Suu Kyi 'still fond of Burma army'

26 January 2013 Last updated at 21:54 ET

Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said she is still "fond" of her country's army, even though it kept her under house arrest for 15 years.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, she told presenter Kirsty Young her Buddhist faith had helped her defy Burma's dictatorship, and later face them when taking a seat in parliament.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner's father, Aung San, is considered the father of modern Burma, and founded its army.

The BBC interview took place in Burma.

During the programme, which was recorded at her home in December, Ms Suu Kyi admitted: "It's genuine, I'm fond of the army.

"People don't like me for saying that. There are many who have criticised me for being what they call a poster girl for the army - very flattering to be seen as a poster girl for anything at this time of life - but I think the truth is I am very fond of the army, because I always thought of it as my father's army."

She explained that while the army had done "terrible" things in Burma, she hoped it would redeem itself.

And in a first for the programme, Ms Suu Kyi picked a record - Green, Green Grass Of Home by Tom Jones - that she had never heard before, because her personal assistant had recommended it.

She said: "I asked her which piece of music she'd like to choose and she said the Green, Green Grass Of Home.

"And she explained to me when she was working as a doctor in England it used to remind her of Burma - and I hope I like it."

Political prisoner

Ms Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest before Burma's 1990 election.

She had returned to the country from the UK to nurse her mother, and was held after giving a speech to crowds of half a million during protests and political unrest.

Ms Suu Kyi had been living in the UK with her husband, the academic Michael Aris, and their two sons. Mr Aris was refused a visa to visit her before he died of terminal cancer in 1999.

The interview also includes her feelings about her relationship with him and how they dealt with the Burmese government's refusal to allow them to see each other.

Political prisoner Ms Suu Kyi was not released until shortly after the November 2010 polls that formally ended military rule.

Her party has now rejoined the political process and secured a small presence in parliament after winning by-elections in April 2012.

Ms Suu Kyi's selection on Desert Island Discs can be heard on BBC Radio 4 at 11:15 GMT on Sunday.

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Ofsted head warns over bright pupils

27 January 2013 Last updated at 00:00 ET

England's chief inspector of schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw, has ordered a "landmark report" into how state schools teach the most able students.

Ofsted's head warned some pupils, who got top marks at primary school, were not doing as well at secondary school.

Such students ought to be pushed, as they would be at independent or grammar schools, he told the Sunday Telegraph..

The news comes as league tables reveal hundreds of schools failed to produce pupils suitable for elite universities.

The tables, released on Thursday, showed almost a quarter of England's sixth forms and colleges had no pupils with the top A-level grades sought by leading institutions.

'Nonsense'

Setting out a "rapid response" to the data, Sir Michael promised the watchdog's survey would investigate fears that some of the brightest secondary school pupils are being let down by teachers who fail to stretch them to get the best exam results.

Many are left to coast in mixed ability classes, or entered too early for GCSE exams in order to gain the minimum C grades required for league tables, he warned.

He also said the report - to be published in the spring - would address the "nonsense" that a tiny number of independent schools were sending more youngsters to Oxford and Cambridge than thousands of state secondary schools.

England's comprehensive schools would have to learn lessons from the independent and selective sectors, he said.

The new report is due to be carried out over the coming months by Ofsted inspectors visiting a sample of more than 50 secondary schools, looking at statistics on gifted and talented provision and pupil progression, according to Sir Michael.

"I am passionate about this, it will be a landmark report.

"I am as concerned as the next person on the issue of social mobility. Are our children and our children from the poorest backgrounds who are naturally bright doing as well as they should?"

Leading universities have been urged in recent years to do more to recruit bright students from a wider set of backgrounds.

But data released this week shows that many schools are not producing students of a high enough calibre to automatically get places at such universities.

League tables - drawn from the latest official government figures on pupils' academic achievement - have shown some 594 (23.4%) of the 2,540 schools teaching A-levels had no pupils with the two As and a B in the subjects recommended for the best degree courses.

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Queensland braces for flooding

27 January 2013 Last updated at 00:50 ET

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BBC's Nick Bryant: "They're saying now in Bundaberg they're going to get worse flooding than they had two years ago"

The Australian state of Queensland is on alert for flooding in the wake of Tropical Cyclone Oswald.

Hundreds of people have been evacuated as heavy rain continued to fall on Sunday, with the towns of Gladstone and Bundaberg preparing for the possibility of major floods.

The bad weather is forecast to move towards the state capital, Brisbane, and the state of New South Wales.

Two years ago, flooding in Queensland left 35 people dead.

On Sunday, Australian media reported that authorities had pulled the body of an elderly man from the water at Burnett Heads, north-east of Bundaberg.

Two other people were reported missing, including a man who disappeared after trying to cross a creek in Gympie, north of Brisbane.

Six tornadoes have already hit the Bundaberg region, tearing off roofs and injuring 17 people.

The BBC's Nick Bryant reports from Sydney that the river in Bundaberg is already above the flood levels witnessed in 2010, and meteorologists fear it could rise another metre, reaching levels not seen in 70 years.

The council is expecting some 300 homes and businesses to be inundated.

In Gladstone, to the north, 400 properties have already been evacuated.

Sandbags are also being handed out in the state capital Brisbane, where bay areas are especially vulnerable from tidal surges.

Severe weather warnings are in place from central Queensland to the New South Wales border.

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French-led troops target Timbuktu

27 January 2013 Last updated at 05:48 ET

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French may face little resistence in Timbuktu, the BBC's Thomas Fessy says

French-led forces in Mali are advancing on the key northern city of Timbuktu, as they press on with their offensive against Islamist rebels.

On Saturday Malian and French forces seized Gao, another key northern city.

The advance comes as African Union leaders are meeting to discuss sending more troops to Mali.

Islamists seized the north of the country last year, but have been losing ground since French forces launched an operation earlier this month.

Late on Saturday French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Malian and French troops would arrive "near Timbuktu soon".

Overnight they secured Gao - northern Mali's most populous city- after special forces captured the airport and a strategic bridge to the south.

Most militants appear to have fled into desert hide-outs and the hunt for them may prove more difficult once all major towns are secure, says the BBC's Thomas Fessy in the capital, Bamako.

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• Timbuktu was a centre of Islamic learning from the 13th to the 17th Centuries
• 700,000 manuscripts survive in public libraries and private collections
• Books on religion, law, literature and science
• Added to Unesco world heritage list in 1988 for its three mosques and 16 cemeteries and mausoleums
• They played a major role in spreading Islam in West Africa; the oldest dates from 1329
• Islamists destroyed mausoleums after seizing the city

Troops from Niger and Chad are to assist Malian forces in further securing the town.

Also overnight, French forces bombed Islamist position in Kidal, Malian officials say.

An army source told AFP news agency that the home of the head of Ansar Dine, the main militant group in northern Mali, had been destroyed in a raid.

US refuelling

African Union leaders are holding a summit in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, as members move to deploy troops to help the French-led operation there.

Outgoing AU chairman Boni Yayi on Sunday hailed France for its military intervention, saying it was something "we should have done a long time ago to defend a member country".

In a statement on Saturday, the AU said it wanted to make "an African Standby Force" operational in Mali soon.

African states have pledged nearly 5,700 troops to support French and Malian forces in their campaign. Only a small part of the African force has so far deployed.

Meanwhile, the US said it would provide mid-air refuelling for French warplanes. The Pentagon said it had also discussed plans for the US to transport troops to Mali from countries including Chad and Togo.

Some 3,700 French troops are engaged in Operation Serval, 2,500 of them on Malian soil.

France intervened in its former colony after Islamist launched a push to the south earlier this month. Paris said the whole of Africa, and even Europe, was under threat if the Islamist offensive succeeded.

As French and Malian troops moved into Gao, Malian officials spoke of scenes of joy, but also some looting.

Malian Foreign Minister Tieman Coulibaly said ahead of the summit in Addis Ababa: "This terrorist group intends to spread its criminal purpose over the whole of Mali, and eventually target other countries."

The AU has recommended civilian observers monitor the human rights situation in the areas which have come back under the control of the Malian government.

Human rights groups have accused the Malian army of committing serious abuses.

Islamist groups and secular Tuareg rebels took advantage of chaos following a military coup to seize northern Mali in April 2012. But the Islamists soon took control of the region's major towns, sidelining the Tuaregs.

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Clegg: Coalition resolute on economy

27 January 2013 Last updated at 06:08 ET

The government is "absolutely not going to change course" on reducing the deficit, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has insisted.

The latest GDP figures showed the UK economy shrank by 0.3% in the last three months of 2012, fuelling fears the economy could re-enter recession.

Mr Clegg said the government was "resolute" and "restlessly creative" in finding ways to make the economy grow.

He also said the government was finding new ways to boost capital investment.

But he warned against a return to the "bad old days" of extensive borrowing.

Mr Clegg's comments come amid rising calls for a new economic strategy in the face of the GDP contraction and figures showing a slight year-on-year increase in public sector net borrowing.

'Long, hard road'

Last week, IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard suggested that Chancellor George Osborne should consider slowing down austerity measures in his March budget, and London mayor Boris Johnson urged his Tory colleague to "junk talk of austerity" and press ahead with major infrastructure projects.

The deputy prime minister told the BBC's Andrew Marr show: "You can be very tough on the deficit, which we have - we have reduced it by a quarter - and you can be restlessly creative about how within those strictures you do things to make the economy grow.

"We're being tough, but pragmatic. We are being resolute, but innovative. If people have ideas about how we can provide further capital investment into our infrastructure, without breaking the bank, of course we are open to that.

"We are absolutely not going to change course in paying off one of the world's largest budget deficits - why? Because if you just shrug your shoulders and say 'it's too complicated', we end up asking our children and grandchildren to pay off this generation's debts."

Mr Clegg defended comments he made in a magazine interview in which he appeared to suggest the coalition government had cut capital spending too much when it came into office.

"What I was describing is what is the fact... What we did in the first instance, Labour said there was no money left so we couldn't go around writing cheques.

"What we have done since then is systematically found ways to raise new capital."

He highlighted Crossrail - a new rail line which will run from east to west across London - as one of the largest infrastructure projects in Europe and said Monday's expected announcement to extend the £33bn high-speed rail line to Manchester and Leeds would "heal the north south divide".

Treasury-backed guarantees would also help drive private sector investment in infrastructure, Mr Clegg said, allowing investors to take advantage of lower borrowing costs.

Mr Clegg admitted that there was "a long hard road" ahead to secure the economic recovery and said some parts of the economy were going to "take longer to repair than anybody anticipated".

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Floods threaten as UK thaw begins

27 January 2013 Last updated at 07:12 ET

Serious flooding is possible across many parts of the UK as milder temperatures thaw snow and rain moves in, forecasters have warned.

Parts of Carmarthenshire, Powys, Gwynedd and Norfolk have flooded and a Met Office yellow warning for rain is in force for much of the UK.

Seventy-four flood warnings and 308 alerts are in place in England and Wales. Scotland has seven warnings.

Forecasters say Sunday will see a mix of sunny spells and blustery showers.

The Met Office said heavy rain across much of the country, combined with fairly rapid snow melt, was likely to lead to localised surface water and river flooding.

Western Scotland and Cumbria saw the heaviest rain on Saturday night. Wales, central and south-west England are expected to be the worst-hit areas on Sunday morning, with at least 1in (2.5cm) of rain expected to have fallen by mid-morning.

There are flood warnings in place in East Anglia, south-west England, the Midlands, north-east England, north-west England and Wales.

The Environment Agency said emergency teams were out in these areas checking "high priority defences" to make sure they were working.

Norfolk Police have reported flooding caused by melting snow and ice, which has closed a number of roads in the area.

In Wales, there has been flooding in Powys, Gwynedd and Carmarthenshire.

Environment Agency spokesman Innes Thomson told BBC News: "The message is that there's wet weather all over the country, we've already got flooded fields, we've got localised flooding, we've got high ground water and we've got spring tides this week coming.

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Latest local information from the BBC

"So we've actually got a complete cocktail of issues and concerns for us to keep an eye on."

Spring tides occur when the sun and moon are aligned, so their gravitational pull is combined - leading to especially high, high tides and low, low tides.

The seven flood warnings issued by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) include the Scottish Borders, Whitesands in Dumfries and Galloway and parts of central Scotland.

The BBC weather centre said much of the rain would clear eastwards through Sunday.

BBC forecaster Laura Gilchrist said Sunday would see sunny spells and blustery showers - with the heaviest in the west and north. The wind would be brisk and there was also a risk of hail and thunder.

Moving into the night, the showers would leave off, but Monday would see wet and windy conditions for most.

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Scores die in south Brazil fire

27 January 2013 Last updated at 07:20 ET

At least 180 people have died in a fire that swept through a nightclub in southern Brazil, police say.

They say the fire began when a band on stage started a fireworks display at the Kiss nightclub in the city of Santa Maria, in Rio Grande do Sul state.

Reports say there was only one exit and panic spread as people tried to get out. Many victims reportedly died from inhaling toxic fumes.

The fire is now out and bodies are being removed from the scene.

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• 2009: Santika Pub, Bangkok, Thailand - sparked by fireworks; 66 killed
• 2009: Lame Horse Club, Perm, Russia - sparked by fireworks; 150 killed
• 2003: The Station, Rhode Island, US - sparked by fireworks; 100 killed
• 1996: Ozone Disco Club, Quezon City, Philippines - 160 were killed
• 1990: Happy Land, New York, US - arson kills 89 at unlicensed club
• 1977: Beverly Hills Supper Club, Southgate, Kentucky - 165 killed
• 1970: Club Cinq-Sept, France - 146 killed;
• 1942: Cocoanut Grove, Boston, US - deadliest nightclub fire in US history; 492 killed.

"Fire services are looking for other victims. We can't give an exact number of victims. People started panicking and ended up treading on each other," fire chief Guido de Melo told local media.

A reporter at the scene told local radio that the nightclub had a capacity for up to 2,000 people and was believed to be full on a Saturday night.

Thick smoke engulfed the venue after acoustic insulation caught fire, officials say.

Fire crews reportedly knocked through a wall to help those trapped inside escape.

Hundreds of people have been taken to hospital.

Santa Maria is a major university city with a population of about 250,000 people.

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Mali troops 'take northern town'

26 January 2013 Last updated at 02:38 ET

Malian and French troops have retaken the town of Hombori, officials say, as they continue their campaign to regain control of northern Mali from rebels.

Hombori lies about 160km (100 miles) from the Islamist stronghold of Gao.

Earlier, French warplanes reportedly bombed rebel positions, fuel stores and ammunition dumps near Gao.

But there were also reports that rebels had blown up a bridge linking the east of the country with Niger, from where African troops plan to open a front.

The bridge is situated in the town of Tassiga, which lies on the quickest route from Niger to Gao, and spans a canyon.

However, Ibrahim Ag Idbaltanate, a former deputy in Mali's parliament, said the bridge was not the only way to cross the canyon.

Continue reading the main story

Mark Doyle BBC News, Sevare

---

We drove through the town of Sevare, a place I'd only seen on maps and which I had described in my reports as "strategically important".

At first, I thought guiltily that I had been exaggerating. Severe looked like any other African town - markets, metalworkers on the roadside, mobile phone shops everywhere.

Then the sound of a military helicopter shattered the normality.

It flew overhead and crossed the road in front of me flying so low it almost skimmed the treetops.

"You can make a detour of three to six miles (5-10km) and find another way to continue on the Niger-Gao road," he said, quoted by AP news agency.

Forces from Niger and Chad had been expected to use the road to join the advance against the rebels.

Several African countries have pledged military aid to help the Malian government win back control of the north.

On Friday the African Union asked the UN Security Council to authorise immediate logistical help to allow the 6,000-strong force to deploy quickly.

It also recommended civilian observers to monitor the human rights situation in the areas which have come back under the control of the Malian government. Human rights groups have accused the Malian army of committing serious abuses.

International build-up

Islamists seized a vast area of northern Mali last year and have imposed strict Sharia, or Islamic law, on its inhabitants. France intervened militarily on 11 January to stop them advancing further south.

The UN refugee agency says more than 7,000 civilians have fled to neighbouring countries since 10 January to escape the fighting.

As fighting continued on Friday, French TV carried grainy images of air strikes which the military said had been carried out near the city of Gao.

Malian and Nigerien security sources also reported the strikes, saying two Islamist bases with fuel stocks and weapon dumps near Gao had been destroyed.

French and Malian troops also staged joint patrols for the first time, in the town of Douentza west of Gao, the AFP news agency said, quoting Malian sources.

The BBC's Mark Doyle in Mali says a big international troop build-up is continuing ahead of a probable French-led air and ground offensive on Gao and other desert cities.

There are currently about 2,000 French troops in Mali.

An armed column of Chadian soldiers is making its way to Mali overland and more than 1,000 Nigerian soldiers are expected there too.

The UK defence ministry said on Friday it was deploying its Sentinel R1 spy plane to support French troops in Mali.

The hi-tech plane - which has radar equipment that can scan thousands of square miles in minutes - flew missions over Libya in 2011 as rebels fought to oust Col Gaddafi.

In Egypt, President Mohammed Morsi unveiled a proposal for a peaceful resolution to the Mali conflict.

The five-point plan includes political negotiations, economic and development initiatives and co-ordinated relief efforts. Mr Morsi has spoken against military intervention in Mali.

Earlier, the US military commander in Africa said the Pentagon had made mistakes when training Malian troops in recent years.

Gen Carter Ham of United States Africa Command (Africom) said its forces had failed to teach "values, ethics and a military ethos".

He was speaking after reports of abuses by Mali government troops taking part in the counter-offensive.

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Gunman dies as public stop robbery

26 January 2013 Last updated at 05:18 ET

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Ladbrokes are assisting the police with their inquiries

A masked gunman has died after being pinned down and restrained by customers during an armed robbery at a bookmakers in Plymouth.

The man, in his 50s, entered the Ladbrokes branch in Crownhill Road at 18:45 GMT on Friday wearing a gas mask and holding a pistol.

Police arrested the man, who was already unconscious, but he died a short time later at the scene.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is investigating.

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Chief Insp Ian Drummond-Smith: "We have recovered a firearm of sorts"

'Immediately tackled'

The man has been identified but next of kin have not yet been informed, a spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said.

The spokesman said when the man entered the shop, he was "immediately tackled" by customers and "held down still wearing his gas mask".

Ch Insp Ian Drummond-Smith said: "Customers and staff tackled the man, overpowered him, disarmed him and restrained him and when police officers arrived they found him being restrained but noted that he was unresponsive and wasn't breathing."

He said the police and ambulance service attempted to resuscitate him but he was declared dead about 20 minutes later at the scene.

Ch Insp Drummond-Smith added: "We have recovered a firearm of sorts, it hasn't been fully examined yet so I'm unable to confirm whether its a replica or a genuine firearm.

"This is a very serious incident. We cannot speculate on what has actually taken place here today."

A spokesman for Ladbrokes said they were assisting police.

Witness David Marfleet said: "As I drove past you could see that Ladbrokes was absolutely full of policeman at that time.

"[There were] easily 10 police cars and then two riot vans and then the ambulance that turned up on site as well.

"We don't normally have any trouble around here, it's quite a surprise it being such a nice quiet area."

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Call for UK to allow women in combat

26 January 2013 Last updated at 05:38 ET

The UK should consider following the US and allow women to serve in combat roles, says a woman who became one of the most senior female army officers.

Brigadier Nicky Moffat, who retired in December, said it was wrong to dismiss people just on gender.

Major Judith Webb, who became the first woman to command an all-male field squadron disagrees.

She said resources would be wasted trying to train women up to a standard they were unlikely to reach.

On Thursday US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta lifted the military's ban on women serving in combat roles, potentially opening frontline positions to women.

Brig Moffat told the BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Ultimately the responsibility for the operational effectiveness of the army and for the lives of the soldiers that are deployed lies with ministers and with the heads of the services and they must make that judgement."

But she said that judgement should be made on the basis of "capability" and she was "deeply uncomfortable" with the idea of excluding a whole group of potentially capable soldiers, just because of gender.

She said "It is not just about physical strength. It's about endurance, it's about ability to operate within a team, it's about a range of skills.

"But we shouldn't dismiss the point about strength. The infantry combat fitness test is extraordinarily demanding and individuals are required to carry herculean amounts of kit.

"But if we look at the achievements of our women Olympians I don't think any reasonable person could say that there aren't some women who could meet those standards."

Brig Moffat said the British Army was in a difficult position because it worked closely with the US and the Canadian army, which has already allowed women into combat roles.

But Maj Webb previously told Today: "By opening it up to women are women shooting themselves in the foot? Because they are not going to meet those standards.

"Two women who made it through marine training in the US didn't qualify."

'Wasting resources'

She said: "So what are we achieving by trying to open it up to women, except wasting a huge amount of resources by trying to train women up to a level I don't think they are going to meet."

No women are deployed in the infantry where the primary role is to "close with and kill" the enemy - to engage in hand-to-hand combat.

But they do perform support roles, such as medical duties and at any one time about 500 to 600 women are in theatre in Afghanistan.

The armed forces are exempt from the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act "for the purpose of ensuring the combat effectiveness".

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "The vast majority of roles in the armed forces are open to women and hundreds are currently serving their country with distinction in Afghanistan.

"Women are fundamental to the operational effectiveness of the UK's Armed Forces, bringing talent and skills across the board.

"The MoD 2010 review into women serving in combat roles concluded there should be no change to the existing policy. There are no plans to review this policy before the end of operations in Afghanistan."

In the US President Barack Obama welcomed the "historic step" and a senior defence official said about 237,000 jobs would be newly open to women "who can meet the standards".

The decision was also welcomed by Congressman Tammy Duckworth, a former helicopter pilot who lost both legs in Iraq.

She wrote in the Chicago Tribune: "It's time we stop being surprised that America's daughters are just as capable of defending this nation as her sons."

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