Israel: Obama Meets Abbas After Rocket Blast

President Barack Obama has told Palestinians they deserve an "independent and sovereign" state during his visit to the West Bank.

Mr Obama arrived in Ramallah hours after Palestinian militants fired two rockets into southern Israel.

He held talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and told a news conference that the US is "deeply committed" to a two-state solution, but the only way to achieve it is through negotiation.

Mr Obama said that Israel's ongoing settlement building was unhelpful to the pursuit of peace but urged the Palestinians not to make halting the policy a precondition for negotiations.

He said: "We do not consider continued settlement activity to be constructive, to be appropriate, to be something that can advance the cause of peace."

President Abbas said that peace with Israel should not be achieved through violence, occupation, settlements, arrests or denial or refugee rights.

There have been angry protests ahead of Mr Obama's Ramallah visit

The rockets fired from Gaza, a reminder of heightened tensions in the region, caused damage to land around a house but there were no injuries.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said: "One exploded in the back yard of a house in Sderot, causing damage, and the second landed in a field."

Military officials cited by army radio said they believed the attack was timed deliberately to coincide with Mr Obama's visit.

Israel pointed the finger for the attacks at Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, although there was no direct claim of responsibility.

President Obama - who visited the town where the rockets landed as a presidential candidate in 2008 - was miles away in Jerusalem at the time, preparing to visit the Israel Museum.

A police expert clears the remains of a rocket from outside a Sderot house

There were protesters outside the Palestinian Authority headquarters in Ramallah ahead of his arrival for talks with Palestinian leaders, who have accused him of riding roughshod over their hopes of statehood.

Sky News Middle East Correspondent Sam Kiley said settlements and the controversial "right of return" for Palestinians to their former lands in Israel would be on the agenda.

He added: "The crucial thing is for President Obama to get back into the peace process."

Code Red sirens wailed in Sderot shortly after the rockets hit at 7am, forcing commuters and schoolchildren to run to bomb shelters.

Yossi Haziza, a Sderot resident in whose courtyard the first rocket exploded, was looking at the walls of his home sprayed with shrapnel and shattered windows.

Mr Obama reaffirmed US support for Israel during talks in Jerusalem

He said: "I wish this was merely damage to property but my eight-year-old daughter and my wife are terrified. We just want to live in peace. We don't want to keep having to run to bomb shelters."

Mr Obama, on the first foreign trip of his second term, says he has come to the Holy Land simply "to listen" to the parties about how to resume peace talks frozen for two-and-a-half years.

He said he decided against coming with a comprehensive peace plan that might not be fit for current political conditions.

The US President's new approach was in stark contrast to early in his first term, when he declared Israeli settlement building to be illegitimate and promised to dedicate himself to peace.

Meanwhile, Palestinian activists set up a protest camp on West Bank land east of Jerusalem where Israel has announced controversial plans to build, demanding an end to Obama's "bias and support for Israel".

Israel's plan to build thousands of new settler homes in an area called E1 has sparked a major international backlash, with experts saying it could wipe out hopes for a viable Palestinian state.

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North Korea Issues Fresh Threat To America

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent

North Korea has threatened to attack American airbases on the Japanese island of Okinawa and the Pacific island of Guam.

A statement by Kim Yong Chul, the spokesman of the Supreme Command of the Korean People's Army warned of "military actions".

"The US should not forget that the Anderson Air Force Base on Guam where B-52 bombers take off and naval bases in Japan and Okinawa where nuclear-powered submarines are launched are within the striking range of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) precision strike means," the statement read.

"Now that the US started open nuclear blackmail and threat, the DPRK, too, will move to take corresponding military actions."

The words mark the latest escalation in a lengthy stand-off as North Korea defies calls from the rest of the world to halt its dual nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

North Korea has threatened an attack over B-52 drills

The American government has not yet responded to the threat.

British diplomatic sources speaking to Sky News from Seoul have said the UK Government "takes any threats seriously and there is some concern over the more harsh rhetoric coming from the DPRK".

However, the source insisted that there was no panic or alarm among diplomatic circles and that UK travel advice to South Korea remains unchanged.

The latest threat from North Korea is a direct response to a series of joint military exercises involving the US and South Korea.

On Tuesday, the US Air Force deployed its giant B-52 bombers from their base on Guam. The planes, which are capable of carrying and deploying nuclear bombs, flew sorties over the Korean peninsula as part of the military exercise.

The Pentagon in Washington confirmed the B-52 deployment. Spokesman George Little said the US wanted to underline its commitment and capacity to defend South Korea against an attack from the North.

Military guard posts of South Korea (front) and North Korea (far)

However, the flights were condemned by Pyongyang as "an unpardonable provocation".

"The US is introducing a strategic nuclear strike means to the Korean peninsula at a time when its situation is inching close to the brink of war," the North Korean statement added.

The North Korean military does have rockets capable of reaching both Okinawa and Guam.

The surprisingly successful rocket launch in December followed a trajectory similar to that which any strike against Okinawa would take.

The Pentagon has confirmed the B-52 deployment

Okinawa is 600 miles due south of the Korean peninsula. Guam is further away, to the east of the Philippines.

While Pyongyang has proved it has the range capability, it is not clear whether or not their missiles are accurate enough to hit a specific target. And the country does not yet have the ability to carry out a nuclear strike at this range.

Earlier this month, the UN imposed the toughest sanctions yet on North Korea.

Kim Jong-Un reacted with anger, threatening to attack America, South Korea and Japan. The young and unpredictable leader toured military units calling for them to prepare for 'all out war'.

Computers are seen down at the main office of broadcaster YTN in Seoul

Meanwhile, Wednesday's unusually large cyberattack in South Korea, which brought down banks and broadcasters for one hour, has been traced to China.

Experts in Seoul claim the simultaneous attacks all bore the same IP address which was traced to the Chinese mainland.

Many of North Korea's internet and computing operations are tied to China. There is no suggestion that the Chinese government had any involvement.

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Australia: Julia Gillard Challenge Called Off

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has retained the leadership of the Labor party just hours after she was urged to hold a ballot.

Ms Gillard ensured she will lead the party into elections in September after her main rival Kevin Rudd admitted he did not have enough support to defeat her.

The prime minister called the vote after a senior MP said the issue was "killing" the party and needed to be resolved.

The vote was scheduled for 16:30 (05:30 GMT), but minutes before it was due to take place Mr Rudd pulled out, meaning Ms Gillard was elected unopposed, with no actual vote called.

She said: "Today the leadership of our political party, the Labor Party, has been settled and settled in the most conclusive fashion possible.

"The whole business is completely at an end. It has ended now."

Mr Rudd said he was honouring a pledge not to challenge for the top job made after a previous failed bid in 2012.

He said: "I believe in honouring my word... others take such commitments lightly, I do not.

"I have also said that the only circumstances under which I would consider a return to leadership would be if there was an overwhelming majority of the parliamentary party requesting such a return, drafting me to return and the position was vacant.

"I am here to inform you that those circumstances do not exist."

Polls suggest Mr Rudd has more public support than Ms Gillard, who is on course to lose the election to Liberal Party candidate Tony Abbott.

The latest crisis is the third time the prime minister has defeated Mr Rudd for the leadership, but she now faces a tough job to unify a deeply-divided party and turn around public support over the next six months.

"I think they're terminal. There is no way out of this," political analyst Nick Economou told Reuters.

Ms Gillard's leadership has been threatened for most of the past two years as her minority government lumbered from one crisis to another, despite an economy that avoided recession after the 2008 global crisis and has seen 21 years of continuous growth.

She first replaced Mr Rudd in a party coup in June 2010 but the move to oust an elected prime minister angered many voters, who have found it difficult to forgive her for the way she became leader.

Ms Gillard defeated Mr Rudd in a second leadership vote in February 2012, prompting her rival to promise that he would only take on the leadership again with the overwhelming support of his party.

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Two Helicopters Crash In Berlin Police Exercise

Two helicopters have crashed near Berlin's Olympic Stadium during a police exercise to thwart hooliganism, German authorities have said.

It is believed one pilot died, following the accident at 10.30am local time.

Onlookers described how one aircraft ended up on its side and how the rotors of both helicopters were destroyed.

One helicopter appeared to be a blue police Puma aircraft while the other appeared to be a military model.

Police were taking part in an exercise against football violence

Bild newspaper said four people were hurt in the snowy weather crash, with two of those listed as seriously injured.

An injured officer was seen walking with blood streaming from facial wounds.

One eyewitness told N-TV: "It was a real snowstorm, suddenly we heard a bang and someone shouted, 'Everybody down'.

Berlin has been hit by snowstorms in recent days

"Then there was blood everywhere. Next to me was a huge puddle of blood."

According to AP, some 400 federal police officers were conducting a training exercise on dealing with football violence.

It is understood around half of the officers in the exercise were pretending to be football hooligans.

Federal Police spokesman Frank Brochert confirmed there "was an incident during an exercise" and that emergency crews were on the scene.

Interior minister Hans-Peter Friedrich visited the crash site and said: "Our thoughts are with the families of the victims."

Bild said it appeared one pilot had become disorientated in the snowy Berlin conditions and crashed into the other helicopter.

The helicopters collided at low altitude, shortly after they passed over the affluent Charlottenburg residential area in the west of the city.

The crash occurred further west in an area known as Maifeld, which is adjacent to the historic sporting stadium.

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David Beckham: China Tour Will Boost Game

By Mark Stone, China Correspondent

David Beckham has arrived in Beijing as China's first global football ambassador.

The Paris Saint-Germain midfielder, who is as big a star here as he is anywhere else, is spending four days on a whistle-stop tour across the country.

Beckham's role will involve helping to promote the Chinese Super League (CSL) to the world, raising the profile of the game within China itself and to restore its image after recent match-fixing scandals.

The star said: "This is a significant year in Chinese football history as we usher in 20 years of developing this sport professionally and mark the 10-year milestone of the Chinese Super League - which today reaches 300 million television viewers and 4.49 million spectators annually."

A group of fans wait to welcome Beckham to Beijing (Pic:@Stone_SkyNews)

Beckham arrived to an unusual scene in the Chinese capital: thick snow and blue skies with no hint of the smog that has blanketed the city for so many days this year.

Day one of his trip included visits to two schools in the city as well as a kick-around with children. He hosted a news conference at one of the schools explaining his motivation for the visit.

Professional football in China is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba and coaches Marcello Lippi and Sergio Batista are among the high profile names to move to China. Drogba and Anelka lasted just one season.

However, the game in China has been tainted by corruption. The Chinese Football Association found 58 people guilty of involvement in match fixing.

Beckham says he's excited about promoting the game to Chinese sports fans

Beckham will spend two days in Beijing visiting the Workers Stadium, home to Beijing Guo'an Football Club. He will meet players and fans and tour the stadium.

He will then travel south to the coastal city of Qingdao, home to Qingdao Jonoon Football Club. His visit there will follow the same format as the Beijing leg: visiting schools and promoting the game at the grassroots level.

From Qingdao he will fly to the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the home of Wuhan Zall Football Club.

"The guy is a huge, huge brand. To say that the trip isn't some sort of publicity stunt would be a very, very silly thing to say," Pete Davis, China Correspondent for Goal Asia, told Sky News.

A fan of the football star with a book to sign (Pic:@Stone_SkyNews)

"Having said that, Chinese football does need the boost that Beckham can provide and it can only be good, I think. Him coming over is not going to create a massive improvement in terms of grassroots football ... but Beckham can brand the league and bring the right kind of notoriety to it," he said.

Late last year,  before his move to Paris, there was significant speculation that Beckham might sign with a Chinese team. Pete Davis believes there is still a chance he could move there.

"His contract with Paris Saint-Germain is only five months long - that nicely coincides with the middle of the Chinese season when Chinese teams are allowed to sign people, so it may be that we see him for a short six-month spell like we did Drogba and Anelka and in that time he may be able to work wonders. We don't know yet," he said.

Officials at all levels, including the new President Xi Jinping - said to be a big football fan - are hoping that Brand Beckham will significantly boost the game and clean up its image.

"Corruption has tarnished the image of Chinese football but what happened was 10 years ago," continued Mr Davis.

David Beckham making his debut for Paris Saint-Germain last month

"The goalkeeper of Shanghai Shenhua is a highly rated guy called Wang Dalei and he would have been 14 years old when this match fixing happened. Yes it's current news, but actually it's old news in terms of Chinese football. It's just that the punishment has only just occurred."

Beckham is being paid for the trip - it's not clear who the funding is coming from. His management company IMG said that it was not a significant amount.

"This is not about money, this is about a guy that loves football," Jeff Slack, IMG's vice president is quoted by the South China Morning Post as saying.

Victoria Beckham is not joining her husband on the trip

The newspaper claimed that he was being paid by Chinese Central Television (CCTV) which is giving significant coverage to the trip.

Victoria Beckham is not accompanying her husband. Her previous visits to the country, though, have generated significant interest.

"She came all the way through China and she developed quite a large following and had some very nice things to say about Chinese girls and their fashion sense and that is a whole different way of looking at it." said Mr Davis.

"It can be good for both of them to get involved in China. It's a huge market with a lot of money involved and if Victoria and David can benefit from it then what's the harm in a six-month stay here," he added.

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South Korea: North Suspected Of Cyber Attack

An investigation is under way into the simultaneous shutdown of computer networks at several major broadcasters and banks in South Korea, with suspicion falling on North Korea.

The shutdown came days after North Korea blamed the South and the US for cyber attacks that temporarily closed websites in Pyongyang.

While the cause was not immediately clear, there has been speculation of a possible North Korean cyber attack.

Officials at the two South Korean public broadcasters KBS and MBC said that all computers at their companies blacked out - but did not cause any damage to their daily TV broadcasts.

YTN cable news channel reported that the company's internal computer network was completely paralysed.

The servers of YTN were brought down

Local TV showed workers staring at blank computer screens, and at one coffee shop employees asked for cash, saying their credit card machine was not working.

The state-run Korea Information Security Agency confirmed that computers at at least five South Korean companies were down. The agency was investigating what caused the outage.

Shinhan Bank, a lender of South Korea's fourth-largest banking group, said the bank's system, including online banking and cash machines, had stopped working.

The company was unable to conduct any transactions with customers at bank windows, including retail banking and corporate banking.

Tensions between the neighbouring countries are high following North Korea's recent nuclear test and the UN sanctions that followed.

Accusations of cyber attacks on the Korean Peninsula are not new. Seoul believes Pyongyang was behind at least two cyber attacks on its companies in 2011 and 2012.

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Colorado Prisons Chief Shot Dead At Home

The head of the Colorado Department of Corrections has been shot and killed on his own doorstep.

Authorities in Monument, north of Colorado Springs, are warning that the gunman is still on the loose.

Sheriff's Lt. Jeff Kramer said Tom Clements was shot at around 8.30pm on Tuesday night when he answered his front door.

A family member called the emergency services to report the shooting.

Officers then found the 58-year-old dead in his home.

Search dogs were brought in to search a surrounding wooded area, while police went house-to-house trying to find out what neighbours knew about the shooting.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper appointed Mr Clements in 2011.

"I can hardly believe it, let alone write words to describe it," he said in a statement to corrections department staff early on Wednesday.

"As your Executive Director, he helped change and improve DOC in two years more than most people could do in eight years. He was unfailingly kind and thoughtful, and sought the "good" in any situation," he added.

Prior to his move to Colorado, Mr Clements served for more than three decades in the Missouri Department of Corrections.

He is survived by his wife, Lisa, their two daughters and their family.

Flags will fly at half-mast at all public buildings statewide until the day after his funeral.

The shooting came just hours before Governor Hickenlooper was due to sign new gun laws for Colorado.

They are aimed at limiting ammunition magazines and expanding background checks, in light of the Aurora movie theatre massacre last July.

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Lazio Fans Raided Over Spurs Attacks In Rome

By Nick Pisa, Sky News Reporter

Police in Rome have made a series of dawn raids as they continue their investigations into an attack on a city centre pub that left several Tottenham Hotspur fans injured.

Nine addresses were targeted in the operation, which is part of the ongoing probe into violence that erupted in The Drunken Ship, where Spurs fans had gathered ahead of a Europa League match against Lazio last November.

Officials said they were focusing on nine men, aged between 22 and 40 years old, who were described as "Lazio fans, known for their radical links".

Police said they had been traced after tracking telephone data between the men, which showed they had been in close contact with each other in the area of the Drunken Ship both before and after the attack.

Officers believe the men had probably been acting as "spotters for the main group" which attacked the pub.

All the men will have samples of DNA taken to compare them with traces found on weapons seized outside the pub following the attack.

The men held were all automatically given stadium banning orders of three years.

Last month, nine other homes were raided while two men have already been charged with wounding.

Police said 20 people are currently under investigation in connection with the attack.

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Teen Guilty Of Irish Student Murder In Tokyo

A Japanese court has found an American teenager guilty of the murder of Irish student Nicola Furlong in Tokyo last year.

The 21-year-old Dublin CIty University exchange student was found strangled in an upmarket hotel early on May 24, 2012, after attending a hip-hop concert.

Richard Hinds, of Memphis, Tennessee, stood silently as he was found guilty of what the presiding judge called a "vicious" attack.

The court ruled that he had strangled the exchange student with a towel or tank top in the Keio Plaza hotel in the city's Shinjuku district.

The 19-year-old was ordered to serve to a minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 10 years.

Hinds and another American were accused of taking Ms Furlong and one of her friends to the hotel after they had passed out in a bar.

The Tokyo District Court ruled that Hinds strangled Ms Furlong when she regained consciousness to keep her quiet.

Nicola Furlong's family leaving court

The other man, James Blackston, a 23-year-old dancer from Los Angeles, was seen with Hinds bringing Ms Furlong and her unnamed friend unconscious into the hotel on CCTV footage which was played to the court.

He was convicted last week of sexually assaulting the second girl and sentenced to three years in jail.

The judge said Hinds had shown no sign of remorse and had tainted Ms Furlong's honour.

Regarded as a minor under Japanese law, a 10-year sentence was the maximum Hinds could receive.

But outside the court, Ms Furlong's family expressed anger, saying they had wanted a heavier punishment.

Her mother Angela said: "Nicola's life was worth more than that."

She added: "It's good that they (judges) cleared her name. Nicola has done nothing wrong. It was all him and his lies that brought us out here.

"We still don't know the truth of what happened in that room but we know Nicola did nothing wrong, we knew that coming out anyway."

Her sister Andrea said: "I'm so angry and I'm so hurt. We had so much faith in the Japanese doing justice for us, and I don't feel we got it. I'm disgusted."

The defence had maintained Hinds' innocence, arguing that Ms Furlong died after a cocktail of alcohol and drugs.

Ms Furlong had been studying and living about 62 miles (100km) north of Tokyo, at Takasaki City University of Economics as part of an exchange programme.

According to evidence in both trials, Ms Furlong and her friend, who is also Irish but whose name was withheld in court, went to the city to see a concert by US rapper Nicki Minaj.

After the concert, the two met Hinds and Blackston and went with them to a bar. At some point both of the women passed out.

Prosecutors suggested they were drugged.

Security camera footage presented as evidence showed Blackston sexually assaulting Ms Furlong's friend in a taxi on the way to the hotel, where the men borrowed wheelchairs to get the unconscious women to the rooms.

After the verdict, Hinds, a Christian musician, said a brief farewell to his family before he was escorted away to prison.

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Syria Accuses Opposition Of Chemical Attack

Syria's state media has accused opposition fighters of firing a chemical weapon in the north of the country, killing at least 16 people.

The opposition quickly denied the report and claimed regime forces had fired the weapon.

Neither of the accusations could immediately be verified.

The report by the official SANA news agency marks the first time the government has accused forces seeking to topple President Bashar al Assad of using chemical weapons.

It said "terrorists" fired a rocket "containing chemical materials" into the Khan al Assal area in the northern province of Aleppo on Tuesday. The regime regularly uses the term terrorists to refer to rebels fighting Mr Assad's forces.

It quoted the government's information minister Omran al Zoabi as saying the attack was a "dangerous escalation" in the violent conflict.

A Free Syrian Army member jumps off a destroyed military tank

He said the firing of the weapon is the "first act" by the opposition interim government announced in Istanbul.

Mr Zoabi added that Turkey and Qatar, which have supported rebels fighting to overthrow President Assad, bore "legal, moral and political responsibility" for the attack, state television reported.

An activist in the area said the opposition had recently seized much of Khan al Assal, including a facility that housed a military academy.

The Aleppo Media Centre, affiliated with the opposition, said there were cases of "suffocation and poison" among civilians in Khan al Assal after a surface-to-surface missile was fired at the area.

It said in a statement the cases were "most likely" caused by regime forces' use of "poisonous gases".

SANA said around 16 people, most of them civilians, were killed and up to 86 more wounded.

An activist in Aleppo province who identified himself as Yassin Abu Raed, not his real name, confirmed the attack and said there were at least 40 cases of suffocation in the area and several deaths.

But he said no details were available as casualties were being taken to a government-controlled area in Aleppo.

President Assad, fighting a two-year uprising against his rule, is widely believed to have a chemical arsenal.

Syrian officials have neither confirmed nor denied having a chemical weapons capability but have said that if it existed it would be used to defend against foreign aggression, not against Syrians.

Western nations have warned Damascus against any use of chemical weapons and have also expressed concern about stockpiles falling into the hands of militant groups.

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