Capitol Chase Woman's Family Speak Out

A sister of the woman shot dead by police in Washington after trying to ram her car through a White House barrier says there were no indications that her sister was unstable.

Miriam Carey's actions sparked a high-speed car chase on Thursday which ended with the 34-year-old mother, of Stamford, Connecticut, being shot by officers.

Carey's one-year-old daughter who was in the car with her at the time was unharmed and has been taken into protective custody.

The incident came at a time of high political tension in the US capital, with Congress debating how to resolve the shutdown of the federal government when shots rang out.

Miriam Carey was a dental hygienist. Pic: Facebook

Last night, Carey's sister Amy Carey-Jones said her sister "seemed OK" the last time they spoke more than a week ago.

She said her family had "a lot of questions" about her sister's death and why police opened fire.

"My sister was a loving mother, she was a law abiding citizen, she had no political agenda and she did not deserve to have her life cut down at the age of 34," she added.

A second sister, retired New York City police officer Valarie Carey, said police should not have used deadly force.

She said there was "no need for a gun to be used".

Speaking outside Valarie Carey's home in Brooklyn, both sisters said Miriam had been suffering from post-natal depression since the birth of her baby.

A federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Carey held the delusional belief that President Barack Obama was communicating with her.

Carey had made delusional "expressions about the president in the past" and "believed there was some communications to her", and concerns about her mental health were reported in the last year to Stamford police, the official said.

Carey's one-year-old daughter was unhurt

Carey, who worked as a dental hygienist, had no previous run-ins with the US Secret Service, which is responsible for White House security, a law enforcement official said.

Police said there appeared to be no direct link to terrorism, and there was no indication Carey was armed.

Capitol Police Chief Kim Dine called it an "isolated, singular matter".

The chase began shortly after 2pm when a black Toyota Infiniti attempted to smash through the barricade close to the White House.

Video footage showed officers with guns drawn attempting to get the driver out of the vehicle.

But Carey spun the car around and sped away, knocking a law enforcement official.

The car raced up Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol where Congress was in session.

Police chased and fired at the car, which came to a halt near the Capitol building, and she was shot dead.

By the end of the chase, two people were injured - a Secret Service member struck by the car outside the White House, and a Capitol Police officer whose vehicle hit a barricade during the chase.

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Morocco Teenagers Arrested Over Facebook Kiss

Police have arrested a teenage boy and girl in northern Morocco for posting a photo on Facebook of them kissing.

The action has provoked a slew of copycats in protest at their detention, a rights organisation has said.

Chakib al Khayari, president of the Rif Association of Human Rights, said: "It involves a teenage boy and his girlfriend. They were arrested on Thursday for violating public decency by posting a photo of them kissing in the northeastern town of Nador."

The photograph was taken outside the high school where the two are students.

The young couple are being held in the juvenile detention centre in Nador, where a sit-in has started to demand their release, Mr Khayari said.

Their arrest, for violating public decency, has caused such a stir among young people that a number of other couples have posted similar photos on their Facebook pages.

A similar campaign has also been launched on Twitter using the hashtag #FreeBoussa.

Mr Khayari said the pair are to appear before a juvenile court judge next Friday.

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Kenya Massacre: Video Shows Gunmen In Mall

A video has emerged showing four gunmen involved in the massacre at a shopping centre in Nairobi, Kenya.

It shows four heavily-armed attackers walking through a storeroom in the mall, and searching other adjacent rooms. 

It is understood that the CCTV pictures captured the gunmen mid-way through the assault - as many of the victims remained trapped inside Westgate Mall.

The footage comes as Kenya's military spokesman named the people implicated in the attack.

Two of the gunmen in one of the storerooms

Major Emmanuel Chirchir confirmed the attackers as Abu Baara al-Sudani, Omar Nabhan, Khattab al-Kene and Umayr.

Matt Bryden, former head of the United Nations Monitoring Group on Somalia, told the AP news agency that al-Kene and Umayr are known members of al Hijra, a Kenyan extremist group affiliated with al Shabaab.

The latest video footage surfaced after a government official revealed that security cameras showed there may have been fewer gunmen than originally thought.

One of the gunmen holds a weapon in the storeroom

Kenya's government initially said 10 to 15 attackers were involved in the assault, which left at least 67 people dead.

However, it is now believed that only four people may have taken part in the protracted siege. 

Dozens of youths have been detained in the Majengo slum area of Nairobi in recent days in police efforts to track down the mall attackers.

Al Shabaab has said it carried out the attack in retaliation for Kenya sending troops into Somalia nearly two years ago.

The group has promised more attacks inside Kenya unless those troops are withdrawn.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has vowed to continue the military mission inside Somalia despite the mall attack.

Mr Kenyatta ordered a commission of inquiry into the attack. The Red Cross says a further 39 people are still unaccounted for.

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Ireland Votes On Whether To Scrap Senate

By Vicki Hawthorne, Sky News

Votes are being counted as Ireland's citizens vote on whether to abolish the country's upper house of parliament.

On Friday, voters went to the polls to vote in two referenda. The first was on whether the Senate (Seanad) should be abolished after the next general election in 2016.

The second referendum asked people to vote on whether they supported the establishment of a Court of Appeal.

Counting of votes began across the country's 43 constituencies at 9am this morning and a result is expected later this afternoon.

Before it came to power, the current Irish Government promised that it would hold a referendum on the abolition of the Senate.

The main governing party Fine Gael has argued that the upper house costs too much money and is inefficient.

The cost of the upper house became the main talking point of the campaign in the weeks leading up to the vote.

Turnout for the referendum is estimated to have been well below 40%

The Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny claimed scrapping the Senate would save 20m Euro (£17m) each year.

Those against the abolition argued that the figure would be much less.

The Senate has 60 senators and is loosely based on the House of Lords in the UK.

Members can be elected by the Prime Minister or special panels of academics and politicians.

The Irish Government supported the Yes campaign for the abolition of the upper House of Parliament.

Unusually most of the main political parties including Fine Gael, Labour and Sinn Fein came together to campaign for a "Yes" vote, the main opposition party Fianna Fáil campaigned for a No vote.

The second referendum on the establishment of a Court of Appeal has been overshadowed by the Senate debate.

Currently in Ireland there is a High Court and a Supreme Court. A Yes vote would allow the creation of a Court of Appeal which would hear cases before they reached the Supreme Court.

Supporters say it would cut the backlog of cases currently waiting to be heard in the Supreme Court.

The campaign leading up to the referenda had been somewhat slow and voters seemed disengaged.

The Irish Prime Minister was criticised for not taking part in a televised debate with other party leaders on the referenda issues.

Predictions of a low turnout seem to be correct, with early predictions indicating a voter turnout of less than 40%.

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Madagascar Travel Warning After Men Set Alight

France has warned its citizens to avoid travelling to Madagascar after locals set on fire and killed two European men they suspected of trafficking human organs.

The men were hunted down by residents on the island of Nosy Be, after the body of a child was found with organs removed.

Madagascar police chief Desire Johnson Rakotondratsima said: "They (the crowd) suspected them of organ trafficking.

"It appears that one of the foreigners admitted it in front of the local residents after they found the dead body of a child."

One of the two dead Europeans was French, according to France's foreign ministry. The other was reportedly Italian.

A third suspected organ trafficker, a Malagasy man, was also killed.

The French foreign ministry said it had warned its 700 citizens in Madagascar to avoid all travel within the country and asked those planning to travel there to delay their trip.

A spokesman said: "We are counting on the Malagasy authorities to bring to light the exact circumstances of this and have asked them to take measures to increase security for our nationals on the ground, given that Nosy Be is a popular tourist destination."

Nosy Be is an island off the tip of mainland Madagascar famous for its turquoise waters and white-sand beaches.

Analysts say crime has increased in Madagascar since President Andry Rajoelina seized power through a coup more than four years ago, plunging the country into political turmoil and causing leading donors to freeze aid, which dented public spending.

Almost 80% of households now live below the poverty line, one of the highest rates in Africa.

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Car Chase Woman 'Had Postnatal Depression'

Authorities are investigating what led a woman with a toddler in her car to ram into a White House barrier and lead police on a high-speed chase to Capitol Hill.

The dramatic chase, which forced a brief lockdown of the Capitol and stirred panic among tourists, ended with the woman shot dead by police.

The driver was identified by law enforcement officials as Miriam Carey, of Stamford, Connecticut, it was widely reported in the US media.

The car chase forced a lockdown of the US Capitol

She was a 34-year-old dental hygienist and the mother of a young girl, the reports said.

Hours after the chase, the FBI and other agencies conducted a search of Carey's condominium building in Stamford. 

ABC said Carey suffered from postnatal depression after the birth of her daughter.

The suspect was reportedly a dental hygienist. Pic: Facebook

"She had post-partum depression after having the baby" last August, the woman's mother, Idella Carey, told ABC.

"A few months later, she got sick. She was depressed ... She was hospitalised."

The mother said Carey had "no history of violence" and she did not know why her daughter was in Washington, DC.

The chase began shortly after 2pm on Thursday when a black Toyota Infiniti attempted to smash through a barricade close to the White House.

Video footage showed officers with guns drawn attempting to get the driver out of the vehicle.

But Carey spun the car around and sped away, knocking a law enforcement official.

The car raced up Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol where Congress was in session.

Police chased and fired at the car, which came to a halt near the Capitol building, and she was shot dead.

By the end of the chase, two people were injured - a Secret Service member struck by the car outside the White House, and a Capitol Police officer whose vehicle hit a barricade during the chase.

A little girl who was in the suspect's car was not hurt. It was unclear if the child was the woman's daughter.

A girl in the car was not hurt

Officials said there appeared to be no direct link to terrorism and there was no indication that the woman was armed.

"This appears to be an isolated, singular matter," said Capitol Police Chief Kim Dine. "There is no nexus to terrorism."

Still, the high-speed chase rattled Washington two week after a gunman killed 12 people in a Navy Yard shooting.

The House and Senate, where politicians were debating how to end a government shutdown, abruptly suspended business. 

Some politicians were told to shelter in place on the floor of the House. Outside, some tourists were frightened.

"I was just eating a hot dog over here and I heard about four or five gunshots, and then a swarm of police cars came in wailing their sirens," said Whit Dabney, a 13-year-old who was visiting Washington from Louisville, Kentucky.

Two law enforcement officials were injured

People standing outside the Supreme Court across the street from Congress were hurried into the court building by authorities.

The White House was quickly locked down after the incident at Capitol Hill and the stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the compound was closed to pedestrians. Secret Service said the procedures were precautionary.

Police are trying to understand the motives behind Carey's gesture.

At her condo in Stamford, dozens of neighbours were forced to wait outside, as a bomb squad stood by.

Resident Eric Bredow, a banker, said police told him the suspect in the car chase was one of his neighbours.

"I see the door to my building open and the FBI bomb squad in front of it," he said.

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Lampedusa Tragedy Leaves 350 Feared Dead

Up to 350 people are feared dead after a boat carrying African asylum seekers caught fire and sank off Italian shores in one of the worst Mediterranean refugee disasters.

The Italian government has declared an official day of mourning after the tragedy at Lampedusa, and a minute's silence will be held in all schools across the country.

New video shows the rescue operation, with one young man being pulled from the sea by rescue workers.

Italy's minister of integration, Cecile Kyenge, said: "We will work with all the ministers in order to tackle this emergency and to start making a long-term plan to cope with it."

Italian officials visited at temporary morgue in Lampedusa airport

Interior minister Angelino Alfano initially reported 93 victims, including three children and two pregnant women, but rescue divers later said they had identified at least 40 more bodies in and around the sunken wreck.

Up to 500 people were on the boat when it sank on Thursday.

With only 150 survivors recovered from the water more than 12 hours after the disaster, there are fears that the final toll could rise to up to 350 people.

When the boat began to sink, some migrants set fire to a blanket to attract the attention of passing ships. But as the flames spread, some passengers panicked and surged to one side, causing it to overturn.

Coastguards are continuing to patrol the area in the search for more bodies

Locals on the island fought back tears as they spoke of the desperate rush to haul dozens of drowning immigrants out of the sea.

Shopkeeper Alessandro Marino said: "We were spending the night on our boat. We heard screams, and we rushed to see what was going on and found a nightmarish situation."

His friend Sharanna Buonocorso said: "Many of them were crying. Lots were naked, to give themselves the best chance of staying afloat."

Capsized boats have become commonplace in southern Europe, with 25,000 refugees drowned in the Mediterranean in the last 20 years, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

Of these, 2,000 died in 2011 and 1,700 last year.

Lampedusa, 70 miles (110km) off Tunisia and closer to Africa than the Italian mainland, has seen successive waves of illegal immigration.

Migrants who arrive in Lampedusa are processed in centres, screened for asylum and often sent back home.

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China Couple Speak Of 'Forced Abortion'

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent

A couple have told Sky News how they were physically forced into an abortion by the Chinese authorities, three months before their child was due to be born.

At 4am last Friday, a group of 20 officials from the Shandong Province Family Planning Commission forced their way into the home of Zhou Guoqiang and his wife Liu Xinwen.

The officials kicked down the door of the family's home. Mr Zhou was held down while his wife was pulled from her bed and taken away.

Liu Xinwen, 33, was taken to the People's Hospital of Fangzi District in Weifang City where she was injected with an abortion-inducing drug.

Liu Xinwen says she was forcibly removed from her bed

Her baby, which she would later discover was a boy, died a day later in her womb. It took a further day for the foetus to be delivered.

Her husband was not told where she had been taken. It took him five hours to find her at the hospital. By then, the injection had been given.

Sky News met the couple six days later. Mr Zhou had invited us to the family's modest home in a rural corner of the province to hear their story.

We found his wife lying in the bed she had been taken from a week earlier. She was sobbing quietly.

"I miss him." she said.

An image of Liu Xinwen in hospital

"I didn't get to see him. I would be even more upset if I had seen him.

"Baby, I'm sorry. We were not meant to be. You rest in peace in heaven. We will pray for you. We hope your next life is better."  

Her heartbreak is the most brutal consequence of China's one-child policy.

The law is designed to keep the country's population in check. It prevents couples from having more than one child with a few exceptions in some rural provinces.

The policy is supposed to be enforced through financial penalties and not forced abortions. But in some provinces, over-zealous local officials, keen to keep within their birth quotas, break the law and terminate pregnancies by force.

"They don't have any humanity. They are not humans." Liu Xinwen said.

"They must have children and parents too. But they don't have any conscience. This is how China is."

Mr Zhou told how the officials held him down on the sofa while others took his wife away. In all, there were 16 male officials and four females.

We then sit down to look at photos he had taken in the hospital room. They are almost indescribably graphic.

One photograph shows Liu Xinwen lying on the bed. Beside her, on the floor, is a bucket. Inside is her aborted child.

Several other images show the foetus. It is fully formed.

Mr Zhou broke down after discussing the abortion

"His nose, ears, mouth are all there." Mr Zhou said.

"It is a child that would have lived if not for the forced abortion. It's because of their cruelty. Look, his hand is very obvious."

Mr Zhou broke down as he recalled the moment he arrived in the hospital, just minutes after the injection had been administered.

"My wife was lying in bed. I asked her: 'Have you been injected?' She said 'yes'. I asked if the baby was still moving. She said 'not much'.

"After that, I didn't want my wife to see my crying. I went outside. I cried, but only for a while because I needed to return to comfort her. She was very sad. She cried, day and night.

"Every time I heard babies' voices from other wards, I could hardly control myself. I had to go out. I have lost my child. I am speechless, words can't describe my feelings."

A footprint on the front door of the couple's home

He claimed that his wife was forced to sign papers which said she had agreed to the abortion.

When she initially refused, he said they told her that if she did not sign the papers, they would arrest her husband and she would have nothing. We have not been able to independently verify this.

The couple already have one son. Zhou Junfeng is 10. As we talk to his parents, he runs around the house playing. He is oblivious to the grief around him.

After Zhou Junfeng was born his mother underwent a state-proscribed procedure to insert a contraceptive coil into her body.

She says that this "forced sterilisation" must have failed, allowing her to fall pregnant for a second time.

The couple had the option to tell the authorities about the pregnancy the moment they discovered it, four months after conception.

They decided not to come clean because they were concerned that an abortion may be forced on them.

Mr Zhou and his son cook together

Instead, they said they planned to tell the authorities after the birth and then offer to pay the fine. This is common in parts of China and is sometimes acceptable.

Mr Zhou offered to take us to the hospital to see the room where the abortion happened.

Inside the hospital, we saw the room which is part of a fully functioning maternity ward; it is not a backstreet abortion clinic.

We found just two members of staff. One refused to comment. The other, a young nurse, was reluctant and a little startled to find a foreign TV crew in her hospital. 

"I don't know if it's forced or not. And I don't know the reason for it," she said.

"This is a maternity ward; there are many reasons for abortions. I don't know the specific reason for this case and it's not my place to care."

Sky News has approached the Shandong Health and Family Planning Commission, the central government Family Planning Commission in Beijing and the Chinese Embassy in London for a response to this case.

At midday British time, the embassy told Sky News they were looking into the case and would provide a more detailed response later.

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Fifa Meets To Debate Qatar World Cup Switch

Heat On Fifa Over World Cup Switch

Updated: 3:03am UK, Thursday 03 October 2013

By Paul Kelso, Sports Correspondent

Of all the questions raised by Qatar's World Cup, the one most in need of an answer is the least likely to be addressed when Fifa's executive committee convenes in Zurich this week.

According to the short note in the agenda under the heading "sports politics", discussion will be limited to the timing of Qatar 2022.

If Fifa President Sepp Blatter gets his way, the committee will agree in principle to move the tournament away from its traditional - but in Qatar potentially dangerous - date of June and July, to a more temperate slot in the autumn or winter.

There will then follow a period of consultation in which all the stakeholders affected are talked round or persuaded through compromises that could yet involve financial compensation.

There will be much debate about when the tournament should take place, with everyone from the Premier League to the NFL canvassed and conciliated.

That is Blatter's plan, although he will face resistance from Michel Platini.

The Uefa president is proving just as elusive in a blazer as he was as player.

Having voted for Qatar and then been the first to call for a move to winter, he is now in favour of deferring a decision.

Whatever the outcome, expect far more to be said about when the World Cup should take place, rather than whether it should be held in Qatar at all.

From the moment the tiny Gulf state was chosen, it was as clear as the Zurich mountain air that it would be problematic at best and a catastrophic folly at worst.

It should not have needed experts to explain that playing the world's greatest football tournament in the desert in summer was lunacy, but Fifa commissioned some anyway.

They concluded it was a major challenge and ranked Qatar fourth out of five bidders.

That did not stop 14 of the wise men on the executive committee from voting Doha.

Several of them have since been stripped of their Fifa blazers, ejected for corruption or resigned before they could be pushed.

Those that remain, and their successors, will attempt to prevent the entire deal unravelling.

We can speculate as to why Blatter lacks the stomach to do the obvious and re-run the 2022 race with Qatar transparently bidding for a winter tournament. But it is clear that is not his immediate priority.

Self-preserving instincts to the fore, he is hoping to engineer a grand compromise that keeps legal challenges at bay and allows him to run for a fifth term as president in 2015, something he once promised he would not do.

Europe's professional leagues will complain long and loud but as long as Fifa retains the backing of a rump of national associations, they will have little choice but to follow suit.

A November tournament that avoids a clash with the Winter Olympics remains the likeliest outcome, should Blatter play his hand right.

But there is one joker left in the pack - Michael Garcia, attorney-at-law and independent ethics investigator of Fifa's myriad alleged sins.

After nine months at bay, next week he embarks on a world tour of 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidders, pledging, I am told, to "make waves".

If he turns up something new, or makes any of the many alleged abuses of bidding rules stick, Qatar's World Cup may not happen at all.

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Costa Concordia Divers Find More Remains

Divers have recovered what could be more human remains from the sea off Tuscany where the Costa Concordia cruise liner sank last year.

The latest discovery was announced by Franco Gabrielli, the head of Italy's civil protection agency, the organisation in charge of the wreck.

"Other remains have also been found and are currently undergoing DNA tests," Mr Gabrielli said.

The ship was stuck on rocks off the Italian coast for nearly two years

Mr Gabrielli announced last week that, in what was described as "almost a miracle", human remains had been found following the refloating of the 114,500-ton vessel.

Concordia captain Francesco Schettino insists he is not to blame

Thirty-two people in total died when the ship capsized after striking rocks off close to the island of Giglio, in January last year.

The bodies of 30 victims were recovered but the bodies of an Indian man and an Italian woman were not found.

Experts are planning to go inside the ship to retrieve some of the Concordia's computers, to try to discover why backup generators and other equipment failed to work immediately after the collision.

The ship was hauled upright two weeks ago in a complicated 19-hour salvage operation.

It is due to be towed away from the Mediterranean holiday island, probably by next spring, and eventually broken up for scrap.

The Concordia's captain, Francesco Schettino, is on trial for alleged manslaughter, causing the shipwreck and abandoning ship during a confused and delayed evacuation.

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Nigeria: Charter Plane Crash-Lands Killing 13

Thirteen people are said to have died after a charter plane crash-landed at Lagos airport in Nigeria shortly after take-off.

The plane came down near an airport fuel depot and burst into flames, officials told the AFP news agency.

There were 20 people on board.

A spokesman for the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency said the plane, owned by Associated Airlines, had suffered engine failure.

Emergency workers examine the wreckage

It took off at roughly 9.30am local time from the domestic terminal at Murtala Mohammed International Airport and was headed for Akure in the southwest of the country.

Ibrahim Farinloye, of the National Emergency Management Agency, said: "We have recovered eight bodies so far.

"The rescue operation is still on."

The plane broke up when it hit the ground

The agency said the plane crashed in the part of the airport complex where fuel is stored.

The area lies between the international and domestic terminal, he added. It was unclear if any fuel caught fire.

It was initially reported the plane had come down on the runway.

Nigerian airlines and airports have a notoriously poor safety record.

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Commonwealth 'Relief' Over Gambia Withdrawal

By Paul Harrison, Royal Correspondent

The Gambian government's decision to pull out of Commonwealth will be met with "relief" in some parts of the 54-country organisation, Sky News has been told.

With no prior warning to the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, the Gambian Government announced the former British colony was pulling out of the Commonwealth with "immediate effect".

And a source told Sky News: "There will be some relief that President Yahya Jammeh has removed himself as the country's human rights record was getting worse and worse."

Charles will represent the Queen at a Commonwealth meeting in November

In a statement, the country claimed it would "never be a member of any neo-colonial institution and will never be a party to any institution that represents an extension of colonialism".

On condition of anonymity, a Gambia Foreign Ministry official told news agency AFP the decision to withdraw came after the government's rejection of a Commonwealth proposal to create commissions in capital city Banjul to protect human rights, media rights and fight corruption.

Mr Jammeh, who is regularly accused of rights abuses, has ruled mainland Africa's smallest country since seizing power in a coup 1994.

Earlier this year, Gambia was singled out for its poor rights record in a Foreign Office report, which cited cases of unlawful detentions, illegal closures of newspapers and radio stations and discrimination against minority groups.

A Sky News source added: "Because of this poor record, in many ways the Gambia has been heading towards the exit for some time."

It is unclear whether the country's leader will attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Sri Lanka in November.

The meeting will see Prince Charles stand in for the Queen, who is Head of the Commonwealth, for the first time since 1971.

Mr Jammeh claims he has extraordinary healing powers, saying he can cure Aids by laying his hands on someone with the illness.

In August 2012, Mr Jammeh came under attack from Amnesty International and others for sending nine prisoners to the firing squad and promising many more would go the same way.

Last year, he warned foreign diplomats that his country would not be "bribed" with aid to accept homosexuality.

"If you are to give us aid for men and men or for women and women to marry, leave it.," he said.

"We don't need your aid because as far as I am the president of the Gambia, you will never see that happen in this country."

But while the country claims its withdrawal from an organisation encompassing 2.2 billion citizens comes into effect immediately, the Commonwealth Secretariat says it has had no communication to that effect.

"We have not received any form of communication from Gambia," a spokesman said.

"We are busy trying to get in touch with them to establish the facts. Our priority is to find out if they are definitely leaving or not, so the door is still open."

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US Shutdown Is 'Ideological Crusade' - Obama

President Barack Obama has urged Republicans in Congress to reopen the government, saying "one faction of one party" does not get to "hold the economy hostage over an ideological crusade".

Speaking from the White House Rose Garden more than 12 hours into a government shutdown, Mr Obama said the longer an impasse continues, the worse the impact will be.

America woke up to the shutdown after a deeply polarised Congress failed to agree a new budget in a dispute over Mr Obama's signature healthcare law.

Mr Obama blames the shutdown on the Republicans

The president said shutting down the government will not accomplish some Republicans' stated goal of "rolling back efforts to provide health insurance for those who don't have it".

Earlier Tuesday, Mr Obama sent federal workers a letter lamenting that they had become "punching bags" in Washington's partisan fiscal fights.

"This shutdown was completely preventable. It should not have happened," Mr Obama said in the letter.

As the shutdown entered into force, "closed" signs and barricades sprang up at the Lincoln Memorial, museums and federal workplaces across the country.

Some of America's most famous tourist attractions, such as the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in New York, and Alcatraz Island near San Francisco were closed to the public.

Almost all of Nasa shut down, except for Mission Control in Houston. Even the National Zoo's popular panda cam went dark, shut off for the first time since a cub was born there in late August.

The shutdown affects national parks such as Yellowstone

Up to 800,000 government employees are furloughed, and more than a million others could be asked to work without pay.

Meanwhile, workers classified as essential government employees, such as air traffic controllers or Border Patrol agents, continue to work. 

Republicans in the House said on Tuesday they would push for a series of small funding bills aimed at reopening portions of the government, including national parks.

The White House rejected the plan, saying it showed an "utter lack of seriousness" on funding the federal government.

The government's return to full operation will depend on how long it takes politicians to bridge their differences - and there was no immediate sign of compromise on Capitol Hill.

For now, Democrats and Republicans keep blaming each other.

The Republicans had insisted on delaying the healthcare reform - dubbed Obamacare - as a condition for passing a bill.

But this approach was rejected by allies of the president in a series of back-and-forth moves between the Republican-controlled House and the Democrat-dominated Senate.

House Speaker John Boehner said Mr Obama refused to negotiate

The Democrats accused the Republicans of succumbing to the Tea Party hard-line conservatives and seeking to gain political advantage at the expense of citizens.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said: "The government is closed because of the irrationality of what's going on on the other side of the Capitol."

House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, said he did not want a government shutdown, but added the healthcare law "is having a devastating impact ... Something has to be done."

Meanwhile, Obamacare itself was unaffected and enrolment opened for millions of people shopping for medical insurance.

The House of Liberty can be seen only from a distance

Online insurance marketplaces at the heart of the healthcare overhaul struggled to handle the volume of consumers on Tuesday, resulting in some glitches.

The shutdown, meanwhile, is likely to further alienate citizens already largely disillusioned by their ruling class and for the most part disappointed with the president's performance, according to the latest polls.

The political dysfunction on Capitol Hill also raised fresh concerns about whether Congress can meet a crucial mid-October deadline to raise the government's $16.7trn debt ceiling.

This would force the country to default on its obligations, dealing a potentially painful blow to the economy and sending shockwaves around global markets.

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Chinese Tourists Given Tips On How To Behave

Chinese authorities have issued tourists with a handbook telling them how to behave when going abroad, including not to pee in pools.

As tourists from China increasingly travel abroad, they have developed a stereotype of "uncivilised behaviour", which Vice Premier Wang Yang said in May "damaged the image of the Chinese people".

The image-conscious National Tourism Administration has now published the 64-page Guidebook for Civilised Tourism, including illustrations, aimed at reining in unruly behaviour.

Instructions include do not pick your nose in public, leave footprints on public toilet seats or steal life jackets.

The rulebook explains that if tourists take the safety device from under their plane seat "if a dangerous situation arises then someone else will not have a life jacket".

It also warned travellers to keep their nose-hair neatly trimmed and, if they had to pick their teeth, never to use their fingers.

The handbook also dispensed country-specific advice: Chinese visitors to Germany should only snap their fingers to beckon dogs, not humans.

Chinese people are increasingly going abroad for holidays

The government had previously issued pithy guidelines telling tourists how to behave, but the latest booklet elaborated in far more detail.

Several countries, including debt-laden European nations, have eased visa restrictions to attract increasingly affluent Chinese tourists, but reports have also emerged of complaints about etiquette.

And the issues also affect tourists travelling closer to home. A woman from mainland China who in February had her son relieve himself in a bottle in a crowded Hong Kong restaurant sparked an outpouring of anger online, with some locals deriding mainlanders as "locusts".

The handbook, published to coincide with a week-long public holiday that started on October 1, has been met with a mixed response.

A tour guide surnamed Zhang, based in Hong Kong, said his company had given him a copy of the rules at the start of the seven-day October holiday.

Before this he said they had distributed a much briefer set of guidelines - which fitted onto a single sheet of paper.

"I feel things need to be improved," he said, standing in the city square packed with mainland tourists.

"If we bring chaos to other places, it's our image - the Chinese image - that suffers."

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Kenya: Bodies Recovered From Westgate Mall

Somalis Fear Kenya Terror Backlash

Updated: 4:41am UK, Sunday 29 September 2013

Somalis living in Nairobi say they fear being targeted by Kenyans who blame them for the shopping centre massacre that left at least 67 people dead.

The Eastleigh area of the capital city is home to many from Somalia, the country where al Shabaab, the terror group thought to be behind the attack, is based.

Ahmed Mohammed, a security consultant in the area, said there were major concerns about a backlash against the community.

"People are worried about people coming and looting their businesses and they are also worried about authorities coming and doing a crackdown on Somalis," he told Sky News.

"Basically, when things like this happen, Somalis are the victims."

Poverty and unemployment make Eastleigh a fertile recruiting ground for al Shabaab.

Those who have glimpsed inside the organisation and witnessed its brutality are terrified of being hunted down for leaving or speaking out.

One man, who asked to remain anonymous, explained why.

"What I am scared about is that Al Shabaab are beasts, they are not human beings," he said.

"If they see my face ... they will try to kill me. I have seen so many friends of mine who have been killed by al Shabaab."

Somali immigrant Farah Atosh, 25, has countless friends who have been recruited or approached by al Shabaab, but is determined to counter the terror group's propaganda.

"We are against them," he said.

"We are not supporting them. You might see or hear some people saying al Shabaab will not be able to carry out those attacks without the support of the Somali diaspora but honestly that is false information."

Many people who fled Somalia hoped they would find sanctuary and those who created new lives in Kenya want al Shabaab hounded out

One of them is Karim Muse, who told Sky News: "I would like to go to Somalia but (while) the al Shabaab are ... in Somalia, I don't want to go back.

"They have destroyed Somalia's people. They don't like Somalis, don't like other Christians, they don't like anyone, only themselves. Al Shabaab, they are cancer in the world."

It comes as forensic investigators continue to search the ruins of Westgate Mall - and after it emerged a sixth Briton had been confirmed dead following the attack.

Meanwhile, around 200 Nairobi residents, many of them of Indian descent, held a candlelit vigil on Saturday evening for victims the massacre.

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Berlusconi Drops Bid To Topple Government

Silvio Berlusconi has abandoned his bid to topple Italy's Prime Minister, saying he would vote to support the government.

At the weekend, Silvio Berlusconi ordered five ministers, drawn from his centre-right People of Freedom party (PdL), to resign from the cabinet, prompting a constitutional crisis.

Since inconclusive elections in February, Italy has been run by an unusual left-right coalition, headed by the centre-left Democratic Party leader Enrico Letta.

Prime Minister Enrico Letta praised his government's success on Wednesday

A confidence vote in parliament was called after Berlusconi launched his challenge to the leadership.

But in a humiliating climbdown Berlusconi said he had changed his mind on Wednesday after hearing Letta's promise to lower taxes and "the need for a government that can carry out institutional reforms in Italy".

"We have decided to vote for confidence, not without internal disputes," Berlusconi said.

The surprise about-turn made victory for Mr Letta's coalition a certainty and was immediately cheered by the markets, with shares in Milan jumping 1.45% higher after the shock announcement.

Mr Letta shook his head as Berlusconi was speaking and the address was followed by stunned silence.

Lawmakers were still set to vote despite the change of heart by a man who has dominated Italian political life for much of the past two decades.

Letta earlier asked lawmakers to vote for him, saying Italians were tired of "blood in the arena".

"Italy runs a risk that could be a fatal risk. Seizing this moment or not depends on us, on a yes or a no," Letta said in his address to the Senate.

"This is an historic situation," he said.

Several key figures from Berlusconi's own party broke ranks with the billionaire media mogul after his decision to call time on the government.

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China Puffer Fish Tower Row Blows Up Online

A viewing tower built in the shape of a giant puffer fish has caused a storm of protest on Weibo, China's version of Twitter.

Encased in 8,920 copper plates and built at a cost of around 70m yuan (£7m), the building on an island in Yangzhong county in the province of Jiangsu, hovers 15 storeys above ground.

The People's Daily, the Chinese government's main mouthpiece, reported that Yangzhong aimed to promote the puffer fish as the world's biggest metal construction in terms of volume.

The tower is just the latest example of what many in the world's second largest economy believe to be costly vanity projects.

A giant vase of flowers has been installed in Tiananmen Square

"To spend so much money on something so meaningless, I really admire these 'wealthy' people," Mother988 said, with apparent heavy irony.

Even The People's Daily acknowledged that the construction had divided opinion.

"Once this giant puffer made its appearance, it caused a heated debate online," it said.

Public records show Jiangsu's local government bodies are the most indebted in the country.

The puffer fish is covered in 8,920 copper plates

Jiangsu has said its debt is manageable, but this week announced plans to control land sales, becoming the first Chinese government to do so.

A giant vase of flowers installed in Beijing's Tiananmen Square to celebrate China's National Day has also prompted furious debate after a newspaper revealed it cost 570,000 yuan (£57,000).

The pot, topped with huge fake flowers and imitation peaches, is 13m high and 11m in diameter.

The state-run Beijing Youth Daily said that the display cost 8,000 yuan more than the previous year's installation.

"Who permitted spending taxpayer's money in this way?" one user of Sina Weibo wrote.

A huge flower is lifted into place by workers in Beijing

Another wrote: "570,000! That money could be put to much better use."

Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged to reduce government waste, introducing a ban on new government buildings and guidelines for banquets since coming to power.

Central Henan province drew controversy in 2011 when a state-backed charity tried to build an eight-storey sculpture of Song Qingling, the second wife of modern China's founding father Sun Yat Sen - but the building was scrapped half-way through.

The eastern province of Zhejiang also came under the spotlight after it modelled one of its city court houses on Capitol Hill.

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Baby Breakthrough: Infertile Woman Gives Birth

A 30-year-old infertile woman has given birth to a baby in Japan after doctors used a new technique to "reawaken" her ovaries into producing eggs again.

The experimental technique, developed by researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine in California, is in its early stage and was only tried on a small group of Japanese women with a specific kind of infertility problem.

The condition, known as primary ovarian insufficiency, affects about 1% of women and causes the ovaries to stop working before the age of 40.

Egg donation is the only option for women who enter menopause at a young age if they want to attempt to carry a pregnancy.

However, scientists now hope the breakthrough can also help women in their early 40s who have trouble becoming pregnant because of their age.

Medics at the St Marianna University School of Medicine in Kawasaki, Japan, used the technique in an experiment on 27 women who had an average age of 37.

Pic: Kazuhiro Kawamura, who performed the C-section

The women stopped menstruating nearly seven years earlier on average and agreed to have both ovaries removed, according to a report published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Of this group, 13 women were found to still have residual follicles, which typically contain one immature egg.

Human females are born with about 800,000 of these follicles. Most will remain dormant, but normally one follicle develops to maturity each month and releases an egg.

"Our treatment was able to awaken some of the remaining primordial follicles and cause them to release eggs," said Aaron Hsueh, senior author of the report and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford University.

The ovaries were dissected and treated with stimulant drugs to block a certain growth pathway that causes the follicles to stay dormant.

Small pieces of the ovaries were then transplanted back into the women, near their fallopian tubes.

Eight of the 13 women showed signs of follicle growth, and were treated with hormones to stimulate ovulation.

From that group, five developed mature eggs, which the researchers harvested for in vitro fertilisation using the sperm of the women's partners.

One woman received two embryos and carried a single pregnancy to term and gave birth to a son in Tokyo last December.

The child was delivered by C-section - because the foetus was in a breech position at 37 weeks - by the report's lead author Kazuhiro Kawamura, associate professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the St Marianna University.

Aaron Hsueh, professor of obstetrics and gynecology, Stanford University

"Although I believed, based on our previous research, that this in vitro activation (IVA) approach would work, I monitored the pregnancy closely and, when the baby was in a breech presentation, I performed the Caesarean section myself," said Mr Kawamura.

"I could not sleep the night before the operation, but when I saw the healthy baby, my anxiety turned to delight.

"The couple and I hugged each other in tears. I hope that IVA will be able to help patients with primary ovarian insufficiency throughout the world."

He said the mother hoped to have another child with one of the frozen embryos in storage from her treatment.

Of the other four women who also developed mature eggs, one is pregnant, two are preparing for embryo transfer or are undergoing additional egg collection and one woman was implanted with an embryo, but failed to become pregnant.

The researchers are now planning to investigate whether the technique could help counteract other causes of infertility, such as cancer treatment.

Alan Copperman, director of the division of reproductive endocrinology at Mt Sinai Medical Center in New York, said he applauded the US-Japanese team's "novel approach to an age-old problem", but added that it was "extremely premature to comment on the widespread potential for this procedure to help women with ovarian failure to achieve reproductive success".

Other experts expressed caution at the results.

"It shows a lot of promise (but) I don't think it's even close to being ready (for routine use)," said Dr Mark Sauer, of the Columbia University Medical Center in New York.

Dr Amber Cooper, of Washington University, St Louis, said the technique was "very much an experimental method".

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Athlone Child Rape Charges: Man In Court

By Vicki Hawthorne, Ireland Correspondent

A 30-year-old man has been charged with the rape of two young girls in Ireland.

It is alleged that the children, aged nine and six, were attacked on Saturday in the town of Athlone in County Weastmeath.

The man, who cannot be identified, has been charged with four counts of rape. 

A police officer told the court that the man had made no reply when the charges were put to him.

Members of the Irish police armed support unit were in attendance during Tuesday's short hearing at Longford District Court.

As the accused was driven away from court a crowd of up to 30 people who had gathered at the back gates jeered and shouted.

The case has sparked anger among the community in Athlone. 

A protest involving up to 300 residents was held outside the police station throughout Monday. People taking part said they wanted to show support for the families of the two alleged victims.

The accused has been remanded in custody and will appear before a court again on October 4.

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US Shutdown: Deadline Passes Without Deal

A bitterly divided Congress has plunged the US into a partial government shutdown – the first in almost two decades – that will put some 800,000 workers on unpaid leave and close museums and national parks.

A deadline to fund government spending passed without agreement, and the shutdown went into force at 12.01am.

The Democrat-dominated Senate and Republican-controlled House of Representatives refused to back down in a clash over President Barack Obama's controversial healthcare law, known as Obamacare.

The deadlock means non-essential services, including some of America's most famous tourist attractions, will be forced to close.

Workers classified as essential government employees, such as air traffic controllers or Border Patrol agents, will continue to work.

Shortly after midnight, Mr Obama tweeted: "They actually did it. A group of Republicans in the House just forced a government shutdown over Obamacare instead of passing a real budget."

The last shutdown took place under President Bill Clinton

It is the first US shutdown in 17 years, with analysts concerned about its potential impact on Wall Street and global markets.

Mr Obama warned of the possible risks to the economy, saying a shutdown would have "very real economic impact, right away".

David Cameron said: "It is a risk to the world economy if the US can't properly sort out its spending plans."

It is "a reminder to all of us that we need to have properly planned public-expenditure systems, properly planned tax, properly planned arrangements for getting our deficit down", the British Prime Minister said.

New York's Statue of Liberty and the National Zoo in Washington, as well as Yellowstone and other national parks, are among the tourist attractions the shutdown will affect.

Republican opposition to the new healthcare law has been fierce

The Internal Revenue Service will suspend audits and taxpayer services, programmes for children will be halted and up to 800,000 government employees will be furloughed. More than a million others could be asked to work without pay.

The military's 1.4 million active duty personnel will remain on duty and Mr Obama signed a law on Monday to ensure they would receive their pay on time.

The Pentagon is looking for ways to ways to expand the number of Defense Department civilians who are exempt from furloughs, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said.

Mr Obama said he had been willing to negotiate, and placed the blame on Republicans, especially the hard-line Tea Party conservatives.

"One faction of one party, in one house of Congress, in one branch of government doesn't get to shut down the entire government just to refight the results of an election," Mr Obama said.

"Keeping the people's government open is not a concession to me."

The Republicans had sought to tie passing the government spending bill to a delay in major elements of the Obamacare reform.

They insisted the fault rested with Democrats who had refused to negotiate any changes to the healthcare law.

House Speaker John Boehner, who spoke to the president before the midnight deadline, claimed "the Senate has continued to reject our offers".

Some of America's most iconic landmarks will be affected by the shutdown

Mr Obama's healthcare law was passed by Congress and signed into law in 2010, despite opposition by the Republican Party, especially from within the Tea Party.

Some elements of the scheme - which aims to provide greater access to affordable health insurance for poorer sections of society - take effect today despite the shutdown because they operate with money that is not subject to the budget wrangling.

Market reaction was muted following stock market falls across the board on Monday in anticipation of the shutdown.

Japan's Nikkei rose slightly while in Europe the FTSE 100 share index was flat in early trading following the previous day's 0.8% drop.

Dow Jones Futures pointed to a rise on opening in New York.

The dollar dropped slightly against the pound while there was also a move towards safe havens as gold values rose by up to 0.5%.

A protester voices her dissatisfaction outside the Capitol building

London-traded Brent Crude fell by 0.4% to $107 a barrel as the shutdown was seen as potentially damaging to US economic growth prospects.

Much of the shutdown's economic impact will depend on how long it takes politicians to find a solution.

The last shutdown, under the Clinton Administration, lasted 21 days between December 1995 and January 1996.

The political dysfunction at the Capitol also raised fresh concerns about whether Congress can meet a crucial mid-October deadline to raise the government's $16.7trn debt ceiling.

This would force the country to default on its obligations, dealing a potentially painful blow to the economy and sending shockwaves around global markets.

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Baghdad Car Bombings 'Kill At Least 42'

A wave of car bombings in Baghdad has killed at least 42 people and injured 75, according to police and medical officials.

Police said the parked car bombs - in Shia neighbourhoods - hit outdoor markets and car parks.

The deadliest bombing was in the Sadr City neighbourhood where at least seven died, including two soldiers.

That attack was followed by four more bombs, which went off in quick succession in New Baghdad, Habibiya, Sabaa al-Bour and Kazimiyah.

Iraqi security forces sealed off the sites of the attacks as firefighters struggled to extinguish the blazes that broke out. The twisted wreckage of vehicles and other debris littered the streets.

It is not yet clear who carried out the bombings, but hardline Sunni militants who view Shia Muslims as non-believers have been stepping up their insurgency across the country in recent months.

The site of one of the bombs in the Sadr City district

"Our war with terrorism goes on," interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan said.

"Part of the problem is the political infighting and regional conflicts ... There are shortcomings and we need to develop our capabilities mainly in the intelligence-gathering efforts."

The attacks follow another day of violence in Iraq on Sunday.

At least 40 people died in a suicide bombing at a Shia funeral in Mussayab, 40 miles south of Baghdad. The attack caused the mosque's roof to collapse.

Two more suicide bombings in Irbil - in the relatively peaceful northern Kurdish region - also killed six people.

Al Qaeda is believed to be trying to build on the Sunni minority's discontent toward what they consider to be second-class treatment by Iraq's Shia-led government.

The United Nations mission in Iraq said 716 civilians and 88 members of the Iraqi Security Forces were killed in acts of violence in August.

Almost 5,000 civilians have been killed since the start of 2013, according to UN figures given at the start of September.

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US Shutdown Looms As Congress Squabbles

The US government is teetering on the brink of a partial shutdown that will curtail all but essential services, with no compromise in sight in a deeply polarised Congress.

If the Democrats and Republicans fail to find a solution before the deadline on a new spending bill, the shutdown goes into force at 12.01am on Tuesday.

The federal funding bill is usually considered routine business, but this time the measure is tied to the highly controversial health care law promoted by President Barack Obama.

It would be the first shutdown in 17 years.

While essential services would remain in place, nearly a million government employees will be forced off work without pay, and museums and national parks will close.

National parks and the capital's Smithsonian museums will be closed, pension and benefits cheques will be stopped and passport applications will not be processed.

The healthcare law was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010, despite opposition by the Republican Party, especially Tea Party conservatives.

Senator Ted Cruz has been among the most ardent critics of Obamacare

The Republican-dominated House has passed a funding bill that would delay the full effect of the healthcare law by one year.

But the Senate, controlled by the Democrats, has promised to reject the bill when it reconvenes later - resulting in a stalemate.

"To be absolutely clear, the Senate will reject both the one-year delay of the Affordable Care Act and the repeal of the medical device tax," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said.

"After weeks of futile political games from Republicans, we are still at square one."

With a solution looking increasingly elusive, the blame game has begun on Capitol Hill.

A Tea Party leader, Senator Ted Cruz, pointed the finger at Senate Democrats.

"The House has twice now voted to keep the government open. And if we have a shutdown, it will only be because when the Senate comes back, Harry Reid says, 'I refuse even to talk,'" said Mr Cruz, who led a 21-hour talkathon against Obamacare.

The last shutdown was under President Bill Clinton in 1995

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the "Republicans decided they would rather make an ideological point by demanding the sabotage of the healthcare law".

The expected shutdown is jolting markets worldwide.

The New York Times said Mark Zandi, the chief economist for Moody's Analytics, estimated that a partial shutdown would trim annual economic growth by 0.2 percentage points in the fourth quarter, even if it ended within four days.

An impasse of a month could cut growth by 1.4 percentage points.

Mr Zanda estimated that an interruption longer than two months "would likely precipitate another recession".

The last time the federal government shutdown was under President Bill Clinton, when services ground to a halt for 28 days between December 1995 and January 1996.

It nearly happened again in April 2011.

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Knox And Sollecito Absent From Kercher Retrial

By Tom Kington in Florence

The retrial of Amanda Knox and Rafaelle Sollecito over the murder of British student Meredith Kercher has begun in Italy, but neither defendant has been in court.

American student Knox, 26, has repeatedly said she will not return to Florence from Seattle, nor is she compelled to do so by law.

Her former boyfriend Sollecito, a 29-year-old Italian IT graduate, is following proceedings from the Caribbean, where he is on holiday, said his father.

"I will be informing Raffaele of what happens on the phone after the hearing," said Francesco Sollecito.

He added he would be attending every hearing in the appeal trial, which is expected to last until Christmas.

Sollecito's father denied suggestions in the media that his son was dipping into a fund he had set up for contributions to his legal expenses.

"The holiday was provided by a supporter," he said. "We have raised $25,000 (£15,000) and haven't touched it."

Knox's decision to not be present in court was criticised by Patrick Lumumba, the former barman who Knox initially accused of taking part in the murder of Miss Kercher in Perugia.

Amanda Knox and Rafael Sollecito during the investigation

"Knox is afraid - she knows she has responsibility for the death of poor Meredith," he said in court.

Mr Lumumba said he had just graduated in International Communications at Perugia's University for Foreigners, the university attended by Knox during her stay in Perugia.

As the hearing got under way in Florence, the presiding judge turned down a request from Knox's lawyers to exclude Mr Lumumba as a civil plaintiff from the trial.

Francesco Maresca, a lawyer representing the Kercher family, handed the judge a letter from the family, explaining their absence from the session on health grounds.

The new trial is being held at a modern appeal court building on the fringes of Florence, a stark contrast to Perugia's medieval court building where hearings have previously been held.

Lawyers for Knox and Sollecito requested an array of new expert opinions and evidence to reach a definitive verdict, including examining the handle of the knife that was the purported murder weapon and the handling of the crime scene.

Knox's defence lawyer Carlo Dalla Vedova said there was a risk of an "infinite trial," since the charge of murder has no statute of limitations.

Sollecito's lawyer Giulia Bongiorno asked the court to accept only "reliable evidence," saying the intense media attention on the case had affected the previous trials.

Amanda Knox cries after hearing she has been acquitted

In 2009, Knox and Sollecito were convicted of killing 21-year-old Miss Kercher two years earlier in the student flat the two women shared in Perugia.

A third man, Rudy Guede, was convicted over the murder and is serving a 16-year jail term. A court found that Guede had not acted alone.

The latest trial is expected to re-examine forensic evidence to determine whether Knox and Sollecito helped kill Miss Kercher.

An appeals court acquitted the two suspects in 2011, citing weaknesses in DNA evidence.

The pair, who at that point had spent four years behind bars, were released, and the American flew back home.

But in March this year, Italy's supreme court overturned the acquittal, citing what it said were "shortcomings, contradictions and inconsistencies" in the appeal court's verdict, and ordered a retrial.

A new appeal verdict will now be reached, possibly by Christmas, before the case returns to the supreme court.

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Steve Ballmer Cries At Microsoft Goodbye

Video of Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer's tearful farewell speech has emerged, showing the 57-year-old striding off to a song from Dirty Dancing.

Mr Ballmer, who recently announced he was stepping down within 12 months, paced around the stage, his voice quivering as he told an arena of employees: "You work for the greatest company in the world - soak it in!"

"Microsoft's like a fourth child to me," said Mr Ballmer - after a pause to compose himself.

"Children do leave the house. In this case, I guess I'm leaving the house."

Mr Ballmer has been chief executive since co-founder Bill Gates gave up the position in 2000, and the company is now busy looking for someone to replace him.

Known for his flamboyant speeches and sporting a bright yellow shirt, the Microsoft boss thanked thousands of employees who had packed into Seattle's Key Arena - normally a venue for sports events and rock concerts.

"My last song is one I've always wanted to use, but it was always deemed inappropriate - it's a great song!" said a teary-eyed Mr Ballmer.

Thousands of employees packed a Seattle arena for the send-off

"It's from one of my favourite movies, one of my favourite songs ... a song that talks about what you have meant to me and what you have done for me.

"You have made this the time of my life."

With the famous Dirty Dancing tune booming out, Mr Ballmer hugged and high-fived employees and raised his arms aloft, shouting "thank you!" before bouncing out of the arena at the song's climax.

The executive - who has an estimated $18bn (£11bn) fortune according to Forbes - oversaw massively successful products such as Windows XP during his time in charge.

However, in recent years Microsoft has been left behind by the likes of Apple in terms of innovation.

It is now playing catch-up in the tablet and mobile markets, with its Surface device struggling to gain popularity and its Windows 8 operating system also being criticised.

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Kenya: Somalis In Nairobi Fear Terror Backlash

Somalis living in Nairobi say they fear being targeted by Kenyans who blame them for the shopping centre massacre that left at least 67 people dead.

The Eastleigh area of the capital city is home to many from Somalia, the country where al Shabaab, the terror group thought to be behind the attack, is based.

Ahmed Mohammed, a security consultant in the area, said there were major concerns about a backlash against the community.

"People are worried about people coming and looting their businesses and they are also worried about authorities coming and doing a crackdown on Somalis," he told Sky News.

"Basically, when things like this happen, Somalis are the victims."

Poverty and unemployment make Eastleigh a fertile recruiting ground for al Shabaab.

Those who have glimpsed inside the organisation and witnessed its brutality are terrified of being hunted down for leaving or speaking out.

One man, who asked to remain anonymous, explained why.

Victims of the attack are honoured at a memorial in Nairobi

"What I am scared about is that Al Shabaab are beasts, they are not human beings," he said.

"If they see my face ... they will try to kill me. I have seen so many friends of mine who have been killed by al Shabaab."

Somali immigrant Farah Atosh, 25, has countless friends who have been recruited or approached by al Shabaab, but is determined to counter the terror group's propaganda.

"We are against them," he said.

"We are not supporting them. You might see or hear some people saying al Shabaab will not be able to carry out those attacks without the support of the Somali diaspora but honestly that is false information."

Many people who fled Somalia hoped they would find sanctuary and those who created new lives in Kenya want al Shabaab hounded out

One of them is Karim Muse, who told Sky News: "I would like to go to Somalia but (while) the al Shabaab are ... in Somalia, I don't want to go back.

"They have destroyed Somalia's people. They don't like Somalis, don't like other Christians, they don't like anyone, only themselves. Al Shabaab, they are cancer in the world."

It comes as forensic investigators continue to search the ruins of Westgate Mall - and after it emerged a sixth Briton had been confirmed dead following the attack.

Meanwhile, around 200 Nairobi residents, many of them of Indian descent, held a candlelit vigil on Saturday evening for victims the massacre.

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Pakistan Police Station Bombs Kill At Least 33

Two bombs have exploded near a police station in the city of Peshawar, killing at least 33 people and injuring 70.

At least one of the explosions appeared to have been caused by a bomb planted in a parked car and detonated by remote control, local police said.

It comes just a week after two suicide bombers killed 85 people in an attack on All Saints' Church, just 300 yards from the scene of Sunday's blasts.

Burning wreckage at the scene of the latest blasts

The area was crowded with shops and families.

Spokesman for the Lady Reading Hospital Jamil Shah said the dead included six children and two women as well as 70 wounded who have been brought to the hospital from the blast site.

A crowd gathered outside the hospital as relatives tried to find out the fate of their loved ones. Women sobbed as ambulances pulled up with more bodies.

A woman is carried to safety from the site of the latest blasts

Shopowner Sher Gul said he had made repeated trips to the hospital on his motorbike to bring six people to be treated for their wounds.

The northwestern frontier city is the gateway to the troubled tribal regions, which are overrun by Taliban and al Qaeda-linked militants.

Scenes at the Anglican church bombing a week ago

Islamist violence has been on the rise in Pakistan in recent months, undermining Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's efforts to tame the insurgency by launching peace talks with the Taliban.

The Taliban have repeatedly rejected Pakistan's constitution and have called for the full implementation of Islamic law and for war with India.

Mr Sharif was expected to meet Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly later on Sunday, only hours after Mr Singh described Pakistan as the "epicentre of terrorism in our region".

Last week's church attack by a Taliban faction was the deadliest attack on Christians in Pakistan.

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Nigeria College Attacked: 'Up To 50 Killed'

As many as 50 people have been killed after suspected Islamist gunmen fired on students as they slept at a college in northeast Nigeria.

The attackers reportedly stormed a dormitory and set fire to classrooms in the assault which happened about 1am local time on Sunday in the town of Gujba in Yobe state.

Nigeria's military is blaming militants from the Boko Haram insurgent group for the atrocity at the College of Agriculture.

College provost Molima Idi Mato said security forces were still recovering bodies so he could not give an exact number of dead but said up to 50 had been killed.

He also said about 1,000 students had fled the scene.

A source told the Reuters news agency that 26 bodies had been brought to hospital.

The college is about 25 miles from the scene of similar school attacks around Damaturu town.

There were no security forces stationed at the college despite government assurances, said Mr Mato.

Members of Boko Haram pictured in February

Two weeks ago, state commission for education Mohammmed Lamin urged all schools to reopen and promising protection by soldiers and police.

Most schools in the area closed after militants killed 29 pupils and a teacher, burning some alive in their hostels at Mamudo outside Damaturu on July 6.

Northeast Nigeria is in a military state of emergency following an Islamic uprising by Boko Haram militants who have killed more than 1,700 people since 2010 in their quest for an Islamic state.

Yobe has seen a series of brutal attacks targeting students in recent months, all blamed on the group.

The name Boko Haram means "Western education is forbidden" and the group has repeatedly attacked schools, universities and colleges during its four-year insurgency.

The military has described the spate of recent attacks as a sign of desperation by the Islamists, claiming they only have the capacity to hit soft targets.

An offensive launched against Boko Haram in mid-May has decimated the group and scattered their fighters across remote parts of the northeast, the defence ministry has said. 

Boko Haram has said it is fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north, but the group is believed to be made up of different factions with varying aims. 

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Assad: I Will Respect UN Weapons Deal

Syria's President Bashar al Assad has said in a TV interview that he will respect UN accords on chemical weapons.

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