UN leaves Tripoli amid attacks

2 May 2011 Last updated at 01:27 GMT The villa in Col Gaddafi's compound was severely damaged in the strike

The UN has withdrawn all its international staff from the Libyan capital Tripoli following a mob attack on its offices.

UN buildings and some foreign missions were targeted by angry crowds following a Nato air strike that reportedly killed a son of Col Gaddafi.

The UN says all its international staff have now left for Tunisia and the decision will be reviewed next week.

After its Tripoli embassy was sacked, the UK expelled the Libyan ambassador.

Continue reading the main story Christian Fraser BBC News, Tripoli

A UN official here on a humanitarian mission confirmed that overnight the offices of the UN had been ransacked.

As the reported death of Saif al-Arab Gaddafi spread around the city, there were angry demonstrations, seemingly more spontaneous than those we have witnessed so far.

UN officials say they have expressed their concerns to the Libyan government who have since apologised, blaming an angry mob for the damage.

The UN lost seven of its staff recently in the storming of a UN compound in Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan. It seems they are not about to take risks here and, according to this official, they are now withdrawing all their international staff.

A BBC team in Tripoli said the British embassy was completely burnt out with fires still smouldering and paperwork and other debris scattered outside.

In other developments, witnesses reported heavy shelling by pro-Gaddafi forces on the port of Misrata on Sunday. The city has been besieged for two months.

Libyan state TV said the port was shelled to stop Nato delivering weapons to insurgents but rebels said an aid ship had been trying to unload.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said Libyan ambassador Omar Jelban had been given 24 hours to leave the country.

By not protecting diplomatic missions, the Gaddafi regime had "once again breached its international responsibilities and obligations", said Mr Hague.

He added: "The attacks against diplomatic missions will not weaken our resolve to protect the civilian population in Libya."

The Italian foreign ministry condemned the "acts of vandalism" on its embassy, describing them as "grave and vile". Italy - which closed its embassy in March and is represented by Turkey - recently joined the Nato mission in Libya.

There were also protests outside the US mission in Tripoli.

A UN official said the Libyan government had apologised for the attack on its offices, blaming an angry mob for the damage.

Most Western governments evacuated staff from Tripoli when an international coalition began air strikes on Libya several weeks ago.

Late on Saturday, the Libyan government said Saif al-Arab Gaddafi and three of Col Gaddafi's grandchildren had died in a Nato attack on a villa in Tripoli.

Inside Britain's burnt out embassy in Tripoli

Foreign reporters were shown widespread damage to the building in Col Gaddafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound.

Nato has insisted its raid targeted a "command-and-control" building, and that all Nato targets were "military in nature".

Libyan government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said Col Gaddafi and his wife had been in the building at the time of the attack but they were both unharmed.

He said the air strike was against international law and "a direct operation to assassinate the leader of this country".

Nato is operating in Libya under a strict UN mandate to protect civilians.

Later on Sunday, Libyan state TV said funerals for Saif al-Arab Gaddafi and the other victims would be held on Monday after noon prayers.

Pro-Gaddafi supporters displayed pictures of Saif al-Arab Gaddafi for foreign journalists

The BBC's Christian Fraser witnessed the damage and said that if Col Gaddafi had been there, it is hard to imagine he could have walked away unscathed.

Russia expressed "serious doubts" that the West was not targeting Col Gaddafi and his family.

"The claims of the coalition members that strikes over Libya do not have the physical destruction of Muammar Gaddafi and members of his family as their goal cause serious doubts," a statement from the foreign ministry said.

In the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi, shots were fired in celebration following reports that Saif al-Arab Gaddafi had been killed.

However, the claims were also treated with scepticism.

Mahmoud Shammam, spokesman for the anti-Gaddafi Transitional National Council (TNC) based in Benghazi, told al-Jazeera he believed it was "a ploy to fish for people's sympathy".

Khaled al-Urfi, a resident of the rebel-held western city of Misrata, told AP news agency: "We don't know if it is true or not because Gaddafi is a liar. I will only believe it if you put the body in front of me."

On Saturday, Nato officials said the alliance would not consider talks until government forces stopped attacks on civilians.

The vice-chairman of the rebel Transitional National Council also rejected the offer of negotiations.

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Attacks on critical systems rise

18 April 2011 Last updated at 23:09 GMT Most countries said they expected a cyber attack to disrupt energy supplies within the next two years Internet-based attacks on critical systems such as gas, power and water have increased around the world, a report suggests.

Security firm McAfee surveyed 200 IT executives working for utility companies in 14 countries.

Eight out of 10 said their networks had been targeted by hackers during the past year.

China was seen as the most likely source of attacks, followed by Russia and the United States.

The number of reported incidents was higher than in 2009 when just over half of those asked said they had fallen victim.

Denial of service

Most of the reported security breaches took the form of distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks.

These typically involve a network of computers, under the control of criminals, overwhelming a company's internet-connected systems.

While such incidents have the potential to impact websites and corporate networks, researchers said it was unlikely they were intended to cut off energy supplies.

However, there remained a possibility that DDOS attacks could do more harm in future, according to Stewart Baker, a former US national security advisor to President George W Bush and one of the report's authors.

"We asked what what the likelihood was of a major attack that causes significant outage.

"That is one that causes severe loss of services for at least 24 hours, loss of life or personal injury or failure of a company.

"Three quarters thought it would happen within the next two years," he said.

Stuxnet

Arguably the best known example of an internet-bourne threat disrupting an industrial system is the Stuxnet worm, which was discovered in 2010.

Analysis suggests that the malicious computer code was specifically designed to take control of machinery in either Iran's Bushehr or Natanz nuclear facilities.

Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment facility is thought to have been one of Stuxnet's intended targets

While it was known that the worm had spread more widely than its intended target, McAfee's research suggested the full extend of its reach.

Among those utility companies that had carried out a search for Stuxnet on their computer systems, 40% found traces of it.

"It probably didn't result in any obvious interference with the systems, because it wasn't designed to do that," said Mr Baker.

"But the fact that it spread so widely and could have done so if it had been differently designed is very, very troubling if you are worried about cyber attacks by hostile nations or extortion attempts by well organised criminal gangs."

Government help

Respondents were also questioned about how much involvement they had with their governments on tackling cyber security issues.

Japan came out on top, along with China and the United Arab Emirates, although the survey did not ask if that cooperation was voluntary or enforced.

The United Kingdom scored lowest of all those taking part in the study.

A Cabinet Office spokesman told the BBC that the situation had improved dramatically since the launch of its National Security Strategy in October 2010.

The policy document recognises cyber attacks as one of the top four national security threats facing the country.

"We have recently launched an initiative with the private sector to help develop greater awareness of the threats and better protection for dealing with them," said the spokesman.

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Attacks on AV 'nonsense' - Clegg

9 April 2011 Last updated at 13:13 GMT Nick Clegg says the voting system is one of the reasons for "disillusionment" with politics Changing the electoral system to the Alternative Vote will make MPs work harder and end the scandal of safe seats for life, Nick Clegg has said.

The Lib Dem leader said AV was "a very British reform" and said arguments against it will look "nonsensical" in the future.

But ex-Labour minister Caroline Flint said the current first-past-the-post system had "stood the test of time" and was unpopular abroad.

The referendum will be held on 5 May.

Voters will be asked whether to retain first-past-the-post or switch to the alternative vote - where voters can rank candidates in order of preference - in the UK-wide poll.

'Conservative doomsayers'

Putting the case for AV in a speech in London, Mr Clegg argued that it was a "very British reform" and represented an "evolution" of the existing system, rather than a "revolution".

Throughout history, voting reform had been opposed by "small-C conservatives", while the No campaign for the referendum is backed by "fascists and extremists" like the British National Party, he said.

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The suffragettes fought for One Person, One Vote, not a political stitch-up like AV, which has been rejected by almost every country that has used it”

End Quote Caroline Flint Shadow local government secretary Referring to the series of legislative steps which extended the voting franchise in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, the deputy prime minister said a switch to AV would fit into a pattern of constitutional change "by instalments".

In each case, the battle was not between left and right or between particular parties, but between reformers proposing "a reasonable step towards greater representation or fairness" and conservative warnings of "disaster if another step is taken".

"Time and time again, the conservative doomsayers were proved wrong," he said. "The same will be true of AV. The world will not stop turning on its axis when voters write 1, 2, 3 rather than an X on their ballot papers.

"I am certain that in years to come, the arguments being deployed against AV will seem as nonsensical as the ones that were used against allowing women to vote nearly 100 years ago and 18-year-olds the vote 42 years ago.

"It simply brings our system up to date."

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At the moment MPs are elected by the first-past-the-post system, where the candidate getting the most votes in a constituency is elected.

On 5 May all registered UK voters will be able to vote Yes or No on whether to change the way MPs are elected to the Alternative Vote system.

Under the Alternative Vote system, voters rank candidates in their constituency in order of preference.

Anyone getting more than 50% of first-preference votes is elected.

If no-one gets 50% of votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their backers' second choices allocated to those remaining.

This process continues until one candidate has at least 50% of all votes in that round.

But Ms Flint, the shadow local government secretary who is supporting the No campaign, mocked Mr Clegg's "dodgy grasp of history" and his support for AV, which he described as a "miserable little compromise" before entering government.

"The suffragettes fought for One Person, One Vote, not a political stitch-up like AV, which has been rejected by almost every country that has used it," she said.

"One Person, One Vote - the bedrock of our current system - has stood the test of time and remains the only way to ensure elections are fair."

In his speech, Mr Clegg argued that those backing change - who include his party, Labour leader Ed Miliband, the Green Party, UKIP, Plaid Cymru and the SNP - represent a broader cross-section of the population than those supporting the status quo.

And he accused his coalition partners - who support first-past-the-post along with a number of prominent Labour MPs - of double standards, saying the Conservatives use a form of AV in elections for their leadership and to choose certain party candidates.

"It is common knowledge that David Cameron and I disagree about this," he said. "I find it astonishing that the Conservatives say AV is good enough for them but it is not good enough for the rest of the country."

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Clegg attacks £9,000 fees plans

9 February 2011 Last updated at 18:22 GMT Nick Clegg: "I actually think we will make the university system fairer"

Nick Clegg has warned Oxford and Cambridge universities that it is "not up to them" to decide whether they can charge fees of up to £9,000 a year.

The deputy prime minister said they had to "dramatically increase" access for poorer students, after Cambridge said it could demand this amount.

From 2012, English university fees will be between £6,000 and £9,000 a year.

Mr Clegg made the comments to BBC News as he faced an audience of students who accused him of "selling out".

Before the general election, his Liberal Democrats pledged to fight to end tuition fees.

But, since forming a coalition with the Conservatives, this policy has been dropped, amid protests by many students.

'Compromise'

Cambridge University's working group on fees has recommended charging £9,000 for all its courses, while leading figures at Oxford have met to discuss the possibility.

During the BBC debate, hosted by political editor Nick Robinson, Mr Clegg said: "The truth is, for Oxford and Cambridge, and for those universities who've said over the last few years that they want to charge £9,000, it's not up to them.

"They can say what they like. They can't charge £9,000 unless they're given permission to do so.

"And they're only going to be given permission to do so if they can prove that they can dramatically increase the number of people from poorer and disadvantaged backgrounds who presently aren't going to Oxford and Cambridge."

Mr Clegg promised that stronger powers for the Office for Fair Access, which monitors entry to higher education, would be announced on Thursday.

The current maximum tuition charge is £3,290 a year, following an increase made by Labour, which first introduced fees in the 1990s.

'Compromise'

During his question-and-answer session Mr Clegg was accused by students of having "sold out your principles" and was told by one audience member: "You are either stupid, or you are mad, or you are malicious."

But the deputy prime minister described the coalition's changed fees as a "compromise", adding that many graduates would pay less, and those earning less than £25,000 a year would repay nothing.

He added that, for the first time, those on part-time university courses, like their full-time colleagues, would pay no up-front fees.

Mr Clegg also said: "We think 60% of graduates will never have to pay off the full value of their loans... They will be paying out much less. After a certain period of time they won't have to pay it off at all."

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It is clear that ministers have all but abandoned their plans to promise two full years free for students on free school meals ”

End Quote Nick Robinson BBC Political Editor He was accused of failing to understand, as a former pupil at a top public school, what it was like for students from more humble backgrounds - and one student said they feared the creation of a "two tier" education system.

Mr Clegg replied that there was already a "two tier" system, with a gap between the top universities the rest, telling the student: "I am absolutely determined to try to prove to you in the coming years, is that using the leverage that we have got over universities in terms of not giving them permission to charge over £6,000 unless they give greater access to their universities to people like you, I actually think will make the university system fairer."

He refused to apologise for his U-turn over tuition fees, telling the students: "Look, I of course, of course I regret the sheer controversy, the anger and the frustration; I'm not going to apologise for, in these very difficult circumstances creating and helping to create a system which over the years I think will be shown to be a much fairer one than the one we inherited."

'No money'

He also said he accepted that "the controversy around these policies, some of the lurid headlines, will of course have had an intimidating effect on some young people who are thinking of going to university in the future".

But he added: "There's no money, There's just simply no money... I totally accept that we need to do lots of explaining."

Full details of the requirements on any university charging more than £6,000 will be set out by Business Secretary Vince Cable in a letter to the director of the Office for Fair Access on Thursday.

The letter will say that universities may make greater use of so-called "contextual data", which recognises the achievement of pupils who have had to overcome disadvantage.

Paul Marshall, executive director of the 1994 Group, which represents research universities, said: "Nick Clegg needs to recognise that simply getting people from poorer backgrounds into university is not the only measure of social mobility.

"You need to look at the efforts universities make to avoid high drop-out rates and the value of the experience students enjoy while they are studying.

"Each university needs the freedom to set the fees necessary to deliver the very best for their students. Holding them to ransom over admissions targets alone would be a big mistake. We look forward to seeing some clarity on this tomorrow."

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Charles attacks climate sceptics

9 February 2011 Last updated at 13:54 GMT Prince Charles warned against the "voracious" consumption of the planet The Prince of Wales has hit out at climate change sceptics for what he calls the "corrosive" impact they have on public opinion.

The prince was speaking to an audience of MEPs and other policymakers at a conference in Brussels.

He warned against the pursuit of growth at the expense of the environment.

And the Prince said environmentalists should sell the benefits of sustainable living rather than just telling people what to give up.

In his speech, Prince Charles set out to illustrate how problems with the environment led directly to economic difficulties.

And he attacked climate change sceptics who he said were denying a vast body of evidence.

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I would ask how these people are going to face their grandchildren and admit to them they failed their future”

End Quote Prince Charles The implication of their arguments was that thousands of scientists throughout the world were conspiring to destroy the capitalist-based market system, he said.

"I would ask how these people are going to face their grandchildren and admit to them they failed their future."

He added that they were playing "a reckless game of roulette with the future inheritance of those who come after us."

Rainforests

"I cannot see how we can possibly maintain the growth of GDP in the long term if we continue to consume our planet as voraciously as we are doing," he warned.

He claimed the fabric of "the Earth's life support system" may be beginning to fragment.

The prince says halting the destruction of rainforests is not "a lifestyle option"

Pointing to the destruction of the rainforests he said that stopping the process was "not a lifestyle choice".

Failure to address it meant an end to any chance of stopping climate change.

But the prince also criticised environmentalists for concentrating "on what people need to stop doing".

"If we are constantly told that living environmentally friendly lives means giving up all that makes life worthwhile, then it is no surprise that people refuse to change."

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Three bomb attacks in Iraqi north

9 February 2011 Last updated at 13:30 GMT Television pictures caught the moment one of the bombs exploded

Three bombs have exploded in the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk, killing at least seven people and wounding more than 70, police say.

The bombs went off within minutes of each other near a Kurdish security headquarters.

Two policemen are reported to be among the dead.

While violence has decreased in Iraq in the last few years, attacks are still frequent and government officials are often targets.

Kirkuk's police chief, Maj Gen Jamal Tahir, told the Associated Press news agency that a suicide bomber slammed his pickup truck into a wall surrounding the Kurdish security headquarters (Asayish) around 1000 local time (0700GMT).

The second explosion hit a few streets away, near a gas station, and the third bombing happened down the street from the first and was followed by gunshots.

These are reported to be the first big attacks in the city for about six months.

No group has claimed responsibility for the bombings but the BBC's Jonathan Head in Baghdad says the militant group Ansar al-Islam has made recent threats.

Kirkuk, which sits on a third of Iraq's oil reserves, is at the centre of a tract of disputed territory claimed by the central government in Baghdad as well as Kurdish authorities in the north.

The city is populated by Kurds, Arabs and Turkomen, and ethnic tensions have delayed a long-awaited national census that would determine the real numbers of the country's religious and ethnic groups.

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