Zimbabwe's Mugabe sacks Vice-President Joice Mujuru over 'plot'

Mrs Mujuru, 59, was once seen as a possible successor to Mr Mugabe

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has sacked his vice-president, Joice Mujuru, after accusing her of corruption and plotting to kill him.

Mr Mugabe also dismissed seven government ministers in connection with the alleged plot, a statement said.

Mrs Mujuru, once seen as a possible future leader of Zimbabwe, has denied plotting against the president.

State media and Mr Mugabe's wife, Grace, have conducted a campaign against her for months.

"President RG Mugabe has exercised his executive powers to release the Honourable Joice Mujuru… with immediate effect," said a statement issued by chief secretary to the cabinet Misheck Sibanda.

Mrs Mujuru's conduct had been "inconsistent with the expected standard", it said.

'Web of lies'

The ministers whose sacking was announced on Tuesday included State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa - another long-time ally of Mr Mugabe - and Energy Minister Dzikamai Mavhaire, who was seen as close to Mrs Mujuru.

There was no immediate word on replacements.

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Mugabe's opponents - in 90 seconds

The sackings come a week after Mr Mugabe denounced his vice-president at a party congress and removed her from her post in the ruling party, Zanu-PF.

Mrs Mujuru responded on Tuesday by saying her loyalty to Mr Mugabe was "unquestionable" and it was "repugnant" and "ridiculous" to suggest she had plotted to kill him or wanted to remove him from office.

She said Zimbabwe's state media had "continued to publish malicious untruths" about her and that she had "become the fly in a web of lies whose final objective is the destruction of Zanu-PF".

'Treachery'

Her accusers, she said, had produced "not a single iota of evidence" against her.

Grace Mugabe has conducted a three-month campaign against Mrs Mujuru

Mr Mugabe, 90, has been in power since Zimbabwe's independence in 1980. He is due to stand for election again in 2018.

Mrs Mujuru fought alongside him in the 1970s guerrilla war against white-minority rule and had been thought a possible successor as president.

But correspondents say her career ran into trouble when Mr Mugabe's wife entered politics earlier this year.

Analysis - By Brian Hungwe, BBC News, Harare

Mrs Mujuru's sacking was not a huge surprise. She has been under siege for the past three months and her relationship with Mr Mugabe had broken down.

Grace Mugabe has been spewing vitriol at public rallies, telling the vice-president to resign or apologise. Mrs Mujuru has dug in despite the gravity of the allegations.

Now her sacking is official, the public eagerly await her next move.

She appears ready to face the consequences of the situation - but her options are limited. She is damned if she leaves the party, damned if she stays.

Her supporters may press her to join the opposition trenches. That could be dangerous, given the threats by Mr Mugabe of imminent arrest. The intelligence services are known to keep files of "dirt" for use against those who defect.

If she stays, she will be a diminished and disparaged figure, likely to demoralise those allies who would be prepared to leave with her.

Mrs Mugabe repeatedly accused Mrs Mujuru of plotting against her husband and Mr Mugabe told delegates at the party congress that he welcomed his wife's action to expose the alleged treachery.

Grace Mugabe, 49, once her husband's secretary, is now a senior party figure, having been appointed leader of Zanu-PF's women's wing last week.

Speculation is building that she may seek to succeed Mr Mugabe when he retires or dies.

Correspondents say another prominent figure expected to benefit from the political demise of Mrs Mujuru is the veteran Justice Minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa.

more info:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30400178

Uber Delhi 'rape': India tells states to ban web taxis

India is one of dozens of countries where Uber is popular

India's home ministry has advised all states to ban unregistered web-based taxi firms after a driver for the Uber service was accused of raping a passenger in the capital Delhi.

Delhi has banned Uber and several other web-based taxi firms for failing to carry out adequate driver checks.

The order means taxis from these services will now attract a fine or even be impounded, officials say.

The Uber driver accused of rape has been arrested and remanded in custody.

The 26-year-old woman had used the Uber smartphone app to book a taxi home on Friday night but said she was taken to a secluded area and raped.

Although the driver has not yet given a statement, police say he has confessed to the crime.

"Following the incident of a heinous crime... the government of Delhi has banned Uber to provide any transport related service in Delhi," the home ministry said in a message to state governments around the country.

All internet-based taxi services which are not licensed with the government are also prohibited from operating until they get registered, the letter says, adding that all other states and federally-administered union territories are advised to do the same.

In an order issued late on Monday, the Delhi government said only six registered radio taxi companies were being allowed to continue to operate in the capital.

Although the driver has not yet given a statement, police say he has confessed to the crime

"All other transport/ taxi service providers through web-based technology, who are not recognised, are prohibited from providing such services... till they get licence/permission from the transport department," S Roy Biswas, Delhi's deputy commissioner of transport, said.

Media reports said the ban could hit a number of taxi services in the city, and thousands of drivers would be out of work.

A BBC correspondent in Delhi says Uber is still accepting bookings on its app and it is not yet clear how the ban will be enforced since Uber taxis do not carry any visible branding.

Uber has not yet commented on the ban.

On Monday, the company described the incident as "horrific" and said it would do everything "to help bring this perpetrator to justice".

The latest allegation of rape has again put the spotlight on the issue of sexual violence against Indian women, following a series of recent incidents.

It comes days before the second anniversary of the gang rape and murder of a student on a bus in Delhi, which prompted global outrage and a tightening of the laws on sexual violence.

Meanwhile, #DelhiShamedAgain and #Uber are among the top Twitter trends in India with many people taking to social media to express their outrage at the incident.

Natasha said banning all online taxi companies was "ridiculous":

more info:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-30390691

Last French hostage Lazarevic freed in Mali

Serge Lazarevic (centre) and Philippe Verdon (R) were kidnapped in 2011

The last French hostage to be held by Islamist militants has been freed after three years, French President Francois Hollande has announced.

Serge Lazarevic was snatched in Mali in November 2011 along with fellow Frenchman Philippe Verdon.

Militants from the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) group killed Mr Verdon last year in retaliation for France's intervention in Mali.

Mr Hollande said there were no more French hostages waiting to be freed.

Mr Lazarevic, he said, was in "relatively good health" despite the conditions of his captivity and was on his way to the neighbouring country of Niger from where he would return to France.

AQIM kidnapped a number of Western hostages before the French military deployed its forces against the group in January 2013.

There were at one point at least 14 French nationals being held by Islamists in West Africa.

"There are no more French hostages in any country in the world," Mr Hollande said.

He thanked the authorities in Niger and Mali, who had "worked towards this happy outcome".

There have been no details about how the release of Mr Lazarevic was secured.

The French government has repeatedly denied paying ransoms for hostages.

Serge Lazarevic, shown in a still from an AQIM video, was held for over three years

During his captivity, Mr Lazarevic appeared in several AQIM videos.

There was concern for the 50-year-old father's health in November after he was filmed pleading for his release.

He looked frail in the video and was filmed alongside a second hostage, Dutchman Sjaak Rijke.

It is not clear where the two men were held or whether they were held together.

Mr Rijke was kidnapped in November 2011, while visiting the city of Timbuktu as a tourist. There has been no news from him since the video.more info:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30396903

CIA report details 'brutal' post-9/11 interrogations

The CIA carried out "brutal" interrogations of al-Qaeda suspects in the years after the 9/11 attacks on the US, a US Senate report has said.

The summary of the report, compiled by Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that the CIA misled Americans about what it was doing.

The information the CIA collected this way failed to secure information that foiled any threats, the report said.

In a statement, the CIA insisted that the interrogations did help save lives.

"The intelligence gained from the programme was critical to our understanding of al-Qaeda and continues to inform our counterterrorism efforts to this day," Director John Brennan said in a statement.

However, the CIA said it acknowledged that there were mistakes in the programme, especially early on when it was unprepared for the scale of the operation to detain and interrogate prisoners.

The programme - known internally as the Rendition, Detention and Interrogation programme - took place from 2002-07, during the presidency of George W Bush.

Suspects were interrogated using methods such as waterboarding, slapping, humiliation, exposure to cold and sleep deprivation.

Analysis: Frank Gardner, BBC security correspondent

This report makes deeply uncomfortable reading but it shines a much-needed torch into some dark places.

The fact that "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" (EIT), or torture by any other name, was stopped years ago or that some people at the top of the US administration may not have known its full extent, does not excuse the fact it took place at all.

After going through six million pages of documents, the authors concluded that in none of the cases they looked at did these brutal methods stop a terrorist attack. Meaning that America's reputation, and by extension that of the wider West, has been sullied for no tangible gain.

This will lay the US open to charges of hypocrisy, making it far harder for the West to criticise brutal and dictatorial regimes. It may also encourage terrorists to justify their atrocities by pointing to this past abuse.

It can only be hoped this report's publication means these practices will be consigned to history's dustbin.

'Significant damage'

Introducing the report to the Senate, Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein described the CIA's actions as a stain on US history.

"The release of this 500-page summary cannot remove that stain, but it can and does say to our people and the world that America is big enough to admit when it's wrong and confident enough to learn from its mistakes," she said.

Many of the suspects were eventually sent to the Guantanamo Bay facility

"Under any common meaning of the term, CIA detainees were tortured," she added.

Earlier, President Obama responded to the report, saying the methods used were inconsistent with US values.

"These techniques did significant damage to America's standing in the world and made it harder to pursue our interests with allies and partners," he said in a statement.

Reacting to the release of the report summary, the Senate Republican leaders insisted that the methods used helped in the capture of important suspects and the killing of Osama bin Laden.

"Claims included in this report that assert the contrary are simply wrong," Senators Mitch McConnell and Saxby Chambliss said in a joint statement.

The Senate committee's report runs to more than 6,000 pages, drawing on huge quantities of evidence, but it remains classified and only a 480-page summary has been released.

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Former CIA lawyer John Rizzo on "enhanced interrogation": "I don't think I had any other choice"

Its main points include the following:

• At no time did coercive interrogation techniques lead of collection of intelligence on imminent threats

• None of 20 cases of counterterrorism "successes" attributed to the techniques led to unique or otherwise unavailable intelligence

• The CIA misled politicians and public, giving inaccurate information to obtain approval for using techniques

• The CIA claimed falsely that no senators had objected to the programme.

• Management of the programme was deeply flawed, for example the operation of the second detention facility, known as COBALT

• At least 26 of 119 known detainees in custody during the life of the programme were wrongfully held, and many held for months longer than they should have been

• Aggressive techniques were used on suspects from the start, despite CIA claims that interrogations would begin with less coercive methods

• Methods included sleep deprivation for up to 180 hours, often standing or in painful positions

• Waterboarding was physically harmful to prisoners, causing convulsions and vomiting

Armed police guard the US embassy in London, as part of enhanced security measures at US facilities worldwide

Mr Obama halted the CIA interrogation programme when he took office in 2009.

Earlier this year, he said that in his view the methods used to question al-Qaeda prisoners amounted to torture.

Publication of the report had been delayed amid disagreements in Washington over what should be made public.

Security was increased at US facilities around the world ahead of publication.

Embassies and other sites were taking precautions amid "some indications" of "greater risk", a White House spokesman said.

US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said he had ordered all top US military commanders to be on high alert.

CIA interrogations: Post-9/11 timeline

17 September 2001: President Bush authorises CIA to detain suspected terrorists

August 2002: Abu Zubaydah, a Saudi terror suspect, subjected to persistent "coercive interrogation", including waterboarding

November 2002: Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri transferred to CIA custody and subjected to waterboarding.

March 2003: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, suspected 9/11 mastermind, captured - later waterboarded 183 times

2 November 2005: Washington Post reveals existence of global CIA interrogation programme

8-9 November 2005: CIA authorises destruction of "coercive interrogation" videotapes

September 2006: President Bush publicly acknowledges the programme for the first time

March 2008: President Bush vetoes legislation to limit CIA interrogation techniques.

January 2009: President Barack Obama bans the CIA's detention authority and limits interrogation to techniques authorised by the Army Field Manual.

US intelligence agencies were accused of using "extraordinary rendition" to send terror suspects for questioning in countries where they had no legal protection or rights under American law. Some of the suspects claimed they had been tortured in countries such as Syria and Egypt.

A Council of Europe report in 2006 said it had pieced together details of a "spider's web of secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers", based on evidence from detainees' testimonies, flight plans and other publicly-available information.

The Senate report released on Tuesday said that the CIA sent some of its al-Qaeda suspects to detention centres in other countries, but did not say which ones.

more info:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30401100

Cycling down Bolivia's 'death road'

A road in Bolivia widely known as "death road" for the high number of fatal accidents that have happened here has become a popular cycle route for mountain bikers with a good head for heights.

Photographer Fellipe Abreu and reporter Luiz Felipe Silva cycled down the steep road and chronicled the sheer drops and spectacular views.

Photographer Fellipe Abreu and reporter Luiz Felipe Silva cycled down the steep road and chronicled the sheer drops and spectacular views.

Cyclists and their bikes are taken by bus to La Cumbre at a height of 4,700m (15,420ft).

From here, the peaks of nearby mountains such as the Huayna Potosi, in the Cordillera Central, Bolivia's central mountain range, are clearly visible.

The route in the Andes near the city of La Paz has become a favourite with mountain bikers as for a stretch of 66km it is almost entirely downhill, descending a total of 3,500m.

In places it is so steep, cyclists can reach a maximum speed of more than 50km/h (31mph).

For the the first 31km, the road, officially known as Camino a los Yungas, is paved. The main danger here are the big lorries which regularly use it and, despite the hairpin bends, drive at high speed.

Further on, the road becomes little more than a dirt track.

This unpaved stretch is the one which gave the road its reputation of being one of the most dangerous in the world.

During the 1990s, an average of 300 people died on this road a year.

The worst single accident happened in the 1980s, when a bus plunged 300m, killing more than 100 people.

When a vehicle comes off the road here, the drops are sheer and deep, offering little chance of survival for the passengers.

Simple crosses mark the spots where people have died.

Heavy lorries leave little space for other road users and skid dangerously on the loose soil.

The road's reputation for danger predates these accidents, though.

Even in the 19th Century, when it was used to transport goods from the city of La Paz to the town of Coroico, merchants feared this stretch of road.

Highwaymen used the narrow path to ambush merchants and rob them of their goods, often killing them in the process.

The most infamous highwayman was Salvador Sea, who was captured and condemned to death by firing squad in 1870.

In 2007, a new road linking La Paz and Coroico was inaugurated. The new stretch is used for vehicles travelling uphill, while the old "death road" is used to travel downhill, making both roads less crowded.

M ORE INFO:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-30009313

Mexico missing student 'identified' from remains

Ezequiel Mora attended a vigil for his son, Alexander, after his remains were identified

At least one of 43 Mexican students who went missing in Guerrero state has been identified from charred remains, an official says.

A family member of one of the students, Alexander Mora, confirmed that the remains identified were his.

The relative said the family had received the information from a team of forensic experts.

The students were allegedly seized by local police in the town of Iguala in September and given to a criminal gang.

Prosecutors say the gang killed them and burned their bodies at a rubbish dump near the town of Cocula before scattered their ashes in a river.

The students' disappearance has triggered widespread protests across Mexico against corruption and violence.

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Will Grant on reports that DNA of one of the missing 43 students has been discovered in a rubbish dump

Another demonstration was held on Saturday in Mexico City at which parents of students spoke about the identification.

"If [the government] thinks that, because one of our boys' DNA was identified, we will sit and cry, we want to tell them that they're wrong," Felipe de la Cruz, father of a missing student, told the crowd.

"We will keep fighting until we find the other 42."

Reforms

The unrest has seen President Enrique Pena Nieto's popularity rating drop to its lowest point since he took office two years ago.

In response, he has submitted a package of reforms to Congress that include replacing all 1,800 municipal police forces with state-level units.

Demonstrators in Mexico City demanded justice for Alexander Mora and the other 42 missing students

The students are said to have been taken to this rubbish tip outside Cocula

The students had travelled from a teacher training college in Ayotzinapa to Iguala to protest against what they said were discriminatory employment practices for teachers which favour urban students over rural ones.

Police opened fire on the students, who were in buses travelling back from Iguala to their college. Three of them were killed and three more people in nearby vehicles also died.

A busload of the students tried to flee but were chased by municipal officers who then took them to the local police station.

Some of the officers, who have since been arrested, told investigators they then handed the students over to a drug gang called Guerreros Unidos (United Warriors).

Iguala Mayor Jose Luis Abarca and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda were arrested in the beginning of November in Mexico City.

Mexican officials accused Mr Abarca of ordering police to confront the students to prevent them from disrupting a public speech given by his wife.

More than 70 other people have been arrested in connection with the disappearances.

MORE INFO:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-30365680

Dutch Prince Friso dies after year in coma

Prince Friso's wife Princess Mabel spent her birthday at his bedside on Sunday, Dutch media said

Dutch Prince Johan Friso has died after a year and a half in a coma following an accident at an Austrian ski resort, officials say.

Prince Friso, who was 44, was moved from hospital in London back to the Netherlands last month, but had since suffered complications.

He was hit by an avalanche in February 2012 and buried for 15 minutes.

King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima are said to be on their way home from a holiday in Greece.

"Prince Friso has died of complications related to the hypoxic brain injury, which he suffered as the result of his skiing accident in Lech, Austria on 17 February 2012," a royal palace statement said.

He died on Monday morning in The Hague, the palace added.

The prince's wife, Princess Mabel, is said to have spent her 45th birthday on Sunday at his bedside.

'Massive' brain damage

Shortly before becoming king on the abdication of Queen Beatrix, his elder brother, Willem-Alexander spoke in April of the "terrible situation" the family had lived with for more than a year.

Prince Friso's wife and Beatrix had been doing their best to be there for him every day "to give him a chance", he said.

The prince had been skiing off-piste with friends in Lech when the avalanche struck.

An emergency beeper he was wearing enabled rescuers to find him but medical officials in Innsbruck said it took some time to revive him and he suffered "massive" brain damage. They said he had suffered a heart attack lasting some 50 minutes.

He was later flown to London for treatment at the private Wellington Hospital, which has a specialist neurological unit.

MORE INFO:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-23669317