Only one of 51 bridges in the Swat valley is thought to have withstood the flood Thursday, 2 December 2010
More misery
Only one of 51 bridges in the Swat valley is thought to have withstood the flood Utror nestles in the mountains in Swat in north-west Pakistan and is bracing itself for winter.
The rocky peaks which surround it are already covered with snow.
Soon the snow will fall in Utror as well - and, in the depth of winter, it's often 4-5m (13-16ft) deep.
This year, families here will find it hard to survive.
The flash floods which hit the region more than three months ago destroyed local houses, damaged roads which connected Utror to the outside world and ruined the main produce, potatoes.
Zar Pari is a strong-faced matriarch and I met her inside her traditional home, four rooms set round a closed courtyard.
Utror inhabitant“When they stop the helicopters, I don't know how we're going to get food. All we can do is hope that God will help us”
Her family of 11, spanning three generations, clustered round. Behind me, a smoky wood burning stove provided the only heat.
"Our crops have all been washed away," she told me. "And look up at the ceiling. The roof was badly damaged and I don't have the money to repair it. The only food we have now is brought to us by foreigners. We live on that."
She was referring to the international aid supplied to Utror and surrounding communities by the World Food Programme and the US government.
Goods including sacks of flour, boxes of high-energy biscuits and cooking oil have been flown in on a daily basis since the flood by US military helicopters.
They have provided a lifeline. Helicopters are the only way of getting aid quickly to this remote region, especially since so many roads and bridges have been destroyed.
But all that is about to change. With the US military operation having finished at the end of November, future aid will travel by land. Many in the community are worried.
Reconstruction work in Utror is taking place, but it is painfully slow "Whatever food they're giving us, we eat straightaway because it's all we have," said Zar Pari's elderly neighbour.
"When they stop the helicopters, I don't know how we're going to get food. All we can do is hope that God will help us."
About a third of the families in Utror have left, heading for lower ground for the winter before the snow sets in.
Many had to walk because few vehicles can manage the broken roads.
Some were driven away because they simply did not have adequate shelter for the winter.
As many as 300 houses, mostly close to the river, were destroyed by floodwater.
Reconstruction has started but it will clearly be a long, slow process.
Zar Pari's two sons run a stall selling tea and meals. One of them, Bakht Hussain, joined the conversation.
The stall had been forced to close, he said. There were no customers because no-one had money.
With the potato crop ruined and the stall abandoned, the family has not been able to earn money to buy food stocks for winter.
Once the snows fell, they would be cut off - with very little food.
"People here have lost everything," he said.
"All their farmland and crops. I ask the government to give us some work. Maybe one person from each household could have some employment. That way, we could earn money."
This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-south-asia-11869529
England's dismay at 2018 verdict
England fans who had gathered to watch the decision were left dismayed People in English cities which would have hosted World Cup games in 2018 have been expressing their disappointment at the bid's failure.
Fifa chose Russia to host the 2018 tournament and Qatar as host for 2022.
Twelve places across England had been shortlisted as host cities and fans had been looking forward to attending matches in their home country.
Football clubs and local councils hoped for improved stadiums or financial boosts from staging the tournament.
England had planned to stage matches in Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, Nottingham, Plymouth, Sheffield and Sunderland.
Tens of thousands of fans from the 32 competing nations would have come to England to support their teams.
James Berresford, chief executive of tourism body VisitEngland, said: "We are all obviously disappointed that England has been unsuccessful in its bid to host the 2018 World Cup."
Ex-footballers were among those who also expressed their dismay that the World Cup would not be held in England for the first time since 1966, when England also won the tournament for the only time.
Former Liverpool winger Ian Callaghan, who was part of England's triumphant 1966 World Cup squad, said: "We had so much to offer. We were so geared up for winning we were obviously very disappointed when the result was read out.
"It would have been a fantastic thing for Liverpool, having teams from all over the world play here."
Former Manchester City and England star Mike Summerbee said: "I am very disappointed. I thought we had turned it round.
Russia was announced as the host of the 2018 World Cup by Fifa's Sepp Blatter "Both the clubs in Manchester and the council had really got behind the bid. It's just very difficult to take."
Paddy Crerand, former Manchester United player, added: "It's a crying shame. England had all the right facilities. I can remember 1966 and it was a very exciting time."
Councillor Adam Ogilvie from Leeds City Council said: "It's disappointing that Leeds has missed out on the chance to be part of the greatest sports tournament in the world.
"The bid the Leeds City Region had submitted was fantastic and the England 2018 bid was very strong.
Alan Shearer“I was hoping that I might see a World Cup in my lifetime in England”
"It would have ensured global coverage for the whole city region and provided a huge economic boost.
"We have the facilities, fans and support to be a host city and I truly believe it is the world's loss that Leeds and this part of Yorkshire will not be involved."
Wayne Coyle, Sheffield's bid director, said he was "very disappointed" but the city's council leader Paul Scriven said: "The city will benefit from the work of the bid team which has seen local sporting organisations work together for the benefit of the community, whilst at the same time Sheffield was profiled on a national and international stage."
In the North East, both Newcastle and Sunderland would have staged matches.
James Ramsbotham, chief executive of the North East Chamber of Commerce, said: "This is a blow to North East England, not least because of the benefits to the local economy that hosting an event of this scale could have brought to the area, but also because there is a real passion for the sport in this area of this country."
Fans had gathered to watch the announcement on big screens, including one by Tower Bridge Alan Shearer, Newcastle legend and former England captain, who played in the 1998 World Cup, said: "I was hoping that I might see a World Cup in my lifetime in England. I wasn't born in '66.
"If we haven't got it this time, when are we ever going to get it? I felt very confident with Prince William and the Prime Minister behind us."
Niall Quinn, chairman of Sunderland, said: "We wish Russia well. I'm surprised they got it, I have to say.
"I don't want to feel bitter at all but it's just a shame [when] what you think should be the main components of the bid have been overlooked."
Former West Bromwich Albion player Brendan Batson, who had backed Birmingham's bid to be a host city, said it was "hugely disappointing" that England had been eliminated in the first round of voting.
He said: "One of the problems is the general public don't understand the process and until we can sort of demystify what that process is, we'll always be in the dark as to why we didn't get it.
"You look at our bid and you're thinking it does stack up against the others and the other people will say 'well our bid stacks up' as well, but nobody knows."
England has not hosted the World Cup since 1966 and the wait continues London would have hosted the final - at Wembley - while matches would also have been held at either Arsenal's Emirates Stadium, the 2012 Olympic Stadium, or the planned new ground of Tottenham Hotspur.
Mayor Boris Johnson said: "We put together a cracking bid, our technical specification was top notch and our stadiums would have been packed to the rafters.
"Londoners love football. This is a blow."
Nottingham Forest and Bristol City had planned to build new stadiums to stage matches while Plymouth Argyle's ground would have needed major redevelopment, which will now be in question.
John Hallett Destination Bristol“It's very, very disappointing but we have to live with it”
Nottingham's World Cup bid director Hugh White said the driving force of Fifa's technical requirements for the city's new stadium had gone.
"We will have to reappraise that but I know Forest have for a long time wanted a long-term stadium solution," he said.
"I'm sure there will be discussion around that, but this opportunity has gone and we are very disappointed."
Colin Sexstone, Bristol City's chief executive said: "We started the stadium planning many years before the World Cup bid had been put in and we'll crack on with it.
"It's as important as ever for us that we have a new stadium and that Bristol has a new stadium."
It had been all smiles before the announcement Vice Chairman of Plymouth Argyle Paul Stapleton said: "I don't think we could have done anymore. It's a great underwhelming moment."
He added: "The Plymouth bid was fantastic, a lot of effort, a lot of work for the county.
"So many people put so much effort into what went into the bid. It was going to be a legacy for the youngsters of Devon and Cornwall, and it's just so disappointing."
Milton Keynes - like Plymouth and Bristol - would have been hosting a major international football event for the first time.
Rita Spada, of the Milton Keynes Chamber of Commerce, said she was "disappointed".
But she said: "From a Milton Keynes point of view we have achieved what we set out to do.
"Milton Keynes is appreciated as one of the top places. We are in with the big guys of football, such as Liverpool."
John Hallett, of Destination Bristol, said: "It's very, very disappointing but we have to live with it."
This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/uk-england-11903497
Landon Ramm Alana Handschumaker Nathanial Maccord Kristeen Tannery
Shark attacks hit Red Sea resort
Three tourists have been injured by a shark in three separate attacks at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. 
This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-middle-east-11895062
Roosevelt Simmelink Alycia Mcgraw Luciano Lisitano Mika Nemer
Age affects appointment chances
Age, sex and wealth all affect how likely your GP is to refer you for a specialist appointment, a study has concluded.
A UK team analysed data for 130,000 patients, reporting their findings in the British Medical Journal.
Older people were less likely to be referred for three common symptoms, with sex and deprivation also influential.
A charity said the study should raise alarm bells across the NHS.
Michelle Mitchell, Charity Director at Age UK, said: "A doctor's decision to refer patients must be based solely on the patient's clinical need, not their age. Age discrimination in health provision will be unlawful from 2012 and it can't come a moment too soon for older people in need of medical care."
The study from the King's Fund and University College London covered decisions on patients with postmenopausal bleeding, hip pain and heartburn from 326 UK practices across a six-year period.
Once everything else that might influence a doctor's decision to refer - such as smoking, weight, alcohol use and pre-existing conditions - was taken into account, the researchers found significant differences in referral rates between old and young, male and female.
As a guide, the older the patient, the less likely a referral was - in postmenopausal bleeding, someone aged 85 or over was 61% less likely to get a specialist appointment, compared with someone aged 55 to 64.
For patients with hip pain, the difference in referral rates was 32%.
Women were 10% less likely to be referred for hip pain than men, while there was some evidence that coming from a poorer background made a specialist appointment for hip pain and heartburn less likely.
The reasons behind the decisions were not revealed by the study - however, the authors suggested that older patients might be less likely to ask for referral, and that GPs choosing to work in deprived areas might be generally less inclined to refer.
However, they said that the differences could lead to "delays in treatment and poorer outcomes" - and might be an even greater concern if similar patterns emerged in referrals for other common symptoms, some of which could be linked to serious illness.
In an accompanying commentary, Professor Moyez Jiwa, from the Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute in Perth, Australia, said it was hard to know how harmful decisions like this could be.
While some patients might be "denied timely access" to experts, she wrote, others who were referred could be harmed by unnecessary testing and treatment.
She added: "The appropriate referral of cases has economic, quality and safety ramifications that resonate across the health sector and the globe."
She said that database analysis like this could not help researchers understand why GPs and their patients behaved in a certain way in the consulting room.
This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/health-11877488
Rise in Chinese factory output
Domestic demand has been strong within China China's manufacturing production rose strongly last month, figures suggest.
The China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said its purchasing managers index (PMI) rose to 55.2 in November, up from 54.7 in October and 53.8 in September.
Analysts said strong domestic demand appeared to be offsetting weakness in some of the country's export markets such as the US and Europe.
Separate data showed production slowed in Japan and Australia.
Monthly PMI readings in China have stayed above 50 - which indicates expansion - for 21 straight months.
The latest data showed that China's economy grew at an annual pace of 9.6% in the three months to the end of September from 11.9% in the first quarter of this year.
This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/business-11886402
Botswana mulls legalised sex work
Botswana has one of Africa's most-advanced ARV treatment programmes Some politicians have called for Botswana to consider legalising prostitution to fight against HIV.
Botlogile Tshireletso, a deputy minister, told the BBC it was time for the government to discuss the issue.
Botswana, which has a high prevalence of HIV, has earned a reputation for being proactive in the Aids battle.
But a BBC reporter says despite research that infection rates are worst along commercial truck routes, there is an unwillingness to legalise brothels.
The BBC's Letlhogile Lucas in the capital, Gaborone, says many people in Botswana disapprove of sex workers and they are often harassed by police.
Ms Tshireletso, assistant minister for local government, has broken ranks with her cabinet colleagues.
"My opinion is: We should consider looking at it because it is there - we should as government take the initiative to do something to help these workers," she told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
Opposition leader Dumelang Saleshando agreed but said it would be an uphill struggle.
"Firstly the majority view is very clear, Botswana is against the legislation making illegal sex work a legal economic activity," he told the BBC.
"But at the same time you can't ignore it… the industry itself is one of the drivers of the virus," he said.
Botswana: HIV in Focus300,000 adults living with HIV, nearly a quarter of the population aged over 15150,000 people on ARVs95,000 orphans due to Aids97% children now born to HIV-positive mothers are now born free of the virus*
Sources: The Global Fund and * Botswana government
Truck drivers often travel through Botswana as they transport goods from South Africa to Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, our reporter says.
"When I'm going to sleep with a girl I use a condom," a driver at the Tlokweng-Zeerust border post with Zambia told the BBC.
Commercial sex workers said they also insist their customers use condoms, but because they work in dangerous places they are open to abuse and rape.
"[Legalising sex work] will help us to stand up for our rights… and get support for HIV and Aids," one sex worker in Ledumadumane, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Gaborone, told the BBC.
Resident of Gaborone“If it is legalised more people are going to engage in commercial sex which means there'll be more infections”
Another commercial sex worker said: "I know I'm not safe because when I'm doing it outdoors I can get raped or even the client can rob me."
Our reporter says everyone in Botswana is entitled to free condoms from health centres.
But the sex workers complain that police officers often confiscate their condoms, telling them their trade was illegal, he says.
Many people on the streets of Gaborone questioned by our reporter said they did not support the legalisation of prostitution.
"If it is legalised more people are going to engage in commercial sex, which means there'll be more infections," one woman said.
But a few men did speak in favour of the proposal.
"It should be legalised because it's a lot harder to govern something you don't have the statistics on," one told our reporter.
Meanwhile, as World Aids Day is marked, the UN said that almost 1,000 babies in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV through transmission of the virus from their mothers every day.
Botswana's government says through its efforts 97% children born to HIV-positive mothers are now born free of the virus.
This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-11888992
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
Tata Nano car sales sink by 85%
About 70,000 Nano cars have been sold in India Sales of Tata Motors' Nano, the world's cheapest car, plunged by 85% in November compared with a year earlier, the Indian carmaker has said.
It blamed the slump on the difficulty potential customers had in accessing loans to buy the car.
However, analysts pointed out that a series of fires in the Nano, as well as price rises, had also affected sales.
Tata said its total sales across all models in November were 54,622, a rise of 1% on a year earlier.
The carmaker also said that sales of its Jaguar Land Rover-branded models "continued their upward trend".
However, the company said it had sold just 509 Nanos during November.
During the month, Tata offered free safety upgrades for the model, which went on sale last year.
Incidents of the Nano catching fire have been reported This came after owners of the hatchback reported about half a dozen fires since April last year. There were no injuries.
The Nano was introduced to India in April 2009 and there are now about 70,000 of them on the country's roads.
The basic Nano costs about 100,000 rupees ($2,205; £1,414).
This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/business-11886940
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