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Nargis one year on: Labutta voices
Labutta, a small town in the southwest of the delta region, was devastated by Cyclone Nargis. Here, survivors talk about their continuing struggle.
MONK
Before Nargis, we had about 5,000-6,000 local residents – only 300-400 are still alive. The area looked as if it had been swept away with a broom. It was so terrible.
Our main concern has been clean drinking water. The Aung Min Ga Lar reservoir, which covers about five acres, was badly affected by the cyclone. We drained the dirty waters about seven times to try to make it safe. That’s the main way we have been able to help local people.
We have also helped to distribute five tonnes of food aid. More supplies come in from time to time but it barely meets the demand.
People have to rely on themselves. Some have managed to get work with private reconstruction companies that are recruiting day labourers. Others have to eat fish and frogs from nearby rivers to survive.
As for our monastery, only the building used for ordinations was left. Most of the main section was destroyed – just the pillars were left standing.
We can’t afford to rebuild on the same scale. We have to rely on friends and acquaintances to chip in what they can. We even collect pieces of drift wood.
ORPHAN
I was separated from my parents during the cyclone – they died in the storm. I haven’t got anybody to rely on and I have had to move on from one place to another.
At first, I didn’t have any shelter or food so I sold my earrings and went to Kawthaung to look for a job. Once I arrived in Kawthaung, I kept hearing stories about human-smuggling rings and I myself encountered one of them.
I was so frightened. I took refuge at a monastery, where I told a monk about losing my parents. He was very sympathetic and made arrangements to send me over to his patrons in Ranong in Thailand.
There, I was looked after by a caring family who treated me as one of their own. I have lived with them ever since.
After the cyclone I endured homelessness and hunger. Now I can say I have peace of mind to some extent. It’s been a year since I lost my parents. I’m still feeling sad and I miss them all the time.
BUSINESSMAN
I have a salt refinery, fishery and an agriculture business. Nargis has affected them severely.
At the salt refinery, the fields were left untouched while we tried to replace the damaged machinery. Some of our equipment and cattle were stolen and the remaining buildings were destroyed or parts were taken away. I have lost so much.
It’s true that the government supported us with funding, machinery and oil – but it is not as efficient as using cattle.
The weather has also not helped – when we wanted to sow seeds there was no rain. So, in the year since Nargis, the agriculture business has suffered so much.
Another big loss for us businessmen is that of skilled labourers. Before Nargis, we had a group of about 25 workers. After Nargis, we have just four or five. It is the same at the salt refinery.
There are just too few people in the massive fields. The shortage of labour is big trouble for us.
Another challenge is a lack of warehouses for the salt refinery businesses. We have tried to harvest refined salt from the fields – ideally it should then be stored in a shelter. That is not always possible and the crop has to be sold as quickly as possible at the prevailing market prices.
Despite the low yields from the salt harvest, the prices are falling due to lack of warehousing and storage facilities. It is hurting a lot of businesses.

Source:BBC

Mining a mint in eastern DR Congo
Stephen Sackur discovers that life for most people in the troubled eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is still grindingly tough, but that a few individuals are doing very well for themselves.
There was no danger of me oversleeping in Room 50 of the Ihusi, one of Goma’s poshest hotels.
Every morning dawn would bring with it an intrusive chorus – “Uhnnff! Nnhhuurr!”
It was the unmistakeable sound of a tennis player suffering from ‘gruntitis’ – unable to strike the ball without exclamations fit to wake the dead.
By day four of my stay, I could stand this wake-up call no longer.
I dressed and marched out to what is almost certainly the finest clay tennis court in eastern Congo.
Mr Big
I expected to find two expatriates – perhaps senior officers from the UN peacekeeping force – giving a passable impression of Nadal versus Murray.
Instead I found a couple of locals on court. One was clearly the tennis coach, he had an air of weary resignation.
The other was the grunter – a mountainous man, wider than a barn door and significantly less mobile.
Who was this local Mr Big? I made enquiries around the hotel and was told he was a wealthy businessman.
What kind of business? This was met with a smile and a shrug. “Just business – there are many ways to make money here in Goma.”
Airborne mules
Beyond the confines of the Ihusi hotel sprawls one of the most wretched cities on earth – devoid of paved roads, clean water and electricity. It is overlooked by an active volcano, and filled to bursting with people traumatised by years of war – but there are indeed many ways to make money in Goma.
The most obvious clue comes from the skies.
Throughout the day propeller planes swoop low over the city as they prepare for landing at the ramshackle airport.
These are not passenger planes, they are airborne mules laden with mineral rich rock from eastern Congo’s remote mines.
Cassiterite tin ore and coltan, the metal used in the innards of mobile phones, make for a lucrative business.
Lucrative, that is, for the warlords and militias who control most of the mines, and for the middle men, the so-called comptoirs, who buy the ore, process it and sell it on around the world.
John Konyoni, a designer-suited, BMW driving comptoir invited me into his compound.
With wireless laptop in hand he showed me how he could make trades in real-time on the London Metals Exchange, even as his men braved choking dust to grade the cassiterite ore in a mechanical jigger.
Mr Konyoni is an ethnic Tutsi. Members of his family were killed in the Rwandan genocide of 1994 by Hutu extremists.
And yet he acknowledged that some of those same Hutu extremists finance their military operations in eastern Congo by controlling local mines.
“So, are these blood minerals you’re trading?” I asked him.
“No,” he said with a relaxed smile. “That’s a Western exaggeration.”
Konyoni’s business had a turnover of 20m (13m) last year – he can afford to be relaxed.
Truth is, wherever you look in Goma the resourceful and the ruthless are thriving amid endemic poverty and violence.
Just down the rutted road from the Ihusi hotel is a lakeside neighbourhood of newly built villas surrounded by high walls and rolls of barbed wire.
I was taken there by my local fixer who assured me that rents for the biggest houses had just topped 10,000 (6,500).
“A year?” I added helpfully – “No, a month,” he scoffed.
Who on earth pays that sort of money, I asked. The United Nations, he said.
Broken city
The UN mission in Congo, Monuc, is the biggest, most expensive international peacekeeping operation in the world.
But after nine years trying to keep a lid on Congo’s ethnic, economic and cross-border conflicts the UN is in danger of becoming part of the problem, not the solution.
Yes, blue-helmeted troops patrol Goma’s fetid streets, and international aid workers do sterling humanitarian work, but the international community lacks a strategy for fixing this failing state.
UN troops have not forced the warlords out of the mines. In fact UN commanders find themselves in uneasy partnership with a Congolese army notorious for its corruption and abuse of human rights.
Monuc’s military chief told me, somewhat sheepishly, that the UN is now feeding Congolese troops – it is the only way to stop them looting their own population.
Goma, in short, is a place where normal rules do not apply. A broken city where no-one seems inclined to fix the nightmarish status-quo.
A final image from the Ihusi hotel sticks in my mind. The hotel tennis court, just by Room 50, a sprinkler sending a fine spray of water over the clay one hot afternoon. Just to make it perfect for Mr Big in the morning.
Stephen Sackur reports from Congo in HARDtalk on the Road on both BBC World and the BBC News Channel from Monday 4 to Wednesday 6 December. See the
From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday, 2 May, 2009 at 1130 BST on BBC Radio 4. Please check the
programme schedules
for World Service transmission times.

Source:BBC

Berlusconi vow on quake-hit homes
Half of the homes in Italy’s quake-hit city of L’Aquila are now habitable, the country’s Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has said.
Technicians were checking 1,000 homes each day, he said, and had judged 53% of them to be safe, with another 15% habitable within a month.
But Mr Berlusconi said he understood many were reluctant to go home while aftershocks continued in the area.
Nearly 300 people died in the 6.3 magnitude quake on 6 April.
Some 65,000 people are still homeless. Around 36,000 are living in tents while others are being put up in hotels.
Hospital reopening
Mr Berlusconi made his comments in a speech praising the work of the emergency services after the earthquake.
“We are carrying out more than 1,000 checks a day with 160 teams of technicians and 22,700 home tests have already been done,” he said.
“It appears that 53.7% of homes are immediately habitable while 15.8% could be made sound in about 30 days after moderate work.”
The prime minister also promised that L’Aquila’s hospital would reopen by the end of May.
Last month Pope Benedict XVI visited the region to offer condolences to the quake survivors.

Source:BBC

Blears attacks Labour’s ‘failure’
Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has attacked the government’s “lamentable” failure to communicate.
Writing in the Observer, Ms Blears says the public does not believe many of the government’s policy announcements.
And she says use of “new media” by politicians is not as effective as traditional campaigning methods.
“YouTube if you want to, but it is no substitute for knocking on doors or setting up a stall in the town centre,” she says.
“We need to have a relationship with the voters based on shared instincts and emotions.
“We need to start showing we understand the instincts, fears, hopes and emotions of the broad mass of British people.”
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has launched an online version of Prime Minister’s Questions, pledging to respond to videoclip questions submitted via the Downing Street YouTube website.
Commons defeat
Ms Blears also criticises the government’s handling of the issue surrounding the Gurkhas, saying it put itself “on the wrong side of the British sense of fair play, and no party can stay there for long without dire consequences”.
The government suffered a shock defeat in the Commons on Wednesday over its policy of restricting the right of many former Gurkhas to settle in the UK.
MPs voted by 267 to 246 for a Lib Dem motion offering all Gurkhas equal right of residence, with the Tories and 27 Labour rebels backing it.
Ms Blears says that Mr Brown will lead the party into the next election, but she also says that the government must appear more “human” if it is to defeat the Tories.
“Labour ministers have a collective responsibility for the government’s lamentable failure to get our message across,” she says.
“Whatever the problems of the recession, the answer is not more government documents or big speeches.”
BBC political correspondent Laura Kuenssberg said sources close to Ms Blears have said this attack was not intended to be aimed solely at Mr Brown.
“The remarks she makes are really very strong, more important still because she’s normally such a loyal voice, she’s someone who routinely goes out there and defends the government and tries to sell their message,” she said.
But this latest criticism will be seen as a piling up of pressure on the prime minister, our correspondent added.
Former deputy prime minister John Prescott had earlier rebuked Labour politicians who criticised the prime minister.
Mr Prescott said members should stop complaining and get behind the party.

Source:BBC

Superb Barca destroy rivals Real
By David Ornstein
Barcelona romped to a 6-2 victory at Real Madrid and moved seven points clear at the top of the Spanish league.
Gonzalo Higuain headed Real ahead but Thierry Henry curled an equaliser and Carles Puyol nodded Barca in front.
Lionel Messi slotted past Iker Casillas and, after Sergio Ramos replied with a glancing header, Henry clipped into an empty net and Messi rolled in another.
Gerard Pique tapped in the sixth as Barca warmed up for their Champions League meeting with Chelsea in style.
The Catalan giants travel to London for their semi-final second leg on Wednesday with the tie evenly-poised at 0-0.
And on this evidence, Chelsea will need to produce another sterling defensive effort to prevent Barca from scoring.
Pep Guardiola’s men have now scored 100 league goals in 34 matches this season.
More soon.

Source:BBC

Mayweather to make boxing return
Floyd Mayweather Jr has agreed to step out of retirement and fight lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez.
Mayweather Jr has not fought since beating Briton Ricky Hatton in their December 2007 welterweight bout.
But the undefeated five-division champion will return to fight Mexico’s three-weight champion Marquez in July.
News of the contest comes on the day of Hatton’s fight with Manny Pacquiao, and Mayweather is already being linked with a match against the winner of the bout.
Hatton takes on Pacquiao – currently regarded as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world – for the light-welterweight championship belt at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on Saturday.
Should Hatton shrug off his underdog tag and defeat the Filipino boxer, and if Mayweather overcomes the 35-year-old Marquez in July, a rematch of their 2007 fight in Las Vegas is sure to be on the cards.
Mayweather stopped Hatton in the 10th round on that occasion, confirming his tag as the best pound-for-pound boxer at that time.
A rematch could generate even more interest given Mayweather’s father, Floyd Mayweather Sr, has pledged to continue to train Hatton against his son.

Source:BBC

US plane crash lands on toilets

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A pilot in the US managed to avoid injury when his plane dropped from the sky after its fall was cushioned by a row of portable toilets.
The Cessna 182 plane had taken off from Thun Field airfield in Pierce County before the engine apparently failed.
As it fell, the plane hit a fence, flipped upside down and landed on toilets being stored near the runway by the Northwest Cascade company.
A company employee said the toilets had “kind of cushioned things”.
Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the county sheriff, told the News Tribune newspaper that the pilot had reached an altitude of about 150ft (46m) when the engine “quit running”.
“He tried to turn around and come back and land, but he didn’t quite make it,” said Mr Troyer.
The 67-year-old pilot, who was reported to have been flying alone, has not been identified.

Source:BBC

There is no evidence of the swine flu virus spreading in a sustained way outside North America, a top World Health Organization official says.
Dr Michael Ryan, WHO Director of Global Alert and Response, praised European nations’ handling of cases and said events did not seem out of control.
Mexico has cut its suspected death toll by 75 to 101, indicating the outbreak may not be as bad as initially feared.
The country has ordered a five-day shutdown in a bid to contain the virus.
Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova told the BBC that, based on samples tested, the mortality rate was comparable with that of seasonal flu.
WHO Director of Global Alert and Response Dr Michael Ryan told a daily press briefing: “We have no evidence of sustained community spread outside of North America.”
And he said the emergence of more cases in Europe did not mean the WHO would necessarily need to raise its global pandemic alert level.
“I think it would be, at this stage, unwise to suggest that, in any way, those events are out of control or spreading in an uncontrolled fashion,” he told a daily press briefing.
“I think the next few days will tell as this develops.”
Dr Ryan added: “At the present time I would still propose that a pandemic is imminent because we see the disease spread.”
The WHO is sending 2.4m courses of antiviral treatment to 72 nations around the world, Dr Ryan said, among them many developing countries.
The WHO was still trying to establish the severity of the swine flu virus, he added.
Italy reported its first case on Saturday, bringing the number of countries affected to 17.
In Egypt, authorities have begun in earnest the slaughter of more than 300,000 pigs, in what was originally described as a precaution against swine flu.
Officials now say the move is a general health measure aimed at restoring order to Egypt’s pig-rearing industry.
Experts say the virus cannot be caught from eating pork and there is no scientific rationale for the cull.
Five countries outside Mexico have confirmed person-to-person transmission.
China is trying to stop the spread of the virus, after getting its first case on Friday.
It says it will quarantine all those who travelled on a flight from Mexico with a man suffering from swine flu.
Flights from Mexico have been suspended, and fellow guests and staff at the Hong Kong hotel where he was staying have been quarantined.
South Korea has also now confirmed a case of the virus.
Risk remains
In cases outside Mexico, the effects do not appear to be severe.
The US has now confirmed 160 cases of swine flu across 21 states but has seen only one death, of a Mexican toddler in Texas.
President Barack Obama said in his weekly radio address that the US was taking “all necessary precautions” to ensure it was prepared if the virus developed into “something worse”.
Dr Anne Schuchat, acting deputy director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said that although experts were concerned about the possibility of severe cases, the majority so far had been “mild, self-limited illness”.
The new virus lacked the traits that made the 1918 flu pandemic so deadly, another CDC official said.
Mr Cordova appeared to agree, saying that the Mexican authorities may, on reflection, have overestimated the danger.
He said 43.7% of samples from suspected cases so far tested had come back positive, a total of 397. Sixteen in this group had died.
“That means that apparently, the rate of attack is not as wide as was thought,” he said.
But he stressed that the risk of a rise in infection remains and said some elements of the five-day shutdown – in which many public buildings and businesses have been closed and people urged to stay at home – might be extended.
There is growing concern about the effect the virus could have on Mexico’s economy.
Several US air carriers say they will cut flights to Mexico as demand falls amid concerns over the crisis. Tourism has plummeted since the outbreak was declared a week ago.

Source:BBC

Art student’s car vanishing act
A design student made a battered old Skoda “disappear” by painting it to merge with the surrounding car park.
Sara Watson, who is studying drawing at the University of Central Lancashire (Uclan), took three weeks to transform the car’s appearance.
She created the illusion in the car park outside her studio at Uclan’s Hanover Building in Preston.
The car is now being used for advertising by the local recycling firm that donated the vehicle.
‘Just amazing’
Ms Watson, a second year student, said: “I was experimenting with the whole concept of illusion but needed something a bit more physical to make a real impact.”
She was given the Skoda Fabia from the breaker’s yard at local firm Recycling Lives.
Owner Steve Jackson described her work as “amazing”.
“When I first saw the photos I was convinced it was something which had been done on the computer,” said Mr Jackson.
“But when you look more closely you see the effort and attention to detail she has put into it. It is just amazing.”

Source:BBC

Euthanasia doctor allowed into UK
An Australian doctor detained at Heathrow Airport when he arrived to hold workshops on euthanasia has been granted leave to stay in UK.
Dr Philip Nitschke was held under the immigration and asylum act after arriving from Australia on Saturday.
He plans to hold a workshop in Bournemouth, Dorset, on Tuesday to talk about assisted suicide.
The Home Office confirmed he had been detained but had later been granted permission to enter the UK.
Dr Nitschke said he had been surprised to have been detained and questioned, even though he had been allowed into the UK to hold lectures before.

Dr Nitschke, who runs Exit International, told the BBC he had been searched, fingerprinted and formally interviewed after being told his workshops could be in breach of British law.
He said this had never happened to him before.
“I mean, this is a very fundamental question of free speech – people want to know about this,” Dr Nitschke said.
“This is an important cutting-edge social issue and to find people thinking about deportation because the message is supposedly so worrying says something about changes in British society which are quite troubling.”
Alex Russell, the vicar of Pennington and chaplain of Oak Haven Hospice in Lymington, Hampshire, said: “I’m not happy about the views that he expresses or these so-called suicide workshops.
Lethal injections
“But I would always defend someone’s right to voice an opinion about something and to say controversial things.
“The difficulty may be if people who are psychologically unable to think as clearly as they might, or people who are still quite young and forming their opinions, might be influenced by him inappropriately.”
“As a hospice chaplain I have had contact with several patients who because of long-term chronic conditions have attempted to take their own lives.
“In every case they have said afterwards that they are glad to be alive and they’re glad it didn’t work.”
After speaking at the Hamilton Hall Hotel in Bournemouth, Dr Nitschke plans to hold workshops in Brighton, Stroud, Gloucestershire and Glasgow.
Dr Nitschke, from Darwin, administered lethal injections to end four patients’ lives after voluntary euthanasia was made legal in Australia’s Northern Territory in 1996.
The Australian federal government overturned the law nine months later.

Source:BBC

Atlanta Vice: A new US drugs hub?
By Emilio San Pedro
BBC News, Atlanta
US officials believe that Atlanta has become the principal distribution point for the Mexican drugs cartels in the eastern and southern US.
“If they were making the television show Miami Vice today it would probably be more appropriately called Metro Atlanta Vice, but with some distinctions,” says Jack Killorin, director of Atlanta’s High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) unit.
HIDTAs are anti-drug programmes run by the US Office of National Drug Control Policy.
His comments about the seriousness of the situation in Atlanta have raised more than a few eyebrows and attracted a great deal of media attention in recent weeks.
Atlanta, after all, is best known as the economic powerhouse of the American South – the home of powerful multinationals like Coca-Cola and the parcel service, UPS.
It seems a far cry from the drug-fuelled violence and flashy 1980s cars and lifestyles depicted in television programmes like Miami Vice.
The drugs violence and the Colombian cartels which ran drugs-trafficking then have long ago vanished from the streets of Miami, despite the lingering image.
“I believe that the Mexican cartels, in taking over the distribution of narcotics and cocaine into the United States, learned some lessons from the Colombians,” says Mr Killorin.
“One of the lessons they learned is that living a big and visible lifestyle is certainly the way to get a lot of law enforcement to pay a lot of attention to you.”
The gangs – mainly the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels – keep a much lower profile. Not for them the flashy sports cars and luxury homes that helped precipitate the demise of the Colombian traffickers in Miami.
Blending in
The Office of National Drug Control Policy estimates that drugs smuggled over the border generate more than 28bn (19bn) a year. That is why maintaining a low-key profile in a city like Atlanta makes good business sense.
“The Mexican cartel members operating here are not into the big cars or Rolex watches. If they are, they have them in Mexico. Here their operations are far more business-like and workmanlike and their goal is to blend into the background as successfully as possible,” Mr Killorin said.
US officials say the Mexican cartels have turned Atlanta and the surrounding area into a major operational hub for the distribution of cocaine, marijuana and other drugs. And a key reason is the city’s location – connected by three major motorways to large swathes of the US.
From here they can transport narcotics to major cities like Washington DC, New York and Miami in 12 hours or less without drawing much attention.
One recent hotspot for cartel activity is the middle-class suburbs of Gwinnett County.
The regional head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Atlanta, Rod Benson, brought me to an inconspicuous two-storey suburban house on a leafy street.
It was being used by alleged cartel members as a stash house for drugs.
As we sit in his police car outside the house, Agent Benson recounts what happened.
“We had an individual from Rhode Island, a Dominican national, who owed Gulf Cartel representatives here in Atlanta 300,000 (201,000). He was brought to this house where he was held captive for over a week and beaten,” Agent Benson says.
Fortunately, investigators managed to arrest three Mexican nationals who had weapons inside the house and rescue the man.
‘Legalise it’
Agent Benson is quick to point out that such violence is rare and no way near the scale of that faced by Mexico.
But the increased presence of the Mexican cartels and the seemingly unending problem of illegal drug use have led to renewed calls for the legalisation of all or some of the drugs the cartels smuggle into the US, especially marijuana.
At a local Atlanta late-night hang-out, a group of young people react to the reports that the Mexican cartels have turned their city into a major hub.
They are far from impressed and suggest that maybe it is time America considers legalising drugs – at the very least cannabis.
“You’re feeding me this Miami Vice-style drama about how I should be terrified of these Mexican cartel guys that are coming to America,” says one.
“Guess what? Drugs exist. Put the money into helping the addicts instead,” he adds.
“I’m more afraid of someone being drunk and driving and killing me on the highway that I am of some Mexican drug lord,” a young woman called Lucy says.
Jack Killorin is dismissive of calls for legalisation.

“Legalise what?” he asks.
“Are we talking about the 5% THC ditch weed that somebody’s grandmother smoked back in college in the 60s or the 30% THC hydroponically-grown genetically- altered marijuana that’s in high demand and widely circulated today.
“You know, saying the word legalise, I think that happens to be one of those words that conveys a sense of meaning and until you talk to each other you don’t realise that actually we don’t mean the same thing at all,” Mr Killorin says.
Whatever the case, the legalisation of drugs like marijuana as a way out of drugs-related violence is not something that appears to be anywhere near becoming a reality, despite the passage of laws in several states approving the medical use of marijuana or decriminalising the possession of small amounts of the drug.
In the meantime, the US and Mexico are moving towards closer co-operation in the fight against traffickers, both in the violence-plagued border cities of Mexico and the increasingly powerful hubs for the distribution of drugs in the US, like Atlanta.

Source:BBC

Euromillions jackpot rolls over
The record 89m (99,954,826 euros) EuroMillions jackpot has not been won by any players, organisers have said.
This means next week’s top prize is an estimated 110m (123,539,672 euros).
The jackpot, last claimed on 20 March, has now rolled over six times and if claimed by a single winner would be the biggest lottery prize in the world.
The chance of a ticket holder winning next week’s jackpot was 76 million to one, a spokesman for the National Lottery said.
The UK record for winning a jackpot is currently held by Angela Kelly from Glasgow, who won 35.4m (39,757,312 euros) on EuroMillions in August 2007.
The largest global jackpot was 81m (90,970,122 euros) , which was claimed in Italy’s Superenalotto in October 2008.
In last night’s EuroMillions draw sixteen players won 211,152.20 for matching five numbers and one lucky star.
Twenty six ticket holders scooped 36,874.80 for having five numbers, while 218 won 3,141.30 for four matching numbers and two lucky stars.

Source:BBC

Buffett faces tough AGM grilling
US investor Warren Buffett says he is expecting to face tough questions on his company’s performance as he attends its annual general meeting.
A record 35,000 shareholders are expected at the Berkshire Hathaway AGM, held in Omaha, Nebraska.
The value of Berkshire Hathaway’s investments fell by nearly 10% last year and Mr Buffett’s personal wealth shrank by 25bn (17bn).
It was the worst performance in more than 40 years for the “Sage of Omaha”.
The BBC’s North America business correspondent Greg Wood says Mr Buffett is normally greeted by an adoring crowd at the AGM for this company he has run since 1965.
But the investor has had a particularly bad year in which his legendary stock-picking skills seemed to have deserted him, says our correspondent, especially when he lost nearly 3bn after buying a large stake in oil company ConocoPhillips just before the oil price crashed.
Analysts say they expect the meeting to have a more serious tone that in previous years.
Mr Buffett has said he made some “dumb” investment errors in 2008 and has compared the US financial situation to an “economic Pearl Harbour”.
Berkshire’s range of investments are seen as a bellwether of the US economy.
Tough questions
In a change from previous years, half the questions at the meeting will be drawn from email submissions and posed by journalists rather than stakeholders.
Mr Buffett said neither he nor Vice-Chairman Charlie Munger would know the questions in advance.
“We know the journalists will pick some tough ones and that’s the way we like it,” Mr Buffett said in a letter to shareholders.
But he said there would still be an opportunity for shareholders to ask questions directly, so those at the meeting would “continue to get some good – and perhaps entertaining – questions from the audience as well”.
The AGM is also expected to discuss appointing a successor for 78-year-old Mr Buffet.
The company has said it has three internal candidates for Mr Buffett’s Chief Executive Officer role and four for Chief Investment Officer.
“I hope he’s as good at picking a successor as he is at stocks,” said one investor, Dennis Hospodarsky.
Despite its troubles, Berkshire Hathaway has fared much better than many other funds in a year of huge stock market declines.
Mr Buffett has said he is prepared to hold his investments for a long time – until they come good, says our correspondent.

Source:BBC

The number of confirmed cases of swine flu in the UK has risen to 15.
The increase, from 13, comes as health chiefs await the results of more than 600 tests for the disease.
The Department of Health said the latest swine flu cases were in England, involving an adult in the North West and a child in the South East.
It comes after the first two cases of Britons falling ill without having travelled to Mexico, who were from South Gloucestershire and Falkirk.
Barry Greatorex, 43, from South Gloucestershire, had been in contact with a traveller to the country.
And Graeme Pacitti of Falkirk was infected through contact with the first British people to develop the flu.
But the Health Protection Agency said those two cases did “not yet represent sustained human-to-human transmission”.
“All patients had contact with individuals who had reported illness and travel history to Mexico.”
The agency said the risk to the general public was still very low, but advised anyone who had been ill with flu symptoms in Mexico to get tested on their return to the UK.
Cases have been confirmed in Newcastle, Scotland, Merseyside, Devon, South Gloucestershire, Worcestershire and London.
Mr Greatorex – who has been quarantined and given treatment – said he believed he contracted it while in a meeting with a colleague who was “coughing and spluttering”.
He told the BBC: “I knew it wasn’t just an ordinary cold or an ordinary flu. We’re dealing with it as a family. We’re quite close as a family so we’re sticking together through it.”
Neither his wife nor son had so far shown any signs of the illness, he added.

Dr Iain Stephenson, senior lecturer in infectious diseases at the University of Leicester, said it was important not to over-react, but also be prepared.
He told the BBC: “It’s quite possible that this will just slowly disappear and that will be the end of it. However, it is possible that this virus could adapt and change more rapidly.”
Symptoms of swine flu in humans appear to be similar to those produced by standard, seasonal flu.
The HPA said all those in the UK who have contracted the disease appear to be suffering mild symptoms.
In cases outside Mexico – where officials have revised the number of suspected deaths from 176 to 101 – the effects do not appear to be severe, although the death of a Mexican child has been confirmed in the US.
The World Health Organization, meanwhile, has set its pandemic alert level at five and says it has no immediate plans to move to the highest level of six.
‘Wait and see’
A UK schoolgirl, who is among the 15 people to have contracted the virus, is believed to have been on the same plane as the first two Britons to be diagnosed with the disease.
The girl’s school – Downend, which is also in South Gloucestershire – will be closed until 11 May and parents have been told to contact their family doctor if any child shows symptoms.
Officials said the two South Gloucestershire cases were not connected.
Another school in Paignton, Devon, also closed its doors this week after it was confirmed a 12-year-old girl had contracted swine flu.
Dr Gabriel Scally, regional director of public health for south-west England, said the decision to close the schools was a necessary precaution.
NHS Direct has taken thousands of calls about swine flu this week, while daily visits to its website have reached 85,000, compared with about 55,000 a week earlier.
Information leaflets about how to reduce the chances of spreading infection are due to begin arriving in people’s homes from next Tuesday.
The only destination the government is telling travellers to avoid as a result of the outbreak is Mexico.
Simon Calder, travel editor for the Independent newspaper, said several major operators had cancelled flights to Mexico.
He said operators were giving people planning to travel over the next week the option of changing destinations or a refund.
However holidaymakers with travel plans for the next three weeks may only be offered a change in destination.
Those with plans any further in advance would have to “wait and see”, and were currently unable to cancel or change destinations.
• Members of the public can call 0800 1513513 for recorded information about swine flu. The number for NHS 24 in Scotland is 08454 24 24 24.

Source:BBC

Israel attacks more Gaza tunnels
Israel says its aircraft have attacked tunnels on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt for a second day.
Officials said three tunnels used to smuggle weapons into the coastal enclave had been destroyed.
The raids came hours after Palestinian fighters in Gaza fired rockets into southern Israel, with no reported injuries.
Israeli police said two mortars landed in an open area inside Israel without causing damage or casualties.
Palestinian militants, from a group called the Popular Resistance Committees, said they fired mortars at Israeli troops who had launched an incursion into the northern Gaza Strip.
Shortly after, Israeli warplanes bombed the tunnels near the town of Rafah, close to the Egyptian border.
There have been sporadic rocket fire and Israeli raids since unilateral ceasefires in January ended a 22-day assault by Israel on the Gaza Strip.
One of Israel’s stated goals in the operation was to halt the smuggling of weapons – including rockets that were being fired against Israeli towns – into the coastal enclave through the network of tunnels.
But smuggling has resumed and people in Gaza say the tunnels are the only way of getting food, fuel and other goods into the area under the strict blockade imposed by Israel.

Source:BBC

Euthanasia doctor held at airport
An Australian doctor travelling to the UK to hold workshops on euthanasia has been detained at Heathrow Airport.
Dr Philip Nitschke was held under the immigration and asylum act after arriving from Australia on Saturday.
He plans to hold a workshop in Bournemouth, Dorset, on Tuesday to demonstrate his DIY suicide kit.
Dr Nitschke said it was a matter of free speech and that his detention said something about changes to British society which were “quite troubling”.
A spokeswoman for the Home Office confirmed that Dr Nitschke had been detained at Heathrow but would not comment further.
The doctor said he had been allowed into the UK to hold lectures before.
Dr Nitschke, who runs Exit International, told the BBC they had been searched, fingerprinted and formally interviewed after being told his workshops could be a breach of British law.
He said this had never happened to him before.
“I mean, this is a very fundamental question of free speech – people want to know about this,” Dr Nitschke said.
“This is an important cutting-edge social issue and to find people thinking about deportation because the message is supposedly so worrying says something about changes in British society which are quite troubling.”
Alex Russell, the vicar of Pennington and chaplain of Oak Haven Hospice in Lymington, Hampshire, said: “I’m not happy about the views that he expresses or these so-called suicide workshops.
Lethal injections
“But I would always defend someone’s right to voice an opinion about something and to say controversial things.
“The difficulty may be if people who are psychologically unable to think as clearly as they might, or people who are still quite young and forming their opinions, might be influenced by him inappropriately.”
She added: “Clearly, if he is contravening a law then he has to be stopped.
“As a hospice chaplain I have had contact with several patients who because of long-term chronic conditions have attempted to take their own lives.
“In every case they have said afterwards that they are glad to be alive and they’re glad it didn’t work.”
After speaking at the Hamilton Hall Hotel in Bournemouth, Dr Nitschke plans to hold workshops in Brighton, Stroud, Gloucestershire and Glasgow.
Dr Nitschke, from Darwin, administered lethal injections to end four patients’ lives after voluntary euthanasia was made legal in Australia’s Northern Territory in 1996.
The Australian federal government overturned the law nine months later.

Source:BBC

Border cut that sparked an exodus
By Nick Thorpe
BBC News, Budapest
Exactly 20 years ago Hungarian border guards began dismantling the physical barrier along the Hungarian-Austrian border known as the Iron Curtain.
It was an act with huge consequences for other Eastern European countries and eventually the whole of Europe.
Only a tiny section of the Iron Curtain was removed on 2 May 1989 – about 8 km in total, either side of four border crossings between Hungary and Austria.
But it was an act of massive moral and political importance.
Hungary defied its supposed allies in the Eastern Bloc, especially East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Romania, while the then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev looked on impassively.
The main reformer in the Communist Party in Hungary at that time, Imre Pozsgay, claims the main credit for bringing down the curtain.
“I didn’t do anything heroic, but I knew how much we could get away with,” he said.
As word spread of the breach in the Iron Curtain, thousands of East Germans and Romanians headed for it, and the border guards were overwhelmed.
By September 1989 Hungary gave up all pretence of acting as the loyal guard of the socialist camp and opened its western border completely.
Within three months, the communist system collapsed throughout the region.

Source:BBC

Egypt presses ahead with pig cull

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The Egyptian authorities have begun in earnest the slaughter of over 300,000 pigs, in what was originally described as a precaution against swine flu.
Officials now say the move is a general health measure aimed at restoring order to Egypt’s pig-rearing industry.
The move has been widely criticised and the World Health Organisation says there is no evidence that pigs are transmitting the virus to humans.
Experts also point out that the flu cannot be caught from eating pig meat.
Pig-farming and consumption is limited to Egypt’s Christian minority, estimated at 10% of the population.
Farmers clashed with health officials in at least one incident north of Cairo.
Compensation pledge
Cairo governor Abdel Halim Wazir told Egyptian news agency Mena that the government would start slaughtering some 60,000 pigs raised by rubbish collectors in a city slum.
Health Ministry spokesman Abdelrahman Shahine told AFP the measure was meant to deal with general health concerns.
“The authorities took advantage of the situation to resolve the question of disorderly pig rearing in Egypt,” he said.
The government has promised pig-owners compensation for their loss.
Correspondents say the Egyptian government is anxious to avoid criticism in the past that it has been slow to deal with crises.
When bird flu appeared in the country in 2006 mass culls were carried out but at least 22 humans died from the disease.

Source:BBC

Living with swine flu’s uncertain threat
The BBC’s Matthew Price arrived in Mexico as news of the swine flu outbreak emerged and found a sense of uncertainty over how lethal it is and how quickly it may spread.
It was raining when we touched down in Mexico City. A light, warm rain that made the tarmac smell musty.
There are many times as a foreign correspondent when you have no idea what to expect on arrival, but this felt very different indeed.
In the bus to the arrivals lounge I noticed two young children wearing facemasks. So were their parents.
The passengers looked around at one another, working out what they should do.
Someone coughed. We laughed a little, but everyone must have been thinking the same thing.
I pulled the facemask I had brought with me out of my bag. Toyed with it, felt a little silly, and put it on.
Apprehensive
The danger here does not feel quantifiable.
You know when someone raises a gun that you should leave. That when you approach a frontline you should get ready.
In the last few days I have not had a clue whether I have been at risk or not.
Mexico City clearly felt the same. It had not shut down, but many people were anxious.
They were still going to work, getting onto buses, eating at restaurants. Not as many as usual to be fair, but the city was still functioning.
It looked normal, but then you would see them: the woman at the newspaper stall, a blue surgical mask pulled over her nose and mouth, the doctors tightening the elasticated straps as they walked into hospital.
Then there were the office workers, their breath pulling the fabric tight over their mouths, then ballooning it out as they walked.
Even in cars with the windows rolled-up, the driver, alone in the vehicle, wore a mask covering their lower face.
Family worries
Most of the time I have not been thinking about the virus. I have just been trying to work out when the discomfort of wearing the mask in this heat and at this altitude outweighs the risk of not wearing it.
Right now, as I say this, I may be carrying the virus. I do not think I am. Only two people I remember in the last few days have coughed anywhere near me, and I was covered at the time.
I have been cleaning my hands, and not touching my face all week. But this is unknown territory.
The BBC’s safety team has sent advice. Anyone going to an affected area should not go back into a BBC office within a week of leaving it in case they are infected.
Everyone on the team I am with is already wondering about what that means for their families. Multiply this across a nation of a 100 million and you get a sense of what this country is like at the moment.
Taking precautions
From the capital we flew down to Oaxaca where the first confirmed death occurred.
It is a beautiful Spanish colonial town. Its buildings painted red, orange, light green, blue. The cobbles on its streets worn smooth by centuries of traffic.
I met Beatrice Mann from Paris next to a stall where bright multi-coloured thread blankets were hanging.
“I don’t really know anything about the flu,” she told me with a smile.
She had become more worried when she had seen people wearing facemasks, but she was not thinking of leaving Mexico early.
When I finished interviewing Beatrice I thanked her.
“What do you know about the flu?” she asked.
I told her about the deaths in Mexico, about the handful of people in Europe infected, about the hundreds of students thought to be affected in New York’s schools. Her eyes widened.
Her travelling companion started to take notice. I told them they simply needed to take precautions, watch out for people sneezing, avoid enclosed areas. I offered them two face masks. They took them.
Reassurance
Several hours later we were leaving the hotel, heading south to the farm that some believe is where this outbreak started.
Beatrice came up to me, her facemask on tight, white translucent latex gloves on her hands. She looked pale, and worried. “Do you have any more masks, for my friends?” she asked.
She told me they had cancelled the rest of their holiday. She said that the French consulate had told them to stay in Oaxaca, to go straight to the airport for their flight, to leave when they could.
I tried to reassure her.
“But if we get it, how can we leave?” she said. “They won’t let us go back.”
I paid up, and loaded my bag into the back of our van.
One colleague was wearing a mask, two were not. I put mine on.
A member of staff in a starched blue shirt tucked into pressed black trousers came out of the hotel. “My manager says we cannot wear masks,” he said. “It’s not good for the visitors to see.”
Then he turned to me, slightly embarrassed and a little worried, I felt. “Should I wear one?” he asked.
From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday, 2 May, 2009 at 1130 BST on BBC Radio 4. Please check the
programme schedules
for World Service transmission times.

Source:BBC

Iran execution provokes outrage
Human rights groups have protested against the execution on Friday of a young Iranian woman for a murder committed when she was 17 years old.
Amnesty International said it was outraged by Delara Darabi’s hanging and that she did not get a fair trial.
The head of Iran’s judiciary had recently granted a two-month stay of execution but her lawyer says this was disregarded by the prison authorities.
Ever since her confession Ms Darabi, an artist, had said she was innocent.
She said she had taken the blame to save her boyfriend.
Her case received international attention after dramatic paintings and drawings created in her cell were seen around the world.
‘Save me’
The head of the Iranian judiciary recently granted a two-month stay of execution.
But according to her lawyer this order was simply disregarded by the prison authorities, who provided no notice of the execution.
The BBC’s Jon Leyne in Tehran says that early on Friday morning Delara Darabi made a desperate phone call to her parents, saying she could see the hangman’s noose.
“Mother they are going to execute me, please save me,” she said, before a prison official took the phone away and said: “We are going to execute your daughter and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty’s deputy chief for the Middle East and North Africa, said that the execution was a cynical move to avoid international protests.
“Amnesty International is outraged at the execution of Delara Darabi, and particularly at the news that her lawyer was not informed,” she said.
“Amnesty International does not consider her trial to have been fair, as the courts later refused to consider new evidence which the lawyer said would have proved she could not have committed the murder,” a statement by the group said.
The statement added that Iran had executed 42 juvenile offenders since 1990, in disregard of international law.

Source:BBC

Powell joins Bolt on injury list
Former world 100m record holder Asafa Powell has joined Usain Bolt on the sidelines and will miss Friday’s IAAF Super Grand Prix in Doha.
Powell, 26, sprained his ankle competing at last weekend’s Penn Relays in Philadelphia and will be out of action for the next two weeks.
“I’m really sorry to have to disappoint again but I know it is the only decision I can make,” he said.
“I am not injured badly and I know I will be fully recovered shortly.”
Powell is hoping to be back for New York’s Reebok Grand Prix on 30 May.
The news of Powell’s injury comes in the week that triple Olympic champion sprinter Bolt was involved in a car accident in Jamaica.
The 22-year-old, who is resting after suffering minor injuries, is expected to return at the Bupa Manchester Games on 17 May.

Source:BBC

‘Taleban killed’ in Pakistan raid
The Pakistan army has fought off a Taleban attack on an outpost near the Afghan border, killing at least 13 militants, the military says.
An army major said the two soldiers died in the pre-dawn attack in the lawless Mohmand tribal region, bordering Afghanistan’s Kunar province.
Mohmand in North-West Frontier Province is said to be a hub for Taleban.
The attack comes days after the army fought with Taleban in the north-west’s Buner region, killing about 60.
“The Taleban attack [in Mohmand] was launched before dawn, troops retaliated and heavy fighting continued until early this morning,” military spokesman Major Fazal Khan said, according to AFP news agency.
The army fought the Taleban in Mohmand in March, killing 26 militants.
The Taleban had carried out a series of attacks on trucks laden with supplies for Nato personnel in Afghanistan near Peshawar, the capital of North-West Frontier Province.
On Friday, following the days of battle in neighbouring Buner and Lower Dir, talks were held to shore up a peace deal in the NWFP.
Both sides – the cleric who negotiated the deal and NWFP officials – said they backed the peace deal but no agreement was concluded on a truce.
The Pakistani government and some Western nations are concerned that the Taleban are trying to extend their influence beyond the Swat Valley, an area which they largely control already.
The Taleban and the NWFP government this year agreed a deal that would bring Sharia law to large parts of the region in return for an end to the insurgency.
However, the Taleban have not laid down their arms.

Source:BBC

Mexico has revised down the suspected death toll from swine flu from 176 to 101, indicating that the outbreak may not be as bad as was initially feared.
Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova told the BBC that, based on samples tested, the mortality rate was comparable with that of seasonal flu.
The news came as Mexico continues a five-day shutdown in an attempt to contain the spread of the virus.
Globally, 16 countries have now reported swine flu cases.
Five countries outside Mexico have confirmed person-to-person transmission.
China is trying to stop the spread of the virus, after getting its first case on Friday.
It says it will quarantine all those who travelled on a flight from Mexico with a man suffering from swine flu.
Flights from Mexico have been suspended, and fellow guests and staff at the Hong Kong hotel where he was staying have been quarantined.
South Korea has also now confirmed a case of the virus.
Risk remains
In cases outside Mexico, the effects do not appear to be severe.
Dr Anne Schuchat, acting deputy director of America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said that although experts were concerned about the possibility of severe cases, the majority so far had been “mild, self-limited illness”.
The new virus lacked the traits that made the 1918 flu pandemic so deadly, another CDC official said.
Mr Cordova appeared to agree, saying that the Mexican authorities may, on reflection, have overestimated the danger.
He said 43.7% of samples from suspected cases so far tested had come back positive, a total of 397. Sixteen in this group had died.
“All the samples that were taken give us an idea of the percentage of the ones testing positive,” he said.
“That means that apparently, the rate of attack is not as wide as was thought.”
But he stressed that the risk of a rise in infection remains and some elements of the five-day shutdown might be extended.
Restaurants, public buildings and businesses have been closed as Mexico tries to bring the virus under control, and people are being urged to stay at home.
Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said the emergency measures were bringing results, with the numbers “getting better every day”.
There is growing concern about the effect the virus could have on Mexico’s economy.
Several US air carriers say they will cut flights to Mexico as demand falls amid concerns over the crisis. Tourism has plummeted since the outbreak was declared a week ago.
In Egypt, authorities are expected to begin the slaughter of over 300,000 pigs as a precaution. Experts say the virus cannot be caught from eating pork and there is no scientific rationale for the cull.

Source:BBC

Slippery slope for Russian rich
By Katia Moskvitch
BBC, Courchevel
With her bright-red lipstick, new golden-hued ski suit and Chanel sunglasses, Tatiana looks ready to take on “glamorous Courchevel”.
She came to this elite ski resort in the French Alps to enjoy the last days of this year’s ski season. It took her weeks to prepare for the trip, to save money for just the “right” look and make sure everyone – everyone – in her Moscow office knew where she was going.
For her it was a question of prestige more than anything else.
Russians come in their thousands to Courchevel during the season.
It became known in Russian middle and upper-class circles when post-Soviet-era oligarchs headed there in huge numbers.
They didn’t go to conquer the Alps, but rather to show off and spend their newly acquired millions in such a reckless way that soon almost every business in the area awaited their arrival.
Courchevel’s boutiques, hotels and restaurants quickly began hiring Russian-speaking employees.
Russian oligarchs were known for renting the most expensive chalets in the area, starting at 30,000 euros (US39,800) a week. For that price, they would also get a private cook, a housemaid and, of course, a stunning view of the Alps.
“During the last ski season, a typical Russian client of our boutique could spend about 100,000 euros (132,600) at one time,” says Juliette, a manager of a jewellry shop in the Courchevel valley that sells diamonds and Rolex watches.
But this year the situation has changed.
“Nowadays they tend to spend half of what they were spending before – only 50,000 euros (66,000),” adds Juliette.
Despite this, there do not appear to be any fewer Russians in Courchevel than previous seasons.
They can still be heard chit-chatting in restaurants on picturesque mountain tops.
The owner of one such restaurant, the high-end Chalet de Pierre Yvette Saxe, says she is used to welcoming Russian clients.
Her website has three language versions: French, English and Russian. The Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin has lunched here, she says.
Ms Saxe says that although there are still many Russian skiers in Courchevel this year, they don’t spend like they used to.
“In previous years, they didn’t speak any French or English and didn’t really know French cuisine or wines, so they just pointed to the most expensive item on the menu, thinking that more expensive meant better,” she says.
Courchevel has many luxury hotels and chalets
“But this year, it’s definitely not as crazy as before. Now Russians actually look at what they’re ordering and look at the price, too. They don’t have as many private parties.
“And it seems that many oligarchs stayed at home because of the crisis to work and make some money. Instead they have sent their families, who don’t spend as much.”
Having said that, she smiles and nods to two Russian businessmen who have came to the resort for the second time.
Leonid and Mikhail agree that the downturn has hit them hard.
“We had to choose a less expensive hotel and we check the price tag before buying something,” says Mikhail.
“But we came here to ski, not to shop,” adds his friend.
Although there are many other great ski resorts in the French Alps, and those who prefer steeper slopes may instead choose Megeve or the capital of alpine skiing, Chamonix, Courchevel remains the number-one tourist destination among the picky Russian public.
Many of the resort’s employees agree that this year there has been a surge in middle-class Russian skiers such as Tatiana.
She has been looking forward to returning to Moscow ever since she set foot in Courchevel – just so she can tell her colleagues all about it.
“Everyone is so jealous that I am skiing here,” she says.
“Why, it’s the prestigious Courchevel!”

Source:BBC