My Blog

Changing China seen from the 'hard seats' of a train By Angus Foster BBC News, Beijing Travelling with a cheap rail ticket provides a snapshot of any country's underbelly. Doing it twice at an interval of 26 years, in a country like China, provides a fascinating snapshot of the country's rapid development. Sixteen hours sitting bolt upright on a train gives you a bit of time to reflect on how much a country has changed. It had started to go wrong when I got to the ticket booth in China's capital Beijing and found a queue snaking round the corner. It was the lead-up to the mid-autumn holiday and half the city was headed for distant homes. When I asked for a ticket to Wuhan, an all-night journey south, the young sales girl snorted her derision. Tickets were sold out for the next three days. Continue reading the main story “Half of China's population still lives in the co...

Heriberto Lazcano: The fall of a Mexican drug lord By Will Grant BBC News Heriberto Lazcano, the leader of Los Zetas, one of the Mexico's most feared and brutal drugs gangs, was killed this week in a shoot-out with the Mexican marines. This news was not a major surprise to Mexico-watchers - but then something strange happened. The life of a drug lord is generally pretty short. The world's most notorious was probably "El Patron" - the Colombian cocaine baron, Pablo Escobar, who died aged 44, barefoot, bloated and riddled with bullets on a rooftop in Medellin. Most do not rise that high in the drugs trade, though, nor live that long to tell the tale. We receive constant reports from the Mexican attorney general's office of supposed lieutenants and middle-ranking soldiers from gangs like the Sinaloa Cartel, the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas who have been murdered by their enemies or...

Fears and hopes in Turkish town scarred by Syria conflict By James Reynolds BBC News, Akcakale, Turkey-Syria border   Akcakale border crossing between is now shut Continue reading the main story On the road facing the Syrian border, a single Turkish army tank sits behind a mound of earth. Its sights point across 100 metres of scrubland towards the border. The town of Akcakale has felt some of the effects of its neighbour's conflict. It has been hit several times by shells fired from across the border. Muhittin Kaydi can see Syria from his front garden. He used to work as a money changer at the nearby border post.   Muhittin Kaydi says his children are now scared to play outside But that post is now closed, and Mr Kaydi has lost his job. He finds it hard to reassure seven children that their home is safe. "I tell them to calm down," he says, "but every time a door slams,...

Cuban missile crisis: The other, secret one By Joe Matthews Journalist How the second missile crisis unfolded Continue reading the main story Contrary to popular belief, the Cuban missile crisis did not end with the agreement between the US and Soviet Union in October, 1962. Unknown to the US at the time, there were 100 other nuclear weapons also in the hands of Cuba, sparking a frantic - and ingenious - Russian mission to recover them. In November 2011, aware that the 50th anniversary of the most dangerous few weeks in history was less than a year away, my Russian colleague Pasha Shilov and I came across several new accounts that changed our perspective on the Cuban missile crisis and how much we thought we knew about it. Growing up in Berkshire, England, through the nuclear paranoia of the 1980s, ...

Viewpoints: Experts comment on EU's Nobel award The 2012 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the European Union for its work in promoting peace and stability in Europe. The award recognised the success of Franco-German reconciliation, the EU's eastward enlargement and peace efforts in the Balkans. Here several experts on European affairs give their opinions on the award, which comes at a time of tension amid the eurozone debt crisis. Continue reading the main story “ The EU needs to get back to its core business - trade and promoting reconciliation” Heather Grabbe, Open Society Institute, Brussels This is a big confidence boost for the EU at a moment when confidence is at a very low ebb because of the euro crisis. It's an important reminder that European integration is a peace project. In the Balkans reconciliation is all under the EU's auspices - were it not for the EU they wouldn't be where they are today. The EU is the only b...

Viewpoint: More women needed in technology By Belinda Parmar Author of Little Miss Geek Lost in stereotypes in this image from her book, Belinda Parmar wants a change in attitude towards women in technology Walk into most tech companies and you'll be greeted by the same picture - a room made up entirely of men. You can practically smell the testosterone. Continue reading the main story The technology industry is still struggling to shake off the image of the male, pizza-guzzling, antisocial nerd - a perception that initiatives like this month's Ada Lovelace day - which celebrates the role of women in technology - and Lady Geek's "Little Miss Geek" campaign, are striving to change. There is no doubt that tech is overwhelmingly male. Although women fill close to half of all jobs in the US economy, they hold less than 25% of jobs in the science and technology sector, according to a ...

By Frances Harrison BBC News The Sri Lankan civil war - which claimed 100,000 lives - ended in 2009 when government forces finally crushed a near-40-year-long insurgency by the Tamil Tiger rebel group. The final months were especially brutal and survivors will not easily forget what happened to them. It was not hard to spot her. The house on the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland, was full of plump Sri Lankan Tamils, joking loudly and overloading the table with dishes of steaming biryani for Sunday lunch. In the corner, reluctant to come forward, stood a skeletal gaunt-faced woman with dark circles under her eyes, a tell-tale sign of sleepless nights. When her brother stood next to her it was impossible to see any family resemblance because she was so physically different after months of starvation and trauma. She looked like the figure in Edvard Munch's famous Scream picture come to life. I call her Sharmila but that is not her ...