Nigerian police are carrying out a shocking level of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, Amnesty International says.

The rights group’s three-year inquiry details cases of prisoners tortured to death and shootings at roadblocks.

Amnesty says the police complain they are poorly trained and that criminals are often better armed than they are.

On Tuesday, a hospital in Enugu told the BBC it was overwhelmed by bodies being brought to them by police.

The BBC visited the hospital’s morgue in the south-eastern city and took photographs, showing piles young men, lying on top of one another and strewn about on tables and floors.

It was established that at least seven people were last seen alive in police custody, accused of kidnapping.

Enugu State police commissioner Mohamed Zarewa told the BBC he was too busy to talk about their cases.

‘Brutalised’

“The Nigerian police are responsible for hundreds of unlawful killings every year,” said Erwin van der Borght, director of Amnesty International’s Africa programme, said in a statement.

“Police are not trained to respect human beings“

Human rights lawyer Femi Falana

Police: Issuing corpses and denials

“The majority of the cases go uninvestigated and the police officers responsible go unpunished.

“The families of the victims usually get no justice or redress. Most never even find out what happened to their loved ones.”

A corrupt police culture, little training or competence with firearms, and the legacy of Nigeria’s military era are all contributing factors, the report says.

Nigerian human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, believes police officers are being brutalised by their training regime.

“Police are not trained to respect human beings. They are not taught about human rights of citizens and other people in Nigeria,” he says.

“They are not taught that they have a duty to prevent and arrest criminality in the society.”

Justification

The Amnesty report’s authors are demanding an end to a culture of impunity.

They say police guidelines called Force Order 237 – allowing police to fire on civilians fleeing arrest for serious crimes – must be changed.

Amnesty says the order justifies firing on anyone resisting arrest.

The BBC’s Caroline Duffield in Lagos says gauging the scale of police violence is difficult – there is no proper data on civilians killed by police.

Two years ago the authorities announced they had shot dead 785 armed robbers over a 90-day period, she says.

Amnesty says about 110 police officers are killed in shoot-outs with criminals every year.

This article is from the BBC News website.

A one-off tax on bankers’ bonuses is expected to form the centrepiece of Alistair Darling’s pre-Budget report – the last before the general election.

The chancellor is under pressure to explain how he will meet his pledge to halve the deficit over four years by cutting spending or raising taxes.

The Conservatives say borrowing levels, which could exceed

The rights group said 1,167 homes were being built for every 100,000 West Bank settlers, compared to just 836 for the same number of Israeli residents.

The Palestinians have refused to return to peace talks without a total halt to building in settlements.

Settlers are due to protest against the construction pause on Wednesday.

Palestinians say the new Israeli policy of restraint in building on the land they want for a future state does not go far enough.

But Israeli settlers have been angered by the move, made under US pressure, by the right-leaning government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

‘No basis in reality’

Under the new Israeli policy, permits for new homes in the West Bank will not be approved for 10 months.

But municipal buildings and about 3,000 homes already under construction will still be allowed to go ahead.

Israeli settlement in close-up

Palestinian builders’ dilemma

Obstacles to peace: Settlements

Scuffles have erupted in the past week as Israeli settlers held protests and tried to block building inspectors from entering their communities to enforce the new rules.

But, on the basis of the official figures, Peace Now said “the settler’s claims of discrimination and attempts to ‘dry out′ the settlements have no basis in reality”.

“Even during the freeze a larger number of housing units than the national average will be built in the occupied territories,” it said.

Israeli politicians and media have been referring to the restrictions as a “freeze”, although Palestinians say they are far from the total building halt, including in East Jerusalem, that they have demanded.

Settler groups are preparing for a rally outside Mr Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem later on Wednesday to protest against the curbs.

The BBC’s Paul Wood in Jerusalem says the settlers feel betrayed by a government they thought was on their side.

Israel could just be acting tactically, trying to make the Palestinians look like the roadblock to negotiations, our correspondent says.

But even so, he adds, the Israeli government may have to choose between peace with the Palestinians or peace with the settlers.

This article is from the BBC News website.

Twenty-four people in the Philippines have been charged with rebellion in connection with a massacre that left 57 dead on the island of Mindanao.

Those charged include several figures from the powerful local Ampatuan clan.

Two weeks ago a member of the clan, Andal Ampatuan Jr, surrendered to the authorities and has since been charged with multiple counts of murder.

Wednesday’s charges come four days after martial law was imposed in the province after last month’s killings.

Prosecutors say that after the killings, those charged directed each other “to rise publicly and take arms against the Republic of the Philippines″, reports Reuters news agency.

The Ampatuans are reportedly accused of forming “a private army to resist government troops”, in the Maguindanao provincial prosecutor’s charge sheet.

This article is from the BBC News website.

Soft drink brand Gatorade says it is to drop a Tiger Woods-endorsed product but said it was not related to revelations about the golfer’s private life.

PepsiCo-owned Gatorade said the decision to axe the Tiger Focus drink was made a few months ago.

Since the 14-times major winner crashed his car on 27 November, many women have claimed to have had affairs with Woods.

There are also reports that adverts featuring Woods have vanished from US prime-time broadcast and cable TV.

“We decided several months ago to discontinue Gatorade Tiger Focus along with some other products to make room for our planned series of innovative products in 2010“

PepsiCo statement

According to data from US media research firm Nielsen, the last prime-time advert featuring the 33-year-old golfer was a 30-second Gillette item on 29 November.

Woods’ other sponsors include consultancy firm Accenture. He is reported to be the first sports star to be worth more than $1bn.

Nike has been Woods’ biggest sponsor since the start of his career, signing its first contract with him as long ago as 1996.

‘Mentally tough’

He signed a five-year deal with Gatorade in 2007 for an estimated $100m (

Ireland’s strict abortion law is due to be challenged in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

The legal action is being brought by three Irish women who say the effective ban on abortion in Ireland violates the European Convention on Human Rights.

All three have travelled to Britain to have abortions.

The Irish government has engaged two leading lawyers to argue its case that the country has a sovereign right to protect the life of the unborn.

The three Irish women will be identified only as A, B, and C during the Strasbourg court hearings.

They argue that being forced to travel abroad for abortions endangered their “health and well-being” as safeguarded by the European Convention on Human Rights.

The two constitutional lawyers representing the government of Ireland argue that the convention’s safeguards cannot be interpreted as endorsing the right to abortion.

The case is the first challenge to Ireland’s abortion laws in more than 15 years, the BBC’s Europe correspondent Jonny Dymond says.

Almost 140,000 Irish women have travelled to Britain over the past 30 years to have abortions, our correspondent adds.

This article is from the BBC News website.

A major split between developing countries emerged on the third morning of UN climate talks here.

Small island states and poor African nations vulnerable to climate impacts laid out demands for a legally-binding deal tougher than the Kyoto Protocol.

This was opposed by richer developing states such as China, which fear tougher action would curb their growth.

Tuvalu demanded – and got – a suspension of negotiations until the issue could be resolved.

The split within the developing country bloc is highly unusual, as it tends to speak with a united voice.

“Our future rests on the outcome of this meeting“

Ian Fry, Tuvalu delegate

Earth Watch – Richard Black’s blog

Tuvalu’s negotiator Ian Fry made clear that his country could accept nothing less than full discussion of its proposal for a new legal protocol, which was submitted to the UN climate convention six months ago.

“My prime minister and many other heads of state have the clear intention of coming to Copenhagen to sign on to a legally binding deal,” said Tuvalu’s delegate Ian Fry.

“Tuvalu is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change, and our future rests on the outcome of this meeting.”

The call was backed by other members of the Association of Small Island States (AOSIS), including the Cook Islands, Barbados and Fiji, and by some poor African countries including Sierra Leone, Senegal and Cape Verde.

Several re-iterated the demand of small island developing states that the rise in the global average temperature be limited to 1.5C, and greenhouse gas concentrations stabilised at 350 parts per million (ppm) rather than the 450ppm favoured by developed countries and some major developing nations.

Developing split

Fast-growing economies such as China, India and South Africa oppose the lower target of 350ppm because they feel that meeting it would retard economic development.

Here, they also opposed Tuvalu’s call for a new legally-binding protocol to run alongside the existing Kyoto Protocol, arguing that the existing convention and Kyoto agreement are tough enough.

“The main task of this (conference) is to adapt an agreed outcome from the Bali Action Plan [agreed in 2007] and we should very much focus on that,” said China’s lead negotiator Su Wei.

“We have a very vaild system to combat climate change.”

But the existing agreement is not tough enough for the smaller, more vulnerable members with more to lose from rising sea levels and less to lose in terms of the economic constraints of a tough treaty.

Mr Fry called for the Conference of the Parties – the official name for the full gatherings here of all countries – to be suspended if its proposal for full-scale discussions on the issue of a tough new protocol was not accepted.

Global warming: A future glimpse

Chairwoman Connie Hedegaard had to agree, moving on to other items to allow time for discussions behind the scenes.

During the same session, China – and other countries – re-iterated calls for industrialised nations to pledge bigger cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions.

But that has been a familiar call here; the rift between members of the formerly solid developing country bloc is a much less common happening, and may indicate that hopes held out by some countries of signing only a political commitment here may not be enough to placate the poorest and most vulnerable nations.

China has protested an incident which prevented a top diplomat from entering the vast Bella Center where the conference is underway. The director-general of China’s climate change negotiation team told the meeting he is “extremely unhappy” that a Chinese minister was barred from entry on three consecutive days.

Su Wei said the unnamed minister has been trying to enter since Monday but failed despite having two security badges made out. Both badges were confiscated by security guards on Wednesday morning.

Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

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An animal trainer is in a critical condition in a hospital in the German city of Hamburg after being attacked by three tigers during a performance.

Christian Walliser, 28, tripped over in an enclosure containing five of Bengal tigers during a “dinner circus” at the private Hagenbeck Zoo on Tuesday night.

The animals took this as a signal to “play″ and pounced on Mr Walliser, biting his head and body, the zoo said.

They were eventually driven back into their cages with fire extinguishers.

Two doctors who happened to be in the audience treated the trainer before ambulance crews arrived, and the hall was quickly evacuated.

‘Show must go on′

The director of Hagenbeck Zoo, Stefan Pagels, said the tigers would not be put down and expressed hope that Mr Walliser would soon return to work.

“There was a one-in-a-million chance that something would go wrong, and it happened“

Stefan Pagels
Director, Hagenbeck Zoo

“First of all, the tigers did nothing wrong. Secondly, we never punish our animals, we only ever reward them. Punishing them would serve no purpose and there is no reason to put them to sleep,” he told the TV news channel, N24.

“As soon as Mr Walliser is back, and we hope that will be soon, he will look after the animals again,” he added. “There was a one-in-a-million chance that something would go wrong, and it happened.”

He said the performances would continue, albeit without tigers.

“We have a saying in the circus business: ‘The show must go on.’ We are sure Mr Walliser wants us to go on.”

The trainer, who had raised two of the five tigers in the cage from birth, lost part of his left hand in the incident. His injuries are considered life threatening.

This article is from the BBC News website.

By Mame Less Camara
BBC, Dakar

Growing numbers of girls in Senegal are being raped, with abuse often happening while they are at school.

“I wanted to be a lawyer, that was my dream,” says a young Senegalese girl, smiling.

But her facial expression suddenly changes: “I couldn’t carry on studying because of what they did to me.”

Another young rape victim interjects: “People ask how I managed to get pregnant so young. I want some medicine to get rid of this pregnancy.”

Their perpetrators face trial, but these young girls’ lives have been shattered.

“Often the Koranic school teachers live near to where the classes are held, so the teacher’s bedroom is always close at hand“

Anti-rape campaigner Adama Sow

Statistics show a dramatic increase in the incidence of sexual abuse in the predominantly Muslim country, says Adama Sow, of the Group for Research and Action against Child Rape (Grave).

In 2007 there were 450 reported rapes. By 2008 the figure had shot up to 600.

Rape, he says, has another hidden tragic side.

He says that seven victims have now contracted Aids.

“The youngest is six.”

Prosecute parents

Most cases of sexual abuse in Senegal take place within the family, and the rest are happening in educational establishments like French or Koranic schools.

Faced with a tendency for some Senegalese families to try to keep quiet about the abuse, the government is now trying to ensure that those responsible face justice.

“You cannot educate children properly by allowing some to be raped,” explains Judge Demba Kandji, director of Criminal Affairs and Pardons in the Justice Ministry.

“The state has to get involved.”

The ministry wants to allow state approved associations to bring suits as civil plaintiffs.

“This will enable associations campaigning for the protection of the rights of women and children to press on with the process, even if the fathers and mothers of children who have been raped do not file a suit,” says Judge Kandji.

And that is not the only proposed reform.

“In a family when a rape is known to have gone unreported, the fathers and mothers who knew but did not bring it to the attention of the relevant authority will be punished very severely, because the sentence can be up to two years imprisonment,” he says.

According to the judge, Justice Minister Moustapha Sourang also wants tougher rape sentences.

“He has proposed a minimum of 15 years,” he says.

Rape in school

According to psychologist Serigne Mor Mbaye, rape has always existed in society, but what is shocking is the increasing incidence of it and especially in schools.

Fatoumata Sy, president of the Committee Against Violence Against Women, agrees.

“Outside the family, it’s at school that the greatest amount of sexual abuse against children has been recorded.”

Mr Sow remembers a case which shocked people in Senegal.

“One of the girl victims was watching a television series,” he recalls.

“During the programme there was an erotic scene. The victim turned to her sister and said: ‘That’s what the Koranic school teacher does to us.’”

“Starting out with that girl, it was discovered that 25 girls had been abused,” Mr Sow says.

Ms Sy points out that “frequently it’s people who are supposed to be educating children who are the prime rapists”.

“Given the growth of Koranic schools, we are seeing more teachers of the Koran who are to blame,” she says.

According to Mr Sow, school sometimes becomes a trap.

“Often the Koranic school teachers live near to where the classes are held, so the teacher’s bedroom is always close at hand.”

“Any girl who fails to master the lesson of the day is sent to the room. When the class is over, after the others have left, the teacher abuses her.”

Cultural complicity

To make things worse “the victim often stays silent, and if it’s an underage victim then the parents often don’t talk – to protect the child,” says Ms Sy, who has noticed another disturbing trend.

“The people who raped me ruined my life“

Rape victim

“If a rape is committed inside the family, then the tendency is to say that marriage is the answer, without taking into account the repercussions.”

“It is an extension of the rape,” she says.

Dr Mbaye says this is a dangerous development.

“The system validates the sexual abuse, by euphemistically calling it ‘teenage pregnancy’.”

Victim Support

Civil society, the judiciary, doctors and women’s groups have now joined forces to stop the abuse.

New criminal provisions are a step in the right direction, say experts.

So too is a greater awareness of the need to protect those who have been raped.

The young girl who had aspirations of becoming a lawyer says: “The people who raped me ruined my life. I’ll never be a lawyer.”

But Judge Kandji hopes it is not too late to help.

“A fund is being set up to support victims of sexual violence during the trial by taking care of their legal counsel. There will also be therapy sessions,” he says.

It is hoped that measures like these will help victims to rebuild their lives in the hope that even the girl who wanted to be a lawyer might one day fulfil her dream.

This article is from the BBC News website.