GLOBAL news - The death toll from the tornado that crushed Joplin has risen to 117, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said on Tuesday, making it the deadliest such event in the U.S. since 1953.
Speaking on the morning television shows, Nixon said the toll had risen overnight, but he stressed that rescue efforts will continue throughout the day. He was optimistic, especially since the stormy weather had cleared.
"We have suffered a devastating loss," Joplin City Manager Mark Rohr told reporters at a televised news conference.
"We will recover and we will recover strongly," Rohr said, "more strongly than when we began."
Fire Chief Mitch Randles said rescuers were still finding survivors, adding, "We hope to find more folks" as the efforts continue through the day. As of Monday night, 17 people had been rescued.
Rohr said rescuers had completed two full sweeps of the devastation and continued to find survivors. A third sweep was scheduled for later Tuesday, and officials said they would conduct one more after that before the mission changed to recovery mode, rather than rescue.
City officials praised volunteers and supplies that had been arriving. They also thanked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for its efforts, which were pledged by President Obama after the tornado struck.
The tornado hit Joplin about 6 p.m. Sunday, cutting a six-mile swath through the city. More than 2,000 structures were leveled.
With a death toll of 117, this week's disaster surpasses the single deadliest tornado in the U.S., on April 27, 1953, according to National Weather Service records. That tornado hit Flint, Mich., and 116 were killed.
Just last month, tornadoes swept through six Southern states, killing at least 314 people, mostly in Alabama. But those deaths were from multiple tornadoes. The record death toll from a multiple event was 747 in 1925.
City officials said they will test the siren system Tuesday morning and warned residents not to panic. It was the keening whine of sirens that alerted people Sunday night to the twister, which was traveling so fast, there was little time to find shelter.
GLOBAL News - The legal team defending former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn against sexual assault charges has informally sought public relations advice from a Washington consulting firm run by former CIA officers and U.S. diplomats, Reuters has learned.
TD International is the same company Strauss-Kahn, then a private citizen, hired in 2007 to advise him on how to navigate international and Washington politics in his bid to become managing director of the International Monetary Fund.
Documents filed in 2008 with the Foreign Agents Registration section of the U.S. Justice Department show that Strauss-Kahn, who is French, retained TD International as his "U.S.-based communications resource."
Strauss-Kahn, 62, who was seen as a front-runner for the French presidency until his arrest, has been charged with trying to rape a hotel housekeeper in New York. He has denied the charges and his lawyer has said he will plead not guilty.
A person familiar with the work TD International did for Strauss-Kahn in 2007 said his representatives consulted the firm informally after his arrest last Saturday and asked for advice related to his predicament.
If the firm at some point becomes formally involved in his defense, the source said, its role will be in helping other Strauss-Kahn advisors, including Paris-based public relations experts, engage in "crisis management."
But the source, who asked for anonymity, said the firm had not been formally engaged. A lawyer for Strauss-Kahn did not respond to a request for comment.
A spokesman for TD International told Reuters on Friday: "We don't comment on client relationships and activities. However, our past work with Dominique Strauss-Kahn is accurately reflected in (Justice Department) filings."
WORKING THE MEDIA
A contract between TD International and Strauss-Kahn, dated July 18, 2007, shows he hired the firm to "conduct a specific public relations campaign" and "work is to begin immediately and continue until ascendancy of client to head of IMF."
The contract says Strauss-Kahn was to pay the firm 20,000 euros, then equivalent to about $27,600.
GLOBAL News - U.S. supports Israel's demand for the Palestinian state to be demilitarized, it supports postponing discussions on the refugees and Jerusalem, it talks about Israel's security and Israel's security alone.
Benjamin Netanyahu may as well have canceled his trip to Washington: Barack Obama did the work for him, or most of it. But the prime minister is already on his way, so he should at least send to the White House a big bouquet of flowers.
Netanyahu can sit back and relax. It's not that Obama didn't say clear, firm words on the Middle East; it's just that most, if not all of them could have been said by Netanyahu himself, who would then go on doing as he pleased.
The 1,500 new apartments in Jerusalem will be built, speech or no speech. The real test for that speech, as for any other, is what happens next, and the suspicion is that nothing will happen at all.
Obama didn't say a word about what will happen if the parties disobey him. This was the king's speech, but the king already appears a little naked. Considering America's weakness, and the power of Congress and the Jewish and Christian lobbies working on behalf of the Israeli government, the Israeli right wing can relax and go on doing what it does.
Yesterday, the U.S. president demolished the Palestinian's only accomplishment so far - the wave of international support for recognition of statehood in September. September died last night. After America, Europe too will have to withdraw its support; hopes have ended for a historically significant declaration at the United Nations.
The Palestinians are left once again with Cuba and Brazil, while we get to keep America. Here's another reason for a sigh of relief in Jerusalem: No diplomatic tsunami is forthcoming, the United States is sticking with Israel.
Regrettably, the president also voiced reservations about the Palestinian unity government. The United States supports Israel's demand for the Palestinian state to be demilitarized, it supports postponing discussions on the refugees and Jerusalem, it talks about Israel's security and Israel's security alone, saying nothing about security for Palestinians. All these are impressive, even if virtual, achievements for Israel.
Global News - The stories were flying around eight years ago, when Arnold Schwarzenegger was in the midst of his unlikely attempt to unseat Gray Davis, California's Democratic governor: Schwarzenegger, married to Maria Shriver, had fathered a child with a woman who worked at the couple's Brentwood estate.
Schwarzenegger's advisers had heard it. So had top aides to Davis, whom Schwarzenegger would go on to unseat. But in the closing days of what was a circus of a campaign, the rumors got pushed aside as Schwarzenegger dealt with a barrage of seemingly more credible allegations that he had groped and molested women during his years as a movie star, charges that Shriver battled back forcefully, contributing in large part to his victory.
In fact, Schwarzenegger acknowledged Tuesday, he had fathered a child with a member of his household staff a few years before running for office, a secret that he said he hid from his wife and that aides said he kept from them. Through much of her pregnancy and for the eight years that Schwarzenegger served as one of the highest-profile U.S. governors, the woman continued to work in the couple's home. Some of their friends, looking back, said they now believe the child was an occasional presence in the house in the gated community at the end of Mandeville Canyon Road.
That deception by Schwarzenegger ended Monday night when the governor, responding to an inquiry from The Los Angeles Times, released a statement acknowledging his child. Shriver -- his wife of 25 years, a former TV news correspondent and a member of the Kennedy family -- issued her own statement Tuesday reflecting what her friends described as the devastating and utterly shocking collapse of a marriage that had captured national attention. Shriver had moved out of the house and into a Beverly Hills hotel earlier this year.
"As a mother, my concern is for the children," she said. "I ask for compassion, respect and privacy as my children and I try to rebuild our lives and heal. I will have no further comment."
The family scandal unfolded in real time on social networks. One of their sons, Patrick, 17, posted his distress on his Twitter account, although he presented his name as Patrick Shriver, rather than Patrick Schwarzenegger.
Global News - Strauss-Kahn was being questioned after a 32-year-old chambermaid complained that a naked Strauss-Kahn sexually attacked her in his Manhattan hotel room, the police said. The maid, who said she broke free, suffered minor injuries, police said.
The development creates immediate uncertainty for the Washington-based IMF, which has been playing an important role in keeping the global economy stable in the wake of the financial crisis.
It also promises to stir up politics in France, where Strauss-Kahn is widely believed to be considering challenging French president Nicolas Sarkozy in next year’s election. Polls have shown he has strong odds of defeating Sarkozy.
An IMF spokesman had no immediate comment.
About 10 minutes before Air France Flight 23 was to take off , officers with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey boarded the plane and removed Strauss-Kahn, the authorities said. They did not handcuff him.
The officers were acting at the behest of the New York police and turned over the French national to the police shortly thereafter. He was not placed under arrest, the authorities said. The Associated press reported that a top police spokesman said that the Strauss-Kahn had been staying at the Sofitel near Times Square.
An economist and lawyer who has gained prominence while captaining the IMF through one of the world’s worst financial crises, Strauss-Kahn joined the organization in 2007 with the support of many European nations and the United States.
He had served as France’s finance minister and is the subject of intense speculation in France that he will declare his candidacy for president as a member of the Socialist Party. He unsuccessfully ran for his party’s nomination in the last election.
Global News - Former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver are separating "while we work on the future of our relationship".
The announcement on Monday came four months after Schwarzenegger, an Austrian-born bodybuilder turned Hollywood action star, left office in January.
"This has been a time of great personal and professional transition for each of us," Schwarzenegger, 63, and Shriver, 55, said in a statement. "After a great deal of thought, reflection, discussion, and prayer, we came to this decision together."
The couple, who met at a charity tennis tournament in 1977 and married in 1986, did not mention whether they would divorce.
"We are continuing to parent our four children together. They are the light and the centre of both of our lives," the statement said. "We consider this a private matter, and neither we nor any of our friends or family will have further comment."
The couple had maintained their home in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles during Schwarzenegger's two terms as governor, with him commuting by jet to the state capital in Sacramento.
Schwarzenegger said in February he was ready to make movies again and announced recently he was developing a television show and comic book based on his political nickname "The Governator".
An industry source said last month that Schwarzenegger was likely to star in a new "Terminator" movie that would reprise his most famous role as the almost indestructible cyborg from the future.
Shriver, an author and former journalist for NBC, is active with a number of volunteer organisations.
Her mother was the sister of assassinated US president John F Kennedy and her father, Sargent Shriver, was the Democratic candidate for vice president in 1972. Shriver's father died in January at the age of 95.
Global News - The initial review of the materials confiscated from Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan has found mostly "aspirational" planning but has yielded "real intelligence," according to a U.S. official.
The official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said it is still very early in the review, and there are still a lot of data to sort through to determine whether there are any concrete plots.
The special task force set up to examine the data has two initial goals, according to the official: check to see whether there are any imminent threats against the U.S. and find leads to other terrorists or plots.
The reviewing team is running around the clock, according to the official. The task force assigned to scour the seized material is run by the CIA, with dozens of representatives from throughout the intelligence community working 24/7, searching for clues.
Most of the team is poring over the digital, audio and video files as well as printed and handwritten materials from an undisclosed location in the Washington area, but some of the members are participating virtually.
The effort to decipher the data is time-consuming because much of it has to be translated, some is handwritten, and large digital files have to be transferred.
A senior U.S. intelligence official said Saturday that the materials seen so far appeared to show that bin Laden had a "continuing interest in transportation and infrastructure targets." But there is no indication of any specific plot to attack those targets.
The senior official said the U.S. believes that the bin Laden compound was in effect a command and control center for al Qaeda because the confiscated materials "clearly show that bin Laden remained an active leader in al Qaeda, providing strategic, operational and tactical instructions to the group. Though separated from many al Qaeda members who are located in more remote areas of the region, he was far from a figurehead."
Global News - The curtain is just beginning to raise on the scope and power of the world's most-wanted terrorist one week after U.S. officials killed him in a nighttime raid.
New details have been released almost daily since a team of American commandos stormed bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Islamabad, killing him and four others.
For Americans, and much of the world, news of the killings brought a sense of relief, even satisfaction.
The pain, the frustration, the sadness elicited by the 9/11 attacks have never really left. How could they? For much of the past decade, Americans processed the world through the lens of the worst terrorist attacks ever committed on U.S. soil.
Since that attack, citizens of the United States, Britain, Spain and other countries had grown startlingly accustomed to terror strikes and near-misses. Adding to the pain was the ever-growing laundry list of indignities, the "fog of war," and the clarity to know that personal freedoms were eroding in agonizingly public ways.
Then it happened. Bin Laden was killed.
In announcing bin Laden's death, Obama called it "the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to defeat al Qaeda."
"A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties," he said.
Nearly 10 years and 7,000 miles from New York City, Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and the Pentagon, a team of U.S. Navy SEALs raided a complex in Abbottabad, shooting bin Laden and depositing his body into the sea.
Global News - One of the most revealing videos of Osama bin Laden released by the Pentagon today presents a startling image: A haggard-looking Osama bin Laden huddled in a blanket and ski cap, holding a remote control, watching television news coverage of himself.
The video shows bin Laden sitting alone in a drab, run-down room in front of an old TV connected by a bundle of bare cables to a satellite receiver.
CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports that the government did not release the audio of the home movie, but the video obviously shows bin Laden watching a broadcast of one of al Qaeda's many terror messages. In one scene he appears with his deputy Ayman al Zawahiri, walking in the rugged mountains of Afghanistan. Another scene shows the burning towers of the World Trade Center.
The tape was found amidst the mountain of material recovered from bin Laden's lair. The computer disks, handwritten notes, and tapes have now convinced intelligence analysts that bin Laden - to the end - remained the center of his al Qaeda network.
2.7 terabytes of data recovered from bin Laden compound
Osama bin Laden had cash, phone numbers sewn in clothes
Intel on OBL debunks ailing cave-dweller image
A senior intelligence official today called the compound an "active command and control center." There is clear evidence bin Laden was involved in mapping terror plans and giving tactical directions.
Bin Laden, it seems, was also obsessed with his public image.
Another video clip shows bin Laden apparently rehearsing a speech in front of an armoire, which officials believe was inside his compound.
Yet another video shows a practice session in front of wrinkled sheet that may have been draped to hide the background. In another clip, there's an al Qaeda "blooper" of sorts - bin Laden with a false start and a "take two."
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - The mountain resort that will host much of the 2014 Winter Olympics looks terrific, with mountains and trees covered in snow, a village for athletes and plenty of hotels and other buildings, plus a gentle lake running through town.
OLY 2014 Sochi Alpine
At least, that's how it looks in the computer-generated version Russian officials showed off Monday.
The real version? More of a work in progress.
Lead investor Vladimir Potanin said with a smile that the massive construction project that's basically been started from scratch is "close to (the video) and far from that at the same time."
He remains confident everything will be finished in plenty of time for the next Winter Games, even after a financial downturn that caused his personal wealth to plummet from $19.3 billion in 2008 to $2.1 billion in 2009, according to Forbes magazine.
"The slopes are close to being finalized and they are more or less on schedule," Potanin said. "The major part of the whole construction will be finalized by the year 2012, when we will have the World Cup for Alpine skiing. The Olympic village and other facilities, as a whole, will be finalized by the year 2013, which means we will have one year to test everything before."
Like the Vancouver Olympics are split between the city and its suburbs and Whistler, the next Winter Olympics will be split between the "coastal cluster" in the town of Sochi on the Black Sea and the "mountain cluster" at the Rosa Khutor resort. (The name means "Rose Farm" in English.)
Potanin's company, Interros, began building Rosa Khutor in 2003 as a world-class ski course that could be enjoyed by the middle class in Russia and throughout Europe. Four years later, Sochi was named host of the 2014 Games.
The resort is a major part of the bid. Among the events on the mountain: Alpine, snowboarding, freestyle, biathlon, ski jumping and sliding.
Debris spotted by planes in waters 650km (400 miles) off Brazil's coast belongs to a missing French airliner, the Brazilian government has confirmed.
A Brazilian search plane saw a band of wreckage along a 5km (3m) strip, said Defence Minister Nelson Jobim.
A Brazilian navy ship is expected to arrive in the area shortly to begin the task of recovering wreckage.
Flight AF 447 was heading from Rio to Paris with 228 people on board when it was lost early on Monday.
France is to hold religious ceremonies to remember the missing, while three days of national mourning have been declared in Brazil.
Late on Tuesday, Mr Jobim told reporters in Rio de Janeiro he had no doubt the debris was from the Air France jet.
He gave few details of the wreckage, saying only that it included metallic and non-metallic pieces.
Earlier, Brazil's air force said it had spotted an airplane seat, an orange buoy and signs of fuel.
'No hope'
Mr Jobim's words will come as grim confirmation of the worst for the families waiting for news both in Paris and Rio, the BBC's Gary Duffy reports from Brazil.
 | TIMELINE  Flight AF 447 left Rio at 1900 local time (2200 GMT) on Sunday Airbus A330-200 carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew Contact lost 0130 GMT Missed scheduled landing at 1110 local time (0910 GMT) in Paris  |
Jean-Louis Borloo, the French minister for transport, said chances of finding anyone alive were now "very, very small - even nonexistent".
If it is confirmed that all 228 people on Flight AF 447 are dead, it will be the worst loss of life in Air France's history.
"The last bit of hope that we had no longer exists," said Aldair Gomes, whose son was a passenger on the plane.
"Before, a lot of us were hoping that the plane could have landed on an island or something like that, but no more."
The first Brazilian navy boat is due to arrive in the zone where the debris was found on Wednesday morning.
It is hoped that the ship will be able to recover wreckage which will give some clue as to why the plane fell from the sky.
Three merchant vessels are already in the area after being diverted to help with the operation.
Search teams are hoping to locate the plane's cockpit voice and data recorders, which will give the clearest information about what happened.
But Mr Jobim warned that recovering the devices could be difficult because of the depth of the ocean.
"It could be at a depth of 2,000m or 3,000m [6,500ft-9,800ft] in that area of the ocean," he said.
The US has despatched specialist radar equipment to the area to hunt for the recorder, and France is also sending a research ship equipped with two mini-submarines to the disaster area.
|  Our only certainty is that the plane did not send out any distress call  Francois Fillon French prime minister |
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said the teams were "in a race against the clock in extremely difficult weather conditions".
He told parliament that the cause of the plane's loss had still to be established.
"Our only certainty is that the plane did not send out any distress call but regular automatic alerts for three minutes indicating the failure of all systems," he said.
Experts remain puzzled that there were no radio reports from the Airbus and they say that such a modern aircraft would have had to suffer multiple traumas to plunge into the sea, the BBC's Adam Mynott reports from Paris.
Most of the missing people are Brazilian or French but they include a total of 32 nationalities. Five Britons and three Irish citizens are among them.
www.worldglobalnews.blogspot.com
A robotic sub called Nereus has reached the deepest-known part of the ocean.
The dive to 10,902m (6.8 miles) took place on 31 May, at the Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench, located in the western Pacific Ocean.
This makes Nereus the deepest-diving vehicle currently in service and the first vehicle to explore the Marianas Trench since 1998.
The unmanned vehicle is remotely operated by pilots aboard a surface ship via a lightweight tether.
Its thin, fibre-optic tether to the research vessel Kilo Moana allows the submersible to make deep dives and be highly manoeuvrable.
Nereus can also be switched into a free-swimming, autonomous vehicle.
"With a robot like Nereus, we can now explore virtually anywhere in the ocean," said Andy Bowen, project manager and principal developer of the sub at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).
"The trenches are virtually unexplored, and I am absolutely certain Nereus will enable new discoveries. I believe it marks the start of a new era in ocean exploration."
The Challenger Deep is the deepest-known part of the ocean, and part of the Marianas Trench near the island of Guam in the west Pacific.
It is the deepest abyss on Earth at 11,000m-deep, more than 2km (1.2 miles) deeper than Mount Everest is high. At that depth, pressures reach 1,100 times those at the surface.
| THE NEREUS SUBMERSIBLE  Weight on land: 2,800kg Payload capacity: 25kg Maximum speed: 3 knots Batteries: rechargeable lithium ion |
As a result, only two vehicles have ever made the trip to its crushing depths.
In January 1960, Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh made the first and only manned voyage in a Swiss-built bathyscaphe known as the Trieste.
The vessel consisted of a 2m-diameter (6ft) steel sphere containing the crew suspended below a huge 15m-long (50ft) tank of petrol, designed to provide buoyancy.
During the nine-hour mission, the two men spent just 20 minutes on the ocean floor; enough time to measure the depth as 10,916m (35,813 ft).
No manned submersible has ever repeated the dive.
However, 35 years later, a Japanese remote-controlled vehicle called Kaiko returned, setting a depth record for unmanned exploration.
During its dive, the vehicle recorded a depth of 10,911m (35,797ft). It was also able to recover a sediment core and record pictures of life, including a sea cucumber, a worm and a shrimp.
Unlike Nereus, Kaiko had to rely on a cable connected to a ship at the surface for power and control.
The Japanese craft was lost in 2003 on an unrelated dive when a cable connecting it to its control ship snapped.
Currently, the deepest-rated vehicles are able to descend to 6,500m, allowing scientists access to 95% of the seafloor.
Nereus aims to change this to 100%, whilst also allowing scientists to survey a much larger area than vehicles like Kaiko.
www.worldglobalnews.blogspot.com
 The Taliban have proved themselves to be formidable adversaries |
Pakistan's security forces appear to have achieved their main objective in Swat with the capture of its administrative seat of Mingora.
That region and the rest of the Malakand division now seem to be under the control of the Pakistan army.
Some fighting is still going on in the mountainous rural areas - especially the Peochar valley, the militants' main stronghold.
Everyone on the list of most wanted militants - from Osama Bin Laden onwards - is said to be hiding in that area.
Dissent and duplicity
Swat's turn in the limelight may be entering its final phase, in fact some senior government officials believe it is already over.
The army now seems to be preparing itself for a new front as clashes erupt across the tribal region of Waziristan.
Baitullah Mehsud, supreme leader of the militant alliance Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), now awaits them.
|  |
As a prelude to that operation, Pakistan's intelligence agencies have been whittling away at his influence.
Increasingly he is faced with dissent and duplicity in his South Waziristan base.
A rival clan led by powerful pro-government leader, Turkistan Bittani, has been making in-roads at his expense.
He is aided by Qari Zainuddin Mehsud, leader of the Abdullah Mehsud group in Waziristan.
Until his death, Abdullah Mehsud was, along with Baitullah, the main Taliban commander among the Mehsud tribe.
Some argue he had an even higher profile and stronger relationship with al-Qaeda than his namesake and that he posed a greater threat.
Abdullah Mehsud was killed in Baluchistan's Zhob district in July 2007 following a fire fight with security forces.
Greater authority
Later, reports surfaced that information about his whereabouts had been leaked on Baitullah's orders.
 The army says that the Taliban are losing territory |
The two men were known to have developed serious differences - especially concerning Baitullah's focus on Pakistan.
Another militant, Abdullah's cousin Qari Zain, has clearly said that his aim is to kill the TTP head.
In addition, Baitullah Mehsud's ersthwhile allies, Maulvi Nazir and Hafiz Gul Bahadur, appear intent on sitting the latest fighting out on the sidelines.
They are the only two Pakistan Taliban commanders of similar if not greater authority and could have been powerful allies.
So Baitullah Mehsud now appears not only surrounded by the army but also running out of allies.
The question then is what will happen to the Taliban in Pakistan if he is no longer in charge?
Many people believe the TTP may fracture and the organisation could end up being destroyed.
But there are other militant leaders such as Zulfiqar Mehsud - also known as Hakimullah Mehsud - waiting in the wings.
They are not connected with the TTP - an organisation widely thought not to represent all the Taliban in Pakistan.
Zulfiqar Mehsud last week told the BBC that two separate attacks in Lahore which killed 10 people were carried out by the Taliban in response to the army's operation in the Swat valley. He is also thought to be behind recent attacks on supply convoys bound for Nato forces in Afghanistan.
Recurring pattern
As far as the Pakistani Taliban's future is concerned in the event of Baitullah Mehsud's demise, past events provide an interesting barometer reading of what may lie ahead.
 More displacement could drive some people into the Taliban's arms |
One has only to look at what has happened recently in the tribal areas when a senior militant leader was killed or when the militants were said to have been defeated.
The most famous example is of Nek Mohammad.
He was the man who launched the Taliban movement as a Pakistani phenomenon.
Starting out with a group of about 20 like-minded men in Waziristan in 2003, Nek Mohammad soon became the main front man for al-Qaeda's militants.
During this time he fought several battles with the Pakistan army before eventually signing a peace deal with them.
But that was not to last and soon the army and militants were at war once again.
His death in a drone attack in July 2004 was hailed as a "great victory" by the army who claimed to have "broken the back of the militants".
At that time he was estimated to have had about 5,000 followers.
Today, there are more than a dozen militant leaders who command at least that number of men and a few who have several times more.
The militants control territory throughout North West Frontier Province and every operation by the army has ultimately ended with them losing territory.
In fact, there is a recurring pattern to the army's offensives.
Troops nearly always tend to be deployed following international claims that the area in question is newly under al-Qaeda's control and poses a threat to the country's nuclear arsenal.
The fighting often ends up leaving a largely aggravated population at the mercy of those from whom they were being rescued.
This in turn can create resentment against the government - if only a handful out of the 2.5 million people forced to leave Swat in the most recent fighting end up joining the Taliban, the militants would still receive hundreds of new recruits into their ranks.
For many people in the war-hit north-west there is increasingly only one choice, join the Taliban or leave their ancestral lands.
Tactics
That is maybe one reason why almost every family in Taliban-dominated areas has a member in the militant forces.
 Fighting between the army and the Taliban has caused destruction in Swat |
The young glamourise the militants and that - combined with the tribal concept of badal, or an eye for an eye - becomes binding on each family who loses a member in the war.
Every time the army drops a bomb or fires a bullet in the north-west it is in danger of stirring up resentment among some civilians which will create new enemies in future years.
The militants in Swat may well lose the battle over the coming days and the future of Baitullah Mehsud appears increasingly uncertain.
But unless the Pakistani government - and indirectly the international community - changes its tactics, the Taliban can still win the war.
www.worldglobalnews.blogspot.com
| By Duncan Kennedy BBC News, Rome |
The Italian art world is in a messy "is it or isn't it" debate over a wooden sculpture that may or may not have been made by Michelangelo.
Standing just 40cm (16 inches) high, it depicts Christ on the Cross, but leading art experts simply cannot agree who made it.
This is not a tale about fakery or imitation - everyone says the statue is a Renaissance piece of art from around 1495, when Michelangelo would have been 20.
But who actually crafted it? That is the question.
The controversy has been rekindled because of a new exhibition in Naples to display the cross, which incidentally has itself disappeared somewhere in antiquity, leaving the figure of Christ these days hanging mid-air connected to a sheet of transparent plastic.
Dubious provenance
Amid the splendid grandeur of a former cathedral, the cross takes centre stage among a series of paintings, tapestries and other works, including a golden sculpture that is said to contain a splinter of the True Cross, upon which Jesus was said to be crucified.
 The cross has disappeared, leaving the figure of Christ suspended in mid-air |
And for critics, it is the association with religion that is part of the problem.
They say the government has endorsed the wooden cross as a work by Michelangelo to boost its standing with the Catholic Church, and to burnish its credentials with the electorate as a government of conservative beliefs.
In other words, say the doubters, the cross is being used for political, even propaganda, uses by a government intent on spending tax payers money to pursue dubious quasi-artistic ends.
In fact, the bill was just over $4m (£2.5m).
Those who believe it to be by Michelangelo say it is money well spent saving it for the nation.
Those who do not say the money has, at best, been squandered on a piece of dubious provenance.
They add that had it been a genuine Michelangelo it would have sold for 10 times the amount, so rarely do his works come to market.
'Anatomical accuracy'
So, let us examine the positions, if not the evidence, of both sides.
|  It is of the highest quality, way above that of other artists at the time Cristina Acidini Luchinat Florence State Museum |
I say "not the evidence" because, frankly, there is none - there are no signatures on the statue nor documentation to support its authorship.
"Even major works of art rarely have supportive documents," said Cristina Acidini Luchinat, the superintendent of Florence's state museum and a renowned expert on Renaissance art.
Mrs Acidini has lent her support and considerable authority to the exhibition.
"These pieces don't come with a written guarantee," she said.
She told me she was impressed by the anatomical accuracy and portrayal of the human body found in the sculpture.
"It is of the highest quality, way above that of other artists at the time," she said.
I pressed Mrs Acidini about this and asked if she believed the work was by Michelangelo.
"You can attribute it to Michelangelo, certainly," she replied.
"Does 'attribute' mean you are sure it's by him?" I asked.
"I am as sure as I can possibly be," she said.
Others go further.
"To survive, a young artist would have had to do small works of this sort," says Giancarlo Gentilini, a Renaissance art expert. "We can't only associate Michelangelo with masterpieces."
Italy rows over statue's origins
'Scandal'
But when it comes to the sceptics, there is an equal, if opposing, readiness to step in and deploy withering counter-arguments.
I went to Florence, where Michelangelo was raised and worked, to meet two other world-class specialists on Renaissance art, Tomasso Montanari and Francesco Caglioti.
| When it comes to this statue, it is like comparing a Ford with a Ferrari Professor Tomasso Montanari |
I asked each, in turn, if they thought Michelangelo had carved the statue.
"No" and "no" came back the stereophonic replies.
"When it comes to this statue, it is like comparing a Ford with a Ferrari," Professor Montanari said.
"This is way below the standard of Michelangelo," he added. "It is like it has come off a production line and could have been made by any one of a dozen wood carvers of the time."
Professor Caglioti agreed.
"It's a scandal," he said. "The muscle definition is all wrong.
"Michelangelo rarely worked in wood. He rarely made small pieces like this. His contemporary biographers make no mention of his having made small works in wood," he added.
Public unaware
It is rumoured that at least one museum outside Italy turned down the chance to exhibit the piece as a Michelangelo, so doubtful was it about its authenticity.
 The posters for exhibitions including the sculpture leave people in no doubt |
But here in Italy, whenever and wherever it is exhibited, the public get no hint at the experts' misgivings.
The posters and publicity for the current exhibition leave you with no doubt that you are paying to see a work by Michelangelo. His name does not appear in inverted commas, or come with a question mark.
Few of the experts I spoke to on both sides of this dispute could remember a similar, deeply polarised, row about a piece of art.
"It's a shame," said Professor Montanari, "because all this is making Italy look foolish.
"It is harming our reputation as the world centre of culture and expertise."
No-one doubts the statue is beautiful, but is it a Michelangelo?
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 Haneke said that he was "very happy" to win the prize |
Austrian film The White Ribbon has won the Palme d'Or, the main prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Director Michael Haneke's work saw off competition from past winners including Britain's Ken Loach and Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds.
One of its stars, Austrian Christoph Waltz, won best actor for his portrayal of an SS officer.
Charlotte Gainsbourg was named best actress for her role in Lars Von Trier's controversial film Antichrist.
The Danish film-maker's work did not go down well due to its brutal and frank scenes of domestic violence.
Second honour
Gainsbourg, the 37-year-old daughter of French musician Serge, said she wanted to share her honour with Von Trier, calling the making of the movie "the most intense, the most painful, and most exciting experience of my life".
The prize for best director was awarded to Brilliante Mendoza of the Philippines for his dark film Kinatay.
 Charlotte Gainsbourg won for her gritty performance |
British film-maker Andrea Arnold jointly won the jury prize for her film Fish Tank, the second time she has won the Cannes honour.
South Korean director Park Chan-Wook shared the prize with Arnold for Thirst, about a priest-turned-vampire.
Haneke's film, shot in black and white, studies the chilling, malicious atmosphere gripping a German village on the eve of World War I.
Other award winners included Portugal's Joao Salaviza for best short film and Chinese writer Feng Mai for best screenplay.
The award ceremony brings the Cannes Film Festival to a close, which has attracted film-making talent from Hollywood and around the world.
One of the biggest media draws was the red carpet appearance of Brad Pitt - star of Inglourious Basterds - along with his actress wife Angelina Jolie.
 Tiga say the EU proposal could make developers 'overly cautious' |
The future of games development has been called into question after the EU Commission suggested developers provide a two year guarantee.
Commissioners Viviane Reding and Meglena Kuneva want to expand the EU Sales and Guarantees Directive.
Dr Richard Wilson, head of the video games developers' association Tiga, said a balance between consumers and developers was needed.
"They have to be careful not to stifle new ideas," he told the BBC.
"Consumers need good quality products - that is only reasonable - but if the legislation is too heavy-handed it could make publishers and developers very cautious.
At present, licensed software is exempt from EU legislation that forces firms to offer "a minimum 2-year guarantee on tangible movable consumer goods".
"Games takes years to develop and software teams often have to predict what new technology will be in place when the game is actually finished," said Dr Wilson.
"If there is an onus on developers to have software that is 'near perfect' then it could stifle new ideas as people could end up just playing it safe," he said.
 Meglena Kuneva is the European commissioner for consumer protection |
Change
Helen Kearns, spokesperson for Meglena Kuneva, said the commissioners wanted to kick start a dialogue with the software industry.
"The current status quo, where licensed products are exempt from EU law, is unsatisfactory," she said.
At present, retailers are not obliged to give a refund on a video game that has a bug or glitch that prevents a user completing a game. If the proposals become law, this could change as users would have the right "to get a product that works with fair commercial conditions".
Ms Kearns accepted that this assumes honesty on the part of users and that the system could be abused by people playing the game for a few weeks and then taking it back with a fraudulent fault.
"On the one hand there is the risk of abuse, but on the other it's not a good enough reason to say basic consumer protection should not apply."
Not good
The Business Software Alliance, which represents many software firms, including Apple and Microsoft, said the proposals - in their current form - would not work.
In a written statement for the BBC, the BSA's director of public policy - Francisco Mingorance, said:
"Digital content is not a tangible good and should not be subject to the same liability rules as toasters. It is contractually licensed to consumers and not sold.
"These contracts are governed by civil law that provide consumers with multitude of remedies for breach of contract. We are not aware of any shortcomings of the legal frameworks with respect to digital content."
The proposals would also see an end to regional license agreements for software sold within the EU and "end the fragmentation of laws on 'private copying'".
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 Panasonic is the world's largest maker of plasma TVs |
Panasonic has announced a big loss for the year to the end of March as the downturn hits demand for its products such as TVs and digital cameras.
The Japanese electronics giant lost 379bn yen ($4bn; £2.6bn) during the period, and expects to stay in the red in the current financial year.
Falling sales, the strong yen and high restructuring costs were to blame for the poor results, the company said.
On Thursday, rival Sony reported a loss of $1bn for the financial year.
It was the group's first annual loss in 14 years.
Panasonic said it expected to make a loss of $2bn for the year to the end of March 2010.
Earlier this year, the group announced 15,000 job cuts and 27 plant closures worldwide.
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 Election turnout was put at about 60% across India |
The Indian media are trying to dissect dozens of meetings taking place on coalition possibilities, as counting looms in the general election.
Voting ended on Wednesday and counting is on Saturday.
The ruling Congress-led coalition and opposition BJP-led alliance are scrambling to gain pledges of support with a hung parliament predicted.
Turnout for the election has been put at about 60% and security has so far generally been considered a success.
However, about 60 people lost their lives, most in Maoist violence. Turnout in 2004 was about 58%.
The parties have about two weeks to hammer out a workable government. Parliament must be constituted by 2 June.
The main question of who will become prime minister is more open than ever, analysts say.
Leftist key
Several exit polls and surveys commissioned by Indian media organisations have predicted a hung parliament.
Most of them have put Congress ahead of the BJP, but only by a handful of seats.
| INDIAN ELECTION AT A GLANCE Eligible voters: 714 million Polling centres: 828,804 Voting days: 16, 23, 30 April; 7, 13 May Vote counting: 16 May |
Exit polls though have a mixed history in India and in some cases have proved to be wide of the mark.
The Times of India reported that Congress was "brimming with confidence", saying its UPA alliance was trying to bring the regional Samajwadi Party into its fold.
The Pioneer said the leftist parties that fell out with Congress over a controversial nuclear deal with the US were prepared to back it again to keep the BJP out of power.
The leftists had been the main movers behind the idea of a Third Front government but the Pioneer said the Left sensed that was now "not feasible".
The Hindustan Times says the leftists may "reluctantly" give PM Manmohan Singh another term.
 Many names have been suggested for PM if Manmohan Singh loses out |
After the counting the focus will fall on President Pratibha Patil.
There are no rules in the constitution on who she can invite to form a government. It could be the single largest party or most dominant coalition. She may ask for documented pledges of support.
As the marathon five-phase general election draws to a close, the government is breathing a sigh of relief that it has been largely trouble-free.
A senior home ministry official told the Times of India: "Although we cannot afford to be complacent now... it certainly gives us a kind of satisfaction that we could succeed in preventing any terror attack on the mainland."
Visiting US Pacific Command chief Adm Timothy J Keating said the US had "respect and admiration for India conducting relatively event free elections".
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