Thursday 29 March 2012

Japan hangs three prisoners after 18-month stay of executions

Anger and dismay as government resumes capital punishment in same week it won Amnesty's praise for apparent moratorium

Critics of the Japanese government of Yoshihiko Noda believe executions have been resumed to distract attention from its efforts to increase consumption tax. Photograph: Corbis

Japan has carried out its first executions in more than 18 months, hanging three death row inmates on Thursday and angering campaigners who believed the country was moving towards abolition of the death penalty.

Reports said the three men were hanged at prisons in Tokyo, Hiroshima and Fukuoka. They included Yasuaki Uwabe, who was convicted of killing five people at a train station in 1999.

The executions are the first since July 2010; none of the 132 people on death row was executed in 2011, the first time a year had passed without executions for 19 years.

Their executions came as a blow to campaigners, who only this week welcomed Japan's apparent de facto moratorium on capital punishment. Hideki Wakabayashi, executive director of Amnesty International Japan, accused the Democratic party of Japan (DPJ) government of reneging on an earlier promise to look seriously at its use of the death penalty.

"We still need to have a national debate," Wakabayashi told the Guardian. "But while we are doing that there has to be a moratorium on executions. The DPJ is supposed to support human rights. The executions also run against the international movement against he death penalty. I don't know where Japan thinks it is going with this."

There is speculation that the justice minister, Toshio Ogawa, has come under pressure from senior DPJ colleagues, including the prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, to sign off on executions while the party attempts to sell a controversial consumption tax rise to the public, which remains overwhelmingly in favour of the death penalty.

"Public support for Noda's cabinet is declining, so my personal feeling is that this was one of many steps aimed at boosting its approval ratings," Wakabayashi said.

Earlier this week Amnesty International had singled out Japan for praise over the absence of executions in 2011, despite evidence that successive justice ministers had come under intense pressure to sign death warrants. In the announcement, Amnesty's Catherine Baber did note that "executions could resume at any time".

"We continue to be concerned for the roughly 130 people on death row, including several prisoners with mental illnesses, and we call on the minister of justice not to resume executions but rather to work towards abolition."

In September 2010 the then justice minister, Keiko Chiba, ordered a review of the death penalty. Her four immediate successors refused to approve executions, but Ogawa, who was appointed to the post in January, said the review had reached an impasse.

"I don't really want to do it, but it is part of the justice minister's job description," he told journalists. "With 130 inmates on death row and public opinion 85% in favour of the death sentence, it would be inexcusable of me not to sign off on executions."

In a damning 2009 report, Amnesty accused the Japanese authorities of subjecting death row inmates to "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment".

Campaigners have also voiced concern over the safety of several convictions, including that of Masaru Okunishi, who has spent four decades on death row for poisoning five women in 1961.

Prisoners are not told when they will be executed until a few hours before they are led away to the gallows, and their relatives and lawyers are informed only after the execution has been carried out.

In a report issued this week, Amnesty noted a rise in the number of executions worldwide in 2011 [PDF], mainly due to a significant increase in the Middle East.

The US - the only G7 country to carry out executions last year - is one of 58 countries, including Japan, China and Iran, that retain capital punishment. More than 140 countries, including all EU members, have abolished the death penalty in law or practice.

Ethiopian maid publicly abused in Lebanon takes her own life – video

An Ethiopian domestic worker who was filmed as she was attacked in public outside the Ethiopian embassy in Beirut has taken her own life. The video, aired by Lebanese television, has caused outrage in the country, where reports of mistreatment of domestic workers are common. The woman's employer, who was seen trying to bundle her into a car, has denied beating her

* Warning: video contains violence

Jean-Luc Mélenchon moves from left to centre stage in battle to be president

Anti-capitalist firebrand whose ideas include 100% fat cat tax on earnings above £300,000 wins attention and support in the polls

ean-Luc Mélenchon at a campaign meeting in Lille. Photograph: Francois Lo Presti/ AFP/Getty Images

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the hard left, anti-capitalist firebrand who is rising in the presidential election polls, is all over the French papers – billed as the great surprise, main event and key revelation of the campaign.

With crowds spilling into the street at his packed rally in Lille this week, and tens of thousands recently flocking to the Bastille to hear him call for a "civic insurrection", Mélenchon has been credited with 14% in the polls by BVA.

His numbers have catapulted him into the realms of becoming a possible "third man" in the first round vote on 22 April.

Mélenchon's initial aim is to overtake and annihilate his arch-nemesis, the National Front's Marine Le Pen, in the race for the working class and protest vote, as he explained on France Info radio on Thursday.

Mélenchon is already famous for his scathing attacks on opponents, and his public savagery of what he terms the "half-demented" Le Pen has become the stuff of campaign legend.

But commentators are now wondering whether François Hollande, the Socialist frontrunner, should be worried that Mélenchon's rise will eat into his vote.

Most of Mélenchon's voters are predicted to transfer to Hollande in the second round, as the broad French left is keen to do anything to stop Nicolas Sarkozy.

Some say the current Mélenchon-mania is good for the left, boosting its overall score. Others, who want Hollande to be the clear winner in the first round before the final runoff, say Mélenchon's rise should be contained.

So far, Hollande's strategy has been to carry on much as usual, pressing home his ideas such as a 75% tax on income over the €1m (£836,000) mark, and arguing that a huge, strategic rallying Socialist vote is needed in the first round in order to beat Sarkozy in the 6 May runoff.

Arnaud Montebourg, on the left of Hollande's Socialist team, on Thursday called on Mélenchon to save any aggressive attacks for Sarkozy, not Hollande, warning that the right loves to delight in any cracks on the left.

Mélenchon, a one-time Trotskyist and former teacher, spent 30 years in the Socialist party, where he served as a minister and senator.

He called for a no vote on the European constitution in 2005 before leaving to co-found his own Parti de Gauche. He is now running for a leftist alliance, Front de Gauche, which includes the once powerful Communist party.

His ideas include capping maximum fat cat salaries at €360,000 (£300,000), after which income tax would be set at 100%.

Historically, the French "left of the left" usually takes 10%-12% of the first round presidential vote, split between various candidates, including the Trotskyists.

This time Mélenchon has siphoned voters from the smaller far-left candidates and focused the radical spotlight on himself.

People question whether he wants a government role, but he swears he will not sit in a Socialist party government. He also says there will be no negotiations.

Ukraine woman who was gang raped and set on fire, dies

Oksana Makar was attacked by three men in the Mykolaiv region of Ukraine. Photograph: AP

An 18-year-old Ukrainian woman has died in hospital after being gang-raped, half-strangled and set on fire. The attack on Oksana Makar led to hundreds of protesters taking to the streets in the town of Mykolayiv in the south of the country after police released two of her three suspected attackers whose parents had political connections, reigniting a debate on corruption in the former Soviet republic.

The two men were rearrested and police disciplined after the intervention of President Viktor Yanukovych. The three young men have been charged with rape and one with attempted murder. An 18-year-old Ukrainian woman who prosecutors say was gang-raped, half-strangled and then set on fire in an attack that sparked street protests in a provincial Ukrainian town, has died, a hospital official said on Thursday.

Hundreds of people took to the streets earlier this month after police released two of Oksana Makar's three suspected attackers whose parents had political connections, reigniting a public debate on corruption in the ex-Soviet republic.

The two men were rearrested and police disciplined after the intervention of President Viktor Yanukovich who sent an investigating team to the town of Mykolayiv in southern Ukraine.

All three young men have been charged with rape and one of them additionally with attempted murder.

Ukrainian media regularly report cases of children of the country's wealthy elite, who are known as "mazhory", escaping punishment from traffic offences, or from more serious crimes including causing fatal road accidents while at the wheel.

The interior minister, Vitaly Zakharchenko, confirmed earlier this month that the parents of at least one of the three suspects were former government officials in the Mykolaiv region.

"Lung bleeding began and then her heart activity stopped," said Emil Fistal, head of the specialist burns unit where Makar was taken for treatment.

Local media claimed that Makar met two of the three accused in a local bar on 10 March and after spending some time there with them, went to the apartment of the third.

The reports allege she was then raped and that one of the suspected attackers tried to strangle her with a cord. They allegedly wrapped her in a blanket, took her to a pit on a building site and tried to set her body on fire before escaping.

She was found by a passing motorist and taken to hospital with serious burns. She had both feet and an arm amputated in surgery, according to the reports.

Trayvon Martin aftermath video casts doubt on George Zimmerman's account

Police video recorded after shooting shows George Zimmerman without wounds he claimed Trayvon Martin inflicted

Surveillance video depicting Trayvon Martin's killer hours after the teenager's death has cast doubt on his claims that he was injured in a vicious fight with the victim.

Seen in handcuffs and accompanied by police officers, self-appointed neighbourhood watchman George Zimmerman displays no obvious signs of having been attacked.

The CCTV footage has prompted further questions over Zimmerman's account of the incident. Earlier reports suggested that 17-year-old Martin had attacked the older man first, with the bloodied gunman pulling the trigger in self-defence.

According to police statement leaked to the Orlando Sentinel this week,
Zimmerman was punched in the face before his head was pounded into the sidewalk by Martin during the incident.

The 28-year-old's account of the attack in Sanford, Florida, was said to have been confirmed by eyewitnesses.

Zimmerman's attorney, Craig Sonner, has said repeatedly that his client's nose was broken during the fight, which took place after Martin, an unarmed black teenager, noticed that the neighbourhood watchman had been trailing him from a local shop.

Reports had suggested that police responding to the incidents found Zimmerman bleeding from both his nose and the back of his head.

But CCTV footage, first released by ABC News, appears to cast doubt on the extent of the shooter's injuries.

In it, the 28-year-old's head and face are clearly visible. There appears to be no clear signs of any wounds. Likewise, there are no obvious indications of blood on the front of his T-shirt that could indicate evidence of a broken nose.

It was already known that the shooter was treated by paramedics at the scene, but the lack of any clear injuries has led some to suggest that they have been overstated.

Sanford police confirmed that the man in the video footage is Zimmerman.
It shows him being escorted into a police station shortly after the incident on 26 February.

Responding to the latest development, Ben Crump, a lawyer for the Martin family, said: "This certainly doesn't look like a man who police said had his nose broken and his head repeatedly smashed into the sidewalk."

He added: "George Zimmerman has no apparent injuries in this video, which dramatically contradicts his version of the events of February 26."

Since that date, just over a month ago, anger has spread from the local community across the US, with protests and rallies demanding Zimmerman's arrest.

The neighbourhood watchman began following the unarmed teenager as he walked back to the home of his father's girlfriend.

The youth, who was serving out a school suspension at the time, was wearing a hooded top and was acting "suspiciously," his killer has said.

Zimmerman has said that he pulled the trigger after he was set upon by Martin in what one relative of the 28-year-old said was "a fight for his life."
The shooter's father told Orlando TV station WOFL that Martin confronted his son, saying "something to the effect of, 'You're going to die now' or 'You're going to die tonight'."

He then pummelled the neighbourhood watchman so badly that armed man was forced to shoot, Robert Zimmerman added.

But claims of a racial element to the killing have added fuel to the growing disquiet over Zimmerman's subsequent release.

The level of anger directed against him has forced Zimmerman to go into hiding amid death threats directed toward both him and his family.

On Wednesday, film director Spike Lee was forced to apologise after he retweeted the home address of an elderly couple he believed to be connected to Zimmerman.

David and Elaine McClain, who are in their 70s and are unrelated to the case, have said that they were forced to leave their home out of safety concerns after the post was picked up by the moviemaker's 250,000 followers.

German Gorbuntsov's wife issues appeal over Russian banker's shooting

Wife asks for information on those behind east London attack that has left millionaire husband under armed guard in hospital

Russian banker German Gorbuntsov, who is in hospital after being shot in east London. Photograph: EPA

The wife of the millionaire Russian banker who was shot and critically wounded by a lone gunman in east London has appealed for the public to help find those responsible in this country or in his homeland.

Lorissa Gorbuntsov, whose husband is under armed guard in a London hospital, made the public appeal as the police said they were working with the Russian authorities to find the gunman, who used a pistol fitted with a silencer to fire four bullets at German Gorbuntsov.

"We as a family would like to appeal for any person, in this country or outside the UK, to come forward and provide the police with any information which will assist in the capture of the person or persons behind the attempted murder of my husband, German," she said.

"This is an act of pure unexpected violence, which should be treated as so. Please come forward so that justice can prevail."

She said her family was going through an "emotional and complicated time".

Inquiries are leading detectives into the opaque world of Russian organised crime as the hunt continues for the gunman, who fled after shooting his victim in east London on the night of 20 March.

Scotland Yard has confirmed that the pistol used by the hitman has been recovered. It is understood to have been found in bushes close to where the victim was shot in the shadow of the Canary Wharf tower.

The attack near Gorbuntsov's apartment block was not initially acknowledged by the Metropolitan police beyond a press release saying a shooting had taken place in east London without details of the victim's nationality or the fact he was a businessman. Scotland Yard only confirmed the victim's name two days after news of the attack was published in the Russian media.

Contract killings are one of the recognised security threats in the runup to the Olympic Games.

The Met's deputy assistant commissioner, Steve Kavanagh, said on Thursday that detectives were working actively with the Russian authorities. Relations between law enforcement bodies in both countries reached breaking point over the investigation into the poisoning of the dissident Alexander Litvinkenko in 2006.

The former KGB officer Andrei Lugovoi was charged with Litvinenko's murder in May 2007 – a move that sparked a diplomatic crisis between London and Moscow and the tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomats. Russia is refusing to extradite Lugovoi.

The inquiry into the attack on Gorbuntsov is said to be focusing on organised crime rather than any state-sponsored targeting of the banker, who amassed his fortune through having stakes in six major banks in Russia and Moldova. But any investigation into organised crime emanating from Russia will examine potential crossovers between criminality and power and politics.

Gorbuntsov remains in a critical but stable condition. Police are seeking the taxi driver who picked him up in Bishopsgate, in the City of London, at about 7pm on Tuesday and dropped him off at his apartment block in Byng Street shortly before the shooting.

Gorbuntsov had recently given information to Russian police investigating the attempted murder of another banker, Alexander Antonov, in 2009. Three Chechen men were convicted of the attempted murder but police never established who had hired them. Investigators in Moscow reopened the case earlier this month after receiving information from Gorbuntsov.

The suspected gunman is described as a slim, white male, about 6ft tall, who was wearing a dark, hooded top.

End of the road for Beatle wheelchair as EU judges rule in pop group's favour

John Lennon and Paul McCartney of the Beatles in the Apple Corps office in 1968. Judges have ruled that a product using the pop group's name would benefit unfairly from the association. Photograph: Jane Bown

A bid to trademark the word beatle for use on electric wheelchairs has been blocked by EU judges.

They ruled there was a risk of confusion with the pop group – even though the youth and vigour represented by the group contrasted with the reduced mobility of wheelchair customers.

There was in fact a connection, the judges said on Thursday, because some original Beatles fans may now be wheelchair users.

Dutch company You-Q has been promoting the Beatle wheelchair on its website.

But the ruling from the European court of justice backed the EU trademark office's decision to disallow Beatle wheelchairs to be trademarked.

The verdict is a victory for Apple Corps, the company formed by the Beatles, which challenged the You-Q bid.

The judges said a product using the group's name would benefit unfairly from the association.

The name of the group has "an enormous reputation for sound records, video records and films and a reputation, albeit lesser, for merchandising products such as toys and games", the court ruled.

Visually, phonetically and conceptually, the names the Beatles and Beatles were very similar to the trademark requested for the wheelchairs.

"Moreover, those marks have a distinctive character so that, when faced with them, the public at large, in particular in the non-English speaking countries of the EU, will immediately think of the eponymous group and their products," said the ruling.

The judges said it was likely that, if allowed to use the Beatle name, You-Q would take unfair advantage of the "repute and the consistent selling power" of the pop group.

"The image conveyed [by the name of the Beatles] is, even after 50 years of existence, still synonymous with youth and a certain counterculture of the 1960s, an image which is still positive," said the ruling.

"That positive image could benefit the goods covered by the mark applied for, since the relevant public, on account specifically of the handicap in question, would be particularly attracted by the very positive image of freedom, youth and mobility associated with the Beatles.

"This is especially so as a part of the public targeted by You-Q's goods belongs to the generation of persons who knew the Beatles' goods in the 60s and some of whom may now be concerned by the goods covered by the mark applied for.

"That image transfer would therefore enable You-Q to introduce its own trademark on the market without incurring any of the great risk or costs, in particular advertising costs, connected with launching a newly created mark."

Occupy Wall Street group chains open gates to New York subway stations

Subway station emergency doors propped open as activists with the movement try to highlight city's public transit woes

Signs resembling Metro Transit Authority notices were posted on the subway walls of stations around New York City. Photograph: strikeeverywhere.net

An Occupy Wall Street-affiliated group has claimed responsibility for chaining open more than 20 subway gates in New York City, in an action intended to highlight issues surrounding the public transit system.

According to a statement released by a group calling itself the Rank and File Initiative, "teams of activists, many from Occupy Wall Street, in conjunction with rank-and-file workers from the Transport Workers Union Local 100 and the Amalgamated Transit Union, opened up more than 20 stations across the city for free entry".

Chains and padlocks were used to hold emergency gates open on the F, L, R, Q, 3, and 6 lines. Signs resembling Metro Transit Authority notices were posted on the subway walls that read "Free Entry, No Fare. Please Enter Through The Service Gate", while activists above ground urged passengers to ride for free.

The Rank and File Initiative pointed to "escalating service cuts, fare hikes, racist policing, assaults on transit workers' working conditions and livelihoods — and the profiteering of the super-rich by way of a system they've rigged in their favor".

Transit fares have increased by 50% over the last decade.

"It was an attempt to say we're united," said Occupy supporter José Martín. "When there's a fare increase, there's a service cut or there's a lay-off on transit workers, it's an attack on both the transit workers themselves as well as the workers and students and youth who are riders."

While the Rank and File Initiative's press statement indicated that union members worked "in conjunction" with the action, union leaders denied knowledge of the plans.

Martín said one of the motivations for Wednesday's action was to highlight the number of minorities arrested for fare evasion. "One of the driving motivations was the criminalization of black and brown youth through the NYPD quota system," he explained. "A lot of Occupiers have been going to jail for the last six months and finding themselves in jail cells with black and Latino youth who are often there for nothing more than fare evasion, thrown in cages for such a tiny violation and then often forced to lose their job or get in trouble in school."

According to Martín, the action was part of strategy known as a "noncompliance campaign". Similar fare strikes have been carried out in other parts of the United States, Canada and Europe.

Martín said Wednesday's action foreshadows Occupy's plans for the coming months, including a "general strike" activists have called for on 1 May and "foreclosure defense" actions that Occupy supporters have been involved in for months.

UK is back in recession, OECD says

OECD deputy secretary-general and chief economist Pier Carlo Padoan talks down the UK's economy. Photograph: Eric Piermont/AFP/Getty Images

The UK is heading back into recession and will be among the slowest of the world's largest economies to recover in the first half of this year, according to a study by the Paris-based thinktank, the OECD.

Only Italy will struggle over a longer period to return to growth, highlighting the difficult situation confronting the British government as it battles to boost confidence and get the economy back on track.

In recent weeks surveys have shown the business and consumer sentiment falling back after an initial boost earlier this year.

The Office for National Statistics added to the gloomy prognosis for the economy on Wednesday when it reported a bigger fall in output in the final three months of 2011 than first estimated. It said a previous 0.2% drop in output had underestimated the size of the fall, which further analysis found to be 0.3%.

The OECD, which produces quarterly figures showing year-on-year growth, said that UK output declined at an annual rate of 1.2% in the final quarter of 2011 and will decline at an annual rate of 0.4% in the first three months of 2012.

The OECD also warned that the eurozone remained in a fragile state and would struggle to grow for the rest of the year.

Germany and France will race ahead of the UK in the first half of the year but are forecast to slow down as the year ends.

Consumer and business confidence surveys of the eurozone on Thursday showed a decline that economists described as a blow to hopes of a recovery during 2012.

Sentiment was mixed among individual countries in March. Confidence suffered a relapse in Germany and Spain, while it picked up slightly in France and Italy.

The OECD has criticised Brussels for its failure to build a sufficient firewall of guarantees and insurances to protect against a sovereign collapse.

In a report last week the OECD said the EU should commit at least €1 trillion to safeguard Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland against collapse after Brussels put forward plans that limited the rescue fund to €700bn (£580bn).

One of the worst hit industries in the UK is construction, which is a traditional driver of growth after a recession but has barely recovered from the crash.

Balfour Beatty, one of the UK's largest building firms, said it needs to make cuts among its 12,000 services staff.

It warned that reduced public sector spending on infrastructure and maintenance coupled with low levels of commercial property development were hitting profit margins.

Hundreds of construction firms and architecture practices are known to have laid off staff after a rehiring programme in 2010.

Unemployment in the UK has risen for the last year, in contrast to the US, which has maintained several large scale public spending programmes to promote employment and maintain consumer and business confidence.

The US economy is expected to grow at 2.9% in the first quarter and maintain that level of growth through the summer months, according to the OECD.

Blair deliberately misled colleagues and public over Iraq, says Clare Short

Foreign Office is trying to overturn a decision to disclose details of a conversation between Blair and George Bush

The details of a conversation between Tony Blair and George Bush are 'fantastically important for the people of Britain and the historical record', said Clare Short. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters

A former cabinet minister has accused Tony Blair of deliberately misleading his colleagues and the public over a dispute central to the government's decision to join the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Clare Short, former Labour international development secretary, told an information tribunal that Blair and his close advisers misrepresented the French position on the need for a new UN resolution backing war.

"The French made a second [UN] resolution impossible – that was the story. That was clearly, deliberately, misleading the French position," Short said.

The Foreign Office is trying to overturn a decision by Christopher Graham, the information commissioner, to disclose records of a conversation between Tony Blair and George Bush about the UN and the French position, days before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Disclosing that the evidence was "fantastically important for the people of Britain and the historical record", Short told the tribunal.

The tribunal heard that Blair claimed that in a television interview on 10 March 2003, the French president, Jacques Chirac, said France would veto any new UN resolution backing war. This enabled Blair to argue before his cabinet, parliament and the British public that the UK could go to war with no further UN backing because of French opposition.

The tribunal heard on Thursday that what Chirac actually said was that France would reject a new pro-war resolution at that particular moment since the UN weapons inspectors had not been given enough time to carry out their mission in Iraq.

In a passage ignored by Downing Street, Chirac said: "It will be for the security council and it alone will decide the right thing to do. But in that case, of course, regrettably, the war would become inevitable. It isn't today."

Short told the tribunal: "It is my view that without the mispresentation of the French position, the position of the prime minister was untenable."

She appeared for Stephen Plowden, a private individual who made the initial freedom of information request and is demanding disclosure of the entire record of the March 2003 conversation between Blair and Bush.

The information commissioner has described the material that he says should be disclosed as a record of a "key conversation between Mr Blair and President Bush with regard to a foreign policy decision of almost unparalleled magnitude".

James Eadie QC, for the FO, told the tribunal that in law claims that parliament, as opposed to the cabinet, was misled would be inadmissible as evidence. The hearing under the tribunal judge, Professor John Angel, reserved its ruling.

Four more UK soldiers disciplined after Afghan civilians killed or injured

The existence of the four new cases involving British troops was revealed by the armed forces minister, Nick Harvey, in a letter to the Labour MP Paul Flynn. Photograph: Andrew Parsons/PA Archive/Press Association Ima

Military commanders have disciplined a further four British soldiers accused of killing or wounding Afghan civilians.

The disclosures come at a time of heightened tension after a series of incidents involving foreign troops, and the killing on Monday of two British soldiers by a member of the Afghan security forces.

The Guardian has learned that a British soldier was given an unspecified punishment after an Afghan was fatally shot in the neck while praying in a field. In other cases, a soldier punched and knocked out an Afghan, and another fired a flare into an Afghan's face.

Nick Harvey, the armed forces minister, disclosed that the new cases brought to eight the total number of prosecutions of British troops accused of killing or injuring Afghan civilians since January 2005. Harvey revealed the existence of the four new cases in a letter to Labour MP Paul Flynn.

One disciplinary hearing centred on the death of the Afghan, said to be a 65-year-old migrant worker, who was shot in the neck while praying on his knees in a field in May 2009. Local witnesses believed soldiers from either the Welsh Guards or the Mercian Regiment fired the fatal shot, according to Harvey.

Some details of the incident have already been reported. According to one account, a Welsh Guards officer on a military base was loading his rifle before a patrol when he accidentally fired a shot. The platoon commander decided not to report the incident immediately because of the officer's rank.

Shortly afterwards, the Afghan was brought to the military base with a bullet wound to his neck that had paralysed him. The Afghan did not want to tell his wife as he would be ashamed if she saw him incapacitated, according to Toby Harnden, the author of Dead Men Risen, a book about the Welsh Guards in Afghanistan.

He was taken to hospital, but died the next day. Harvey has revealed that an individual was given an undisclosed punishment over the incident for negligently firing a weapon, but is refusing to explain who was disciplined or why.

The MoD said four Nato and Afghan army patrols had fired shots at the time the Afghan was hit. The ministry said that although an investigation by the military police "was not able to establish if UK forces were responsible for the Afghan national's death", one unnamed person "has been dealt with under military justice" for negligently firing a weapon. "It would be inappropriate to give any further details," said the MoD.

The second case centred on an incident in August 2009 when two Afghans were captured by the Afghan army. A soldier from the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers tried to question them about whether they had been planting bombs. "When the detainees failed to respond to his question, the soldier punched one of the Afghans causing him to lose consciousness," according to Harvey. The fusilier was "dealt with summarily for battery", Harvey said.

In the third case a soldier from the Coldstream Guards was "on sangar duty" – on lookout – when he aimed and fired a mini-flare into the face of an Afghan interpreter. The soldier was "dealt with summarily for negligently performing a duty", said Harvey.

A similar sentence was handed out to a marine from 45 Commando who negligently fired his weapon in February 2009, wounding an Afghan interpreter "before causing further injury to another Royal Marine", according to Harvey.

The four cases revealed by Harvey were heard behind closed doors in what are known as summary hearings.

According to the MoD, these hearings, in which commanders of military units decide on what sentences should be given to their subordinates, were held to consider less serious offences, while prosecutions of the more serious cases were tried in a court martial.

The other four cases have previously been reported and were heard in open courts martial.

In truncated accounts of the summary hearings, Harvey has not provided details of the sentences given out by the commanders. He said "results of summary hearings are not disclosed publicly" to protect the privacy of the soldiers, though the victims of a crime are entitled to know the outcome, he said.

Afghan leaders criticised the MoD for keeping the latest cases quiet. Abdul Mutalib, district governor for Marjah district in Helmand, said: "The people of Helmand haven't heard about all these things; if they did it would have a very bad impact on people. If the British did all this stuff it will be unacceptable for the people of Afghanistan. T his type of mistake is the reason people join the Taliban, and distance themselves from the president's government."

Ataullah Wakil, first deputy of the Helmand provincial council, said: "The foreigners over these 10 years have done a lot of damage to the innocent people of Helmand."

Documents obtained separately by the Guardian show the military police have started at least 126 investigations into alleged killings by British forces of at least 44 civilians and the wounding of 46 others in Afghanistan in the past seven years. At least three of the Royal Military Police investigations centred on allegations that British soldiers murdered Afghans.

The most striking allegation was that a Gurkha sliced off the head of a dead Afghan man with his kukri, a traditional Nepalese curved knife, to verify the victim's identity. The Gurkha was later cleared of removing the head "as a kind of trophy, or for any other such improper motive", according to prosecutors.

The RMP investigations span allegations that Afghan civilians have been bombed by planes, rockets, and mortar rounds, fired upon at checkpoints, shot while collecting grass and rocks near a firing range, and assaulted while in detention.

The Guardian is today publishing a list of the prosecutions and investigations on its data blog.

An MoD spokesman said: "Protecting Afghan civilians is one of Isaf's and the UK's top priorities and there are strict procedures, frequently updated in light of experience, intended to both minimise the risk of casualties occurring and to investigate any incidents that do happen."

All but one of the prosecutions have resulted in convictions. The Guardian disclosed in December that a British soldier was dismissed from the army and jailed for 18 months for stabbing a 10-year-old Afghan boy in his kidneys with a bayonet for no reason. The court martial heard that the boy was running an errand when he was bayoneted by Grenadier guardsman Daniel Crook, who had a hangover from a heavy vodka drinking session.

Following another court martial, two Royal Marines were dismissed from the navy for assaulting an Afghan civilian.

Meanwhile, prosecutors are considering whether to charge a British soldier serving in Afghanistan with murder for the first time.

Fusilier Duane Knott, a Territorial Army soldier, is accused of shooting dead an Afghan who was digging near a military base in Helmand in June 2010.

Knott, who denies wrongdoing, has reportedly said that he believed that the Afghan was laying explosives intended to kill British soldiers. Prosecutors are examining whether the man was an innocent farmer.

The Service Prosecuting Authority, set up in 2009 to conduct independent prosecutions of military personnel, is considering whether he should be tried by court martial.

Spanish strike: arrests and vandalism in Barcelona – video

Protesters break windows and light a bonfire outside the Barcelona Stock Exchange, and several people are arrested after blocking traffic during a general strike in Spain. The two main labour unions in the country have called for workers to walk out in the 24-hour strike in protest against a labour reform they say will make it easier for employers to fire people

Ken Livingstone tells Jewish Chronicle of his contrition over leaked remarks

Labour leader Ed Miliband and London mayoral candidate Ken Livingstone on the campaign trail in London. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Ken Livingstone delivered a rare public display of contrition following a backlash over leaked remarks made in a private meeting which were interpreted as him saying that Jewish voters would not vote for him because they were rich.

Livingstone, the Labour candidate in the London mayoral election, originally denied he had made the comments at a meeting earlier this month and accused critics of "electioneering".

But following a storm of protest and a letter of concern to Labour leader Ed Miliband sent by those present at the meeting, Livingstone acknowledged the need for humility.

In an uncharacteristically conciliatory article penned for the Jewish Chronicle, he admitted he could now see how "the way the conversation unfolded meant this interpretation was placed upon it".

Livingstone wrote that politicians needed to have humility at such times: "I am no exception."

He added: "When such controversies unfold, it is easy to get dug in and appear to defend positions. I don't want to do this. Jewish voters are not one homogenous block."

He proffered an olive branch as he paid tribute to the way Jewish people have shaped London.

He expressed "regret" for failing to respond to the offer of one rabbi present at the meeting on 1 March of drawing a line under past controversies and discussing the future. He stressed that he valued the opinions and concerns of Jewish Londoners.

Livingstone's volte face came just a week after he denied the comments attributed to him but said he stood by everything he had said at the time.

He claimed that the allegations were "a bit of electioneering from people who aren't terribly keen to see a Labour mayor".

Miliband, the Labour leader, stood by his candidate as he joined him on the campaign trail last week, insisting that Livingstone "doesn't have a prejudiced bone in his body".

But the change of tack by Livingstone just a week later suggests pressure has been applied behind the scenes by the Labour leadership as well as by public criticism from former supporters.

The Guardian's Jonathan Freedland, who attended the meeting, wrote on Saturday that he was now among the one in three Labour supporters in London who, according to the latest YouGov poll "cannot bring themselves to vote for the party's candidate for mayor", despite his "appealing" policy pledges.

"I can no longer do what I and others did in 2008, putting to one side the statements, insults and gestures that had offended me, my fellow Jews and – one hopes – every Londoner who abhors prejudice," wrote Freedland.

Livingstone devoted his article to building bridges with those he had offended and said he agreed with those "including in my own party" who want to "break out of the 'drama' of 'Ken and the Jewish community'."

He addressed critics who argue that he is more interested in promoting the Muslim faith than he is Judaism, insisting that his policy as mayor would be to promote "interfaith and inter community dialogue".

Livingstone also listed a range of initiatives he promoted when in office, such as the publication of a Jewish London guide, the academic boycott of Israel and the marking of Holocaust Memorial Day.

"I could not cherish London and not value Jewish London. The contribution of Jews to London is immense – politically, economically, culturally, intellectually, philanthropically, artistically," he wrote.

"I may shoot my mouth off and I may not always appear to be listening, but I am. I am a socialist, a believer in rational thought and the rule of law.

"The Jewish people have laid the foundations of all of those things. Working with the Jewish community is essential to me and what I stand for.

"Moreover, contrary to any impression, I do explicitly see Jewish people as a people – not either a religion or an ethnicity but a people. The Tories take Jewish London for granted. I will not."

The meeting with pro-Labour members of the Jewish community which sparked the controversy was designed to explore ways in which he could reconnect with Jewish voters in advance of the 3 May election.

But a letter of concern sent to Miliband by some of those who attended claimed that Livingstone suggested that "votes for the left are inversely proportional to wealth levels, and suggested that as the Jewish community is rich we simply wouldn't vote for him".

The signatories warned: "Many of us who would otherwise normally vote Labour are finding it harder and harder to consider voting for Ken, despite agreeing with his policies for London.

"Boiled down, it's hard to interpret this in any other way than Ken basically having no sympathy for those that he perceives as bourgeois, which is why he isn't really attempting to appeal to, and perhaps why he is losing progressive as well as Jewish votes."

The letter also claimed that "at various points in the discussion Ken used the words Zionist, Jewish and Israeli, interchangeably, as if they meant the same, and did so in a pejorative manner".

The signatories added: "It's time to resolve the matter once and for all."

The Jewish Chronicle's Martin Bright wrote that the decision by the famously unyielding political veteran to "eat humble pie" was noted.

"No one person can take responsibility for making Ken Livingstone do the right thing and sign off an article that must have been one of the most painful to which he has ever put his name.

"Individual members of the London Jewish Forum and the Jewish Leadership Council and those who wrote the letter to Ed Miliband must all take some credit, as must the Labour leader himself."

He added: "Though the Jewish community will never take him to their heart, some may at least give him credit for admitting he was wrong."

Bank of England faces calls for full review of handling of financial crisis

The Treasury report highlighted 'sometimes strained' relationships between the tripartite authorities at the highest level. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian

The Bank of England is facing calls to publish a full account of how it handled the financial crisis after the Treasury admitted it had made mistakes when the UK's banking system was on the brink of collapse.

In a 60-page review the Treasury was found to have failed to foresee the financial crisis and been too slow to recruit enough people. It now needs to slow down its high staff turnover if it is to handle any future crisis effectively.

The Treasury's account – the result of the public accounts committee calling for a "lessons learnt" report – portrays tensions at the top of the tripartite system of regulation, which divides responsibility between the Treasury, the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority. This system is being ripped up by the coalition, which is handing more power to the Bank of England.

The publication of the Treasury's review sparked Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury select committee, to call on the Bank of England to do the same.

"The Treasury's decision to publish its internal review reinforces the need for the Bank of England to undertake this work at the soonest appropriate time," said Tyrie.

"The fact it has not yet been done is a reflection of the defects in the Bank's corporate governance which must now be remedied by the legislation currently before the House," he said.

While the Bank of England has not published such a single, formal assessment of the crisis, it put a section on its website on 6 February outlining a number of responses to the financial crisis.

Andy Love, a Labour MP on the Treasury committee, said: "We are very keen that the Bank should carry out a comprehensive review of all its activities, in order to clear the air, to make it clear that they are open and transparent, to show that they have learned from the experience and to give confidence that they will be able to deal with any future problems."

Love said the FSA had gone through a painful review process and the Treasury had now "come clean" about its handling of the crisis. "It remains for the Bank of England to ensure that parliament and the public are convinced that they have gone through a similar exercise."

The Treasury's report set out the need for "strong incentives" for staff to stay for longer in the department, which has the highest turnover in Whitehall. Salaries in the FSA and the Bank can be double those at the Treasury and they are even greater in the City. The Treasury also needs "reservists" who can be called on during any future crisis, and must strengthen its relationship with the Bank of England.

There had been 20 staff working in financial stability in September 2008 when Lehman Brothers collapsed, which reached 45 by the end of the year and peaked at around 200 during 2009. Lawyers brought in from Slaughter & May had "worked well from the start" but relationships with investment banks, including from Goldman Sachs, were "less effective initially".

The review describes relations at "principal level" within the three regulators as being "sometimes more strained" than the good working relationship lower down the organisations and describes Treasury officials as working "at a faster pace" than those at the Bank.

"There were sometimes issues arising from different cultures and working styles between the Treasury and Bank. Bank officials are accustomed to working in a more hierarchical structure and took a more considered and analytical approach," the review said.

There was some "difficulty in communication" between the Treasury and the FSA as well as "some difficulty" around the Bank of England's concerns about "moral hazard" in providing emergency liquidity support to Northern Rock, which in September 2007 suffered the first bank run in Britain since Overend, Gurney & Co in 1866.

In his memoirs, Alistair Darling, then Chancellor, highlighted tensions with Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King.

The Treasury's review, conducted by Sharon White who is now head of public spending in the department, highlights "staff churn". Staff turnover peaked at 38% in 2008. Its staff are also the youngest, with an average age of 32 compared with 45 elsewhere in the civil service.

"The Treasury, like many other institutions, did not see the crisis coming and was consequently under-resourced when it began. The Treasury responded nimbly – with a strong 'esprit de corps'," the review said.

Toulouse gunman Mohamed Merah buried in France

Mohamed Merah's coffin taken out for burial in a cemetery in Cornebarrieu, a Toulouse suburb. Photograph: Eric Cabanis/AFP/Getty Images

The body of a gunman who claimed responsibility for France's worst terror attacks in years has been buried.

The burial on Thursday came after days of painful debate about what to do with the body of 23-year-old Mohamed Merah, a Frenchman of Algerian origin.

His Algerian-born father wanted him buried in Algeria, but authorities there refused the request.

Police say Merah filmed himself killing three schoolchildren, a rabbi and three paratroopers earlier this month. Merah, who espoused radical Islam and said he had links to al-Qaida, was shot in the head last week after a standoff with police in Toulouse.

Abdallah Zekri of the French Muslim Council said he was buried in the Muslim section of a cemetery in the Toulouse neighbourhood of Cornebarrieu.

PIP breast implant warnings 'inadequate', MPs say in critical report Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/894463-pip-breast-implant-warnings-inadequate-mps-say-in-critical-report#ixzz1qRpIudf6

The Commons Health Committee highlighted that there was a 20-month delay between a safety alert being issued to surgeons over the potentially dangerous implants and the government taking action to contact affected women.
The government has been accused of dragging its feet over the PIP scandal. (PA) The government has been accused of dragging its feet over the PIP scandal. (PA)

Britain's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) knew the implants, which contain cheaper industrial-grade silicone and are more prone to rupturing, were 'substandard' in March 2010.

A report from the MPs said: 'The action taken to communicate with affected women after March 2010 was inadequate.

'The committee recognises that private clinics had a duty to contact their patients directly, but the MHRA and the Department of Health also had a duty to raise public awareness.'

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/894463-pip-breast-implant-warnings-inadequate-mps-say-in-critical-report#ixzz1qRpLjYIn

It is now recommending that the 47,000 British women thought to have these implants receive a free operation to have them removed on the NHS.

Should those affected wish to have a replacement implant, the committee recommends this is done on a charged-for basis as part of the same procedure.

The report also criticised the regulator MHRA, which said it could not provide a concrete assurance that no more of the PIP implants were used after March 2010.

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/894463-pip-breast-implant-warnings-inadequate-mps-say-in-critical-report#ixzz1qRpPxgax

Courtroom TV cameras to be allowed in Queen's speech legislation change Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/894480-courtroom-tv-cameras-to-be-allowed-in-queens-speech-legislation-change#ixzz1qRpBtcuk

The decision comes after a long line of broadcasters, including Sky News and the BBC, lent their support to the idea - which will make courtroom proceedings open to all not just those in the public gallery.

A Whitehall source has confirmed the Queen's speech will include the announcement, which also extends to courts in Wales, reports suggest.

The new legislation supporting the inclusion of cameras will be included in the parliamentary session on May 9 - approximately one year on from the Ministry of Justice announcement that a courtroom filming ban would be overturned for the first time since 1925.

Originally, no timescale was given as to when the ban would be repealed.

Initially, filming will be restricted to the Court of Appeal only - although broadcasters have pledged the identities of victims, jury members and witnesses would be protected if cameras were to be allowed into Crown Court prosecutions in the future.

The purpose of the new procedure is said 'to reduce the "mystique" of courtrooms and their sometimes arcane jargon'.

Photography is currently prohibited in courtrooms under Section 41 of the Criminal Justice Act 1945.

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/894480-courtroom-tv-cameras-to-be-allowed-in-queens-speech-legislation-change#ixzz1qRpFZbaL

UK economy shrank by more than expected in final quarter of 2011 Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/894501-uk-economy-shrank-by-more-than-expected-in-final-quarter-of-2011#ixzz1qRp2keev

Official figures have revealed that the UK economy shrunk by more than previously stated in the last quarter of 2011

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/894501-uk-economy-shrank-by-more-than-expected-in-final-quarter-of-2011#ixzz1qRp4fFjg

Statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that gross domestic product (GDP) was down by 0.3 per cent, instead of the originally forecasted 0.2 per cent.

Household spending was not as high as previously thought and the powerhouse services sector did not perform as well as expected.

Despite the confirmed figures, the UK is expected to return to growth during the first three months of this year, thus preventing it from falling back into recession.

Howard Archer, an economist at IHS Global Insight, said that statistics were 'disappointing', however it does not change the fact that the UK economy did see some more encouraging signs throughout 2011.

'Attention is now firmly focused on whether the economy has returned to growth in the first quarter - and, if it has, can it build on this in still difficult conditions?' he added.

Peter Dixon, from Commerzbank, noted that the figures from the ONS will make the starting point for 2012 'that little bit more difficult ... it just makes the hill a little bit steeper in order to reach the Office for Budget Responsibility's 0.8 per cent growth target'.

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/894501-uk-economy-shrank-by-more-than-expected-in-final-quarter-of-2011#ixzz1qRp88xLT

London 2012 Games get thumbs-up from IOC chief Jacques Rogge Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/olympics/894449-london-2012-games-get-thumbs-up-from-ioc-chief-jacques-rogge#ixzz1qRovDBD6

Speaking at Downing, Street after a meeting with Mr Rogge, prime minister David Cameron said the Games would be secure, on budget and on time - and an inspiration for generations to come.

Before their meeting Mr Rogge had already said that London had 'raised the bar on how to deliver a lasting legacy, and set out a blueprint for future host cities to aspire to.

Mr Cameron said the Olympics and Queen's Diamond Jubilee would make summer 2012 'possibly the most exciting of our lifetimes – three months of celebrations of all that’s great about Britain', and having the Games here was 'an honour'.

'We intend to repay that honour by showing why the Games are more relevant than ever today,' he went on.

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/olympics/894449-london-2012-games-get-thumbs-up-from-ioc-chief-jacques-rogge#ixzz1qRoygl1x

UK economy shrank by more than expected in final quarter of 2011 Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/894501-uk-economy-shrank-by-more-than-expected-in-final-quarter-of-2011#ixzz1qRomv3cz

Statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that gross domestic product (GDP) was down by 0.3 per cent, instead of the originally forecasted 0.2 per cent.

Household spending was not as high as previously thought and the powerhouse services sector did not perform as well as expected.

Despite the confirmed figures, the UK is expected to return to growth during the first three months of this year, thus preventing it from falling back into recession.

Howard Archer, an economist at IHS Global Insight, said that statistics were 'disappointing', however it does not change the fact that the UK economy did see some more encouraging signs throughout 2011.

'Attention is now firmly focused on whether the economy has returned to growth in the first quarter - and, if it has, can it build on this in still difficult conditions?' he added.

Peter Dixon, from Commerzbank, noted that the figures from the ONS will make the starting point for 2012 'that little bit more difficult ... it just makes the hill a little bit steeper in order to reach the Office for Budget Responsibility's 0.8 per cent growth target'.

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/894501-uk-economy-shrank-by-more-than-expected-in-final-quarter-of-2011#ixzz1qRoqEDWx

London 2012 Games get thumbs-up from IOC chief Jacques Rogge Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/olympics/894449-london-2012-games-get-thumbs-up-from-ioc-chief-jacques-rogge#ixzz1qRoaLjST

International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge says he is 'very happy' with preparations for the London 2012 Olympics after his final inspection visit.

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/olympics/894449-london-2012-games-get-thumbs-up-from-ioc-chief-jacques-rogge#ixzz1qRoetJnY

Speaking at Downing, Street after a meeting with Mr Rogge, prime minister David Cameron said the Games would be secure, on budget and on time - and an inspiration for generations to come.

Before their meeting Mr Rogge had already said that London had 'raised the bar on how to deliver a lasting legacy, and set out a blueprint for future host cities to aspire to.

Mr Cameron said the Olympics and Queen's Diamond Jubilee would make summer 2012 'possibly the most exciting of our lifetimes – three months of celebrations of all that’s great about Britain', and having the Games here was 'an honour'.

'We intend to repay that honour by showing why the Games are more relevant than ever today,' he went on.

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/olympics/894449-london-2012-games-get-thumbs-up-from-ioc-chief-jacques-rogge#ixzz1qRohzZKk

 

top up your petrol cans)

John Hall: Motorists are urged not to panic over fears of a tanker drivers' strike, then the PM tells drivers to top up. And a minister says fill the jerry can, but the fire union demands he withdraws the advice over safety concerns.

Sudanese border region sees second day of fighting over oil fields

South Sudan accuses neighbouring Sudan of dropping bombs on area as Ban Ki-moon appeals both countries for calm

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Sudan People's Liberation Army and South Sudan government spokesmen
Sudan People's Liberation Army spokesman Colonel Philip Aguer and South Sudan government spokesman Barnaba Marial Benjamin said South Sudan will not return to war with Khartoum. Photograph: Waakhe Wudy/AFP/Getty Images

South Sudan has accused its neighbour Sudan of waging war against it after a second day of fighting in the oil-rich border region – the worst confrontation since the countries split last year.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, appealed for calm between the antagonists, which fought a long civil war before South Sudan gained independence in July last year. Oil is still the main source of hostility between the countries, which continue to spar over the border demarcation and other unresolved issues.

In a trade of claim and counter-claim, South Sudan alleged that Antonov warplanes dropped at least three bombs near oil fields in the town of Bentiu, Unity state, on Tuesday. "They are hovering and dropping over the northern part of town in the oil fields, the main Unity oil fields," Gideon Gatpan, information minister for Unity, told the Associated Press. Sudan denied any air strikes.

The claim came a day after Sudan and South Sudan forces clashed in the border town of Jau. Each accused the other of starting the fighting.

South Sudan's information minister, Barnaba Marial Benjamin, claimed that, "without any provocation", Sudan bombed Jau before its ground forces and militia fighters moved in. South Sudan repulsed the "invading forces" back to the town of Heglig, Sudan, he added.

After the ominous flare-up on the border, Salva Kiir, the president of South Sudan, told a meeting in the capital, Juba: "It is a war that has been imposed on us again, but it is they [Sudan] who are looking for it," he said.

But Sudanese authorities accused South Sudan of making the first move. Sudanese second vice-president Al-Haj Adam Yousif told state television: "These attacks are the responsibility of the SPLA [South Sudanese military] and the South Sudanese government. The SPLA attacks have targeted our oil and our army."

Sudan alleged that the Darfur-based rebel group Justice and Equality Movement, or JEM, fought alongside the SPLA during Monday's clash.

Mohamed Atta al-Moula, head of Sudan's national security and intelligence services, told journalists in Khartoum: "We hope this will be no full war. We have no intentions beyond liberating our land."

Analysts said the incidents could be the latest move in a long game of political chess. John Ashworth, a church adviser in South Sudan and resident for 29 years, said: "It's too early to say whether this is an irreversible escalation or whether it is just another gambit in the extreme brinkmanship practised by both sides, attempting to improve their position in the on-and-off negotiations about a range of issues affecting both nations."

Asian oil group GNPOC – the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company, a consortium led by China's CNPC – confirmed Tuesday's bombing. Hollywood actor and activist George Clooney has urged the United States to engage China on the issue, noting that China's oil supply has been hit so there is an opportunity to appeal to its economic self-interest.

Ashworth added: "China probably has more influence in Khartoum [Sudan's capital] than it does in Juba. There are plenty of other countries who can help South Sudan develop its oilfields, whereas Khartoum is short of friends to provide military hardware and protect it in the UN security council.

"It would be in China's interest to protect its investment in both Sudan and South Sudan by attempting to moderate Khartoum's military ambitions."

The UN's refugee agency warned that fighting in the Lake Jau border area was endangering Sudanese refugees in the nearby Yida settlement.

"Our concerns are heightened by clashes reported [on Monday] between the national armies of Sudan and South Sudan in Lake Jau and other border areas," UNHCR's chief spokesperson, Melissa Fleming, said in Geneva.

She added that UNHCR was in regular discussion with refugee leaders in the South Sudan settlement of Yida about "the urgent need to relocate in order to avoid civilian casualties among a population that has already endured a great deal of trauma."

The fresh violence prompted Sudan to cancel President Omar al-Bashir's trip to meet President Kiir next week. The leaders had been due to resume negotiations left over from a 2005 peace deal that eventually saw South Sudan secede from Sudan.

South Sudan had given assurances that Bashir would not be detained and handed over to the international criminal court, which has issued a warrant for his arrest.

Yousif said: "The visit of President Bashir was tied to good neighbourly relations. There is no way for this summit to take place now."

But Barnaba Marial Benjamin said South Sudan still expects Bashir to attend the meeting next week. He said the "forces of war" in Khartoum were trying to derail the peace process, but not Bashir himself.

"Our president has said clearly we will not be dragged into a senseless war," he told AP. "We will not be dragged into a conflict with Sudan."

Earlier this year South Sudan stopped pumping oil because it said Sudan, which owns the crucial pipelines, was stealing its oil. Both countries have accused each other of supporting rebel groups on either side of the border, though both deny the allegations.

Turkish PM Erdogan in Tehran for nuclear talks

Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to hold talks with Iranian officials about Syria, and Tehran's nuclear programme

Iranian vice president Mohammad-Reza Rahimi and Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan during a welcome ceremony in Tehran. Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA

Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is in Tehran for talks on the regime's nuclear programme and the Syrian crisis.

Erdogan will hold meetings with senior Iranian officials including the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani, during his two-day visit to the Iranian capital, local agencies report.

Welcoming Erdogan, Iran's foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, said fresh nuclear talks with the world's major powers, including the US, France, Germany, China, Russia and Britain - the group known as P5+1 - were expected to be held on 13 April.

"Istanbul has expressed its readiness to host these talks and is still one of the probable options for hosting these negotiations," Salehi said in quotes carried by the website of the state English-language television, Press TV.

"I personally believe that Istanbul is the better option for hosting the negotiations," he said, adding that the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, had also sought assistance from Turkey in choosing a venue for the talks. "We hope the venue for the talks will be determined within the next few days."

Before his Tehran visit, Erdogan was in South Korea, where he took part in a nuclear security summit and held talks with US president, Barack Obama. There have been unconfirmed reports that Erdogan is carrying a message to Iran from Obama.

At the same time, Saledi said Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general and UN/Arab League envoy, was expected to visit Tehran next week to discuss Syria with Iranian officials, the Irna state news agency reported.

Though they are close allies, Turkey and Iran hold opposite views on Syria. Iran has sided with the Bashar al-Assad regime, backing him publicly on international platforms; Turkey has played host to the Syrian opposition and its refugees, as well as voicing strong criticism of Assad's handling of the crisis.

The Turkish English-language newspaper Today's Zaman, quoted unnamed officials as saying: "Erdogan is expected to press Tehran to accept that regime change is inevitable in Syria and to reverse its steadfast support of President Bashar al-Assad."

According to Today's Zaman, Erdogan will also express concerns over reports of an Iranian transfer of weapons to Syria via Iraqi air space.

"Iraqi authorities have not been fully able to control the country's air space in the aftermath of the US withdrawal. For Ankara, it is unacceptable that Iran sees this as an opportunity to transfer weapons to the Syrian regime," the newspaper reported. Iran has repeatedly denied allegations it has supported the Assad regime militarily.

Detained Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng 'alive and well'

Wife says Gao met family members under strict supervision for the first time since he disappeared two years ago

Gao Zhisheng's case is at the heart of disputes between China and the US over human rights. Photograph: Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP

China's best-known human rights lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, has been visited in prison by his family for the first time since he disappeared nearly two years ago, according to his wife.

The treatment of Gao, whose secretive detention has criticism from the UN's human rights body, is one of the thorniest human rights disputes between China and the US.

Senior Obama administration officials have raised it with Beijing, and the US state department has called on China to release Gao immediately and clarify his whereabouts.

Gao's wife, Geng He, who fled to California with the couple's children, told Reuters Gao met his elder brother, Gao Zhiyi, and her father last Saturday at the Shaya county prison, in the far western region of Xinjiang.

His brother told Geng her husband appeared to be paler than usual, but was in good physical condition, she said. But the supervised visit, which lasted around 30 minutes, gave the younger Gao no chance to say where he had been for the past two years or to talk about his treatment in jail.

Geng said: "I said: 'Brother, why didn't you ask him … where was he staying? Where was he all the years before?' [His] elder brother said: 'My main purpose of the trip is to determine whether he is alive or dead. The police will not allow you to ask so many things.'"

The elder Gaodeclined to comment.

Geng said the younger Gao had wept after he asked about his father-in-law's health, and told his elder brother: "As I'm in such a state, I can't take care of all of you, so please take care of yourselves."

A combative rights advocate who tackled many causes opposed by the ruling Communist party, Gao was sentenced in 2006 to three years in jail for "inciting subversion of state power", a charge often used to punish critics of one-party rule.

He was put on probation for five years, formally sparing him from serving the prison sentence, but his family was kept under constant surveillance and he was sporadically taken into custody during that period.

Last December, state media reported that Gao was back in jail, in what was the first official account of his whereabouts in the last year.

Geng, who has not seen her husband since January 2009, said she had hired two lawyers to appeal against his punishment, and they could start the process in May.

Gao was taken from a relative's home in Shaanxi province in northern China in February 2009. He resurfaced briefly, making contact with friends and foreign reporters in April 2010.

India cracks down on Tibetan protests during Chinese leader's visit

Tibetan exile who set himself on fire dies as Hu Jintao arrives for summit

A Tibetan exile is detained by police during a protest in Delhi against the visit of the Chinese president, Hu Jintao. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters

A Tibetan exile who set himself on fire in Delhi earlier this week has died, as Indian police and paramilitaries launch a security crackdown to prevent further protests or self-immolations during the visit of the Chinese premier, Hu Jintao.

Jamphel Yeshi, 27, suffered 90% burns after dousing himself with petrol during a protest on Monday, and authorities fear that more Tibetans will follow suit to protest at Chinese policies in their homeland. About 30 Tibetans have died and another dozen have been seriously injured in the past 13 months in similar protests, mainly inside China.

"Martyr Jamphel Yeshi's sacrifice will be written in golden letters in the annals of our freedom struggle," Dhondup Lhadar, an activist with the Tibetan Youth Congress, told the Associated Press. "He will live on to inspire and encourage the future generations of Tibetans."

Hu arrives in Delhi for a two-day summit of emerging nations, along with leaders from Brazil, Russia and South Africa.

Dharmendra Kumar, a senior police official, cited "international security concerns" to justify a ban on protests and press conferences by Tibetan activists in Delhi. "The law and order shouldn't deteriorate in the capital during the Brics summit," Kumar told the Hindustan Times.

Hundreds of armed security personnel patrolled areas of the Indian capital where Tibetans live on Wednesday, erecting barricades and refusing to let young people leave, but police spokesmen denied that thousands of Tibetans were under effective "house arrest".

Rajan Bhagat of the Delhi police said: "There is no confinement. We are just keeping watch to make sure they are not coming into [the area] where the summit is happening."

Students of Tibetan origin have been confined to halls of residence and barred from meeting the media. Tenzin Kalsang, 18, said the police were escorting students at her hostel to and from classes. "When some students tried to protest .… then the police visited each hostel room and told us: 'If you do not listen, then we will put you in jail,'" she said.

Tempa, a travel agent in the area, said: "If we go out, then the police ask us to go inside our house." The usually bustling district, where tens of thousands Tibetan exiles live, was quiet.

India offered a haven to the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, when he fled after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. Since then the Tibetan population in India has grown to an estimated 100,000.

Tenzin Jigdal, an activist in Delhi, said: "I was born in India and feel really privileged to live in a free country. This is where the non-violent Tibetan movement was nurtured and inspired by the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi. It pains me that a freedom-loving democratic country like India bows down to China."

A well-known Tibetan writer, Tenzin Tsundue, was arrested by policemen in plain clothes during a tea break at a seminar on Tibet and India on Tuesday. Delhi police officials told the Times of India newspaper that Tsundue had been arrested due to his "notorious activities" in the southern city of Bangalore, where he had publicly protested during a previous visit by the Chinese premier.

Elsewhere, students of Tibetan origin were reported to be confined to halls of residence and barred from meeting media.

Indian authorities have repeatedly been criticised for failing to protect free speech in recent months. In January, protests by hardline local Muslim groups forced the author Salman Rushdie to cancel an appearance at a major literary festival.

Chinese relations with India are variable. The two emerging economic powers have extensive trade links and top Indian officials frequently visit Beijing, but India is concerned about growing Chinese military might. There is also tension over unresolved border disputes and Chinese support for India's hostile neighbour, Pakistan.

Many Indian analysts accept their country is unlikely to make good the economic and developmental gulf that separates the two regional rivals, but say that India's "soft power" and "cultural influence" is an advantage.

Beijing blames the Dalai Lama, who is based in the Indian hill town of Dharamasala, for fomenting unrest among the Tibetan population in China.

Monday's was the second self-immolation in India in recent months. Late last year, Sherab Tsedor, a young Tibetan exile, set himself on fire outside the Chinese embassy, suffering minor burns.

Tsedor said on Tuesday that he still supported self-immolation. "This is very important. World leaders and the United Nations still are not paying attention to us," he said. "They are always talking about human rights all over the world but when it comes to China or Tibet then they are silent."

Sudanese border region sees second day of fighting over oil fields

South Sudan accuses neighbouring Sudan of dropping bombs on area as Ban Ki-moon appeals both countries for calm

Sudan People's Liberation Army spokesman Colonel Philip Aguer and South Sudan government spokesman Barnaba Marial Benjamin said South Sudan will not return to war with Khartoum. Photograph: Waakhe Wudy/AFP/Getty Images

South Sudan has accused its neighbour Sudan of waging war against it after a second day of fighting in the oil-rich border region – the worst confrontation since the countries split last year.

Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, appealed for calm between the antagonists, which fought a long civil war before South Sudan gained independence in July last year. Oil is still the main source of hostility between the countries, which continue to spar over the border demarcation and other unresolved issues.

In a trade of claim and counter-claim, South Sudan alleged that Antonov warplanes dropped at least three bombs near oil fields in the town of Bentiu, Unity state, on Tuesday. "They are hovering and dropping over the northern part of town in the oil fields, the main Unity oil fields," Gideon Gatpan, information minister for Unity, told the Associated Press. Sudan denied any air strikes.

The claim came a day after Sudan and South Sudan forces clashed in the border town of Jau. Each accused the other of starting the fighting.

South Sudan's information minister, Barnaba Marial Benjamin, claimed that, "without any provocation", Sudan bombed Jau before its ground forces and militia fighters moved in. South Sudan repulsed the "invading forces" back to the town of Heglig, Sudan, he added.

After the ominous flare-up on the border, Salva Kiir, the president of South Sudan, told a meeting in the capital, Juba: "It is a war that has been imposed on us again, but it is they [Sudan] who are looking for it," he said.

But Sudanese authorities accused South Sudan of making the first move. Sudanese second vice-president Al-Haj Adam Yousif told state television: "These attacks are the responsibility of the SPLA [South Sudanese military] and the South Sudanese government. The SPLA attacks have targeted our oil and our army."

Sudan alleged that the Darfur-based rebel group Justice and Equality Movement, or JEM, fought alongside the SPLA during Monday's clash.

Mohamed Atta al-Moula, head of Sudan's national security and intelligence services, told journalists in Khartoum: "We hope this will be no full war. We have no intentions beyond liberating our land."

Analysts said the incidents could be the latest move in a long game of political chess. John Ashworth, a church adviser in South Sudan and resident for 29 years, said: "It's too early to say whether this is an irreversible escalation or whether it is just another gambit in the extreme brinkmanship practised by both sides, attempting to improve their position in the on-and-off negotiations about a range of issues affecting both nations."

Asian oil group GNPOC – the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company, a consortium led by China's CNPC – confirmed Tuesday's bombing. Hollywood actor and activist George Clooney has urged the United States to engage China on the issue, noting that China's oil supply has been hit so there is an opportunity to appeal to its economic self-interest.

Ashworth added: "China probably has more influence in Khartoum [Sudan's capital] than it does in Juba. There are plenty of other countries who can help South Sudan develop its oilfields, whereas Khartoum is short of friends to provide military hardware and protect it in the UN security council.

"It would be in China's interest to protect its investment in both Sudan and South Sudan by attempting to moderate Khartoum's military ambitions."

The UN's refugee agency warned that fighting in the Lake Jau border area was endangering Sudanese refugees in the nearby Yida settlement.

"Our concerns are heightened by clashes reported [on Monday] between the national armies of Sudan and South Sudan in Lake Jau and other border areas," UNHCR's chief spokesperson, Melissa Fleming, said in Geneva.

She added that UNHCR was in regular discussion with refugee leaders in the South Sudan settlement of Yida about "the urgent need to relocate in order to avoid civilian casualties among a population that has already endured a great deal of trauma."

The fresh violence prompted Sudan to cancel President Omar al-Bashir's trip to meet President Kiir next week. The leaders had been due to resume negotiations left over from a 2005 peace deal that eventually saw South Sudan secede from Sudan.

South Sudan had given assurances that Bashir would not be detained and handed over to the international criminal court, which has issued a warrant for his arrest.

Yousif said: "The visit of President Bashir was tied to good neighbourly relations. There is no way for this summit to take place now."

But Barnaba Marial Benjamin said South Sudan still expects Bashir to attend the meeting next week. He said the "forces of war" in Khartoum were trying to derail the peace process, but not Bashir himself.

"Our president has said clearly we will not be dragged into a senseless war," he told AP. "We will not be dragged into a conflict with Sudan."

Earlier this year South Sudan stopped pumping oil because it said Sudan, which owns the crucial pipelines, was stealing its oil. Both countries have accused each other of supporting rebel groups on either side of the border, though both deny the allegations.

Boom time for Mozambique, once the basket case of Africa

As African lions outpace Asian tigers, one of the world's poorest states is moving from civil war bust to boom – but who will gain?

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      David Smith in Maputo
    * The Guardian, Wednesday 28 March 2012
    * Article history

A Mozambican gold miner prepares to climb down into a mine shaft in Manica province
A Mozambican gold miner in Manica province. The wealth of resources in the southern African country could herald a new era for a people still recovering from 15 years of civil war. Photograph: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters

The shells of stylish colonial-era buildings, like shipwrecks on the ocean floor, still give Maputo a distinct character. But the capital of Mozambique no longer feels like an urban museum. Amid the crumbling grandeur rumble cranes and mechanical diggers, carving out a different skyline.

A construction boom is under way here, concrete proof of the economic revolution in Mozambique. Growth hit 7.1% last year, accelerating to 8.1% in the final quarter. The country, riven by civil war for 15 years, is poised to become the world's biggest coal exporter within the next decade, while the recent discovery of two massive gas fields in its waters has turned the region into an energy hotspot, promising a £250bn bonanza.

The national currency was the best performing in the world against the dollar. Investment is pouring in on an unprecedented scale; as if to prove that history has a sense of irony, Portuguese feeling Europe's economic pain are flocking back to the former colony, scenting better prospects than at home. Increasingly this is the rule, not the exception in Africa, which has boasted six of the world's 10 fastest-growing economies in the past decade. The first oil discovery in Kenya was confirmed on Monday, while the British firm BG Group announced that one of its gas fields off the Tanzanian coast was bigger than expected and could lead to billions of pounds of investment. Bankers, analysts and politicians have never been so bullish about the continent, which barely 10 years ago was regarded as a basket case.

From Cape Town to Cairo, there are signs of a continent on the move: giant infrastructure projects, an expanding middle class, foreign equity scrambling for opportunities in telecoms, financial services and products aimed at a billion consumers. Growth is no magic bullet for reducing inequality or fostering democracy, but the stubborn truth that it is still the world's poorest continent has done little to dull the confidence and hype about the African renaissance.

Africa has 16 billionaires, topped by Nigerian cement tycoon Aliko Dangote with an estimated fortune of $10.1bn (£6.5bn), according to Forbes magazine. Economic growth across the continent will be 5.3% this year and 5.6% in 2013, the World Bank predicts, with some countries hitting double digits. "Africa could be on the brink of an economic take-off, much like China was 30 years ago and India 20 years ago," the bank says. Many of the African lions are already outpacing the Asian tigers.

Africa exports its natural resources with the price and demand for them determined by growth in China, whose bilateral trade with Africa has grown tenfold in a decade, eclipsing that of the United States.

In return, Chinese loans are funding many of the infrastructure projects changing the face of the continent.

There are an estimated 1 million Chinese in Africa: trading, investing, building, labouring, running micro-businesses and, critics say, exploiting its wealth of natural resources.

On a recent afternoon at the Southern Sun hotel in Maputo, overlooking the Indian Ocean, the arrival of a delegation of Chinese businessmen in smart suits surprised no one. Mozambique is now an immensely attractive prospect as it emerges from a traumatic past of colonialism and civil war.

When the Portuguese pulled out hastily in the mid-1970s, they did so with spite, sabotaging vehicles and pouring concrete down wells, lift shafts and toilets, leaving the country in disarray. The civil war claimed about a million lives. Devastated by famine and economic mismanagement, it was only in 1994 that the first democratic election paved the way for a long, hard recovery.

Today there is a growing middle class, as seen in the opening of shopping centres and, in 2010, a private hospital offering the country's first cosmetic surgery. And now Mozambique's long-untapped energy resources are coming into play. The remote Tete province boasts possibly the last big coking coal mine in the world. The giant Brazilian mining firm Vale, which began shipping from there last September, is spending billions on operations including a coal terminal and railways. It aims to double capacity from 11m tonnes a year to 22m by 2014.
Jackpot

But it is the recent discovery of a gas field off the northern coast that is already being described as a "jackpot" with the potential to transform this impoverished, donor-dependent country's fortunes – and which has turned east Africa into the most exciting prime target for energy multinationals.

Last year the US oil group Anadarko found an estimated 850bn cubic metres of natural gas in Rovuma basin – more than three times the reserves left in the North Sea. The Italian energy group ENI also made two big discoveries nearby.

Mozambique's time has come partly thanks to location: Asia, especially energy-hungry India, is eager to acquire liquefied natural gas. The discovery triggered a bidding war for the London-listed Cove Energy, which has an 8.5% stake in the Rovuma gas field.

There is competition from Shell and the Thai state-owned PTT Exploration, while two Indian firms are also considering offers.

"Economically this will be of huge benefit [to east Africa]," John Craven, Cove's chief executive, told the Sunday Times last year. "For the economy of Mozambique, this is a huge project. They will have the ability to transform their country if they play their cards right."

Shell, BP and Total are also reportedly vying to acquire a 20% stake in Eni's gas field. Local analysts estimate that the gas could bring Mozambique revenue of $200bn to $400bn over 40 years. This would be a huge windfall in a country where, despite the impressive recent growth, GDP stands at a modest $1,100 a head and government spending at $6bn.

And where there is gas, there is usually lucrative oil. Mateus Zimba, country manager for the South African energy company Sasol, said: "Looking at the size of the gas in place, I think this country can't be the same any more. This has to change the nature of what Mozambique does. I'm looking at it as a Mozambican and saying we will be a world player.

"I hope coal and gas will give us enough independence to take control of our own destiny, and looking at foreign investment rather than foreign donations. I can only hope we are on the right track to avoid polarisation in this country, because that is the biggest issue we face."

The lack of wealth trickling down has cast a shadow over Africa's success stories. This is the case in Mozambique, which ranks fourth from bottom of the UN's human development index behind the likes of Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Liberia. About 54% of people remain poor, according to a 2008-09 survey, and poverty reduction has slowed down. This is despite anti-poverty government budgets that allocate a fifth of spending to education.

Will coal and gas change anything? Africa's history is littered with broken promises of spectacular finds that enrich greedy despots and giant corporations but leave the people worse off than ever. The so-called "resource curse" is a constant threat, although today's governments and campaigners alike are more alive to it. Shell admits that Mozambique offers a chance to rehabilitate its image after the PR debacle of its oil business in Nigeria.

Gabriel Fossati-Bellani, an Italian-born entrepreneur whose ventures provide services for the energy industry, is optimistic. "It's a huge jackpot of gas," he said. "Mozambique has tremendous potential through this opportunity and is already showing it wants to take the right approach to equitable distribution of wealth. The local business environment is ready for a larger participation in the profits of the sector."

"I would bet not only on short-term business growth in Mozambique but the long term, including a business-minded government trying to deliver equity."

He believes the country can steadily replace dependency on foreign aid with its burgeoning private sector. "The hype is real. It's going to happen. The country is in the middle of its logarithmic curve of compounded growth," he said.

"People are expecting a lot from Mozambique – and they should. Business is growing, the middle class is growing, the level of professionalism and service delivery has gone up in leaps and bounds. Maputo is a metropolis now. It functions like a city should in this day and age."

That means new shopping centres and hotels struggling to keep up with demand, restaurants where pre-booking is now a must and lengthening traffic jams of expensive cars. Almost every week brings a fresh business delegation from countries such as Australia, Brazil, Britain, India, Norway, Turkey and China, which is making its mark here as in the rest of Africa.

Most ambitious of all is a planned $1bn waterside complex in Maputo with 300,000 square metres of office, residential, retail and hotel buildings, which is expected to take 15 years to construct. José Pinheiro, chief executive of property developers CR Holdings, said: "It will be a new rebirth of the city. It is probably the most important development since the beginning of the 20th century.

"I came here from Portugal in 1997 and the differences are huge. Back then, a director in the government probably had a salary of about $400-$500; now it's $2,000-$3,000. The development in the social tissue of the country is amazing. There is still a long road but it has evolved really well."

He added: "You see more investment coming from the UK, Germany, Spain.

There is growing awareness that the road to development is in Africa. They understand the same thing that China did 10 years ago. They want to be on the same road."

Alongside its other projects in Mozambique, CR Holdings is spending $50m to build a hotel, housing and Portuguese-designed shopping centre in Tete, a hot and isolated town dubbed "the new Johannesburg" because of the coal rush expected to attract 3,000 foreign workers. But this phenomenon is also raising grave concerns over local price inflation and its effects on the poor, including malnourished children.
Expats

"Natural resources have positive and negative impacts," Pinheiro conceded. "Rentals are suffering from coal mines bringing expats to the city. But it's also driving the building of new housing. It will bring investment and income to the country and benefit small companies. For example, a catering company in Maputo got work in Tete, producing 14,000 meals a day."

The role of donors, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund should help insulate the Mozambican economy against the most pernicious effects of the resource curse, Pinheiro believes. But it will require patience and planning – accessing the gas will take the best part of a decade, and require tens of billions of dollars of investment.

Even then, some remain sceptical of what it will mean for Mozambique's 23 million people. They question whether the government will direct enough of its new revenue towards infrastructure, which is still sorely lacking, and improving agricultural productivity – the biggest single tool for reducing poverty.

Erik Charas, director of @Verdade (the Truth), Mozambique's biggest circulation newspaper, warned: "There is a lack of transparency in these deals. They're making deals for generations to come and I have no idea about them. The lack of transparency is a major flaw.

"The people in power are negotiating on their own behalf. We might end up with 50 billionaires who own private planes and the rest of the population impoverished. That is our biggest fear."

"Coal and gas have the potential to trickle down," he added. "There is enough time for things to be done right. The government should prioritise the people instead of impoverishing the communities where these things sit.

"The potential is there and it's not messed up yet. The country is definitely wealthy. We have no right to complain because we have this opportunity. But if we don't do it right, we could be poorer than we are now."

Adrian Frey, director of an estate agency, Pam Golding Properties Mozambique, summed up the mixed mood: "Gas changes everything. It changes our thinking. The investment expected in the next 10 years is $30bn. There is a huge demand for building and water and restaurants and banking facilities. We are on the right track and everything is getting better."

France considers releasing oil reserves to stem soaring fuel prices

French energy minister says his country is willing to support US and UK action over release of strategic fuel stocks

France is considering releasing its oil reserves to stem soaring fuel prices amid fears of a strike by tanker drivers. Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

Motorists squeezed by rising petrol prices and a threatened tanker drivers' strike have been offered hope by the French government, which is considering joining Britain and the US in a co-ordinated release of emergency fuel stocks to counter soaring oil costs.

Economists are concerned that resurgent crude prices will choke global economic growth, and France's energy minister, éric Besson, said his country was willing to back the US and UK in joint action over their strategic fuel reserves.

"It is the US which has asked and France has welcomed favourably this hypothesis," he said, speaking after wholesale petrol prices reached a new high in Europe this week of $1,210 per metric tonne.

Besson added that the countries were awaiting advice from the International Energy Agency (IEA), which co-ordinates emergency stock releases in case of severe disruption to oil supplies. Le Monde, the French daily newspaper, reported that a release could happen in "a matter of weeks" amid fears over an attack on Iran and the economic threat posed by an oil price that has hovered above $120 per barrel since late February.

The AA welcomed the admission. Edmund King, president of the motoring organisation, said: "With record prices at the pumps for both diesel and unleaded, any proposals to bring down prices would be welcomed by drivers as well as economies of these countries. Putting more dollars, euros and pounds into the pumps means less money for those economies."

Domestic petrol prices have risen 6% over the past year to 140.70p for a litre of unleaded, with diesel prices rising 5.4% to 139.42p.

The French budget minister, Valérie Pécresse, added that France had joined the US and UK in consulting with the IEA over drawing down on strategic stocks.

A spokesperson for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) said: "The UK and other IEA members routinely discuss oil market issues and are monitoring developments carefully, but no decisions have been taken to release stocks."

Decc said IEA members were obliged to hold 90 days-worth of its oil needs in reserve. However, as an oil producing nation the UK is only obliged to hold 67.5 days-worth of stocks, which are largely distributed among supplier depots.

Rising oil prices have become a political issue in the US and France, with presidential elections taking place in both countries this year.

With a month to go before France's presidential election, record oil prices have emerged as a major talking point.

In the US, Barack Obama has hit back at Republican suggestions that his policies have contributed to rising petrol prices. Earlier this month the he mocked US presidential candidates for suggesting an oil drilling spree would bring down prices. "We're drilling all over this country. I guess there's some empty spots where we're not drilling. We're not at the national mall. We're not drilling at your house," the US president said.