13 April 2013 Last updated at 09:11 GMT
With its sandy beaches and sumptuous seafood, it could be a holiday resort. But life in Gaza, post-Israeli sanctions and with 50 per cent unemployment, has never been more difficult. Alistair Dawber meets the people trying to survive on the Palestinian coast.
Mark Hennessy
April 13, 2013 - 7:04PM
John Kerry visits China to press Beijing over N Korea
US Secretary of State John Kerry is visiting China, in an attempt to urge Beijing to use its influence over North Korea to reduce regional tensions.
Speaking to President Xi Jinping in Beijing, Mr Kerry said the world was facing a "critical time".
Mr Kerry's four-day tour of Asia comes amid speculation that North Korea is preparing for a missile launch.
The US says there is no evidence North Korea can fire a nuclear warhead as suggested by a leaked US report.
North Korea has reportedly moved at least two Musudan ballistic missiles to its east coast.
A flurry of warlike statements from Pyongyang has prompted speculation that it might launch a missile - possibly on 15 April, when the country marks the 101st birthday of the nation's founder and former leader, Kim Il-sung.
Tales from Gaza: What is life really like in 'the world's largest outdoor prison'?
With its sandy beaches and sumptuous seafood, it could be a holiday resort. But life in Gaza, post-Israeli sanctions and with 50 per cent unemployment, has never been more difficult. Alistair Dawber meets the people trying to survive on the Palestinian coast.
The guide books warn that it's very unstable and that tourists shouldn't go there; the Foreign Office tells Brits that there's a high threat from terrorism – don't visit any part of the territory, it says, and if you do, there is no 'our man' there to help you out.
In truth, it is pretty difficult to get into Gaza anyway. Unless you are a journalist or work for an NGO, the likelihood is that you will get stopped at Israel's airport-terminal-like border post at Erez, which governs who is allowed to enter the Palestinian territory and, more importantly in Israeli eyes, who is allowed out.
But once you do get permission to go to Gaza, you realise that it is not like anywhere else. After getting the necessary stamps in your passport, you take a long walk through an 800-metre or so long cage, overlooked by Israeli army gun posts and balloons fixed with cameras that keep an eye over what's going on. Locals call it "the world's biggest prison", and it's not difficult to understand why.
Question: Has the gleeful reaction to Margaret Thatcher’s death reflected poorly on the traditional British left?
Mark Hennessy
The preparations have been a long time in the making. Today’s “death party” in London’s Trafalgar Square, organised by anarchist group Class War, has been mooted for more than 20 years – from even before Margaret Thatcher left Downing Street.
The death of the former British prime minister was always going to provoke divisions, though the depth and breadth of the divisions of recent days could go much deeper into British society before Thatcher is laid to rest on Wednesday.
The difficulty is that the fault lines in British politics – between the Conservatives and Labour; and between both of those parties and the Liberal Democrats, never mind a host of smaller parties and fringe groups – are marked by genuine hatred.
No clemency for convicted terrorist
April 13, 2013 - 7:04PM
Ben Doherty, Delhi
India's Supreme Court has rejected a plea for clemency from convicted terrorist Devinderpal Singh Bhullar, upholding a death penalty awarded against him, and continuing a trend in the country of re-adopting state executions.
India had a de facto moratorium on the death penalty for nearly a decade from 2004, reserving execution for cases deemed, in the words of the court, "the rarest of the rare".
But last November, the Indian government suddenly hanged the sole surviving terrorist from the 2008 Mumbai attacks, 25-year-old Ajmal Kasab. Plans to carry out the sentence were not announced until after he was dead.
Mozambique mining boom brings fear of rising HIV infection rate
Coal boom adds to complications for health workers trying to stop spread of HIV among miners, truck drivers and sex workers
It is almost 4pm and two young women are already sitting outside the Night Clinic in Moatize, a small town in Mozambique's northern Tete province, near one of the largest coal mines in the southern hemisphere, owned by Brazilian firm Vale. The national 123 road cuts through the town, and the clinic lies just off it – intentionally located to bring its services as close as possible to its target patients: miners, truck driversand sex workers.
"When the big mining companies were established here, people started coming from neighbouring countries: Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia. Tete became a window of hope, but when people don't find the jobs they hoped to find, many of them end up involved in prostitution or criminality," said Oswaldo Inacio Jossiteala, a programme officer at theInternational Centre for Reproductive Health (ICRH).
Venezuela's interim leader accuses rivals of destabilization attempts
Days before the election, interim President Nicolas Maduro suggests that political opponents hired Colombian paramilitaries to commit assassinations.
By Chris Kraul and Mery Mogollon, Los Angeles Times
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan interim President Nicolas Maduro has accused his political rivals of bringing Colombian paramilitaries into the country to commit assassinations, an assertion typical of the brief but intense campaign leading to Sunday's presidential election.
Maduro, in a speech broadcast Thursday night on state-run television, said suspected paramilitaries had been detained in a series of raids. On Friday, Vice President Jorge Arreaza said authorities, taking steps to prevent attempts to destabilize the country, had arrested two Colombians dressed in Venezuelan military outfits and seized equipment used with high-caliber military rifles.
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