Thailand army declares martial law

20 May 2014 Last updated at 11:36

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Jonathan Head in Bangkok: "The question is, what will the army do now?"

The Thai military has imposed martial law amid a political crisis "to preserve law and order", but says the surprise move is not a coup.

In response, the acting prime minister urged the army to act "under the constitution" and "with no violence".

Soldiers have taken over TV and radio stations, and blocked off roads in the capital, Bangkok.

Martial law comes after months of escalating tensions between the government and the opposition.

Correspondents say the move could enrage supporters of the government, especially if it is seen as amounting to a coup. The army has staged at least 11 coups since the end of the absolute monarchy in 1932.

'No need to panic'

Army chief Prayuth Chan-Ocha called on rival parties to talk to each other and resolve the political crisis. Martial law would remain in place until "peace and order" had been restored, he told government officials on Tuesday.

Soldiers have moved into the main government building in Bangkok, which has been unoccupied following months of violent demonstrations by opponents who want to be rid of an administration they say is corrupt.

The military has also ordered media censorship in the interests of "national security".

Both pro and anti-government protesters have been told not to march anywhere in order to prevent clashes.

Analysis: Jonathan Head, BBC News, Bangkok

The army insists its imposition of martial law does not amount to a coup d'etat, and it is trying to operate with as light a footprint as possible.

At Government House - the official office of the prime minister and symbolic battleground in this long struggle for Thailand's future - troops were able to retake the building from the anti-government PDRC movement without any fuss, although it is still surrounded by protest tents and stages.

The muted reaction from both sides shows the military's low-key approach is working - for now. Both the government and its red-shirt supporters have accepted the army commander's word, that it is not taking over political power. The PDRC has cancelled rallies planned for Tuesday.

But none of this resolves the intractable political conflict which has afflicted Thailand for eight years. If all the army does is maintain security, the problem will remain unresolved, and governance will be crippled.

If the army tries to impose its own solution though, what at the moment seems like a "half-coup" could well become a complete one, an outcome the red-shirt movement has said it will rise up against and resist.

Martial law was first announced on military-run TV. In its statement, the army stressed that the public need not panic.

The announcement cited a 1914 law that allows the military to intervene during times of crisis.

Thai stocks and the baht currency dropped on Tuesday after the army announcement.

Japan, Thailand's biggest investor, expressed "grave concerns" about the political situation and urged all sides to exercise self-restraint "without using violence".

Thailand's martial law act of 1914

• Gives the army chief control without PM's assent
• Grants the military full powers to:

1. Summon officials and individuals for investigation
2. Search and seize individuals or items
3. Order compulsory military service and forced labour
4. Prohibit assemblies, media coverage, advertising, public transport
5. Destroy "enemy" dwellings and build army barracks anywhere

The caretaker government earlier said it had not been consulted about the army's decision, but insisted that it remained in office.

"Everything is normal except the military is responsible for all national security issues," said chief security adviser Paradorn Pattanatabut.

An army spokesman also said the imposition of martial law would have no impact on the caretaker government.

Power struggle

Observers say the deadlock in south-east Asia's second-largest economy has got worse since Ms Yingluck dissolved the lower house of parliament in December, and a court ordered her removal earlier this month for abuse of power.

On Monday, acting Prime Minister Niwatthamrong Boonsongphaisan insisted his government would not resign, resisting pressure from anti-government protesters.

Thailand has faced a power struggle since Ms Yingluck's brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, was ousted by the military as prime minister in a coup in 2006.

Since then, there have been periodic anti-government protests which have turned deadly at times.

The latest unrest began in the Thai capital late last year, with demonstrators blockading several parts of the city.

In response, Ms Yingluck called a snap general election in February that her party was widely expected to win. But protesters disrupted the polls and the election was later annulled.

Are you in Thailand? What's your reaction to this ruling? You can share your views and pictures with us by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk using 'Martial law' in the subject heading.

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China denounces cyber-theft charges

20 May 2014 Last updated at 10:20

China has denounced US charges against five of its army officers accused of economic cyber-espionage.

Beijing says the US is also guilty of spying on other countries, including China, and accuses the US of hypocrisy and "double standards".

China has summoned the US ambassador in Beijing over the incident. It says relations will be damaged.

US prosecutors say the officers stole trade secrets and internal documents from five companies and a labour union.

The BBC's John Sudworth in Shanghai says it is extremely unlikely that any of the accused will ever be handed over to the US.

China's defence ministry put out a strongly-worded statement on its website on Tuesday saying that China's government and its military "had never engaged in any cyber espionage activities".

It also took aim at the US, saying: "For a long time, the US has possessed the technology and essential infrastructure needed to conduct large-scale systematic cyber thefts and surveillance on foreign government leaders, businesses and individuals. This is a fact which the whole world knows.

"The US' deceitful nature and its practice of double standards when it comes to cyber security have long been exposed, from the Wikileaks incident to the Edward Snowden affair."

Analysis: Carrie Gracie, BBC China editor

China always insists it is a victim of hacking, not a perpetrator. And when US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden appeared in Hong Kong a year ago with evidence of US hacking into Chinese networks, Beijing felt vindicated.

The US acknowledges that it conducts espionage but says unlike China it does not spy on foreign companies and pass what it finds to its own companies.

Beijing typically shrugs this off as a smear motivated by those who find its growing technological might hard to bear. But to see five named officers of the People's Liberation Army indicted by a US grand jury is not something that can be brushed aside so easily.

China has already announced the suspension of co-operation with the US on an internet working group. And once it has had time to digest this loss of face, it is likely to consider more serious retaliation.

The defence ministry added that China's military had been the target of many online attacks, and "a fair number" of those had been launched from American IP addresses.

It said the arrest of the five Chinese army officers had "severely damaged mutual trust".

A Xinhua report on Tuesday stated that between March and May this year, a total of 1.18 million computers in China were directly controlled by 2,077 machines in the United States via Trojan horse or zombie malware.

Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang lodged a "solemn representation" with US ambassador Max Baucus on Monday night, Xinhua reported.

'US losses'

On Monday US Attorney General Eric Holder said a grand jury had laid hacking charges against the Chinese nationals, the first against "known state actors for infiltrating US commercial targets by cyber means".

He identified the alleged victims as Westinghouse Electric, US Steel, Alcoa Inc, Allegheny Technologies, SolarWorld and the US Steelworkers Union.

"The alleged hacking appears to have been conducted for no reason other than to advantage state-owned companies and other interests in China, at the expense of businesses here in the United States," Mr Holder said.

In the indictment brought in the western district of Pennsylvania - the heart of the US steel industry - the US named Wang Dong, Sun Kailiang, Wen Xinyu, Huang Zhenyu, and Gu Chunhui, all officers in Unit 61398 of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), as the alleged conspirators.

FBI officials said the hacking - between 2006 and 2014 - caused "significant losses" at the companies and that there were likely to be many more victims.

Last year, cyber-defence company Mandiant published a report on a Chinese military unit the firm said was behind the vast majority of significant attacks on American federal agencies and companies.

In March, Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said the Pentagon planned to more than triple its cyber-security capabilities in the next few years to defend against such internet attacks.

What is Unit 61398?

• A unit of China's People's Liberation Army, to whose Shanghai address US cyber security firm Mandiant says it traced a prolific hacking team

• The team was said to have hacked into 141 computers across 20 industries, stealing hundreds of terabytes of data

• Mandiant says the team would have been staffed by hundreds, possibly thousands of proficient English speakers

• China said Mandiant's report was flawed and lacked proof

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Pistorius sent for psychiatric tests

20 May 2014 Last updated at 11:18

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Judge Thokozile Masipa delivered her judgement to the court

The judge in the Oscar Pistorius trial has ordered him to start daily tests on Monday to assess his mental state when he killed his girlfriend.

Judge Thokozile Masipa told the South African athlete to attend Weskoppies psychiatric hospital in Pretoria as an outpatient for a month.

It comes after a defence witness said the double amputee was suffering from Generalised Anxiety Disorder (Gad).

Mr Pistorius denies intentionally killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

He says he accidentally shot her through the toilet door on Valentine's Day last year in a state of panic, mistaking the 29-year-old model and law graduate for an intruder.

'Criminally responsible'

The prosecution had argued the tests were essential after forensic psychiatrist Merryll Vorster told the court in Pretoria the double amputee was "a danger to society".

But the defence vigorously opposed the move.

Judge Masipa said on Wednesday that four appointed psychiatrists would "inquire into whether the accused by reason of mental illness or mental defect was at the time of the commission of the offence criminally responsible for the offence as charged."

She said the team would decide whether he was "capable of appreciating the wrongfulness of his act".

Analysis: Pumza Fihlani, BBC News, Pretoria

For the next month Oscar Pistorius' life is in the hands of four doctors who will evaluate whether he fully understood the wrongfulness of killing Reeva Steenkamp. The 30-day psychiatric observation was requested by state prosecutor Gerrie Nel after a defence psychiatrist testified that Mr Pistorius suffered from Generalised Anxiety Disorder (Gad) and that this may have affected his actions on the night.

But Mr Nel, seemingly sceptical about the Gad revelation, accused the defence of changing its plea and said tests were needed in the interests of justice.

The athlete will be an outpatient at Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital. It is an old red-brick facility outside Pretoria, founded in the late 1800s. It could be the first time that Mr Pistorius is away from the media circus - and the adoring fans - since the start of his trial. Instead he will be alone with a panel of specialists who've been tasked with helping the court decide if Mr Pistorius can be held criminally liable for shooting his girlfriend.

Court proceedings were adjourned until 30 June.

Continue reading the main story

• Generalised Anxiety Disorder is a medically-recognised, long-term condition
• People with Gad feel anxious on most days and worry about a wide range of issues
• It is thought to affect around one in 25 people at some point in their lives and is more common in women than in men
• Symptoms vary - making it tricky to diagnose
• People with Gad may have difficulty concentrating, feel tired and irritable, feel sick, dizzy or sweaty and experience aches and pains
• Gad tends to run in families, can follow stressful events, and may be linked to chemical imbalances in the brain
• The main treatments include using talking therapies, relaxation techniques and medication

Legal experts say that the case may well hinge on the judge's understanding of the athlete's state of mind when he pulled the trigger.

They say the prosecution is keen to show that the defence keeps changing its reasons why Mr Pistorius fired his gun - from putative self-defence, to accidental shooting, and now to something linked to his anxiety disorder.

Prosecution lawyer Gerrie Nel has also said he is trying to prevent mental illness being used as an argument in any future appeal.

Last week Judge Masipa said that the criminal code stipulates that if an accused person is alleged not to be criminally responsible or is alleged to be mentally ill, he should be evaluated.

Weskoppies psychiatric hospital was founded in 1892 and is a 1,400-bed hospital affiliated to the University of Pretoria.

There are no juries at trials in South Africa, so the athlete's fate will ultimately be decided by the judge, assisted by two assessors.

If found guilty of murder, Mr Pistorius could face life imprisonment. If he is acquitted of that charge, the court will consider an alternative charge of culpable homicide, for which he could receive about 15 years in prison.

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Fatal train collision near Moscow

20 May 2014 Last updated at 12:04

At least four people have died after a freight train hit a passenger train south-west of the Russian capital Moscow, officials say.

Several carriages were derailed in the crash, said to have occurred at 12:38 (08:38 GMT) near Bekasovo 1 station, 60km (37 miles) from the capital.

Injured people were reportedly carried from the train as emergency services rushed to the scene.

The passenger train was on its way from Moscow to Chisinau in Moldova.

Russia's Emergencies Ministry said at least four people were killed and 15 were injured.

According to Russian news agency Itar-Tass, several carriages on the freight train came off the rails near the town of near Naro-Fominsk and hit the passenger train.

Several carriages on the passenger train are said to have then derailed, and some of them overturned.

The cause of the accident was not immediately clear.

Traffic on the line - which also serves Kiev in Ukraine - was suspended as a result.

Are you in the area? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with 'Russia crash' in the subject.

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Appeals for aid after Balkans floods

19 May 2014 Last updated at 07:15

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Guy Delauney reports on the latest rescue efforts in Belgrade

Serbia and Bosnia have called for international help to rescue people from inundated areas after the worst flooding since modern records began.

Waters are now beginning to recede, but officials say dangers remain.

They say that the threat of landslides is an ever-present problem as are the difficulties caused by unexploded landmines in Bosnia and river surges.

Serbia's main power plant is still at risk of flooding. Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes.

Bosnian Refugee Minister Adil Osmanovic described the flooding as "catastrophic".

Overwhelmed

Officials say that three months' worth of rain has fallen on the Balkans in recent days, producing the worst floods since rainfall measurements began 120 years ago.

At least 35 people have died - with more casualties expected.

A large international aid operation is underway, with rescue helicopters from the European Union, US and Russia evacuating people from affected areas.

But Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said Serbia now needed further help, particularly deliveries of food, clothing and bottled water.

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Aerial footage showed flooding near Serbia's Tesla power plant

The rain caused more than 2,000 landslides in hilly Bosnia, officials say, enveloping roads, homes and whole villages.

Rescuers are urging people to go to the balconies or rooftops of their houses with bright fabric to make themselves visible.

'Flood wave'

The north-eastern part of Bosnia is reported to be especially badly affected, with houses, roads and rail lines submerged.

Officials say that about a million people - more than a quarter of the country's population - live in the worst-affected areas.

The floods and landslides have raised fears about the estimated one million land mines planted during Bosnia's 1992-95 war.

Nearly 120,000 of the unexploded devices remain in more than 9,400 carefully marked minefields, officials say.

But the weather dislodged warning signs and in many cases loosened the mines themselves.

'Terrifying situation'

The flooding and landslide threat in Serbia is equally serious, made worse by the the constant threat of surging river levels.

Residents spent the weekend piling up sandbags in riverside towns - including Belgrade.

Mihajlo Andric from Osecina, Serbia, told the BBC that he was trapped inside his house for almost two days in a "terrifying situation".

"Roads and territory all around my area have been devastated by the floods," he said.

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Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic; ''It's been a very emotional week for me''

"We had no power, but luckily we had supplies. There are 15,000 people living in this town and many were badly affected by the flooding."

Serbia's state-run EPS power company said crews were doing all they could to prevent further damage to the Tesla power plant.

Parts of the plant and a nearby mine that provides its fuel were underwater. Damage to the mine alone is estimated at more than 100m euros ($137m).

Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic has joined calls for help.

"Support and solidarity for my people in Serbia!'' he wrote on his Twitter account.

Large parts of eastern Croatia are also underwater, with villages still cut off and hundreds forced to escape the flooded zone in boats and trucks.

Are you in the area? Have you been affected by the floods? Send us your comments. You can email us at haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk using the subject line 'Balkans floods'.

Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.

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Antarctica's ice losses double

19 May 2014 Last updated at 10:33 By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

Antarctica is now losing about 160 billion tonnes of ice a year to the ocean - twice as much as when the continent was last surveyed.

The new assessment comes from Europe's Cryosat spacecraft, which has a radar instrument specifically designed to measure the shape of the ice sheet.

The melt loss from the White Continent is sufficient to push up global sea levels by around 0.43mm per year.

Scientists report the data in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

The new study incorporates three years of measurements from 2010 to 2013, and updates a synthesis of observations made by other satellites over the period 2005 to 2010.

Cryosat has been using its altimeter to trace changes in the height of the ice sheet - as it gains mass through snowfall, and loses mass through melting.

'Big deal'

The study authors divide the continent into three sectors - the West Antarctic, the East Antarctic, and the Antarctic Peninsula, which is the long finger of land reaching up to South America.

Overall, Cryosat finds all three regions to be losing ice, with the average elevation of the full ice sheet falling annually by almost 2cm.

In the three sectors, this equates to losses of 134 billion tonnes, 3 billion tonnes, and 23 billion tonnes of ice per year, respectively.

The East had been gaining ice in the previous study period, boosted by some exceptional snowfall, but it is now seen as broadly static in the new survey.

As expected, it is the western ice sheet that dominates the reductions.

Scientists have long considered it to be the most vulnerable to melting.

It has an area, called the Amundsen Sea Embayment, where six huge glaciers are currently undergoing a rapid retreat - all of them being eroded by the influx of warm ocean waters that scientists say are being drawn towards the continent by stronger winds whipped up by a changing climate.

About 90% of the mass loss from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is going from just these few ice streams.

At one of them - Smith Glacier - Crysosat sees the surface lowering by 9m per year.

"CryoSat has given us a new understanding of how Antarctica has changed over the last three years and allowed us to survey almost the entire continent," explained lead author Dr Malcolm McMillan from the NERC Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling at Leeds University, UK.

"We find that ice losses continue to be most pronounced in West Antarctica, along the fast-flowing ice streams that drain into the Amundsen Sea. In East Antarctica, the ice sheet remained roughly in balance, with no net loss or gain over the three-year period," he told BBC News.

Cryosat was launched by the European Space Agency in 2010 on a dedicated quest to measure changes at the poles, and was given a novel radar system for the purpose.

It has two antennas slightly offset from each other. This enables the instrument to detect not just the height of the ice sheet but the shape of its slopes and ridges.

This makes Cryosat much more sensitive to details at the steep edges of the ice sheet - the locations where thinning is most pronounced.

It also allows the satellite to better detect what is going on in the peninsula region of the continent where the climate has warmed rapidly over the past 50 years.

"The peninsula is extremely rugged and previous satellite altimeters have always struggled to see its narrow glaciers. With Cryosat, we get remarkable coverage - better than anything that's been achieved before," said Prof Andy Shepherd, also of Leeds University.

Future change

The GRL paper follows hard on the heels of two studies that have made a specific assessment of the future prospects for the Amundsen Sea Embayment.

One of these reports concluded that the area's glaciers were now in an irreversible retreat.

The other paper, considering one of the glaciers in detail, suggested the reversal process could take several hundred years to be completed.

A loss of all the ice in the six glaciers would add about 1.2m to global sea level.

This is still a small fraction of the total sea-level potential of Antarctica, which holds something like 26.5 million cubic km ice (or 58m of sea-level rise equivalent). But the continent has been largely insulated from some of the warming influences taking place elsewhere in the world and it is important, say scientists, to keep a check on any changes that are occurring, and the speed with which they are happening.

Prof Duncan Wingham proposed the Cryosat mission and is its principal investigator. He told BBC News: "We lack the capability to predict accurately how the Amundsen ice streams will behave in future.

"Equally, a continuation or acceleration of their behaviour has serious implications for sea level rise. This makes essential their continued observation, by Cryosat and its successors."

And Prof David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey was not involved in the Cryosat survey. He commented: "The increasing contribution of Antarctica to sea-level rise is a global issue, and we need to use every technique available to understand where and how much ice is being lost.

"Through some very clever technical improvements, McMillan and his colleagues have produced the best maps of Antarctic ice loss we have ever had. Prediction of the rate of future global sea-level rise must be begin with a thorough understanding of current changes in the ice sheets - this study puts us exactly where we need to be."

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos

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Mladic war crimes defence begins

19 May 2014 Last updated at 11:58

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Ratko Mladic appeared at the trial wearing a dark suit, as the BBC's Anna Holligan reports

The defence in the trial of former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity has opened in The Hague.

The first witness, a former Serb army officer, says he was never ordered to fire on civilians in the besieged Bosnian capital of Sarajevo.

Mr Mladic, 72, is one of the most high-profile suspects to appear before the Hague tribunal.

Mr Mladic denies 11 charges dating to the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

Mile Sladoje, a former assistant commander of a Serb battalion in Sarajevo, was the first witness called by Mr Mladic on Monday in the trial.

In a summary of his testimony read at the hearing, he denies ever being ordered by Mr Mladic to target civilians in a sniping campaign during the three-year siege of the city in which approximately 10,000 people were killed - most of them Muslims.

"All our activities [in Sarajevo] were defence activities... There were standing orders, fire could only be returned in response to enemy fire," he said.

Ratko Mladic's forces are accused of conducting a prolonged campaign of shelling and sniping, designed to kill and spread terror among the civilians of Sarajevo.

Mr Mladic is specifically accused of a role in the massacre of more than 7,000 Bosniak men and boys at Srebrenica - Europe's worst atrocity since World War II.

Mr Mladic has denounced the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) tribunal as "satanic".

The defence argues that Gen Mladic was simply a soldier following orders.

His lawyers have described him as a self-proclaimed patriot who fought to defend his people.

The defence will also attempt to refute the prosecution's claim that the general led a targeted campaign to ethnically cleanse parts of Bosnia of non-Serbs and make them part of a greater Serbia.

But they are expected to point out that Mr Mladic suffers from a memory disorder that makes it hard for him to differentiate between truth and fiction.

The BBC's Anna Holligan in The Hague says that although he denies the charges, many survivors consider Ratko Mladic to be one of those most responsible their suffering.

Our correspondent says that for them, the trial is a chance to hear the truth and experience some form of justice.

Continue reading the main story

The former Yugoslavia was a Socialist state created after German occupation in World War II and a bitter civil war. A federation of six republics, it brought together Serbs, Croats, Bosnian Muslims, Albanians, Slovenes and others under a comparatively relaxed communist regime. Tensions between these groups were successfully suppressed under the leadership of President Tito.

After Tito's death in 1980, tensions re-emerged. Calls for more autonomy within Yugoslavia by nationalist groups led in 1991 to declarations of independence in Croatia and Slovenia. The Serb-dominated Yugoslav army lashed out, first in Slovenia and then in Croatia. Thousands were killed in the latter conflict which was paused in 1992 under a UN-monitored ceasefire.

Bosnia, with a complex mix of Serbs, Muslims and Croats, was next to try for independence. Bosnia's Serbs, backed by Serbs elsewhere in Yugoslavia, resisted. Under leader Radovan Karadzic, they threatened bloodshed if Bosnia's Muslims and Croats - who outnumbered Serbs - broke away. Despite European blessing for the move in a 1992 referendum, war came fast.

Yugoslav army units, withdrawn from Croatia and renamed the Bosnian Serb Army, carved out a huge swathe of Serb-dominated territory. Over a million Bosnian Muslims and Croats were driven from their homes in ethnic cleansing. Serbs suffered too. The capital Sarajevo was besieged and shelled. UN peacekeepers, brought in to quell the fighting, were seen as ineffective.

International peace efforts to stop the war failed, the UN was humiliated and over 100,000 died. The war ended in 1995 after NATO bombed the Bosnian Serbs and Muslim and Croat armies made gains on the ground. A US-brokered peace divided Bosnia into two self-governing entities, a Bosnian Serb republic and a Muslim-Croat federation lightly bound by a central government.

In August 1995 the Croatian army stormed areas in Croatia under Serb control prompting thousands to flee. Soon Croatia and Bosnia were fully independent. Slovenia and Macedonia had already gone. Montenegro left later. In 1999 Kosovo's ethnic Albanians fought Serbs in another brutal war to gain independence. Serbia ended the conflict beaten, battered and alone.

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The defence has been given 207 hours to present its case, the same amount of time given to the prosecution.

There is no limit to the number of witnesses the defence can call.

In the Srebrenica enclave, Bosnian Serb forces overran the UN-defended safe area, killing Muslim men and boys in July 1995.

Ratko Mladic was the general in charge of the troops. He was on the run for 16 years before being arrested in 2011 in northern Serbia, where he had been living under an assumed name.

Also being tried in The Hague is former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, who like Mr Mladic is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Mladic trial

• 3 June 2011: Trial begins. Mladic says charges are "monstrous" and "obnoxious"
• October 2011: Mladic admitted to Dutch hospital and in November found not to be in a condition to follow the trial (first of many suspensions over his health)
• 17 May 2012: Trial adjourned due to prosecution "errors"
• 18 June 2012: Trial suspended until further notice
• 9 July 2012: First witness heard
• 10 April 2013: Mladic removed from court after muttering during testimony of Srebrenica survivor
• 19 May 2014: Defence in trial begins

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Putin orders Ukraine border pullout

19 May 2014 Last updated at 12:15

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has ordered troops near Ukraine's border to withdraw, the Kremlin says.

Units in the Rostov, Belgorod and Bryansk regions should return to their permanent bases, a statement said.

Russia has made similar statements in the past, only for Nato to report no change.

Correspondents say the removal of some 40,000 Russian troops near the Ukrainian border could help de-escalate the Ukraine crisis.

'Exercises'

The apparent build-up of Russian forces in the region has ratcheted up diplomatic tensions in recent weeks.

"In connection with the completion of the planned spring phase of military training... at ranges in Rostov, Belgorod and Bryansk regions, Putin ordered the defence minister to withdraw the troops that took part in the exercises," the Kremlin statement said.

It was unclear how many troops would be pulled out or when it would happen.

Meanwhile clashes have continued between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russia separatist militants in eastern Ukraine.

One Ukrainian soldier was killed and one injured on Monday in an attack by separatists on a checkpoint near Sloviansk, in the Donetsk region, Ukraine's Interfax news agency quoted the country's defence ministry as saying.

Russia called for an "immediate end to the punitive operation and violent actions" of Ukrainian government forces, demanding "the withdrawal of troops".

The statement also said Mr Putin "welcomes the first contacts between Kiev and the supporters of federalisation".

Analysis: Jonathan Marcus, BBC Diplomatic correspondent

Some people may be wondering if there is a command and control problem in the Russian military. For this is actually the third time that Russian units have been ordered to pull back to their bases from their positions on Ukraine's border.

There was supposedly a partial withdrawal at the end of March. Only one battalion moved. A full withdrawal was ordered in early May but according to senior Nato military sources the troops are still very much there. Now a withdrawal order has come from the Kremlin again.

Of course there is nothing wrong with Russia's command system. President Vladimir Putin clearly decided that, whatever the public pronouncements, the threat of 40,000 troops on Ukraine's border was a powerful tool whether they were used or not.

This was by the way not the "planned spring phase of military training" as the Kremlin asserts but an unprecedented deployment of combat-ready forces designed specifically to threaten the Kiev government.

It comes as preparations continue for presidential elections in Ukraine on 25 May.

Tensions between Russia and the West rose after the overthrow of pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February, following months of street protests.

On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow's ties with the EU and Nato needed a "substantial rethink" in light of deep differences over Ukraine, Russian news agencies report.

The revolt in the east gained momentum after Russia annexed Ukraine's mainly ethnic Russian region of Crimea in March.

Pro-Russia separatists have taken control of government buildings across cities in south-eastern and southern Ukraine.

Violence between the two sides has left dozens of people dead in recent weeks, but the rebels have not taken part in EU-brokered talks to defuse the crisis.

On Saturday, the separatists appointed a prime minister for what they call the People's Republic of Donetsk.

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Fears of new Serbia flood surge

18 May 2014 Last updated at 12:07

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The BBC's Guy Delauney says forecasters are warning that the River Sava is set to peak again in Serbia on Sunday evening

Emergency workers in Serbia are preparing for a "flood wave" on one of the country's main rivers.

Water levels on the River Sava are expected to peak later, threatening the country's biggest power plant.

It comes after the worst floods in the Balkans for decades left at least 20 dead and forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.

In Bosnia-Hercegovina, landslides have buried houses and disturbed landmines laid during the war in the 1990s.

The floods are also affecting Croatia.

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Aerial footage showed flooding near Serbia Tesla power plant

Three months' worth of rain fell on the region in just a few days, causing rivers to burst their banks and sweep into people's homes. The death toll is expected to rise.

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Guy De Launey BBC News, Belgrade

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The extreme weather in Bosnia is heaping danger upon misery. The floods are not just the worst in living memory - they are bringing a deadly reminder of the conflict of the 1990s back to the surface: Landmines.

There are still more than 100,000 landmines littering the Bosnian countryside, according to the country's Mine Action Centre. Almost two decades on from the end of the conflict, people are still killed and injured every year.

Casualty numbers have reduced over the years, thanks to demining efforts and the mapping of minefields. Local people know the danger areas - and the safe paths.

But the torrential rain, floods and landslides are likely to cause the mines to move. Warning signs have already been washed away in a number of places. When the floods finally recede, there will be an urgent need for the deminers to move in.

The rain has finally stopped in Belgrade, reports the BBC's Guy De Launey in the Serbian capital.

But officials fear water flowing from neighbouring Croatia and Bosnia could cause a "flood wave" on the River Sava on Sunday evening.

Emergency workers and volunteers have stacked sandbags along the river in Belgrade and other towns such as Sabac and Sremska Mitrovica.

"We are doing all we can," said Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic.

The main concern is whether flood waters could knock out the Nikola Tesla power plant, which supplies much of the country, our correspondent says.

It is in Obrenovac, south-west of Belgrade, where most of the population have already been moved to safety.

'Three metres high'

Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic has joined calls for help.

"Support and solidarity for my people in Serbia!'' he wrote on his Twitter account.

Officials have refused to give a death toll for Obrenovac until the floodwaters recede.

Almost one-third of Bosnia is under water. The north-east is worst affected, with houses, roads and railway lines submerged.

Bosnian Serb police chief Gojko Vasic said the situation had been particularly difficult in Doboj "because the flood waters acted as a tsunami, three to four metres high", the Reuters news agency reported.

"No-one could have resisted," he said.

'Horrible catastrophe'

Bosnian Security Ministry spokesman Admir Malagic said that about one million people - more than a quarter of the country's population - live in the affected area.

Chairman of the Bosnian three-man presidency Bakir Izetbegovic said that his country is facing a "horrible catastrophe", the Associated Press reported.

"We are still not fully aware of actual dimensions of the catastrophe," he said.

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China ships in Vietnam evacuation

18 May 2014 Last updated at 07:15

China is sending five ships to evacuate Chinese nationals from Vietnam following a wave of anti-Chinese riots.

The Chinese government has already evacuated more than 3,000 people, Chinese state-run media report.

The first ship set sail on Sunday, while 16 critically injured Chinese nationals left Vietnam on a chartered flight, Xinhua news agency said.

Two Chinese workers have been killed and dozens more injured in unrest over a Chinese oil rig in disputed waters.

On Saturday the Vietnamese government called for an end to the protests.

Officials said "illegal acts" would be stopped as they could damage national stability.

However, dissident groups have urged people to rally again in major cities on Sunday and the authorities broke up some anti-China protests in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

In recent days crowds have set fire to at least 15 foreign-owned factories - including Chinese, Taiwanese and South Korean businesses - in several Vietnamese industrial parks.

'Dissatisfied'

Correspondents say the attacks appear to have worried authorities, as Hanoi depends heavily on foreign investment for economic growth.

However, China has urged authorities to take tougher measures to punish rioters.

"We are strongly dissatisfied by the Vietnamese side failure to respond effectively to curb an escalation," Xinhua quoted security chief Guo Shengkun as saying on Saturday.

The protests have been triggered by China's decision to move its Haiyang Shiyou 981 oil rig into contested waters in the South China Sea.

This led to confrontations between Vietnamese and Chinese ships earlier this month, as Vietnam sought to block the move.

China insists it will continue drilling in the area, west of the Paracel Islands - which are controlled by China but also claimed by Vietnam, and Taiwan.

Nationalist sentiment is currently running very high in Vietnam over the issue, correspondents say.

Many of those evacuated are workers employed at Chinese-owned factories or construction projects in Vietnam, says the BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Beijing.

Have you been affected by the evacuations? Have you witnessed any of the riots? If you are happy to speak to the BBC you can email your experiences to haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk, using the subject line 'China Vietnam'.

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