Palestinian 'offers' in peace process - papers leaked
Leaked documents released by al-Jazeera TV suggest Palestinian negotiators agreed to Israel keeping large parts of illegally occupied East Jerusalem.
The TV channel says it has thousands of confidential records covering the peace process between 2000 and 2010.
The papers also reportedly show Palestinian leaders proposing a joint committee to take over Jerusalem's holy sites of Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount.
The BBC has been unable to independently verify the documents.
Al-Jazeera says it has 16,076 confidential records of meetings, emails, communications between Palestinian, Israeli and US leaders.
The papers are believed to have leaked from the Palestinian side.
The alleged offers relating to East Jerusalem are the most controversial, as the issue has been a huge stumbling block in Mideast talks and both Israelis and Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital.
Israel has occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 1967, settling close to 500,000 Jews in more than 100 settlements.
Increasing frustration
According to al-Jazeera, in May 2008, Ahmed Qureia, the lead Palestinian negotiator at the time, proposed that Israel annex all Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem except Har Homa (Jabal Abu Ghneim), in a bid to reach a final deal.
"This is the first time in history that we make such a proposition," he reportedly said, pointing out that this was a bigger concession than made at Camp David talks in 2000.
The Israelis apparently rejected the concession as inadequate and made no offer in return.
PLO leaders also privately suggested swapping part of the flashpoint East Jerusalem Arab neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah for land elsewhere, according to the leaked documents.
And Palestinian negotiators were reported to be willing to discuss limiting the number of Palestinian refugees returning to 100,000 over 10 years.
These are all highly sensitive issues and have previously been non-negotiable.
Current peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been suspended for months, ostensibly over Israel's refusal to stop building Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
The BBC's Wyre Davies, in Jerusalem, says that for years, the same Palestinian leaders have been talking with Israeli and American negotiators - but getting nowhere.
Our correspondent says there has been increasing frustration and protest among many Palestinians over what they see as Israeli expansion and the weakness of their own leaders - a view that will be reinforced by the leak of these documents.
The chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, who features in many of the leaked papers, appeared on Al Jazeera Arabic TV on Sunday to strenuously deny that he had made these sorts of offers.
Brazil flood deaths top 800 with 400 still missing
Officials in Brazil say more than 800 people are now known to have died in floods and landslides in the south-east of the country this month.
More than 400 people are still missing after torrential rain caused whole hillsides to collapse.
The Brazilian government has said it will set up an early warning system to alert communities of impending danger.
The flooding is considered the worst natural disaster Brazil has ever experienced.
According to figures compiled by the newspaper O Globo, a third of all victims were under age.
The youngest fatality was a five-day-old baby buried in a mudslide in Nova Friburgo, the worst affected town with 324 dead.
Continuing danger
The number of missing has been declining as forensic experts identify more bodies, but rescue workers fear the full extent of the disaster is not yet known, with some remote communities still only reachable by helicopter.
Emergency workers say their priority is to make sure no new deaths occur.
They are warning of the risks of contaminated water.
Three people are known to have contracted leptospirosis, an infectious bacterial disease, which is caused by exposure to water contaminated with rats' urine.
In Teresopolis, doctors have been administering thousands of tetanus vaccines.
In Sao Jose do Vale, workers were erecting more than a hundred tents sent from the UK to house those whose homes were swept away or flooded.
Volunteers in Rio de Janeiro held an adoption fair in the hope of re-homing some of the 5,000 animals left without owners as a result of the disaster.
The government has allocated $240m (£150m) in emergency reconstruction money for the area.
Haiti's Preval: 'Baby Doc' Duvalier 'must face justice'
Haiti's ex-leader Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier had the right to return to the country but must now face justice, President Rene Preval says.
Mr Preval was making his first comments on the issue since Mr Duvalier's unexpected return from exile last week.
Mr Duvalier has been charged with theft and misappropriation of funds during his 1971-1986 rule.
He is also being sued for torture and other crimes against humanity. He has said he is ready to face "persecution".
In a news conference on Friday, Mr Duvalier called for national reconciliation, claiming his return from France had been prompted by the earthquake that devastated Haiti last year and his desire to help rebuild the country.
On Saturday, Mr Preval said that according to the Haitian constitution, no-one could be forced to remain in exile.
"Duvalier had the right to return to the country, but under the constitution, he also must face justice," he said at a news conference during a visit by the Dominican president.
"If Duvalier is not in prison now, it is because he has not yet been tried."
Mr Duvalier is barred from leaving the country pending the outcome of an investigation into his alleged crimes, Mr Preval said.
Swiss funds
Mr Duvalier arrived on the day Haiti was supposed to hold a second round of elections to choose a successor to Mr Preval.
The vote has been postponed because of a dispute over who came second in the first round.
Official results said it was Jude Celestin, a protege of Mr Preval's, but international observers have urged Haiti to revise the result in favour of singer Michel "Sweet Mickey" Martelly, who was placed third.
Some have voiced concern that Mr Duvalier's return could add to the political uncertainty.
One theory offered by analysts and lawyers to explain Mr Duvalier's return is that he was trying to stave off attempts by Switzerland to donate to Haiti nearly $6m (£3.7) frozen in Swiss bank accounts.
Under a new Swiss law that comes into force on 1 February, the funds can be released even if Haiti has not made a legal move to get them.
Mr Duvalier wrongly predicted that he might be able to avoid prosecution, observers say.
"If Duvalier goes back to Haiti and is not prosecuted, then he could say 'I was available for prosecution, and you didn't prosecute me: Give me my money back,'" said Reed Brody, a lawyer at Human Rights Watch.
UN calls for Mexico probe into migrant train abductions
The UN human rights chief has urged Mexico to investigate the possible involvement of officials in the abduction of about 40 migrants.
Navi Pillay said the Central American migrants had been "abducted in highly questionable circumstances" from a cargo train in Oaxaca state last month.
They were reportedly taken by gunmen who stopped the train in Chahuites.
Mexico has said it is investigating, after initially saying the reports were unsubstantiated.
'Complicity'
According to a statement from Ms Pillay's office, the train was first stopped by police and migration officials, who arrested 92 of the 250 migrants who had been stowed away.
The driver of the government-run train then took money from about 150 who re-boarded, the statement says, but he also allegedly warned of "more problems ahead" as he had not been happy with what they had paid him.
Shortly afterwards, gunmen seized the train, robbing the migrants and kidnapping 40 of them, including at least 10 women and a child.
Speaking on Friday, Ms Pillay called for "a thorough and transparent investigation of the alleged ill-treatment and abuse of the migrants by the [Mexican] Federal Police and the National Institute of Migration staff."
"The Mexican authorities need to ascertain whether or not any state officials ... were complicit with the criminal organisation that carried out the abductions and extortion, both in this and other cases," she added.
Ms Pillay said that, since the incident, "there has been no trace of [the migrants], and human rights defenders working with other members of the same group have been repeatedly threatened".
The Mexican Institute of Migration previously said that officials had boarded the train and detained a number of them, but that - after speaking to local and federal officials - there was no evidence that there had been a kidnapping.
But it has since said it is still investigating the incident.
Mexico's UN mission in Geneva had no immediate response to Ms Pillay's comments, according to AP news agency.
Dominican Republic confirms first cholera death
The Dominican Republic has officially registered its first cholera death since an epidemic of the disease began sweeping through neighbouring Haiti.
Health officials said the victim was a 53-year-old Haitian who was being treated in the eastern town of Higuey.
The government said it would step up its prevention system in the area.
Almost 4,000 people have died of cholera in Haiti and close to 200,000 have been infected since the epidemic broke out in October.
The Dominican Republic tightened its border controls and health checks to try to stop cholera from spreading from Haiti soon after the first cases were reported.
But with tens of thousands of Haitians travelling to the Dominican Republic to seek work, the task was always going to be a difficult one.
The Dominican Public Health Ministry said the first fatality to be reported had been receiving hospital treatment in Higuey - the same town where the first cholera case was registered in November.
Officials said the man had died on Friday, and that since then, no other deaths had been registered.
Gold company to invest US$185mto expand Suriname operations
The Toronto-based parent company of Lam-gold, the largest gold-mining enterprise operating in Suriname, says a portion of its US$460-million expenditure this year will finance expansion of its operations in the CARICOM country.
In a statement, Lamgold Corp said that without expansion, output at the Rosebel mill would decline.
The cost of the expansion in Suriname will total US$185 million over the next seven years.
The project will add grinding capacity to allow mill throughput to be maintained between 12 and 14 million tonnes per year, "even with the increased hard rock volumes", coupled with additional mining equipment to increase annual mining capacity to 70 million tonnes to optimise mill feed grades, the company said.
"The expansion essentially brings gold production forward in time and reduces long-term fixed costs by reducing the currently planned mine life," said Lamgold.
The gold miner said it anticipates a 60 per cent return on the expansion capital after tax, and annual gold production of 400,000 to 450,000 ounces throughout the life of the mine.
"Rosebel mine is a world-class asset that has already demon-strated the excellence of our corporate social responsibility programmes and our development and operational teams," said Lamgold's president and chief executive officer Steve Letwin.
- C MC
Ricky Gervais plays down Golden Globe furore
British comedian Ricky Gervais has defended jokes he made about Hollywood stars at Sunday's Golden Globes, insisting he did nothing wrong.
The Office star received mixed reviews as the award ceremony's host, after making jokes about Charlie Sheen, Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp.
"If they didn't want me, they shouldn't have hired me," he told Piers Morgan on his new US talk show.
"I don't think I did anything wrong," the 49-year-old said.
"I'm not going to apologise for being true to myself. My strategy is to make me laugh. If there's anyone in the world like me, that's a bonus."
At one stage during the evening, Gervais introduced Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr - who has a history of drug problems - saying: "Many of you in this room probably know him best from such facilities as the Betty Ford Clinic and Los Angeles County Jail."
Morgan asked Gervais whether he cared about what the stars might be going through in their private lives.
"I'm not judging them for what they did," Gervais said on the CNN programme.
"I'm confronting the elephant in the room. Like, I'm going to go out there and not talk about the issues in their industry.
"Don't forget, I've got to be an outsider there. I mustn't come out there as everyone's mate and schmooze - that's nauseating. I've got to come out there, and I've got to roast them."
The comic insisted that he only accepted the job on the condition that he could say what he wanted.
During the ceremony, viewers speculated whether Gervais had been asked to calm his performance down, after he disappeared from stage for nearly an hour.
But Gervais denied that was the case, insisting that he did "every single introduction I was meant to. There just happened to be a long gap".
Beenie Man doing OK
Dancehall King Beenie Man was recently diagnose with a hip condition that will required the veteran deejay to undergo surgery.
Sources close to the deejay told Urban Islandz that he is doing good and is in high spirit despite the set backs from his ailment.
“He did all the necessary check ups that he needed to, and will do a minor corrective surgery, so to all Beenie Man fans, he is doing good despite rumors that you might have heard,” the source exclaimed.
News broke earlier this week that the ‘I’m Ok’ deejay was ill and will be off the dancehall scene for a little while, there were also some rumors on some websites that the Doc is extremely sick and hospitalize, but Urban Islandz reliable sources confirmed that the deejay is doing good.
Beenie Man, whose real name is Moses Davis, shot the video for his Beenie Man and Friends medley last weekend, a project the Doc launch involving several dancehall artists.
Source: Urban Islandz
George Clooney recovering from malaria
Hollywood actor George Clooney contracted malaria during a trip to Sudan earlier this month, but is now fully cured, a spokesman has revealed.
The 49-year-old is a frequent visitor to the African country to help raise awareness about the Darfur conflict.
He said his own experience shows how the right medication can turn "the most lethal condition" into "a bad 10 days instead of a death sentence".
Publicist Stan Rosenfield said it was Clooney's second bout with the disease.
The actor is expected to discuss the condition and his work in Africa on Piers Morgan's CNN show on Friday.
Britney Spears' new single tops chart in first week
Pop star Britney Spears has become only the second artist in the US chart's 52-year history to have more than one single top the chart in its opening week, according to Billboard.
Hold It Against Me is the fourth number one single of Spears' career.
In 2009, the singer's track 3 also debuted at number one.
Mariah Carey is the only other artist to have had multiple first-week chart toppers - Fantasy and One Sweet Day in 1995 and Honey in 1997.
Hold It Against Me sold 411,000 downloads, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
It marks the highest first-week tally for a solo female artist, beating the 325,000 downloads sold by Taylor Swift's Today Was a Fairytale in February 2010.
Bruno Mars features twice in this week's top ten at number two and in tenth place with Grenade and Just The Way You Are.
Katy Perry's Firework track was in third place, followed by Rihanna's What's My Name?, with Wiz Khalifa at number five.
Enrique Iglesias, Kesha, Pink and The Black Eyed Peas rounded off the top 10.