Wednesday, 12 October 2016

US election: FBI investigating hacking of Clinton campaign chief

Hillary Clinton embraces John Podesta at a conference in Washington DC - 12 October 2011Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image captionJohn Podesta is one of Hillary Clinton's top aides and her campaign chairman
Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, John Podesta, has said the FBI is investigating whether Russia was behind a hack on his private email.
Mr Podesta also suggested Republican nominee Donald Trump's campaign was given advance notice of the breach.
His remarks come after WikiLeaks published a trove of his hacked emails.
The top adviser to Mrs Clinton said the enquiry was part of a wider probe into hacks on the Democratic Party by groups with Russian ties.
"I've been involved in politics for nearly five decades," Mr Podesta told reporters aboard the Clinton campaign plane.
"This definitely is the first campaign that I've been involved with in which I've had to tangle with Russian intelligence agencies, who seem to be doing everything they can on behalf of our opponent."
The longtime aide to Mrs Clinton pointed to a tweet by Mr Trump's adviser Roger Stone in August that said Mr Podesta's "time in the barrel" was coming.
However, the tweet was posted shortly after WikiLeaks released thousands of hacked emails from other Democratic officials.
Mr Podesta also claimed Mr Stone has been in touch with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, but acknowledged evidence was "circumstantial".
Mr Stone told the AP news agency that Mr Podesta's claims were "categorically false" while WikiLeaks tweeted that it "has had no contact with Roger Stone".
Mr Podesta also speculated that the timing of the first WikiLeaks release on Friday was intended to distract from the explosive 2005 footage showing Mr Trump making obscene comments about groping women.
The Clinton campaign has not verified the authenticity of the leaked emails, adding that they could have been altered.
"The pattern is they hack, they leak truthful things, and then they build up to leaking documents that are either doctored or wholly fabricated,'' said Mrs Clinton's spokeswoman, Jennifer Palmieri.

Analysis: Anthony Zurcher, BBC North America reporter

These emails have given Americans a candid look at the inner chaos, dysfunction and general awkwardness of a major presidential campaign.
Anyone familiar with ungainly corporate bureaucracies - the best way to describe what modern multi-million-dollar political endeavours have become - should instantly recognise the picture.
Mrs Clinton's leadership team obsesses about messaging, deals with interpersonal disputes, and frets and freezes over bad news and worst-case scenarios. They also reveal the campaign's at-times-cozy relationship with members of the US media (some of whom, like Donna Brazile, were former, and future, party operatives).
Mr Podesta has condemned the hack - the virtual equivalent of someone riffling through his desk drawers - as the work of a Russian government intent on helping the Trump campaign. So far, at least, the purloined messages contain no smoking guns.
They should, however, dispel Americans of any notion of the inherent nobility of political campaigns. Modern politics is less Aaron Sorkin and his high-minded West Wing television series than it is a theatre-of-the-absurd episode of Veep.

The latest batch of emails offer a glimpse into Mrs Clinton's political network, suggesting that Donna Brazile, Democratic National Committee interim chairman, had given the nominee advance notice of a question she would be asked at a CNN town hall event.
Ms Brazile denied any impropriety on Tuesday.
US relations with Russia have taken a central role in the presidential election.
Last week, US intelligence officials said the Russian government was behind a series of hacks aiming to influence the presidential election.
Mrs Clinton has also questioned Mr Trump's praise for Russian President Vladimir Putin as a strong leader, his connection to Russian businessmen and his criticism of the Nato alliance.
Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov told CNN the hacking allegations were flattering but ridiculous.
When asked about Trump's lewd comments about women, he said there were "pussies" on both sides.

Wednesday, 5 October 2016

Tuesday, 4 October 2016

Hurricane Matthew: Category Four storm pounds Haiti

Media captionHurricane Matthew from space
The most powerful Caribbean hurricane in nearly a decade has hit Haiti, bringing 145mph (230km/h) winds, heavy rain and dangerous storm surges.
Hurricane Matthew, a Category Four storm, made landfall at the south-western tip at about 11:00 GMT.
The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Haiti was "getting everything a major hurricane can throw at them".
Reports from the southern coast spoke of communities under water and buildings stripped of roofs.
Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, director of the country's Civil Protection Agency, told Associated Press: "It's much too early to know how bad things are but we do know there are a lot of houses that have been destroyed or damaged in the south."
One resident too ill to leave their home was killed when waves struck in the town of Port Salut.
Haiti's Interim President Jocelerme Privert said earlier that some people at sea or who had not "respected alerts" had died, but he gave no more details.
  • Hurricane Matthew in pictures
  • Animated guide: Hurricanes
  • Haiti is one of the world's poorest countries and many of its 11 million residents live in areas prone to flooding and in flimsy housing. Matthew is expected to bring up to 40in (102cm) of rain to some parts as it moves north at about 15km/h.
    Graphic
    Social media footage from the southern coastal town of Les Cayes showed palm trees being bent sideways and buildings with roofs sheared off.
    American journalist Jacqueline Charles told the BBC from the capital, Port-au-Prince, that reports from Les Cayes spoke of people walking in water shoulder high, with relief workers saying that other coastal communities were also under water.
    Media captionLaura Sewell, from Care International, on the hurricane preparations
    Fonie Pierre, director of Catholic Relief Services for Les Cayes, told AP: "Many people are now asking for help, but it's too late because there is no way to go evacuate them."
    The mayor of Les Cayes, Jean Gabriel Fortune, posted tweets that included video showing damage in the Vernet area.

    Nick Bryant, BBC News, Jimani border crossing, Haiti

    Haiti has been taking a brutal pounding. The conditions here are atrocious - to step outside is to be drenched within seconds.
    Most vulnerable have been those who inhabit the shacks along the western coastline. There, storm surges are the main danger.
    People here are confronting life-threatening flooding and the likelihood of mudslides in a landscape denuded of trees.
    This Category Four storm comes as this impoverished country is still recovering from the 2010 earthquake which killed more than 200,000 people, and a cholera epidemic that followed.
    Many live in shanty towns that offer little protection from the high winds and rains. And many refused to evacuate, fearing that what few possessions they have left would be stolen.

    The mayor of Tiburon, Remiza Denize, spoke of large waves hitting the town: "Everyone is trying to find a safe place to protect themselves."
    Ms Jean-Baptiste said that there had been a major landslide between Les Cayes and Tiburon.

    Guantanamo Bay evacuation

    Haitian officials say that about 1,300 emergency shelters have been built, enough to accommodate 340,000 people. Both airports in Haiti are closed.
    Media captionHurricane Matthew hits Haiti - and where it will go next
    Civil protection workers ask residents to evacuate their homes in HaitiImage copyrightAP
    Image captionHaitian authorities tried to persuade people to evacuate their homes
    A couple look over Port-au-Prince, HaitiImage copyrightREUTERS
    Image captionMany Haitians live in flimsy huts vulnerable to flooding. The sign reads "house for sale"
    Map
    One local in Port-au-Prince said the community would unite in the face of the storm's danger.
    "We are communicating amongst ourselves thanks to our own means. We will tell the people how the situation is. If things are bad then we will come together."
    Unicef said more than four million children might be exposed to hurricane damage.
    The UN children's fund representative in Haiti, Marc Vincent, said: "Waterborne diseases are the first threat to children in similar situations - our first priority is to make sure children have enough safe water."
    People stand on the coast watching the surf produced by Hurricane Matthew, on the outskirts of Kingston, JamaicaImage copyrightAP
    Image captionJamaica too has been feeling the effects of Hurricane Matthew
    People wait in a shelter ahead of Hurricane Matthew in Guantanamo, CubaImage copyrightAP
    Image captionParts of Cuba are also on alert
    An NHC statement said: "On the forecast track, the eye of Matthew will move near eastern Cuba later [on Tuesday], and move near or over portions of the south-eastern and central Bahamas [on Tuesday night] and Wednesday, and approach the north-western Bahamas on Wednesday night."
    About 13,000 people were evacuated from high-risk areas in neighbouring Dominican Republic, which is also expected to get battered by rains and winds, according to the country's civil defence chief.
    A hurricane alert is in place for six eastern Cuban provinces and residents are being moved from low-lying areas.
    Some 700 spouses and children of US service members have been flown out of the Guantanamo Bay base, which is just 80km from where the storm could make landfall.
    It is also predicted to hit the US east coast later in the week. Florida and parts of North Carolina have declared states of emergency.
    Hurricane Matthew is the region's most powerful since Felix in 2007.

    Hurricane scales

    Map showing the world's seven tropical cyclone basins and what the storms that form there are called - 23 October 2015
    Category one: sustained winds of 74-95mph (119-153 km/h); some damage and power cuts
    Category two: winds of 96-110mph (154-177 km/h); extensive damage
    Category three: winds of 111-129mph (178-208 km/h); well-built homes suffer major damage
    Category four: winds of 130-156mph (209-251 km/h); severe damage to well-built homes, most trees snapped or uprooted
    Category five: winds of 157 mph (252 km/h) or higher; high percentage of homes destroyed, area uninhabitable for weeks or months

Nigerian actress Rahama Sadau sorry for 'offensive hug'


Rahma Sadau and ClassiqImage copyrightFINESSE ENTERTAINMENT
Image captionThe ban was imposed after the singer Classiq released a music video where he embraced actress Rahama Sadau

A leading Nigerian actress, who was banned from the Hausa-language film industry because of her "immoral" behaviour, has apologised.
Rahama Sadau's appearance in a music video "hugging and cuddling" Nigerian pop star Classiq offended some people.
Ms Sadau said sorry to those she upset, but said her actions were "innocuous".
Hausa films are popular in the mostly Muslim northern Nigeria where it is taboo for men and women to hold hands in public.
The industry, commonly known as Kannywood, has been under fire from conservative Muslim clerics who accuse it of corrupting people's values.
The Motion Pictures Practitioners Association of Nigeria banned the actress from Kannywood films, saying that her appearance in the video violated the industry's code of ethics.
It added that it hoped the ban would serve as a deterrent to other actors and actresses who are "expected to be good ambassadors of the society they represent".

A typical Kannywood film - Isa Sanusi, BBC Hausa, Abuja


Man looking at Kannywood DVDs on a shelfImage copyrightAFP

As the film opens parents are seen discussing who their successful city-dwelling son should marry. They decide on a cousin who they deem meets all their expectations of a good wife.
But there's a hitch, their urban, and urbane, son is in love with an educated city lady. He wants to marry her.
The family confronts their son with their choice of wife for him. The dispute generates tension and finally the parents force their son to marry the cousin.
He goes through with the wedding but stays in touch with his preferred partner. They go on romantic outings during which he mentions his loveless marriage.
Throughout the film, dancing and singing punctuate the action.
Despite the passionate plot, there will not be any physical contact. That means no hugging and definitely no kissing. If there is to be any suggestion of sex, the screen will go dark.

Ms Sadau said she took full responsibility for what happened, but argued that she was behaving professionally and added that in her line of work "innocuous touching with other people... is inevitable".
But she reassured people that she would behave with decorum, adding: "I have lines that I would never cross."

Rahma Sadau and ClassiqImage copyrightFINESSE ENTERTAINMENT
Rahma Sadau and ClassiqImage copyrightFINESSE ENTERTAINMENT

Responding to the criticism she has received she said people should "be more tolerant and forgiving towards one another and to cease all the senseless abuse, name calling and backbiting".
In it, the Nigerian pop star is smitten with a vegetable seller in a market, acted by Ms Sadau.
Initially, she rejects his advances, batting him away with a bunch of vegetables, but he eventually wins her over.
They hold hands and engage in a bit of cuddling that would be considered demure in a Western film.
But many people in northern Nigeria felt she had gone too far with Classiq in the music video, reports the BBC's Isa Sanusi from the capital, Abuja.