US soldier kills Afghan civilians in Kandahar

Afghan men gathered in the area of the villages where the attacks took place

A US soldier in Afghanistan has shot dead 15 civilians and wounded others after entering their homes in Kandahar province, Afghan and Nato sources say.

He reportedly left his base early in the morning to attack village homes. Nine children are among the dead.
The White House voiced "deep concern" and Nato-led forces in Afghanistan promised a rapid inquiry.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned the attack and demanded an explanation from Washington.
BBC correspondents say there could be a furious backlash when news of the attack reaches the wider public.
In Kandahar's Panjwai district, local people have gathered near the base to protest about Sunday's killings, and the US embassy is advising against travel to the area.
Anti-US sentiment is already high in Afghanistan after US soldiers burnt copies of the Koran last month.
US officials have apologised repeatedly for the incident at a Nato base in Kabul but they failed to quell a series of protests and attacks that killed at least 30 people and six US troops.
The unnamed soldier, thought to be a staff sergeant, is reported to have walked off his base at around 03:00 local time (22:30 GMT Saturday).

He then made his way to the villages of Alkozai and Najeeban, about 500m (yds) from the base.

A local resident, Abdul Baqi, told the Associated Press news agency the soldier had apparently opened fire in three different houses.
"When it was happening in the middle of the night, we were inside our houses," he said. "I heard gunshots and then silence and then gunshots again."
In one house in Najeeban, the gunman reportedly killed 11 people, setting fire to their bodies before he left.
A relative of the 11 victims, Haji Samad, told Reuters news agency chemicals had been poured over the bodies and set alight.
"I saw that all 11 of my relatives were killed, including my children and grandchildren," he added, weeping.
An unnamed woman witness in Najeeban told BBC News she had heard gunfire at about 02:00. A barking dog was shot dead by the gunman, she said.
She added that the Taliban had not been seen in the area for five months.
At least three of the child victims were killed by a single shot to the head.

Coke and Pepsi alter recipe to avoid cancer warning

Coca-Cola and PepsiCo account for nearly 90% of the US fizzy drink market

Coca-Cola and Pepsi are changing the recipes for their drinks to avoid being legally obliged to put a cancer warning label on the bottle.

The new recipe for caramel colouring in the drinks has less 4-methylimidazole (4-MEI) - a chemical which California has added to its list of carcinogens.
The change to the recipe has already been introduced in California but will be rolled out across the US.
Coca-Cola says there is no health risk to justify the change.
'No risk'
Spokeswoman Diana Garza-Ciarlante told the Associated Press news agency they wanted to ensure their products "would not be subject to the requirement of a scientifically unfounded warning".

The chemical has been linked to cancer in mice and rats, according to one study, but there is no evidence that it poses a health risk to humans, said the American Beverage Association, which represents the wider industry.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) claims a person would need to drink more than 1,000 cans of Coke or Pepsi a day to take in the same dose of the chemical that was given to the animals in the lab test.
Coca-Cola and PepsiCo account for nearly 90% of the US fizzy drink market, according to one industry tracker, Beverage Digest.
The companies say changing their recipes across the whole of the US, not just in California, makes the drinks more efficient to manufacture.
In a statement Coca-Cola added that the manufacturing process across Europe would not change.
It said that apart from California "not one single regulatory agency around the world considers the exposure of the public to 4-MEI as present in caramels as an issue".

Syria crisis: Kofi Annan to hold talks with Assad

Witnesses report troops and tanks massing near Idlib, where anti-government protests continue

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan has arrived in Syria for talks with President Bashar al-Assad, in a fresh diplomatic bid to end the violence.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Mr Annan would call for an immediate ceasefire by the army and the opposition.
Activists said government forces killed 77 people across Syria on Friday.
Earlier, UN aid chief Valerie Amos said "limited progress" had been made on taking aid to the worst-hit areas in Syria, but much more was needed.
Baroness Amos said she had requested full access to the worst-hit areas, but the government had asked for more time.
Calls for reform that began with pro-democracy protests a year ago have degenerated into violence that has brought Syria to the brink of civil war.
The UN says more than 7,500 people have died as a result of the violence.
'All violence must stop' Mr Annan arrived at Damascus airport on Saturday and was met by Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, before being taken to a hotel in the capital ahead of the talks with the president.
Mr Annan's meeting with President Assad was earlier announced in New York by Mr Ban, the UN secretary-general.
Mr Ban said he had held a conference call with Mr Annan and Arab League Secretary-General Nabil al-Arabi.
"All three of us share the same concerns, same priorities and same approaches," he said.
"Our priority is, first of all, all violence must stop, whether by government forces [or] opposition forces.
"I have very strongly urged Kofi Annan to ensure that there must be an immediate ceasefire."
He said that if a ceasefire could not be agreed simultaneously, then government troops should stop first, followed by the opposition.
Mr Ban said Mr Annan - a former UN secretary-general - would also meet Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem in Damascus and then hold talks with opposition leaders after leaving the country on Sunday.
The UN has called for "dialogue" to end the crisis, although opposition groups have already rejected the idea of talks with President Assad.
Mr Ban also echoed Baroness Amos's calls for Syria to allow aid agencies access to areas badly hit by the violence.
He said that what she had seen in the devastated Baba Amr district of Homs showed there was a "quite serious, alarming situation in terms of humanitarian assistance and human rights".
On Friday, Baroness Amos said the government had indicated that an initial humanitarian assessment could be made within the next week, and that a UN team in Damascus was ready to get to work.

Afghan officials visit Guantanamo in peace bid

Washington, Mar 10  - An Afghan government delegation visited the Guantanamo Bay military prison this week to secure approval from five Taliban detainees who may soon be moved to Qatar, a sign that the Obama administration is inching closer to establishing peace talks to end the war in Afghanistan.

The delegation, which visited the top-security detention center in Cuba on Monday, included Ibrahim Spinzada, a senior foreign policy aide to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, sources familiar with the subject said.

Government sources in Kabul said Spinzada and Shahida Abdali, a senior Afghan security official, visited the United States this week. The White House said the two officials were in Washington briefly but both the White House and the Pentagon declined comment on the Guantanamo visit.

Karzai's government has demanded the five former senior members of the Taliban government, held at Guantanamo Bay for a decade, give their consent before they are transferred to , the small Gulf state where they would under Qatar's custody.

The transfer would be one of a series of good-faith measures that, if US diplomats can surmount remaining hurdles, would set in motion the first substantial political negotiations on the bloody conflict in Afghanistan since the Taliban government was toppled in 2001 in a US-led invasion.

A year after it was unveiled, the Obama administration's peace initiative may soon offer the United States a historic opportunity to broker an end to a conflict that began as the response to the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on the United States. The war has dragged on for a decade at great financial and human cost.

But the peace gambit also presents extraordinary risks for Obama, facing the potential for political fallout months before presidential elections, as his government considers backing an arrangement that would give some degree of power to the Taliban, a movement known for its brutality and extreme interpretation of Islam.

Despite months of covert diplomacy, it remains unclear whether the prisoner transfer will go ahead. Doubts are growing about whether the Taliban leadership is willing to weather possible blowback from junior and more hard-core members who appear to oppose negotiations.

US officials have been hoping the behind-the-scenes peace initiative will gain enough momentum to permit Obama to announce the establishment of full-fledged political talks between the Karzai government and the Taliban at a NATO summit in May.

Such an announcement would mark a major victory for the White House and might dispel some of the anxiety created by NATO nations' plans to gradually pull most of their troops by the end of 2014, leaving an inexperienced Afghan military and wobbly Afghan government to fend off a still-potent insurgency.

The confidence-building measures the administration has proposed also include the opening of the Taliban office in Qatar and a Taliban statement distancing itself from terrorism.

The Taliban detainees are seen by some U.S. officials as among the most threatening inmates remaining at Guantanamo. Their possible transfer has become a lightning rod for attack - or at least anxiety - from U.S. politicians from both parties even before the administration formally begins a required congressional notification process.

Among the prisoners that may be sent to Qatar is Mohammed Fazl, a "high-risk" detainee alleged to be responsible for the killing of thousands of minority Shi'ite Muslims between 1998 and 2001.

They also include Noorullah Noori, a former senior military commander; Abdul Haq Wasiq, a former deputy intelligence minister; and Khairullah Khairkhwa, a former interior minister.

Republicans particularly have voiced concerns that transferred Taliban officials might regain positions of power or rekindle an insurgency that Western forces are working to extinguish.

"My assumption is that my client would welcome an opportunity to be released from Guantanamo," said Frank Goldsmith, an attorney for Khairkhwa, who arrived at Guantanamo in May 2002.

This week's visit to Guantanamo may reflect the narrow course that Karzai, who had gone from Western darling to frequent antagonist, must tread as he seeks to build support for peace talks among Afghans who fear a Taliban return - all while shoring up his own fragile political backing.

It was unclear who else may have accompanied Spinzada to Guantanamo.

The reconciliation initiative has proceeded in fits and starts in part because of what US officials describe as an unpredictable partner in Kabul. US officials have held eight meetings with Afghan militant interlocutors since the peace initiative began, Reuters learned.

Karzai, meanwhile, has complained the United States has repeatedly sidelined in a process that is supposed to be "Afghan-led."

While those disagreements may have been put to rest, the latest diplomatic maneuvers come at a particularly sensitive time for the U.S.-Afghan relationship following the burning of copies of the Koran on a NATO military base, an incident that sparked protests and attacks on Western forces.

On Friday, the two governments announced a breakthrough in efforts to strike a bilateral deal that would outline their long-term presence and authorize a US military presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014.

Heroin horror stalks India's most remote villages

Heroin stalks a remote village in India

India's Punjab state is the birthplace of Bhangra music, home of the colorful turban and the exquisite golden temple.

It is a state in India where the population has prospered for many years. It has one of the lowest poverty rates in the country thanks to fertile farmland, abundant water supply and decent infrastructure. But the Punjab finds itself with a serious problem among its population -- drug addiction.

Addict Inderjeet Singh says at least half of the students in his school were taking drugs.

At 16 he says he was popping up to 10 prescription pills a day and washing them down with codeine cough syrup.

"When I take it I feel like I am wandering in heaven. I feel like a king of the whole world." Singh said.

At 20 he is in a drug rehab hospital where he prays, does yoga and learns candle making as he tries to kick the habit that was turning him into a zombie.

"I stopped recognizing even my parents," he said.

At the same hospital another man also named Inderjeet Singh (and no relation) said his drug of choice was heroin.

At 25 he said he would become violent if he didn't get a hit at least once a day. But finding the drug was never a problem even in what appear to be simple villages.

"It can be bought anytime from anywhere," he said. "20 to 25 families would be selling it in one village alone."

The cost: the equivalent of about $20 for five grams.

The United Nations 2011 drug and crime report says India is the largest consumer of heroin in South Asia, which stands to reason as it has the largest population in the region by far.

But the report has negated a perception that India is only a transit point for drugs coming in from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The report comes as no surprise to those in India's Punjab State, which borders Pakistan.

Some state officials estimate more than 50 percent of the population between 18 and 35 are using drugs illegally - including anything from heroin to abusing prescription drugs.

"As far as drug addiction in Punjab is concerned, the situation is explosive. It's worrisome. The young people are dying and the elders are becoming their pallbearer. Statistics show one addict is dying every eight minutes in Punjab," said Mohan Sharma, project director of the Red Cross De-addiction Hospital in Sangrur.

The U.N. says it is hard to get accurate statistics on drug use in India. But if those numbers are anywhere near true, it far exceeds the U.N.'s estimation of global illicit substance abuse for the 15-64 age range, which is 4.8 percent.

Even with 63 drug rehab centers in Punjab state they cannot seem to reverse the trend.. There is fear here that a whole generation will be locked in a terrible cycle of drugging and dying if more isn't done.

Fighting talk: Why wrestling is booming in Senegal

Wrestling rivals football for popularity in Senegal.

In most of Africa, football reigns supreme among sports, but in Senegal wrestling challenges it for popularity. It provides entertainment and exercise, and offers young men dreams of fame and fortune.

Wrestling's popularity in Senegal makes it big business. For the sport's superstars the rewards can be huge, with the biggest names earning up to $200,000 per contest. In a country where unemployment is pushing 50%, some young men see it as a way out of poverty.

Gris Bordeaux is a star in Senegal, a wrestling champion who also teaches at a wrestling school in the capital Dakar.

He says wrestling is a mental, as well as physical, discipline and that reaching the top of his profession takes dedication.

"It's all about making sacrifices," says Bordeaux. "It requires training and meditation; your mindset is important. You have to educate yourself well.

"Not all wrestlers get to realize their dreams, because on the bigger level it is few that get to where I am. You need to be focused on the sport -- like over 5,000 wrestlers you will get only 10 that make it."

See also: Senegal island exposes horrors of the slave trade

Bordeaux credits wrestling with changing his life, bringing him success and wealth.

"What I do know is that it has given me a lot of opportunities," he says. "It has opened doors for me because I am able to take care of myself and my family and especially to help the young people in the community."

It's perhaps a desire to emulate the likes of Bordeaux -- as well as a desire to keep fit -- that motivates young Senegalese men to work out on the beaches of Dakar.

Italy decries fatal UK raid in Nigeria

Chris McManus, pictured, and Italian national Franco Lamolinara were killed by their captors, officials say.

Nigeria  -- Britain's failure to consult Rome before a rescue operation that left two European hostages dead in Nigeria is "inexplicable," the Italian president said Friday.

Italy said Britain did not inform it before Thursday's attempt, in conjunction with Nigerian forces, to rescue Briton Chris McManus and Italian national Franco Lamolinara, who were kidnapped last year.

"A clarification on the political-diplomatic level is also needed," Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said.

Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi asked his British counterpart, William Hague, on Friday afternoon for "maximum clarity" on the raid "in the shortest time possible, in the next few hours."

The kidnappers killed the men while the raid to free them was under way, according to British government sources briefed on the matter.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has said the men were killed before the joint forces could reach their hideout in the northern state of Sokoto.

A spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron told Britain's Press Association the government notified Rome as "the operation was getting under way," describing it as a "very fast-moving" situation.

Still, the UK ambassador to Italy, Christopher Prentice, spoke to Italian authorities in Rome on Friday "on his own initiative to explain events," the British Foreign Office said.

Nigerian forces, with support from Britain, launched the operation Thursday after receiving credible information about the captives' location, Cameron said.

McManus and Lamolinara worked for the construction and civil engineering firm B. Stabilini and Co., which is based in Abuja. A message on the company's website Friday read simply "In loving memory of Chris & Franco. RIP from all your friends at B. Stabilini & Co. Ltd."

McManus, 28, was from northwest England, the British Foreign Office said. Lamolinara, 47, and married with two teenage children, hailed from the northern Italian town of Gattinara, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported.

Jonathan blamed the kidnapping and killings on Boko Haram, the militant Islamist terror group responsible for dozens of attacks in Nigeria in the past two years.

The circumstances behind the men's deaths remained unclear, but Jonathan said authorities detained the alleged captors.

"Perpetrators of the murderous act, who have all been arrested, will be made to face the full wrath of the law," the president said in a statement on the government website.

Cameron said he authorized the rescue attempt after working to free the two since they were kidnapped in May 2011. Authorities could not find the men for months, he said, but eventually got credible information about their location, and "a window of opportunity" presented itself.

"The terrorists holding the two hostages made very clear threats to take their lives, including in a video that was posted on the Internet,'' Cameron said.

"Boko Haram" translates from the local Hausa language as "Western education is forbidden." Authorities have said the militant group is behind escalated gun and bomb attacks that have killed scores in recent years.

Oxfam warns of West Africa drought 'catastrophe'

Drought has hit a huge swathe of the Sahel region

Urgent action is needed to stop drought in West Africa's Sahel region turning into a humanitarian disaster affecting 13 million people, Oxfam says.

The charity says the international community waited too long to respond to famine in East Africa last year.
Oxfam has launched a £23m ($36m) emergency appeal to help reach more than a million of the most vulnerable.
A BBC correspondent says refugees fleeing fighting in northern Mali are adding to the problem.
Launching its appeal, Oxfam said that malnutrition rates across Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and northern Senegal are hovering between 10% and 15%, and in some areas have risen beyond the emergency threshold level of 15%.
It says that more than one million children in the Sahel region are at risk of severe malnutrition.
In parts of Chad, Oxfam says, some villagers are digging up ant hills to gather grain that the ants have stored.
The agency says that drought, high food prices, severe poverty and regional conflict are causing the crisis.
"Millions of people are on the threshold of a major crisis," said Mamadou Biteye, Oxfam Regional Director for West Africa.
"All signs point to a drought becoming a catastrophe if nothing is done soon. The world cannot allow this to happen. A concerted aid effort is needed to stop tens of thousands dying due to international complacency."

Syria crisis: Kofi Annan's calls for talks spark anger

Footage said to show fresh shelling of civilians in the city of Homs on Thursday

Syrian opposition activists have angrily rejected calls by Kofi Annan, the UN and Arab League envoy to Syria, for dialogue with the government.

The leader of the main opposition, Burhan Ghalioun, said the comments were "disappointing" when Syrians were being "massacred every day".
Mr Annan, who is due in Syria on Saturday, had said a solution lies in a "political settlement".
He also said further militarisation "would make things worse".
Tens of thousands of people were again reported to be on the streets across Syria on Friday, protesting against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Meanwhile, activists say Syrian troops are massing in northern Idlib province and fear another major assault, as happened in the city of Homs.
The Local Coordination Committees group said another 35 people were killed across Syria on Friday, including 13 in Homs, nine in Idlib, three in Hama, two in Damascus and one each in Lattakia and Aleppo.

US deal to hand Bagram and other prisons to Afghans

The US has previously handed over responsibility for a few hundred detainees at Bagram

Afghanistan and the US have reached a deal to transfer US-run prisons in the country to Afghan control.

The largest and most controversial of these is Bagram jail, which holds 3,000 detainees, including terror suspects.
Under the deal the US will cede control of Bagram over six months. Reports say they will retain access and be able to block the release of certain detainees.
Handing over US-run jails has been a key demand of Afghan President Hamid Karzai ahead of Nato's withdrawal.
Analysts say the issue has cast a shadow over negotiations on Nato's withdrawal of all of its combat forces by the end of 2014 and the long-term relationship with Afghanistan.
Bagram prison, officially known as the Parwan Detention Centre, is located in one of the largest military bases for Nato-led forces in Afghanistan. It has been at the centre of a number of prisoner abuse allegations in recent years.
Nato is also under intense pressure after days of protests and targeted killings across Afghanistan - over the inadvertent burning of Korans at Bagram - left at least 30 people dead.
The US repeatedly apologised over the incident but that failed to quell public anger.

Rahul Dravid retires from international cricket 'sad but proud'

On Friday, Rahul Dravid retired after 16 years in international cricket

Rahul Dravid's retirement from international cricket was announced at his home ground, the Chinnaswamy Stadium, in a function room filled with more than 200 people. Family, team-mates, friends, KSCA members, officials and journalists had gathered - as did fans watching a live broadcast - to mark the end of a remarkable career and a "reassuring presence" in the Indian team.

The press conference began on schedule and, within three-quarters of an hour, Dravid left the room and international cricket as he had walked in. Swift, smooth, business-like, and, on Friday, to the sound-and-light burst of camera flashbulbs. The significance of Friday's announcement will be understood only six months down the line, when India play Test cricket for the first time in 16 years without the most reliable one-drop in their history. 

The decision to retire was not sudden, he said; the period of contemplation had lasted over a year as he assessed his game series after series. The disappointment of the Australia tour had not given him any 'eureka' moment around his decision to leave the game. "I didn't take the decision based on one series… these decisions are based on a lot of other things, it's the culmination of a lot of things. I don't think it's based on what happened in the last series. For each one it comes differently, for me it's come with a bit of contemplation, a bit of thought, with friends and family." 

South Africa apologies to Nigeria over yellow fever row

There are an estimated 200,000 cases of yellow fever, causing 30 000 deaths, worldwide each year

South Africa has apologised for the deportation last week of 125 Nigerians over suspicions that their yellow fever certificates were fake.

The action quickly turned into a diplomatic spat - with Nigeria refusing South Africans entry and the foreign minister branding Pretoria xenophobic.
South Africa has rejected that claim - and promised new procedures to avoid a repeat of the "regrettable incident".
At one stage Nigerian carrier, Arik Air, suspended flights to South Africa.
Yellow fever is spread through infected mosquitoes and has a wide array of symptoms from nausea and vomiting to kidney failure, jaundice and bleeding.
According to the UN World Health Organization, about half those who develop severe symptoms of the haemorrhagic illness and are untreated die from the disease - about 30,000 people each year worldwide.
'Regrettable incident' "We wish to humbly apologise to them, and we have," South Africa's Deputy Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ibrahim said.
"We are apologising because we deported a number of people who should not have been deported," Mr Ibrahim said - adding that he does not expect an apology from Nigeria for the tit-for-tat deportations of South African nationals.
He blamed airport authorities for what a joint statement with Nigeria described as a "regrettable incident which the South African government believes could have been handled better".
The Nigerians were turned away on 2 March because the yellow fever certificates were not check properly, according to the deputy minister.
South Africa is considering reopening a travel clinic at Johannesburg's airport - so that travellers without a yellow fever certificate can be vaccinated on arrival rather than deported.
And from now on, mass deportations will need the permission of foreign ministry officials, the deputy minister said.
On Tuesday, Olugbenga Ashiru, Nigeria's foreign minister, said the deportations was evidence of xenophobia.
"What you see playing out is what we call xenophobia by South Africans against all Africans - not just Nigerians," AFP news agency reported him as saying.
In 2008, South Africa saw a wave of xenophobic violence which shocked the nation and shook up the world's view of the "rainbow nation".
Mr Ibrahim said on Thursday that South Africa is not a xenophobic country.
The two countries say the yellow fever row will not undermine bilateral relations - and they are moving to strengthening them.
Nigeria is one of the biggest markets for South Africa's MTN mobile phone operator, while retailer Shoprite and Standard Bank also have profitable operations there.

Syria crisis: Homs at centre of fresh massacre, activists say

Homs has suffered widespread devastation after weeks of bombardment

Dozens of people have been killed in a suburb of Syria's battle-scarred city of Homs, reports say, in what activists are describing as a "new massacre".

Forty-four of those killed came from just a handful of families, the Local Co-Ordination Committees (LCC) said.
The reported killings come a day after the UN's humanitarian chief visited Homs, saying parts had been devastated.
Meanwhile a Syrian deputy oil minister posted a message on YouTube saying he had defected to the rebels.
Abdo Hussameddin is the highest level political figure to abandon the government of President Bashar al-Assad since the uprising erupted a year ago.
Reprisal killings'
According to the LCC, the latest concentration of killings by security forces happened in the Jobar district of Homs. The group said 20 of the dead belonged to a single family, and 16 to another.
It said the deaths were reprisal killings, coming days after security forces retook Homs from rebels, having pounded the city for weeks.
The claims cannot be verified as international media inside Syria are heavily restricted.
After visiting Homs, one of the first cities to join the uprising last March, the UN humanitarian chief Baroness Valerie Amos said the bombed-out Baba Amr district felt like it had been closed down.
"The devastation there is significant, that part of Homs is completely destroyed and I am concerned to know what has happened to the people who live in that part of the city," Baroness Amos told Reuters news agency.
Activists said troops committed massacres after they went in to the district, but Damascus blamed the rebels for many deaths.
The BBC's Jim Muir in neighbouring Lebanon says activist groups continue to report the summary execution of men from Baba Amr, the butchering of entire families, and the systematic mass rape of women.
Our correspondent says opposition groups are urging Baroness Amos to go back and delve deeper.
The UN says more than 7,500 people have died as a result of the violence in Syria over the past 12 months.

Pakistan charges Osama Bin Laden's widows

Pakistan says Osama Bin Laden's wives were living in the country with him illegally

Osama Bin Laden's three widows have been charged by Pakistan with illegally entering the country.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the women, reported to be two Saudis and a Yemeni, had been charged but did not say when the hearing took place.
The wives and about 10 children were taken into custody last May when US commandos raided their safe house.
The three women had been living in the compound in Abbottabad that Navy Seals attacked, killing Bin Laden.
Mr Malik said the women had entered the country illegally, and there were also "several incidents involving deception and forgery".
He told reporters in Islamabad that "only the adults had been charged", and the children were free to return to their native countries if their mothers agreed.
Currently, the women and their children are being held at a house which had been "declared a sub-jail", Mr Malik said.
Closed court Legal experts say the maximum term the women could get is five years.
The BBC's Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says it is very unlikely the women will be tried in an open court with media access.
He says the authorities would not want them to publicly answer questions about how they managed to live in Pakistan for so long.
Last June, a Pakistani commission was charged with investigating how the al-Qaeda leader had managed to stay in Pakistan undetected.
The commission said his wives should not be allowed to leave the country until they had been interviewed.
Despite having a $25m (£15m) bounty on his head for his role in organising the 9/11 attacks on the US, Bin Laden managed to live in the Abbottabad compound with his wives and children for nearly five years.
It is not clear if these three women are Bin Laden's only widows however - it has been reported that he had up to six wives.
Our correspondent says Pakistan may have taken this step to put questions about the fate of the women to rest, and send a message to the world that Pakistanis are not as protective of Bin Laden and his family as many believe.

Iran's nuclear program: the riddle, the enigma and the mystery

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government is keeping the West guessing as how its nuclear program is developing.

There are "red lines," a "window of opportunity," the risk of a "zone of immunity," and plenty of other cryptic terms about Iran's nuclear program. What does it involve? Where is it leading? How and when should it be stopped or restrained?
Ordinary mortals can't know where those red lines lie; when the "weaponization" of Iran's nuclear material might be imminent; even what Iran's real intentions are. Experts and policy-makers differ about the time Iran would need to develop a nuclear weapon, the space for diplomacy, whether Iran wants a nuclear weapon as an instrument of deterrence or would use it pre-emptively. Or even whether it really is hell-bent on acquiring one.
James Clapper, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, told the Senate Intelligence Committee in January that Iran was "keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons...We do not know, however, if Iran will eventually build nuclear weapons."
Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has no doubt. He told an audience in Washington this week: "Amazingly, some people refuse to acknowledge that Iran's goal is to develop nuclear weapons.....This duck is a nuclear duck and it's time the world started calling a duck a duck," he said
The Islamic Republic's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, repeated recently that acquiring a nuclear weapon would be "un-Islamic" (in 2005 he issued a fatwah that "the production, stockpiling and use of nuclear weapons are forbidden under Islam, and that the Islamic Republic of Iran shall never acquire these weapons.") Was he sincere? Bluffing? Or looking for a way to begin a graceful climb-down?
According to both governments, the United States and Israel are unified in their goal. "We are committed, as Israel is, to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon," said White House spokesman Jay Carney shortly before Netayahu's visit.
But how to measure that goal? The U.S. Defense Department's Strategic Guidance, published in January, emphasized efforts "to prevent Iran's development of nuclear weapon capability."
The quandary: at what point must that "development" be thwarted before it's too late. When Iran has acquired enough low-grade uranium that could if enriched make one weapon? When there is evidence that the process of such enrichment is underway? When it has made enough highly enriched uranium for a nuclear warhead? When it has built the weapon? When it has a viable delivery system? (It already has a wide range of ballistic missiles.) How long might each of these phases take?
Even the best intelligence agencies might have problems finding out when each of those stages is imminent. After all, an accurate reading of Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction program seemed elusive ten years ago.
Policy-makers in Washington say Iran continues to move steadily toward the capability to build a bomb. "It has the scientific, technical and industrial capacity to eventually produce nuclear weapons, making the central issue its political will to do so," Clapper told the Senate hearing.
But in the meantime, President Obama says, there is still a window for diplomacy, and he has welcomed the scheduled resumption of multilateral talks (involving the United States, the European Union, Russia and China) with Iran.
"This notion that somehow we have a choice to make in the next week or two weeks or month or two months is not borne out by the facts," the President told a news conference Tuesday.
For the Israeli government, the timetable is more urgent, and it always has been. Netanyahu pointedly told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Sunday: "We've waited for diplomacy to work. We've waited for sanctions to work. None of us can afford to wait much longer."
The initial enrichment process -- because it is monitored and reported by International Atomic Energy Agency - is the least difficult step in the chain to track (though that is not to suggest it is easy.) According to the latest IAEA report, published February 24th, Iran had tripled its production of 20% U-235 at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant and Natanz - to some 11 kilograms a month. Uranium enriched at 20% is typically used for hospital isotopes and research reactors, but is also seen as a short-cut toward the 90% enrichment required to build nuclear weapons. Nuclear experts say Iran's supply is far greater than it would need for peaceful purposes.
Even before the February report, Olli Heinonen, a former deputy director-general at the IAEA and now at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, wrote in Foreign Policy that Iran would be able to produce 15 kilograms of 20% enriched uranium a month, which he said was '"alarming."
The International Institute of Strategic Studies estimates that Iran now has a stockpile of some 110 kilograms of 20% U-235, and says that "Iran's decision to build a relatively small enrichment facility without informing the IAEA suggested that Fordow was intended to be used to quickly and securely make highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons." The Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington says that "Iran could produce 20 kilograms of highly enriched uranium, enough for a weapon, in as little as 43 days."

Is narcotic khat funding terrorism?

The flowering shrub's leaves, twigs, and shoots are chewed, giving users a sense of mild euphoria.

It's an oval-shaped, bitter tasting leaf that makes you chatty after chewing it, while inducing a feeling of euphoria and alertness.
The East African plant khat, a mild narcotic, has been chewed for centuries by people in the Horn of Africa and parts of the Middle East for its stimulating effects. The green leaf is central to cultural and social activities for many communities across the area and key to the economic survival of thousands of khat farmers who grow it legally.
In recent years, high demand for the herbal stimulant by the Somali diaspora -- despite it being illegal in several western countries, including the U.S. -- has helped open up a booming industry in fertile parts of Kenya, such as the Meru county.
But now the livelihood of these farmers is under threat after the Netherlands, which has a vibrant Somali community and is a key khat hub to other European countries, announced a ban on all imports of the plant in January.
Until now, the Netherlands and Britain were the only major European countries allowing the trade and consumption of the flowering shrub.
"If the ban is accepted or if it is enforced, the whole Meru county, the economy of the Meru county will be crippled," says Kenyan khat farmer Edward Mutuura, who exports the majority of his crops to the Nertherlands. "The economy of the population here where khat is grown will be totally crippled and people will have no source of income," he adds.

Are Afghan women better off after a decade of war?

Afghan women are imprisoned for the "moral crimes" of sex outside of marriage and running from home

               When U.S. forces toppled the Taliban                            government following the 9/11 attacks, there was a global wave of support from people horrified by the plight of Afghan women. Under the Taliban, women had been denied education, banned from medical treatment by male doctors, and publicly executed for "immorality."
The Taliban's fall promised women some basic freedoms and rights. Indeed, over the past 10 years there have been significant improvements for Afghan women and girls. Official restrictions ended on access to education, work, and health care. Millions of girls went to school for the first time. Women joined government, won elected office, and became police officers and even soldiers. A new constitution in 2004 guaranteed women equal rights, and a 2009 law made violence against women a crime.
Underneath the surface of these changes, however, deep seated problems persist. Women in public life have suffered harassment, threats, and sometimes murder. Forced marriage, underage marriage, and domestic violence are widespread and too widely accepted.
About 400 women and girls are imprisoned at present for the "moral crimes" of sex outside of marriage and simply running away from home, often to flee abuse. While education is more accessible, more than half of girls still don't go to school. Every two hours an Afghan woman dies of pregnancy-related causes.
As the announced departure of international forces in 2014 draws closer, many Afghan women look to the future with fear. They worry that the troop pullout signals the end of interest in Afghanistan, and with it the international commitment to push the Afghan government to promote and protect women's rights. Also likely to decrease is the foreign aid that pays for schools and clinics that have changed many lives. Afghan women fear being abandoned again by the rest of the world, as they were during the Taliban era.
Plans for peace negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government raise the specter of women's rights being bargained away. If there are no women at the negotiating table, this is even more likely.
This week the fragility of women's rights in Afghanistan has been on full display. The Ulema Council, a government-supported body of religious leaders, issued a statement on several issues, including the recent burning of copies of the Quran at a U.S. military base. The longest part of the statement, however, gave religious guidance on how women should be treated and should behave.
The statement said some good things. It prohibited a traditional practice of giving a girl to another family to resolve a dispute ("baad"). It spoke against forced marriage. It confirmed women's rights to inherit and own property.
On women's duties, however, the statement took a turn for the worse: Women should not travel without a male chaperone. Women should not mix with men while studying, or working, or in public. Women must wear the Islamic hijab. Women are secondary to men.
If this was just the view of conservative religious leaders, it would be discouraging, but just another in a long line of discriminatory statements about women from Afghanistan's male dominated institutions. What caused consternation, however, was the sense that President Hamid Karzai had embraced the statement. In a departure from usual practice, the statement was posted on the Presidential Palace website, distributed to the media by the Palace, and defended by President Karzai at a news conference.
President Karzai has a mixed record on women's rights. He committed Afghanistan to an international convention promising equal rights for women and pushed through by decree the 2009 law making violence against women a crime. He recently spoke out on two high-profile cases of violence against women.
On the other hand, in the run-up to the 2009 presidential election he curried favor with hard-liners by signing the Shia Personal Status Law, which, for Afghanistan's Shia minority, gives a husband the right to withdraw maintenance from his wife, including food, if she refuses to obey sexual demands, grants guardianship of children exclusively to men, and requires women to have permission from their husbands to work. Some women fear that Karzai is using the Ulema Council statement to send a message about what compromises he is ready to make with the Taliban.
With international interest in Afghanistan waning, negotiations with the Taliban in the offing, and Karzai's endorsement of the Ulema Council's statement, Afghan women are more vulnerable than at any time in the past 10 years. Now President Obama and other backers of the Afghan government should make it clear that they will not support any deals that sacrifice women's rights, and press Karzai to make his position clear. The risks for Afghan women are too high to do anything less.

McKay five-for delivers title

Clint McKay's career-best effort wrecked Sri Lanka's chase

Australia 231 (Wade 49, Warner 48, Herath 3-36, Maharoof 3-40) beat Sri Lanka 215 (Tharanga 71, McKay 5-28) by 16 runs

Unwavering spells from Clint McKay and the stand-in captain Shane Watson delivered the triangular series trophy to Australia in a fittingly tense third final against a doughty Sri Lanka at Adelaide Oval.

As the injured captain Michael Clarke watched intently from the boundary's edge, Brett Lee and McKay nipped out Sri Lanka's top four batsmen inside the first 10 overs, after the visitors had threatened to repeat the runaway start they had made in Tuesday's second match.

Upul Tharanga and Lahiru Thirimanne threatened a recovery, but Watson was stinginess itself in the middle overs and McKay returned to help round up the Sri Lankans 16 runs short, the fitting final chapter of a compelling limited-overs tournament. The visitors' contribution to the summer was underlined by Tillakaratne Dilshan's selection as player of the series.

McKay's figures were his best in international cricket, and followed a critical 28 at the tail-end of Australia's innings. Watson will now take a weary but happy team to the West Indies for the ODI portion of the tour, having delivered the first triangular series contested in Australia since 2008.

Australia's fielding and bowling effort was its best for some weeks, and needed to be after the batsmen had cobbled only 231 on a slowing pitch. Led adroitly in the field by Mahela Jayawardene, the visitors had not been perturbed by an opening stand of 75 at better than five runs an over between David Warner and Matthew Wade, and chipped away diligently at the hosts with a combination of spin and reverse swing. No Australian batsman passed 50 as they were bowled out in the final over.

Rangana Herath and Farveez Maharoof shared six wickets, while Nuwan Kulasekara also contributed to a tidy ensemble, of which only Lasith Malinga struggled to contain.

Herath bowled his best and most incisive spell of the tournament to return 3-36, helped by the use of the same pitch that had hosted Tuesday's second final. As he had done in that match, Dilshan took the new ball and bowled his overs with thrift and direction.

Taking Sri Lanka's lead, Watson opened up with the spin of Xavier Doherty at the other end to Lee, but the initial gambit did not work. Dilshan and Jayawardene capitalised on Doherty's errors of line and length, collecting four boundaries from his first two overs as they swept to 0 for 33 from the first four overs.

Lee was also slipping in a final effort for the home summer, and he gained a critical break when Dilshan tried to work a lifting delivery to the leg side and managed only to loop a catch to cover from the front-edge of his bat. Kumar Sangakkara looked in truly sparkling touch upon his arrival, and had sprinted to 19 from eight balls when Lee coaxed an edge from his ninth - the high chance very well held by Watson.

McKay had replaced Doherty, and was soon settled into a precise spell that exploited the vagaries of a wearing surface to the maximum. Dinesh Chandimal was pinned lbw by a delivery that whirred in at middle stump, before Jayawardene was undone by another that seamed back just enough to beat his forward press and graze off stump.

Extremely unsteady at 4 for 53, Thirimanne and Tharanga fought to keep the chase afloat, but the caution forced by the loss of early wickets forced the required rate back up into awkward territory against the older ball. Watson, Nathan Lyon and Daniel Christian bowled intelligently without a wicket, as the match and series edged towards a nervous finish.

Thirimanne had added 60 with Tharanga and the Australians had grown tense by the time Watson found a way to eke out a wicket. Angling across Thirimanne, he coaxed a sliced drive that flew low into Warner's safe hands at backward point. Kapugedera could manage only 7 before he edged another McKay delivery, the deflection held by a diving Wade.

Kulasekara threatened a repeat of his Gabba heroics, cracking two boundaries in a brief stay, before Lee followed the batsman's retreat outside leg stump to cramp his room and prompt a catch to mid-on. Maharoof had been held back to No. 9, and he would provide a calming presence alongside Tharanga as the target was whittled down.

Watson had led his side well in testing circumstances, but he perhaps erred in his judgement to let Sri Lanka sneak closer. Having bowled five searching overs for only eight runs, Watson nonetheless preferred two overs of Doherty's spin, costing 16 runs. By the time he recalled himself to the attack, Watson had only 30 runs to defend from the final five overs.

This all made Watson's sixth over, the 46th of the innings, crucial. He responded in the best possible fashion, conceding only two runs and finding Tharanga's outside edge. Next over McKay found a way through Herath, and 17 were still required when he yorked Malinga.

In the afternoon, Warner and Wade were conscious of the need for greater impetus at the top of the innings and played their shots early on, though taking more liberties against the pacemen than Dilshan's part-time spin.

Warner cleared the boundary once and looked rather more fluent than he had during most of his century on Tuesday, but on 48 he edged a bouncing delivery from Maharoof to Kumar Sangakkara.

Wade had been struggling physically, vomiting at one point in what appeared an attack of gastro, but it was a surprise when a punchy Watson picked out Herath on the leg-side boundary off Dilshan's bowling, the fielder clasping the sharp chance to his chest.

Michael Hussey's stay was brief, Dilshan's swift gather and throw from short third man finding him short of his ground after he had called Wade through for a single. Sri Lanka's sense of momentum only grew when Wade's dogged stay was ended by Herath, who coaxed an edge that Sangakkara held with a juggle.

Forrest could make only 3 before misreading Herath's length and being bowled by a delivery that straightened just enough to beat his defensive blade and flick off stump. David Hussey was given lbw to a ball that would have passed over the top of the stumps, while Christian was undone by a Maharoof slower ball that he could only punch to mid off.

McKay and Lee did their best to swell the total in the closing overs, and their contributions were ultimately vital to a fighting victory.

Holi 2012: Celebrations Begin

A boy daubed in coloured powder reacts to the camera as he celebrates "Lathmar Holi"

According to tradition that has its roots in Hindu mythology, Krishna would go to Barsana, Radha's village, and tease her and the other gopis at Holi. In retaliation, the women of Barsana would chase Krishna and his friends out with sticks.
It is said that the darker-skinned Krishna was jealous of the fair-skinned Radha and pestered his foster mother Yashodha about it so much that she told him he could change Radha's skin by sprinkling her with colors.
Today, men from Barsana arrive at the Radha Rani temple where they're soaked in colored water by men from Nandgaon. Then, the women of the village beat them with wooden sticks called "lathis" as they depart town.
During lulls in the action, men taking part in the theater of the day sip a mildly intoxicating drink called thandai that is laced with bhang paste, made from cannabis or "ganja."
Lathmar Holi is a prelude to the greater Holi celebration - a festival that involves the hurling of neon powder until every human is tie-dyed into a spirograph of color. Holi is celebrated across the subcontinent, but takes place within the greater Shigmo celebrations in many areas of the south

Apple unveils new iPad with high-definition screen

Apple says you cannot distinguish individual pixels from a distance of 15 inches (38 cm)

Apple has unveiled a new iPad with a high-definition screen.

It said the resolution of the display was 2048 by 1536 pixels. The tablet is also powered by a new A5X chip with improved graphics performance.
Chief executive Tim Cook claimed to have “redefined once again the category Apple created”.
Apple dominates the market but should face a fresh challenge when tablets running the full Windows 8 system are expected to go on sale later this year.
The new iPad – which is simply called by that name – also features a 5-megapixel camera sensor. It will be able to run on 4G LTE networks where the service is available and can act as a wi-fi hotspot for other devices if carriers allow the function.
It is 9.4mm deep, slightly thicker than the 8.8mm profile of the iPad 2. The basic 16GB model with only wi-fi will cost £399 and the top of the range 64GB model with wi-fi and 4G will cost £659.
Apple’s marketing chief Phil Schiller said the tablet has the same 10-hour estimated battery life as the previous model using only wi-fi. That limit shortens by an hour when using 4G.
It is due to go on sale on 16 March in the UK, US, Canada, Germany, France, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and Japan.
The previous model will stay on sale at a reduced price, starting at £329. Mr Schiller said that would make it more affordable for schools to buy the machine.
Sales forecasts
The firm also announced an upgraded TV box which can now handle 1080p video.
Films and TV shows will be sold via its iTunes store in the high-definition format.
IMS Research said Apple accounted for 62% of the global tablet market in 2011. Ahead of the press conference it said it expected that share to rise to 70% this year.
Analysts at Gartner said they expected Apple to maintain its lead and increase the volume of tablets sold – but added that today’s announcement did not contain any news to cause them to increase their “bullish” forecasts.
“I’d call the new iPad an evolutionary device with some revolutionary experiences,” said research director Michael Gartenberg.
Others were more disappointed by the launch noting the new device’s display did not include haptic touch-feedback technology or access to the iPhone 4S’ voice-controlled Siri “intelligent assistant” as rumoured.
“As tablets are increasingly being used for personal media consumption, it is promising to see a better screen resolution,” said Fred Huet, managing director of Greenwich Consulting.
“But will this be enough to ensure Apple’s competitive lead in the marketplace? No.”

Facebook hit by technical problem across Europe

Facebook users took to rival service Twitter to discuss the social network's down time

Facebook was unavailable for a number of users mostly across Europe on Wednesday due to "technical difficulties".

Users reported problems accessing Facebook.com in many countries, including the UK and Ireland, for about two hours.
The social network's smartphone and tablet apps were also affected, users on Twitter reported.
Facebook apologised for the incident and said the issue was now resolved.
"Today we experienced technical difficulties causing the site to be unavailable for a number of users in Europe," the company said in a statement.
"The issue has been resolved and everyone should now have access to Facebook. We apologise for any inconvenience."
More isolated accounts of inaccessibility were posted by users in further afield places such as Pakistan and South Korea.

Syria crisis: UN humanitarian chief arrives in Damascus

The UN's humanitarian chief has arrived in Syria to urge the government to allow aid access to its battle-scarred cities.

Valerie Amos met the Syrian foreign minister in Damascus and is now on her way to the violence-hit city of Homs.
Syria has said it will not allow an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) aid convoy into the Baba Amr area because of security concerns.
The US president has described the situation in Syria as "heartbreaking".
The UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, is also due to visit Syria in the coming days.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallim told Baroness Amos that the government would co-operate with her team and was trying to help civilians, according to Syrian state news agency Sana.
The UN says more than 7,500 people have died as a result of the violence in Syria over the past 12 months.
Meanwhile, Air France announced on Wednesday that it was stopping all flights to Damascus until further notice.
The airline currently operates three flights a week to the Syrian capital but has suspended the service in light of the worsening security situation.

Citibank's Malinda Dee: Eight years for Indonesia fraud

Dee's lavish lifestyle included extensive plastic surgery

An Indonesian court has sentenced a former Citibank executive to eight years in prison for stealing more than $4m (£2.5m) to fund a lavish lifestyle.

The South Jakarta District Court found customer relationship manager Malinda Dee guilty of embezzling money from customers' accounts.
The money was used to finance a lifestyle that included luxury cars and cosmetic surgery.
Bank regulators had imposed sanctions on Citibank following the case.
The BBC's Karishma Vaswani in Jakarta says the case has prompted an inquiry into banking fraud in Indonesia, a country that is now home to some of the richest people in Asia but which is also regularly ranked as one of the most corrupt nations in the world.
Car habit According to the court, Dee falsified clients' transfer documents and moved their money into her relatives' accounts between 2007 and 2011.
Her husband, sister and brother-in-law had earlier received prison terms of up to four years for money laundering.
"The defendant's crime ran contrary to the government's programme of eradicating money laundering, which is a law enforcement priority," Judge Kusno said in a statement read in court.
Local media report that Dee used the money to buy two Ferraris, a Hummer, a Mercedes and a Porsche, among other luxuries. The cars will be confiscated by the courts.
She also used the money to pay for her cosmetic surgery.
Her prison sentence, however, is lower than the 13 years that the prosecution had asked for. The court also ordered her to pay more than $1m in fines.
Dee was arrested last March after Citibank discovered the illegal transactions when clients raised the alarm.
The case saw Indonesian regulators ban the bank from selling wealth management services to new clients in Indonesia for a year.
"We have worked closely with our customers to compensate them for the losses in their accounts caused by the former relationship manager's unauthorised transactions," the bank said in a statement welcoming the verdict.
"We have further strengthened our internal controls to protect our customers against fraudulent activities."

Six UK soldiers killed in Afghanistan explosion

The blast is believed to have been caused either by a roadside bomb or a legacy mine from the Soviet era

 

Six UK soldiers have been killed in southern Afghanistan when their vehicle was hit by an explosion on Tuesday.

Five from the 3rd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment and one from the 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment had been on patrol. Their families have been told.
It is the biggest single loss of UK life at one time in Afghanistan since a Nimrod crash killed 14 in 2006.
The number of British military deaths in Afghanistan since 2001 is now 404.
Prime Minister David Cameron said it was a "desperately sad day for our country".
"Every death and every injury reminds us of the human cost paid by our armed forces to keep our country safe," he said, at the start of Prime Ministers' Questions.
Lt Col Gordon Mackenzie, spokesman for Task Force Helmand, said the six soldiers were on a security patrol in a Warrior armoured fighting vehicle when it was caught in an explosion just over the Helmand border in Kandahar province.

They had been travelling as part of a two Warrior patrol when the vehicle was hit at a junction where a road travelling east from Gereshk meets another heading north to Lashkar Gah, the MoD said.

It is understood British forces believe the explosion was caused by either a roadside bomb laid by insurgents or a legacy mine, left over from the Soviet era.

Can Lionel Messi become an Argentina hero?

Messi has made over 67 appearances for Argentina, scoring 22 goals

Argentina will be hoping Lionel Messi is finally starting to transform his stunning club form with Barcelona to the international arena following his magnificent hat-trick in the 3-1 win against Switzerland.
The hints were there late last year, in the second half of the World Cup qualifier away to Colombia, and now the Switzerland game has surely consolidated the Messi-Sergio Aguero link-up at the heart of the Argentine attack.
The pair have had a natural rapport for years, built up when they roomed together during the 2005 World Youth Cup, and now that understanding is clearly visible on the pitch through their pacy, dazzling exchanges.
Away to an adventurous Swiss side, there was space for the pair of them to explode on the counter-attack. Against more cautious opponents there could well be the need for the greater penalty area presence of Gonzalo Higuain.

In that case, Messi and Aguero can form an attacking trident with the Real Madrid man.
Indeed, that was the way they were set up in the second half against Colombia, when the introduction of Aguero at the break changed the game, giving Messi someone to combine with when he dropped deep in search of possession.
More than any tactical innovations, Argentina will hope the Switzerland match proves important in psychological terms. Messi has enjoyed some excellent games for Argentina in the past, but this was the first time that the headlines in the local press proclaimed that he had produced his Barcelona form for the national team.

Libya: Semi-autonomy sought by leaders in east

The regional army has backed the move to part-autonomy, local leaders say

Civic leaders in eastern Libya have called for semi-autonomy for the oil-rich region.

They made the announcement at a meeting attended by hundreds of people near the eastern city of Benghazi.
Supporters of the move say the region, which is known as Cyrenaica and contains much of the country's oil, has been neglected for decades.
But the governing National Transitional Council has argued against federalism, amid fears it could break up Libya.
Delegates danced and sang as they met to discuss the issue of autonomy at a hanger on the outskirts of Benghazi, the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse reported from the meeting.
In a statement, tribal and political leaders said "a federal system is the choice of the region" of Cyrenaica, which stretches from the central coastal city of Sirte to the Libyan-Egyptian border in the east.
They said they had appointed Ahmed al-Zubair, Libya's longest serving political prisoner under Col Muammar Gaddafi and a member of the NTC, as leader of a governing council.
Mr Zubair pledged to protect the rights of the region but added that the council would recognise the NTC to run Libya's foreign affairs, the Associated Press reports.
A spokesman for the meeting, Their Elheiri, told the BBC they were simply reverting to a constitutional agreement from the 1950s, which divided Libya into three states - Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan - and gave Cyrenaica a large degree of autonomy.
He said the move had the support of the local army as well as political and tribal leaders.
Although their declaration has no legal force, it will cause tensions with the interim government in Tripoli, our correspondent says.

Afghanistan avalanche kills 37 in Badakhshan

Many areas of Afghanistan have been experiencing harsh winter conditions

At least 37 people have been killed by an avalanche in Afghanistan's north-eastern Badakhshan province.

The provincial governor's office said another six people were injured when the snow hit a village in Shekay district, near the Tajikistan border.
The village had been wiped away, said spokesman Abdul Marouf Rasikh, and the death toll is expected to rise.
Badakhshan is one of the country's poorest and most remote regions and is shut off by heavy snow every year.
Afghanistan is suffering one of its harshest winters in many years.
Deputy governor Shams Ul Rahman told the Associated Press that 200 people had lived in the village. He said 37 bodies had been recovered.
Many people are still reported to be missing and a rescue team is making its way to the area.
Mr Rasikh told the BBC that provincial governor Shah Wali Ullah had been visiting at the time the avalanche hit on Monday night.
He was rescued by helicopter and taken to a remote area on the border with Tajikistan, he said.
Nasir Hemat, director of the Red Crescent in Badakhsham, said up for 4m of snow was lying in some areas of the province and that roads between the capital, Faizabad, and remote rural areas were impassable for six months of the year.
He told the BBC that 60 people had been killed by the snow this year and that homes and cattle had been lost.
"This has been a tragedy this year," he said.
Local officials said in January that the winter conditions were at an emergency level and appealed for help.

Emphatic Sri Lanka level finals

Tillakaratne Dilshan his ten fours in his 106

Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan took full toll of a wayward Australia as Sri Lanka forced a third triangular series final in Adelaide. Chasing 272, the visitors galloped to the target with 5.4 overs to spare, benefiting greatly from a rollicking start when the first three overs reaped 30 runs.

Dilshan alternated between the brazen and the cheeky, crashing 10 fours and also being struck on the helmet when he attempted his patented Dil-scoop. The captain Jayawardene was more cultured, but outpaced his partner in a princely innings that would have ended in the second over if not for a Clint McKay no-ball.

Such indiscipline summed up Australia's predicament, having struck a horrid patch of form in the field midway through the first final in Brisbane and then being unable to rise above it in Adelaide. The captain Michael Clarke is also in the unenviable position of carrying a left hamstring problem perilously close to the start of the West Indies tour, due to begin almost immediately after the third final.

Clarke had done his best to give his side a decent total. His 117 in Australia's 6 for 271 was the fastest of his limited-overs career and the second of his ODI captaincy. David Warner was more circumspect, but his chanceless 100 demonstrated a range of concentration and focus reserved for the best of batsmen. Famed as a boundary hitter, Warner reached the rope only four times in his innings and cleared it only once, but the value of his effort was reflected in a final total far greater than seemed possible at the innings' midpoint.

Matthew Wade departed early to the spin of Dilshan, who opened the bowling and completed a tidy 10 overs, before Shane Watson played a chancy innings in which he was grassed twice. Each dropped catch fell off the bowling of Farveez Maharoof, who ultimately ran out Australia's vice-captain with a direct hit in his follow through. Lasith Malinga was the tightest of Sri Lanka's bowlers and deserved his three wickets.

Two more catches would go down off Clarke's bat later in the innings, while Jayawardene raged against a delayed no-ball call at the height of his opposite number's innings. Debating the point angrily with both umpires after Maharoof had strayed above waist height with a full toss, Jayawardene lost his cool. His fury would be far more controlled when the reply began.

A second-over edge behind by Jayawardene was cancelled out by McKay's overstep, typical of the abject way in which Australia's bowlers began their defence of a less than watertight total. Brett Lee gave up three wides on the way to conceding 12 from the opening over, and James Pattinson's first two overs were taken for 22 despite an abundance of away swing.

No fewer than 11 of the first 30 runs were handed to Sri Lanka via the extras column, as Australia's bowlers maintained the poorly form they had demonstrated in the latter overs in Brisbane. Clarke had taken the field despite his injury, but his presence did not make much of a difference.

Jayawardene and Dilshan did not get too frantic after the start they were given, and slipped into comfortable gears that involved regular singles and the odd boundary whenever the bowlers strayed in search of a first wicket. Australia's mid-innings options were milked for regular runs, Xavier Doherty's first five costing 37.

Dilshan was first to pass 50, and Jayawardene soon followed. Australia's frustration grew when Asad Rauf refused a concerted appeal for caught behind from Dilshan on 77, as replays revealed a substantial edge that Wade gathered while keeping up to Watson.

Jayawardene's sparkling stay was ended by a hint of Pattinson reverse swing and a clear lbw, but Dilshan went on to his second century of the tournament before Dinesh Chandimal and Kumar Sangakkara guided the visitors home.

Clarke had little hesitation batting upon winning the toss, but the early overs were slow going. Jayawardene's imaginative use of Dilshan added to the openers' uncertainty, and Wade's impatience proved terminal when he swung at a ball not quite short enough for the stroke and was bowled.

Watson's innings was halting, and he was dropped by Dilshan in the fielding circle then by Rangana Herath on the long-off boundary - the latter unable to complete an equivalent of his spectacular outfield take in the first final. However Maharoof was not discouraged by the missed chances, and when Watson was 15 he gathered and swivelled from Warner's offside bunt to throw down the stumps and find a diving Watson comfortably short. Clarke helped to build some greater momentum in the company of Warner, who was less conspicuous than he had been at the Gabba.

The pair accumulated steadily, adding a little more impetus with the batting Powerplay, and continuing to benefit from profligate fielding from the tourists. Clarke was turfed on 71 and 77, the second chance falling to Malinga, who managed only to palm the chance over the rope for six.

It set the scene for an explosive over, in which Clarke took Maharoof for six, four, six, four - the last a high full toss swung behind square leg. Initially the umpires did not call it a no-ball, but on reflection Bruce Oxenford raised his arm to hand Australia an extra run and another delivery. Jayawardene was incensed by the delayed call, arguing at length with both officials in a manner that suggested more of the incident would be heard later.

Clarke had blazed past Warner despite the opener having a 23-run start, and he was first to reach his century with a flick through square leg. Though he had made plenty of useful contributions in the interim, it was Clarke's first ODI century since his first innings as the fully-fledged captain, against Bangladesh in Dhaka in April 2011.

Warner's hundred arrived in the next over, an effort of composure and also courage after his groin complaint in Brisbane. He skied a catch without adding another run, leaving an increasingly restricted Clarke to guide the hosts to a total rather less substantial than was ultimately needed.