It says that large-scale public events present an attractive target.

"There is a heightened risk that extremist groups will conduct terrorist acts within South Africa in the near future," the US state department said.

The warning came as US President Barack Obama wished the the American World Cup football team good luck.

Although sometimes we don"t remember it here in the United States, this is going to be the biggest world stage there is

"I just want to say how incredibly proud we are of the team," said Mr Obama, who was joined by former President Bill Clinton to give the players a presidential send-off at the White House in Washington.

"Everybody's going to be rooting for you," he said.

"And although sometimes we don't remember it here in the United States, this is going to be the biggest world stage there is."

In a statement, the state department said it had no information on any specific, credible threat during the tournament, but noted that such threats have been reported in the media.

South Africa has mobilised thousands of specially trained police to deal with fans' safety.

Some 350,000 people are expected to visit South Africa for the World Cup, which is being held in Africa for the first time and starts on 11 June.

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

On 27 May, 1960, the Turkish armed forces overthrew the elected government, the first of a series of military interventions in politics which have continued to divide Turkish society.

I travelled to the island where the deposed political leaders were put on trial, with a group of relatives and activists who are campaigning for a new look at those events 50 years ago.

Sitting just an hour's boat ride from the centre of Istanbul, in the sparkling blue Sea of Marmara, the little rocky islet of Yassi Ada is virtually ignored, aside from the odd boat-load of scuba divers.

There are a few derelict buildings: the ruins of 11th-Century prison cells, where Byzantine political prisoners were left to rot, a strange castle-like house built by a British ambassador in the 19th Century, and a more recently constructed sports hall.

It was in the sports hall that one of the great dramas of modern Turkish history was played out 50 years ago, when 600 government ministers and officials were put on trial, following the country's first military coup.

Today, the building is crumbling and overgrown. But photographs from 50 years ago show its tiered seats packed with lawyers, military officers and defendants as the 11 month-long trials were under way.

The deposed leaders" relatives reject positive views held about the coup

At the end of the trial, 15 defendants were sentenced to death for crimes against the constitution, despite pleas for clemency from leaders like President Kennedy, Queen Elizabeth II, and President De Gaulle.

On 15 September 1962, former foreign minister Fatin Rustu Zorlu and finance minister Hasan Polatka were hanged on Imrali island, to the south.

Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, who had won three elections and governed for ten years, tried to commit suicide with sleeping pills, but was revived, and hanged two days later.

President Celal Bayar escaped execution because he was 78 years old.

The coup was instigated by mostly middle-ranking officers, after growing tension between the ruling Democrat-led government and the opposition CHP, the party founded by the father of the modern Turkish state, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

At the time the CHP was led by Ataturk's close colleague and revered war hero Ismet Inonu.

One moment you are trying to do your best for the country, the next you are brought to this island and kept in cages like animals

Menderes imposed increasing restrictions on the opposition, and ordered the army to help suppress anti-government protests by students. The economy had been deteriorating for several years, and the country was increasingly polarised.

So in the eyes of many Turks, this was the "good coup".

Its leader was the fatherly General Cemal Gursel. Within 18 months he had held an election and presided over a new constitution - the best the country has had, according to many liberal Turks.

Civilian rule was fully restored within five years.

"There was very little criticism at the time," says Ertugrul Kurkcu, a former left-wing activist and now editor of the news website Bianet.

"Generally, the coup was believed to be bringing Turkey towards a more liberal and democratic constitutional framework - it was the first constitution to recognise the rights of labour, the right to criticise openly."

That is a view that some activists, and relatives of the men tried in 1961, want to challenge.

An energetic group calling itself the Young Civilians organised a boat trip to Yassi Ada on the 50th anniversary of the coup to try to revive public memories of what happened.

"This coup was the original sin," says Ceren Kenar.

It started the coup tradition in Turkish politics, the military tutelage over civilian rule.

Walking up to the old sports hall with me was Fatin Rustu Yener, the grandson of the executed foreign minister.

The sports hall hosted the trials of 600 ministers and officials

"I feel terrible coming back here," he said.

"They were very dedicated men, a wonderful generation.

"One moment you are trying to do your best for the country, the next you are brought to this island and kept in cages like animals."

He said the military even painted over his grandfather's window to prevent him enjoying the view of the sea.

So why did the military rulers at the time impose such harsh penalties on the men they deposed?

Emine Gursoy Naskali, grand-daughter of the president who escaped the noose because of his age, believes the new military rulers were advised they had to find the deposed ministers guilty of serious crimes, to justify their coup.

It is also true that the military junta was split between moderate generals, and a more radical faction of younger colonels.

The radicals were eventually sidelined, but the death sentences may have been concessions to keep them quiet.

Nothing in Turkey, though, is without a political angle.

The Young Civilians are accused by some, like Ertugrul Kurkcu, of being little more than a front for the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), which for years has been fighting a barely-concealed battle to keep the military out of politics.

Adnan Menderes, with his populist policies and conservative Muslim support base, is an acknowledged inspiration for the current Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

"The thing about Turkish politics is that people have favourite coups," says Ceren Kenar.

She insists the Young Civilians oppose all coups.

So does Professor Soli Ozel at Bilgi University. But he warns against simplistic anti-coup campaigns by younger Turks.

"We need a revisionist history, and we now have enough material to assess the 1960 coup clearly," he says.

"My concern is that it is done only from one perspective.I do not approve of the coup itself. But going from that to say that Turkey in 1960 had a perfectly democratic order is wrong."

On Yassi Ada the activists made speeches in the hall, signed a poster and were gone after an hour, leaving the island and its old buildings with the sound of the wind and sea.

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

The government and opposition Maoist party are debating whether to prolong the life of the current parliament, whose term expires on Friday.

The parliament was elected in 2008, following 10 years of civil war.

A new constitution to replace the interim one must be agreed, but there has been disagreement over its details.

The government wants parliament to be given at least another six months to write the constitution.

The Maoists says before that can happen the prime minister must resign in favour of a national unity government led by them.

They also want their former fighters to be integrated into the national army, but there is no consensus over how this should be done.

The BBC's Joanna Jolly in Kathmandu says that although the three main parties have been deep in negotiations for several weeks, no side appears willing to make the compromises needed to agree a deal.

On Thursday, the President of Nepal called the party leaders into a meeting and told them to resolve their differences before parliament is dissolved or the country faces the prospect of presidential rule or even emergency rule.

Most of the MPs, including the Maoist party leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal also known as Prachanda, have arrived at the assembly hall to debate the government proposal to extend the assembly's term.

The proposal must be approved by two-thirds of the lawmakers but no single party has a majority in the assembly.

The Maoists, who ended their decade-old rebellion in 2006 and joined a peace process, are the largest party in parliament.

Both the assembly and Nepal's interim constitution will expire at midnight Friday.

Earlier this month, the Maoist party brought Nepal to a virtual standstill with a six-day strike in an attempt to force the government to resign.

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

Many on the Caribbean island attribute its propensity for drug-related violence to passenger traffic travelling the other way: from the US to Jamaica.

For a number of years, flights known as "Con Air" have taken off from American airports carrying convicted Jamaican criminals who have been deported to the land of their birth.

In 2007, a report by Jamaica's Ministry of National Security traced a tripling of the annual murder rate - from 542 in 1990 to 1,674 in 2005 - to these involuntary returnees.

And it is certainly true that the fractured relationship between Jamaica and the US - exacerbated by drugs and with the UK acting as the third point of a triangle - is one reason why Kingston is a dysfunctional city.

Tivoli Gardens, the stronghold of Christopher "Dudus" Coke, is a fiefdom of the Jamaica Labour Party.

Since it was built 40 years ago, replacing a wasteland of zinc squatter shacks with no sanitation, its denizens have voted JLP in overwhelming numbers: In the 1993 election, the party won 99% of votes in the area.

In Tivoli Gardens, there will be a sense of betrayal that one of its own so-called sons - Prime Minister Bruce Golding - has authorized Christopher Coke"s extradition

For a generation, political patronage flowed down from the JLP's charismatic leader, Edward Seaga, through local so-called dons who wielded more or less absolute power over their area.

One such don was Christopher Coke's father, Lester Lloyd Coke (aka Jim Brown), who was also the subject of an extradition request by the US in the early 1990s.

Lester Lloyd Coke was burned to death in a fire in a Kingston prison cell in 1992 before he could be extradited.

Only days earlier, another of his sons, with the grandiose name Mark Anthony (aka Jah T), was murdered in Kingston.

Shortly before his death, Mark Anthony Coke had been spotted in London's Brixton by undercover detectives monitoring a crack cocaine dealer.

Drugs - crack cocaine and marijuana - are the reason that the United States, and, to a lesser extent, the UK, have had an interest in the Coke dynasty for more than 20 years.

PM Edward Seaga, left, attended the funeral of Christopher Coke"s father

Lester Lloyd Coke helped create the Shower Possee, perhaps the most successful of the Jamaican crime groups to gain a toehold in the American narcotics market in the 1980s.

Many of its members originated from Tivoli Gardens and the JLP's other so-called garrison towns, such as Southside.

Christopher Coke is alleged by the US authorities to have carried on the family business by trafficking in drugs and firearms.

In Tivoli Gardens, there will undoubtedly be a sense of betrayal that one of its own so-called sons, the JLP Prime Minister Bruce Golding, has authorized Christopher Coke's extradition.

Admittedly, Mr Golding delayed his decision for eight months, which might explain the strength and organization of the resistance when the security forces moved in to seize Mr Coke.

Another explanation is the fear and hatred with which the police, in particular, are regarded in ghettoes like Tivoli.

Thousands of police have been involved in the Kingston operation

Although training by officers seconded from Scotland Yard has improved standards, the human rights record of the Jamaican constabulary is a grisly one.

UN reports and audits by Amnesty International have recorded extra-judicial killings - both inside and outside police stations - endemic corruption and other abuses.

Set against this, dons like Christopher Coke can guarantee a measure of protection, as well as jobs, housing and other services.

For them, the transaction is simple: They supply the votes to put either the JLP - or its rival, the PNP - into power and, in return, they expect to be shielded from the law.

I once asked Edward Seaga why he made a public show of support by attending the funeral of Lester Lloyd Coke, a man alleged to have committed many murders as well as running a drug empire.

"I look at the man in terms of how the community respects and treats him as a protector from their community," was his response.

And although in recent years, politicians have made some effort to disassociate themselves from the community dons, this philosophy still holds sway in Kingston, Jamaica.

Jon Silverman is the author of Crack of Doom, the first British book to explore Jamaican drugs crime.

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