New worry raised by High radiation levels at Japanese plant

Reuters – A man cleans his bicycle at an areadestroyed by the tsunami in Kamaishi town,Iwate Prefecture in northern …

TOKYO (Reuters) – Highly radioactive water has been found at a second reactor at a crippled nuclear power station in Japan, the plant's operator said, as fears of contamination escalated two weeks after a huge earthquake and tsunami battered the complex.

Underscoring growing international concern about nuclear power raised by the accident in northeast Japan, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement it was time to reassess the international nuclear safety regime.

Earlier, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, making his first public statement on the crisis in a week, said the situation at the Fukushima nuclear complex, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, was "nowhere near" being resolved.

"We are making efforts to prevent it from getting worse, but I feel we cannot become complacent," Kan told reporters. "We must continue to be on our guard."

The comments reflected a spike of unease in Japan after several days of slow but steady progress in containing the nuclear accident, which was triggered by a devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

The 9.0 magnitude quake and giant waves it triggered left more than 10,000 people dead and 17,500 missing.

Despite such a shocking toll, much attention since the disaster has been on the possibility of a catastrophic meltdown at Fukushima.

Two of the plant's six reactors are now seen as safe but the other four are volatile, occasionally emitting steam and smoke.

More than 700 engineers have been working in shifts to stabilize the plant and work has been advancing to restart water pumps to cool their fuel rods.

But fresh fears were raised on Thursday when three workers trying to cool the most critical reactor were exposed to radiation levels 10,000 times higher than normally found in a reactor. They were hospitalized after walking in contaminated water though they are expected to be discharged soon.

The high level of contamination raised the possibility of a leak of radioactive material through a crack in the core's container which would mean a serious reversal following slow progress in getting the plant under control.

The reactor, the No. 3 unit, is the only one to use plutonium in its fuel mix which is more toxic than the uranium used in the other reactors.

The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), and the state nuclear safety agency said late on Friday similarly contaminated water had been found at the turbine building of the No. 1 reactor.

"We do not know the cause," a TEPCO official told a news conference. The new finding had delayed work again, another official said.

Senior nuclear safety agency official Hidehiko Nishiyama said the high radiation meant there could be damage to the reactor but he later said it could be from venting operations or water leakage from pipes or valves.

"There is no data suggesting a crack," he said.

Nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Friday there had not been much change in the crisis over the previous 24 hours.

"Some positive trends are continuing but there remain areas of uncertainty that are of serious concern," agency official Graham Andrew said in Vienna, adding the high radiation could be coming from steam.

Seventeen workers had received elevated levels of radiation since the operation began, the agency said.

"LESSONS LEARNED"

Authorities have been using seawater to cool the reactors but it is corrosive and leaves salt deposits that constrict the amount of water that can cool fuel rods.

TEPCO said it had started injecting freshwater into the pressure vessels of reactors No.1 and No.3 and expected to start injecting freshwater into No. 2 soon.

At U.N. Headquarters in New York, Ban called a high-level meeting to "take stock of the international response to the latest developments" in Japan. He said he was encouraging countries "to consider lessons learned" and to strengthen nuclear safety.

Meanwhile, the Japanese government has prodded tens of thousands of people living in a 20 km-30 km (12-18 mile) zone beyond the stricken complex to leave, but insisted it was not widening a 20 km evacuation zone.

"Given how prolonged the situation has become, we think it would be desirable for people to voluntarily evacuate," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano.

Authorities have already cleared about 70,000 people from a 20-km (12-mile) zone around the plant.

Edano has maintained there was no need to expand the evacuation zone, but an official at the Science Ministry confirmed that daily radiation levels in an area 30 km (18 miles) northwest of the plant had exceeded the annual limit.

Vegetable and milk shipments from near the stricken plant have been stopped, and Tokyo's 13 million residents were told this week not to give tap water to babies after contamination from rain put radiation at twice the safety level.

It dropped back to safe levels the next day, and the city governor cheerily drank tap water in front of cameras.

Experts say radiation from the plant is still generally below levels of exposure from flights or medical X-rays.

Nevertheless, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, the United States and Hong Kong are restricting food and milk imports from the zone. Other nations are screening Japanese food, and German shipping lines are simply avoiding the country.

In Japan's north, more than a quarter of a million people are in shelters. Exhausted rescuers are still sifting through the wreckage of towns and villages, retrieving bodies.

Amid the suffering, though, there was a sense the corner was being turned. Aid is flowing and phone, electricity, postal and bank services have resumed, though they can still be patchy.

Owners of small businesses have begun cleaning up.

"Everybody on this block has the firm belief that they are going to bring this thing back again," said Maro Kariya in the town of Kamaishi, as he cleared debris from a family coffee shop.

The estimated $300 billion damage makes it the world's costliest natural disaster. Global financial market jitters over the crisis have calmed, though supply disruptions are affecting the automobile and technology sectors.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he was not concerned that the crisis in Japan would impede a U.S. recovery.

(Additional reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo, Jon Herskovitz in Kamaishi, Michael Shields and Sylvia Westall in Vienna; Writing by Robert Birsel)

Syria protest spreads troops

Pro-Assad demonstrators in Syria. Brief clashes in Damascus were reported between anti-regime demonstrators and loyalists. Photograph: Hussein Malla/AP

Demonstrations in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and elsewhere were met with force as security forces struggled to contain unrest that had begun in the southern city of Deraa a week ago.

Thousands once again joined funeral processions in Deraa on Friday, chanting: "Deraa people are hungry, we want freedom."

Hundreds took to the streets in the cities of Homs, Hama, Tel and Latakia and in towns surrounding Deraa, with smaller protests in the major cities of Damascus and Aleppo, which are more firmly under the watch of security forces. Troops reportedly opened fire in some cases.

Protests in the capital are rare and not tolerated by the Ba'athist regime. A witness told the Guardian that efforts at protests in Damascus were broken up by plain-clothed agents using batons.

By nightfall, a counter-demonstration had been mounted near the historic Umayyad mosque in the heart of the capital. Brief clashes were reported between anti-regime demonstrators and loyalists. A large rally then began in support of President Bashar al-Assad. Hundreds drove around the capital beeping horns and waving flags, whilst posters of the president were put up in the city.

The violence in Syria came after the government had pledged on Thursday to look into reforms. But activists using the Syrian Revolution Facebook page had called for a day of solidarity with Deraa, where according to unofficial reports at least 44 have been killed in the past week.

In the past, many young Syrians had been willing to overlook corruption, a lack of freedom and the slow pace of reforms in return for what they have seen as dignified leadership brought about by Assad's anti-Western foreign policy. He has also had a youthful appeal. Both appear to now be wearing thin.

"Regimes become really weak when their image turns to brutality. The killings in Deraa have done that," said Ziad Malki, an activist living in exile in Switzerland. "The Syrian people want more now."

Others agreed that a turning point had been reached. "Syrians [normally] never come out to protests. This shows how the killings, the worthless reforms announced yesterday and the government propaganda is insulting and is only making us angrier," said a 32-year-old man.

The protests and revolts across the Arab world continued elsewhere in Jordan, Bahrain and Yemen.

In Amman, one person was killed and more than 100 wounded when pro-government loyalists attacked a weekly pro-reform vigil in the heart of the Jordanian capital. The clashes were broken up by riot police.

The violence was the first of its kind in Jordan in more than two months of protests which have seen the king sack his cabinet and pledge reforms.

Islamic Action Front leader Hamza Mansour, whose party leads Jordan's nascent opposition, said one of its members, Khairi Jamil Saeed, 26, was killed by being beaten by police.

"This is an atrocious crime and we blame it on prime minister Marouf al-Bakhit and his cabinet," Mansour told the Associated Press. "The prime minister and the cabinet must resign."

In Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Saleh said that he was willing to relinquish power but not unconditionally.

"We are prepared to give up power but only to good, capable hands, not to malicious forces who conspire against the homeland," said Saleh after calling on young people leading protests against him to establish a political party and deliver a roadmap for Yemen's future.

Striking a defiant pose, Saleh attacked those he claims are "conspiring against him", calling them Houthis – an armed clan demanding autonomy in north Yemen – and drug dealers.

A few miles away, anti-government protesters staged their biggest pro-democracy rally since unrest broke out five months ago, in what they called the Friday of Departure.

Tens of thousands knelt in neat rows for a mass prayer ceremony as a weeping imam demanded: "Why do you kill us Ali? Why?"

A week ago, 53 protesters were killed at the spot by plain-clothed government loyalists firing from the roofs of nearby houses.

In the Bahrain capital, Manama, riot police fired teargas at demonstrators who defied a ban on public gatherings and staged a rally in the Shia suburb of Duraz. At least 20 people have been killed in a two-month uprising led by a disaffected Shia majority against the Gulf island's Sunni rulers.

Katherine Marsh is a pseudonym for a journalist living in Damascus

International journalists in Libya Targeted By Gaddafi's forces

New York Times journalists Stephen Farrell, Tyler Hicks, Lynsey Addario and Anthony Shadid with Levent Sahinkaya, centre, the Turkish embassy representive to Libya who helped secure their freedom. Photograph: Anatolian Agency/EPA

Journalists from across the world have been targeted by Muammar Gaddafi's security forces while reporting a war in which the front lines have often been difficult to define.

Four New York Times journalists were handed over to the Turkish embassy in Tripoli on Monday, six days after being captured in the eastern city of Ajdabiya. The four, whose driver Mohamed Shaglouf is still missing, later described being sexually assaulted and threatened with decapitation by their captors. They were only released after the intervention of diplomats from Turkey, a country that has been eager to help western reporters in trouble in the desert nation.

Meanwhile, Dave Clark and Roberto Schmidt, two Agence France-Presse journalists, were released on Thursday after five days in captivity along with Joe Raedle, an agency photographer for Getty Images. The three had been covering escalating tension in Ajdabiya.

"Libya was never a friendly neighbourhood for journalists, but we've now seen a paradigm shift where the government is not simply trying to co-opt the media but is directly targeting the media very frequently," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, the Middle East co-ordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists. "This stems from an authoritarian urge to restrict the flow of information. But it is categorically more vicious and intense and has much more severe consequences for journalists reporting on the ground in the Middle East."

However, while most western journalists have been allowed to walk free, reporters from the Arab media have not been so lucky. Mohammed al-Nabbous, the founder of online opposition broadcaster Libya Alhurra TV, was killed by sniper fire on Sunday while covering a battle near Benghazi.

Four al-Jazeera journalists – Ahmed Vall Ould Addin, Lotfi al-Messaoudi, Kamel Atalua and Ammar al-Hamdan – remain in state detention. It is not clear why they were detained, although the Qatari-owned broadcaster's coverage has been notable for its sympathy for the Libyan rebels. The whereabouts of six Libyan journalists detained shortly after writing about the escalating crisis is unknown.

Correspondents reporting from Tripoli have complained of being "herded around like goats" on government-sanctioned trips. Jon Williams, the BBC's foreign news editor, described his reporters in the capital as working from a "gilded cage". "Movements are still restricted, which is frustrating given events in Misrata, 130 miles from Tripoli," Williams said, noting that the Gaddafi regime remains tightly in control of the areas it still holds. "This is a most serious situation but it's impossible for us to access [non-sanctioned areas], leaving us reliant on agency and user-generated content."

Midwife Agnes Gereb found guilty of medical negligence and banned from practising for five years

Agnes Gereb, who is the leading advocate of home birth in Hungary, in court where she was sentenced to two years in prison. Photograph: Bela Szandelszky/AP

An obstetrician considered the main advocate for home births in Hungary has been sentenced to two years in prison for malpractice, just weeks after the government decided to regulate the activity.

Agnes Gereb was found guilty of medical negligence in two separate home births, including one in which the baby died. She will spend at least a year behind bars before parole and was also banned from practising as an obstetrician and a midwife for five years.

Lawyers representing Gereb and several other midwives charged in connection with four home births that occurred between 2003 and 2007 said they had appealed against the decision of the Budapest city court. "We don't expect the appeal to be heard before autumn," said lawyer Tamas Fazekas.

The verdict in Gereb's case was unusual because the judge's sentence was much tougher than the suspended prison term originally sought by the prosecution.

Nonetheless, prosecutors also appealed against the ruling, asking for Gereb's professional bans to be extended and for the court to eliminate the possibility of her parole, Fazekas said. Another midwife was fined 300,000 forints (£989) while three others were acquitted.

Gereb's litigation became a rallying point for Hungarians seeking to accept home births as a regulated method of delivery.

Earlier this month, the government said home births would be allowed from 1 May, but only under strict safety conditions.

Until now, women in Hungary had the right to give birth at home, but medical professionals were banned from assisting planned home births.

Last week, during the final stages of the trial, Gereb and her colleagues appealed for clemency to Hungary's president, Pal Schmitt, but he had not yet seen the request, a presidency official told state news wire MTI on Thursday.

A group of Hungarian midwives criticised the ruling against Gereb, saying the court applied different standards to home births from those used in deliveries at a hospital.

"In civilised countries, midwives answer for their work to professional associations, not courts," the Birth Home Association said. "They are judged not solely by experts who have experience only in hospital births, but by professionals who know about home births."

Fazekas said Gereb would remain under house arrest until the appeal is heard because she is also under investigation for other cases of complications in home births.

Gereb had already been given a three-year ban because of a similar case in 2007.

Her determination to assist with thousands of home births has received plenty of media attention in Hungary, with public opinion deeply split. She was voted one of Hungary's Women of the Decade in a women's weekly and last year several prominent doctors and midwives from Britain and the US appealed to the Hungarian government for her release.

Barack Obama's distant Irish cousin (eight times removed) helps village get spruced up as US president returns to his Irish roots

President Barack Obama's Irish cousin (eight times removed) toured either side of the tiny village of Moneygall, picking out pavements to be repaired and houses to be repainted in preparation for the visit of the most powerful man on Earth.

With a population of just 300, the residents will be heavily outnumbered by the US president's own entourage when Obama returns to his Irish roots in May.

The village is bisected by the old Dublin to Limerick road, where part of the old homestead of Obama's Irish ancestors still stands. Moneygall has become a tourist trap two months before Air Force One touches down in the Republic.

Henry Healy, accompanied by officials from Offaly county council, was helping to spruce up the village for Obama's arrival. Since the president announced on St Patrick's Day that he would visit Ireland in two months' time Obamamania has been building in this quiet corner of the Irish midlands. On Friday night the locals held their first public meeting to discuss the trip.

Healy, who traces his family links back to the president's Irish ancestors, the Kearneys, was a guest of Obama when he was sworn into office in Washington DC. The president's great-great-great grandfather (on his mother's side) is said to have been born in Ireland. "Our family connection is very distant but … we do share the same lineage," said Healy. "Our ancestry is shared by the Healy and the Kearney families way back to 1761. Sarah Healy would be five-eighths grandmother of Barack Obama. I still think it's sort of surreal to say you have some connection to the president of the United States. "

Healy said the Obama connection had brightened up the lives of Moneygall's people at a time of national economic hardship. "When the primaries started in 2008 our village wasn't like the rest of Ireland. We were not talking about recession or doom and gloom. We were talking about the American presidential campaign all the way from Iowa to the White House. It was a massive boost to our morale in these dark times."

No US presidential visit to Ireland would be complete without a photo of him supping a pint at the bar. JFK, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton have all been snapped by the world's cameras knocking back beer amid cheering Irish locals. Inside Olli Hayes's bar on Main Street Obama memorabilia dominates the walls, with framed pictures from his presidential campaign, paintings of the first black US president and the latest addition, a cast-iron bust of him at the end of the bar.

"I hope nobody lifts that up one day and hits me on the head with it like they did with the bust of Queen Victoria in that murder on EastEnders," jokes Hayes.

Another stop on Obama's Moneygall tour will be Templeharry Anglican church, just over a mile outside the village. It was here that Church of Ireland minister Stephen Neill unearthed Obama's roots in 2007. Inside the church, built around 1800, Neill produces the dust-laden parish record books which he used to trace Obama's lineage to the village.

"We have the baptismal records which include the Kearney relatives and back in April 2007 it transpired that this lineage related to Barack Obama through Falmouth Kearney, who emigrated to America. So on these pews, inside this very church, the president's antecedents on his Irish side worshipped here on a regular basis."

Obama's links to the Church of Ireland also stretch further south to Kilkenny city, where another branch of the family claims a connection to him. Jane de Montmorency Wright said she had traced Obama to the former Anglican bishop of Kilkenny, John Kearney. "The president's ancestor was a bishop here in Kilkenny city where he is buried in St Canice's cathedral, so there will be plenty for him to see," she said.

Hayes and Moneygall's other 299 residents are expecting droves of other Americans to follow in the president's footsteps. A few hours earlier two couples from Chicago, the base from which Obama launched his presidential bid, turned up to have their pictures taken outside the bar.

Gay couples in France say they do not get the same rights as they would in the rest of Europe

Gay couples in France are resorting to drastic measures to have children, according to campaigners.

Couples were resorting to costly and legally precarious methods, said Philippe Rollandin, spokesman for APGL, the largest association representing homosexual parents in France.

Campaigners are also unhappy that the children of homosexual couples have less protection than the offspring of heterosexual pairs if one parent dies or the couple separates.

"Homosexual couples are becoming more dismayed and angry about this clear discrimination in France, particularly as we are seeing the situation changing so clearly in Europe," he said.

Unlike in the UK, where gay parents have equal rights over their child, in France only one – the biological or adoptive parent – has automatic parental rights, said Caroline Mecary, a specialist gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights lawyer.

This means the non-biological parent cannot make emergency health decisions, travel alone with the children or pass on their inheritance. Crucially, if the officially recognised parent dies, the child is, in legal terms, an orphan in the eyes of the state.

"One half of the couple has no legitimacy in the eyes of the law, which is bad for the parents but even worse for the children," she said. "They are left in a legal no-man's land."

Rollandin said a ban on gay couples adopting had resulted in a generation of "Thalys babies", named after the high-speed train line between France and Belgium, where women can legally obtain artificial insemination. The APGL estimates that about 70% of lesbian couples with children used artificial insemination, which can cost between €1,000 (£880) to €3,000 (£2,600) in Belgium and up to €€6,000 in Spain.

Male couples were increasingly resorting to paying surrogate mothers to have children, said Rollandin. About half use this method, costing up to €120,000. Lesbian and gay couples are also using matchmaking websites to meet other couples or donors in order to have children.

French adoption laws which stipulate that only heterosexual couples or single people can adopt had led some couples to feign singledom, he said. "Gay couples are forced to hide and act hypocritically. Morally, and legally, it is right on the edge."

According to the INED demographic studies institute, about 30,000 children are being raised by gay parents in France, but the APGL puts the number at more than 250,000.

Anne, who did not wish to give her surname, adopted two children from Russia with her former partner. They have since separated and share child-rearing, but their recent demand to share parental responsibility was rejected and led to two girls aged two and 11 being interviewed by police. "I find that abhorrent – all I want is security for my children," she said.

The fight for equal parenting rights suffered a blow earlier this year when the French constitutional court ruled laws banning gay marriage did not violate the constitution.

Mecary said only a change in government would provide any prospect of improved gay rights. "I think we will only see a change if the Left come into power in 2012. For the moment, there is nothing in the legislative plan that suggests things could move forward," she said.

One mother, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: "We don't feel like making waves or fighting; we want society to recognise that we have a different type of family. We are just trying to fit in."

A brief guide to key facts everyone should know about Syria

1. Greater syria: Syria was the name once applied to most of the territory on the eastern side of the Mediterranean Sea and in the seventh century it became the seat of the Umayyad calliphate. The smaller modern state of Syria – adjoining Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Israel and Lebanon – began as a French mandate when the Ottoman empire was broken up after the first world war. It became independent in 1946. Its capital, Damascus, is one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities.

2. Order of the Ba'ath: The Ba'ath party, which has dominated Syrian politics since seizing power in 1963, was founded in 1947 as a pan-Arab nationalist and socialist "renaissance" movement. Its slogan is "unity, freedom, socialism". Under President Hafez al-Assad (1971–2000), the Ba'athists consolidated central government and brought a measure of stability to the country – though at a high cost in terms of repression.

A tattoo of President Bashar al-Assad. Photograph: Damir Sagolj/Reuters

3. President Bashar: Bashar al-Assad was in London, pursuing a career in ophthalmology when his elder brother, Basil – heir apparent to the presidency – died in a car crash in 1994. Bashar was recalled to be groomed for power. When his father died in 2000, Bashar was made head of the army and leader of the Ba'ath party. But at 34, he was too young to become president under the Syrian constitution. The age qualification was hastily revised and he was "elected" president in a referendum. His wife, Asma Akhras, was born in Britain to Syrian parents. She formerly worked as an investment banker at JP Morgan.

Israeli tanks operate near the Syrian border in the Golan Heights. Photograph: Reuters

4. The occupied Golan: The Golan Heights, a mountainous and strategically import area bordering the Sea of Galilee, was captured by Israel during the 1967 war. Part of it was handed back after the 1973 war, but the return of the remaining territory has been one of the Syrian regime's principal goals ever since. There is a spot on the ceasefire line known as Shouting Valley where Syrians use megaphones to hail their relatives on the other side.

5. The Hama massacre: In 1982 Syrian forces launched a brutal assaulton the city of Hama to quell an uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood, killing thousands. Memories of the event, which is rarely mentioned publicly in Syria, continue to cast a long shadow over political opposition to the regime.

6. Elegant lines: Syria has some of the world's most beautiful railway stations.

Pro-Syrian supporters of Hezbollah rally in Lebanon. Photograph: Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images

7. Syria and Lebanon: Lebanon was separated from Syria under the French mandate, since it was largely a Christian enclave, and became officially independent in 1943. From Damascus, Lebanon still tends to be viewed as part of Syria's traditional sphere of influence. Syria used its military to stabilise Lebanon after the 1975-91 civil war but also meddled extensively in Lebanese politics.

Protests and diplomatic pressure afterthe assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri in 2005 forced Syria (which was widely blamed for the attack) to withdraw its troops. However, Syrian influence continues, with Lebanese politics divided into the pro-Syrian "March 8" camp and the "March 14" camp backed by Saudi Arabia and the US.

8. Hooray for the president: During public speeches in Syria, it is customary to applaud each time the name of President Assad is mentioned.

Alawite women. Photograph: Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

9. Religion and the Alawites: The Alawitesare a secretive religious sect usually regarded as an offshoot of Shia Islam. In Syria they are a tiny minority but, through the president's family and others in senior positions, they are dominant within the regime. About 74% of Syria's inhabitants are Sunni Muslims; Shia Muslims (including the Alawites and Ismailis) account for 13%, various Christian groups 10%, and Druze 3%. Jewish communities have existed in Syria for centuries but today their number is extremely small – probably no more than a few dozen people.

10. Crony capitalism: Despite its socialist origins, the Syrian regime is plagued by corruption and crony capitalism – especially involving relatives of the president. A particular target of protesters is Rami Makhlouf, Assad's cousin, who was sanctioned by the US Treasury in 2008 on the grounds that he "improperly benefits from and aids the public corruption of Syrian regime officials".

11. Kurdish aspirations: Syria has a marginalised Kurdish minority who are thought to number about 1.75 million – roughly 10% of the total population – and the regime has made persistent efforts over the years to Arabise them. Many of the Kurds, meanwhile, aspire to have their own independent state including other Kurds from Turkey, Iraq and Iran. Kurdish discontent flares up from time to time, though the regime generally denies that Syria has problems relating to ethnicity.

The Vision of Saint Paul on the Road to Damascus. Photograph: Corbis

12. Road to Damascus: It was on the road to Damascus, according to the Bible, that St Paul was dazzled by a heavenly light and converted to Christianity. He later escaped arrest in the city by being lowered from a window in a basket.

13. Cold steel: Swords made from Damascus steel have been much prized over the centuries. According to written sources, blades were prepared by heating and then cooling them rapidly – sometimes by plunging them into the urine of red-headed boys or into the body of a muscular slave.

14. Shia pilgrims: Syria is a popular destination for Shia pilgrims from Iran. In Damascus, many visit the shrine of Sayidda Zeinab(granddaughter of the prophet Muhammad and daughter of Ali, the fourth caliph). Historical and religious ties are part of the background to Syria's current relationship with Iran, though both countries see themselves as stalwart opponents of American and Israeli influence in the region.

A Hezbollah rally in Beirut. Photograph: Hussein Malla/AP

15. Syria and Hezbollah: Syria (along with Iran) supports the armed Lebanese Shia movement, hezbollah. Besides providing a means to wield influence in Lebanon, this gives Syria an important bargaining chip in any future negotiations with Israel.

16. Political suicide: The disgraced former prime minister Mahmoud Zuabi allegedly shot himself in 2000 when police arrived to arrest him on corruption charges. Five years later, the interior minister Ghazi Kanaan also apparently shot homself in mysterious circumstances.

17. Silken threads: Damascus was once a major centre for weaving and trading in textiles. Damask – using an ancient technique for weaving patterns into cloth – derives its name from the city.

Krak des Chevaliers. Photograph: Sylvester Adams/Getty

18. Crusader territory: Parts of Syria were conquered by the Crusaders. The 11th century Crusader fortress Krak des Chevaliers – still remarkably well preserved – is now a major tourist attraction.

19. The Argentinian connection: About 1.3m Argentinians are of Syrian or Lebanese origin, many of them having settled there during the 19th century. The parents of former Argentinian president carlos menem came from the Syrian village of Yabrud.

TE Lawrence. Photograph: Corbis

20. Assault in Deraa: Deraa, the centre of the 2011 uprising, is where TE Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") was captured during the first world war while reconnoitring in disguise and, according to his account, was severely beaten and sexually abused by the Turkish governor. The incident affected Lawrence deeply and is said to have awakened his masochistic tendencies which later resulted in him paying military colleagues to beat him.

MPs accepted hospitality from Middle East regimes 107 times in a decade, with Qatar being the most visited country

MPs have accepted hospitality with a value of more than £1,000 from authoritarian regimes in the Middle East and north Africa on 107 occasions in the last decade, a Guardian investigation has revealed.

Fifty-nine current and former MPs, including Alan Duncan, Liam Fox and Keith Vaz, have accepted flights, accommodation and hospitality from regimes including those of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Yemen.

MPs have had to log donations and hospitality on the register of members' interests, and also – if donations are worth £1,000 or more – with the Electoral Commission since 2000. The Guardian has analysed the commission's returns relating to the Middle East to see which countries provide the most high-value hospitality to parliamentarians.

Qatar tops the rankings with 32 trips, at a value of £109,400, followed by Bahrain with 18 trips worth £42,700 and Oman, with 16 trips at £45,040.

Several of the Oman visits were made by Alan Duncan, minister of state at the Department for International Development, who accepted more high-value trips than any other MP.

Duncan visited Oman on seven occasions at the government's expense, including to attend Sultan Qaboos's 40th birthday celebrations last December. Duncan was also on a cross-party visit to Bahrain in 2009. In total, Duncan accepted hospitality worth more than £21,000 from the two countries.

A spokesman for Duncan said all hospitality received complied with parliamentary rules.

"Alan is a Middle East specialist," he said. "He has been going to the region in a personal and official capacity for 30 years. Any hospitality has been fully declared in the register according to House of Commons rules."

Department of Health minister Simon Burns accepted the most trips after Duncan, visiting Qatar on four occasions, and the UAE and Bahrain once each. The total value of his visits was £22,000.

There were also several cases in which MPs accepted sponsored trips to the Middle East funded by outside organisations; the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, for example, declared he received flights and hospitality worth £1,065 from the British Syrian society for a three-day visit to the country in May 2007.

Former international development secretary Clare Short accepted £1,580 worth of flights, hotel accommodation, food and travel expenses from al-Manar television in Lebanon in 2008. Al-Manar is described by the US government as "the media arm of the Hezbollah terrorist network", and was classed as a specially designated terrorist entity by the US in 2006.

Short said her trip had been registered with Commons authorities and that the visit allowed her to see how reconstruction in southern Lebanon was proceeding after the country's conflict with Israel in 2006.

"I did an interview for the TV programme and was free to express my views without censure, and I also met with senior Hezbollah officials," she said. "I do not accept US advice on who I should speak to. UK diplomats also talk with Hezbollah. I have also met with Hamas leaders on a number of occasions as well as Fatah leaders, and the Syrian and Lebanese governments."

Vaz is the only MP on the Electoral Commission's register to have had hospitality from the Yemeni government, which paid the £2,000 costs of his visit in 2006 with the all-party group for Yemen. A spokeswoman for Vaz said he was the chair of the MPs' group and that he had been born in the country. She added that he had paid the cost of flights for subsequent visits, though entries on the register of members' interests do show some internal travel and hospitality funded by the Yemeni government.

Japanese nuclear fear crack in reactor core and causing a leak of high levels of radiation

Nuclear safety officials in Japan fear the core of a reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant may have cracked, causing a leak of high levels of radiation.

Growing uncertainty over the state of the stricken reactor prompted the government to tell people living within a 12-19 mile (20-30km) radius of the plant to consider leaving their homes temporarily.

The government's chief spokesman, Yukio Edano, said 130,000 residents in the area had been encouraged to leave to improve their quality of life, not because their health was at risk.

The nuclear emergency, 150 miles north of Tokyo, has caused severe disruption to business, supply routes and other services in the area.

On Thursday, three workers were exposed to radiation after stepping in contaminated water in the turbine building of the No 3 reactor. They were trying to cool the crippled reactor when the accident occurred.

"The contaminated water had 10,000 times the amount of radiation as would be found in water circulating from a normally operating reactor," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for Japan's nuclear safety agency. "It is possible that there is damage to the reactor."

Two of the men received possible beta ray burns to their legs. All three have been transferred to a special radiation treatment facility.

Edano said the source of the leak remained unknown. "We are exploring every possibility, but we don't think this is a new situation, rather that a certain amount of radiation may have leaked from the reactor. This is a possibility that we have been mentioning for some time.

"But at this point we don't know if the radiation is coming from the reactor itself or from another source."

Nuclear officials say the leak may have come from pipes or the reactor's pool for storing spent fuel rods, which workers have been struggling to cool off since the plant was badly damaged in the 11 March earthquake and tsunami.

Officials were preparing themselves for the possibility that the reactor core was damaged in an explosion three days after the disaster that destroyed its containment building. The reactor contains 170 tonnes of radioactive fuel in its core, and is the only one of the facility's six reactors that contains the potentially more dangerous plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel.

Thursday's accident forced a temporary halt to work on two reactors while technicians check radiation levels.

"We should try to avoid delays if at all possible, but we also need to ensure that the people working there are safe," Nishiyama said.