Classic fish

Sixty-four men said to be mercenaries planning a coup in Equatorial Guinea and three air crew are due to face charges in Zimbabwe within days.
The group’s plane was seized in Harare on Sunday. A government minister said the men could face the death penalty.
In Equatorial Guinea, a man said to be related to the group has publicly confessed to a coup plot on television.
On Thursday, Equatorial Guinea asked South Africa for help in the trial of another 15 suspected mercenaries.
The men – arrested in Equatorial Guinea – were reportedly involved in the same alleged plot.
South African President Thabo Mbeki said Equatorial Guinea wanted South African assistance to ensure the trial of the 15 men was transparent and fair.
“It was a direct request,” Mr Mbeki said after meeting officials from the oil-rich state in western Africa.
Other reports say the 64 suspects who flew to Harare from South Africa were security guards bound for other states but who had stopped for mining supplies.
The company which chartered their plane said they had stopped in Harare en route to Burundi and DR Congo where they were due to provide security services for an internationally run mine.
But Zimbabwe and South Africa both support the government of Equatorial Guinea and say the men were part of a plot to overthrow the president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
Harare has accused the men of working for US, British and Spanish intelligence agencies.
The BBC’s Alastair Leithead in South Africa describes the British and American links as spurious but adds there is growing evidence that the mystery does relate to a coup attempt gone wrong.

The number of unresolved, high-profile murders in Russia over the past 15 years paints a dismal picture of the work of Russia’s law-enforcement organisations and its judiciary.
Of the 12 most infamous killings, only two have been solved.
Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliev told journalists earlier this year that Russia was “moving in the right direction” in combating contract killings.
Yet many Russian MPs believe corruption and a labyrinthine bureaucracy are to blame for poor investigations and the frequent failure to secure justice.
Below is a list of 12 of the most high-profile cases in Russia.
The first high-profile killing in the so-called new Russia was of Dmitry Kholodov, a journalist with a Moscow tabloid newspaper.
He was killed in October 1994 by a briefcase bomb.
Kholodov had been investigating corruption in the army.
Prosecutors said the assassination was organised by a group of six people led by the head of the intelligence service of air-borne forces.
In June 2003, Moscow’s military court cleared the defendants, citing a lack of evidence.
A popular TV presenter, Vladislav Listyev was killed in Moscow in March 1995, only 34 days after becoming director of Russia’s Public Service Television.
The killer waited for Listyev at the entrance to his block of flats and fired two shots at point-blank range.
No one has ever been arrested.
Commentators say Listyev was targeted due to his attempts to make advertising at the channel more transparent.

Cmdr Bainimarama said Fiji had reached a “crossroads” and that the government had been “unable to make decisions to save our people from destruction”.
He warned that more troops would be seen on the streets but said there was no curfew, and urged the population not to be intimidated. The capital is largely calm.
Cmdr Bainimarama said the prime minister had created tension in the army by trying to have him removed.
Fiji’s police chief, Andrew Hughes, who is on leave in Australia, said he could “foresee a popular uprising”.
“[Bainimarama] doesn’t have the support of the government, of the president, of the police, of the churches, of the chiefs, of the people of Fiji,” he said.
Fiji’s largest daily newspaper, the Fiji Times, said it was suspending publication rather than accept censorship.
Fiji has a population of only 900,000 but is a major tourist destination and attracts up to 400,000 visitors a year.
It has also witnessed considerable political tension over the past 20 years between ethnic Fijians, who make up about 50% of the population and ethnic Indians at around 44%.
The BBC’s Phil Mercer in Suva says some Fijians believe the army is taking the right action and insist the government was corrupt and was discriminating against the Indian minority.
But critics of the move, he says, insist that what Cmdr Bainimarama wants is to establish a military dictatorship in the south Pacific.
Such an outcome would add to the concerns of Australia and New Zealand about political instability in the wider Pacific islands region

In July, Microsoft proposed a consumer choice screen that allowed users to pick from a number of different browsers.
The commission then asked Microsoft to improve the choice screen, which it has now done.
The latest proposal, and the one which the EU is consulting on, features a choice of 12 browsers.
The proposal also relates to exchanging information with other software companies.
It will “ensure that developers throughout the industry will have access to technical documentation to assist them in building products that work well with [our] products,” Microsoft said in a statement.
“Today’s decision is a significant step toward closing a decade-long chapter in competition law concerns in Europe,” it added.
Back in 2004, the EU fined Microsoft and forced it to offer a version of its Windows operating system without Microsoft’s own media player.
The company was also told to give rivals more information about how Windows works, so they could make their own software integrate better with the operating system.
Microsoft appealed against the decision but lost its case in 2007.
Mortgage lenders and insurers have agreed to refund £60m to customers whose premiums for mortgage payment protection insurance went up this year.
The refunds have been ordered by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).
The regulator is worried that premiums have been raised, and the level of cover limited, unfairly.
The payment protection insurance is supposed to pay people’s mortgage repayments if they fall ill or are made redundant.
The industry had been accused of jacking up premiums, just when people were beginning to claim on their policies due to rising levels of unemployment.

Hakim’s pledge to co-operate with Coalition authorities placed him in direct confrontation with newer, more radical Shia clerics who had stayed in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, such as Moqtada Sadr.
Sadr accused Sciri of attempting to benefit from the peace deal that saw his Mehdi Army leave Najaf after a bloody battle with US troops, and warned them to “beware that they are not sucked into America’s plot to incite fighting among Shia”.
Hakim and Sciri were collaborators in the eyes of Sunni militants too. Al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on Sciri’s headquarters in 2004 which Hakim survived but left 13 dead.
Following the January 2005 election, several Sciri leaders were given key roles in the new Iraqi cabinet – Adel Abdul Mahdi became vice-president, while Bayan Baqir Solagh was named interior minister.
Mr Solagh was heavily criticised for the human rights abuses committed by interior ministry personnel during his term, and accused by many Sunni Arabs of allowing Shia militias, including the Badr Organisation, to operate death squads within the security forces.
The UIA maintained its dominance in the December 2005 election despite the outrage, but this time Sciri was forced to accept a compromise candidate from the rival Dawa Party, Nouri Maliki, for the post of prime minister.
In the three years since coming to power, Mr Maliki has sought to reduce the presence of Shia militiamen in the security forces and limit Sciri’s power, while at the same time draw Sunni Arabs back into the political process. This, combined with the US troop surge, has seen security dramatically improve in the past year.
The changing situation and its questionable government record has also resulted in diminished support for Sciri – which dropped its revolutionary tag and became the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council in 2007 – but it nevertheless remains one of the most popular, powerful and well-organised political parties in Iraq.
Hakim’s son, Ammar, is expected to take over the leadership of SIIC, in the hope of ensuring a smooth succession ahead of the next national elections in January, for which the party will be part of a Shia-led coalition excluding Mr Maliki and the Dawa Party

At night the Wilton chemical complex on Teesside is a spectacular sight.
Illuminated by thousands of coloured flourescent lights, its miles of pipework take on an eerie orange glow, as do the hissing plumes of steam vented into the night sky.
It is a sight that sums up Teesside, perhaps the grittiest part of the North East, where many of its inhabitants revel in the collective nickname of “smoggies”.
Wilton seems to have an aura of solidity that reflects the Teesside character, with its 5,000 hard-hatted, overalled workers making chemicals on a grand scale.
And yet behind the façade all is not well. Wilton has issued unremittingly bad news over the past year.
Companies are leaving, jobs are going, the solidity merely an illusion.
But outside the works there is hope – and evidence – a new sector is springing up that could alleviate the job losses in the traditional industries, such as commodity chemical-making.
The area is instead embracing low-carbon green technologies, with a brace of schemes and projects that are either under way or planned.
The biggest of the lot is actually on the Wilton site. New company Ensus has built a £300m bioethanol plant.
It will convert wheat into fuel that can then be mixed with petrol. The by-products will be used to produce animal feed and carbon dioxide for the soft drinks industry.
Striding proudly around his new fiefdom, contemplating coming online before Christmas, Ensus chief executive Alwyn Hughes says Teesside is the perfect place for this type of new chemistry.
“It’s utilising the skills that ICI and other chemical companies have had on Teesside for the last 20, 30, 40 years,” he said.
“It’s very much leveraging the skills and talents that Teesside has in abundance, but applying them to what I think is a very exciting industry which is all about climate change and improving the environment.”
The Ensus workforce of about 100 appears to have made the switch seamlessly.
Ross McMahon, 26, was a traditional apprentice in the traditional petro-chemical industry but he’s now a convert to this new way of working.
He has all the facts; where the wheat will be brought in from – as far away as Lincolnshire and the Scottish Borders – how much will be used – a million tonnes a year – and a profound belief this will be a long-term career with real prospects.
Close by in Billingham, the chairman of Gaia Power, Michael Fox, has the same belief that “green” industries can be a source of jobs and investment for Teesside.
He has just won planning permission for a £200m recycled wood burning 50MW power station.

Up the hill behind the village a crop of new villas is sprouting out of the farm fields. Some of them are huge.
Despite such stories, and the tragedy of the Morecambe Bay drownings, the flood of young migrants leaving this part of south-east China continues unabated.
In a nearby house, Mrs Li takes me to see her husband’s uncle. Unlike Mrs Li, Lin Yiming lives in a spacious three-storey house.
On the sofa his wife is cradling a tiny baby, only five months old. “This is my grandson,” Mr Lin tells me with pride.
“He was born in Japan but last week my daughter-in-law brought him back to stay with us.”
It turns out Mr Lin’s son and daughter-in-law are both living in Japan illegally.
“They work very hard,” he said. “My son often works two shifts in the factory, the day and the night. That way he can make more money.”
Mr Lin himself spent 10 years in Japan working in factories and restaurants.
“That’s how it works round here,” he said. “Young people go out for 10 to 15 years and save enough money to come home and build a house like this one.”
The evidence is all around the village. Mr Lin’s house is modest compared to some.

Eddie O’Gorman, chairman of the UK charity Children with Leukaemia, said: “There is now a clear case for immediate government action.
“Planning controls must be introduced to stop houses and schools being built close to high voltage overhead power lines.”
But Professor John Toy, Cancer Research UK’s Medical Director, said: “People who currently live or have lived near power lines in the past need not panic about this research. The triggers that cause childhood leukaemia are most likely a random course of events over which a parent has no control.
A spokesman from the Health Protection Agency said the study findings suggested that at least some of the increased leukaemia risk might be associated with factors other than electromagnetic fields.
Dr David Grant, of Leukaemia Research, said: “We recognise there is a lot of public anxiety and concern about living close to pylons and exposure to power-frequency magnetic fields.
“There is no reason why anyone should be advised to move house on the basis of these new results.”
There are around 7,000km of high voltage power lines involved in the transmission of electricity across England and Wales, and 21,800 steel pylons.

“I absolutely know that it would be a mistake to put through somebody who didn’t appear to do the song justice,” he said, but insisted he would ultimately support whichever act won the public’s backing.
He said he did not have a favourite act of the three, but added: “I think I might say there are two.
“If I haven’t got the right act there’s nothing I can really do to change it,” added the musician.
Webber said the song is “a rocky power ballad”, with lyrics penned by Grammy-winning US songwriter Diane Warren.
He said the UK would do very well to secure its first top 10 Eurovision finish since 2002, and this was the initial stage in the country’s musical comeback.
“I think that’s realistically what we can achieve. But, again, we won’t achieve it with the wrong act.”
But he said the finalists in Your Country Needs You “are infinitely better than anything that Britain has remotely conceived of putting near the stage” in recent years.
Identical siblings Nicola and Francine, Welshman Mark and Londoner Jade will also sing two cover versions during the final show.
The winner, who will represent the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest final on 16 May, is also expected to go on a European tour to promote the song ahead of the competition.

Nasa’s Lunar Prospector probe in the late 1990s saw a strong hydrogen signal at high north and south latitudes. Some scientists on the mission suggested there could be up to 300 million tonnes of water-ice buried in crater soils that never see sunlight.
Chandrayaan made its observations using a US-provided instrument, the Moon Mineralogy Mapper, or M3 for short.
The M3 assessed the nature of lunar soils by analysing the way that light from the Sun was reflected off the surface.
It could only see the top few centimetres of soil. Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is currently circling the Moon, has the capability to see down to nearly a metre. Its data could determine if the presence of water is much more extensive.
Dr Jim Garvin is the the chief scientist at the US space agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
He was asked if he thought the Moon had become an exciting place again for science.
“I think it always was; it’s just we saw this big exciting Solar System and after touching the Moon with six human missions, we moved on – to Mars, to the outer planets, to comets and asteroids.
“And now we are rediscovering the enigmas of the Moon and they’re really in our own backyard. They’re tantalisingly close,” he told BBC News