Riots were a one-off - minister

24 August 2011 Last updated at 09:15 GMT Crispin Blunt believes the prison population will be back to normal within six months Prisons Minister Crispin Blunt has said the disturbances in English cities this month were a "one-off" event.

Mr Blunt said the justice system could cope in the short-term and there would be no long-term effect on the prison population in England and Wales.

Last Friday the number of inmates hit a record of almost 87,000, largely driven by the riots, but the government expects numbers to fall again in 2012.

Mr Blunt was speaking at the launch of a tougher community service regime.

BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said Mr Blunt believed harsher terms for rioters were justified under case law.

But the coalition's long-term plan to reform prisons and sentencing was unaffected by the riots, our correspondent added.

Ministers have said they want to cut costs by reducing the population through the introduction of the more robust community sentences for some offenders and improvements in the rehabilitation of offenders.

Adequate punishment?

Since the riots, the prison population has gone up by more than 1,000.

As of Tuesday, there were 797 suspects on remand, almost two-thirds of all those to have so far come before the courts.

Prisons chiefs have devised contingency plans in case they run out of space.

In his first interview since the disturbances, the prisons minister said that he was completely confident the system could cope and that the jail population would be back to where it was before the trouble within six months.

"We are completely confident that the prison system and justice system are going to be able to cope with what the police are producing for us," he told the BBC.

"This is an exceptional event. There will be a one-off increase in prison numbers as people serve their sentences.

"What we have to do is make sure there are prison places for those sent to prison by the courts and we will continue to do that regardless of how many people are sent to prison."

His comments came as he promoted the Ministry of Justice's previously-announced plan to make more use of community-based sentences for some offenders.

Mr Blunt confirmed that from next year unemployed offenders doing unpaid work - known as community payback - will be made to do it full-time rather than spread out over many months.

Under the current arrangements, offenders can work as little as six hours a week on manual labour projects such as cleaning up graffiti.

The scheme aims to force offenders to work a minimum of 28 hours over four days with the fifth spent looking for a job. Ministers say the punishment will also be delivered more immediately after sentence.

Some 100,000 offenders are given community sentences every year and the public can nominate online the jobs they want doing.

Labour said "tough community sentences" were appropriate in some circumstances but questioned how the government's plans could be achieved under planned cuts to probation services.

A spokesman said: "People will want assurances that sentences being served by offenders in the community are providing adequate punishment as well as rehabilitation and that they are being carried out safely with proper supervision."

Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of probation union Napo, said: "Previous attempts to have offenders doing payback all week have failed because they would have lost their Jobseeker's Allowance as they would have been unavailable to seek work.

"This proposal gets round that problem; however, the scheme will only be viable if it is properly resourced, if it doesn't put council workers out of work and that the offenders are fit to carry out the tasks."

Paul McDowell, from the crime reduction charity Nacro, said the "proposals must strike the right balance between punishment and public protection".

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Japanese minister visits reactors

9 April 2011 Last updated at 14:56 GMT Mr Kaieda thanked workers for their efforts Japan's stricken Fukushima plant has had its first visit by a minister since a huge earthquake and tsunami struck on 11 March, causing leaks of radiation.

Industry Minister Banri Kaieda put on full protective gear for a 45-minute visit during which he thanked workers.

Workers are engaged in a release of radioactive water into the sea and are pumping nitrogen to prevent explosions.

A top executive of plant operator Tepco has now publicly apologised for the "worries and troubles" it has caused.

The earthquake and tsunami on 11 March killed more than 12,800 people. Nearly 15,000 are listed as missing. Hundreds of thousands of people have been made homeless and a number of communities in Japan's north-east have been devastated.

'We are sorry'

Mr Kaieda is in overall charge of all of Japan's 50 nuclear reactors.

A spokesman said Mr Kaieda "greeted crews working [at Fukushima] and conveyed his appreciation for their hard work".

The minister also visited the J-Village sports building, which serves as a base for the emergency workers.

There is a 20km (12-mile) exclusion zone around the plant but Mr Kaieda said he hoped residents would be able to return to their homes briefly.

He added: "They will only be able to stay for a few hours to gather their personal belongings."

Meanwhile, Sakae Muto, vice president of Tepco (Tokyo Electric Power Co) issued a public apology at a news conference for the failures in handling the disaster.

A deadly aftershock struck just before midnight on Thursday

He said: "It is almost a month since the earthquake took place. I would like to apologise from my heart over the worries and troubles we are causing for society due to the release of radiological materials into the atmosphere and seawater.

"We caused worry and trouble for having made this decision without taking sufficient time to explain the matter beforehand to those involved, to the press, to the fishing industry and to people overseas, and we are sorry for this."

The planned release of radioactive water into the sea is expected to end on Sunday, a day later than expected. The release will free up storage space for more-radioactive liquid.

China has urged Japan to observe international law and adopt effective measures to protect the marine environment, amid concern over the discharge of some of the contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean.

South Korea has also complained of not being notified about the procedure.

Work is continuing at the plant to prevent further serious leaks and explosions.

Tepco is to send an unmanned US T-Hawk drone over the plant to assess the extent of damage, possibly on Sunday.

Rice ban

Meanwhile it emerged that four litres (a gallon) of mildly radioactive water had spilled from the spent fuel pool of one reactor at another nuclear plant, although it was of no risk to the public.

Workers have been trying to stabilise the badly-damaged Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant

The leak occurred at the Onagawa nuclear plant after a powerful 7.1-magnitude tremor late on Thursday cut power and forced cooling systems onto back-up generators.

Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director general of Japan's nuclear watchdog, said it was a serious issue, adding "we need to review safety standards from all angles".

Japan on Saturday announced it would ban farmers from planting rice in any soil found to contain high levels of radioactive matter and provide compensation.

"We had to come up with a policy quickly because we are in planting season," said Agriculture Minister Michihiko Kano.

Earlier, Japanese reactor maker Toshiba said it could decommission the earthquake-damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant in about 10 years, a third quicker than the US Three Mile Island plant.

The work would involve removing the fuel rods from their containers and the spent fuel rods from the storage pools from four of the plant's reactors and demolishing facilities.

Three Mile Island suffered a partial reactor core meltdown in 1979.

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Japan minister in Russia amid row

11 February 2011 Last updated at 06:13 GMT The dispute over the islands has been going on since the end of World War II The Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara has arrived in Moscow for talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

The visit comes amid high tension over the status of a dipsuted island chain.

Japan is closely monitoring stepped-up activity by Russia's military near disputed islands.

Relations have been clouded by a long-running dispute over the four islands, called the Southern Kuriles in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan.

The former Soviet Union occupied the islands off northern Japan at the end of World War Two and the row has prevented the two countries from signing a formal peace treaty despite growing economic ties.

A closed-door meeting of foreign ministers is planned, but prospects for the talks remain uncertain.

"First and foremost, we expect our Japanese colleagues to fundamentally change their attitude toward Russia," said Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich.

Rhetoric between the two countries has reached new levels this week.

Counter claims

President Dmitry Medvedev had infuriated Japan in November by making the first visit by a Russian leader to one of the islands.

After Mr Medvedev had described the area as a "strategic region" of Russia, Mr Maehara asserted the Russian President's view was irrelevant.

"Regardless of how many (Russian) senior officials go there and who goes there, and whether it increases or decreases its military presence, the legal value (of Russia's claim) does not change," Mr Maehara said.

"Our resolve remains absolutely unwavering."

On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan called Mr Medvedev's visit to the islands last year an "unforgivable outrage".

However, Mr Medvedev said on Wednesday that Russia would deploy modern weaponry to ensure the security of the islands.

"We will make every necessary effort to strengthen our presence on the Kuril islands. This is our strategic region," Mr Medvedev said during a meeting with Russia's defence and regional development ministers.

Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said that his officials would prepare a deployment programme by the end of February.

A day later, Mr Maehara said Russia has no legal right to occupy the islands.

Japan had designated 7 February as Northern Territories Day, marking the anniversary of an 1855 treaty which Tokyo says confirms its claim.

Russia's Mr Lavrov has accused Tokyo of supporting Japanese nationalist organisations, whose members reportedly burned a Russian flag during the demonstration in the Japanese capital.

Aside from sovereignty concerns, Japan would like to exploit the islands for natural gas; Russia has proposed making the islands into a free trade zone

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China rail minister investigated

12 February 2011 Last updated at 15:48 GMT Li Zhijun had been railways minister since 2003 China's Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun has been placed under investigation "for serious disciplinary violations", the state-run Xinhua news agency says.

It gave no details, but in the past similar language has been used to refer to allegations of corruption.

Mr Liu was also replaced as the ministry's Communist Party secretary.

He had been minister since 2003, leading an ongoing multi-billion dollar investment programme in China's railway network.

He has not publicly commented on the allegations against him.

Last year, China publicly admitted in a report that its corruption problem was "still very serious", setting out new measures to tackle it.

The report said that more than 200,000 cases - including embezzlement and bribery - had been investigated since 2003.

The document was released after the introduction of new rules requiring members of the governing Communist Party to report incomes and investments.

However, critics say corruption is ingrained in the system and new regulations will not solve the problem.

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Southern Sudan minister shot dead

9 February 2011 Last updated at 12:44 GMT Jimmy Lemi Milla had been the rural development minister since August 2010 A minister in the government of Southern Sudan has been shot dead inside his ministry building in Juba.

Co-operatives and Rural Development Minister Jimmy Lemi Milla was killed by a former employee, said Philip Aguer of the Sudan People's Liberation Army.

The assailant also killed a bodyguard and was then arrested.

The incident comes only days after referendum results confirmed that Southern Sudan would become the world's newest independent state on 9 July.

Nearly 99% of southerners voted for secession in last month's poll. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has said he will accept the outcome.

Officials in the ruling Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) believe the motive for Wednesday's shooting was personal rather than political.

But the BBC's Peter Martell in Juba says it is a clear sign of the security challenges ahead for Southern Sudan as it moves toward its full independence.

Shock The killing has dampened the excitement of the referendum result

Col Aguer said the attacker was a former employee of the minister and believed to be related to him by marriage.

Our reporter says Mr Milla arrived as usual at his office in the centre of town in the government ministry complex.

But his bodyguard left his pistol in his car and the disgruntled former employee smashed the window, grabbed the weapon and went inside to shoot the minister.

It was first reported that the killer shot himself, but it has later emerged that he was arrested by police.

Our correspondent says there is shock in Juba that the shooting could have happened right in the centre of the city and at the hub of government.

The killing has also dampened the excitement in Juba following the announcement of the referendum results this week, he adds.

Milla was a former supporter of the northern ruling party, but switched allegiance to the SPLM after 2005, when the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed to end two decades of civil war.

Although the referendum was peaceful, tension remains high in parts of the oil-rich area which straddles the north and south. Fifty people were killed over the weekend in fighting in Southern Sudan's Upper Nile state.

Show regions

The great divide across Sudan is visible even from space, as this Nasa satellite image shows. The northern states are a blanket of desert, broken only by the fertile Nile corridor. Southern Sudan is covered by green swathes of grassland, swamps and tropical forest.

Sudan's arid northern regions are home mainly to Arabic-speaking Muslims. But in Southern Sudan there is no dominant culture. The Dinkas and the Nuers are the largest of more than 200 ethnic groups, each with its own traditional beliefs and languages.

The health inequalities in Sudan are illustrated by infant mortality rates. In Southern Sudan, one in 10 children die before their first birthday. Whereas in the more developed northern states, such as Gezira and White Nile, half of those children would be expected to survive.

The gulf in water resources between north and south is stark. In Khartoum, River Nile, and Gezira states, two-thirds of people have access to piped drinking water and pit latrines. In the south, boreholes and unprotected wells are the main drinking sources. More than 80% of southerners have no toilet facilities whatsoever.

Throughout Sudan, access to primary school education is strongly linked to household earnings. In the poorest parts of the south, less than 1% of children finish primary school. Whereas in the wealthier north, up to 50% of children complete primary level education.

Conflict and poverty are the main causes of food insecurity in Sudan. The residents of war-affected Darfur and Southern Sudan are still greatly dependent on food aid. Far more than in northern states, which tend to be wealthier, more urbanised and less reliant on agriculture.

Sudan exports billions of dollars of oil per year. Southern states produce more than 80% of it, but receive only 50% of the revenue, exacerbating tensions with the north. The oil-rich border region of Abyei is to hold a separate vote on whether to join the north or the south.

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