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Chinese officials ignored warnings from five eminent seismologists that a strong earthquake would strike the mountainous province of Sichuan this year, including one forecast that almost exactly predicted the date of the tremor that killed more than 68,000 people. The Government appeared to be trying to suppress evidence of the warnings last week and none of the seismologists could be traced for an interview.

News of the warnings, first disclosed on a Chinese scientist's blog, has created a storm of criticism on the internet and deepened the rage of bereaved parents in ruined towns such as Mianzhu, where schools collapsed on their pupils. Sichuan journalists even dared to question the head of the State Earthquake Bureau. They demanded to know if it was true that the forecasts were dismissed because officials did not want anything to disturb preparations for the Olympic torch relay to pass through this month. The journalists got no answer and there has since been little mention of the warnings in the official media; but there is no doubt that the documents cited are authentic.

The first forecast came in a highly technical article published by four seismologists in September 2006 in China's Journal of Catastrophology. The four, Long Xiaoxia, Yan Junping, Sun Hu and Wang Zuzheng, calculated that stress factors along the Sichuan-Tibet tectonic fault indicated that a quake measuring above 6.7 on the Richter scale would strike this year. They suggested the Government should set up emergency headquarters and organise local disaster teams to train city dwellers and farmers how to protect themselves. There is no evidence that anything was done. But the seismologists were not available to explain why. "You're a journalist?" said an official at their university, contacted by telephone. "They are not supposed to accept any interviews, so just give up the idea."

The fifth expert to issue a warning is said to be in seclusion, afflicted by heartache over the loss of so many children. Geng Qingguo, a renowned seismologist, had come out of retirement to present his dire predictions to a meeting of specialists on April 26 and 27. Geng outlined his calculations that an earthquake of more than 7 on the Richter scale would occur along the boundaries of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces. He even predicted that the most likely date would be within 10 days of May 8. The scientist dispatched a copy of his findings to the State Earthquake Bureau in Beijing on April 30. Once again, nothing seems to have been done. The quake struck with a Richter scale force of 7.9 on May12. None of this would be known but for the fact that one of Mr Geng's colleagues, Li Shihui of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, disclosed the whole story in his blog after the earthquake. "His opinion was not accepted by the State Earthquake Bureau," Dr Li wrote, "and when he heard of the Sichuan earthquake he tried to cry, yet no tears would come, so heavy was his heart."

Neither Dr Li nor Mr Geng is now available for comment, as the public anger intensifies. Access to the blog has been blocked by web censors. "Yes, Dr Li used to be a researcher in our laboratory," confirmed a woman official at the academy. "After the earthquake he published some articles that caused a big argument. But I have to say sorry to you because he has retired and we do not have his phone number. That is all I can tell you."

Dr Li's rapid retirement appears to have come after the publication of an article detailing his blog and both sets of warnings by a veteran journalist, Ching Cheong, the chief China correspondent for The Straits Times of Singapore. Ching's story was translated into Chinese and instantly circulated on the internet, setting off a firestorm of abuse from outraged citizens. It hurt most of all in places such as Mianzhu, where the Communist Party secretary, Jiang Guohua, fell on his knees before anguished parents to implore them to abandon a protest march last week. Their children were among an estimated 9000 to die when poorly built schools collapsed on them. Mianzhu has thousands of people living in tents among the ruins of its buildings. The city could become a barometer of public opinion, as the initial shock or relief give way to more complex feelings.

Mr Jiang, the local party secretary, explained the risks in a frank interview with China's Nanfang Weekend newspaper. "At first I relied on my rank as party secretary to request those parents not to go to the streets with their protests," he said. "But they turned a deaf ear to me and even the police couldn't stop them. So I got on my knees, not because I was ashamed but because I was thinking of the hundreds of thousands of people in this city who are homeless, short of clothes and food, so that any protest like this could cause mass unrest. That's been my biggest worry since the earthquake."

Mortally wounded and bleeding profusely, Pela Atroshi covered her head with her hands, pleading "please don't shoot me, please don't shoot me." As her sister and her mother screamed, her uncle Rezkar Atroshi raised his gun and killed her. The family's honour had been cleansed. Rezkar had already shot Pela twice in the back in the upstairs room. Helped downstairs by her mother and her younger sister, the 19-year-old Kurdish Swede was confronted by four resolute men -- her father and his three brothers. The men pulled the women apart. Her youngest uncle then finished the job, shooting Pela in the head. The bullet went through one of her fingers and into her brain.

The decision to kill her was made by a council of male relatives, led by Pela's grandfather, Abdulmajid Atroshi -- a Kurd who lived in Australia. One of his sons, Shivan Atroshi, helped pull the women away from Pela so his younger brother could get a clean shot. Shivan, too, lived in Australia. It is the first time an officially confirmed honour killing with a connection to Australia has ever publicly come to light, but it is likely there have been other Australian-connected honour crimes that have been kept hidden within the tight-lipped Australian Kurdish community.

Pela Atroshi's murder in Dohuk, in Iraqi Kurdistan, was officially deemed an honour killing by both Iraqi and Swedish authorities. The Swedish detective inspector who investigated the murder, Kickis Aahre Algamo, said she had since heard of another honour crime with a connection to Australia -- this time the attempted killing of an Australian Kurd that went awry when the girl escaped.

She told The Weekend Australian that from 2000 the Swedish authorities were in communication with Australian authorities and the Swedish embassy in Canberra about the 1999 murder of Pela Atroshi. Breen Atroshi, Pela's younger sister, Inspector Algamo said, was still prepared to testify in any prosecution of her Australian grandfather or uncle. But it is unclear whether Pela's grandfather and uncle still live in Australia.

An Interpol investigation in 2000 found that Shivan Atroshi was not at the time living in Australia, although he may have since returned. One person in Sydney's Kurdish community said he believed the Atroshi grandfather -- once a freedom fighter -- had hidden in Kurdistan, but had sporadically returned to Australia in recent years. Abdulmajid Atroshi had travelled to Stockholm with his son Shivan in 1999 to finally decide on Pela's fate. She had made the mistake of leaving home for a time, frustrated by her family's adherence to restrictive Kurdish traditions. "Pela's uncle, the oldest son of Abdulmajid, said if any of the unmarried girls is away from home for one night, she has to be killed," Inspector Algamo said on the phone from Stockholm.

Pela was an intelligent and good-looking girl. When she emigrated with her family to Sweden in 1995, she took to Swedish ways -- eventually leaving the family home in January 1999. But after a time she missed her parents and six younger brothers and sisters and returned, agreeing to an arranged marriage in Kurdistan. It was a front - the men in her family had decided to kill her in their home town of Dohuk, northern Iraq, where honour killings were considered minor crimes, and where the Atroshi clan commanded immense respect.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Yakin Erturk, in a report last year to the Human Rights Council, said she had been told that a "family council of male relatives living in Sweden and Australia decided that Pela had to die to cleanse the family honour." The men of the family -- Pela's father, Agid, and her three uncles, Australian Shivan, and Swedish Rezkar and Dakhaz -- arranged for Pela to go to Kurdistan in June 1999 so they could kill her. Her grandfather remained in Sweden, saying, according to the testimony of Pela's younger sister Breen, "I will not set foot in Kurdistan until Pela is dead."

In October 1999, in Iraq, Agid and Rezkar were convicted of her murder, and sentenced to one-year suspended jail terms. The court referred to a medical report that said "her hymen was broken" and to the "defendants' honourable motivation."

A higher court later ordered that the sentences be served, but by that time, the two Swedes, Rezkar and Dakhaz, had returned to Stockholm, where they were arrested. Inspector Algamo and a fellow officer had travelled to Turkey to bring a key witness, Pela's sister Breen, back to Sweden. Breen was the first to raise the alarm, ringing the Swedish police from Dohuk to report her sister's murder.

Breen was brought by a delegation of Kurds to the Swedish embassy in Ankara, Turkey. "I got a couple of minutes alone with her, and she said, 'I want to go home and I want to testify for my sister Pela'," said Inspector Algamo, who is now compiling a report on honour crimes. "We rushed her away to a waiting embassy car and drove as fast as possible to the airport."

In Sweden, Breen testified in the trials of her uncles -- who had been arrested in January 2000 and who were liable to prosecution because Pela's murder was planned in Stockholm. Breen condemned her elders in court. She now lives in hiding. On January 12, 2001, the Stockholm City Court convicted both men of murder and sentenced them to life imprisonment. Their sentences were confirmed on appeal. Pela's father Agid remained in Kurdistan. He is still wanted for murder in Sweden.

"When we counted all the ones involved in the planning (of Pela's murder) there were 11," Inspector Algamo said. "But some of them were Australian citizens and some of them were Iraqi citizens -- we could only prosecute three of them." Swedish deputy chief prosecutor Agnetha Hilding Qvarnstrom explained that while there had been contact with the Australian authorities regarding the Atroshi case it had not culminated in an official extradition request. Since the murder was planned in Sweden and committed in Iraq, it also seems unlikely Australia could take any action.

In Australia, Muhammad Kamal, a lecturer in philosophy at Melbourne University, remembers Pela's grandfather, Abdulmajid Atroshi -- the patriarch. In the early 1990s, Dr Kamal had been broadcasting a Kurdish program on SBS radio, and Atroshi was behind a campaign to have the program taken off air because he believed it was preaching immorality. "He was a practising Muslim and a tribal man," Dr Kamal said, adding that religious leaders in Kurdistan never condemned honour crimes because they believed it was an essential bulwark against immorality. "I haven't heard any statement from clergy in the region to say honour killing is wrong," he said.

In recent years, with the diaspora from tribal regions, there are honour killings connected to a number of nations in Europe -- and now to Australia. Inspector Algamo has also been told that in 2004 or 2005 an Australian girl connected to the Atroshi clan was in the same position as Pela. "I was told by my informers that the Australian girl was taken to Kurdistan in the summer on vacation," Inspector Algamo said. "She had a forbidden love or something, they were also planning to kill her." The girl discovered the plans and fled, assisted by an American soldier who helped to smuggle her out of the country. She said the Australian Kurdish community staged two demonstrations in front of the Swedish embassy in Canberra insisting on the Atroshi men's innocence.

Unni Wikan, a Norwegian academic who has written a recent book on honour crimes titled In Honour of Fadime, has looked carefully at the Atroshi case. She said the horrors persisted. "In Sweden there is a development now called balcony suicide," she said, adding the deaths were really camouflaged honour killings.

Wiesbaden, Germany - In the Rhine Valley city of Mannheim, the glittering minaret of Germany's biggest mosque overshadows what was once the region's most vibrant church, testifying to Muslims' new confidence as Christian churches are closing down.

Years ago, 180 sisters of the Catholic order of the Sisters of the Divine Savior were the pulse of the city. Today, eight remain. Every weekend, roughly 150 Roman Catholics attend mass at the Liebfrauen Church, while up to 3,000 Muslims throng the Yavuz-Sultan-Selim mosque. Since the mosque was opened in 1995, Muslim shops and youth centers have become a magnet for the Muslim community.

Mannheim is not unique. Across Europe, the Continent's fastest-growing religion is establishing its public presence after decades in basements and courtyards, changing not only the architectural look of cities, but also their social fabrics. Hailed by many as a sign of Muslim integration, the phenomenon is also feared as evidence of a parallel Islamic world threatening Europe's Christian culture. "Muslims have come out ... and have become visible," says Claus Leggewie, a political scientist at Germany's University of Giessen who wrote a study on the evolution of the mosque landscape in Germany. "By building expensive, representative mosques, they're sending a message: we want to take part in the symbolic landscape of Germany. We are here and we'll stay here."

Major mosque projects from Cologne, Germany, to Amsterdam to Seville, Spain, have met with fierce opposition and fears that they will serve as breeding grounds for terrorists. Family members of two of the suspects in the Glasgow, Scotland, car bombings this month said the men had been radicalized by Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamic revivalist group with plans for an 18-acre complex near London's 2012 Olympic stadium that would house Europe's largest mosque.

A local debate in Wiesbaden

Such a structure is a far cry from the dark, cramped basement that hosted Halif Kuzpinar's Friday prayers for 33 years after he left his native Turkey to work on Frankfurt's roads. Then, the Muslim group he belongs to bought a vacant supermarket in a residential neighborhood of Wiesbaden, a city in central Germany. "There are parking spots. Children can come. There are better facilities for the youths," says Mr. Kuzpinar. "We want to build something nice so that people can come and see what we're doing."

With a place of its own, Milli Gorus – an Islamic Turkish rights group watched by the German government – is looking for something it never had: public recognition in a country its members consider theirs. But it also ignited vehement protest. "This was to be sold as a supermarket, not as a mosque," says Wolfgang Kopp, who owns an apartment across the street. Along with other neighbors, he succeeded in, at least temporarily, stopping the parcel's rezoning for religious purposes. "Sooner or later there will be problems," he says.

Under the German Constitution, all religious groups can have prayer facilities. While Muslims have had prayer rooms, says Klaus Endter, an ecumenical specialist for the Protestant Church in Hessen, "the question is ... whether a courtyard is the right place to exercise a religion."

Guest workers worship more openly

Since coming to Germany, Muslim migrant workers like Mr. Kuzpinar have held prayer meetings in dark nooks that reflected the precarious situation of a people often torn between their adopted and their home countries. But the "guest workers" who helped drive the economic boom of postwar Germany stayed. They set up organizations to run prayer, youth, and senior activities. They moved up the economic ladder, increasing their financial contributions to the groups, and receiving funds from pan-European Muslim organizations supporting the Muslim diaspora.

And now, the third generation is building domed mosques with minarets. Only a handful existed 10 years ago, but today 159 mosques dot Germany today, with 184 under construction, according to the Central Institute for Islamic Archives in Söst. Aachen, for instance – a German city of 257,000 on the Belgian border with a 9 percent Muslim population – just gave the green light to a domed mosque with a minaret. That's a sign, says Mayor Jürgen Linden, "that Muslims have become a part and parcel of society."

But many see the arrival of mosques as a threat, with fears and conflicts worsening since 9/11, argues Mr. Leggewie, the mosque specialist. Grass-roots initiatives have sprouted that try to thwart mosque projects. "I have the responsibility to protect our society, our democratic principles, ... our values," says Regina Ebenich, who leads an anti-mosque effort in Wiesbaden. Why, for instance, she asks, can't Muslim girls take part in swimming lessons or attend class field trips?

"A mosque is never a religious place only," says Willi Schwend, head of the antimosque National Association of Citizens' Initiatives. "A mosque is a caldron of political agitation. The goal of Islam is to spread the principles of Islam into society, to change society, to bring about sharia [Islamic law]." Mr. Schwend's call finds an echo in eastern Berlin, where plans for a mosque with a 40-foot-high minaret have enraged a 6,500-inhabitant neighborhood. Although Berlin has numerous mosques, this would be the first in the former communist part of the country. There, argues Leggewie, the absence of a tradition of immigration, combined with strong right-wing feelings, explain why fears of Islam run deep.

A conflict of cultures

But even in Cologne, in the western part of the country, plans for what would become Germany's biggest mosque – with two 170-foot minarets slated to accommodate 2,000 people – has ignited a conflict of cultures. With more than 100,000 Muslims living in Cologne, Germany's fourth-largest city, many religious and political leaders have rallied around the mosque plan. But Ralph Giordano, a prominent writer and Holocaust survivor, rekindled fears of a radical Islam threatening German society. "The integration of Muslims has failed," Giordano told the media.

A senior French politician, now a minister in President Nicolas Sarkozy's government, suggested last year that US President George W. Bush might have been behind the September 11, 2001 attacks, according to a website. The ReOpen911 Website which promotes September 11 conspiracy theories, has posted a video clip of French Housing Minister Christine Boutin appearing to question that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda group orchestrated the attacks. Ms Boutin's office sought to play down the remarks.

Asked in an interview last November, before she became minister, whether she thought Mr Bush might be behind the attacks, Ms Boutin says: “I think it is possible. I think it is possible.” Ms Boutin backs her assertion by pointing to the large number of people who visit websites that challenge the official line over the September 11 strikes against US cities. “I know that the websites that speak of this problem are websites that have the highest number of visits ... And I tell myself that this expression of the masses and of the people cannot be without any truth.”

Ms Boutin's office sought to play down the remarks, saying that later in the same interview she says: “I'm not telling you that I adhere to that position.” This comment does not appear on the video clip on ReOpen911. Numerous other websites have also posted the clip in recent days and the story has started to seep into the mainstream media.

“Christine Boutin snared by her controversial suggestions about September 11,” Le Monde newspaper said in a headline. Liberation newspaper quoted Ms Boutin's spokesman Christian Dupont as saying that she had not wanted to appear pro or anti-Bush at a time when Mr Sarkozy was being branded a “US poodle” after meeting the President in Washington. “And then she is not the foreign minister,” Mr Dupont added.

France appears to be particularly fertile ground for conspiracy theories. In 2002, a book that claimed that no airliner hit the US Pentagon in the September 11 attacks topped the French bestseller lists. However, the French are not alone in their scepticism.

According to a Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll carried out last July, more than one-third of Americans suspect US officials helped in the September 11 attacks or took no action to stop them so the US could later go to war.

The US State Department has rejected these accusations. Almost 3000 people died when hijackers crashed planes into New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

Japan marked the 62nd anniversary of Hiroshima's atomic bombing with a solemn ceremony as the city's Mayor criticised the United States for refusing to give up its nuclear weapons program. Tens of thousands of elderly survivors, children and dignitaries gathered at the Peace Memorial Park yesterday, near ground zero where the bomb was dropped, to remember the 250,000 people who died. "Even to those who managed to survive, it was hell where they envied the dead," the Mayor of Hiroshima, Tadatoshi Akiba, told the crowd. In a speech followed by the release of 1000 white doves, he criticised the US for failing to halt nuclear proliferation.

"The Japanese Government, which has the duty to work for the abolition of nuclear weapons through international law, should protect its pacifist constitution which it should be proud of, and clearly say 'No' to antiquated and wrong US policies," Mr Akiba said.

The Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, after laying a wreath at the ceremony, said he would abide by Japan's pacifist constitution and decades-old non-nuclear policy. "As the only country to have suffered atomic bombings … we have the responsibility to hand down stories of this sad experience to the international community," he said.

The seventh and final volume in the Harry Potter series has become the fastest selling book in history, publishers said on Monday, with more than 11 million copies sold during the first 24 hours in three markets alone. U.S. sales of the eagerly awaited "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" hit 8.3 million, comfortably beating the previous Potter instalment, which posted sales of 6.9 million copies in the first day, U.S. publisher Scholastic announced.

In Britain, Bloomsbury sold a record 2.7 million copies of the final Potter book in the first 24 hours, up from 2.0 million for "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." The same company also announced nearly 400,000 copies of the English language edition of J.K. Rowling's story were bought in Germany over the same period.

Thousands of Potter fans queued outside book stores in major cities around the world over the weekend to get hold of the book, which answers the questions on every reader's lips -- 'Who dies at the end?' and in particular, 'Does Harry survive?' In India, police said on Monday they seized hundreds of pirated copies of the cover of "Deathly Hallows" after raiding a printing press, storage depot and private home in Bangalore. Internet versions of the book also surfaced last week and two U.S. newspapers ran reviews before publication, but it was not enough to dampen enthusiasm for the last chapter of the boy wizard's increasingly bloody fight against the forces of evil.

Lisa Holton, president of Scholastic Trade and Book Fairs, likened the weekend excitement in the United States to the hysteria that greeted the Beatles' first visit to the country. "This weekend kids and adults alike are sitting on buses, in the park, on airplanes and in restaurants reading 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'," she said in a statement.

Barnes & Noble Inc., the world's largest book retailer, sold 1.8 million copies of "Deathly Hallows" in the first 48 hours, while Borders Group Inc. sold around 1.2 million worldwide in a single day, both records for the outlets. "This isn't the end of Harry Potter by any means," said Steve Riggio, CEO of Barnes & Noble. "Barnes & Noble expects to sell millions of Harry Potter books over the next few years."

RAVE REVIEWS

Reviews of "Deathly Hallows" have been almost universally glowing, noting the darker tone of book seven in which several characters die. Critical reaction to the previous six Potter tales, which sold 325 million copies worldwide, has been mixed.

Author of the Harry Potter books, Ms J. K. Rowling, 41, is likely to see her fortune swell further over the coming years. She is estimated to be worth 545 million pounds ($1.12 billion) already, making her the first dollar-billionaire author. In addition to the books, the first five Hollywood adaptations of her Harry Potter stories have amassed around $4 billion at the global box office. The final film in the franchise is slated for release in 2010.

After fighting to keep them secret for more than three decades, the CIA has released hundreds of documents cataloguing some of the most egregious intelligence abuses of the Cold War, including assassination plots against foreign leaders and illegal efforts to spy on Americans.

Triggered by the then-unravelling Watergate affair, and by fears that CIA involvement in that scandal would be exposed along with other illegal operations, the agency combed its files in 1973 for what it called "delicate" information with "flap potential." The result was a collection of documents the CIA called the "family jewels."

The 702 pages were ordered released on Tuesday by the CIA Director, Michael Hayden, as part of what he characterised as an attempt to close an embarrassing chapter in the agency's history. The documents serve as "reminders of some things the CIA should not have done," he said.

Mr Hayden took charge last year amid allegations that the intelligence community crossed legal lines by torturing terrorism suspects at secret prisons and by conducting warrantless surveillance involving Americans. His decision to release the family jewels, in response to a 1992 Freedom of Information Act request, was meant to convince critics that the agency embraces openness when possible.

The documents describe secret CIA holding cells and the possibly illegal detention of a suspected Soviet spy who was held without trial at a CIA facility for years before it was determined he was a legitimate defector. They also reveal plans to eavesdrop on the international phone calls of American residents, and aggressive efforts to root out leaks of classified information to reporters.

Watchdog groups praised the release, and said it was a remarkable step for a secretive organisation under no legal obligation to declassify the documents. Even so, the records are incomplete, with dozens of pages blacked out by CIA censors. One memo that lists the most damaging secrets contained in the family jewels is missing the first paragraph. A separate memo that is supposed to summarise the "unusual activities" of the CIA's domestic branch includes just three intact paragraphs followed by 17 blank pages.

The records that are complete do not appear to contain major revelations of misdeeds, but provide extensive detail from internal accounts on episodes that have occupied Cold War historians for decades. Most are memos written by agency officials in response to a 1973 order from the CIA director, James Schlesinger, for employees to report activities they thought might violate the CIA's charter.

The records shed light on the CIA's involvement in efforts to spy on Americans, including student anti-war activists, Black Power group leaders, Castro sympathisers and Soviet dissidents. CIA operatives worked with police to gather intelligence about groups that were planning protests at the presidential conventions in 1972. Anti-war activists were followed -- some all the way to Paris, where they met Viet Cong representatives. The surveillance turned up financial connections between John Lennon, described only as "a British subject," and a project linked to the anti-war activist Rennie Davis.

As part of an effort to combat drug trafficking, the CIA asked the Department of Agriculture to plant a field of opium poppies in Washington State to be used to test "photo-recognition systems" designed to detect illicit crops from overhead. But the agency refused a request from federal authorities to use infrared scanners to locate moonshine stills.

The documents also describe a panicked internal investigation to find out whether the CIA might be implicated in the Watergate scandal, which led to Richard Nixon's resignation as president. Howard Hunt, who organised the Watergate break-in, was a former CIA agent, as was James McCord, one of the "plumbers" arrested during the attempted bugging of the Democratic Party headquarters.