World Bank promises aid to Burma

1 November 2012 Last updated at 22:51 ET

The World Bank has approved an $80m (£50m) grant and pledged lending for Burma, the second poorest country in Asia, for the first time in 25 years.

The money will go to rural communities to build roads, bridges, schools and health clinics, the World Bank said.

It comes after the current government began implementing economic, political and other reforms.

Last month, the US lifted sanctions and restrictions on financial institutions lending to Burma.

"I am heartened by the reforms that have been taking place in Myanmar [Burma] and encourage the government to continue to push forward with their efforts," said World Bank President Jim Yong Kim in a statement.

Another $165m will be made available to Burma once the country has cleared its overdue debt to the bank, said Pamela Cox, World Bank vice-president for East Asia and the Pacific, in a conference call to reporters.

Discussion will continue in coming months on how to allocate those funds.

"We want to target to creating opportunities for all the people of Myanmar, especially the poor and vulnerable," she added.

Reforms have been taking place in Burma since elections in November 2010 saw military rule replaced with a military-backed nominally civilian government led by President Thein Sein.

Under his administration, many political prisoners have been freed and some censorship lifted. The party of freed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has rejoined the political process - after boycotting the 2010 polls - and now has a small presence in parliament.

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Fuel shortage hits Sandy recovery

2 November 2012 Last updated at 05:27 ET

Fuel shortages and difficulties in restoring power are hampering efforts to restore normality to parts of the US north-east in the wake of Storm Sandy.

Fights broke out at petrol stations in New York and New Jersey, and power suppliers warned some areas might not have electricity until 11 November.

Anger is also rising in New York's Staten Island, with some residents saying they had been forgotten.

More than 90 deaths in the US have now been blamed on Sandy.

The cost of the storm to the US is now put at about $50bn (£31bn).

Meanwhile, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has endorsed President Barack Obama for next week's presidential election, saying Storm Sandy had highlighted climate change, and that only one candidate saw this as an "urgent problem".

'Annihilated'

Residents and workers of areas affected by Storm Sandy will wake on Friday to continued problems of transportation, lack of electricity and a dearth of fuel.

Continue reading the main story

Remember that butterfly whose wing beat in the Amazon causes a storm over the Atlantic? I think she is hovering over the election right now"

End Quote

At many petrol stations there have been long lines of cars and of people carrying jerry cans.

One owner of a fuel station in New Jersey told the New York Times he had been pumping petrol for 36 hours. He said he had to call the police and turn off the pumps temporarily as tempers among customers rose.

There were reports of sharp price increases by some suppliers.

Well over half of petrol stations in New Jersey and in New York City remain closed.

Power officials hope to restore electricity to all of Manhattan and more areas on Brooklyn by Saturday, with more underground lines opening.

Train fares remain free on Friday and a ban on cars with fewer than three people inside will stay in place in Manhattan on Friday.

But Consolidated Edison, the power company serving New York, warned that some areas of the city would be blacked out until 11 November.

Almost 45% of customers in New Jersey and some 15% in New York State remain without electricity.

New York West Village resident Rosemarie Zurlo told Associated Press she was abandoning her flat temporarily and heading to Brooklyn: "I'm leaving because I'm freezing. My apartment is ice cold. Everybody's tired of it."

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Time-lapse footage shows Sandy's passage over New York City - Footage courtesy New York Times

Some 19 people are now known to have died in the south-western New York City borough of Staten Island.

The storm swamped the low-lying district with tidal surges, lifting whole houses off their foundations.

Anger is rising there at the delay in bringing aid, with litter piling up and residents picking through the debris of storm-ravaged homes.

James Molinaro, the borough's president, complained the American Red Cross was "nowhere to be found".

He said: "We have hundreds of people in shelters. Many of them, when the shelters close, have nowhere to go because their homes are destroyed. These are not homeless people. They're homeless now."

One resident, Theresa Connor, told Reuters her neighbourhood had been "annihilated".

"They forgot about us... And Bloomberg said New York is fine. The marathon is on."

New York City councilman James Oddo said: "If they take one first responder from Staten Island to cover this marathon, I will scream."

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Marcia Sikowitz: "I had three sons, now I have two"

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and a senior Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) official, Richard Serino, will visit the borough on Friday.

Mr Bloomberg defended the decision to hold the race, saying: "This city is a city where we have to go on."

National Guardsmen and community groups are being deployed in New York and New Jersey amid mounting fears for elderly residents stranded in their homes.

Aid worker Monique George told AP: "In some cases, they hadn't talked to folks in a few days. They haven't even seen anybody because the neighbours evacuated."

In Hoboken, New Jersey, some 20,000 people are still trapped in their homes as floodwaters slowly recede.

Officials warned residents not to walk in water polluted with sewage and chemicals.

Sandy arrived on the US Atlantic coast on Monday night, bringing hurricane-strength winds, flooding and blackouts.

The number of dead in the US now exceeds the toll from the Caribbean, where 69 people were killed by Sandy.

Endorsement

Meanwhile, campaigning for Tuesday's US presidential election - suspended earlier in the week - has fully resumed.

Mr Obama received a boost with the endorsement of Mr Bloomberg.

Of the two candidates, the New York mayor said, "one sees climate change as an urgent problem that threatens our planet; one does not".

"I want our president to place scientific evidence and risk management above electoral politics."

Both candidates are now awaiting the final key economic figures to be released before Tuesday's election.

The US Labor Department will announce the latest job figures at 12:30 GMT, and they may play a key role in the final days of campaigning.

Mr Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney are both engaged in a final push for votes, particularly in eight battleground states.

Polls show Mr Obama holds a slight lead in five of these so-called swing states - Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nevada and New Hampshire - while Mr Romney leads slightly in Florida. Virginia and Colorado are effectively tied.

A Reuters/Ipsos national online poll on Thursday showed Mr Obama on 47% and Mr Romney on 46%.

Mr Obama visited four swing states on Thursday.

Mr Romney told supporters in Virginia: "This is a time for greatness. This is a time for big change, for real change."

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Huge fine for sharing gay porn

2 November 2012 Last updated at 06:33 ET

An American man has been hit with a $1.5m (£932,000) fine for pirating 10 gay porn movies via BitTorrent.

A federal court in Illinois awarded the damages of $150,000 per movie to Flava Works - the creator of the pornographic films.

The figure is believed to the biggest awarded in a file-sharing case.

The award is thought to be so large because the accused, Kywan Fisher, did not defend himself against claims that he pirated the movies.

In court, Flava Works presented evidence which it said demonstrated that Mr Fisher was the person who put copies of its films on a BitTorrent site.

In its evidence, Flava revealed that it had embedded unique codes in the copies of its films that customers pay to view. Digital detective work connected the code in the pirated films back to Mr Fisher, who had earlier signed up as a customer of Flava and paid to view the movies.

Once shared via BitTorrent the films were downloaded or viewed 3,449 times, said Flava during its court statements.

Flava claimed Mr Fisher had exhibited "wilful copyright infringement" and violated the terms and conditions of the pay-to-view video service he signed up for.

US Judge John Lee noted Flava's evidence in his summary and said in light of that and the lack of any defence or objection by Mr Fisher, he had no choice but to issue a default judgement in favour of the adult movie maker.

It is not clear whether Mr Fisher will appeal against the judgement or whether he can pay the fine.

Mr Fisher was one of 15 people that Flava pursued for pirating its movies. However, the cases against all the others were dropped earlier this year for lack of evidence.

Many content creators, including movie studios and record labels, have pursued pirates in the courts using net, or IP, addresses as evidence.

However, many of these cases have been dropped as in May, a US federal judge ruled that an IP address was not sufficient evidence to accuse a person of being a pirate.

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Syria rebels in war crime claim

2 November 2012 Last updated at 07:14 ET

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The BBC's Jim Muir says executions have almost become "common practice" in Syria

Syrian rebels have been accused of possibly committing a war crime after a video allegedly showing an execution of government soldiers appeared online.

The UN and Amnesty International condemned the alleged killings which reportedly took place after the rebels seized army checkpoints on Thursday.

Footage apparently shows the rebels beating soldiers before shooting them.

Unconfirmed reports say troops have now quit all bases near the strategic northern town of Saraqeb.

The town lies near both the main Damascus-Aleppo highway and the highway linking Aleppo to the coastal city of Latakia - making it doubly strategic.

The army, meanwhile, continued its air strikes across Syria on Thursday.

In all, more than 150 people reportedly died in fighting, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based activist group.

The SOHR said that among the victims were more than 70 government soldiers, 43 civilians and 38 rebels.

Continue reading the main story

This shocking demonstrates an utter disregard for international humanitarian law by the armed group in question"

End Quote Amnesty International

The claim has not been independently verified.

In a separate development, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and Arab League Secretary General Nabil el-Araby would meet in Cairo on Sunday to discuss the Syrian crisis, the Arab League announced.

US warning

The alleged executions took place after the rebels overran the strategic army checkpoints between on Thursday.

The video purportedly shows the rebels kicking and pushing the soldiers to the ground inside one of the seized buildings. Shots are then seen fired into the cowering mass of bodies.

A spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said: "It seems very likely that this is a war crime, another one".

He added that - if verified - the footage could be part of evidence for prosecution.

Meanwhile, Amnesty said in a statement: "This shocking footage depicts a potential war crime in progress, and demonstrates an utter disregard for international humanitarian law by the armed group in question."

No group has so far admitted carrying out the alleged killings.

But it is alleged that an extremist Islamist group, the al-Nusra front, was responsible, the BBC's Jim Muir in neighbouring Lebanon reports.

For months, activists have reported similar summary executions by regime forces virtually every day.

But there has been mounting evidence of similar tactics being used by some rebel groups too, although many have signed a code of practice banning such abuses, our correspondent says.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier warned that radical Islamist fighters were trying to hijack the Syrian revolution.

The comments have drawn an angry response from some opposition leaders, who say that it is the failure of the outside world to support the uprising with practical help that has left the field open to the radicals.

The SOHR more than 36,000 people have been killed since protests against President Bashar al-Assad erupted in March 2011.

The UK-based activist group is one of the most prominent organisations documenting and reporting incidents and casualties in the Syrian conflict. It says its reports are impartial, though its information cannot be independently verified.

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China fund buys stake in Heathrow

1 November 2012 Last updated at 04:06 ET

China Investment Corporation (CIC), the country's sovereign wealth fund, has bought a 10% stake in the firm that owns London's Heathrow airport.

Heathrow Airport Holdings' other UK airports include Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

CIC was set up in 2007 to invest some of China's foreign exchange reserves.

Despite concerns in other countries about Chinese access to key assets, the UK has been developing closer business ties with China.

"It is fair to say that the UK has a more open relationship with China than many other major economies," said Stephen Joske, senior manager at Australia Super, a pension fund based in Beijing.

"There is certainly push all around the world for scrutiny of Chinese investment - it has been ringing alarm bells.

"It is unfair to an extent, as these deals are a win-win transaction. Politics has been overshadowing economics."

British opportunities

This is CIC's second major investment in UK infrastructure. In January, it bought 8.68% of the firm behind UK utility group Thames Water.

The latest airports deal will see the fund pay £450m ($726m) for a 10% stake in Heathrow Airport Holdings Ltd, which was previously known as BAA Ltd.

Under the terms of the agreement it will buy a 5.7% stake in FGP Topco Ltd from Spanish firm Ferrovial for £257.4m. FGP Topco is the holding company which owns Heathrow Airport Holdings Ltd.

CIC will get the remaining 4.3% stake from other shareholders of FGP Topco Ltd at a cost of £192.6m.

The Chinese investment company is not the first foreign firm to buy a stake in the Heathrow holding firm.

In August, Qatar Holdings bought a 20% stake, and this deal is currently awaiting approval from European competition regulators.

China expansion

Foreign firms are increasingly looking at the UK for investment opportunities as the economic slowdown has pushed down the price of assets.

At the same time, problems in the eurozone have made the UK, which is not part of the European single currency, a more attractive and stable destination.

Earlier this year, Chinese telecoms and computer network firm Huawei Technologies said it was going to invest £1.3bn expanding its UK operations.

And while UK Prime Minister David Cameron said the investment showed that the UK was "open for business", similar moves in other countries have raised concerns.

Last month, the US claimed that Huawei and another Chinese firm posed a security risk and warned against doing business with them.

In a separate move, US President Barack Obama blocked a wind farm deal involving Chinese firm Ralls Corp, citing national security issues.

Australia, meanwhile, has previously blocked Huawei's plans to bid for work on its national broadband network.

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Greek bank list editor on trial

1 November 2012 Last updated at 05:11 ET

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The BBC's Mark Lowen asks Costas Vaxevanis why he published the list

Journalist Costas Vaxevanis has gone on trial in Athens for breach of privacy after publishing the names of 2,000 Greeks with Swiss bank accounts.

French authorities gave the names to their Greek counterparts two years ago, but documents were never investigated.

Mr Vaxevanis told the BBC that politicians should be prosecuted for keeping the names secret.

But Greek officials have said there is no proof that those on the list have broken the law.

Some of those named, said to include many prominent Greeks, are suspected of using the HSBC accounts in Switzerland for tax evasion.

Mr Vaxevanis says the list he published is the same one that was given by the then French finance minister Christine Lagarde to her Greek counterpart two years ago.

Greek officials say the list originally came from a former HSBC employee.

The names on the list are said to include politicians, businessmen and others, sparking fury among ordinary Greeks as they are hit by deep austerity measures, says the BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens.

The issue has revived claims that tax evasion remains rife in Greece, and that the authorities still are not serious about tackling it, our correspondent adds.

'Mockery'

Mr Vaxevanis, 46, said he published the list in his magazine Hot Doc "because I'm a journalist and it's our job to tell the truth to the people".

"The three last governments have lied and have made a mockery of the Greek people with this list," he said.

"They were obliged to pass it to parliament or to the justice system. They didn't do it and they should be in prison for it."

Mr Vaxevanis said he thought the government had not acted on the list because it included friends of ministers, businessmen and powerful publishers.

He also accused much of the Greek media of ignoring the story.

"The Greek press is muzzled," he said. "There is a closed system of power in Greece, wielded by the political elite, businessmen and journalists."

"If I need to go to prison I will do," he said. "Not because I'm a hero, but to show the injustice of what is happening in Greece."

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Spain Halloween crush kills three

1 November 2012 Last updated at 06:25 ET

Three women have died in a stampede at a Halloween party in Madrid, Spanish officials say.

They say that two more people were seriously injured at the gathering at the Madrid Arena.

It was not immediately known what caused the crush, but reports suggest the panic began after a flare was thrown in the crowd.

The indoor arena, which can hold up to 10,000 people, was evacuated after the incident.

The three women were trampled to death at about 04:00 local time on Thursday (03:00 GMT), Spanish police say.

Two of the victims were 18 years old, while the third was 25.

"There was a human crush at the only exit they had because the others were sealed off," a partygoer - who gave her name as Sandra - told Spain's Cadena Ser radio station.

A police investigation is currently under way.

The Halloween music party featured a number of well-known DJs.

The stampede recalled a mass panic at the Love Parade music festival in Germany that killed 21 people in 2010.

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US campaign restarts after Sandy

1 November 2012 Last updated at 07:14 ET

President Barack Obama is to resume an election campaign suspended in the aftermath of storm Sandy, which wreaked havoc in the north-eastern US.

Mr Obama visited storm-hit New Jersey on Wednesday, while Republican rival Mitt Romney has been holding rallies after restarting his own campaign.

Meanwhile New York's first subway trains set off since Monday, when the network closed for the storm.

Sandy left at least 64 dead in the US, laying waste to much of the east coast.

It cut power from millions of homes and paralysed transport.

The storm made landfall on Monday night in New Jersey, where some 20,000 people remain trapped in their homes by sewage-contaminated floodwater.

In New York City, the storm brought a record tidal surge that swamped the subway system and caused widespread blackouts.

Earlier, it killed nearly 70 people in the Caribbean and caused extensive crop destruction in impoverished Haiti.

Severe congestion

Continue reading the main story

The president might have spent another day above the fray, but he is heading out west, where it seems his team think supporters may need a little personal encouragement to vote"

End Quote

New York has begun a slow recovery from the storm.

Subway trains started running again at around 05:30 (09:30 GMT) on Thursday, but services were limited and there were no trains in lower Manhattan.

The New York Times reported that trains were relatively empty.

Many bus services are already back on the roads, and most of the city's bridges have reopened.

But the newspaper said that on Wednesday there was severe congestion in the streets, and buses were extremely slow and crowded.

New York State governor Andrew Cuomo has announced that all fares on MTA commuter trains, subways and buses will be waived on Thursday and Friday, in the hope of relieving traffic jams.

The New York Stock Exchange reopened on generator power after two days of closure, along with the Nasdaq exchange.

But New York City's Bellevue Hospital had to order the evacuation of some 500 patients after back-up electricity failed.

The Holland Tunnel, connecting New Jersey and New York City, remains flooded.

Flights have now resumed at JFK and Newark Liberty airports. The city's LaGuardia airport is also expected to reopen on Thursday. Nearly 20,000 flights were grounded by Sandy.

'Long haul'

Mr Obama has planned campaign stops on Thursday in Nevada, Colorado and Wisconsin.

On Wednesday, he toured parts of New Jersey struck by the storm with Republican Governor Chris Christie.

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President Obama pledged help for those affected by Sandy as he visited Brigantine, New Jersey

"You guys are in my thoughts and prayers," the president said during a visit to an emergency shelter in Atlantic City. "We are going to be here for the long haul."

Of more than six million homes and businesses across the north-east that still have no electricity, a third of them are in New Jersey.

In the New Jersey city of Hoboken, across the Hudson River from New York City, the National Guard has arrived to evacuate about 20,000 people and distribute meals.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, usually one of Mr Obama's fiercest critics, spoke of his "great working relationship" with the Democratic president.

"I cannot thank the president enough for his personal concern and compassion for the people of our state," said Mr Christie.

Mr Romney held two rallies in Florida on Wednesday, where his campaign said he tried to strike a "positive tone".

Election day is on 6 November, and polls suggest the candidates are running neck and neck.

Eight out of ten voters in a Washington Post/ABC poll gave Mr Obama an "excellent" or "good" rating for his handling of the emergency.

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Japan tsunami money 'misspent'

31 October 2012 Last updated at 04:44 ET

Japan has spent funds intended for reconstruction after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami on unrelated projects, a government audit has found.

Projects financed by the $150bn (£93bn) fund include roads in Okinawa, an ad campaign for Japan's tallest building and support for whaling research.

Some 325,000 people remain displaced 18 months on from the disaster.

In some areas little reconstruction work has been carried out, reports say.

Some 19,000 people were killed or remain missing following the tsunami and earthquake that struck north-east Japan in March 2011.

The government has passed a number of supplementary budgets to fund reconstruction efforts in affected areas.

But a government audit showed money had been used for unrelated projects reportedly included on the basis that they could boost national economic revival.

The findings come at a time when questions are being asked about the speed of Japan's reconstruction effort.

Takashi Kubota, deputy mayor of Rikuzentakata, a fishing port where nearly half of the houses were destroyed, told the Associated Press news agency that "not one single new building yet" had been built in the destroyed downtown area.

"In 19 months, there have basically been no major changes," he said.

Speaking in parliament on Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda promised that problems would be addressed.

"There have been various criticisms made regarding how the budget for reconstruction has been spent," he said.

"We must listen sincerely to the voices calling for the utmost priority to be accorded to disaster area reconstruction. We will properly provide allowances for budget items that are truly needed by the disaster-affected areas and strictly narrow down other items."

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Bananas could be future staple

30 October 2012 Last updated at 20:35 ET By Matt McGrath Science reporter, BBC World Service

Climate change could lead to crops from the banana family becoming a critical food source for millions of people, a new report says.

Researchers from the CGIAR agricultural partnership say the fruit might replace potatoes in some developing countries.

Cassava and the little-known cowpea plant could be much more important food crops as temperatures rise.

People will have to adapt to new and varied menus as traditional crops struggle, say the authors.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

When the farmers see the problems they are having with production, they really are willing to shift"

End Quote Bruce Campbell CCAFS

Responding to a request from the United Nations' committee on world food security, a group of experts in the field looked at the projected effects of climate change on 22 of the world's most important agricultural commodities.

Blooming bananas

They predict that the world's three biggest crops in terms of calories provided - maize, rice and wheat - will decrease in many developing countries.

They suggest that the potato, which grows best in cooler climates, could also suffer as temperatures increase and weather becomes more volatile.

The authors argue that these changes "could provide an opening for cultivating certain varieties of bananas" at higher altitudes, even in those places that currently grow potatoes.

Dr Philip Thornton is one of those behind the report. He told BBC News that while bananas and plantains also have limiting factors, they may be a good substitute for potatoes in certain locations.

"It's not necessarily a silver bullet, but there may be places where as temperatures increase, bananas might be one option that small-holders could start to look at."

The report describes wheat as the world's most important plant-derived protein and calorie source.

But according to this research, wheat will face a difficult future in the developing world, where higher prices for cotton, maize and soybeans have pushed wheat to marginal land, making it more vulnerable to stresses induced by climate change.

One substitute, especially in South Asia, could be cassava - which is known to be tolerant to a range of climate stresses.

But how easy will it be to get people to adjust to new crops and new diets?

Bruce Campbell is programme director of the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security research group (CCAFS) which co-ordinates work among leading institutions around the world. He told BBC News that the types of changes that will happen in the future have already happened in the past.

Protein under pressure

"Two decades ago there was almost no rice consumption in certain areas of Africa, now there is. People have changed because of the pricing: it's easier to get, it's easier to cook. I think those sort of shifts do occur and I think they will in future."

Continue reading the main story

About bananas

• There are hundreds of types of banana plants but not all actually produce fruit
• They grow on plants that are giant herbs and are part of the Musaceae family
• Plantains are starchy like a potato, not sweet like a regular banana
• Organised banana plantations have been traced back to China in 200 AD
• Alexander the Great brought them back from India after his conquest in 327 BC
• Over the centuries they have been called banna, ghana and funana

Source: Dole

One of the big concerns among researchers is how to tackle the need for protein in the diet. Soybeans are one of the most common sources but are very susceptible to temperature changes.

The scientists say that the cowpea, which is known in sub-Saharan Africa as the "poor man's meat" is drought-tolerant and prefers warmer weather and could be a reasonable alternative to soya. The vines of the cowpea can also be used as a feed for livestock.

In some countries, including Nigeria and Niger, farmers have already moved away from cotton production to growing cowpeas.

There are also likely to be developments animal protein sources says the report, including a shift to smaller livestock.

"This is an example of something that's happening already," said Dr Campbell. "There's been quite a shift from cattle keeping to goat keeping in southern Africa in face of droughts - when the farmers see the problems they are having with production, they really are willing to shift.

"Change is really possible. It's not just a crazy notion."

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