Rhino Poaching Deaths Set For Record High

By Alex Crawford, Special Correspondent, in the Eastern Cape

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

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

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

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

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

Veterinarians work with a rhino injured by poachers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dr William Fowlds is the founder of Rhino Lifeline

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Assad 'Is At Stalemate And Wants Ceasefire'

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A member of the Free Syrian Army holds an RPG launcher

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

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

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

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

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Mexico Storms: Rescue Helicopter 'Missing'

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

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

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

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

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

The helicopter had been ferrying villagers down the mountain

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

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

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

Submerged trees after the river burst its banks

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Chicago Park Shooting: Child Among 13 Injured

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

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

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

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

Detectives at a sealed off basketball court

No one is believed to be in custody.

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

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

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

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

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

Chicago has recently been named America's murder capital

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Egypt Troops Surround Kerdasah After Gun Battle

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

About 100 police officers also died in the clashes.

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

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

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

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

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

Some 56 residents were arrested.

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Assad To Destroy Chemical Weapons 'In A Year'

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

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

And he also challenged America to foot the bill.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Assad forces have been shelling in Idlib, activists say

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

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

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

Rebels take cover in the Idlib countryside in northwestern Syria

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Japan: Fukushima Reactors To Be Demolished

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

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

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

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

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

Mr Shinzo meets a worker at the Fukushima plant

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

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

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

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

Tanks of contaminated water at the plant

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

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

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

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

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

Vladimir Putin's Letter To America

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Greece Strike Amid Anti-Racist Rapper Killing

By Anthee Carassava, in Athens

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A banner advertising the two-day strike

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Foss Lake: Bodies Found In Submerged Cars

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

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

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

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

The three teenagers thought to be in one of the vehicles

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

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

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

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

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

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

Authorities have not formally identified the bodies.

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

"I remember that green car," she said.

The cars were found by police officers training with sonar devices

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

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

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

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

Map shows the lake in Oklahoma

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

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

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

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

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