Current News Affiars

Sanjoy Majumder gets a first hand look at one of the venues

It was meant to be Delhi's moment of glory.

By staging the Commonwealth Games successfully in its capital, India wanted to announce to the world that it was an emerging superpower.

But the run-up to the Games has been a huge public relations disaster.

Delhi was told it would be "world-class" by 2010.

But the Games start in just over a month and the city is nowhere near ready.

Deadlines missed

The Games village where athletes and officials are going to stay still needs lots of work.

Many of the stadiums are still being renovated. At least one - Thyagaraj Stadium - is no longer a venue because the authorities admitted it would not be ready in time.

Even ticket sales have been delayed.

And the city looks as if it has been bashed up physically - many roads are dug up, others have massive craters and potholes.

Pavements - which were broken up with the promise that new ones would be laid soon - are still unwalkable.

Chief Minister Sheila Dixit (left) is now seeking divine intervention

In many areas, shops, restaurants and businesses complain they are losing out on trade.

And unusually heavy monsoon rains have further delayed the work, adding to the misery.

The deadline for Delhi to be Games-ready was initially 31 March. After several extensions - first to 30 June, then to 31 July, then 31 August - it is now mid-September.

The authorities, however, insist that the Games will be a resounding success and everything will be in place when the curtain goes up on 3 October.

But as deadline after deadline falls by the wayside, people in Delhi seem to be losing patience.

"The Games were awarded in 2003, so work should have been completed by 2008. That would have given them two years to test the facilities," says Delhi-based architect and author Gautam Bhatia.

"Anywhere else, even a delay of a day or two would have been taken seriously, but I'm quite amazed by the casual attitude of the officials here."

Worth it?

A whopping $2.35bn (£1.5bn) is being spent on the Games but the city has been "a dismal showcase" for it, he says.

"The quality of a lot of the work is second-rate. Millions of dollars have been spent on each stadium, but if you look at the quality and the workmanship, you wonder whether it's worth it.

"We have to see the amount we spent and what we got for it," he says.

Many projects are way behind schedule

The answer to that many would say is - not much.

Each day brings with it fresh reports of corruption and problems at newly-renovated stadiums and other sports facilities.

Recent floods at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium damaged parts of the athletics track, sending workers scurrying back in to fix it.

"What are we getting for the cost?" asks Rajesh Kalra, editor-in-chief of the Times of India website.

"Leaking roofs, shoddy finish, already crumbling concrete, faulty drainage, inferior seats and inadequate lighting that needs to be changed to allow for high-definition telecast."

Mr Kalra says the taxpayer is being defrauded in the name of the Games: "What should have cost X is costing 10X, and what should last years will last a fraction."

'National shame'

There appears little popular support for the Games. Some have even called for the event to be abandoned.

"The goal of portraying Delhi as a world-class city and an international sports destination has led the Indian government to lose sight of its priorities and legal and moral commitments to its people," says Miloon Kothari, former UN special rapporteur on adequate housing, who heads a group called the Housing and Land Rights Network.

A recent report by his group says the high expenses of the Games are likely to create "a negative financial legacy for the country".

The Games budget has risen from an initial projection of $405m to $2.35bn today. Experts say when the final expenses on infrastructure, security and other projects are tallied it will be much more, perhaps as high as $15bn.

Mr Kothari wants the Games to be called off

Mr Kothari questions the rationale behind spending so much money on a one-off sporting event.

"When one in three Indians lives below the poverty line and 40% of the hungry live in India, when 46% of India's children and 55% of women are malnourished, does spending billions of dollars on a 12-day sports event build national pride or is it a matter of national shame?" he asks.

The Games were meant to instil a sense of pride in Delhi, but many fed-up citizens are threatening to leave the city or take no part in the event.

Even former sports minister Mani Shankar Aiyar says the Games are "evil" and he is "getting the hell out of the country" to avoid them.

College student Aditya Narayan says the event is a "sham" and blames Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit.

"She said it would be the best the world has seen. But she has made a joke of our country."

With time fast running out, Mrs Dixit is seeking divine intervention.

"It appears that Lord Indra [the rain god] is unhappy with us," she said at the weekend.

"I will appeal to him to bring some sunshine. If the rain stops and sun comes out, we will be able to complete the work by 10-15 September. Otherwise we will have to extend the deadline.

"By the grace of god, we will be able to finish everything by 3 October."

If that does not happen, Delhi and India could be facing major embarrassment.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

The US has increased military and diplomatic ties with Vietnam in recent months

Imagine an exchange of fire between Chinese and Vietnamese navies in the South China Sea.

Or just an accidental bump between Chinese and American warships, as high-stakes manoeuvring gets out of hand.

Or the arrest by China's navy of hundreds, not just dozens, of Vietnamese fishermen in disputed waters, sparking US voices to support Hanoi against Beijing - or the other way around.

Fanciful scenarios? Certainly.

But the impact of a conflict over a storm-tossed and otherwise unremarkable stretch of water south of China and bordered by most South East Asian states would be far-reaching.

The shipping of Middle Eastern oil to Japan would be at risk, north-east Asian economies could stall, trade between China and South East Asia could be blocked in tit-for-tat recriminations and much more if the world's two biggest powers became locked in combat.

That is why a discernible ramping-up of tension has excited the analyst community that watches the South China Sea issue.

When US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke in Hanoi in July, she aligned the US firmly with South East Asia's approach to overlapping claims in the South China Sea.

She said: "The United States supports a collaborative diplomatic process by all claimants for resolving the various territorial disputes without coercion. We oppose the use or threat of force by any claimant."

In response, China has described the South China Sea as a "core interest", complained of "encirclement" and lambasted unwarranted interference by the US in matters that do not concern it.

A series of moves by the various players has brought the region to a point where "the status quo is not sustainable", says Ian Storey, fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

There has been a "change of tone" and concerns in the region have "increased markedly", he says.

Carl Thayer, a professor of politics at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra, concurs.

China has "undertaken provocative actions to underscore its national security concerns. Chinese actions have resulted in growing friction with Vietnam and have spilled over to affect US strategic interests.

"The United States has responded by asserting its right to freedom of navigation and has moved to develop a strategic partnership with Vietnam," he says.

That is not how China sees it, of course.

It was already angry about the activities of US military vessels in China's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) which it says are not "innocent", as required by the rules governing such behaviour.

Sovereignty over the entire South China Sea is the bigger issue, however, not only because of suspected, albeit unproven, deposits of oil and gas.

Both China and the US have increased naval drills in the Asian region

More important is the fisheries industry and the vital issue of freedom for trade through some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world - 80% of China's energy imports pass through these waters.

Back in 2002, China and the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) signed a Declaration of Conduct on how to tackle the disputes.

But in scores of meetings since, they have failed to act on specified confidence-building measures which could implement the declaration.

A China-Asean working group on the Declaration of Conduct has met only four times since 2004 but could meet a second time this year.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates is also scheduled to attend the first-ever meeting of Asean defence ministers - China will also be there - set for October.

Some analysts hope these meetings will help achieve a real code of conduct in the seas - but there remains a fundamental divergence in approach between China and Asean.

Although China has been happy to regulate economic relations with Asean as a bloc - touting the success of the China-Asean Free Trade Area (Cafta) in place since the beginning of 2010 - it wants to handle political issues differently.

It has consistently said sovereignty disputes should be tackled bilaterally, between China and each individual claimant country.

Asean members are unwilling to take that approach, knowing it weakens them in talks with a power that is now crucial to almost all their economies.

While the big powers, the US and China, battle it out with more bellicose rhetoric and a series of competing military exercises around the region, key countries within Asean are watching warily.

With Vietnam as chair of Asean this year, the issue of the South China Sea has come to the fore and a new level of consensus has been reached within Asean.

"South East Asians were, and continue to be, fully aware of both the inherent promises and dangers that China presents, whose traditional symbol is after all a dragon," notes Indonesia's Dewi Fortuna Anwar, research professor at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.

"During the Cold War, China was regarded as an unmitigated threat. Today, however, Asean believes that the best course of dealing with China, with its vast economic potential and growing military might, is to engage and integrate it fully into the regional order," she wrote in The Jakarta Post.

The experts are agreed that the balance of power in East Asia is shifting.

"Twenty years ago, no-one was in the position to enforce any claims. Now China has the wherewithal to pursue more coercive diplomacy - so it can't go on like this," says Ian Storey.

"As the PLA grows in strength, South East Asians have become more aware of the gap between rhetoric and reality. As a result, China's platitudes are wearing thin."

More than ever, the dangers of failing to engage in a more serious search for peaceful arrangements are clear.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

UKIP failed to make a breakthrough at the general election, but did increase its share of the vote

Members of the UK Independence Party are set to gather for their autumn conference in Torquay, with the search for a new leader top of the agenda.

Lord Pearson of Rannoch announced last month he would stand down as leader at the conference, saying he was "not much good at party politics".

Jeffrey Titford was chosen at a meeting on Thursday to run the party until a permanent replacement is elected.

The election for a permanent successor is to be staged later.

UKIP's former leader, MEP Nigel Farage, has yet to confirm whether he will stand.

Mr Farage suffered serious injuries in a light aircraft crash on 5 May - the day of the general election - and subsequently failed in his attempt to get elected to Westminster, after standing against the Commons Speaker John Bercow in Buckingham.

Although he has not ruled himself out, he told the BBC last month he wanted "to take a bit more time for myself and for my family".

UKIP failed to make a breakthrough in May's poll, although it did increase its share of vote to more than 3% - securing more than 900,000 votes.

Lord Pearson - a former Conservative who became UKIP leader last year - announced in August his intention to stand down on 2 September.

He said he did not "enjoy" the cut and thrust of party politics and suggested a "younger leader" was needed to take the party forward.

David Campbell Bannerman, one of the party's 13 representatives in the European Parliament, is widely seen as a potential interim leader.

In a speech at the conference, he will set out a "detailed prospectus" for how the UK would manage outside the European Union - a move UKIP has long urged.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Local authority body Cosla said a settlement had to be imposed to allow councils to plan their budgets

A public sector union is to discuss how to respond to a move by Scots councils to impose a pay deal on 150,000 staff.

The deal would see workers get a rise of 0.65% backdated to April, followed by a pay freeze for the next two years.

Unison Scotland members have turned down an offer which would have been worth more, although the union said the proposal was not formally rejected.

The local authority body Cosla said a settlement had to be imposed to give councils clarity for budget planning.

Unison had originally wanted a 3% pay rise this year, or an increase of £600 for the lowest-paid workers.

The union said the original offer made by the councils - a 1% increase this year, followed by a pay freeze next year and a 0.5% rise in 2012-13 - had not been officially rejected.

They said they had wanted to negotiate but were shocked when the offer was withdrawn and a less generous deal imposed last week.

The issue will now be discussed at a meeting for Unison Scotland members who work in local government, with one option being assessing whether there is an appetite for industrial action.

And at a conference at the weekend, Unison general secretary Dave Prentis will also warn Scottish politicians to ignore the "ice cream van economics" of the recent Independent Budget Review report.

He will tell the conference in Glasgow that the country's political leaders will be judged on how far they distance themselves from the July report and fight to protect the services that people rely on.

He said that the report painted a vision of a future "where services are privatised or charged for, if they are there at all" and where 35,000-60,000 jobs are cut.

He added: "A proper review of the budget would have started by looking at the services we need, then working out how you raise the money to pay for them.

"You don't look at a government's finances and say 'we've got this much, what can we get for it?'

"That's what kids do at an ice cream van. We should be able to expect better from experts looking at a country's finances."

The Unison conference will see more than 200 union and community activists from around the country share experiences about threats to local services and discuss how to develop the union's Public Works campaign.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

The classic and the Countryman are very different, yet they are clearly both members of the Mini family

A new Mini will hit the road later this month - one that has moved miles away from the marque's roots and seems to defy much of the logic of the tiny original.

At a driving event for the media this week, the new Mini Countryman was met with much head-shaking by puzzled, albeit curious, motoring journalists.