Israel’s forgotten tribe

Contrary to popular belief, the Holy Land is not just home to two peoples – Israelis and Palestinians – but a diverse mix of cultures. Minority groups in Israel include the A-B-C-D-E of Arabs, Bedouins, Copts, Druze and Ethiopians. Although most visitors may know something of Bedouins, the delights of the Druze tribe are a well-kept secret.

• Related article: Kick back on an Israel kibbutz

Located in the northern Carmel, Galilee and Golan Heights regions, Druze villages, such as Daliyat al-Karmel, Isfiya and Majdal Shams, are usually set high on a hillside with outstanding views of the valleys below. All over these areas, Druze women can be found by the roadside selling freshly baked pita breads, olives and labaneh, a smooth yoghurt-type cheese, to passersby. But who are the Druze?

A peaceful people
Widely regarded as a friendly community that lives in peace with Israel and its neighbours, the Druze people are an often-overlooked religious Arab minority (82.6% of Arabs in Israel are Sunni Muslim, 9% are Druze and 9% are Christian Arabs). Worldwide, there are around one million Druze living mainly in Syria and Lebanon, with 104,000 in Israel. Although they speak Arabic, the Druze are not Muslim, but call themselvesmuwahhidun (monotheists).

The Druze religion was born in the 10th Century in Egypt, during the reign of al-Hakim, leader of the Fatimid Caliphate dynasty, who believed he was the earthly incarnation of God. The Druze sect became his followers, splitting from the Shi'ites, and fled to remote mountainous areas of Lebanon, Syria and what is now Israel to escape persecution.

Blending Islamic, Hindu and Greek philosophy, the Druze believe in reincarnation and share prophets with Judaism, Christianity and Islam, including Moses, Jesus and Mohammed. They have their own flag, the Druze Star, with each of the five colours representing a prophet.

There are a number of Druze holy sites in Israel that are open to visitors. The most important is Nebi Shu'eib, the grave of Jethro, said to be the father-in-law of Moses and who the Druze believe to be the founder of monotheism. This large mosque-like dome and courtyard was built on a site known as the “Horns of Hittin” overlooking Lake Galilee, where in 1187 Saladin, the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, defeated the Crusaders.

The second-most important Druze site is Sabalan's Tomb, located above the village of Hurfeish, inland from the coastal town of Nahariya. The mausoleum, with its mountain views, marks the burial place of the Druze prophet Zebulum, who preached the religion in the 11th Century.

About 20km further south in the Arab village of Kfar Yasif is Nabi al-Khadr, meaning both Elijah's Tomb and “green” in Arabic, which has a pleasant picnic area surrounded by weeping fig trees. As in Judaism, Elijah is one of the major Druze prophets and his tomb is housed in a small building with an arched chamber, where the walls are adorned with pictures of Kings David and Solomon.

Central Carmel
But the centre of the Druze universe is Daliyat al-Karmel, Israel’s largest and most southern Druze town, founded some 400 years ago. Set on Mount Carmel, southeast of Haifa, Daliyat is today a sprawling all-day market with its main street lined with shops selling darbuka drums, sheesha pipes, pottery, jewellery, artwork and its fair share of psychedelic clothes.   

On the north side of the main street is the Druze Heritage Centre, a small and free museum that exhibits traditional Druze artefacts, weapons and lots of photos of men with moustaches.

Further down the street is Beit Oliphant (also called Beit Druze), the former house of Sir Lawrence Oliphant, a British Christian author who made friends with the Druze and moved here in 1882. Today his house is used as a military memorial dedicated to Druze residents who served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Traditionally, Druze men are proud of their military service, but there are signs that this attitude is changing.

"I served in the IDF," said Aehab Asad, 33, a local Druze from Daliyat. "In my opinion, although Israel is a good place for us, I don’t think Druzim get enough respect or benefit from going to the army." He added that many of his Druze friends are low-paid landscaping or construction workers and find it hard to progress in Israeli society.

One notable exception, though, is Naim Araidi, a Druze professor who was appointed Israel's ambassador to Norway last year. "The Druze community is a great community," said Araidi upon his appointment. "I have not seen another sector, including some Jewish citizens of Israel, whose loyalty is so strong."

Indeed, history has shown that the Druze are a faithful and welcoming people. "I'm biased because I'm Druze," said Asad. "But I think that no-one else offers hospitality and respect to guests like the Druzim. We just love people."

For a taste of this famed hospitality, travellers should head to Isfiya, Daliyat's neighbouring village, where the Nations & Flavours group can arrange for you to join a traditional Druze family meal. Much of Druze food comes from locally-grown herbs and plants; specialties include vine leafs stuffed with rice, pita breads cooked in a taboon oven sprinkled withzaatar (made from hyssop herb), mansala (cooked eggplant with chickpeas and tomato sauce) and kababi (kebabs served with tahini and salad). The Druze are also known for their distinctively large-but-flat pita breads.

Stay at the El-Manzul Druze Lodging in Isfiya, a huge house where guests can enjoy a Jacuzzi, massages and a traditional Druze breakfast oflabneh, pita bread, olives and a variety of small salads. Just out of town is the Muhraka Monastery – a stunning Catholic church built on the highest peak of Mount Carmel, and an excellent vantage point over the Mediterranean coast to the west and the sweeping grassy plains of the Jezreel valley to the east.

From a great height
Further north in the Upper Galilee region, Druze villages can be found scattered on hilltops spreading all the way up to the Syrian border. One of the biggest is Beit Jann, on the peak of Mount Meron. Here, from the highest point in Israel (940m above sea level), it is possible to see the whole of the Galilee, Lebanon and Syria. The aptly-named Touch the Skyis a deluxe Druze hotel and restaurant pitched on the mountainside, run by the Abu Haya family, that offers guided tours of the Druze holy sites

About 12km west is the tiny Druze village of Yanuah, where the Sa'ad Family has been running their Druze-style guest house for nearly 50 years. Yanuah, mentioned in the Bible as Janoah, has been inhabited since the Bronze Age and the town is built on the remains of Byzantine and Crusader settlements. Travellers to the village can visit an old olive press, sample the local bakeries and explore some ancient biblical-era caves.

At the northern tip of Israel, not far from the troubled Syrian border, is the village of Majdal Shams. Despite the current turmoil in Syria, nearly 9,000 Druze people live in this peaceful retreat set among apple and cherry orchards. It is also a stone's throw away from Mount Hermon, which due to its altitude turns into a surreal Middle Eastern snow-covered ski resort in winter.

Nearby, Nimrod’s Fortress, an old Arab castle dating from 1229, has an end-of-the-world feel. Although it was not built by the Druze, shepherds from the tribe were the keepers of the fortress and the first to call it Qal'at Namrud, after the Biblical hunter Nimrod. Dubbed “the most exquisite ruins in the world” by Mark Twain, the fortress looks out across the Northern Golan Heights towards the road to Damascus. Over there, the Druze in Syria face an altogether more dangerous reality.

A visit to Guantanamo's secretive Camp 7

al-Baluchi (rear row, in white turban) and Connell confer at a pre-trial hearing

The suspects in the September 2001 attacks on the US are being kept in a mysterious jail at Guantanamo Bay. The BBC's Tara McKelvey spoke to the first lawyer to visit a prisoner there.

James Connell, a defence lawyer for Ammar al-Baluchi, a detainee who has been charged with co-ordinating the September 2001 attacks, rode in a military vehicle with darkened windows in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, last week.

He was taken to a secretive place, Camp 7, a facility where Mr Baluchi and other men who have been accused of the terrorist attacks, are held. Many of these detainees had been previously held, and interrogated, by people who work for the Central Intelligence Agency.

The tribunal system at Guantanamo is notoriously guarded, and its current prison, Camp 7, is in some ways a symbol of a legal system that is blocked off from the world, literally and metaphorically.

Journalists are not allowed to visit Camp 7, which opened in 2006. Only a few outsiders are permitted to enter, and the facility remains shrouded in mystery.

By most any measure, Camp 7 sounds intimidating.

In February 2009, US Adm Patrick Walsh, now-retired vice-chief of naval operations, said Camp 7 was similar to a "super-max" prison.

Mr Connell is the first lawyer to visit his client there.

He says what he saw was disturbing, so much so that he plans to file a pre-trial motion about the conditions of Mr Baluchi's confinement.

'Open as possible'

Photos at Guantanamo are reviewed by the US military before publication

At the same time, the fact that Mr Connell was allowed to visit Camp 7 shows that things at Guantanamo are not entirely hidden from the outside world.

Brig Gen Mark Martins, the chief prosecutor of the tribunals, says that he is trying to increase the level of information that people have about the legal proceedings against Mr Baluchi and the other men.

"The process that we're dealing with here is going to be as open as possible," Gen Martins says.

At some point, Mr Connell and Gen Martins will both try to convince the military judge, Col James Pohl, of the merits of their arguments on one of the most important issues at Guantanamo: the trial of Mr Baluchi and the other al-Qaeda leaders.

Mr Baluchi, 35, also known as Abd al-Aziz Ali, is the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind behind the September 2001 attacks.

According to Joint Task Force Guantanamo documents dated December 2006, Mr Baluchi was one of the planners of the terrorist attacks.

Mr Baluchi continued to plan terrorist attacks up to the day he was captured in Karachi, Pakistan, in April 2003, the documents say.

During the raid, Pakistani officials seized 330lb (150kg) of explosives and bomb-making materials.

Mr Baluchi and Mr Mohammed, as well as the other accused men, Ramzi Binalshibh, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, have pleaded not guilty.

Gen Martins, 53, will say that Mr Baluchi and the other men should be put to death. Mr Connell will defend Mr Baluchi.

'He's funny'

At this point, however, the trial is an abstraction. The lawyers are now consumed not with questions of justice, but with procedural issues including questions regarding security clearances, during a week-long pre-trial hearing.

They also disagree about scheduling. Gen Martins says that the trial should start in September 2014.

When Mr Connell hears that date, he is standing in an old aeroplane hangar, a dusty place has been turned into a media centre. He laughs loudly, as if he were an actor on stage.

The lawyers held duelling press conferences early in the week.

Gen Martins's conference was indoors and air-conditioned. Mr Connell spoke outside the room, near a plastic picnic table - and sweated.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

This was the first time that I had ever seen him in the closest thing he has to a home”

James ConnellLawyer for Ahmed al-Baluchi

The trial, whenever it starts, may go on for years. In the meantime one thing is clear: Mr Connell and Gen Martins are equally determined to get the upper hand, both in the military courtroom and in the court of public opinion. They are well prepared.

Gen Martins, who has dark hair flecked with grey and a crooked nose, says he has been reading "a lot of court papers", as well as John Fabian Witt's Lincoln's Code: The Laws of War in American History.

The general studied economics and political philosophy while a Rhodes scholar at Oxford. ("I have a real soft spot for England," he says.)

A bald, barrel-chested 42-year-old with pale-blue eyes, Mr Connell studied law at the College of William and Mary in Virginia.

Years ago he defended John Allen Muhammad, the Washington sniper who, along with an accomplice, killed 10 people in 2002. Mr Connell was at the Virginia state prison when he was executed in 2009.

His current client, Mr Baluchi, is also difficult. "He is not very popular," Mr Connell says.

Inside the courtroom in Guantanamo, Mr Baluchi, who has long eyelashes and thick eyebrows, wears white clothes and black trainers with cotton socks. He strokes his beard and he seems in good spirits.

At one point, an alarm in the courtroom goes off, and the judge tells everyone to turn off their cell phones. Mr Baluchi pats his chest and hips, as if looking for his phone.

"He's funny," says Mr Connell. The idea that the detainee, held under super-max conditions at Camp 7, would have managed to bring in a phone is absurd.

"He takes the proceedings seriously, but he sees the light moments as well," says Mr Connell.

9/11 families

The accused 9/11 plotters will be tried in a courtroom at the base

Mr Baluchi sits with the other accused men in a row on the side of the courtroom. In the back of the room, behind a thick pane of glass, people who lost family members in the September 2001 attacks watch the proceedings.

Two people - a dark-haired woman wearing a double strand of pearls and a black dress, and her friend, wearing a khaki skirt and a white blouse - are visiting Guantanamo for the first time.

Convincing people in the courtroom - and in other places, too - that Mr Baluchi deserves a fair trial is one of the hardest parts of Mr Connell's job.

The lawyer went to see Mr Baluchi at Camp 7 with two experts, a "forensics guy" and a medical professional.

"This was the first time that I had ever seen him in the closest thing he has to a home," he says.

"It reminded me that he's a real person with a real home and a real family - and deserves to be treated like a human being."

Mr Connell spent 12 hours at the facility. The cells are air-conditioned, he says, but beyond that he can reveal almost nothing about the place.

Still, as he explains, "we documented everything that we could".

He and his colleagues have submitted notes, along with photographs and diagrams, "for classification review".

Mr Connell hopes to use the documents to convince the judge that Mr Baluchi has been treated poorly and deserves a lighter sentence. There is precedent for this kind of decision in a military court.

Pte First Class Bradley Manning, the soldier who leaked classified material, was given a 112-day credit on his sentence because a military judge determined his treatment in a military jail had been unlawful. His final sentence has not been set.

Gen Martins, however, sees the situation differently. He says that conditions at Camp 7 are decent.

"We take very seriously humane standards," he says. "We believe that we are complying with the Geneva Conventions."

So do other defence department officials.

"The US Government takes very seriously its obligation to provide humane care and custody of detainees, consistent with the Geneva Conventions. Defence counsel have an obligation to zealously defend their clients," said Lt Col Todd Breasseale, a Pentagon spokesman, in a written statement.

Mr Connell is planning to file a motion on behalf of his client in the next several weeks. At that point the question of how Mr Baluchi is being treated, as well as what should be kept secret at Guantanamo, and what should be revealed, is likely to be raised.

And the two sides will have another chance to argue.

Egypt crisis: How regional players are responding

Cairo has been the scene of many bloody clashes in recent weeks

While the West is ambivalent about the crisis in Egypt - critical of the Egyptian generals, but reluctant to cut ties with them - some of its key allies in the Middle East suffer no such inhibitions.

Sensing a policy vacuum left by the West, they are rushing to fill it.

Saudi Arabia in particular is positioning itself as the main supporter of the military-backed regime in Cairo. In a calculated snub to Washington, the Saudi princes have declared that if the Americans cut aid, they will increase it.

This comes hard on the heels of the $12bn (£7.5bn) they pledged - with two of their Gulf allies, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates - in the immediate aftermath of the coup which overthrew President Mohammed Morsi in July.

Where the West sees a dilemma, the Saudis see an opportunity - a chance to weaken and even destroy their regional enemy, the Muslim Brotherhood.

From fear to paranoia

The situation is not without irony.

For decades Saudi Arabia used its petrodollar wealth to fund the Brotherhood and other Islamist movements around the world. But in recent years Saudi rulers have increasingly seen Islamism as a threat to themselves and their friends.

This fear turned to paranoia when one of their key allies, Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, was overthrown in 2011.

In Saudi eyes, the Obama administration had not just ditched a loyal friend, it had delivered Egypt into the clutches of the Islamists.

The nightmare of many Saudis and other Gulf Arabs was that, having conquered much of North Africa, Islamism would take over their countries, too.

As conspiracy theories go, it is scarcely persuasive.

But it helps explain the lavishness of Saudi Arabia's chequebook diplomacy - and the motives behind the arrest of dozens of Islamists in the UAE, for allegedly plotting to subvert the state.

Bucking the trend

Two regional states have taken the opposite tack. Since the start of the Arab Spring, Turkey and Qatar have backed Islamist movements in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere.

For them, the unseating of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt was a shock and a setback. A foreign policy that had looked smart only a year ago now looks distinctly risky.

They are left as cheerleaders for a movement that is bruised and defensive.

Similarly, for the Islamists who lead the government in Tunis, the toppling of President Morsi was nothing short of a disaster. They have lost a key ally, at a time when the political consensus in their own country is under great strain.

Israel's priority is a regime which will put pressure on Hamas - so it favours the army generals rather than Mohammed Morsi

Meanwhile, if the Egyptian generals can count on the oil-rich Arabs, they enjoy support of a different kind - and for rather different reasons - from Israel.

The Israelis look at Egypt through the narrow prism of their security concerns. In a volatile region, they want a regime in Cairo that will put the maximum pressure on Hamas, the Islamist group governing Gaza - and that will uphold Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.

They are accordingly far more comfortable with a regime dominated by the generals than one led by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Revealingly, when a Republican senator in Washington called for US military aid to Egypt to be cut off in response to the coup, the pro-Israel lobby swung into action to contradict him.

A price to be paid

None of this means the Egyptian generals are sitting pretty.

Gulf petrodollars may help them keep the stricken Egyptian economy afloat, but will do nothing to solve its underlying problems. Indeed economists fear Gulf aid will merely be used to avoid tough decisions about much-needed economic reform.

Moreover if the generals heed the advice of their Gulf friends and choose stability over democracy - regardless of the cost in lives - there will be a price to be paid.

If they continue to treat their Western allies with disdain bordering on contempt, they will risk international isolation - and jeopardise continuing aid and economic co-operation.

What may concern them more is that if the violence continues and there is no meaningful political process - two developments many experts predict - they may begin to lose the support of the Egyptian people.

That support has hitherto been remarkably strong. But if the coup turns out to be the harbinger of counter-revolution - the crushing of all the hopes engendered in the heady days of February 2011 - the anger on the street may acquire a new focus.

Gary Anderson: How to handle the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa

Formula 1 gets back to business after its summer break this weekend and the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps could hardly be a better place to do so.

Everyone thinks very highly of Spa - it is one of the world's great circuits, and a huge test for both the drivers and the engineers.

Spa-Francorchamps with its challenging 180mph curves and undulating Eau Rouge.

The greatest part of that test used to be the daunting 180mph-plus left-right-left swerves, dip and rise through Eau Rouge.

In the past, taking those corners flat-out was every racing driver's challenge - and the same went for the engineers, trying to set the car up to enable it to do so.

These days, Eau Rouge is not as difficult as it used to be. It's what they call "easy flat" for everyone on a qualifying lap. Although the high speeds involved and the extreme gradients mean it is still very challenging.

The track layout there has not changed, but the safety facilities and the capabilities of the cars have.

The extra run-off area means that, mentally, the drivers do not feel as constricted, and the cars now have greater downforce through there which is also more stable than it used to be.

In the past, the diffusers would stall in the compression at the bottom of the hill, robbing the car of downforce. Then, as the car went light over the crest in the final part of the corner - which is known as Raidillon - they would lose some again.

Now, with the advances in aerodynamic development, the cars hang on to their downforce much better in both those critical areas.

COMPROMISE IS THE KEY

Spa is split into three distinct sections as a circuit, and it is difficult to decide on the best set-up compromise.

The first part of the track from the start-finish line, through Eau Rouge and up the long straight to the chicane at Les Combes, and the final part - the long flat-out section through Blanchimont and back to the pit straight - both require reasonably low downforce, to ensure speed on the straight is not compromised too much.

By contrast, the middle sector, through all the demanding medium and high-speed corners from Les Combes to Stavelot, requires reasonably high downforce.

The key is finding the right compromise - and deciding whether to lean more one way or the other.

Belgium Grand Prix facts

• Venue: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
• Circuit length: 7.004 km (4.3 miles)
• Laps: 44
• First Grand Prix: 1925
• Race distance: 308.052 km (191 miles)
• Most wins (drivers): Michael Schumacher (6)
• Most wins (constructors): Ferrari (16)

These days, because of the way races have developed with Pirelli tyres, you need to overtake. Even if you qualify on pole, you're very unlikely to be able to stay at the front all the time. So a team are likely to veer towards the low-downforce approach.

The middle sector is now the most demanding part of the track. The corners are all pretty fast and the car needs a very good balance to ensure it does not damage the tyres.

The double-left known as Pouhon is particularly tricky - it's 150mph or so, and you're in it for a long, long time. If the car is not set up just right, it can destroy the tyres very quickly indeed.

And the rest of of the corners through that part of the track, while not as fast as Pouhon, are all long and put a lot of strain on the tyres.

So if you have a car that is quick in a straight line but sliding around too much in that sector, you will eat up the tyres.

All this makes Spa one of the most demanding tracks to get the car set up right for the compromise between one-off lap time and making the tyres stay alive on Sunday.

RED BULL VULNERABILITY

Red Bull head to Spa leading both the constructors' championship and the drivers' with Sebastian Vettel.

They have in the last few years always tended to set their car up for optimum lap time, rather than worrying too much about straight-line speed, and tried to control the races from the front after Vettel qualified on pole.

World championship standings

1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 172 points

2. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 134

3. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 133

4. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 124

5. Mark Webber Red Bull 105

It has worked very well, but it is a risk, especially when more cars are competitive.

In the past, particularly in 2011, they had a big speed advantage and were able to quickly build the advantage they needed in races.

That has not always been the case this year. They have not got as far away before the first stops and they can drop into awkward traffic - and a good example was in Hungary last time out, when Vettel's chances of victory evaporated when he got stuck behind Jenson Button's McLaren.

That will make for difficult decisions at Red Bull this weekend, given the qualifying performance of the Mercedes, which has been on pole for six of the last seven races.

WATCH OUT FOR MERCEDES

I think there is still more to come from Mercedes in terms of absolute pace.

They have been worried by their over-use of the rear tyres, but Lewis Hamilton had a good win in Hungary in demanding conditions and the break will have given them a chance to take stock of that.

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Hungarian Grand Prix highlights

From worrying about the tyres, they can concentrate more now on making the car faster. So I think they will be moving forward and competing for wins at most of the races from now on.

Red Bull have done a very good job this season, but from the numbers I work out they are not making the dramatic steps forward in performance they used to.

They have a good car and they are doing a very competent job each weekend and have been benefiting from other teams tripping up, whether it be Mercedes with the tyres, Ferrari slipping back or Lotus not quite being there on absolute pace.

Ferrari needed to spend the break having a real think about the way they are approaching their racing.

They have gone backwards and they need to work out why. I think they are guilty of being too cautious and not making decisions with the car, as I discussed after the last race.

If you don't make decisions, you don't make mistakes, but you don't give yourself the chance to make the right choice and move forwards either.

Sometimes you just have to stand up and make a decision and suffer the consequences if it goes wrong. But the Ferrari guys are clever enough not to be going wrong.

TYRE CONCERNS

I suspect the Pirelli engineers will be heading to Spa with a few concerns in their minds about the tyres.

This is only the second race since the company introduced a new construction of tyre aimed at preventing the multiple failures experienced at the British Grand Prix - and they did so with Spa and the Japanese GP at Suzuka in mind.

• Guide to the tyres in Formula 1

Those are the two tracks that make most demands on the tyres - and Eau Rouge is particularly tough.

In the compression at the bottom of the hill, on top of the aero load, which is already very high because the car is going so fast, there is about 1G of extra load acting vertically on the car - that is the car compresses by its own weight again.

That's another 640-800kg of force into the tyres depending on the fuel load, which puts a lot of extra strain on the shoulder of the tyre - where the sidewall meets the tread.

So Pirelli will be recommending quite high minimum tyre pressures to ensure that stress on the tyres is kept under control.

Syria conflict: 'Chemical attacks' kill hundreds

Footage of injured people being taken to makeshift hospitals appeared online

Chemical weapons attacks have killed hundreds on the outskirts of Damascus, Syrian opposition activists say.

Rockets with toxic agents were launched at the suburbs of the Ghouta region early on Wednesday as part of a major bombardment on rebel forces, they say.

State-run news agency Sana said the claims were "baseless" and an attempt to distract UN weapons inspectors.

The main opposition alliance said that more than 650 people had been killed by the attacks.

Activist networks also reported death tolls in the hundreds, but these could not be independently confirmed.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague and French President Francois Hollande called for UN inspectors to be allowed access to the area and said Britain and France would raise the issue at the UN.

If confirmed, the attacks would mark a "shocking escalation in the use of chemical weapons in Syria", Mr Hague said.

The Arab League echoed the call for the inspectors to go to the site.

The attack took place as part of a heavy government bombardment of the region surrounding Damascus, where government forces have been trying to drive out rebel forces.

Casualties were reported in the areas of Irbin, Duma and Muadhamiya among others, activists said.

Footage uploaded to YouTube from the scene by activists shows many people being treated in makeshift hospitals.

The videos show victims, including many children, having convulsions. Others are apparently immobile and have difficulty breathing.

The BBC has not been able to authenticate the footage fully, but based on additional checks made, it is believed to be genuine.

"Many of the casualties are women and children. They arrived with their pupils dilated, cold limbs and foam in their mouths," a nurse at a Duma medical facility, Bayan Baker, told Reuters.

The number of casualties is much higher than in previous allegations of chemical weapons attacks.

The Sana news agency said the reports of the attack were "baseless", quoting a "media source".

The reports were "an attempt to divert the UN chemical weapons investigation commission away from carrying out its duties", Sana said.

The head of the inspection mission, Ake Sellstrom, said he had seen TV footage of the latest attack but nothing more.

"It sounds like something that should be looked into," Mr Sellstrom told the Swedish TT news agency.

Mr Sellstrom said that whether his team went to the scene would depend on whether any UN member state went to the UN Secretary General and asked them to.

The inspectors arrived on Sunday and are due to investigate three other locations, including the northern town of Khan al-Assal, where some 26 people were killed in March.

'Horrific' footage

The latest incident throws up more questions than answers, the BBC's Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen reports.

Many will ask why the government would want to use such weapons at a time when inspectors are in the country and the military has been doing well militarily in the area around Damascus, he says.

Some will suspect that the footage has been fabricated, but the videos that have been emerged would be difficult to fake, he adds.

The attack is the most serious alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria so far

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commanding officer at the UK's Joint Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear Regiment, told the BBC's Today programme that the footage was "horrific" and agreed that it would be "very difficult to stage-manage".

If the UN inspectors were able to get to the scene, they should have the equipment to identify the chemical that had been used, if any, Mr de Bretton-Gordon said.

Residue from any agent used should be detectable at the scene for a period of two to three days or possibly a week, he said.

Both the rebels and government forces have accused each other of using chemical weapons during the conflict.

It is not possible to independently verify the claims.

In July 2012, the Syrian government implicitly admitted what had long been suspected by experts in the field of chemical weapons proliferation - that Syria had stocks of chemical weapons.

Experts believe it has large undeclared stockpiles of mustard gas and sarin nerve agent.

Damascus said the weapons, stored and secured by the armed forces, would never be used "inside Syria", but could be used against an external attack.

Chemical weapons
	Sarin - nerve agent	Mustard gas - blistering agent
SOURCE: CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC)
Appearance/smell	Odourless, tasteless, colourless	Colourless and sometimes odourless. Claimed to have smell similar to rotten onions, garlic or mustard
Form	Liquid form, vaporises (gas) quickly and spreads	Liquid at room temperature, but is more commonly used in its gas form
Absorption	Contact with skin or inhalation or can be ingested in food or water	Contact with skin or inhalation
Speed of impact	Symptoms appear within seconds after exposure to vapour form and up to 18 hours after exposure to liquid form	No immediate symptoms upon contact; takes two - 24 hours for victim to become aware
Effects	Sarin attacks the nervous system. Inhalation can cause death within 1 - 10 minutes of exposure	Mustard gas is a blistering agent, burning eyes and skin exposed to it and lungs, mouth and throat if it is inhaled. It is not normally lethal, but can cause cancer and serious disfigurement
Symptoms	Mild exposures can result in eye irritation, runny nose, blurred vision, drooling, a cough, chest tightness, diarrhoea, confusion, drowsiness and nausea. Serious exposure can kill in minutes without treatment. Symptoms include respiratory failure, loss of consciousness and paralysis	Conjunctivitis, skin burns, throat pain, cough and susceptibility to infection and pneumonia
Treatment	Antidotes atropine and physostigmine but must be administered immediately	There is no treatment or antidote to treat mustard agent injuries. The agent must be removed entirely from the body

Sight dominates sound in music competition judging

A passionate performance is thought to be key to how artists are judged

Winning a classical music competition is not just down to the performer's musical prowess, a new study suggests.

An artist's stage presence could be even more important when it comes to evaluating a recital.

The research, published in the PNAS journal, found that people shown silent videos of piano competitions could pick out the winners more often than those who could also hear the music.

It underlines the dominance of our sense of vision, say scientists.

Their study concludes that the best predictor of a winner's musical performance was the visible passion they displayed, followed closely by their uniqueness and creativity.

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Regardless of levels of expertise, we still seem to be led primarily by visual information, even in this domain of music”

Dr Chia-Jung TsayUniversity College London

Chia-Jung Tsay, from University College London, UK, is the study's author and herself a concert pianist. She was interested in how music was judged and found that even professional musicians were unaware of how much they were using visual information over sound.

Can you judge the competition winner from three silent clips alone?

"I realised that depending on whether audio or video recordings had to be submitted, there could be very different outcomes. This led me to wonder about how much visual information really impacts these important decisions," she explained.

More than 1,000 participants in the study were given samples of either audio, silent video or video with sound, and asked to rate the top three finalists from 10 international classical music competitions.

The actual competition winners were only correctly identified by those who were randomly assigned the silent videos.

When the volunteers viewed video with sound, the accuracy dropped back to chance levels that were found with sound alone.

Dr Tsay said the findings were quite surprising, especially because both trained musicians and those without training had stated that sound was most important for their evaluation.

The study looked at subtle judgements that distinguished between highly skilled performers

"Regardless of levels of expertise, we still seem to be led primarily by visual information, even in this domain of music," she said.

"Classical music training is often focused on improving the quality of the sound, but this research is about getting to the bottom of what is really being evaluated at the highest levels of competitive performance.

"We must be more mindful of our inclination to depend on visual information at the expense of the content that we actually value as more relevant to our decisions."

She added that the findings had implications for other areas in life that rely heavily on visual cues, such as hiring employees or selecting political leaders.

Bright lights

Alexandra Lamont of Keele University, UK, a music psychologist, commented on the research.

She said the study supported previous findings that music listeners were often influenced by what they saw during live performances by highly skilled pianists.

She added: "Music performance is far more than just sound, and the visual aspects often enhance the quality of the experience, whether this be watching an energetic young virtuoso on stage at the Menuhin Competition or being dazzled by a light display during a DJ set at Glastonbury.

"Interestingly, participants felt that sound would be the most influential factor in making decisions about performers, so this suggests that we use the dominant cue in making judgements even when it isn't very helpful."

She added that it was reassuring that gender and ethnicity had no effect on judgements, "so it really is all about how the performers played".