Pak, terrorism dominate Indo-UK talks

British Prime Minister David Cameron ended his India visit after some serious Pakistan bashing along with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh.

The UK-India talks in New Delhi on Thursday ended with Pakistan and terrorism topping the agenda. The Indian Prime Minister also commented on Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi's statements during the recent Indo-Pak talks in Islamabad. At the joint briefing withCameron, the focus was Pakistan where Singh slammed Qureshi for the disastrous manner in which the last Indo-Pak foreign ministers' dialogue ended.

"The press conference by Pakistani Foreign Minister could have been avoided because it detracts from a large number of agreements reached between our foreign ministers. Invitation to Mr Qureshi to visit India will be taken and we will sooner or later be able to restore the dialogue to a proper sense," said Singh.

He also kept the focus on terrorism and Pakistan's perfidy in backing terror groups.

"There is agreement that no cause is good enough to justify the resort to terrorism. I hope that the Government of Pakistan will honour its commitment to not allow its territory to be used for acts of terrorism against India," he added.

Cameron, too, said that terrorism was the biggest threat to the world.

"Reality of terrorism is there in the enormous losses in Mumbai and London, and we see every week in Afghanistan. In Pakistan the existence of terror groups is there. Need to work within Pakistan to crack down on terror groups that cause so much suffering," said Cameron.

Cameron's backing away ever so subtly from Wednesday's broadside against Islamabad is also a signal of his determination to involve Pakistan in plans that would see the withdrawal of all British troops from Afghanistan by 2014. The plan evidently has US President Barack Obama's approval.

Pakistan was definitely the elephant in the root as the Indian and British prime ministers came out for the press conference. It wasn't just the rap Singh administered to Qureshi but also the reiteration byCameron that it is not acceptable for Pakistan to have terror groups operating on its soil.

BP puts oil spill cost at $32.2bn

BP to set aside $32.2bn to cover oil spill costs.

BP says it has set aside $32.2bn (£20.8bn) to cover the costs linked to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The company said the charge gave it a loss of $17bn for the three months between April and June - a UK record.

BP's chairman said the costs estimate was based on the company's belief that it was not grossly negligent, and added the bill could be higher. BP also said Bob Dudley, head of the Gulf clean-up operation, will replace Tony Hayward as chief executive

Mr Hayward will leave his post by mutual agreement in October. He is likely to retain a role within the company. BP plans to nominate him as a non-executive director of its Russian joint venture, TNK-BP.

BP also announced it would increase its asset sales over the next 18 months to $30bn, a total that includes the $7bn-worth earmarked for sale last week. The $32.2bn cost of the clean-up includes the $20bn already set aside in an escrow account for compensation claims.

"That estimate is also based on our belief that we are not grossly negligent," BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg told the BBC's business editor Robert Peston.

"Of course we will not know precisely because it depends on how many claims are coming in and [other] things that could happen."

But he insisted that the company was in good financial shape, with strong cashflow. "It's of course a huge loss that overshadows everything else, but the underlying performance of the company is actually strong," he told the BBC.

"There is no worry about our financial position and our ability to get through this. It's of course a tragedy and it has large consequences, but we have no doubt that we will be able to rebuild the company," he said.

Stripping out the oil spill costs, BP made a second quarter profit, on a replacement cost basis, of $5bn, compared with $2.9bn for the second quarter of 2009. Bob Dudley, currently managing director and a US citizen, told ABC's Good Morning America programme, that BP would become a leaner organisation.

"It will be smaller and financially, it will grow. We're going to learn a lot from this incident and this accident... There's no question that we will change as a company."

The announcements were welcomed by most investors for their clear-cut approach. Peter Hitchens, of Panmure Gordon stockbrokers, said: "It's basically a kitchen sink job...

"I think it's the board trying to wipe the slate clean."

News Credit : bbc.co.uk/news/business

DR Congo is 'rape capital of the world'

The Democratic Republic of Congo is "the rape capital of the world", a senior UN official has said.

Margot Wallstrom, the UN's special representative on sexual violence in conflict, urged the Security Council to punish the perpetrators in DR Congo.

Rape remained a dominant feature of the ongoing conflict in eastern DR Congo, with impunity being the rule rather than the exception, she said.

More than 8,000 women were raped during fighting in 2009, the UN says.

"Women have no rights, if those who violate their rights go unpunished," Ms Wallstrom told the UN Security Council on her return from DR Congo.

"If women continue to suffer sexual violence, it is not because the law is inadequate to protect them, but because it is inadequately enforced," she said.

The UN mission in DR Congo, Monuc, has been trying to deal with the problem by escorting women on their way to market, developing early warning systems and working with local officials, according to a UN statement.

In April, research on sexual violence in DR Congo's eastern South Kivu province produced shocking findings.

The report by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative showed that 60% of rape victims in South Kivu were gang raped by armed men, more than half of the assaults took place in the victims' homes and an increasing number of attacks were being carried out by civilians.

Eastern DR Congo is still plagued by army and militia violence despite the end of the country's five-year war in 2003.

Monuc troops have been backing efforts to defeat rebels linked to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, who are operating in eastern DR Congo.

Nigel Farage injured in plane crash

UKIP leader Nigel Farage injured in plane crash in Northamptonshire.

The former UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage has been injured in a plane crash in Northamptonshire.

The plane carrying two people crashed at Hinton in the Hedges Airfield at Steane, near Brackley, at 0759 BST.

A Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service spokeswoman said Mr Farage and the pilot were freed from the wreckage.

Mr Farage was taken to hospital in Banbury with non-life threatening injuries, and the pilot was transferred to University Hospital in Coventry.

The pilot, who was trapped in the wreckage and had to be airlifted to hospital, is believed to be more seriously injured.

East Midlands Ambulance Service and fire crews remain at the scene.

A spokesman for UKIP said he believed Mr Farage had suffered minor injuries and was at Horton General Hospital.

The aircraft was due to circle over Buckingham, where Mr Farage is standing as a candidate, trailing a banner the spokesman said.

Mike Jose, Mr Farage's assistant, said they had previously flown the plane and banner over the constituency without any problems.

A UKIP spokesman said: "We've had unconfirmed reports that either the banner got snagged up, or there were cross-winds and it was unfamiliar airfield to the pilot."

The aircraft, believed to be a biplane, had flown into the airfield from Winchester area and was taking off again when the accident happened, the spokesman said.

The airfield has now been closed.

The incident is due to be investigated by the Air Accident Investigation Branch, Northamptonshire Police said.

Europe and the UK election updates

Clegg vaults to lead in U.K. election: poll : News Updates

New public opinion polls show British politics has been transformed overnight by last week's historic televised leadership debate.

Just 2½ weeks before Britons go to the polls, a surge in support for the traditionally third-place Liberal Democrats has put the party out front in terms of the popular vote.

A Sunday Times poll claims Nick Clegg, the party's 43-year-old leader, who is still serving his first term in Parliament as an MP, has suddenly become the most popular leader in Britain since the glory days of Winston Churchill.

A YouGov poll for the Sun newspaper has the Liberal Democrats with 33%, ahead of the Conservatives with 32% and Labour at 26%.

Another poll, carried out by ICM Research for The Guardian newspaper, says Mr. Clegg's party has gained 10 points in the last five days and is just three points behind the Conservatives and two points ahead of Labour.

As a result of 90 minutes of rather boring and predictable debate, the Lib-Dem leader has vaulted from obscurity to the threshold of a major political breakthrough.

That says a lot about voters' disillusion and the fragility of traditional politics in Britain.

If current trends hold, Mr. Clegg could double the 62 seats his party holds in the House of Commons, condemning the country to a minority government in which the Liberal Democrats hold the balance of power.

That, in turn, could set the stage for dramatic political reform, with the Liberal Democrats pushing demands for a form of proportional representation and an elected House of Lords.

Gordon Brown, the Labour Prime Minister who could still cling to power, has already begun emphasizing the "common ground" he sees with Mr. Clegg on electoral reform.

"I think Labour and the Liberal Democrats have similar policies about the scale of political reform that is needed," Mr. Brown told The Sunday Telegraph.

"The Conservatives don't. The Conservatives want to keep hereditary peers, they don't want a serious reform of the House of Lords in the next parliament."

But Labour can be expected to attack the Liberal Democrats' economic policies, saying their calls for steep spending and tax cuts could jeopardize a fragile economic recovery.

The Conservatives are warning a vote for the Liberal Democrats will ensure five more years of Labour government.

"If you want to wake up on May 7 and be absolutely certain that you've got new leadership in this country and are not stuck with another five years of Gordon Brown, stuck with dithering and despair and depression, the only way to get that is a decisive Conservative vote," David Cameron, the Tory leader, told voters yesterday.

Europe, UK flights delayed until Sunday

Volcanic dust cloud shuts down British airspace

Qantas estimates flights to Europe and the UK will not be operating again until Sunday as a volcanic ash cloud blasting out of an Icelandic glacier caused massive disruptions to global air traffic.

The volcano under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier is spewing a plume of grey ash up to 10 kilometres high across the Atlantic, closing major airports more than 2,000 kilometres away in the most extensive shutdown of airspace since the September 11 attacks in 2001.

The entire airspace in the UK, Norway, Denmark, Belgium and Sweden is closed and there are partial closures in France and Finland.

Qantas has cancelled today's flights to London and Frankfurt and over 1,500 travellers are now stranded in Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok airports waiting for a connecting flight.

Airline spokesman David Epstein says passengers trying to get to Europe from Australia should not fly to Asia as all hotels there are booked out.

He says passengers travelling in the next few days should not go to the airport unless the airline has directed them to do so.

"We'd urge you to go to qantas.com," he said.

"People travelling with us in the next few days, don't got to the airport until you have confirmed with us.

"It is going to take some time [to] work through the backlog of flights coming in from Europe."

Qantas passenger and New South Wales Liberal Party Director, Mark Neeham, flew into Singapore early this morning only to be told his flight to the United Kingdom will not be taking off until Saturday night.

But Mr Neeham says he is grateful he has been put up in a hotel and does not have to wait at the airport.

"Just as you came off the aircraft what greeted you was the hordes of people wandering around, people laying against the walls, laying against seats, every bit of floor space available somebody was sitting on it or asleep on it so it was not a pleasant place to be," he said.

Rhianne Hole was due to leave Melbourne Airport to visit family in Wales.

She says she is annoyed the airline told her to reschedule the flights herself.

"Not happy at all, the fact that we have to call the reservation line and do it ourselves like they should... if they're sending us home they should be rebooking the flights for us," she said.

Mr Epstein says Qantas is at the mercy of the volcano and then the British authorities.

He says Qantas has provided the passengers stranded in Asia with meal vouchers and accommodation.

"We are working through the situation with them. Whether they want to remain in situ in Asia ... or whether they want to return home," he said.

But he says accommodation in Asia is already under pressure as the number of stranded tourists increases.

Mr Epstein says Qantas has experience operating around volcanic activities and he says there will be no flights until officials say there is no threat to safety.

"Qantas does have some experience in dealing with volcanic activities. Our meteorological people pay a lot attention to volcanic activity," he said.

Volcanic ash contains tiny particles of glass and pulverised rock, which can melt in plane engines, causing a loss of power.

The flight safety officer for the British Airline Pilots' Association, Dave Reynolds, says the problem with the ash is not confined to it getting into engines.

"Also as significantly, the ash can get inside the aircraft's instrument systems and under conditions where the pilots are using their instruments to fly the aircraft, they'll find themselves in the very dangerous situation of not being able to have reliable instruments," he said.