Malala Tells Obama: 'End The Drone Strikes'

Pakistani teenage activist Malala Yusufzai has told the US President that drone strikes in her country are "fuelling terrorism".

The 16-year-old schoolgirl, who was shot in the head and neck by Taliban gunmen who attacked her school bus in Pakistan's Swat Valley, met Barack Obama and the First Lady in the White House.

"I thanked President Obama for the United States' work in supporting education in Pakistan and Afghanistan and for Syrian refugees," she said after the meeting.

Malala with her father Ziauddin in Edgbaston, Birmingham

"I also expressed my concerns that drone attacks are fuelling terrorism. Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people.

"If we refocus efforts on education it will make a big impact."

The US military and the CIA have carried out hundreds of drone strikes against militant groups in the northwest Pakistan since 2004.

But the Pakistani government complains that they also frequently kill civilians and turn ordinary people against Islamabad and the US. 

Malala attracted the anger of the Taliban by writing a blog chronicling the challenges of daily life under the Islamists.

Hundreds of drone strikes have been reported in Pakistan

She is now living in Britain, where she underwent treatment for the injuries sustained in the attack, and campaigns for girls' right to education.

Mr Obama praised the teenager for her "inspiring and passionate work" and signed a proclamation to mark the International Day of the Girl.

A statement issued by the White House said: "The United States joins with the Pakistani people and so many around the world to celebrate Malala's courage and her determination to promote the right of all girls to attend school and realise their dreams."

Malala had been among the favourites for this year's Nobel Peace Prize, but the award was handed to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

In 2012 Barack Obama condemned Malala's shooting as "barbaric". White House spokesman Jay Carney said. "I know that the President found the news reprehensible and disgusting and tragic."

The teenager was treated in Britain following her shooting in 2012

The Pakistani army retook control of Swat later that year, and Malala received the country's highest civilian award.

Since then she has been nominated for several international awards for child activists - including the EU's Sakharov human rights prize which she won earlier in the week - and has written a book about her campaign work called I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up For Education And Was Shot By The Taliban.

Last week Pakistani Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said the group stood by its decision to target the teenager, who he said "targeted and criticised Islam".

"She accepted that she attacked Islam so we we tried to kill her, and if we get another chance we will definitely kill her and that will make us feel proud.

"Islam prohibits killing women, but excepts those that support the infidels in their war against our religion.".

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Vietnam Firework Factory Explosion Kills 21

An explosion at a fireworks factory in northern Vietnam has killed at least 21 people and left dozens more injured.

An army official said the blast was at a military-run facility in Phu Tho province which employs around 300 workers, mostly women.

"Twenty-one people are dead and 98 others are injured - most of them have sustained burns," a military rescue official told AFP by phone, requesting anonymity.

The most critical burns cases were being moved to a specialist burns centre on the outskirts of Hanoi, 120km away.

"I couldn't recognise my daughter, she was burned from her face to the soles of her feet," one woman told state media. "She was pregnant, she couldn't escape the explosion quick enough."

Images posted on Vietnamese blogs showed charred frames of motorcycles, and nearby houses with roofs ripped off and windows blown in by the force of the explosions.

Smoke from the fire could be seen from miles away

The online newspaper VNExpress quoted Major General Le Quang Dai as saying that fewer people than usual were working at the time of the explosion because it was a Saturday.

Authorities had tried to isolate the blast in Thanh Ba district to prevent it from reaching two explosives warehouses nearby, he added.

A police officer said the blast could be heard 10km away and around 2,000 residents living near the factory were evacuated.

Loudspeakers urged people within 15km of the facility to leave the area.

"The first blast was at 7.55am - and then there were continuous explosions for some hours," Phi Xuan Trung, chairman of the local Khai Xuan commune, told VNExpress.

"There was a strong smell of gunpowder, the ground was shaking many kilometres away," he added.

An investigation has been launched into the cause of the explosion.

The factory is the only facility in Vietnam that produces fireworks to be used for Lunar New Year festivals and other major public events.

In 2010, fireworks being prepared at Hanoi's My Dinh stadium for use in the city's 1,000th anniversary celebrations exploded, killing three foreigners and one Vietnamese national.

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Cyclone Phailin Nears India As Thousands Flee

More than 440,000 people have been evacuated their homes in two states as a huge cyclone approaches the east coast of India.

India's weather office issued a red alert, saying the "very severe cyclonic storm Phailin" was packing gusts as high as 150mph (240kph).

The evacuation is one of the biggest such exercises in the country's history, said the national disaster agency.

A satellite image of the cyclone

At least 12 million people are in the path of the storm, which is already so large it has nearly filled the Bay of Bengal - an area the size of France.

The cyclone is expected to be the fiercest storm to hit India since a devastating cyclone killed 10,000 people 14 years ago.

Some forecasters likened its size and intensity to hurricane Katrina, which devastated the US Gulf coast and New Orleans in 2005.

Fishermen pull a boat from the waters of the Bay of Bengal to safer ground

Dr Liz Bentley from the Royal Meteorological Society told Sky News: "This particular part of the coastline is very low-lying so it (Phailin) will penetrate quite well in land.

"It is like a mini-tsunami hitting that - not caused in the same way as a tsunami but it's the same effect."

Large waves have already pounded beaches in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

Villagers along the coast were evacuated to schools in the north of the state and in neighbouring Odisha, while panic buying drove up food prices.

Relief items are packaged for distribution to cyclone evacuees

Authorities have been evacuating villagers along the coast to government-run shelters and schools in three districts of Andhra Pradesh state and five districts of Orissa state.

But many villagers said they had not been told to evacuate, and others were refusing to leave their homes.

"Of course I'm scared, but where will I move with my family?" said Kuramayya, 38, a fisherman from the village of Bandharuvanipeta, while 12ft waves crashed behind him. "We can't leave our boats behind."

Floods have already ripped down power lines

Satellite images showed Phailin some 310 miles (500km) off the coast and likely to make landfall within hours, with widespread flooding expected.

The Indian Meteorological Department said Phailin would hit between Kalingapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and the port of Paradip in Odisha. Storm surges 10ft above normal tides were predicted.

Residents move to safer ground

About 12 hours before Cyclone Phailin's landfall, meteorologists held out hope that the storm might hit while in a temporary weakened state, but no matter what it will be large and deadly.

Ryan Maue, a meteorologist at Weather Bell, a private US weather firm, said even in the best-case scenario there will be a storm surge of 20-30 feet (7-9 metres).

The predicted path of the cyclone

A storm surge - the giant wall of water that that a cyclone blasts ashore - is the big killer in such events.

The storm already has been large and powerful for nearly 36 hours, he said, and those winds have built up tremendous amount of surge, Mr Maue said.

He said: "A storm this large can't peter out that fast. There's nothing to stop it at this point."

Floods have already hit ahead of the cyclone

Officials cancelled holy day celebrations and stockpiled emergency supplies in coastal Orissa and Andhra Pradesh states.

If the storm continues on its current path without weakening, it is expected to cause large-scale power and communications outages and shut down road and rail links, officials said. There would also be extensive damage to crops.

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Migrant Sinking Kills 34 As More Boats Spotted

The Italian navy has rescued 183 migrants from a fishing boat in the Mediterranean as at least 140 Syrians arrived in Malta after being rescued from another sinking boat yesterday.

Among the migrants, who come from Nigeria, Syria and Tunisia, are 34 women and 49 children. Other rescue operations are also currently ongoing.

Some 34 people, including three children, are understood to have died on Friday as the overloaded vessel went down between Malta and the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Survivors were spotted clinging to a life raft while awaiting rescue

It was the second such tragedy in the region in a week.

Speaking to Sky News, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said: "At least 34 people died last night, many more are expected to be found dead in the next couple of hours.

Recovered bodies are unloaded in Malta. Pic: Mark Micallef/Times of Malta

"The difference to last week's tragedy is that, instead of Somalia, they hail from Syria, which makes the case even more complicated and shows the immense human tragedy the Mediterranean is experiencing right now."

The Maltese navy dispatched rescue ships and helicopters and diverted commercial vessels to the area to assist the Syrians, while Italy sent two naval vessels and helicopters carrying inflatable life rafts.

The second vessel escorted to safety by the Italian navy this morning

Helicopters airlifted the injured to Lampedusa Hospital where a large medical team treated them as soon as they arrived.

Hospital director Pietro Bertolo told journalists: "They are wet and very scared, but they are doing well."

Among those rescued were women, children and infants

He added that among the migrants was a "little boy, around two years, who is very beautiful" with his "young" mother.

After the rescue, Mr Muscat warned: "We cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a cemetery."

The boat is the second migrant vessel to sink off Lampedusa in a week

And he told Sky News that this week's tragedies were an indication of what he described as the bigger problem north African migration was playing in the region.

"The rules the EU have were drafted in the 80s and 90s when the situation was completely different," he said. "We are using the tools of the past to face a problem that is very new.

The Italian navy rescued another 183 migrants from the Mediterranean.

"Our forces and the Italian forces are guarding European borders but we're left on our own and we feel totally abandoned by Europe and we're hearing only empty talk from Brussels."

The EU's asylum policy has been criticised for being overly restrictive and it is claimed that is forcing refugees to resort to desperate measures to reach Europe.

Italy has appealed to EU states for help in coping with the thousands of migrants arriving in the country every month, and wants migration to be put on the agenda of summit talks in Brussels at the end of the month.

European Union Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmstroem said she was following the rescue operations "with sadness and anxiety".

Protesters in Lampedusa have criticised the EU's strict asylum policy

"These new horrible events are happening while we still have the shocking images of the tragedy in Lampedusa in our minds," she said, adding the latest disaster highlighted the need for expanded search and rescue operations "to better detect and assist boats in distress".

The sinking came as Italian divers found another body from last week's  shipwreck off Lampedusa, raising the death toll in the tragedy to 339.

Some 155 migrants were rescued following last week's disaster

Only 155 survivors were rescued out of an estimated 500 people, most of them Eritreans and Somalis, on the boat which departed from Libya.

Immigration charities estimate that between 17,000 and 20,000 migrants have died at sea trying to reach Europe over the past 20 years.

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Pope Medal Recalled Over Jesus Spelling Error

More than 6,000 medals marking the first year of Pope Francis have been swiftly withdrawn by the Vatican because the name Jesus was misspelt.

The letter "J" on the commemorative coin, specially produced by the Italian State Mint, was instead engraved with an "L", and so appeared as "Lesus" in the Latin inscription.

The medals – 200 in gold, 3,000 in silver and 3,000 in bronze – had been on sale for a day before the blunder was noticed, and led to their hasty recall.

However, only four had been sold and are now predicted to rocket in value for the lucky buyers due to their rarity.

Measuring more than 4cm in diameter, the medals include a portrait of Pope Francis on the front side and on the reverse a religious citation, which it is reported first moved the pontiff to become a priest as a teenager back in the 1950s.

It should have read: "Vidit ergo Jesus publicanum et quia miserando atque eligendo vidit, ait illi sequere me", which in English translates as: "Jesus saw the tax collector and by having mercy chose him as an Apostle saying to him: Follow me."

Pope Francis was elected earlier this year

The spelling mistake was soon picked up by Twitter users, with one quipping: "Wonder how Mary's husband Loseph feels about it."

Another wrote: "I blame the Lesuits."

The former archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Bergoglio is the first Jesuit to become pope.

He replaced Pope Benedict, who stepped down as leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics in February because of frail health.

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Nobel Peace Prize Goes To Weapons Watchdog

Full List Of Nobel Peace Prize Winners

Updated: 11:10am UK, Friday 11 October 2013

Here is the full list of Nobel Peace Prize laureates from 1901, when the prize was first awarded:

2013: The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)

2012: The European Union (EU)

2011: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee (Liberia), Tawakkul Karman (Yemen)

2010: Liu Xiaobo (China)

2009: Barack Obama (US)

2008: Martti Ahtisaari (Finland)

2007: Al Gore (US) and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

2006: Muhammad Yunus (Bangladesh) and the Grameen Bank

2005: International Atomic Energy Agency and Mohamed ElBaradei (Egypt)

2004: Wangari Maathai (Kenya)

2003: Shirin Ebadi (Iran)

2002: Jimmy Carter (US)

2001: Kofi Annan (Ghana) and the United Nations

2000: Kim Dae Jung (South Korea)

1999: Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders)

1998: John Hume and David Trimble (Northern Ireland)

1997: Jody Williams (US) and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines

1996: Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and Jose Ramos-Horta (East Timor)

1995: Joseph Rotblat (Britain) and the Pugwash movement

1994: Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres (Israel) and Yasser Arafat (PLO)

1993: Nelson Mandela and Frederik de Klerk (South Africa)

1992: Rigoberta Menchu (Guatemala)

1991: Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma)

1990: Mikhail Gorbachev (Soviet Union)

1989: Dalai Lama (Tibet)

1988: United Nations Peacekeeping Forces

1987: Oscar Arias Sanchez (Costa Rica)

1986: Elie Wiesel (US)

1985: International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War

1984: Desmond Tutu (South Africa)

1983: Lech Walesa (Poland)

1982: Alva Myrdal (Sweden) and Alfonso Garcia Robles (Mexico)

1981: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

1980: Adolfo Perez Esquivel (Argentina)

1979: Mother Teresa (Albania)

1978: Anwar Sadat (Egypt) and Menachem Begin (Israel)

1977: Amnesty International

1976: Betty Williams (Britain) and Mairead Corrigan (Northern Ireland)

1975: Andrei Sakharov (Soviet Union)

1974: Sean MacBride (Ireland) and Eisaku Sato (Japan)

1973: Henry Kissinger (US) and Le Duc Tho (Vietnam, declined)

1972: prize not handed out

1971: Willy Brandt (Germany)

1970: Norman Borlaug (US)

1969: International Labour Organisation

1968: Rene Cassin (France)

1967: prize not handed out

1966: prize not handed out

1965: United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

1964: Martin Luther King Jr (US)

1963: International Committee of the Red Cross and the League of Red Cross Societies

1962: Linus Carl Pauling (US)

1961: Dag Hammarskjoeld (Sweden)

1960: Albert Lutuli (South Africa)

1959: Philip Noel-Baker (Britain)

1958: Georges Pire (Belgium)

1957: Lester Pearson (Canada)

1956: prize not handed out

1955: prize not handed out

1954: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

1953: George Marshall (US)

1952: Albert Schweitzer (France)

1951: Leon Jouhaux (France)

1950: Ralph Bunche (US)

1949: Lord (John) Boyd Orr of Brechin (Britain)

1948: prize not handed out

1947: Friends Service Council (The Quakers), American Friends Service Committee (The Quakers)

1946: Emily Greene Balch (US), John Raleigh Mott (US)

1945: Cordell Hull (US)

1944: International Committee of the Red Cross

1943: prize not handed out

1942: prize not handed out

1941: prize not handed out

1940: prize not handed out

1939: prize not handed out

1938: Nansen International Office for Refugees

1937: Viscount Cecil of Chelwood (Britain)

1936: Carlos Saavedra Lamas (Argentina)

1935: Carl von Ossietzky (Germany)

1934: Arthur Henderson (Britain)

1933: Sir Norman Angell (Ralph Lane) (Britain)

1932: prize not handed out

1931: Jane Addams (US) and Nicholas Murray Butler (US)

1930: Nathan Soederblom (Sweden)

1929: Frank Billings Kellogg (US)

1928: prize not handed out

1927: Ferdinand Buisson (France) and Ludwig Quidde (Germany)

1926: Aristide Briand (France) and Gustav Stresemann (Germany)

1925: Sir Austen Chamberlain (Britain) and Charles Gates Dawes (US)

1924: prize not handed out

1923: prize not handed out

1922: Fridtjof Nansen (Norway)

1921: Karl Hjalmar Branting (Sweden) and Christian Lous Lange (Norway)

1920: Leon Victor Auguste Bourgeois (France)

1919: Thomas Woodrow Wilson (US)

1918: prize not handed out

1917: International Committee of the Red Cross

1916: prize not handed out

1915: prize not handed out

1914: prize not handed out

1913: Henri La Fontaine (Belgium)

1912: Elihu Root (US)

1911: Tobias Michael Carel Asser (The Netherlands) and Alfred Hermann Fried (Austria)

1910: Permanent International Peace Bureau

1909: Auguste Marie François Beernaert (Belgium) and Paul Henri Benjamin Balluet, Baron d'Estournelles de Constant de Rebecque (France)

1908: Klas Pontus Arnoldson (Sweden) and Fredrik Bajer (Denmark)

1907: Ernesto Teodoro Moneta (Italy) and Louis Renault (France)

1906: Theodore Roosevelt (US)

1905: Baroness Bertha Sophie Felicita von Suttner (Austria)

1904: Institute of International Law

1903: William Randal Cremer (Britain)

1902: Elie Ducommun (Switzerland) and Charles Albert Gobat (Switzerland)

1901: Jean Henri Dunant (Switzerland) and Frederic Passy (France)

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Syria Rebels Parade Child Hostages On YouTube

Rebel forces in Syria have killed at least 190 civilians and seized dozens of child hostages, who they have paraded in a video posted on YouTube, Human Rights Watch says.

Fighters burned villages, threw bodies in mass graves and kidnapped women and children in acts described as likely "crimes against humanity" by HRW.

Witnesses gave harrowing accounts of family members being executed in their beds during an attack on August 4.

One man said he was forced to flee, leaving his paralysed son and wife to die at the hands of armed rebels.

Graves in a back yard of a village home. Pic: Human Rights Watch

A 105-page report by the New York based human rights group said the findings "strongly suggest" crimes against humanity were committed in the rural Latakia area.

HRW said it conducted an on-scene investigation and interviewed more than 35 people, including survivors and fighters from both sides.

One child said: "My mum was here in the house with me. She came out of the house first, and I was behind her.

"We saw the three fighters just in front of us, and then we fled on foot down behind the house and into the valley.

"The three fighters that I saw were all dressed in black. They were shooting at us from two different directions. They had machine guns and were using snipers.

Picture of body bags released by the Ministry of Health

"My older brother came down and hid with us as well. We hid, but my dad stayed in the house. He was killed in his bed.

"My aunt, she is an 80-year-old blind woman, was also killed in her room. Her name is Nassiba."

HRW said two opposition groups - the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham and Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar - were holding around 200 hostages from Alawite villages, where most inhabitants were considered loyal to Syria's leader Bashar al Assad.

"The evidence strongly suggests that the killings, hostage-taking, and other abuses committed by opposition forces on and after August 4 rise to the level of crimes against humanity," Human Rights Watch said.

Rebel fighters attacking villages. Pic: Human Rights Watch

The report came the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) continued its mission to deal with Syria's chemical weapons stockpile.

International inspectors have so far visited three sites linked to Syria's chemical weapons programme, OPCW spokesman Michael Luhan said.

In another development OPCW - based in The Hague - was awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

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Nazi War Criminal Erich Priebke Dies In Italy

Former SS officer and Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke has died in Italy, according to Italian media.

More follows...

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Woman Denied Help Gives Birth On Hospital Lawn

A photograph of an indigenous woman in Mexico taken as she gave birth outside a clinic where she was denied help has led to the suspension of the health centre's director.

Irma Lopez and her husband were turned away from the health centre by a nurse who said she was only eight months pregnant and "still not ready" to deliver.

But an hour-and-a-half later, her waters broke, and she gave birth to a son, her third child, on her own, as her husband pleaded with the nurse to call for help.

The 29-year-old said: "I didn't want to deliver like this. It was so ugly and with so much pain."

The photograph of her giving birth, her newborn still bound by the umbilical cord and lying on the ground, emerged in several newspapers, including the front cover of La Razon de Mexico, and was widely circulated on the internet.

It was taken by a witness to her ordeal at the Rural Health Centre in the village of San Felipe Jalapa de Diaz.

Mrs Lopez, who is of Mazatec ethnicity, and her husband had walked an hour to the clinic from the family's one-bedroom hut in the mountains of northern Oaxaca.

She was eventually taken in by the clinic after giving birth and discharged the same day with prescriptions for medicine and products that cost her about £19, she said.

"I am naming him Salvador," said Mrs Lopez, which means saviour in English. "He really saved himself."

Authorities in the southern Mexican state have now suspended the health centre's director, Dr Adrian Cruz, and launched an investigation into the incident, which happened on October 2.

The case has pointed to the persistent discrimination against Mexico's indigenous people, and the shortcomings of its health care system.

Hundreds of women still die during or right after pregnancy.

Mayra Morales, Oaxaca's representative for the national Network for Sexual and Reproductive Rights, said: "The photo is giving visibility to a wider structural problem that occurs within indigenous communities.

"Women are not receiving proper care. They are not being offered quality health services, not even a humane treatment."

Nearly one in five women in the state of Oaxaca gave birth in a place that was not a hospital or a clinic in 2011, according to Mexico's census.

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Deputy Nuclear Chief Fired Amid Gambling Probe

The deputy commander of US nuclear forces has been fired because of a gambling investigation.

US Navy Vice Admiral Tim Giardina was notified that he had been relieved of duty amid allegations that he used counterfeit chips at an Iowa casino.

He will drop in rank from a three-star to a two-star admiral because of the loss of his command, and will be reassigned pending the outcome of a probe by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

Admiral Giardina, who had held the job since December 2011, had already been suspended from his post on September 3.

He is alleged to have used at least $1,500 (£940) in fake gambling chips while playing poker at the Horseshoe Casino, Iowa state officials have said. He has not been charged.

The Horseshoe Casino in Council Bluffs is across the Missouri River from Strategic Command headquarters near Omaha, Nebraska.

The move to relieve such a high-ranking official is extremely rare in the history of US Strategic Command, which is responsible for nuclear forces including nuclear-armed submarines, bombers and land-based missiles.

The command also oversees space operations governing military satellites.

Officials have said the admiral is not being investigated for compromising any classified material.

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Taylor To Serve War Crimes Sentence In UK

Former Liberian president Charles Taylor will serve his 50-year war crimes sentence in a UK prison, the Government has confirmed.

Justice Minister Jeremy Wright said Taylor would be transferred to a British jail following his conviction by the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

The ex-warlord was sentenced in May 2012 for aiding rebels who committed atrocities during Sierra Leone's civil war.

He was found guilty of 11 crimes including terrorism, murder, rape and the use of child soldiers by groups fighting in the 1991-2002 conflict.

Judge Richard Lussick said Taylor was responsible for "some of the most heinous crimes in human history".

Taylor brandishing an AK-47 in 1990 on his way to ousting Liberia's leader

The conviction made him the first former head of state to be found guilty of war crimes since World War II.

Taylor has always claimed he is innocent, saying he only made contact with the rebels to urge them to stop fighting.

Sweden and Rwanda were thought to be possible destinations for his to serve his sentence, but Mr Wright confirmed his transfer to the UK in a written statement to Parliament.

He said: "International justice is central to foreign policy.

"It is essential for securing the rights of individuals and states, and for securing peace and reconciliation.

Liberia shares a border with Sierra Leone

"The conviction of Charles Taylor is a landmark moment for international justice.

"It clearly demonstrates that those who commit atrocities will be held to account and that no matter their position they will not enjoy impunity."

More than 50,000 people were killed during Sierra Leone's brutal 11-year civil war.

Thousands more were left mutilated in the conflict that became known for the extreme cruelty of rival rebel groups who hacked off the limbs of their victims and carved their initials into their opponents' flesh.

Taylor helped plan attacks in return for "blood diamonds" mined by slave labourers in Sierra Leone and political influence in the volatile West African region.

Naomi Campbell gave evidence at Taylor's war crimes trial

He was convicted not only of aiding and abetting Sierra Leone rebels from Liberia, but also for actually planning some of the attacks carried out by rebel groups such as the Revolutionary United Front and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council.

Supermodel Naomi Campbell and actress Mia Farrow gave evidence at the trial about Taylor apparently giving Ms Campbell blood diamonds in 1997 after a dinner in South Africa hosted by Nelson Mandela.

It is not the first time Britain has hosted a foreign war criminal - four men convicted of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia served time in British jails.

The men spent time in high-security prisons, with one former Bosnian Serb general stabbed at Wakefield prison apparently in retaliation for the massacre of Muslims in the UN safe haven of Srebrenica in 1995.

The former president of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, would have stayed in a British jail on his conviction, but died in 2006 while he was on trial in The Hague.

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Libya PM Zeidan Freed After Kidnap At Gunpoint

Libya's Prime Minister Ali Zeidan has been freed several hours after being kidnapped at dawn by gunmen at the Tripoli hotel where he is living.

The brazen abduction seemed to be in retaliation for a raid by US special forces in the capital over the weekend that saw a suspected al Qaeda leader seized.

It appeared Libyan forces had intervened in some way and the abductors did not free Mr Zeidan voluntarily.

People had reportedly opened fire at the building where he was being held to demand his release, a Reuters journalist said.

A militia commander affiliated with the interior ministry told a private Libyan TV station the PM was freed when members of a Tripoli-based militia stormed a house where he was held hostage.

Haitham al Tajouri, commander of the so-called Reinforcement Force, told Al Ahrar television that his men exchanged fire with the captors but that Mr Zeidan was not hurt.

After his release, the PM appeared live on television, saying: "Libyans need wisdom ... not escalation ... to deal with this situation."

Ali Zeidan (c) arrives at the government HQ after being freed

The 63-year-old politician also thanked some rebels who helped in his release and urged them to join the regular armed forces.

A group of former rebels said it had "arrested" Mr Zeidan after US Secretary of State John Kerry confirmed Libya's role in the US capture of Libyan Abu Anas al Libi.

A spokesman for the group, known as the Operations Room of Libya's Revolutionaries, said: "His arrest comes after ... (Kerry) said the Libyan government was aware of the operation."

The militia group, which had been hired by the government to provide security in the city, said it had seized Mr Zeidan "on the prosecutor's orders" for "crimes and offences prejudicial to the state" and its security.

But the public prosecutor's office said it had issued no such warrant for Mr Zeidan's arrest.

His abduction reflected the weakness of the government, which is virtually held hostage by powerful militias, many of which are made up of Islamic militants.

He was detained at the interior ministry's anti-crime department, said an official there, and he was reported to be in "good health and was treated well".

Mr Zeidan pictured with Prime Minister David Cameron

He had been taken from the luxury Corinthia Hotel after being seized by up to 150 armed men who arrived in pick-up trucks.

Witnesses said a large group of them entered the building, some stayed in reception while others headed to the 21st floor where Mr Zeidan was staying.

The gunmen scuffled with the prime minister's guards before they seized him and led him out at around 5.15am (local time), said the witnesses, adding he offered no resistance while he was being led away.

Sky sources said the man believed to be behind the abduction was Abu Obeiida, who is thought to have taken over the militia group.

The group appeared to post a warning of its intentions on Facebook on Monday. It said it "holds everyone who is involved in co-operating with foreign intelligence" responsible for the "kidnap" of al Libi and "will pursue them and bring them to justice".

Al Qaeda suspect Abu Anas al Libi was seized by the US last Saturday

Two years after a revolution toppled Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, the fragile central government has been struggling to contain tribal militias and groups of former rebels who spearheaded the uprising.

Sky's Tim Marshall said: "The prime minister of Libya's jurisdiction runs about to the end of his hotel corridor and then stops because there is no real government, certainly in the sense that we understand it.

"It is a lawless place that is falling apart into different factions, tribes, regions, areas and groups. The fact this man has been detained does not alter the trajectory of Libya's spiral into chaos.

"What is very important about the fact that the PM can be taken from his hotel by armed men is symbolic of how bad things have got."

There has been anger among militant groups over the US special forces operation that seized al Libi, whose family met Mr Zeidan hours before the PM's abduction.

Several groups accused the government of colluding in or allowing the weekend raid, though the government denied having any prior knowledge of the operation.

Al Libi, who was whisked away to a US warship in the Mediterranean, is suspected of being involved in the twin bombings of US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 1998.

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Egypt: Ousted President Morsi To Face Trial

The trial of ousted President Mohamed Morsi on charges of inciting the murder of protesters is due to start on November 4.

Morsi will stand trial with 14 other members of his Muslim Brotherhood over the killings of at least 10 protesters outside his presidential palace in December 2012, according to state news agency MENA.

The deadly clashes broke out after the Brotherhood dispersed a sit-in by secular-leaning opponents.

They had gathered to oppose a temporary decree passed by Morsi placing his decisions beyond judicial review.

Morsi's predecessor Hosni Mubarak is also on trial

The deaths came almost six months before Morsi was deposed in a military coup in July.

Morsi, who became Egypt's first democratically elected president, has been detained in a secret location since.

Following his departure, security forces launched an extensive crackdown on his supporters that has resulted in more than 1,000 deaths. The Muslim Brotherhood has also been banned.

Hundreds of Islamist loyalists were killed on August 14 when security forces broke up two protest camps set up by Morsi supporters in Cairo.

Many of the Brotherhood's leadership, including Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, are standing trial on other charges.

Western mediators including EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton had demanded Morsi's release as a goodwill gesture, but were rebuffed by the government which accuses the Brotherhood of "terrorism".

The movement has called for more marches on Friday to head to Tahrir Square in central Cairo, in a repeat of Sunday's protests that turned violent.

Morsi is the second Egyptian president to be charged over the killings of protesters.

His predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, is on trial for complicity in the deaths of protesters during the 18-day uprising that forced him to resign in 2011.

::  US officials say the Obama administration is poised to slash hundreds of millions of dollars in military and economic assistance to Egypt following the military coup.

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IMF Issues $2.3trn Warning Over QE's End

By Ed Conway, Economics Editor, In Washington

Investors could be facing a potential loss of $2.3trn (£1.44trn) if the world's central banks cannot smoothly unwind the emergency measures carried out during the financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned.

For the first time, the Fund put a number on the potential impact of a messy end to quantitative easing, as central banks, led by the Federal Reserve, bring their unconventional monetary measures to an end.

The calculation comes on the very day President Obama is to nominate Janet Yellen as the first female head of the Fed, the US central bank.

Yellen comes into the job with the Fed on the brink of bringing its latest phase of quantitative easing, under which it has been creating money and buying up $85bn (£53bn) of bonds each month, to an end.

In its Global Financial Stability Report, the IMF warned that if investors took fright at the end of QE, pushing up the interest rates on government bonds around the world by a percentage point, investors would suffer a 5.6% loss on their bond portfolios – equivalent to $2.3trn.

This equates to more than half the losses on assets faced during the height of the financial crisis.

Although the Fund said that such an outcome was less likely than a smooth, gradual increase in interest rates, which would not imply as great losses, its warning comes amid consternation at the scale of the task for the Fed – and indeed other central banks including the Bank of England – in the coming years.

Ms Yellen's nomination brings to an end one of the most testy and public appointment processes for a Fed chairman in history.

The other front-runner for the job, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, withdrew last month after it emerged that, although he was favoured by President Obama, he was unlikely to get Congressional approval.

Ms Yellen, deputy to the current Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, was widely seen as the favoured choice of economists – but the President had been less enthusiastic.

Her four-year term is likely to be among the most testy in Federal Reserve history, as the central bank attempts to deflate the bond bubble created around the world by quantitative easing.

In the wake of the crisis, the Fed and its fellow central banks pumped trillions of dollars worth of cash into the financial system.

This is thought to have lessened the immediate pain of the recession; however, economists fear it will be difficult to wean markets off the sugar high created by this money.

Ms Yellen, who is married to Nobel laureate George Akerlof, will become the first female chair since the Fed was created a century ago.

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Alitalia Could Be Grounded Over Unpaid Bills

Italian airline Alitalia is running the risk of being refused fuel for its planes as the company battles to secure its future.

Alitalia, which employs 14,000 staff, has been told by Italian provider ENI that its taps will be turned off unless unpaid fuel bills are settled.

The airline, which has a mountain of debt, is trying to raise £85m from shareholders as part of efforts to shore up its finances.

ENI's chief executive Paolo Scaroni said the firm "cannot provide credit to a company whose future seems no longer assured.

"If Alitalia doesn't get the support of its shareholders, we cannot keep it alive with our gas," he warned.

The investor vote is scheduled for Monday October 14 while Italian authorities work to find a solution with the prospect of receivership looming large.

Talks, which have included the country's prime minister, have yielded nothing so far and a decision may be taken by aviation authorities in the coming days on whether Alitalia is a viable company.

Alitalia has not made a profit in years and in September posted net losses of £249m for the first half of the year.

At the same time its plea for a capital increase was met with opposition from its biggest shareholder.

Air France-KLM took a 25% stake in Alitalia in 2008 as part of a compromise after-then Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi blocked a proposed takeover.

Italy's current prime minister Enrico Letta has since said that decision was an error "that we are paying for today."

Air France-KLM has problems of its own - this week announcing a huge restructuring involving about 1,800 lost jobs.

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Hungarian Man Dies In China Wingsuit Jump

A Hungarian man has died while performing a 700m (2,290ft) wingsuit jump in central China.

The body of Victor Kovats was discovered in the Tianmen Mountain National Forest Park in Hunan province on Wednesday, the day after his jump, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

More than 200 rescuers spent the night searching for him.

The extreme sport involves people gliding long distances using a special jump suit.

Victor Kovats performs a jump in the Tianmen Mountain National Forest Park

Reports suggest Kovats, a three-time Hungarian national wingsuit champion, died from head injuries after crashing into a cliff-side.

State media said the death may be related to equipment failure or gusting winds.

In footage of the jump, Kovats is seen suddenly veering off course and disappearing into tree cover.

Kovats was carrying out a practice run ahead of the second World Wingsuit Championship being held in the park this weekend.

The competition's mountainous backdrop was part of the inspiration behind James Cameron's alien landscape in the Hollywood blockbuster film Avatar.

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Brazil Teachers' Pay Protest Turns Violent

Clashes erupted in Rio de Janeiro as thousands of people gathered for a march in support of striking teachers.

The march began peacefully on the Brazilian city's main avenue, but chaos broke out once night fell.   

A small group of protesters threw fireworks, grenades, tear gas and smashed a gate at City Hall, where legislation was recently passed changing public teachers' pay and working hours.

Masked demonstrators also torched a bus, broke into banks, and tried to break open and set alight cashpoints.

Some protesters also pulled furniture out of banks to use as barricades as they squared off with police.

Chaos broke out once the protesters reached city hall

The police responded with tear gas to break up the crowds.

Protesting teachers were joined by students, civil groups, leftists and anarchist groups, some of whom are known for their violent demonstrations.

Teachers have been on strike for almost two months demanding better pay.

They said 50,000 people marched to support them before the violence broke out, but police would only confirm 10,000.

Brazil's security situation is an ongoing challenge ahead of it hosting the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games. 

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Syria Inspectors 'Face Unprecedented Danger'

UN inspectors face a year-long mission of unprecedented danger in trying to destroy Syria's chemical weapons arsenal, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned.

And as Mr Ban set out a blueprint for the most dangerous disarmament operation ever staged, rebels launched a major offensive.

The assault in northwest Syria highlighted the looming threats to inspectors from the joint United Nations and Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) mission.

In a letter to the Security Council, Mr Ban said the experts "will seek to conduct an operation the likes of which, quite simply, have never been tried before".

It normally takes years to complete the destruction of a country's chemical weapons arsenal.

Mr Ban highlighted the threat to the experts and Syrian civilians

Mr Ban said: "The joint mission will be expected to support, monitor and verify the destruction of a complex chemical weapons programme involving multiple sites spread over a country engulfed in violent conflict.

"The timelines associated with this destruction phase would be ambitious under the most peaceful and benign of circumstances."

The 11-page letter was Mr Ban's required response to the resolution adopted unanimously by the Security Council on September 27, ordering Syria's chemical weapons stockpile be secured and destroyed.

After months of diplomatic sparring, Russia and the United States agreed to work together to disarm Syria after a toxic gas attack near Damascus on August 21 in which hundreds died.

Mr Ban said an advance team of 35 personnel from the OPCW and UN have already arrived in Damascus.

On Sunday, Syrians - under the supervision of the OPCW and supported by the UN - began to destroy the weapons.

Gas canisters in Syria's chemical arsenal

They used "cutting torches and angle grinders to destroy or disable a range of materials, including missile warheads, aerial bombs and mixing and filling equipment," Mr Ban said.

"I welcome this historic step, and urge all parties to do their part to ensure that this encouraging progress is maintained and indeed accelerated," he said.

Mr Ban highlighted the threat to the experts and Syrian civilians from the sarin, mustard gas and other chemical weapons which will have to be moved amid ongoing fighting across the country.

The experts will have to work in "dangerous and volatile" conditions, particularly in urban areas such as Damascus, Homs and Aleppo, the UN leader said.

"Heavy artillery, air strikes, mortar barrages and the indiscriminate shelling of civilians areas are commonplace, and battle lines shift quickly," he added.

UN weapons inspectors at the site of the August 21 attack

Two mortars landed near the Damascus hotel the team is using just before they arrived last week.

Mr Ban added that roadside bombs "have detonated in close proximity" to the inspectors.

"My two highest priorities are the elimination of the Syrian chemical weapons programme and the safety and security of joint mission personnel who have volunteered to perform this vital but dangerous task," he said.

Under a timetable drawn up by Russia and the US, the experts have until the end of June to supervise the transport and destruction of the chemicals.

The Syrian government remains responsible for the actual destruction of the weapons, however.

Western countries blame President Bashar al Assad's forces for the August 21 chemical attack near Damascus which the United States says left more than 1,400 dead. The Syrian government and Russia accuse the opposition of having carried out the attack.

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Putin Wants Dutch Apology After Diplomat Held

Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded that the Netherlands apologise after a diplomat working for the Russian embassy in the Hague was detained by police and questioned overnight.

"This is the most gross breach of the Vienna Convention. We are waiting for explanations and apologies and also for those guilty to be punished," Mr Putin was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti state news agency at a regional summit in Indonesia.

"We will react depending on how the Dutch side behaves," he told reporters.

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday morning handed a note of protest to the Dutch ambassador to Russia over the incident, the ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told Russian news agencies.

"Last weekend, armed people in camouflage uniform stormed the apartment of Dmitry Borodin, a minister counsellor at the Russian embassy, and roughly beat up the diplomat in front of his children, on the absolutely made-up excuse that he allegedly mistreated them," Mr Lukashevich told Interfax news agency.

The Dutch-registered Arctic Sunrise in waters off Murmansk

"Our diplomat was put in handcuffs and taken to a police station where he was held almost all night," Mr Lukashevich said, adding that the diplomat had told police of his status.

"After that he was let go without any explanations or apologies."

The case has been covered widely on Russian state television.

"We are aware of the incident and are looking into it before commenting," a spokesman at the Dutch Foreign Ministry, Thijs van Son, told AFP.

Dutch police refused to comment.

The dispute comes against a backdrop of tensions between the two countries.

On Friday the Netherlands launched legal proceedings against Russia, saying it had unlawfully detained activists and others on a Dutch-registered Greenpeace ship.

Most of the 30 people on board the Arctic Sunrise were protesting against drilling in the Arctic.

Two Dutch citizens were among those arrested when the boat was seized by Russian authorities near the Prirazlomnaya offshore oil platform.

The Dutch activists were on board the Arctic Sunrise

Six Britons were also detained and Foreign Secretary William Hague has raised the case with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. Officials said Britain's concerns were based on "consular" issues of welfare.

The Dutch government contests the "unlawful manner" in which the ship was intercepted and is seeking the release of all its passengers, who include 28 activists and two freelance journalists.

But Russia has brushed the legal action away with Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov telling RIA Novosti that Russia had repeatedly asked the Netherlands to halt what Russia said was "illegal activity" by the ship.

"Unfortunately, this was not done. Therefore, we have far more questions for the Dutch side than they can have for us," RIA quoted Mr Meshkov as saying.

"Everything that happened with the Arctic Sunrise was pure provocation."

Russian authorities have pressed piracy charges, which could result in prison sentences of 15 years.

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Debt Ceiling: Senate Seeks To Break Impasse

Senate Democrats will put forward a measure to raise the federal debt ceiling, trying to break a political impasse that could lead the US to default on its debt.

The majority leader in the upper house, Harry Reid, could unveil the stand-alone measure to raise the debt ceiling as early as today, setting the table for a vote later in the week.

The measure is expected to provide enough borrowing room to last beyond the 2014 election, which means it is likely to permit $1trn (£622bn) or more in new borrowing above the current $16.7trn (£10.39trn) debt ceiling.

The administration says the current ceiling will be hit on October 17.

It is not clear whether Mr Reid's gambit will work. Republicans, who control the House, are expected to oppose the measure if it does not contain budget cuts to make a dent in deficits.

But some Democrats are betting that a bipartisan majority on a "clean" debt-limit increase exists.

The shutdown is frustrating citizens

The latest move on Capitol Hill came as the partial federal shutdown entered its second week with no end in sight - and much attention shifting to the debt-ceiling battle.

The shutdown was sparked by House Republicans' insistence that a temporary funding bill contain concessions on President Barack Obama's signature health care law, known as Obamacare.

It has put some 800,000 on unpaid leave, shut down national parks, museums and tourist attractions such as the Statue of Liberty and Alcatraz.

Even the White House is working with a "skeletal" staff, and agencies, including NASA, are mostly shuttered.

House Speaker John Boehner has ruled out any measure to finance and reopen the government or raise the borrowing limit without concessions from Mr Obama.

"Really, Mr President, it's time to have that conversation before our economy is put further at risk," Mr Boehner said on the House floor.

Some 800,000 'non-essential' workers are on unpaid leave

But Mr Obama has resisted that approach, saying he will not negotiate until Congress fulfils its basic responsibility of reopening the government and keeping it solvent.

The prolonged political wrangling in Washington appears to frustrate citizens and business leaders alike.

A survey by The Washington Post and ABC News found that 70% of Americans disapprove of the way Republicans are handling budget negotiations, up from 63% last week.

Disapproval of Mr Obama's role was unchanged at 51%.

Howard Schultz is trying to ratchet up the pressure on Capitol Hill

Meanwhile, the CEO of Starbucks has urged fellow business leaders to ratchet up the pressure on Washington to end the stalemate.

Howard Schultz wrote in a letter posted on the company's website that he was "utterly disappointed by the level of irresponsibility and dysfunction we are witness to with our elected political leadership."

"This weekend I heard from several business leaders who shared their concern about our relative silence and impact in urging the political leadership to act on behalf of the citizenry," he said.

"It is our responsibility to address the crisis of confidence that is needlessly being set in motion."

 "I don't pretend that both parties are equally to blame for this crisis. But I do think they are equally responsible for leading us to a solution," Mr Schultz said.

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Nobel: Cell Biologists Win Medicine Prize

Three cell biologists at US universities have won the 2013 Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries on how hormones, enzymes and other substances are transported within cells.

The three recipients are Americans James Rothman and Randy Schekman and German-born researcher Thomas Suedhof.

The committee said their research on the transport system of our cells shed light on how all key substances are "delivered to the right place at the right time" inside cells.

The prize in medicine kicks off this year's Nobel announcements

"Imagine hundreds of thousands of people who are travelling around hundreds of miles of streets; how are they going to find the right way? Where will the bus stop and open its doors so that people can get out?" Nobel committee secretary Goran Hansson said.

"There are similar problems in the cell."

Disturbances to the system can contribute to diabetes and neurological and immunological disorders, the committee said.

"My first reaction was, 'Oh, my God!'" Mr Schekman, 64, said in a statement released by his university, Berkeley.

"That was also my second reaction."

Mr Rothman, 62, is a professor at Yale University while Mr Suedhof, 57, joined Stanford University in 2008.

The Nobel committee said Mr Schekman discovered a set of genes that were required for a transport system of our cells known as "vesicle transport".

Mr Rothman revealed how proteins dock with their target membranes like two sides of a zipper, while Mr Suedhof found out how vesicles release their cargo with precision.

"These discoveries have had a major impact on our understanding of how cargo is delivered with timing and precision within and outside the cell," the committee said in their announcement.

The medicine prize kicked off this year's Nobel awards.

The awards in physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics will be announced by other prize juries this week and next.

Each prize is worth 8m Swedish kronor (£750,000 or $1.2m ).

Established by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the prizes have been handed out by award committees in Stockholm and Oslo since 1901.

The winners receive their awards on December 10, the anniversary of Mr Nobel's death in 1896.

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Egypt: Dozens Dead After Pro-Morsi Protests

At least 50 people have been killed in Egypt in clashes between security forces and supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi.

The figure, from a health ministry official, comes as Morsi supporters protested in several cities during army celebrations to mark the anniversary of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

Hundreds of people are also reported to have been wounded.

Journalist Bel Trew, in Cairo, told Sky News the military had been expecting the unrest and described seeing "chaotic side street clashes with lots of gunfire and tear gas".

She added: "There's quite a lot of anger here toward the Morsi supporters by local residents and those who wanted to go to the streets to celebrate their military on this day that Egyptians regard as one of the most proud moments of their history.

"What we're looking at is rival protests on the streets together."

A heavy security presence with tanks and armoured vehicles gathered in Cairo to try to deter the protesters, said Trew.

Supporters of Mr Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood movement had tried to get close to Tahrir Square, the focal point of pro-army demonstrations since the coup in June.

Protesters in Cairo

But security forces guarded entrances to the square, frisking people arriving for the celebrations.

Mr Morsi, who became Egypt's first democratically elected president, was removed from office in July.

Since then, the military-backed government of General Abdel Fatah al Sisi has cracked down on members of the Brotherhood.

Hundreds of Mr Morsi's supporters were allegedly killed in August as protest camps were cleared, while the government said around 100 members of the security forces also died.

Away from the main squares, Cairo's streets were largely deserted on Sunday, a public holiday to commemorate the October War, known as the Yom Kippur War in Israel.

The conflict is remembered proudly by the Egyptian army because it caught Israel by surprise and led to the recovery of the Sinai Peninsula in a 1979 peace treaty.

Supporters of the Army regime waved flags as warplanes flew over Cairo in a show of force and patriotic songs boomed out from loudspeakers.

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Egypt: Security Forces 'Targeted' In Attacks

Gunmen have killed an army officer, lieutenant and four soldiers in an attack on a patrol near the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, security officials said.

The attack took place north of the city, where suspected militants have repeatedly targeted security forces in recent weeks.

Officials said the six were on patrol in a pickup truck when masked gunmen in another vehicle opened fire at them.

Ismailia and the areas around it have seen regular attacks on police and military personnel, especially since the military toppled Islamist president Mohamed Morsi on July 3.

Meanwhile officials said a massive explosion, possibly from a car bomb, has hit the security headquarters in a southern Sinai town, killing two people and wounding 50.

A soldier fires tear gas at protesters near Cairo's Tahrir Square

The security officials said the attack in the town of al Tour significantly damaged the four-storey building and set off small fires.

Rockets were reported to have also been fired at a state satellite station in Cairo, wounding two people.

Attacks by Sinai-based militants have risen sharply since the army toppled Mr Morsi and promised a roadmap that would lead Egypt to free and fair elections.

Almost daily attacks by al Qaeda-inspired militants in the Sinai have killed more than 100 members of the security forces since early July, the army spokesman said on September 15.

On Sunday clashes in the capital between security forces and Islamist protesters left 51 people dead.

Street battles raged for hours after supporters of Mr Morsi and backers of the military that deposed him poured into the streets and turned on each other.

It was the highest death toll in a single day in violence in Egypt since August 14, when security forces raided two sit-in protest camps by Mr Morsi's supporters in Cairo, killing hundreds.

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Kerry Defends Terror Suspect's Capture

Libyia Raid: US Scores Huge Success

Updated: 1:07pm UK, Monday 07 October 2013

The Americans have scored a major success in capturing one of their most wanted al Qaeda suspects in Libya, but the operation has reminded some in the UK of a time, pre 9/11, when the UK was a haven for foreign Islamists with links to violence.

The Americans got their man, Abu Anas al Libi, in an audacious daylight raid in Tripoli.

Elite forces surrounded his car and dragged him out before, according to the New York Times, flying him out to the US Navy transport ship San Antonio.

Libi is wanted by the Americans on charges of conspiring with Osama bin Laden to attack US forces in Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia, and of planning the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people.

In the early 1990s Libi was with bin Laden along with dozens of other al Qaeda members in Sudan.

Colonel Gaddafi of Libya and other leaders asked the Sudanese government to expel them, and Khartoum made it clear to the group that it was time to move on. 

Many members went to Afghanistan and Libi may have been among them.

However, by the mid 1990s he was in the UK where, as an enemy of Colonel Gaddafi, he claimed asylum. This was granted by Michael Howard who was then the Home Secretary in Prime Minister John Major's government.

At the time London was home to many radicals who had fled persecution in their own countries. This was only a few years after the UK had supported the Mujahidin in Afghanistan because they fought the Russians.

The French and American security forces were troubled at the presence of so many radicals in the UK, and it was in the mid 1990s that the term Londonistan was first coined.

Both countries gave the British specific examples of how radicals in Britain were in contact with terrorists abroad.

The security services and Scotland Yard were well aware of their presence, but with finite resources, and the IRA to keep an eye on, the authorities tolerated them as long as they did not break the laws in the UK.

Libi left the UK sometime in the late 1990s. It is reported that the police later raided an address at which he had lived and found terrorist literature including a manual on how to conduct terror operations.

The Americans have now captured and killed almost all of the higher echelons of the original Al Qaeda leadership including bin Laden.

Still at large is the new leader, former deputy Ayman Al Zawahiri.

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Iraq: 15 Dead In Twin Suicide Bomb Blasts

Suicide bombers have blown up vehicles packed with explosives at a school and police station in a village in northern Iraq, killing at least 15 people of whom many were children.

One drove a truck into the playground of a primary school in Qabak, near the town of Tel Afar, killing 12 students and their headmaster.

The explosion caused part of the single-storey building to collapse.

Just minutes earlier there was a similar attack on the village's police station in which two officers were killed.

The village, which is home to about 200 people and has a large Shiite population, is situated northwest of Mosul city, where al Qaeda Sunni Islamists and other insurgents have a foothold.

Abdul Aal al Obeidi, Tel Afar Mayor, said: "We were exposed to two big explosions today in which dozens were killed or injured."

He said a further 90 people were injured in the attacks.

"It's a tragedy," he said. "These innocent children were here to study. What sins did these children commit?"

Elsewhere, a suicide bomber blew himself up amongst a crowd of Shiite pilgrims passing through a Sunni neighbourhood in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

At least 12 people were killed in the blast and 23 others injured as they walked to a shrine to commemorate the death of Imam Mohammed al Jawad, the ninth Shiite imam.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the day's violence, which followed several deadly assaults across the country on Saturday in which at least 66 people were killed.

In one, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a cafe in Balad, a largely Shiite town surrounded by Sunni communities located about 50 miles north of Baghdad, killing at least 13 people and wounding 22 others.

The attacks are the latest in a relentless wave of killing that has made for Iraq's deadliest outburst of violence since 2008.

United Nations figures released this week showed that at least 979 people, most of them civilians, were killed last month alone.

More follows...

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Syria: UN Begins Destroying Chemical Weapons

Weapons experts have begun destroying Syria's chemical stockpiles and production facilities, a UN source has told AP news service.

The source said members of the team from the UN and The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) "have left for a site where they are beginning verification and destruction".

"Today is the first day of destruction, in which heavy vehicles are going to run over, and thus destroy missile warheads, aerial chemical bombs and mobile and static mixing and filling units," the source added.

A UN weapons inspector at the site of the August 21 attack

An OPCW official said earlier this week that all "expedient methods" would be used to destroy the arsenal and production facilities.

Methods used could include explosives, sledgehammers, and pouring in concrete.

The inspectors arrived in Damascus on Tuesday to begin verifying details of the weapons programme handed over by President Bashar al Assad's regime.

The UN published a report into the chemical weapons attack last month

"Phase one, which is disclosure by the Syrians, is ending and we are now moving towards phase two - verification and destruction and disabling," the UN source said.

The team is in Syria under the terms of a UN resolution, agreed after long talks between Russia and the US, for Damascus to hand over its chemical weapons for destruction.

The deal was hammered out in the wake of a sarin attack on the outskirts of Damascus on August 21, which killed hundreds of people.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia's Sergey Lavrov agreed the deal

The United States has blamed Mr Assad's forces for the attack - a claim disputed by Russia, and denied by the Syrian government.

Washington threatened military strikes in response to the chemical atrocity, but action was averted following intense negotiations between US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

Under the UN agreement, Syria's chemical weapons are to be destroyed by the middle of next year.

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Al Shabaab: US Forces Abort Somalia Terror Raid

US special forces have aborted a mission to capture an al Shabaab leader in Somalia after coming under heavy attack.

Their target was Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, also known as Ahmed Godane, who claimed responsibility for last month's Nairobi shopping mall massacre that killed at least 67 people, according to a Somali intelligence official.

A Navy Seal team staged a pre-dawn raid on a house in the southern town of Barawa after swimming ashore before the al Qaeda-linked militants rose for morning prayers.

Reinforcements arrived at the house and Seal Team Six, the same unit that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, encountered fiercer resistance than expected, a senior US military source told The Associated Press.

After a 15 to 20-minute firefight, the unit leader decided to abort the mission and they swam away, the source said.

Al Shabaab later posted pictures on the internet of what it said was US military gear left behind in the raid, including bullets, a GPS device and a stun grenade.

Al Shabaab released photos of US gear it says was left behind in the raid

US Secretary of State John Kerry, in Bali for an economic summit, spoke about the failed US operation, and said terrorists "can run but they can't hide".

A Pentagon spokesman confirmed that US military personnel had been involved in a counter-terrorism operation against a known al Shabaab terrorist in Somalia, but did not provide details.

He said there were no US casualties in the raid.

Within hours of the attack, the US Army's Delta Force carried out a raid in Libya, and captured an al Qaeda leader wanted for the 1998 bombings of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 220 people.

The aborted Somalia operation came 20 years after the famous "Black Hawk Down" battle in Mogadishu, in which a mission to capture Somali warlords went wrong when militia forces shot down two US helicopters and killed 18 American soldiers.

A GPS device apparently used by the Seal team

Residents in Barawa, a seaside town some 150 miles south of Mogadishu, said they woke up to the sound of heavy gunfire.

The SEAL team killed a guard and battled their way inside a two-storey beachside house, where al Shabaab fighters reportedly lived, before being driven back.

A US official said the mission was aimed at capturing a "high-value target" while trying to avoid civilian casualties.

A Barawa resident called Mohamed Bile said militants closed down the town in the hours after the raid, and were carrying out house-to-house searches to find evidence that a spy had tipped off the US.

"We woke up to find al Shabaab fighters had sealed off the area and their hospital is also inaccessible," he told The Associated Press by phone. "The town is in a tense mood."

One of the gunmen in the Kenyan shopping centre attack

Speaking after the US raid, Somalia's Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon said his government was "collaborating with the world and neighbouring countries" in its battle against al Shabaab.

Last month, addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, he denounced the group's "cowardly attack" in Kenya, but said a military solution to their insurgency was not enough.

He praised the 17,000-strong African peacekeeping force in Somalia for improving security and fighting al Shabaab, who he said were now weakened. But he said Somalia needed economic stability to cut youth unemployment.

"This provided al Shabaab a building ground to recruit and spread their destructive ideology. It is therefore essential to create educational and economic opportunities for youth," he warned.

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