Gaza's deadly power shortage

Belgium's Flemish separatists make big election gains

Bart De Wever's ultimate aim is Flemish independence

Belgium's Flemish separatist party, the New Flemish Alliance (NVA), has emerged as the largest force in parliament, with coalition talks set to start.

The NVA, whose ultimate aim is independence for Flanders, Belgium's northern half, took 27 of 150 seats.

The Socialists from the southern half, Wallonia, came second.

Correspondents say lengthy coalition talks could undermine efforts to control Belgium's debt and overshadow its upcoming EU presidency.

Belgium's King Albert was expected to start consulting party leaders on Monday, on the prospects for forming a new government.

Desire for change

Some analysts believe the next coalition will take in as many as eight parties, the BBC's Dominic Hughes in Brussels reports.

Such a coalition might force the NVA leader Bart De Wever to tone down his nationalist rhetoric.

BELGIUM: A HOUSE DIVIDED

Continue reading the main story

• Made up of Wallonia and Flanders (and a small German-speaking community in eastern Belgium)
• 4 million French speakers in Wallonia
• 6.5 million Dutch speakers in Flanders
• 7.7 million voters
• Political debate dominated by linguistic disputes
• Debt-to-GDP ratio expected to exceed 100% within next 12 months

Language row looms over election

His supporters chanted: "Long Live a Free Flanders" as the result became clear on Sunday night.

Support for his party surged, increasing its representation in the lower house of parliament by 19 seats, according to near-complete results.

However, the Socialist party from French-speaking Wallonia also gained seats - giving it an expected total of 26. Combined with the Socialists from Dutch-speaking Flanders, it would form the largest bloc in parliament.

The party's leader, Elio Di Rupo, could therefore become the first French-speaking prime minister since 1974.

Mr De Wever said he would be prepared to back a Walloon as prime minister if that would bring more powers to Flanders.

"You don't have to like each other to work together," he said.

Mr Di Rupo acknowledged that the Flemish majority had "manifestly" voted for "institutional change".

The result is a significant loss for Premier Yves Leterme's coalition of Christian Democrats, Liberals and Socialists.

His government collapsed in April over a long-standing dispute about voting rights in municipalities around Brussels, and the election was brought forward by one year.

Separate lives

Much of public and political life in Belgium is dominated by bitter debates around language and the allocation of public resources.

Government aid to poorer Wallonia, home to four million French speakers, has caused resentment among Belgium's 6.5 million Flemish majority, correspondents say.

Until now separatist parties have been on the fringes of political debate.

But Mr De Wever, 39, has pushed his party into the mainstream over the last three years while the other parties have been locked in a political stalemate.

The country also faces economic problems, and some analysts say that Belgium cannot afford a long period of uncertainty.

During the last three years the national debt has grown to unmanageable proportions.

The country's ratio of debt to gross domestic product is behind only Greece and Italy in the eurozone, analysts say.

Belgium is also taking on the six-month presidency in the European Union in July.

Normally the EU presidency gives a country a higher international profile. But it may have come along at just the wrong time for Belgium if coalition talks drag on, our correspondent says.

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President Chavez's socialist world vision

President Chavez believes only democratic socialism can save the world

By Stephen Sackur Presenter, BBC HARDtalk

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez intends to inject new urgency into his socialist and anti-imperialist revolution, claiming "capitalism is destroying the world".

In a combative 60-minute interview with the BBC HARDtalk programme in the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas, Mr Chavez blamed Venezuela's deepening recession on the irresponsible economic policies of the United States.

He also expressed disappointment with President Barack Obama's "very negative signals" towards Latin America.

"In Colombia (the Americans) are building seven military bases; that is one of the very negative signals that Obama sent just after taking office," Mr Chavez said.

"Bush decided to reactivate the US Fourth Fleet to operate in Latin America. Obama, instead of suspending or getting rid of the Fourth Fleet has seven military bases planned in Colombia. What for? Is it to go to war, to dominate the Latin American continent?"

Colombia has signed a deal to give the US military access to seven Colombian bases with the aim to combat drug trafficking and rebels.

It caused alarm among some of Colombia's neighbours, including Venezuela, who object to an increased US military presence.

"I wish Obama would focus on governing the United States and would forget his country's imperialist pretensions," Mr Chavez said.

While there was no repeat of the insults he hurled at George W Bush, such as "donkey," "devil" and "terrorist", President Chavez indicated that the high-profile handshake he and Obama shared at an Americas summit last year had not resolved fundamental differences.

Red carpet

The 55-year-old Venezuelan president rarely grants extended interviews to the Western media. This one was arranged to coincide with the premiere in Caracas of a new documentary by Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone.

The film, South of the Border, portrays Latin America being transformed by Leftist radicalism.

The leaders of Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador all get walk-on parts, but it is to Mr Chavez that Stone gives the starring role.

The director and the president shared a limousine to the red carpet launch of the film in Caracas's national theatre.

President Chavez is a key figure in Oliver Stone's film South of the Border

"What's been going on in Venezuela for the last 10 years is amazing - a piece of history. The least I can do is introduce this man and this movement to the American people," said Stone, with a beaming Chavez by his side.

Whether many Venezuelans will ever see South of the Border remains unclear.

The premiere was full of Socialist party bigwigs and activists who hooted with delight as their president was seen lambasting Bush, beating off a coup attempt in 2002 and generally adopting the mantle of a 21st Century Castro.

But no amount of support from the American filmmaker can disguise a simple truth; domestic support for President Chavez's "Bolivarian" socialism (named in homage to Latin America's 19th Century liberator Simon Bolivar) is being sorely tested by a second consecutive year of economic recession.

Venezuela possesses the biggest reserves of oil outside the Middle East and supplies more than one-tenth of US oil imports, but still the economy has woefully underperformed against others in Latin America in the last two years.

Inflation has leapt to 30% and seems likely to rise further. The Venezuelan currency has been devalued and is still sinking amongst Caracas's black market money changers.

'Road to hell'

In the capital's sprawling hillside neighbourhoods, jobs are scarce and Mr Chavez's Socialist party is looking electorally vulnerable just three months before National Assembly elections.

Chavez: US 'military imperialism' in Latin America

In his HARDtalk interview, the president blamed his country's economic woes squarely on America's "rampant, irresponsible capitalism" which was taking the world "on the road to hell".

"In England and in Europe you should know this," Mr Chavez went on. "'You have more problems than we do."

He quoted a stream of economic statistics to illustrate his claim that 11 years of socialism had "begun to redress the balance between a very rich Venezuelan minority and a very poor majority."

He said unemployment had been halved, extreme poverty was down from 25% to just 5%.

Domestic critics of Mr Chavez's nationalisation programme - which has turned the oil, power and agriculture sectors into vast state bureaucracies - accuse him of creating a "Bolivarian bourgeoisie" of corrupt officials and cronies.

But Mr Chavez emphasised he intended to go further with his socialist model.

Privately owned enterprises are now being expropriated with increasing frequency - a recent controversial example involved the French-owned Exito supermarket chain after allegations of profiteering and currency manipulation.

"Eleven years ago I was quite gullible," the president said. "I even believed in a 'third way'. I thought it was possible to put a human face on capitalism. But I was wrong.

"The only way to save the world is through socialism, but a socialism that exists within a democracy. There's no dictatorship here."

Angry exchanges

Mr Chavez became visibly agitated when faced with a set of specific questions about his government's respect for the independence of the judiciary, the freedom of the press and the rights of political opponents.

Baduel has become a rallying point for Venezuela's opposition

He was asked about the imprisonment of one of his fiercest critics, former defence minister Raul Baduel, and the pending charges filed against former opposition candidate Oswaldo Alvarez Paz.

The Venezuelan president responded: "You don't know what you're saying. Wow, does the BBC in London defend corruption. You are being used. You really don't know what you're saying."

As the tension in the presidential palace rose, Oliver Stone who was seated in a corner listening intently to the exchanges - along with a host of presidential aides and one of the president's daughters - gestured to the president with both hands.

The message was easy to read: Calm down.

Venezuelans are used to seeing an angry president. Last week he went on television to vent his fury on a judge who ruled that a wealthy businessman should be freed from detention after three years of imprisonment without trial.

Mr Chavez accused the judge, Maria Afiuni, of behaving worse than an assassin and he demanded that she be jailed for 30 years. Judge Afiuni is now in prison facing corruption charges.

'Axis of unity'

It is not President Chavez's domestic record that most concerns Western governments, it's his determination to create an "axis of unity" with countries he sees as fellow strugglers against American and Western imperialism.

He lists the leaders of China, Russia, Syria and Belarus as "good friends", along with President Ahmedinejad of Iran.

I am not Obama's enemy but it's difficult not to see imperialism in Washington. Those who don't see it, don't want to see it President Chavez

In the last three years Tehran and Caracas have strengthened military and intelligence cooperation while deepening their trade ties, and Mr Chavez responded indignantly to the latest round of UN sanctions on Tehran.

"Venezuela is a free country and we will not be blackmailed by anyone," he said.

"We will not accept being told what to do over Iran, we will not accept being anyone's colony".

But he categorically denied claims frequently aired in the US that Venezuela is supplying Iran with uranium.

His disappointment with Barack Obama was expressed in highly personal terms.

"I shook Obama's hand and I said, 'I want to be your friend'. My hand is still outstretched.

"I am not Obama's enemy but it's difficult not to see imperialism in Washington. Those who don't see it, don't want to see it, like the ostrich."

The Venezuelan President did have a dialogue with the last Democrat in the White House, and that memory seems to have sharpened his disillusion with Obama.

"I said to Hillary Clinton in front of President Obama, 'I wish I could enjoy the same relationship with a US president that I had when your husband was in power.'"

President Chavez refused to say whether he would seek another term in elections scheduled for 2012. Though few doubt that he will, having pushed through the abolition of term-limits in a hard-fought referendum.

"Fidel has spent his whole life on his (revolution)," Chavez reflected. "Whatever life I have left I will dedicate to this peaceful democratic revolution in Venezuela."

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The nine lives of ID cards

A POINT OF VIEW

National identity cards are dead, but history shows it's an idea that keeps getting resurrected, says David Cannadine in his Point of View column.

Just over a week ago, the Identity Documents Bill received its second reading in the House of Commons, and it should become law by the end of the summer. Its aim, which is consistent with the pledges previously made by both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, is to repeal the Identity Cards Act which the Labour government passed in 2006.

Anti-ID card protesters got their wish

The purpose of this earlier legislation had been essentially two-fold: to make provision for a national identity card scheme, which would be implemented in stages by 2012, and to establish a database known as the National Identity Register, which would hold unprecedented quantities of information about all of us. Much concern was expressed at the time by human rights lawyers, security professionals and IT experts, and one of the reasons given by the coalition for repealing the 2006 Act is that it will help "reverse the substantial erosion of civil liberties and roll back state intrusion".

In addition, the new government has claimed that the scrapping of the scheme will save about £86 million during the next four years.

FIND OUT MORE... A Point of View, with David Cannadine, is on Fridays on Radio 4 at 2050 BST and repeated Sundays, 0850 BST Or listen to it on the iPlayer later

Identity card schemes have been introduced into this country twice before, only to be scrapped soon after amidst widespread public rejoicing and relief. They were initially brought in during World War I, as a way of increasing domestic security at a time of unprecedented national emergency; but they were generally regarded as a threat to civil liberties rather than a safeguard, and abandoned when the war ended.

They were introduced again in 1939, for essentially the same reason, and were met with an equally unenthusiastic public response. But despite these familiar objections, the Labour government of Clement Attlee decided to continue the scheme, in the face of the Cold War and the perceived Soviet threat, so it was not until 1952 that identity cards were abolished a second time. This was partly because the Conservative government of Winston Churchill was determined to "set the people free". But then, as now, it was also on account of the cost.

Many of the arguments that have recently been deployed against identity cards were used in earlier times against passports, which have often been seen, and have sometimes been intended, as identity cards under another name.

Passports have gone hi-tech...

The first reference to something anticipating the modern-day passport is in the Old Testament, in which Nehemiah bore a letter from his master, the King of Persia, addressed "to governors of the province beyond the river", asking them to afford the bearer safe passage.

This kind of document is also mentioned in Shakespeare's Henry V, where the king, on the eve of the Battle of Agincourt, declares to his followers: "He that hath no stomach for this fight, let him depart; his passport shall be made."

But neither of these papers linked individual identity with national identity as modern passports do. They were essentially letters of safe conduct, which King Henry may well have pioneered in England. Such documents were customarily written in Latin and in English, but in 1772, the government adopted the international language of diplomacy, namely French, and this remained the practice even when the British were fighting Napoleon.

When in France...

The history of the modern passport effectively begins during the decades following the defeat of France in 1815.

... and even pets have them

For many of the Continental monarchies that were restored following the downfall of Napoleon, passports were primarily a means of domestic surveillance, which enabled the authorities to keep track of people who might be a threat to the established order. For most Britons, by contrast, the possession of a passport was a sign that they were free to leave their native land to travel anywhere in the world; and it was also evidence that they were people of standing, for British passports could only be obtained if you knew the Foreign Secretary personally, or if you knew someone else who did.

But it did not have to be a British passport: if, for example, you wanted to travel to France, it made better sense to get a French passport from the French embassy in London, and this was something it was quite easy to do.

At this stage, then, there was no necessary link which a passport established between personal identity and national identity, and as a result, the system could be easily abused. This happened most famously in 1858, when an Italian revolutionary named Count Felice Orsini travelled to Paris on a British passport in the name of one Thomas Allsop, and tried to assassinate the Emperor Napoleon III.

Would-be assassin Count Felice Orsini

The attempt was unsuccessful, and Orsini was subsequently caught, tried and hanged; but the story didn't end there. There was a huge diplomatic row between Britain and France, as a result of which the British government, led by Lord Palmerston, was brought down by a hostile vote in parliament. More lastingly, the whole system of granting passports was tightened up, so as to establish a much closer connection between the individual and the nation. In future, British passports would only be given to British nationals, and they were issued in English as well as in French.

But this didn't result in the widespread proliferation of passports, for during the closing decades of the 19th Century, and in the years before 1914, they virtually went out of use, not only in Britain, but also in much of Europe.

As railways spread over the continent, and as more people than ever travelled across national boundaries, it seemed impossible to cope with the increased demands of issuing and checking passports. The result was that in 1861, only three years after the row with Britain on this very subject, France abolished passports, and many other nations soon followed suit. By the early 1900s, the only two major European powers which insisted on passports for their own nationals travelling overseas, and for visitors from abroad, were Russia and the Ottoman Empire. Both were then regarded as deeply reactionary regimes, more Asiatic than European, and the fact that they also insisted on passports was no coincidence.

Spies like us

WWI changed all that, as passports became compulsory virtually everywhere, as a means whereby the belligerent powers sought to keep out foreign spies and also to prevent the emigration of their own citizens with valuable skills. The Nationality and Status of Aliens Act, passed in 1914, established the first recognisably modern British passport as a single page, folded into eight, with a cardboard cover, and a photograph of the bearer.

Churchill's wartime passport

In 1920, under the auspices of the newly-established League of Nations, the format of the passport was internationally standardised, and the British version was expanded into the 32-page document known as Old Blue. The matter was discussed again by the League in 1926, when the British passport was acclaimed as "perfection itself": the personal details were handwritten, the bearer's name and the passport number appeared on the front cover, and it was this design which endured, essentially unaltered, until 1988.

Yet during the early decades of its existence, the old blue British passport was resented rather than esteemed.

Indeed, it was none other than Ernest Bevin, the Foreign Secretary in the post-war Labour Government, who once opined that his ambition was to be able to travel from Victoria Station, to any destination in the world, without any passport whatever.

In 1949, which was during Bevin's tenure of office, this view was echoed in a classic Ealing Comedy, entitled Passport to Pimlico, starring Stanley Holloway and Margaret Rutherford. The film is a protest against excessive government interference in the lives of ordinary people, as Pimlico successfully asserts its claim to be part of the ancient Duchy of Burgundy, declares itself independent of Britain, abolishes rationing and other bureaucratic restrictions, and establishes its own frontiers and passport checkpoints.

The Ealing comedy Passport to Pimlico

By then, the chances of abolishing the British passport had disappeared, and subsequent changes in its format have been driven by growing concerns about security, and also by the trend towards increased European integration.

Watermarked paper was introduced in 1972, laminating over the photograph in 1975, and overprinting in 1981. Seven years later, the old blue British passports were replaced by smaller machine-readable versions, which also feature the words European Community on the cover, and which print the bearer's personal information at the back rather than the front, where it had previously been.

Many Britons mourned the passing of what they regarded as their traditional passport, although in truth it hadn't existed for all that long. When, I wonder, and for what duration will identity cards be re-introduced yet again?

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Barack Obama 'angry' over McChrystal claims

President Obama: "McChrystal showed poor judgement"

US President Barack Obama was angered by a magazine profile in which the top military commander in Afghanistan criticised senior administration officials, the White House says.

President Obama said General Stanley McChrystal had shown "poor judgement".

The general has been summoned to Washington over the Rolling Stone article, for which he has apologised.

Administration officials have so far declined to say that his job is safe.

Mr Obama said he wanted to talk with the general in person before deciding what action to take.

US media reports said Gen McChrystal had submitted his resignation, but it was up to the president to decide whether to accept it. There has been no official comment on the reports.

In the article by Michael Hastings, entitled The Runaway General, Gen McChrystal is characterised as facing up to a key enemy in the war in Afghanistan: "The wimps in the White House."

Gen McChrystal is quoted as sharply criticising the US ambassador to Kabul, Karl Eikenberry.

ANALYSIS

Continue reading the main story

Kim Ghattas,
BBC News, Washington

Robert Gibbs appeared to give an indication of what may be in store for Gen McChrystal. Asked whether the general's job was safe, he declined to answer.

Later he added "all options are on the table" and "our efforts in Afghanistan are bigger then one person". In other words, we can do this without him.

But the public humiliation of Gen McChrystal could still be meant to make Mr Obama look tough in the face of an impertinent general. Calls are growing in Washington for his sacking, particularly from Democrats. But that too is likely to have an impact on the war efforts in Afghanistan, even if that war is "bigger than one person".

President Obama will have to choose between continuity in leadership in Afghanistan at a crucial time, and a unified leadership which shows him respect as commander-in-chief.

Aides to the general are quoted as saying he was "disappointed" when meeting President Barack Obama for the first time.

Other targets include Vice-President Joe Biden, National Security Adviser James Jones and the special US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke.

The BBC's Kevin Connolly, in Washington, says the language and tone of Rolling Stone - a pop-culture magazine - make an uncomfortable fit with the delicate form of heavily armed diplomacy with which Gen McChrystal has been entrusted in Afghanistan.

The decision to allow the publication behind-the-scenes access for a prolonged period suggests a disturbing lack of judgement somewhere in the general's inner circle, our correspondent adds.

In his first comments on the issue, President Obama said: "I think it's clear that the article in which he and his team appeared showed a poor - showed poor judgment.

"But I also want to make sure that I talk to him directly before I make any final decisions."

Speaking to reporters earlier, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president was "angry".

Mr Gibbs added: "Without a doubt, General McChrystal... has made an enormous mistake. A mistake that he'll get a chance to talk about and answer to, tomorrow, to both officials in the Pentagon and the commander-in-chief.

"The purpose for calling him here is to see what in the world he was thinking."

He added that the war effort in Afghanistan was "bigger than one person".

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said in a strongly worded statement he had read the Rolling Stone article "with concern".

MARDELL'S AMERICA

Continue reading the main story

McChrystal's disappointment with the president was established at their first meeting. The general apparently felt Obama wasn't very interested

Mark Mardell BBC North America editor Read Mark's blog

"I believe that General McChrystal made a significant mistake and exercised poor judgment in this case.

"General McChrystal has apologised to me and is similarly reaching out to others named in this article to apologise to them as well. I have recalled Gen McChrystal to Washington to discuss this in person."

'Clown'

The Rolling Stone article - for which Hastings was given access to the commander and his staff over several weeks - will appear in Friday's edition of the magazine.

In it, Gen McChrystal says he felt "betrayed" by the ambassador to Kabul during the long 2009 White House debate on troop requests for Afghanistan.

Continue reading the main story

Oh, not another e-mail from Holbrooke... I don't even want to open it

Gen Stanley McChrystal Profile: Gen Stanley McChrystal McChrystal in the line of fire Analysis: Rolling Stone row US media response US to consult UK amid general row Excerpts: Rolling Stone article McChrystal gaffe - Your views

Gen McChrystal suggests that Mr Eikenberry was using a leaked internal memo that questioned the wisdom of troop requests as a way of protecting himself from future criticism over the deployment.

The general says: "I like Karl, I've known him for years, but they'd never said anything like that to us before.

"Here's one that covers his flank for the history books. Now if we fail, they can say, 'I told you so.'"

Gen McChrystal also mocks the vice-president in response to a question. "Are you asking about Vice-President Biden?" Gen McChrystal asks. "Who's that?"

Another aide refers to a key Oval Office meeting with the president a year ago.

The aide says it was "a 10-minute photo-op", adding: "Obama clearly didn't know anything about him, who he was... he didn't seem very engaged. The boss was pretty disappointed."

Another aide refers to National Security Adviser Jones as a "clown stuck in 1985".

Upon receiving an e-mail from Mr Holbrooke on his Blackberry, Gen McChrystal says: "Oh, not another e-mail from Holbrooke... I don't even want to open it."

Aide quits

Duncan Boothby, a special assistant to Gen McChrystal who organised the Rolling Stone journalist's access to the commander, has resigned as a result of the article.

LESSONS FROM US HISTORY

Continue reading the main story

President Harry Truman (above) controversially fired World War II legend General Douglas MacArthur for contradicting official policy during the Korean War. Gen MacArthur ignored a ceasefire proposal Truman sent him in March 1951, and then issued an ultimatum demanding China's surrender. He was fired days later after one of his letters criticising the administration was read in Congress. "If there is one basic element in our Constitution, it is civilian control of the military," Truman said.

Ninety years earlier, in 1861, General George McClellan was made chief of the Union Armies, but frustrated President Abraham Lincoln with his over-caution and contempt. Gen McClellan called the president "a well meaning baboon". Lincoln fired him in late 1862 after he failed to pursue the Confederate forces retreating from the Battle of Antietam. "If General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time," Lincoln reportedly said.

As news of the article emerged, Gen McChrystal attempted to limit the damage in advance of Rolling Stone hitting the newsstands.

He said in a statement: "I extend my sincerest apology for this profile. It was a mistake reflecting poor judgement and should never have happened.

"Throughout my career, I have lived by the principles of personal honour and professional integrity. What is reflected in this article falls far short of that standard.

"I have enormous respect and admiration for President Obama and his national security team and for the civilian leaders and troops fighting this war and I remain committed to ensuring its successful outcome."

Gen McChrystal replaced Gen David McKiernan in 2009 and has sought to reduce the number of Afghan civilians being killed in combat operations.

After his appointment, Gen McChrystal was drawn into a long and detailed strategy review with the president, finally getting an additional 30,000 US troops from Mr Obama.

But analysts say Gen McChrystal disagreed with the president's pledge to start bringing troops home in July 2011.

A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Waheed Omer, voiced support for Gen McChrystal in the wake of the Rolling Stone article.

"The president strongly supports General McChrystal and his strategy in Afghanistan and believes he is the best commander the United States has sent to Afghanistan over the last nine years," he said.

But a spokesman for the Taliban said Gen McChrystal's recall was another sign of the start of the "political defeat" for US policies in Afghanistan.

Source

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stanley McChrystal's fate to be announced by Obama

Page last updated at 17:25 GMT, Wednesday, 23 June 2010 18:25 UK

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Gen Stanley McChrystal leaves the White House after talks with Barack Obama

US President Barack Obama is preparing to make a statement on the position of the embattled US forces chief in Afghanistan.

It follows a meeting at which Gen Stanley McChrystal was asked to explain his criticism of US officials.

US media reports say Mr Obama will announce that Gen McChrystal is to be replaced.

Mr Obama had said the statements in Rolling Stone magazine showed "poor judgement".

He is due to speak at 1330 Washington time (1730 GMT).

Gen McChrystal had been due to attend Wednesday's monthly meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan and face some of those he - and his aides - criticised so publicly.

But it appears that he did not do so after meeting President Obama.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has indicated that he does not want Gen McChrystal replaced.

'Enormous mistake'

Gen McChrystal arrived back in Washington in the early hours local time after being summoned from Afghanistan.

MARDELL'S AMERICA

Continue reading the main story

McChrystal's disappointment with the president was established at their first meeting. The general apparently felt Obama wasn't very interested

Mark Mardell BBC North America editor Read Mark's blog

Gen McChrystal quickly apologised for the magazine article, The Runaway General, written by Michael Hastings and due out on Friday, extending his "sincerest apology" and saying it showed a lack of integrity.

"It was a mistake reflecting poor judgement and should never have happened," he said.

US media reports said Gen McChrystal had submitted his resignation, but it was up to the president to decide whether to accept it. There has been no official comment on the reports.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Tuesday that the president was "angry" and that Gen McChrystal had made "an enormous mistake".

Mr Gibbs said "all options were on the table" regarding the fate of the general and wondered "what in the world was he thinking?"

Continue reading the main story

Obama clearly didn't know anything about him, who he was... he didn't seem very engaged

McChrystal aide Rolling Stone article LIVE: McChrystal at White House Key players in McChrystal meeting The end of Team McChrystal? Profile: Gen Stanley McChrystal Excerpts: Rolling Stone article McChrystal gaffe - Your views

Some experts suggest Mr Gibbs's harsh words were to make the president look tough and give him the option of keeping the general on after a warning.

However, some lawmakers have called for Gen McChrystal to quit.

The BBC's Kim Ghattas in Washington says President Obama has had to choose between continuity in leadership in Afghanistan at a crucial time, and a unified leadership which shows him respect as commander-in-chief.

At the White House meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan, Gen McChrystal was due to face:

• Joe Biden. Gen McChrystal had mocked the vice-president when asked a question about him. "Are you asking about Vice-President Biden? Who's that?"
• Karl Eikenberry. Gen McChrystal said he felt "betrayed" by the US ambassador to Kabul during the long 2009 White House debate on troop requests for Afghanistan
• James Jones. One of Gen McChrystal's aides says the national security adviser is a "clown... stuck in 1985"
• Richard Holbrooke. Gen McChrystal says of an e-mail from the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan: "Oh, not another e-mail from Holbrooke... I don't even want to open it"

The article also appeared to be critical of the president himself.

Referring to a key Oval Office meeting with Mr Obama a year ago, an aide of Gen McChrystal says it was "a 10-minute photo-op".

"Obama clearly didn't know anything about him, who he was... he didn't seem very engaged. The boss was pretty disappointed," the aide says.

In his first comments on the issue on Tuesday, President Obama said: "I think it's clear that the article in which he and his team appeared showed... poor judgement."

Reduced casualties

Duncan Boothby, a special assistant to Gen McChrystal who organised the Rolling Stone journalist's access to the commander, has resigned as a result of the article.

Afghan spokesman on "trusted partner" McChrystal

A spokesman for the Taliban said Gen McChrystal's recall was another sign of the start of the "political defeat" for US policies in Afghanistan.

But a spokesman for Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday that the Afghan leader believed replacing Gen McChrystal "would not be helpful" for peace and stability.

The spokesman, Waheed Omar, said: "We hope there is not a change of leadership of the international forces here in Afghanistan and that we continue to partner with Gen McChrystal."

The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Afghanistan says there is a belief among Afghan officials that Gen McChrystal has brought real improvement on reducing civilian casualties caused by the coalition - they are down 44% so far this year.

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North Korea to hold rare party meet 'to elect leaders'

Kim Jong-il is thought to have had a stroke in 2008

North Korea's ruling communist party is to hold a rare meeting of its political bureau, state media have said.

The session will be held in September to select new leaders for the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), the North Korean Central News Agency said.

Analysts say the move may signal a transition of power in the secretive country.

Leader Kim Jong-il is believed to be in ill health and grooming one of his sons, Kim Jong-un, to succeed him.

The meeting is "for electing [the party's] highest leading body reflecting the new requirements of the WPK", the announcement said.

"We are now faced with the sacred revolutionary tasks to develop the WPK... into an eternal glorious party of Kim Il-sung and further increase its militant function and role to glorify the country as a great prosperous and powerful socialist nation."

Growing role

Kim Jong-il took over as leader from his father, North Korea's founder Kim Il-sung, after his death in 1994.

With Kim Jong-il thought to be in ill health following a suspected stroke in 2008, analysts believe the conference will be held to elevate the status of his third son, Swiss-educated Kim Jong-un.

Earlier this week the director of South Korea's National Intelligence Service said that the 27-year-old is already taking a role in policy-making and frequently accompanies his father on inspection tours.

The BBC's John Sudworth in Seoul says Kim Jong-il himself began his official role to succeed his father by assuming a senior party position at a convention in 1980.

Anniversary tension

The announcement comes a day after the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the three-year war between North and South Korea.

It also follows a warning from the United States to North Korea to refrain from "actions that increase tensions in the region," amid concerns that Pyongyang may be preparing a new round of missile tests.

The US state department said it was aware North Korea had issued a nine-day ban on shipping off its western coast.

Tensions between North and South Korea have increased following the 26 March sinking of a South Korean warship, which an international investigation concluded was sunk by a torpedo from a North Korean submarine.

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Mystery surrounds 'horse-boy' on Google Street View

The unusual sighting was made in Aberdeen and has proved popular

Mystery surrounds a man wearing a horse's head who has been captured on Google's Street View in Aberdeen.

The man - who has become known as "horse-boy" - can be seen in the Hardgate area of the city.

The sighting has become a popular attraction on Google's service, which offers a photographic map of streets.

The man is wearing dark trousers, a purple shirt - and a brown and white horse's head.

Dozens of BBC news website users have e-mailed from across Europe to say they know who horse boy is.

Continue reading the main story

Horse boy isn't a person, it's a cheap mask

Gareth Remblance BBC news website user Your pictures of 'horse-boy'

Others have sent in images of the mystery horse-head wearer and some have claimed to be him.

Stefan Kleen from Germany said he and a friend met horse-boy at a German festival last weekend.

He added: "He only spoke English so we didn't really talk a lot to him."

Anders Hauge reckons he has been shopping in Haugesund in Norway; John Hammond was convinced he was playing the fairways and relaxing in the bars of Marbella and Julian Sykes said he had been sighted in Cardiff.

John Ainsworth insisted he saw horse-boy in Norwich earlier in the year walking through Wensum Park.

He said: "I thought I was hallucinating at first but then realised it was real."

Other readers have not been impressed with the story and some have told the website that it is not newsworthy and is a prank to generate further publicity.

And Gareth Remblance pointed out: "Horse boy isn't a person, it's a cheap mask - for example I saw at least three people wearing similar heads at this year's Download Festival in Donington."

A number of contributors have said that horse-boy features in other parts of Google's street view service.

Mark Coates said: "If you go down the road and turn back you can see him putting on the horse head and on the shot back up the road again he has white hair."

The BBC news website story had more than 874,000 hits on Thursday, and more on Friday took the total through the one million barrier.

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Geithner says US can 'no longer drive global growth'

Timothy Geithner says the world "cannot depend as much on the US as it has in the past"

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has told the BBC that the world "cannot depend as much on the US as it did in the past".

He said that other major economies would have to grow more for the global economy to prosper.

He also played down any differences in policy between the US and Europe regarding deficit reduction.

Mr Geithner was speaking in Washington ahead of G8 and G20 meetings this weekend in Toronto.

He said all members of the group were "focused on the challenge of [building] growth and confidence", and would be working to this end at the meetings.

The Group of Eight and Group of 20 rich and developing nations are assembling on Friday for three days of talks on emerging from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who has arrived in Canada along with other leaders, said in an article for the Globe And Mail newspaper: "No-one can doubt the biggest promise we have to deliver: fixing the global economy."

"I believe we must each start by setting out plans for getting our national finances under control," he added.

Common goals

Many European governments have implemented severe austerity measures in recent weeks in order to cut debt levels.

In a letter to G20 leaders last week, US President Barack Obama warned against cutting national debts too quickly as it would put economic recovery at risk.

Continue reading the main story

We're in the very good position of being able to deliver relatively strong growth rates [compared] to what we're seeing in other major economies

Timothy Geithner US Treasury Secretary

But Mr Geithner said the US and Europe "have much more in common than we have differences".

"We all agree that we have to restore responsibility to our fiscal positions. Everyone agrees that those deficits have to come down over time to a level that's sustainable," he said.

But he said that the US and Europe would take "different paths, at a different pace" in order to reach the common goal.

"It's going to require different things as we have different strengths and weaknesses," he said.

Mr Geithner said the US was not in a position to work out what were the best policies for European countries to pursue.

'Strong growth'

The treasury secretary said the US had laid out "very ambitious plans as well" to cut its deficit.

But he said the US was in a stronger position than many other economies to cut its debt levels.

"We're in the very good position of being able to deliver relatively strong growth rates [compared] to what we're seeing in other major economies," he said.

Some commentators in Europe argue that austerity measures should only be introduced once strong growth has been secured in the wake of the global downturn.

This was a more widely held position until the Greek debt crisis focused policymakers' minds on cutting debt levels.

The Greek crisis showed that governments with high levels of debt find it very difficult to borrow money from international investors, money that they need to service existing debts.

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Experts rediscover plant presumed extinct for 60 years

By Victoria Gill
Science reporter, BBC News The tiny fern was clinging to a precarious existence on a mountain ridge

In a small, noisy laboratory, tucked away in London's Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, a tiny plant is growing.

It looks just like a very small parsley bush, but it is actually a very special little plant indeed.

Clean air has to be constantly circulated in the lab to protect it from any bacteria.

This precious specimen is the Anogramma ascensionis fern, commonly known as the parsley fern. Since the 1950s, botanists believed it to be extinct.

It is native to Ascension - an island in the South Atlantic, which is one of Britain's overseas territories. And a small project supported by Kew's overseas territories programme has rediscovered and rescued it - a timely success story, as this year has been dubbed International Year of Biodiversity.

Continue reading the main story

Plants are such an important component of our lives... and extinction is forever

Colin Club Kew overseas territories programme leader

Kew botanist Phil Lamden and local conservation officer Stedson Stroud found the plucky little plant clinging to a precarious existence on a mountainside in the harsh volcanic landscape.

"We were down the back of Ascension's Green Mountain, which has very, very steep slopes. You have to be really careful because if you slip you're a goner," Mr Stroud recalled.

"And we came across this beautiful little fern and immediately knew it was the lost Anogramma that had been extinct for the last 60 years."

Ascension is covered by bleak, forbidding lava flows, and only 10 plant species are known to be truly "endemic" - found nowhere else in the world.

Stedson Stroud (left) scrambled down the mountain to tend the plants

According to Kew scientists, goats that were released on to Ascension by Portuguese explorers in the 1500s, ate their way voraciously through the island's greenery for 350 years before any of the flora was even described to science.

The introduction of more invasive herbivores - rabbits, sheep, rats and donkeys, together with over 200 species of invasive plants, further squeezed out the island's original plant inhabitants. The rediscovery of Anogramma boosts to seven the number of surviving endemic plant species on the island.

Mr Stroud said that, in the excitement, both of the researchers "forgot where they were".

"We were scrambling around, looking to see if there were more, and then we realised, we should really have safety ropes and stuff around us," he said.

24-hour rescue

There were more plants - four in total. But as far as the researchers knew, these were all that remained of Anogramma. So with the help of his colleague, Olivia Renshaw, Mr Stroud mounted a rather perilous effort to protect them.

The tiny fern plants had to be drip-fed

"We had to keep the plants alive - they were on a bare rock face and it was a really dry period, so Olivia and I went down twice a week carrying water and we set up a drip feed," said Stedson.

After a few weeks of tending the plants, the next part of their plan was even more risky. They had to get pieces of the ferns back to Kew so that more plants could be grown in the safety and sterility of the lab.

Stedson climbed down the ridge one again - this time to collect a few small cuttings of the spore-forming or reproductive parts of the plants.

Once harvested, the spores were vulnerable to drying and contamination, and the team had just 24 hours to transfer the precious cargo to the laboratory in Kew's Conservation Biotechnology Unit (CBU).

Ascension island is a forbidding, volcanic landscape

The samples were placed in a sterile container and rushed to the nearby airfield. From there, they were flown to a military airport in the UK, where a car was waiting to race them to Kew. Fortunately, the dust-like fern spores survived the journey intact.

Dr Viswambharan Sarasan is head of the CBU. He explained that their arrival was not the end of the challenge.

The spores had to be bleached to eliminate any bacteria, before the plants could be grown in culture.

"That is the really risky part," he said. "If you bleach them for too long, you could kill the spores, but if you don't treat them for long enough, there could be remaining bacteria that will grow in culture and kill them."

Continue reading the main story

It's so satisfying, bringing a plant back from the brink of extinction

Stedson Stroud Conservation officer, Ascension Island

And Dr Sarasan had only a 1p-piece-sized clipping of fern to work with - the smallest sample he had ever cultured from.

After another nervous period of waiting, he was relieved to discover that the process had left the spores intact and viable.

He and his colleague Katie Baker, a botany undergraduate student working at Kew, have now succeeded in growing 60 new Anogramma plants in culture - all from four tiny plants on a cliff face in Ascension.

The team hope eventually to restore Anogramma to its former wild habitats on Ascension's Green Mountain.

And Mr Stroud has even managed to grow some of the plants in a shade house on the island itself.

"Each and every day, you're there, tending and looking, and hoping that something will happen," he said.

"Then one day you see something and - watching the plants grow - you can't ask for anything more."

Kew scientists have successfully grown more than 60 Anogramma plants

Colin Clubbe, who leads the UK overseas territories programme at Kew, says that this rescue effort was a small but vital part of a much wider goal to protect native plants in Britain's overseas territories before they are lost forever.

Plants are such an important component of our lives," he said. "And if we lose them, we lose them - extinction is forever.

He says that "holding on to our natural environment" could help us protect many of the plants we depend on.

"We do exploit species - we're reliant on plant products. We use them as a source of genes and, in these extremely dry habitats, like Ascension, plants that are naturally adapted may hold some answers to things like plants' responses to climate change."

This is actually the third extinct plant that Mr Stroud has rediscovered and, for him, it is an ongoing and very personal mission.

"There's never a time that I'm not actually looking fort these species because, we say they're extinct, but I believe they are there," he said.

"It's so satisfying, bringing a plant back from the brink of extinction."

Hear more from the researchers on Science in Action on the BBC World Service on Friday 25 June.

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Obama and Medvedev hail 're-set' US-Russia ties

Obama and Medvedev eat hamburgers and fries

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his US counterpart Barack Obama have marked a warming in ties between their countries on the Russian leader's first visit to the White House.

Speaking after their talks, Mr Obama said the pair had "succeeded at resetting our relationship".

He said the US was backing Russia's World Trade Organisation accession.

Earlier, the two ate hamburgers and chips at an eatery close to Washington while amused bystanders looked on.

Mr Obama also announced that Moscow would allow the US to resume poultry exports to Russia after a ban of almost six months.

"Our country is more secure and the world is safer when the US and Russia get along well together," Mr Obama told reporters.

But, he added, there were some issues which the two countries did not agree on, such as the former Soviet republic of Georgia, with which Russia fought a brief war nearly two years ago.

Mr Medvedev later flew to Canada, arriving in Toronto for the G8 and G20 summits this weekend.

'Drifted'

Analysis

Continue reading the main story

Kim Ghattas,
BBC News, Washington

The two presidents went for a burger lunch in Virginia, they shared fries as they talked through their translators before riding back in the car together to the White House.

It is a sign of how much the relationship between the two countries has improved during the Obama administration.

Disagreements remain, but the Obama administration is keen to showcase the warmer ties with Russia as one of its main foreign policy successes.

The two countries are now hoping to improve trade ties.

Mr Obama said Russia belonged in the World Trade Organisation. The two leaders said they had instructed negotiators to resolve by the autumn technical issues in the way of Russia's accession.

In pictures: Medvedev in US

The two nations also agreed on humanitarian aid to Kyrgyzstan, following deadly ethnic clashes in the Central Asian country.

Mr Medvedev said he believed the situation was vulnerable to "radical elements" and could "degenerate".

"We are very concerned about these conditions, the radicals could come to power," he said.

The two leaders also stressed their cooperation on fighting terrorism, and reiterated a commitment to ratify a treaty signed in April to reduce nuclear weapons.

Mr Obama welcomed Russian support for sanctions against Iran.

After years of cool relations, Mr Obama said such discussions with Moscow would have been unlikely just 17 months ago.

"When I came into office, the relationship between the United States and Russia had drifted, perhaps to its lowest point since the Cold War," he said.

"There was too much mistrust and too little real work on issues of common concern."

Mr Medvedev visited Washington for a 47-nation nuclear summit in April but it was the first time he had been received at the White House.

Burger diplomacy

Russia has wanted WTO membership for some time but the US previously insisted Moscow must do more to safeguard intellectual property rights.

Barack Obama: "We've succeeded in re-setting our relationship"

Mr Obama said on Thursday that any technical barriers to Russia's accession should be resolved swifly.

He said the agreement over poultry exports sent an "important signal about Russia's seriousness about achieving membership in the WTO."

Earlier in the day, in a surprise foray outside the White House, the leaders took a trip for a lunchtime burger in Arlington, Virginia.

During their meal, the pair sat with their interpreters, chatting. Obama drank iced tea, while Medvedev sipped a Coca-Cola.

US officials said the talks were testament to the effectiveness of the new approach to Russia.

But Mr Obama's critics accuse him of being too conciliatory, compromising Washington's influence.

They argue that his approach has not resolved key disputes, such as Moscow's human rights record, missile defence, or the legacy of the Russia-Georgia war.

The two leaders go to Canada this weekend for the G20 summit.

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