UK has 'uphill struggle to 2Mbps'

The government faces a "massive challenge" in its pledge to bring UK broadband up to a minimum of 2Mbps (megabits per second) say experts. Broadband thinktank PointTopic has produced a regional breakdown of areas that currently do not have much net speed. It shows that Northern Ireland is most poorly placed, with more than 30% of households out of reach of 2Mbps. In Wales, 26.9% of homes are unable to get speeds of 2Mbps or above. While London only has 1.2% of its population out of range of 2Mbps, places relatively near to the capital are not so lucky. "Towns such as Basingstoke and Milton Keynes which people might expect to be well connected have notspots," said Tim Johnson, chief analyst with Point Topic. "The scale of the task is massive and in order to achieve it there needs to be co-operation between government, the regulator and operators such as BT," he said. Broadband anniversary Ten years on from the first broadband connections being made, the UK is at a crossroads, thinks Mr Johnson. If the issue is addressed, it could mean that things in the decade ahead look much brighter. "We forecast that over 90% of UK homes could have broadband access in 10 years time, almost all with speeds of 32Mbps," he predicted. But, in order to achieve this, the government needs to back the right technology and make sure conditions are favourable, he added. "We think that fibre is the right way to go. That will provide the UK with a future-proofed network," said Mr Johnson. BT has pledged to provide fibre to around 40% of the UK but with the caveat that "market conditions must be right". Mr Johnson believes this may mean that the regulator has to allow BT to "make profit via some level of monopoly agreement". Not allowing anyone else to use its newly-created fibre network would boost profits for the telco but many believe it would be a backward step, after years of opening up its copper network to other players. The government's decision to provide at least 2Mbps to all UK homes by 2012 was the most headline-grabbing idea of the recently published Digital Britain report. The report, the full version of which is due in May, laid out the government's commitment to broadband and suggested that some of the gaps in coverage could be filled with mobile broadband. Refuseniks Not everyone is convinced that mobile broadband is up to the job. "Mobile broadband is not the replacement for fixed line broadband that everyone once thought," said Alex Salter, co-founder of broadband measurement site SamKnows. "There are issues with the network and services drop off the more people who use it," he said. There are a couple of firms offering satellite broadband which has been touted as a solution for rural areas. It is not cheap though. Avanti offers a 2Mb service for £45 a month. Whatever technology is used to fill in the gaps in broadband coverage there will always be a core of users who do not want it even if it is available. "We estimate that 15 to 20% say that they will never get it and frankly you can live without broadband, although it might make life more expensive and less convenient," said Mr Johnson.

PERCENTAGE OF UK OUT OF RANGE OF 2MBPS

• East Midlands - 15.2%
  
• East of England - 15%
  
• London - 1.2%
  
• North East - 15.8%
  
• North West - 10.8%
  
• South East - 13.5%
  
• South West - 19.9%
  
• West Midlands - 10.4%
  
• Yorkshire/Humber - 16.1%
  
• Northern Ireland - 32.2%
  
• Scotland - 15.6%
  
• Wales - 26.9%
  

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Pak govt paid $6 mn to Taliban to agree to ceasefire

The Taliban in Pakistan's restive Swat valley received Rs 480 million ($6 million) in compensation from the government after agreeing to a ceasefire with security forces for an indefinite period, a media report said on Tuesday.

The militants agreed to lay down arms and endorse a peace deal between the government and religious hardliner Sufi Mohammad to impose Shariah or Islamic laws in Swat in exchange for the payment, Italian news agency Adnkronos International (AKI) reported quoting security sources.

"The amount has been paid through a backchannel," a senior security official told AKI on condition of anonymity.

"It is compensation for those who were killed during military operations and compensation for the properties destroyed by the security forces. In fact, negotiations for this package were finalised well before Maulana Sufi Mohammad signed a peace deal."

The security official said the amount was delivered from a special fund of President Asif Ali Zardari. All of Pakistan's tribal areas come under President's jurisdiction and a special aid package, including a donation from the US, was designated for the region by the President's office and distributed through the Governor's office in North West Frontier Province, the report said.

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Pak to bear more US attacks on its soil

Pakistan will have to bear more US attacks on its soil.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said missile strikes in Pak will continue in an effort to root out Al-Qaida members.

Asked whether Pakistan was aware of the renewed attacks, the Defense Secretary simply said 'yes'.

Gates was speaking to the Senate Armed Services Committee in his first comments to Congress as US President Barack Obama's defense secretary.

The US has carried out at least 30 such attacks on Pakistan in 2008, after what it saw was Pakistan's failure to stem the flow of Al-Qaida fighters into its territory.

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Pak attack: 40 Taliban, 6 soldiers killed

Forty pro-Taliban militants and six Pakistani paramilitary personnel were killed when security forces repulsed a daring attack by over 600 rebels in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan, officials said on Sunday.

The large group of militants, most of them foreigners who came from the Afghan border, attacked paramilitary personnel at several locations in Mohmand Agency late on Saturday night, said a statement issued by the Frontier Corps.

The fighting continued till the early hours of Sunday.

The foreign fighters, who were backed by local militants, used heavy weapons like mortars and rockets to attack a Frontier Corps camp and a check post.

After a fierce exchange of fire, the Frontier Corps troops repulsed the "massive attack", the statement said.

"In the intense exchange of fire that continued all night, the Frontier Corps troops threw back the attackers, (inflicting) major casualties with 40 miscreants confirmed dead," the statement said.

Gun battles were continuing with the militants in "some pockets of resistance", it said. Some of the militants had surrendered while seven Frontier Corps personnel were injured in the action.

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Kosovo trial clears Serbia leader

Serbian ex-President Milan Milutinovic has been acquitted on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Kosovo by a UN war crimes tribunal.

Five former top Serbian officials were found guilty on some or all the charges relating to the 1990s conflict. Their sentences range from 15 to 22 years.

It was the court's first ruling on alleged crimes by Serbian forces in the Kosovo conflict.

Mr Milutinovic was seen largely as a figurehead president during that time.

The court ordered the release of the 66-year-old former president.

He and his fellow defendants had denied all the charges.

Former Yugoslav army chief of staff and defence minister Dragoljub Ojdanic was found guilty on some charges and sentenced to 15 years in jail.

Ex-Yugoslav deputy prime minister Nikola Sainovic, ex-Yugoslav army generals Nebojsa Pavkovic and Vladimir Lazarevic, and former Serbian police public security service chief Sreten Lukic were found guilty on all charges.

Sainovic was sentenced to 22 years in prison, Pavkovic to 22 years, Lazarevic to 15 years and Lukic to 22 years.

Prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) accused them of participating "in an alleged campaign of terror and violence directed against Kosovo Albanians and other non-Serbs in Kosovo during 1999".

"The crimes... include the deportation and forcible transfer of several hundred thousand people, as well as the murder and persecution of thousands of Kosovo Albanians," the court said in a statement.

Lost immunity

At the time of the conflict in Kosovo, real power lay in the hands of Mr Milutinovic's mentor, Slobodan Milosevic, the then-president of Yugoslavia.

Milosevic died in tribunal custody in 2006, before a verdict was delivered in his own trial, giving this trial much greater significance, says BBC correspondent Helen Fawkes in Belgrade.

The trial of Mr Milutinovic and his fellow defendants was the largest case at the ICTY to have reached this stage.

During the trial, which began in July 2006, UN prosecutors called 113 witnesses to testify against them, while defence lawyers called 118.

Prosecution witnesses testified that Serb forces shelled towns and villages during the Kosovo conflict in 1999, murdered civilians and raped women as they were driven from their homes.

Although Mr Milutinovic was indicted during the conflict, he served out his full five-year term as president until the end of 2002.

It was only after he lost his immunity as president that he surrendered.

In total, the ICTY has indicted nine of the most senior Serb and Yugoslav officials for crimes alleged to have been carried out in Kosovo by Serb forces in 1999.

Vlajko Stojiljkovic, a senior police official close to Milosevic, was indicted but committed suicide in Belgrade in 2002. Vlastimir Dordevic, the former chief of Serbia's Public Security Department and a fugitive until his arrest in June 2007, went on trial on 27 January. 

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Online risks: from cancer to autism?

A number of reports have recently linked online networking and computer games to a host of health risks.

Susan Greenfield, the eminent neuroscientist and head of the Royal Institution, is the latest to weigh into the debate, warning that young people's brains may be fundamentally altered by internet activity.

While concerns about children and computers have usually focused on their forging inappropriate relationships online, or failing to get enough exercise as a result of being glued to a screen, the baroness suggested the consequences may be more profound.

She told peers in the House of Lords it would be worth considering whether the rise in autism - a condition marked by difficulties forming attachments - was linked to the increasing prevalence of screen relationships.

Real-life conversations "require a sensitivity to voice tone, body language and perhaps even to pheromones - those sneaky molecules that we release and which others smell subconsciously.

"Moreover, according to the context and, indeed, the person with whom we are conversing, our own delivery will need to adapt. None of these skills are required when chatting on a social networking site," she said.

"It is hard to see how living this way on a daily basis will not result in brains, or rather minds, different from those of previous generations."

She also suggested that increasing diagnoses of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - ADHD - may be connected to the "near total submersion of our culture in screen technologies".

Last week, a report published in the journal Biologist, suggested that a lack of face-to-face contact could alter the way genes work, upset immune responses, hormone levels and the function of arteries.

This, said author Aric Sigman, could increase the risk of health problems as serious as cancer, strokes, heart disease and dementia.

Indisputably, people are spending more time online and social networking sites are increasingly popular - the BBC even has a "my CBeebies" where youngsters can create their own avatar.

Alone and ill

A number of studies have looked at the negative effects of social isolation on health: from an increased risk of cardiovascular disease to outright death, being lonely does not appear to be good for you.

But whether computers - and social networking in particular - improve or exacerbate social isolation in the first place is a moot point.

A spokeswoman for Cancer Research UK noted that there was no evidence to link the disease with using Facebook.

If anything, it has been suggested, social networking may improve the quality of life of those with cancer by allowing those affected to make contact.

Baroness Greenfield meanwhile points out that those on the autism spectrum are particularly comfortable in the cyber world.

"She's right about that, but her analysis is the wrong way round," said Professor David Skuse, of the Behavioural Sciences Unit at the Institute of Child Health.

"The young people with autism we see do have a problem with face-to-face communication although they can be very articulate. They need to communicate and the internet is giving them a channel that they would not otherwise have.

He added: "As for ADHD, it's true that I have yet to meet a child who could not concentrate on a computer. It seems to give them a way to focus in a way that lessons at school do not. Most of those with ADHD find their condition very distressing and want a way to control it - they want a way to focus."

In and out

Nonetheless Baroness Greenfield's overriding concerns about an ever more self-absorbed generation unable to empathise with others do chime with popular fears, says Helene Guldberg, a psychologist and author of Reclaiming Childhood: Freedom and Play in an Age of Fear.

"Technology is something of an easy target when perhaps we should be asking more difficult questions about our relationships with our children.

"But it is true that in an ideal world children would be freer to pursue their friendships and activities outdoors, on the street, away from the watchful and worried eyes of their parents.

"That doesn't make social networking sites wrong or damaging," she said. "But they shouldn't be the only option for children to communicate with each other - and let's not exaggerate the scale of the problem - we're not yet there." 

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Social websites: bad for kids' brains?

Susan Greenfield, neuroscientist and head of the Royal Institution, has warned that young people's brains may be fundamentally altered by internet use.

Dr Aric Sigman has claimed that sites such as Facebook and Bebo could harm people's health. He joins Jeremy Paxman and Ben Goldacre, author of Bad Science and the Guardian column of the same name, to discuss Baroness Greenfield's claims.

 

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