Syria unrest: Medvedev urges Assad to reform or go

President Assad has blamed Syria's unrest on armed gangs

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has called on Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad to launch promised reforms or step down as the country's leader.

But he said this decision should be taken by the Syrian people and the Syrian leadership, and not by Nato or "certain European countries".

President Assad has used the army to try to quell months of anti-government protests but has also pledged reforms.

Activists said seven people were killed in protests after Friday prayers.

The UN estimates 2,900 people died since the protests began in March.

Mr Assad has blamed the violence on armed gangs.

"Russia wants as much as the other countries for Syria to end the bloodshed and demands that the Syrian leadership conduct the necessary reforms," Mr Medvedev said on Russian television.

"If the Syrian leadership is incapable of conducting such reforms, it will have to go, but this decision should be taken not in Nato or certain European countries, it should be taken by the Syrian people and the Syrian leadership."

Mr Medvedev has previously called for Syria to launch reforms but has stopped short of saying Mr Assad should step down if he does not implement them.

The Syrian government has said it is in the process of introducing reforms and is speaking to opposition members.

Mr Assad has announced local elections for December and parliamentary elections for February.

Analysts warn that the protesters, who began demanding reforms but are now calling for the overthrow of Mr Assad, are increasingly resorting to the use of force.

There are reports of a number of army deserters joining the protesters.

'Terrorists'
On Tuesday, Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning Syria for the crackdown on protesters.

The European-drafted proposal had already been watered down to try to avoid the vetoes, with a direct reference to sanctions against Damascus dropped.

But Moscow and Beijing said the draft contained no provision against outside military intervention in Syria.

They accuse Nato countries of abusing UN resolutions on Libya to launch air strikes in aid of rebel forces against Col Muammar Gaddafi's troops.

Meanwhile, activists said seven people were killed after security forces opened fire to try to disperse protests after Friday prayers.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said four people were killed in the central city of Homs when security forces opened fire on crowds leaving mosques.

And the group said snipers killed three people in the Damascus suburb of Douma, one of the few districts of Syria's capital to be touched by the anti-government protests.

Speaking to the UN Human Rights Council, Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said his country was "grappling with terrorist threats".

He said he would provide the 47-state Council a list "more than 1,100 people who have been killed by the terrorists", including civil servants and police.

US economy adds more jobs than forecast in September

President Barack Obama is struggling to get a massive jobs package through Congress

The US economy added 103,000 jobs in September, ahead of many economists' expectations.

But the jobless rate was stuck at 9.1%, according to latest data from the Department of Labor.

Although the figures were boosted by the return to work of striking workers, the department also revised upwards employment data from August and July.

Last month, President Barack Obama unveiled a $450bn (£282bn) package of spending plans aimed at creating jobs.

The White House said that despite the new jobs, the unemployment rate remained "unacceptably high".

"Clearly, we need faster economic growth to put Americans back to work. Today's report underscores the president's call for Congress to pass the American Jobs Act to put more money in the pockets of working and middle class families," it said in its regular blog.

The private sector accounted for all the job gains, and the figures were boosted by the return of 45,000 Verizon telecoms workers who had been on strike in August.
Excluding those workers, the number of jobs created was still at a higher-than-predicted 58,000.

The aggregate weekly hours being worked also rose, the Labor Department said.

While the jobs report was better than feared, Tom Porcelli, chief US economist at RBC Capital Markets, said it did not suggest the economy was gaining momentum

"It moves you away from the ledge," he said.

The report gave a lift to Wall Street, with the three main share indexes rising in early trading. The main Dow Jones index gained 86 points, or 0.8%, to 11,209.

Improved picture
The US government shed 34,000 jobs in September, and there were large redundancies in local government of teachers and other school employees.

Job gains were seen in construction, retail, temporary help services and health care. There was a fall in the number of jobs in manufacturing for the second straight month.

Previously, data for August had showed the economy added no new jobs, underlying fears that the US was heading back towards recession.

But the revised August figures show a gain of 57,000 jobs. July was revised up to a gain of 127,000 jobs, from 85,000.

Mr Obama's jobs programme proposes funding huge construction projects, schools and services, while giving tax cuts to workers and small businesses to boost recruitment.

However, with Republicans having rejected a proposed tax rise on wealthier people to pay for it, Mr Obama is fighting to get the package through Congress.

Hamid Karzai admits Afghanistan 'security failure'

President Karzai: "We should provide a more predictable, secure, environment for Afghan citizens"

President Hamid Karzai has said his government and Nato have failed to provide Afghans with security, 10 years after the Taliban were otherthrown.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Karzai also accused Pakistan of supporting the insurgency, saying sanctuaries there still needed to be tackled.

He vowed to step down in 2014 and said he was working on the succession.

His comments come as the ex-commander of coalition forces said Nato allies remain far from reaching their goals.

After a decade of fighting in Afghanistan, retired Army General Stanley McChrystal estimated that the coalition was "a little better than" half way to achieving its military ambitions, adding that the US began the war with a "frighteningly simplistic" view.

'Pakistani support'
In his interview with the BBC, President Karzai also traced some of Afghanistan's current insecurity to military strategy in the early years of the war and the failure to tackle the Taliban sheltering in Pakistan's volatile tribal areas.

"Nato and the US and our neighbours in Pakistan should have concentrated a long time back, in the beginning of 2002-3, on the [Taliban] sanctuaries," he said.
Although he was eager to emphasise achievements in education and health, President Karzai admitted that security was his greatest failing.

"We've done terribly badly in providing security to the Afghan people and this is the greatest shortcoming of our government and of our international partners," he said.

"What we should do is provide better and a more predictable environment of security to the Afghan citizens and in that the international community and the Afghan government definitely have failed."

In recent months Afghanistan has seen a string of brazen assaults on major cities and military targets as well high profile assassinations, such as the killing last month of Afghan peace envoy and former president Burhanuddin Rabbani.

President Karzai said that it was a "serious shortcoming" that the Taliban were able to launch such spectacular attacks but also added that "these problems come from abroad" and pointed the finger at Pakistan's role in the Taliban insurgency.

"On the overall policy of Pakistan toward Afghanistan and towards the Taliban, definitely, the Taliban will not be able to move a finger without Pakistani support," he said.

He added that the president and prime minister of Pakistan were eager for good relations with Afghanistan but re-emphasised that Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan will not go away unless the government there co-operates with the Afghan administration.

Pakistani authorities deny any support for the insurgents.

'Foreign corruption'
President Karzai also admitted that the policy of talking to the Taliban had received a serious blow with the assassination of ex-president Rabbani but added: " Find an address, find a location, and we will talk to you."
But as Nato begins to draw down troops in anticipation of relinquishing its combat role in 2014, Hamid Karzai also confirmed that he would step down from the presidency in that year. He added he was starting work to find a successor.

"I feel it is my responsibility to be working on a next president that the Afghans can trust and that they can have faith in, and that he as the president can serve this nation," he said.

The president also maintains that the corruption, which has marked his administration, will get better after 2014 when foreign forces withdraw. He blamed such corruption largely on foreign companies and governments.

"The reality of the matter is that a very, very big part of big corruption in Afghanistan emanates from the international community," he said.

Despite the advances in health and education, rights groups and aid organisations say many challenges remain.

Some $57bn (£37bn) of aid has been spent over the past decade, according to the non-governmental organisations who form part of the Agency Co-ordinating Body for Afghan Relief, but, while some gains have been made, the spending has not always translated into real improvements for many Afghans.

And a decade of conflict has left many dead. The UN says that more than 10,000 civilians have died in violence in the past five years alone. More than 2,500 international troops have been killed - most of them American. The conflict has already surpassed Vietnam to become the longest war in US history.

Correspondents say Western officials admit that parts of the country will remain violent after 2014 when Nato stops fighting. Without a peace deal with the Taliban, they say, few really expect the war to be brought to an end.

Beards and hair shorn in Amish-on-Amish attacks

The counties in Ohio where the attacks took place make up one of the largest US Amish communities

Police in the US state of Ohio are investigating a rare violent feud in the Amish community, in which members have had beards and hair shorn off.

Spiritual differences were said to be behind the attacks on more than a dozen men and women, said police.

The investigation is being hampered by Amish reluctance to seek police help.

The tiny American Christian group, who call themselves the Plain People, generally shun modern conveniences such as electricity, televisions and cars.

Amish people rejected by the mainstream community are suspected of having carried out the attacks.

'Extremely rare'
Several victims have suffered minor injuries in four separate counties over the past three weeks, said the authorities.
A 57-year-old woman in Trumbull County told police her sons and a son-in-law had cut her hair and her husband's beard last month. She claimed the estranged family members were involved in a cult.

The feud is thought to involve 18 Amish families, most of whom are said to be related by blood.

Sheriff Fred Abdalla said some of the suspects had previously come to the attention of police after a threat against him, and a conviction of sexual contact with a minor.

He added that no charges had been brought and the investigation was moving slowly because of Amish reluctance to seek police help.

"You see this crime being committed, and I'm sitting here with my hands tied," the sheriff said. "I can't do a thing."

The attacks have taken place in Carroll, Holmes, Jefferson and Trumbull counties, regions heavily populated by Amish.

Professor Donald Kraybill, an Amish expert at Elizabethtown College, Pennsylvania, told the Associated Press news agency that Amish-on-Amish violence was "extremely rare."

Nobel Peace Prize recognises women rights activists

The women had led the non-violent struggle for women's political rights, said the committee

This year's Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded jointly to three women - Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian Leymah Gbowee and Tawakul Karman of Yemen.

They were recognised for their "non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work".

Mrs Sirleaf is Africa's first female elected head of state, Ms Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist and Ms Karman is a leading figure in Yemen's pro-democracy movement.

"We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women achieve the same opportunities as men to influence developments at all levels of society," said Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland in Oslo.

Reading from the prize citation, he said the committee hoped the prize would "help to bring an end to the suppression of women that still occurs in many countries, and to realise the great potential for democracy and peace that women can represent".

Mrs Sirleaf's main rival in polls this coming Tuesday, Winston Tubman, told the BBC she did not deserve the prize and was a "warmonger".

Arab Spring
Mrs Karman heard of her win from Change Square in the capital Sanaa, where she has been living for several months in a protest camp calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to stand down.
She was recognised for playing a leading part in the struggle for women's rights in Yemen's pro-democracy protests "in the most trying circumstances" and is the first Arab women to win the prize.

Nobel committee chair Thorbjorn Jagland announced the awards

Mrs Karman told BBC Arabic she was dedicating it to "all the martyrs and wounded of the Arab Spring" - the wave of unrest which has swept the Middle East and North Africa in the past year - and to "all the free people who are fighting for their rights".

As the head of Yemeni organisation Women Journalists without Chains, Mrs Karman has been jailed several times over her campaigns for press freedom and her opposition to the government.


Mr Jagland said the oppression of women was "the most important issue" in the Arab world and that awarding the prize to Ms Karman was "giving the signal that if it [the Arab Spring] is to succeed with efforts to make democracy, it has to include women".

According to BBC Monitoring, Yemeni opposition TV station Suhayl reported the award, but reports suggest there has been no mention of it on state TV.

'Iron Lady'
Ms Sirleaf, 72, who had been widely tipped as a winner, said the award was "for all Liberian people" and a recognition of "many years of struggle for justice".

She was elected in 2005, following the end of Liberia's 14-year civil war which left 250,000 people dead, caused thousands to flee abroad and financially ruined the country.

Upon coming to office, the US-educated economist and former finance minister - known as Liberia's "Iron Lady" - pledged to fight corruption and bring "motherly sensitivity and emotion to the presidency" as a way of healing the wounds of war.
Mrs Sirleaf is standing in Tuesday's election, having previously said she would only hold the presidency for one term.

Her rival Mr Tubman denounced the award, saying she had "brought war here".

She has initially backing the rebels of Charles Taylor - currently on trial for war crimes in The Hague.

Although she has apologised, Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended that she be barred from holding public office for 30 years.

"I did more to stop the war than she did because she was for continuing the war, Mr Tubman said.

"Now that the war has stopped she wants to continue on top of the country as though she is some liberator. She is not."

He told AFP news agency the timing of the award was "provocative".

But Archbishop Desmond Tutu and U2 singer Bono welcomed Mrs Sirleaf's honouring, with Mr Tutu telling AFP: "Woo hoo. She deserves it many times over. She's brought stability to a place that was going to hell."

Her compatriot Mrs Gbowee was a leading critic of the violence during the Liberian civil war, mobilising women across ethnic and religious lines in peace activism and encouraging them to participate in elections.

In 2003 she led a march through the capital, Monrovia, demanding an end to the rape of women by soldiers, which had continued despite a peace deal being signed three months earlier.

The Nobel Committee said she had "worked to enhance the influence of women in West Africa during and after war".

Mrs Gbowee told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme: "I am confused. I am humbled. This is the first time in the 39 years of my life that I am out of words.
"This is a victory for women rights everywhere in the world. What could be better then three women winning the prize?

"This is the recognition that we hear you, we see you, we acknowledge you."

The women will share the $1.5m (£1m) prize money.

The BBC's world affairs correspondent Mike Wooldridge says that the Nobel Peace Prize originally recognised those who had already achieved peace, but that its scope has broadened in recent years to encourage those working towards peace and acknowledge work in progress.

The Nobel committee received a record 241 nominations for this year's prize - among the individuals and groups believed to have been put forward were the European Union, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and key cyber dissidents in the Arab Spring movement.

Recent Nobel Peace Prize winners

2010 - Liu Xiaobo - Chinese dissident lawyer

2009 - US President Barack Obama

2008 - Martti Ahtisaari, former Finnish president

2007 - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), former US vice-president and environmental campaigner Al Gore

2006 - Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank

2005 - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its president, Mohamed El Baradei

• Nobel winner Liu Xiaobo still in jail

UK financial firms downgraded by Moody's rating agency

Shares in Royal Bank of Scotland have opened down following the downgrade

Moody's has downgraded the credit rating of 12 UK financial firms including Lloyds TSB, RBS, Nationwide and Santander UK.

Moody's said it now believed the UK government was less likely to support some firms if they got into trouble.

However, the firm emphasised that the downgrades did not "reflect a deterioration in the financial strength of the banking system".

Moody's also downgraded nine Portuguese banks, blaming financial weakness.

Shares in RBS and Lloyds fell sharply at the start of trading, but then recovered. By early morning RBS shares were down 0.25% while Lloyds was 1% lower.

Reassessment
In a statement, Moody's said: "Moody's Investors Service has today downgraded the senior debt and deposit ratings of 12 UK financial institutions and confirmed the ratings of one institution.
"The downgrades have been caused by Moody's reassessment of the support environment in the UK which has resulted in the removal of systemic support for seven smaller institutions and the reduction of systemic support... for five larger, more systemically important financial institutions."

The downgrades include a two-notch cut for government-controlled RBS, and a one-notch cut for Lloyds TSB, a division of part-nationalised Lloyds Banking Group.

Spanish bank Santander had its UK business downgraded by one notch, while Nationwide Building Society suffered a two-notch reduction.

RBS said it was "disappointed" that Moody's announcement did not reflect the "significant progress" the bank had made to restructure it finances.

"We do, however, see the removal of implicit government support for the UK banking sector as being a necessary and important step forward as the sector returns to standalone strength," RBS said in a statement.

Lloyds said that it believed Moody's was reflecting what was already understood in the market, and that it would "have minimal impact on our funding costs".

Nationwide said that Moody's announcement was part of an industry-wide review, and "not a reflection of Nationwide's business model".

The building society said in a statement: "Nationwide remains one of the strongest and best capitalised financial organisations in the UK".

Government steps
The Chancellor, George Osborne, said one reason for the downgrades was that the government was seen to be "trying to deal with the too-big-to-fail problem".

He told the BBC: "One of the reasons they're doing this is because they think the British government is actually moving in the direction of trying to get away from guaranteeing all the largest banks in Britain.

"People ask me how are you going to avoid Britain and the British taxpayer bailing out banks in the future? This government is taking steps to do that.

"Therefore credit rating agencies and others will say, well actually these banks have got to show they can pay their way in the world."

Mr Osborne said he was confident that British banks were well-capitalised. "They are not experiencing the kinds of problems that some of the banks in the eurozone are experiencing at the moment."

Over-reaction?
Moody's split the downgrades into three categories.

Banks with a "high likelihood of support" are RBS and Lloyds.

Banks or building societies with a "moderate or high likelihood of support" are Nationwide, Santander UK, Co-operative Bank, and Clydesdale Bank. Clydesdale's rating was reaffirmed, not cut.

Institutions with a "low or no likelihood of support" included the following building societies: the Newcastle, Norwich & Peterborough, Nottingham, Principality, Skipton, West Bromwich and Yorkshire.

Analysts warned against over-reacting to the downgrades.

Max King, a portfolio manager at Investec Asset Management, said: "People are getting a little paranoid about the UK banking sector.

"It doesn't have the same exposure to sovereign default and devaluation risk as the rest of Europe. It does have exposure to Ireland, but that is a eurozone country which appears to be doing best in the crisis," he said.
And Ralph Silva, banking analyst at SRN, said the downgrades were "an over-reaction", but he added that the government will probably have to provide further support for RBS by the end of the year.

Portugal move
Moody's also cut its rating on nine Portuguese banks.

"The key driver for the downgrades of most banks' debt and deposit ratings is Moody's assessment of the deterioration of their unsupported financial strength," said the ratings agency.

Moody's said it expected a further deterioration of the banks' domestic asset quality due to a weak economic growth outlook and government austerity measures, and liquidity strains due to a lack of access to wholesale funding.

The firm said if recapitalisation and deleveraging plans for the banks were successful they would help to restore confidence in them.

"However, Moody's believes that these plans face significant implementation risks," it said.

Mexican navy finds 32 bodies in Veracruz

Mexico has deployed extra security to Veracruz state to combat an upsurge in drug-related violence

Thirty-two bodies have been found in several locations in Mexico's eastern port city of Veracruz, the navy says.

The discovery comes two weeks after 35 bodies were dumped in broad daylight on a busy road on the city outskirts.

The Mexican government has announced the deployment of extra security forces in the state, as gangs wage an escalating war over drug trafficking.

Some 40,000 people are estimated to have been killed since the army was sent in to combat drug gangs in 2006.

A statement from the navy said the 32 bodies were found in three houses in Veracruz as the military carried out its new Safe Veracruz campaign against the drug cartels.

Twenty of the bodies were in one house in a residential neighbourhood, the navy said.

A group calling itself the Zeta Killers has said it had killed the 35 people whose bodies were left in two lorries at an underpass on a busy road in Boca del Rio in Veracruz state.

The group said it was targeting one of Mexico's most notorious drug cartels, which has been locked in an escalating war with the Gulf cartel.

Police have said that most of the dead found in Boca del Rio on 20 September had criminal records.

Earlier this week, officials said 18 police officers had been arrested on suspicion of working with the Zetas.

Libya NTC interim forces launch Sirte attack

Transitional troops are hoping Sirte will be their last major battle

Forces loyal to Libya's transitional government have launched a major assault on the city of Sirte, one of the last Gaddafi strongholds.

Hundreds of vehicles have advanced on the city from both the east and the west and are close to the centre.

Thousands of civilians have already left Sirte but many more are thought to have remained behind.

The BBC's Jonathan Head, on the city's outskirts, says it is by far the biggest assault in recent days.

Sustained tank and mortar fire has been targeting Sirte and there are huge columns of smoke across the city, some 360km (225 miles) east of Tripoli, with many buildings struck and on fire, says our correspondent.

This appears to be the final push for Col Gaddafi's home town, he adds, as the country has been unable to think about the future until Sirte falls.

The interim authority's troops are coming from both Misrata in the west and Benghazi in the east.

The Benghazi forces are only 1km from the city centre but have faced heavy resistance from snipers inside the city.
Libya forces in big Sirte assault

The Ouagadougou conference centre, where many of the Gaddafi loyalists are believed to have gathered, has become the focus of the artillery barrages.

On Thursday, an NTC military commander Col Abdel Salam Gadallah said three quarters of the city was in their hands.

"God willing, in two days maximum all of Sirte will be clean."

The NTC troops have given civilians in Sirte the opportunity to leave, but there are fears that thousands have been unable to do so or believed warnings by pro-Gaddafi fighters that they would be attacked by the interim forces if they surrendered.

Efforts to negotiate with loyalist commanders have also failed.

The attack on Sirte came just hours after Col Gaddafi urged Libyans to take to the streets "in their millions" to resist the interim leaders.

In a poor quality audio message broadcast on Thursday on Syrian-based Arrai television, he said conditions in Libya had become "unbearable" and that the National Transitional Council (NTC) were not the country's legitimate leaders.

"I say to them, do not fear anyone. You are the people, you belong to this land," said Col Gaddafi, telling people to make their voices heard against the "Nato's collaborators" of the NTC.

The ousted leader's whereabouts remain unknown. Several of his family member are in hiding or have fled the country.

Australia, New Zealand in airlift to drought-hit Tuvalu

Tuvalu's ground water has been contaminated by rising seas, so it depends on rainfall

Australia and New Zealand are to airlift equipment to the Pacific nation of Tuvalu to help it deal with a severe water shortage caused by drought.

Military planes from both countries will fly a large desalination unit to Tuvalu's main island of Funafuti.

New Zealand has already flown smaller units to Tuvalu but its foreign minister said more capacity was needed.

Tuvalu has declared a state of emergency over the shortage, caused by the La Nina weather phenomenon.

It has not rained in the remote nation of about 11,000 people for more than six months, and there is no drinkable groundwater because rising seas have contaminated it.

'Acute shortage'
About half the population live on the main island of Funafuti, where water is being rationed.

"The advice is that more capacity is needed to relieve the acute water shortage and replenish stocks," New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said.

"At present the two operating desalination plants at Funafuti are producing a combined volume of 43,000 litres a day. The minimum requirement for the 5,300 residents is 79,500 litres a day."
Several New Zealand military aircraft and an Australian C-17 - a large military transport aircraft - will be involved in the operation, Mr McCully said in a statement.

The first flight was due to leave on Friday, with the desalination plant due to be moved via Samoa early next week.

Australia has also sent 1,000 rehydration packs for hospitals in Tuvalu, and has provided money and fuel to keep desalination plants going.

Earlier this week, the Tuvalu Red Cross warned that water supplies in some areas - including outlying islands - could run out within days.

Neighbouring Tokelau has also declared a state of emergency over a water shortage. A US coast guard vessel is on its way to the tiny three-atoll territory with 36,000 gallons of fresh water.

It will meet a New Zealand team carrying equipment in Samoa and then proceed to Tokelau.

US Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa David Huebner said a quick response was needed.

"We are talking about approximately 1,500 people who could be out of fresh water within a week, so we really needed to act very quickly."

Nobel Peace Prize split between three women

Nobel chairman Thorbjrn Jagland made the Peace Prize announcement

This year's Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded jointly to three women - Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen.

They were recognised for their "non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work".

Mrs Johnson Sirleaf is Africa's first female elected head of state, Ms Gbowee is a peace activist and Ms Karman is a leading figure in Yemen's pro-democracy movement.

Announcing the prize in Oslo, Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said: "We cannot achieve democracy and lasting peace in the world unless women achieve the same opportunities as men to influence developements at all levels of society."

The women will share the $1.5m (£1m) prize money.

Samsung forecasts dip in profits amid falling TV demand

Falling demand and prices of flat-screen TVs have hurt profits at various electronics makers
Samsung Electronics has forecast a dip in profits for the third quarter amid falling demand for flat-screen TVs and computer chips.

Samsung said it expected an operating profit of 4.2tn won ($3.5bn; £2.3bn) a 14% dip from a year earlier.

However, compared to the previous quarter, the projected profit is up 12%.

Analysts said Samsung's handset business had helped offset the falls elsewhere.

"Its telecommunications business is seen very positive as shipments of smartphones and other high-end handsets expanded," said Park Jong-Min of ING Investment Management.

Advantage Samsung?
Analysts said they expected Samsung's handset business to keep growing robustly, not least due to the Apple's decision to upgrade its existing model of iPhone4 with new features and technology, rather than launch a new version.

Apple had been expected to launch an iPhone5 at a media event held earlier this week.

"Given Apple's relatively unchanged new iPhone, Samsung will have the opportunity to eat into Apple's market share with its hardware build-up and growing software power until next year," said Jang In-Beom of Bookook Securities.

Samsung has also been growing its presence in the tablet PC market.

Last month the Korean electronics manufacturer announced that sales of the Samsung GALAXY S II had crossed the 10 million mark, doubling from five million in just eight weeks.

'Major risk'
Despite the optimism about the growth potential of its handset business, analysts said that external factors remain a big threat to the company in the short to medium-term.

There have been concerns that a slowdown in the US coupled with the ongoing debt crisis in Europe may hurt global growth and dent consumer demand.

"The macroeconomic situation will remain a major risk for Samsung in the fourth quarter," said Ahn Seong-Ho of Hanwha Securities.

At the same time, there are fears that volatility in the currency markets may also have a bearing on its earnings.

The Korean won has fallen as much as 10% against the US dollar since the start of July.

A weaker won makes Korean goods cheaper for foreign buyers.

"The weakening won may have inflated third-quarter profits," said Kim Young-Chan of Shinhan Investment Corp.

However, Mr Kim added the exchange rate remained a threat to Samsung as any recovery in the won would have a counter effect.

Syrian troops 'kill Syrian farmer in Lebanon'

The Syrian army has been fighting to contain protests in cities across the country

Syrian forces have crossed into Lebanese territory and shot dead a Syrian man living in a border area, reports say.

The man killed was reportedly a farmer living in a remote area of Lebanon's eastern Bekaa region. It was not clear why he was targeted.

It follows an incursion by Syrian tanks earlier this week, raising fears that Syria's unrest is spreading.

Some 5,000 Syrians have sought refuge in Lebanon in recent months.

They include deserting soldiers and opposition members fleeing a crackdown on protesters by the Syrian government.

At least 2,900 people have died in Syria since the uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad began in March.

Porous border
According to reports, Syrian army vehicles crossed the border near Saaba, in the Bekaa region, and attacked farmers and their homes.

Witnesses said several buildings were damaged.

A Lebanese official told AFP news agency as saying the body of the Syrian man who died was left lying at the site, and that an investigation was under way.

It is unclear why the man, named as Ali al-Khatib - who was married to a Lebanese woman and living in the area - was killed.

The BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut says the border near the Bekaa region is porous and not even clearly defined.

Earlier this week, Syrian tanks entered the same region in a brief incursion.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Miqati told AFP that a joint Syrian-Lebanese committee was looking into the issue.

"I am not being silent about this, we are dealing with the issue normally," he said.

"I don't want to blow these incidents out of proportion and I don't want to belittle them either," he added.

Lebanon has taken in several thousand Syrians fleeing the trouble in their own country.

Mr Miqati says they are being looked after on humanitarian grounds, but our correspondent says there have been reports of activists being hunted down and sent back to Syria.

Tributes for Apple 'visionary' Steve Jobs

1984-2011: Three decades of innovation at Apple

World and business leaders have paid tribute to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who has died at 56 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

US President Barack Obama and Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev said Mr Jobs had changed the world.

Microsoft's Bill Gates said it had been "an insanely great honour" to work with him. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg remembered his "mentor and friend".

The Twitter microblog site struggled to cope with the traffic of tributes.

Apple itself said Mr Jobs had been "the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives" and had made the world "immeasurably better".


Thousands of celebrities and ordinary people went on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to record their tributes and memories of the man behind products such as the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad.
The death of Mr Jobs could create a record for Twitter traffic.

Thousands of people all over the world have also been attending Apple stores to leave flowers, notes, and apples with a bite taken from them to mimic the company's logo.

Apple's leading rivals such as Microsoft, Google, Sony and Samsung all chipped in with glowing tributes.

GS Choi, chief executive of Samsung, which is embroiled in a major court battle with Apple on patents, said Mr Jobs was an "innovative spirit" who "introduced numerous revolutionary changes to the information technology industry".

In his statement, Bill Gates said: "The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come. For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it's been an insanely great honour."
Mr Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook: "Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world. I will miss you."

His comments were "liked" by more than 200,000 people within hours.

In his own tweet, Barack Obama wrote: "There may be no greater tribute to Steve's success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented."

Web users in China have reportedly posted almost 35 million online tributes.

Tim Cook, who was made Apple's CEO after Mr Jobs stood down in August, said his predecessor had left behind "a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple".

UK Prime Minister David Cameron said: "Steve Jobs transformed the way we work and play; a creative genius who will be sorely missed."

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak will remember Mr Jobs for "knowing what made sense in a product"

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg said that the US had "lost a genius who will be remembered with Edison and Einstein".

News Corp's Rupert Murdoch said: "Steve Jobs was simply the greatest CEO of his generation."
People also gathered outside Mr Jobs's home in California's Silicon Valley to lay floral wreaths, while flags were flown at half mast outside the Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California.

A statement from Mr Jobs's family said they were with him when he died peacefully on Wednesday.

"In his public life, Steve was known as a visionary; in his private life, he cherished his family," they said, requesting privacy and thanking those who had "shared their wishes and prayers" during his final year.

Face of Apple
Mr Jobs built a reputation as a forthright and demanding leader who could take niche technologies - such as the mouse and graphical user interface, using onscreen icons rather than text - and make them popular with the general public.
He introduced the colourful iMac computer, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad to the world. His death came just a day after Apple unveiled its latest iPhone 4S model.

With a market value estimated at $351bn (£227bn), Apple became the world's most valuable technology company.

More than almost any other business leader, Mr Jobs was indistinguishable from his company, which he co-founded in the 1970s.

As the face of Apple, he represented its dedication to high-end technology and fashionable design.

And inside the company he exerted a level of influence unheard of in most businesses.

Mr Jobs also provided major funding to set up Pixar Animation Studios.

In 2004, Mr Jobs announced that he was suffering from pancreatic cancer. He had a liver transplant five years later.

In January, he took medical leave, before resigning as CEO in August and handing over his duties to Mr Cook.

In his resignation letter, Mr Jobs said: "I believe Apple's brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role."

However, Mr Jobs stayed on as Apple's chairman.

Despite his high profile, he remained fiercely protective of his private life.

He married his wife Laurene in 1991, and the couple had three children.

Mr Jobs also leaves a daughter from a previous relationship, and as an adult he discovered that he had a biological sister, US novelist Mona Simpson.

Nigeria arrests three ex-governors for alleged fraud

The men are alleged to have defrauded the government of hundreds of millions of dollars

Nigeria's anti-corruption agency arrests three former state governors for allegedly embezzling funds amounting to $674m (£436m).

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said the former governors of Ogun, Oyo and Nasarawa states faced a series of charges.

They are likely to appear in court in the next few days.

Correspondents say the EFCC has made high-profile arrests before but has found hard to make the charges stick.

'Abused state contracts'
Former Ogun state governor Olugbenga Daniel, Adebayo Alao-Akala of Oyo state and Aliyu Akwe Doma of Nasarawa state were arrested Thursday, EFCC spokesman Femi Babafemi said.

During their time in office, the men are alleged to have abused state contracts and diverted government money for their personal use.

Mr Babafemi said Mr Daniel is accused of defrauding the state of $387m. He said Mr Alao-Akala and Mr Doma each face $167m and $120m fraud allegations. All three men are members of the ruling party.

The BBC's Jonah Fisher in Lagos says the EFCC has arrested high-profile figures before, but has so far been less successful in making the charges stick.

Nigeria's justice system is painfully slow and ill-equipped to deal with complex financial cases, our correspondent says.

US and Nato 'far from goals' in Afghanistan

International forces have yet to bring peace to Afghanistan

After 10 years in Afghanistan, the US still lacks the knowledge to bring the conflict to a successful end, retired Army Gen Stanley McChrystal has said.

Gen McChrystal said US and Nato allies were barely over half-way towards reaching their goals in the country.

"Operation Enduring Freedom" was aimed at tracking down Osama Bin Laden after 9/11 and eliminating the Taliban.

The UN says more than 10,000 Afghan civilians have died because of the fighting in the past five years alone.

More than 2,500 international troops have been killed - most of them American.

The conflict has already surpassed Vietnam to become the longest war in US history.

'Superficial understanding'
Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations, Gen McChrystal, who commanded coalition forces in 2009-10 before being forced to resign after a magazine interview, said the most difficult task would be to create a legitimate government that ordinary Afghans could believe in and that would balance the influence of the Taliban.
"We didn't know enough and we still don't know enough," he said. "Most of us - me included - had a very superficial understanding of the situation and history, and we had a frighteningly simplistic view of recent history, the last 50 years," he said.

He added that while the choice to engage in Afghanistan may have been understood, the decision to invade Iraq had been seen as illegitimate by many in the Muslim world and had diverted some military resources that could have been put to good use in Afghanistan.

Gen McChrystal's comments come as a coalition of aid groups said despite billions of dollars in aid, improvements were only patchy.

The Acbar group said health and education sectors in particular remained in dire need of improvement.

Few gains
The BBC's Paul Wood, in Kabul, says that Western officials admit that parts of the country will remain violent after 2014 when Nato relinquishes its combat role. Without a peace deal with the Taliban, he says, few really expect the war to be brought to an end.

Some $57bn (£37bn) of aid has been spent over the past decade, according to the non-governmental organisations who form part of the Agency Co-ordinating Body for Afghan Relief, but, while some gains have been made, the spending has not always translated into real improvements for many Afghans.

For example, now 80% of Afghans have access to health services, compared to just nine percent in 2001, according to data from the Public Health Ministry.

But many of the brand new clinics are often closed or poorly equipped.

"Behind the headline numbers there lies a picture of people struggling to reach clinics which lack medicines or doctors, and school children trying to learn without textbooks or classrooms," said Acbar director Anne Garella.

The country is also facing its worst drought for a decade, with the World Food Programme saying it expects that 2.6 million people will need aid.

Rights group Amnesty International earlier this weeks welcomed progress in new human rights laws, the availability of education and health services and reduced discrimination against women, but said in some spheres - including justice and policing, security and displacement - the situation had remained stagnant, or even deteriorated.

"The Afghan government and its partners can't continue to justify their poor performance by saying that things are better than during the 1990s," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty's Asia Pacific director.

Bin Laden death: 'CIA doctor' accused of treason

Bin Laden was top of the US 'most wanted' list

A Pakistani commission investigating the US raid that killed Osama Bin Laden says a doctor accused of helping the CIA should be tried for high treason.

Dr Shakil Afridi is accused of running a CIA-sponsored fake vaccine programme in Abbottabad, where Bin Laden was killed, to try to get DNA samples.

He was arrested shortly after the 2 May US raid that killed the al-Qaeda chief.

The commission has been interviewing intelligence officials and on Wednesday spoke to Bin Laden family members.

Pakistan, which was deeply embarrassed by the raid, has described the covert US special forces operation as a violation of its sovereignty.

A government commission, headed by a former Supreme Court judge, has been charged with discovering how the US military was able to carry out the raid deep within Pakistan without being detected.

It is also investigating how Bin Laden was able to hide in Abbottabad, a garrison town, for several years.

DNA sought
After questioning Dr Afridi, the commission said that in view of the record and evidence it was "of the view that prima facie, a case of conspiracy against the State of Pakistan and high treason" should be launched against him.

Washington has been arguing that Dr Afridi should be freed and allowed to live in the US.

In the weeks after the Bin Laden raid, reports emerged that Dr Afridi, a senior Pakistani doctor, had been recruited by the CIA to organise the phoney vaccine drive.

After having tracked down a Bin Laden courier to a high-walled compound in Abbottabad, the CIA wanted to confirm Bin Laden's presence by obtaining a DNA sample from the residents.

It is not clear if any DNA from Bin Laden or any family members was ever obtained.

After the raid, Pakistani authorities took three of Bin Laden's widows and two of his daughters into custody.

The commission said on Thursday that statements had been taken from them and they were no longer required for its investigation.