German Election: Angela Merkel's Lead Tightens

Will There Be Victory For 'Mutti'?

Updated: 11:19pm UK, Friday 20 September 2013

By Robert Nisbet, Europe Correspondent, in Berlin

The elections in Germany this weekend could produce a Pizza, a Jamaican or a Lebanon, but "Mutti" is still likely to be in charge.

With a system of proportional representation, two ballots per person and little difference between the main parties, political analysts have been focusing on the possibility of a new coalition.

Although the CDU/CSU alliance, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel is likely to take the largest share of the vote, the collapse in support for its liberal coalition partner FDP means the existing government may not survive.

That has thrown up a number of possible coalition permutations, which have been given bizarre names mostly based on the combination of the party colours.

So a combination of the CDU, the Free Democrats and the Greens has become known as the "Jamaica coalition", echoing the various hues on the national flag.

A "traffic light" would be a link up between the main opposition Social Democrats, the FDP and the Greens, and so on.

It just hints at the complexity of the German electoral system which allows each voter to make two choices: one for a local representative and another for their choice of party.

The second vote has become known as the vote for chancellor, but it increases the scope for tactical voting, especially as the FDP has been fading at the polls.

For a party to be represented in the Bundestag, it must achieve at least 5% of the overall vote.

At a recent local election in Bavaria - admittedly a conservative heartland - the FDP saw its vote disintegrate, leading some to predict it could come perilously close to being kicked out of the national parliament.

Meanwhile another new party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), has been stealing support from disaffected CDU voters, who have tired of the euro crisis and want to see a return to the Deutsche Mark.

If it gains a foothold in the national parliament, it could make it nearly impossible for the CDU to govern without a Grand Coalition between Ms Merkel's CDU and the opposition SPD.

That was the outcome after the election in 2005 when Ms Merkel first became chancellor, but her relationship with the SPD leader Peer Steinbrueck has soured since he was her first finance minister.

That red/black combination is the one most favoured by German voters, but not by the parties' top brass.

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Taliban's Mullah Baradar Released From Custody

By Neville Lazarus, Sky News Asia Producer

The most senior leader of the Taliban in Afghanistan has been released from custody in Pakistan to help the struggling Afghan peace process.

According to a Sky News source, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who is second to Taliban chief Mullah Omar, will have to remain in the country, although he is free to move around any city.

He will be provided with high security, although the source claimed this is a way for authorities to keep him under watch.

Before his release, preparations had been made for Baradar to be taken to Qatar or Saudi Arabia where he could actively work on the peace process.

But the source said Pakistan objected to such a move because it wants to remain pivotal and influential in any future peace talks between Hamid Karzai's Afghan government, the Taliban and western powers.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pushed for Mr Baradar's release

Sartaj Aziz, advisor on foreign affairs and national security to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said: "Handing over the key Taliban commander to Afghanistan will sabotage the purpose behind the decision of releasing him."

Pakistan authorities have resisted immense pressure for his release since his arrest in Karachi in February 2010.

Many believe the arrest was made to stop him negotiating with the Afghan government and cutting Pakistan out of the talks.

His arrest infuriated Mr Karzai, who last month reiterated demands for his release when he travelled to Pakistan for talks with Mr Sharif.

Baradar, 55, was born in the southern province of Uruzgan and fought the Soviet forces in the late 1980s.

He co-founded the Taliban and became a trusted friend of Omar, rising to become his top military strategist.

After the fall of the Taliban, he fled to Pakistan and became the most senior leader in the organisation's Quetta Shura branch after Omar.

He is credited with bringing together all factions of the Taliban under one umbrella and commands great respect and influence in the movement both in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Even before his detention, he had reached out to the Karzai government and steps to begin peace talks had been taken.

Baradar is the first Taliban prisoner released under the mechanism agreed by the two sides at the Chequers summit in the UK earlier this year.

Pakistan has released at least 33 Taliban inmates over the last year at the request of the Afghan government.

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Nairobi Shopping Mall: Gunmen Kill 'At Least 10'

At least 15 people have reportedly been killed in a suspected terrorist attack on a shopping mall in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

Gunmen opened fire and detonated grenades inside the Westgate centre, a mall popular with expatriates.

Police chief Benson Kibue described the incident as a terrorist attack, telling the AP news agency up to 10 men exchanged gunfire with police.

Cars and shopping trollies were left abandoned outside the mall

Abbas Guled, of the Kenya Red Cross, told Reuters at least 15 people had been killed.

"The casualties are many and that's only what we have on the outside," he said. "Inside there are even more casualties and shooting is still going on."

Abdi Osman Adan, a journalist in Nairobi, told Sky News staff at a supermarket and a jewellery store had reportedly been taken hostage.

An ambulance arrives as a woman flees from the shopping centre

Witnesses reported seeing the attackers "firing at any police officers who tried to approach the building", he said.

Rob Vandijk, who works at the Dutch embassy, said he was eating at a restaurant inside the mall when the attackers threw hand grenades inside the building.

He said he heard gunfire and people screaming as they dropped to the ground.

Shoppers leave the mall, which is situated in an affluent area of Nairobi

Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government tweeted: "We're doing our job to ensure that everyone is evacuated to safety. This is a scene of crime."

In a separate message, Kenya Police wrote: "We urge the public to remain calm, stop any form of speculation, especially online, and let us resolve this quickly."

Westgate is situated in western Nairobi and is popular with both foreigners and rich Kenyans.

According to the centre's website, it is the city's "premier shopping mall" and offers a "serene and safe enviornment away from the city centre hubbub".

It has more than 80 stores and features a waterfall with tropical gardens.

A spokesman for the Foreign Office advised British nationals to avoid the mall and the surrounding Westlands district.

More follows...

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Syria Completes Chemical Weapon List Handover

Syria has completed the handover of its chemical arsenal inventory, the world's chemical weapons watchdog says.

Confirmation of the handover came ahead of the Saturday deadline issued to Syrian president Bashar al Assad's regime in a US-Russian disarmament plan.

The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said in an email: "OPCW has confirmed that it has received the expected disclosure from the Syrian government regarding its chemical weapons programme.

"The Technical Secretariat is currently reviewing the information received."

It came as the chief of staff for Russian President Vladimir Putin said the country could abandon support for the Assad regime if it learnt Syria was not committed to handing over its chemical weapons.

Sergei Ivanov reiterated Russia's longstanding opposition to Western military intervention in Syria, saying such action would only aid militants linked to al Qaeda.

Around 1,400 people were killed in the chemical attack on August 21

"In the event of external military interference the opposition ... would entirely lose interest in negotiations, considering that the US would bomb the regime to its foundations as in Libya, giving them an easy path to victory," he said.

Mr Ivanov made the comments reported by Russian media to a Stockholm conference organised by the British-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

He said Russia expected to know the whereabouts of all the Assad regime's chemical weapons within a week, although it would take two to three months to decide how long would be required to destroy them.

"I'm talking theoretically and hypothetically, but if we became sure that Assad is cheating, we could change our position," he said.

United Nations inspectors released a report this week saying there was "clear and convincing evidence" that chemical weapons were used in an attack in Damascus on August 21. It said 1,400 people were killed in the attack.

The attack prompted an international diplomatic crisis over Syria, with US airstrikes appearing likely before a plan to prevent military action was put forward by Russia.

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Rhino Poaching Deaths Set For Record High

By Alex Crawford, Special Correspondent, in the Eastern Cape

The number of rhinos killed in South Africa looks set to exceed last year's record total.

With just three months left in 2013, the number of rhinos killed is more than 500 and appears almost certain to top 2012's death toll of 668.

The South African Government has already sent in the military to the country's flagship game reserve, the Kruger National Park, to help in the fight against poaching.

There is also a plethora of independently-funded efforts to save the animal which faces extinction for the second time in a century.

One man doing his fair share is veterinarian Dr William Fowlds who is the founder of Rhino Lifeline and managed to persuade the South African bank Investec to help financially support his efforts.

Veterinarians work with a rhino injured by poachers

The Investec cash has helped pay for helicopters and medical supplies so Dr Fowlds can track rhinos from the air, fire tranquilisers into them, then drill tiny holes in their horns into which chips are inserted so the rangers can keep track of them.

DNA is also taken and stored on the national database in Pretoria.

:: Warning: The video on this story shows animals in distress and receiving medical treatment.

Dr Fowlds was the first vet on the scene when three rhinos were attacked by poachers 18 months ago on the Kariega Game Reserve. One was so badly mutilated, he died hours later.

But somehow Dr Fowlds' prompt work managed to bring the other two back from the brink.

The rangers were traumatised by the sight of these animals with their horns and part of their faces ripped off by the poachers.

They were lying motionless, heavily tranquilised by the thieves. Dr Fowlds set about injecting them with antibiotics, pain-killers and vitamins and tidied their wounds.

Dr William Fowlds is the founder of Rhino Lifeline

They were named Thandi and Themba and the vet team worked frantically to save the two of them. But 24 days later, Themba was found drowned in a waterhole.

Internal injuries were to blame. The vet team was distraught. Dr Fowlds was determined he wasn't going to lose Thandi too.

He performed procedure after procedure on the animal, even performing pioneering skin graft operations on the rhino, snipping skin away from behind her ear and growing it over the bloody hole where the horn had been.

Less than two years on, Thandi is alive and has a new mate. Her mate's horn has had to be cut off to try to protect her from his amorous advances but they are both alive and far less of a poachers' target.

The story of Thandi's survival is well known to South Africans who responded in their hundreds with money and offers of help when the news of Thandi and Themba was first reported.

"Thandi's will to survive has been inspirational," Dr Fowlds told Sky News.

"We would never have put her through all those procedures if she hadn't shown us that. I don't think I have ever come across any animal with such a desire to live. And that's what the world needs to know. These animals want to live and we need to help them."

:: Read the second part of Alex Crawford's report this Sunday as she looks at the drastic protection measures introduced in an attempt to save rhinos from poachers in South Africa.

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Assad 'Is At Stalemate And Wants Ceasefire'

Bashar al Assad's forces are at a stalemate with rebels and the government will soon call for a ceasefire, Syria's deputy prime minister has said.

Speaking on behalf of the Government, Qadri Jamil told The Guardian that neither side was strong enough to win the two year conflict.

"Neither the armed opposition nor the regime is capable of defeating the other side," he said. "This zero balance of forces will not change for a while."

He added that the Syrian economy had lost about $100bn (£62bn) during the war, which has killed more than 100,000 people.

Qadri Jamil said the Syrian economy has collapsed due to the war

Mr Jamil said a ceasefire would be called for at a long-delayed conference in Geneva.

However, leaders of the armed opposition have repeatedly refused to go to what it called Geneva Two unless Mr Assad resigns.

His comments came as US Secretary of State John Kerry said "It is a fact" Mr Assad was responsible for August's chemical weapons attack in Damascus.

He said a UN report was "unequivocal" in its conclusion that the sarin gas attack bore the trace of the regime.

Last week the US and Russia hammered out a deal for Syria to hand over its chemical weapons, which America, France and the UK now want enshrined in a United Nations resolution.

A member of the Free Syrian Army holds an RPG launcher

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he cannot be 100% certain that Syria will carry out its commitments to destroy its chemical weapons stockpiles.

"Will we be able to accomplish it all? I cannot be 100% sure about it," he told a news conference.

"But everything we have seen so far in recent days gives us confidence that this will happen ... I hope so."

Mr Putin, who has been Mr Assad's staunchest ally, said he had strong grounds to believe the chemical attack outside Damascus on August 21, which is believed to have killed 1,400 people, was staged by opponents of the Syrian government.

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Mexico Storms: Rescue Helicopter 'Missing'

The number of deaths after the devastating Tropical Storm Manuel and Hurricane Ingrid has risen to 97, Mexican authorities have said.

Rescue workers pulled two bodies from the mudslide in La Pintada, where 68 people were reported missing after the village was devastated by twin storms that slammed the country this week.

Helicopters have evacuated more than 330 people from the village, taking them east to the nearby Pacific resort of Acapulco in Guerrero state.

Around 30 decided to stay in the village during the search for the missing.

Authorities lost contact with a federal police Black Hawk helicopter that was conducting rescue operations, according to reports.

The helicopter had been ferrying villagers down the mountain

The helicopter had taken a group of people from La Pintada to another community and contact was apparently lost after that when the pilot, co-pilot and mechanic were on a return flight.

One report suggested the helicopter may have landed due to bad weather and the crew was unable to radio its base.

The extreme weather has created floods and landslides across the nation.

Submerged trees after the river burst its banks

Civil protection officials said close to 35,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.

Guerrero state, in southern Mexico, has been the most affected, with a landslide in a mountainous area leaving 68 people missing.

Mudslides and collapsed bridges have been reported on key motorways, including the Highway of the Sun, a major four-lane motorway that links Acapulco to Mexico City.

As main routes to Acapulco remained closed on Thursday, hundreds of exhausted and hungry tourists and residents lined up for a chance to get food or find a way out of the city.

"The queue is kilometres long. There are no tents," said Blanca Flores, a tourist from Mexico City.

"There are elderly people (queuing), pregnant women, sick children."

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Chicago Park Shooting: Child Among 13 Injured

At least 13 people, including a three-year-old boy, have been shot in a park in Chicago.

It is thought the attack happened in the Back of the Yards neighbourhood on the city's South Side at 10.15pm on Thursday.

Chicago Fire Department officials said the child was in a critical condition, as are two of the other victims.

"We had multiple victims shot, who were transported to various hospitals throughout the city," said James Mungovan, deputy district chief of the Chicago Fire Department.

Detectives at a sealed off basketball court

No one is believed to be in custody.

Witness Julian Harris told the Chicago Sun-Times that men fired at him from a grey sedan before turning towards Cornell Square Park and firing at people in the area.

He said his three-year-old nephew was wounded in the cheek.

He said: "They hit the light pole next to me, but I ducked down and ran into the house.

"They've been coming round here looking for people to shoot every night, just gang-banging stuff. It's what they do."

Francis John, 70, said she was in her apartment when the attack happened.

Chicago has recently been named America's murder capital

She said she went down to see what was going on and "a lot of youngsters were running scared".

Ms John said she was surprised by what had happened, saying she has lived in the area for 30 years.

She told the Chicago Sun-Times there has not been much gun violence in the neighbourhood in recent years.

FBI figures have shown that Chicago has overtaken New York to become the murder capital of the US with 500 deaths in the last year.

President Barack Obama returned to his adopted hometown earlier this year to appeal for an end to the "senseless" gun violence ravaging Chicago.

He pressed for ambitious gun control measures, which so far have been stalled in the US Congress.

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Egypt Troops Surround Kerdasah After Gun Battle

Egyptian troops backed by helicopters have encircled an Islamist stronghold after exchanging gunfire with suspected militants who killed a senior police officer.

General Nabil Farag was shot dead as troops stormed into the Kerdasah district to arrest people accused of torching a police station and killing 11 security officers in August, according to state TV.

State news agency MENA said Gen Farag, an aide to the police chief of Giza city, was killed on the outskirts of the town by "terrorists and criminal elements".

Security sources said dozens of weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades had been seized and 41 arrests were made as police hunted 140 wanted people.

Interior ministry spokesman Hany Abdel Latif said: "The security forces will not retreat until (Kerdasah) is cleansed of all terrorist and criminal nests."

Footage broadcast by the privately-owned Mihwar TV channel showed armoured personnel carriers, police and soldiers in the streets.

Security forces reportedly imposed a curfew of the area, which police had effectively been barred from entering for almost two months following violence over the ousting of President Mohamed Morsi.

Cairo authorities also briefly shut several lines on the metro system after two unexploded bombs were found on the tracks 100m from Helmeyet el Zaytoun station in the northeast of the city.

The Interior Ministry later said the bombs were "fake", AFP reported.

Mr Morsi's exit was triggered by mass protests that led to counter-protests nationwide.

Violence between his supporters and security forces included large-scale attacks on police stations, individual security officers and churches.

At least 1,000 people have died in the violence with most deaths coming during the security forces' dispersal of two pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo on August 14.

About 100 police officers also died in the clashes.

Nearly 2,000 Islamist activists and politicians have been arrested since Mr Morsi was forced from office.

Kerdasah, known for producing and selling fancy fabrics is 14km from Cairo and known to be an Islamist stronghold.

Residents of the area said on Wednesday they were not in control but do not want police there.

"We don't trust them as we know they will come to arrest people we know and respect whom they blame on the violence that we know was done by outsiders, not by our respectable sheikhs," Ahmed Aly said.

Egyptian security forces had last Monday stormed the town of Delga in Minya province, about 300km south of Cairo, clearing barricades set up by Mr Morsi's supporters there who were almost in control of the town.

Some 56 residents were arrested.

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Assad To Destroy Chemical Weapons 'In A Year'

Syrian leader Bashar al Assad has said he is committed to destroying his stockpile of chemical arms - but warned it would take a year to do so.

In an interview with Fox News, Mr Assad said he was committed to getting rid of the arsenal but conceded it would cost at least £600m ($1bn).

And he also challenged America to foot the bill.

"It needs a lot of money, it needs about one billion (US dollars)," he told the US crew at the presidential palace in Damascus.

"If the American administration is ready to pay those money, and to take responsibility of bringing toxic materials to the United States, why don't they do it?"

Mr Assad denied responsibility for the gas attack. Picture: Fox News

Mr Assad also insisted that his decision to destroy the weapons was not forced upon him by the threat of US strikes.

He said destroying the weapons was "a very complicated operation, technically".

"So it depends, you have to ask the experts what they mean by quickly. It has a certain schedule," he said.

"It needs a year, or maybe a little bit more."

Assad forces have been shelling in Idlib, activists say

Mr Assad also said a UN report that found "clear and convincing evidence" of a sarin nerve gas attack in Syria last month is "unrealistic", and denied responsibility for it.

He also used the one-hour interview to criticise the American stance in the Syrian crisis, saying that, unlike Russia, Washington had tried to get involved in Syria's leadership and governance.

And as diplomatic wrangling over Syria's chemical weapons continues, a roadside bomb in a central Syria has killed at least 14 members of President Assad's minority Alawite.

Rebels take cover in the Idlib countryside in northwestern Syria

The blast targeted two buses near the Alawite village of Jabourin, north of Homs city, said the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Alawites are an offshoot sect of Shia Islam who mostly support Mr Assad and have been increasingly targeted by hardline fighters among the Sunni Muslim-dominated opposition.

More than 100,000 people have been killed in Syria's civil war

And Turkey has closed one of its border gates to Syria following clashes near the town of Azaz, which is close to the Turkish frontier.

The fighting between the Western-backed Free Syrian Army fighters and an al Qaeda-affiliated rebel group appears to have ceased.

The clashes comes as US Senator John McCain penned an opinion piece for a Russian website in which he criticises Vladimir Putin's close ties with the Assad regime.

Mr McCain's column was in response to Mr Putin's piece in The New York Times last week which was highly critical of America's response to the Syrian crisis.

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Japan: Fukushima Reactors To Be Demolished

Japan's Prime Minister has ordered the destruction of the two nuclear reactors that survived after a tsunami hit the Fukushima plant in 2011.

Shinzo Abe said he stood by his commitment to the International Olympic Committee that the nuclear plant would be made safe before the Summer Games in 2020.

"I will work hard to counter rumours questioning the safety of the Fukushima plant," he said after touring the site on Thursday.

Mr Abe also revealed he had told the plant's owners, the Tokyo Electric Power Co to set a time frame for dealing with leaking contaminated water.

"In order for them to concentrate on this, I have directed them to decommission the no. 5 and no. 6 reactors that are now halted," Mr Abe said.

Mr Shinzo meets a worker at the Fukushima plant

The tsunami that battered the Fukushima Daiichi plant on March 11, 2011 caused fuel-rod meltdowns and radioactive contamination of air, sea and food.

Some 160,000 people were evacuated from their homes and many are still waiting to return.

Recently authorities have been struggling to contain leaks of radioactive groundwater.

Mr Abe said the president of Tokyo Electric, Naomi Hirose, had promised to finish treating contaminated water by March 2015

Tanks of contaminated water at the plant

His visit to the plant, 140 miles (240km) north of Tokyo, came after he pledged the government would take a more central role in the clean-up as part of Tokyo's successful bid for the Olympics.

Four reactors were destroyed by meltdowns and hydrogen explosions but reactors 5 and 6 escaped serious damage and Tokyo Electric has been allowed to include them as an asset on its balance sheet.

The company, which has posted more than £16.8bn ($27bn) in net losses since the disaster, is negotiating with a syndicate of Japanese banks for a refinancing of £517m (($816m) due next month.

It is feared the order to scrap the two remaining two reactors will make it even more difficult to reach a deal.

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McCain To Russia: 'Putin Doesn't Respect You'

Vladimir Putin's Letter To America

Updated: 1:25pm UK, Thursday 12 September 2013

By Vladimir Putin, Russian President, for The New York Times

Recent events surrounding Syria have prompted me to speak directly to the American people and their political leaders. It is important to do so at a time of insufficient communication between our societies.

Relations between us have passed through different stages. We stood against each other during the Cold War. But we were also allies once, and defeated the Nazis together. The universal international organisation - the United Nations - was then established to prevent such devastation from ever happening again.

The United Nations' founders understood that decisions affecting war and peace should happen only by consensus, and with America's consent the veto by Security Council permanent members was enshrined in the United Nations Charter. The profound wisdom of this has underpinned the stability of international relations for decades.

No one wants the United Nations to suffer the fate of the League of Nations, which collapsed because it lacked real leverage. This is possible if influential countries bypass the United Nations and take military action without Security Council authorisation.

The potential strike by the United States against Syria, despite strong opposition from many countries and major political and religious leaders, including the Pope, will result in more innocent victims and escalation, potentially spreading the conflict far beyond Syria's borders.

A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism. It could undermine multilateral efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and further destabilise the Middle East and North Africa. It could throw the entire system of international law and order out of balance.

Syria is not witnessing a battle for democracy, but an armed conflict between government and opposition in a multireligious country. There are few champions of democracy in Syria. But there are more than enough Qaeda fighters and extremists of all stripes battling the government.

The United States State Department has designated Al Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, fighting with the opposition, as terrorist organisations. This internal conflict, fuelled by foreign weapons supplied to the opposition, is one of the bloodiest in the world.

Mercenaries from Arab countries fighting there, and hundreds of militants from Western countries and even Russia, are an issue of our deep concern. Might they not return to our countries with experience acquired in Syria? After all, after fighting in Libya, extremists moved on to Mali. This threatens us all.

From the outset, Russia has advocated peaceful dialogue enabling Syrians to develop a compromise plan for their own future. We are not protecting the Syrian government, but international law. We need to use the United Nations Security Council and believe that preserving law and order in today's complex and turbulent world is one of the few ways to keep international relations from sliding into chaos.

The law is still the law, and we must follow it whether we like it or not. Under current international law, force is permitted only in self-defence or by the decision of the Security Council. Anything else is unacceptable under the United Nations Charter and would constitute an act of aggression.

No one doubts that poison gas was used in Syria. But there is every reason to believe it was used not by the Syrian army, but by opposition forces, to provoke intervention by their powerful foreign patrons, who would be siding with the fundamentalists. Reports that militants are preparing another attack - this time against Israel - cannot be ignored.

It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States. Is it in America's long-term interest? I doubt it. Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan "you're either with us or against us".

But force has proved ineffective and pointless. Afghanistan is reeling, and no one can say what will happen after international forces withdraw. Libya is divided into tribes and clans. In Iraq the civil war continues, with dozens killed each day. In the United States, many draw an analogy between Iraq and Syria, and ask why their government would want to repeat recent mistakes.

No matter how targeted the strikes or how sophisticated the weapons, civilian casualties are inevitable, including the elderly and children, whom the strikes are meant to protect.

The world reacts by asking: if you cannot count on international law, then you must find other ways to ensure your security. Thus a growing number of countries seek to acquire weapons of mass destruction. This is logical: if you have the bomb, no one will touch you. We are left with talk of the need to strengthen non-proliferation, when in reality this is being eroded.

We must stop using the language of force and return to the path of civilised diplomatic and political settlement.

A new opportunity to avoid military action has emerged in the past few days. The United States, Russia and all members of the international community must take advantage of the Syrian government's willingness to place its chemical arsenal under international control for subsequent destruction.

Judging by the statements of President Obama, the United States sees this as an alternative to military action.

I welcome the president's interest in continuing the dialogue with Russia on Syria. We must work together to keep this hope alive, as we agreed to at the Group of 8 meeting in Lough Erne in Northern Ireland in June, and steer the discussion back toward negotiations.

If we can avoid force against Syria, this will improve the atmosphere in international affairs and strengthen mutual trust. It will be our shared success and open the door to cooperation on other critical issues.

My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust. I appreciate this. I carefully studied his address to the nation on Tuesday. And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States' policy is "what makes America different. It's what makes us exceptional".

It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord's blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.

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Greece Strike Amid Anti-Racist Rapper Killing

By Anthee Carassava, in Athens

Thousands of civil servants in Greece have taken to the streets in protest against looming jobs cuts, as a 34-year-old anti-racist hip hop artist was stabbed to death by a neo-Nazi.

Described by politicians and police as one of the worst shows of political violence in decades, the rapper's murder sent shock waves across a country that has seen the extreme-right Golden Dawn party surge in popularity since its election to parliament last year.

Authorities told Sky News that a 45-year-old member of the neo-Nazi party had confessed to the brutal stabbing hours after he was arrested and taken to police headquarters in central Athens.

"We are now conducting police raids at the party's main headquarters in Athens," a senior police official said.

Local media said Pavlos Fyssas - otherwise known as Killah P - was ambushed by a mob of youths dressed in black after an altercation at a football cafe in the working class district of Keratsini, west of the Greek capital.

"As he moved to leave the building the assailant emerged from a crowd, stabbing him twice in the heart," said a senior police officer.

Reports said Fyssas managed to whisper the name of his killer to his girlfriend before being taken to a local hospital, where he died of his wounds.

A banner advertising the two-day strike

The attack comes less than a week after teams of around 50 men wielding crowbars and bats set upon a group of communist steel workers as they distributed posters near the port of Perama.

Golden Dawn immediately denied any involvement, but authorities fear the incident will exacerbate an already explosive social situation in Greece.

Police said they were taken urgent security measures to shield protests against Golden Dawn.

Meanwhile, two separate rallies were planned in Athens on Wednesday where tens of thousands of public workers walked out over proposed job losses.

It was the first stoppage ever to hit Greece's bloated and costly civil sector.

The 48-hour strike has affected all public services across the country. Schools, state bureaux and courts have closed, while hospitals have been operating on skeleton staff. Trains were due to stop running for four hours.

Journalists suspended industrial action and a media blackout to cover the attack on Fyssas.

Hit hard by the economic crisis, Greece is experiencing a sixth consecutive year of recession which experts fear is fuelling an increase in violence.

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Foss Lake: Bodies Found In Submerged Cars

The skeletal remains of at least six people have been discovered inside two cars found at the bottom of a lake in Oklahoma.

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said the cars had been found in Foss Lake, near Elk City, during a training session with a new sonar device.

The first was an early 1950s model Chevrolet car that had three bodies inside.

It was initially believed to include a couple who were last seen in Canute in the 1960s and were reportedly on their way to Foss Lake - but were never seen again.

The three teenagers thought to be in one of the vehicles

But it was later suggested the car belonged to Alvi Porter, who went missing 44 years ago when he was 69 years old.

The second car pulled from the lake had three bodies inside, believed to be teenagers reported missing from the Sayre area in 1970.

They could be that of 16-year-old Jimmy Allen Williams, 18-year-old Leah Gail Johnson and 18-year-old Thomas Michael Rios.

The teenagers were reported missing on November 27, 1970, and were last seen riding around Sayre in Jimmy Williams' 1969 Chevrolet Camaro.

Alvi Porter, suspected of owning one of the cars, went missing in 1969

Custer County Sheriff Bruce Peoples told KWEY radio: "It's just been under water for 40 years. It's a mucky mess."

Authorities have not formally identified the bodies.

Debbie McManamman was 13 years old when her grandfather Alvi Porter went missing.

"I remember that green car," she said.

The cars were found by police officers training with sonar devices

"It's sad. I can see his tall, lanky body walking up to the car. He always had a smile on his face.

"It's been very traumatic. I can remember my dad having dreams at night and getting in the car as soon as he finished his day job, taking my mom, and they would look and look and look."

It is thought the car belonged to Mr Porter, prompting new questions as to the identity of the other two bodies.

Mrs McManamman added: "There's a lot of mystery, it's a mystery."

Map shows the lake in Oklahoma

Betsy Randolph, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, said the vehicles were located by dive teams last week.

"So they went back and did a scheduled dive today and were going to recover the cars," she said.

"When they pulled the cars out of the water, the first one that came out they found bones in the car.

"We thought it was just going to be stolen vehicles and that's not what it turned out to be, obviously."

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Mexico Storms: Tourists Evacuate Acapulco

Emergency flights are starting to evacuate some of the 40,000 tourists who have been left stranded at a Mexican holiday resort cut off by floods.

Landslides, rockslides, floodwaters and collapsed bridges severed links to Acapulco after Tropical Storm Manuel hit the coast on Sunday.

Thousands of stranded tourists lined up outside an air force base north of the city to try to get a seat on one of a handful of planes flying to Mexico City.

Families dressed in shorts and sandals stood for up to eight hours outside the base as they waited for a flight.

As well as two passengers planes being used in the evacuation operation, the army has pressed five helicopters and seven cargo aircraft into service.

Acapulco's international airport is swamped by floodwaters

Some flights were also being operated out of the swamped international airport by two of Mexico's largest airlines, Aeromexico and Interjet.

Priority was being given to those with tickets, the elderly and families with young children.

Passengers were being taken directly to the runway from a concert hall which is being used as a shelter and operations centre for the airport.

"We're deciding whether we return by plane or wait for the road to open, but the problem is food," Andres Guerra Gutierrez, a Mexico City resident with 14 family members, said as he waited in line.

Guerrero state's government said 40,000 tourists were stuck in the city, but the head of the local chamber of business owners said reports from hotels indicated the number could be as high as 60,000.

The military is helping with the relief effort

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it was aware of the problems being caused to British tourists by the storms.

A statement said: "We are in close contact with local authorities and are providing consular assistance to British nationals in the affected area.

"British people who require assistance should contact the British embassy in Mexico City."

David Jefferson Gled, a 28-year-old from Bristol, who teaches English at a private school in Mexico City, said: "It's probably one of the worst holidays I've ever been on.

"It wasn't really a holiday, more of an incarceration."

Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong told Radio Formula that 27 people had been killed in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located.

Up to 60,000 tourists are believed to be in Acapulco

Another 20 people have died across the country, many as a result of former hurricane Ingrid, which struck the Gulf coast on Monday.

It is the first time since 1958 that two storms have hit both the country's coasts within 24 hours, according to meteorologists.

Many parts of Acapulco are without water or electricity, with knee-deep floodwaters inside the city's airports.

Federal officials said it could take two more days to open the main road to the city, which was hit by more than 13 landslides during heavy rain, and to bring supplies to the more than 800,000 people in Acapulco.

The US National Hurricane Centre said Manuel was expected to strengthen near resorts at the tip of the Baja California Peninsula.

More than 23,000 people have fled their homes in the state and at least 20 highways and 12 bridges have been damaged.

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Syria: Nato Defends Military Strikes Option

Syria: How The Crisis Has Developed

Updated: 11:34am UK, Wednesday 18 September 2013

:: March 2011 - Protesters stage demonstrations in Damascus and security forces in Daraa shoot dead several campaigners, leading to unrest and violence.

:: May - The Syrian military deploys tanks in a bid to quash demonstrations.

:: July 19 - The UK freezes £100m of Syrian assets.

:: August 18 - US President Barack Obama calls on Bashar al Assad to step down. The US freezes all assets of the Syrian government.

:: November 16 - The Free Syrian Army attacks a military base near Damascus.

:: February 4, 2012 - A UN Security Council resolution on Syria is rejected for a second time by Russia and China.

:: March 1 - Government troops seize the Baba Amr district of Homs after an intense battle lasting for several weeks.

:: April 12 - A UN-brokered ceasefire comes into force after fierce fighting in the country.

:: May 23 - Dozens of people, many of them women and children, die in Houla, near Homs. Foreign Secretary William Hague says they were "massacred at the hands of Syrian forces". The UN later accuses the Syrian military of committing war crimes.

:: August - Barack Obama says the use of chemical weapons against civilians would represent the crossing of a "red line".

:: March 6, 2013 - Foreign Secretary William Hague says Britain will provide opposition forces with "non-lethal equipment for the protection of civilians".

:: April-May - Britain says there is credible evidence to suggest Syrian forces have used chemical weapons in Adra, Darayya and Saraqiq and calls for an investigation by the UN.

:: April 29 - Syrian prime minister Wael Nader al Halqi survives an assassination attempt as a car bomb explodes in Damascus.

:: May 14 - Footage of a Syrian rebel commander apparently cutting out a soldier's heart is condemned by the country's National Coalition.

:: June 6 - Syrian forces, backed by Hizbollah fighters, recapture the strategic border town of Qusair.

:: June 6 - Human Rights Watch releases footage which it claims shows Syrian troops shelling school buildings.

:: July 25 - The UN says the number of people killed in the civil war has reached 100,000.

:: August 21 - An alleged chemical attack in Damascus kills 1,300 people, according to the opposition. Doctors Without Borders says 335 people died from "neurotoxic" symptoms.

:: August 25 - Foreign Secretary William Hague says a chemical attack by the Syrian government is the only "plausible explanation" for the deaths.

:: August 26 - UN inspectors brave sniper fire to gather "valuable" evidence from one site of the alleged chemical attack, as the US Secretary of State John Kerry says the Assad regime would face action over the "moral obscenity".

:: August 27 - The UK recalls Parliament to hold a vote on August 29 on the use of chemical weapons in Syria. David Cameron and Barack Obama agree there is "no doubt" the Assad regime is responsible for the alleged attack.

:: August 28 - Britain tables a draft UN resolution condemning the alleged attack and "authorising all necessary measures".

:: August 29 - David Cameron is forced to rule out military action after narrowly losing a Commons vote on the principle of intervention.

:: August 31 - President Obama says the US "should take military action" in Syria but confirms he will seek authorisation from Congress before launching any strikes against the Assad regime. He says the US is "prepared to strike whenever we choose".

:: September 2 - a French intelligence reports claims the Assad regime was responsible for a "massive and coordinated" chemical attack in Damascus.

:: September 3 - Israel says it has carried out a joint missile test with the US in the Mediterranean.

:: September 4 - The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approve a draft US resolution authorising the use of military force in Syria. Meanwhile, MPs in France debate whether to join any possible military intervention, although they do not vote on the subject.

:: September 5 - World leaders meet at the G20 summit in Russia, with the crisis in Syria high on the agenda.

:: September 6 - Britain pledges £52m in aid to Syria, as David Cameron hits back at a reported jibe from Russia that Britain is a "small island".

:: September 8 - The RAF sends up two Typhoon jets in Cyprus as warplanes, thought to have come from Syria, enter international airspace. Meanwhile John Kerry says more nations than his country can use are prepared to join military action against Syria.

:: September 9 - Russia urges Syrian President Bashar al Assad to hand over his chemical weapons to avert a US-led military strike on Damascus.

:: September 10 - President Barack Obama delays a Congress vote on air strikes as Russia gives the US its plan for putting Syria's chemical weapons under international contral.

:: September 11 - A UN report confirms at least eight massacres were carried by the Assad regime and one by rebels over the past 18 months.

:: September 12 - Syria formally applies to join the Chemical Weapons Convention. Russia and US hold two days of talks on the issue.

:: September 14 - The US and Russia agree on a giving Syria a deadline of one week to produce a list of chemical weapons they possess. 

:: September 16 - British, French and US foreign ministers meet in Paris and warn "there will be consequences" if Syria fails to abide by the plan to hand over its chemical weapons arsenal.

:: September 18 - Syria hands Russia "new materials" on the Damascus gas attack which it claims implicate rebels. Russia also calls the UN report into the incident "biased" and "politicised".

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Costa Concordia Salvage Operation Completed

By Tom Kington, on Giglio

Twenty months after it capsized off the Tuscan island of Giglio, killing 32 people, the Costa Concordia has risen from the Mediterranean after a successful £500m salvage operation

Dozens of giant pulleys hauled the cruise ship back to an upright position in a 19-hour operation, exposing a section of the white ship's exterior that was stained by rust and algae after months under water.

By 4am on Tuesday, the 950-foot-long, 114,000-ton vessel had been pulled through 65 degrees to stand on a bed of over 1,000 concrete sacks and six huge underwater platforms.

Italy's civil protection chief Franco Gabrielli speaking at a late night press conference on Giglio, where he was applauded and cheered by residents, said: "The rotation has finished its course, we are at zero degrees, the ship is resting on the platforms."

The image shows how the ship was righted overnight

Franco Porcellacchia, an engineer working on the salvage for ship owner Costa Cruises, said: "It could not have gone better than this. It was a perfect operation."

The Costa Concordia grounded near the port of Giglio in January 2012 after its captain, Francesco Schettino, smashed it into coastal rock during a so-called "sail past".

He is now standing trial on charges of manslaughter and abandoning his ship.

The ship eventually stood on 1,000 concrete sacks and underwater platforms

Some 4,200 passengers and crew scrambled into lifeboats or plunged into shallow water after the ship ran aground and came to rest impaled on its side on two underwater outcrops of granite.

As it rose out of the water in the early hours of Tuesday, two large indentations could be seen on the side of the ship where it had been pinioned on the rocks.

After the operation started on Monday morning, 6,000 tons of pressure were required to pull the ship free from the rock, which had penetrated 18ft into the hull.

The ship was tilted heavily on its side before the operation

The ship was then slowly turned through the afternoon until 11 massive metal boxes welded to the exposed side of the ship, some the height of 11-storey buildings, splashed into the water.

By midnight, salvage workers were able to switch off the pulleys and open valves in the boxes to allow water in at 1,000 cubic feet a minute, adding the necessary ballast to bring the ship down onto the platforms.

When the ship is deemed stable, metal boxes will also be added to the formerly submerged side of the ship. Then, water will be pumped out of the boxes, floating the vessel so it can be  towed next spring to a port, probably on the Italian mainland, for breaking up.

More than 30 people were killed when the ship hit rocks

Mr Porcellacchia said: "We have already looked at the side of the ship to see where the boxes will go and we will quantify the work to do. The starboard side looks pretty bad, as we expected."

Fears that a polluted slick of paint, residual fuel, small quantities of heavy metal and rotting food would emerge from the ship, proved unfounded, officials said on Tuesday.

Sergio Girotto, the project manager for Italian salvage firm Micoperi, which has managed the salvage with US firm Titan Salvage, said: "Now we will see what support and adjustments the ship needs."

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Chinese Dissident Arrested After TV Interview

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent

An outspoken Chinese dissident has been placed under house arrest a day after he appeared in an interview with Sky News.

Hu Jia, 40, criticised his government in the interview and in a daily stream of blogs on social media.

He agreed to speak to Sky News in the knowledge that he could face arrest, but in a phone interview this morning he said he did not think the interview alone had prompted his arrest.

"House arrest is a norm in my life," he said on the phone from his home. "Having freedom is abnormal for me.

"Like the times when I have been arrested before, I have not been told why I am being detained, nor have I been told when this period of house arrest will end.

"There are four people, sometimes more, in the courtyard of my home. If they see me leave my home they will stop me and tell me I am not allowed to go out. 'Please do what we say' they tell me. This is the most polite way. Sometimes they behave really badly.

"This is nothing new. Just big guys to stop me from going anywhere; making my home into a prison, that's how they do it."

The Chinese government wants to 'drain toxic lies from the internet'

In last week's interview Mr Hu described the Chinese Communist Party as no different from the former Soviet government.

"This country has a regime which rules by fear. Citizens are surrounded by a wall of fear, unable to express themselves," he said.

"I think the Chinese communist government are the same as the former Soviet Union, even the German Nazi Party.

"This is one big prison. I don't want to be inside a prison, I want to be a free man. I will express myself freely. Nothing should stop me from expressing my opinions."

He is used to house arrest having already spent several years unable to leave his own home. That had followed three years in jail as punishment for his outspoken views.

Mr Hu's Sky interview was aired last Friday, but it was filmed several days before. By coincidence, a number of other outspoken individuals were arrested on the same day, prompting some commentators in Hong Kong, where the media operates with more freedom, to refer to it as "Black Friday".

The Chinese government is significantly intensifying its efforts to crack down on those who speak out against it.

The government claims the tighter restrictions are in place to "drain toxic lies from the internet" and to rid social networks of "malicious" and "libellous" content.

However, there is growing evidence that the authorities are simply rounding up critics of the communist leadership at an unprecedented pace.

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Washington Navy Base Killer: An Armed Buddhist

Aaron Alexis, who the FBI said carried out a deadly rampage at the Washington Navy Yard, lived a life of dramatic contrasts.

The 34-year-old was a former Navy reservist, a defence subcontractor for IT giant Hewlett-Packard and a convert to Buddhism who was taking an online course in aeronautics.

But Alexis, who grew up in Brooklyn, New York, also had flashes of temper that led to run-ins with police over shootings in Fort Worth, Texas, and Seattle.

Alexis had converted to Buddhism

While some neighbours said he was "nice", others said they were afraid of him.

But authorities are still trying to establish what motivated Alexis to carry out the shooting, killing 12 people before being gunned down by police himself.

It has been reported that Alexis was suffering from mental health issues at the time of the shooting and had been hearing voices.

When Alexis was arrested over a shooting incident in Seattle in 2004, he told police he was present during "the tragic events of September 11, 2001" and described "how those events had disturbed him".

At the time, his father also said his son had anger management problems related to post-traumatic stress brought on by the terrorist attacks.

Seattle police said Alexis was arrested and charged for shooting out the tyres of a vehicle in what he later described to detectives as an anger-fuelled "blackout".

Two construction workers had parked their car in the driveway of their work site, next to a home where Alexis was staying, the police report said.

When detectives interviewed workers at the construction site, they told police Alexis had stared at construction workers at the job site daily for several weeks prior to the shooting.

Alexis shot 12 people dead before being killed by police

The owner of the construction business told police he believed Alexis was angry over the parking situation around the site.

According to the police account, Alexis had also told detectives he thought he had been "mocked" by construction workers on the morning of the incident.

Then in May 2007, Alexis enlisted in the Navy reserve. He was discharged for misconduct in early 2011.

"There is definitely a pattern of misconduct during his service," a US military officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told news agency AFP.

But Alexis did receive the National Defence Service Medal and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.

Both medals are issued to large numbers of service members who have served since the 9/11 attacks.

It was while he was still in the reserves that a neighbour in Fort Worth reported she had been nearly struck by a bullet shot from his downstairs apartment.

The neighbour told police she was scared of Alexis and felt he fired intentionally because he had complained about her making too much noise.

Police outside the home of Alexis's mother in Brooklyn, New York

Fort Worth police arrested Alexis about the neighbour's report.

Alexis admitted to firing his weapon but said he was cleaning his gun when it accidentally discharged. He was released without charge.

After leaving the reserves, Alexis was a popular waiter and delivery driver at the Happy Bowl Thai restaurant in Fort Worth.

He visited Thailand and learned some of the local language so could speak to Thai customers in their native tongue.

"He was a very nice person. It kind of blows my mind away. I wouldn't think anything bad at all," former co-worker Afton Bradley said.

Other friends say Alexis was contemplating moving to Asia.

A former acquaintance, Oui Suthametewakul, said Alexis lived with him and his wife from August 2012 to May 2013 in Fort Worth.

Alexis died after a shoot-out with police at the Navy Yard

He said they parted ways because Alexis was not paying his bills.

Despite this, Mr Suthametewakul described Alexis as a "nice guy" - but he sometimes carried a gun and would frequently complain about being the victim of discrimination.

Mr Thairintr said Alexis told him he was upset with the Navy because "he thought he never got a promotion because of the colour of his skin. He hated his commander".

Mr Thairintr said Alexis was "very devoted Buddhist" who prayed at a local temple.

"We are all shocked. We are non-violent. Aaron was a very good practitioner of Buddhism. He could chant better than even some of the Thai congregants," said Ty Thairintr, who last saw Alexis five weeks ago.

"There was no tell-tale sign of this behaviour."

In the early 2000s, before he moved to Seattle, Alexis lived with his mother in New York City, said Gene Demby, who said he dated one of Alexis' younger sisters at the time.

"He was insecure. He was like a barbershop conspiracy theorist, the kind of guy who believes he's smarter than everyone else," said Mr Demby, the lead writer for National Public Radio's Code Switch blog about race and culture.

"He also was kind of like perpetually aggrieved, but not megalomaniacal or delusional."

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Washington Navy Yard Killer 'Hearing Voices'

US Deadliest Shootings

Updated: 10:32am UK, Tuesday 17 September 2013

The shooting at the Washington navy yard has been described by Barack Obama as "yet another mass shooting". It is part of a grim list in modern US history.

:: Sandy Hook, Connecticut, December 14, 2012:

Adam Lanza, 20, killed his mother before opening fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, killing 20 children and six adults. He then turned the gun on himself.

It is the worst school shooting in America's history and second only to the Virginia Tech massacre in terms of the country's deadliest ever attacks.

Both attacks make up a grim history of mass murders using firearms in the US.

:: Aurora, Colorado, July 20, 2012:

A masked gunman burst in on the Century 16 cinema during a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises throwing tear gas before opening fire.

He killed 12 and injured 58. James Eagan Holmes, 24, is the sole suspect and was arrested at the scene. He will appear in court in January.

:: Fort Hood, Killeen, Texas, November 5, 2009:

A 42-year-old US Army Major, serving as a psychiatrist, opened fire inside the US military base killing 13 and wounding 29 in an attack deemed an act of terrorism. Hasan was shot and captured and is paralysed from the waist down.

Before the killing he had been in touch with the late al Qaeda recruiter Anwar al Awlaki to ask whether he would be considered a martyr if he died shooting US soldiers.

:: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, April 16, 2007:

Seung-Hui Cho, 23, killed 32 and injured 17 in America's deadliest shooting. He launched two separate attacks at the campus two hours apart before killing himself.

Cho had a history of mental illness and was in therapy through his school years.

:: Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, October 2, 2006:

Charles Carl Roberts shot dead five and injured five in an attack at an Amish school. The 32-year-old dish washer at a local restaurant then killed himself.

He was driven by anger at God over the death of his premature daughter.

:: Red Lake Indian Reservation, March 21, 2005:

Sixteen-year-old Jeffrey Weise killed his grandfather and grandfather's companion before opening fire at Red Lake High School. He killed nine and injured seven, then took his own life.

He blamed years of school bullying for the attack.

:: Forth Worth, Sept 25, 1999:

Unemployed white supremacist Larry Gene Ashbrook opened fire on the congregation of Wedgwood Baptist Church, killing seven and wounding seven. He then turned the gun on himself.

Ashbrook, 47, was a member of a group that advocated killing minorities.

:: Atlanta, July 29, 1999:

Mark Orrin Barton, a trader, opened fire in two investment offices killing nine and wounding 12. He killed himself after a six-hour police manhunt.

The 44-year-old had been upset by big financial losses.

:: Columbine High School, Colorado, April 20, 1999:

Students Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, opened fire on schoolmates after bombs they had planted in the cafeteria failed to go off. They killed 13 and injured 21 before killing themselves.

The students were motivated by their anger at society. Harris had a history of depression.

:: McDonald's, San Ysidro, California, July 18 1984:

Welder James Huberty walked into a McDonald's and opened fire killing 21 people and wounding 19 before being shot by a police sniper.

The 51-year-old thought society was about to collapse. When asked where he was going as he left the house for the killing, he told his wife: "hunting humans".

:: University of Texas, Austin, August 1, 1966:

Engineering student Charles Joseph Whitman, 25, opened fire on students from the 28th floor of the main campus building. He killed 13 and wounded 32 before being shot dead by a police marksman. He also killed his wife and mother.

In a note he said he was suffering irrational thoughts and wanted to relieve his wife and mother from suffering but offered no explanation for the university attack.

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Turkey: Police And Protesters In New Clashes

Riot police fired rubber bullets and water cannon at thousands of anti-government protesters overnight in two Turkish cities.

In the Kadikoy district of Istanbul a rally began peacefully with a series of concerts, but as night fell chaos erupted when police charged at protesters who wanted to march to the ruling AK Party's headquarters.

Protesters set fire to barricades in the street while police tried to control the crowd by firing plastic bullets and tear gas.

Several demonstrators were arrested and an elderly man was taken to hospital.

Meanwhile, demonstrators and riot police faced off for a sixth straight night in the southern city of Antakya in Hatay Province, near the border with Syria.

Police used gas canisters on the protesters, who had blocked off a street with barricades that were set on fire.

Thousands took to the streets in downtown Istanbul

They later moved in with water cannon to extinguish the flames.

There have been ongoing but relatively minor protests across Turkey since the major clashes of three to four months ago.

But anger intensified again last week after a 22-year-old man, Ahmet Atakan, died during clashes between demonstrators and the police in Antakya.

Mr Atakan died after falling from a building, but investigations are ongoing.

His family claim he was hit by a gas canister while police deny responsibility for his death.

The latest unrest comes six months before local elections, the start of a voting cycle which also includes a presidential election next August - in which Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is expected to run - and parliamentary polls in 2015.

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Costa Concordia: Ship Heaved Off Rocky Seabed

By Tom Kington, in Giglio

Crews attempting to right the Costa Concordia have successfully detached the wrecked cruise liner from the rocks on which it was impaled.

The salvage operation got under way this morning, after a three-hour delay due to bad weather.

Engineer Sergio Girotto said the crippled vessel would not budge for some three hours after the operation began.

After 6,000 tons of pressure was applied, the vessel was pulled free from the rocks.

Mr Girotto said: "We saw the detachment." The officials are following the operation thanks to undersea cameras.

The rescue effort will see the giant ship gradually rotated and hauled 65 degrees back to upright position for eventual towing.

The operation just outside the small Italian island of Giglio, off the Tuscan coast, is expected to last up to 12 hours, taking it into Monday evening.

Engineers say the lifting can continue after darkness falls.

So far, the ship has been raised three degrees, said Mr Girotto.

The Costa Concordia hit granite outcrops on the night of January 13, 2012

As it rose, an ever wider strip of rusted hull has emerged from the sea.

The cruise liner capsized in shallow water 20 months ago after smashing into rock, prompting the chaotic evacuation of 4,200 passengers and crew, and causing the deaths of 32 people.

Two bodies are still missing, and officials said they saw no sign of them as the ship was detached from the rocks.

The first two hours were considered critical in the €600m (£503m) "parbuckling" operation.

"Images show the lifting is happening as planned," said Italian Civil Protection Agency chief Franco Gabrielli, who added that no pollutants had been seen escaping from the vessel as it rose.

"There is significant deformation of the side of the vessel, showing the parbuckling operation needed to happen as soon as possible," he said.

Parbuckling is a proven method to raise capsized vessels, notably used by the US military to right the USS Oklahoma in 1943 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

But the 114,000-ton Concordia has been described as the largest cruise ship ever to require the rotation, making this one most complex and costly maritime salvage operations ever attempted.

A storm hit Giglio on Sunday night, delaying the start of the operation

Engineers are using remote controls to guide a synchronised leverage system of pulleys, counterweights and huge chains looped under the Concordia's carcass to delicately lift the ship upright.

They started the operation by applying bursts of pressure on the pulleys, which are attached to the underwater platform and to towers on the landward side of the ship.

The ship will continue to be pulled upright by the pulleys, Mr Girotto said, "but we will get to a point when we need less pressure".

Soon, massive tanks attached to the exposed side of the ship will touch the water, providing buoyancy.

About 29,000 tons of water will pour out of the ship as it is pulled upright, and an even greater amount, 43,000 tons, will enter the ship.

What does come out will be polluted water that has swilled inside the ship for months in a mix of residual fuels, heavy metals and rotten food, including more than three tons of melon, 500 litres of olive oil, 14,000 packets of cigarettes, 18,000 bottles of wine, eight tons of beef and over 11 tons of fish.

But officials say the risk of an environmental damage is limited.

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Syria: UN Probing 14 Alleged Gas Attacks

The head of a UN panel on war crimes in Syria has revealed it is investigating 14 suspected chemical attacks, as a report appeared to show "clear evidence" of their use.

UN Commission chairman Paulo Sergio Pinheiro said the Geneva-based probe had not yet determined the exact materials used but was awaiting evidence from a separate team of chemical weapons inspectors whose findings are expected to be made public later.

The announcement came as close examination of a photograph of that report being handed over to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon revealed a page from the findings which revealed "clear and convincing evidence that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent Sarin were used".

Ban Ki-moon receiving the report from Swedish expert Ake Sellstrom

Sky's Foreign Affairs Editor Tim Marshall said: "I assume that the UN report will go on talk about the type of weapon that was used.

"Other people will say, 'well only one side had the ability to do that draw a conclusion."

The inspection team, led by Swedish expert Ake Sellstrom, was tasked with determining whether chemical weapons were used in an attack in the suburbs of Damascus on August 21, which the US says killed at least 1,400 people.

Their report will reveal which chemical agents were used, but will not make a judgement on who was responsible.

Details of the report in its entirety are due to be presented in New York by the Secretary-General.

Mr Pinheiro stressed that the "vast majority" of casualties of the conflict had been killed by conventional weapons such as guns and mortars.

He added that the Commission believed that President Bashar al Assad's government had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, while rebel groups had perpetrated war crimes but not crimes against humanity because there was "not a clear chain of command".

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Shots Fired Inside US Navy Base In Washington

Authorities say they are looking for a gunman after shots were fired inside a building at the Washington Navy Yard.

An FBI spokeswoman said there was at least one victim in the attack.

The US. Navy said on Twitter three shots were fired inside their Naval Sea Systems Command headquarters.

The Washington Navy Yard says on its website it is the Navy's oldest shore establishment.

It is home to the chief of Naval Operations and is headquarters for numerous naval commands.

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Syria: Nervous Children Return To School

By Sky Arthy, Sky News Producer, in Damascus

Five million pupils were due back in school today in Syria at the start of the new year.

It is a scene that is played out across the world and it looks no different in Damascus.

Excited five-year-olds with new backpacks clutching their parents' hands not knowing what to expect on their first day.

Teenage girls wearing the latest fashions walking arm in arm catching up on gossip after the long summer break. Young boys playing football before the bell goes for the start of classes.

The Assad regime watches over Syria's returning pupils

But it is different here.

Before  the conflict that has left 100,000 people dead, many children used to walk to school. Now most are dropped off by their parents. 

In a city where fighting is raging in the outer suburbs and the boom of shelling is heard in the background it is not hard to fathom why.

More than 2,000 of Syria's 22,000 schools have been destroyed in the war, according to the government. Unicef puts the figure at nearer 3,000.

One father, who lives six miles (10km) from Damascus said he had taught his children at home for a year because their school had been shelled.

This morning he arrived at the Dar es Salaam school in the centre of the capital with his two daughters. 

"This is the first time they have come to this school," he said.

"There is new hope now (following the deal in Geneva) ... American military strikes are not the solution. Dialogue is the only way."

Another father, who has been trying to emigrate to France, said: "There is some hope now. Last year the situation was bad. Now there is progress."

At least most children in Damascus still have the chance to go to school.

For the one million Syrian youngsters that are now refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt their education is far more precarious.

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Syria: Chemical Weapons Deal 'A Victory'

The Syrian government has welcomed the international agreement struck on chemical weapons disarmament as "a victory" for the regime.

"On one hand, it helps the Syrians emerge from the crisis and on the other it has allowed for averting war against Syria," Syrian minister of state for national reconciliation Ali Haidar said in an interview with Russian news agency Ria Novosti.

"It's a victory for Syria that was achieved thanks to our Russian friends."

He gave Syria's first reaction to the newly-brokered US and Russian plan as warplanes and artillery bombarded rebel-held areas of Damascus.

Mr Haidar said the agreement would prepare the ground for peace talks between President Bashar al Assad's forces and the rebels.

But the rebels have called the international focus on poison gas a sideshow, and dismissed talk the plan might herald peace talks. They said Mr Assad had stepped up an offensive with ordinary weaponry now the threat of US air strikes had receded.

US President Barack Obama welcomed the nine-month disarmament plan, calling it an "important, concrete step", but warned that "if diplomacy fails, the United States remains prepared to act".

The US and Russia have given Syria seven days to submit a "comprehensive list" of its chemical weapons - otherwise, the US will seek a UN resolution that could still authorise strikes.

On their final day of talks in Geneva, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that once the details had been handed over the Assad regime would have until November to allow UN inspectors access to the sites.

Destruction of the regime's chemical weapons must then be complete by mid-2014. Syria has previously said it would need a month to hand over initial details of its weapons stash.

Mr Lavrov and Mr Kerry also told journalists their teams of experts had reached "a shared assessment" of President Bashar al Assad's existing stockpile.

The US has estimated that Syria possesses around 1,000 metric tonnes of various chemical agents, including mustard and sarin gas, sulfur and VX.

The Russian estimates were initially much lower, according to US officials, but Mr Kerry said the two countries had reconciled their different assessments.

A US official told reporters that Washington believed there were 45 sites across Syria linked to the country's chemical weapons programme.

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Drug Suspects Face Harsh Reality In Peru

The harsh reality for those caught trying to smuggle cocaine out of Peru is that sooner or later the penny drops: plead guilty and get a reduced sentence or fight the case and risk decades behind bars - often up to 20 years.

It's a bit like that in many legal systems, including our own in Britain, where early guilty pleas are often rewarded with shorter sentences.

But in Peru, where they see a steady flow of young women from around the globe caught with cocaine at the airport, there is very little sympathy for the story of how they ended up there.

Michaella McCollum, from Dungannon, and Melissa Reid, from Lenzie near Glasgow, who are both 20, are accused of trying to smuggle some 11kg (24lb) of cocaine out of the country.

They say they were forced to by a Columbian gang who threatened their families if they didn't go through with it, but the Peruvian legal system seems to show little interest.

There is no trial by jury in Peru, no witnesses will be sought other than the arresting officers and there's very little opportunity for the defence's case to be scrutinised.

"All the girls (caught smuggling drugs) have the same story," a senior prison official told me as we walked around the recreation area of Ancon 2, one of Peru's most notorious prisons last month.

Ms Reid has reportedly chosen to plead guilty

"Many are naive to the system we have in this country. If you are caught with drugs then the system views it as a rather straightforward case.

"Why they did it, who made them do it, who threatened who - that's a wider issue. The fact remains, they still had drugs in their bag and they didn't tell anyone until they were caught by the drugs officers at the airport."

They talk tough in Peru.

According to the United Nations, Peru is now the number one producer of cocaine in the world.

A kilo of pure, refined cocaine is worth around $1,000 in Peru, by the time it reaches Europe that price has soared to around £80,000 while in Asia it can be worth $100,000 (£63,000) and in Australia that same $1,000 kilo bar is worth $120,000 (£69,900).

Mellissa Reid is now facing what the Peruvian system calls the 'six-and-eight'.

Six years and eight months for drug smuggling - a specific length because sentences under seven years entitle the prisoner to early release and transfer to their home nation.

The newspapers make it sound very simple today suggesting a release could happen as early as three years.

Police weigh some of the packets of cocaine found on the girls

When I filmed inside Ancon 2 prison in the desert north of Lima last month, I spoke to the prison's only British prisoner.

Sarah, a mother-of-two from Croydon in south London, was caught trying to smuggle two kilos of cocaine stuffed in a guitar.

"When I was caught, I couldn't believe it," said the 23-year-old.

"I was told a lawyer was coming to see me - a nun - and that she would fight my case.

"When she visited me in the Dirango police station she said I needed to find $7,000 (£4,400) and she would secure my release.

"My family back home raised the money and paid it to the lawyer. The next day she brought me a blanket and a pillow. I never saw her again."

It's impossible to confirm this ever happened, but Sarah's story is repeated throughout Peru.

Sarah got six-and-eight - she's already served three and a half years.

"They say you could be released after three years. But they string you along. They say 'you'll be out in two weeks' and the two weeks pass and nothing happens. It's torture."

It's expected Michaella McCollum will follow Mellissa Reid in admitting everything for the shorter sentence. The penny's dropped. But talk of early release is dangerous and premature because in Peru nothing is certain and nothing is promised.

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Peru Drugs: Melissa Reid 'To Plead Guilty'

Peru Drugs Girl Plea

Updated: 2:15pm UK, Sunday 15 September 2013

The harsh reality for those caught trying to smuggle cocaine out of Peru is that sooner or later the penny drops: plead guilty and get a reduced sentence or fight the case and risk decades behind bars - often up to 20 years.

It's a bit like that in many legal systems, including our own in Britain, where early guilty pleas are often rewarded with shorter sentences.

But in Peru, where they see a steady flow of young women from around the globe caught with cocaine at the airport, there is very little sympathy for the story of how they ended up there.

Michaella McCollum, from Dungannon, and Melissa Reid, from Lenzie near Glasgow, who are both 20, are accused of trying to smuggle some 11kg (24lb) of cocaine out of the country.

They say they were forced to by a Columbian gang who threatened their families if they didn't go through with it, but the Peruvian legal system seems to show little interest.

There is no trial by jury in Peru, no witnesses will be sought other than the arresting officers and there's very little opportunity for the defence's case to be scrutinised.

"All the girls (caught smuggling drugs) have the same story," a senior prison official told me as we walked around the recreation area of Ancon 2, one of Peru's most notorious prisons last month.

"Many are naive to the system we have in this country. If you are caught with drugs then the system views it as a rather straightforward case.

"Why they did it, who made them do it, who threatened who - that's a wider issue. The fact remains, they still had drugs in their bag and they didn't tell anyone until they were caught by the drugs officers at the airport."

They talk tough in Peru.

According to the United Nations, Peru is now the number one producer of cocaine in the world.

A kilo of pure, refined cocaine is worth around $1,000 in Peru, by the time it reaches Europe that price has soared to around £80,000 while in Asia it can be worth $100,000 (£63,000) and in Australia that same $1,000 kilo bar is worth $120,000 (£69,900).

Mellissa Reid is now facing what the Peruvian system calls the 'six-and-eight'.

Six years and eight months for drug smuggling - a specific length because sentences under seven years entitle the prisoner to early release and transfer to their home nation.

The newspapers make it sound very simple today suggesting a release could happen as early as three years.

When I filmed inside Ancon 2 prison in the desert north of Lima last month, I spoke to the prison's only British prisoner.

Sarah, a mother-of-two from Croydon in south London, was caught trying to smuggle two kilos of cocaine stuffed in a guitar.

"When I was caught, I couldn't believe it," said the 23-year-old.

"I was told a lawyer was coming to see me - a nun - and that she would fight my case.

"When she visited me in the Dirango police station she said I needed to find $7,000 (£4,400) and she would secure my release.

"My family back home raised the money and paid it to the lawyer. The next day she brought me a blanket and a pillow. I never saw her again."

It's impossible to confirm this ever happened, but Sarah's story is repeated throughout Peru.

Sarah got six-and-eight - she's already served three and a half years.

"They say you could be released after three years. But they string you along. They say 'you'll be out in two weeks' and the two weeks pass and nothing happens. It's torture."

It's expected Michaella McCollum will follow Mellissa Reid in admitting everything for the shorter sentence. The penny's dropped. But talk of early release is dangerous and premature because in Peru nothing is certain and nothing is promised.

20.18 | 0 komentar | Read More