La Tomatina Festival: Spain Town Charges

Thousands of revellers have pelted tomatoes in an annual Spanish food fight - but for the first time they paid for the pleasure.

Some 20,000 people from around the world joined Wednesday's hour-long street party, known as La Tomatina, in a square in Brunol.

This time round, participants paid a minimum of 10 euros (£8.50) to take part, but 5,000 free tickets were set aside for the eastern Spanish town's residents.

It was also the first time in the history of the festival, inspired by a children's food fight in 1945, that it rained as the tomatoes were pelted.

The weather conditions or the entry cost did not appear to spoil anyone's fun however.

Many wore shower caps and goggles to protect their eyes from the acidic juice of the tomatoes, which must be squashed before they are hurled at fellow participants.

"It is one of the most famous festivals in western Europe and it is safer than running with a bull," said 22-year-old Brad Fisher, from Sydney, who came with a group of 700 people.

"One hundred and thirty tonnes of tomatoes is a lot but it's still better than a 500-kilo bull."

English participant Becky Charlton said: "This is our first time here, it's amazing, it's crazy, crazy, crazy. It's really good. I will come again next year."

Some 130 tonnes of tomatoes were thrown in the fight, although this year the city council reduced the number of people taking part from 45,000 to 20,000 due to safety concerns.

After the fight, many of the revellers traditionally head to a local river to wash off the pulp. But in this year's rain, that was not necessary.

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Russia: Motorcyclist Who Hit Baby Was Drunk

A toddler has escaped serious injury after a drunk motorcyclist rode into his stroller at a zebra crossing in Russia.

CCTV cameras caught the rider moments before the accident swigging beer and tossing the bottle to the side of the road.

Footage taken from another driver's dashboard camera shows the baby being pushed by his grandfather over the zebra crossing when the rider suddenly appears from the left of frame and knocks the stroller over.

The boy is comforted by his grandfather as the drunk motorcyclist looks on

As one woman rushes to help the boy another passer-by takes a kick at the rider lying in the road.

The motorcyclist was arrested but later released after being fined.

Russia has become notorious for its poor road safety record after the proliferation of car dash cameras capturing road accidents on videos which are uploaded to the Internet.

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JPMorgan Chase 'Faces $6bn Mis-Selling Fine'

JPMorgan Chase is facing the prospect of paying a near-record fine for a bank relating to its behaviour before the financial crisis.

According to Reuters, US authorities are pressing JPMorgan to settle allegations it mis-sold $33bn (£21bn) of securities to government-backed mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Regulators are said to be demanding a penalty of $6bn (£3.9bn), though the Financial Times said the bank was resisting such an amount.

The potential fine underlines the growing pressure on JPMorgan over its past.

The bank is also expected to face demands for billions of dollars to settle regulatory action over the $6.2bn "London Whale" trading loss while alleged manipulation of commodities markets is under scrutiny too.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that federal regulators were preparing to impose a fine of $80m on JPMorgan relating to its dealings with US retail customers during the recession.

But it is the potential penalties over the mis-selling allegations and "Whale" loss that will be the greatest concerns for the Wall Street bank's chief executive, Jamie Dimon.

He is understood to argue that the bank should not be punished so severely for the securities because many were sold by two companies which JPMorgan bought amid the financial crisis with US government support.

Mr Dimon had previously apologised to shareholders over the trading losses in London, calling them a "terrible mistake" which had led to an overhaul of investment procedures.

Spanish police arrested and bailed former trader Javier Martin-Artajo on Tuesday after he was charged in connection with the case by US authorities.

Martin-Artajo and another man, Julien Grout, are accused of wire fraud and conspiracy to falsify books and records related to the trading losses, which were executed by Bruno Iksil.

Iksil, who was nicknamed the "London Whale" for his large bets on derivatives markets, is cooperating with US prosecutors and has not been charged.

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Baghdad Bombings: At Least 51 People Killed

At least 51 people have been killed and dozens wounded in a series of bombings and attacks in and around Baghdad.

More than a dozen explosions - most of them car bombs, but also at least two suicide attacks - went off in mostly Shiite areas of the Iraqi capital, as well as two mixed towns just to its south.

The attacks - during rush hour on Wednesday - also injured more than 140 people, officials said.

In one of the worst incidents, a car bomb killed seven people and wounded 23 in Jisr al Diyala in southeastern Baghdad, police and medics said.

The attacks happened during rush hour

In Kadhimiya, a district in northwestern Baghdad, two roadside bombs and one car bomb killed five people and wounded nearly 30, the sources said.

"We are poor people, and all of our things have been burned, and our home has fallen to the ground," said Marwa, an 18-year-old resident of Shaab, a north Baghdad neighbourhood where four people were killed.

"The politicians are fighting over positions and not looking after us," 

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Sunni militants linked to al Qaeda frequently carry out such coordinated attacks targeting Shiite Muslims, whom they regard as apostates.

Security has been stepped up in the capital in recent months

More than 1,000 Iraqis were killed in July, the highest monthly death toll since 2008.

The latest blasts come amid widely publicised security operations targeting militants in Baghdad and to the north and west.

But the government has faced criticism it is not dealing with the root causes of Iraq's worst violence since 2008.cording to the United Nations.

The rise in unrest since the beginning of the year, with more than 3,700 people killed in 2013, has sparked concerns the country is teetering on the edge of a return to the brutal all-out sectarian war that plagued it in 2006 and 2007.

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North Korea Sees 'Bright Future' In Tourism

North And South: A Quick History

Updated: 2:23pm UK, Thursday 25 July 2013

By Mark Stone, Asia Corespondent, in Pyongyang

On the Korean Peninsula there are two versions of history. The version people learn depends on whether they are North Korean or South Korean.

Either way though, understanding both versions is key to understanding this most unusual of countries: its quirks, its people, its politics and its government's ability to survive against the odds.

There is no logical reason why the land that makes up the Korean Peninsula should be split into two countries.

The people either side of the border speak the same language and have the same ancestors.

But since 1945, it has been two countries: the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea).

From 1910 until the end of World War Two, the Korean Peninsula was Japanese territory.

With Japan's defeat, America and the Soviet Union took control of the peninsula.

They decided to split it in two: America didn't want the communist administration in Moscow to control the whole thing. Moscow felt the same about total American control.

And an agreement was reached between Washington and Moscow and an arbitrary line was simply drawn across the middle.

The North became The Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It adopted the communist ideology of its Soviet masters.

A young war hero called Kim Il-Sung became its prime minister.

The South adopted American-style democracy and became the Republic of Korea.

Just five years later though in 1950, Kim Il-Sung and his new army, backed by communist China and Russia, invaded the South.

Within months North Korean forces controlled almost the entire peninsula.

An American-led United Nations force fought back and the Korean War had begun.

Three years of fighting left well over a million people dead. Among them were soldiers from both Koreas, America, China, Russia and Britain.

But no side could claim victory. The border remained where it had been at the start - across the 38th Parallel - and to this day it is a heavily guarded and mined demilitarised zone.

In the decades that followed, the Soviet Union and China continued to prop up the North.

Inside the closed country, Kim Il-Sung's government controlled information and adopted their own version of history which states that the US-backed South Koreans invaded the North.

In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. North Korea had lost its main communist ally and trading partner.

The 1990s were dominated by a catastrophic famine in which millions died. A once strong country began to crumble.

And yet the country remained cut off, shunning most Western offers of help.

Kim Il-Sung, at his death in 1994, was declared Eternal President.

His son Kim Jong-Il ensured continuity and - on his death in 2011 - the leadership was assumed by his son, Kim Jong-Un.

And so through extreme control and isolation spanning 65 years, the Kim dynasty has cemented its cult of personality through which the state is still run.

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Boston Bombing: New Photos Of Suspect Released

Dramatic new photos show Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev with his face bloodied as he surrenders.

Tsarnaev appears disoriented, his face illuminated by a floodlight, as he emerges from a boat in a suburban backyard moments before his arrest.

Some images show him slumped over the side of the boat, his arm covering his face.

The pictures, provided by a state police officer, were the second set of the hunt for Tsarnaev to be published by Boston Magazine.

Three were killed and hundreds injured in the April 15 bombings

Authorities say Tsarnaev and his older brother Tamerlan masterminded the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings, which left three people dead and more than 260 injured.

Tsarnaev, 20 has pleaded not guilty to charges including using a weapon of mass destruction to kill. He is being held at a prison medical facility in Devens, Massachusetts.

His older brother died in a shoot-out with police.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has pleaded not guilty

The surgeon who treated Tsarnaev after his capture said he had been shot in the face and had a fractured skull, among other injuries.

Sergeant Sean Murphy took photos the April night police cornered Tsarnaev in a dry-docked boat in Watertown, just outside Boston.

He was not authorised to release the pictures but said he was angry about a Rolling Stone magazine cover he felt glamorised Tsarnaev.

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Peru: Plea Decision Looms For British Women

A lawyer for one of the British women accused of drug smugling in Peru says they will have to decide soon whether they are going to plead guilty or continue to maintain their innocence.

Peter Madden, who is representing Michaella McCollum, 20, from Northern Ireland, said she and co-accused Melissa Reid, also 20, from Scotland, are scared and confused but will have to decide within weeks what to plead.

"They are basically confident enough that what they have told the authorities will be eventually proved," Mr Madden said.

"The Peruvian system is still that they are innocent until proven guilty but in reality they have to try to prove that what they said happened to them did happen."

Reid's father went to Peru to support his daughter

Mr Madden, a well-known human rights solicitor from Belfast who has acted for high-profile republicans, has just returned from South America.

He added: "They are frightened. They are unsure of their future. They are in a prison in which they are the only two foreigners."

Mr Madden said that, under new laws soon to take effect in Peru, they could be released after two years if they accept responsibility for their crime.

He added: "The position is that at some stage there will have to be a decision made by Michaella and Melissa as to whether or not, in our terms, they plead guilty, or plead not guilty and go to trial.

The women were found with 11kg of cocaine in their luggage

"That stage hasn't been reached yet."

Mr Madden told BBC Radio Ulster: "Anybody who is arrested and found in possession of drugs goes straight into prison. There is no bail.

"If they want to protest their innocence in a trial that may take up to or over two years, whereas if they accept their responsibility, as it is put, it could be over in six months.

"The law is changing so they could actually serve just over two years and be released.

"There is a new law going through the Peruvian Congress which states that any foreigner who has a sentence of less than seven years will get two-thirds remission and be removed from the country after a period of one third.

The pair say they were forced to travel from Ibiza to Peru

"This is a fairly complex decision but at some stage they will have to make that decision."

The women were stopped with 11kg (24lb) of cocaine, with an estimated street value of £1.5m, hidden in food packets in their luggage while trying to board a flight to Spain earlier this month.

Officials said they had confessed to investigators that they knew there were drugs in their bags but that they had been threatened at gunpoint and forced to smuggle the cocaine by a criminal gang.

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China: Boy's Eyes Gouged Out By Woman

By Mark Stone, China Correspondent

A six-year-old boy is recovering in hospital after his eyes were gouged out in an horrific attack in China.

The child, who has been named as Guo Bin, went missing from his home in the country's Shanxi Province on Saturday evening.

He had failed to return home for dinner after playing outside.

Five hours later, the child was discovered by his parents with both eyes missing.

The young boy's mother said she found her son near their home.

His face was covered with blood but he was conscious and spoke to her, reportedly claiming that he had been attacked by a female who spoke with a strange accent.

Speaking from the hospital where he is being treated, the youngster's father explained what he said happened.

"[He was] walking down the street, then someone just carried him away. This is what my son told me. We asked him on the way [to hospital].

"He knew exactly what was happening. He said there was a person gouging his eyes with 'a thing', and he cried.

"The person then told him: 'Don't cry. If you stop crying I'll stop gouging your eyes'."

The boy says his eyes were removed by a woman with a strange accent

An initial suggestion in the Chinese media claimed the child's eyes were found nearby with the cornea missing.

Uncorroborated reports said that the attack may have been connected to China's illegal trafficking of human organs.

However, local police have now said they do not believe the attack was in any way related to organ trafficking and that while the eyes were found near the boy, the cornea had not been removed.

It remains possible that authorities are denying the link to trafficking in order to cover-up an embarrassing problem.

The director of Shanxi Eye Hospital, where the boy is being treated, has said that the child is now making a recovery but that his sight will never be recovered.

"The boy's general condition is stable. We conducted a three-hour check on his eyes yesterday, mainly on the trauma his eyes suffered," Yang Caizhen said.

"Our hospital established a treatment group for this case, and it's been confirmed that the boy is definitely going to be blind.

"His eyeballs are gone. Current medical technology has no means to help a patient whose eyeballs are gone by installing artificial eyes. There is no such technology in the world yet."

A local police chief, named only as Liu, said that he could not speculate on a motive for the attack.

"We are sparing no efforts trying to solve this case," he added.

A reward of RMB100,000 (£10,000) has been offered to anyone with information about the attack.

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Syria: Father Reunited With His 'Dead' Son

A Syrian father's nightmare is over after he learned the son he thought had been killed in a chemical weapons attack is alive.

Video has emerged of the moment the pair are reunited in a suburb of Zamalka, surround by friends and relatives.

The heart-warming film uploaded to YouTube shows the boy first being handed over to someone who appears to be a relative before his relieved father is given the news his son is alive.

Safe: the little boy is reunited with his father

As they are about to be reunited he is so overcome with joy and shock that his legs buckle and he bursts into tears.

Those around him shout "Allahu akbar" (God is great).

The man is so distraught and emotional his son has to be momentarily taken away from him while he composes himself.

Later in the video the boy is seen in his father's arms as he is kissed and hugged.

Some 1,300 Syrians are reported to have been killed in the attack in Damascus, with a further 3,600 treated for neurotoxic symptoms.

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Syria: 'Britain Encouraged Chemical Attacks'

Britain, the US and France helped "terrorists" use chemical weapons in Damascus, Syria's deputy foreign minister has claimed.

"The terrorist groups are the ones who used them with American, British and French encouragement. This encouragement should stop," said Faisal Al-Miqdad.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said "all the evidence" pointed to Bashar al Assad's regime being behind the chemical weapon attack, a response to which he said would be discussed at a meeting of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

"We believe that it's time the United Nations Security Council shouldered its responsibilities on Syria, which for the last two and a half years it has failed to do," he said.

"We're clear that if there isn't agreement at the United Nations, we and other nations still have a responsibility on chemical weapons.

"We have to confront something that is a crime against humanity. If we don't do so we will have to confront even bigger war crimes in the future.

David Cameron cut short his holiday to return for the talks

He repeated David Cameron's statement that the National Security Council (NSC) had "agreed unanimously that the use of chemical weapons by Assad was unacceptable - and the world should not stand by".

Military commanders in the council, which held talks chaired by the Prime Minister at Downing Street, were helping draw up plans for missile strikes against Syria.

The NSC also "agreed unanimously on a recommendation" to be considered by the Cabinet tomorrow, while the UN Security Council meeting in New York later will look at Britain's draft resolution condemning the attack and "authorising all necessary measures".

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged all sides to prioritise a diplomatic solution and said his team needs until Sunday to establish the full facts of the alleged chemical attack.

This afternoon's NSC meeting at Downing Street was expected to discuss the intelligence gathered by UN inspectors from their initial visit to Mouadamiya, the site of last week's suspected chemical weapons attack that allegedly killed more than 1,300.

General Sir Nick Houghton, chief of the defence staff, was also expected to outline a series of options for targeted attacks.

A UN weapons inspector visits wounded Syrians after the alleged gas attack

It is understood the most likely military response would be a strike launched from US Navy warships against targets such as command and control bunkers.

The US Navy is repositioning several vessels in the eastern Mediterranean, including four cruise missile-carrying destroyers and a missile-firing submarine.

Military analysts have also suggested a British Trafalgar class submarine might be used as a potential launch platform.

However, some experts remain sceptical about whether limited strikes on tactical targets would provide a strong enough deterrent.

Defence analyst Francis Tusa told Sky News: "I'm not necessarily sure it puts any particular pressure on the regime to change its behaviour.

"Losing the odd bit of hardware that the Russians will replace for free doesn't seem to be that much of value."

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has also responded to the rising tensions, reportedly saying that US military intervention would be "a disaster for the region".

"The region is like a gunpowder store and the future cannot be predicted," Iran's ISNA agency quoted him as saying.

More than 1,300 are said to have died as the result of the alleged attack

Turkey and Iraq both say they have placed their military on high alert.

Mr Cameron and US President Barack Obama have agreed that "all the information available confirmed a chemical weapons attack had taken place", a Downing Street spokesperson said on Wednesday morning.

"They both agreed they were in no doubt that the Assad regime was responsible," said Number 10.

Nato has also given its support for tough action against Syria, "condemning in the strongest possible terms these outrageous attacks".

"Those responsible must be held accountable," it added.

Parliament will be recalled on Thursday for a final vote on what action the UK should take.

Sky sources say a government motion is expected to call for "appropriate measures" but will not contain a timetable for action.

Foreign Secretary William Hague was at the NSC meeting

Speaking yesterday, Mr Cameron said action must be "proportionate, have to be legal, would have to specifically be about deterring the use of chemical weapons".

Decisions about British involvement have not been taken, he said on Tuesday, adding Parliament was the "right place to set out all of the arguments".

"We shouldn't stand by when we see this massive use of chemical weapons and appalling levels of suffering," he said.

"But I would say this to people - there is never 100% certainty, there is never one piece or several pieces of intelligence that give you absolute certainty.

"But what we know is this regime has huge stocks of chemical weapons. We know they have used them on at least 10 occasions prior to this last widescale use."

Labour leader Ed Miliband has indicated that his party would consider supporting international action if it was legal and had "clear and achievable goals".

While political momentum towards intervention mounts, the British public has yet to be persuaded.

A child is treated after the alleged chemcial attack

A YouGov survey for The Sun revealed that nearly three-quarters of people oppose the deployment of British troops to Syria.

And a majority of 3-1 believe the Government should be bound by Parliament's vote tomorrow.

UN weapons inspectors arrived at the site of the alleged attacks on Wednesday morning, a day after suspending their mission over safety concerns.

The inspectors came under sniper fire when they began their operation on Monday.

Russia has confirmed it has started to pull its citizens out of Syria as the likelihood of military action increases.

It flew 89 people out of the country on Tuesday night and 28 more on Wednesday morning.

Russia and China both strongly oppose the intervention, with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov believing it would seriously destabilise the region.

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