Chinese workers attacked in Angola's Cabinda province. 12 November 2010Last updated at 09:31 An Angolan minister tells the BBC that a convoy carrying Chinese mine workers was attacked in the region of Cabinda this week. He said that two soldiers guarding the workers, contracted by Angola's state oil company Sonangol, were killed. A faction of the Cabinda separatist movement Flec has said it carried out Monday's attack. Secretary of State for Human Rights Bento Bembe condemned the attack as the work of "terrorists". In January, Cabinda independence fighters attacked a bus carrying the Togo national football team to an African Cup of Nations match in the province, killing two people and leaving nine others wounded. Flec (Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda) has been fighting for three decades for independence in Cabinda, an area separated from Angola by a strip of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Despite being rich in oil, the region is one of the poorest in the country. Revealing Japan's low-tech belly. 13 July 2010Last updated at 10:02 By Michael Fitzpatrick BBC News Tokyo is viewed as a high-tech hub Police stations without computers, 30-year-old "on hold" tapes grinding out tinny renditions of Greensleeves, ATMs that close when the bank does, suspect car engineering, and kerosene heaters but no central heating. A dystopian vision of a nation with technology stuck in an Orwellian time warp? Not at all. Tech-savvy internationalised companies such as Panasonic characterise that familiar but smaller segment of Japan Inc.
Digital divide When the business and tech-focused Fast Company magazine released its list of most innovative companies in 2010 only one Japanese company made the selection, and that was a retailer. So what could account for Japan's lack of international clout tech-wise? Despite the country's showy internet speeds and some of the cheapest broadband around many Japanese are happier doing things the old way.
New paradigm Not everyone wants to spend their whole time online. BP accused of 'buying academic silence' 22 July 2010Last updated at 22:52 By Robyn Bresnahan BBC News Bob Shipp said BP wanted to hire his entire marine science department The head of the American Association of University Professors has accused BP of trying to "buy" the best scientists and academics to help it contest litigation after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. "This is really one huge corporation trying to buy faculty silence in a comprehensive way," said Cary Nelson.
BP faces more than 300 lawsuits so far. In a statement, BP says it has hired more than a dozen national and local scientists "with expertise in the resources of the Gulf of Mexico". The BBC has obtained a copy of a contract offered to scientists by BP. It says that scientists cannot publish the research they do for BP or speak about the data for at least three years, or until the government gives the final approval to the company's restoration plan for the whole of the Gulf. They didn't just want him, they wanted his whole department.
"It's hugely destructive. China 'leapfrogs US to become biggest energy user' China's new industrial revolution. 1 August 2010Last updated at 16:17 By Michael Robinson BBC World Service documentaries China will soon have more high-speed railway tracks than the rest of the world put together In its race to provide future growth, the speed at which China is adopting new technologies is breathtaking. Take one example: high speed rail. Five years ago, there was not a single kilometre of high speed track in China. Today, it has more than Europe and by 2012, it will have more than the rest of the world put together. A vast, spotless factory in the port city of Qingdao is in the front line of this new industrial revolution. It is here that the giant state-controlled train-making company CSR developed a Chinese high-speed train. China's leaders "played a strong role in making all of this happen", says CSR's chairman, Xiaogang Zhao.
Foreign know-how Ding Sansan is developing an ultra-fast train The Japanese engineering giant Kawasaki accepted this condition. They did it, he says, in less than three years. New train. Barclays customer accounts hit by computer glitch. 22 August 2010Last updated at 09:50 Barclays is still investigating what caused its system to freeze on Saturday Thousands of Barclays customers were unable to access their bank accounts or withdraw money from cash machines on Saturday due to a computer glitch. The bank's system froze up around 2pm, causing customers to abandon purchases at the tills during one of the busiest shopping times of the week. The nationwide seizure also hit telephone and online banking services. Barclays' telephone banking centres were inundated with customer complaints. A Barclays spokeswoman was unable to elaborate on the cause of the problems. She told the BBC: "We became aware of the problem - which was resolved quickly - early on Saturday afternoon.
She added it was still not yet clear what had caused the glitch, but said the company was looking into it "as a matter of priority". Barclays is Europe's sixth-biggest bank by market value.