Hot Air Balloon Crash Caught On Camera

A hot air balloon carrying 11 people has crashed into a lake in the Netherlands, injuring two people.

Dramatic footage taken by a passerby shows the aircraft coming down in Lake Gooi, near the city of Almere, and its basket being dragged along until it hits the shore.

The basket remains on its side in the water while the edge of the balloon dips and comes down on a road alongside the lake in front of a travelling car.

Witnesses can be seen rushing to help the passengers in the stricken balloon.

Dutch emergency services, including two coastguard boats, police, firefighters and ambulances, were alerted to the accident and attended the scene.

The two people hurt were taken to hospital with minor injuries.

The cause of the crash, which happened at around 9.40pm on Tuesday, is unknown. It is being investigated by police and the Environment and Transport Inspectorate (ETI).

Almere is situated in central Flevoland province, east of Amsterdam.

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Bulgarian Police Rescue Besieged MPs

Violent clashes broke out after hundreds of protesters barricaded Bulgaria's politicians inside the parliament building as demonstrations in the country intensified.

Protesters build barricades outside the parliament building

Nearly 10 people had to be taken to hospital to be treated for injuries, including two police officers, after 2,000 people took to the streets of the capital of Sofia.

Police armed with shields and batons had to rescue 100 lawmakers who had been trapped inside the besieged building for more than eight hours.

Officers attempt to escort the politicians to safety

Officers tried to escort the politicians out by bus but anti-corruption protesters, shouting  "mafia" and "resign", hurled plastic bottles at the bus.

Thousands of Bulgarians have taken to the streets of the capital every day for 40 days since the government announced the appointment of a powerful media magnate as security chief.

Protesters outside the building in the capital of Sofia

The protesters see the move as an increasing example of private interests controlling state institutions.

The government's withdrawal of the appointment last month failed to quell public discontent in the EU's poorest country and protesters are now calling for the cabinet's resignation.

A woman faces down riot police

Interior minister Tsvetlin Yovchev: "Police reacted very adequately, policemen did their job perfectly although protesters behaved extremely aggressively.

"We will try to find those who threw stones at police and deputies."

Violent clashes break out between protesters and police

Authorities say seven protesters had to be treated for head injuries and two police officers were also hurt.

The president, Rosen Plevneliev, has appealed to protesters and police to keep the demonstrations peaceful.

More peaceful demonstrators play the piano

In a statement he said: "I appeal to the protesters to keep the protest the way it was and the way it impressed all Europe - peaceful, civilised and aimed at achieving the values of a democratic society."

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Shrien Dewani To Be Extradited Over Murder

By Martin Brunt, Crime Correspondent

A judge has ruled that honeymoon murder suspect Shrien Dewani must be extradited to South Africa, even though he is mentally ill and a real suicide risk.

Mr Dewani's lawyers had argued he should be allowed to continue medical treatment in the UK for another six months before being sent to face a Cape Town court.

His family said they would try to challenge the extradition in an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Speaking outside the court, Ami Denborg, Anni Dewani's sister, said it was "one step in the right direction" and that her family hoped he would be sent to South Africa "very soon".

She said the legal process was still a big strain on her family.

"We've been struggling every day. Look at my mum, look at my dad - you can see on their faces," Ms Denborg told reporters.

Shrien Dewani denies plotting to kills his wife

She added: "We don't want to forget Anni in this. For us, this is still all about Anni.

"It's all about finding out what happened to her and we will fight this battle to the end."

Anni Dewani, 28, was shot dead on the outskirts of Cape Town in November 2010 while the couple were on honeymoon.

The South African authorities say her husband arranged the murder, paying others to hijack their car, throw him out and shoot her before abandoning the vehicle.

Dewani, who has depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, strongly denies the claims.

While he remains moderately depressed, he is improving and will eventually recover, Westminster Magistrates' Court heard.

His lawyers had expressed concerns that his recovery would suffer a setback if returned to South Africa.

Shrien Dewani (left) pictured earlier this month

They have also argued he would be a high suicide risk and his human rights could be breached because of the risk of violent and sexual assaults in jail, and of contracting HIV.

"Shrien Dewani remains unfit to be extradited or to face trial," said his lawyers following the decision.

"Shrien remains committed to returning to South Africa when his health would permit a full trial and when appropriate protections are in place for his health and safety."

Despite the extradition, a trial could still be some way off as Dewani may not be mentally fit enough to enter a plea for some time.  fit enought o

District Judge Riddle said he should still be sent to South Africa and that it could actually benefit his health.

"The evidence is that Mr Dewani will receive the care he needs in South Africa," said the judge.

Xolile Mngeni was a hit man hired by Mr Dewani, claim prosecutors

"There remains a real risk of suicide, but also confidence that in South Africa, as here, there are systems in place to try to minimise the risk.

"It is far from certain that he will recover more quickly if he remains here," he added.

Newlywed Mrs Dewani was shot when a taxi in which the couple were travelling was hijacked in the Gugulethu township.

Mr Dewani and driver Zola Tongo were ejected from the car before Mrs Dewani was driven away and killed.

She was found dead in the back of the abandoned vehicle with a bullet wound to her neck.

Last year, South African Xolile Mngeni was convicted of premeditated murder for shooting Mrs Dewani.

Prosecutors claimed he was a hitman hired by Shrien Dewani to kill his new wife, something that Dewani has consistently denied.

Tongo was jailed for 18 years after he admitted his part in the crime, and another accomplice, Mziwamadoda Qwabe, also pleaded guilty and was handed a 25-year sentence.

South African authorities said they were "very excited" about the extradition.

"He (Dewani) will face a fair trial. Any health concerns will be also be taken care of appropriately," said Bulelwa Makeke, from the National Prosecuting Authority of South Africa.

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Nine Dead After Asylum Seeker Boat Sinks

At least nine people have been killed and 189 rescued after an Australia-bound boat carrying asylum seekers sank off the southern coast of Indonesia.

Indonesian authorities said a baby boy and a 10-year-old girl were among the dead.

As many as 204 people are believed to have been on board, prompting fears that more may be dead or missing.

Those rescued were brought by boat to the small fishing village of Cidaun

There were some reports that up to seven people had died, and conflicting information also about the nationalities of the people on board, described variously as travelling from Iran, Iraq, Bangladesh, as well as Sri Lanka.

The vessel was headed for Christmas Island when it began taking on water and started sinking off the Indonesian island of Java after hitting a reef.

Some survivors managed to swim to shore in the darkness for two to three hours in high seas on Tuesday night.

Others were plucked from the sea by fishermen and rescuers and brought by boat a beach in the small fishing village of Cidaun.

A survivor is helped ashore by rescue and search teams

It comes just days after Australia announced a tough new policy to deport all asylum seekers who arrive on its shores to Papua New Guinea - even if they are granted refugee status.

The debate over refugees and people smuggling has long been a hot political issue in Australia and has intensified with an election looming in a few weeks.

Asked about the sinking, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Wednesday defended his stance, aimed at stemming the number of asylum seekers arriving in the country by boat.

A record 15,000 landed in 2012 and more than 15,000 have arrived so far this year.

Survivors rest in the centre of Cidaun village

He said the policy was "about sending a very clear message to people smugglers that if you try to come to Australia by boat you'll not be settled in Australia".

It is the latest boat tragedy near Australian waters. As recently as last Tuesday, a boat carrying 150 asylum seekers capsized off the country's Christmas Island, leaving four dead.

Due to Christmas Island's close proximity to Indonesia, it is the most popular destination for asylum seekers who pay people smugglers to take them from Indonesian ports to Australia in overcrowded and unseaworthy boats.

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Salman Khan Charged With Killing Homeless

An Indian court has charged Bollywood star Salman Khan with culpable homicide over a 2002 hit-and-run case that could send him to prison for 10 years.

Khan, 47, is alleged to have rammed his Toyota Land Cruiser vehicle on to a pavement and over five sleeping homeless people in suburban Mumbai, killing one and injuring four others.

Appearing in court wearing a grey shirt and black trousers he pleaded not guilty to a charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, an offence carrying 10 years in prison.

Khan is accused of drink-driving and culpable homicide

After charging the actor, the judge added: "Salman Khan's blood contained 30 mg of alcohol, according to that he was drunk."

Mumbai's laws prohibit anyone from driving or attempting to drive a vehicle if their blood alcohol levels exceed 30 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood.

Prosecutor Shankar Erande asked the judge to proceed with the charges sooner rather than later as Mr Khan was going abroad for two months, which could delay the trial even further.

A petition has been filed questioning the decade-long delay in trying Khan.

He was due to be tried under lesser charges of "rash and negligent driving" but prosecutors filed an application for the charges to be upgraded, which the court upheld in February.

Khan, known for his muscular physique and off-camera fits of temper, has been a controversial figure since he broke into Bollywood in the late 1980s in the romance film Maine Pyar Kiya (I Fell in Love).

In 1998, he spent more than a week in prison for killing endangered Indian gazelles in the northern state of Rajasthan.

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Brazil: Shark Attack Kills Teenage Tourist

An 18-year-old tourist has died after being attacked by a shark while swimming off a popular beach in Brazil.

Bruna Gobbi was around waist deep in the sea at Boa Viagem, Recife, when the animal bit into her left leg, according to local news website Correio.

Video filmed from the beach shows a splash of water before the area she was swimming in turns red.

Bruna Gobbi died after doctors amputated most of her left leg

The footage then shows her being brought ashore with serious injuries to the lower part of her left leg. Much of her skin is missing, although her foot is still attached.

Ms Gobbi was taken to a local hospital, but died after surgery to amputate her leg around 15cm above the knee.

The teenager, from Sao Paolo, was on a family holiday to Recife and was on the beach with her mum, grandfather and cousins - one of whom, Daniele, was in the sea when Ms Gobbi was attacked.

"The rescuers came in a matter of five minutes but to us it felt like five years," she told Globo TV.

Signs warning swimmers of previous shark attacks are displayed along the length of the beach and Ms Gobbi had been warned about the dangers of swimming in the sea, the TV station reported.

It said local authorities have asked the Brazilian government to ban swimming in areas prone to shark attacks.

According to the government agency Comite Estadual de Monitoramento de Incidentes com Tubaroes, there have been 21 shark attacks -10 of them fatal - in Boa Viagem since 1992.

Ms Gobbi is thought to be the first woman killed by a shark since the records began.

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Kevin McGeever In Fake Hostage Claim

An Irish property tycoon charged with falsely alleging he was kidnapped and held hostage after he vanished for eight months, cannot afford to post bail, a court hears.

Kevin McGeever, who once sold homes from an international portfolio in Dubai, has claimed he does not have enough money to cover a 12,500 euro (£10,700) bond.

The 68-year-old, who walked into Strokestown District Court, Ireland wearing dark glasses and a black leather jacket, was remanded in custody after also being charged with wasting police time.

McGeever appeared in court looking malnourished and dishevelled

The court heard the pensioner, with an address at a mansion named Nirvana, in Ballywinna, Craughwell, in the neighbouring Co Galway, was in "no position" to pay his bail.

McGeever, who has a faint scar on his forehead from where the letters "TIEF" were scrawled before his dramatic reappearance late one night on a country road in January, did not speak during his case.

Sitting on a defendant's bench in the packed, wood-panelled courtroom, squeezed among dozens of others, he spoke briefly to a solicitor as his case was called.

Joan Devine, acting on behalf of McGeever's Dublin-based solicitor Tom Brabazon, requested the judge set a lower bail amount of 8,000 euro (£6,899).

"He is not in a position to come up with that kind of money," Ms Devine said.

Judge Geoffrey Browne rejected the application and remanded McGeever in custody with consent to bail.

The once successful businessman, originally from Swinford in Co Mayo, was reported missing on May 27 2012 and found eight months later wandering barefoot on a rural road in the west of Ireland.

The night he was discovered near Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, by a man and a woman, Catherine Vallely and her friend Pat Rehill, he was described as being a shrunken figure, in a dishevelled state, with a long beard, hair and finger nails.

He was said to be malnourished and dehydrated, and as having lost several stone in weight when found.

McGeever was charged under sections 12(a) and 12(b) of the 1976 Criminal Law Act, relating to knowingly giving false information that an offence had been committed and wasting Garda time.

The charges allege McGeever made false reports and statements to gardai between January 29 and February 28 this year that offences of false imprisonment, assault, and threats to harm had occurred.

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Canadian Regrets Drunken Late Night Swim To US

A man who prompted an international rescue operation by drunkenly swimming across the Detroit River from Canada to the US has admitted it was "really stupid".

A sheepish John Morillo told The Windsor Star that, in retrospect, he realises he should never have attempted Monday night's bet after a night of drinking with friends.

"I was drinking, but I wasn't really drunk," Mr Morillo said.

"The thing is, I've been telling people I'm going to swim across the river for years and they're like 'yah, yah, blah, blah, you can't make it.' So, I don't know, last night I just decided it was the time to go."

The 47-year-old said he regrets causing problems for authorities, including Windsor police and Coast Guard crews from the US and Canada.

Three boats and a helicopter responded, amid warnings that the river's current makes a dangerous place to swim.

The strip of water between Windsor and Detroit is a busy shipping route

"As soon I saw the helicopters going by and the boats looking for me, I was like 'oh, this is really stupid,'" Morillo told the newspaper.

Police in Windsor initially responded around 11.30pm, when one of his neighbours called to say she had lost sight of him about a half-hour earlier.

The repentant swimmer made it across to Detroit, getting out of the water downtown, and was swimming back when he was found about 12.50 am by the US Coast Guard.

During his stop on the Detroit side of the river he said people wanted to take his picture.

"There was one woman, she said she was from Windsor and she thought I was crazy," he said. "She was right."

Mr Morillo was cited for being intoxicated in a public place and released from jail later on Tuesday.

He said he was told that he will also likely be fined between $5,000 and $25,000 for swimming in a shipping channel.

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Edward Snowden 'Waiting To Leave Airport'

Edward Snowden has not yet received the document which is expected to allow him to leave a Moscow airport, according to his lawyer.

For now, he will remain in the transit zone where he has been holed up for the past month.

"As of today, this document has not yet been given (to him)," lawyer Anatoly Kucherena told Russian television after meeting with Snowden.

Mr Kucherena said the process was being drawn out as this was the "first such situation in Russia".

Despite the delay, it is expected that the former NSA contractor will eventually be given authorisation to get through passport control, Sky News' Moscow correspondent Katie Stallard said.

The whistleblower, who leaked details of US security agency programmes targeting online and phone communications, applied for temporary asylum in Russia last week.

It is thought that he wants to move to an address in Moscow city centre while his application is considered.

Mr Kucherena told the media that Snowden would be staying put for now

"What they were expecting [today] was to get some sort of temporary document that would say he was formally being considered for asylum, that he can cross the Russian border while that happens," said Sky News' Katie Stallard.

"For whatever reason - the lawyer is blaming bureaucracy - that hasn't happened today, so all he can tell him is he has to stay there.

"He says he hopes it will be resolved in the nearest future. But that is as specific as he can be."

Mr Snowden's lawyer said he gave him some jeans, T-shirts and a copy of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment during their meeting.

He also said that Snowden had no immediate plans to leave the country and "intends to stay in Russia [and] study Russian culture".

President Vladimir Putin, mindful of Russia's strained relations with the US, has stated that Snowden can only be granted asylum if he stops leaking secrets.

Snowden submitted a handwritten asylum request

The asylum decision could even be delayed until after he meets President Obama at a summit in Moscow in early September.

The 30-year-old had been considering going to South America but seemed to be trapped in the airport's transit area after the US revoked his passport.

Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua all said they would grant him political asylum but none is reachable by direct commercial flight from Moscow.

Snowden leaked details of top-secret US surveillance programmes - giving details of the monitoring of phone calls and internet data from companies such as Google and Facebook - to The Guardian and Washington Post.

He now faces espionage charges in America.

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School Meal Deaths: Headteacher Surrenders

The headmistress of a school where 23 children died in a food poisoning outbreak has handed herself in to the police.

Meena Devi was taken into police custody in the eastern state of Bihar.

Police have been searching for the headmistress for nine days since children at her school began vomiting and suffering stomach cramps after eating a meal contaminated with a pesticide that is banned in many countries.

The principal surrendered ... and we have arrested her for questioning," Sujeet Kumar, police chief of Saran district, said.

"We need to talk to her first before framing charges."

Thirty children who became seriously ill after eating the free school lunch, provided as part of the world's largest free school feeding programme, on July 16 are still in hospital.

Police reportedly raided the headteacher's home - where the ingredients for the meal of lentil, potatoes and rice were being kept - earlier in the week.

Results of tests of blood samples taken from four children still in a critical condition indicated "acute poisoning".

A forensic report showed the oil that the food was cooked in contained the pesticide monocrotophos at very high levels.

An unnamed government official said: "The poisonous substance was more than five times the commercial preparation available on the market."

The World Health Organisation revealed it had asked India to ban the toxic substance as far back as 2009.

It also warned that pesticide containers were not being disposed of properly in India and were being used by the poor to store water and food.

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