Boston Bomb Suspect To Face Victims In Court

By Tom Parmenter, Sky Correspondent in Boston

Survivors and people who lost relatives in the Boston bombings are due to come face to face with the man accused of the deadly attacks.

Dzhokar Tsarnaev, 19, is scheduled to make his first public appearance in a Boston courtroom.

Bereaved family members and people who lost limbs in the blasts have vowed to attend the hearing.

One mother Liz Norden, whose sons Paul and JP both lost a leg in the attack, has said she wants to go into court to "face down evil".

The 19-year-old faces 30 charges that include killing four people and "using a weapon of mass destruction".

A total of 17 of the charges carry a possible sentence of life imprisonment or the death penalty. 

Martin Richard, Krystle Campbell and Lingzi Lu were killed

Three people were killed when two bombs exploded close to the finish line of the Boston marathon on April 15.

Eight-year-old Martin Richard, Restaurant manager Krystle Campbell and university student Lingzi Lu were killed.

A further 260 people suffered injuries - many of them losing limbs.

Days after the bombings police officer Sean Collier was shot dead during an extraordinary manhunt that ended in the suburb of Watertown.

Tsarnaev was discovered hiding in a boat parked in a Watertown backyard

Large parts of the city of Boston were put on lockdown as armed police tried to arrest the suspects.

Tsarnaev's older brother Tamerlan was killed in a shoot-out with police.

The indictment states he wrote inside the boat where he hid from police for hours: "The US government is killing our innocent civilians" and "I can't stand to see such evil go unpunished".

Tsarnaev, whose family hail from Dagestan in southern Russia, had been studying in Boston before the attacks and has been held at a secure hospital in Massachusetts since his arrest.

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San Francisco Crash: Pilot Warnings 'Ignored'

One of the pilots of Asiana Flight 214 that crashed in San Francisco shouted warnings that were ignored, according to South Korean media.

Sources in the country's transport ministry confirmed Bong Dong Won - who was in the cockpit jump seat - repeatedly yelled "sink rate" in the final minute before the crash, it was reported.

If the sink rate - the rate of decrease in altitude - was checked when Mr Bong raised the alarm, it may have prevented the plane from hitting the seawall as it landed at San Francisco Airport, reports said.

But the two pilots at the controls - Lee Kang Kuk and his instructor Lee Jung Min - apparently did not respond to Mr Bong's shouted warnings, the respected Joongang Daily newspaper said.

The crash killed two Chinese students and left more than 180 injured.

Among those injured were two flight attendants in the back of the plane who survived despite being thrown onto the runway as the plane crashed on Saturday.

The charred remains of the plane remain on the runway

US investigators previously said that just 1.5 seconds before the plane crashed, a member of the flight crew asked to abort the landing, though it was too late to take such action.

However, it is now being reported that Mr Bong started giving warnings 54 seconds before impact.

There was also a fourth pilot - the relief captain - on board, but he was not in the cockpit at the time of the crash. 

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has confirmed that Mr Bong had flown five to six times to San Francisco and previously worked for the Korean air force as a fighter pilot.

Lee Kang Kuk was around halfway through his training for the Boeing 777, but had led 29 flights to San Francisco on Boeing 747s in the past, according to the airline.

Wang Linija (left) and Ye Mengyuan died in the crash

However, his trainer had not flown in that role before, the NTSB said.

At 41, Mr Bong is much younger than the other two pilots in the cockpit.

A Korean Airlines Boeing 747 crashed in Guam in 1997 - a crash that investigators blamed in part on an authoritarian cockpit culture that made newer pilots reluctant to challenge captains.

But since then, the industry has adopted broad training and requirements that mean pilots who are not at the controls should feel free to voice any safety concerns.

Sky News producer Jen Kwon, a South Korean based in Beijing, said: "Even though Bong Dong Won is younger than the other two pilots in the cockpit I do not believe that age or rank would be a reason why people would not respond to a warning.

"Perhaps conservative Korean traditional culture might be a bar to communication in many aspects of Korean life, it is hard to imagine the same happening in a cockpit of a civil airliner after seeing what had happened to their competing airline company, Korean Airlines."

Mr Yoon (centre) has defended the four pilots

South Korean-based Asiana has defended the four pilots as "very competent".

The airline's chief executive, Yoon Young-Doo, lashed out at reports that pilot inexperience may have been to blame for the fatal crash, saying such speculation was "intolerable".

The aircraft went skidding out of control after clipping the seawall, breaking up and bursting into flames when one of its engines caught fire.

The NTSB said the plane was flying far too slowly before the landing. Its investigation is expected to continue for months and it has warned against speculating about the cause of the crash.

But the Air Line Pilots Association International (Alpa) has already criticised the information provided by the NTSB.

"The NTSB's release of incomplete, out-of-context information has fuelled rampant speculation about the cause of the accident," Alpa said.

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Ireland Set To Pass Historic Abortion Law

Ireland is preparing to set in stone legislation which would confirm abortion is not illegal in cases where a woman's life is at risk.

Politicians will vote on the divisive legislation following a European court ruling that Ireland needlessly endangers the lives of pregnant women in life-threatening situations.

The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill would enshrine a woman's right to a termination if her life is at risk - including if she is suicidal.

Pro-choice campaigners hold a 24-hour protest in Dublin

Several members of the coalition Government are expected to rebel over the reforms but it is understood that passing the legislation is not in doubt.

The Taoiseach said the vote could take place as late as midnight, but insisted he was willing to extend the debate further if necessary.

Protests by pro-life groups, hate mail, death threats and intimidation to politicians and campaigners have worsened already bitter disputes over the reforms in the predominantly Catholic country.

Savita Halappanavar died after she was refused an abortion in Ireland

On Tuesday night, Pro-life activists held a vigil and slept outside Leinster House where the vote will take place.

The abortion debate in Ireland has become heated following the death of Savita Halappanavar, an Indian woman who miscarried and died in an Irish hospital in 2012 after being denied an abortion.

She was 17 weeks pregnant when she was admitted to Galway University Hospital suffering from agonising pain and requesting an abortion.

Her husband, Praveen, said doctors refused to terminate the pregnancy after discovering there was a foetal heartbeat, saying his wife was told: "This is a Catholic country."

Previously, doctors acted under guidance from the Irish Medical Council and a Supreme Court ruling from 1992 which allowed abortion if there was a threat to the mother's life, including suicide.

But the 1992 ruling has yet to be officially preserved in legislation.

Pro-life protesters hold a vigil ahead of the vote

The case was taken by a 14-year-old rape victim who became pregnant and was refused permission to travel to have the pregnancy terminated.

Ireland has also been under pressure after a European Court of Human Rights ruling that a woman in remission with cancer was discriminated against because she was forced to travel overseas for a termination.

Choice campaigners have demanded action and claim Ireland only exports its problem with 4,000 women registering with an Irish address for an abortion in the UK every year.

The inclusion of the suicide clause has been the most contentious, with some claiming abortion in those circumstances could do more damage to a woman's mental health.

Following the vote, the bill will be considered by the Seanad - the upper house of parliament.

The Government expects the law to be enacted before the Irish parliament breaks for summer on July 18.

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Egypt Orders Brotherhood Arrests Over Clashes

Egypt's public prosecutor has ordered the arrest of Muslim Brotherhood supreme guide Mohammed Badie and other top leaders of the movement for inciting violence that left dozens dead outside the headquarters of an elite army unit.

At least 51 people were killed in Monday's clashes outside the Republican Guard headquarters in Cairo where supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi were calling for him to be reinstated.

Other senior Brotherhood officials were also ordered to be held over the violence, including Mr Badie's deputy Mahmoud Ezzat and party leaders Essam El-Erian and Mohamed El-Beltagi, according to judicial sources.

Prosecutors said that 200 people had been charged altogether over their involvement in the deadly clashes. Mostly Morsi supporters, they will be held for 15 days pending investigation into accusations of murder, incitement to violence, carrying unlicensed weapons and disrupting public order and security.

Thousands of followers of the Brotherhood have been maintaining a vigil near a mosque in northeast Cairo demanding the reinstatement of Mr Morsi, toppled as president by the army last week.

His ousting, after mass protests calling for his resignation, has prompted widespread violence in the divided country. Monday was the deadliest day so far.

Interim PM Hazem el Beblawi is trying to put together a cabinet

A spokesman for the Brotherhood movement said the charges were an attempt to break-up their protests and that the leaders had not been detained.

Mr Morsi himself is said to be in a "safe place" and has not had any charges levelled against him.

"Morsi is in a safe place, for his safety and he is being treated with dignity," a foreign ministry spokesman said.

It came as the ousted president's Islamist group said it would reject any offers to join a new interim government.

Amid reports that the Muslim Brotherhood is to be offered positions in the transitional cabinet, a spokesman for the movement said: "We do not deal with putschists. We reject all that comes from this coup."

Egypt's new interim prime minister Hazem el Beblawi said he would start work on forming his new cabinet on Wednesday, first meeting liberal leaders Mohamed ElBaradei and Ziad Bahaa-Eldin.

The new leader said he accepted that it would be difficult to win the unanimous support of Egyptians for his new government.

Violent clashes have erupted between Morsi supporters and opponents

Mr Beblawi, a liberal economist and former finance minister, was appointed prime minister by interim president Adly Mansour on Tuesday. He also made Nobel peace laureate Mr ElBaradei interim vice president responsible for foreign affairs.

Mr Mansour has set a timetable to hold elections early next year as part of a new charter to try to halt the unrest.

However, the plan has since been shunned by the Muslim Brotherhood, while the National Salvation Front, the main liberal coalition that called for Mr Morsi's overthrow, has demanded amendments - stopping short of rejecting the decree outright. 

Tamarod, the movement that spearheaded the grassroots campaign against the former president, complained that it had not been consulted on the transition plan announced by Mr Mansour and would also make proposals for changes to the blueprint.

The decree, outlining the interim president's new powers, gives the country five months to amend the Islamist-drafted constitution suspended on Mr Morsi's ouster and ratify it in a referendum.

Parliamentary elections will then be held by early 2014 and Mr Mansour will announce a date for a presidential election once the new parliament has convened.

The continued standoff with Mr Morsi's loyalists, who demand the reinstatement of Egypt's first democratically elected leader, has exacerbated fears of further bloodshed after his overthrow.

In the worst incident on July 3, at least 51 people, most of them supporters of the ousted Islamist, died in clashes outside a military barracks in Cairo.

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China Pollution 'Cuts Lives By Five Years'

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent, in Beijing

The dire quality of the air in China will shorten lives by an average of five-and-a-half years, according to a major new study.

Scientists from four universities collaborated to produce ground-breaking research which provides the first-ever scientific evidence of the health implications of China's air pollution.

The study, by scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, Tsinghua University and Peking University in Beijing, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, used data covering an unusually long time span - from 1981 to 2000.

Published today, it concludes that the effect of air pollution will reduce China's workforce by one-eighth.

"We can now say with more confidence that long-run exposure to pollution, especially particulates, has dramatic consequences for life expectancy," Michael Greenstone, the Professor of Environmental Economics at MIT, said.

This year has been the worst on record in the Chinese capital.

In January, the Air Quality Index (AQI) reached a level of more than 700. The World Health Organisation's recommended safe limit is just 25.

Since then, there have only been 20 days when the pollution levels in Beijing recorded an AQI of below 50.

China's air quality was 28 times above safe levels in January

"Everyone understands it's unpleasant to be in a polluted place," Professor Greenstone said.

"But to be able to say with some precision what the health costs are, and what the loss of life expectancy is, puts a finer point on the importance of finding policies that balance growth with environmental quality."

The study focused on northern China where pollution levels are at their worst.

The scientists compared pollution levels with mortality rates north and south of the Huai River, which runs west to east through central China.

In the 1980s, the river was used by the Chinese government as a boundary determining access to free heating.

The population living north of the river, who endure extreme winters, received free coal for fuel boilers and had access to a municipal heating system fuelled by coal power stations, which was switched on and off automatically.

The scientists linked pollution data to mortality statistics from between 1991 and 2000.

The results highlighted a stark difference in mortality rates on either side of the river.

For many years the Chinese government has been accused of ignoring the country's worsening air quality.

Until recently, state media would refer to 'fog' rather than 'smog'.

The swift rise of China's economy poses serious health risks for its people

But last year the Chinese government changed its policy and began to publish data for air quality - first in Beijing and then around the country.

The move came after the US government's decision to place an air quality monitor on the roof of its Beijing embassy. It published its data, initially causing a diplomatic row, but eventually prompting the Chinese to publish their own data.

The worsening air quality is the result of a variety of factors. Coal-fired power stations are only believed to be part of the problem.

The sharp and continuing rise in the number of cars on China's roads, combined with low quality fuel, is a contributing factor.

China's breakneck economic growth over the past three decades has effectively prompted what amounts to a frightening human health experiment.

The effect of China's modern-day industrial revolution will probably not be known for a generation.

In cities across the country, the air is unsafe to breathe, the water is unsafe to drink and the soil contaminates whatever is grown.

As China's population becomes more physically mobile and technologically connected, they are becoming more aware of the dangers posed by the environment.

Pollution issues are increasingly the focus of social unrest and public protests.

The Chinese government is now fully aware of the pressure to act and has introduced measures to improve the quality of vehicle fuel, limit the number of cars on the roads and invest in greener energy models.

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Fraudster Held After 'Catch Me' Twitter Taunt

A fraudster who cheekily tweeted to US authorities to "catch me if you can" after skipping her trial for an insurance scam is now behind bars.

Wanda Podgurski was captured on July 4 in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, a popular retirement spot for American expats only 15 miles south of San Diego.

She pleaded not guilty on Monday to failure to appear while free on bail.

The 60-year-old was sentenced in absentia by a California court last month to more than 20 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $1m in fines and restitution.

Three weeks after her initial tweet on June 5, Podgurski's Twitter feed read: "Help find me before I con anyone else."

Two other posts were links to stories about her vanishing act.

Her profile stated: "On the run possibly in Iran."

New Twitter messages have appeared on the account

Newer unverified messages since her capture appear to show she was tired of life on the run.

"For justice sake, I am glad you caught me," reads one tweet.

Podgurski follows 32 people and agencies, many of them FBI branches and other law enforcement authorities. 

The District Attorney's Office declined to say how authorities tracked down the taunting fugitive, saying only that information from her Twitter account was turned over to its Computer and Technology Crime High-Tech Response Team, known by the acronym Catch.

Podgurski was convicted of receiving $664,555 in disability payments in January.

While earning $44,000 a year as a clerk for rail service Amtrak, she allegedly held six insurance policies with premiums that topped $60,000.

She made claims with all six insurance companies after reporting that she fell at her home in August 2006.

Private investigators working for the insurers reported seeing her walk up and down stairs without assistance and drive to the shops.

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Dozens Injured In South Beirut Explosion

A car bomb at a shopping centre in southern Beirut has injured 37 people, according to security officials in the city.

Southern Beirut is a stronghold for the Lebanese pro-Syrian Shiite Hizbollah militant group.

The group said the blast, in the Beir el Abed area, was caused by a car bomb in the parking area of the shopping centre.

Earlier reports of several deaths have not yet been confirmed.

The explosion was close to Hizbollah's 'security square' where many of the party's officials live and have offices.

Two men at the scene of the blast

The group's Al Manar TV station broadcast pictures of black smoke rising into the sky and people rushing to help the wounded.

Hizbollah members, some of them carrying Kalashnikov rifles, cordoned off the site with yellow ribbons.

Around 100 supporters of the group marched in the area after the blast, shouting slogans in support of Hizbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah.

"The Shiite blood is boiling," Hizbollah supporters shouted.

Tensions have been high following the intervention of Hizbollah fighters in the Syrian war where Sunni Muslim rebels are trying to topple President Bashar al Assad.

Hizbollah fighters gave vital help when Syrian government forces regained control of the strategic town of Qusair, close to the Lebanese border.

Some Syrian rebel groups, which are mainly made up of Sunni Muslims, have threatened to strike in Lebanon.

In May, two rockets hit southern Beirut and injured four people.

That attack came hours after Sheik Hassan Nasrallah promised to help the Syrian regime defeat rebel forces.

Hizbollah, much like the Syrian regime, accuses Syrian rebels of being agents of the US and Israel.

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Ohio Kidnap Victims In 'Thank You' Video

Three women who were abducted and held captive in a house in Cleveland, Ohio, for a decade have thanked the public for their support in a YouTube video.

Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight broke their silence in the video, saying the encouragement of family, friends and the public had allowed them to restart their lives.

Former bus driver Ariel Castro is alleged to have kidnapped the women off the streets between 2002 and 2004.

Ariel Castro is charged with 329 crimes and could face the death penalty

He has pleaded not guilty to 329 charges, including 139 counts of rape, and aggravated murder over the death of an unborn child.

The women were rescued in May when Ms Berry broke through a door at the home and yelled to neighbours for help.

"I'm getting stronger each day and having my privacy has helped immensely," she said in the video.

"I want everyone to know how happy I am to be home with my family and my friends. It's been unbelievable.

"I want to thank everyone who has helped me and my family through this entire ordeal."

Ms Berry, now 27, was reportedly forced to give birth to her daughter Jocelyn in an inflatable children's paddling pool, while fellow captive Michelle Knight gave the baby mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

In the video, Ms Knight said she had "been through hell and back", but she was doing well and did not want to be "consumed by hatred".

Ms Berry, who was snatched at the age of 20 and is the eldest of the three women, spoke of how her faith in God had helped her deal with the situation.

The three women before they were taken between 2002 and 2004

"I have no problems expressing how I feel inside," she said.

"Be positive. Learn that it is important to give than to receive. Thank you for all your prayers. I'm looking forward to my brand new life."

The three victims' rehabilitation has been helped by more than $1m (£670,000) of public donations to the Cleveland Courage Fund.

Gina DeJesus, now 23 and the youngest of the kidnapped women, spoke briefly only to say "thank you for the support".

The three women were apparently held at Ariel Castro's home

However, her father, Felix DeJesus, and aunt Nancy Ruiz, also spoke in the video to thank people for being "awesome".

Castro, 52, was last week refused a visit with the six-year-old girl he fathered with Ms Berry, with a judge calling the request "inappropriate".

An upcoming meeting will discuss the possibility of seeking the death penalty for the alleged crimes.

Castro's lawyers had previously hinted that he might plead guilty if talk of capital punishment was taken off the table.

A trial is scheduled for August 5, but the judge said it could be delayed.

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Eddie Izzard Meets Syria's Child Refugees

By Eddie Izzard, Ambassador for UNICEF UK

Most Brits would think of Iraq as one of the most dangerous places on Earth. But it's here, in the searing summer heat, that seven-year-old Nisreen from Syria has been forced to seek refuge.

Like millions of other Syrian children, Nisreen has lost everything she ever knew. With bombings in her region and a breakdown of security, a group of men almost succeeded in kidnapping her from her home in Syria.

Her mother, Dala, took immediate action. She picked up Nisreen and her two-year-old brother and fled, leaving behind her friends, family and school.

Dala told me Nisreen's story from their basic shelter near Dohuk in northern Iraq. It's converted from an animal barn and they share it with two other families.

I've travelled to the region with UNICEF UK to report on the Syria refugee crisis for Sky News.

There are huge numbers of Syrian refugees who need vital aid

I had heard about horrific conditions facing children in Syria and in neighbouring countries like Jordan and Lebanon, but the hardship faced by Syrian refugees in Iraq is an untold story.

Every Syrian child has been touched by this conflict and in every refugee family there is a story of tragedy - of children who have lost their childhood.

The number of refugees pouring into Iraq from Syria has tripled over the past six months, and the number is expected to more than double again by the end of the year - to 350,000.

For those who managed to escape Syria, life as a refugee remains incredibly difficult. Nisreen is still out of school and has become ill from the effects of the extreme heat and dust.

I also met children like 11-year-old Ahee who lives in a tent in the Domiz refugee camp not far from Nisreen's shelter.

The Dohuk refugee camp in northern Iraq

With summer temperatures peaking at 45 degrees and a camp once designed for 10,000 now crammed with 45,000, she is facing the real risk of dehydration and the outbreak of disease.

Children are struggling to get access to clean water and vital schooling. Ahee and her family don't wash regularly as they can't afford to waste a drop.   

UNICEF is working night and day to get vital aid to Syrian children and their families - like vaccinations and medical supplies. 

In the last year they've supplied 10 million people in Syria and the region with clean drinking water, and they are doing everything they can to get as many children into school as possible.

However, the numbers of refugees are huge and resources are stretched to the limit.

UNICEF has around only a third of the money it needs this year to get aid to children like Nisreen and Ahee who need it and desperately requires more funds to carry out its vital work.

If we don't act now, Syria's children are at risk of becoming a lost generation.

:: Nisreen is not the seven-year-old girl's real name, but has been used to protect her identity.

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San Francisco Crash Survivors Tell Of Horror

Survivors have spoken of the terrifying moment a pilot tried to abort a landing seconds before it crashed onto the runway in San Francisco.

Two Chinese teenagers died after the Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 struck the runway shortly after the jet reportedly hit a sea wall.

Benjamin Levy said: "The nose of the plane, as you know, goes up a little bit. And then full throttle starts hitting hard and then we felt that we were going up again, so that's why I said maybe the guy is about to pull one of those almost mislandings and go back up.

"But it didn't happen, we just crashed back. So as I say - if we flipped, none of us would be here to talk about it."

Xu Da, a product manager from China, was sitting with his wife and teenage son near the back of the plane.

He stood up and saw a gaping hole through the back of the plane where its galley was torn away along with the tail.

The tail of the plane was torn away. Pic. NTSB/Twitter

Xu and his family escaped through the opening. Once on the tarmac, they watched the plane catch fire, and firefighters hose it down.

In the chaotic moments after the landing, Wen Zhang grabbed her four-year-old son, who hit the seat in front of him and broke his leg.

Spotting a hole at the back of the jumbo jet where the bathroom had been, she carried her boy to safety.

"I had no time to be scared," she said.

Eugene Rah said: "The seat I was sitting in, it has one more strap coming across my chest here in addition to the one that goes around the waist because It was a sleeper seat. If I did not have that, I would have hit the ceiling: that's how hard the impact was."

Oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling during the crash. Pic. NTSB/Twitter

Fred Hayes filmed the crash from around a mile away "I was watching it come in and I did notice that nose being up in the air. My initial reaction was that it was trying to abort the landing and go back up," he told CNN.

"There was big boom and then it pitched forward and bounced off its nose."

One of the flight attendants described the chaos as she and her colleagues began their evacuation of more than 300 people.

Sky's Asia correspondent Mark Stone said Lee Yoon Hae told South Korean media that she first went to the cockpit to see if the pilots were alive. She then made three announcements telling the 291 passengers to remain calm and prepare to evacuate.

There were four pilots on the plane: two in the cockpit and two more reserve pilots in the main cabin. One of the reserve pilots opened the front door with an axe and ordered the evacuation.

Video showed hundreds of people running down emergency chutes

Stone said Mrs Lee, 40, explained how one of her colleagues had a leg trapped. She helped to release her leg and at the same time tried to calm the passengers, some of whom were panicking.

Mrs Lee said that many of the passengers were confused and disorientated.

She shouted to the Chinese passengers to evacuate immediately. Many of them tried to take their hand baggage with them, but she said she was forced to order them not to.

Mrs Lee said several fires broke out within the cabin and she was not aware that the tail of the plane had broken off because the ceiling between her and the rear of the aircraft had collapsed.

She helped one badly injured female passenger to the emergency slide and then returned back into the aircraft to help others and was one of the last to leave the aircraft.

Mrs Lee, who has already been given 14 awards for her work at Asiana Airlines, broke her coccyx in the accident, but was unaware of her injuries until she arrived at the hospital.

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