US remembers Kennedy 50 years after assassination

The US has marked 50 years since President John F Kennedy was killed by an assassin's bullet in Dallas, Texas.

The city, which long struggled with the legacy of the assassination, hosted a series of official events.

Kennedy, who served less than three years, is often ranked among the nation's most revered presidents.

Just 46 when he died, he is praised for his youthful vigour, his leadership through the Cuban missile crisis and his vision to put a man on the Moon.

But he is also remembered for ordering one of the most disastrous episodes of the Cold War, the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of communist Cuba by a CIA-trained paramilitary force of Cuban exiles.

Kennedy's family members laid a wreath on his grave at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington DC on Friday. His wife Jackie and two of their children are also buried there.

President Barack Obama issued a proclamation for flags to be flown at half mast at the White House, US Capitol and other government buildings.

"Today, we honour his memory and celebrate his enduring imprint on American history," he said.

Among official events in Dallas on Friday, the city's symphony orchestra performed and bells tolled at the minute of Kennedy's death. Crowds thronged the ceremony at Dealey Plaza, where the president was shot.

"The man we remember today gave us a gift that will not be squandered: the chance to learn how to face the future when it's the darkest and most uncertain," Dallas Mayor Michael Rawlings said to a large crowd before a moment of silence was observed.

Historian and author David McCullough read several of Kennedy's most famous quotes, including: "We need men who can dream of things that never were, and ask, 'Why not?'"

Bells mark the moment exactly 50 years since the death of JFK

Elsewhere, wreaths were laid in the German capital Berlin where Kennedy gave his Cold War-era "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in June 1963.

Those events and others conclude a week of tributes to the slain American leader.

Kennedy, a Democrat, belonged to one of the 20th Century's most prominent American political dynasties.

Conspiracy theorists gather

On 22 November 1963, he and his wife travelled to Dallas for early campaigning ahead of the following year's election.

Crowds of supporters lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the couple. As the presidential motorcade entered Dealey Plaza at around 12:30 local time (18:30 GMT), Kennedy's convertible passed the Texas School Book Depository.

Gunshots rang out. Bullets struck the president in the head and neck. Half an hour later, Kennedy was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

He was the fourth US president assassinated while in office, but the first to have his death captured on film.

Soon after, Vice-President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president aboard Air Force One.

Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine Corps veteran and Soviet defector employed at the depository at the time, was arrested in connection with the shooting.

On 24 November 1963, he was scheduled to be transferred from police headquarters to a county jail when he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby, a local nightclub owner.

Official inquiries have determined Oswald alone was responsible for the assassination, but Kennedy's murder has provided endless fodder for conspiracy theorists.

Members of one such group demonstrated in Dealey Plaza on Friday, wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "50 years in denial is enough" and holding a sign that said "coup d'etat".

'Look of horror'

The events of that November plunged the nation into mourning, and many Americans still recall where they were when they heard the news.

Texan Daniel Kendrick, who as a teenager witnessed the shooting, told the BBC he had been preparing to approach the motorcade in the hope of shaking the president's hand when he witnessed Kennedy's shooting.

"I saw the look on Jackie Kennedy's face," he recalled. "She turned and looked straight at me with a look of horror on her face. That really freaked me out. I had to run."

Historian Robert Dallek said Kennedy's popularity endured in part because Americans have been so disappointed in his successors.

"People want a better life in this country," he said. "They want to think their children are going to do better. And they associate this with Kennedy's youth, his promise, possibility."

Horrors of India's brothels documented

British photojournalist Hazel Thompson has spent the last decade documenting the lives of girls trafficked into India's thriving sex industry. She spoke to Atish Patel about her experiences.

Guddi was only 11 years old when her family was persuaded by a neighbour to send her to the city of Mumbai hundreds of miles away from her poverty-stricken village in the eastern state of West Bengal.

They promised her a well-paid job as a housemaid to help feed her family.

Instead, she ended up at one of Asia's largest red light districts to become a sex worker.

Trafficked by her neighbour, she arrived at a brothel. She was raped by a customer and spent the next three months in hospital.

'Harrowing'

Guddi's sad and harrowing story is similar to many of the estimated 20,000 sex workers in Kamathipura, established over 150 years ago during colonial rule as one of Mumbai's "comfort zones" for British soldiers.

"They raped her to break her," said Ms Thompson.

Ms Thompson's journey into Kamathipura started in 2002 when she travelled there to photograph children born into the sex trade. The result is her new, interactive ebook, Taken.

Mumbai's oldest and largest red light district is a maze of around 14 dingy, cramped lanes overlooked by gleaming, new skyscrapers - symbols of India's recent economic prosperity that has lifted millions out of poverty.

But in Kamathipura, time seems to have stood still.

Throughout the 1800s, the British military established and maintained brothels for its troops to use across India.

The girls, many in their early teens from poor, rural Indian families, were recruited and paid directly by the military, which also set their prices.

By 1864, there were eight neighbourhoods in Mumbai which were home to more than 500 prostitutes. Almost 60 years later, there were only two, with Kamathipura being the largest.

"The system is continuing to be fed to this day," Ms Thompson said.

To protect the women from violent customers, police introduced bars to the windows and doors of brothels in the 1890s.

These "cages" still exist today and some women continue to work and live in the same brothels constructed by the British.

"Nothing has changed for 120 years. Nothing," Ms Thompson claimed.

Today the women charge up to 500 rupees ($8; £5) for sex and girls aged between 12 and 16 can earn up to 2,000 rupees($32; £20), she added.

Virgins in Kamathipura are auctioned to the highest bidder.

'Modern day slavery'

The 35-year-old photographer was able to gain access to this secret world after reaching out to Bombay Teen Challenge, a charity consisting of former sex workers and pimps who for more than 20 years have been rescuing and rehabilitating women working in Kamathipura.

Entering the brothels initially under the guise of an aid worker, she shot images discreetly from the back of vehicles, the roofs of buildings and under her scarf.

"The way I worked was I would go in and come out. I would spend a few days and attention would build up so I would leave," she said.

She felt constantly on edge every time she went into the district, reaching a tipping point in 2010 when she was manhandled by a gangster while she interacted with a prostitute.

"Along the journey there were many times I wanted to give up," she added.

Ms Thompson's ebook, which uses texts, images and videos to get a sense of what life is like in Kamathipura, also includes stories from women who managed to escape from a situation she describes as "modern-day slavery".

Lata, for example, was tricked and trafficked by her boyfriend at the age of 16, when she was drugged and taken to Mumbai from the southern state of Karnataka.

But years later, with the help of Bombay Teen Challenge, she was reunited with her family and now lives in a rehabilitation home run by the charity.

"In the 11 years I've been there, I've never met one woman who has chosen to be there. Every woman I've met has been trafficked or born there," Ms Thompson said.

"These girls who have been trafficked can't return to their families because of the stigma and [yet it is] often [they who] are responsible for them being in Kamathipura," she added.

The British photojournalist is also launching a campaign with the UK-based Jubilee Charity calling for India and other countries to criminalise the purchase of sex.

In April, the Indian government amended the law to broaden the types of crimes considered to be a trafficking offence and established harsher sentences for traffickers.

But enforcement of anti-trafficking laws remains a problem, as does official complicity, according to the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report 2013.

"Countries like Sweden and Norway have made the purchase of sexual services illegal and it has had a profound impact on demand, causing trafficking to also decrease significantly," Ms Thompson said.

"This change is desperately needed for Mumbai and all of India."

Iran nuclear talks: Hague bids to close 'narrow gaps'

The UK's foreign secretary has said "narrow gaps" remain between Iran and the six world powers meeting in Geneva to discuss Tehran's nuclear programme.

William Hague called for any deal to be thorough, after he arrived to negotiate alongside counterparts from the US, Russia, France, China and Germany.

The ministers hope to persuade Iran to stop enriching uranium in return for a loosening of sanctions.

But Iran insists it must be allowed to enrich uranium for power stations.

Tehran denies repeated claims by Western governments that it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

Some US politicians say they will push for more sanctions if the talks fail.

'Complicated and tough'

Negotiators have been working since Wednesday to try to find an agreement that is acceptable to both sides.

The talks had been scheduled to finish on Friday but were extended and foreign ministers joined on Saturday, amid hopes of a breakthrough.

US officials said Secretary of State John Kerry, who arrived in Geneva early on Saturday, had the goal of "continuing to help narrow the differences and move closer to an agreement".

Mr Kerry's participation in itself does not prove a deal is at hand, but it does show that the talks may have reached a critical stage, says the BBC's James Reynolds in Geneva.

The other ministers from the so-called P5+1 group of nations were also arriving on Saturday.

Mr Hague said that a deal would be done only if it was a "truly worthwhile agreement".

"There are narrow but important gaps, and it's very important that any agreement is thorough, detailed and it's an agreement in which the whole world can have confidence," he said.

EU foreign policy chief Baroness Catherine Ashton is leading the conference.

On Friday she briefly met Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif for a conversation that Iran's official Irna news agency described as "complicated and tough".

'Vigorous inspections'

The Geneva meeting follows a previous round of talks earlier this month.

On that occasion, too, foreign ministers flew to Geneva to conclude the negotiations, but they went home empty-handed.

The fate of Iran's heavy-water plant at Arak is one of the issues to be resolved

Analysts say a major sticking point is Iran's insistence on its right to enrich uranium - a process that yields material used to manufacture fuel for power stations, but can also be used in weapons.

Western diplomats are also concerned about a reactor Iran is building at Arak - an issue which disrupted the first round of talks.

US President Barack Obama has said any interim agreement would see the bulk of international and US sanctions remain, but that Iran would get sanctions relief worth between $6bn and $7bn.

The essence of the deal would involve Iran making no more advances in its nuclear programme and agreeing to "more vigorous inspections", he said.

Regional powers - notably Israel and Saudi Arabia - have been increasingly concerned at the prospect of an agreement with Iran.

Saudia Arabia has expressed disquiet at Washington's readiness to negotiate with Tehran.

"Appeasement hasn't worked in the past, and I don't think it will work in the 21st Century," the Saudi Ambassador to London, Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf bin Abdulaziz, said in an interview with Saturday's Times.

There have been persistent reports that Saudi Arabia is in a position to obtain nuclear weapons from Pakistan should Iran develop the bomb.

Pakistan has described such reports as "baseless" while Saudi Arabia points out that it is a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and wants a nuclear-free Middle East.

However, Prince Mohammed told the Times: "We are not going to sit idly by and receive a threat there and not think seriously how we can best defend our country and our region."