World News joined 1

[JohnCenaFan28]

A Dutch court is considering whether the UN can be sued for failing to prevent the massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995.



About 6,000 relatives of those killed have brought a case against the UN and the Dutch government over the killings.

Dutch peacekeepers, under a UN flag, failed to intervene as Bosnian Serb forces killed more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in one week in July 1995.

The enclave had been designated a UN safe haven.

The UN has refused to take part in the case, claiming immunity - a position backed by the Dutch government.

Immunity 'undesirable'

Dutch government lawyer Bert-Jan Houtzagers said the UN must be allowed to operate without facing the threat of prosecution.

"The Bosnian Serbs are the ones who are to blame, especially General [Ratko] Mladic. He is a war criminal," he said.

Gen Mladic led the Bosnian Serb forces that overwhelmed Srebrenica. He has been indicted but is still at large.

But Axel Hagedorn, lawyer for the victims' relatives, said: "Functional immunity does not mean that international organisations are wholly above the law.

"Boundless immunity of the UN is both unacceptable and undesirable for the proper functioning and credibility of the UN."

Genocide

A number of cases have been brought by small numbers of Srebrenica survivors or relatives - including one by two families which opened in a Dutch court on Monday - but this collective action is distinguished by its size, representing thousands of relatives, including the Mothers of Srebrenica group.

Wary nations watch Srebrenica case

The Srebrenica massacre has been established as genocide, by the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.

The Dutch cabinet resigned in 2002 after a report blamed politicians for sending the Dutch UN troops on an impossible mission.

Now Dutch judges, at The Hague District Court, have to decide whether the UN can be held responsible for the tragedy, under Dutch or international law.

The court will also consider whether the Dutch government can be sued.

After Wednesday's hearing, the court said it would announce its ruling on 10 July.

Many nations are likely to be watching the decision carefully, says the BBC's Nick Miles.

If it opens up the way for the Netherlands to be sued it could make governments more wary of committing troops for peacekeeping operations - making it still harder for the UN to sustain keep them going.

BBC News

[scorpionf]

I don't understand how anyone could be so cruel and sadistic... He should be made to live as he made his daughter live.

I feel bad for his wife, but a small part of me thinks she is really dumb to have not suspected something, when 3 of her grandkids appeared from nowhere on their doorstep...

[scorpionf]

That deer looks so sweet, and he is probably wondering what all the fuss is about!

Thanks for the story!

[scorpionf]

I have seen pictures of this girl, and she is really pretty, and she is the same size as the average person, I really hope she does well, and I think she is a good role model.

You do not have to be as skinny as a rake to be gorgeous!

[scorpionf]

Such a sad story, the poor dolphins

[JohnCenaFan28]

The number of girls born and surviving in India has hit an all time low compared to boys, ActionAid says.



A report by the UK charity says increasing numbers of female foetuses were being aborted and baby girls deliberately neglected and left to die.

In one site in the Punjab state, there are just 300 girls to every 1,000 boys among higher caste families, it says.

ActionAid says India faces a "bleak" future if it does not end its practice of cultural preference for boys.

Girls 'condemned'

ActionAid teamed up with Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to produce the Disappearing Daughters report.

More than 6,000 households in sites across five states in north-western India were interviewed and statistical comparisons were made with national census date.

Under "normal" circumstances, there should be about 950 girls for every 1,000 boys, the charity said.

But it said that in three of the five sites, that number was below 800.

In four of the five sites surveyed, the proportion of girls to boys had declined since a 2001 census, the report said.

The research also found that ratios of girls to boys were declining fastest in comparatively prosperous urban areas.

ActionAid suggested the increasing use of ultrasound technology may be a factor in the trend.

The document says that Indian woman are put under intense pressure to produce sons, in a culture that predominantly views girls as a burden rather than an asset.

It says many families now use ultrasound scans and abort female foetuses, despite the existence of the 1994 law banning gender selection and selective abortion.

The charity also blames other illegal practices - such as allowing the umbilical cord to become infected - for the growing gender imbalance.

"The real horror of the situation is that, for women, avoiding having daughters is a rational choice. But for wider society it's creating an appalling and desperate state of affairs," Laura Turquet, women's rights policy official at ActionAid said.

"In the long term, cultural attitudes need to change. India must address economic and social barriers including property rights, marriage dowries and gender roles that condemn girls before they are even born.

"If we don't act now the future looks bleak," Ms Turquet said.

Some 10 million female foetuses have been aborted in India in the past 20 years, the British medical journal the Lancet has said.

BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

At least 12 people have died in a stampede during a police raid on a packed nightclub in Mexico City.



The capital's police chief said hundreds of youths marking the end of the school year had panicked when police raided the News Divine club.

He said there had been a stampede by customers trying to escape. Three police officers were among the dead.

Police said they had been investigating reports that drugs and alcohol were being sold to under-age clubbers.

At least 13 people were injured during the raid, police said.

Mexico City police chief Joel Ortega told Mexico's Televisa that the panic began when the club's owner announced that police officers were present.

Paramedics treat injured revellers while relatives wait for news

Mr Ortega said the venue had a single entrance and an emergency exit, which was blocked by cases of beer.

"Many of the people concentrated at the club's emergency exit, but it was too small and it was there that people died of asphyxia," he said.

The police chief denied earlier reports in the media that police used tear gas.

At least 500 people were in the club at the time, officials believe.

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[JohnCenaFan28]

Police in Macedonia have arrested a journalist on suspicion that he is behind three murders he reported on.



The journalist, Vlado Taneski, is accused of raping, torturing and killing three elderly women in the south-western town of Kicevo.

Macedonian police began to suspect him after he included details in his reports that they had not made public.

Other men have reportedly already been convicted of the first two murders. The third was committed last month.

Mr Taneski, 56, has not yet been charged with any offence, police said.

They allege that he kidnapped and abused the women before cutting them into pieces and dumping them in plastic bags.

"He is also suspected of being involved in... [the disappearance of] a 78-old female who is still missing," said police spokesman Ivo Kotevski.

"All victims were found naked, strangled, wrapped with phone cables," the spokesman said.

"The women were sexually and physically abused. For example, the last victim, a 65-year old female, was found with 13 deep wounds on her skull and multiple rib fractures."

All cleaners

All the women apparently had similarities to the suspect's late mother, with whom he reportedly had a poor relationship.

"All victims were elderly females with poor education who had worked as cleaners. They all were from the same neighbourhood of Kicevo," Mr Kotevski said.

Mr Taneski's editor at the Utrinski Vesnik newspaper told the Associated Press: "We are all shocked with this. I know him as an exceptionally quiet man and I would never believe that he is capable of doing something like that."

BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

A leading Church of England bishop will boycott the Lambeth Conference in protest at the presence of pro-gay bishops, it has been reported.



According to the Sunday Telegraph, the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali will decline an invitation to the Anglican Communion summit.

Bishop Nazir-Ali has helped organise the rival Gafcon conference currently being held in Jerusalem.

The Lambeth Conference, held every 10 years, takes place next month.

It is reported that two other English bishops will turn down invitations.

Currently about 280 bishops are at the Gafcon conference, many of whom are expected to boycott the Lambeth gathering.

The organisers behind the Jerusalem conference have called it a "pilgrimage back to the roots of our faith".

Gay bishop ordination

The ever-widening split caused by the dispute over homosexuality is likely to overshadow the Lambeth Conference.

The dispute was ignited when the openly gay bishop Gene Robinson was ordained in New Hampshire, in the US, in 2003.

It is the invitation to Lambeth of bishops who helped the ordination which has most recently angered some - although Gene Robinson himself has not been invited.

The BBC's religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott said the news of Bishop Nazir-Ali's boycott - among others - would be damaging to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.

He told Radio 4's Sunday programme: "It's part of a drip, drip of bad news that has affected the Lambeth Conference."

Our correspondent said the boycott, not only by the Bishop of Rochester but many other traditionalists attending Gafcon, was unprecedented in the Lambeth Conference's 100 year history.

"This meeting is needed really to knit together this very diverse group of Anglicans from all over the world and to, in a way, celebrate what they do have in common, which is an enormous amount.

"So to have this real dent in it is harmful, to put it mildly. And then to have English bishops not coming along, and making it quite clear that they are not I think is going to undermine it further.

"It will show that this dispute has entered the Church of England."

BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Scientists have turned to chickens to help them understand why some people are struck down by severe allergies.



The birds have a "fossilised" version of the key molecule responsible for severe allergic reactions in humans.

King's College London researchers say their findings, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, could guide the hunt for future treatments.

Experts said the work offered "exciting new avenues" for research into preventing allergies developing.

The molecule in birds, called IgY, appears to be an ancient forerunner of a similar human molecule called IgE - one of the culprits when the immune system goes into overdrive during asthma attacks or anaphylactic shock.

The King's team are trying to find out why IgE causes a problem, while IgY does not.

Dr Alex Taylor, one of the researchers, said: "This molecule is like a living fossil - finding out that it has an ancient past is like turning up a coelacanth in your garden pond.

"By studying it, we can track the evolution of allergic reactions back to at least 160m years ago."

His colleague Dr Rosy Calvert said: "We know that part of the problem with IgE in humans is that it binds extremely tightly to white blood cells causing an over-reaction of the immune system and so we wanted to find out whether IgY does the same thing."

Their lab tests revealed that it did not bind in the same way, and a more detailed comparison could reveal subtle differences which explain why, and perhaps provide targets for new drugs or treatments.

'Stopped before they start'

Dr Brian Sutton, who runs the laboratory where the work is being completed, suggested that IgE evolved specifically in mammals perhaps to counter a particular bacterial threat in the past.

"The problem is that now we've ended up with an antibody that can tend to be a little over enthusiastic and causes us problems with apparently innocuous substances like pollen and peanuts, which can cause life-threatening allergic conditions."

John Collard, Allergy UK's clinical director, said that the find opened "exciting new avenues" of possible treatments, even though they would not be available within the next few years.

He said: "If we could find a way to unbind IgE from white blood cells, then a lot of these allergic reactions could be stopped before they start.

"Current treatments are aimed at dealing with something that has already happened, which means they tend to be less effective than if you could stop something at an earlier stage."

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