Clashes as Turkey PM condemns 'plot'

23 December 2013 Last updated at 05:18 ET

Turkish police have used tear gas against thousands of anti-government protesters in Istanbul as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to break the hands of "plotters".

Clashes erupted between protesters and police in Kadikoy Square, in an echo of protests in the city earlier this year.

In a northern town Mr Erdogan denounced people he said were setting anti-Turkish "traps" to undermine his rule.

The sons of two cabinet ministers have been charged in a big corruption probe.

The investigation has led to charges against 24 people so far. They are suspected of involvement in bribery, in connection with urban development projects and the allocation of construction permits.

Baris Guler, the son of Interior Minister Muammer Guler, and Kaan Caglayan, son of Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan, are among those detained, as is the chief executive of the state-owned Halkbank, Suleyman Aslan.

In Twitter comments on Sunday the two sons denied the accusations.

AK Party tensions

Commentators in Turkey report that the arrests and firings reflect a feud within Turkey's ruling AK Party between those who back Mr Erdogan and supporters of Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic scholar living in exile in the US.

In Istanbul protesters chanted "everywhere is bribery, everywhere is corruption". It was an echo of the Taksim Square mass protest this summer, when opposition activists chanted "everywhere is Taksim, everywhere is resistance".

Police on Sunday used tear gas and water cannon to disperse them in streets where protesters had set fire to makeshift barricades.

In the Black Sea town of Giresun, Mr Erdogan told a crowd of supporters that his Islamist-rooted AK was facing a "dark plot" by forces outside Turkey who wanted to split the country apart.

"Let our friends and foes know this. Whoever dares to harm, stir up or set traps in this country, whoever tries to touch our independence, we will come to break those hands," he said.

The controversial arrests began last week when police launched a series of dawn raids in Istanbul and Ankara.

Mr Erdogan reacted angrily and on Thursday the head of Istanbul's police was forced from his position. More than 30 senior police officers have reportedly been sacked.

Members of Mr Gulen's Hizmet movement are said to hold influential positions in institutions such as the police, the judiciary and the AK Party itself.

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British Airways plane clips building

23 December 2013 Last updated at 05:35 ET

A plane carrying more than 200 people has struck an office building while preparing to take off from the South African city of Johannesburg.

The British Airways flight to London was taxiing at OR Tambo International Airport when its right wing hit the building, injuring four people inside.

Images show the wing of the Boeing 747 wedged in the structure.

South Africa's Civil Aviation Authority said the aircraft had travelled down a taxi-way that was too narrow for it.

The incident involving the Boeing 747-400 happened late on Sunday.

The control tower "told them to take one taxi-way and they took another one. They took a wrong one," said aviation authority spokeswoman Phindiwe Gwebu.

Passenger John Hart told the BBC: "We were just taxiing along and then boom!"

He said the captain described it as a "little incident" but everyone on the right-hand side of the plane could see what had really happened.

None of those on board was injured but four ground staff in the building were hurt.

"They sustained slight injuries and are fine," a spokesperson for Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) told Eyewitness News.

Mr Hart said the passengers were allowed to leave the plane after about an hour but because of the fuel spillage they had still not been able to reclaim their luggage.

The aircraft has since been moved and operations have not been disrupted, ACSA says.

In a statement to the BBC, British Airways said all 182 passengers were provided with hotel accommodation and alternative flights are being arranged.

BA said an investigation was under way and that it was "giving our assistance to the independent South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA)".

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'Atmosphere of fear' in S Sudan

23 December 2013 Last updated at 05:42 ET

A UN official in South Sudan has spoken of an atmosphere of fear and desperation as violence escalates.

Humanitarian Co-ordinator Toby Lanzer told the BBC about summary executions in Bor, in the restive state of Jonglei that has fallen to rebels.

The UN mission in South Sudan has urged rival political leaders to agree a truce and open negotiations.

Clashes broke out between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and others backing his former deputy a week ago.

Mr Lanzer says people are clamouring to get into the UN compound in Bor as the violence escalates.

"When I ended up moving to the airport [Sunday] evening, we saw some of the most horrible things that one can imagine.

"People who were being lined up and executed in a summary fashion. This is done by people who are simply out of control," Mr Lanzer told Newshour.

Meanwhile the US said it had evacuated its citizens from Bor.

Four US service personnel were wounded on Saturday when their aircraft were shot at, delaying an evacuation operation.

US President Barack Obama said he may "take consider further action to support the security of US citizens, personnel and property, including our embassy, in South Sudan".

Earlier the South Sudanese army confirmed that Bentiu, the capital of oil-rich Unity State, had also fallen to troops supporting former Vice-President Riek Machar.

President Salva Kiir has accused Mr Machar of attempting a coup.

'Hundreds of thousands'

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Humanitarian aid co-ordinator Toby Lanzer: "There were a lot of gunshots and a lot of dead bodies"

Mr Lanzer, who spent several days in Bor, said the problem of people seeking refuge was growing daily.

"I'm quite concerned that in a few days' time we won't be talking about tens of thousands, we'll be talking about hundreds of thousands directly affected," he said.

"It's really very moving to see people just asking: 'Can you please keep me alive?'"

Mr Lanzer added that there was a danger not just from fighting by conventional armies but from groups of youths who he said were simply "out of control".

The government says it is trying to retake Bor, and the state has seen fierce fighting in recent days.

Two Indian peacekeepers and at least 11 civilians were killed in an attack on a UN compound in Akobo, Jonglei, on Thursday.

Joseph Contreras, acting UN spokesperson in Juba, told the BBC he had two messages for South Sudan's political leaders.

"One is to call upon all the political leaders to desist from further violence, to heed the African Union call to observe a holiday season truce, open a channel of dialogue and sit down to negotiate their differences peacefully.

"Our other message is that we at the United Nations are here to stay."

UN relocation

On Saturday Mr Machar said his forces controlled Unity State - whose oilfields are crucial to South Sudan's economy.

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Those reports could not be independently confirmed.

However, on Sunday Col Aguer told reporters: "Bentiu is in the hands of a commander who has declared support for Machar."

He added that the number of people or wounded in the fighting was unclear.

Unity, a state on the border with Sudan, produces much of South Sudan's oil, which accounts for more than 95% of the country's economy.

Also on Sunday, the UN mission Unmiss said it had begun relocating staff from the capital Juba to the Ugandan city of Entebbe.

Juba has been tense since the unrest began last weekend.

Resident Mogga Lado told the BBC: "I was buying some things for my children in the market on Tuesday when I saw two people dressed in normal civilian clothes shot dead in front of me by people in military clothing.

"I don't know if they were the army or rebels. I didn't wait to see."

Mr Machar told the BBC on Saturday that he was prepared to negotiate with the government if politicians arrested this week were released and transferred to a neutral country such as Ethiopia.

Mr Kiir also agreed to negotiations after meeting African mediators on Friday.

President Kiir, a member of the majority Dinka ethnic group, sacked Mr Machar, who is from the Nuer community, in July.

The violence which broke out in Juba last weekend has since spread, pitting gangs of Nuer and Dinka against each other.

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Second Pussy Riot member freed

23 December 2013 Last updated at 06:02 ET

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BBC's Pavel Bandakov: "The Olympics are closely connected to what's going on"

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has become the second member of Russian punk band Pussy Riot to freed early from prison under a new amnesty law.

Band member Maria Alyokhina was freed earlier on Monday in Nizhny Novgorod.

Alyokhina said the amnesty was a "PR stunt" ahead of the Winter Olympics and she would rather have stayed in prison.

The women were jailed in August 2012 for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" after performing a protest song in Moscow's main cathedral.

The act was seen as blasphemous by many Russians, but their conviction was criticised by rights groups, anti-Putin activists and foreign governments.

Continue reading the main story

Sergei Zakin BBC Russian Service

---

As soon as Maria Alyokhina stepped through the prison gates she described the amnesty law under which she was released as a "profanation", since it applied only to a minority of convicts.

Most pundits see the amnesty as President Putin's attempt to soften his image in the West and improve his human rights record ahead of the Sochi Olympics in February 2014.

Two days after the amnesty came into force Putin pardoned Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man and his personal foe, in a move that again was widely seen as an attempt to appease the West.

At his Berlin press conference on Sunday, Khodorkovsky appeared to strike a conciliatory tone, vowing to stay out of politics and saying that he did not feel hatred towards the man who finally pardoned him after more than 10 years in jail.

The Pussy Riot members' stance appears to be less serene. Tolokonnikova's husband told the BBC that "the only thing they have acquired over their two years in prison is their confidence to continue fighting Putin's regime even harder".

Alyokhina's first words and actions after being freed serve as a sign that this fight is likely to get more fierce and more personal.

Their sentences were due to end in March 2014, but they have known since last week that their release was imminent under a law signed by the Russian parliament which gave amnesty to some 20,000 prisoners, including mothers. Both have young children.

The amnesty was widely seen as attempt to dampen criticism of Russia's human rights record ahead of the Winter Olympics, being hosted in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in February.

Former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky - once Russia's richest man - was also pardoned on Friday and freed after more than 10 years in prison for fraud and tax evasion.

Views unchanged

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova walked out of a prison hospital in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, on Monday afternoon. She was being treated there for unspecified illness.

Journalists waiting outside said she appeared healthy and calm.

Alyokhina had been freed earlier from a jail in Nizhny Novgorod.

Speaking to Russian television after her release, Alyokhina said her views of President Putin had not changed and that the amnesty was "a profanation" and "a PR exercise".

"If I had a choice to refuse [the amnesty], I would have, without a doubt," she added.

Russian media quoted a friend of Alyokhina as saying she had wanted to serve out her sentence as she was concerned for the safety of fellow prisoners and wanted to protect them.

Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova were both convicted after performing an obscenity-laced song called Punk Prayer in Moscow's Christ the Saviour cathedral in February 2012.

The song was heavily critical of the Orthodox Church's support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling on the Virgin Mary to "throw Putin out".

A third Pussy Riot protester, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was also jailed, but was released on appeal in October 2012.

Tolokonnikova's husband Pyotr Verzilov earlier told the BBC that news of the women's release "was a bit of an image-lightening process for President Putin".

"The only thing they have acquired over their two years in prison is their confidence to continue fighting Putin's regime even harder, because, well, this is the only thing that can change things in our country," he said.

Charges against 30 people arrested while taking part in a Greenpeace protest at a Russian Arctic offshore oil rig may also be dropped later this week under the amnesty law.

The group - mostly foreign activists - have been charged with hooliganism.

Mr Khodorkovsky's surprise release was approved by Mr Putin last week. He was pardoned on humanitarian grounds, because his mother is seriously ill.

The former tycoon has always insisted his conviction was politically motivated, because of his financial support for opposition parties.

Speaking from Berlin, where he flew after being freed, he said he would stay out of politics, but would do all he could to free Russia's other political prisoners.

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Charges over Bangladesh factory fire

22 December 2013 Last updated at 03:24 ET

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The BBC's Mahfuz Sadique in Dhaka says it has "been a long wait for victims"

Thirteen people, including the two owners, have been charged over a factory fire in Bangladesh in November 2012 that killed more than 100 people.

Police said they had charged Delwar Hossain and his wife, as well as security guards and managers, over the blaze at the Tazreen factory in Dhaka.

It was the country's deadliest garment factory fire. In April 2013 the Rana Plaza factory collapsed killing 1,135.

Bangladesh has since pledged to improve conditions at its garment factories.

"Delwar and his wife Mahmuda Akter... and 11 others have been charged with death due to negligence," police investigator AKM Mohsinuzzaman Khan told the AFP news agency.

The multi-floor Tazreen Fashion factory, in the Ashulia district on the outskirts of the capital, supplied clothes to a variety of Western retailers including US giant Walmart.

The fire sparked protests from thousands of workers who claimed the building had been unsafe to work in; Delwar Hossain denied the allegations.

Dangerous conditions

The incident was subsequently overshadowed by the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory, also in Dhaka's suburbs, in April 2013, one of the world's worst industrial accidents.

The disasters shone a light on the poor safety standards of Bangladesh's clothing industry and the shocking working conditions of many of its workers.

International retailers who use the factories such as H&M and Zara, have since signed up to legally binding measures to improve workers' safety conditions.

The Bangladeshi government announced steps to improve conditions for its three million garment workers - most of whom are women. These conditions included raising the minimum wage and making it easier for them to form unions.

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Mozambique plane crash 'intentional'

22 December 2013 Last updated at 03:44 ET

The pilot of a Mozambican airliner that crashed in Namibia last month deliberately brought the plane down, aviation experts in Mozambique believe.

Mozambican Airlines flight TM470 left the capital Maputo bound for Angola on 29 November, but crashed, killing all 33 people all board.

The Civil Aviation Institute said the pilot made a "deliberate series of manoeuvres" causing the crash.

The pilot's motives are unknown, and the investigation is continuing.

'Clear intention'

The plane went down in heavy rain in Namibia's Bwabwata National Park.

But the head of the Civil Aviation Institute, Joao Abreu, told a news conference that the pilot, Hermino dos Santos Fernandes, had a "clear intention" to crash.

Dos Santos Fernandes locked himself in the cockpit, and did not allow his co-pilot back inside until moments before the plane hit the ground, Mr Abreu said.

"During these actions you can hear low and high-intensity alarm signals and repeated beating against the door with demands to come into the cockpit," he was quoted as saying by state news agency AIM.

"The reasons which may have given rise to this behaviour are unknown."

Investigations also showed that Dos Santos Fernandes manually changed the aircraft's altitude three times from 11,500 metres (38,000 feet) to 180 metres (592 feet) - below ground level.

He also manually altered the aircraft's speed.

Earlier this week, Namibian investigators said they had detected "no mechanical malfunction" that could have led to the crash, and the plane was one of the newest in the airline's fleet.

The 33 people who died included passengers from Mozambique, Angola, Portugal, Brazil, France and China.

Mozambican Airlines is currently banned from airspace in the European Union, along with all other carriers certified in Mozambique, because of safety concerns.

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Khodorkovsky 'won't enter politics'

22 December 2013 Last updated at 05:14 ET

Former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was pardoned and released from prison on Friday, has said he will not enter politics.

Khodorkovsky also told Russia's New Times magazine that he did not intend to fight for the return of assets from his disbanded oil company, Yukos.

The former oligarch said there were no conditions attached to his pardon by President Putin.

Khodorkovsky will make a statement to the media from Berlin later on Sunday.

He spent 10 years in a Russian prison for fraud and tax evasion, and has always insisted that his conviction was politically motivated as he used some of his wealth to fund opposition parties.

At the time of his arrest he was Russia's richest man. He became the country's best-known political prisoner.

'Stage-managed' exit

Continue reading the main story

• 1995 - Buys Yukos for $350m
• 2003 - Arrested for tax evasion, embezzlement and fraud
• 2005 - Jailed for eight years (running 2003-11)
• 2007 - Yukos declared bankrupt
• Dec 2010 - Convicted of embezzlement and money laundering, jailed for 13 years (2003-16)
• Dec 2012 - Sentence cut by two years, release date 2014
• Dec 2013 - Freed from jail after presidential pardon

"I do not intend to get involved in politics and do not intend to fight for the return of assets," Khodorkovsky told The New Times.

He acknowledged that his departure from Russia was stage-managed.

"If someone wanted to make a movie about the 1970s and a deportation of a dissident you could not have done it better."

He said that while he had not been forced to leave Russia, "we can absolutely clearly understand that they suggested I leave the country."

He has now been reunited with his son and his parents, and said he would not return to his homeland until he was certain he could leave again at any time for family reasons.

Khodorkovsky had been in prison since 2003 and was due to be released next August, but requested a pardon because his mother is suffering from cancer.

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Pavel Khodorkovsky, son of Mikhail (pictured here): "My family is finally reunited"

President Vladimir Putin surprised Russians last week by agreeing to the pardon.

In a statement after his release on Friday, Khodorkovsky stressed he had not admitted guilt and made reference to those who have been "unjustly convicted and continue to be persecuted".

Khodorkovsky left the penal colony where he was being held, in the Karelia region of north-western Russia close to the Finnish border, early on Friday afternoon.

On his release, he was given a passport and the necessary documents to allow him to fly from St Petersburg to Berlin.

The pardon for Khodorkovsky came after Russian MPs backed a wide-ranging amnesty for at least 20,000 prisoners.

Mr Putin confirmed it would apply to the two members of punk band Pussy Riot still in prison and Greenpeace activists detained for their protest at a Russian oil rig in the Arctic.

Analysts say Mr Putin may be trying to ease international criticism of Russia's human rights record ahead of February's Winter Olympics in Sochi.

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Kenya train crashes in Nairobi slum

22 December 2013 Last updated at 05:43 ET

Several people have been injured after a freight train crashed into homes in the sprawling Nairobi slum of Kibera, reports from Kenya say.

The train derailed while passing through the slum - one of Africa's largest - on its way to Uganda.

Kenya's Red Cross has tweeted to say scores of people are feared trapped in their damaged homes.

Journalists at the scene said residents were angry at the slow pace of the rescue effort.

Isaac Ongiri from the Daily Nation newspaper said police were trying to find a way of getting rescue equipment into place to help reach the trapped people.

But he said the area was heavily-populated and hard to get to.

"Navigating through the shanties to get to the scene is difficult," he told the BBC.

Other reports suggested the large crowds that had gathered at the scene were also hampering rescue efforts.

There are also reports that a tank containing flammable fuel is leaking on to the tracks.

Teams from the Red Cross and St John Ambulance are helping the rescue.

At least six people have so far been taken to hospital, Transport Minister Joseph Kamau told reporters from Kibera.

Mr Kamau said residents in Kibera had long been warned not to put up houses right next to the railway line.

"We have always warned people against encroaching on the line," he was quoted as saying.

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China denounces Japan military plans

21 December 2013 Last updated at 00:12 ET

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The BBC's Martin Patience says there are fears mutual mistrust could lead to an arms race in the region

China has denounced Japan's new national security strategy, accusing it of military expansion.

Defence Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said in a statement that the move would increase regional tensions, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Earlier this week, Japan said it would buy advanced equipment including drones and amphibious vehicles.

It comes as Tokyo is embroiled in a bitter row with Beijing over islands in the East China Sea that both claim.

"China is firmly opposed to Japan's relevant actions," said Mr Geng.

He accused Tokyo of using its national security as a pretext for military expansion.

The statement said Japan's security policy caused "great concerns" among neighbouring countries.

The announcement of more Japanese military spending came weeks after China established an air defence identification zone over a swathe of the East China Sea, including islands controlled by Japan.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he wants Japan to broaden the scope of activities performed by the military - something currently tightly controlled by the post-war constitution.

Over the five years, Japan plans to buy anti-missile destroyers, submarines, 52 amphibious vehicles, surveillance drones, US fighter planes and 17 Boeing Osprey aircraft, capable of vertical take-off.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Japan ranks fifth in the world for military spending while China is in second place behind the US.

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Turkish ministers' sons charged

21 December 2013 Last updated at 04:10 ET

The sons of two Turkish government ministers have been charged in connection with a huge corruption investigation.

The head of the state-owned bank and at least a dozen other people also face charges.

The suspects are accused of abusing their power by taking or facilitating bribes.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has denounced the investigation as a "dirty operation" against his government.

'Dirty operation'

The controversial arrests began on Tuesday when police launched a series of dawn raids in Istanbul and Ankara.

On Thursday the head of Istanbul's police was forced from his position, and more than 30 senior police officers have reportedly been sacked.

The corruption investigation has targeted people close to Mr Erdogan's administration.

Baris Guler, the son of Interior Minister Muammer Guler and Kaan Caglayan, son of Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan was among those detained, as is the chief executive of the state-owned Halkbank, Suleyman Aslan.

They were put under formal arrest on Saturday morning.

The son of a third minister - Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdogan Bayraktar - was among those released after hours of questioning.

Commentators in Turkey report that the arrests and firings reflect a feud within Turkey's ruling AK Party between those who back Mr Erdogan and supporters of Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic scholar living in exile in the US.

Members of Mr Gulen's Hizmet movement are said to hold influential positions in institutions such as the police, the judiciary and the AK Party itself.

Opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu has accused Mr Erdogan and his government of trying to cover up the scandal.

Mr Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the Republican People's Party, called for ministers implicated in the investigation to be sacked.

The European Union has urged Turkey - which hopes to join the EU - to ensure the impartiality of its judicial process.

"These developments have naturally raised our attention and we follow them closely," said a spokesman for Stefan Fule, the EU commissioner for enlargement and European neighbourhood policy, on Thursday.

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