Russia: Drivers Stuck In 120-Mile Traffic Jam

Tens of thousands of vehicles have been stuck - some for three days - in a huge traffic jam on a motorway northwest of Moscow.

The length of the queue on the M-10 highway, which is one of the busiest in the country, was put at up to 120 miles (200km), according to media reports.

Heavy snow has been blamed for the gridlock - with one driver reported as saying he had travelled just "one kilometre over 24 hours".

Field kitchens have been set up along stretches of the road but many drivers said they are running out of fuel to keep their engines and heating running in the sub-zero temperatures.

Field kitchens have been set up along the route

"Drivers help one another and that's it, the problems are on the side of the authorities. There are no gasoline tankers, no water, nothing. We are just stuck here," a truck driver called Sergei said.

A police official said that by Sunday evening "the reach of the traffic jam is no longer than 55km and is gradually falling". The motorway is now thought to be moving normally again.

But a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has been ordered to report to Mr Medvedev on measures to end the jam and help the stranded motorists.

The M-10 links Moscow with Russia's second largest city St Petersburg

Russian authorities have been accused of sluggish responses to weather-related problems, including deadly wildfires in 2010 and flooding in the south this summer.

The M-10 highway links Moscow with Russia's second largest city St Petersburg, some 435 miles (700km) from the capital, and stretches on to the border with Finland.

Russia's roads have been the butt of criticism since Tsarist times and its infrastructure has been plagued with problems since the Soviet era when defence spending was high at the expense of roads, housing, healthcare and other civilian needs.

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Samantha Koenig Murder Suspect Kills Himself

A man charged over the death of an Alaska coffee bar worker has been found dead in his jail cell.

Israel Keyes died of an apparent suicide, authorities said on Sunday, without giving further details.

He was facing a possible death penalty for the murder of 18-year-old Samantha Koenig, who was abducted from her kiosk in Anchorage last February.

Investigators said Keyes confessed to her murder, but also to killing Bill and Lorraine Currier from Essex, Vermont.

They went missing in June 2011. Their bodies were never found.

Keyes also indicated he killed four other people in Washington state and one person in New York state, but did not give the victims' names.

Ms Koenig's disappearance in the depths of winter gripped Anchorage for weeks, until her body was recovered on April 2 from an ice-covered lake north of the Alaskan city.

CCTV pictures had showed an apparently armed man in a hooded sweatshirt leading her away from her coffee stand.

Prosecutors say Ms Koenig likely died just a day later, but Keyes then used her phone to send text messages to conceal the abduction, and to later demand a ransom.

He was finally arrested in Texas after using her debit card.

The FBI said there may be victims in other states, besides the four indicated by Keyes. 

The 34-year-old was a self-employed carpenter and Army veteran who had been stationed at Fort Lewis in Washington state.

He moved to Anchorage in 2007 but also owned a house and property in Constable in New York state.

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Japan Tunnel Collapse: Only Visual Checks Done

The company in charge of a collapsed tunnel in Japan has admitted workers only carried out visual checks on metal bolts used to anchor concrete slabs in the tunnel roof.

Central Nippon Expressway Co faces a police investigation after at least nine people were killed in Sasago Tunnel, 50 miles west of Tokyo, when ceiling slabs fell on to moving vehicles inside the tunnel.

Transport minister Yuichiro Hata has instructed companies to check all 49 tunnels in Japan that have similar concrete slab structures.

Rescue efforts were suspended on Monday morning while work is carried out to support the remaining slabs and prevent further collapses.

An inspection of the tunnel's roof in September found nothing amiss, according to company official Satoshi Noguchi.

But company officials told Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun workers only carried out visual checks on whether bolts were securely in place, rather than tapping parts with a hammer to detect signs of corrosion.

They also said the September inspection only involved the use of torches and binoculars to check the panels.

The tunnel opened in 1977 and the collapse has been blamed on the ageing of the metal bolts.

Ryoichi Yoshikawa, executive officer of Central Nippon Expressway, said: "Based on the fact that the accident occurred 35 years after the tunnel was completed, we believe ageing was the reason."

The accident happened at the Sasago Tunnel in Yamanashi prefecture

Some of the nine-inch bolts were found near the site of the collapse, officials said.

Two vehicles caught fire inside the tunnel after the collapse on Sunday morning, with heavy smoke initially hampering rescue efforts.

The location of the collapse, around one mile into the three-mile tunnel, also made recovery difficult.

It is unclear if there are survivors inside.

An estimated 270 concrete slabs - each weighing 1.4 metric tons - collapsed over a stretch of around 110 metres.

Drivers described narrow escapes from falling debris, and a long walk through the darkness after abandoning their cars.

"When I was driving in the tunnel, concrete pieces fell down suddenly from the ceiling," a man in his 30s told public broadcaster NHK.

"I saw a crushed car catching fire. I left my car and walked for about an hour to get out of the tunnel."

Another said: "I could hear voices of people calling for help, but the fire was just too strong."

Rescuers had to first deal with a fire in the tunnel

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Barefoot Homeless Man Traced In New York

The homeless man in a photo that turned into a web hit last week has been tracked down in New York - and he is barefoot once again.

Little was known about Jeffrey Hillman when the Facebook image of a young policeman handing him a pair of boots on a chilly November night made headlines around the world.

The 54-year-old veteran was still nowhere to be seen as the plaudits rolled in and the TV cameras rolled up for NYPD Officer Larry DePrimo, following the apparent random act of kindness.

But on Sunday night The New York Times found Mr Hillman wandering the streets of Manhattan's Upper West Side with nothing on his blistered feet.

"I appreciate what the officer did, don't get me wrong," he told the newspaper. "I wish there were more people like him in the world."

He explained that he was grateful for the $100 boots from the 24-year-old officer, but that it was too dangerous for him to wear them on the streets.

Mr Hillman also wondered what he had gained from the worldwide focus on his plight - apart from the boots. 

"I was put on YouTube, I was put on everything without permission. What do I get?" he complained.

"This went around the world, and I want a piece of the pie."

Originally from New Jersey, Mr Hillman ended up in New York about 10 years ago and has been on the move in the city ever since.

His brothers, Kirk and Alfred, did not realise the homeless man in one of the most talked about news stories of the past week was their estranged relative, until they were contacted by the New York Post.

"Jeffrey has his own life, and he has chosen that life, but he knows that our hearts and home are always open to him," Alegra Hall, Kirk Hillman's daughter, told the newspaper.

"He knows that, he's well aware of that," she added.

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John McAfee: Anti-Virus Pioneer 'Captured'

Anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee, who is wanted by police over his neighbour's murder, appears to have been found after weeks in hiding, his blog has said.

The website set up by Mr McAfee after he went on the run said there was an unconfirmed report that he was apprehended on the Belize-Mexico border.

The website whoismcafee.com has carried updates of Mr McAfee's progress since the murder of Gregory Faull, a 52-year-old retired American builder, on November 11. He has also taken to Twitter to promote his posts.

Under the title Breaking: John captured? a post, on December 1, said: "We have received an unconfirmed report that John McAfee has been captured at the border of Belize and Mexico.

"More information as it is received."

Mr McAfee has written entries describing how he has disguised himself as a beggar, a street trader and a drunken German tourist in order to watch police as they searched his Belize home.

At one point he claimed he was actually hiding out on his compound on the island of Ambergris Caye.

Police take away the body of Gregory Faull

He said he set up the website to counter claims made about him by the media and the Belize authorities and to assert his innocence shortly after his disappearance.

In an early post Mr McAfee said that he had given enough information to a friend to keep the website going should he be captured.

Police have said they simply want to question Mr McAfee over the murder of Mr Faull, who was found dead in a pool of blood at his home. He had suffered a single gunshot wound to the head.

Mr McAfee has denied he was responsible for the murder and says he went into hiding only because the Belize authorities have a vendetta against him. He believes he was the intended victim of the shooting, not Mr Faull.

Mr McAfee amassed a $100m (£63m) fortune from his software business but said he lost all but $4m of it in the financial crisis. He moved to Belize in 2008.

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Afghanistan: Taliban Suicide Bombers Hit US Base

Taliban suicide bombers have attacked a US base in Afghanistan, killing at least five people, and sparking a two-hour battle with American forces.

Militants drove two vehicles packed with explosives at the gates of Jalalabad Airfield before American helicopters fired on the attackers.

A guard said that after the initial explosion the airport had come under fire from rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and small arms.

According to an Afghan security official, three Afghan guards were killed in the fighting along with two university students who were caught up in the battle.

A number of Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) troops were wounded.

A local police official said nine militants were involved in the raid, three were killed by the car explosion and the remaining six were gunned down in the fire-fight that followed.

Lt Col Hagen Messer, a spokesman for Isaf, said:  "We can confirm insurgents, including multiple suicide bombers, attacked Jalalabad Airfield this morning. None of the attackers succeeded in breaching the perimeter.

"The final assessment of what happened this morning is not yet complete, but initial reports indicate there were three suicide bombers,"

Afghan president Hamid Karzai says the country can deal with the Taliban

A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, claimed responsibility for the attack on Sunday morning.

On its website, the Taliban said: "First a fedayee (suicide bomber) mujahid ... detonated a car bomb causing the enemy heavy casualties and losses and removed all the barriers.

"After the attack other fedayee mujahids entered the base ... and started attacking the invading forces in the base."

The airport complex has multiple layers of security, with the Nato base set well back from the first entrance.

A senior Afghan security official said: "First there was a car bombing next to the entrance followed by gun attack by the insurgents.

"They couldn't reach Nato forces and they were killed in the area between the first and second gates."

It was the largest clash at the Jalalabad air base since February, when a suicide car bombing at the gate triggered an explosion that killed nine Afghans, six of them civilians.

The attack highlights the problems facing the coalition forces ahead of the pull-out of more than 100,000 Nato troops in 2014.

The country's president, Hamid Karzai, insists that Afghan security forces have made good progress and will be able to control the country when the troops leave.

However, there are concerns that the Taliban has managed to survive more than a decade of fighting and will stage a surge once foreign forces leave.

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Japan Tunnel Collapse: Five People Dead

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent

Police say at least five people have died after being trapped inside their burning vehicle in a highway tunnel that collapsed in Japan.

The Sasago tunnel on the busy Chuo Expressway, about 50 miles (80 km) west of Tokyo, caved in just after 8am local time.

CCTV footage from inside the tunnel shows large sections of the roof lying across the road. 

Several cars are understood to have been crushed and a fire in the tunnel has complicated the rescue effort.

A fire in the tunnel complicated the rescue

Motorists described narrow escapes from falling debris, and a long walk through the darkness after abandoning their cars.

"When I was driving in the tunnel, concrete pieces fell down suddenly from the ceiling," a man in his 30s told public broadcaster NHK.

"I saw a crushed car catching fire. I left my car and walked for about an hour to get out of the tunnel."

Aerial footage showed black smoke billowing from the 2.8-mile (4.7-km) tunnel in Yamanashi prefecture.

The fire was extinguished about 11am local time but the rescue and recovery operation has been delayed by concerns that there could be further collapses.

The cause of the collapse is not yet clear. There are no reports of earthquakes in the region though there is a suggestion that a landslide could have contributed to the incident.

Given the frequency of earthquakes in the region, the authorities will have access to rescue equipment which will prove useful for this sort of operation.

NHK reporter Yoshio Goto, caught in Sunday's accident, hit the accelerator and managed to drive out.

"But it was a bit too late and pieces of ceiling fell on my car. I kept pressing the pedal and managed to get out," he said.

"Then when I looked around, I saw half of the car ceiling was crushed."

It was the worst such accident in Japan since 1996, when a tunnel collapsed and falling rocks crushed cars and a bus, killing 20 people.

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Teacher Shot With Arrow By Son At US College

A British-born college teacher fatally injured after being shot in the head with an arrow by his own son has been hailed a hero after giving his students time to flee the classroom.

James Krumm, 56, was taking a computer science class at Casper College, in Casper, Wyoming, when his son Christopher barged in and shot him using a high-powered bow.

The 25-year-old had already stabbed to death his father's live-in girlfriend Heidi Arnold, 42, at their home two miles from the college.

As Mr Krumm fought with his son during the attack on Friday, the students in the classroom were able to escape to safety.

When police arrived at the scene, James Krumm was dead and his son was bleeding from self-inflicted knife wounds, Casper police chief Chris Walsh said.

He said: "I can tell you the courage that was demonstrated by Mr Krumm was absolutely without equal."

Authorities believe six students were in the classroom when the attack took place.

Mr Walsh said Christopher Krumm stabbed himself after shooting his father, then fatally stabbed his father in the chest during a struggle.

Ms Arnold, a maths teacher, died from multiple stab wounds and her body was found in the gutter of her street.

He had smuggled the powerful compound bow on to the campus under a blanket, and was also carrying two knives.

Police carried out a search warrant at Christopher Krumm's last known address in Vernon, Connecticut, on Friday.

Andra Charter, a 20-year-old student, said she heard screams outside her biology class.

She said: "As we were walking out, there was a girl screaming 'there's somebody stabbing Mr Krumm!'"

James Krumm, who was born and grew up in the UK but is understood to have left the country by the time he was an adult, was head of the college's computer science department.

The college has planned a candlelight vigil and memorial service on Tuesday.

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West Bank Settlement Plan Blow To Peace Hopes

By Dominic Waghorn, US Correspondent

Palestinians say the two-state solution to the Middle East conflict is at death's door after Israel announced it is reviving plans to build on occupied land in a controversial area of East Jerusalem.

William Hague called on Israel to reverse the plan, saying the move undermined Israel's international reputation and created doubts about its commitment to achieving peace.

The British Foreign Secretary said he was "extremely concerned" at the plans to create 3,000 new homes, warning it would make the two-state solution "difficult to achieve".

The US government also criticised Israel for the move.

"This administration - like previous administrations - has been very clear with Israel that these activities set back the cause of a negotiated peace," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Washington.

E1 is the only large area of empty land left between East Jerusalem and the West Bank, sandwiched between Israeli settlements.

Reviving plans to build a settlement there could be fatal for the peace process, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told Sky News in Washington.

"It would kill it. This would be the last nail in the coffin of the peace process a process that fulfils that which has been and has become a matter of international consensus. The two-state solution to this conflict. It simply cannot happen if E1 is implemented."

Palestinians say they cannot sign any peace deal that does not have at least a part of Jerusalem as their capital, for religious and political reasons.

An Israeli settlement on E1 would make a land corridor between that capital and the rest of a Palestinian state impossible.

That makes building on E1 a very different proposition to other Israeli settlement plans. For that reason former US President George Bush made then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promise not to build on E1 and put construction plans there on ice.

Danny Seidemann, from Jerusalem NGO Ir Amim, told Sky News: "E1 is the fatal heart attack of the two-state solution.

"If E1 is built there is no possibility of a contiguous viable Palestinian state and no possibility of connecting East Jerusalem and its hinterland on the West Bank."

An Israeli government spokesman told Sky News those plans are now being unfrozen.

"Planning is now going ahead," he said.

No decision to build has yet been taken but extensive plans are known to already exist.

Israel is responding to a vote in the United Nations General Assembly to recognise Palestine as a non-member state. Some 138 countries voted in favour of the move, only eight supported Israel in opposing it.

Israel has also said it will build 3,000 new units in existing settlements.

Under all interpretations of international law, Israel's settlements on occupied land are illegal.

Israel agreed to freeze settlement construction under the Roadmap For Peace plan in 2002, but has failed to comply with that commitment.

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UK Eyes Oz's Tough Anti-Smoking Laws

By Jonathan Samuels, Australia Correspondent

The British Government is considering following Australia's lead by stripping all branding and logos from tobacco packaging.

From today, Australia becomes the first country in the world to put all tobacco products in standardised packs which are a drab olive colour and have the manufacturer's brand in a simple uniform font.

The packs are covered in graphic health warnings portraying dying cancer sufferers, diseased feet and ill babies.

The law bans the use of logos, brand imagery, symbols, other images, colours and promotional text.

Australia's plain packaging laws are a potential watershed for the global industry, which serves one billion regular smokers, according to World Health Organisation statistics.

Australia's government says the aim is to deter young people from smoking by stripping the habit of glamour.

It is relying on studies showing that if people have not started smoking by the age of 26, there is a 99% chance they will never take it up.

The potential hitch, experts say, is the popularity of social media amongst the very demographic the plan is targeting.

After a series of Australian laws banning TV advertising and sports sponsorship and requiring most sellers to hide cigarettes from view, online is the final frontier for tobacco marketing.

"If you are a tobacco marketer and you've only got this small window left to promote your products, online is the compelling place for you to be in," said Becky Freeman, a public health researcher at Sydney University.

Australia has become the first country to introduce plain cigarette packs

The tobacco industry recently lost a High Court bid to have the legislation stopped.

Scott McIntyre of British American Tobacco Australia, the maker of Winfield cigarettes, says the new packs are easier to fake and will boost black market trade, leading to cheaper, more accessible cigarettes.

"There will be serious unintended consequences from the legislation," he said. "Counterfeiters from China and Indonesia will bring lots more of these products down to sell on the streets of Australia."

The industry has shifted its focus to potential copycat legislation elsewhere. Ukraine, Honduras and the Dominican Republic have filed complaints with the World Trade Organisation, funded by the tobacco industry, claiming the laws unfairly restrict trade, although their trade with Australia is minimal.

Many smokers in Australia say the new packs won't change their habit. "As a 14-year veteran smoker the packets make no difference to me," one man told Sky News.

Another smoker said she may be more inclined to keep the packet, with its gruesome health warnings, hidden from view, but that it wouldn't stop her smoking.

Earlier this year, the British Government launched a consultation on plans to introduce similar standardised packaging. Information generated by the consultation, which closed in August, is still being analysed by health officials.

Dr Harpal Kumar, Cancer Research UK's chief executive, said: "The Australian Government is to be applauded. Today marks the day when tobacco companies are further stymied in their efforts to recruit Australian children into a lethal addiction.

A UK Department of Health spokesman said: "We have received many thousands of responses to the tobacco packaging consultation. We are currently in the process of carefully collating and analysing all the responses received.

"The Government has an open mind on this issue and any decisions to take further action will be taken only after full consideration of the consultation responses, evidence and other relevant information."

Australia aims to cut the number of people smoking from 15% of the population to just 10% in six years' time.

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