Myanmar appeals for international assistance for flood relief

- Ekantipur Report

MYANMAR, AUG 04 - Myanmar said on Tuesday it had appealed for international assistance to help provide food, temporary shelter and clothing for more than 210,000 people affected by widespread flooding following weeks of heavy monsoon rains.

At least 47 people have died in the floods, according to the government.

Myanmar's call for international aid stands in sharp contrast to stance taken when it was ruled by generals. The junta had refused outside help in the wake of a devastating cyclone in 2008, when 130,000 people perished in the disaster.

While the quasi civilian government, which took power in 2011 and faces elections in November, is leading the relief effort, but the military is handling operations on the ground.

"We are cooperating and inviting international assistance . We have started contacting possible donor organizations and countries," Ye Htut, the Minister of Information and spokesman for the President's Office said.

He said international assistance was also needed to relocate people and rebuild communities after the flood waters retreat. With a per capita GDP of $1,105, Myanmar is one of the poorest countries in East Asia and the Pacific.

The Chinese Embassy in Yangon began providing relief supplies to stricken areas this week.

The minister said that the flood waters have begun to recede in Rakhine state on the west coast, which suffered some of the worst flooding after being lashed by the tail of Cyclone Komen, which made landfall in Bangladesh late last week.

Areas northeast of the Rakhine state capital, Sittwe, including Mrauk U and Minbya, were particularly hard hit.

Video footage shot by Reuters on Monday aboard a military helicopter in Rakhine showed hundreds of people rushing through muddy flood waters to collect air dropped supplies.

Rakhine is home to around 140,000 displaced people, mainly Rohingya Muslims who live in squalid camps scattered across the state.

Emergency workers were still facing difficulties in Chin State on Tuesday after the rain caused landslides in the mountainous state that borders India and Bangladesh.

Main roads running through the state remained impassible and attempts to access cities by helicopter were hampered by the relentless downpours, Ye Htut said.

The state-owned Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper, citing the Ministry of Education, said that more than 1,300 schools across the country had been shuttered due to the floods.

Shwe Mann, the speaker of parliament, has also postponed the reconvening of parliament scheduled for Aug. 10, in what will be the final session before the country heads to the polls on Nov. 8.

Hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland have been inundated by the floods, with the U.N. warning that this could, "disrupt the planting season and impact long-term food security."

The Global New Light reported that the Myanmar Rice Federation would halt exports until mid-September in an effort to stabilize domestic rice prices and keep rice in country.

Posted on: 2015-08-04 04:55

Can couples really get stuck together during sex?

By William Kremer

BBC World Service

It sounds like a scene from a trashy sex comedy. But stories of getting stuck during sex have been with us for centuries - and some of them might just be true.

An emergency trip to hospital is never pleasant, but it's certainly not something you would want to happen after sex.

"It's not the most romantic ending a couple can imagine," says Dr Aristomenis Exadaktylos, author of a study of 11 years of admissions to his hospital in Bern, Switzerland.

He and his co-authors found plenty of patients who had experienced problems after sex - migraines, heart problems, even amnesia. But asked on the BBC's Health Check radio programme if he had come across a case of the woman's vagina clamping on to the man's penis, he said "No" - and added that the idea was probably an urban myth.

Two listeners, however, wrote in to dispute this.

"I must tell you it is no myth," wrote one woman who asked to remain anonymous. "It happened to my late husband and myself one night. He literally could not withdraw i.e. was 'stuck'. I attributed it to the intensity of the vaginal muscle response during orgasm."

Another correspondent, who asked to be referred to simply as John, grew up near an airport in southern England. "I remember hearing a story when I was 14 or 15 about an American airman who got stuck inside a lady and they had to get an ambulance and get them to a hospital to get them parted," he says. John eventually joined the merchant navy and started an on-off relationship with a woman in Japan.

On one occasion he and his partner were having "very enjoyable sex" when he suddenly found that he couldn't withdraw. "Proceedings came to a halt and we decided that we'd better separate," he recalls. It took two or three minutes of fumbling and laughing - the experience wasn't painful for either of them.

John, who is now 75, has never before spoken about the incident and it was never repeated.

Dr John Dean, a senior UK-based sexual physician, says that both accounts are credible examples of a rare phenomenon that doctors sometimes call "penis captivus" (captive penis).

"When the penis is in the vagina it becomes increasingly engorged," he says, giving his hypothesis of what causes the problem.

"The muscles of the woman's pelvic floor contract rhythmically at orgasm. While those muscles contract the penis becomes stuck and further engorged."

Finally the vaginal muscles relax, the blood flows out of the penis and the man can withdraw.

Many dog-owners will have seen their pets getting stuck during copulation, which breeders refer to as a "tie". However, there are distinct anatomical reasons for this, according to Peggy Root, an expert in animal reproduction at the University of Minnesota. A dog's penis has a compartment which fills with blood after intercourse has begun, effectively locking the male in place.

Dr Dean says that several of his patients have discussed with him their experience of getting stuck over the years, more out of curiosity than because it was a major problem. He draws a distinction between penis captivus and the more common and serious condition of vaginismus, in which a woman's vaginal muscles contract involuntarily, preventing intercourse.

Two reviews of the history of penis captivus, published in 1935 and 1979, highlight the public's longstanding fascination with it.

In 1372, Geoffrey de La Tour-Landry related how a voluptuary named Pers Lenard "delt fleshely with a woman" on top of an altar of a church, and God "tyed hem faste togedre dat night". The following day the whole town saw the couple still entwined "fast like a dogge and biche togedre". Finally prayers were spoken and the couple's prolonged intercourse came to an end (although they were obliged to return to the church on three Sundays, strip naked and beat themselves in front of the congregation).

Captivus features in several other medieval myths and stories, which F Kraupl Taylor, the author of the 1979 review, believes may bear "only a tenuous connection with the actual facts".

He is similarly sceptical about an account from 1931 about an event in Warsaw in the 1920s, which ended with a double suicide. This time, penis captivus afflicted lovers trysting in a garden after closing time, and the couple were only separated when the woman was put under anaesthetic. But the real tragedy came after journalists - "in their greed for sensational facts" - published the story. "The next day two revolver shots put an end to the mental sufferings of the two lovers," the story goes.

In his 1908 book The Sexual Life of our Time, Iwan Bloch recounted another case of penis captivus following on from a furtive meeting, this time in a quiet corner of the docks in Bremen, Germany. The woman underwent an "involuntary spasm", the man - a dock labourer - became trapped, and a great crowd gathered to watch. Eventually the couple were carted off to a hospital, chloroform was administered to the woman and they were freed.

In a 1933 manual of gynaecology, the author Walter Stoeckel speculated that penis captivus only affected couples engaged in illicit sex, the fear of detection presumably contributing to the force of the woman's muscular spasm.

This opinion is no longer held by experts, but the narrative of a clandestine meeting followed by public humiliation continues. Recent media reports of penis captivus - in Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe and the Philippines - all concern adulterous couples.

The Kenyan incident in 2012 supposedly occurred after the cuckolded husband paid a visit to a witch doctor. It was reported that the couple regained their liberty after prayers - and after the cheating man promised to pay the husband 20,000 Kenyan shillings (£140). He was filmed going to an ATM to withdraw the money.

The Zimbabwean media reported last year that a woman was bringing a law case against her long-term boyfriend for putting "runyoka" on her - a fidelity spell that caused her to get stuck on her lover. As one report put it, she was demanding compensation from the jealous boyfriend "for humiliating her and trying to control how she should use her private part".

But there are several accounts of penis captivus taking place within a marriage, including two unsensational case studies from 19th Century German gynaecologists.

Perhaps the best verified example of the phenomenon also occurred during marriage. After the Kraupl Taylor review was published, the British Medical Journal received a letter from Dr Brendan Musgrave, recalling an incident in 1947, from his days as a house doctor at the Royal Isle of Wight County Hospital. "I can distinctly remember the ambulance drawing up and two young people, a honeymoon couple I believe, being carried on a single stretcher into the casualty department," he wrote. This account was corroborated by another doctor who had been on duty at the time.

Dr John Dean says that he can't explain this "very unusual" story, since people experiencing captivus generally have trouble disengaging for only a few seconds.

But he adds: "If you're in that position that probably that feels like an eternity."

Jonny Byrne's family appeal after 'drinking game' death

BBC News

The family of a teenager whose body was found in a river in the Republic of Ireland has appealed to people not to take part in an internet drinking game.

Jonny Byrne, who was 19 and from County Carlow, died in the River Barrow.

His family have linked his death to the internet game known as 'NekNomination', in which people are encouraged to drink alcohol before posting a video online.

Politicians on both sides of the Irish border have also issued public warnings about the online game.

'Devastated'

The teenager entered the River Barrow on Saturday night and after hours of searching, his body was recovered shortly after 11:00 GMT on Sunday.

The teenager's father, Joe Byrne, told RTÉ: "I'm pleading to every youngster to think of the things they're doing.

"It has cost my son his life. The whole family is devastated and our lives will never be the same again.

"I hope this message is heeded because for us, life is virtually over," Mr Byrne said.

The police, Waterford Coastguard, civil defence officers and local search and rescue teams were involved in the search.

The Irish Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald has said she is very concerned about the danger the game poses to young people.

She told the Irish state broadcaster, RTÉ, that she believes the game is a lethal combination of peer pressure and excessive alcohol consumption.

In Northern Ireland, Alliance Youth tweeted: "With the growing popularity of 'neknomination' videos, we urge all young adults to be responsible and safe when drinking alcohol."

It is believed that NekNomination began in Australia, and has spread to the UK and Ireland.

Election officials: Thailand voting to take time

BBC News

Thai election officials have warned that it could take several weeks to re-stage voting in areas where Sunday's election was disrupted by protesters.

The anti-government protesters halted voting in parts of Bangkok and the south by blockading polling stations.

Their actions rendered millions of people unable to vote.

The ruling party of Yingluck Shinawatra is expected to win the election but legal challenges and a lack of MPs may create a political limbo.

The disruption means not all seats in parliament will be filled, requiring by-elections in many places.

The government wants elections that were disrupted to be re-run as soon as possible - a new parliament cannot sit until 95% of seats have been filled, reports the BBC's Jonathan Head.

But the official election commission has warned it may take weeks to hold by-elections in so many constituencies.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra called the snap election after a sustained campaign by the protesters. She said on Sunday that going to the polls had been the right thing to do.

"At least I think at this election it is very important that people come out to vote for their right to democracy," she said.

Protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban, however, told supporters late on Sunday he was "confident this election won't lead to the formation of a new government".

Thailand's Election Commission said six million voters were affected by disruption on Sunday, but 89% of polling stations operated normally.

'Shutting down'

On Monday protesters again took to the streets, marching through parts of Bangkok.

"We are not giving up the fight. We still keep fighting,'' Mr Suthep said. "Our mission is to keep shutting down government offices, so don't ask us to give those back.''

The protesters are to reduce the number of major road junctions they have blockaded in Bangkok from seven to five. They cited fear of attack as the reason, though some observers pointed to dwindling numbers.

The protesters want the government to be replaced with an unelected "people's council" to reform the political system.

They allege that Ms Yingluck's government is controlled by her brother, ousted leader Thaksin Shinawatra. They accuse Thaksin-allied parties of buying rural votes with ill-judged schemes that hurt the economy.

The main opposition Democrat Party, which is allied to the protesters, has been unable to win a majority in parliament for more than two decades.

The opposition says it will challenge the poll as it "did not reflect the intention of the constitution or the people".

Ms Yingluck's party is already facing a host of challenges in the courts that could force it from power, as has happened with pro-Thaksin parties in the past.

Moscow shooting: School gunman held after killing two

BBC News

A student who entered a Moscow secondary school and took more than 20 fellow pupils hostage has been arrested, Moscow police say.

The gunman killed one police officer and one biology teacher, police said. Another policeman was shot and injured.

The hostages the gunman took have been released, police said.

The incident, on the outskirts of the Russian capital, comes as Russia prepares to host the Winter Olympic Games, due to start in Sochi this week.

The gunman is believed to be a pupil at School No. 263 on the northern outskirts of Moscow.

"The person who took 20 people and a teacher hostage is a student in the upper classes at the same school," an interior ministry spokesman said on state TV.

"He has been neutralised and all the students have been freed," he said.

"One policeman was fatally wounded during the operation and died in hospital, and a teacher at School No. 263 was also killed," he added.

It is not clear how the teacher and the policeman died.

A school official told Russian television that all children and teachers had been evacuated from the school after the incident.

The gunman opened fire on police officers who arrived at the scene, reports say.

He had made no demands, reports say.

Corruption across EU 'breathtaking' - EU Commission

BBC News

The extent of corruption in Europe is "breathtaking" and it costs the EU economy about 120bn euros (£99bn) annually, the European Commission says.

EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem will present a full report on the problem at 11:30 GMT.

Writing in Sweden's Goeteborgs-Posten daily, she said corruption was eroding trust in democracy and draining resources from the legal economy.

For the report the Commission studied corruption in all 28 EU member states.

"The extent of the problem in Europe is breathtaking, although Sweden is among the countries with the least problems," Ms Malmstroem wrote.

The Commission says it is the first time it has produced such a report. It also makes recommendations on how to tackle corruption.

National governments, rather than EU institutions, are chiefly responsible for fighting corruption in the EU.

The EU has an anti-fraud agency, Olaf, which focuses on fraud and corruption affecting the EU budget, but it has limited resources. In 2011 its budget was just 23.5m euros.

Ms Malmstroem said that in some countries public procurement procedures were vulnerable to fraud, while in others party financing was the main problem, or municipal bodies were badly affected. And in some countries patients have to pay bribes in order to get adequate medical care, she wrote.

The EU study includes two major opinion polls, which indicated that three-quarters of EU citizens consider corruption to be widespread in their country.

Four out of 10 of the businesses surveyed described corruption as an obstacle to doing business in Europe.

In Sweden, 18% of people surveyed said they knew someone who had received a bribe, compared with a European average of 12%, Ms Malmstroem said.

Despite that finding, she said Sweden "is undoubtedly one of the countries with the least problems with corruption, and other EU countries should learn from Sweden's solutions for dealing with the problem", pointing to the role of laws on transparency and openness.

Organised crime groups have sophisticated networks across Europe and the EU police agency Europol says there are at least 3,000 of them.

Bulgaria, Romania and Italy are particular hotspots for organised crime gangs in the EU, but white-collar crimes like bribery and VAT (sales tax) fraud plague many EU countries.

Last year Europol director Rob Wainwright said VAT fraud in the carbon credits market had cost the EU about 5bn euros.

India police arrest third suspect in Danish woman rape case

BBC News

Police in the Indian capital say they have arrested a third man in connection with the gang rape of a Danish woman.

Two men have already been detained over the incident and some of the woman's belongings recovered.

The 51-year-old tourist was attacked by a group of men in the Paharganj area on Tuesday evening. Police say she was robbed and raped at knifepoint.

There has been growing alarm at India's sexual violence since the 2012 fatal gang rape of a student on a Delhi bus.

But violence and discrimination against women remain deeply entrenched in India's staunchly patriarchal society.

A Delhi police official said the third suspect was arrested from the city's busy Nizamuddin area on Thursday.

The two homeless men who were held late on Wednesday in connection with the incident have been remanded in police custody.

Some of the woman's belongings, including an iPad, a mobile phone and some cash, were recovered from them.

The police said they were hunting for five other suspects - "young men, mostly vagabonds" - who allegedly assaulted the victim for almost three hours at knife-point.

The Danish woman told police that she approached the group of men after losing her way as she returned to her hotel in a busy backpacker district near New Delhi Railway Station.

Media reports said the woman was gagged, beaten up and raped by the men.

The woman flew out of India on Wednesday morning.

Last March a Swiss tourist was gang raped and her partner attacked by a group of men in Madhya Pradesh state. Six men were jailed for life for the attack in July.

South Sudan conflict: UN says atrocities on both sides

BBC News

Both sides in South Sudan's conflict have carried out atrocities, a UN human rights chief has said.

In a BBC interview, Ivan Simonovic said the towns of Bor and Bentiu - which had changed hands a number of times - were now "ghost towns".

He was speaking after visiting South Sudan to prepare a report for the UN.

Several thousand people are believed to have been killed over the past month in the conflict between the government and the rebels.

'Looted and burned'

Mr Simonovic told the BBC that both government soldiers and rebels had committed atrocities.

"The level of involvement in the atrocities was different in different locations."

Mr Simonovic said that worst-affected were the southern town of Bor, and Bentiu in the north of the country.

"Bor is empty and Bentiu does not exist anymore; it has been wiped out. It has not been only looted, it has been burned," Mr Simonovic told the BBC.

"You can find citizens only in camps for displaced persons. What is appalling is that you have an ethnicised truth, how conflict began, who is targeting civilians.

"I do think it is essential to have an enhanced monitoring and reporting on atrocities that have taken place."

Mr Simonovic said his team's report would be released in a couple of weeks' time.

The conflict broke out on 15 December, when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup - charges he denies.

The dispute has seen killings along ethnic lines - Mr Kiir is a member of the Dinka community, the country's largest, while Mr Machar is from the Nuer ethnic group.

How Syria sank into all-out civil war

By James Robbins

Diplomatic correspondent, BBC News

A major diplomatic effort to resolve the Syrian conflict is set to take place in Switzerland next week. With over 100,000 people killed since the fighting began, the BBC's diplomatic correspondent James Robbins looks at why the war in Syria has lasted so long.

Over the last three years, Dr Omar Gabbar has watched Syria disintegrate.

The consultant spinal surgeon from the UK city of Leicester is a regular visitor to the country his father grew up in, travelling there as a volunteer for the charity Hand In Hand For Syria.

He believes the conflict has already created a lost generation of Syrians.

"Just imagine if your child cannot go to school for two or three years, just imagine you can't go out and earn a living, let alone provide the basic dignity to your family," he says.

"This is the time to start thinking like humans, to stop putting more fuel on the fire that's raging in that country and eating away at the innocent people who did not ask for this to come to their land."

So how did small peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011 spiral into all-out civil war? How did it get this bad?

Locked in stalemate

The former UK Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, heads the International Rescue Committee, an aid agency based in New York.

He says President Assad's forces and rebel fighters are locked in a destructive stalemate.

"No-one, whether internally or externally, has been strong enough to force victory while at the same time none of the sides to this conflict are weak enough to be defeated," he told me.

"That has led a conflict that some people predicted would last months to now have lasted nearly three years, cost an extraordinary number of lives, and have no end in sight."

But was there a point far earlier in the Syria conflict when it might have been possible for Western powers to do more to end the fighting?

Could they - should they - have tried to tip the military balance decisively by arming opposition rebel forces?

Slow response

Bente Scheller from the Heinrich Boll Foundation in Beirut has just written a book about what she calls President Assad's "waiting game".

She believes the international community under-estimated the resilience of the Assad regime.

"In 2011 the international community was so busy watching what was going on in other states of the region that nobody from outside really took the Syrian revolution seriously," she says.

"Assad had all the time in the world to proceed with his strategy of just clamping down on the insurgency, just trying to finish the revolution by military means from the very beginning."

Early hopes among the rebels were dashed.

The opposition's political leaders seemed to many observers to be hopelessly divided. Key world powers were deadlocked too along old Cold War lines.

Islamists and jihadist fighters took advantage of this power vacuum, enabling President Assad to portray himself as the last hope for stability.

Monzer Akbik, Chief of Staff to the head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition, is highly critical of what he sees as the West's impotence over the crisis.

"You could have saved tens of thousands of lives if the international community had taken action, either in 2011 or in 2013 when the chemical weapons were used," he says.

"Today, Assad is still carpet-bombing. He is still torturing people to death. He is still committing war crimes. And still there is no action whatsoever from the international community."

Some politicians who watched the crisis unfold are now agonising over the West's decision not to intervene.

"If a policy of non-intervention produces what we've seen in Syria, is that genuinely better than the consequences of intervention?" asks Alistair Burt, who was the Foreign Office minister responsible for Syria until October 2013.

"I think the jury is out and I think as time has gone on the imperative to support more actively the opposition has become stronger. That's become my view," he adds.

Future with Assad?

If the Syrian opposition and its supporters sometimes played what could look like a good hand of cards badly, by contrast has President Assad played a relatively poor hand well?

President Assad's strategy has been consistent: do whatever is necessary to ensure regime survival. It's an approach that worked for his father, who was accused of slaughtering tens of thousands of Syrians in the 1980s while the rest of the world largely looked away.

The present regime has been weakened, but has still managed to confound predictions of its imminent collapse, partly because it has powerful backers in Russia, Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters.

President Assad relies on foreign forces to strengthen his side, but he has managed to weaken and divide his enemies too.

The growing strength of Islamist and jihadist fighters has also allowed President Assad to argue that any alternative to him would be worse than the status quo.

Former US ambassador Ryan Crocker is among those urging the West to reconsider the unthinkable - a future Syria still controlled by President Assad.

He believes the alternative is that an al-Qaeda affiliate could seize power in Damascus.

"We rather blithely took the position that Assad must go," he told me.

"But if he goes because the radical Sunni opposition pushes him out we face the prospect of a country in the hands of al-Qaeda.

"As bad as Assad is, I think from a Western perspective that is far, far worse"

The chemical attack in Ghouta last August, far from bringing down President Assad, may have actually prolonged his rule.

Britain and America backed away from taking military action. Instead, President Assad engaged in a process to destroy his chemical arsenal - a move which strengthened him politically.

If some form of peace process does get under way in Switzerland next week, President Assad's regime brutal - but so far successful - survival strategy will face its biggest test yet.

Japan WW2 soldier who refused to surrender Hiroo Onoda dies

BBC News

A Japanese soldier who refused to surrender after World War Two ended and spent 29 years in the jungle has died aged 91 in Tokyo.

Hiroo Onoda remained in the jungle on Lubang Island near Luzon, in the Philippines, until 1974 because he did not believe that the war had ended.

He was finally persuaded to emerge after his ageing former commanding officer was flown in to see him.

Correspondents say he was greeted as a hero on his return to Japan.

As WW2 neared its end, Mr Onoda, then a lieutenant, became cut off on Lubang as US troops came north.

The young soldier had orders not to surrender - a command he obeyed for nearly three decades.

"Every Japanese soldier was prepared for death, but as an intelligence officer I was ordered to conduct guerrilla warfare and not to die," he told ABC in an interview in 2010.

"I became an officer and I received an order. If I could not carry it out, I would feel shame. I am very competitive," he added.

While on Lubang Island, Mr Onoda surveyed military facilities and engaged in sporadic clashes with local residents.

Three others soldiers were with him at the end of the war. One emerged from the jungle in 1950 and the other two died, one in a 1972 clash with local troops.

Mr Onoda ignored several attempts to get him to surrender.

He later said that he dismissed search parties sent to him, and leaflets dropped by Japan, as ploys.

"The leaflets they dropped were filled with mistakes so I judged it was a plot by the Americans," he told ABC.

Survival training

Finally in March 1974 his former commanding officer travelled to the Philippines to rescind his original orders in person.

Mr Onoda saluted the Japanese flag and handed over his Samurai sword while still wearing a tattered army uniform.

The Philippine government granted him a pardon, although many in Lubang never forgave him for the 30 people he killed during his campaign on the island, the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports from Tokyo.

Following his surrender, Mr Onoda ran a ranch in Brazil, and opened a series of survival training schools in Japan.

Mr Onoda was one of the last Japanese soldiers to surrender at the end of World War II.

Private Teruo Nakamura, a soldier from Taiwan who served in the Japanese army, was found growing crops alone on the Indonesian island of Morotai in December 1974.

Mr Nakamura was repatriated to Taiwan where he died in 1979.

Drop in sea piracy helped by big Somali improvement, says watchdog

BBC NEWS

Piracy at sea is at its lowest level in six years, with 264 attacks recorded - a 40% drop since Somali piracy peaked in 2011, a maritime watchdog has said.

There were only 15 incidents off Somalia last year, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said.

This is down from 75 in 2012, and 237 in 2011, its records show.

Armed guards on ships, international navy patrols and the "stabilising influence" of Somalia's government had helped deter pirates, the IMB said.

"The single biggest reason for the drop in worldwide piracy is the decrease in Somali piracy off the coast of East Africa," Pottengal Mukundan, IMB's director, said in a statement.

"It is imperative to continue combined international efforts to tackle Somali piracy. Any complacency at this stage could re-kindle pirate activity," he said.

IMB's annual global piracy report said more than 300 people were taken hostage at sea in 2013 and 21 were injured, nearly all with guns or knives.

Indonesia saw the most pirate attacks last year, accounting for more than 50% of all incidents.

But the report said they were "low-level opportunistic thefts, not to be compared with the more serious incidents off Africa".

Piracy off West Africa made up 19% of attacks worldwide last year, the report said.

Nigerian pirates, who accounted for 31 of the region's 51 attacks, were "particularly violent", killing one crew member, and kidnapping 36 people to hold onshore for ransom, the IMB said.

In November, a UN and World Bank report said pirates operating off the Horn of Africa, which are some of the world's busiest shipping and humanitarian aid routes, had netted more than $400m (£251m) in ransom money between 2005 and 2012.

Westgate siege: Trial of accused starts in Kenya

BBC NEWS

The trial of four men charged over the Westgate shopping centre siege in Kenya has started in the capital, Nairobi.

The four suspected foreigners deny charges of aiding a "terrorist group" and being in Kenya illegally.

The court heard testimony from security guards who saw what happened when the gunmen launched the attack in September, killing at least 67 people.

Somalia's al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group said one of its suicide brigades carried out the siege.

The four are the first to be charged over the attack - the worst in Kenya since 224 people were killed in the 1998 bombing of the US embassy.

'Black headscarves'

None of the men - named as Mohammed Ahmed Abdi, Liban Abdullah, Adnan Ibrahim and Hussein Hassan - are accused of being the gunmen who carried out the attack.

Their nationalities have not been disclosed, but they are said to be ethnic Somalis.

Guard Stephen Juma told the court he was directing traffic outside the upmarket shopping centre when a car pulled up and three men jumped out.

One of them immediately shot dead a shopper, he said, the Associated Press news agency reports.

Mr Juma said he could not identify any of the gunmen because their heads and faces were covered with black headscarves.

"I began to hear gunshots, I made a radio call for help while running to the main entrance," he is quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.

"I took shelter in a residential compound until when I saw policemen come."

False ID charges

The police say the four accused had sheltered the attackers in their homes in Eastleigh - a Somali neighbourhood in Nairobi - and that they were in contact with the gunmen four days before the siege.

The men have pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include entering Kenya illegally and obtaining false identification documents.

The BBC's Mark Lowen in Nairobi says 40 witnesses are expected to give evidence in the trial, which is likely to last around a week.

The Kenyan army has said that all four of the attackers died during the siege.

One of the suspected attackers has been named as 23-year-old Somalia-born Norwegian national, Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow.

Al-Shabab is fighting for an Islamic state in Somalia.

It said it carried out the attack to avenge the presence of Kenyan troops in Somalia to bolster the UN-back central government.

Algeria's Bouteflika returns from Paris after check-up

BBC NEWS

Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 76, has returned home after a medical check-up at a hospital in Paris, state media reports.

He flew back earlier than scheduled because of an "overall improvement" in his health, the APS news agency reports.

Mr Bouteflika, who suffered a mini-stroke last year, was admitted to the French Val-de-Grace hospital on Monday.

Presidential elections are due to be held in Algeria in April.

The ruling National Liberation Front (FLN) has nominated him to run for a fourth term, but he has not yet accepted the nomination.

Last year, Mr Bouteflika received medical treatment in France for three months after suffering a mini-stroke.

His critics say he leads an authoritarian regime, and should hand power to a younger generation.

He became president in 1999 and is regarded as being among the last of a generation of leaders who fought in the 1954-1962 war of independence from France.

A leaked US diplomatic cable in 2007 suggested he might be suffering from terminal stomach cancer and in the last few years he has rarely appeared in public or travelled outside the capital.

Amara Konneh: Liberia finance minister hails 'new image'

BBC NEWS

Liberia's finance minister says being named Africa's finance minister of the year is recognition of the country's "new image".

Amara Konneh said that Liberia's civil war, which ended in 2003, had brought about a 90% collapse in its economy.

The economy is forecast to grow by about 6% a year from 2013-7, although most Liberians remain poor.

Africa is currently the world's fastest-growing continent, according to the African Development Bank.

Mr Konneh acknowledged that his government had not been "as fast as [it was] expected to be" in improving the lives of Liberians, many of whom still live on less than $1 (£0.60) a day.

"We're not proud of that, but it's something we are trying to change," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

He argued that this change would come about with economic expansion and the right investments.

Asked about the promise of $16bn investments since 2007, Mr Konneh said that jobs had been created in sectors such as oil concessions and services, although he accepted this was not enough to reduce unemployment levels.

He noted that Liberia's population had grown by 65% between 1984 and 2008.

Mr Konneh was named Africa's finance minister of the year by the London-based Banker magazine.

Nigeria PDP crisis: President Jonathan's ally Tukur resigns

BBC NEWS

A close ally of Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan, Bamanga Tukur, has resigned as chairman of the governing People's Democratic Party (PDP).

He had been under pressure to resign after the defection of several powerful PDP governors to the opposition.

Mr Jonathan said the resignation should settle divisions in the party.

Correspondents say the crisis in the PDP has centred around Mr Jonathan's undeclared intention to contest elections in 2015.

His leadership has recently come in for high-profile criticism from within the party.

'Number one party'

At a national executive committee meeting of the PDP on Thursday, the president said that Mr Tukur was stepping down so the party could try to heal its divisions.

"We have some internal problems that have been agitating the mind of the people... For us to make sure that we rest these issues, the party chairman agreed to step aside," Reuters news agency quoted Mr Jonathan as saying.

Last month, the PDP lost its majority in the lower chamber of parliament when 37 of its MPs defected to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) party.

This followed the defection in November of a influential faction of state governors, leaving the PDP with fewer governors than the opposition.

According to AFP news agency, the president assured party leaders in his speech that these party defections were nothing to worry about and by the end of March the internal crisis would be over.

"As long as we do things the way we should do, I believe, and I'm convinced, that [the] PDP will continue to be the number one party in this country," he was quoted as saying.

Last month, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, a PDP member, called on Mr Jonathan not to seek re-election, accusing him of failing to tackle Nigeria's many problems - including the Islamist insurgency, poverty and corruption.

The president was angered by the criticism, denying the allegations in an open rebuttal letter.

Mr Jonathan moved from the vice-presidency to the presidency in 2010 after his predecessor, Umaru Yar'Adua, died in office.

He won presidential elections the following year.

The PDP has won every national election since the end of military rule in 1999.

Mandla Mandela charged over South Africa 'road rage'

BBC NEWS

Nelson Mandela's grandson Mandla has been charged with assault, according to the local public broadcaster, SABC.

Mr Mandela allegedly assaulted a teacher and pointed a firearm at him after he crashed into a car driven by one of his friends late last year.

His case was postponed to 24 February after he made a brief appearance in the Mthatha Regional Court.

Chief Zwelivelile, as he is known, inherited his grandfather's position as traditional ruler.

Senior Public Prosecutor Jongikhaya Busakwe presented a docket detailing two charges that include serious assault, or assault with intent to do grievously bodily harm as it is known in South Africa, and another charge of pointing a firearm, reports the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).

Mr Mandela, 39, who is not in custody, allegedly drew a firearm after an altercation with Mlamli Ngudle, who reportedly crashed his car into a car driven by one of Mr Mandela's guests at a function.

He is yet to plead but his defence attorney, Advocate Kenny Oldwage, asked the court for a postponement, saying they had only received the docket on Thursday morning and need more time to scrutinise its contents.

Mr Mandela is the chief of the Traditional Council in Mvezo, where his grandfather was born.

Mr Mandela and his aunt Makaziwe are vying to be recognised as head of the Mandela family. He is the eldest male descendent, while she is Nelson Mandela's eldest surviving child.

Last year, they fought a bitter court battle over where several members of the family should be buried.

Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan sacks military chiefs

BBC NEWS

Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan has sacked his military high command, his spokesman Reuben Abati has said.

No reason was given but the dismissals come amid growing concern about the military's failure to end the Islamist-led insurgency in northern Nigeria.

Mr Abati said Air Marshal Alex Badeh replaces Admiral Ola Ibrahim as the new chief of defence staff, the most senior post in the military.

Boko Haram has been waging a four-year insurgency in Nigeria.

Mr Jonathan imposed a state of emergency in three northern states in May 2013, giving the military wide-ranging powers to end the insurgency.

'Tradition of sackings'

However, Boko Haram has continued with its campaign of violence - including attacks on two military barracks and an air base last month.

On Tuesday, the group carried out a car bomb attack in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, killing at least 17 people.

United Nations figures suggest more than 1,200 people have been killed in Islamist-related violence since the state of emergency started.

Mr Abati said the new appointments would come into effect immediately.

The president had briefed the leadership of the National Assembly on the changes "and will, in keeping with the provisions of the law, request the National Assembly to formally confirm the appointments when it reconvenes", he added.

Mr Jonathan also appointed a new chief of army staff, replacing Lt Gen Azubike Ihejirika with Maj Gen Tobiah Minimah.

Rear Admiral Usman Jibrin takes over from Vice Admiral Dele Joseph Ezeoba as chief of naval staff and Air Vice Marshal Adesola Nunayon Amosu takes over from Air Marshal Badeh as chief of air staff.

BBC Nigeria analyst Naziru Mikailu says Mr Jonathan's decision does not come as a complete surprise because there is a tradition in Nigeria of sacking military chiefs.

It seems Mr Jonathan wants to show he is in charge, at a time when his leadership is being increasingly questioned within the governing People's Democratic Party (PDP) ahead of the 2015 elections, our correspondent adds.

Last month, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo called on Mr Jonathan not to seek re-election, accusing him of failing to tackle Nigeria's many problems - including the Islamist insurgency, poverty and corruption.

Yoweri Museveni: Uganda troops fighting South Sudan rebels

BBC NEWS

Ugandan troops are fighting alongside South Sudanese government forces against rebels, President Yoweri Museveni has confirmed.

He said the combined forces had defeated rebels in a "big battle" north of the capital Juba.

Mr Museveni said some Ugandans had been killed but did not give any details.

Several thousand people are believed to have been killed over the past month in South Sudan in the conflict between the government and the rebels.

Army spokesman Lt Col Paddy Ankunda said Uganda has about two battalions, or 1,600 soldiers, in the country.

The announcement comes as fighting continues around the cities of Bor and Malakal - government forces are moving on Bor, while the rebels are trying to seize control of Malakal.

The conflict broke out on 15 December, when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of plotting a coup - charges he denies.

The dispute has seen killings along ethnic lines - Mr Kiir is a member of the Dinka community, the country's largest, while Mr Machar is from the Nuer ethnic group.

In a summit in Angola, Mr Museveni said: "Only the other day, 13 January, the SPLA [South Sudan army] and elements of our army had a big battle with these rebel troops at a point about 90 kilometres [55 miles] from Juba, where we inflicted a big defeat on them."

"Unfortunately, many lives were lost on the side of the rebels. We also took casualties and also had some dead."

Mr Museveni questioned why, if Mr Machar had not planned a coup, forces loyal to him had gone on to seize control of cities such as Bor.

Ugandan officials have previously said that their special forces were only in South Sudan to help evacuate their nationals.

Since South Sudan became independent in 2011, thousands of Ugandans have crossed the border to work or do business.

Some 40,000 Ugandan nationals have been evacuated since the conflict broke out.

On Tuesday, Uganda's parliament approved the decision to send troops to South Sudan.

UN report urges action over rising CO2

BBC NEWS

The level of greenhouse gases is rising rapidly and far greater global efforts are needed to tackle the issue, a leaked UN report has warned.

The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says hugely expensive technology will be needed if the current situation continues.

It says CO2 gases grew by 2.2% per year on average in 2000-2010 - almost twice as high as in 1970-2000.

The UN says the paper - to be published in April - is a work in progress.

Main drivers

The leaked IPCC draft report urges the world community to act without delay to cut emissions and shift to clean energy.

If CO2 gases are allowed to continue growing at their current rate, increased conservation and efficiency would not be sufficient to counter their impact, the document says.

It accuses governments of spending far more on subsiding fossil fuels than switching to cleaner energy.

And the document identifies economic growth and population growth as two main drivers for the rising greenhouse emissions.

In 2009, politicians from around the world took a decision at the Copenhagen climate conference to try to limit long-term global average temperature increases to 2C (36F).

This, it was said, was the point above which dangerous changes to the planet would occur.

New world record for longest echo set near Invergordon

BBC NEWS

A new world record for the longest echo in a man-made structure has been set in an underground fuel depot constructed in Scotland before World War Two.

Salford University acoustic engineer Prof Trevor Cox recorded a shot fired from a pistol loaded with blanks inside Inchindown tunnels near Invergordon.

The time for the reverberation to end was 112 seconds.

That beat the 1970 Guinness World Records time of 15 seconds set in Hamilton Mausoleum in Lanarkshire.

Allan Kilpatrick, of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) and an expert on Inchindown, fired the pistol, loaded with blanks, about a third of the way into one of the storage tanks.

Prof Cox recorded the response picked up by the microphones about a third of the way from the far end.

He said he was amazed by the acoustics inside the tunnels.

"Never before had I heard such a rush of echoes and reverberation," he said.

The acoustic engineer said this was a standard technique used in concert hall acoustics.

"My initial reaction was disbelief," he said. "The reverberation times were just too long."

Mr Kilpatrick led the first public tour of the tunnels in 2009. Some of them are about twice the length of a football pitch, 9m wide (29.6ft) and 13.5m (44ft) high.

Hidden inside Kinrive Hill on private land, the site is only accessible through organised tours.

The oil storage tanks were dug into the rocky hillside to conceal and protect them from enemy attack.

Inchindown was constructed amid British military concerns about the strengthening of Germany's armed forces during the 1930s.

Falklands War

Work started on the depot in 1938 and in the early stages of construction many of the workers were local men with experience of building hydro-electric schemes.

The scale of the project was immense, the largest single construction in the Highlands since the Caledonian Canal, and the largest underground excavation until the Ben Cruachan pump storage hydro scheme in Argyll in the 1960s.

Nearby Invergordon was a key Royal Navy anchorage before and during the world wars.

Inchindown was completed in 1941. Its six tanks could hold 32 million gallons of fuel.

They were reportedly at full capacity during the Falklands War in 1982.

After that conflict, the depot was run down and later underwent 

David Cameron's jokes for journalists target Boris and bald spot

BBC NEWS

The prime minister has reeled off gags about his bald spot and his political rivals at a dinner for journalists.

David Cameron's comic turn took aim at Labour's Ed Balls, Deputy PM Nick Clegg and fellow Old Etonian Boris Johnson.

In a reference to their school days in Eton's exclusive Bullingdon dining club, he joked that the last time he had been at "a dinner this posh, Boris spent the rest of the night in prison".

He was addressing the first Westminster Correspondents' Dinner for 40 years.

'Mean streets'

As political journalists gathered for the black tie event, Mr Cameron said he wanted to announce his "priorities for the year ahead".

"Number one," he said. "Keeping the bald spot under control."

Lobby reporters who watch the prime minister in action from the gallery looking down on the Commons chamber often comment on his hair.

The jibes were revived when Mr Cameron's hairdresser Lino Carbosiero was appointed an MBE in the New Year's Honours - an award the PM told the dinner on Thursday night he knew nothing about in advance.

His other priorities, he said, were keeping the coalition together in the face of Lib Dem leadership attempts to distance itself from the Tories.

Implying Nick Clegg's background was not dissimilar to his own, Mr Cameron referred to the deputy prime minister as "the product of the mean streets of Westminster and Cambridge".

'Antiques Roadshow'

Comedy has become a feature of the annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in the US, in which the president of the day is expected to bring a smile to the faces of the journalists who spend all year reporting his more serious statements.

President Obama used his 2013 address to poke fun at himself and his opponents - joking he was no longer the "strapping young Muslim socialist" he used to be.

One of those watching Mr Cameron's own attempt at comedy was ITV political correspondent Paul Brand, who said the speech was "hilarious".

"Whatever you make of his politics, he can crack a joke," he tweeted.

Another correspondent noted there was only one self-deprecating gag.

On the receiving end of one of the PM's gentle digs was shadow chancellor Ed Balls - one of the Tory front bench's chief tormentors.

"We both love The Sound of Music," Mr Cameron said. "We both love Delia Smith... and we both like the Antiques Roadshow.

"I like it for the heartwarming stories, Ed likes it when they sell the family silver."

On a more serious note, Mr Cameron ended his address paying tribute to the British political press who he said had a "vital role to play in our country".

"Tenacious, uncontrollable, sceptical, often uncomfortable for us politicians, British political reporting is deservedly respected around the world for the way it probes, inquires and scrutinises.

"These things are lynchpins of our democracy."

Dave Lee Travis trial: Woman 'feared rape' at Showaddywaddy show

BBC NEWS

A woman feared she was going to be raped by DJ Dave Lee Travis when she was 15 at a Showaddywaddy concert, Southwark Crown Court court has heard.

In a videoed police interview, the woman said Mr Travis had invited her into his trailer, where he "lunged forward" and was "all over" her.

The incident in the late 70s had left her "petrified", the court heard.

Mr Travis, 68, whose real name is David Griffin, denies 13 counts of indecent assault and one of sexual assault.

Prosecutors allege he indecently assaulted 11 girls and women aged from 15 to 29 between 1976 and 2008.

As the interview was played to the court, Mr Travis sighed and shook his head repeatedly.

The woman, now middle-aged, said she and the DJ had been talking about music when he commented on the size of her breasts.

"I started feeling very awkward, then he started touching me," she said.

Mr Travis had "lunged forward", she said. "He started snogging my face off. He got his hand up my shirt and pulled my bra up.

"He was just all over my boobs. He was so heavy I was trapped in the seat. I could not get up. I thought he was going to rape me."

She went on: "I was crying, I was shouting at him to stop - then he did. I don't know whether he had a conscience.

"He stopped and told me I should get dressed. He realised he wasn't going to get anywhere with me."

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she had run home after the incident and hid in her bed.

Having been "star-struck" by Mr Travis when she first met him, she said she now regarded him as "a disgusting old man - a pervert".

'Honest' account

Appearing in court, former Showaddywaddy lead singer Dave Bartram confirmed that he did remember the concert in Gloucestershire at which the alleged assault happened.

"I can actually recall it, simply because Dave came on stage with the band and proceeded to make a nuisance of himself.

"When Dave came on stage, I'm not sure if he was invited or uninvited, he got on one of the drum kits and proceeded to make a bit of a racket."

Earlier on Thursday, the trial's third day, a radio station worker said she had been "gutted and confused" after being groped by Mr Travis.

The woman, who was in her 20s and working at commercial station Chiltern Radio, said she had initially seen Mr Travis as a "friendly grandad-type" who had been "very nice to her".

Describing the alleged assault, she said: "He came in and came up behind me and hugged me from behind and blew a raspberry on my face.

"It was just a bit too close. But then his hand was on that bit of your tummy below your belly button.

"No-one ever touches you there, it is quite personal. When he did that I kind of went to shrug him off."

The witness said that as Mr Travis went to move his hands away, he did so "deliberately and brushed over my breast".

She also said she could remember another incident when a female colleague - who gave evidence on Wednesday - had shouted at Mr Travis after he allegedly put his hand up her skirt.

Wednesday's witness told the court she had "absolutely snapped" and a manager had had to pull them apart, with Mr Travis becoming very aggressive when she shouted that he was a pervert.

That witness told the court she and Thursday's witness were "close friends" who had pledged to support each other.

But Thursday's witness denied suggestions from Mr Travis's barrister, Stephen Vullo, that she had "merged" her police statement and account of the incident with that given by Wednesday's witness.

She said her account was "honest" and said she had not spoken to the other woman since the police case had started.

'Stay away'

Chiltern Radio employee Simon Cliffe told the court he was aware one of the alleged victims felt "uncomfortable" around Mr Travis, but said that he knew of only one formal complaint.

Asked by Mr Vullo whether the complaint was because his client had been "overly tactile", he said: "It was probably stronger than that. Maybe an invasion of privacy or an invasion of space."

Mr Travis's former managing director at Classic Gold, Colin Wilshire, said he was aware of a complaint about the DJ by a female member of staff.

Mr Wilshire told the court that a woman had complained that Mr Travis had "touched her on the leg... legs".

He said Mr Travis was told to "stay away" from the woman and her office, and a complaint was raised at a board meeting, but no "mark" was left on his HR file.

He added that Mr Travis had left Classic Gold following "artistic differences" over playlists and his shifts, and not due to the complaint.

Another witness, a student in Nottingham in the 1980s, said the DJ had assaulted her when he was booked to appear at a university function.

She said she was invited into his campervan when he arrived at the gig and was later asked to guard the vehicle, but while she was wearing a guard's badge that Mr Travis had "lifted it, touching my breast".

"I was embarrassed, a bit shocked," she said. "I recoiled."

Charles and Camilla to visit Canada in May

BBC NEWS

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will tour Canada in May, a spokesman has confirmed.

They will visit Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, Canadian Governor General David Johnston said.

It will be Prince Charles's 17th visit to Canada and Camilla's third. They last visited Canada in 2012 to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

Mr Johnston's office said the prince and duchess had accepted the Canadian government's invitation.

It said the royal tour would be co-ordinated by the Canadian secretary to the Queen Kevin MacLeod.

Prince Charles and Camilla took their first official trip as a married couple to Canada in 2011.

Clarence House confirmed the visit but declined to provide further details.

London visits hit record levels, figures suggest

BBC NEWS

A record 4.9 million visits were made to London between July and September 2013, according to new figures.

In the first nine months of 2013, London saw 12.8 million visitors, an increase of 12% compared to the previous year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures suggest.

The previous record for visits in July to September was 4.7 million, in 2006.

Mayor Boris Johnson said the figures proved London was the "greatest city on the planet".

International tourists also spent more that £3.37bn on shopping and visiting attractions during the summer, it is claimed.

The amount visitors spent in 2013 increased by 5% compared to the previous year.

City guide website VisitLondon estimates that when the completed statistics for 2013 are released later this year they could prove the capital welcomed 16 million overseas visitors in the calendar year.

Provisional estimates show visitor numbers also increased across the whole of the UK with an 8% rise in overseas visits between July and September.

In the first nine months of 2013 there were nearly 25 million international visits to the UK, a rise of 11% year on year.

Mr Johnson said: "With so many fascinating museums, the best theatre scene in the world, more green space than any other European city, numerous top sporting venues, a low crime rate and much else besides, it is no wonder that people from all over the globe are flocking to London in record numbers."

The ONS figures are calculated by counting the number of visits to the UK.

Anyone entering or leaving more than once in the same period is counted on each visit.

Primark fall death: No evidence of suicide says coroner

BBC NEWS

There was "no evidence" a woman who plunged to her death in a branch of Primark wanted to kill herself, an inquest has found.

It was "unclear" whether Susan Wood's fall near the third floor escalator of the Liverpool store was intentional, coroner Andre Rebello said.

The 57-year-old, from Kirkby, was found at the bottom of the escalators in Primark in Church Street in October.

She was a patient of a Mersey Care NHS Trust acute mental health unit.

Recording a narrative verdict, Liverpool coroner Mr Rebello said: "Shortly after 17:30 on 22 October 2013 Susan Wood fell over the glass barrier on the third floor of the Primark store in Church Street, Liverpool.

"It is unclear whether it was intentional or accidental, in any event there is no evidence of her wishing to die.

"In the fall she sustained fatal injuries."

Mrs Wood was a patient at Stoddart House, a mental health unit run by Mersey Care NHS Trust. The trust sent an internal review to the coroner.

Dr David Fearnley, medical director at the trust, said: "We were saddened by Susan's sudden death, especially in such tragic circumstances and our thoughts and sympathies are with the family at this time."

Primark would not comment on the inquest but issued a statement which said: "Primark was saddened by the death of Mrs Susan Wood and extends its condolences to her family."

Osborne wants above-inflation minimum wage rise

BBC NEWS

Chancellor George Osborne has said he wants to see an above-inflation increase in the minimum wage.

He told the BBC the "economy can now afford" to raise the rate, currently set at £6.31 an hour for people over the age of 21.

The call comes after Labour claims that the economic upturn has not translated into improved living standards.

But Mr Osborne said it was Labour's fault that they had fallen and he was aiming to make people better-off.

The value of the minimum wage, paid to an estimated 1.35 million people, has fallen in real terms since the financial crisis of 2008. The current rate of inflation is 2%.

Conservative Mr Osborne told BBC political editor Nick Robinson it would have to increase to £7 an hour by 2015 for its value to return to where it was before the economic downturn struck.

The rate is recommended by the Low Pay Commission, which is overseen by Liberal Democrat Business Secretary Vince Cable.

He said the coalition, since coming to power in 2010, had "rescued the country from the brink of disaster and got us into a position where we can now see the minimum wage going up for people and, more broadly. I want living standards to go up for the whole country as we fix the economy."

'In touch'

Attacking Labour's record in power, he said: "Britain is poorer because of what happened to it in the great recession. People in the country are poorer because of what happened in the great recession."

Mr Osborne added: "I want to make sure we are all in it together, as part of the recovery, which is why I want to see above-inflation increases in the minimum wage, precisely because the British economy can now afford that."

The minimum wage rate for workers aged 18 to 20 is £5.03 an hour, while it is £3.72 for under-18s.

Some Conservatives have urged the chancellor to call for a minimum wage increase to demonstrate the party's concern over living standards, particularly those of the working poor.

Nick Robinson said the announcement was likely to trigger an argument within the coalition with Liberal Democrats accusing the Conservatives of stealing their policy ideas.

The Conservatives opposed the creation of the national minimum wage in 1999.

Mr Osborne said: "The Conservative Party in the 1990s was on the wrong side of the argument. The Conservative Party has changed. It's a modern Conservative Party in touch with the country."

He added that the government was planning another "big increase" in the amount of money people can earn before paying income tax and defended his plans to remove a further £12bn from the welfare budget.

Mr Osborne said: "This government, and I as chancellor, are on the side of hardworking people. I want a welfare system that supports work, that's fair to those who use it and those who pay for it."

Labour leader Ed Miliband has repeatedly accused the coalition of presiding over a "cost-of-living crisis", with inflation for fuel, food and other essentials outstripping wage rises.

Shadow Treasury minister Chris Leslie said: "George Osborne is flailing around under pressure but he has made no concrete announcement about the level of the minimum wage."

He added: "The Tories cannot hide from the fact that working people on average £1,600 a year worse off since they came to office. We need action now to earn our way to higher living standards and tackle the cost-of-living crisis."

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "We welcome George Osborne's acceptance of the TUC's case for an above-inflation rise in the minimum wage.

"But while this would help many, the chancellor should be more ambitious about achieving decent pay rises across the whole of the UK workforce.

"The government should work with unions and employers to increase the spread of the living wage, lift the cap on public sector pay, and recognise that the wages of the millions of workers across the economy have been falling in real terms and now need a decent increase."

John Cridland, director-general of the CBI business group, said: "Recommending the rate of the national minimum wage must be a matter for the Low Pay Commission, as the chancellor recognises.

"An unaffordable rise would end up costing jobs and hit smaller businesses in particular. Any increase in wages must reflect improved productivity."

John Allan, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said the minimum wage increase should not be above the rate of inflation as many firms operated within "very fine margins" and were "struggling with rising costs in areas such as utilities and business rates".