Ex-BBC reporter Vugar Khalilov held in Kyrgyzstan

Vugar Khalilov's supporters say he is being denied medical treatment

A British public relations executive who once worked for ousted Kyrgyzstan president Kurmanbek Bakiyev has been arrested and detained in Bishkek.

Former BBC reporter Vugar Khalilov, who moved there in 2009, has been accused of money laundering - which he denies.

The new government has been accused of ignoring Mr Khalilov's human rights and keeping him in solitary confinement since his arrest on 12 April.

Mr Khalilov's supporters have said the charges are politically motivated.

He moved from London to Kyrgyzstan, where he was the head of public relations company Flexi Communications.

Two-month detention

The 41-year-old was held by members of the national security service shortly after meeting David Moran, the UK ambassador to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Prosecutors confirmed his detention on Friday and spokesman Ulan Dykambayev said: "On April 12, the Prosecutor Generals' Office sanctioned the arrest of Vugar Khalilov on charges of legalising and laundering funds obtained in a criminal manner."

He told the AFP news agency that Mr Khalilov will be held for two months while an investigation takes place.

Kurmanbek Bakiyev maintains he is still leader of Kyrgyzstan

Supporters have set up a site on the social networking site Facebook.

Mr Khalilov's lawyer Artyom Ivanov has now met his client following representations in court, according to Mr Khalilov's brother Azer.

He also said his relative was a successful businessman who the new administration had used as a "scapegoat".

He said: "In a country where the president and his allies control most of the economy, it was inevitable that some of his business would be in contact with people close to President Bakiyev."

Health fears

Azer Khalilov said his brother had written 15 letters to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Foreign Secretary David Miliband, but that these letters had not been received by the British consul in Bishkek.

He has since written another letter appealing to Mr Brown, Azer said.

He also added that Azerbaijan-born Mr Khalilov's family had urged him to leave the country during the recent protests - he refused, saying he had no reason to be scared and had done nothing wrong.

The detainee's brother urged the Foreign Office to ensure Mr Khalilov's legal rights were upheld and said the family feared his spinal hernia would get worse because of detention conditions.

"We don't want him to be given practically a life sentence of catching an illness during his confinement even if he is found innocent, which we are confident he will be," he said.

The Foreign Office said it was aware of the arrest and would monitor the case.

A spokeswoman said: "Consular officials have visited the individual in detention and are providing consular assistance."

Overthrown

The charges are believed to relate to a loan that Mr Khalilov took out to start his public relations company.

Mr Bakiyev was overthrown in mass protests on 7 April. More than 80 people were killed when anti-government protests in Bishkek, and other towns turned violent.

Kyrgyzstan's interim leaders said Mr Bakiyev's administration ordered troops to open fire on protesters.

They have said he should stand trial over the unrest in which 85 people died.

Mr Bakiyev maintains he is still president.

Tens of thousands flee ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan

A third day of fighting in the south of the country has claimed nearly 100 lives, officials say.

Witnesses speak of Kyrgyz men shooting ethnic Uzbeks and setting property alight; a BBC correspondent in the city of Osh has heard heavy gunfire.

On Saturday the interim government gave security forces shoot-to-kill powers.

Kyrgyzstan's interim government has urged Russia to send in troops to help quell the violence, but Moscow says it has no plans to intervene.

A battalion of paratroops would be sent to protect Russian facilities in the country, Interfax news agency reported, quoting a security source.

Both Russia and the United States have military bases in the north of the country.
'Shoot-outs'

Kyrgyzstan's interim government extended a state of emergency to cover the entire southern Jalalabad region, as ethnic clashes spread there from neighbouring Osh.

One resident in Jalalabad said fighting was going on throughout the city.

"At the current moment, there are shoot-outs going on in the streets," he told the AFP news agency by telephone.

"There is a veil of smoke covering the whole city," another resident told AFP. He said buildings on fire included a shopping centre.

Without international assistance there are fears the interim authorities will struggle to contain the conflict, the BBC's Rayhan Demytrie in Osh reports.

She says buildings are ablaze in Osh - television pictures show street after street of burnt-out buildings and black smoke billowing in the air.

President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was ousted in April and now lives in Belarus, has denied accusations from the government that he is involved in the unrest in order to derail a 27 June constitutional referendum and elections scheduled for October.

Mr Bakiyev had strong support in southern Kyrgyzstan.

'We need food'

The south of Kyrgyzstan, an ex-Soviet Central Asian state of 5.5 million people, is home to an ethnic Uzbek minority of almost one million.

KYRGYZ-UZBEK TENSIONS

Continue reading the main story

• Kyrgyz make up nearly 70% of the population, Uzbeks account for about 15% and are concentrated in the Ferghana Valley in the south
• Osh, the country's second city, is home to a large ethnic Uzbek community
• There has been tension in the south between the two ethnic groups over land and housing
• In 1990, hundreds were killed in Osh in clashes between Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks

Eyewitness: 'We're hiding' In pictures: Violence in Kyrgyzstan

The violence has prompted tens of thousands of people to head for the nearby border with Uzbekistan.

Uzbek emergency officials said at least 30,000 people had crossed the border from Kyrgyzstan. One official told Russia's RIA Novosti news agency that 75,000 had entered Uzbekistan.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had received similar reports.

Ethnic Uzbek eyewitnesses told our correspondent at a border crossing with Uzbekistan that gangs of armed Kyrgyz had been marauding through neighbourhoods, killing residents and burning homes.

One woman pleaded for help: "We need food, we need water, I have got two sons and they are little and I need water and food to survive."

There have also been reports of Kyrgyz casualties.

One Kyrgyz family the BBC spoke to by telephone said an Uzbek boy armed with a gun shot dead three Kyrgyz men who were approaching them.

Pakistan says one of its citizens, a student, has been killed in Osh and it is investigating reports that 15 others have been taken hostage.

More than 1,000 people have been wounded in the violence, the authorities say. Some reports say the casualty figures could be much higher.

It is not clear what sparked the latest unrest.

According to local reports, fighting broke out between rival gangs and developed into gun battles late on Thursday.

In recent weeks, several incidents had prompted fears of inter-ethnic violence between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz.

The clashes are the worst ethnic violence to hit southern Kyrgyzstan since 1990, when several hundred people were killed. Kyrgyzstan was then part of the Soviet Union, which sent in troops to quell the unrest.

Analysis: UK politics may have to get used to horse trading

London, England (CNN) -- How big is big? How open is open?

Conservative leader David Cameron has said his power-sharing offer to the Liberal Democrats following the unresolved UK election is "big, open and comprehensive."

But will it be big enough to tempt them to ally with a traditional political opponent? Will it be open enough to persuade those in both parties who fear that essential principles or interests will be sold out?

Will there be a Conservative/Liberal Democrat deal at all? If not, could a Lib Dem/Labour deal keep Gordon Brown in Downing Street as prime minister?

After knocking the stuffing out of each other for four weeks, Britain's major political parties are now jostling to buy each other a drink. Listen to their public statements and you might believe, if you had spent most of your life in Fairyland, that they are doing so in the "national interest."

Analysis: UK politics may have to get used to horse trading

London, England (CNN) -- How big is big? How open is open?

Conservative leader David Cameron has said his power-sharing offer to the Liberal Democrats following the unresolved UK election is "big, open and comprehensive."

But will it be big enough to tempt them to ally with a traditional political opponent? Will it be open enough to persuade those in both parties who fear that essential principles or interests will be sold out?

Will there be a Conservative/Liberal Democrat deal at all? If not, could a Lib Dem/Labour deal keep Gordon Brown in Downing Street as prime minister?

After knocking the stuffing out of each other for four weeks, Britain's major political parties are now jostling to buy each other a drink. Listen to their public statements and you might believe, if you had spent most of your life in Fairyland, that they are doing so in the "national interest."

UK political rivals meet to resolve election deadlock

London, England (CNN) -- The United Kingdom's Conservative and Liberal Democrats parties met Sunday as leading politicians worked to resolve a national election that failed to yield an outright winner.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, whose party came third after Thursday's vote, held meetings with fellow party members Saturday to discuss a possible deal with either of the two largest parties, Labour and the Conservatives.

Clegg also met with Conservative leader David Cameron and took a call from Labour leader and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Saturday night, local media reported.

"Everyone's trying to be constructive for the good of the country," Clegg said in comments to reporters Sunday ahead of the talks.

Election results

"I'm very keen that the Liberal Democrats should play a constructive role at a time of great economic uncertainty to provide a good government that this country deserves.

William Hague, a former Conservative leader, told the media scrum as he arrived for the talks that the party was "conscious of the need to provide the country with a new stable and legitimate government as soon as possible.

Brown and Cameron both offered to form an alliance with the Liberal Democrats on Friday as they jostled for power after the election, in which the Conservatives gained the most seats in the House of Commons.

Brown, who remains prime minister even though Labour lost its parliamentary majority, said Friday that he would be willing to negotiate with any party leader.

Robin Oakley, political contributor for CNN, explained that at present Brown is essentially in a caretaker position.

"He cannot do anything really until the talks between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats break down," Oakley said.

During a break in the talks with his own party Saturday, Clegg addressed hundreds of protesters in London who were demonstrating in favor of proportional representation, a system supported by the Liberal Democrats.

Obama and the "R" Word, Will He or Won't He?

The only mystery left in President Obama's "final stage" speech Wednesday on the future of health care is whether he will utter the "R" word.

The "R" word, at least as far as the health care debate is concerned, is reconciliation. Reconciliation is the procedural nom de guerre for the majority party's path around the Senate's 60-vote filibuster.

Senate Democrats would like to hear Obama say reconciliation, if for no other reason than to give the maneuver a presidential imprimatur.

"Yes, yes, yes," a senior Democratic congressional source told Fox when asked if Senate Democrats wanted Obama to invoke the "R" word.

Senate Democrats also believe such declaration from Obama would demystify the process and give them a degree of political cover. How? By allowing them to share with Obama the rationale for muscling health care through the chamber on simple-majority vote -- even though they studiously avoided that approach before Sen. Scott Brown's stunning upset victory in Massachusetts deprived them of their 60-vote majority.

House Democrats don't much care if Obama says the "R" word or not. They know the Senate is going to use reconciliation and, they say, so should anyone paying attention.

"Saying it doesn't make it any more or less real," a senior House Democrat said. "If you don't know the Senate is going to use reconciliation by now, you haven't been paying attention."

In fact, House Democrats are far more worried about what will happen in their chamber. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi still has to corral enough votes to pass the Senate health care bill. If she can't, the reconciliation process stalls before it even starts.

"With reconciliation, things are easier for the Senate Democrats, it's on our side where things are still difficult," the House Democrat said. "I don't think people fully appreciate that."

In fact, there really is no mystery about all this.

Obama will not use the "R" word Wednesday, two White House officials told Fox.

"When in this entire year-long process have we ever benefited from talking about process," one White House official asked rhetorically. "Answer: Never."

The White House knows if Obama says "reconciliation" in Wednesday's speech that will become the headline. This will thrust Obama knee-deep into arcane Senate procedures and rules -- the last place White House officials want Obama to be.

The administration doesn't deny Obama is already in the reconciliation soup by inference -- it's his health care bill, after all. But they still see some distance between him and what's likely to be a contentious Senate tug-of-war over reconciliation.

Instead of talking about reconciliation, Obama will use Wednesday's speech to remind the nation about the stakes involved and about his recent efforts - outlined in a letter to congressional leaders today - to incorporate GOP ideas from last week's health care summit. Obama will also say his new found interest in Republican health care ideas proves he's willing to compromise. If the GOP won't respond in kind, Obama will imply the fault lies with a minority party incapable of deviating from its obstructionist ways.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine said Tuesday if Republicans don't play ball, then the process of reconciliation will be invoked. He also predicted Obama will at least indirectly suggest that's the likely - and possibly only - way forward.

"In accordance with the rules of the Senate, that's a possibility," Kaine said, referring to reconciliation, during an appearance on Fox's Studio B with Sheppard Smith." You'll hear the president talk about that."

As have other Democrats, Kaine portrayed reconciliation as a maneuver to allow the majority to prevail.

"Democrats have a majority for a reason," Kaine said. "The American public wanted them

to have a majority."

Kaine said he believes Republicans will reject Obama's most recent policy overtures.

"When they don't accept the olive branch, that signifies that the time for backing and forthing is done and it's time to vote," Kaine said. "Americans understand that. The American people elected this president to get results. They don't care about the inside baseball."

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said process does matter and said Democrats are courting political disaster if they use what he called heavy-handed tactics to pass health reform by circumventing the filibuster.

"I wouldn't want to be a Democrat voting for this bill," Hatch told Fox. "And I don't believe they'll have enough votes to really pass it. However, if they can mutilate the rules in this body and they can utilize the reconciliation rule, they can let eight of their Senators go to vote against it, even though that would be about as phony as you could get. Then they could pass it with 51 votes. It would be one of most disastrous, stupid things you could possibly do."

More than 100 bodies recovered after massive landslides in Uganda

Fresh earth is exposed after massive landslides Monday night in Uganda.

Kampala, Uganda (CNN) -- At least 106 bodies had been recovered Tuesday after massive landslides wiped out several villages around Mount Elgon on the Uganda-Kenya border, an army spokesman and local aid officials said.

The army has joined the search for an estimated 245 people who are still missing and feared dead in eastern Uganda's Bududa district after Monday night's landslides, which were brought on by unusually heavy rain in the third week of the annual rainy season, according to State Minister for Disaster Preparedness Musa Ecweru.

Dozens of bodies were recovered from a hospital and church where people had run to seek shelter, officials said. The hospital and church were buried when torrents of mud swept down on them.

The final death toll is expected to be much higher, Ecweru said, after crews are able to navigate the vast region affected by the disaster and find more victims. And more rain is forecast for the area.

In the meantime, the bodies recovered will be buried in mass graves beginning Wednesday, he said.

Spokeswoman Catherine Ntabadde of the Ugandan Red Cross Society said Tuesday that only two elderly women survived the disaster in one area.

"The villages of Nametsi, Namakansa and Kubewo in Nametsi parish have been wiped out" and six people died in the village of Bamuyaka in neighboring Bubita Sub County, Ntabadde added.

The URCS was providing water purification tablets to survivors to avoid outbreaks of waterborne diseases. Distribution of "nonfood items like tarpaulins, blankets, jerry cans, soap, saucepans, cups and plates is to commence late today to the now-homeless survivors," she said.

There are other reports of landslides hitting several communities in the neighboring districts of Sironko and Bukwa -- also located on the slopes and at the foot of Mount Elgon -- where at least 1,000 people have been affected and their homes destroyed, but the extent of the damage there is not yet known, Ntabadde said.

Flooding has destroyed several roads and many bridges have been washed away in at least seven districts less than 31 miles (50 kilometers) from the mountain. They include the Butaleja, Budaka, Palisa, Tororo, Mbale and Manafwa districts.

In Butaleja, more than 6,000 households in four subcounties were affected by the flooding, and the area's only two primary schools were washed away, Ntabadde said.

Mount Elgon, the second-highest mountain in Uganda, is an extinct volcano and has five distinct peaks ranging from 13,000 to 14,000 feet high, according to a Ugandan tourist Web site. It is located about 217 miles (350 kilometers) east of the capital, Kampala.

The landslides came when rivers on the mountain overflowed with heavy rains, but deforestation, farming and other human activity on its slopes also contributed to the problem.

By: CNN International.

Etched ostrich eggs illustrate human sophistication

By Jonathan Amos

Inscribed ostrich shell fragments found in South Africa are among the earliest examples of the use of symbolism by modern humans, scientists say.

The etched shells from Diepkloof Rock Shelter in Western Cape have been dated to about 60,000 years ago.

Details are reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers, who have investigated the material since 1999, argue that the markings are almost certainly a form of messaging - of graphic communication.

"The motif is two parallel lines, which we suppose were circular, but we do not have a complete refit of the eggs," explained Dr Pierre-Jean Texier from the University of Bordeaux, Talence, France.

The lines are crossed at right angles or oblique angles by hatching. By the repetition of this motif, early humans were trying to communicate something. Perhaps they were trying to express the identity of the individual or the group," he told BBC News.

Symbolic thought - the ability to let one thing represent another - was a giant leap in human evolution, and sets our species apart from the rest of the animal world.

Understanding when and where this behaviour first emerged is a key quest for scientists studying human origins.

Arguably the earliest examples of conceptual thought are the pieces of shell jewellery discovered at Skhul Cave in Israel and from Oued Djebbana in Algeria. These artefacts are 90,000-100,000 years old.

Shell beading from 75,000 years ago is also found at Blombos Cave in South Africa, as well as a number of ochre blocks that have engravings not dissimilar to those at Diepkloof.

Etched ochre blocks from Blombos

However, the significance of the Diepkloof finds may lie in their number, which proves such markings could not have been simple doodlings.

"What is extraordinary at Diepkloof is that we have close to 300 pieces of such engravings, which is why we are speaking of a system of symbolic representation," Dr Texier said.

The team, which includes Dr Guillaume Porraz from the University of Tubingen, tried themselves to recreate the markings using pieces of flint.

"Ostrich egg shells are quite hard. Doing such engravings is not so easy. You have to pass through the outer layer to get through the middle layer," Dr Texier explained.

The team's experiments also suggest that the colouration of the fragments is natural and not the result of the application of pigments.

The group was able to reproduce similar hues by baking pieces of shell near a fire.

Early humans pierced and strung shells together as jewellery

Professor Chris Stringer, of London's Natural History Museum, said the find was important.

"Here we've got something that we can compare with later material that clearly does have important signalling value in the populations," he told BBC News.

"It's a very nice link between the Middle Stone Age, the later Stone Age and even recent population in South Africa. One question now is whether this is a special site, or as we excavate more sites will we find this material is more widespread?"

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

Police submit charges against five Americans

The students, in their 20s and from the US state of Virginia, were detained in December in the town of Sargodha, 190 km (120 miles) southeast of Islamabad, and accused of contacting militants over the Internet and plotting attacks.

They have not been formally charged, but police on Tuesday submitted a charge sheet in an anti-terrorist court in Sargodha, said defence lawyer Hassan Dastagir.

“The court received the challan (charge sheet) which carries charges of criminal conspiracy, having the intention to go to Pakistan's neighbouring countries to topple the government and involvement in fund raising for terrorist acts,” he told Reuters.

The court is expected to formally charge the five at the next hearing on March 10, he said.

The case has raised alarm over the danger posed by militants using the Internet to evade tighter international security measures and plan attacks.

The five, who earlier told the court they only wanted to provide fellow Muslims in Afghanistan with medical and financial help, face life imprisonment if convicted, Dastagir said.

Police have said the men - two of them of Pakistani origin, one of Egyptian, one of Yemeni and one of Eritrean origin - wanted to go to Afghanistan to join the Taliban to fight Afghan and Western forces.

Police have said emails showed they contacted Pakistani militants who had planned to use them for attacks in Pakistan, a front-line state in the US-led war against militancy.

The five have accused the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Pakistani police of torturing them and trying to frame them. Pakistani authorities deny the accusations of mistreatment.

Pakistan is fighting al Qaeda-linked militants and is under pressure from the United States to help stabilise neighbouring Afghanistan by cracking down on militants' cross-border attacks on US-led troops.

by: Dawn News Pakistan.

Permission of weddings

All the men of the Province of Punjab, Pakistan were very happy when they hear that one female Member of Provincial Assembly announced that she gives permission to her husband to get married second time for the sake of kindness. She will not be jealous, and all the men should be permitted by their wives to get marry as it is permitted in the religion of Islam.

Furthermore, the opposition of the assembly opposed this proposal very hard and demand the speaker to condemn her. But when the MPA, Punjab came across to the media, she was very fresh, and insist that she is still on that point and she doesn't have any embarrassment. If it is permitted in the religion of Islam and as a muslim it is not prohibited then it must not be banned in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Although, Pakistan is an Islamic state, but there is still the old british laws, and all the law are not imposed as per islamic rules.

by: Syed Asim Ali.