Chile scientists defend the tsunami false alarm

Scientists have acknowledged that they overestimate the danger of tidal waves from the earthquake that hit Chile, but defended their actions, saying it had taken the right steps and lessons learned from the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia, which killed thousands of people who are not alert enough.

"It is important point to remember that we are not under caution, and failure to warn was not an option for us," said Dai Lin Wang, an oceanographer at the Center for Tsunami Warning in the Pacific Ocean in Hawaii. "We can not be the situation that we think that there is a problem, and they are devastating. This simply will not happen."
Hundreds of thousands fled to higher ground Saturday in the coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean after flying panic scientists from 53 countries and territories that the tsunami generated by the huge Chilean warned Quak

The largest-scale evacuation in Hawaii for years, if not decades. Sirens in emergency situations throughout the day, move Navy ships at Pearl Harbor and people hoard gasoline and food and water in anticipation of a major disaster. Some supermarkets even placed restrictions on items such as spam because of panic buying.

At least five people were killed by the tsunami in Robinson Crusoe Island off the coast of Chile, the waves destroyed the port city of Talcahuano, near Concepcion was badly beaten on the mainland of Chile.

But the danger of tidal waves that left the sunny beaches of Hawaii hours empty, never appeared - a stark contrast to the tidal wave that 230,000 people around the Indian Ocean was assassinated in 2004 and destroyed entire communities.

This time the waves of more than 5 meters reported in the Gulf of Kahului, Maui, and Hilo, on the east coast of in the major Hawaiian Islands, but little damage. Expectations of high waves in some areas has been shut down by 50 percent.

In Tonga, where up to 50,000 people who fled inland hours before the tsunami, the National Office of Disaster wave of reports from 6.5 meters to save a small island north, with no evidence of damage.

In Japan, where authorities ordered 400,000 people from coastal areas, and was the largest wave 4 - foot boom that hit the northern island of Hokkaido, flooding several pillars.

The Japanese official admitted that the authorities might be too in the issuance of the first tsunami warning key in over 15 years for a wave which eventually caused virtually no damage.

'Tsunami Agency forecasts proved to be a little too big, and I would like to apologize for continuing these warnings and said, "Yasuo Sekita, and meteorology official body responsible for earthquakes and tsunamis, in a press conference.

But scientists have not provided any justification for these warnings, and defended the work, all the while worrying that the false alarms can lead to complacency among local residents - the possibility of catastrophic overlooking the Pacific Ocean in the quake zone.

The quake was similar in Chile in 1960 creating a tsunami that left nearly 140 people have died in Japan. The same increase hit and destroyed the center of Hawaii Hilo, on the Big Island, killing 61 people and the elimination of more than 500 homes and shops.

"If you have a lot of warnings and none of them do, then lose credibility," said Mr. Wang. "This is something that we are dealing with and we must improve."

"I hope everyone learned from this for the next time, and there will be a next time," said Gerard Fryer, Geophysicist, and the warning center.

It was learned from the tsunami is difficult to predict, given the sheer volume of the oceans and the volatile forces at work miles underground.

Scientists use earthquake with a magnitude and location as the basis for their expectations and then continually refine the data from more than 30 sensors in the deep waters of the Pacific, where sweeping the shock wave is based on the ocean floor.

The sensors, located at 15,000 feet to 20,000 meters under the earth's surface, and the weight of water and exposed to buoys on the surface of the water. Then the scientists used data from the tsunami wave height for the open ocean as it progresses in shallow water.

Massive earthquake strikes Chile

A massive earthquake with a magnitude of 8.8 has struck central Chile, the country's largest in 25 years.

The quake struck at 0634 GMT about 91km (56 miles) north-east of the city of Concepcion and 317km south-west of the capital, Santiago.

Outgoing President Michelle Bachelet said that she had reports of six deaths so far and could not rule out that there might be more.

The US issued an initial tsunami warning for Chile, Peru and Ecuador.

That was later extended to Colombia, Antarctica, Panama and Costa Rica.

Japan's meteorological agency has warned of a potential tsunami across large areas of the Pacific.

Aftershock

President Bachelet called on people to remain calm and contact the authorities if they needed help.

She said: "The country has just experienced an enormous earthquake... we are in the process of finding out about the effects of the quake across the region, the state of the roads and hospitals, the damage to buildings and of course the number of those killed and injured."

Ms Bachelet, who has now gone into an emergency meeting, said that there were areas of the country where communications were down and teams were working to restore them.

Buildings in Santiago were reported to have shaken for between 10 and 30 seconds, with the loss of electricity and communications.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the earthquake struck at a depth of about 35km.

It recorded a 6.2 magnitude aftershock in the same area soon after at 0652 GMT.

The USGS said tsunami effects had been observed at Valparaiso, west of Santiago, with a wave height of 1.29m above normal sea level.

One journalist speaking to Chilean national television from the city of Temuco, 600km south of Santiago, said many people there had left their homes, determined to spend the rest of the night outside. Some people on the streets were in tears.

Mark Winstanley, who contacted the BBC from Vina del Mar, 100km north-west of Santiago, said buildings had shaken and electricity and phone connections were cut but he could see no structural damage yet.

A university professor in Santiago, Cristian Bonacic, said that this was a massive quake but that the cities seemed to have resisted well. Internet communications were working but not mobile phones.

Chile suffered the biggest earthquake of the 20th century when a 9.5 magnitude quake struck the city of Valdivia in 1960, killing 1,655 people.

'Date set' for India-Pakistan envoys to resume talks

Top diplomats from India and Pakistan are to meet for talks in the Indian capital, Delhi, on 25 February, the office of Pakistan's PM has announced.

India had offered to resume official talks with Pakistan earlier this month.

Delhi had suspended a slow-moving peace process with Pakistan after the deadly attacks in the city of Mumbai in 2008.

India blamed Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant organisation, for the attacks in which more than 170 people, including nine gunmen, died.

"It was decided that foreign secretary level talks between the two countries would be held on February 25 in New Delhi," a statement from the Pakistani Prime Minister's office said.

Pakistan "should raise all the core issues and impress upon India the need for the expeditious resolution through resumption of composite dialogue," the statement added, alluding to Pakistan's demand to discuss a whole range of issues with its rival.

Kashmir

India and Pakistan began a formal dialogue in 2004 on a number of key issues, including the long-running dispute over Kashmir.

But India suspended the talks after the attack on Mumbai.

Correspondents say there is still much suspicion between the two sides, but there seems to be a willingness on the part of both governments to move forward.

Any thaw between the two countries would be welcomed abroad - particularly by the US, Britain and other countries who have troops in Afghanistan fighting against the Taliban, correspondents add.

Senior Afghan policeman held over planting bombs

A senior Afghan policeman has been arrested in connection with planting and storing roadside bombs, Nato officials said.

The policeman was held by Afghan and coalition forces in northern Parwan province on Friday.

A Nato statement said that the policeman was "linked to criminal activities, including a murder."

Roadside bombs are frequently used to attack foreign and Afghan forces in Afghanistan, correspondents say.

Taliban fighters make roadside bombs, known as IEDs (improvised explosive devices), from mines and explosives.

They are activated by pressure plates, trip wires or mobile phones.

As foreign troops have become better at detecting IEDs, the militants have become more sophisticated in modifying their designs, our correspondent adds.

In November 2009 five British soldiers were killed by an Afghan policeman they were mentoring.

Correspondents say policemen in Afghanistan are badly equipped and poorly paid.

Many in the force complain that they are neglected and morale in many police units is low.

Japanese find body on plane from US

Japanese officials are trying to identify a body found on a Delta Airlines flight which arrived in Tokyo from New York on Sunday night.

A mechanic found the body inside one of the landing gear compartments of the Boeing aircraft during maintenance.

The man, who was of dark complexion and dressed only in blue jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, was carrying no passport or personal belongings, police say.

He was possibly a stowaway and probably froze to death, they added.

The temperature in that part of the plane falls to about -50C during flight.

Police official Zenjiro Watanabe told the Associated Press that the man must have sneaked in just before departure.

He said that the man's body had no visible injuries except for signs of frostbite.

Mr Watanabe said police were investigating the incident both as an accident and a possible crime.

There has been no official comment so far from Delta officials.

Turkish girl 'buried alive' in family garden

A Turkish teenager found dead in a hole next to her house was probably buried alive, a post-mortem examination has revealed.

Medine Memi, 16, was found in the hole in December. Large amounts of soil were in her lungs and stomach, according to a source who has seen the report.

Her father and grandfather have been arrested, but not charged.

So-called "honour killings" take place every year in Turkey despite government moves to stamp out the practice.

Two months after police found Medine's body buried in the garden of her family home, a team of doctors at a university in Malatya has completed the post-mortem examination.

According to a source who has seen their report, there was only minor bruising on her body, and no evidence of her being drugged.

Concrete covered

Her hands had been tied behind her back, and they discovered large amounts of soil in her lungs and stomach.

The autopsy has concluded that she was almost certainly buried alive.

The police went to her home after a neighbour reported that Medine had not been seen for a month.

They found her body in a hole, newly covered with concrete, next to the hen-house.

A local organisation that campaigns against honour killings said the victim, one of 10 children, had gone three times to the police to complain that she was being beaten, but she was sent back to her family each time.

A member of the organisation visited Medine's mother a few days after her body was found, but she was too distraught to give them much information.

Conservative community

Medine, who had never been to school, lived in Kahta, a town in the mainly Kurdish south-east of Turkey, where most honour killings have taken place.

The town is known for being very conservative and religious; it is a stronghold of the once powerful Naksibendi Islamic sect, which was banned by modern Turkey's founding father Ataturk in 1925 but has revived in recent years.

But while it is true that most such killings are carried out in conservative Muslim communities, the practice is linked more to the customs of this region of Turkey, than to religious belief.

When girls or women are deemed to have stained the family honour, by behaviour as innocent as simply talking to boys, there is strong peer pressure from the community on the male members of the family to restore their honour, say groups working on the issue in the south-east.

The only way allowed by their code is to kill the girl or woman - usually a young man is given the task after a family council meeting, and the method and location of the killing are discussed in detail.

Emotional state

Afterwards, the family will try to pretend she never existed.

The government has tried to curb the practice by changing the guidance given to judges.

In the case of honour killings they are no longer allowed to use mitigating factors like the accused's emotional state to reduce sentences.

But this has so far had a limited impact.

According the statistics from the prime minister's office, there were 16 honour killings in Medine's province of Adiyaman between 2003 and 2007.

NGOs say the official figures are almost certainly too low.

Last year a Turkish man was sentenced to life imprisonment in London for the murder of his 15-year-old daughter a decade earlier. Her body has never been found.

Archaeology and the struggle for Jerusalem

"I love traveling, and when I travel, I have a guide, and here in Jerusalem, and this book is a guide Tanah, and the Bible."

This guide is how Asher Altshul such as rounds and a wide-ranging in the City of David archaeological site in Jerusalem.

Site extends along the hills and down one of Jerusalem, just outside the old city.

Hundreds of tourists. Most of the Jewish people from countries all over the world, including the Schneider family from Los Angeles.

Father, Avshalom, he said to come here is a must.

"You feel like you walk in the stone of our ancestors walked, and this is an important part of Jewish education for my children," he told me.

The Israeli establishment, which runs the city of David aims to enhance communication Jewish Jerusalem in the modern era by emphasizing old ties.

In this case is David, king of the Jewish people for three thousand years. Some historians believe that this was the site of palace of King David.

But archeology and became a challenge in this debate.

The battle for supremacy

The City of David excavations, with underground tunnels and pools of old, revolving around the Palestinian area of Silwan. It is in East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since 1967.

About 40,000 Palestinians living in oblivion. Some families have been here for generations. They say that Israel is now less than archaeological dig, but instead of political claims on the ground.

The Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state. Israel says it intends to keep the whole city to hold.

The battle for sovereignty over Jerusalem to go to the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Musa Odeh guided me through the writing on the walls, rich, and winding alleys of the garden in the neighborhood of Silwan.

About one hundred houses here, as Moses the family home, and served with demolition orders for illegal construction.

But Palestinians say the Israeli authorities make it impossible for them to obtain building permits in Jerusalem.

Moussa said in the City of David archaeological excavations also weakened the structure of many houses in Silwan.

A local school for girls in the past year partly collapsed, injuring 17 students. Population and attributed the accident to the archaeologists tunnels running through the village.

They say the tunnels being one year after the gaps appeared in the streets of the Sloane different after heavy rains.

Moses is to insist that this is part of an Israeli plan to expel Palestinians from Jerusalem.

A hive of activity

In the last major dig in Silwan and the City of David site is a hive of activity.
Effects of students from all over the world are drilling, dust, and display of artifacts found here

Land here is privately owned by Elad, an association also funds the Israeli Jewish settlements in occupied East Jerusalem.

However, archaeologists are monitoring the state and the City of David excavations, this is not of concern.

John Seligman worked for the Israeli Antiquities Authority for years. He told me that it was not his job to agree or disagree with the political motivation of the sponsors of an archaeological site.

He said the Antiquities Authority excavations have also led to the Vatican, and Endowments, Islamic Board, which runs the Islamic holy places in Jerusalem.

"The work we are doing here is not looking for heritage, especially from the one or the other, and we believe it is, and show what is," said Mr. Seligman.

"Here in this site and see that we have the Arabic of the period, from the Roman era, and the first and second temple, everything is displayed on an equal footing, as is the case in the future," he added.

Not all Israeli archaeologists agree with Mr. Seligman.

Yonatan Mizrahi is the alternative, which is crucial to travel around the city of David, and solace.

As an archaeologist, former Antiquities Authority, who worked in East Jerusalem, and he told me he saw first-hand how Israel and Jewish interests in some cases, the use of archeology as a political tool.

Mr. Mizrahi, the effects are about learning from the past, but individuals then choose how to interpret the past.

"A religion or a different site excavations and one can look and say - This is our country," said Mr. Mizrahi.

But he qualified this by saying, even if the archaeologists had a large banner, which read "hello to you in the palace of King David," that Israeli Jews will not give the right to East Jerusalem today to find the claim.

"When you're along the lines of the Vatican to find anything here, not the church the right to acquire ownership of the country. The bottom line is that the majority of Palestinians in East Jerusalem," said Mr. Mizrahi.

Jerusalem is the most fought over city in the world. Different countries and cultures, and found it difficult to control for thousands of years.

Israelis and Palestinians will tell you the struggle is still alive today.

Man on Keira Knightley harassment charge

A man has appeared in court charged with harassing actress Keira Knightley.

Marek Daniluk, 41, a Polish national, of Godolphin Close, Enfield, appeared before magistrates in Westminster who set a trial date for 4 June.

He was arrested on Thursday outside the Comedy Theatre, Panton Street, London where Knightley, 24, is currently appearing in Moliere's The Misanthrope.

It came after a woman complained to police about the behaviour of a man outside the theatre on Wednesday.

Knightley complained of being stalked by five people two years ago. It is believed to have led to her decision to move from the UK to the US.

The tragedy of dying languages

The death of the last speaker of an ancient language in India's Andaman Islands highlights the fact that half of the world's 7,000 languages are in danger of disappearing. Linguist K David Harrison argues that we still have much to learn from vanishing languages.

My journey as a scientist exploring the world's vanishing languages has taken me from the Siberian forests to the Bolivian Altiplano, from a McDonald's in Michigan to a trailer park in Utah. In all these places I've listened to last speakers - dignified elders - who hold in their minds a significant portion of humanity's intellectual wealth.

Though it belongs solely to them and has inestimable value to their people, they do not hoard it. In fact they are often eager to share it. What can we learn from these languages before they go extinct? And why should we lift a finger to help rescue them?

As the last speakers converse, they spin individual strands in a vast web of knowledge, a noosphere of possibilities. They tell how their ancestors calculated accurately the passing of seasons without clocks or calendars. How humans adapted to hostile environments, from the Arctic to Amazonia.

We imagine eureka moments taking place in modern laboratories or classical civilizations. But key insights of biology, pharmacology, genetics, and navigation arose and persisted solely by word of mouth, in small, unwritten tongues. Finally, this web of knowledge contains feats of human ingenuity -epics, myths, rituals - that celebrate and interpret our existence.

Pundits argue that linguistic differences are little more than random drift, minor variations in meaning and pronunciation that emerge over time (the British say 'lorry', Americans 'truck'; Tuesday is CHEWS-day, for Brits, TOOZ-day for Americans).

THE LINGUISTS

These reveal nothing interestingly different about our souls or minds, some claim. But that's like saying that the Pyramid of Cheops differs from Notre Dame Cathedral only by stone-cutting techniques that evolved randomly in different times and places; revealing nothing unique in the ancient Egyptian or Medieval French imagination.

All cultures encode their genius in verbal monuments, while considerably fewer do so in stone edifices. We might as well proclaim human history banal, and human genius of no value to our survival.

The fate of languages is interlinked with that of species, as they undergo parallel extinctions. Scientific knowledge is comparable for both domains, with an estimated 80% of plant and animal species unknown to science, and 80% of languages yet to be documented.

But species and ecosystems unknown to science are well-known to local people, whose languages encode not only names for things, but also complex interrelations among them.

Packaged in ways that resist direct translation, this knowledge dissipates when people shift to speaking global tongues. What the Kallawaya of Bolivia know about medicinal plants, how the Yupik of Alaska name 99 distinct sea ice formations, how the Tofa of Siberia classify reindeer. Entire domains of ancient knowledge, only scantily documented, are rapidly eroding.

Linguistic survivors hold the fates of languages in their minds and mouths.

Johnny Hill, Jr of the Chemehuevi tribe of Arizona is a big, imposing man, but he instantly wins people over with his gentle humility. Designated "last speaker" of Chemehuevi, Johnny achieved celebrity in the 2008 documentary film The Linguists.

Although he had never previously travelled far from his reservation or flown on an aeroplane, Johnny mesmerized film festival-goers with his life story. Raised by his grandmother who spoke only Chemehuevi, Johnny learned English at school seeking a path out of isolation.

At the other end of his lifespan, Johnny finds himself linguistically isolated once again. "I have to talk to myself," he explains resignedly. "There's nobody left to talk to, all the elders have passed on, so I talk to myself... that's just how it is."

Johnny has tried to teach his children and others in the tribe. "Trouble is," he sighs, "they say they want to learn it, but when it comes time to do the work, nobody comes around."

Speakers react differently to loss - from indifference to despair - and adopt diverse strategies. Some blame governments or globalization, others blame themselves. Around the world, a growing wave of language activists works to revitalize their threatened tongues. Positive attitudes are the single most powerful force keeping languages alive, while negative ones can doom them.

Two dozen language hotspots have now been identified globally, and new technologies are being mobilised to the cause.

A Torres Straits' Islander in Australia told me: "Our language is standing still, we need to make it relevant to today's society. We need to create new words, because right now we can't say 'computer'."

The lowly text message may lift obscure tongues to new levels of prestige, translated software may help them cross the digital divide. Hip-hop performed in threatened tongues, as I've heard among young Aka speakers in India, infuses new vitality.

Language revitalisation will prove to be one of the most consequential social trends of coming decades. This push-back against globalization will profoundly influence human intellectual life, deciding the fate of ancient knowledge.

What hubris allows us, cocooned comfortably in our cyber-world, to think that we have nothing to learn from people who a generation ago were hunter-gatherers? What they know - which we've forgotten or never knew - may some day save us.

We hear their voices, now muted, sharing knowledge in 7,000 different ways of speaking. Let's listen while we still can.

K David Harrison is the author of the forthcoming book The Last Speakers: The Quest to Uncover the World's Most Endangered Languages.

Here is a selection of your comments:

I think the article is a very good reflector of the fact that people from around the world are far more busy in money making business than preserving their olden golden heritage of ancient languages. This is especially true in India where most people live dreaming the veil illusions of Dollar & Pound and spend most of their precious time only after earning opportunities at the expense of the solid sacrifice of a very rich heritage of ancient indian languages like Sanskrit for example. Even the Indian government does not seem to be putting sincere efforts in practice.
Shwetal Bhatt, Basingstoke

Only today I was looking around the internet for articles on data storage and retrieval in the future (where we may no longer have the software codecs or hardware to read it) and the idea of human language as a 'codec' to knowledge began to interest me. Then I found out about the Rosetta Project that is linking the two and that the first microetched Rosetta Disk they have produced is in fact an archive of over 1500 human languages.

To all those that may say "if only a handful are speaking it, it doesn't matter" or "well just speak English then", the key thing to take from this is that when a language dies, knowledge goes with it. Just like losing information on how a computer file format is interpreted - the data is lost to you.
Anthony Cooper, Leamington Spa

Deeply moved by this article as one who tries to keep alive the breton and the alsatian so-called " dialects"Keeping languages alive help us understands who we are. Because I can breton I know what my name means, it derives from Vern marshy ground and izel low .My ancestors lived in a marshy place, a swamp a low land. Languages belong to mankind's heritage.
Vernizeau, Colmar France

How ridiculous. The purpose of language is to communicate. If nobody speaks a language it has no purpose. You might as well learn Klingon.
John, Beaumont, America

Some years ago I worked on a dramatisation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House on the Prairie" for the Woman's Hour serial on Radio 4, for which we needed some dialogue in the Osage language. Through the Smithsonian Institute in America I discovered that there were only five remaining speakers of this native American tongue: happily, through the Insitute, an accurate translation was obtained for the script. I wonder if there are any Osage speakers remaining today?
Jane Shepherd, Manchester

Interestingly enough I've just been in correspondence with my former Slavonic philology lecturer about the chances of the Sorbian (spoken on part of the German-Polish border) language surviving. Who can tell?
David Gatenby, Abingdon

Certainly these languages should be recorded, if possible, but let's not make this another component of White Liberal Guilt. When languages die, it's a tragedy, but it's nobody's fault. Dying languages can be revived if the population want to speak them; but it's nobody's business but theirs.
Alan Fisk, London, England

7,000 languages is 6,990 too many if you ask me. Let them go.
Mike, Pembrokeshire

Nice article and nicely put, raising the important issue over native and ancient languages. The UK is no stranger to this: Gaelic (Scots), Welsh, Cornish and Norn are languages that have either just survived or now have vanished. Languages also provide a historical identity and can provide a different perspective to important events, often the losers point of view. But as pointed out, languages only survive if they change with the times. And they can be saved
Duncan Smallman, Edinburgh

What an extraordinary amount of sentimental rubbish. The assertion that "a significant portion of humanity's intellectual wealth" is held within these dying languages is demonstrably false. If such wealth truly existed, then - as history shows - these languages would be expanding and flourishing as its users traded - and lived - off that wealth. But, you know what?, the reason that Cornish, Andaman and even Latin died out as languages was that they were the expression of moribund societies incapable of communicating the intellectual, cultural and social dynamics required for sustained longevity and evolution. Trying to keep these languages 'alive' artificially is both futile and condescending.
Alex Clarke, London

As human beings do languages are also destined to die. However, their death is not because of ages. Rather a language starts dying the moment its significance in the economic aspect of its user society starts shrinking in favor of another dominant language. Hence, language revitalization will not be effective unless there is no attachment of the language with some kind of economical benefit. For instance, the last speaker of Chemehuevi's children were not interested because they didn't see its tactile benefit in their life. These days, apparently, everyone is running for English not because English is the language of the angels or the language of the demons. But because it is the language of economy. The language of the superpowers.
Deacon Mehari Zemelak Worku, Addis Ababa

If she was the last speaker of Bo, then she didnt have anyone to talk to in that language anyway!! Nobody bothered to learn other than this person so actually the language died long before this person.
Cheryl Gellard-Jones, Milton Keynes

I see what your saying and yes the local knowledge of animals and plants are important however that doesn't make the langauge important.

Humanitiy needs to be united that's how we go forwards, not in small knit tribes unable to commicate with one another. What good is there in even having 5 langauge's? Name me 2 good reasons I can't think of any? Document them by all means learn what we can from them but consign them to history where they belong one world, one people, one common langauge, one common goal perhaps then we can all just get along.
Terry, Bedford

I find this an immediate issue that is at the same time so sad, but fascinating. I would like to know more. Please keep me up to date with articles and research on this topic.

Have you done any research on the Ladino language? I have read that there are maybe only 50,000 native Ladino speakers still living. I know there is an effort to preserve it through poetry and music, but as a spoken language, it too may be extinct in a few generations. How sad.
Amy Nathans, Columbus, Ohio

we have, in Europe, a language called the Basque language. It is the most ancient European language, the only non-pre-indoeuropean language spoken in Europe and is not related to any other languages.

Although it is official and widely spoken in the Basque autonomous community in the Spanish State, Basque speakers in other part of the Basque Country such as Navarre or the French Basque country undergo suffer constant discrimination from the local authorities in regions where Basque has always been widely spoken.

My concern is that a languages often dies out as a result of politics and nationalism (ie: in the Basque case, French and Spanish nationalism are to blame).

I also believe that it is the EU responsability to ensure that the Basque language survives in the whole Basque historical territory.
Rafael, London, UK

Wouldn't it be better if we had a common world language in which to communicate.
Kenny Chaffin, Denver, CO, U.S.A.

@ Kenny Chaffin, Denver, CO, U.S.A.

I agree, that would be wonderful, but hopefully a rational, logical language, easy to learn by children all over the world, ergo: not English.
Paul van Gool, Kampala

Congratulations! This is a subject that needs a lot more attention. It is worth mentioning the plight of the Finno - Ugrian language speakers of Russia.

Peoples belonging to this language family live in North Eurasia (Central, Eastern and Northern Europe and Western Siberia), being the original inhabitants of these territories.

Beyond the point of no return are the Livonians, Votes, Izhorians and Enets. Highly endangered are the Ingrian Finns, Karlians, Vepses, Samis, Mordvins, Maris, Udmurts, Komis and Premyakkomis and Obi Ugrians like Khanits, Mansis, Nenets, Nganasans and Selkups.

In evaluating their current tragic situation it should be recognised that they have not had an opportunity to organise their lives in harmony with their ethnic cultural heritage. They are living, and have always lived, in a state of continual opposition, of ceaseless active or passive struggle, as if climbing on a steep slope.

At times of need, the non-Russian people also serve as targets of hatred for the dominant population, for example 2nd World War and Stalinist purges.

I is a shame that endangered languages are not protected the same way endangered species are. When they gone, the Word won't be the same.
Monika Baker, London

When we lose a language we lose a part of our common humanity. We lose an an aspect of our ability to conceptualise. It's like what happens when an individual loses a part of their brain or an eye.

The human journey or 'progress' requires the widest possible field of vision. Today, we take it for granted that we must protect the diversity of the genetic pool. We must also do everything we can to preserve the extraordinary diversity of language.

John O'Mahony, Hove, East Sussex,UK

Languages contain treasuries of ideas and philosophies, too. I am studying classical written Tibetan, another endangered language. It is a language created solely to express Buddhist thought. It's beautiful foundations and architecture are well worth committing to memory. Like the Lilliputians, we always see farther when standing on the giant's shoulders.
Ms. Stirling Davenport, Poughkeepsie, NY, USA

I am a British citizen, now living and working in Labrador, my wife's home. I was initially sceptical of the importance of preserving languages, much as a teenager is at school during a 'language' class. However, I am now working closely with marginalised Aboriginal people here in this cold but beautiful part of isolated Canada. Getting to know more about Inuit and/or Innu culture and the horrors of 'relocation' by European influences has been quite shocking with clear and terrible consequences for people today. In fact, one could say that a complete generational separation is now evident as these ancient cultures and their complete identity as a people has been eroded over time, with the added destructive influences of alcohol, drugs and the inter-connected trauma of their lives that fuels addiction and social breakdown. It is truly a terrible situation, with people here holding such people in utter contempt without even giving their unique situation any understanding or empathic thought. Language, therefore, and the erosion of the Innuit languages or the `native American` `Indian` languages is such an integral aspect to cultural identity, with this story emphasising the global importance of such a crucial and important aspect of global humanity.
Garry Harriman, Happy Valley/Goose Bay, Labrador, N/E Canada.

I agree languages are extremly important, they teach us so much about people and culture. Language is an integral part of culture and influences peoples way of life. We have native languages in the UK which are in danger of dying out, people need to appreciate and respect these languages.
Cymro, Cardiff, Wales

The book 'Language Death' by David Crystal is worth reading, explaining just show much humankind stands to lose from our languages dying.

John from Beaumont- what a short-sighted viewpoint. Language is not just a basic tool you pick up and use "to communicate". The rules and grammars of every language tells us something unique about how the mind works. When we lose a language we forever lose a one-off world view. When we lose a vocabulary we lose access to a treasure trove of meanings that help explain the world around us. This can affect all of us. For example, the world of medicine potentially suffers when we no longer understand the healing properties of natural plants and minerals found in South American rain forests of Indonesian jungles.

Language death is actually a serious issue not to be made light of.

John, Newcastle, UK

Unless investment is made into their survival a number of languages are in danger of disappearing form the Russian Federation, which has been home to dozens of ethnic languages.

In particular, over a decade of military conflict in Chechnya, a large proportion of school aged children were left without an effective education and are now unable to write, and some to speak, in their own language.

With the inclusion of this and other North Caucasus republics into a newly formed and Russian-speaking administrative district as of January 2010, teaching of native languages is unlikely to be the top priority investment.

Official documents, signs and broadcasts are already made almost exclusively in Russian. While it is clear that having a single state language is a means of unification, it is important to preserve ethnic languages alongside it, so that the folklore, culture, centuries of philosophy and traditions are not lost.

Over the 19th and 20th centuries linguists, including the great novelist Leo Tolstoy, have travelled up an down Russia, and later the USSR, in search of tribal languages, spending efforts to record and analyse them, and in many cases to give oral languages a form of writing.

It is extremely sad that these efforts are now wasted. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union university linguistics departments dedicated to ethnic languages have all but disappeared, as have native language publications and support for authors writing in the mother tongue.

Languages have become a political issue, and this endangers their very survival.

Yet when they are lost, and their culture and knowledge go with them, the collective culture or the whole country and humanity's diversity and its sum of knowledge become poorer.
P.Sparks, UK

I find the lack of compassion certain people feel on this wall for dying languages extremely disturbing. Mass globalisation seems to be the major culprit towards loosing our individuality as multi-national corporations force their products (and language) onto other countries. Now economic importance seems to have become more important than our heritage and traditions. If we forget where we came from, the values we represent and how to interact as a global community what to we truly have?
owen davies, london

Playing devil's advocate here.

If language is ultimately a way to encode information, then what does it matter what language is used to encode the info, if the information is successfully encoded and passed on intact to it's intended recipients.

I do understand that Languages can be unique in that the intertwine with the culture they developed with, hence they may uniquely convey concepts germane to their cultural environment. Having said this, I happen to believe that as human beings, all cultures continually undergo life, death, and change cycles. These cycles have always existed, and will always be so. Nobody for instance speaks Latin anymore, and the Greek spoken today differs from Greek 3 thousand yrs ago.

Unless if we are clever enough to invent some kind of computerized Rosetta stone, which completely categorizes a language, I fear that the loss of languages is unstoppable, universal, and is the natural way of things.
Paul Obembe, United States

Languages codify human experience and as such losing a language means losing a part of our common experience. My son will grow up speaking English and will never understand the richness of the Tamil idioms that I will use.
Anand, Princeton, USA

Unfortunately, it's part of the natural evolution of languages that some die out as others thrive. Jersey, as a small island has an ancient French patois as its native language but a century of increasing anglicisation (along with the usual banning of native tongues that the British enjoyed using as a policy in the early 20th century)mean that the language is little more than a curiosity now, just brought out for tourists and visiting dignitaries.

It is odd being from somewhere and not even knowing the native tongue.
Kirsten Morel, Jersey

Very interesting article on a very interesting subject. I have, however, been angered by several contributors to this discussion who have given the impression that they believe the process of language death is natural and that we shouldn't interfere. It is, in fact, rarely natural: I am currently learning Scottish Gaelic. This language is in its current precarious state due to human actions: the forced exile of Gaelic communities on a massive scale, its temporary illegality and its banishment from schools until the middle of this century, only to emerge to face a supremely powerful English-language mass media. If language death is not natural, then we owe it to languages that have lost out from 'progress' to aid them through artificial means.
Eystein Thanisch, Edinburgh

I do completely agree with Alex Clarke that it sounds silly to say the humankind wealth is preserved in these dying languages.The language dies when it is not used for communication between people as a result of underdevelopment of it's native speakers.It will be appropriate to repeat the basic point from Charles Darwin's theory of evolution:strongest survives, weakest dies.
Erkin Dilbazi, Baku,Azerbaijan

In response to Paul Obembe and a few others,

While it is certainly true that, over a larger span of time, languages are always in flux--shifting, dying, being born--that doesn't mean there isn't value in attempting to preserve endangered languages. This is especially true considering that language loss, like the lose of earth ecosystems, is occurring at a faster and more dramatic rate than any other time in history.

Languages can provide passageways into histories, value systems and patterns of behavior, and many of the currently endangered languages remain unstudied. Languages provide key insights into their cultures history and development. They can provide access to ideas and value-sets we would otherwise be unfamiliar with. Understanding the internal mechanics of language learning and development of languages that work differently from ours an provide key insights to human psychology.

Languages, like species, do have a life span. But linguistic diversity is of great value to all humans for what it can reveal about ourselves. To fail to prevent the destruction of this linguistic diversity in favor of global monolingualism would be a dramatic setback for us all.
Nichali, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

"Humanitiy needs to be united that's how we go forwards, not in small knit tribes unable to commicate with one another. What good is there in even having 5 langauge's? Name me 2 good reasons I can't think of any?... Terry, Bedford"

Just like in biology, climate, philosophy, art, religion..., we should have diversity in languages. Each philosophy (art, religion, music...)shows us a particular aspect(s) of this infinite richess who is the Man. A big "mixed colours" would not make us advance.

António Saraiva, Porto, Portugal

Being someone who is concerned about social and environmental issues, I have felt torn over the issue of disappearing languages. On one hand, I feel like I ought to be concerned about the loss of heritage, but on the other hand, I have no idea why. Even after reading this article, I am unclear about how exactly ancient languages are valuable, and what would therefore justify the effort to preserve them.

The claim presented in this article seems to be that we have a great deal to learn from ancient cultures. This is undoubtedly true. The question remains, though, why keeping a language on life support is the best way to preserve the knowledge of these cultures.

As elders die knowledge fades away, even if the language is preserved. Stories, experiences, skills, traditions and unique perspectives on the world are inevitably lost when those in whose minds they have been preserved pass away. It seems to me, however, that these things would be lost even if the language was preserved.

Furthermore, if there is something of value weaved into ancient languages, something that cannot be extracted and translated into the global languages, we might be given to wonder how the global community could benefit from this value without us each coming to learn the ancient languages ourselves.

Harrison has not provided a single concrete example of some piece of ancient knowledge (beyond the skill of using a particular language) that is preserved when a language is kept alive. One could easily walk away from this article thinking that he has provided merely a convincing argument for an investment in documenting the tales and lifestyles of elders in isolated cultures in order to save what we can from their history.

If there is immense value in languages per se, this article has provided me little understanding of what that value actually is.
Andrew Jehan, Toronto Canada

We can all be romantic about languages just as we can about two aging lovers unfortunately in the end the two lovers die and the love story however beautiful ends. Language is a utility for social interaction and exchange of ideas, Language belongs to a community or association of people as we build new associations, bigger communities one currency of speech must give way to another or both currencies of speech will merge and form another unlike either of them.

Yes lets find all the languages and codify the meanings hidden in them, but as needs must at an old mans grave - let the dying languages die for new will emerge.

The eskimo has 99 words for types of snow, but he wont understand what tweeting is, cyber space or software.
MUBITA, Douala Cameroon

Some of the comments I've read are typical of speakers of dominant tongues, and are to be expected of such. I barely speak my own native Lenape tongue, as there has been few to teach me, and day to day living makes it difficult to impossible to find the time to properly learn. This much I can say, as man makes a language, so too, language makes man, their values, sense of identity, belief in what is important reflected in the words they say, and the way they are spoken. What do your words say about you?
Michael, Harned, KY, U.S.

Why couldn't the linguistics make documentaries of those dying languages, to preserve them if only in video's, DVD's or manuscripts, but it's better than lost without any documentation at all.

Of course the documentation should also document the legends and the ancient sciences (knowledges) as such as said above.
boelee, Bogor, Indonesia

This is "Krapp's Last Tape" with a vengeance. My mother tongue is English, but I lived daily in Hebrew for several years and now live daily in Spanish. Old as I am, I would certainly volunteer my services in any small way I could to help save any language of our world.
David Wallace, Toledo, Spain

The Irish had a language once but it was nearly destroyed by the British occupation of the Island for nearly a thousand years. It has been trying to recover now for many years.

Thomas Hayes, Bradford UK

Much of the value called out here is cultural, not linguistic. The only people that 7,000 languages are useful to are linguists. They are important in that they help trace the evolution and connections between languages. But that is simply a useful scholarly pursuit. Different languages separate people, whereas a common language unites. To even attempt to compare "CHEWS-day" vs. "TOOZ-day" to cathedrals vs. pyramids provides much more insight into the mind and passion of the author than the usefulness of preserving dying languages. Language is to communicate... the fewer living languages, the better.
Steve, San Francisco

I teach anthropology in the university, we focus to a large extent on the value of linguistic diversity. Many cultural concepts are only possible to communicate in the language of their origin, especially religious and ethical ideas. But one thing that is different is the attitude of the speaker towards himself and the world. It's a great tragedy, as evidenced by many comments on this thread, that the most arrogant, ethnocentric, and least intellectually qualified culture has become dominant purely due to market forces.
scott gingerich, paradise california usa

Sanskrit has actually been revived and there are over 12,000 speakers. The important issue is whether ancient languages have been codified or written down. The Vedic manuscripts have been studied for centuries, sanskrit is taught at oxford, there is, ultimately, literature that intrigues people. Some ancient languages only have oral tradition, and as lovely as it may be hearing a bard beat out an ancient tale in a foreign tongue until he does the homeric duty of writing it down all those centuries of knowledge will come to an end. It is not our duty to save languages, the desire has to come from the speakers, it is their heritage and they should want to protect what is a sacred symbol of their civilisation; we can only attempt to persuade. These people are not knowledge farms from which we can reap a ripe harvest.
Luke Woollen, St Andrews, Great Britain

We the Bangalees know the value of language, as we gave blood to establish our right of Mother tongue in 1952. There are several dyeing languages in Bangladesh. Only few hundred or thousand people talk to those languages. I know, if a language doesn't have written Novels or Stories it will die soon. This is a high time to take immediate action to save our world heritage.
Sanaullah Lablu, Dhaka, Bangladesh

US Department of Justice objects to Google book plan

The US Department of Justice has said that it is still not satisfied with a deal that would allow search giant Google to build a vast digital library.

It said the plan failed to address antitrust and copyright concerns.

It echoes objections by online retailer Amazon, which has said that Google's plan to scan and distribute millions of books online could lead to a monopoly.

Google were forced to amend details of the plan in 2009 after objections by the Department of Justice (DoJ).

"The amended settlement agreement still confers significant and possibly anti-competitive advantages on Google as a single entity," the DOJ said.

It said that the agreement would allow the Google to be "the only competitor in the digital marketplace with the rights to distribute and otherwise exploit a vast array of works in multiple formats".

'Unaddressed issues'

Google Books - formerly known as Google print - was first launched in 2004. It was put on hold a year later when the Authors Guild of America and Association of American Publishers sued over "massive copyright infringement".

In 2008 Google agreed to pay $125m (£77m) to create a Book Rights Registry, where authors and publishers could register works and receive compensation for scanned books.

A decision on whether the deal could go through was originally scheduled for October 2009. But, District Judge Denny Chin, presiding over the trial, sent the deal back to the drawing board after objections from around the world, including criticism by the DoJ.

The DoJ has once again waded into the debate.

It says the proposed settlement posed potential copyright and antitrust issues.

It also criticised the agreement for requiring authors to opt out of having their books included in the deal, rather than opting in.

It also said that authors and representatives of the publishing industry who had brokered the deal had inappropriately spoken for foreign authors and for authors of "orphan works".

Orphan books - of which there are thought to be five million - are titles where the authors cannot be found.

The DoJ said that Google's exclusive access to these orphan works "remains unaddressed, producing a less than optimal result from a competition standpoint."

But Google said that the Department of Justice's filing recognised "the progress made with the revised settlement".

"It once again reinforces the value the agreement can provide in unlocking access to millions of books in the US," it said.

"We look forward to Judge Chin's review of the statement of interest from the Department and the comments from the many supporters who have filed submissions with the court in the last months."

A hearing on the settlement has been scheduled on 18 February.

Mass protest in Togo against African Cup football ban

More than 10,000 people have demonstrated in Togo against a decision to ban the country from the next two African Cup of Nations tournaments.

The Confederation of African Football (Caf) suspended Togo for withdrawing from this year's competition in Angola.

Togo pulled out after an attack on its team bus killed two officials on 8 January, days before the tournament.

The protesters in the Togolese capital Lome called for the Caf president, Issa Hayatou, to resign.

The protestors marched through the streets of Lome carrying placards saying: "Issa Hayatou must go" and "Issa Hayatou, you have outstayed your usefulness".

They ended up in a stadium where a resolution was read out, describing Mr Hayatou as "a shame to Africa", and calling on all African countries to support Togo in its stand against Caf.

The captain of the Togolese football team and Manchester City striker, Emmanuel Adebayor, last week described Caf's decision as "monstrous".

Caf said it imposed the ban because the Togolese government had interfered by insisting that the team withdraw, even though some members wanted to play on.

The Togolese government has said it will take legal action against Caf.

The organisers of the protest in Lome say they will stage weekly demonstrations in different parts of the country until Caf reverses its decision.

Alarm at Mumbai's teenage suicide trend

A writer once said that more than one soul dies in a suicide.

It seems so in Neha Sawant's home. The atmosphere in the tiny flat in Mumbai has been lifeless since the 11-year-old was found hanging from her apartment window.

It has been weeks but her parents are still in deep shock. They look dazed and sleep-deprived.

Neha's distraught grandmother said in a broken voice: "Our brains are not working. We still cannot believe it."

Neha, at 11, must be one of the youngest in Mumbai to commit suicide. Figures suggest that more and more teenagers in India's financial hub are killing themselves.

Dizzying

Inexplicably, teenage suicides have become an almost daily occurrence in Maharashtra - one of India's most developed states - and its capital Mumbai (Bombay).

The toll of teenage suicides from the beginning of the year until 26 January 2010 stood at 32, which is more than one a day.

While there are no comparative figures for the same period in 2009, there is a consensus among the concerned authorities in Mumbai that teenage suicides are spiralling out of control.

There is also a general agreement between psychologists and teachers that the main reason for the high number of teenagers taking their own lives is the increasing pressure on children to perform well in exams.

The scale of this largely preventable problem is dizzying - both in India with its billion-plus people and particularly in the state of in Maharashtra.

More than 100,000 people commit suicide in India every year and three people a day take their own lives in Mumbai.

Suicide is one of the top three causes of death among those aged between 15 and 35 years and has a devastating psychological, social and financial impact on families and friends.

'Needless toll'

World Health Organisation Assistant Director-General Catherine Le Gals-Camus points out more people die from suicide around the world than from all homicides and wars combined.

"There is an urgent need for co-ordinated and intensified global action to prevent this needless toll. For every suicide death there are scores of family and friends whose lives are devastated emotionally, socially and economically," she says.

In Mumbai the authorities are so alarmed by the scale of the problem that they have began a campaign, Life is Beautiful, which aims to help students cope with academic pressure.

Psychologists visit government schools in Mumbai once a week to train teachers dealing with students' problems.

Sharadashram Vidyamandir school boasts illustrious alumni such as cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli. It has been holding parent-teacher assemblies where parents can receive tips on tackling the pressures children face.

And yet such sessions could not prevent 12-year-old Shushant Patil's death. He was found hanging in the school toilet on 5 January.

Mangala Kulkarni is the principal of the girls' section of the school. She says that ultimately families need to be more proactive when it comes to stopping students from feeling stressed.

"The children don't realise they have more avenues than academic successes. They need to be made to realise this by their families from childhood," she said.

Blockbuster

A helpline in Mumbai, called Aasra, has been operating for several years to tackle the problem.

The director of the helpline, Johnson Thomas, says the problems today's children face are manifold: "They have peer pressure, they have communication problems with their parents, broken relationships, academic pressure and fear of failure," he says.

The home ministry estimates that for every teenage suicide in Mumbai there are 13 failed attempts.

One theory behind the recent rise is the influence of a recently released Bollywood blockbuster, Three Idiots, which has a scene where an engineering student is shown committing suicide after a mediocre exam result.

The film's impact has been debated and scrutinised in prime time television shows, with many directly blaming it for adding to the problem.

But Mumbai clinical psychologist Rhea Timbekar argues that it would be wrong to blame the film, which she says strives to explain that parents should not put too much pressure on their children.

Ms Timbekar says that she recently met a child who had not eaten for four days.

The child's parents said they were upset with him because he only got 89% in exams and stood third in the class, compared to coming first in previous years.

"Such parents need to be counselled," she asserts.

Ms Timbekar said that another explanation for the high teenage suicide rate was "copycat suicides" where children read about suicides in newspapers and decide to do the same thing themselves.

'Extreme steps'

Dilip Panicker, an eminent psychologist in Mumbai, says that pressure of exams is alone is too simplistic an explanation.

"At one level school pressures and expectations from parents are a valid reason," he says, "but that's always been there.

"In fact, parents used to beat up their kids in our time. What's changed is that today children are more aware, they have more exposure. They are more independent. So they blame themselves for failures and take extreme steps."

Psychologists also argue that the definition of a teenager needs to be revised in 2010.

"Today's 11-year-olds are the new teens. What we did at the ages of 14 and 15 children can do at 11 today," says Rhea Timbekar.

She demolishes the theory that children are more likely to be spontaneous in committing suicide, as opposed to adults who start with an idea, proceed with a plan and end with action.

"A child doesn't just wake up in the morning and says I will commit suicide today," she argues. "Something has gone amiss in their lives quite early on and suicides are a manifestation of that."

The breakdown of India's traditional family system is also being blamed for the problem. In a city like Mumbai - where it is common for both parents to work - children tend to become reclusive and watch too much television.

Dilip Panicker argues that there is a simple solution.

"If parents love their children unconditionally, with all their successes and failures, the problem would be greatly alleviated."

Hundreds of pigs die in Lincolnshire barn fire

More than 1,000 piglets and sows have died in a fire which badly damaged a pig breeding unit in Lincolnshire.

Dozens of firefighters were sent to the building on Caistor Road at Middle Rasen early on Saturday.

The building was well alight when crews arrived and the flames had broken through the roof.

Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue said crews had been drawn from a number of stations to deal with the incident. The cause of the fire is unknown.

Death sentences of Calcutta US attackers is upheld

A court in India has upheld the death sentences of two men convicted of involvement in a 2002 shooting attack on a US cultural centre in Calcutta.

Five policemen died in the attack and nearly 20 others were injured.

Jamiluddin Nasir and Aftab Ansari were arrested in 2002 and charged with waging war against India.

The attack heightened tensions in South Asia, coming just weeks after a bloody raid on parliament in Delhi. Pakistan denied links to either incident.

The incident happened on 22 January 2002 when four men draped in shawls sped up to the American Centre building in Calcutta on two motorcycles.

They refused to stop at checkpoints and shot at police guards who returned fire.

Other men accused of carrying out the shooting were never found.

But Nasir and Ansari were arrested and sentenced to death in 2005. Five other men were convicted with them for their role in the attack.

"The high court rejected the appeals of Ansari and Nasir and confirmed their death sentences," Asimesh Goswami, chief public prosecutor of the Calcutta High Court, told the AFP news agency.

Ansari, who was extradited to India from the United Arab Emirates, was accused of masterminding the attack.

At the same hearing, the court overturned the death penalties of three other men convicted in the attack, sentencing them to life imprisonment. It also cleared two men facing the same charges, for lack of evidence.

Indian police say Ansari was part of a large underground network involving international crime syndicates, cross-border Islamic militant groups and al-Qaeda.

India's Supreme Court has stipulated that the death penalty should only be used in the "rarest of rare cases".

No date was announced for when the sentences will be carried out.

Wave of brutal attacks shocks Kyrgyz journalists

BBC Central Asia correspondent Rayhan Demytrie reports on how the murder of journalist Gennady Pavluk and brutal attacks on other reporters are sending shockwaves across Kyrgyzstan's media.

Sitting in a dim corner of a coffee shop in central Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Olga Kolosova is holding back her tears.

"I could not believe what had happened until I saw him in the hospital," she said.

"I was hoping until the very last moment that there was some kind of a mistake."

But there was not.

Her partner of eight years, Gennady Pavluk, was lying unconscious in a hospital in Almaty, a city in neighbouring Kazakhstan.

The journalist had been thrown from the sixth floor of an apartment block with his hands and feet tied together.

He died several days later, still in a coma.

Gennady Pavluk's death sent shockwaves through the media and Kyrgyz society.

People here are no strangers to reports of the harassment and intimidation of journalists.

But no-one quite expected such a brutal murder.

Mr Pavluk was a well-known correspondent who was often critical of the government.

In the months leading up to his death, he had been associated with an opposition leader and was in the process of setting up a newspaper.

Threats and attacks

The Kyrgyz opposition claims that more than 60 journalists have been attacked, threatened, intimidated or killed since 2006.

But the government disputes these figures and says most attacks on journalists are not related to their profession.

In a recent speech to a parliamentary committee, Kyrgyzstan's Interior Minister Moldomoso Kongantiyev said that in the past five years 31 attacks have been registered, and most incidents were robberies or hooliganism.

Eleven of those cases have since been shelved by the police.

Among them is an inquiry into an attack in March 2009 on Syrgak Abdyldayev, who worked for independent newspaper Reporter-Bishkek.

He narrowly escaped death after a group of unknown attackers broke both his arms and stabbed him in the buttocks more than 20 times.

After receiving further death threats he left the country.

"We don't know who carried out the attack, and most likely we will never find out, but we are inclined to think that it was pro-governmental structures or politicians," says Sultan Kanazarov, the co-founder of Reporter-Bishkek.

The newspaper is temporarily out of circulation because of financial difficulties.

"From the first edition of our newspaper we knew that something could potentially happen. We were getting ready for law suits or tax inspections. But when that happened to Syrgak we were all in a state of shock," said Mr Kanazarov.

Although the government denies any links to attacks on journalists, others think there can be no other reason.

"Journalists who criticise the government get harassed and threatened," said Asiya Sasikbayeva, who runs an NGO in Kyrgyzstan.

"One journalist who published an article about the president's nephew had to leave the country because she feared for her life."

Beaten and robbed

Aleksand Knyazev, a political analyst, was severely beaten and robbed in early December 2009 in Bishkek.

The incident happened just a few days after Mr Knyazev's meeting with the former Kyrgyz president Askar Akayev in Moscow.

"They stole my bag which had documents and my laptop," Mr Knyazev said.

"They were not interested in my wallet or mobile phone. Maybe they thought I was carrying out money to pay for another revolution," he joked.

The growing number of alleged attacks on journalists - and especially the case of Gennady Pavluk - has drawn international attention to the issue of press freedom in Kyrgyzstan.

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the EU and the US have all expressed concern over continuing attacks on journalists and opposition politicians in the country.

But Ilim Karipbekov, from the Kyrgyz Presidential Secretariat, says the government is taking all necessary measures to ensure that every case is thoroughly investigated.

"We are very sorry about what happened to Gennady Pavluk," he said. "We are co-operating with the Kazakh police which is investigating the case.

"It is in our interest because we are aware that such reports could reflect negatively on our country."

'Nail in the coffin'

Once referred to as "island of democracy" in central Asia, the country has recently been downgraded by the Washington-based rights watchdog Freedom house to "not free".

Kurmanbek Bakiyev came to power in 2005 after the country underwent the so-called Tulip Revolution - mass protests that ousted the country's previous leader, Askar Akayev.

Mr Bakiyev promised to implement democratic reforms and end widespread corruption.

But instead of democratisation, critics say President Bakiyev's government has curbed free speech and became increasingly repressive.

There are still several opposition newspapers in the country, but a number have fallen foul of libel laws in recent years, and were forced to close.

Foreign broadcast media such as Radio Free Europe and the BBC Kyrgyz Service are allowed to operate, but most local TV and radio stations never criticise the president or his administration.

Sultan Kanazarov says that in today's Kyrgyzstan it is safer to write about celebrities and showbusiness than raise serious socio-economic issues.

"All these incidents are affecting the freedom of speech and increasing self-censorship among journalists," he said. "Gennady Pavluk's murder was the last nail in the coffin for journalism in Kyrgyzstan."

Jacob Zuma 'deeply regrets pain' over love-child

South African President Jacob Zuma has apologised for fathering an illegitimate son, in the face of a national outcry.

"I deeply regret the pain that I have caused to my family, the ANC (African National Congress, the alliance and South Africans in general," he said.

The baby girl was born last year to the daughter of a football executive.

Mr Zuma, aged 67, is a Zulu, a group which practises polygamy. He has three wives and at least 19 children.

Pressure

"I have over the past week taken time to consider and reflect on the issues relating to a relationship I had outside of wedlock," Mr Zuma said in a statement, admitting that it "has been a subject of much public discussion and debate".

"It has put a lot of pressure on my family and my organisation, the African National Congress," the statement said.

Earlier this week, the president confirmed that he was having a relationship with Sonono Khoza - the 39-year-old daughter of World Cup official Irvin Khoza.

He said the matter was "intensely personal" and dismissed as "mischievous" criticism from activists who said his actions had undermined official HIV/Aids campaigns.

Mr Zuma was praised last year when he announced major changes to the country's Aids policy, which included increasing the roll-out of anti-retroviral drugs.

But opposition parties now say his behaviour contradicts the government's stance on HIV prevention - preaching regular condom use and faithfulness to one partner.

South Africa has the highest number of HIV infections in the world - more than five million people.

This is not the first time that the president's sex life has been under the spotlight.

In 2006, while being acquitted of rape, Mr Zuma admitted that he had made a mistake by having unprotected sex with a woman he knew to be HIV-positive.

Like Ms Khoza, the woman was also the daughter of a family friend.

Mr Zuma has been married five times in all, most recently in January, and is also engaged to another woman.

He has 19 children according to his office, but it is not clear if that includes the baby born last October.