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| The boys spent weeks in a hut in a secluded area where only men can visit |
A white South African teenager has undergone a traditional circumcision, even though dozens of boys die each year in such ceremonies, which are seen as a rite of passage into manhood in some communities. He told the BBC's Pumza Fihlani it had changed him for the better.
Seventeen-year-old Brandon de Wet, from South Africa's Eastern Cape province, went through with the ritual, which is not without its risks, with his Xhosa friend of 13 years, Yanelisa Somyo.
"It was a really tough road and was like nothing I've ever experienced," Brandon told the BBC about the three-week long experience in the mountains.
"It was challenging mentally but it was worth it," he said proudly.
The practice of ritual circumcision is common among ethnic Xhosas and Ndebeles - two of South Africa's most numerous communities.
"Yanelisa and I have been friends since we started school as young boys. Sharing this with him has strengthened our friendship even more," says Brandon.
"I also have a better understanding of his culture."
The two go to a mainly white private school in the city of East London.
They were joined by Yanelisa's cousin Mbuzeli Somyo.
When young Xhosa boys are aged between 15 and 17, their families prepare to take them to an initiation school - where they will be under the care of an "incibi", a traditional surgeon, and an "ikhankatha", a traditional nurse.
This ritual is usually performed over the June school holidays or in December.
Secrecy
Deep in the mountains, they are taught the virtues of manhood and how to become upstanding men in their communities, among other things.
The boys spent weeks in a hut in a secluded area where only men can visit
But it is a practice steeped in secrecy, so Brandon is careful not to give any intimate details of what he and his friend went through.
True to tradition he simply says that it was a "difficult time".
He recalls how accommodating his incibi was throughout his time there - but said he did not receive any special treatment.
"I can understand a bit of Xhosa but my surgeon would explain the details of what was going to happen and why it was important in English," says Brandon.
Although most aspects of the ceremony are secret, some aspects are known.
After the circumcision operation, the boys enter a specially built hut called an iboma, where they live together throughout the initiation period.
Their families prepare food for them and send young girls to deliver it.
The incibi will give instructions on what food should be prepared for the initiates. He treats the boys' wounds with herbal mixtures and is expected to monitor the healing process to make sure that there are no infections.
During this time the boys are clothed only in loincloths and covered in blankets, while white mud is smeared all over their body.
At the end of the initiation period they all bath at a river and wash off the mud - a symbol of leaving their "old selves" behind.
They burn the iboma where they had been living, another sign of leaving the old behind and beginning a new life.
The initiates then paint their bodies with red mud - this is how everyone at the homecoming knows that they have finished the entire course.
They are also given new blankets, which only those who have completed the ritual are allowed to wear.
In recent years many have begun to question the role of traditional circumcision in a modern society, especially with dozens of boys dying at bogus initiation schools every year.
Continue reading the main story
Deadly side of circumcision
- More than 20,000 young boys visit initiation schools in the Eastern Cape each year
- Traditional circumcision is practised by the Xhosa and Ndebele communities
- Close to 300 boys were rescued from illegal initiation schools and hospitalised this winter
- Almost 50 boys died in Mpumalanga and Limpopo in May from botched circumcisions while 30 died in the Eastern Cape province
- Hospitals across South Africa perform circumcisions to curb the spread of HIV
Source: South Africa's Department of Health
All traditional surgeons should be registered with the authorities - in the past, they were well-known members of the community but recently untrained people have seen setting up initiation schools as a way to make money, locals say.
In the current initiation season alone, more than 70 boys across the country have died from dehydration, gangrene and septic wounds and others from multiple assault after weeks of maltreatment at the hands of their supposed carers.
Knowing all this, it was an especially difficult decision for Brandon's parents to go along with.
"I sat him down and tried to persuade him to change his mind. But I could tell that his mind was made up," his mother Charlene de Wet told me.
"The only thing that gave me comfort was knowing that the Somyo family would take good care of him and they did," she said.
"I remember the day he left, the goodbye was so abrupt. They just whisked him away. I felt both sad and anxious."
Traditionally, women are not allowed to come into contact with the boys during their initiation period.
They are not allowed to ask questions about what happens in the mountains - a sign of the patriarchy that exists in rural South Africa.
About 20,000 boys in Eastern Cape go to initiation schools during each season, according to the province's health department.
But those who swear by the practice say that when done in the correct way, it poses no threat to the lives of the young men.
"This is an ancient practice that has an important role in grooming our sons. I underwent it as a young man, it helped to shape me into the man I am today," Mlibo Qoboshiyane, Eastern Cape's local government and traditional affairs minister, told the BBC.
However, families need to play a more active role in the process, he says, firstly by ensuring that they choose a reputable "incibi" and "ikhankatha" and secondly by visiting their boys regularly to make sure that they are being treated well.
A hero's welcome
Brandon's father, Dave de Wet, agrees.
As a man, he was allowed to visit his son.
"I checked on my boy every other day. This helped me to be comfortable with what was happening," he said.
On the day of their homecoming to Gqumashe village, there was a huge feast and euphoric celebration; the boys, now considered men, were received like kings. There was singing, ululating and dancing.
"The outpouring of love from the community was just overwhelming," Mr de Wet told the BBC.
"It was a really proud moment for us."
Some villagers were surprised to see a white boy with the other initiates initially but Brandon says they made him feel like part of that community.
But not all initiates return to such festivities. During the June holiday season, 300 boys were admitted into hospitals across the province, 10 of whom had their penises amputated because of their wounds.
And five men have been arrested in connection with the deaths of 30 boys.
Mr de Wet tells me that this experience was a learning curve not just for Brandon but for his entire family.
All three boys are back home in East London, and normal life has resumed.
But Brandon's parent say they have noticed a change in their son.
"He seems a lot more placid, a lot more mature. This experience has definitely changed him," his mother says.
His father says it has been an "invaluable lesson for him".
"He was exposed to another way of life and now has a deeper appreciation of the luxuries that he would have otherwise taken for granted."
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| As Frank Gardner reports, it is being seen as an attempt by North Korea to break UN resolutions on arms trafficking |
Cuba has admitted being behind a stash of weapons found on board a North Korean ship seized in the Panama Canal.
The Cuban foreign ministry said the ship was carrying obsolete Soviet-era arms from Cuba for repair in North Korea.
The ship was seized by Panama last week after "undeclared military cargo" was found hidden in a shipment of sugar.
United Nations sanctions prohibit the supply of arms to North Korea in the dispute over its nuclear programme.
A Cuban foreign ministry statement said Cuba reaffirmed its commitment to "peace, disarmament, including nuclear disarmament, and respect for international law".
It said the vessel was carrying 240 tonnes of obsolete defensive weapons - two anti-aircraft missile complexes, nine missiles in parts and spares, two MiG-21bis fighter planes and 15 MiG engines.
The Cuban statement said they were all made in the mid-20th Century and were to be repaired and returned to Cuba.
"The agreements subscribed by Cuba in this field are supported by the need to maintain our defensive capacity in order to preserve national sovereignty," the statement went on.
Cuba said the ship's main cargo was 10,000 tonnes of sugar.
'Historical ties'
North Korea and Cuba are both nominally communist states and are known to have relatively close relations. A high-level military delegation from North Korea visited at the end of June and was received by President Raul Castro.
Cuban media said they discussed "the historical ties that unite the two nations and the common will to continue strengthening them".
US ambassador to UN Rosemary DiCarlo: "Shipments would violate Security Council resolutions"
Announcing the seizure of the vessel on Tuesday, Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli said it contained suspected "sophisticated missile equipment".
He posted on his Twitter account an image of a large green object inside a cargo container.
The president said the 35-strong crew had resisted the search and the captain had tried to kill himself.
Panama's Security Minister Jose Raul Mulino said the UN would be sending experts to continue the investigation and examine the issue of charging the crew with illegal weapons smuggling.
The US "commended" Panama for its actions, and said it strongly supported a full inspection of the ship.
The vessel, the Chong Chon Gang, was stopped near Manzanillo on the Atlantic side of the canal last week.
It had left Russia's far east in April and travelled across the Pacific Ocean before entering the canal at the start of June, with Cuba as its stated destination.
The Chong Chon Gang had crossed the Pacific without its automatic tracking system switched on a move described by the BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner as highly suspicious.
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| UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres said refugee numbers had not risen "at such a frightening rate" since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda |
The conflict in Syria has caused the world's worst refugee crisis for 20 years, with an average of 6,000 people fleeing every day in 2013, the UN says.
UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres said refugee numbers had not risen "at such a frightening rate" since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
He was speaking to the UN Security Council, which also heard that 5,000 people are being killed each month.
UN aid chief Valerie Amos said at least 6.8 million Syrians needed urgent help.
Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad are locked in a fierce battle with opposition fighters for control of the country.
There has been deadlock at the UN Security Council over the crisis, with Russia and China refusing to back action against Mr Assad proposed by the other veto powers, the US, Britain and France.
'No empty warning'
Mr Guterres said two-thirds of the nearly 1.8 million refugees registered with the UN had fled Syria since the beginning of the year - an average of 6,000 a day.
"We have not seen a refugee outflow escalate at such a frightening rate since the Rwandan genocide almost 20 years ago," he told a rare public briefing to the Security Council.
Mr Guterres said the impact of the refugee crisis on neighbouring countries was "crushing", but said the acceptance of Syrians by countries such as Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq was "saving hundreds of thousands of lives".
And he said the "danger that the Syrian conflict could ignite the whole region" was "not an empty warning".
The UN last month said nearly 93,000 people had been killed since the uprising began in March 2011.
The UN's assistant secretary general for human rights, Ivan Simonovic, told the meeting that some 5,000 lives were being claimed each month, demonstrating "a drastic deterioration of the conflict".
"In Syria today, serious human rights abuses, war crimes and crimes against humanity are the rule," he said.
Ms Amos said $3.1bn was still needed to provide aid in and around Syria for the rest of the year, and she accused both sides in Syria of "systematically and in many cases deliberately" failing in their obligation to protect civilians.
"We are not only watching the destruction of a country but also of its people," she said.
Syria's ambassador to the UN, Bashar Ja'afari, said his government was doing "everything possible... to meet the humanitarian needs and basic needs of its citizens".
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| Arms licences to Sri Lanka included pistols, small arms ammunition and 600 assault rifles |
The UK government has approved more than 3,000 export licences for military sales to countries which it believes have questionable records on human rights, MPs say.
The House of Commons Committees on Arms Export Controls says the value of the existing export licences to the 27 countries in question exceeds £12bn.
This includes significant sales to China, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Sales to Sri Lanka raise "very serious questions", the report adds.
The committees consist of four select committees meeting and working together: business, defence, foreign affairs, and international development.
The chairman, Conservative MP Sir John Stanley, said he was astonished at the scale and value of the licences.
'Clear risk'
There were, for example, more than 60 licences for Iran, including components for military electronics and what is described as "equipment employing cryptography".
This appears to be a catch-all term which encompasses a variety of equipment, much of it in the telecommunications sector.
Similar equipment figured prominently in China's £1.4bn worth of licences, which also included some small arms ammunition, even though there is a European Union arms embargo on Beijing.
Sir John told the BBC that in his view the EU embargo "was not drafted as widely as many people would wish".
Arms licences to Sri Lanka included pistols, small arms ammunition and approval for the sale of 600 assault rifles, which he said "raised very serious questions".
The report urges the UK government to look again at all the 134 existing UK export licences to Egypt to ensure that they do not breach the current policy, which is not to issue licences where it feels "there is a clear risk that the proposed export might provoke or prolong regional or internal conflicts, or which might be used to facilitate internal repression".
The committees also want more detail on a sales licence granted to Israel earlier this year for the purchase of £7.7bn worth of what is described as "equipment employing cryptography and software for equipment employing cryptography".
This one licence granted in February 2013 accounted for well over 50% of the value of all existing licences to the countries in question.
The committees also comment on military sales to Argentina.
The UK has adopted a restrictive policy for such sales and the committees note that: "It is reprehensible that the UK government is unwilling to lobby other (friendly) governments to make the same changes in (their) arms export policies towards Argentina."
The committees have asked the government to report back and give assurances that arms export licences to all the countries mentioned are in tune with policy.
The report concludes: "Whilst the promotion of arms exports and the upholding of human rights are both legitimate government policies, the government would do well to acknowledge that there is an inherent conflict between strongly promoting arms exports to authoritarian regimes whilst strongly criticising their lack of human rights at the same time, rather than claiming, as the government continues to do, that these two policies 'are mutually reinforcing'."
'Information security'
"Cryptography" is a term that appears frequently in the arms licensing data.
It appears to refer to technology which can be applied to a variety of tasks, encapsulating the "dual-use" problem - technology which can be used for peaceful purposes but which equally could have a security or military role.
A Department for Business, Innovation and Skills spokeswoman said cryptography was "a means of ensuring information security, ie preventing unauthorised access to data".
There was, she explained, "a huge range of commercial applications that use cryptography, from public mobile telephony, online shopping and banking, through to providing secure networks for businesses and governments. Commercial applications account for the vast majority of licences under the cryptography category."
These commercial applications, she stressed did "not raise any concerns with respect to internal repression or conflict".
People tend to think of the "suburbs" of the UK as safe and boring, but much culture originates there and the leafy streets have many of the same problems as the inner city, writes sociologist Rupa Huq.
"London, Paris, New York" goes the holy trinity long used to summarise modern city living.
"Hounslow, Didsbury, Solihull" may not quite have the same ring to it.
But in 2013 in the UK it's in the suburbs, at the edges of our cities, that most people reside.
Unlike the usual presumption of suburbs as quiet, featureless places "where nothing ever happens", recent years have seen dramatic happenings in suburbs, not least the riots of 2011 in places like Ealing and Croydon in London.
In many ways the 21st Century suburb faces some thoroughly modern problems. There is crumbling infrastructure, with hollowed out High Streets. There is pressure on public services prompted by population increases, as witnessed in the annual scramble for school places.
Stereotypically, suburbs are full of identikit 1930s semi-detached houses. But British suburbia spans numerous types - everything from council cottage estates to opulent privately built suburban Victoriana too - all conceived in the spirit of optimism as a step up from the squalor of the city for the aspiring classes.
There is no clear definition of what a suburb actually is.
We have an inkling that it might include manicured lawns, net curtains and weekend car-washing but there is no strict formula.
Filling in the blanks, a raft of 1970s sitcoms like The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Terry and June and The Good Life have provided us with enduring imagery of suburbs as cloyingly comfortable and slightly naff. In such shows the status-obsessed inhabitants trapped in their soulless semis are the butt of the jokes.
So why have suburbs got a reputation for being boring? Historically, those who had the means fled the urban buzz and inner-city slums, feeding the image of safe blandness in the 'burbs.
The Good Life was set in stereotypical suburbia, often the source of humour
British urban relations in some ways follow a doughnut model. The classic city centre at the core is a place of excitement and urban glamour associated with the cut and thrust of business. The rim around this is the inner-city. In the post-war period, many places were bombed out, with the remaining private housing supplemented by hastily built social stock including a plethora of tower blocks.
For many the tranquillity of the suburb and easy availability of mortgages in the outer ring made it the ideal place to flee to and call home, although its peaceable quality made it dullsville in the eyes of the urban intelligentsia and many who grew up there.
But far from being cultural deserts, suburbs have been a fertile breeding ground for artistic movements. It is from the nation's Acacia Avenues that almost all post-war pop has emerged, even if its artists would rather make out that they hailed from high-rise hell and so be more "edgy".
John Lennon was raised in his Aunt Mimi's semi in Liverpool's sedate Menlove Avenue. David Bowie retrospectives stress his beginnings in Bromley, Kent - also the home of punks such as Siousxie and the Banshees and Billy Idol.
Bored in 'burbia? (Clockwise) David Bowie, Siouxsie Sioux, John Lennon, Oasis
More recently Oasis's sneery posturing was perfected in Burnage, an example of a local-authority built suburb some distance from Manchester city centre once seen as highly desirable for its individual houses with neat front and back gardens. Today "urban" genre dubstep is actually straight outta Croydon.
There is more to the 21st Century suburb than simply conformist folk and gnome fanciers obsessively peering out defensively behind their twitching net curtains.
Create dubstep on Friday, replace chipped garden gnome on Saturday...
Suburbia has shifted to become a place of dynamism housing ethnically mixed populations, as illustrated by the 2011 Census figures, in contrast to the assumptions of uniformity.
This is most pronounced in London but pervades elsewhere too. To take just one example, Selly Oak in Birmingham has a substantial Asian population and among its claims to fame is the contention that it was the place where the Balti was born.
Part of suburbia's allure was cleaner air, lower local taxation and a better class of inhabitant - which often really meant a lack of ethnic residents, termed "white flight".
Yet a substantial movement of ethnic minority people into the suburbs is evidence that this post-war picture of suburbanisation no longer holds.
More recently the 2004 EU enlargement has brought white migration. But the Polish presence in the Manchester suburb of Chorlton long predates this. Many arrived after WWII.
In some areas of the UK's big cities Polski Skleps (Polish shops) are an increasing presence on the suburban landscape with former High Street mainstays like pubs increasingly closing their doors as their business model no longer commands the customer support that they once did.
Indeed, "ethnic" commerce has helped many modern suburban shopping parades to stave off collapse in the face of out-of-town and online competition. Any visitor to New Malden in Kingston, Surrey, will see how it has become a centre for South Korean restaurants.
Gentrification has made many inner-city locations once associated with the horrors of crime and grime clean up their act as large period properties have undergone reconversion from seedy bedsitland to single family dwellings beyond the budgets of many average people.
In many ways associations of suburban privilege and squalid inner-cities are blurring and merging if not completely reversing.
All this has happened under our noses without anyone really noticing because suburbs in many ways are simply taken for granted.
They are seen as self-sufficient and not really a "problem", not urban enough for urban regeneration yet now, 100 years on from their formation, suffering the effects of economic downturn and looking somewhat worse for wear.
We should smash the stereotypes of nondescript suburbia and rather than being embarrassed by them, celebrate those places on the edges of our cities that give our nation its essential character.
There has been much talk about 'the spirit of the game' since the first Ashes Test at Trent Bridge.
But does it not seem odd to believe that cricket should be governed by a spirit when we have algorithms and thermal imaging and all manner of cutting edge gadgets to make things less mysterious?
One exchange between former England spinner Phil Tufnell and an exasperated BBC Radio listener highlighted the fault line the introduction of technology has opened up in the sport.
Tufnell: "By the laws of the game, you stand there until given out."
Listener (with a deep, troubled sigh): "I'm older than you guys and I was brought up so that if you hit the ball, you walked."
Tufnell was perhaps too polite to point out - this is still cricket, after all - that if Hawk-Eye and Hot Spot had existed in the listener's formative years, batsmen at all levels of the game would probably have been wedded to their creases like limpets, just as they tend to be today.
This is one of the problems with attempting to transpose modern attitudes and mores into historical situations.
Technology, and the Decision Review System (DRS) which took centre stage in Nottingham last week, was introduced because we live in a scientific age. And once cricket conceded that we live in a scientific age then any talk of spirits started to sound wilfully old-fashioned. At least to some.
Indeed, it should be noted that an awful lot of callers to Tufnell and Michael Vaughan's 6-Duck-6 show on BBC Radio 5 live were vociferous in their criticism of Broad and DRS.
"It should be written in the rules that no batsman walks," argued Tufnell. "Then we wouldn't have this debate. It wouldn't be about the morals of the player, it would be in the umpires' hands. It calls into question the character of players and doesn't take into account the situation and the pressure they're under."
As well as a scientific age, we live in a professional age. So when Stuart Broad was vilified for failing to walk during England's second innings in Nottingham, how many of those who vilified him placed themselves in his shoes and remembered what was at stake?
"If you walked off with one run to win the Ashes," said Tufnell, "your team-mates wouldn't talk to you."
Still, there were plenty more dissenting voices. Jonathan Agnew, the BBC cricket correspondent, wrote on these pages: "There is nothing within the laws of cricket that says Broad had to depart. But when he chose not to, it became an issue for the spirit of the game."
Agnew's irritation was more to do with the blatant nature of Broad's decision not to walk than the decision itself. "How does it affect the relationship between the teams?" said Agnew. "If you decide to stay, you decide to accept the consequences. You must accept all the abuse that comes your way."
Just as when Dilruwan Perera was abused by Broad's team-mate Graham Swann during last year's England tour of Sri Lanka, during a warm-up game in which DRS was not available.
"It was very difficult to take because it was so blatantly out," said Swann. "He opened himself up to the level of abuse that was coming to him. It was just cheating in my view but we live in an age where cheating is accepted." Oh, the irony.
While the Australian team - and coach Darren Lehman up on the balcony - was clearly irritated by Broad's decision to stand his ground, it was hardly a surprise that they refused to condemn him publicly.
After all, there is a saying that an Australian batsman will only walk if there are no stumps standing, which is why former England batsman Geoffrey Boycott found the Broad situation so absurd.
"The rules say that it's 'in the opinion of the umpire' so it's above things like 'the spirit of the game'," said Boycott. "I don't see bowlers asking you back when the ball is sliding down leg."
"Broad shouldn't have walked," agreed former Australia batsman Damien Martyn. "We get told as kids and when playing for Australia that the umpire is there to make a decision - and they should."
Added Adam Gilchrist, who prided himself on being a rare Aussie batsman who got on his toes when he thought he had nicked one: "People told me I was actually disrespecting the umpire by walking."
Which is why the wrath of Australia's players was directed at umpire Aleem Dar, who somehow missed Broad's monstrous snick, rather than the batsman himself. Indeed, most of the controversy at Trent Bridge had less to do with DRS itself, than the application of it - by both officials and captains.
DRS was introduced because there was a gradual acceptance that umpires needed help. Trialled in the Test series between Sri Lanka and India in 2008, it was officially rolled out by the International Cricket Council for the first Test between New Zealand and Pakistan in Dunedin in November 2009.
Because of an ICC rule stating that teams must mutually agree on the use of DRS outside of ICC-run events, India decided to opt out. The official reason given by the Indian cricket board was that the array of technology required was too expensive for a system its players considered fallible.
Their principal gripe was with the ball-tracking technology, which they claimed could not predict a ball's trajectory after pitching. "I endorse any technology that is close to being 100%," said Indian batting legend Sachin Tendulkar only last month. "I have an issue with half-baked technologies."
Indian newspapers have seized on the Trent Bridge Test as proof that their hero was right all along. But ICC investigations have revealed that 'correct' decisions have jumped from 93% to 98% since DRS was introduced.
Indeed, of the so-called controversial reviews in Nottingham, DRS technology was at fault only once, when third umpire Marais Erasmus overturned Dar's on-field decision not to give England's Jonathan Trott out lbw because Hot Spot was out of commission.
But even that appeared, in the final reckoning, to be human error because the naked eye suggested Trott got an inside edge.
Australian batsmen Shane Watson and Michael Clarke were both given out on review, with DRS vindicating the umpire on both occasions. And in the case of the final wicket of the match, Brad Haddin's feathered inside edge that handed England victory by 14 runs, DRS proved umpire Dar wrong.
In total, there were 13 reviews in Nottingham: five were upheld, eight were turned down. England skipper Alastair Cook nailed three out of four, Aussie skipper Clarke two out of nine. Which is Clarke's problem, not that of DRS.
"I'm not happy with my use," said Clarke, who used up two unsuccessful appeals before the Broad incident, including a nonsensical one when James Pattinson thought he had Jonny Bairstow trapped lbw when the ball was missing the stumps by a couple of feet. "England have used it better than I have."
All international skippers, and all cricket fans, must now appreciate that the art of captaincy involves judicious reviewing as well as imaginative field setting, bowling strategy and the maintenance of a harmonious team.
But not only was Cook more judicious than Clarke, you could also argue he adhered closer to the 'spirit of the game': while Clarke was effectively taking a punt that the technology might not be up to the task, Cook was using it wisely and reaping the benefits.
"There are those who say that the Decision Review System was designed to eliminate howlers like this," added Agnew. "Clarke, having used up his second review on a spurious lbw appeal earlier in the day, had none left when the Broad incident happened.
Has waiting for a review removed some of the joyous spontaneity from cricket?
"I believe that each team should only have one review per innings. Why? Precisely so you don't use it as Clarke did, as a gamble. It should not be a tactic but a last resort. We do not want to see reviews used as a speculation."
Others are worried that umpires, scrutinised as never before by huge crowds in the ground and millions more on television, are also becoming more tactical in their use of DRS.
"When Haddin was out," said Tufnell, "I reckon Aleem Dar went: 'Hold on a minute, I'm not going to commit here because I might be unsure - I hope England review it and they get the right decision in the end.'"
DRS can and will be tightened up in time. The Snickometer, which analyses audio and video to reveal whether a ball has taken the edge of a bat, is currently not part of the DRS package because it is too slow. But its designers are hopeful they will soon be able to turn around a 'snicko' in as little as five seconds.
And it seems unfair to dock marginal lbws - such as Watson's in Australia's second innings, when he was given out by Dar only for the subsequent referral to reveal the ball would have clipped leg stump - from a side's stock of reviews.
Any review system will bring with it cynicism. But the price we pay for professionalism is cynicism, in any walk of life. And any review system will have some complaining that it dilutes the drama and takes away from the spontaneity, as with the fall of Haddin's wicket.
But perhaps it is better to be cynical, deliberate and correct than to be ruled by spontaneity and spirits and be wrong. Let the arguments continue.
Reigning 100m champion Yohan Blake has withdrawn from August's World Athletics Championships in Moscow with a hamstring injury.
The 23-year-old Jamaican pulled out of his country's national championships last month having been troubled by the injury since April.
Blake won the 2011 title in Daegu whencompatriot Usain Bolt false-started.
Team-mate Asafa Powell and American Tyson Gay have withdrawn from the event in Moscow after positive dope tests.
Gay's A sample from an out-of-competition test in May was positive, while Powell tested positive for a banned stimulant at June's Jamaican Championships. Both athletes are awaiting the results of their B samples.
As defending champion, Blake did not have to qualify for the 100 metres at this year's World Championships, but he would not have competed in the 200 metres after pulling out of the Jamaican trials.
Blake has not run in a competitive 100m this year, but he recorded 20.72 in the 200m in Kingston, Jamaica, on 8 June.
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| Mr Snowden re-emerged at a news briefing at the airport last week |
Fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden has applied for temporary asylum in Russia, officials say.
The Federal Migration Service confirmed he had completed the relevant paperwork at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, where he has been for the past three weeks.
Mr Snowden is wanted by the US for leaking details of government surveillance programmes.
He has no travel documents so has been unable to take up asylum offers from a number of Latin American states.
"He reached the conclusion that he needs to write an application for temporary asylum, and this procedure has just been done," said Anatoly Kucherena, a lawyer with strong links with the Kremlin who helped Mr Snowden with the paperwork.
"For now he is not going to go anywhere. For now he plans to stay in Russia," he said.
Mr Kucherena said the fugitive had stated in the application that he faced possible torture and execution if he returned to the US.
If his application is accepted, he will be free to work and move freely in Russia, said the lawyer.
Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Mr Kucherena as saying he had asked Mr Snowden whether he would observe a request from President Vladimir Putin to not harm US interests if he is able to leave the airport.
"He replied: 'I will observe this condition'," Mr Kucherena told the agency.
A presidential spokesman told Interfax that Mr Putin had not yet reacted to the asylum request, and that the decision on whether it would be granted was not his to make.
Interfax also quoted a migration service official as saying that the application had to be considered within three months.
Officials said Mr Snowden might be moved to a facility in the airport for accommodating refugees while his application was processed.
'Not Putin's decision'
Mr Snowden arrived in Russia on 23 June, having left Hong Kong, from where he had issued his leaks to the media.
He held a news conference at the airport on 12 July, where he said he was seeking asylum in Russia.
He has sent requests for political asylum to at least 21 countries, most of which have turned down his request. However, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela have indicated they could take him in.
But he is unable to leave the transit zone as he currently has no asylum documents or Russian visa, and the US has revoked his passport.
Some European countries are likely to close their airspace to any plane suspected of carrying the fugitive.
Mr Snowden's leaking of thousands of classified US intelligence documents has led to revelations that the National Security Agency is systematically seizing vast amounts of phone and web data.
The documents have also indicated that both the UK and French intelligence agencies allegedly run similarly vast data collection operations, and the US has been eavesdropping on official EU communications.
Seven people have been killed in Cairo in overnight clashes between security forces and supporters of Egypt's ousted President Mohammed Morsi.
Police used tear gas to drive back protesters, some hurling rocks, who had blocked a main road in the capital.
The clashes came as a senior US envoy visited Egypt, saying it had been given a "second chance" at democracy.
William Burns met interim leaders but was snubbed by rival groups, including Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.
Mr Morsi was ousted on 3 July in what many have said was a military coup. The army says it was fulfilling the demands of the people after mass anti-Morsi protests.
Monday's battles erupted after hundreds of angry protesters blocked the 6 October bridge, a major arterial route.
State media said 261 people were injured in clashes around the bridge and in nearby Ramses Square, which lasted into the early hours of Tuesday.
The area was later reopened.
'Get out, Sisi'
The latest clashes took place a week after more than 50 Morsi supporters were killed in fighting with troops outside the Republican Guard compound where the former president is believed to be being held.
The interim government has since announced its transition plan, under which a panel will be formed by next week to draw up amendments to the constitution and a timetable set for new elections.
But Morsi supporters are demanding his reinstatement and have been holding a round-the-clock vigil outside the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque, in the east of the capital, and at Cairo University in Giza district.
Large crowds were again gathered there on Monday as Mr Burns, who is deputy secretary of state, visited.
"Get out, Sisi," some shouted, referring to the head of the armed forces, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who oversaw the overthrow of Mr Morsi.
Mr Burns met interim President Adly Mansour and Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi, as well as Gen al-Sisi.
He described the events of the last two weeks as a "second chance to realise the promise of the revolution" that ended the long, authoritarian presidency of Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
He called on the military to avoid "any politically motivated arrests", saying the US remained committed to an Egypt that was "stable, democratic, inclusive and tolerant".
But he insisted the US had "not come to lecture anyone. We will not try to impose our model on Egypt."
The envoy's comments come amid what correspondents say is an increasingly widespread antipathy towards the US among Egyptians on both sides of the political divide.
The US has stopped short of calling the army intervention a coup - doing so would trigger a legal stop of the some $1.5bn (£1bn) in the mostly military aid it sends to the country each year.
But is has called for Mr Morsi to be released.
William Burns: "Egyptians have second chance to put their post-revolutionary transition on a successful path"
Mr Burns said he planned to meet religious and civilian leaders, the heads of political parties and business figures during his two-day visit.
But both the ultra-conservative Salafi al-Nour party and the Tamarod anti-Morsi protest movement said they turned down invitations to meet Mr Burns, while the Muslim Brotherhood also said it had no plans to see him.
"Such kind of visit doesn't mean anything for us because we believe that America supported this military coup," Dina Zakaria, a member of the Brotherhood and its political wing the Freedom and Justice Party, told the BBC.
Islam Hammam, a Tamarod organiser, said the movement had turned down the invitation to talks with Mr Burns "because the United States did not stand with the Egyptian people from the beginning."
