Why Li's Handshake With Queen Is Uncomfortable

The desire for Britain and China to take their relationship in trade and investment to a new level is obvious.

Put simply, China has the cash and the spending power that could really help Britain.

Equally, the UK has experience and expertise which China could use in so many sectors from energy, design and innovation to finance, education and health.

That seems to explain why Britain has rolled out the red carpet in a big way for Premier Li on his three-day London trip.

There was an audience with the Queen - unusual given Mr Li is Prime Minister, not head of state. There was a guard of honour too.

But watching Mr Li shake hands with the Queen and then inspect the soldiers from the Coldstream Guards, formed up in his honour, makes some observers feel uncomfortable.

The reason? Two words: "human rights". It is a loaded phrase, I know. It means different things in different contexts and to different people.

The Chinese premier was given the red carpet treatment in London

In Britain there is sometimes frustration, even outrage, when convicted foreign criminals are allowed to remain in the UK because deportation infringes their "human rights".

But what about when the phrase is applied to China, as it so often is?

There is a tendency to throw the phrase into conversations and news reports without any context. What does it mean? How does it relate to China?

Here are a few thoughts:

:: Political freedom

I met a tourist in Beijing the other day. We got talking. Politics came up. It had entirely slipped his mind that there are no elections in China.

These days, the country has such a dynamic and capitalist feel that, for some, it's easy to forget that it remains a one-party state. Its people are unable to choose who governs them.

The Tiananmen Square massacre was a brutal suppression of political freedom

:: Freedom of expression

Not only are they unable to choose their government, but they are unable to question the government either.

Chinese citizens are far from free to express their political opinions. Since the new leaders took over in March last year (the fifth generation of continuous Communist rule) there has been a step change in the number of people detained for attempting to express their opinions either at gatherings or online.

Using the catch all phrase "rumour-spreading" the government has detained people in unprecedented numbers.

They include prominent scholars, academics, lawyers, even relatives of those who died in the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre.

Trials often take place in private - off limits to the media, which isn't free to report what it wants anyway.

:: The internet and the media

Journalists in China face restrictions and intimidation

Visitors to China are often shocked to discover that Facebook, Twitter, YouTube are all blocked in China. So too are several news websites.

On television, BBC World and CNN International both regularly "go to black" when reports about China are aired. A Chinese censor in a control centre somewhere literally presses a button to cut transmission.

All this in a country that is now considered a grown-up global player. 

:: Foreign reporters

As a foreign correspondent in China, I find myself subjected to extraordinary obstruction in my attempts to report on certain issues such as trials, anniversaries of sensitive events, investigations into forced abortions and the persecution of Christians and Muslims.

We are intimidated, physically assaulted and constantly reminded that our visas need to be renewed annually. In other words: "Behave or you're out".

:: The death penalty

A woman shouts as she is sentenced to death before her execution in 2001

There are plenty of countries around the world that use the death penalty, but according to Amnesty International, China executed more people last year than every other country combined.

Many had sentences handed down in closed trials. This week alone, it emerged that 13 Uighur Muslims were executed for offences ranging from arson to organising terror attacks.

The trials were closed and the fate of the accused only announced after the executions. China has 55 capital offences, including many non-violent crimes.

:: Religious freedom

Chairman Mao is often quoted as having said that "religion is poison". Sixty-five years since his revolution brought the Communists to power in China, it's still not straightforward to practise religion in China - as we discovered in December. 

:: The one child policy

Liu Xinwen was forced to have an abortion because of the one child policy

Concessions were made this year in China's continued policing of the one child policy. If couples meet certain criteria they can now have a second child.

Yet in many provinces and for many couples, one child is all they are allowed. If they fall pregnant again, the consequences can be, frankly, heartbreaking.

This is not an exhaustive list. Far more details can be found on the British Government's website. Their list certainly suggests that the UK isn't ignoring China's human rights record in favour of investment opportunities.

Indeed, diplomats tell me that the stronger the economic and political relationship, the easier it is to raise human rights concerns.

Still, in the context of what "human rights" means in China, it makes the visit with the Queen and the pomp on the parade square feel, for some, unpalatable.

A last point...

Millions now out of poverty: people power or Communist triumph?

China is, these days, more willing than ever to confront the accusation that it has an appalling human rights record.

Its argument is this - the Communist leaders talk of human rights in collective terms rather than individual ones.

The Communist Party argues that it has "pulled millions people out of poverty" through economic and social reforms.

In that context, they say they have vastly improved the human rights of millions of Chinese citizens.

Others would argue that it wasn't the Communists who "pulled" the people out of poverty, it was simply the decision to "unshackle" them economically which allowed the Chinese people pull themselves out of poverty.

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Father Convicted For Avenging Daughter's Death

A man has been convicted by a French court for organising the kidnapping of his daughter's killer so he could be brought to justice.

Andre Bamberski suspected ex-doctor Dietrich Krombach, his 15-year-old daughter Kalinka's stepfather, of giving her a lethal injection so he could rape her.

The teenager was living with her stepfather, mother and younger brother in the German town of Scheidegg when she died in 1982.

Germany refused to extradite Krombach, who was convicted in his absence in France, on the grounds of insufficient evidence.

But Bamberski was determined  to see him face justice and took matters into his own hands in 2009 - hiring two men to kidnap Krombach and bring him across the border to face trial over Kalinka's death.

Krombach was found bound and gagged outside a French courthouse and convicted in 2011 of "deliberate violence leading to involuntary death".

The 79-year-old is currently serving a 15-year sentence in a Paris prison.

On Wednesday, Bamberski was given a suspended one-year prison sentence for kidnapping Krombach, who had been suspended from practising medicine in 1997 after admitting drugging and raping a 16-year-old girl in his office.

Bamberski, who had faced 10 years in jail, said he was "disappointed" by the ruling, but would not be appealing.

He said he believed he should have been acquitted because he had a "moral compulsion" to act.

Asked by a reporter if he regretted his actions, he replied: "No, no. Not at all. As I said again a few days ago, for me, the main thing was Kalinka."

The two men who carried out the kidnapping were also found guilty and each sentenced to a year in prison.

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Explosion At Nigeria World Cup Viewing Centre

At least 21 people have been killed after a suicide bomber targeted football fans at a World Cup screening in northeastern Nigeria.

Witnesses described hearing two blasts at a venue where football fans had gathered in Damaturu on Tuesday night to watch the Brazil Mexico match.

Hospital workers said many people were critically injured.

The bomb was hidden inside a tricycle taxi, AP news agency reported.

Damaturu is the capital of Yobe state, which has been targeted in a series of attacks by militant Islamist group Boko Haram.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the bomb attack.

The group abducted more than 200 girls from a school in neighbouring Borno state in April and frequently times secondary explosions to kill people as they rush to help at the scene of bomb blasts.

The Nigerian government has advised residents to avoid gathering in public to watch the World Cup.

Earlier this month, a bomb exploded at another venue in northeastern Nigeria, killing at least 14 people.

Boko Haram has declared war on all signs of Western influence.

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DiCaprio Donates $7m To Protect Marine Life

Leonardo DiCaprio has donated $7m (£4.1m) towards protecting the oceans after witnessing "environmental devastation first-hand".

The Hollywood star told the audience at the US State Department's Our Ocean conference about the importance of protecting ocean wildlife.

"What once had looked like an endless underwater utopia is now riddled with bleached coral reefs and massive dead zones," DiCaprio said.

The conference coincided with President Barack Obama announcing new efforts to protect areas of the Pacific Ocean controlled by the US from overfishing and environmental damage.

Appearing in a video message at the conference, Mr Obama said he was "directing the federal government to create a national strategy to combat black market fishing that threatens our oceans, undermines our economy, and often supports dangerous criminals".

DiCaprio was nominated for an Oscar for The Wolf Of Wall Street

DiCaprio's multi-million dollar contribution will go towards "meaningful ocean conservation projects over the next two years".

He said: "We have systematically devastated our global fisheries through destructive practices like bottom-trolling, where huge nets drag across the bottom of the ocean for miles, literally scraping up everything in their path, permanently destroying abundant underwater forest, teeming with every possible imaginable form of wildlife."

In February the Wolf Of Wall Street actor gave $3m (£1.8m) to a conservation organisation which protects sharks and other marine animals.

In November 2013 the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation awarded a $3m grant to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to boost a scheme to help Nepal double its wild tiger population by 2022.

"Time is running out for the world's remaining 3,200 tigers, largely the result of habitat destruction and escalating illegal poaching," said DiCaprio, a WWF board member.

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British Girl, Five, Drowns In Cyprus Hotel Pool

A five-year-old British girl has drowned in a hotel swimming pool in Cyprus during a family holiday.

The youngster died on Monday afternoon at the Evalena Hotel in Protaras, on the southeastern coast of the island.

The child had arrived in Cyprus on Sunday for a week's holiday with her mother, grandparents and other relatives, according to the Famagusta Gazette.

Adam Kirk, a spokesman for Famagusta Police, said: "At about 4.15pm on Monday afternoon a five-year-old girl from England was found drowned in the pool of a hotel in Protaras.

"A tourist saw the child in the bottom of the pool. He dived in and took her out but it was already too late.

"It seems that the parents had not seen the child. She was in the bottom of the pool for around five minutes."

He added that officers would be examining CCTV footage of the pool.

A post-mortem examination at Larnaca General Hospital on Tuesday confirmed the cause of death was drowning.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are aware of the death of a British national in Cyprus on June 16 and are providing consular assistance at this sad time".

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'Mona Lisa' Of Stamps Sets New Auction Record

A postage stamp from a 19th century British colony in South America has become the world's most valuable stamp - again.

The 1856 British Guiana One-Cent Magenta has sold for $9.5m (£5.6m) at a Sotheby's auction in New York.

It was the fourth time it has broken the auction record for a single stamp in the 158 years since it was made.

The British Guiana, which went to an anonymous buyer, was expected to fetch between $10m and $20m.

Nonetheless, Sotheby's vice chairman David Redden still labelled the sale "a truly great moment for the world of stamp collecting".

"That price will be hard to beat, and likely won't be exceeded unless the British Guiana comes up for sale again in the future," he added.

A Sotheby's employee examines the highly valuable stamp

The previous auction record for a single stamp was held by an 1855 Swedish stamp, which sold for $2.3m (£1.35m) in 1996.

Measuring 1in by 1¼in (2.5cm by 3.2cm), the British Guiana has not been on public view since 1986 and is the only major stamp absent from the British Royal Family's private Royal Philatelic Collection.

"You're not going to find anything rarer than this," said Allen Kane, director of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. "It's a stamp the world of collectors has been dying to see for a long time."

David Beech, former curator of stamps at the British Library, has described the British Guiana as the Mona Lisa of stamps.

Printed in black on magenta paper, it bears the image of a three-masted ship and the colony's motto, in Latin: "We give and expect in return."

It went into circulation after a shipment of stamps was delayed from London and the postmaster asked printers to create three stamps until the others arrived: a one-cent magenta, a four-cent magenta and a four-cent blue.

Of these, only the one-cent stamp is known to exist today.

The last owner was John E. du Pont, an heir to the du Pont chemical fortune who paid a record $935,000 (£550,000) for it in 1980.

The stamp was sold by his estate, which will designate some of the proceeds to the Eurasian Pacific Wildlife Conservation Foundation that du Pont championed.

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Satanist Held Over Ritual Killing In Park

By Anthee Carassava, in Greece

Police in Greece are investigating whether a self-proclaimed satanist, who has confessed to performing a human sacrifice in a public square in Athens, is part of a bigger cult of dark witchcraft.

The move follows a clandestine police hunt that on Tuesday led to the arrest of Alexandros Papageorgiou, who told authorities he was preparing a second killing to coincide with the weekend summer solstice.

"It appears that he was acting alone," a senior police official told Sky News.

"But the investigation is continuing - trying to determine whether there could have been other accomplices."

The 22-year-old suspect, who was arrested and is currently in custody pending trial, confessed to killing a 41-year-old homeless woman two months ago, on Easter Sunday.

He told police and a local prosecutor the killing was "a ritual act in respect and admiration of Satan".

Athens Police are investigating whether the suspect had accomplices

Described as "deeply disturbed" and a drug addict by his father, he is alleged to have bludgeoned his victim to death, using a heavy stone which he picked up from a park in a southern suburb of Athens.

"I slit my hand with a knife and as blood oozed out I looked around and she was the first person I saw," he said in his confession, leaked to local media Wednesday. "It could have been anyone."

DNA analysis and a fingerprint on a plastic bag containing the murder weapon which police found in a nearby bin led authorities to track the suspect who publicised his activities through social media.

"Plug in the words Satan worshippers on social network sites and you'll find scores of followers here in Greece alone," said Vassilis Doumas, president of Greece's union of elite police forces.

"The hunt now is to decipher whether there are others who could follow."

The suspect, who claimed he confessed his ritual killing to his parents the same night, embraced black arts from the age of 13.

During his arrest, authorities said they confiscated 165g of cannabis from his family apartment.

The murder has kept Greeks glued to their television sets, recalling harrowing memories of similar killings waged by a cult of witchcraft worshippers over a decade ago.

And with the rate of homelessness having spiked by 40% in the four years of financial crisis, public safety concerns have heightened.

Authorities insist police patrols will be beefed up to prevent copy-cat killings.

"We have already increased patrols with the addition of rapid reaction units," Christos Parthenis told Sky News.

"The homeless are citizens of this country also and they, too, will be protected."

The suspect, who faces life imprisonment if convicted of the murder, is due to appear in court on Thursday.

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Australia Warned Over Declining Barrier Reef

Australia's Great Barrier Reef could be put on a list of endangered World Heritage Sites if more is not done to protect it.

The United Nation's cultural agency, Unesco, has called on the country to submit a report on its actions by February 1, 2015, or face the possibility of the reef being put on the "in danger" list.

The reef, one of the most biodiverse places on the planet that sprawls across an area roughly the size of Japan, is considered to be in poor health.

It is under growing pressure, not just from climate change and the destructive coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish, but agricultural runoff and rampant coastal development linked to mining.

There have been protests about saving the barrier reef

In documents presented at Unesco's World Heritage Committee gathering in Doha, the body warned of the "serious decline in the condition" of the reef and said "a business as usual approach to managing the property is not an option".

Unesco has raised particular concern about the approval in December of a large coal port expansion in the region and allowing the dumping of millions of tonnes of dredge waste within the marine park waters.

Delegates are meeting for 10 days in Doha to consider the inscription of 40 sites on the World Heritage List, but also to issue warnings over already-listed locations that may be in danger.

Among the sites expected to win the coveted status are Qhapaq Nan - a huge network of roads spanning six countries once used by the Inca Empire - and the Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave in France, which contains some of the earliest known cave paintings.

Potosi in Bolivia, one of the highest cities in the world, is also on the endangered list due to "uncontrolled mining".

The so-called "mountain that eats men" holds one of the world's greatest silver deposits, but is at risk of collapse after five centuries of rampant mining that has killed an estimated eight million workers. 

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Met Cancels 'Anti-Semitic' Broadcast Of Opera

The Metropolitan Opera has cancelled plans for a global simulcast to cinemas of John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer amid fears it could stir anti-Semitic feelings.

The Live in HD broadcast had been scheduled for November 15.

The opera depicts the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship by the Palestine Liberation Front in which Jewish New Yorker Leon Klinghoffer was killed.

It gives voice to hijackers as well as victims and has attracted controversy since its premiere in 1991.

The Met says it made its decision after discussions with the Anti-Defamation League.

The League praised the Met's decision, saying while the opera was not anti-Semitic it feared it could create anti-Israeli sentiments in foreign countries.

Mr Adams blasted the decision, saying the opera "in no form condones or promotes violence, terrorism or anti-Semitism".

"My opera accords great dignity to the memory of Leon and Marilyn Klinghoffer, and it roundly condemns his brutal murder," he said in a statement.

The Death of Klinghoffer will still be performed at the opera house as planned in the Autumn.

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Iraq Crisis: PM Vows To 'Face Terrorism'

Iraq's prime minister has said his forces are "striking back" after a "shock" defeat at the hands of Sunni militants in the country's north.

Nouri al Maliki's address came as insurgents were seen parading through the city of Baiji after taking over three-quarters of the oil refinery there.

Smoke was seen billowing from the Baiji complex, Iraq's biggest, as officials confirmed it had been infiltrated by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants - potentially giving them control of the energy supply in northern Iraq.

A car bomb in a mainly Shi'ite district of Baghdad killed at least seven

Production had already ceased at the refinery, north of Baghdad.

The attack follows the revelation that ISIS charts its brutality and tactics in annual reports called al-Naba - The Report.

The 2013 version claims 10,000 operations in Iraq, including 1,000 assassinations and 4,000 improvised explosive devices planted.

Claims made by ISIS in its 2013 annual report

The US-based Institute for the Study of War has analysed the 2012 and 2013 reports and corroborates much of the information they contain.

Other claims in the 2013 report include the freeing of hundreds of radical prisoners - and hundreds of "apostates" being turned.

As ISIS continued its move towards Baghdad, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned "the great Iranian people will do everything to protect" revered Shia shrines in Iraq from Sunni militants - the clearest indication yet that Tehran is prepared to mobilise.

Volunteers to fight the insurgency take a training session in Kerbala

Mr Rouhani's chief of staff, Mohammad Nahavandian, said Iran could work with the US on Iraq if talks about its nuclear programme are successful.

The announcement came as David Cameron warned that if Britain did not intervene, terrorists will "hit the UK at home".

The Prime Minister told MPs: "The people in that regime, as well as trying to take territory, are also planning to attack us here at home in the United Kingdom."

An Iraqi boy joins a Shi'ite tribe preparing to fight the militants

Syrian President Bashar al Assad said terrorism will strike back against the West and other countries that have "supported" attacks in his country and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Mr Maliki's pledge to strike back against ISIS appears set to begin with the "liberation" of the strategic northern Shia town of Tal Afar, which a security spokesman said would be completed in a matter of hours.

Meanwhile, Kurdish forces in the northern towns of Saadiya and Jalula began a counter offensive against ISIS.

Kurdish security forces in training in Irbil

Outside the city of Samarra, home to one of the most important Shia shrines, the bodies of 18 Iraqi security personnel were discovered.

Elsewhere, diplomats in Baghdad were looking into reports of ISIS abducting 100 foreign workers in areas under its control.

Some international oil companies have confirmed the evacuation of foreign workers.

The head of Iraq's southern oil company, Dhiya Jaffar, said Exxon Mobil had carried out a major evacuation, while BP had pulled out 20% of its staff.

Medical charity MSF appealed to the warring factions to spare medical staff after one of its clinics in the northern city of Tikrit was damaged in an offensive by Islamists.

Amid the troubles, photographs emerged of children holding weapons alongside both the jihadists and fighters loyal to the government.

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