Pastor Terry Jones to go ahead with Qur'an burning day despite Hillary Clinton saying plan is disrespectful and disgraceful

The gun-toting pastor at the centre of international outrage over his plans to stage a Qur'an burning day to mark the 9/11 attacks says he is determined to go ahead in the face of fierce condemnation from the Obama administration.

The Rev Terry Jones said more than 100 death threats would not put him off Saturday's event, when he plans to lead the burning of 200 copies of the Muslim holy book at his Dove World Outreach Centre in Gainesville, Florida.

"If we don't do it, when do we stop backing down?" he told ABC television. "It's something we need to do, it's a message we need to send."

He confirmed he would be armed during the event. "We are prepared to give our lives for this," he said.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, led condemnation of the planned burning, describing it as a "disrespectful, disgraceful act". Others in the administration weighed in, including Eric Holder, the attorney general, who called it idiotic and dangerous. A state department spokesman called the planned protest "un-American".

The plans have been greeted with alarm in the Middle Eastern press. Lebanon's Daily Star said they were "likely to ignite a fire of rage that could consume swathes of the globe", while United Arab Emirates paper the Khaleej Times describe the planned burning as "rabid and insane".

David Petraeus, the US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, warned of retaliatory action against US troops after protests took place in the capital Kabul at which effigies of Jones were burned alongside the American flag.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs echoed the concerns raised by Petraeus. "Any type of activity like that that puts our troops in harm's way would be a concern to this administration," Gibbs said.

Jones said he "understood" those concerns but would press ahead anyway.

"Instead of us backing down, maybe it's time to stand up. Maybe it's time to send a message to radical Islam that we will not tolerate their behaviour," he told Associated Press.

At a meal last night marking the breaking of the Ramadan fast at the state department, Clinton said: "We sit down together for this meal on a day when the news is carrying reports that a pastor down in Gainesville, Florida, plans to burn the holy Qur'an on September 11. I am heartened by the clear, unequivocal condemnation of this disrespectful, disgraceful act that has come from American religious leaders of all faiths, from evangelical Christians to Jewish rabbis as well as secular US leaders and opinion-makers.

"Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation. Many of you know that in 1790, George Washington wrote to a synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, that this country will give 'to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance'. The real story of Islam in America can be found in this room and rooms across America. We write it tonight in the spirit of fellowship and the celebration of goodwill that is a hallmark of Ramadan. We will write it in the months and years to come as we continue to reach out to engage people around the world in a search for common ground, common understanding and common respect."

This week, hundreds of Afghans protested outside a Kabul mosque and chanted "Death to America". Members of the crowd pelted a passing US military convoy with stones before being ordered to stop by protest organisers.

On Saturday thousands of Indonesian Muslims demonstrated outside the US embassy in Jakarta and in five other cities to protest against the church's plan. Dove World made headlines last year after distributing T-shirts that said "Islam is of the Devil". The church has been denied a permit to set a bonfire but has vowed to proceed with the burning.

In a joint statement US religious leaders condemned what they described as an "anti-Muslim frenzy" in America. They said this had been whipped up in part by "misinformation and outright bigotry" in response to plans to build an Islamic community centre and mosque close to the site of the 9/11 attacks in New York.

On the plans to burn the Qu'ran the leaders, including Washington Roman Catholic archbishop emeritus Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Rabbi David Saperstein, head of the Union for Reform Judaism, and Dr Michael Kinnamon of the National Council of Churches said they were "appalled by such disrespect for a sacred text".

BP releases its report into the oil spill which followed the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico.
Click here to read a summary of the day's events so far and follow live coverage below

3.28pm:

Transocean has accused BP of attempting to "conceal" its own failings in today's report, and says the company "made a series of cost-saving decisions that increased risk" during the drilling.

Transocean owned and operated the Deepwater Horizon rig, and is one of the two companies which BP's report says are also responsible for the explosion.

However the company says it was BP's "fatally flawed well design" which set the stage for the incident. It says cost-cutting by BP contributed to the increasing of risk in the design and construction of the Macondo well.

Transocean also appears to hint that BP is holding up its own report into the Deepwater disaster by failing to release evidence.

Here's the statement in full, courtesy of my colleague Graeme Wearden.

"This is a self-serving report that attempts to conceal the critical factor that set the stage for the Macondo incident: BP's fatally flawed well design. In both its design and construction, BP made a series of cost-saving decisions that increased risk – in some cases, severely. Those decisions, made exclusively by BP, included:

• Using a long production string rather than a casing tie back, decreasing the number of barriers to gas flow.
• Neglecting to run a cement bond log (CBL) to test the integrity of the cement.
• Installing fewer than one third of the recommended number of centralizers, dramatically increasing the risk of cement channelling and gas flow.
• Failing to conduct a complete "bottoms up" circulation of the well to insure the quality of the cement seal.
• Not running a lockdown sleeve to secure the production string to the well head, eliminating yet another barrier to a blowout.

Transocean's investigation is ongoing, and will be concluded when all of the evidence is in, including the critical information the company has requested of BP but has yet to receive."

Graeme adds that Wall Street is now open, and says Transocean's shares are actually up in early trading, so far gaining 1.5% in New York.

"Cameron International, which made the blowout preventer that failed to stop the leak, are also up nearly 1.7%. Halliburton has taken a hit, though, down around 0.3%," Graeme said.

"BP's own shares are currently up around 1.5% in London. So traders are taking this report in their stride, so far..."

3.15pm:

Terry Macalister has sent me what he says could be the key section in BP's report. The final sentence reiterates BP's main argument – "multiple companies" were involved in the failure.

"The team [investigating the explosion] did not identify any single action or inaction that caused this accident. Rather, a complex and interlinked series of mechanical failures, human judgments, engineering design, operational implementation and team interfaces came together to allow the initiation and escalation of the accident. Multiple companies, work teams and circumstances were involved over time."

2.59pm:

Here's the Guardian's head of environment, Damian Carrington, outlining the main points of BP's report.

"It's a pretty terrifying picture for a drilling operation that was supposed to be failsafe," Damian says.

2.50pm:

No response from the White House yet to the report, although President Obama's press secretary Robert Gibbs was asked about it in yesterday's press briefing.

Gibbs appears to say that the US government had not seen a copy of the report, which seems strange. Here's the exchange:

Q: BP is going to release its report tomorrow into the causes of the oil spill. Has the White House had an advance look at this? And secondly, given the past relationship between the administration and the company, what level of confidence do you have that this is going to produce a genuine finding into what caused the accident?

Gibbs: Well, look, I'll say this. I know of no one that has seen it here. I've certainly seen emails alluding to the notion that -- and clips alluding to the notion that this is -- this will be released. Obviously I think we'd want a chance to look at the report.

I think an important partner of that investigation, Stephen, ultimately is going to get -- is going to be a look at the blowout preventer itself, which only recently, in the last few days, has been brought to the surface, and will give us a chance to see whether was this a design flaw, was this something that was just a problem that this blowout preventer had to deal with, and a whole host of things.

So we'll certainly look through the report. Obviously -- look through the report and may have some comment about it. But I do not know of anybody who has seen an advance copy.

2.35pm:

Time for a round-up of the day's events so far.

• BP has released the findings of its investigation into the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The company has listed eight different issues which let to the Deepwater disaster, including that a test performed to see if the well was under control was accepted – despite the readings showing the well was not under control.

• The company has, as expected, sought to share the blame for the explosion and spill. In a press release accompanying the report Tony Hayward, BP's outgoing chief executive, said: "To put it simply, there was a bad cement job." It was US contractor Halliburton which cemented of the Macondo well.

• The report also points the finger at Transocean, which operated the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. "The negative pressure test was accepted when it should not have been [see top bullet-point], there were failures in well control procedures and in the blow-out preventer; and the rig's fire and gas system did not prevent ignition," Hayward said.

• Greenpeace has criticised BP, describing the report as a "sorry catalogue of gaffes and failures". Jim Footner, head of the charity's energy campaign, said: "It's highly likely that a truly independent report would be even more damning for BP." He added that the company are "weeks away" from drilling at similar depths in UK waters.

• BP's share price rose after the report was published, with shares up by 2% half an hour after publication. Later this afternoon the share price had fallen slightly but was still up 1.7%, at 413.7p. However this is a long way from the 650p BP's shares were trading at before the disaster on 20 April.

2.04pm:

Our US environment correspondent, Suzanne Goldenberg, has been speaking to Alfred R Sunsen – owner of New Orleans oyster company P&J, which is now facing ruin after 134 years in business.

Sunsen said he believes the report was "pretty thorough", although points out that BP said it carried out the report with limited access to physical evidence.

The oyster business owner writes:

The report does not address the people, businesses, animals, or natural resources that have been impacted by the disaster and will be dealing with the consequences of their inadequate and slow response to the disaster.

Me as well as my friends in the oyster business in Louisiana are in big trouble and will be for some time to come… Talk is cheap.

When BP shows me a report of how exactly they will deal with those people most impacted by this tragedy, i.e. those in the fisheries related businesses, I'll believe they are not just using their talents in public relations to dispel their liability, but have a plan to help us salvage our businesses and retain our livelihoods and heritage, by paying our bills until we are "made whole" as Mr Hayward and Mr Obama said months ago.

Suzanne has just arrived at the Washington DC hotel where Mark Bly – BP's head of safety and operations – is giving a briefing.

You can follow her tweets from the meeting @suzyji

1.50pm:

Damian Carrington emails: "Reaction to the BP report is starting to flow, and it's not going to be pretty."

This is from Jim Footner, head of Greenpeace's energy campaign.

"This report is a sorry catalogue of the gaffes and failures behind the Deepwater Horizon disaster. And it's highly likely that a truly independent report would be even more damning for BP.

"Worryingly, they're just weeks away from drilling at similar depths in UK waters. The Government must step in right now and stop this by introducing a moratorium on deep water drilling.

"But the real problem is our addiction to oil, which is pushing companies like BP to put lives and the environment at risk. The age of oil is coming to an end and companies like BP will be left behind unless they begin to adapt now. The time has come to move beyond oil and invest in clean energy."

1.39pm:

More financial reaction from Nick Fletcher:

The US market is not open yet for reaction, but Transocean's Swiss quoted shares are down nearly 1.5% following the release of the BP report suggesting the drilling contractor missed danger signs on the Deepwater Horizon rig. Meanwhile BP itself has slipped from its best levels but is still up 1.7% at 413.7p.

1.26pm:

Terry Macalister wonders what the report suggests re safety practices across the rest of the oil industry:

What is really shocking about this report is the catalogue of errors - both human and mechanical. They demolish once and for all the oil industry's much quoted mantra that "safety always comes first." It may come first in the board room but it does not down at the wellhead where the real dangers are faced.

It is worth remembering that BP, its rig operator Transocean and the main well contractor Halliburton are the blue chip companies in the wider oil and gas sector. If the shoddy work practices highlighted here are what the best-in-class do, then what is happening in the lower reaches of this industry?

1.20pm:

More from Damian Carrington:

BP is likely to have had its legal liability for the Deepwater disaster uppermost in its mind and the executive summary bears that out: of the four and half pages of text, the first page is entirely disclaimers of one sort or another. If BP was shown to have been "grossly negligent" then the financial penalties ramp up vastly.

1.12pm:

BP's executive summary [pdf, opens] lists eight main issues that led to the Deepwater disaster, killing 11 people and injuring 17.

Damian Carrington has been reading the findings.

"It is, frankly speaking, quite terrifying – a catalogue of appalling shoddiness," he writes.

Damian has simplified BP's eight findings below:

1 - The cement that was supposed to stop the oil and gas shooting up the well pipe didn't work - the report blames the type of cement used

2 - Futher barriers at the bottom of the drill pipe failed to stop the hydrocarbons bursting into the well pipe

3 - Amazingly, a pressure test performed to see if the well was under control was accepted despite the readings showing the well was not under control

4 - With oil and gas now pouring up the well, it took 40 minutes to realise this

5 - Once it was realised, the hydrocarbons were not diverted "overboard" but brought onto the rig

6 - This meant the hydrocarbons "vented directly onto the rig" - a frightening image

7 - The fire prevention system on the rig failed. "The heating, ventilation and air conditioning system probably transferred a gas-rich mixture into the engine rooms". That's where it probably caught fire and destroyed the rig

8 - Key point - the blowout preventer, the ultimate failsafe failed. The fire on the rig stopped the BOP being operated, while an automated system failed in part because the BOP had flat batteries in one control pod and a faulty solenoid valve in another

12.57pm:

The Guardian has a timeline charting over four months of the oil spill clean-up, environmental impact and the impact on BP and business.

We've also got a comprehensive Q&A on how the spill started, how much oil was lost and why some of the many efforts to plug the well failed.

Elsewhere, the New York Times has an all singing, all dancing graphic tracking the oil spill in the Gulf.

Seen something around the web which would worth us flagging up? You can either comment below the line or get in touch on Twitter: @adamgabbatt

12.42pm:

More from Terry Macalister on BP's efforts to share the blame:

Tony Hayward, the BP chief executive, puts part of the blame directly on to US contractor Halliburton (whose former chief executive was previous US vice president, Dick Cheney) which did the "cementing" of the Macondo well.

"To put it simply, there was a bad cement job," said Hayward in a statement which conflicts with a previously published email from a Halliburton employee on the rig to a colleague saying the job "went well."

BP also takes blame away from itself over the "design" of the well. "It would appear unlikely that the well design contributed to the incident," argues Hayward.

12.37pm:

Below the line, bombed writes: "I'm curious, who hired these other companies to work with BP? Was it BP themselves or some authority overseeing the whole endeavour?"

RealPol has the answer: "BP, through the tender process usually."

Interesting point.

12.30pm:

The Guardian's Nick Fletcher is following the reaction in the financial world to the report. Shares in BP, which rose this morning, have risen again, he writes.

The stock market seems to like BP's plan to share out the blame for the Gulf spillage, judging by the initial reaction.

The company's shares - already up 6.75p at 413.55p immediately ahead of the report's release - have made further gains now the findings are out. They currently stand at 414.95p, up 8.15p or 2%.

But the market is in a jittery mood and there is no guarantee that things will stay the same once investors have had time to digest the full report. And it is worth bearing in mind BP's shares were at 650p ahead of the disaster on April 20.

12.23pm:

Damian Carrington, the Guardian's head of environment, writes:

As well as very clearly seeking to spread the blame, the end of BP's press release notes that its report is based on "information available to the investigating team".

Once again, it turns the focus on its contractors: "Additional relevant information may be forthcoming, for example, when Halliburton's samples of the cement used in the well are released for testing and when the rig's blow-out preventer [owned and operated by Transocean] is fully examined now that it has been recovered from the sea-bed."

12.17pm:

Terry Macalister, our energy editor, says a first glance at the BP report confirms expectations that the company would argue that "multiple failures" by a number of different parties were to blame for the fatal blowout.

The report points the finger at Transocean (the rig operator) and Halliburton (the well contractor) as being as much to blame for the disaster as BP. The oil company always claimed to have been unfairly singled out by US politicians and now claims to have the proof that others should be held to account also.

12.12pm:

Some links on how to find information on the report:

• You can read BP's press release regarding the report here.

• BP has also produced a 29min video presenting its findings.

• You can download the executive summary of the report: [pdf, opens]

• Or download the report in full: [pdf, opens]

12.03pm:

The report has been published on BP's website.

"The investigation found that no single factor caused the Macondo well tragedy," is BP's findings in short.

"Rather, a sequence of failures involving a number of different parties led to the explosion and fire which killed 11 people and caused widespread pollution in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year."

Much more to follow.

11.57am:

My colleague Graeme Wearden writes this morning that shares in BP rose by around 1% this morning to 412p ahead of the report's publication.

City analysts Evolution Securities said the investigation could shift culpability towards Transocean – which operated the Deepwater Horizon rig on BP's behalf – and "in particular the integrity of the blowout preventer which should have acted as the ultimate fail safe", Graeme reports.

BP also received good news from Fitch this morning, which raised its credit rating on BP to A, from BBB, with a stable outlook.

Fitch said that it was now more confident that the well was capped permanently.

"The "A" rating also reflects both the improved visibility of potential liability scenarios the company could still face and substantial payments that BP has made to date in building up liquidity to address potential financial payments," Fitch added.

11.50am:

BP's report into the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, and subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is published at noon today. The company is expected to admit it is partly to blame for the disaster, but will also claim that other companies must accept some responsibility.

The explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig on 20 April killed 11 workers and began a devastating spill which leaked over 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico – the largest spill in American history. The leak took three months, and a huge variety of different attempts (see interactive), to seal before BP finally closed it off on 15 July.

The ruptured oil well is still not permanently sealed, with the company announcing last week it will be two weeks before the leak is closed off for good. The leak was only allowed to occur when the blow-out preventer – the last line of defence against an out of control well – failed to activate after the explosion above the surface.

Today's report will examine why it failed, following an internal investigation into the events leading up to the explosion nearly five months ago. In July it was revealed that the blow-out preventer was modified in China in 2005.

Our team of experts will be poring over the BP report as soon as it is released, with key sections being reported and analysed here. We'll also have the latest reaction from the global markets and from other companies potentially implicated in the spill.

Follow the latest here and offer us your response below.

Eighteen killed and 94 wounded as militants attack residential compound of officers' complex in Peshawar

A car bomb ripped through a police compound in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing 18 people, including 14 women and children and four officers, the latest in a string of attacks proving that Islamist militants remain a potent force in the country.

The civilians killed were the wives and children of police officers, said Khalid Omarzai, the city's top government official. Another 94 people were wounded in the bombing yesterday, he said, adding that they had been taken to hospitals after rescuers cleared the rubble from more than two dozen collapsed houses and shops.

The complex in the garrison city of Kohat houses officers' homes, a training facility and a commercial area.

Officer Mohammad Arif said there was a huge explosion in the residential area of the compound soon after the evening breaking of the daily fast during Ramadan. Power to the area was cut, forcing emergency workers to search for victims in the dark, he said.

Kohat, a major town on the road between the provincial capital of Peshawar and several tribal areas, has been the scene of several militant attacks this year. In April, two burqa-clad suicide bombers attacked refugees lined up to register for food and other relief supplies in the district, killing 41 people and wounding dozens more.

"This city is a war zone. We would always expect such attacks," said Omarzai.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for a series of recent attacks across the Pakistan aimed at destabilising the country and weakening a civilian government already struggling with massive flooding that has displaced millions and caused widespread destruction.

The deadliest attacks have targeted minority Shia Muslims. A suicide bombing killed at least 65 Shia Muslims at a procession in the south-western city of Quetta on Friday. Two days earlier, a triple suicide attack killed 35 people at a Shia ceremony in the eastern city of Lahore.

On Monday, a Taliban suicide bomber detonated a car in an alley behind a police station in north-western Pakistan, killing at least 17 police and civilians.

About 40 people were wounded in the attack in Lakki Marwat, on the main road between Punjab province, Pakistan's largest and most prosperous, and the North and South Waziristan tribal regions.

Meanwhile, two roadside bombs yesterday killed one police officer and wounded three others in the north-western district of Hangu, said Omarzai.

In burning the Qur'an, Pastor Terry Jones will be using an idiom of protest that has undergone several mis-translations

There was a time when British commentators and policy makers discussing "the Muslim problem" since 9/11 would look across the Atlantic in envy at how well-integrated American Muslims were compared to their British and European co-religionists. Indeed, it was assumed that the US did not actually have a "Muslim problem" like ours. Nowadays, that envy seems misplaced. A couple of terrorist near misses, a mass shooting and the recent plan to build a mosque close to Ground Zero have brought a persistent but submerged vein of anti-Muslim prejudice to the surface of American cultural and political life. If the US didn't have a Muslim problem before, it has one now.

Step forward Pastor Terry Jones of Gainesville, Florida, whose church, The Dove World Outreach Center (DWOC), has a congregation of just 50; this past week, however, DWOC has been punching way above its weight in terms of notoriety because it plans to burn several hundred copies of the Qur'an on the anniversary of 9/11. Pastor Jones does not share his Monty Python namesake's rather more whimsical approach towards irreverence: he has written a book called Islam is of the Devil, so his position on the "Muslim problem" is pretty clear. Understandably, Americans, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, are nervous about what will happen should DWOC forge ahead in spite of widespread criticism and condemnation: this year it is possible that Eid ul-Fitr, the festival that marks the end of Ramadan, will fall on 11 September, prompting concerns amongst American Muslims that Eid celebrations will be mistaken for sympathy with al-Qaida.

This is where it gets interesting, because it highlights the ways in which misinterpretation can complicate cultural relations, and burning books is now part of a globalised idiom of protest that has undergone several mis-translations.

The obvious precedent is the burning of The Satanic Verses in Bradford, which precipitated Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa. This was read by western commentators as a reprise of Nazi book-burnings, thereby indelibly associating in the liberal western imagination a relationship between Islam, fascism and totalitarianism. This was, however, a mistaken reading on at least two counts: firstly, there is no equivalence between mass book burnings organised by a powerful state and a street demonstration by marginalised working-class ethnic minority communities desperate to draw attention to their grievance when all previous attempts had failed (notwithstanding the role of Islamist organisations in stoking them up).

Secondly, western commentators took it literally: burning things is a common way of expressing protest in the Middle East and South Asia, especially within the context of regimes that are brutally draconian in policing public protest. In such situations, there is a tacit understanding between protesters and authorities alike that burning things (effigies and other countries' flags, mostly) is a form of symbolic expression that contains rather than unleashes violent sentiment – a way of letting off steam and thereby preventing the situation from getting out of hand. Underlying this is an understanding that attacking the symbol does not in fact signal an intention to attack the thing itself. This does not always work out, as the damage done to many Danish embassies during the cartoon affair testifies, but it usually does; if it didn't, there would be no politicians or test cricketers left standing so regularly are their effigies incinerated.

It's interesting to compare this to US sensitivity toward flag burning. Attempts to prohibit burning the US flag have a long history, and legislation prohibiting flag burning was on the statutes of 48 states until the supreme court struck them all down as unconstitutional violations of the First Amendment in 1989. Such is the importance of "protecting the flag" to Americans that every sitting Congress since has tried, in fact, to amend the constitution to allow flag protection laws only to be thwarted by the senate.

One notices here a peculiar irony. In Muslim (and other Asian) countries where symbolism is a very important aspect of social life, there is nevertheless an understanding that symbols should not be taken literally: that symbols signal other things. In western countries, but especially the US, certain symbols are taken more literally: it is the materiality of the flag itself that is protected, whilst speech denouncing the country the flag symbolises is permitted. Perhaps it is precisely the legacy of free speech in the west – and the relative lack of it in Muslim countries – that makes it so: in highly censored contexts, every speech act or symbol must be double coded to mean both everything and nothing. Conversely, freedom of speech requires transparency. The symbol is what it is and not something other.

It is not clear whether Pastor Jones has the burning of The Satanic Verses in mind as he prepares for DWOC's brief moment in the spotlight. It does not matter because symbolic incineration has become part of the lexicon of western media coverage of Islam, replayed endlessly on his television screen. In his mind he is probably fighting fire with fire; that is, he feels he is responding in a language "they" understand. The irony, of course, is that he misunderstands the idiom he is appropriating. It is a dangerous irony, though: mistranslations and misunderstandings can have dramatic effects, as the Rushdie affair demonstrated.

Nevertheless, Pastor Jones has upped the ante. Burning the Qur'an is guaranteed to provoke Muslim outrage. To believers, every word in it is the word of God, each verse is a sign (ayat) of the divine. They therefore treat each copy as a holy artefact. Whatever their relationship to other symbols, they do not take these ones lightly.

After 40 years, a new resource for children who speak the nation's most common African language

Ngisanda ukuqala ukufunda isiZulu. Or to put in another way, I've just started learning Zulu.

English speakers visiting South Africa could soon find this easier after the publication of an English-Zulu dictionary – believed to be the first of its kind for more than 40 years.

Oxford University Press Southern Africa also hopes that the book will help the 2.8m school pupils who study Zulu, South Africa's most common African language.

Megan Hall, the publisher's manager for dictionaries, said: "To our knowledge the last substantial bilingual Zulu dictionary was published more than four decades ago. A great deal has changed since then – in the world around us, the language we use to talk about it, as well as in the way we now make dictionaries."

Hall said the book had been an "enormous project" that took more than three and a half years and involved an international team of academics, teachers, language experts and specialist lexicographers. "It's taken so long because it's an exceptionally difficult job."

It included research with sample entries at schools in the Zulu heartland, KwaZulu-Natal province. "We found out that teachers wanted key curriculum words included in the dictionary, together with definitions – something never done before in a bilingual dictionary of this sort," Hall said. "So we selected terms from textbooks across the curriculum, like acid, greenhouse effect and multiply, and gave learners and teachers the support they'd asked for."

Zulus are South Africa's biggest ethnic group, making up nearly one in four of the population, but English is generally used in business and politics. Jacob Zuma, the country's first Zulu president, often appears more comfortable speaking Zulu than when reading speeches in English. "Umshini wami", which he sang during last year's election campaign, translates as "Bring me my machine gun".

Zulus rose to prominence in the 19th century under the warrior king Shaka, but the empire was dismantled by European colonists. The British defence of Rorke's Drift in 1879 was dramatised in the 1964 film Zulu starring Stanley Baker and Michael Caine.

South Africa has 11 official languages and this diversity poses questions for education. Many children use Zulu at home, especially in rural areas, but are often taught in English at school, putting them at a potential disadvantage. Vukile McKenzie, a radio personality and founder of the Khanyisa Development Trust, which works to enhance education in rural schools in KwaZulu-Natal, said: "The learner in South Africa not only faces the challenge of learning to read, think and write, but quite possibly to communicate, understand and influence in a language other than the one his or her parents, or significant adults, use.

"An educational tool such as this dictionary – and other bilingual or multilingual dictionaries for that matter – equips children learning both isiZulu and English to access one another in a meaningful way."

Zulu-English examples

USipho ubhale ende incwadi exolisa kuThandi: Siphoe wrote a long letter of apology to Thandi.

Owayengumongameli u-Nelson Mandela wathonya ukhwinii u-Elizabeth ngesikhathi emamukela esigodlweni sase-Buckingham: Former president Nelson Mandela charmed Queen Elizabeth as she welcomed him to Buckingham Palace.

U-Missy Elliott uthathwa njengendlovukazi yomculo we-rap engeqhathaniswe namuntu: Missy Elliott is the unrivalled queen of rap music.

Abantu bacabanga ukuthi ukumodela kuyinto emnandi, kanti eqinisweni kuwumsebenzi onzima: People think that being a model is fun, but in reality it is hard work.

Izinhlelo zomabonakude eziveza izinto ezikhona zijwayele ukuba ngabantu abangadumile: Reality TV programmes are often about ordinary people.

Yimuphi umdlalo owuthandayo?: What is your favourite sport?

Panel to consider whether extradition treaty with the United States is 'unbalanced'

The government today announced a review of Britain's extradition treaties with the US and other jurisdictions, in the wake of controversial cases including that of the computer hacker Gary McKinnon.

The home secretary, Theresa May, said a small panel of experts would be appointed to report by the end of next summer on whether the treaty with the US was "unbalanced".

Shami Chakrabati, director of the civil rights campaign group Liberty, said Britain's "rotten extradition system" was in urgent need of overhaul.

"No one should be parcelled off to a foreign land without due process or when they could be dealt with here at home," she said. "People in the UK have been vulnerable to accusation and transportation across the globe for far too long."

May said the review would consider the home secretary's discretion to intervene in such cases, and whether states seeking extradition should be required to provide prima facie evidence.

"I am fully aware there are a number of areas of the UK's extradition arrangements which have attracted controversy in recent years," she said. "This government is committed to reviewing those arrangements to ensure they work both efficiently and in the interests of justice."

The panel will also consider the operation of the European arrest warrant, a measure welcomed by Fair Trials International and Open Europe. A spokesman for Open Europe, Stephen Booth, said the European arrest warrant should be "comprehensively renegotiated, or at the very least much stronger safeguards need to be put in place to ensure that British citizens can count on their elected government to review their case before shipping them off to foreign prisons".

The Conservative MP David Davis welcomed the move as "excellent news", and said it should include a review of Gary McKinnon's case.

The US authorities want to extradite McKinnon, who has Asperger's syndrome, to stand trial for hacking into secret military computers eight years ago. McKinnon says he was looking for evidence of UFO activity, and his family and supporters say he is too psychologically fragile to survive trial and imprisonment in the US.

Cases taken up by Fair Trials International include a 51-year-old fireman from Kent sentenced to two years in prison over a riot during the Euro 2004 football tournament in Portugal, which he claims happened while he was in a cafe several streets away with friends. He was deported to England, and then rearrested and extradited last year under a European warrant.

Fair Trials International is also monitoring the case of a 21-year-old student who is on bail awaiting trial in Athens in connection with the death of a man in a Greek nightclub. He was held in prison for 10 months after being extradited in July last year. He has no date for his trial and cannot return to the UK in the meantime.

Afghanistan's biggest bank, caught in a corruption scandal, closes all its branches bar one just before Muslim holiday

Afghan security forces used batons on unruly customers scrambling to withdraw their savings today from the country's biggest bank, which is mired in a scandal of corruption and mismanagement.

Kabul Bank's troubles have threatened to add a financial crisis to Afghanistan's other woes, with military and civilian casualties at record levels as a Taliban-led insurgency grows ahead of parliamentary elections on 18 September.

Officers from the National Security Directorate struggled to maintain control of up to 200 people outside one branch in the capital as desperate customers tried to take out money ahead of a three-day Muslim holiday.

The crisis developed after the company's top two directors resigned amid allegations of corruption.

Corruption is a common complaint among ordinary Afghans and Washington fears graft is boosting the insurgency and complicating efforts to strengthen government control so foreign troops can hand over to Afghan security forces – whose salaries are paid through Kabul Bank.

The central bank on Monday ordered the assets of Kabul Bank's former chairman Sher Khan Farnood and chief executive officer Khalilullah Fruzi to be frozen, together with those of several other shareholders and major borrowers, pending an inquiry.

Witnesses saw armed officers of the National Security Directorate beat several people – including at least one policeman – among queues of angry customers gathered outside the only bank branch to open on Wednesday.

"It's Eid, we need money for food, clothes, candy," said Hameed Iqbal, an airforce member. "They said all the bank branches would be open, they lied. I'm extremely angry."

A Kabul Bank spokesman said the decision to close all other branches had been taken by the central bank.

The Afghan government and the central bank say the ailing Kabul Bank has not been taken over, despite a central bank official being appointed as chief executive officer.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai's spokesman promised the bank's customers their savings were safe and told them to be calm.

"We guarantee their money and the central bank is ready to pay loans to Kabul Bank whenever it is needed," Siamak Herawi said.

Another customer, who identified himself as Rahim, blamed the government for the crisis at the bank.

"If they do not listen to us we will break all the windows of Kabul Bank, we will loot all the branches and even the presidential palace," said Rahim, who said he was a cook in a government office.

Widespread perceptions among Afghans that corruption is rife in Karzai's government will be a major issue at the election, which is seen as a litmus test of stability in Afghanistan.

Kabul Bank's customers include 250,000 state employees.

Sayed Hammad, a 38-year-old grocery store owner, said he had heard on television yesterday that all Kabul Bank branches would be open instead of just the single branch in Kabul. He said he wanted to withdraw $3,000 and close his account.

"I used to trust the bank but not any more," Hammad said. "You put your money in; you don't know if you'll get it out."

Last week US media reported the central bank had taken control of Kabul bank, forcing Farnood and Fruzi to resign and ordering the chairman to hand over $160m worth of luxury villas that may have been bought with bank funds in Dubai.

The Afghan government and the central bank governor have both rejected the allegations, denying that the central bank had stepped in and saying Farnood and Fruzi had stepped aside in line with new financial regulations.

Men die in rough sea off southern Spanish coast

Two British men have drowned off Spain's Costa del Sol. The bodies of Robert Wells, 75, and Jonathan Wells, 45, believed to be his son, were found off the coast yesterday.

Both died after the younger man tried to save his father who got into difficulties in the sea, according to reports.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We can confirm the death of two British nationals in the region of Granada on 7 September. Next of kin are aware and we are providing consular assistance to the family."

Police said the bodies had been found floating in the water off Almuñécar in the region of Andalusia, southern Spain. A civil protection boat was launched but the pair believed to be from Surrey, could not be saved. A spokesman said they had drowned in rough seas.

Widespread anger over desecration threat marking ninth anniversary of 9/11 and its timing – a day after end of Ramadan

Threats by a US church to burn the Qur'an to mark the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks – which coincides this year with the end of the holy month of Ramadan – have been angrily condemned across the Muslim and Arab worlds.

In Iran a government spokesman warned of an "uncontrolled" response, while a senior Syrian cleric urged Muslims to unite in the face of "the enemy".

Lebanon's Christian president, Michel Suleiman, issued a statement lambasting the threat from Gainesville, Florida, as being "in clear contradiction to the teachings of the Abrahamic religions and of dialogue amongst the three faiths".

Mainstream media – sharply aware of the row over the plans for an Islamic centre near Ground Zero in New York – reported that the Floridian threat had been condemned by the US government and quoted General David Petraeus, head of US central command, who warned it would provide a propaganda coup for the Taliban that would stoke anti-American sentiment across the Muslim world.

Reactions to the affair featured prominently on the popular Arabic satellite TV channel al-Jazeera and its Saudi rival, al-Arabiya.

Some damage has clearly been done. "We are used to seeing the arrogant administrations in the USA and Europe take turns in offending Islam and the figure of the Prophet Muhammad, using different styles to stir repulsive sectarian fanaticism," Abd al-Razzaq Mu'nis, a former Syrian deputy minster of religious affairs, told al-Aalam TV, an Iranian Arabic-language channel.

In Abu Dhabi the Khaleej Times condemned a "rabid and insane act by an extremist pastor", while Lebanon's Daily Star warned of "a fire of rage that could consume swaths of the globe."

Ramin Mehmanparast, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, warned western countries not to "desecrate" Islamic objects of worship to avoid creating "sensitive situations between public opinion and Muslims".

On Sunday thousands of Indonesians gathered outside the US embassy in Jakarta calling for "jihad to protect Qur'an".

The timing of the controversy coincides with the end of Ramadan. Muslim and Arab countries will announce tonight whether the feast of Eid al-Fitr will start tomorrow or Friday, depending on the sighting of the new moon. Eid al-Fitr is one of the two biggest Muslim holidays of the year.

"There is a feeling of unease as Eid Al-Fitr is approaching, close to the anniversary of 9/11," a correspondent for the Saudi Arab News reported from Ohio.

Commenting on the website of al-Manar TV– run by Lebanon's Hezbollah – an Algerian named Lily commented: "Allah will protect his book before it is harmed. This Ramadan Muslims are praying to Allah to [deal with] the hateful crusaders." An unnamed Moroccan wrote: "Provocations of this kind will only increase the power of Islam."

Egyptians are routinely accused of being in league with foreign forces, from the US to Iran, but this propaganda is wearing thin

In the centuries after Egypt's last native ruler, Nectanebus II, was driven out by the Persians, Egypt was conquered and occupied by almost every major colonial power. It was only in 1952 that General Mohamed Naguib's successful military coup managed to overthrow the monarch, ending British influence and restoring sovereignty to the land of Egypt.

Almost 60 years later, this colonial legacy still haunts the country. Opponents of political and social change bank on a deep-seated fear of foreign influence to tighten their grip on power by accusing everyone who promotes an alternative to them of collaboration.

The "treason" card can be used against anyone and everyone. According to Egyptian conspiracy theorists, liberal politicians are probably American agents with a western agenda. Similarly, Islamists are accused of getting orders from Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, or all of the above.

Mohamed ElBaradei, former director of International Agency for Atomic Energy and potential presidential candidate, is supposedly both an Iranian and American agent. Ayman Nour, a liberal Egyptian politician who was jailed for what many believe was the "crime" of challenging Mubarak in the 2005 presidential elections, is America's boy in Egypt.

A ruling National Democratic party MP, Hassan Nashat al-Kassas, who was condemned by human rights organisations for calling on the police to shoot pro-reform demonstrators, said during a parliamentary discussion last year on medical aid to Gaza (in Arabic): "I used to believe that we have a patriotic opposition. However, it turned out that they only work for the interest of Egypt's enemies."

Likewise, Muslim preacher, Khaled Abdallah, attacked ElBaradei by also accusing him of collaboration. He implied that he is applying a pro-American and anti-Islamist agenda. He also warned people against supporting ElBaradei because by doing so they would be fighting God and His messenger. He asked his audience to refuse to recognise anyone who "arrives on the back of American tanks".

Ironically, ElBaradei has long been attacked by many in the US and Israel for being too lenient with Iran. The US was also the only country to oppose a third term for ElBaradei as the head of the IAEA due to his position on the war in Iraq.

After portraying ElBaradei as a hero for years after winning the Nobel peace prize, Egyptian state-run media launched a smear campaign questioning his loyalty to the motherland once he appeared to challenge the 29-year-rule of Mubarak. A state-run newspaper falsely accused him of holding Swedish nationality a few days after he announced he might run for presidency under certain conditions. State-run media were also trying to wrongfully promote the idea that he gave the green light to America to invade Iraq. Pro-government newspapers printed the same photo of him with the US ambassador over and over again to enforce that impression.

What is more, Egypt's government always tries to give the impression that an alliance made up of Qatar (represented by the al-Jazeera TV network), Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas are trying to destabilise the country.

Destabilising a country would certainly need local agents. It is clear al-Kassas's remark about the opposition implies that members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the main opposition bloc in Egypt's parliament, are being recruited by the Iranian alliance.

Needless to say, trying to associate alternative thought with danger is a strategy long used by religious conservatives to prevent social change and by authoritarian regimes who want to preserve the political status quo. More alarmingly, this fear has also infected many progressive liberals in Egypt and in the west who are also afraid that change now might be more of a regressive step.

But it is hard to believe that finger-pointing can be sustained as a long-term strategy. It may have worked in the past because it was easier to deceive people who were less exposed to the outside world or those who didn't have easy access to information. But now, with a globally integrated economy, more disposable income and technological advancement, more people in Egypt are joining the global world and its information revolution.

Therefore, this classic propaganda technique is failing, and hundreds of thousands of Egyptians are already advocating change. One tenth of Egypt's Facebook population are members on ElBaradei's Facebook group supporting him as an alternative to President Mubarak. Almost a million Egyptians have signed a petition supporting ElBaradei's seven requirements for political reform in a clear sign that more Egyptians are willing to take risks for the sake of change.

A one-year-old elephant is pulled from marshy wetland by forest officials and villagers in Assam, north-eastern India

Human rights watchdogs join Belarussian opposition in demanding inquiry into death of Charter 97 campaigner Oleg Bebenin

International pressure was today growing for an independent inquiry into the death of a leading Belarussian journalist and opposition activist who was found dead at his country house last week.

Friends of Oleg Bebenin rejected government claims that the journalist had killed himself, saying they believed he had been murdered.

Bebenin was the director of Charter97.org, one of the most prominent opposition media websites in Belarus, and a unique source of information about the regime.

He was found hanged at his summer house, on the outskirts of Minsk, late on Friday afternoon. Today his colleague and friend Andrei Sannikov said no suicide note had been found, adding: "There were no signs either physically or emotionally he would take such a step."

Sannikov, a former deputy foreign minister, said he was deeply suspicious of the official account of the "suicide", and that SMS messages from Bebenin's phone sent before his death may have been written by someone else.

There was no evidence Bebenin spent the night in the house, as investigators claim, said Sannikov. "Everything was very tidy. There was no sign of a fire," he said.

Belarus's opposition was seeking more evidence, he added.

Opposition groups and critical media in Belarus have faced sustained pressure from the government of President Alexander Lukashenko, a paternalistic hardliner who brooks no dissent and has run the former soviet republic since 1994. Since Lukashenko came to power, a series of politicians and journalists have been imprisoned, killed, abducted and subjected to mock executions, or have simply disappeared.

Bebenin played a key role in organising protests against Lukashenko's repressive government, and co-founded the Charter 97 opposition movement. His apparent murder comes as Lukashenko, who has been dubbed Europe's last dictator, begins his campaign for re-election ahead of a presidential poll in February.

Sannikov said he had no confidence in the official investigation: "It's impossible in this situation of dictatorship. Eleven years have passed since the first disappearances began in Belarus and nothing was investigated."

Sannikov is planning to challenge Lukashenko in February's presidential election, and Bebenin was a key member of his campaign team.

Friends have this week likened Bebenin to Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian journalist and human rights campaigner murdered in Moscow in 2006. "In journalism you can compare him to Anya [Politkovskaya]," Sannikov said. "But as an opposition activist he was much more multifaceted. He was very talented in many areas."

Europe's top human rights watchdog, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), called on Monday for an independent investigation into the murder, warning of the "chilling effect" on the Belarussian media if a proper inquiry is not held. Today Mike Harris, the public affairs manager of Index on Censorship, said the death "has sent shock waves through civil society in Belarus".

Russia's state-controlled television – which is typically silent when its own journalists are murdered inside Russia – has reported extensively on Bebenin's death. The coverage reflects the severe deterioration in relations between Minsk and Moscow, which over the summer escalated into a full-blown information war. The Kremlin has lost patience with Lukashenko and now appears keen to get rid of him.

Harris said that in the wake of Bebenin's suspicious death the European Union should consider re-imposing its formerly stringent sanctions on Belarus and its leadership. Sanctions were softened two years ago. The EU is due to discuss whether to prolong them in late October.

Harris added that the EU, the US and Russia, who frequently struggle to agree on international issues, could act jointly on Belarus.

Flooding has left 10 million people without shelter, the UN has said, as the Pakistani authorities rush to bolster river defences to save two more towns from catastrophe

Afua Hirsch: Lawyers struggle to bring about a better world but the American president reminds us why we must continue to fight the fight

I have always wondered why so many politicians are lawyers. I learned a few years ago that – while in civil law countries such as those in continental Europe most politicians are bureaucrats, in Africa many have military backgrounds, and in China many are engineers – in England and America many of the most memorable heads of state have had backgrounds in the law.

People say that one of the reasons Barack Obama has been so successful is his ability to be all things to all people. Part white American, part African, part Irish even, and with enough experience of being a black man in America to relate to African Americans, just the fact of his election offered the promise of radical change, but without alienating everyone else.

Many lawyers claim him as one of their own. Obama is a lawyer's politician through and through. It's no coincidence that one of the most memorable passages from his inaugural speech spoke of the importance of returning America to its historic role in defending the rule of law.

"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world and we will not give them up for expedience's sake," Obama said last January.

Politician and lawyer are not mutually exclusive. Since he took office, the disappointments and grime of political life have inevitably dimmed the sparkle. It's been a while since I saw any new R&B tracks on YouTube about being in love with Obama.

But it's back when the presidency was just a twinkle in Obama's eye that I find the lawyer I admire so much.

In his biography, Dreams from My Father, he said this about a career in law: "The study of law can be disappointing at times, a matter of applying narrow rules and arcane procedure to an unco-operative reality; a sort of glorified accounting that serves to regulate the affairs of those who have power – and that all too often seeks to explain, to those who do not, the ultimate wisdom and justness of their condition.

"But that's not all the law is. The law is also memory; the law also records a long-running conversation, a national arguing with its conscience. What is our community, and how might that community be reconciled with our freedom? How far do our obligations reach? How do we transform mere power into justice, mere sentiment into love?

"The answers I find in law books don't always satisfy me – for every Brown vs Board of Education I find a score of cases where conscience is sacrificed to expedience or greed. And yet, in the conversation itself, in the joining of voices, I find myself modestly encouraged, believing that so long as the questions are still being asked, what binds us together might somehow, ultimately, prevail."

Many young lawyers – and I was one of them – embark upon a career in law full of optimism about how their understanding of the rules underpinning society will enable them to help change it. All are disappointed by the reality of a system that is capable of producing injustice and justice in at least equal measure, and where daily practice is often more about feeling frustrated by the long arm of the rules, rather than empowered to change them.

But a few lawyers continue asking the questions and fighting the fight and, if Obama is to be believed, it's the process itself that makes things better. I believe him.

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