Mali: French Air Strikes Drive Back Militants

Mali's army has driven back Islamist rebels from a strategic central town after France intervened with air strikes to stop militants controlling the country's desert north from advancing.

One French pilot has been killed in the military action and hundreds of French soldiers have been deployed in the West African country.

French President Francois Hollande took action at the request of interim President Dioncounda Traore, who has declared a state of emergency.

Western governments expressed alarm on Thursday after an al Qaeda-linked rebel alliance captured the town of Konna, a gateway towards the capital Bamako 600km (375 miles) south.

The Malian army has said it was attacking the "last pockets of resistance" by insurgents in Konna after they recaptured it with the help of the French.

It said as many as 100 Islamist fighters had been killed in the battle for Konna.

The UN's Sahel envoy Romano Prodi, left, and President Dioncounda Traore

Mr Hollande said the "terrorist groups, drug traffickers and extremists" in northern Mali "show a brutality that threatens us all." He vowed that the operation would last "as long as necessary".

The West African regional bloc ECOWAS has now authorised the immediate deployment of troops to Mali.

The bloc's commission president Kadre Desire Ouedraogo said it made the decision "in light of the urgency of the situation".

For the past nine months, the Islamic militants have controlled a large swathe of northern Mali, a lawless desert region where kidnapping has flourished.

Mr Hollande said the operation was aimed in part at protecting 6,000 French citizens in Mali, including seven who are being held captive.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Senegal and Nigeria also responded to an appeal from Mali's president for help to counter the militants.

Late last year, the 15 nations in West Africa, including Mali, agreed on a proposal for the military to take back the north, and sought backing from the UN.

The Security Council authorised the intervention but imposed certain conditions, including the training of Mali's military, which has been accused of serious human rights abuses since a military coup last year sent the nation into disarray.

Al Qaeda's affiliate in Africa has been a shadowy presence for years in the forests and deserts of poverty-stricken Mali.

Most Malians adhere to a moderate form of Islam, but in recent months the terrorist group and its allies have taken advantage of political instability, taking territory they use to stock weapons and train forces.

The Islamists have insisted they want to impose Sharia only in northern Mali, though there long have been fears they could push further south.

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China Landslide Leaves Dozens Dead

A landslide sweeping through a village in the snow-dusted mountains of southern China has killed 46 people, including many children.

The last three bodies were pulled out of the debris on Saturday morning, after a night of rescue efforts by more than 1,000 workers.

The landslide smashed into the remote village of Gappo, in Zhenxiong County, on Friday morning, leaving 16 homes in complete ruin.

Those buried included 27 adults and 19 children, the official Xinhua news agency said. Two other people have been taken to hospital.

Rescue crews used construction machinery to sift through piles of mud and earth, but efforts were hampered by the unusually cold temperatures that have hit the country.

Soldiers, police and firefighters joined the rescue efforts.

Li Yongju, 50, said she had heard the crash of the landslide while cleaning her yard, and immediately rushed with other villagers to the disaster site with shovels and hoes.

"We pulled out several people, one of whom was breathing weakly. But after a while he died," Xinhua quoted Ms Li as saying.

Rescuers carry the body of a victim after a landslide hit Zhenxiong county

Another resident wept as she recounted hearing the rumble of the landslide and how her relatives had been killed.

"My grandma, brother, uncle and my aunt's family members died," Zhou Benju told the agency.

A preliminary investigation blames saturation from more than 10 days of rain and snow for the disaster, the local county government of Zhenxiong said in a statement posted on its website.

Premier Wen Jiabao travelled to the scene overnight to comfort survivors, many of whom had taken shelter in tents erected on a public square.

Zhenxiong County, in northeast Yunnan, is a mountainous area prone not just to landslides but also earthquakes.

Two quakes in September - one of magnitude 5.7 - left 81 people dead and hundreds injured.

A month later, a neighbouring county was hit by a landslide that left 18 children dead.

As a relatively impoverished area of China, Yunnan's rural houses are often cheaply constructed and easily demolished when natural disasters strike.

Zhenxiong County is best known for tobacco and Pu'er tea production.

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Costa Concordia To Be Removed By September

The stricken ship Costa Concordia will be removed from the Italian coast between June and September, officials have said.

The vessel has been resting on its side off the Tuscan coast since it capsized last year killing 32 people.

Franco Gabrielli, the chief of Italy's Social Defence Department, spoke to reporters on the eve of the first anniversary of the disaster.

He highlighted the difficulties of the salvage operation, saying the ship would be removed between June and September depending on weather conditions.

The Concordia slammed into a reef off the island of Giglio on January 13, 2012 after its captain took it off course in a stunt to bring the ship closer to the island. As it took water in, she ship rolled onto its side.

Captain Francesco Schettino has been accused of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and leaving the ship before all passengers were evacuated.

Since the tragedy, the Costa Concordia has turned into a macabre tourist attraction, with hundreds of sightseers catching a ferry from Porto Santo Stefano to Giglio so they can look at the 300ft ship and take pictures before returning to the mainland.

The Concordia sinking shortly after it struck rocks

Sunday's anniversary commemorations in Giglio include a ceremony to honour rescue teams and a mass held in the island's tiny church, where many of the injured were treated. A memorial in honour of the 32 dead will also be unveiled.

But the commemorations have been marred by controversy over a letter reportedly sent by ship owner Costa Crociere to survivors, telling them not to bother attending the ceremonies.

The company cited logistical difficulties on the tiny island and the desire for privacy expressed by the families of the victims, according to news reports.

Some 4,200 people between passengers and crews survived the tragedy.

More follows...

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Somalia Hostage Raid: French Agent 'Killed'

France has said one of its soldiers and an intelligence agent have been killed in a failed hostage rescue attempt in Somalia.

The agent, who is code-named Denis Allex and was captured by militants in 2009, died in the fighting with Islamists overnight, the French government said.

However, the Al Shabaab militia is reported to have said he is still alive.

Another special forces soldier is missing following the fighting, France's defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said.

He said 17 Somali Islamists had been killed and that the operation was not linked to a separate military operation in Mali aimed at quashing a push by Islamist fighters.

Al Shabaab has reportedly said Mr Allex remained in their captivity and was being held far from the base where French helicopters attacked in the early hours of Saturday.

The al Qaeda-linked insurgents also said they were holding an injured French soldier.

Both sides described a fierce firefight during the raid on the Horn of Africa country that French said was carried out by the intelligence agency that Mr Allex worked for.

The raid happened in Bula Marer, a town around 75 miles south of Mogadishu

Sky's Middle East Correspondent Sam Kiley said questions remained about whether the raid was planned because France feared repercussions from its operation in Mali.

He said: "It seems a long way away but ideologically - and, according to some intelligence agencies, physically - the Shabaab have been linked into a network of radical Islamist groups (in countries including Mali).

"There may have been some sense among French decision-makers that because they were getting involved in Mali, they ought to trigger this operation."

However, Kiley said it was more likely that France had received local intelligence in Somalia that there was a threat to the hostage.

The French government said: "Faced with the intransigence of the terrorists, who refused to negotiate for three-and-a-half years and who were holding Denis Allex in inhumane conditions, an operation was planned and carried out."

Authorities in Bula Marer, a town about 120km (75 miles) south of Mogadishu, said helicopters attacked at around 2am local time.

France said Mr Allex was kidnapped - along with another agent who later escaped - when he was carrying out an official aid mission with the Somalian government.

France has previously said the two men were in the Somali capital to train local forces.

After his abduction Al Shabaab issued a series of demands, which included an end to French support for the Somali government and the withdrawal of African Union peacekeepers, whose 17,600-strong troops are helping battle the rebels.

A video of Mr Allex pleading with French President Francois Hollande to negotiate his release appeared on a website in October.

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Batman Cinema Shootings Suspect To Face Trial

A judge has ordered that the man suspected of killing 12 people in a cinema shooting in Aurora, Colorado, should stand trial.

Judge William Sylvester found that prosecutors had established there was "probable cause" to believe James Holmes committed the crimes.

"Therefore the court orders that defendant shall be bound over for trial on all counts," he wrote in a 61-page ruling posted online.

The 25-year-old has been charged with 166 offences following the shooting during a showing of The Dark Knight Rises in July.

Holmes will be formally charged, alhough his lawyers have said he is not ready to enter a plea.

He could face the death penalty if convicted.

A promising neuroscience student, Holmes began to stock up on weapons, ammunition, explosives and combat gear in the spring of last year.

He began to see a university psychiatrist and then dropped out of his course.

The Aurora rampage was one of a number of mass shootings in the US last year, culminating with the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, which have raised the issue of gun control.

A review ordered by President Barack Obama is due to report back within weeks, but the gun lobby has signalled it will oppose new restrictions.

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Japan Ups Defence Spending Over China Tension

Japan has announced plans to increase its defence budget for the first time in a decade as tensions with China continue to increase.

As part of a broad stimulus package announced by Shinzo Abe, Japan's new prime minister, the military budget will be boosted by more than 100bn yen (£695m) from the 4.6trn yen (£30bn) budget in 2012.

A defence ministry spokesman said the funds were needed "to prepare for the changing security environment surrounding Japan".

Tensions between Tokyo and Beijing are at their highest in decades over a small group of islands in the East China Sea.

Both countries claim the five islands and three reefs which are located due west of Okinawa and to the northeast of Taiwan.

American and British diplomatic sources have told Sky News they are very concerned about the tensions.

Protests have occurred in both Japan and China over the islands

One source said an accidental clash between the two countries' militaries which are increasingly active in the region could spark conflict.

Known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan and as the Diaoyu Islands by China, the uninhabited outcrops were 'officially' bought by the government of Japan from their private Japanese owner last year.

It was an attempt by the Japanese government to prevent the nationalist and right-wing governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, from buying them himself - a move which would have sparked even greater tensions.

However, the government purchase caused huge anger in China with protests at Japanese institutions across the country. An unofficial but widespread boycott of Japanese goods in China hit an already struggling Japanese economy.

The governments of both countries have been accused of stoking nationalism to ramp up tensions and deflect from their own domestic political struggles.

There have been clashes between vessels

An increased military presence in the East China Sea, a vital international shipping lane, is also causing some concern in the region and beyond.

On Thursday, the Japanese media said Tokyo had scrambled fighter jets in response to a sighting of Chinese 'military' planes near the disputed islands.

The Chinese planes were not within Japanese airspace but were within a Japanese designated 'air defence identification zone'.

It is the second time in two months that Japan has scrambled jets in response to Chinese aerial activity.

In December, Japanese F-15 fighter jets were dispatched from an air base in Okinawa after a light-aircraft belonging to China's Maritime Surveillance Organisation was spotted over the islands.

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Japan Unveils Huge Economic Stimulus Package

Japan Increases Defence Spending

Updated: 10:54am UK, Friday 11 January 2013

By Mark Stone, China Correspondent

Japan has announced plans to increase its defence budget for the first time in a decade as tensions with China continue to increase.

As part of a broad stimulus package announced by Shinzo Abe, Japan's new prime minister, the military budget will be boosted by more than 100bn yen (£695m) from the 4.6trn yen (£30bn) budget in 2012.

A defence ministry spokesman said the funds were needed "to prepare for the changing security environment surrounding Japan".

Tensions between Tokyo and Beijing are at their highest in decades over a small group of islands in the East China Sea.

Both countries claim the five islands and three reefs which are located due west of Okinawa and to the northeast of Taiwan.

American and British diplomatic sources have told Sky News they are very concerned about the tensions.

One source said an accidental clash between the two countries' militaries which are increasingly active in the region could spark conflict.

Known as the Senkaku Islands in Japan and as the Diaoyu Islands by China, the uninhabited outcrops were 'officially' bought by the government of Japan from their private Japanese owner last year.

It was an attempt by the Japanese government to prevent the nationalist and right-wing governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, from buying them himself - a move which would have sparked even greater tensions.

However, the government purchase caused huge anger in China with protests at Japanese institutions across the country. An unofficial but widespread boycott of Japanese goods in China hit an already struggling Japanese economy.

The governments of both countries have been accused of stoking nationalism to ramp up tensions and deflect from their own domestic political struggles.

An increased military presence in the East China Sea, a vital international shipping lane, is also causing some concern in the region and beyond.

On Thursday, the Japanese media said Tokyo had scrambled fighter jets in response to a sighting of Chinese 'military' planes near the disputed islands.

The Chinese planes were not within Japanese airspace but were within a Japanese designated 'air defence identification zone'.

It is the second time in two months that Japan has scrambled jets in response to Chinese aerial activity.

In December, Japanese F-15 fighter jets were dispatched from an air base in Okinawa after a light-aircraft belonging to China's Maritime Surveillance Organisation was spotted over the islands.

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Dreamliner Hit By Fifth Fault This Week

A fifth Boeing Dreamliner fault has been discovered in as many days, raising more fears over the aircraft's safety.

Oil was discovered leaking from the left engine of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner flight operated by All Nippon Airways (ANA) on Friday.

An ANA spokeswoman said the leak was found after the domestic flight landed safely at Miyazaki airport in southern Japan.

It came on the same day another Japanese 787 suffered a cracked cockpit window while in flight on a domestic route.

ANA said crew noticed a spider web-like crack in a window in front of the pilot's seat about 70 minutes into Friday's flight, which was close to its destination.

The Dreamliner, the world's first carbon-composite airliner, which has a list price of $207m (£128m), has been beset by problems this week.

Boston fire crews attend the JAL plane after it filled with smoke

According to Reuters, US transportation officials will hold a news conference at 2.30pm GMT to discuss issues related to recent problems on the new plane.

Other reports said aviation officials would review the engine systems and reliability on long-haul transocean routes.

The Dreamliner was designed to use power plants made by General Electric and Britain's Rolls-Royce.

On Wednesday, a domestic flight was halted by ANA because brake parts to the rear left undercarriage needed replacing, a spokesman at Yamaguchi Ube Airport said.

A Japan Air Lines (JAL) jet was also grounded at Boston Logan International airport in the US following an engine fuel leak.

About 40 gallons of fuel spilled from the jet that was supposed to be bound for Tokyo.

That event followed the first incident of the week, which also occurred at Boston, on Monday.

Emergency services had been called after another JAL 787 filled with smoke shortly after passengers and crew had disembarked.

An investigator in the US examines a Boeing 787

Firefighters used infrared cameras to locate the fire in a battery pack in the belly of a different Boeing 787 and extinguished the blaze within 20 minutes.

The 787 Dreamliner made its first commercial flight in late 2011, after a series of production delays put deliveries more than three years behind schedule.

By the end of last year, Boeing had sold 848 Dreamliners, and delivered 49. JAL and ANA operate 24 of the planes.

After the Boston events, British carriers including BA, Virgin Atlantic and Thomson Airways reaffirmed their plans to integrate 787s into fleets this year and next.

In India - where state-owned Air India has taken delivery of six Dreamliners and has more on order - a senior official at the aviation regulator said there was concern at the recent spate of 787 glitches.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has not ordered any Dreamliner checks for now, but is waiting for a safety report from the US National Transportation Safety Board, the official said.

Meanwhile, an Air India spokesman said the airline's debut Dreamliner flight from India to Paris on Thursday went without a hitch.

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Saudi Arabia Beheads Young Sri Lankan Maid

A young Sri Lankan housemaid has been beheaded in Saudi Arabia for killing a baby who was in her care.

Rizana Nafeek had denied strangling the four-month-old baby in 2005 and the execution came despite global appeals to call it off because she was only 17 at the time.

Rights groups said the death sentence was a violation of international codes governing the rights of minors.

Appeals by the Sri Lankan government were also rejected and Nafeek was executed in the town of Dawadmy, near the capital Riyadh, on Wednesday morning.

A Sri Lankan woman protesting against the death sentence

In a statement the Saudi interior ministry said she had been found guilty of smothering the infant to death after an argument with the child's mother, her employer.

Sri Lanka's President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, had made a series of personal appeals to try to stop the execution and grant a pardon to the maid.

Afterwards, the president said he and his government "deplored" the beheading.

Saudi households are highly dependent on housemaids from African and South Asian countries.

There have been reported cases of domestic abuse in which families mistreat their maids, who have then attacked the children of their employers.

Condemning the execution, Human Rights Watch senior women's rights researcher Nisha Varia said: "Saudi Arabia is one of just three countries that executes people for crimes they committed as children.

"In executing Rizana Nafeek, Saudi authorities demonstrated callous disregard for basic humanity as well as Saudi Arabia's international legal obligations."

Saudi is an absolute monarchy that follows the strict Wahhabi school of Islam and applies Sharia (Islamic) law. Judges base decisions on their own interpretation of Sharia rather than on a written legal code or on precedent.

In a statement Amnesty International said that it appeared Nafeek had had no access to lawyers either during her pre-trial interrogation or at her trial in 2007.

Hers was the second execution in Saudi Arabia this year after a Syrian man was beheaded on Tuesday for drug trafficking.

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Half Of All Food Produced Is 'Thrown Away'

As much as half of all the food produced in the world - two billion tonnes worth - ends up being thrown away, a new report claims.

The waste is caused by poor infrastructure and storage facilities, over-strict sell-by dates, "get-one-free" offers, and consumer fussiness, according to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Each year countries around the world produce some four billion tonnes of food.

But between 30% and 50% of this total, amounting to 1.2 to 2 billion tonnes, never gets eaten, says the report Global Food; Waste Not, Want Not.

In the UK, up to 30% of vegetable crops are not harvested because their physical appearance fails to meet the exacting demands of consumers.

Half the food purchased in Europe and the US is thrown away after it is bought, the report adds.

Vast quantities of water are also wasted in global food production, it is claimed.

Around 550 billion cubic metres of water is used to grow crops that never reach the consumer, according to the report.

Producing one kilogram of meat is also said to take 20 to 50 times more water than producing the same weight of vegetables.

The report hits out at supermarkets for encouraging over-buying

The demand for water in food production could reach 10 to 13 trillion cubic metres a year by 2050, the institution said.

This is up to 3.5 times greater than the total amount of fresh water used by humans today, raising the spectre of dangerous water shortages.

Dr Tim Fox, head of energy and environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said: "The amount of food wasted and lost around the world is staggering.

"This is food that could be used to feed the world's growing population - as well as those in hunger today.

"It is also an unnecessary waste of the land, water and energy resources that were used in the production, processing and distribution of this food."

He blamed the situation on poor engineering and agricultural practices, inadequate transport and storage infrastructure, and supermarkets demanding cosmetically perfect foodstuffs and encouraging consumers to overbuy through buy-one-get-one free offers.

By 2075 the United Nations predicts that the world's population will reach around 9.5 billion, resulting in an extra three billion mouths to feed.

Added stresses on the ability of the world to feed itself include global warming and the growing popularity of meat, which requires around 10 times more resources than staple plant foods such as rice or potatoes.

Dr Fox called on governments, development agencies and organisations like the UN to "work together to help change people's mindsets on waste and discourage wasteful practices by farmers, food producers, supermarkets and consumers".

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