Knife crime cuts a global trail

A spate of fatal knife attacks in the UK has sparked a debate about youth violence and gang culture in the country. But is the UK's experience mirrored in other nations? BBC correspondents compare situations around the world.

DANNY WOOD, SPAIN

Spain's Ministry for the Interior does compile separate statistics for knife crimes, but not because crimes with knives are on the rise.

According to government statistics, 135 people died from knife injuries in 2007 and nearly 488,000 knives were confiscated by police.

Those figures do not represent any significant change compared to previous years and guns remain the preferred lethal weapon.

Any worries about knife crime in Spain tend to be overshadowed by other crime concerns, like violent burglaries by gangs, including Russian and Eastern European groups. They are known to target wealthy residential areas and often use firearms to threaten their victims.

Knife related violence can feature among Spanish and Latin American street gangs who are seen by some as a growing urban problem.

Some reports in the media suggest that violence involving knives - especially resulting from fights among teenagers and young men - has increased dramatically in recent years.

But in that context, there is not a wave of knife crime and it does not seem to overly preoccupy the authorities or the wider community.

CHRIS HOGG, TOKYO

In Japan there is great concern about what is perceived to be a rising level of knife crime. In June a man ran amok in a Tokyo shopping district, killing seven people and injuring seven more, stabbing his victims with a double edged hunting knife. Sadly, such incidents are not as unusual here as they once were.

Newspaper reports say the National Police Agency is now considering whether carrying a double-edged knife should be outlawed. These knives are often depicted in Japanese video games. The fear is that the games make them popular with young people.

Japanese law already prohibits people from carrying a knife with a blade 6cm (2.4in) or longer unless they have a good reason to have it, although it's not illegal to possess a knife that long.

Reports suggest that in 2007 there were 40% more knife crimes than there were five years earlier. But the numbers were still pretty low compared to other countries - fewer than 5,000 violations of the knife crime law in a country of more than 127 million people.

JANE LYONS, NEW YORK

New York City has a reputation for being an edgy, sometimes dangerous city. But in fact it is one of the safest big cities in the United States. Over the past 10 years violent crime has fallen by 41%. Murder rates in the city are currently at their lowest rate since 1963.

Like other dangerous weapons, carrying a knife in New York City is illegal, but knives are not perceived as being a specific problem on New York City streets. Efforts to stop violent crime here tend to focus more on guns, and the legislation to restrict their sale and possession.

The most recent tactic that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) has used against violent and petty crime is called Operation Impact. It focuses on targeting crime on a very local level, sending lots of police officers to very specific trouble spots such as housing estates or shopping malls.

JULIAN ISHERWOOD, COPENHAGEN

In Denmark there are strict rules as to the length of knives that can be carried in public and police have broad powers to search individuals without due cause.

At a maximum length of 7cm (2.7 inches), almost all sharp instruments that can be used to stab are forbidden in public places.

The rules do not apply to certain trades, such as fishermen or others who require knives as the tools of their profession.

However, tradesmen are advised to leave any sharp tools elsewhere when visiting pubs or public places, and are liable to be fined if knives, screwdrivers or other instruments cannot be proved to be necessary at a location.

Call for CCTV

Copenhagen and other major cities have been designated as special search areas where police have the right to institute body searches at any time.

At the same time, Justice Minister Lene Espersen has suggested that police introduce more CCTV to stop crime - particularly knife crime.

Despite these measures, however, the level of crime in which knives are involved has remained the same - 2-3% of all violent crime - according to figures from the Crime Prevention Council.

An unfortunate development, according to police, is that when knives are available they are used more frequently and with more devastating effect.

Latest figures show that 2,549 illegal knives were confiscated in 2007, while 3,113 were confiscated in 2006.

RICHARD GALPIN, MOSCOW

Knife crime has not been singled out so far by Russian authorities or the population in Moscow as being a particular problem.

Instead, the Ministry of Interior provides country-wide statistics apparently showing that the number of crimes committed using a weapon of any kind dropped by almost a third in the first half of 2008 - taking the total to fewer than 5,000 incidents.

But this extremely low figure does not tally with what non-governmental organisations investigating specific types of crime are finding from their research.

Take for example the latest figures from Sova, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) which focuses on racist violence in Russia.

Racist murders

It says the number of racist attacks is increasing by 15-20% every year.

From January to May this year, 59 people were murdered and more than 200 injured.

Most of these racist murders were in Moscow and most involved the use of knives.

The police themselves admit that knives are the weapons of choice for gangs of skinheads.

And yet in Russia there is no clear legislation banning the carrying of knives on the streets.

HUGH SCHOFIELD, PARIS

France has seen no equivalent of the wave of fatal stabbings in Britain, and newspaper reports on the so-called "culture du poignard" (knife culture) reigning in London and other big cities are read with universal horror.

But experts warn there is no cause for complacency. Where Britain has gone, France could all too easily follow.

According to Alain Bauer, France's leading criminologist, the carrying of knives and other weapons by adolescents is widespread in many poor neighbourhoods.

And if the number of murders nationwide remains relatively low (on average around 1,000 a year, of which only about 35 by minors), there has been a huge increase recently in acts of violence carried out by minors.

Gang culture

"One big difference here is that our gang culture is directed mainly against representatives of the state. In Britain, it is more internecine," says Mr Bauer.

"In general, here in France we haven't reached the point where knife-carriers move to the actual deed. But it's probably only a question of time."

According to Mr Bauer, Western societies are all caught in a similar pattern of youth violence, which he says is linked to a collapse of confidence in authority.

"Across the West, we have a set of moral references that date from the 18th century, 19th century laws, 20th century police - and 21st century violence," he says.

Why the French have ad enough

A group of French protesters who say they are fed up with "invasive" advertising are defacing the country's billboards - and calling the police in advance to ensure they get arrested while doing so.

The "deboulonneurs" - roughly translated as "dismantlers" - have been meeting about once a month and spraying slogans over hoardings in a number of French cities.

Although the defacement is nothing new, what is unusual is that they notify the police before committing their acts to make sure that they get caught - and potentially taken to court.

"We infringe the law in a very symbolic way, in a manner that's open and assumed," deboulonneur Arthur Lutz told BBC World Service's Culture Shock programme.

"We do it in the public space so that we get out the meaning of what action is going to take place. To change the law we need to provoke a debate on the place of advertising in our society."

Rich debates

The group say that billboards are particularly invasive because, unlike other media, there is no way to remove them.

"If you're watching TV, you can change the channel; you can buy magazines without advertisements; you can go on websites and block out the ads using software," Mr Lutz said.

FROM CULTURE SHOCK
More from Culture Shock
"But in a public space we can't avoid advertisements, so for us it's the most problematic type of advertisement."

Although the police do sometimes arrest the slogan sprayers, it is rare that cases against them are brought to court.

When they do, they are usually fined a symbolic amount of one euro (80p) by judges.

But Mr Lutz explained that the point of these cases is to allow for "very rich debates".

"We choose people to come and describe, from their point of view, what is problematic with advertising," he said.

"We have people explain the problems with public health, with the environment, the social problems, the debt problems, the fact advertising tries to sell us things we don't actually need.

"There are a lot of places advertising causes problems in society."

Another deboulonneur, Antoine Troillard, said that he sprays billboards to target the people who make policy and who he says have interests in advertising.

"We do this because it creates much more influence, because it's a way of showing that we can have a direct response to it," he said.

"With the deboulonneurs, we try to claim this problem and interest politics, the media and the population in it."

'Symptom of wealth'

But Tom Standage, Business Editor of The Economist magazine, said that he believed this approach was "mixed up".

"You can tell you live in the developed world when the thing you go and protest about is that there are too many advertising billboards," he said.

"This is a symptom of wealth, and also a symptom of the classic French antipathy towards capitalism."

And he pointed out that the politicians, far from backing advertising, are actively seeking to reduce it - with President Nicolas Sarkozy trying to get rid of it completely on public broadcasters and radio, a move that has prompted strike action.

"This idea that politicians don't want to talk about advertising is completely wrong," he added.

"There's a massive debate going on about this. What's really funny is the employees of the public sector broadcasters went on strike to demand that they could continue to be funded by private advertisers, because they are worried they are going to lose jobs.

"This is a classic demonstration of how mixed up the French are when it comes to capitalism."

'I lost the best years of my life'

Fifteen Italian officials have been convicted of mistreating protesters during the 2001 G8 summit in Genoa.

Mark Covell was one of five British anti-globalisation protesters who was injured and has been seeking justice ever since.

"This was not just giving a few hippies a slap around, this was systematic," Mr Covell said.

A journalist with alternative media organisation Indymedia at the time, he was present when police raided a high school where protesters were camping during the summit.

He was left with eight broken ribs, a shredded lung, a broken hand, 16 missing teeth and was in a coma for two days.

While he was on a life-support machine in hospital, 81 others were arrested and taken to a temporary prison camp outside Genoa, at Bolzaneto. The police chief tried, and failed, to take him too.

'Mixed result'

Here they were threatened, beaten and insulted. The prosecution said they were tortured.

On Monday, after 11 hours of deliberations, judges convicted 15 people of charges ranging from assault to denial of basic human rights. Thirty others were cleared.

The stiffest sentence was handed to camp commander Antonio Gugliotta who was given five years, while the others received between five to 28 months.

Speaking from Italy, Mr Covell told the BBC News website: "It's a mixed result for us. Obviously we would have liked a larger amount of police officers to be convicted.

"But when we started people said we had a one million to one chance of reaching today."

The judge said there was "no doubt" a serious crime had taken place at Bolzaneto and there had clearly been mental and physical suffering inflicted without any justification.

"He said he wanted to impose much longer sentences of 10 years for some of the defendants and what they did. But there is no law on torture here," said Mr Covell.

'Condemned and disowned'

The victims will receive compensation, the judge ordered emergency payment of 10,000 euros to each victim and a total of 15m euros will be paid to victims in the long term.

Now 40, Mr Covell says that is small comfort.

"The money is good, but you can never recover from something like this. I have lost the best years of my life with what happened on 21 July," he said.

"We have spent seven years fighting these cases. I will die 10 years younger than I should because of the physical damage to me. All of us have huge issues with post-traumatic stress disorder.

"We have been forgotten about. We were condemned and disowned by our own governments around Europe."

The fight for justice continues. A second trial over the police raid at the Diaz school is ongoing.

They also plan to take the case to the European Court of human rights, where the defendants can be prosecuted under torture law.

"We want the Italian government to bring in new torture law, and a public inquiry. We want to cut the cancer of Fascism from the police, whether we achieve that, I don't know."

But he says he has no regrets about being in Genoa that day.

"I don't think anyone would have realised the Italians would react in such a horrific way. We can only hope something positive can come from it for us and the Italians, " he said.

EU agrees aid for fishing fleets

The EU is to release emergency aid worth up to two billion euros (£1.6bn) to help the fishing industry cope with high fuel costs and overcapacity.

EU fisheries ministers agreed on the package late on Tuesday.

Fishermen have protested in Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain in recent months, urging help to cope with the impact of soaring diesel prices.

The EU will provide 1.4bn euros from the European Fisheries Fund plus 600m euros from the European Commission.

The EU Fisheries Commissioner, Joe Borg, has said EU member states need to build a more efficient European fleet for the future.

The emergency aid is to be used in part to cut the size of fishing fleets and the time that fishermen spend at sea.

Swedish theme park ride collapses

Dozens of fun-seekers have been injured after a theme park ride collapsed in the city of Gothenburg, in western Sweden.

Officials said around 20 people were seriously hurt in the accident, which happened at the Liseberg theme park.

Several people were thrown out of the swinging Rainbow ride in Tuesday evening's accident, police said.

The ride is composed of a spinning arm with a compartment at one end which carries passengers.

The Rainbow was full, with 36 predominantly Scandinavian passengers, at the time of the accident, in which it fell about 10 feet (three metres) to the ground, police said.

The cause of the incident is under investigation.

A popular Swedish tourist destination, Liseberg is the country's biggest theme park, with more than 30 different rides.

None of the injuries are said to be life-threatening, emergency services officials told the Associated Press news agency.

Spanish Senate adopts EU treaty

Spain's Senate has voted overwhelmingly to adopt the European Union's Lisbon Treaty, one month after it was rejected by Irish voters in a referendum.

King Juan Carlos must still sign the treaty, at which point Spain will become the 23rd EU state to ratify it.

The Lisbon Treaty must be ratified by all 27 EU member states to come into force. Only Ireland held a referendum.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Spain had shown "unwavering support" for Europe.

"I believe that today's approval of the treaty is a clear confirmation of the determination to move forward with the ratification process," he said in a statement.

The treaty is intended to streamline EU decision-making following enlargement of the bloc, creating a new EU president and foreign affairs chief.

Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy - who currently holds the rotating EU presidency - has reportedly said that Ireland must hold a second vote on the treaty, according to a French official.

Mr Sarkozy will visit Dublin next week.

EU leaders are due to meet in October to hear proposals from Ireland's prime minister about how to move forward after the "No" vote.

Spanish Senate adopts EU treaty

Spain's Senate has voted overwhelmingly to adopt the European Union's Lisbon Treaty, one month after it was rejected by Irish voters in a referendum.

King Juan Carlos must still sign the treaty, at which point Spain will become the 23rd EU state to ratify it.

The Lisbon Treaty must be ratified by all 27 EU member states to come into force. Only Ireland held a referendum.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Spain had shown "unwavering support" for Europe.

"I believe that today's approval of the treaty is a clear confirmation of the determination to move forward with the ratification process," he said in a statement.

The treaty is intended to streamline EU decision-making following enlargement of the bloc, creating a new EU president and foreign affairs chief.

Meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy - who currently holds the rotating EU presidency - has reportedly said that Ireland must hold a second vote on the treaty, according to a French official.

Mr Sarkozy will visit Dublin next week.

EU leaders are due to meet in October to hear proposals from Ireland's prime minister about how to move forward after the "No" vote.

Why dying is forbidden in the Arctic

By Duncan Bartlett
BBC, Norway

Residents of Norway's Svalbard Islands are used to dealing with the dangers of polar bears but, for one remote settlement, wild animals are not the only worry.

It is forbidden to die in the Arctic town of Longyearbyen.

Should you have the misfortune to fall gravely ill, you can expect to be despatched by aeroplane or ship to another part of Norway to end your days.

And if you are terminally unlucky and succumb to misfortune or disease, no-one will bury you here.

The town's small graveyard stopped accepting newcomers 70 years ago, after it was discovered that the bodies were failing to decompose.

Corpses preserved by permafrost have since become objects of morbid curiosity. Scientists recently removed tissue from a man who did die here. They found traces of the influenza virus which carried him and many others away in an epidemic in 1917.

" Longyearbyen is in the land of the polar bear, an animal which causes real dread among its residents"


Longyearbyen's "no death" policy stems as much from its remote location as from its harsh climate.

At 78 degrees north, it lies on the archipelago of Svalbard, a group of islands between Norway's northern coast and the North Pole.

About 1,500 people inhabit small wooden houses which are partly sheltered from the Arctic winds by the settlement's location in a mountain valley.

Global warming

Kristin Grotting is a physiotherapist, who moved here 12 years ago.

Her naturally light complexion has been reddened by the constant summer sunlight.

The Arctic day lasts from March until October but it never gets very warm and, on the day we met, Kristin kept her thick coat zipped tight.

Looking out towards Longyearbyen bay, she explained that the Icefjord - as it is known - has stopped being icy.

Even in midwinter, the water no longer freezes and the glaciers around it are receding.

"We used to be able to take our snowmobiles right across that fjord," she told me. "Now we can't do that any more and we have to go the long way around."

Global warming is not her only concern. She also worries about what she will do when she retires, as this community has no facilities to care for the old or frail, hence perhaps its entrenched fear of death.

But although there is no old people's home, there is a kindergarten.

In winter - when the darkness lasts for months on end - the children make images of the sun with yellow paint and tissue paper and stick them to the windows.

Kristin has met some of the children at her physiotherapy clinic.

She says they have developed mobility problems because of their heavy winter clothes and must be trained to stretch their limbs in the warmth.

Polar bears

"Hunting for polar bears is strictly forbidden and, if you do shoot one in self defence, you must inform Svalbard's governor"

Trips outside the kindergarten's walls carry a more immediate danger for the children and, for this reason, the teacher carries a gun.

Longyearbyen is in the land of the polar bear, an animal which causes real dread among its residents.

Every student at the university spends their first day learning how to shoot bears.

Aim toward the chest, runs the advice, rather than the head which is easy to miss.

If you are unarmed when you encounter a bear, toss your mittens on the snow in the hope of distracting it.

But if you see it snap its teeth with a smacking sound, it is readying for a kill.

At which point, I suppose, you could try reminding the bear that it is forbidden to die in Longyearbyen and hope it shows respect for local law.

Hunting for polar bears is strictly forbidden and, if you do shoot one in self-defence, you must inform Svalbard's governor, Per Sefland.

He has a large stuffed one in his office, which he assured me he did not shoot himself.

Wildlife

In fact, it is the governor's enthusiasm for wildlife that led him to take this remote posting, after working for the state prosecutor's office as a lawyer in Oslo.

He also has an interest in graphic design and showed me a special road sign designed to emphasise the polar bear threat.

Like other hazard signs, its red triangle signals potential danger. But the inside has been shaded black so that the image of a large white predator can be easily seen by passing motorists.

The governor drove me past the sign in his 4x4 to see the town's huskies.

When not working with a sled team, the dogs live in large cages overlooking the fjord. They eat seal meat provided by local fishermen.

A colony of Eider ducks has made its home between the husky kennels, about 100 pairs in all. Mr Sefland told me the birds chose that spot because Arctic foxes, which prey on young ducks and eggs, are scared of huskies and will not intrude.

Seeing the duck feathers on the frosty ground made me think of eiderdown and I imagined how cosy it must feel to snuggle beneath a quilt to escape the polar cold when the season turns to winter.

Perhaps even with a cuddly toy - although not, I think, a white teddy bear, which could provoke bad dreams throughout an Arctic night which never seems to end.

From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday, 12 July, 2008 at 1130 BST on BBC Radio 4. Please check the programme schedules for World Service transmission times.

Buses tell of Belgrade-Kosovo links

By Patrick Jackson
BBC News, Belgrade

Serbian politicians and their Kosovo Albanian counterparts tend to have nothing to do with one another - but at Belgrade's bus station you discover this does not apply to everyone.

Nearly a decade after the war, and five months after Kosovo declared independence, the Pristina Express leaves three times a day, carrying passengers from all ethnic backgrounds.

Whether it's for business or healthcare, family visits or consular services, there are ties that still bind.

But there are also, in some cases, bad memories and distrust.

I glimpsed some of these on the coach from Belgrade to the Kosovo Serb stronghold of northern Mitrovica.

Lifeline

I spent a couple of hours on the comfortable air-conditioned Pristina Express, as it sped down a highway towards Nis, on the first part of a six-hour journey.

"An Albanian doctor told me I should go to Belgrade for radiotherapy"
Kurta Saltan

Tales from Belgrade-Kosovo bus

Some of the people I spoke to were returning from Belgrade hospitals, either as patients or carers.

The patients had been receiving treatment for serious conditions, which they could not get in Kosovo.

One was an elderly Albanian travelling with his sick son, another a Bosnian Muslim in his 40s living in southern Kosovo. None had a bad word to say about Serbian doctors.

I also talked to a Serb, a young woman who has a fashion shop in a suburb of Pristina.

She had been visiting a foreign embassy to apply for a visa so that she could join her boyfriend, a Bosnian Muslim, in the West.

Her business, she said, depended on ethnic Albanian suppliers in Pristina and she had good relations with them.

Nobody wanted to talk about politics.

About an hour out of Belgrade, the conductor gathered up everyone's ID cards or passports. I noticed many Serbian cards in his hands.

The coach, like other traffic approaching Kosovo from the east, is checked by Kosovan customs at the administrative border.

Open border

When I boarded the coach to Mitrovica - which leaves from the same bay as the Pristina coach, bay 10 - I stayed on it all the way.

Approaching Kosovo from the north, we flashed past the administrative border - an open barrier manned by a few Serbian policemen - without stopping.

This vehicle had seen better days. Its seats were torn and the only relief from the 30C heat was the draft from a skylight.

It rolled along an interminable mountain road, after which the fields of Kosovo were such a welcome sight, you could begin to appreciate why its inhabitants feel so passionately about it.

Everyone I spoke to aboard was Serbian. They were more reticent than the passengers on the Pristina coach and none wanted to be photographed.

The most voluble passenger was a middle-aged man returning to his home village north of Mitrovica, after visiting family. He said he had he once been treated "like an animal" by K-for peacekeepers who had searched him.

One passenger was a student, returning on vacation from college in Belgrade to his family in the Strpce enclave, in the far south of Kosovo.

His life seemed to be a constant battle, trying to make ends meet while studying and worrying about his family's safety.

He was due to continue his journey with friends by car after leaving the coach in Mitrovica.

An athletic, middle-aged man on the coach, who had lived in Pristina before the 1998-99 war and now lived in Mitrovica, politely declined to be interviewed because, he said, it would make no difference.

Different rules

In Kosovo, the car is king but driving to Belgrade entails problems of its own.

Motorists with Kosovan number plates - a small symbol of independence - cannot enter Serbia and are obliged to attach temporary plates.

Cars with Serbian number plates can circulate in Kosovo, but non-Albanians complain of harassment by police.

Police may expect drivers to have a green card, permitting them to drive in a foreign country.

As for other alternatives to the coaches, there is no air link between Belgrade and Pristina and the railway connection is suspended.

However, international peacekeepers have lately spotted an unauthorised Serbian train running into north Kosovo

Moscow Diary: Memory museum

The BBC's James Rodgers uncovers a Moscow museum which highlights the way the city has been transformed in the last 20 years. His diary is published fortnightly.

WAR STORY

The privilege of reporting from this ever-growing and ever-changing city is that you can always find something new - something which helps you to understand the dizzying transformation Moscow has undergone in the last two decades.

"The museum of the memory of the warrior-internationalists in Afghanistan" is hidden away in the north-western suburbs.

It's a tiny establishment which addresses a huge subject.

Most of the visitors are school parties. Now, in the long summer holidays, the place was closed. I was expected, so I rang the bell.

Valentina Zhuravlyova opened the door. A short flight of stairs led into the basement of an ordinary apartment block. I had only found it thanks to the marble monument which stood outside - beneath shop signs for a pharmacy and a beauty salon.

The museum is just a few rooms. The first of them is "the history room". Posters on the wall recall the significant dates in the USSR's military campaign - beginning with the day when Leonid Brezhnev decided the troops should go in.

"The General Staff was against this action," notes a reference to the tension between the military and their political masters.

Valentina is polite and helpful - but doesn't want to say much about the museum.

"At the age when I was lucky enough to be at university, they were dying in Afghanistan"

"I wasn't in Afghanistan myself," she explains, before handing me a copy of a speech made by her late husband, Victor Shcherbak. This, she assures me, will answer all my questions.

Victor Shcherbak served in Afghanistan, and later founded the museum. Since his death, she has continued what he began.

Russia has a long tradition of celebrating its military.

The reappearance this year of tanks and rockets on Red Square for the first time since the end of the Soviet era was enthusiastically received.

Victor Shcherbak clearly wanted his modest museum to belong to that tradition.

"Spending days when we remember Russia's martial glory near this memorial is an important part of the military-patriotic education of the youth," ran part of his speech.

"That is, honouring those warriors who gave their lives in the Great Patriotic War," he continues, using the name Russians gave to World War II, "the wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya, as well as other local wars and military conflicts."

Photos of the dead cover one wall of the "room of memory".

They're all in black and white - presumably copies of photos on the servicemen's official documents. You can imagine them posing for the photographer - perhaps on the day they joined up.

It makes them seem even more distant from a Moscow where digital devices are everywhere - a Moscow they never lived to see.

I did, and I'm still discovering it.

One thing that stayed with me personally is that many of these men were born in the same year I was. At the age when I was lucky enough to be at university, they were dying in Afghanistan.

The phrase "warrior-internationalist" sounds so outdated now. So much has changed here in the last 20 years that the men I looked at wouldn't know their home town today.

Still, the museum claims more than 10,000 visitors a year. So, even if it is hidden away, at least some in their city know about them.

LOVE STORY

Russia has a new festival: "The day of love, the family, and fidelity".

The date of 8 July was chosen because it is the feast day of two medieval saints whose love represented the ideal marriage.

Russia is looking deep into its history as it continues to shape its post-Communist identity.

The country is also fighting off foreign influence.

Valentine's Day is increasingly popular here, and the Russian Orthodox Church doesn't seem to like that.

There was no specific link made this week, but, in February, Church youth groups condemned Valentine's Day as "pagan", and "commercial".

I was at one of the celebrations - at Moscow zoo. The singer at the concert praised the government, and the authorities, and extolled Orthodox traditions.

It was all good, wholesome stuff.

But they'll probably have to offer more to keep the attention of young would-be lovers in a Moscow bursting with bars, restaurants, cinemas, and nightclubs.

---

BBC News Website readers have been sending us their comments on James Rodgers' diary. Here are some of their thoughts:

Wonderful stories and reporting - I'm a regular reader of Moscow Diary. I'm a British citizen living in Moscow and I would very much like to know where exactly this museum is please. "It makes them seem even more distant from a Moscow where digital devices are everywhere - a Moscow they never lived to see. I did, and I'm still discovering it." I found this statement especially poignant as it applies to me too and I have known some Afghanistan vets and listened to their stories and nightmares, which haunt them to this day.
Victor Romain, Moscow, Russia

The reportage was to cover Moscow but little reference was made to that locale. The second piece mentions medieval saints but doesn't name them. It would have been nice to read which of the ancients the Moscovites revere
James P Brassil Jr, Middleburgh, USA

There are some very good poems and stories written by soldiers serving in Afganistan - the "zinky boys". Some have been translated and they are worth reading.
Chris Batey, Prenton, UK

As far as "The day of love blah-blah-blah" is concerned, I think it is sheer hypocrisy. In the 90s, the Russian government praised everything from West and condemned everything connected with Russia, while now it is vice versa. But any discourse the government chooses is always aimed at cheating people. Now they teach us to be proud of our "ancient culture and traditions", our sports victories and all that stuff, they hope that being proud of this all we may forget about material and spiritual poverty we are surrounded by.
Ekaterina A, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia

Fascinating article. Russia's development into an open society is truly amazing. To see it and read about it, is to believe it. Positive the right thing to develop and see it come true.
Giacomo Zardetto, San Bruno CA USA

'Al-Qaeda links' to Istanbul attack

By David O'Byrne
Istanbul

With the identity of three of the four armed men who attacked the US consulate in Istanbul now clearer, speculation is mounting that the attack was the work of a Turkish terror group linked to al-Qaeda.

Reports in the Turkish media have quoted unnamed police officials as confirming that the three attackers who died in the incident have been identified as Turkish citizens from the east of the country, and members of a Turkish Sunni Islamic fundamentalist group.

That group, the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders Front, or IBDA-C as it is more commonly known, is thought to have links to al-Qaeda.

According to some reports, the police have also confirmed that the three had only recently returned to Turkey after a period of time in Afghanistan, which has led to speculation that they may have received training from a militant group.

The attack on Wednesday morning resulted in the deaths of three of the four attackers and three policemen, as well as the wounding of another policeman and a truck driver.

Officials are continuing to appeal to the public for information which could lead to the capture of the fourth attacker and the driver of a grey Ford Focus car - which carried the attackers to the consulate and escaped with the fourth attacker, who is believed to have been wounded.

Following the identification of the attackers, Istanbul police raided a number of addresses across the city and were reported as having taken three people into custody for questioning.

Their names have not been released and no announcement has been made as to their possible connection to the attack.

As yet no clear motive for the attack has been identified and it is still unclear whether the attackers were trying to force entry into the consulate compound or, as some media reports have claimed, simply to attack Turkish police guarding the compound.

Bomb attacks

Founded in the 1970s with the stated aim of re-establishing the Islamic Caliphate in a single united Sunni Islamic state, IBDA-C began using violence to further its aims in the 1990s.

It conducted bomb attacks on bars, restaurants and churches, which resulted in the capture and imprisonment of the group's leaders.

In 2003, the group claimed responsibility for devastating bombings of the British consulate in Istanbul, the local headquarters of the HSBC bank and two synagogues, which together left 58 dead, including British Consul General Roger Short.

Although last year saw the jailing of 48 people for their roles in the bombings - seven of them for life - their connection with IBDA-C is still unclear.

Turkish officials have always maintained that the bombings were the work of a separate group with direct links to al-Qaeda, known as the "Warriors for Islam" and that IBDA-C lacked the organisational ability to launch such a complex operation.

If the perpetrators of the latest attack are found to be members of IBDA-C and the reports of their recent return from Afghanistan prove to be true, the Turkish police may be forced to rethink their opinion of the group.

Betancourt rescuer wore Red Cross

Colombia's president says a Red Cross symbol was worn by a member of the military rescue mission that freed 15 hostages from left-wing Farc rebels.

Alvaro Uribe said he had apologised to the organisation for the mistake made against orders by a nervous soldier.

Misuse of the Red Cross emblem is considered a violation of the Geneva Conventions and international law.

Rescuers tricked rebels into releasing Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages by posing as international aid workers.

President Uribe's acknowledgement followed reports that the Red Cross emblem had being displayed on clothing worn by Colombian intelligence officers during the rescue on 2 July.

Mr Uribe said that just one member of the team had worn the emblem "contradicting official orders" because he was nervous about the operation.

Risk to aid workers

The president said the name of the official would not be disclosed "because we do not want to affect his career".

"We regret that this occurred," said Mr Uribe.

Falsely portraying military personnel as Red Cross workers is against the Geneva Conventions because it could put humanitarian workers at risk when carrying out missions in war zones.

It also undermines the neutrality of the Red Cross.

Yves Heller, a Red Cross spokesman based in Bogota, said: "Parties to the conflict must respect the Red Cross emblem at all times and under all circumstances."

"We will continue working in the field in Colombia."

Dozens die in Egypt train crash

At least 37 people have been killed in a collision between a train and several vehicles at a level crossing in northern Egypt, police have said.

As many as 50 people were injured in the crash near Marsa Matruh, 430km (270 miles) north-west of the capital Cairo. Police told the AFP news agency that a truck had failed to stop at the crossing and pushed several waiting vehicles into the path of the train.

Road accidents are frequent in Egypt, killing about 6,000 people every year.

Correspondents say many of the crashes are due to reckless driving, poor road and vehicle maintenance and lack of enforcement of traffic regulations.

Saudi king appeals for tolerance

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has called on followers of the world's main religions to turn away from extremism and embrace a spirit of reconciliation.

The king was opening a conference in Madrid which brings together Muslims, Christians, Jews and Buddhists.

He said the great conflicts of history were not caused by religion, but by the misinterpretation of religion.

King Juan Carlos of Spain, the co-host, said Spain had always sought to promote international dialogue.

Critics have dismissed the gathering as a propaganda gimmick by the Saudis who, they say, are not best placed to host a meeting on religious tolerance.

"The tragedies we have experienced throughout history were not the fault of religion but because of the extremism that has been adopted by some followers of all the religions, and of all political systems"
King Abdullah

Wahhabism, the strain of Sunni Islam that is officially practiced in Saudi Arabia, is considered one of the religion's most conservative and intolerant forms.

"My brothers, we must tell the world that differences don't need to lead to disputes," King Abdullah said.

"The tragedies we have experienced throughout history were not the fault of religion but because of the extremism that has been adopted by some followers of all the religions, and of all political systems."

Correspondents say King Abdullah has made reaching out to other faiths a hallmark of his rule since becoming king in 2005. He is the first reigning Saudi monarch to meet the Pope, for example.

In June, Abdullah held a religious conference in Mecca in which participants pledged improved relations between Islam's two main branches, Sunni and Shia Islam.

The conference is sponsored by Saudi Arabia and is billed as a strictly religious, non-political affair.

It is off limits to journalists apart from the inaugural session.

Nato attacks 'rebels in Pakistan'

Nato-led forces in Afghanistan say they have fired into Pakistan after coming under attack from there by suspected militants.

Troops used attack helicopters and artillery to fire from Paktika province after the militants fired rockets.

Nato said it had closely co-ordinated with Pakistan's military, who agreed to help if firing from Pakistan continued.

Nato rejected reports of a build-up of international forces on the Afghan side of the border in recent days.

Blame

The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says Pakistan's army has also downplayed the reports of a build-up of troops on the Afghan side of the border.

Increased activity on Tuesday by forces across the border from the Waziristan tribal region in Pakistan sparked fears of clashes between them and Taleban militants hiding in the region.

But the Pakistani army says it was part of the coalition's routine exercise to rotate and reposition its troops.

The exercise led to the temporary closure of at least two main border crossings in the Waziristan region, witnesses say.

Taleban attacks on Afghan and international forces in Afghanistan have increased in recent months.

Both Afghan and Western officials say the Taleban are operating out of sanctuaries in Pakistan's tribal areas that border Afghanistan.

On Monday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai directly blamed Pakistani intelligence apparatus for organising last week's suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul.

Pakistani Prime Minister Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani hit back on Wednesday, saying Pakistan had time and again declared that it wanted Afghanistan to be stable.

'Routine'

Witnesses said Tuesday's movement by coalition troops in several areas along the Waziristan border was "shocking".

They said hundreds of troops moved with tanks, armoured personnel carriers and artillery pieces and repositioned very close to the border.

The movement was accompanied by increased overflights by coalition helicopters and fighter jets, they said.

Pakistan army spokesman, Maj Gen Athar Abbas, told BBC News it was "routine movement and repositioning by the coalition forces, which is not unusual".

"We are watching the situation and are in touch with the coalition commanders in the area," he said.

Witnesses and administration officials in South Waziristan said a larger concentration of Afghan and coalition troops near Angoor Adda town on Tuesday led to the closure of the border crossing.

The main market of the town, which is located on the Pakistani side, remained closed because most shopkeepers live on the Afghan side of the border and were prevented by the coalition forces from crossing over.

The border gate on the Lwara Mandai crossing in North Waziristan tribal region also remained closed for traffic, witnesses said.

They said coalition forces had set up an outpost close to the border in the Lwara Mandai area.

Both border crossings were open to traffic on Wednesday however, witnesses said.

The Wazir tribe lives on both sides of the border, and controls the Lwara and Angoor Adda trade routes between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The army spokesman confirmed that the Angoor Adda crossing remained closed for nearly three hours on Tuesday "on the orders of the Afghan army", but said he had no information about the closure of Lwara Mandai.

He also rejected reports that coalition troops had deployed "too close" to the border.

"There is no coalition deployment that violates an agreed distance from the border which both sides have been observing," he said.