiding, protest leader Jakrapap Penkair called the retreat "an honourable decision to save lives", but vowed that the movement would continue.

Last week the protests forced the cancellation of an Asian summit, as crowds of demonstrators swarmed the summit venue.

Clashes then erupted in Bangkok, culminating in a day of violence on Monday that left more than 120 people injured.

Troops fought running battles with protesters, who hurled petrol bombs and drove commandeered buses at them. Soldiers responded with live rounds, something the armed forces' chief stressed was in self-defence.

PM Abhisit welcomed the end of the protests, but said that his government would remain on guard.

"The operation under the state of emergency is not over," he said. "There are still things to do. I insist the government will not be negligent because we have to remain vigilant."

Thailand remains deeply divided, with little consensus over who should govern, reports the BBC's Jonathan Head, from Bangkok.

Society is split between the urban and rural poor who support Mr Thaksin, and his foes in the traditional power cliques of the military and bureaucracy.

Mr Thaksin's allies won the election that followed the 2006 coup, but a court then ruled that the government was illegal, leaving Mr Abhisit - then the opposition leader - in a position to form a governing coalition.

The prime minister was helped into power by another group of protesters who shut down the main international airport for a week. None of those protesters have been detained or put on trial.

How Mr Abhisit deals with both groups of protesters will be seen by many here as a test of his pledge to uphold the law equally for all Thais, our correspondent says.

Hanged Sudanese 'may be innocent'

Lobby group Amnesty International has condemned as "outrageous" the hanging of nine Sudanese men convicted of beheading a newspaper editor in 2006.

"They were arbitrarily arrested, tortured and then subjected to an unfair trial," said the body's deputy Africa director Tawanda Hondora.

They were hanged in a prison in the capital, Khartoum, in front of relatives of the editor, Mohammed Taha.

The men, from Darfur, were apparently upset by an article in Mr Taha's paper.

His decapitated body was found on a dirt road a day after he had been abducted from his home in Khartoum.

Groups of women were wailing outside the jail after the executions, reports the Reuters news agency.

Controversial editor

Ten people were initially convicted of the murder but one was later acquitted.

A defence lawyer said an article in Mr Taha's al-Wifaq newspaper had angered members of the Darfur community by downplaying the scale of rape in the Darfur conflict and insulting women from the region.

Despite being an Islamist himself, Mr Taha had sparked angry demonstrations when in 2005 he reprinted an article questioning the roots of the Prophet Muhammad.

He was put on trial for blasphemy but the charges were later dropped.

Mr Taha had been the target of an assassination attempt five years previously after writing an article which criticised the ruling National Congress Party.

Despite his controversial past, thousands of weeping mourners attended Mr Taha's funeral in September 2006.

Egypt town boasts 'zero unemployment'

It sounds too good to be true in these depressing economic times - a town with zero unemployment in the Arab world's most populous country.

Welcome to Damietta, a thriving Egyptian port, where handcrafted furniture is turning heads not just in the capital, Cairo, but also far beyond the country's borders.

Here they produce furniture of the highest standards, which is exported to Europe and the Gulf.

One of the biggest factories is Asal Furniture, where they have doubled exports in five years and where they now employ almost 1,000 workers.

Their success is remarkable and they cannot help boasting it is all down to this town's work ethic - something the company's sales director Hani Hayat believes his compatriots would do well to emulate.

"We have worked all our lives, since we were children," said Mr Hayat.

"I used to come home from school at lunchtime to work in my father's shop. In this town we are taught not to waste our time."

"Even the president, Hosni Mubarak, when he visited, said he wished he had 100 Damiettas."

Hani is a university graduate. Like many others, he finished his studies and returned to the family business to what he knows best.

"I have been making furniture since I was 12 years old," he said.

"I learnt it from my father - he learnt it from his father. It is a skill passed through the generations."

Secret of success

Egypt has a fast-growing population. Youth unemployment and the menial nature of jobs and the low salaries that await graduates are the government's nagging problems.

Such problems lead to instability, but there are no such worries in Damietta.

Here many of the young aspire to better the skills of their grandfathers.

Abdu al-Gindi runs one of 50 small, family-owned workshops that carry out the specialist jobs for Asal Furniture. At the moment he is teaching his grandson the secrets of his success.

"No-one is unemployed," he says. "Take a look around this neighbourhood you won't find anyone without any work. Lazy people are shunned in this town. There are just too many jobs to do - we haven't time to sit around."

In fact every house in his neighbourhood seems to have a carpenter's shop beneath it.

There are 60,000 such shops in Damietta, all of them making furniture for export; shops that specialise in every stage of the process, from carving, to painting, to upholstering.

The people of Damietta have made a family trade into a successful global enterprise. It is the sort of entrepreneurial spirit the government would dearly love to encourage across the country.

Outside facing

Damietta does have natural advantage - it is in the Nile Delta, close to the mouth of the Suez Canal. The government has helped by abolishing all tariffs.

But Salah Misbah, an economist and an opposition politician, says it is not that Damietta is exceptional - it is that the rest of the country lags far behind.

"You have to believe in work," he said. "These people think 24 hours about what they are going to produce. They don't depend on anyone else here. And yet I don't think Damietta is anything but a normal town - for me it's the rest of the country that is less than normal."

Those who grew up in Damietta, like former Egyptian ambassador to Washington Dr Abdel Raouf al-Ridi, agree.

"The people of Damietta are merchants," said Dr Ridi.

"This is Egypt's oldest port. They have always faced the outside world. They depend on themselves.

"Many of the other Egyptians are from farming communities - they wait for the fruit to fall from the trees. Not here.

"There is a saying here - the hand that is not working is not a pure hand."

That work ethic is engrained in people from Damietta at a young age - it seems almost spiritual.

And perhaps in such difficult times their success serves as a reminder to all that, with skill and hard work, anything is possible.

Grapes of Wrath, a classic for today?

The Grapes of Wrath, published exactly 70 years ago, can be seen as a prophetic novel - rooted in the tragedies of the Great Depression, but speaking directly to the harsh realities of 2009, writes Steinbeck scholar Robert DeMott.

Steinbeck's epic novel, which traces the harrowing exodus of Tom Joad and his family from blighted Oklahoma (where they are evicted from their farm), across the rugged American south-west via Highway 66, and on to what they mistakenly hope will be a more promising future in California, is considered by many readers to be the quintessential Depression-era story, and an ironic reversal of the rags-to-riches tale favoured by many optimistic Americans.

Seventy years ago, on April 14, 1939, The Viking Press in New York officially published John Steinbeck's searing novel The Grapes of Wrath. It was released on the fourth anniversary of Black Sunday, when the worst dust storm in recent American history had rolled across the Great Plains blotting out the sun and later depositing airborne topsoil 1,000 miles east in Washington DC. Steinbeck thought his novel was too raw for wide general appeal: "I've done my damndest to rip a reader's nerves to rags," he told his editor in early 1939. But despite its unflinching detail, gritty language, and controversial reception (the American Library Association includes it among the 100 most frequently banned and/or challenged books), the Grapes of Wrath has attained classic status and appears on many best novels lists.

The Grapes of Wrath treats as a national epidemic the wave of widespread foreclosure, uprootedness, migration and homelessness caused by the double whammy of cataclysmic environmental and economic disasters.

The thirties was a decade of staggering unemployment in America - as high as 25% in 1933, and still hovering around 19% in 1938, the year in which Steinbeck set The Grapes of Wrath.

Steinbeck was not reticent about assigning part of the blame for the catastrophic conditions on the "Bank," the "Company," and the "State"; that is, to faceless, bloodless corporate, institutional, and bureaucratic organisations, so that his novel has an extremely hard, angry edge, though it offers no practical answers for a populace displaced by the shift from agricultural to industrial economies.

Steinbeck's partisanship was aided and abetted by his anger over the deplorable conditions under which migrant workers and their families (estimated to be as high as 300,000) lived and laboured once they reached the end of their diaspora in California, his home state.

What goes around comes around. For emotional urgency, evocative power, and sustained impact The Grapes of Wrath has few peers in American fiction. Seven decades later it has never been out of print and still sells by the carload.

To become a classic, it is often thought that a book needs to transcend its contemporary origins and remain untouched by subsequent history. But it is more accurate to think that a book becomes a classic precisely because it keeps being informed by the most recent historical developments. A literary classic speaks directly to readers' concerns in successive historical and cultural eras.

In this sense then, The Grapes of Wrath is a prophetic novel, rooted in the economic and environmental tragedies of the Great Depression, but speaking just as directly to the harsh realities of our own time.

At this moment of global economic meltdown, when the whole world is gripped by severe financial recession (much of it caused by rapacious greed, fiscal malfeasance, and corporate arrogance), when groups around the globe are in migration from one kind of tyranny or another, when the gap between rich and poor seems insurmountable, and when homelessness and dispossession caused by widespread financial failure and mortgage foreclosure is rapidly rising in the US and elsewhere - symbolised by shantytowns and tent cities on the outskirts of major metropolitan areas - then it is fitting to think of The Grapes of Wrath as our contemporary narrative, our 21st Century jeremiad.

The characters of Ma and Tom Joad have been etched into popular culture

But Steinbeck's impact does not end there. Throughout his career - well into the 1960s - Steinbeck was a writer with a remarkably acute conscience and a deep respect for common sense morality.

He carried on a kind of lover's quarrel with America, and warned against runaway materialism, institutional imperialism, intellectual hypocrisy, and rampant greed - all inevitable and regrettable by-products of an advanced industrialised capitalist society.

"If I wanted to destroy a nation," he wrote in 1966, "I would give it too much and I would have it on its knees, miserable, greedy and sick."

It is impossible to know how Steinbeck would have reacted to our current malaise, fuelled in part by unbridled financial speculation and lax governmental oversight, but it is tempting to think, given the outcome, he might have said, "I told you so."

Phil Spector's Wall of Sound

Record producer Phil Spector has been found guilty, after retrial, of murdering actress Lana Clarkson at his home in Los Angeles.

Spector is credited with creating the "Wall of Sound" recording technique.

Characterised by bombastic, reverberating instruments which constantly threatened to drown out the vocals, the Wall of Sound was one of the first attempts to use the recording studio as an instrument in its own right.

Below are some of the prime examples of Spector's music.

No winners in Thailand's crisis

Nobody won. That is the only conclusion that can be drawn from the chaotic events in Thailand over the past few days.

Certainly not the red-shirted United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), whose attempted uprising degenerated into a series of chaotic clashes with the army that left a wake of destruction on the streets of Bangkok.

Not Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva either. Although he clawed back a lot of his authority through the successful military operation to disperse the UDD protesters, the promise he made on taking office four months ago to promote reconciliation in his country now looks hollow.

Not the army, which carried out the unpleasant task of clearing the streets with growing confidence, and surprisingly light casualties.

Its decision to suppress these protesters, when it did nothing about the equally damaging actions of the yellow-shirted People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) last year, makes a mockery of its claim to be a neutral force.

That and the 2006 coup that deposed Thaksin Shinawatra have irrevocably tarnished its image with a sizable part of the Thai population.

Not the police, who are now such a diminished and demoralised force that almost no-one in Thailand expected them to play any role in the recent disorder.

When confronted by a few thousand unarmed protesters at the Asian summit in Pattaya, they offered only token resistance. In Bangkok they were essentially invisible. Without a functioning police force, the rule of law that Mr Abhisit has talked of so often becomes very precarious.

And finally, not Thaksin Shinawatra, whose melodramatic call for a people's uprising fell flat, and who is still stuck in exile, without a secure place of refuge.

Polarising figure

Three years of intractable political conflict are taking a debilitating toll on Thailand. Emotions are now very raw.

Some of the ugliest scenes in recent days did not involve the army; they occurred when local residents came out to confront the rampaging red-shirts. Shots were fired, two people died, and some were savagely beaten.

It is difficult to explain why Thailand, a country once seen as a paragon of stability and social harmony, has become so polarised.

The division between Red and Yellow cuts across many lines; it is not simply just rural-versus-urban, or poor-versus-rich. Spend long enough with either group and you meet people from very varied backgrounds.

But there is one issue that clearly divides the two camps.

That issue is Thaksin Shinawatra, the man who shattered the traditional mould of Thai politics through his brilliant campaigns, winning him two record election victories in 2001 and 2005.

Not all the Reds love this brash and controversial figure.

But they pretty much all think he was unjustly removed from office by the 2006 coup, and that the various legal cases brought against him - he was sentenced to two years in jail in absentia last year for an abuse of power - are without merit.

They also believe in the power of his populist agenda, the key to his party's mass following.

Not just because it improved the lot of the rural poor - economists have questioned the efficiency and long-term benefit of many of his policies - but because for the first time it gave poorer Thais a sense that their vote mattered, that voting for a particular policy platform could bring you tangible benefits.

This approach politicised a previously neglected class of people in Thailand, and made them a powerful, new force.

These people are the reason Mr Thaksin did so well in elections, and the reason his allies were returned to office in 2007, in the first election held after the coup, even though Mr Thaksin and 110 of his top party officials were banned from running.

They are now the mass base of the red-shirt movement. And they believe, passionately, that their side has been treated unfairly.

Festering grievances

The many, well-founded criticisms made of Mr Thaksin's style of government do not affect that view: that he was autocratic, fatally weakening Thailand's fragile democratic institutions; that he presided over a sharp escalation of human rights violations; that corruption continued to flourish under his administrations; that he shamelessly promoted on the basis of loyalty, not competence.

These are points made tirelessly by the PAD during their anti-Thaksin protests last year, and they are hard to refute.

But because so many poorer Thais saw this flawed politician as their champion, they resented it bitterly when forces aligned with the wealthy elite decided to bend the rules to kick him out of office.

It was ultra-royalist generals who led the coup. But they were cheered on by conservative judges and bureaucrats, wealthy business tycoons and many urban, middle-class Thais. Mr Thaksin's followers felt robbed.

That sense of being robbed continued last year when they saw the governments they had voted for harried by the PAD, and then disqualified by bizarre court decisions.

And they felt patronised when PAD activists said - as they did repeatedly - that the only reason the poor voted for Mr Thaksin was because he had bribed them to.

These grievances continue to fester, and deepen the divide in Thai society.

Go to a red-shirt rally and you will hear the same mantra; "We are grass-roots people, fighting for democracy, against the ruling class".

Go to a yellow-shirt rally and you will almost inevitably hear a different mantra; "We are educated people, fighting against corrupt politicians who abuse democracy".

There appear to be no towering, Obama-like figures in Thailand, who can win the respect of both camps. Certainly not Mr Abhisit, who often looks uncomfortably out of place in the rural, red heartlands of the north and north-east.

How he deals with the leaders of the "red uprising" now - and how that compares with the treatment given to last year's "yellow uprising" - will be an important test of his promise to uphold the rule of law impartially.

So the conflict which erupted so spectacularly in Bangkok and Pattaya over the past week will probably rumble on, steadily eroding the confidence of investors, tourists and the Thai people, in a stable future for their country.

Murray opens clay season with win

British number one Andy Murray began his clay-court season with a fine win over Romanian Victor Hanescu in round two of the Monte Carlo Masters.

The 21-year-old Scot, who had a bye in the first round as the fourth seed, overcame a tentative start to win 6-3 6-2 in one hour 25 minutes.

Murray faces Croatia's Marin Cilic or Italian Fabio Fognini in round three.

Novak Djokovic, whose world number three ranking Murray is closing in on, beat Oscar Hernandez of Spain 6-1 6-2.

When asked about his performance Murray said: "I'm very happy with it.

"The start was tough, he played a few good shots and broke me a couple of times but I'm happy with the way I moved.

"I was getting good shape on my shots and didn't make too many mistakes. I could have served a little better but apart from that I'm very happy."

Murray made a cautious start, playing conservatively from the baseline and struggling to take the initiative as the first four games went against serve.

But despite a few clever drop shots, Hanescu did not have enough to worry the Briton and from the moment Murray broke to lead 4-2 he remained in control.

A Hanescu double-fault in game three of the second set saw Murray take charge again and a couple of heavy cross-court forehand winners earned the double-break in game seven.

Murray let a 40-15 lead slip when serving for the match and saved another break point, before match point three slipped away after the umpire overturned a call when checking a mark.

The drama was not to last long, however, and a forehand error from Hanescu gave Murray victory at the fourth attempt.

Djokovic won an impressive 70% of his service points as he made light work of his match against qualifier Hernandez.

The 21-year-old world number three, who currently holds a 170-point lead over Murray in the rankings, also converted five of 14 break points to set up a third round clash with either Monaco wild card Jean-Rene Lisnard or Spaniard Albert Montanes.

In the battle of two former Grand Slam champions Russian Marat Safin won in straight sets against Australian Lleyton Hewitt 6-4 7-5.

Safin faces Nicolas Lapentti in the next round after the Ecuadorian overcame Czech Radek Stepanek on Monday.

There were two surprise results early on Tuesday as sixth seed Gilles Simon and ninth seed Gael Monfils went out.

Monfils lost 6-3 6-1 to Janko Tipsarevic before fellow Frenchman Simon went down 7-5 6-1 to Andreas Beck.

"I don't remember ever playing so badly," said Simon. "Nothing was right. Nothing was working. My forehand, my backhand, my serve, nothing. I believe this match is a record."

And 12th seed David Nalbandian heaped further misery on the French as he beat Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4 3-6 6-3.

'First camel clone' born in Dubai

Scientists in Dubai say they have created the world's first cloned camel.

Injaz, a female one-humped camel, was born on 8 April, after more than five years of work, United Arab Emirates newspapers reported.

Scientists say DNA taken from a cell in the ovary of an adult camel was put into an egg from a surrogate mother.

Injaz, which means "achievement" in Arabic, was born after an "uncomplicated" 378-day gestation period, reports said.

"This significant breakthrough gives a means of preserving the valuable genetics of our elite racing and milk producing camels in the future," Dr Lulu Skidmore of the Camel Reproduction Centre told Gulf News newspaper.

The baby camel, weighing 30kg, has been confirmed as being genetically identical to the camel the cells were taken from, the paper reported.

That camel was killed for its meat in 2005, another newspaper, the National, said.

Thirteen years ago, the world's first mammal to be cloned using DNA from an adult cell, Dolly the Sheep, was born in Edinburgh.

But in 2003, she was diagnosed with lung disease and put down.

Since then, scientists around the world have created cloned mice, cows, pigs and dogs.

Wrong rally blunder in India poll

A minister in the Indian state of Karnataka has made a quick exit after realising he was addressing the wrong election rally.

VS Acharya, the home minister of the southern state and a Bharatiya Janata Party member, saw an opportunity to address a rally in Udupi district.

Observers said he seemed oblivious as he denounced the Congress government - in front of Congress supporters.

A sheepish Mr Acharya later said he was just paying a "courtesy visit".

In a separate incident the BJP suffered another embarrassment when a top leader called for the repeal of a law that had already been scrapped.

Restless

Police at the rally on Sunday in the coastal district of Udupi, 390km (243 miles) from Bangalore, said the senior BJP leader beat a speedy retreat when he realised his mistake.

Mr Acharya had been on his way to meet a fellow BJP activist when he noticed the rally.

The Times of India said the Congress supporters extended the courtesy expected to be afforded to a minister and offered him a seat.

It said when he rose to speak Mr Acharya was still unaware of his surroundings and began by praising the achievements of the BJP government in Karnataka.

Witnesses said the Congress supporters seemed to be giving him a fair hearing until they became restless at his criticism of the Congress-led federal government.

One of the Congress workers also took exception to the bicycles being given out by the BJP as part of its election campaign.

Observers said a visibly embarrassed Mr Acharya then cut short his speech.

VS Ugrappa, a Congress leader, said Mr Acharya fled when he realised he was addressing Congress workers and not his own party men.

Mr Ugrappa said the BJP was damaging the communal atmosphere in the coastal districts of Mangalore, Udupi and Karwar.

The districts were rocked by a series of attacks on churches last October and an attack by hardline Hindu activists on women for drinking at a pub in Mangalore.

Meanwhile in Assam, top BJP leader Uma Bharati promised to do away with the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) law only to be told it had been scrapped.

The BBC's Subir Bhaumik in Calcutta says Ms Bharati promised to go on a road march to demand its removal until journalists informed her it was shelved in July 2005.

Girl chooses Japan over parents

A teenager in Japan whose parents are being deported to the Philippines has decided to stay in Tokyo with her aunt.

After the family lost a three-year battle to stay in Japan, 13-year-old Noriko Calderon had to make a choice between her country or her parents.

She said an emotional goodbye to them at Tokyo's main airport.

Filipinos Arlan and Sarah Calderon used fake passports to enter Japan in the early 1990s, and their daughter was born and raised in the country.

Immigration officials arrested Mrs Calderon in 2006, and since then the family has been fighting to stay together.

Emotional decision

The Calderons fought a three-year legal battle to remain in Japan, saying that Arlan had a stable job there and their daughter only spoke Japanese.

But the family lost their case in the High Court in February, and Noriko was then faced with a difficult choice.

"Japan is my homeland," Noriko told CNN when asked why she decided to stay behind when her parents were deported.

Her parents say her life will be better in Japan than the poor farming community where they will be living in the Philippines.

But Arlan Calderon told CNN: "We won't be there when she needs us the most... She has to protect herself on her own. I'm sorry about that."

Activists claim that Japan's rigid immigration laws violate human rights.

Under Japanese law, the Calderons will not be allowed back into the country for five years.

Vatican 'vetoes' US envoy names

The Vatican has rejected at least three possible candidates proposed by Barack Obama to serve as US ambassador to the Holy See, say reliable sources in Rome.

None of the three candidates informally proposed by the Obama administration so far is acceptable to the Pope because of their support for abortion rights.

One of the potential nominees vetoed by the Vatican is Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the former US president.

Conservative Catholics in the US had already criticised her candidacy.

They say her outspoken pro-choice views on abortion made her an unsuitable choice.

The Vatican is unhappy about President Obama's support of abortion rights and his lifting of a previous ban on embryonic stem cell research in the US.

The White House may be running out of time to find a suitable future American envoy to the Pope before President Obama travels to Italy in July, when he is expected to meet Pope Benedict XVI for the first time, before or after attending a G8 summit to be held in Sardinia.

Since the US established formal diplomatic relations with the Vatican in 1984, the ambassadorial post has always been held by pro-life Catholics under both republican and democrat administrations.

The ambassador will replace Mary Ann Glendon, a Harvard University professor who held the post during George W Bush's presidency.

Journalist goes on trial in Iran

An Iranian-American journalist accused of spying in Iran went on trial this week and a verdict is expected soon, an Iranian official has said.

"The first trial meeting on Roxana Saberi was held yesterday [Monday]," judiciary spokesman Ali Jamshidi told a news conference in Tehran.

"I think the verdict will be announced soon, perhaps in the next two or three weeks," the official added.

Ms Saberi, 31, is being held in Evin prison near Tehran.

She worked briefly for the BBC three years ago. She has also worked for the American public radio network NPR and the TV network Fox News.

She has been in custody in Tehran since late January.

'Baseless'

Ms Saberi originally faced the less serious accusations of buying alcohol, then working as a journalist without a valid press card, but last week Iranian prosecutors accused her of spying for the US.

The Justice Ministry said she is being tried in a closed hearing of Iran's revolutionary court, which handles national security cases.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has demanded her release.

Mr Jamshidi criticised the US state department for saying the accusations against Ms Saberi were "baseless".

"That a government expresses an opinion without seeing the indictment is laughable," he said.

No more details of the case have been released, and Ms Saberi's lawyer says he has been told not to speak to the media.

A US-Iranian national, Ms Saberi has spent six years in Iran studying and writing a book.

Her parents arrived in Tehran earlier this month and were allowed to see her for 20 minutes. According to her lawyer, they found her in good health and good spirits.

Taleban 'kill love affair couple'

The Taleban in Afghanistan have publicly killed a young couple who they said had tried to run away to get married, officials say.

The man, 21, and woman, 19, were shot dead on Monday in front of a mosque in the south-western province of Nimroz.

Nimroz is an area where the Taleban have a strong influence.

Governor Ghulam Dastageer Azad told the AFP news agency the killings followed a decree by local religious leaders and were an "insult to Islam".

Dangerous region

Mr Azad said: "An unmarried young boy and an unmarried girl who loved each other and wanted to get married had eloped because their families would not approve the marriage."

Officials said the couple were traced by militants after they tried to go to Iran. They were made to return to their village in Khash Rod district.

"Three Taleban mullahs brought them to the local mosque and they passed a fatwa (religious decree) that they must be killed. They were shot and killed in front of the mosque in public," the governor said.

He said there were some reports that the families of the young couple could have links with the Taleban. The Taleban could not be immediately reached for comment.

Correspondents say that the killings took place in a remote and dangerous region, where the government has no access.

The Taleban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 and during that time implemented its austere interpretation of Islamic Sharia law, carrying out public killings and floggings.

Unmarried men and women were forbidden from talking or meeting in public and women were not allowed out of their homes without a male relative. Girls were discouraged from going to school.

Extrajudicial "honour killings" have been widely carried out in Afghanistan since then by conservative families angered by a relative who has brought them shame - usually by refusing to marry a chosen partner.

The Taleban have widened their influence over the past three years and now control many remote districts where there are not enough coalition forces to establish a permanent presence.

Many dead in Peru bus crash blaze

A bus and a petrol tanker have collided in western Peru, bursting into flames and killing at least 20 bus passengers.

The two vehicles crashed on a motorway some 165km (100 miles) south of the capital, Lima, police officials said.

There were around 30 passengers on the bus, AFP quoted officials as saying, adding that only "a very few" had escaped from the burning wreckage.

Peru's El Comercio newspaper reported that seven of eight survivors from the crash had sustained injuries.

A local TV reporter at the scene said the bus, owned by Costena, had been travelling from Lima to Pisco, several hundred kilometres to the south, when the accident happened in the Canete area.

Local residents said they heard a loud explosion and then saw flames leaping into the sky when the incident happened.

US 'set to detain' Nazi suspect

US immigration agents have entered the Ohio home of an 89-year-old man ahead of his deportation to Germany to face trial for alleged Nazi war crimes.

John Demjanjuk is accused of being an accessory to the deaths of some 29,000 people at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland in World War II.

His family have claimed that Mr Demjanjuk, who is bed-ridden, is too unwell to be deported.

Lawyers for Mr Demjanjuk have filed an appeal against the deportation order.

Mr Demjanjuk denies the charges against him, claiming that he was captured by the Germans in his native Ukraine during the war and kept as a prisoner of war.

Israeli trial

He arrived in the US in 1952 as a refugee, settling in Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked in the automobile industry.

In 1988, Mr Demjanjuk was sentenced to death in Israel for crimes against humanity after Holocaust survivors identified him as the notorious "Ivan the Terrible", a guard at the Treblinka death camp.

Israel's highest court later overturned his sentence and freed him, after newly unearthed documents from the former Soviet Union indicated that "Ivan the Terrible" had probably been a different man.

Mr Demjanjuk returned to the US, but in 2002 had his US citizenship stripped because of his failure to disclose his work at Nazi camps when he first arrived as a refugee.

In 2005, a US immigration judge ruled that he could be deported to Germany, Poland or Ukraine.

Germany issued a warrant for his arrest last month, and his family have been fighting to prevent him from being deported ever since.

New wave of Somali pirate attacks

Somali pirates have hijacked a fourth vessel in 48 hours, seizing a Lebanese-owned cargo ship.

The 5,000-tonne Togo-flagged MV Sea Horse was taken by gunmen in up to four skiffs, Nato officials said.

Earlier, pirates hijacked a Greek-owned bulk carrier, the MV Irene, in the Gulf of Aden a day after Somali raiders captured two Egyptian fishing boats.

Analysts say the gangs are clearly not put off by recent US and French hostage rescues that left several bandits dead.

Somali pirate leaders - who have generally treated captives well in the hope of winning big ransom payouts - vowed on Monday to avenge the deaths.

Attacks rise

Nato officials said another ship - the Liberian-flagged Safmarine Asia - escaped on Tuesday after coming under fire from pirates in several small boats.

After a lull earlier this year, the gangs have stepped up their attacks off Somalia's coast in recent weeks.

The 22 Filipino crew of the MV Irene, which was sailing from Jordan to India, are believed to be unhurt.

A Nato helicopter has reportedly been dispatched from a Canadian warship to investigate what is happening to the merchant vessel, flagged in Saint-Vincent and the Grenadines.

Nato Lt Cdr Alexandre Fernandes told Reuters news agency: "There was only three minutes between the alarm and the hijack.

"They attacked at night, which was very unusual. They were using the moonlight as it's still quite bright."

Hours later, Nato officials on a Portuguese warship announced the MV Sea Horse had also been seized off Somalia.

It is said to be the tenth hijacking in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean since the start of the month.

Last Wednesday, a group of Somali pirates attempted to seize a US-flagged ship, the Maersk Alabama, but fled after taking its American captain hostage.

Following a stand-off with a US warship, three of the raiders were killed by three single shots from US snipers on Sunday and the skipper was freed.

Capt Richard Phillips and his crew are due to return to the US on Wednesday evening, the ship's owner told AP news agency.

Maersk Line Limited said they will take a chartered flight from Mombasa to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland where they will be reunited with their loved ones.

'Peaks and troughs'

US President Barack Obama promised on Monday to "halt the rise of piracy" in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

Cdr Chris Davis, chief public affairs officer for Nato, told the BBC the surge in attacks could be simply down to chance.

"We do see peaks and troughs. Often weather-related and often it's just the situation as it arises and the opportunity - and that's what the pirates are, they are opportunistic."

Last Friday French forces killed two pirates and captured three more while freeing a yacht with five hostages, but the vessel's owner also died in the gunfight.

Shipping companies last year handed over about $80m (£54m) in ransom payments to Somali pirates.

The Horn of Africa nation has been without an effective government since 1991, fuelling the lawlessness which has allowed the pirates to thrive.

Efforts to stop the raiders have so far had only limited success, with international naval patrols struggling to cover the vast areas of ocean where the gangs operate.

N Korea orders UN inspectors out

North Korea has ended co-operation with UN nuclear inspectors and ordered them to leave the country, the International Atomic Energy Agency says.

It told the IAEA to remove seals and equipment from the Yongbyon reactor and said that it would reactivate all its nuclear facilities, the watchdog said.

The move comes after the communist nation said it was pulling out of talks on ending its nuclear programme.

North Korea is angry about a UN statement condemning its rocket launch.

Pyongyang says it was putting a satellite in orbit, but other nations believe it was testing missile technology.

'No access'

In a statement, the UN watchdog said North Korea had served notice that it would cease co-operation immediately.

"It [the North] has requested the removal of all containment and surveillance equipment, following which, IAEA inspectors will no longer be provided access to the facility," the statement said.

"The inspectors have also been asked to leave... [North Korea] at the earliest possible time."

IAEA inspectors went to North Korea following the landmark February 2007 deal, under which it agreed to end its nuclear ambitions in return for aid and political incentives.

But earlier on Tuesday North Korea announced it was pulling out of six-party talks on the deal, after the UN Security Council issued a statement saying its 5 April rocket launch contravened a UN resolution.

"We will never again take part in such talks and will not be bound by any agreement reached at the talks," a foreign ministry statement said.

The US called Pyongyang's decision to withdraw a "serious step" in the wrong direction.

"We call on North Korea to cease its provocative threats... and to honour its international commitments", a White House spokesman said.

China and Russia, meanwhile, have urged North Korea to reconsider its decision, with Beijing calling for "calm and restraint".

Obama suggests recession easing

US President Barack Obama has said there are "signs of economic progress" but underlined that times remain tough.

Separately Federal Reserve head Ben Bernanke talked of "tentative signs" that the contraction rate was calming.

But both men, speaking independently to students, said recovery would take time and more job losses would follow.

Their statements came after earlier data showed disappointing retail sales for March after two months of rises, a signal that consumers were cautious.

The fall in retail sales was unexpected, suggesting the worst might not yet be over.

Mr Obama, who was speaking at Georgetown University, pointed to the US government's housing plan as a factor in boosting the economy, as the number of people refinancing their loans increased.

He added that support for the auto and student loan markets had also contributed to an easing of credit conditions along with progress at this month's G20 meeting.

But he warned that more work needed to be done and that "credit was not flowing nearly as easily as it should".

He also said 2009 would be a hard year for the US economy, when there would be more job losses, more repossessions and "more pain before it ends".

Financial markets

And Mr Bernanke, who was talking to students at Moorehouse University in Atlanta, said: "A levelling out of economic activity is the first step towards recovery".

But he added: "We will not have a sustainable recovery without a stabilisation of our financial system and credit markets."

The central bank has reduced interest rates to near zero in a move to boost the economy and encourage spending.

But problems in the credit markets have continued to make borrowing for individual and firms hard and expensive.

Mr Obama was greeted with applause when he said the first task was to ensure such a crisis did not happen again.

He said recent expansion, notably in the financial sector, was not sustainable.

And he said it wasn't sustainable for long term prosperity to have a small number of individuals seeing higher pay while families saw their incomes drop.

He added that the Federal Reserve would continue to take the "necessary steps to unclog the financial markets and strengthen the economy."

Data

The data from the Commerce Department showing a fall in retail sales came after retail sales rose by 1% in January and by 0.3% in February, driven by heavy discounting.

The fact that Easter fell in March last year but in April this year also affected the figures, as the traditional boost in Easter spending was not reflected.

"We were expecting improvement and we got a huge decline. The report was weak across the board," said Jacob Oubina at Forex.com.

Such figures add to concerns that the worst of the economic crisis might not yet be over.

Argentina's Angel Cabrera beat Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell in a play-off to win the 73rd Masters at Augusta.

Argentina's Angel Cabrera beat Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell in a play-off to win the 73rd Masters at Augusta.

Perry, 48, looked a certain winner following a birdie at 16, but his game deserted him and he bogeyed each of the last two holes to finish on 12 under.

With Campbell (69) eliminated at the first extra hole, Cabrera (71) parred the second, the 10th, to win - after a wild approach from Perry (71).

The 39-year-old adds a Green Jacket to his 2007 US Open triumph at Oakmont.

He helped provide a gripping end to a sensational day of golf that had earlier been dominated by world numbers one and two Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson.

The Americans, paired together in the final round of a major for the first time in eight years, began the day seven shots off the lead on four under but launched thrilling surges up the leaderboard before Mickelson (67) ended nine under and Woods (68) eight under.

Yet the day belonged to Cabrera, who at 69 in the world becomes the lowest-ranked Masters champion since the world rankings began in 1986.

"I'm so emotional I can barely talk. This moment, and the win in Oakmont, are the greatest moments of my life," he said through an interpreter.

"It's incredible. I still can't believe it. I felt that when Tiger and Phil were making birdies and were making a move, I had to make a move myself in order to be the winner.

"This is a great moment for any golfer, to win the Masters."

Cabrera's triumph arrived 41 years after his compatriot Roberto de Vicenzo had become one of the unluckiest losers in a major.

De Vicenzo was gearing up for a play-off against American Bob Goalby but signed for a four on the 17th when he had actually taken three. The rules stated that he had to accept the higher score and he is forever listed as a Masters runner-up.

Cabrera looked like finishing in the same position before Perry - bidding to eclipse 1968 PGA winner Julius Boros as the oldest major champion - lost his way.

It brought back memories of Perry's finish at the 1996 PGA, when he was two ahead with one to play but carded a closing bogey six and lost to Mark Brooks in the play-off.

"I played beautifully all the way to the 17th - I was in control," said Perry. "It just seems like when I get down to those deals, I can't seem to execute.

"Great players make it happen, and your average players don't. I just didn't get the job done again, and I'll look back the rest of my life saying what could have been.

"But I'm not really going to go there because if this is the worst thing that happens in my life, my life's pretty good.

Japan's Shingo Katayama finished fourth, Mickelson fifth and Woods joint sixth with fellow Americans Steve Flesch, Steve Stricker and John Merrick.

In their worst collective showing since 2000, no European finished in the top 16. Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell was the best placed in joint 17th after a final-round 69 put him four under overall.

Woods and Mickelson had earlier served up a classic head-to-head duel but, with both players one off the lead after 16 holes, they let errors creep into their games and gave their rivals some breathing space.

Woods bogeyed the last two but a victory over his closest rival will be of little comfort to Mickelson, who blundered at crucial moments.

Highlights - Mickelson's amazing shot on the 7th

"I don't think we were really paying much attention to what the other was doing," said Mickelson. "We were both more concerned about trying to make birdies to catch the leaders than what each other was doing."

The 2004 and 2006 champion, who went out in a Masters record-equalling 30 that had the galleries whooping with delight, made a double-bogey five at the 155-yard 12th after finding water off the tee.

Mickelson two-putted the 13th to keep his hopes alive and had an opportunity for eagle at 15 that would have given him a share of the lead, but he missed.

Woods was in the hunt for a fifth Green Jacket in his first major since the 2008 US Open following knee surgery, but he bogeyed the final two holes and Mickelson the last as both players saw their bid for glory fade away.

"I fought my swing all day and almost won the tournament with a band-aided swing," said Woods. "I was just terrible. I didn't know what was going on."

The attention shifted to Perry, Campbell and Cabrera, and the trio in turn provided a scintillating climax.

Perry, joint overnight leader with Cabrera, parred the first 11 holes, before sinking a 30-foot putt for birdie from the fringe of the short 12th.

Highlights - Woods eagle putt on 8th

Three-putting the next for only a par heightened the tension but after being joined on 12 under by Campbell's birdie at the 15th, he did the same to get his nose back in front.

Having almost made a hole-in-one at the short 16th with a wonderful eight-iron, Perry's subsequent tap-in birdie looked as if it might be the winning shot, but his third shot at the par-four 17th went from the greenside rough to the opposite fringe in the first show of nerves.

Despite finding a fairway bunker at the last he still had a 15-foot chance for victory, but his putt for par went left of the cup and the man from Kentucky was made to pay the price in the sudden-death play-off.

"I had that putt that I've seen Tiger make, I've seen so many people make that putt," Perry reflected afterwards.

"That was probably the most disappointing putt of the day because I hit it too easy. You've got to give that putt a run. I mean, how many chances do you have to win the Masters?"

Cabrera looked to be heading out of contention when he sliced he tee shot on the first extra hole, the 18th, into the pines, but his second shot ricocheted kindly off of a tree and helped him save par.

Bidding for his first major title, Campbell, the 34-year-old Texan, had the best position off the tee on the first extra hole, the par-four 18th, but he pushed his approach into a greenside bunker and failed to get up and down.

"I was pretty excited to hit the fairway," he said. "I got up there and had a perfect seven-iron and I just kind of hung it out to the right.

"I guess I was a little bit worried about turning it over and just kind of held on to it."

"I hit a great bunker shot and I just pushed the putt. It was a left-edge putt and I just kind of left the blade open.

Cabrera and Perry headed for the 10th. The Argentine had endured an inconsistent round but he played the second extra hole impeccably and, with Perry's approach missing the green, he could afford to two-putt for victory.

Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood were joint 10th when they resumed, but Poulter shot 74 for two under and Westwood, having double-bogeyed the seventh, dropped seven shots in the last four holes for a 79 - the worst round of the day.

Padraig Harrington, searching for a third successive major, lost a ball up a tree and added a seven on the 9th to his nine on the 2nd on Saturday. He shot 73 to finish level-par for the tournament.

For 19-year-old Rory McIlroy a memorable debut was completed with birdies on six of his last 10 holes for a final-round 70 and two under overall.

Paul Casey, Justin Rose and 51-year-old Sandy Lyle, the 1988 champion were also two under.

Troops die in India Maoist attack

At least six paramilitary troops have been killed in India's eastern Orissa state after dozens of Maoist rebels attacked a bauxite mine, police say.

Four rebels also died in the nine-hour battle in the Panchpatmali area. Police said they had rescued 150 people trapped by the fighting.

The rebels wanted to steal explosives from the mine but fled without them, police said.

The rebels are fighting for communist rule in a number of Indian states.

More than 6,000 people have died during the rebels' 20-year fight.

'Rescued'

The rebels attacked the mine in Orissa's Koraput district on Sunday, police said.

Most of the rebels escaped after the nine-hour battle.

A senior police officer, Deepak Kumar, told the BBC that 150 workers who were trapped in the mine were rescued.

The workers have not been harmed, news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted CR Pradhan, director of the mine company, National Aluminium Company Limited (Nalco), as saying.

Nalco is one of India's largest aluminium exporters and the Panchpatmali mines are the company's main sources of bauxite, the primary ingredient in aluminium.

The attack comes days before national elections begin in India.

The rebels have called for an election boycott.

Scientists find 'pleasure nerves'

Scientists say they understand more about how the body responds to pleasurable touch.

A team, including scientists from the Unilever company, have identified a class of nerve fibres in the skin which specifically send pleasure messages.

And people had to be stroked at a certain speed - 4-5cm per second - to activate the pleasure sensation.

They say the study, published in Nature Neuroscience, could help understand how touch sustains human relationships.

For many years, scientists have been trying to understand the mechanisms behind how the body experiences pain, and the nerves involved in conveying those messages to the brain.

This is because people can suffer a great deal.

Neuropathy, where the peripheral nervous system is damaged, can be very painful and sometimes the messaging system goes wrong a people feel pain even when there is no cause.

Hairy skin

But the researchers involved in this work were looking to understand the opposite sensation - pleasure.

This research, which also involved experts at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and at the University of North Carolina, recorded nerve responses in 20 people.

They then tested how people responded to having their forearm skin stroked at a range of different speeds.

They identified "C-tactile" nerve fibres as those stimulated when people said a touch had been pleasant.

If the stroke was faster or slower than the optimum speed, the touch was not pleasurable and the nerve fibres were not activated.

The scientists also discovered that the C-tactile nerve fibres are only present on hairy skin, and are not found on the hand.

Professor Francis McGlone, now based at Unilever after an academic career where he carried out research into nerve response, says this is likely to be a deliberate "design".

"We believe this could be Mother Nature's way of ensuring that mixed messages are not sent to the brain when it is in use as a functional tool."

He said the speed at which people found arm-stroking pleasurable was the same as that which a mother uses to comfort a baby, or couples use to show affection.

Professor McGlone said it was part of the evolutionary mechanism that sustained relationships between adults, or with children.

"Our primary impulse as humans is procreation, but there are some mechanisms in place that are associated with behaviour and reward which are there to ensure relationships continue."

Mobile technology battles HIV

"When I arrived here, I saw people with HIV being carried all day to get to the clinic," Paul Williams recalls.

"There were no testing services, no education, no treatment and certainly no monitoring of treatment. People just died."

That was the situation in Bwindi, Uganda, three years ago. Dr Williams, formerly a GP in North-East England, has since transformed a tiny and very basic health centre on the edge of the Impenetrable Forest into an efficient community hospital.

The hospital's community team takes HIV testing kits out to remote villages

And for the past five months, thanks to a small but important piece of equipment, Dr Williams' medical team has been able to monitor the health of patients with HIV from a clinic that fits into the back of their four-wheel-drive "community ambulance".

Bwindi Community Hospital now provides health care for about 40,000 people.

It has a dedicated maternity programme and a children's ward that deals with many cases of malnutrition, as well as other common diseases including malaria and HIV. In total, the hospital takes care of 1,000 HIV positive patients.

Dr Williams describes the environment in which he works: "We're a mile away from the rainforest where there are mountain gorillas, right on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"There aren't any tarmac roads here, there isn't any public transport, and lots of the patients live a day's walk from the hospital. Many of them live a subsistence existence and they can't afford to get here."

So his team packs an "HIV outreach clinic" into its vehicle, and takes it out to remote communities.

Along with the rest of the equipment loaded into the back and strapped on to the roof of the ambulance, there is one modest-looking grey box.

This piece of equipment is a PointCare NOW machine. It was donated to the hospital last year, and has since transformed the care Dr Williams can offer HIV patients.

The hospital is on the edge of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest

The machine is a portable blood-testing device - pop in a blood sample and, within 10 minutes, it gives a print-out detailing the condition of a patient's immune system.

It counts CD4 positive T cells. These are the white blood cells that the HIV virus latches on to - attacking and destroying them.

"When we say someone has a weak immune system because of HIV, we mean their number of CD4 cells is low," explains Dr Williams.

"During the course of infection, the number of these cells gets less and less - so you have to count them to see how advanced the HIV is."

The quest

The machine was developed by PointCare, a company based in the US that specialises in diagnostic equipment for the developing world.

It's an organisation with an impressive pedigree. Petra Krauledat, and her long-time business partner Peter Hansen, founded the company in 2003, having both already had long and successful careers in HIV research.

"Peter invented the first automated CD4 test in the late 1970s, and I led the group in 1982, in Germany, that launched the first HIV screening test in Europe," explains Dr Krauledat.

In the 1990s they were approached by former colleagues who asked them to turn their attention to developing a much-needed, cheap CD4 test for the developing world.

"So we went to Southern Africa to talk to the [medics] actually working there," she says.

What they found surprised them both. "People showed us tonnes of donated instruments just sat in storage. The reagents [or chemicals needed to run the tests] had simply perished in the heat," she relates.

"So 'cheap' wasn't people's biggest concern. What they needed was a test that could be used in a little shack of a clinic, transported to remote areas, and that could withstand the high temperatures.

"We've fulfilled that quest."

Surviving the heat

Dr Hansen invented a test that uses chemical reagent that can be freeze-dried and stored in temperatures of over 40C.

CD4 screening tests use antibodies - molecular tags that recognise and latch onto a chemical marker on the surface of the cell. By attaching to the cells, they act as flags distinguishing CD4 cells from other white blood cells.

Before the outreach programme, patients would walk to the hospital

But these antibodies need to be "labelled", so they can be detected by a machine.

Traditionally, antibodies are labelled using fluorescent markers, but these fluorescent chemicals perish if they are not kept refrigerated. So they're useless for a medical team operating from a temporary clinic in the heat of an African summer.

Dr Hansen developed a new label. "We use colloidal gold," explains Dr Krauledat. "It's true nanotechnology - extremely tiny gold particles attached to the anti-CD4 antibody."

The gold-bound antibodies are very heat-stable - they can be stored at over 42C for an entire year.

Immediate result

Inside the PointCare machine, the freeze-dried, gold-labelled antibody is liquefied and combined with the blood sample, and with a chemical accelerator that speeds up the attachment of the antibody to the cells. "How the accelerator works is a trade secret, but it allows us to complete the test within eight minutes," says Dr Krauledat.

"Before we had this machine, we'd see somebody in the clinic, then we'd have to see them on another day to collect a blood sample," recalls Dr Williams.

"We had a system of motorcycle riders that went round all of our outreach sites on a particular day to collect samples. They would have to ride for four hours along a muddy road through the Impenetrable Forest, to a laboratory on the other side, where we could get them tested.

"It took us three days to get the result, and we couldn't get it back to the patient until we saw them again two weeks later.

"Now, with this simple piece of technology, we can deal with problems immediately."

The machine is also far cheaper to run than traditional instruments. It is powered via a battery pack. "Because we use colloidal gold, we have an instrument that doesn't consume a lot of power," explains Dr Krauledat.

"Fluorescently labelled antibodies have to be detected with a laser, and those systems are quite fragile and consume more power. We use a [light-emitting diode] detector. It's technology with a lifetime of 180,000 days, doesn't break and it uses almost no power."

'Productive lives'

As well as a CD4 count, the device also counts five other subtypes of white blood cell.

This gives a complete picture of the patient's immune system.

The results provide a physician with a good indication of whether an HIV positive patient might have tuberculosis, give a warning sign of other opportunistic infections, and find out if the patient has anaemia - a debilitating condition that is fairly common in the latter stages of HIV.

We've been able to change HIV from being a death sentence to being something that people can live with and lead productive lives Paul Williams Bwindi Community Hospital

It also means that a patient's treatment can be monitored. "HIV treatment is great - anti-retroviral drugs can add up to 30 years to a person's life," says Dr Williams.

"But there are some people who develop resistance to the drugs, or in whom the drugs fail, and we can spot that early on to take action to be able to stop them from getting sick."

In three years, Dr Williams and his team have transformed the lives of their HIV positive patients.

"I started a testing centre in the hospital, then the mobile testing services, and then, once we had access to drugs, developed a treatment programme.

"Now our death rates from HIV are very low. We're able to diagnose it early, manage it early and keep people living with HIV fit and well.

"Over a reasonably short period of time, we've been able to change HIV from being a death sentence into something that people can live with and lead productive lives."