Thursday, March 31, 2011

Fierce battle in Ivory Coast city

United Nations troops patrol Abidjan

Hamadoun Toure, spokesman for the UN's special representative for Ivory Coast: ''The countdown has started''

There has been heavy fighting in Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan, between forces loyal to the UN-recognised president, Alassane Ouattara, and supporters of incumbent Laurent Gbagbo.

Witnesses have reported hearing intense gunfire near Mr Gbagbo's residence, while Mr Ouattara's supporters say they have taken control of state television.

His government earlier closed Ivory Coast's borders and declared a curfew.

Mr Gbagbo has refused to relinquish the presidency since November's election.

But the national army has put up almost no resistance since Mr Ouattara's supporters launched an offensive on Monday.

Pro-Ouattara forces reportedly now control about 80% of the country.

As the battle for control of the country appeared to reach a climax, gunfire was heard around several strategic buildings in Abidjan.

“[My troops] have come to restore democracy and ensure respect of the vote by the people”

Alassane Outtara

Heavy fighting was reported close to the headquarters of RTI state TV and Mr Gbagbo's residence, both in the northern district of Cocody.

"The gunfire has been intense and they're shooting in four or five directions at a time. There's a lot of people," a resident told the AFP news agency. "It looks like a final assault."

A spokesman for Mr Ouattara's government, Patrick Achi, said the former president had so far shown no signs of giving up.

Mr Gbagbo has not been seen in public for weeks. His residence is mainly protected by members of the elite presidential guard, and is located on a peninsula in Abidjan's lagoon.

Mr Achi also said Ouattara loyalists had taken control of RTI. This could not be confirmed, but the channel went off-air late on Thursday.

Earlier, Mr Ouattara's government said Ivory Coast's land, sea and air borders had been closed until further notice. It also declared that there would be a curfew from 2100 GMT to 0600 GMT in Abidjan until Sunday.

Analysis

Phillippe Mangou's decision to seek refuge is bad news for Laurent Gbagbo - and certainly for the forces supposed to be defending the incumbent president in Abidjan. He was a known Gbagbo loyalist, but not as hard-line as some of the other generals.

It does now feel like the end of things for Mr Gbagbo. A credible source says the head of the gendarmerie, Edouard Kassarate, has gone over to the Ouattara side, with the military police en masse pledging allegiance to Mr Ouattara.

There are also rumours of people leaving, certainly most of Mr Gbagbo's supporters have sent their children overseas - and there is talk of unrest at the airport as some people try to flee.

Inside Ivory Coast's captured capital

And after looting was reported in several parts of the city, UN and French peacekeepers took control of Abidjan's international airport.

The BBC's John James in Bouake says growing panic seems to be setting in among Mr Gbagbo supporters, especially following the decision of the head of the army, Gen Phillippe Mangou, to seek refuge with his wife and five children at the home of the South African ambassador.

On Thursday evening, Mr Ouattara's television channel featured several high-level military officers pledging allegiance to his government. A source also told the BBC that the head of the gendarmerie, Edouard Kassarate, had defected.

The head of the UN mission, Choi Young-jin said that as many as 50,000 soldiers, police and gendarmes had abandoned Mr Gbagbo, with only the Republican Guard and special forces personnel remaining loyal.

"[My troops] have come to restore democracy and ensure respect of the vote by the people," Mr Ouattara said in an address. "To all those who are still hesitating, whether you are generals, superior officers, officers, sub officers, rank-and-file... there is still time to join your brothers-in-arms."

Western diplomats say it is only a matter of time now before Mr Gbagbo flees or is captured, our correspondent says.

Mr Ouattara's government is giving assurances that the outgoing president will not be harmed, he adds. They say, instead, that Mr Gbagbo will be made available to the International Criminal Court.

Earlier, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon again demanded that Mr Gbagbo immediately cede power to Mr Ouattara "to enable the full transition of state institutions to the legitimate authorities".

Pro-Ouattara forces in Duekoue, west Ivory Coast on 29 March 2011
Witness: Heavy gunfire in Abidjan In pictures: Ivory Coast showdown

The US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Johnnie Carson, urged both sides to exercise restraint and protect civilians. Both Mr Gbagbo and his wife would be held accountable if significant violence broke out, he added.

Mr Ouattara was internationally recognised as president last year, after the electoral commission declared him winner of the November run-off vote.

The UN, which helped organise the vote, certified it as legitimate. However, Mr Gbagbo claimed victory after the Constitutional Council overturned Mr Ouattara's win.

The forces supporting Mr Ouattara have made lightning advances since Monday, moving out from their base in the northern half of the country.

On Wednesday, his fighters captured Ivory Coast's capital, Yamoussoukro, and the key port of San Pedro. Mr Gbagbo's hometown of Gagnoa also fell.

Since the crisis began in December, one million people have fled the violence - mostly from Abidjan - and at least 473 people have been killed, according to the UN.

Sanctions and a boycott on cocoa exports in what is the world's biggest producer of cocoa beans have brought West Africa's second-biggest economy to its knees, with banks closed for more than a month.

An armed rebellion in 2002 split the nation in two - a division the elections were meant to heal.

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

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-12929625

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Oil price jumps on supply fears

Libyan rebels firing Oil traders believe that the Libya crisis could turn into a lengthy stand-off between the two side

Oil prices jumped to their highest close in two-and-a-half years as Libya's conflict and Middle East unrest sparked fresh worries about supplies.

Brent crude for delivery in May rose $2.23 to $117.36 a barrel, its highest close since August 2008 and up 23.9% so far this year.

US crude rose $2.45 to $106.72, its highest close since September 2008, and jumping 16.8% for the quarter.

Analysts said oil trading recently was the most volatile for two years.

Fighting near Libya's oil ports heightened concerns about the country's ability to re-start production any time soon.

Energy consultants Cameron Hanover said traders are beginning to view the Libya uprising as a stand-off with little sign of resolution.

"Optimism that Libyan oil might return to the market, seen earlier this week, was dashed," the firm said in a statement.

But the oil price also rose amid optimism about the strength of the US economy, which could mean crude imports rising.

Brent crude's recovery comes after it fell below $108 in the aftermath of Japan's earthquake and tsunami on 11 March.

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

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/business-12929681

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Spanish tragedy

Antonio Barroso at the office of Anadir, an association set-up to support suspected victims of alleged baby tradeAntonio Barroso has been told he was bought at birth
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Antonio Barroso always suspected that something in his family wasn't quite right. He was 38 when the secret was finally revealed: his parents had bought him as a baby.

"I discovered my whole life was a lie," Antonio said.

The truth came out during the deathbed confession of a family friend. Like Antonio's parents, he and his wife had been unable to conceive. Both couples had bought their babies from a nun, for "more than the price of a flat".

Antonio's mother has since confirmed the story and DNA tests have proved he has no genetic link to the couple who raised him. His birth certificate had been falsified.

"I want to know the truth," Antonio said, flicking through snapshots of his childhood, "To find out who I am and where I come from. I want to know what happened and who was responsible. And if people need to be punished, they should be punished".

Antonio soon discovered other cases similar to his own, and signs of an illicit trade in newborn babies.

At the support group he set up in Vilanova i la Geltru, his home town on the Catalan coast, the phone rarely stops ringing. The desk is piled high with letters from Spaniards who fear they could be victims of a criminal network, thought to have operated until the 1990s.

“We were starting to make a family and they destroyed that completely. I have to meet my daughter. I want to tell her, girl, I'm your Dad”

Salvador Martin Father, who believes his daughter was stolen from himIn pictures: Spanish 'baby trade'

For some, that suspicion is strengthened by Spain's history. After the civil war, children were removed from Republican prisoners and given to supporters of General Franco's dictatorship. Historians estimate up to 30,000 children were affected by the 'ideological cleansing'.

"In the 1950s, that practice was converted into mafia business," said Enrique Vila, a lawyer helping Antonio's support group, Anadir. "The goal became money. They took children from anyone, to sell."

The lawyer believes some babies were abandoned by unmarried Catholic girls or prostitutes and others were stolen after doctors told mothers that their newborns had died.

Ana Josefa Escabia died several hours after giving birth in Terrassa in 1975. Her husband clearly remembers seeing his daughter alive.

"I saw her born," Salvador Martin said, his eyes welling with tears, 36 years later. "She was gorgeous, just like her sister."

But doctors later told Salvador his baby had been stillborn. A sealed coffin was delivered to the cemetery.

Salvador Martin and wife Ana Josefa, in 1970s, just before she became pregnant Ana Josefa Escabia and her husband were told that their baby was stillborn

Last December, tormented by doubts, Salvador decided to open the family vault. DNA tests revealed the baby inside was a boy, and no relation.

Salvador is now desperate to know what happened to his daughter. No other baby was buried in Terrassa on that day. He is convinced his child was stolen.

"It's not like a bag of oranges that you sell. It's a child," he said, holding a picture of Ana shortly before she became pregnant. "We were starting to make a family and they destroyed that completely. I have to meet my daughter. I want to tell her, girl, I'm your Dad".

That longing to be reunited has led Anadir to create a DNA database. When a scientist recently visited Seville to take swabs, the small hall was packed with people convinced that their children had been stolen.

Dolores Diaz Cerpa, one of many mothers who is searching for a child she believes was stolenDolores Diaz Cerpa believes her son was stolen from her

Among those queuing nervously was 72-year-old Dolores Diaz Cerpa. She gave birth in 1973 and says when she awoke from surgery she saw 2 cots. A nurse said she'd had twins. But the boy was then removed and when Dolores woke up again she was told she'd had a girl.

"I always believed I'd had two children and they took one off me," Dolores said. "I would dream of him and wake up wondering how he was."

That conviction was compounded in 1995 when she requested her medical records and was sent papers for a baby boy. Dolores is entering her DNA in the database in the hope that the child she's so sure she gave birth to is alive.

"If he knows he's adopted, I just want him to know I didn't abandon him. He was stolen," she says, echoing the view of many mothers here.

Anadir has more than 800 members now. Other groups have more. Most are women who never saw their babies' bodies, never believed they had died and can find no record of their burials at cemeteries.

One of many Spanish courts now investigating allegations of a baby trafficking networkAntonio Barroso has been asked to make a statement in court

It is possible many of the children are really dead, that there are simply mistakes in the paperwork, or that mothers are confused, still raw from their loss.

But signs of a more sinister story are mounting.

A former nurse has claimed she witnessed baby-thefts in Madrid. A cemetery worker in Granada told the BBC he had handled child coffins that were suspiciously light, and now Anadir says a woman who was told her child had died has just been reunited with her daughter in Barcelona. The family have not spoken publicly.

Spain's courts are certainly taking the claims seriously.

Anadir delivered details of 261 cases of suspected baby-theft to the state prosecutor in January. Regional prosecutors have been ordered to investigate. Across Spain hundreds of people are now being summoned to make statements. New cases are being reported all the time.

After years of fighting to get the courts to listen, Antonio Barroso has also been called to see the prosecutor. For him this is not only about trying to expose a criminal practice. It is about discovering who he really is.

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

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-europe-12886441

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SA rugby star 'in axe rampage'

map
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Former South African rugby star Joseph Ntshongwana has appeared in court for allegedly hacking three men to death with an axe.

The killings are said to have been to avenge the gang-rape and HIV-infection of his daughter, local reports say.

Mr Ntshongwana, who appeared in a packed Durban court, was not asked to plead to three charges of murder, one of attempted murder and one of assault.

He is a former flanker for 2010 national champions Blue Bulls.

At least one of the bodies was decapitated and the head found in a dustbin almost 2km (1 mile) away.

Another victim's head was left hanging "by a nerve", police said.

Details of the third man killed have not been released.

"As the axe came down towards my head, I ducked and it scratched my stomach," said survivor, Khangelani Mdluli, 27, reports Cape Argus newspaper.

Police have alleged that Mr Ntshongwana stalked his victims over several days in and around townships near Durban before killing them.

The police cannot confirm that his daughter was raped, saying that may be investigated later on.

Mr Ntshongwana has been remanded in police custody and is due back in court on 7 April for a bail hearing.

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

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-africa-12920189

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Spanish tragedy

Antonio Barroso at the office of Anadir, an association set-up to support suspected victims of alleged baby tradeAntonio Barroso has been told he was bought at birth
Related Stories

Antonio Barroso always suspected that something in his family wasn't quite right. He was 38 when the secret was finally revealed: his parents had bought him as a baby.

"I discovered my whole life was a lie," Antonio said.

The truth came out during the deathbed confession of a family friend. Like Antonio's parents, he and his wife had been unable to conceive. Both couples had bought their babies from a nun, for "more than the price of a flat".

Antonio's mother has since confirmed the story and DNA tests have proved he has no genetic link to the couple who raised him. His birth certificate had been falsified.

"I want to know the truth," Antonio said, flicking through snapshots of his childhood, "To find out who I am and where I come from. I want to know what happened and who was responsible. And if people need to be punished, they should be punished".

Antonio soon discovered other cases similar to his own, and signs of an illicit trade in newborn babies.

At the support group he set up in Vilanova i la Geltru, his home town on the Catalan coast, the phone rarely stops ringing. The desk is piled high with letters from Spaniards who fear they could be victims of a criminal network, thought to have operated until the 1990s.

“We were starting to make a family and they destroyed that completely. I have to meet my daughter. I want to tell her, girl, I'm your Dad”

Salvador Martin Father, who believes his daughter was stolen from himIn pictures: Spanish 'baby trade'

For some, that suspicion is strengthened by Spain's history. After the civil war, children were removed from Republican prisoners and given to supporters of General Franco's dictatorship. Historians estimate up to 30,000 children were affected by the 'ideological cleansing'.

"In the 1950s, that practice was converted into mafia business," said Enrique Vila, a lawyer helping Antonio's support group, Anadir. "The goal became money. They took children from anyone, to sell."

The lawyer believes some babies were abandoned by unmarried Catholic girls or prostitutes and others were stolen after doctors told mothers that their newborns had died.

Ana Josefa Escabia died several hours after giving birth in Terrassa in 1975. Her husband clearly remembers seeing his daughter alive.

"I saw her born," Salvador Martin said, his eyes welling with tears, 36 years later. "She was gorgeous, just like her sister."

But doctors later told Salvador his baby had been stillborn. A sealed coffin was delivered to the cemetery.

Salvador Martin and wife Ana Josefa, in 1970s, just before she became pregnant Ana Josefa Escabia and her husband were told that their baby was stillborn

Last December, tormented by doubts, Salvador decided to open the family vault. DNA tests revealed the baby inside was a boy, and no relation.

Salvador is now desperate to know what happened to his daughter. No other baby was buried in Terrassa on that day. He is convinced his child was stolen.

"It's not like a bag of oranges that you sell. It's a child," he said, holding a picture of Ana shortly before she became pregnant. "We were starting to make a family and they destroyed that completely. I have to meet my daughter. I want to tell her, girl, I'm your Dad".

That longing to be reunited has led Anadir to create a DNA database. When a scientist recently visited Seville to take swabs, the small hall was packed with people convinced that their children had been stolen.

Dolores Diaz Cerpa, one of many mothers who is searching for a child she believes was stolenDolores Diaz Cerpa believes her son was stolen from her

Among those queuing nervously was 72-year-old Dolores Diaz Cerpa. She gave birth in 1973 and says when she awoke from surgery she saw 2 cots. A nurse said she'd had twins. But the boy was then removed and when Dolores woke up again she was told she'd had a girl.

"I always believed I'd had two children and they took one off me," Dolores said. "I would dream of him and wake up wondering how he was."

That conviction was compounded in 1995 when she requested her medical records and was sent papers for a baby boy. Dolores is entering her DNA in the database in the hope that the child she's so sure she gave birth to is alive.

"If he knows he's adopted, I just want him to know I didn't abandon him. He was stolen," she says, echoing the view of many mothers here.

Anadir has more than 800 members now. Other groups have more. Most are women who never saw their babies' bodies, never believed they had died and can find no record of their burials at cemeteries.

One of many Spanish courts now investigating allegations of a baby trafficking networkAntonio Barroso has been asked to make a statement in court

It is possible many of the children are really dead, that there are simply mistakes in the paperwork, or that mothers are confused, still raw from their loss.

But signs of a more sinister story are mounting.

A former nurse has claimed she witnessed baby-thefts in Madrid. A cemetery worker in Granada told the BBC he had handled child coffins that were suspiciously light, and now Anadir says a woman who was told her child had died has just been reunited with her daughter in Barcelona. The family have not spoken publicly.

Spain's courts are certainly taking the claims seriously.

Anadir delivered details of 261 cases of suspected baby-theft to the state prosecutor in January. Regional prosecutors have been ordered to investigate. Across Spain hundreds of people are now being summoned to make statements. New cases are being reported all the time.

After years of fighting to get the courts to listen, Antonio Barroso has also been called to see the prosecutor. For him this is not only about trying to expose a criminal practice. It is about discovering who he really is.

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

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-europe-12886441

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Fool school

Jeremy BeadleJeremy Beadle's pranks were a huge TV hit in the UK

As April Fools jokers hatch their plans, what's the secret to a perfect prank, asks broadcaster Toby Amies. And how far do the very best tricksters go in preparing their practical jokes?

This article is not a hoax. I promise you. It's a serious work about the practical joke.

How far would you go to pull off a prank? The dole queue? In 1987, a young British broadcaster called Chris Morris let off helium into the BBC Bristol studio, causing the newsreader's stories to reach a higher and higher pitch. Chris lost his job. And started his career in satire.

Would you risk prison? Pranks are often protests, against unfairness or authority or reality. And protest is increasingly risky in the 21st Century.

As the film director Billy Wilder said: "If you are going to tell people the truth, be funny or they will kill you."

Whether personal or public, the prank has a point to make, but if you're planning on tricking someone, it's best to ensure everyone gets the joke.

Russian Art Collective Voina might have gone furthest in making fun of the unfair. Two of their members went to prison. Russian prison.

Although Voina's manifesto is political, their activities make more immediate (non)sense, from launching live cats at workers in McDonald's to their most notorious "action" - daubing graffiti on a raised bridge opposite the headquarters of the federal security service in St Petersburg, with an enormous, crude phallus that erected every time the bridge did.

Perhaps inevitably, two Voina members were arrested - not for the abstract insult of the penis but for overturning police cars. Voina's name means "war" and they see themselves as part of another Russian revolution, one that refuses to take the very serious seriously at all, even if it means loss of liberty.

Find out moreThe Artiness Of Naughtiness is on Friday 1 April at 1130 BST on BBC Radio 4Or catch up using the link belowThe Artiness of Naughtiness

The pranksters have been bailed out of prison by the world's most internationally famous "anonymous" street artist, Banksy.

With its roots in the mythological trickster who mediated between Heaven and Earth - known by many names in many cultures, like Loki, Anansie, Prometheus, Coyote, Eshu or Brer Rabbit - a good prank allows boundaries to be crossed, including the ones between art and crime, or amateur and professional.

Toby Amies

“Pranksters are the special forces of comedy, getting out into the field to tell truth through laughter”

Toby Amies

When unemployed Mancunian Karl Power became, for a brief moment the 12th man in Manchester United's team against Munich in 2001 by walking onto the pitch at the right moment in the right kit, he turned every fan's fantasy into reality.

But it was the result of two years of careful strategy, he said. "We planned it like a military campaign and brought three United kits with us - red, white and blue." The choice of three kits meant Karl the imposter could blend in with the reality of a Champions League match unnoticed till it was too late.

Legendary American media hoaxer Joey Skaggs has devoted his whole life to the prank. For more than 30 years, Joey's been making up ridiculous lies that get disseminated so far by the mass media we are forced to wonder if the same media might not be fact-checking every other story so closely.

"I am an artist. To me the media is a medium and I create plausible but none existent realities and I stage for the news media to make social, political, satirical commentary."

Joey simplifies the process as "the hook, line and sinker".

The hook has the bait, a ready-written story, so sexy that a journalist wants it to be true so much they don't bother to check.

The line is a record of the process. Joey uses clippings services and devices like Google alerts help him chart the reach of the hoax. "I watched how the news media would change the intent, content, meaning of the message to suit their own agendas."

Karl PowerKarl Power gatecrashed many sports, including football and Formula One

Joey's duped the media into covering an embarrassing number of weird but wonderful stories, from his canine brothel, The Cathouse for Dogs, to his celebrity sperm bank, and probably several other stories that are works in progress that have yet to be revealed.

The sinker is the reveal, the moment when the lights go on and we all realise how easy it is to be fooled.

It's hard work to overturn reality. Joey creates shell companies, puts out official press releases, hires actors, installs dedicated phone lines, whatever it takes to make the false seem real. It's a wonder he hasn't been headhunted by the financial services industry. The prank on his scale is an artform and consequently a mix of inspiration, craft and industry, imagination and talent is needed.

False reality

Even so, pranking has proved extremely popular as a form of television, the hidden camera pioneered in Alan Funt's Candid Camera in the US allowed the delicious dramatic irony of watching a carefully planned plot unfold from several angles.

Famous pranks1957: Hoax BBC Panorama reveals spaghetti harvest in Switzerland1976: Patrick Moore tells Radio 2 listeners that at 0947 a planetary event would lessen Earth's gravity and if people jumped in the air at that momentm, they would float1986: Le Parisien newspaper announces that the Eiffel Tower is to be moved to Euro Disney1998: Burger King launches left-handed Whopper

Television turned the prank into an expensive business with millions at risk. The budgets of TV and film allowed for exactly the kind of careful dramatic plotting that a good prank needs, fortunes were spent in creating versions of reality that were are at once, ridiculous to the viewer and plausible to the victim.

Nigel Crowle, an associate producer for Noel Edmonds and Jeremy Beadle, describes it as creating "layer upon layer of absurd situations, build it up, to a climax, which really if you analysed it make absolutely no sense whatsoever".

You almost need to bully your target into accepting a false reality, by not giving them the opportunity to consider the alternatives. Of course this is how advertising works.

Pranksters are the special forces of comedy, getting out into the field to tell truth through laughter and using the public space as a theatre.

Charlie Todd's Improv Everywhere most famously froze time in New York's Grand Central Station in a performance that has received millions of views on YouTube. He's used social media as effectively as revolutionaries in the Middle East for feel-good pranks.

If nothing else, the use of social media is another symptom of the prank's appropriateness as the perfect art for our zeitgeist. It's anti-authoritarian, hard to commodify or monetise, full of social comment, anti-violent and revolutionary. The opposite of the kind of art a billionaire would buy.

But as I write this, I wonder if I've been unfair to authority and the status quo: the bosses, the parents, the teachers, the politicians, the forces of darkness who would stop us laughing and joking.

On reflection perhaps not, because you might say they've been playing the most terrible joke on us 364 days a year.


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

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/magazine-12905767

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Intensive care equipment lacking

Ventilated man in intensive carePatients on intensive care are particularly vulnerable to breathing problems and often need assistance
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The lack of a cheap and simple breathing monitor on NHS intensive care wards is causing unnecessary patient deaths, warn doctors.

According to the Royal College of Anaesthetists, using a capnograph may avoid over 70% of breathing-related deaths on UK intensive care wards.

A capnograph can detect problems as soon as they occur and immediately alert staff to intervene.

It is already used almost universally in operating theatres.

It works by detecting carbon dioxide in exhaled breath to confirm that the patient is breathing sufficiently.

But only a quarter of intensive care units in the UK use the device, according to this latest report.

“We recommend that a capnograph is used for all patients receiving help with breathing on ICU”

Report author Dr Tim Cook

Report author Dr Tim Cook, who is a consultant anaesthetist at the Royal United Hospital in Bath, said: "The single most important change that would save lives is the use of a simple breathing monitor, which would have identified or prevented most of the events that were reported.

"We recommend that a capnograph is used for all patients receiving help with breathing on ICU.

"Greater use of this device will save lives."

He said the introduction of capnography to more ICUs would require "modest cost" and some training of nurses and those doctors who are not familiar with its use.

Patients at highest risk of breathing complications are those with other health problems, such as obesity.

The report found obese patients had double the risk of airway problems when they needed a general anaesthetic compared with non-obese patients.

It monitored all airway complications recorded between 2008 and 2009 in operating theatres, intensive care units and hospital emergency departments throughout the UK.

Of 184 reports of complications, 38 resulted in a death. Sixteen of these deaths occurred while under general anaesthetic in the operating theatre, 18 occurred on intensive care units and four in emergency departments.

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

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/health-12892141

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