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Archbishop Desmond Tutu has accused the Anglican church of allowing its "obsession" with homosexuality to come before real action on world poverty.



"God is weeping" to see such a focus on sexuality and the Church is "quite rightly" seen by many as irrelevant on the issue of poverty, he said.

It may be good to "accept that we agree to differ" on the gay issue, he said.

Archbishop Tutu was addressing a conference of church leaders organised by the Christian charity Tearfund.

The Church says its work on poverty tends to be overlooked.

The Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, John Packer, said that apart from the government, the Church of England was the biggest provider of social services at home.

The Anglican Communion was also a major contributor to international projects such as Make Poverty History and the Millennium Development Goals, he said.

More than 600 Anglicans marched through London in July to draw attention to the increasing danger that the goals - which include eradicating extreme poverty by 2015 - will not be met.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown told them that millions of people owed the Anglican Communion a debt of gratitude for upholding the cause of the poor.

'Totally irrelevant'

Archbishop Tutu told the conference in London that the Anglican Church was ideally placed to tackle poverty because of its presence at the heart of communities in the UK and overseas.

However, he said he sometimes felt ashamed of his fellow Anglicans as they focussed obsessively on trying to resolve their disagreement about homosexuality while 30,000 people died each day because of poverty.

"We really will not be able to win wars against so-called terror as long as there are conditions that make people desperate, and poverty, disease and ignorance are amongst the chief culprits," he said.

"We seem to be engaging in this kind of, almost, past-time [while] there's poverty, hunger, disease, corruption.

"I must imagine that God is weeping, and the world quite rightly should dismiss the Church in those cases as being totally irrelevant."

Archbishop Tutu accused some of his fellow Anglicans of going against the teaching of Jesus in their treatment of homosexual people by "persecuting the already persecuted".

The South African Nobel peace laureate said traditionalists were wrong to suggest that gay people had chosen homosexuality and the dispute had to be kept in proportion.

"It will be good for us obviously, to resolve our differences on this, and maybe accept that we agree to differ," he said.

For the Anglican Communion, that is more easily said than done.

Traditionalists suspect that the call for an end to discussions about homosexuality is designed to allow liberal developments to go unchallenged.

Others, including Bishop John Packer, insist that the Church must have a sexual ethic - a sense of what is right and wrong in sexual behaviour.

Most agree that only by staying united will it continue to exercise real influence on the world stage.

BBC News

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Rescuers in Cairo are continuing their search for survivors after a rockslide crushed dozens of houses in Egypt's capital, killing at least 31 people.



Dozens of houses in a shanty town in the eastern Duwayqa area were hit by huge boulders and rocks on Saturday.

At least 40 people were injured and dozens are said to be still trapped in the rubble.

A six-storey building below the Muqattam hills had been completely reduced to rubble, residents said.

It was not clear what had triggered the rockfall but local residents were blaming construction work on the hill for causing the disaster.

'Horror'

At least eight boulders - each estimated to weigh about 70 tonnes - fell from the towering cliffs overlooking the district at about 0900 local time (0700 GMT), reports said.

"The power went out, we heard a loud bang like an earthquake and I thought this house had collapsed. I went out, I saw the whole mountain had collapsed," said Hassan Ibrahim Hassan, 80, whose house escaped the destruction.

"It was horror," he said.

Witnesses described seeing hundreds of distraught people gathered around the site of the destruction, saying they had relatives and friends trapped under the rubble.

Some were scrabbling at the rocks with their bare hands.

Rescue teams were forced to wait for the arrival of cranes and heavy lifting equipment to allow them to move the huge rocks, but as night fell the help had not arrived.

A BBC correspondent says there have been previous landslides in the area.

BBC News

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Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has challenged President Robert Mugabe to hold a new election if he is not prepared to share his powers.



Mr Tsvangirai said he would withdraw from power-sharing talks if a satisfactory deal could not be reached.

Mr Mugabe has said he will form a government without the MDC if they do not agree to a power-sharing deal being mediated by South Africa's president.

Mr Mugabe and Mr Tsvangirai both say they won elections earlier this year.

"The issue that we are facing here is that Mugabe must accept to surrender some of his powers for the power-sharing arrangement to work," Mr Tsvangirai told a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rally in Gweru, in central Zimbabwe.

Talks deadlocked

At talks mediated by South Africa, the two rivals have agreed that Mr Tsvangirai would be named prime minister while Mr Mugabe remained president, but they cannot agree on how to share powers.

The MDC wants Mr Mugabe to become a ceremonial president, while the ruling Zanu-PF party insists he retain control of the security forces and the powers to appoint and dismiss ministers.

"We would rather have no deal than a bad deal," Mr Tsvangirai said.

He also said he would not bow to pressure from South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has been acting as a mediator in the crisis.

Mr Mbeki is due to return to Zimbabwe's capital Harare on Monday to continue the search for a solution to the political impasse.

The MDC leader gained more votes than Mr Mugabe in March elections but official results show he did not pass the 50% threshold for outright victory.

Mr Tsvangirai pulled out of the June run-off, saying 200 of his supporters had been killed and 200,000 forced from their homes in a campaign of violence led by the army and supporters of the ruling Zanu-PF.

Zanu-PF has denied the claims and accused the MDC of both exaggerating the scale of the violence and being responsible for it.

Mr Mugabe said on Thursday that the opposition MDC had one week to agree a power-sharing deal, or he will form his own government.

BBC News

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Angola's ruling MPLA party is heading for a landslide victory in the country's first parliamentary elections in 16 years, preliminary results show.



With around half of the votes counted, the MPLA had received 81% of the vote, the electoral commission said.

It said the main opposition party, Unita, had polled 10%.

Unita is demanding a re-run in Luanda, saying the voting in the capital was chaotic. An African observer mission said the elections had been credible.

This poll is seen as a vital step in the oil-rich country's recovery from decades of civil war.

Fourteen parties took part in the elections. Full results are not expected for up to 10 days.

'Bad losers'

Polling was extended after chaos on Friday prevented many people in Luanda province from casting their vote.

Some polling stations opened late and others quickly ran out of ballot papers.

Unita (the Union for the Total Independence of Angola) is now challenging the legality of the poll in the constitutional court.

The party's leader, Isaias Samakuva, said the system in Luanda had collapsed.

Ngola Kabangu, who heads the opposition FNLA party, said the election was extremely flawed.

The MPLA (the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola) has branded Unita "bad losers" and is already claiming victory, the BBC's Louise Redvers in Luanda says.

Population shifts in some provinces due to the long-running civil war have added to Unita's woes, with the MPLA winning majorities in traditionally strong opposition areas, our correspondent says.

Observers from the regional grouping, Southern African Development Community (Sadc), said the vote had been "transparent and credible".

"The Sadc mission congratulates the people of Angola on peaceful, free, transparent and credible elections which reflect the will of the people," John Kunene of the observer mission told the AFP news agency.

Luisa Morgantini, head of the EU observer mission in Angola, blamed "woeful organisation" for the problems and said that a failure to provide voter registration lists at polling stations was a violation of the country's electoral laws.

She added that some election officials had failed to show up at some polling stations, and that there was a shortage of the ink used to mark voters' fingers and prevent multiple voting.

In the lead up to the election, Unita accused the MPLA of intimidating its supporters and dominating state media.

Some eight million voters are registered in the country - more than a quarter of whom live in the capital's overcrowded conditions.

The MPLA has ruled Angola since the country gained independence from Portugal in 1975.

BBC News

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Two explosions have rocked a police station in Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar, killing at least two policemen, officials say.



They say about 30 people - including civilians - were injured when two suicide bombers detonated their bombs in quick succession inside the station.

US-led and Afghan forces have been battling Taleban insurgents in the region in recent weeks.

In June, at least 350 rebels were freed during a jailbreak from Kandahar jail.

'General targeted'

"There were two suicide bombers who blew themselves up inside the police headquarters one after another," Ahmad Wali Karzai, head of Kandahar's provincial council, was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

The bombers targeted a senior border police commander, General Abdul Razaaq, who was injured in the attacks, reports say.

Earlier reports said at least six people had been killed in the blasts.

Police sealed off the area shortly after the explosions.

Kandahar is one of the key battlegrounds of the current rebel insurgency against the Afghan government and troops from Nato and a US-led coalition.

In a separate development, a suicide bomber attacked a Nato convoy in the western city of Herat but caused no casualties, officials say.

The US-led coalition said its forces had killed more than 10 insurgents in an operation in the eastern province of Khost on Saturday.

Afghanistan has seen rising levels of violence in recent months.

There are about 70,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, most of them serving under Nato's command.

BBC News

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The US presidential rivals have begun campaigning in earnest, as a new opinion poll put Republican John McCain ahead of Democrat Barack Obama.



Fresh from being nominated at their party conventions, the two men are now gearing up for the 4 November poll.

A USA Today-Gallup poll put Mr McCain ahead for the first time in months.

Candidates often see a bounce in the polls after the conventions but Mr McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as running mate is being seen as key.

Mr McCain has tried to strike a balance between distancing himself from an unpopular presidency and rallying the party's conservative base.

Mrs Palin wowed the Republican convention crowd with her speech, helping to re-energise his campaign.

Major test

Mr McCain said that "the electricity has been incredible" at rallies ever since he invited the Alaskan governor to join his ticket.

"She has excited people all over the country. I would love to say it was all because of the charisma of John McCain, but it is not," he told CBS on Sunday.

Mrs Palin will face a major test this week when she gives her first nationally televised interview, following intense media scrutiny over her personal life and credentials for the ticket.

The USA Today-Gallup poll, which was released on Sunday, showed Mr McCain leading Mr Obama by four percentage points, 50 to 46.

A USA Today poll taken before the Republican convention showed Mr McCain trailing Mr Obama by seven points.

The latest poll had a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

The results of a Reuters/Zogby poll, also released over the weekend, gave Mr McCain the edge, with 50 percentage points to 46.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll showed John McCain with a one-point lead.

Mr McCain and Mrs Palin are scheduled to be in Missouri on Monday.

Mr Obama is campaigning in the crucial swing state of Michigan. His vice-president, Joe Biden, was appearing in Wisconsin and Iowa, while Hillary Clinton is on the campaign trail in Florida.

Despite the frenetic pace of the presidential race, the candidates will stop campaigning on Thursday to appear together in New York on the anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks.

They said they would put aside politics to honour the memory of the nearly 3,000 people who died.

BBC News

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Jury selection has begun at a court in Las Vegas, Nevada, in the trial of the former US football star OJ Simpson.



Mr Simpson was arrested last September for allegedly robbing at gunpoint two sports memorabilia dealers in a hotel.

He faces 12 charges including assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping and burglary. If found guilty he could face life in prison.

Mr Simpson, 61, and his co-defendant, Clarence Stewart, 54, have pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Mr Simpson's legal team said he was trying to retrieve stolen memorabilia that belonged to him and have denied that any guns were involved.

Selection process

Arriving at the Clark County Regional Justice Center, Mr Simpson declined to answer reporters' questions, but smiled and waved when someone called out "Good luck!"

Prosecutors, defence lawyers and District Judge Jackie Glass have used questionnaires to identify jurors with biases and cut the pool from 500 to fewer than 250 candidates.

Selecting the 12-member panel and four alternatives could take a week or longer, court officials said.

BBC News

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South African President Thabo Mbeki has flown to Harare to revive Zimbabwe's deadlocked power-sharing talks.



BBC Southern Africa correspondent Jonah Fisher says this may be the last chance for Mr Mbeki's mediation.

Both Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai claim to have won this year's elections, marred by widespread violence.

Since South Africa-brokered crisis talks broke down last month, both sides have hardened their positions.

Mr Mugabe has said he is ready to form a government alone, while Mr Tsvangirai over the weekend said there should be new elections if a deal is not reached.

South African Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said Mr Mbeki would meet both men, as well as Arthur Mutambara, the leader of a smaller opposition faction.

'Surrender powers'

Before talks broke down, the two rivals had agreed that Mr Tsvangirai would be named prime minister while Mr Mugabe remained president, but they could not agree on how to share powers.

The MDC wanted Mr Mugabe to become a ceremonial president, while the ruling Zanu-PF party insisted he retain control of the security forces and the powers to appoint and dismiss ministers.

"The issue that we are facing here is that Mugabe must accept to surrender some of his powers for the power-sharing arrangement to work," Mr Tsvangirai told a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rally in Gweru, in central Zimbabwe on Sunday.

"We would rather have no deal than a bad deal," Mr Tsvangirai said.

He also said he would not bow to pressure from Mr Mbeki, who has been acting as a mediator in the crisis.

Mr Mugabe said on Thursday that the opposition MDC had one week to agree a power-sharing deal, or he would form his own government.

He says he is tired of waiting for the opposition to sign a draft deal and he will push ahead alone if necessary.

Our correspondent says a new government dominated by Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF would continue to face all the same problems - shortages of food, fuel and hyperinflation.

Western countries have made it clear they will only lift sanctions and assist in reconstruction if the opposition is given real power.

The MDC leader gained more votes than Mr Mugabe in March elections but official results show he did not pass the 50% threshold for outright victory.

Mr Tsvangirai pulled out of the June run-off, saying some 200 of his supporters had been killed and 200,000 forced from their homes in a campaign of violence led by the army and supporters of the ruling Zanu-PF.

Zanu-PF has denied the claims and accused the MDC of both exaggerating the scale of the violence and being responsible for it.

BBC News

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Ukraine's territorial integrity is "non-negotiable", France's Nicolas Sarkozy has affirmed at the end of an EU summit with the country in Paris.



Mr Sarkozy's reassurance comes after rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine over its Crimea region.

Ukraine has also been offered an association agreement with the EU, to be signed next year.

The accord represents cautious support for possible eventual EU membership for Ukraine.

"In the eyes of Europe, [territorial integrity] is absolutely non-negotiable," Mr Sarkozy said in a response to a question from reporters in Paris.

He underlined that the accord left the path for future membership of the 27-member state bloc open, saying: "This association accord does not close any avenues."

Patience

Ahead of the summit, Ukraine's president had sought a strong signal that the country belongs within Europe, diplomats said, to deter Moscow from intervening as it did in Georgia.

But the BBC's Emma-Jane Kirby, in Paris, said EU diplomats have been acutely aware of the risk of angering Russia by further strengthening ties between the former Soviet republic Ukraine and Europe.

"It is the maximum that we could do, and I believe that it is already an essential step," Mr Sarkozy said.

Mr Sarkozy emphasised that the accord was a recognised first step for countries with aspirations of EU membership.

Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko recognised the difficult timing of the summit and welcomed the association agreement as a successful outcome.

"We understand very well the conditions of this dialogue at present. This isn't the best time, given the situation in the region but we're patient," he said.

Fears have been raised that Ukraine, which has rocky relations with Russia, could find itself in a similar position to Georgia over South Ossetia.

Ukraine's Crimea region, like South Ossetia, is home to a significant Russian population. It also hosts a Russian naval base, which President Yushchenko has made clear he would rather not be there.

For the EU, Ukraine remains a key energy transit route and is seen as vital to the union's long-term security and energy strategy.

However some EU member states, including the Netherlands, Germany and Italy, have been reluctant to allow any explicit statement confirming Ukraine's future membership of the bloc.

The country is in the midst of political turmoil, following the collapse of its coalition government last week.

Mr Yushchenko threatened to dissolve parliament and call elections after his supporters walked out in protest at new laws to trim presidential powers.

The laws were introduced by the opposition and backed by his former ally Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's bloc, now his rival in the upcoming presidential elections.

BBC News

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French carmaker Renault has announced 6,000 job cuts, as it responds to an industry-wide slowdown in sales.



Renault said that 4,900 positions would go in France, and 1,100 in other European countries, through voluntary redundancy measures.

French unions have reacted angrily to the news, with the CGT union calling for a one-day strike on Thursday.

The CGT also asked President Nicolas Sarkozy to intervene. The French government owns 15% of Renault.

Missed sales targets

Renault's move follows its announcement in July that while its half-year profits had risen 37%, it had fallen behind on its sales targets.

Some 1,000 jobs will go at Renault's Sandouville plant in western France, which makes the firm's large-sized, but weak-selling Laguna model.

Renault is also to freeze the hiring of new staff.

It said it now intended to sell more than three million vehicles this year compared with its original goal of 3.3 million.

BBC News

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Russia says it will keep 7,600 troops in Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia after withdrawing from the rest of the country.



On Monday, Russia agreed to withdraw its troops from positions within Georgia, taken up during the recent conflict, by mid-October.

The first troops were seen abandoning a checkpoint near Abkhazia, at the Black Sea town of Ganmukhuri, witnesses said.

But Russia says it will set up military bases in both disputed regions.

It also says it has established formal diplomatic ties with their administrations.

The move followed a decision - condemned by the US and EU but defined as "irrevocable" by Moscow - to recognise South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said troops were expected to remain in the two regions "for the foreseeable future".

"Russian troops will remain on the territory of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on request of their leaders in parliament," Mr Lavrov said from Moscow.

"They will be there a long time. This is absolutely necessary, so as not to allow a repeat of armed actions," he added.

Mr Lavrov said that both regions should also be able to participate in talks on Georgia scheduled for next month in Geneva with "fully fledged" places.

Russia is expected to sign formal agreements on troop deployment in South Ossetia and Abkhazia over the coming days.

International observers

Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said that some 3,800 men would be positioned in each breakaway region.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had already indicated that Moscow intended to maintain a military presence in the regions, but Mr Serdyukov's statement provides the first specific breakdown of troop numbers.

On Monday, Mr Medvedev pledged to withdraw troops from the rest of Georgia on condition that the EU would deploy at least 200 observers, along with 220 other international monitors to ensure the security of the two breakaway regions.

Under the deal, Russia will pull out within 10 days of the deployment of EU monitors.

Already on Tuesday, Russian troops and military vehicles rolled away from their positions at Ganmukhuri, a Black Sea town near the border with Abkhazia.

"It is the first sign of the Russian pull-out from the so-called buffer zones as a result of the 8 September agreement," a Georgian interior ministry spokesman said.

A defence ministry official in Moscow confirmed the move.

"In accordance with the agreements... the defence ministry has begun the dismantling of checkpoints in zones in South Ossetia and Abkhazia," he said, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

Russian troops are present in both Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as in so-called buffer zones around these regions and near the strategic port city of Poti.

Fighting between Russia and Georgia began on 7 August after the Georgian military tried to retake the breakaway region of South Ossetia by force.

Russian forces launched a counter-attack and the conflict ended with the ejection of Georgian troops from both South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Also on Tuesday, South Ossetia's Prosecutor General Taimuraz Khugayev said that investigations had confirmed that more than 500 people had been killed during Georgia's attack last month, according to Russian news agency, Interfax.

Russia initially suggested more than 1,500 people had died in the conflict. Independent observers say they have been unable to confirm such high figures.

BBC News

[John]

Thankyou for the news.

[JohnCenaFan28]

The US has imposed sanctions on an Iranian shipping company and 18 of its affiliates over its alleged support for Tehran's nuclear programme.



The Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) had provided logistical support for the Iranian defence ministry, the US treasury said.

IRISL's US-based assets would be frozen and its transactions banned, it said.

The US has already imposed a number of sanctions on Iran linked to its controversial nuclear programme.

Western nations accuse Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapon. But Tehran says its nuclear activities are aimed solely at peaceful energy development.

'Deceptive schemes'

The US treasury accused IRISL, a global operator, of shipping "military-related cargo" and lying about its activities.

"Not only does IRISL facilitate the transport of cargo for UN-designated proliferators, it also falsifies documents and uses deceptive schemes to shroud its involvement in illicit commerce," Stuart Levey, Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in a statement.

"IRISL's actions are part of a broader pattern of deception and fabrication that Iran uses to advance its nuclear and missile programs," he said.

The move means that US citizens and companies will not be allowed to do business with IRISL and its affiliates. The companies' bank accounts will be frozen.

The UN has passed three rounds of sanctions against Iran aimed at curtailing its nuclear programme.

Last month, the European Union approved new measures against Tehran after it missed a deadline to respond to a proposal from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany to suspend uranium enrichment.

BBC News

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The US Democratic presidential candidate has denied claims of sexism after likening his rival's promise of change to putting "lipstick on a pig".

Barack Obama said Republican John McCain's outrage was "phoney", a diversion from debating real issues.

The controversy began on Tuesday after Mr Obama said his rival was advocating change while pursuing the politics of the current Bush administration.

Mr McCain's campaign accused him of smearing running mate Sarah Palin.

Mrs Palin joked last week that lipstick was all that separated a "hockey mom" and a pitbull.

'Made-up' controversy

Mr Obama made the remark during a rally in Virginia where he accused the McCain campaign of trying suddenly to adopt the promise of change - a platform he himself has been running on for months.

Drawing a link between the Republican senator for Arizona and President George W Bush, he suggested change would be impossible for Mr McCain to achieve.

"You can put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig. You can wrap up an old fish in a piece of paper and call it change. It's still going to stink after eight years. We've had enough."

Mrs Palin, a self-described "hockey mom", made her joke about lipstick during a speech at the Republican National Convention last Wednesday.

Soon after Mr Obama's comments, McCain aides produced an election campaign ad referring to "sexism in American life", and accusing the Illinois senator of "smearing" Mrs Palin, governor of Alaska.

And there was speculation that Mr Obama might apologise, but he took a more aggressive line, says the BBC's Kevin Connolly in Washington.

He dismissed the "made-up controversy" on Wednesday - defending his remark as an "innocent expression".

Mr Obama said his comments had been taken out of context.

"The McCain campaign would much rather have the story about phoney and foolish diversions than about the future," the Illinois senator said.

Republicans may well try to keep the controversy going, although one difficulty for them is that John McCain has himself used the offending phrase, our Washington correspondent says.

Mr McCain had used the same analogy to criticise a health care plan presented by former Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton last year.

The row erupted as a new poll by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News suggested that Mr Obama and Mr McCain were in a statistical dead heat. Mr Obama held a lead of several points earlier this summer.

Another poll by CNN and the Opinion Research Foundation also put the rival candidates in a statistical tie, with Mr Obama polling 49% to Mr McCain's 48%.

The latest Gallup daily tracking poll of registered voters gave Mr McCain a lead of 49% to Mr Obama's 44%.

BBC News

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An association in China says that suicide is the leading cause of death among young people.



The Chinese Association for Mental Health says young people aged between 15 and 34 are more likely to die at their own hand than by any other means.

The suicide rate is reported to be higher in the countryside than cities, with more women taking their own lives.

The report was published in advance of World Suicide Prevention Day, taking place on Wednesday.

In some countries the leading cause of death among young people is road accidents. In China, it is suicide.

Studies come up with a number of reasons for the higher rates of female suicide in rural areas.

In particular, doctors say that arguments about marriage cause rural women to commit suicide.

Books withdrawn

But the problem is not just in the countryside.

In the city of Shanghai, three students have tried to kill themselves since the school year began at the start of September.

Another student, a 12-year-old boy, died when he jumped from a sixth floor window.

So the authorities in Shanghai have told schools to send out mental health questionnaires to several thousand pupils to try to prevent anyone else from killing themselves.

In addition, local bookshops have taken a number of books with suicide-related themes off their shelves.

They include a popular comic book called "The Rabbit Which Wanted To Kill Itself".

BBC News

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Prosecutors are to seek a retrial of seven British men who were accused of a plot to blow up planes flying from the UK to North America with liquid bombs.

Three men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder but the jury was unable to decide whether they and four other men had planned to target planes.

The men had denied plotting to bring down planes from Heathrow with home-made bombs disguised as soft drinks.

The Crown Prosecution Service will put a retrial application before a court.

The CPS said the seven men should face a retrial on every count the jury, which was discharged on Monday, had failed to agree on.

Director of public prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald QC said: "This will include a count that each defendant conspired to detonate improvised explosive devices on transatlantic passenger aircraft.

"We shall be returning to court to make this application in due course."

He added he had reached the decision after "careful consideration" with the head of his counter-terrorism division and counsel.

Making videos

The seven men are Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, Assad Sarwar, 28, Tanvir Hussain, 27, Ibrahim Savant, 27, Arafat Waheed Khan, 27, Waheed Zaman, 24, and Umar Islam, 30.

On Monday, after a five-month trial at London's Woolwich Crown Court, Ali, of Walthamstow, east London, Sarwar, of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, and Hussain, of Leyton, east London, were found guilty of conspiracy to murder. They have yet to be sentenced.

The jury was unable to reach a verdict on whether they and London residents Mr Savant, of Stoke Newington, Mr Islam, of Plaistow, and Mr Zaman and Mr Khan, both of Walthamstow, had conspired to detonate explosives on aircraft.

The jurors also failed to decide whether or not Mr Savant, Mr Islam, Mr Zaman and Mr Khan were guilty of conspiracy to murder, and those four men also face a possible retrial on that count.

All seven had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit public nuisance by making videos threatening bombings, but none of the men has yet been sentenced for that offence.

Political protest

Ali, Sarwar and Hussain told the jury they had wanted to create a political spectacle in protest at British foreign policy.

It would have included fake suicide videos and devices that would frighten, rather than kill, the public.

Prosecutors alleged the men had been planning to carry liquid explosives on to planes at Heathrow, knowing the devices would evade airport security checks.

However the court heard the explosives had never been fully constructed and tickets had neither been bought nor plans to travel made.

Sweeping airport restrictions on liquids in hand luggage were brought in following the men's arrests in August 2006.

An eighth defendant in the Woolwich Crown Court trial - Mohammad Gulzar, 27, of Barking, east London - was cleared of all charges.

BBC News

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is believed to be recovering from a recent stroke, officials in South Korea say.



Speaking after a late-night briefing, a South Korean spokesman said that the 66-year-old leader was not thought to be in a serious condition.

Speculation over Mr Kim's health mounted after he failed to appear at an important military parade on Tuesday.

A North Korean diplomat, however, has dismissed the reports of Mr Kim's ill health as "worthless".

Kim Jong-il has ruled the communist nation since his father, Kim Il-sung, died in 1994. He has not yet named a successor.

'No vacuum'

On Tuesday, Mr Kim missed a parade in Pyongyang to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the North Korea's foundation.

Late on Wednesday, intelligence officials told South Korean President Lee Myung-bak that Mr Kim was believed to be recuperating from an apparent stroke.

"At the meeting, Lee was given a report that the North Korean leader has passed a critical moment after suffering a stroke," Yonhap news agency quoted presidential spokesman Lee Dong-kwan as saying.

South Korean lawmakers earlier received a similar briefing at a closed session of parliament.

"Kim suffered either a stroke or a cerebral haemorrhage, but is recovering, the intelligence agency said," opposition lawmaker Won Hye-young told journalists. "Pyongyang is not in a state of administrative vacuum."

"Although Kim is not fit enough for outside activity, he is conscious and able to control affairs," Yonhap news agency quoted him as saying.

Lee Myung-bak has nonetheless told his Cabinet to be prepared for an abrupt change in North Korea's political situation, the agency said.

Mr Kim has not been seen in public since early last month. He has been known to disappear from public view for extended periods before, only to reappear later.

This time, however, the reports of ill health have been given added impetus by news that a team of Chinese doctors was recently summoned to examine him.

North Korea has rejected reports that Kim Jong-il is unwell. The North Korean diplomat in charge of relations with Japan, Song Il-ho, dismissed the claims as a "conspiracy plot".

The communist state's deputy leader, Kim Yong-nam, was later quoted, again by Kyodo, as saying there was "no problem".

Nuclear fears

Concerns about Mr Kim's health come amid an impasse in international efforts to urge North Korea to abandon its nuclear programme.

North Korea agreed in February 2007 to give up its nuclear ambitions in return for aid and diplomatic concessions, but the progress of the deal has been far from smooth.

After a long delay, Pyongyang handed over details of its nuclear facilities in June 2008. In return, it expected the US to remove it from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

But the two sides cannot agree on a process to verify the information that North Korea handed over and Pyongyang now appears to be starting to reassemble its main nuclear plant.

Meanwhile the World Food Programme estimates that North Korea is suffering from a serious food shortage.

The North has relied on foreign assistance to help feed its 23 million people since its state-controlled economy collapsed in the mid-1990s.

BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Shares in troubled US bank Lehman Brothers have plunged again on concerns over the future of the bank.



Lehman announced the biggest loss in its history on Wednesday and investors remain unconvinced by the bank's plans to strengthen its finances.

One analyst said the firm was "limping along" and "may or may not make it".

Lehman's shares fell 40% to $4.30 and have lost 76% since Monday. The value of other financial firms has also been affected by the nervousness.

Shares in mortgage lender Washington Mutual, for example, fell more than 20%.

"We thought that getting news out of Lehman was going to clear the dark cloud but it really doesn't," said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jeffries.

"It just leaves us with a company that's limping along, that may or may not make it," he added.

The company's shares are down more than 94% from their 52-week high of $67.73 in November 2007.

"As much as they try to... calm investors down, investors don't have yet the answers they need," said Rose Grant, managing director of Eastern Investment Advisors.

"There's a complete lack of faith, lack of confidence and lack of trust."

Lehman has lost billions of dollars through its badly judged bets on the growth of US sub-prime mortgages - a market that began to crumble last year.

The Wall Street bank said on Wednesday it made a loss of $3.9bn (£2.2bn) between June and August, taking its losses this year to $6.6bn.

To shore up its weak financial position, it has slashed its dividend and will sell a stake in its lucrative fund management arm.

It will also reduce its exposure to residential mortgages and spin off its commercial real estate business as part of the shake-up.

But investors were not convinced that Lehman would be able to pull off the deals and raise the money it needs to plug its losses.

"Finance is a confidence game," said Andrew Busch, analyst at BMO Capital Markets.

"Once it's gone, the critical function of being able to trade with other financial entities becomes difficult and expensive," he added.

BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

President George W Bush has authorised US military raids against militants inside Pakistan without prior approval from Islamabad, the BBC has learned.



An unnamed senior Pentagon official told the BBC the classified order had been made within the past two months.

On Wednesday, the US's top military commander said the US was shifting its strategy in Afghanistan to include raids across the border into Pakistan.

Pakistan has said it will not allow foreign forces onto its territory.

Meanwhile, security officials in Pakistan say they have killed up to 100 militants on the Afghan border. There is no confirmation.

The US say that Pakistan's north-west tribal areas are being used as "safe havens" by militants preparing attacks on Afghanistan.

But Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, said there was "no question of any agreement or understanding with the coalition forces whereby they are allowed to conduct operations on our side of the border".

'Common insurgency'

A senior Pentagon official told the BBC that Mr Bush gave his approval this summer for cross-border raids into Pakistan.

The order includes the use of conventional ground troops crossing the border into Pakistan to pursue militants there.

The BBC's Kim Ghattas in Washington says it is a sign of growing US frustration with Islamabad's lack of assertive action against the militants.

There is also an increasing concern about the threat such militants pose to Nato troops in neighbouring Afghanistan, and potentially to the US, says our correspondent.

The US has officially stressed the need for co-operation, and on Thursday, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen told Congress that the US must continue to work closely with Pakistan.

"In my view, these two nations are inextricably linked in a common insurgency that crosses the border between them," he said.

"We can hunt down and kill extremists as they cross over the border from Pakistan... but until we work more closely with the Pakistani government to eliminate the safe havens from which they operate, the enemy will only keep coming."

But, our correspondent says, the latest revelation will only add to the tensions between the two countries.

BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Junior school pupils in Tanzania experienced a mass fainting fit while taking their final year exams, an educational official has told the BBC.



The 20 girls at Ali Hassan Mwinyi School in Tabora started fainting after finishing their first paper.

"I'm not a specialist but I imagine this was a case of mass hysteria that does happen in some of the schools," Midemo Paul Makungu said.

He said it only affected the girls, some of whom took 40 minutes to revive.

"There was chaos, crying, screaming, running after that first paper," Mr Makungu, Tabora's educational officer, told the BBC News website.

More than 140 Standard Seven pupils were taking the national exam at the school in the north of the country.

He said special arrangements were made so that those who had fainted could finish the other two papers they had that day.

"They eventually finished at 11pm," he said.

It is not the first such incident at the school - over the last month there have been several mass fainting fits amongst the girl pupils.

"Normally this happens in girls' secondary schools. It is very common here," Mr Makungu said.

BBC News