Google begins Amazon Street View

19 August 2011 Last updated at 16:15 GMT Google has adapted its existing Street View equipment to be effective in the vast Amazon terrain Google is expanding its Street View service into some of the world's most remote places.

It will photograph the Amazon and Rio Negro Rivers of northwest Brazil in partnership with charity Foundation for a Sustainable Amazon (FAS).

Google will train local people to collect images, and will leave behind equipment so work continues long-term.

Pictures will be stitched together so users can explore 360-degree panoramics of the area.

FAS approached Google two years ago with the plan to digitize high-quality images from the Amazon basin to demonstrate the effects of poor global sustainability efforts and widespread deforestation on the landscape.

FAS project leader Gabriel Ribenboim said: "It is very important to show the world not only the environment and the way of life of the traditional population, but to sensitize the world to the challenges of climate change, deforestation and combating poverty."

For Google, the project represents the biggest challenge for their Street View equipment, which was first designed to work over well-maintained, modern roads.

Google's engineers will use the Street View "trike", originally developed to reach off road areas - such as Stonehenge and Kew Gardens.

"We'll pedal the Street View trike along the narrow dirt paths of the Amazon villages and manoeuvre it up close to where civilization meets the rainforest," Google described in a blog post.

"We'll also mount it onto a boat to take photographs as the boat floats down the river."

In addition to the street-level pictures, it will use technology developed to photograph business premises in the US to take images within buildings and community centres along the river.

Google hopes doing so will give a "sense of what it's like to live and work in places such as an Amazonian community centre and school".

Equipment will be left behind for local people to use and continue the work of the project

The project will start in the town of Tumbira, where the California-based company has attracted much attention.

Resident Maria do Socorro da Silva Mendonca had never heard of Google, but is excited by the project.

"I don't know anything about the Internet," the 40-year-old mother told AP.

"I think it is wonderful because our community was never published anywhere, not even [big Brazilian city] Manaus.

"Nobody knows we are here."

Google's Street View service was launched in 2007, at first just covering a few US cities.

In 2009, major UK cities and towns were added, prompting privacy fears.

Last year Google was forced to apologise for "mistakenly collecting" data from open wireless networks as Street View vehicles captured images.

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Xinjiang man stabs six in street

19 April 2011 Last updated at 04:33 GMT A young man has stabbed six people and killed himself in Xinjiang, western China, state media has reported.

One of the six, a student, is in critical condition, but all survived.

Police surrounded the man, who state media said resisted arrest and then slashed his own throat three times to kill himself.

Xinjiang is the home to a largely ethnic Uighur population which feels increasingly pressured by Han Chinese migration and strict controls.

The stabbing frenzy occurred in Kashgar City, just after 2000 local time (1200 GMT).

Xinhua state news agency described the man as in his 20s and armed with a knife and scissors.

It said police confirmed that the man was dead and found a driving license and five bottles suspected of containing marijuana.

In February, four men were sentenced to death for a series of deadly attacks in Xinjiang between August and November last year.

In 2009, deadly ethnic riots erupted in Xinjiang after tensions flared between the Muslim Uighur minority and the Han Chinese.

Continue reading the main story June 2010: Police arrest at least 10 Uighurs accused of planning attacks in XinjiangJuly 2009: Ethnic riots in Urumqi leave almost 200 people deadAug 2008: Two policemen killed in shoot-out with alleged militants in KashgarAug 2008: Attackers armed with explosives and knives kill 16 Chinese soldiers in city of KashgarThere have also been a number of blasts in Xinjiang in the past, which the government blames on Uighur separatists.

But Uighur activists and human rights groups accuse Beijing of using the issue to crack down on Uighur dissidents, who have complained that waves of Han Chinese migrants have marginalised the Uighur culture.

China has poured troops into Xinjiang, which borders Central Asia, since the unrest in July 2009 in Urumqi which left about 200 people dead.

Rights group Amnesty International says more than 1,000 people have been detained in the wake of the violence.

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Four quizzed over street stabbing

12 April 2011 Last updated at 06:34 GMT The teenager was stabbed in the chest and thigh Four youths are still being questioned over the fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old boy in north London.

Negus McClean was attacked in Westminster Road, Edmonton, on Sunday as he tried to protect his younger brother, according to his family.

Police said they were looking for nine young men seen on mountain bikes chasing Negus before the attack.

Negus, described as intelligent and mature, was the fourth teenager to be stabbed to death in London this year.

The teenager, who lived in Edmonton, was stabbed several times in the chest and thigh and died later in hospital.

Det Ch Insp Steve Clayman said officers were keen to trace a light-skinned black male, believed to be under 18, and wearing a grey or black hooded top.

The victim's 25-year-old cousin, who gave his name as Noel, said: "He was dying protecting his brother. It was a selfless act. He paid with his life.

"It was just a disgusting act of violence."

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Street battle for key Libyan town

9 April 2011 Last updated at 23:40 GMT Eight rebels were reported killed and several more injured in the fighting Pro-Gaddafi forces have launched a surprise attack on Libyan rebels in Ajdabiya, shelling the town and deploying soldiers on the streets.

The rebels said they had managed to repulse the attack on the key eastern town after several hours of fighting.

Doctors said eight rebels were killed in the violence.

In the western city of Misrata, Nato forces have intensified their air strikes and destroyed 15 tanks after an upsurge of violence.

Rebel leaders have been critical of Nato's attempts to enforce a UN-mandated no-fly zone, particularly since an air strike hit a rebel convoy earlier this week.

But rebel commanders now say they are heartened by the intensification of strikes on pro-Gaddafi forces on Friday and Saturday.

Operation to harass

Nato announced that its jets had destroyed government ammunition stockpiles east of the capital Tripoli, tanks around Misrata and also military vehicles near Brega.

The BBC's Jeremy Bowen goes on a government approved tour of Misrata

"In addition to hitting their supplies, our aircraft successfully destroyed a significant percentage of the Libyan government's armoured forces," said Nato's General Charles Bouchard.

The Nato operation has diminished the government's firepower, but pro-Gaddafi commanders have switched tactics.

On Saturday, as rebel fighters headed west from Ajdabiya towards Brega, government troops in pick-up trucks took desert roads and entered Ajdabiya.

A rebel fighter, Salah Ali, told the Associated Press that pro-Gaddafi soldiers had spread out in the city, and had begun fighting with weapons including heavy machine guns and grenade launchers.

The fighting raged for much of Saturday, and pockets of violence were still being reported after rebel commanders said they had beaten off the attack.

The BBC's Jon Leyne, in the rebel stronghold city of Benghazi, says the size of the raid on Ajdabiya suggests it was not a serious attempt to retake the town.

He says it was more an operation to harass the rebels.

Mediation efforts

Fighting also raged in Misrata, which government forces have had under siege for weeks.

Rebel fighters say they managed to repel an assault by pro-Gaddafi fighters, but added that eight rebels were killed.

The Red Cross say they have succeeded in bringing a ship in Misrata with vitally needed medical supplies.

They say they have also been given access to other parts of the country still under control of the government.

Red Cross official Jean-Michel Monod described it as a breakthrough.

Meanwhile, international efforts to find an end to the crisis are continuing.

A team of African leaders is expected in Tripoli and Benghazi later to hold separate talks with Col Gaddafi and rebel leaders.

And UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will host a meeting of international and regional organisations in Cairo on Thursday aimed at co-ordinating the response to the crisis in Libya.

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