Obama urges action on healthcare

President Barack Obama urged Congress to set aside partisan bickering

US President Barack Obama has made one of the most critical speeches of his presidency, as he faced Congress over his plans for healthcare reform.

Mr Obama said that failure to introduce reform had led the country to breaking point and it was now time to act.

He said he planned to improve health insurance for those who have it and to create an insurance exchange to extend cover to those who do not.

Republicans said Mr Obama's plans would make healthcare much more expensive.

See how healthcare spending is divided up

Mr Obama told Congress that the US was the only developed country that allowed millions of its people to endure the hardship of going without healthcare.

MARDELL BLOG It seemed to go down pretty well in the chamber, but it's how Americans receive it over the next few hours and days that really counts Mark Mardell BBC North America editor Mark Mardell follows the speech Obama speech: Full text Send us your comments

"Everyone understands the extraordinary hardships that are placed on the uninsured, who live every day just one accident or illness away from bankruptcy," he said.

"These are not primarily people on welfare. These are middle-class Americans."

But Mr Obama said the current system did not serve well those Americans who do have health insurance either.

"Those who do have insurance have never had less security and stability than they do today.

"More and more Americans worry that if you move, lose your job, or change your job, you'll lose your health insurance too."

He said the US spent one-and-a-half times more on health insurance than any other country but Americans were no healthier than other people.

Heckled

Mr Obama set out details of his plan to reform the system.

One Republican shouted: "You lie" at Barack Obama during the speech

He said that nothing in his proposal would require Americans who already have health insurance to change their coverage or doctor.

But he said he would make the insurance work better for individuals by prohibiting insurers from dropping coverage for sick patients or by capping it.

He would also require insurers to cover the cost of routine check-ups and preventative care.

For the millions of uninsured Americans, he said he would create an insurance exchange - a market place where individuals and small business will be able to shop for health insurance at competitive prices.

Mr Obama said a public insurance option could help keep the private health insurance companies honest and competitive.

But he said it would not be subsidised by the government, so would not create unfair competition for the private sector.

He added that the public option was only a means to an end, and he remained open to other ideas if they had the same effect.

HEALTHCARE IN THE US 46 million uninsured, 25 million under-insured Healthcare costs represent 16% of GDP, almost twice OECD average Reform plans would require all Americans to get insurance Some propose public insurance option to compete with private insurers Q&A: US healthcare reform Reform: Who wants what? Obama's healthcare fight-back

When Mr Obama said illegal immigrants would not benefit from his plan, the Republican ranks showed signs of near mutiny, says the BBC's Jonathan Beale in Washington.

One Republican representative shouted: "You lie", and the president paused briefly.

In the official Republican response to Mr Obama's speech, Representative Charles Boustany, a heart surgeon, urged a fresh start on "a commonsense, bipartisan plan".

He added: "Replacing your family's current healthcare with government-run healthcare is not the answer. In fact, it'll make healthcare much more expensive."

Our correspondent says Mr Obama was clearly not looking for right-wing Republican support - he knows he will not get it.

He says the speech was another strong performance from Mr Obama and an attempt to turn the tide in the healthcare debate.

But our correspondent adds the speech may have also come too late as positions are already entrenched and some of Mr Obama's supporters wonder why he did not do this months ago.

Healthcare reform has been the central issue of his change agenda but has divided both the US public and the country's political establishment.

President Obama said that Congress agreed on about 80% of the reforms that are needed.

But he said months of partisan bickering had only hardened the disdain many Americans have towards their own government.

He is facing almost unanimous opposition from Republicans, who are uneasy about the idea of government-run healthcare and who have accused Mr Obama of attempting to introduce a "socialist" policy.

There are, in theory, enough Democrats in Congress to approve the changes.

But in practice, the party is deeply divided between those that want a publicly-run insurance scheme and those alarmed by the borrowing necessary to fund it.

Source

Samoa switches to driving on left

Samoa direction changes causes jams

Samoa has become the first country since the 1970s to change the side of the road on which cars are driven.

At 0600 local time (1700GMT) sirens sounded and drivers were told to move from the right side to the left.

The government brought about the change to bring Samoa into line with other South Pacific nations.

A two-day holiday was declared to ease traffic as people got used to the new rules, which faced legal challenges from groups which predicted chaos.

At 0600, Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Lupesoliai Malielegaoi addressed the country on national radio.

"After this announcement you will all be permitted to move to the other side of the road, to begin this new era in our history," the New Zealand Herald quoted him as saying.

Emergency vehicles and government workers were reportedly stationed at every junction and corner but witnesses said the change happened smoothly.

Barbara Dreaver, a correspondent for New Zealand Television, said the scene was "just amazing" but that traffic was flowing "fairly well".

"There were hundreds of people who had come out, just to watch this happen," she said.

Cars are going to crash, people are going to die - not to mention the huge expense to our country Tole'afoa Solomona Toa'iloa Samoa lawyer Samoa drivers brace for left turn

"We've had the odd squealing of brakes as people suddenly realise that they should not be on that side of the road, but for the most part it's been very smooth."

The move survived a late legal appeal by the protest group People Against Switching Sides (Pass), who argued that it would bring mayhem to the highways and byways of this remote South Pacific nation.

Bus drivers have also protested that their doors will now open on the wrong side, in the middle of the road.

But the Samoan government introduced the change to end its reliance on expensive, left-hand drive imports from America.

It hopes that Samoan expatriates in Australia and New Zealand will now ship used, more affordable vehicles back to their homeland.

To minimise the chaos, a two-day national holiday has been declared to keep cars off the road, and prayers have been said at the country's churches in the hope of blessing the changeover.

Source

Anger at Israeli settlement plan

Some 2,500 housing units are now under construction in settlements

Israel has officially approved the construction of more than 450 new homes in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli defence ministry has announced.

This is the first new government-approved construction project in the West Bank since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to power in March.

It comes despite US pressure to halt settlement building.

A senior Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said the move "nullified" the effect of any future building freeze.

Palestinians have ruled out resumption of peace talks with Israel until there is a complete halt to settlement construction.

Mr Erekat said Israel's decision further undermined its credibility as a partner for peace.

WEST BANK SETTLEMENTS Construction of settlements began in 1967, shortly after the Middle East War Some 280,000 Israelis now live in the 121 officially-recognised settlements in the West Bank A further 190,000 Israelis live in settlements in occupied East Jerusalem The largest West Bank settlement is Modiin Illit, where 38,000 people live There are a further 102 unauthorised outposts in the West Bank which are not officially recognised by Israel The population of West Bank settlements has been growing at a rate of 5-6% since 2001 Source: Peace Now Obama's Mid-East plans in jeopardy

"Israel's decision to approve the construction nullifies any effect that a settlement freeze, when and if announced, will have," Mr Erekat said.

"Given the choice between making peace and making settlements, they have chosen to make settlements," he added.

Mitchell visit

"Defence Minister Ehud Barak has authorised the construction of 455 housing units in settlement blocs," the Israeli defence ministry said in a statement.

It updated its earlier statement that said Mr Barak had approved the building of 366 housing units.

The homes will be built in six settlements - all of which are included in the settlement blocs that Israel wants to keep under any peace agreement, according to Israel's Haaretz newspaper.

It says the settlements include Har Gilo, Modiin Illit and Ariel.

Last week, Israeli officials announced that Mr Netanyahu would give the go-ahead for the new housing units.

The issue is expected to be discussed when Mr Netanyahu's aides meet US special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, later this week.

BBC Jerusalem correspondent Tim Franks says there is little doubt that the government of Benjamin Netanyahu is feeling pressure from the settlers - who dismissed this latest approval to build as insultingly limited.

But today's announcement can only complicate a possible resumption of meaningful peace talks with the Palestinians.

"What Netanyahu is doing is clearly at the scale of a grand deception," said Fatah spokesperson Hanan Ashrawi.

"He thinks that he can deceive the rest of the world... but what he is doing under a variety of pretexts is the continuation of settlements and at the same time demanding a price in return."

The Americans, who are trying to broker new peace negotiations, have already expressed their displeasure, our correspondent says.

They say they are trying to build credibility across the Middle East in a new Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The question for the US special envoy is whether he will, in the end, accept the Israeli version of a settlement freeze.

Close to 500,000 Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem.

Some 2,500 housing units are currently under construction.

The settlements are illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

Source

Indian woman fights for 'rape' baby

By Tinku Ray BBC News, Chandigarh

The care home where Lakshmi was allegedly raped

The story of a pregnant teenager has been making the headlines in India.

Lakshmi (not her real name) is 19 years old, but her mental age is said to be only around eight.

She became pregnant after allegedly being raped in a government-run care home, and the state authorities petitioned the local courts to allow them to carry out an abortion.

Their contention was that she wouldn't survive the trauma of childbirth, and that she wouldn't be able to take care of a baby.

That court ruled that an abortion should go ahead.

But then came the twist - her lawyers and several disability rights groups appealed to the Supreme Court. It overruled the original judgement - allowing her to have the baby she said she wanted to keep.

'Clothes for the baby'

Today, Lakshmi lives in a different government-run home in Chandigarh.

At first glance, she seems like a shy girl with a lovely smile whose answers are monosyllabic and barely audible.

Lakshmi had told the high court in Chandigarh that she wanted to keep the baby.

When I asked her if this was so, her answer was the same: "Yes."

So I asked her if she had ever looked after a baby before.

Lakshmi's lawyer, Tanu Bedi, says no one else can decide on her behalf

"Yes," she replied again.

One of the women in the Nari Niketan, the care home where she was allegedly raped, had a baby and Lakshmi said she fed him milk with a spoon and cleaned him up when needed.

Lakshmi was found two years ago wandering the streets of Chandigarh and placed in Nari Niketan.

She was allegedly raped earlier this year and a guard of the care home has been arrested and is awaiting trial.

I asked her nurse if Lakshmi ever talked about what had happened to her.

"At first she was ashamed. When no one knew about it, she didn't talk about it. But now everyone knows and she talks non-stop about her baby.

"And when anyone comes to visit her, she asks them to bring new clothes for the baby. She wants a swing as well."

However, medical professionals who examined Lakshmi said she could not look after a baby. Psychologists say she suffers from "mild mental retardation" and has a low IQ.

Moral questions

"After consultations we thought that since she's mentally challenged, an orphan and has been raped in a government institution... it would be in her interest to have the termination," says Prof Raj Bahadur, director of the Government Medical College in Chandigarh and the man in charge of the shelter where Lakshmi lives.

But Lakshmi's lawyer, Tanu Bedi, disagrees.

"Can we say just because she has a low IQ, anybody can decide for her and against her specific wish to have an abortion, which has the medical complications and problems for all times to come for her health? In my view it would have been a judicial rape."

Mr Gupta questions whether the case should be before the courts

The Supreme Court agreed with Ms Bedi. In its ruling, the court said: "Nature will take care of the orphan mother and child."

There was plenty of outrage at the Supreme Court's decision.

Many questioned whether the law courts were the place to decide such moral and ethical cases.

Lawyer Anupam Gupta fought the case on behalf of the state government. He says even the local judge raised the issue when the case came before him.

"On the very first day when the matter came up before the chief justice, he appeared reluctant to interfere. This is your baby - he wasn't referring to the foetus of course - but in a more metaphorical sense. He said this problem is of your making, don't come to the high court."

But, Mr Gupta says, "because Lakshmi had been allegedly raped while in the state's custody, the authorities had no choice. They had failed to protect her and so approached the court to make a decision on what to do."

'Arbitrary'

The National Trust for the Welfare of persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Mental Disabilities - a government organisation - has offered to take care of Lakshmi and her baby.

It has offered to put her in an independent home, either in the southern city of Bangalore or closer to Chandigarh.

"There she will be able to blossom and develop her life skills," says Poonam Natarajan, who heads the trust.

"The IQ score is very arbitrary in our country. The whole world is only talking about her as eight years old. But she's 19 years old, so her life experience is very different.

"Everyone has the capacity of evolve, the capacity to grow if in the right environment. But somehow in the minds of people when it comes to mental retardation, it's static.

"That is a medical concept that we have to challenge."

A decision on when and where Lakshmi will be sent is to be taken soon.

At the shelter, Lakshmi is looking forward to being a mother - her baby is due in December.

"I want a baby girl," she tells me shyly. And as I prepare to leave, she says: "Please visit me again."

Source

Gaza sewage 'a threat to Israel'

The UN's Maxwell Gaylard made his appeal by one of Gaza's sewage lakes

The UN and international aid agencies say Israel must relax its blockade of the Gaza Strip to allow urgent repairs to the water and sewage systems.

In a joint appeal, the bodies say the hazards to health and the environment threaten not only Gaza but Israel too.

More than 13m gallons (50m litres) of raw or partially treated sewage flows into the sea every day from Gaza because of a lack of treatment plants.

The cross-border aquifer is low and raw sewage floats back to Gaza and Israel.

Deadly flash flood

The UN says about 10,000 Gazans have no access to a water network - while about 60% of the 1.4m population receive water only intermittently.

Water consumption in the Strip is less than a third of that of Israelis living just a few kilometres away.

Israel, and Egypt on its south-western side, have kept Gaza largely sealed since a violent takeover of the territory by the Islamic militant Hamas group in 2007.

Israel says it is trying to weaken Hamas, end its rocket attacks against Israeli towns and get back an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who was captured and taken to Gaza in 2006.

"The deterioration and breakdown of water and sanitation facilities in Gaza is compounding an already severe and protracted denial of human dignity in the Gaza Strip," said UN humanitarian co-ordinator in the Palestinian territories, Maxwell Gaylard.

Mr Gaylard and other humanitarian workers and officials launched the appeal with a news conference near one of northern Gaza's sewage lagoons to highlight the problem.

In 2007, one of the lagoons overflowed and five people were killed by a flash flood of sewage.

Aid agencies said Israel's bombardment in December and January worsened an already bad situation.

Israeli officials had no immediate comment to the appeal on Thursday.

Source

Antibodies 'may aid HIV jab hunt'

Developing an HIV vaccine has proved difficult

Two powerful new antibodies to HIV have been found which could aid development of a vaccine, researchers say.

Researchers, led by the International Aids Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), say the discovery reveals a potential new Achilles heel in the virus's defences.

The antibodies are the first of their type to be identified in more than a decade, and the first to be isolated from donors in developing countries.

Details of the breakthrough feature in the journal Science.

The researchers hope it could lead to more similar antibodies being found, which in turn could aid the hunt for an effective HIV vaccine.

Identifying antibodies that act against a broad range of HIV types will be critical for the development of an effective vaccine Keith Alcorn NAM

Wayne Koff, of the IAVI, said: "The findings themselves are an exciting advance toward the goal of an effective Aids vaccine because now we've got a new, potentially better target on HIV to focus our efforts for vaccine design.

"And having identified this one, we're set up to find more, which should further accelerate global efforts in Aids vaccine development."

The new antibodies - broadly neutralising antibodies - are produced by a minority of people with HIV.

They are distinct from other antibodies to HIV because they neutralise a high percentage of the many types of HIV in circulation worldwide.

It is widely believed that to prevent HIV infection a vaccine would need to teach the body to produce these powerful antibodies before exposure to the virus.

Animal experiments suggest that conceptually such a vaccine would work.

Before this finding only four antibodies to HIV had been discovered that were widely agreed to be broadly neutralising.

However, all four worked by binding to a place on HIV that has proven difficult for vaccine-makers to exploit.

Accessible target

The latest duo are potentially much more useful because they bind to the virus at sites which scientists believe are more accessible.

In theory that should make it easier to produce a vaccine which could stimulate the body to start producing these key antibodies.

And because the antibodies are very powerful they would not have to be produced in very large quantities to confer protection.

The two new antibodies target one of the proteins that form a spike used by HIV to infect cells.

These proteins are highly-variable and thus difficult for the immune system to attack.

But the new antibodies target an area of one protein that does not change.

Keith Alcorn, of the HIV information service NAM, said: "Identifying antibodies that act against a broad range of HIV types will be critical for the development of an effective vaccine.

"We need to remember that this is an early stage of research.

"HIV vaccine research will be a long-term effort and we certainly shouldn't expect these findings to lead to a vaccine in a few years.

"A lot more work on antibodies and vaccine design is going to be needed to come up with vaccines that can be put into clinical trials."

The IAVI team joined forces with the Scripps Research Institute, and the biotechnology companies Theraclone Sciences and Monogram Biosciences on the project.

Source

India Moon mission is 'mixed success'

The mission's objective was to map the resources of the Moon

India has abandoned its inaugural Moon mission, 10 months after it was launched. Science writer Pallava Bagla examines the mission's performance.

So was India's inaugural Moon mission a success or a failure?

Neither. By all accounts, it has been a mixed performance. Also, a definitive answer is not easy to give - it is possibly as grey as the surface of the Moon.

This was an expensive scientific experiment with many objectives and conducted in full public glare. Most engineering goals have been fulfilled, but pious promises to deliver "good science" from the mission are still to be met.

Big achievement

India launched its $100m unmanned space craft on 22 October 2008 from Sriharikota on the coast of the Bay of Bengal.

First, the spacecraft designed and built by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) survived huge odds and successfully reached the Moon's orbit.

This in itself was a big achievement since neither Russia or America succeeded in their maiden attempts; and there were several failures even before they got anywhere near the Moon.

So did India ride on the shoulders of earlier successes?

Certainly not, since the know-how and technologies to go to the Moon are just not available for the asking. Each nation has to learn on its own. India experimented and did that with complete success.

The only other country to have managed a similar maiden feat was China - its mission Chang'e-1 in 2007 lasted 16 months in space, according to the Chinese National Space Administration.

The Indian mission survived for about 10 months in space; most other missions to the Moon have been much more short-lived.

So did the Indian space agency, in its naivety, over-stretch and over-estimate the craft's life when it planned for a 24-month mission?

The mission lasted 10 months in space

Possibly. The answer may emerge in the findings of the "failure analysis committee" that Isro has put in place after this debacle.

Despite being dubbed by Isro as an "engineering success", the mission had a rough ride around the Moon.

A fuel leak from the rocket almost aborted its lift-off. Within days of reaching the Moon a power system failed, and a back-up system had to be activated.

Soon, the spacecraft started overheating due to the intense summer heat on the Moon. Isro scientists say it was deft mission management that saved it from a total burnout.

A few months into the mission the spacecraft lost its fine guidance system when the onboard "star sensor" packed up in the intense radiation around the Moon.

But, every time an instrument on this 1380kg robot gave way, mission controllers at Isro found an innovative solution to keep the mission alive.

Finally on 29 August 2009, the space agency lost all contact with Chandrayaan after a catastrophic failure - possibly in its power supply system. A day later the mission was "terminated", although Isro chief G Madhavan Nair declared it had been a "complete success".

'Two-in-one mission'

The Indian mission was in certain respects much more challenging than the Chinese maiden lunar mission which was a simple national orbiter.

Chandrayaan-1 was literally a two-in-one mission, since the main satellite was to orbit at 100km above the Moon and then a tiny gadget the size of a computer monitor was to attempt a landing on the Moon surface.

The mission did this on 14 November 2008. No nation to date had succeeded in both a lunar orbiter and an impactor at the first attempt.

Mr Nair says the mission is a 'complete success' (Photo: Pallava Bagla)

This was more than an experiment. It was also a brave global geo-political statement since the probe that crash landed on the Moon also permanently placed India's flag on the Moon.

Having done this, India became the fourth nation to have done this after Russia, America and the European Space Agency.

This is hugely significant because, if ever the Moon's resources are to be divided, India's rightful share can be claimed having achieved what others have not been able to do.

There are many other firsts to this mission.

In a highly un-Indian trait, the Indian space agency delivered the Moon mission with no cost or time overrun at $100m and within eight years of it first being suggested.

The spacecraft carried 11 different sophisticated instruments, one of the largest suites of experiments ever carried to the Moon.

The objective was to remotely map the resources of the Moon, prepare a three-dimensional atlas of it and look for water.

All instruments worked for about 10 months in the hostile lunar environment. Dr Nair calls it a "more than 100% success of Indian technology".

India also created a new model of international partnership.

On its own initiative India announced that it would be happy to piggyback instruments from global partners.

After a huge competition six instruments sourced from the European Space Agency (Esa), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) and Bulgaria were chosen.

Chandrayaan peered into the deepest craters searching for water

Bernard Foing, the chief scientist for Space Sciences at Esa calls the Indian mission "the first multi-continent, multi-country lunar mission ever to be undertaken".

A little known fact is that India did not charge any money to fly these instruments 400,000km away: all got a free ride to the Moon, merely in exchange for sharing the scientific data.

Search for water

Chandrayaan-1 was also the first and the most detailed search for water on the Moon - to date water has never been found.

A miniature American radar onboard the Chandrayaan peered into the Moon's deepest craters searching for "water ice".

The Moon's surface is so parched that scientists feel the only location where water could exist would be in the permanently shadowed craters on the lunar poles.

But these are so deep and dark that sunlight never reaches them - hence the only way to peep inside is to send a radar signal down into them.

The global collaborative team of the mission is very excited about the findings.

"Never seen before images of the permanently shadowed craters Moon have been captured," says Paul D Spudis of the Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, USA and principal investigator of the payload sent to search for water.

"The new radar images are not only visually arresting, but they will be extremely useful in unravelling the complex geological history of the Moon as a whole," he says.

Other scientific reports on findings are in the offing. But unless the results are published, questions will continue to be asked about whether the mission fulfilled its exalted scientific objectives.

The termination of the Moon mission will, however, not affect India's plans in space.

The country is already planning a second mission to the Moon, Chandrayaan-2, with Russian collaboration in 2011-12; a mission to an asteroid; an unmanned mission to Mars in 2013 and a human space flight in 2015.

Upbeat Isro scientists are saying "Chandrayaan-1 is dead, long live Chandrayaan". The jury will be out - until the scientific papers come in.

Pallava Bagla is the Science editor for New Delhi Television (NDTV) and author of the book Destination Moon - India's quest for Moon, Mars and Beyond.

Source

Missing girl 'found 18 years on'

There have been few clues as to Jaycee Lee's whereabouts in 18 years

A US woman found after being abducted as a girl in 1991 gave birth to two children fathered by her alleged kidnapper, police say.

Jaycee Lee Dugard and the children, aged 11 and 15, were kept isolated in a back garden in Antioch, California.

Alleged kidnapper Phillip Garrido, 58, and his wife Nancy Garrido, 54, are being held in custody.

DNA tests are being done to establish Ms Dugard's identity, but meanwhile she has been reunited with her mother.

Ms Dugard disappeared in 1991, aged 11, from outside her Lake Tahoe home, apparently taken by two people.

El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar she had lived with the couple in the Antioch property since the kidnapping, isolated from view in a "hidden backyard within a backyard."

"The tents and outbuildings in the backyard were placed in a strategic arrangement to inhibit outside viewing and to isolate the victims from outside contact."

Phillip Garrido allegedly fathered two children with Ms Dugard, police say

The three spent "most of their lives" there, he said, adding that they had never been to school or seen a doctor.

Their identities were revealed after Mr Garrido was spotted by police at the University of California Berkeley campus with the two young children.

He raised suspicions because as a registered sex offender he was not allowed to be with young children.

He was called in by his parole officer for questioning, and brought the two children and a young woman he called Alissa with him.

During questioning he revealed that Alissa was actually Ms Dugard. She also confirmed her identity to police.

At the Antioch property, there was also a vehicle hidden in the backyard which matched the vehicle originally described at the time of the abduction, Mr Kollar said.

"It's a pretty spectacular story just to find someone like that. Someone we assumed was dead," said Bill Clark, a senior prosecutor in El Dorado County.

Jimmie Lee, a local police spokesman, said Mr Garrido was also being held for investigation of rape by force, lewd and lascivious acts with a minor and sexual penetration.

Under suspicion

She sounds like she's okay. I hope she's been well treated this entire 18 years Carl Probyn Stepfather

As news spread of Ms Dugard's apparent re-appearance, her stepfather Carl Probyn told ABC News in the US that her family was now convinced she was coming back to them.

"I had personally given up hope," he said, saying that he just wanted to find the people responsible.

Mr Probyn was watching on 10 June 1991, as the young girl was apparently taken away by two unidentified people.

The incident occurred as she was walking from her home to a school bus stop in the southern Lake Tahoe town of Meyers.

Her stepfather - who initially came under suspicion in her disappearance and is now estranged from Ms Dugard's mother - has described how a stranger drove up and grabbed Ms Dugard, bundling her into a grey car even as she tried to resist by kicking and screaming.

US police give details of Jaycee recovery

Mr Probyn believed a man and woman were in the vehicle. Despite several false reports of sightings in the intervening years, Ms Dugard was never seen again.

"She sounds like she's okay," he said.

"She had a conversation with my wife and she remembers things. I hope she's been well treated this entire 18 years."

"To have this happen where we get her back alive, and where she remembers things from the past, and to have people in custody is a triple win," he told the Sacramento Bee newspaper.

Source

Bolivia's Child Miners

Filmmaker: Rodrigo Vasquez

The Llallagua tin mine in Bolivia has been active for 100 years.

For much of that time poor Bolivians have been dying as they struggle to extract the valuable metal in appalling conditions.

In 2006 Witness travelled to Bolivia to film with child miners Jorge Mollinedo and his friend Alex Choque, soon after the country's first indigenous President Evo Morales had won elections with the promise of renationalising the mining industry.

But armed conflict between the cooperatives that extract tin and the National Miners Union broke out in October of that year.

Jorge's mining town was partially destroyed and 20 miners, among them women and children, were killed.

The cooperatives have been denied access to the pits ever since so now Jorge's father has lost his job.

But because the child miners are not part of the cooperative they've carried on working, and now Jorge is helping to support his entire family, at the age of just 13.

Rodrigo Vasquez made that first film for Witness, and in Child Miners he returns to Llallagua to ask what happened to the promised reforms, and to find out if life for Jorge and Alex has improved.

Source

Taliban confirm commander's death

The fate of Baitullah Mehsud has been the subject of intense speculation

The leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, is dead, two of his senior commanders have told the BBC.

It is the first time that the militant group has acknowledged his death.

The commanders, Hakimullah Mehsud and Waliur Rehman, said that he had died of injuries sustained in a US missile strike earlier this month.

Hakimullah has been named as successor to Baitullah Mehsud, who was Pakistan's most feared militant, accused of scores of suicide bombings and other attacks.

Hakimullah Mehsud, who is believed to be in his late 20s, said Baitullah Mehsud had been critically wounded by the missile strike but died only on Sunday.

Waliur Rehman said that Hakimullah Meshud had his support as leader, and denied reports of differences between the two men.

"There are no differences between the various Taliban faction and we are all united."

Earlier, government officials said the two factions led by Hakimullah Mehsud and Waliur Rehman had taken up arms against each other.

Profile: Hakimullah Mehsud Obituary: Baitullah Mehsud

There were also claims that the newly appointed leader had been killed in a clash between the two sides.

"These are only false reports being spread by the government," Waliur Rehman said.

The fate of Baitullah Mehsud has also been the subject of intense speculation.

Senior Pakistani government officials have previously said they had information that Baitullah Mehsud was killed when a missile struck his father-in-law's compound on 5 August.

A Taliban spokesman arrested last week also reportedly confirmed Baitullah Mehsud's death to Pakistani intelligence officials.

But the Taliban have repeatedly denied these claims, despite announcing the appointment of Hakimullah Mehsud as its new leader just days ago.

The BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad says that the Pakistani government will be pleased that the Taliban has confirmed the death of Baitullah Mehsud.

It has been unable to provide tangible evidence of his death because of the remote and hostile terrain of Taliban strongholds in South Waziristan.

Source