Biodun@bbcnews.com

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- A top U.N. official said observations on the ground led him to believe a credible referendum for self-determination for South Sudan can take place in January. [ FULL STORY ]

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Insurgents in Afghanistan are preparing "spectacular attacks" to erase perceptions that things are improving, a top U.N. official told the Security Council. [ FULL STORY]

BRUSSELS, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Contingency plans are needed to respond to the humanitarian crisis potentially unfolding in the Ivory Coast, the European Union said. [ FULL STORY ]

24 December 2010 Last updated at 09:05 ET

Bradley Manning served in Iraq

Wikileaks Revelations

by Biodun Iginla, BBC News

The only person to visit Wikileaks suspect Pte Bradley Manning in custody other than his lawyer says his health has declined in the past four months.

Pte Manning, a US soldier, is being held in solitary confinement in a high-security military prison at Quantico marine base, Virginia.

US journalist David House, who has been visiting him since September, told the BBC World Service he looked "frazzled".

Pte Manning faces up to 50 years in jail if convicted of leaking secrets.

The 23-year-old was arrested earlier this year and charged with stealing secret information. One accusation is that he handed Wikileaks video of an Apache helicopter killing 12 civilians in Baghdad in 2007.

However, there has been no formal indictment and no date for a trial has been set, according to Mr House.

"He is being kept in a kind of punitive fashion before his trial and it is definitely weakening his mental state," the journalist said.

'Carpet burn'

Pte Manning is confined to his cell 23 hours a day and is not allowed to exercise or have access to media, Mr House told me at the BBC.

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[Bradley Manning] said he would frequently wake up in the morning with carpet burn, a problem exacerbated by the fact that he is required to sleep in his boxers”

David HouseUS journalist

His marine guards must check upon him every five minutes, including at night, and a light is kept on in his cell when he sleeps, according to the journalist.

He complained to Mr House last week that the blankets he is given are so heavy and uncomfortable they feel like carpet squares.

"He said he would frequently wake up in the morning with carpet burn, a problem exacerbated by the fact that he is required to sleep in his boxers," the journalist said.

When Mr House comes to see the prisoner twice a month, their meetings take place in a room with marines standing nearby and their conversations are recorded by the US government.

When Mr House first visited Pte Manning in September, he found him mentally "very alert" and, physically, he looked to be "in very good health".

"Over the months, I've seen his condition deteriorate. Mentally, he now has trouble keeping up with some topics of conversation. He has bags under his eyes and he appears to be very weak."

'Not co-operating'

Asked by me at the BBC what he made of an assertion by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange that the Pentagon was pressurising Pte Manning into testifying against him, Mr House said he had not got the impression that the soldier was co-operating with investigators.

Nor did Pte Manning seem to mind that the media had focused on the fate of Mr Assange, and not his own, the journalist added.

Mr Assange is currently on bail in the UK, facing extradition proceedings to Sweden on sexual assault allegations.

US authorities are thought to be considering an extradition request for Mr Assange on espionage charges.

The WikiLeaks founder says he believes he may be killed if he is jailed in America.

24 December 2010 Last updated at 04:40 ET

Taliban Conflict

by Sunita Kureishi, BBC News Analyst, for the BBC's Biodun Iginla

At least 11 soldiers and 24 militants have been killed in clashes near the Afghan border in north-west Pakistan, officials have said.

About 150 Taliban launched co-ordinated attacks against five Frontier Corps checkpoints in Mohmand tribal region, they said.

The Taliban said only two of their fighters had died.

The military has launched offensives in the region in recent months, but insurgent attacks have continued.

Amjad Ali Khan, administrator of Mohmand, confirmed that 11 soldiers had been killed following initial reports that three had died. He said 12 other soldiers had been injured.

Mr Khan said the Frontier Corps paramilitary troops had "repulsed" the militant attacks in the Baizai area which began at 0200 local time.

"The troops responded with artillery fire and raids by helicopter gunships, killing 24 militants," he said.

"Seven of their bodies are in our possession."

He said that the fighting ended later Friday morning.

However, Sajjad Mohmand, spokesman for the Taliban in Mohmand, told the BBC that only two insurgents had been killed in the clashes.

Analysis

M Ilyas KhanBBC News, Islamabad

Pakistan's Mohmand tribal region has long served as a sanctuary for militants operating against US-led troops based across the border in Afghanistan's north-east Kunar province.

Mohmand also shares a border with another volatile Pakistani tribal district, Bajaur, where the Pakistani army conducted a year-long operation against militants in 2008-09.

In 2008, Pakistan launched a clean-up operation in southern and eastern Mohmand to reduce the militant threat to towns and cities such as Peshawar and Charsadda.

But there has been no large-scale operation deeper into the region like the one in Bajaur, or, more recently, South Waziristan and Orakzai.

As a result it has emerged as a haven for militants uprooted from other regions or those active inside Afghan territory.

He said they had captured two soldiers alive and held the bodies of six others.

Security officials have rejected the claim, saying no soldiers are unaccounted for.

Mohmand is a transit point for insurgents crossing between Pakistan and Afghanistan and a stronghold of the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

The BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad says militants are proving that they can still carry out attacks, despite the military campaign against them.

Earlier this month, a twin suicide bomb attack at a government compound in Mohmand's main town of Ghalanai left 43 people dead. Local officials had been meeting tribal elders to discuss forming an anti-Taliban militia at the time of the blasts.

In July, another twin suicide bombing attack, also targeting tribal elders, killed more than 100 people in the village of Yakaghund in Mohmand.

Mohmand is one of seven Pakistani tribal areas.

Pakistan has faced growing pressure from Washington to launch a major ground offensive in the tribal region of North Waziristan, considered a fortress for militants fighting US-led troops in Afghanistan.

Islamabad has denied accusations that it is not doing enough to fight the Taliban in the restive north-west of the country.

It says more than 2,40 Pakistani soldiers have been killed fighting Islamist insurgents since 2002.

Pakistan supported the Taliban regime in Afghanistan from 1996-2001, but later became an ally of the US when it led an invasion in 2001.

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From other news sites

AFP via Yahoo!Manning deteriorating in US brig: supporter38 mins ago

NEWS.com.auWikiLeaks suspect pays the price1 hr ago

IAfrica.comManning 'deteriorating'7 hrs ago

TheStar.com.myNorwegian paper says it has all WikiLeaks cables12 hrs ago

MSNBCPal: Accused WikiLeaker suffers from brig confinement15 hrs ago

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By William Wallis in London for the BBC's Biodun Iginla

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