Colombia police in wiretap probe

By Jeremy McDermott BBC News, Medellin

Colombia's secret police has lurched from scandal to scandal under Mr Uribe

Colombia's secret police is under investigation over claims rogue agents may have intercepted phone calls and passed on information to the mafia.

Magistrates, politicians, officials and journalists may have had phones tapped.

It is the latest scandal to hit the Department of Administrative Security - or DAS, as the secret police are known - under President Alvaro Uribe.

One ex-DAS director is accused of giving right-wing death squads the names of suspected rebel sympathisers.

Felipe Munoz has been the DAS director for just a month, and is now in the the middle of a scandal even worse than that which cost the job of his predecessor - although not quite as bad as one that put another former director in prison.

Too corrupt to reform?

A special squad has been set up to investigate the wire-tapping allegations.

The DAS has been at the centre of corruption scandals since Mr Uribe took over in 2002 and appointed Jorge Noguera, one of his campaign managers and a man with no intelligence experience, as director.

Mr Noguera resigned in 2005 amid accusations he was working with right-wing paramilitary death squads.

He has been imprisoned and the case is awaiting trial.

Maria Pilar Hurtado was forced to resign as director last October after it was revealed the DAS was spying on opponents of the president.

There have been calls for the DAS to be disbanded. A Ministry of Defence source said that the organisation was so corrupt that it could not be reformed.

Mexico police chief stands down

The chief of police in Ciudad Juarez, a Mexican border city wracked by drugs-related violence, has stepped down amid ongoing threats, reports say.

Roberto Orduna reportedly offered to resign hours after a police officer and a prison guard were killed.

Criminal gangs had threatened to kill at least one police officer every two days until Mr Orduna quit.

Murders are frequent in Ciudad Juarez, which sits on the US border and is a key staging post on the drug route.

Burma rights still 'challenging'

Aung San Suu Kyi and her party are frustrated at the lack of progress

A UN human rights envoy has said the situation in Burma remains challenging, and that there had been no improvement since his last visit seven months ago.

Tomas Ojea Quintana met political prisoners in Rangoon's Insein jail and government officials during his visit.

But he was not given access to either General Than Shwe or the detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US was looking for new ways to move the situation forward in Burma.

"The human rights situation in Myanmar [Burma] is still challenging. It's difficult to affirm that the human rights situation has improved," Mr Ojea Quintana told reporters in Rangoon.

Policy options?

Mrs Clinton - who is on a regional tour of Asia - said earlier this week that the US "is looking at what steps we might take that might influence the current Burmese government and we're also looking for ways that we could more effectively help the Burmese people."

The US, the EU and other countries apply political and economic sanctions against Burma because of its poor human rights and democracy record.

The National League for Democracy, Burma's opposition party led by Ms Suu Kyi, this week re-asserted its belief that sanctions remain a useful tool.

"We would be pleased to propose they be revoked when one of our three pre-requisites has been met," Soe Aung, spokesperson for the Forum for Democracy in Burma, told the BBC News website.

These are the release of all political prisoners, the re-convening of parliament and a review of the constitution passed by the regime last year, or the start of a dialogue without preconditions, he said.

Regional concern

Meanwhile, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hasan Wirajuda, on a visit to Australia, criticised the rights situation and the lack of democracy in Burma.

His comments, reported on Radio Australia, come a week ahead of a summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), of which Burma is a member.

Dr Wirajuda told the radio station that the international community must stay engaged with Burma, arguing that pressure and sanctions had not worked.

Burma's ruling generals say they have a "roadmap to democracy" which includes elections under a new constitution, a process the opposition says is fundamentally flawed.

Obama makes first foreign visit

President Obama is likely to get a warm welcome

Barack Obama has arrived in the Canadian capital Ottawa on his first foreign trip as president, for talks with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Trade, the global economy and the war in Afghanistan are the main issues to be discussed during the six-hour visit.

As America's biggest trade partner, Canada is worried about the "Buy American" measures in the $787bn (

US politicians in rare Gaza visit

Congressman Brian Baird: 'We wanted to witness the situation on the ground'

Former US presidential candidate John Kerry and two US congressmen are in Gaza in the first such visit to the Hamas-run Strip since 2007.

The two congressmen, Brian Baird and Keith Ellison, were due to meet the head of the UN relief agency, Unrwa.

The US views Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in 2007, as a terrorist organisation and will not deal with it.

The men are not likely to meet Hamas. Correspondents say their visit appears to be more humanitarian then political.

As the head of the Senate Foreign Committee, Mr Kerry is a senior Democrat, but all three men are visiting Gaza in their capacity is lawmakers, not representatives of the administration of US President Barack Obama.

A spokeswoman for the US consulate said it was thought to be the first visit by US congressmen for at least four years.

Hamas won elections in 2006 and consolidated control by force in 2007.

Like Israel, the EU and the UN, the US government officials refuse to deal with the militant group.

In addition, there have been security concerns since Palestinian militants blew up an American diplomatic convoy in October 2003, killing three people.

Many Gazans have been made homeless by the fighting

"[The visit] does not indicate any shift whatsoever with respect to Hamas... what it indicates is our effort to listen and to learn," Mr Kerry said, according to the AFP news agency.

He was speaking as he visited the Israeli town of Sderot, a target of Palestinian rocket attacks, before entering Gaza.

Mr Ellison, from Minnesota, was the first Muslim elected to the US Congress, while Mr Baird, a clinical psychologist, is from Washington.

Rockets fired

Their visit came as violent incidents tested the unilateral ceasefires Israel and Hamas have both declared, amid Egyptian-brokered attempts to reach a firmer truce deal.

The Israeli military confirmed it was carrying out airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, but gave no further details.

This followed the launching of two rockets from Gaza into Israel on Thursday morning, after two mortars were fired the previous night.

The Israeli military said its forces had also crossed into Gaza and shot and lightly injured a Palestinian near the border fence, after the man's behaviour raised suspicions he was attempting to plant a bomb.

About 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died during Israel's three-week operation in January, which was aimed at halting Palestinian rocket fire into Israel.

Since Israel withdrew its forces from Gaza, sporadic rocket and mortar fire has continued, while Israel has carried out several airstrikes against smuggling tunnels in the south of Gaza, and what it says are militant facilities elsewhere in the territory.

Iraqi shoe thrower goes on trial

Advertisement

The incident drew mixed reactions in Iraq

The Iraqi man who threw his shoes at former US President George W Bush in December has gone on trial in Baghdad.

Muntadar al-Zaidi is charged with assaulting a foreign leader and faces a maximum sentence of 15 years.

His lawyers argue he was simply expressing his views in a country where passions are still inflamed after the US-led invasion in 2003.

The TV reporter achieved global notoriety by his actions, which were celebrated across the Arab world.

'Symbol of disrespect'

The head of the defence team told the BBC they would be pressing for the charges to be dismissed and Mr Zaidi freed, without delay.

He said Mr Zaidi stood by what he had done and would not be offering any apologies to Mr Bush.

Mr Zaidi's lawyers say he was making a legitimate protest

Mr Zaidi's lawyers said earlier that he had simply been expressing his opposition to the US presence in Iraq and that Mr Bush had never been in serious danger.

"Have you ever heard of anyone being killed by a shoe?" lawyer Dhiaa al-Saadi told Reuters in December.

"In Europe, they throw eggs and rotten tomatoes to insult. In Iraq, throwing a shoe is a symbol of disrespect."

Mr Zaidi threw two shoes at Mr Bush during a press conference in Baghdad on 15 December.

He shouted that Mr Bush was "a dog" and the shoes were "a farewell kiss" from those who had been killed, orphaned or widowed in Iraq.

Mr Bush ducked the shoes and appeared untroubled by the incident, joking shortly after that he knew they were a size 10.

Mr Zaidi was arrested and has been held in custody ever since.

His actions were condemned by the Iraqi government as "shameful", but he was celebrated as a hero by thousands in the Arab world, who called for his immediate release from prison.

Mr Zaidi had been due to go on trial last December, but his trial was postponed after the appeal.

All rescued as helicopter ditches

Super Puma helicopters are used to ferry workers to and from oil platforms

All 18 people aboard a helicopter which ditched in the North Sea have survived and have been rescued from two liferafts, the coastguard has said.

The Super Puma came down near a platform in the ETAP field 125 miles east of Aberdeen. The alarm was raised at about 1840 GMT.

Three were rescued by a Bond company helicopter while the other 15 were recovered by a platform lifeboat.

The coastguard said there were no serious injuries.

However, there were some people with minor injuries, described as walking wounded.

British military spokesman James Lyne, from the RAF base at Kinloss, told the BBC the helicopter would have been equipped with life jackets, which carry electronic transmitters.

A coastguard spokesman said all 16 passengers and two crew hade been found, safe and well. He added that there were no serious injuries.

Lifejacket lights

People on board the installation saw the incident unfold, and raised the alarm with the coastguard.

There were initial reports of lifejacket lights being seen in the water, and signals being picked up from personal locator beacons, which are attached to lifejackets.

Three flares were also reported to have been seen from the platform, and helicopter fuselage was seen on the surface.

Four helicopters, including three in-field aircraft and a Sea King from RAF Lossiemouth, took part in the rescue.

A Nimrod from RAF Kinloss was also scrambled.

---

Have you been affected by this story? Were you in the area? Send us your comments below.

In most cases a selection of your comments will be published, displaying your name and location unless you state otherwise in the box below.

Name

Your E-mail address

Town & Country

Phone number (optional):

Comments

The BBC may edit your comments and not all emails will be published. Your comments may be published on any BBC media worldwide.

Terms & Conditions