China Ready To Usher In Year Of The Snake

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent

China is preparing to usher in the Year of the Snake as 1.3 billion people celebrate the Lunar New Year.

In cities, towns and villages across this vast country, one fifth of the world's population is marking the close of the Year of the Dragon and the dawn of a new year.

Beijing's Temple of the Earth Park has been transformed into a sea of red lanterns. Crowds are gathered around traditional dance performances.

Hundreds of stalls sell food, drinks, toys, souvenirs and snake-themed items of an apparently infinite variety.

Police officers march as part of a re-enactment of an ancient ceremony

Food and family are the two dominant themes for Chinese New Year.

In the park we met An Ying and her parents. She lives in Beijing but is originally from Inner Mongolia.

Her parents have travelled to Beijing to be with her; a break with tradition which usually dictates that younger generations travel back to their family home.

"I will celebrate with my family here in Beijing and we will gather to watch the gala on television," she told me.

The New Year gala is a long-standing institution in China. Broadcast live on state television it is a celebration of the year with performances from comedians, singers and musicians.

This year Celine Deon will become the first non-Chinese person to perform at the gala.

All around the park are families absorbing the atmosphere, the colour and the sounds in the frozen temperatures.

A woman and a child pose for photo next to a snake sculpture

Some are carrying inflatable or stuffed toy snakes and the more superstitious will be wondering what the coming year will bring. There is significantly less affection for the snake than there was for last year's rather more auspicious dragon.

Fearful that the Year of the Snake might bring with it all that the slithering reptile represents, there has been a rush of weddings and attempts at carefully planned births to ensure they fell within the last year and not the coming one.

In an attempt to overcome people's suspicions, the toy snakes produced for the new year all seem to sport unusually happy or smiley faces.

The less superstitious insist that the snake does have its value. Some refer to the snake as the little dragon. It is said that children born in the year of the snake will be rational, organised and intelligent.

As dusk falls on Chinese New Years Eve, the tradition is to gather at the family home and watch the gala before eating a meal together at midnight.

For a country that has changed beyond recognition over the past three decades, the desire to stick to tradition is still remarkably strong though there are increasing signs of strains every year.

As the Chinese middle class grows with more money to spend, many are opting to travel abroad for the break rather than to spend it with families.

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Dozens Hurt In Street Clashes Across Egypt

Protesters have marched in the streets chanting slogans against Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in cities across Egypt.

A few hundred people attacked the presidential palace in Cairo with petrol bombs and rocks.

Riot police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters, many of whom had to be taken to hospital after suffering from suffocation.

In Alexandria, Egypt's second city, dozens of protesters threw stones at police.

Earlier on Friday, a few thousand people marched around the city. The clashes took place in front of one of the city's main police stations.

Anti-regime protesters set fire to the presidential palace in Cairo

At least 45 people were hurt during the day across the country, medical sources at the health ministry said.

Two officers and three soldiers of the Republic Guard were wounded in clashes, the state news agency MENA reported.

Protests erupted last month over what demonstrators saw as Mr Morsi's attempts to monopolise power as well as wider political and economic grievances.

The main opposition alliance signed an agreement with the ruling Muslim Brotherhood last week rejecting violence and had not officially called for marches on Friday.

But distrust of Mr Morsi and of the Muslim Brotherhood - as well as a sense of political and economic malaise - continue to bring people into the streets across Egypt, however the number of protests has declined in recent weeks.

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Indian Militant Afzal Guru Hanged In New Delhi

By Neville Lazarus, Sky Producer in New Delhi

Afzal Guru, a conspirator in the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament, has been hanged in New Delhi.

The Home Minister of India said Guru was hanged at 8am local time at New Delhi's Tihar jail.

In December 2001, five armed terrorists drove into the Indian Parliament complex and opened fire.

Nine people were killed, most of them members of the security forces. All the terrorists were shot dead.

The Indian Government initially accused the Pakistan-based terrorist organisations Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) of being involved in the attack. 

In December 2002, four JeM members were caught by Indian authorities and put on trial. All four, including Afzal Guru, were found guilty of playing varying roles in the incident.

The attack brought the two nuclear power countries close to war.

A placard of Afzal Guru is held during a protest in India in December 2011

The Indian government asked Pakistan to apprehend the organisations' leaders and curb the financial assets and the groups' access to their assets.

In response, Pakistani forces were put on high alert the same day.

On December 20, India mobilised and deployed its troops to Kashmir and Punjab in what was India's largest military mobilisation since the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War.

World leaders condemned the attack on the Indian parliament and stepped in to calm the situation.

In 2004, Guru was given the death sentence by the Supreme Court.

The sentence was scheduled to be carried out on October 20, 2006, but was stayed after his wife filed a mercy petition with the President of India.

The petition was rejected and returned to the Home Ministry on February 3 this year.

Guru is from Kashmir and the government is taking all measures to quell protests in the valley. 

A curfew has been imposed in most towns in the valley in Kashmir. Cable operators have pulled the plug on news channels in some areas to prevent protests.

Many in India believe there is a political motivation for the hanging. The Congress-led government has long been seen dragging its feet on issues of terrorism and want to shun that image.

In November last year, Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist from Pakistan who was caught during the Mumbai attacks was executed in a Pune jail.

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Belgium Plane Crash Kills Five

A small passenger plane has crashed at Belgium's Charleroi airport, killing five people and closing the international hub used by low-cost carriers.

The aircraft, a Cessna, had problems on takeoff and tried to return to Charleroi to make an emergency landing but crashed on the side of the runway, airport officials said.

"There was a problem on takeoff and they tried to come back, but unfortunately the plane crashed," said Melissa Milioto, an airport spokeswoman.

After having problems the plane crashed next to the runway, trying to land

Two adults and three children, reportedly all from the same family, were killed.

According to the news website sudinfo.be, the victims were a 68-year-old grandfather, a 39-year-old mother, and three children aged 7, 6 and 3. They are thought to be from Brussels.

There were no immediate indications of what caused the crash, which happened at 10am local time (9am GMT).

Firefighters sprayed water on the plane that was reduced to a wreck of twisted metal, with only the tail still visible.

Police said the airport, which is a hub for Ryanair and other low-cost carriers, would be closed until mid-afternoon. Several flights were cancelled and others delayed or diverted.

Queues of passengers built up after the airport was closed

"Our priority is dealing with this drama. Flights are being diverted to Liege and Brussels," Ms Milioto said.

The crash came at the start of the Belgium school half-term holidays.

Charleroi airport, also known as Brussels South Charleroi, serves as the country's second international airport after Brussels' main Zaventem airport and expects to handle 140,000 passengers over the half-term holiday period.

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Ex-LA Cop Names Targets In 'Killing Manifesto'

The former police officer at the centre of a manhunt after a shooting spree that left three people dead has issued a killing list of "high value targets".

Christopher Dorner vowed "warfare" on anyone working for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), promising an element of surprise by attacking where they work, sleep or eat.

In a long diatribe posted on his Facebook page, Dorner lists a number of "high value targets" and says he will use his military training against them.

Officers have been sent to protect more than 40 potential targets, including police officers and their families.

The LAPD has also pulled officers from motorcycle duty, fearing they would make for easy targets.

Police officers carry out door-to-door enquiries

"I never had the opportunity to have a family of my own, I'm terminating yours," Dorner says in his online manifesto.

A former Navy reservist who served in Iraq, Dorner also goes into detail about how he was fired from the LAPD for whistle-blowing about what he claims was brutal behaviour by other officers.

The 33-year-old claims the department has not changed since the Rodney King beating incident and that he was out to correct the officers' "moral compass".

The focus of the manhunt has shifted to the snowy mountains around Big Bear Lake, about 80 miles (130km) east of Los Angeles, where police found Dorner's burned-out pickup truck and tracks leading away from the vehicle.

Dorner's burned-out pickup truck found 80 miles from Los Angeles

Dorner is wanted for the killings of Monica Quan, the daughter of a former LAPD captain and her fiance, Keith Lawrence. They were found shot in their car at their condominium in Irvine on Sunday night, authorities said.

Ms Quan, 28, was an assistant women's basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton. Mr Lawrence, 27, was a public safety officer at the University of Southern California.

Monica Quan was the daughter of Dorner's lawyer

Ms Quan's father, who became a lawyer in retirement, represented Dorner in front of the Board of Rights, a tribunal that ruled against him at the time of his dismissal in 2008.

Authorities also said Dorner opened fire early on Thursday on police in cities east of Los Angeles, killing an officer and wounding another.

In his Facebook manifesto, Dorner says: "I am here to correct and calibrate your morale (sic) compasses to true north."

He said: "I will bring unconventional and asymmetrical warfare to those in LAPD uniform whether on or off duty. ISR is my strength and your weakness.

"You will now live the life of the prey. Your RD's and homes away from work will be my AO and battle space.

"I will utilize every tool within INT collections that I learned from NMITC in Dam Neck. You have misjudged a sleeping giant.

"There is no conventional threat assessment for me."

Police chief Charlie Beck has appealed to Dorner to turn himself in

He also singles out various celebrities, including Michelle Obama, Mia Farow, Charlie Sheen and Kate Winslet, for praise but does not issue threats against them.

Dorner has a number of weapons including an assault rifle, according to police chief Charlie Beck.

Mr Beck said: "Of course he knows what he's doing; we trained him. He was also a member of the Armed Forces," he said. "It is extremely worrisome and scary."

San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon said 125 officers were making door-to-door inquiries and a SWAT team was providing added security for local residents, who have been advised to stay indoors.

The scene where two police officers were shot

Schools were put on high alert while investigators examined the vehicle and combed the area. The hunt has spread across three states and into Mexico.

"He could be anywhere at this point, and that's why we're searching door- to-door," Mr McMahon said, adding the manhunt would continue "as long as we can."

A snow storm was expected in the region with temperatures dropping into the teens overnight.

Throughout the day, thousands of heavily-armed officers patrolled highways throughout Southern California, while some stood guard outside the homes of Dorner's stated targets.

Dorner: "There's no conventional threat assessment for me"

Dorner was fired from the LAPD in 2008 for making false statements. Thursday was the eighth anniversary of his first day at work there.

According to documents from a court of appeals hearing, Dorner was fired from the LAPD after he made a complaint against his field training officer, Sgt. Teresa Evans.

Dorner said that in the course of an arrest Evans kicked suspect Christopher Gettler, a schizophrenic with severe dementia.

Richard Gettler, the schizophrenic man's father, gave testimony that supported Dorner's claim.

After his son was returned home on July 28, 2007, Richard Gettler said he asked "if he had been in a fight because his face was puffy". His son responded that he was kicked twice in the chest by a police officer.

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EU Budget: Leaders 'Close To New Deal'

European leaders have agreed the broad lines of a deal on a seven-year budget that would fix total EU spending at 960bn euros (£820bn).

"We feel pretty confident that we have the framework for a deal," one EU official told reporters.

"The deal is not completely finalised, but we feel sure it will be done today."

The proposal would set a limit of 960bn euros (£820bn) for projects the EU can promise to fund between 2014 and 2020.

But not all those projects will ever be completed, meaning the maximum amount it will ever pay out is 908.4bn euros (£774bn).

The current spending limit is 942.8bn euros (£803.4bn) so the actual spending cap looks like it will be reduced by 34.4bn euros (£29.3bn).

The 960bn euro (£820bn) ceiling also represents more than a 12bn euro (£10.2bn) cut from the proposals put forward in November, when the 27 EU member states failed to strike a deal. 

Friday's breakthrough came at dawn after 15 hours of intense negotiations between countries in the bloc.

Leaders, including Prime Minister David Cameron, are continuing to negotiate the draft document in the expectation that they can sign off on a final agreement before the weekend, officials said.

The deal is expected to strike a balance between the demands of northern European countries, such as Britain and the Netherlands that wanted a belt-tightening EU budget, and countries in the south and east that wanted sustained spending on farming subsidies and much-needed infrastructure.

Sky News Deputy Political Editor Joey Jones, reporting from Brussels, said: "This is the make or break meeting and leaders, including David Cameron, have been given a draft that lays out the budget."

Mr Cameron is likely to claim victory if the actual spending cap is reduced to 908.4bn euros (£774bn). It would constitute the first budget cut in the EU's 56-year history.

Sky News Europe Correspondent Robert Nisbet said: "Some may view this for [Mr Cameron] as a success.

"David Cameron left saying what he wanted was at least a real terms freeze and it looks as if there is a cut."

But he added that the reduced EU budget would not necessarily mean British taxpayers pay less since UK commitments to the EU could still rise.

In the draft proposals cuts fall mainly on a new fund for cross-border transport, energy and telecoms projects, slashed by more than 11bn euros (£9.36bn), and on pay and perks for EU officials - a top target for Britain - reduced by around 1bn euros (£900m).

Spending on policies boosting jobs and growth see big increases - but not as big as originally demanded by the European Commission.

As well as the deal needing to be signed off by all EU leaders, it must be approved by the European Parliament, an obstacle that could prove difficult.

The European Parliament president has said he will not accept excessive cuts.

Ahead of the summit, France and Britain appeared at sharp odds over the headline numbers, with Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden lining up on Britain's side and Italy, Spain, Poland and others allied with France. Germany was left in the middle.

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Dreamliner: Airlines Warned Of Delay Risk

Boeing has sent out letters to air carriers expecting delivery of its Dreamliner plane in the next three months warning of possible delays, Sky News has confirmed.

Boeing said: "We have informed our customers expecting 787 deliveries in the near term that those aircraft either have been or are at risk of being delayed.

"We are staying in close communication with our customers as we work towards an approved means of compliance with the FAA Airworthiness Directive and develop a plan for resumption of 787 deliveries.

Lithium-ion batteries on the 787 have caught fire

"But we do not discuss specifics about individual airline deliveries in the media."

It added: "Boeing deeply regrets the impact that recent events have had on the schedules of our customers and their passengers."

Thomson Airways is one of those carriers which was expected imminent delivery of the composite-construction plane.

It earlier confirmed to Sky that a delivery date for the 787 was now uncertain.

An ANA plane made an emergency landing in Japan

The Dreamliner was grounded globally on January 16 after the aircraft was hit by battery fires and other technical issues.

"Thomson Airways has not yet been given a new delivery date for its first 787 Dreamliner by Boeing," the travel company said in a statement.

"Our priority is to ensure our customers go on their holidays and we are, therefore, putting contingency plans in place including using alternative aircraft for our long-haul flights to Mexico and Florida if delivery is delayed beyond the end of March.

US safety officials examined battery cells from a JAL fire in Boston

The airline added: "Boeing is doing everything it can to resolve the situation.  We appreciate that there are many customers who are looking forward to flying on the Dreamliner but unfortunately these circumstances are out of our control.

"Once we have finalised our contingency plans we will contact customers whose flights may be affected."

Investigators have undertaken CT scans of the fault-hit batteries but have been unable to ascertain if the fires were caused by electrical or chemical problems.

An air safety inspector examined an ANA plane's damaged fuselage in Japan

According to Reuters, aircraft rival Airbus is considering dropping lithium-Ion batteries and switching back to traditional units on its new A350 aircraft as safety investigators probe the battery incidents.

BA and Virgin Atlantic are expecting deliveries of the troubled aircraft but both airlines confirmed to Sky that they do not expect delays in deliveries.

Virgin is due to receive the first of its Dreamliners in summer of 2014, while BA is expected to take its first delivery in May.

Earlier on Friday Nordic budget carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle revealed a delay risk to its fleet.

Norwegian Air Shuttle operates Boeing 737s and has ordered Airbus aircraft

On Thursday US aviation safety officials permitted Boeing to undertake limited test flights of the plane.

Japan Airlines (JAL) and All Nippon Airways (ANA) have revealed a loss of millions of pounds in revenue after their Dreamliner fleets were grounded.

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Tunisia: Army Called In For Belaid Funeral

The army has been drafted in amid fears of further violent clashes in Tunisia following the funeral of assassinated opposition leader Chokri Belaid.

All flights to and from Tunisia were cancelled as the capital was shut down for a general strike as tens of thousands gathered to mourn the murdered politician.

Protesters surrounded an army truck carrying Mr Belaid's coffin, draped in a red and white Tunisian flag, to the cemetery in the capital Tunis as a helicopter circled overhead.

The widow of Chokri Belaid, Basma Khalfaoui Belaid, amid protesters

Tunisia has been rocked by clashes and strikes since Mr Belaid was shot dead in outside his home on Wednesday, with violence in Tunis also leaving one policeman dead.

Another is said by police to be in a coma in hospital after being dragged from his car and beaten by protesters, who also set fire to a police station in the town of Gafsa.

The country is now embroiled in its worst crisis since the 2011 revolution that saw the overthrow of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and triggered the Arab Spring.

Mr Belaid had accused the ruling Islamist Ennahda party of resorting to thugs to attack opposition rallies.

His family and allies have accused the party of complicity in his killing, sharply raising tensions ahead of the funeral.

Violent clashes have broken out across the country since the assassination

More than a dozen headquarters of the Ennahda party were attacked overnight in towns around the country.

Schools, shops, banks and other institutions were all shuttered following the general strike called by the main labour union in protest over the assassination.

The decision by the army to provide security for the funeral procession may be key in preventing the situation from degenerating into violence as it remains a respected institution in the country, as opposed to the much-reviled police.

Chokri Belaid was shot outside his home in broad daylight

Several times in the past year, the army has had to be called out in rioting towns to replace police forces that only seem to further antagonise protesters.

Tunisia's prime minister, Hemadi Jebali, offered to replace the government after Mr Belaid's killing in response to long-standing opposition demands.

However, his own ruling Islamist party rejected his decision - exposing divisions within the party itself between moderates and hardliners.

The Ministry of Interior has appealed for calm but the ministry building has been the focus of protests and has been ringed by several lawyers of iron barriers and barbed wire.

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Iran: Syria's Assad Regime Ready To Negotiate

Syria's government is ready to sit down with the opposition to bring a two-year uprising against the regime to an end, Iran's foreign minister believes.

Ali Akbar Salehi told the Egyptian state news agency MENA: "I think that the Syrian government is ready to negotiate with the opposition."

Opposition leader Moaz Alkhatib has offered to talk to Syria's rulers about trying to end the conflict - subject to conditions including the release of 160,000 detainees.

But President Bashar al Assad has not yet commented on the offer and a key opposing faction flatly rejected the initiative.

The Syrian National Council, the main component of the opposition, has dismissed the possibility of any negotiations.

It said it was committed to ousting the Assad regime, rejecting dialogue with it, and protecting the revolution.

But Mr Alkhatib, who called on Mr Assad to agree to let Vice President Faruq al Sharaa open peace talks with his coalition, appealed for the opposition to "declare our willingness to negotiate" the regime's departure.

However, he also set a deadline of Sunday for the government to release all women detainees, otherwise he would regard his offer of dialogue as rejected by the president.

The Assad regime has signalled it believes it can still break the military stalemate, as its forces relentlessly pounded rebel lines around Damascus.

Fighting between rebels and the regime continues

"The army has launched a co-ordinated all-out offensive on all of the areas surrounding the capital," a Syrian security official said.

"All entries to Damascus have been sealed," he added.

Artillery and air strikes have prevented rebels entrenched to the east from advancing despite their capture of army fortifications, opposition activists said.

"We have moved the battle to Jobar," said Captain Islam Alloush of the rebel Islam Brigade. The district links rebel strongholds in the suburbs with the central Abbasid Square.

"The heaviest fighting is taking place in Jobar because it is the key to the heart of Damascus," he added.

Shia Iran is Mr Assad's main backer in the region, and has disagreed with mostly Sunni-led Arab states that have called for him to step down.

Meanwhile, the presidents of Iran, Turkey and Egypt held a meeting on the sidelines of an Islamic summit in Cairo to discuss the crisis.

"There was a three-way summit of Egypt, Turkey and Iran about the crisis and we look forward to it leading to the resolution of this crisis. We are optimistic," Mr Salehi said.

He said Iran had welcomed Mr Alkhatib's remarks. "In the end, the government and the opposition must sit together to negotiate," he said.

The UN has said more than 60,000 people have died in violence since the uprising started in March 2011.

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Australia Sport: Drugs And Crime 'Rife'

The use of performance enhancing drugs is "widespread" among professional and amateur athletes in Australia, according to a government report.

The report was the result of a one-year probe by Australia's leading criminal intelligence organisation into the use of drugs, both performance enhancing and recreational, as well as the association of organised crime with the trade.

"The findings are shocking and they will disgust Australian sports fans," home affairs minister Jason Clare said at a news conference to announce the release of the report.

"(It) has found the use of substances, including peptides, hormones and illicit drugs, is widespread amongst professional athletes.

"We are talking about multiple athletes across a number of codes. We're talking about a number of teams.

"The findings indicate the drugs are being facilitated by sports scientists, coaches, support staff as well as doctors and pharmacists.

"In some cases sports scientists and others are orchestrating the doping of entire teams. In some case players are being administered substances which have not yet been approved for human use."

The report said that organised crime was involved in the distribution of the drugs, which exposes players to the possibility of being co-opted into match-fixing, Mr Clare added.

One such case had been identified and was being investigated, he said, although he did not identify which code was involved.

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Sochi Winter Olympics: 'Russia Will Be Ready'

By Katie Stallard, Moscow Correspondent

Russia's president has promised the country's new Winter Olympics facilities will be ready in time for the opening of the games in a year's time.

Inspecting the mountain cluster of venues for the Sochi 2014 Games, Vladimir Putin said: "Overall, work is going according to plan. I have no doubt that all the sites will be ready on time and with the appropriate quality."

To the disappointment of the waiting media, the leader performed no trademark action man stunts in the Caucasus mountains - President Putin opting instead for a purposeful walk, dressed in aviator shades and a fur-collared jacket, as he met waiting officials for progress reports.

The games' apparently inexorably spiralling budget has reached an estimated $50bn (£32bn), making it the most expensive Olympics in history - surpassing even the Beijing games - and more than five times the original projected cost.

Construction is under way on the media village for the games

Organisers have stressed that around half of this will come from private investment, but critics have pointed out that much of the so-called private funding will come from state-owned, or at least state-controlled, companies.

And President Putin warned officials against allowing corruption to push costs even higher.

"The main thing is that no-one steals anything, so there are no unexplained increases in costs," he was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying.

He later sacked a senior Russian Olympic Committee official over delays to the completion of the ski jumping complex.

Russian Olympics Committee deputy chief Akhmed Bilalov was fired after Putin asked who was responsible for the delay in the completion of the complex from 2011 to July this year.

President Putin is given a tour of the games' Alpine Centre in Rosa Khutor

"The decision about the sacking has been taken," Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak told reporters.

At a similar latitude to Nice in the south of France, Sochi 2014 will be the world's first sub-tropical Winter Olympics and questions have been raised about its suitability as a venue.

The average February temperature at the coastal cluster on the Black Sea is 12C (53.6F) and there has been very little snow at the mountain venues for most of the last month.

But officials insist they have failsafe contingency plans, with more than 400 artificial snow-making machines imported from Finland to compensate for any natural deficit, and huge reservoirs of snow to be built up in the next 12 months to ensure sufficient coverage during the games.

The Rus-ski Gorki ski-jump center at the Krasnaya Polyana resort

Travelling to the mountain cluster currently involves a two-hour bus journey up a long and steeply-winding road, but they are in the process of building a new combined road and rail link, which they promise will whisk spectators from coast to snow in 30 minutes.

Sochi residents stuck in the apparently constant traffic jams associated with the overhaul of the city's infrastructure are assured they will soon have access to 367 new roads and bridges, along with new rail and sea terminals and an expanded airport.

Visiting journalists are offered door-to-door bus tours of the city's Olympic construction sites, in an apparent effort to show all of Sochi's achievements in the best possible light.

Sky News joined a tour of the coastal cluster in what has traditionally been known as a balmy beach resort.

It is a surreal trundle past the new Bolshoi Ice Dome through the rubble of what was once the summer playground of the soviet elite.

All of the venues here are being constructed from scratch in what is now a day-and-night race against the clock to get the Olympic park finished on time and without going too much further over budget.

Crumbling: The owners of these houses say Olympic contractors are to blame

But there is another side to this city that they are much less keen to show off.

On a hill overlooking the Olympic park we found a street of houses that appear to be sliding down the hill towards he new development.

The owners cannot prove the link definitively, but they say the houses only started to move after the contractors began dumping Olympic construction waste in the forest above them.

Tatiana Skyba showed Sky News around the ruins of the house she says she lived in for 18 years before, one night, it began to collapse around her.

This man said his home has sunk by one storey

She told us: "At first we thought there must have been an earthquake, one of the walls crumbled, of course we were really scared because we thought the earth was moving and we didn't know where to go, but then in the morning we saw that there was only this narrow strip of landslide.

"All our houses are crumbling towards each other, and slowly moving downwards, by the time the Olympics starts we will have slid all the way to the Ice Dome."

Her next-door neighbour showed us his house, which appears to be sinking - he says it has dropped by one full storey.

Inside there is an overwhelming smell of damp and they are attempting to pump out the water that is leaking in through holes in the walls, but they have already had to abandon what was their kitchen, and the situation seems to be getting worse.

Anaida Kaladgan: 'I want to scream and scream and scream'

His wife, Anaida Kaladgan, told us: "Sometimes I want to scream and scream and scream, maybe God will help us? But it doesn't help - I am sorry for my tears but I don't know anything now but tears and tears and tears.

"My children and grandchildren do not have a roof over their heads."

She showed us where her five-day-old granddaughter was sleeping upstairs and explained that they are trying to heat the room with a fan so she will not suffer from the damp. But she said her carpets are wet and her grandchildren wear wellies indoors.

"What can we do?" she asks. "I wish someone would help us, so we could live like humans and not like pigs. We live like pigs."

She said she had repeatedly tried to appeal to officials but had got nowhere.

"I will write another letter," she told us.

Sky News raised these cases directly with the city's mayor, but he said he had not heard of the street.

Some parts of Sochi's Olympic dream, it seems, are more visible than others.

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Alaska Serial Killer Keyes' Chilling Poetry

Newly-released blood-stained notes recovered from serial killer Israel Keyes' Alaskan prison cell contain chilling poetry about his victims and superficiality in American society.

But the rambling tracts found under the 34-year-old's body contain no specific details about his crimes, or the names of additional victims.

Keyes, suspected of murdering 18-year-old Anchorage barista Samantha Koenig and several other people across the US, slit his wrists and strangled himself with a bedsheet in jail in December.

His poetry refers to a person under his control, the person's obvious fear, and inevitable doom.

"You are my love at first sight, and though you're scared to be near me, my words penetrate your thought now in an intimate prelude," he wrote.

"Your face framed in dark curls like a portrait, the sun shone through highlights of red. What color I wonder, and how straight will it turn plastered back with the sweat of your blood.

"Your wet lips were a promise of a secret unspoken, nervous laugh as it burst like a pulse of blood from your throat. There will be no more laughter here."

The yellow legal pad was at first too bloody to read, so it was sent to an FBI laboratory in Virginia and restored.

Agents determined Keyes left behind no code or hidden message in his writings - but the first two pages make reference to his hatred for US consumerism.

"Land of the free, home of the lie, land of the scheme, Americanize! Consume what you don't need, stars you idolize, pursue what you adore it is a dream, then its American die," Keyes wrote.

CCTV of Samantha Koenig's abduction by Keyes

Miss Koenig was abducted at gunpoint from a coffee stand last February, sparking a massive police hunt.

Keyes was arrested in March in Lufkin, Texas, after using her debit card. Her dismembered body was eventually fished out of an Alaskan lake.

Before he died - and before he could be tried - Keyes confessed to the killings of at least seven more people.

The FBI is working closely with state and local law enforcement agencies to identify other victims.

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Madeleine Lookalike Sends DNA Sample To Police

By Jonathan Samuels, Australia correspondent

A New Zealand girl repeatedly mistaken for missing Madeleine McCann has given police a sample of her DNA which will be sent to Scotland Yard.

The girl, who has not been named, is understood to have a similar eye defect to Madeleine, prompting members of the public to believe she is the missing child.

The DNA sample is a conclusive way of proving her identity, said Detective Senior Sergeant Kallum Croudis of Dunedin Police.

"The results of this process will not be known for some time," he told New Zealand newspaper The Southland Times.

On New Year's Eve police launched a five-day investigation when a retailer became suspicious of a man and a young girl, who bore a resemblance to Madeleine.

Kate and Gerry McCann say they will maintain their search for Madeleine

However, they said they were "absolutely satisfied" she was not Madeleine, and it was not the first time she had been mistaken for the missing girl.

Madeleine was nearly four when she vanished from her family's Portuguese holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in 2007 as her parents dined at a nearby restaurant with friends.

Madeleine's parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, have never abandoned their high-profile campaign to find their eldest daughter, who would now be nine.

Sightings have also been reported in Sweden, Belgium and Australia.

It is not the first time a child has been DNA-tested in relation to the case of the missing British girl.

In 2011, a young girl spotted in India with a Belgian man and French woman was tested and was also found not to be Madeleine.

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Mali: 'Significant Losses' During Fighting

French forces have clashed with Islamist militants in the Mali town of Gao in a "real war" with "significant losses", the French Defence Minister has said.

Jean-Yves Le Drian said jihadists had used rockets against French troops during fighting on Tuesday.

He confirmed the first French casualties since a helicopter pilot was killed in the opening hours of the campaign.

Mr Le Drian said there had been several French troops injured but that their wounds had been relatively light.

French troops patrol the northern Mali town of Gao

It followed comments made by him that French troops had killed hundreds of Islamist fighters in Mali.

Speaking on Europe 1 radio, Mr Le Drian said: "This is a real war with significant losses but I'm not going to get into an accounting exercise.

"There were clashes yesterday around Gao. Once our troops, supported by Malian forces, started patrols around the towns that we have taken, they met residual jihadist groups who are still fighting.

"We will go after them. We are securing the towns we have been able to take along with the Malian forces. The jihadists around Gao were using rockets yesterday."

Malian troops in Gao

Malian soldiers patrolling Gao found a stash of industrial-strength explosives hidden in rice bags that could be used to make roadside bombs, Associated Press reported.

The explosives had been dumped with oter garbage from the town in a small square in the city.

Mr Le Drian added that no more troops would be sent to Mali to bolster the 4,000 personnel already there.

The size of the force matches the French deployment in Afghanistan at its height in 2010.

French troops negotiate a road block on the airport road at Gao

France has indicated it would like to see its troops start withdrawing by next month.

Mr Le Drian admitted that while there had been fierce fighting around Gao, the militants were still holding out around the northern Mali town.

Islamist group Mujao claimed to have attacked the positions of French and African troops around Gao. Witnesses suggested that there had only been long-distance exchanges of fire.

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Spain: 6,000 Tonnes Of Rubbish On City Streets

Days of strikes by dustmen in Seville have seen 6,000 tonnes of stinking rubbish pile up on the streets of the Spanish city.

Litter lies strewn across the Andalusian city's historic and narrow streets as wheelie bins overflow and plastic bags rip apart.

City dwellers say the stench is becoming unbearable, as the strike stretches into its 10th day.

Wheelie bins overflow on to the streets

Some 100 wheelie bins were set on fire during the night, an action the strikers have been quick to stress has nothing to do with them.

The 1,600 workers at the Lipsam municipal cleaning company went out on strike on January 27 in a dispute over their pay and hours.

A woman covers her face to cope with the stench of rotting rubbish

The refuse collectors have been asked by the regional government to take a 5% pay cut and to work longer.

However, Lipsam says the measures are not justified.

Waste has been piling up outside businesses

There have been three meetings to try to break the strike action, but talks have not been successful.

The strike is in its tenth day with little sign of a breakthrough in talks

The regional government in Andalusia has said it needs to make cuts because it has been told to put its finances in order.

There have been two similar strikes in the region's other big tourist cities, Granada and Jerez, in the last three months.

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Tunisia: Poltician Shot Dead Outside His Home

A Tunisian opposition politician has been shot dead outside his home in what the country's prime minister called an "act of terrorism".

The family of Chokri Belaid, who headed the opposition Democratic Patriots party and was a harsh critic of Tunisia's Islamist-led government, accused the ruling Ennahda party of being behind the murder.

"My brother was assassinated. I am desperate and depressed," said his brother Abdelmajid.

"I accuse (Ennahda leader) Rached Ghannouchi of assassinating my brother," he said.

Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali denounced Belaid's murder as an "act of terrorism" against the country.

"The murder of Belaid is a political assassination and the assassination of the Tunisian revolution.

"By killing him they wanted to silence his voice," said Mr Jebali, who heads the coalition government, formed after Tunisia's first post-Arab Spring election in 2011.

Former president Zine al Abidine Ben Ali was ousted in the Arab Spring

He said Belaid was shot dead with three bullets fired from close range by a man wearing a traditional long garment with a pointed hood.

More than 1,000 Tunisians took to the streets outside the interior ministry, shouting "Shame, shame Chokri died", "Where is the government?", and "The government should fall". Security forces cordoned off the area.

Mr Belaid was a high-profile member of the opposition Popular Front party.

The party's leader Ziad Lakhader said: "Chokri Belaid was killed today by four bullets to the head and chest ... doctors told us that he has died. This is a sad day for Tunisia."

Tunisia was the first Arab country to oust its leader and hold free elections as uprisings spread around the region two years ago, and has made a relatively smooth transition to democracy.

However, the government has faced many protests over economic hardship.

Declining trade with the crisis-hit euro zone means it has struggled to deliver the improved living standards that many Tunisians had hoped for.

Several opposition parties and trade unions have accused pro-Islamist groups of orchestrating clashes or attacks against them.

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Syria: Exodus Swells Border Refugee Camps

By Stuart Ramsay, Chief Correspondent

The numbers of refugees from Syria is growing by the day. The reasons are simple; they can't take the bombing anymore; they can't live with the fear.

So they make the journey north, south, east and west to neighbouring counties that are letting them in; but are themselves increasingly concerned about the exodus.

Some 700,000 are registered as refugees in these countries. But the true number is much higher.

Two million are thought to be on the move in Syria. That number could be much higher as well.

On the border with Turkey, but still inside Syria, near the town of Azaz, the latest camp is taking root.

Seven thousand has turned to 11,000 in the past few days.

The camp is not squalid, but being on a muddy flood plain in snowy and rainy conditions it is miserable and cold.

Facilities in Bab al-Salam are basic and overcrowded

The newest arrivals have to wait, sometimes days at a time, for the aid agencies to find or even build them a tent.

A family of ten is living in two trucks. They have been here two days.

"We couldn't stay in our town anymore," the Matriarch told me.

"The shelling never stops. It is too dangerous so we left. But our men have no jobs and we have no money that is why we are here as well," she said.

The destruction of cities, towns and villages, the use of Scud missiles and air attacks are persuading Syria's battered population to leave.

Two years after the start of this uprising life for the ordinary people is actually getting far worse than they ever expected.

Young Syrian refugees in front of makeshift tents in the camp

The smoke of a thousand fires engulfs clothing lines looped between tents. Children wade through mud, playing games or picking up spaghetti stew in plastic cartons to take home to their tents from a series of distribution points.

A mother-of-six, Um Abdullah Najia, broke all protocols by allowing me, an unrelated male, into their tent, their home for the past five months.

They are not complaining about the conditions. But it is clear they are finding it tough.

"As you can see seven people are living in this small tent," she said.

"This is our kitchen, our bathroom, our shower, our living room, our dining room. Everything is in this tent - but the situation outside is even worse."

Every part of society in Syria is now being affected by this civil war. Huge numbers believe the end is not even remotely in sight. So the exodus goes on.

As was predicted long ago, one way or another, this whole region is now caught up in this crisis.

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Tug-Of-War Students Lose Their Fingers

A boy and a girl have had several fingers torn off during a game of tug-of-war at their high school in Southern California.

The two South El Monte High School students were rushed to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, where doctors were preparing to reattach the digits.

"They are both stable and the parents were by their bedside," hospital spokeswoman Rosa Sacca told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

"They were getting ready to be taken to the operating room to try to reattach the fingers."

School district official Edward Zuniga declined to identify the students, but the newspaper said the girl was on the school's soccer team and the boy was an American football player.

The teenagers were participating in a lunchtime activity celebrating homecoming with current and former students on Monday.

"We'll review the activity with the district administration," Mr Zuniga said.

"We're in the early stages. We just want to make sure we have all the facts straight before we talk about changing activities."

Authorities did not say how many fingers were lost or explain how the tug-of-war caused the injuries.

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EU: Hollande Warns 'No Cherry Picking'

By Robert Nisbet, Europe correspondent

President Francois Hollande has taken several swipes at David Cameron over the Prime Minister's plan to call a referendum on repatriating powers from Brussels.

The French leader received a warm welcome from MEPs at the start of a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, in which he explained his decision to intervene in Mali and his vision for an integrated Europe.

The president never mentioned David Cameron by name, but there was little doubt who he meant when he said that Europe's confidence was being knocked because "national interests are taking over common European interests".

He said that Europe is "a wonderful idea, a great adventure ... but for too long Europe has had doubts about itself".

Mr Hollande also argued that austerity must be applied with "discernment", and that the EU's focus needs to be on growth and competitiveness, which could be damaged by large cuts to the EU long-term budget.

Mr Hollande with David Cameron last summer

Talks on the financial blueprint resume on Thursday in Brussels with the UK, the Netherlands and others calling for a 30bn euro cut to the 932bn spending limit proposed by the European Commission for 2014 to 2020.

The French leader said Europe could only clamber out of the debt crisis by solidarity and integration, not "a collection of nations getting what they want out of it ... Self and self alone is not acceptable".

In another jibe at Britain, he said: "There are those who want to see cuts, others - possibly the same, who want guarantees on their own rebate."

And in a direct reference to Mr Cameron's plan to pursue a fresh settlement with Brussels and put that to a public vote, he warned there can be "no cherry picking, no a la carte on treaties".

Mr Hollande has similar problems in his own Socialist party as the Conservative leader has in the UK.

He faces a strong core of eurosceptics who are suspicious of any loss of sovereignty to the European project.

In 2005, a referendum in France on a proposed EU constitution led to a split in his party, and a defeat for the pro-European lobby.

The French leader also explained his reasons for intervening in Mali, pointing out that France had only emerged from the Second World War with the help of other nations.

Acting in Mali was vital to maintaining security in the region, he said.

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Alabama Hostage Siege Ends As Boy Saved

A boy who was held hostage for a week is safe and his captor dead after FBI agents stormed an underground bunker in Alabama.

Officials said the raid went ahead after negotiations with 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes deteriorated and he was seen with a gun.

"Mr Dykes was observed holding a gun," FBI Special Agent Steve Richardson said.

"At this point, the FBI agents, fearing the child was in imminent danger, entered the bunker and rescued the child."

The five-year-old, so far identified only as Ethan, was being treated at a hospital, authorities said.

Officials break the news to the media

"I visited with Ethan. He is doing fine," Agent Richardson told reporters.

"He's laughing, joking, playing, eating - the things that you would expect a normal 5 to 6-year-old young man to do. He's very brave, he's very lucky, and the success story is that he's out safe and doing great."

Dykes snatched the boy, who has Asperger's syndrome, from a school bus last week after killing the driver, Charles Poland.

Authorities initially declined to elaborate on how they had observed Dykes or on how he died.

However, an official in Midland City, citing information from law enforcement sources, said a high-tech camera had been inserted into the bunker and that police had shot Dykes. 

Daryle Hendry, who lives about a quarter of a mile from where Dykes was holed up, said he heard a boom followed by a gunshot.

"Right now, FBI special agent bomb technicians are in the process of clearing the property for improvised explosive devices," the FBI said in a written statement.

"When it is safe to do so, our evidence response teams, paired with state and local crime scene technicians, will process the scene."

The scene of the hostage drama

Neighbours described Dykes as a loner who hated the authorities.

They said he once beat a dog to death with a lead pipe, threatened to shoot children for setting foot on his property, and patrolled his garden at night with a torch and a firearm.

But he was also a decorated Navy veteran, having spent around five years in Vietnam.

He had had some scrapes with the law in Florida, including a 1995 arrest for improper exhibition of a weapon. The misdemeanour was dismissed. He also was arrested for marijuana possession in 2000.

He returned to Alabama about two years ago, moving onto the rural tract about 100 yards from his nearest neighbours.

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Syria War: 'Children Are Biggest Casualty'

By Stuart Ramsay, Chief Correspondent, in Aleppo

The anguished cries of a little boy receiving treatment without anaesthetic for a shrapnel wound to the face fills the putrid air of a converted shop that is an Aleppo field hospital.

The walls are splattered with blood. All around are shop fronts with medics working on the latest injured.

A car pulls out and a young man shot in a drive-by attack staggers inside followed by his screaming mother.

In rebel-held Aleppo, this is just another day. It isn't particularly busy. It is just constant.

Medics, who have gone underground after their hospital was reduced to rubble by a targeted Syrian government bombing campaign, say children are being injured and killed in greater numbers now than the rebel fighters.

Stuck inside this city the children are on the streets more than anyone else. Playing or scavenging amongst piles of rubbish for anything of value to take home, they are now the most vulnerable.

Hamid Sakia was shot by a sniper while playing football

A short distance away in another makeshift hospital room nine-year-old Hamid Sakia whimpers in pain; a sack of draining blood lies on the floor. He was shot by a sniper while playing football. He will lose his kidney. The medics are waiting for a surgeon to get enough anaesthetic to operate.

He whispers a "Yes" as I ask him if it hurts. His mother looks on holding back tears. She buried her daughter this week. Her family is being torn apart.

It is not about the lack of food or heating or supplies, she says.

"What will happen in the future?" She asks: "What will happen? Everyone is scared."

In a room next door, surrounded by seat cushions to try to keep the breeze from her skin, Aya Hussein stares motionlessly ahead. She is dreadfully burnt. Her tiny body a web of fierce welts caused by a fire when her apartment was hit by an artillery round.

Aya Hussein was burned when she was hit by an artillery round

The cushions are her treatment. This is life in Aleppo.

This city is slowly being destroyed. There is barely a building unscarred by the bombing from fighter jets and artillery. A million plus people still live here amongst the ruins where shells and snipers are a constant.

Cars cross the most dangerous parts of town protected by mud walls. You can hear the sniper rounds thudding into the barricade or whining over head as you pass.

The dreadful sound of artillery rounds smashing into buildings never stops wherever you go.

Once tree-filled parks are now open spaces. There is no heat or electricity in Aleppo so wood has become a precious commodity.

In the markets there are plenty of local vegetables. But meat, gas, fuel and pretty much everything else comes from Turkey at a huge cost. Gas bottles are 15 times their proper cost.

The city's scarred buildings

People are living in battered apartment blocks. Theirs is a virtual twilight of dark stair wells and shuttered rooms.

The artillery comes from the south so they huddle in north facing homes. But the shrapnel and the explosive power of the bombs means nowhere is truly safe.

"I am hopeless. I can only trust in my God," 78-year-old Mahmoud tells me. He and his wife Emira are alone. Their family has fled, they depend on the handouts of neighbours. Their flat is freezing and bare.

On the next storey Rada cuddles two of her six children. It is freezing inside and they have just a few scraps of food to eat.

"My husband won't leave Aleppo. We want to stay here whatever happens. Our children are ill, they are frightened, but we have nowhere else to go," she says.

The rebels and the government forces appear to have fought themselves to a standstill. In the middle a population is stuck, surviving but dying as well, every day.

This is Aleppo.

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Fidel Castro Makes Surprise Appearance

Cuba's retired leader Fidel Castro chatted with other voters and reporters for more than an hour as he made his first extended public appearance since 2010 to vote in parliamentary elections.

The 86-year-old has voted from home in three previous elections since being taken ill in 2006 and handing power to his brother Raul two years later.

State-run television said the white-bearded Castro spoke to the public at a Havana polling station about efforts to reform the economy, Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez and praised participation in the election.

Fidel Castro

"The people are truly revolutionary, they have really sacrificed. We don't have to prove it, history will. Fifty years of the blockade and they haven't given in," he said, referring to the US economic blockade of the communist nation.

Cubans went to the polls to elect 612 deputies to the National Assembly and more than 1,000 delegates to provincial assemblies already chosen by the Communist Party-selected list.

About 95% of Cuba's 8.7 million residents over 16 years of age were expected to cast ballots in the election despite their vote having little impact as the number of candidates matches the number of open positions.

The general election cycle began last year with the election of more than 15,000 ward delegates in the only vote in which residents choose between two or more candidates.

"It is a different electoral system. Personally I find it is more democratic than (others) I know," Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said after casting his ballot.

Since taking over from his brother, President Raul Castro has decentralised the state-dominated economy, allowing more space for private initiative in agriculture and retail services and has lifted many restrictions on personal freedoms, such as travel and buying and selling homes and cars.

He has also introduced limited top government posts to two five-year terms, but is still to legalise other political organisations.

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North Korea Nuclear Test: China Urged To Step In

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent

South Korea has issued an urgent request to China to use its influence over North Korea to persuade the isolated nation to abandon its plans for a nuclear test.

Lim Sung-nam, a senior South Korean envoy, met with his Chinese counterpart on Monday as concern mounted that North Korea could carry out a nuclear detonation test this week.

China is North Korea's only real ally and widely seen as the only country with any leverage over Pyongyang.

Seoul's request to Beijing comes as South Korean and US naval forces begin a series of joint exercises in waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula.

The drills, in the Sea of Japan, were pre-planned, but are widely regarded as a tacit warning to North Korea.

Kim Jong-Un held a military meeting at the weekend

Speculation over an imminent nuclear test intensified over the weekend after reports in North Korean state media claimed that Kim Jong-Un, the country's young leader, had chaired an "enlarged meeting of his Central Military Commission". At the meeting, Mr Kim reportedly discussed a "looming great turn" in the country's military capability.

The English-language version of the report did not say when or where the meeting was held, but claimed senior military members of the commission were all present.

The state report read: "Kim Jong-Un made an important concluding speech, which serves as guidelines for further strengthening the (North's Korean People's Army) into a matchless revolutionary army."

Pyongyang has been threatening to conduct a nuclear test for some time.

However, plans for the test, the third since 2006, appear to have been accelerated since the latest round of UN sanctions against the country, themselves prompted by the surprisingly successful rocket launch by Pyongyang in December.

Officials in the South Korean capital Seoul have said their intelligence suggests that all the preparations have been completed and that Mr Kim could order the detonation at any time.

A tunnel under a nuclear test site (Pic: Yonhap News Agency)

The South Korean News agency has published an image which they claim shows the inner structure of a North Korean nuclear test site.

The image is said to be a screen shot from a documentary on North Korean television which shows a tunnel about one kilometre long with 10 doors.

Another image released by the Yonhap News Agency in Seoul shows a mocked-up cross-section of what the nuclear site could look like.

Last week, satellite imagery of the Punggye-ri nuclear test facility in North Hamgyong province seen by the South Korean intelligence officials suggested that covers had been placed over a tunnel entrance.

These latest tensions on the Korean Peninsula were sparked in December when North Korea defied and surprised the international community with the launch of a satellite into orbit.

The move prompted the United Nations to levy further sanctions on Pyongyang. The UN resolution had the unusual support of China.

Punggye-Ri nuclear test facility

The Chinese backing is being seen as a clear suggestion of Beijing's frustration at North Korea's continued defiance of international law.

An editorial in China's state-run Global Times newspaper on Monday suggested that China should seize the initiative over the North Korean problem.

"China has the largest stake in Asia, and it will be hit hardest if the situation in Asia becomes disordered," said the editorial; words which would have been sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Party machine.

"If China doesn't become more active in solving regional hot issues, it will inevitably be affected."

To date, most of Pyongyang's pronouncements have seen by Western governments as little more than bluster and rhetoric.

However, there is increasing international concern that North Korea's inexperienced leader plans to combine his two developing technologies - ballistic missile capability and nuclear detonation tests - to create a nuclear weapon.

Pyongyang's rockets already have the ability to reach far across East Asia, though suggestions that they could reach the west coast of the United States are thought to be wide of the mark.

Analysts also point out that there is a big technological gap between producing a rocket capable of firing a satellite into orbit and developing a nuclear warhead small enough to fit into a rocket which could then be fired accurately.

The concerns are compounded by the fact that reliable intelligence is significantly lacking.

Intelligence communities rely largely on the incomplete picture delivered through the many satellites passing over the peninsula.

Information from satellites is useful, but paradoxically, the key questions about how advanced Mr Kim's nuclear programme really is will only be answered once the third test has taken place.

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Malala: Schoolgirl Shot By Taliban Speaks Out

The Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban makes her first public statement since she was nearly killed.

In a video interview, 15-year-old Malala Yousufzai, who is having reconstructive surgery to replace part of her skull at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, said that she was "getting better, day by day".

The teenager drew the world's attention when she was shot by Taliban militants on October 9 on a school bus in northwestern Pakistan.

The Islamist group said they targeted her because she promoted girls' education and "Western thinking".

More follows...

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Assad: Syria Can Confront Israeli Aggression

President Bashar al Assad has accused Israel of trying to destabilise Syria after an air strike on a military research base near Damascus last week.

The comments by Assad are the first since the attack on Wednesday that US officials say was targeting a convoy of anti-aircraft weapons inside Syria bound for Hizbollah.

State TV said Assad spoke during a meeting with visiting top Iranian official, Saeed Jalili.

The president said Syria is capable of facing current challenges and can "confront any aggression" that would target the Syrian people.

State news agency SANA quoted Mr Jalili as reaffirming Tehran's "full support for the Syrian people ... facing the Zionist aggression, and its continued coordination to confront the conspiracies and foreign projects".

Israel's defence minister has indicated that his country was behind the air strike, in the first public comments from his government on the attack.

Ehud Barak brought the issue up at a gathering of the world's top diplomats and defence officials in Germany, initially saying: "I cannot add anything to what you have read in the newspapers about what happened in Syria several days ago."

But he added: "I keep telling frankly that we said - and that's proof when we said something we mean it - we say that we don't think it should be allowed to bring advanced weapons systems into Lebanon."

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North Korea Meeting Hints At Nuclear Test

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent

Fears are growing that a planned nuclear test by North Korea may be imminent.

State news reports from the capital Pyongyang claim that the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has presided over meeting at which "important decisions" regarding the country's military were made.

According to Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Mr Kim chaired an "enlarged meeting" of the country's Central Military Commission.

The English-language version of the report did not say when or where the meeting was held, but claimed senior military members of the commission were all present.

The state report read: "Kim Jong-Un made an important concluding speech, which serves as guidelines for further strengthening the (North's Korean People's Army) into a matchless revolutionary army."

In neighbouring South Korea, President Lee Myung-bak has ordered government agencies to be on the alert.

Mr Lee, who will leave office in the next two weeks, made his comments at an unannounced visit to the underground bunker of the presidential compound.

Punggye-ri nuclear test facility in North Korea (Pic: Google Maps)

Pyongyang has been threatening to conduct a nuclear test for some time.

However, plans for the test, the third since 2009, appear to have been accelerated since the latest round of UN sanctions against the country, themselves prompted by the surprisingly successful rocket launch by Pyongyang in December.

Last week, satellite imagery of the Punggye-ri nuclear test facility in North Hamgyong province seen by the South Korean intelligence officials suggested that covers had been placed over a tunnel entrance.

Both South Korea and the United States are reported to have repositioned intelligence monitoring assets to gain as clear a picture as possible of Pyongyang's intentions.

South Korean and American naval and marine forces are about to begin a pre-planned military exercise in the region.

South Korea's unification minister, Yu Woo-ik, said on Friday that his government believes the third nuclear test will be much more significant than the first two, in 2006 and 2009.

Activity around the test tunnel (Pic: IHS James)

"The first and second tests can be seen as part of Pyongyang's efforts to develop nuclear capability, while a third detonation could mean it is in the final stages," he warned.

North Korea's successful launch of a satellite into orbit in December defied and surprised the international community.

The move prompted the United Nations to levy further sanctions on Pyongyang. The UN resolution had the unusual support of North Korea's only real ally, China.

The Chinese backing is being seen as a clear suggestion of Beijing's frustration at North Korea's continued defiance of international law.

In the past, much of what comes out of Pyongyang is seen by Western governments as little more than bluster and rhetoric.

However, the surprise success of December's rocket launch did focus minds in Washington, London, Seoul and even Beijing.

The international concern is that North Korea's inexperienced and young new leader plans to combine his two developing technologies - ballistic missile capability and nuclear detonation tests - to create a nuclear weapon.

Pyongyang's rockets already have the ability to reach far across east Asia, though suggestions that they could reach the west coast of the US are thought to be wide of the mark.

Analysts also point out that there is a big technological gap between producing a rocket capable of firing a satellite into orbit and developing a nuclear warhead small enough to fit into a rocket which could then be fired accurately.

The concerns are compounded by the fact that reliable intelligence is significantly lacking.

Intelligence communities rely largely on the incomplete picture delivered through the many satellites passing over the peninsula.

Imagery from one satellite, passed to Sky News last week showed increased activity at the probable nuclear test site, but the picture it provides is incomplete.

"The imagery, taken by DigitalGlobe on January 12, displays continued activity at the site, including the presence of three support vehicles and sustained use of roads between different parts of the site." an analyst from IHS Janes told Sky News.

Information from satellites is useful, but paradoxically, the key questions about how advanced Mr Kim's nuclear programme really is will only be answered once the third test has taken place.

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