Drogba rages at ref for Euro exit

Chelsea striker Didier Drogba labelled referee Tom Henning Ovrebo a “disgrace” after his side’s Champions League exit at the hands of Barcelona.

The Blues felt they had four strong shouts for penalties before Barcelona won the semi-final on away goals with a 93rd-minute Andres Iniesta strike.

After the 1-1 second-leg draw, Drogba ran on to the pitch to confront Ovrebo at the final whistle and was booked.

He then shouted and swore into TV cameras and may face action from Uefa.

A Uefa spokesman said: “We will see the report from the referee and match delegate before deciding whether to take any action or not.”

Drogba, who had been substituted after 72 minutes, had to be restrained as Norwegian Ovrebo went down the tunnel.

Blues captain John Terry, who also strongly remonstrated with Ovrebo, defended the reactions of the Chelsea players and Drogba in particular.

“I am fully behind Didier for the way he reacted,” declared Terry. “The man wants to win. You can see the passion that he played with during the game and the passion afterwards.

“People are saying we shouldn’t have reacted the way we did but the fact is, six decisions went against us in front of 40,000 people. And for the ref to not give one of them is unusual.”

Hiddink unhappy with penalty decisions

The central defender also condemned the decision to select Ovrebo for such a high-profile tie.

“We get a referee who has officiated in 10 Champions League games in his career. For me, for him to be given a semi-final at Stamford Bridge, that’s not good enough,” Terry told BBC Radio 5 Live.

In fact, the match official has been in charge of 28 Champions League games since 1999, but midfielder Frank Lampard was equally damning of the decisions to reject Chelsea’s penalty appeals.

“The penalties are clear as day,” he added. “The linesman’s in line, the referee’s nearby. There were about three of them that were clear as anything and I can’t understand why they weren’t given.”

Fellow midfielder Michael Ballack, who was booked for running 40 yards alongside Ovrebo to protest over the final penalty appeal being dismissed, said: “Everybody saw it and it was not one or two decisions, there were at least three, four five maybe we can discuss.

“It was not just the last-minute decision. If you have the history of the situations before maybe he should give this one at least.”

Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink supported his players for their actions and revealed he would stand by them.

“I can fully understand in the emotion of the game, as long as they don’t touch him, I can fully understand this disappointment,” he said of his players’ reactions to the referee’s rulings.

“It’s not just one decision in doubt but it’s several.

“I can fully understand and I protect my players for this when they have this emotion, just with loads of energy and adrenalin in their bodies.”

In 2005, Swedish referee Anders Frisk was heavily criticised by then Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho after Drogba was controversially sent off in the first leg of a last-16 Champions League tie against Barcelona, which the Spanish side won 2-1.

Frisk then received death threats and subsequently decided to retire from the game.

At the time, Chelsea issued a statement condemning the actions of those who had abused Frisk.

Police in Ovrebo’s home city of Oslo said they would be vigilant over any threats made against the referee.

An Oslo police spokesman said: “We are watching closely what is being posted on the internet. Anything we believe would threaten his personal safety will be taken seriously.”

Former Uefa ref Graham Poll was quick to dismiss any suggestion that the governing body had influenced Ovrebo to ensure Barcelona reached the final on 27 May against Manchester United.

He told the BBC: “I refereed in Uefa for 13 years, 11 in their top group of referees, and never, ever, ever was there any suggestion of ‘it would be nice if this team won’ or ‘could you do this team a favour’ – I promise you, absolutely nothing.

“I’m 99.9% certain that there was nothing untoward going on here.”

Poll added: “Tom had a bad day at work and, unfortunately, for a referee that gets highlighted.

“Irrespective of that, you can’t possibly condone the behaviour of the Chelsea players at the final whistle and even before that.”

Chinese reveal child quake toll

China says 5,335 schoolchildren died or remain missing after last year’s devastating Sichuan earthquake.

It is the first time that Chinese authorities have given an official estimate for the number of children lost in the disaster.

The official number is far lower than other independent estimates, says the BBC’s Quentin Sommerville in Beijing.

The issue is sensitive because of accusations that many schools were poorly constructed.

When the earthquake struck, a disproportionate number of school buildings collapsed, our correspondent says.

Chinese officials made the announcement days before the 12 May anniversary of the disaster that killed up to 90,000 people.

Delay

Tu Wentao, head of the Sichuan education department, said the delay in releasing the figures was because they had to be compiled from various government agencies.

“These numbers were reached through legal methods. We have wide agreement on these numbers,” he told a press conference in the provincial capital Chengdu.

News reports at the time of the disaster said 9,000 children and teachers died, while independent surveys put the figure closer to 7,000.

Liu Xiaoying, whose 12-year-old daughter was killed, says she believes the death toll is much higher than the 5,335 figure given by officials.

Sichuan authorities say the quake also left another 546 students disabled.

The figures do not include casualties from surrounding provinces.

The government has admitted that nearly 14,000 schools were damaged or collapsed in the magnitude-8 earthquake.

Parents have blamed local corruption and official neglect for the collapse of so many schools and for the loss of their children.

Many say that when they have complained they have been harassed or detained.

Liu Xiaoying has twice been to Beijing to petition the government.

“I hope the investigation will continue and that the people responsible will be seriously punished,” she said.

“I hope the government will really do what they say they and not brush off us parents.”

Correspondents say parents have been stopped from going back to the schools on sensitive occasions, and the authorities are believed to be monitoring parents leading up to the anniversary of the disaster.

Human Rights Watch has called on Beijing to be more open about the quake, compensate victims’ relatives and allow parents to file lawsuits.

“Parents of student quake victims, who are trying to understand how and why their children died, deserve answers and compassion, not threats and abuse,” Sophie Richardson, the group’s Asia advocacy director, said in a statement.

UN laments choking of Bethlehem

The UN has accused Israel of restricting development of the Bethlehem region in the West Bank.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said just 13% of land around Bethlehem was open for use by the Palestinian population.

It said the traditional birthplace of Jesus Christ was hemmed in by Israeli settlements and military zones as well as Israel’s West Bank barrier.

An Israeli foreign ministry official said the issue was beyond Ocha’s remit.

Next week, Pope Benedict is due to celebrate Mass in Bethlehem , a Palestinian governorate which is home to 175,000 inhabitants, including many Christians.

Two-thirds of the governorate’s 660 sq km (255 sq miles) has been under Israeli control and about 86,000 Israelis live in settlements and outposts in the governorate, Ocha says.

Israel occupied the West Bank in the 1967 war and its settlement activity is regarded as illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

Cut off

“Israeli measures have radically reduced the space available to the inhabitants of Bethlehem, compromising the future economic and social development of the governorate,” the Ocha report says.

The report says that in addition to the land put under Israeli control under past interim agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), 20% of the remainder is an Israeli-controlled “nature reserve”.

Meanwhile, the West Bank barrier cuts through Bethlehem’s western edges blocking off grazing and agricultural land, the report says.

“As a result, Bethlehem’s potential for residential and industrial expansion and development has been reduced, as well as its access to natural resources,” the report said.

Israel says the barrier is needed to keep out Palestinian attackers, including suicide bombers. Palestinians call it a land grab since it juts into the West Bank.

Yigal Palmor of the Israeli foreign ministry said he had not seen the report but accused past reports by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of containing “distorted information”.

Settlement drive

Separately, information released by an Israeli anti-settlement group, Yesh Din, said settlement activity in the West Bank had been accelerating at the fastest rate since 2003.

It cited more than 20 cases of new Israeli building on occupied territory since January, on both sides of the barrier, including a number of outposts built without Israeli permits.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised the previous US administration that he would evacuate all unauthorised outposts built after March 2001, but critics say evacuations are carried out intermittently and without rigour.

The international peace plan known as the road map called on Israel to halt all construction in the settlements, although observers say construction has never ceased.

Israel says it is not building new settlements, but claims the right to foster “natural growth” within the confines of existing communities.

Pakistan pounds Taleban positions

Pakistani helicopter gunships and warplanes have been bombing suspected Taleban militants in the Swat Valley as clashes intensify in the north-west.

Thousands of civilians continue to flee the area, with fighting especially heavy in the town of Mingora.

Among those reported killed in fighting elsewhere is a son of the cleric behind a peace deal which has now broken down.

On Wednesday, US President Barack Obama vowed to “defeat al-Qaeda” and its allies in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

He was speaking after talks in Washington with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.

Inside Mingora, the Taleban are getting ready for an attack which local people expect to be imminent. One eyewitness told the BBC he had seen militants planting land mines, digging trenches and cutting down trees to block roads.

A curfew was once again lifted to allow civilians to leave Swat and join the tens of thousands who have already moved into camps or the homes of relatives further to the south.

All are desperate not to get caught in the crossfire.

Residents say at least 24 civilians have lost their lives in the past two days.

Some died when their houses were hit by artillery, while others were reportedly shot for defying a curfew.

The BBC Urdu service’s Riffatullah Orakzai says that eyewitnesses in the Kanju area near Mingora have seen militants set up checkposts on the main roads and are not allowing people who want to flee the fighting to pass.

Witnesses say a large number of people, including women and children, are now stranded there.

Shaukat Saleem, a lawyer who spoke to the BBC from Mingora, said that about 200,000 had now left the town, with a further 500,000 civilians remaining.

He accused both the army and the Taleban of shooting civilians who tried to flee the fighting.

Mr Saleem said that electricity supplies were sporadic and there was little or no water, while the price of goods had shot up.

During the day there is usually a lull in the fighting, Mr Saleem said, with the Taleban very much in control. But at night the exchanges of fire increased and a lot of people had been killed.

Troops moving into the Swat valley have been attacked by remote controlled bombs, while the army says it has killed dozens of militants.

It also says it has recaptured emerald mines in the Shahdara area, near Mingora, which were being operated by the militants.

Much of the fighting has focused on a hill which overlooks Mingora. The army says the Taleban have seized key buildings inside the town.

The BBC’s M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says troops moving into Swat face resistance all along the 40km (25-mile) road that heads in a north-easterly direction from Malakand to Mingora.

Our correspondent says that fighting has not only erupted in several areas around Mingora, but there are also reports of more clashes in the neighbouring area of Buner.

In an another incident, militants overran a paramilitary fort in the Chakdara area of Lower Dir, officials say.

Three paramilitary soldiers were killed in the attack and 10 policemen were taken away as hostages.

They say that the Taleban used explosives and heavy weapons in the attack which severely damaged the fort.

Tense situation

Family members of cleric Sufi Mohammed say his son, Kiffayatullah, was killed in the Daro area of Lower Dir late on Wednesday night.

“My brother was in his house when a mortar fell on it and he was killed,” another of the cleric’s sons, Zia ul-Islam, told the BBC. Sufi Mohammed’s son-in-law was also injured in the attack.

Sufi Mohammed acted as a mediator between the government and Taleban forces in the north-west and organised the now defunct peace deal in Swat.

There has been no word from the military or the Taleban about the death.

The BBC’s Syed Shoaib Hasan in Islamabad says the death of Kiffayatullah is likely to exacerbate an already tense situation.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has meanwhile warned that a humanitarian crisis is intensifying in north-west Pakistan.

In a statement the ICRC said that it no longer had access to the areas most affected by the conflict and that precise statistics of the displaced were difficult to ascertain.

“The ICRC and the Pakistan Red Crescent Society are currently marshalling their resources to be able to provide for 120,000 internally displaced people, affected by the fighting, with food and essential relief items,” it said.

Dr Hassan: Keeping identities of drug-lords secret is a violation of law

President Mohamed Nasheed’s admission that he knew the identities of the six major drug-dealers operating in Maldives and then refusing to reveal the information was a violation of the law, former Special Advisor to the President Dr Hassan Saeed has said.

Dr Hassan made the statement while answering a question posed a Haveeru reporter at the inauguration ceremony of Imad Solih’s campaign office. Solih is contesting in the upcoming parliamentary elections for a seat in Seenu Feydhoo constituency under a Dhivehi Qaumee Party (DQP) ticket.

“I am very saddened by this,” Dr Hassan said. “It’s a direct violation of the law. Withholding such information is a criminal offense under the Drug Law of the country. I am very saddened that the President has done such a thing and I hope he doesn’t do something like that in the future.”

He further expressed his shock that the President was in possession of such important information and had chosen not to share it with the country’s security forces. He said that he found the news that the President had chosen to keep information about, not one, but the six major drug-dealers in the country from the security forces, beyond shocking.

“Frankly, I can’t believe it,” he said. He said that the President’s actions, even if unintentionally, had only worked to give advance warning to the drug-lords in question, giving them ample opportunity to make their escape.

“It has given them advance warning and enough time to cover up all the evidence,” Dr Hassan. “This is cause for concern.”

President Mohamed Nasheed had made the statement that six leading drug dealers in the country had been identified while speaking with the people of Dhevvadhoo during an official visit to the island last Saturday.

The President said he did not want to identify the six people because if they were arrested it would seem that the Government was trying to influence the elections by arresting members of the opposition parties.

Government plans to construct good quality roads, says President Nasheed

The Government plans to construct good quality roads across the country this year, President Mohamed Nasheed has said while addressing the people of Hoarafushi.

The President went on to say that the road around the perimeter of Hoarafushi was also included in the plan.

Reiterating that the Government was implementing its policies according to a well planned process, the President said that if they did not stick to the process, no further development would be possible. Further, he said that he was committed to establishing good democratic governance in Maldives.

President Nasheed also spoke on the developmental projects planned for Hoarafushi, saying that he does not wish to make false promises to the people. He also said that the Government had a vision as well as the determination to bring prosperity and progress to the Maldives.

As part of his tour to North Thiladhunmathi atoll, the President next visited Molhadhoo and met with the people of the island. Addressing the people of Molhadhoo, the President said the government was making its policies to achieve sustainable development.

Motorcycle inside Hithadhoo house set on fire

A motorcycle parked inside a house in Seenu atoll Hithadhoo was set on fire on early Wednesday morning.

The arsonists had set fire to some tires and thrown them over the Suzuki GN motorcycle, causing it to go up in flames. According to Ibrahim Ahmed (Nooree) of Free Park, the house where the motorcycle had been when it was set on fire, the incident had occurred between 4:00am and 5:00am.

“I woke up around that time and found the whole house was filled with smoke,” he said. Nooree said that there were two other burnt car tires near the destroyed motorcycle.

“A small swing which was nearby was also completely destroyed in the fire,” he said.

According to Nooree, even though the fire hadn’t caused any more damage to the house, the whole house was filled with smoke. He said that the fire had caused a loss of around Rf40,000.

He further said that he had no idea who could be responsible for the attack, but speculated that some thieves who had tried to steal his camera in 2007 could be responsible as he had been summoned to court that day to testify in the case.

The Addu Police Station said that they were investigating the incident.

College of Higher Education students hold demonstration in Malé

A large number of students from the Maldives College of Higher Education held a demonstration in Malé on Wednesday. The demonstration was held to draw attention to many problems within the College and to demand the implementation of several changes that the students wanted.

More than 500 students from many faculties of the College took part in the demonstration which began in front of the MES School and ended at the Lonuziyaraaiykolhu area. The students carried placards and banners expressing the feelings and demands.

Some of the problems with the College that students highlighted were lack of space at the hostel, unavailability of loans for those seeking further study, delays in receiving pocket money, and shortage of teachers. Students also expressed their feelings about the College’s budget and about the University that the Government was planning to build.

According to the students who took part in the protest, they had decided to hold the demonstration in order to bring the concerns of the students to the attention of the public since the College management and Government had failed to provide solutions. He said that most of the time they got their pocket money only when the students gathered together in front of the finance department office and demanded it.

“It’s very difficult to get our pocket money,” one of the protesters said. “We have gone to many Government institutions seeking a solution. But they all say that it’s not their problem.”

The Rector of the College, Hassan Hameed, said that they had known that the students were planning to hold a demonstration and had advised against it as it would not improve the situation at the College.

“We are facing more budgetary problems this year than I’ve faced during the entire ten years I’ve been working here,” he said. “I’ve already said that due to the financial problems it’s highly unlikely that we can complete the courses that are already being conducted.”

HRC: Several complaints received about politicians using underhanded tactics to influence elections results

Numerous complaints about politicians trying to intimidate or bribe voters in order to manipulate the results of the upcoming parliamentary elections have being reported, the Human Rights Commission (HRC) has said.

In a statement issued by the Commission, the HRC said that such activities weren’t limited to only politicians and that they’ve received complaints about independent candidates and political parties resorting to similar tactics. The statement further said that there had also been complaints that some candidates were using children in some of their campaign activities, a direct violation of the law. The HRC called on the Elections Commission to take the necessary steps against those candidates.

The HRC further said that every election would clearly reveal what the public wanted and as such it was important the elections remained free from any sort of outside influence in order to ensure a free and fair voting process.

President Nasheed to receive Anna Lindh Prize 2009

The Anna Lindh Memorial Fund has announced that the Anna Lindh Prize 2009 would go to President of Maldives Mohamed Nasheed.

In a press release, the Fund has said that “President Nasheed is awarded for the Maldives’ great efforts to put people and their human rights at the heart of the debate on climate change. He is also awarded for his role in the peaceful transition to democracy.”

“I and the Anna Lindh Memorial Fund with me is please that President Nasheed accepted this prize at a time when the world community must understand and draw conclusions from the effects of climate change. President Nasheed and the Maldivian people show us that climate change is an issue of existential dimension,” said Jan Eliasson, Chairman of the Anna Lindh Memorial Fund.

In his letter accepting the award, the President had said that “democracy and human rights in the Maldives were secured through a home-grown, grassroots movement”. He further said, “Similarly, it is through the participation of ordinary Maldivians that we have been highlighting and addressing the issues of climate change and its effects on human rights. This prize will stand as an apt testament to the brave and diligent efforts of all ordinary Maldivians.”

Anna Lindh Memorial Fund was inaugurated on September 16, 2003 in honour of the late Anna Lindh to ensure that violence does not defeat faith that one can create change through peaceful and democratic means. Anna Lindh served as Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1998 until her assassination in 2003. The Anna Lindh Memorial Fund presents an annual prize to an individual, organisation or project that acts in the spirit of Anna Lindh.

The Anna Lindh Prize Ceremony will be held on 16 June in Stockholm.