Obama acts on Guantanamo trials

Barack Obama has requested the suspension of all military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, in his first major act as US president.

The request could halt proceedings in 21 pending cases, including those against five men accused of plotting the 11 September 2001 attacks.

The halt would give Mr Obama time to review the tribunal process.

Obama has repeatedly spoken out against the detention camp

The new president is beginning his first working day by meeting economic advisers and top military commanders.

Most of his cabinet is in place but several key posts are still to be confirmed.

Mr Obama himself attended inaugural balls late into Tuesday night, as America marked the arrival of its 44th president and first African-American leader.

'Ideals versus safety'

Mr Obama has repeatedly promised to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, where some 250 inmates accused of having links to terrorism remain.

Just hours after taking the oath of office on the steps of the US Capitol, he moved to halt the controversial process of military tribunals.

The two-page document, ordered jointly by Mr Obama and the US Department of Defense, seeks a 120-day suspension of trials and will be heard by two tribunal judges on Wednesday.

The delay would "permit the newly inaugurated president and his administration time to review the military commission process", the document said.

The legal process has been widely criticised because the US military acts as jailer, judge and jury, says the BBC's Jonathan Beale in Guantanamo.

And in his inaugural address on Tuesday, Mr Obama emphasised the idea of respect for justice and the rights of the individual, rejecting "as false the choice between our safety and our ideals".

However closing Guantanamo Bay will not be easy, our correspondent adds. Questions remain over where those charged will be tried and where those freed can be safely sent.

Cabinet moves

On his first full day in the Oval Office, Mr Obama is due to meet top national security officials as he takes over as commander-in-chief.

In his inaugural address, the new president spoke of his desire to usher in a new era of peace, "to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan".

Officials said he would conduct a video conference with US military chiefs in the two countries.

Mr Obama is also expected to meet economic aides to discuss plans for presenting his proposed $800bn (£526bn) economic stimulus package to Congress.

Additionally, in a move that mimicked actions by George W Bush eight years ago, he has already ordered all the last-minute regulations signed by the former president to be put on hold.

The US Senate has already approved six members of Barack Obama's Cabinet, including Janet Napolitano as homeland security secretary and Steven Chu as energy secretary.

However, Hillary Clinton's approval as secretary of state was postponed after a Republican senator demanded a debate beforehand about foreign donations to a foundation headed by her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

That debate is due on Wednesday and Mrs Clinton's nomination is now expected to be confirmed in a vote immediately afterwards.

Timothy Geithner, the nominee to head the treasury department, is due to face the Senate finance committee on Wednesday to explain his initial failure to pay payroll taxes he owed while working for the International Monetary Fund.

Acupuncture 'works for headaches'

Acupuncture is a widely used alternative therapy

Traditional acupuncture is effective at preventing headaches, a scientific review finds - but so is a sham form.

The Cochrane Review reviewed 33 separate trials into acupuncture and its so-called "sham" counterpart.

The latter also involves the insertion of needles - but not into traditional "energy points".

The scientist leading the review said the results showed that putting needles into particular locations might not be that important.

Acupuncture is still regarded as a "complementary" therapy, but is increasingly being viewed as a potential mainstream treatment for certain conditions, such as chronic pain.

The endorsement by the Cochrane Collaboration is likely to lead to further calls for it to be made more widely available on the NHS.

The traditional explanation of its effects involves tapping into a network of "meridians" around the body to regulate the flow of an energy called "chi". Acupuncture points are located at various positions along these meridians.

However, many modern acupuncture specialists believe that the insertion of needles actually cause subtle changes in the nervous system and brain activity which can be beneficial - and place needles in other parts of the body rather than concentrating solely on traditional acupuncture points.

The Cochrane reviews involved a total of 6,736 patients, who were given acupuncture to prevent either mild to moderate "tension" headaches, or migraine attacks.

Following a course of at least eight weeks, acupuncture patients suffered fewer headaches than those given only painkillers.

'Not a sham'

Acupuncture was also superior to preventative drug treatments in migraine, the reviewers concluded.

However, acupuncture relying on non-traditional needle positions was just as good as the traditional variety in preventing tension headaches, and almost as good in the migraine patients.

Dr Klaus Linde, from the Centre for Complementary Medicine Research at the Technical University of Munich in Germany, said that much of the benefit for both might be due to a "placebo effect", in which the experience itself of being treated can produce results independently of the effects of the treatment.

He said: "Much of the clinical benefit of acupuncture might be due to non-specific needling effects and powerful placebo effects, meaning that the selection of specific needle points may be less important than many practicioners have traditionally argued."

Dr Mike Cummings, medical director of the British Medical Acupuncture Society, welcomed the research.

He said that the differences between so-called "true" and "fake" acupuncture remained controversial within the profession.

"I think that, quite literally, many practioners have missed the point in the past.

"We certainly don't call what we do 'sham' acupuncture, as we believe there is growing evidence for a mechanism behind what we do.

"However, we still don't fully understand what is happening when needles are inserted, although these reviews suggest that for certain conditions, it is effective."

Windows worm trickery for Vista

The "Open folder" option appears in the "Install or run program" list

The Conficker virus has opened a new can of worms for security experts.

Drives such as USB sticks infected with the virus trick users into installing the worm, according to researchers.

The "Autoplay" function in Vista and early versions of Windows 7 automatically searches for programs on removable drives.

However, the virus hijacks this process, masquerading as a folder to be opened. When clicked, the worm installs itself.

It then attempts to contact one of a number of web servers, from which it could download another program that could take control of the infected computer.

Bad guys

The worm is unusually clever in the way that it determines what server to contact, according to F-Secure's chief research officer Mikko Hypponen.

"It uses a complicated algorithm which changes daily and is based on timestamps from public websites such as Google.com and Baidu.com," said Mr Hypponen in a blog post.

"This makes it impossible and/or impractical for us good guys to shut them all down — most of them are never registered in the first place.

"However, the bad guys only need to predetermine one possible domain for tomorrow, register it, and set up a website — and they then gain access to all of the infected machines," he added.

It has also emerged that the virus automatically disables the automatic updates to Windows that would prevent further infection.

As the virus - also known as Downadup - has spread to an estimated 9m computers globally, a number of high-profile instances of the virus have arisen.

The Ministry of Defence has been battling an outbreak of the virus across its network for more than two weeks, and on Tuesday a network of hospitals across Sheffield told technology website The Register that more than 800 of their computers had been infected.

Users are urged to download the KB958644 Security Update from Microsoft to mitigate the risk of infection.

Duffy and Coldplay top Brits nods

Brits 2009: The nomin

Duffy and Coldplay have led the way in the nominations for the 2009 Brit Awards with four each.

The Welsh singer will go up against Chris Martin's band in the best British album and single categories.

Singer Adele, Mercury Prize winners Elbow and Scouting For Girls have three nods each while Ting Tings, Radiohead, Girls Aloud and Estelle have two each.

The awards, co-presented by Kylie Minogue, James Corden and Mathew Horne, will take place on 18 February.

The nominations were announced at a launch party at the Roundhouse in Camden, north London.

Strong contender

Coldplay - who are leading a strong UK showing at next month's Grammys with seven nominations - are also up for best British live act as well as best British group, taking on Elbow, Girls Aloud, Radiohead and Take That.

Duffy, whose debut album Rockferry was the biggest-selling album in the UK last year with 1.685 million sold, is up for best British female and is a strong contender for best breakthrough act.

Florence is critics' choice

Coldplay go head to head with Rockferry with their album Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends in the British album category, with their single Viva La Vida also taking on Duffy's Mercy.

They will be up against Elbow's The Seldom Seen Kid, Radiohead's In Rainbows and The Ting Tings' We Started Nothing for best British album.

Adele, the winner of last year's Brits Critics' Choice award, will compete against Duffy for best British female and best breakthrough act and is also up for best British single for Chasing Pavements.

Scouting For Girls, meanwhile, are up for best British live act, breakthrough act and single, for Heartbeat.

Backstage, singer Roy Stride said: "To get a live nomination as well is really special because we have played so many shows this year. We have the most amazing fan base in the world.

"It's the kind of things that bands say but we really mean it, but without then we're back working part time."

In the international category, the same five bands - AC/DC, Fleet Foxes, The Killers, Kings of Leon and MGMT - are up for the best group and best album awards.

Nominees Kings of Leon will play at this year's ceremony

Veteran Neil Diamond and bluesman Seasick Steve, both 67, go head to head with Kanye West, Glastonbury headliner Jay-Z and Beck.

Seasick Steve, whose real name is Steve Wold, admitted his knowledge of the Brits was very limited: " I didn't know what the Brits was 'till a couple of days ago and they tell me it's an honour.

"I can't believe any of it, it's like some kind of strange dream and that England has done this for me and been so nice to me, I'm real grateful."

It was announced after the launch party that Coldplay and Take That, who last year won the trophies for best British live act and British single, will be playing at this year's ceremony at London's Earls Court.

Other performers on the night include U2, Kings of Leon, Duffy, Girls Aloud and the Pet Shop Boys, who will receive an outstanding contribution to music award.

Florence and the Machine, the winner of this year's Critics' Choice award, will also perform.

The singer, real name Florence Welch, also came third on the BBC's Sound of 2009 new music list.

Fans will be able to vote for their favourite British single, live act and breakthrough act from the shortlists.

The best British single will be decided on the night of the main ceremony by a live telephone vote.

The Brits Academy, made up of 1,000 invited music industry insiders and critics, will decide on the remaining eight awards.

Blogger brought down by dire forecasts

The South Koreans have been accused of shooting the messenger

South Korea, it is often said, is the most connected country in the world.

A new-model democracy where 90% of households are hooked up to a fast-flowing torrent of news, views, opinion and online debate.

And with it, it is argued, has come a new breed of opinion former.

To guide and sway public opinion, no longer is it necessary to be a fat cat media mogul.

A broadband connection is all you need.

Oracle

But as well as a computer keyboard, a voice loud enough, or interesting enough, to be heard above the electronic din is what really counts.

Minerva was that kind of voice.

Taking the Roman goddess of wisdom's name as his nom-de-plume, Minerva became a one-man oracle for these troubled economic times.

Or bloggacle perhaps.

In hundreds of internet postings over the past year the blogger has spent his days pounding the keys, pouring forth his opinions on where he felt the South Korean economy was heading.

"Downwards" and "fast" would probably be two of the best words to sum up his view.

But what appears to have really catapulted him to fame were a number of specific predictions.

A week before the collapse of the US investment bank Lehman Brothers, there was the uncanny prophet, predicting exactly that.

And as the government fought to shore up the value of the Korean currency, there was Minerva accurately predicting its subsequent, dramatic slide.

Public interest

At the height of his blogging bonanza, Minerva was pulling in more than 100,000 online viewers for each of his postings.

Minerva could face a five-year jail sentence

But the government had him in their sights.

It argued that much of what he wrote was misleading or wrong.

The final straw came with his report that the authorities had ordered big business to stop buying dollars, an allegation the government denies.

But such was Minerva's following that his statements were themselves affecting the money markets.

He was traced and arrested under a rarely used law; the offence of spreading false information with the intent of harming the public interest.

Self taught

Before his arrest, Minerva's popularity had led to intense public debate about his background.

A retired economics professor with time on his hands, perhaps?

A still employed market trader with intimate experience of Wall Street and a number of other financial exchanges around the globe, went another theory.

His public unveiling, before his first court appearance, turned out to be somewhat of a surprise.

The ranks of waiting reporters and newspaper snappers found themselves face to face with a 31-year-old unemployed man called Park Dae-sung, who never went to university and who garnered his financial know-how by surfing the web and reading mail order economics text books.

Five years

The South Korean government has been accused of shooting the messenger.

But in its defence it argues that financial misinformation can do real harm, and that all jurisdictions accept some limits on freedom of speech, especially if that speech is used maliciously with the intent of harming the national interest.

"I wrote articles in a bid to help people who are alienated from government," the blogger says in his defence. "Small merchants, individuals and laymen who have suffered from the financial crisis."

Park Dae-sung has now been denied bail and is awaiting trial.

If convicted, he could face up to five years in jail.

By John Sudworth
BBC World Service, Seoul

Israel to probe phosphorus claims

Rights groups say images from the conflict prove the use of phosphorus

The Israeli army is to investigate claims it used white phosphorus illegally during its three-week offensive in Gaza.

The move follows numerous allegations by rights groups and in media reports that the army fired phosphorus shells where they could harm civilians.

The UN said its headquarters were hit by three such shells causing a fire destroying much of its aid supplies.

White phosphorus is legal for making smokescreens on a battlefield.

The Israeli army says all its weapons in the Gaza offensive were entirely legal, but until now has refused to specify which weapons it used.

White phosphorus sticks to human skin and will burn right through to the bone, causing death or leaving survivors with painful wounds which are slow to heal. Its ingestion or inhalation can also be fatal.

In a statement, the Israeli army confirmed it would look into the allegations that it had misused the substance but said it "only uses weapons permitted by law".

"In response to the claims of NGOs and claims in the foreign press relating to the use of phosphorus weapons, and in order to remove any ambiguity, an investigative team has been established in the Southern Command to look into the issue," the army said.

According to the international convention on the use of incendiary weapons, the substance should not be used where civilians are concentrated.

During the campaign Human Rights Watch (HRW) said its researchers observed multiple shell-bursts of white phosphorus from the Gaza-Israeli border.

They argued that any use of white phosphorus in the heavily populated Gaza Strip would be illegal.

After Israel's unilateral ceasefire, and its opening border crossings to some international journalists, press photographs and video footage have been published appearing to show smouldering and burning lumps of white phosphorus which landed in populated areas.