Israel Releases More Prisoners In Peace Deal

Israel has freed 26 Palestinian prisoners as part of a deal that helped launch the current US-brokered peace talks.

The Palestinian president greeted the freed prisoners in Ramallah

They are the second batch of 104 convicts who are to be released - an element of the agreement that has angered many Israelis who view them as terrorists responsible for Israeli deaths.

In an apparent attempt to offset negative domestic reaction, Israeli army radio reported plans for an expansion of controversial settlements in east Jerusalem shortly after the releases took place.

Large crowds gathered near the Ofer prison ahead of the release

A group of 21 prisoners from the West Bank left Ofer prison, near Jerusalem, shortly after 1am (11pm UK time) and the other five crossed moments later into the Gaza Strip.

The West Bank inmates left Ofer in two minibuses with blacked-out windows and drove the short distance to the Beitunia crossing, where they were greeted with cheers and fireworks.

Right-wing Israelis protested near the jail, burning Palestinian scarves

They then drove to nearby Ramallah where they were welcomed at an official ceremony headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who said talks would not bear fruit unless some 5,000 Palestinians held by Israel go free.

"There will be no agreement if so much as one Palestinian prisoner remains behind bars," Mr Abbas told thousands of cheering Palestinians gathered outside his headquarters in the West Bank city.

One of the first men to be released could barely contain his joy

Speaking before the army radio's report, Mr Abbas reiterated the Palestinians' denial that the prisoner release was part of an agreement to allow Israel more settlement building.

He said: "There are some living among us who say that we have a deal (to release prisoners) in exchange for settlement building, and I say to them 'be silent'."

Another freed prisoner greets his father after many years behind bars

The five freed Gazans were met by hundreds of relatives and well-wishers as they entered the Strip through the Erez crossing from Israel.

Last week, an Israeli official claimed an expansion of large settlements, including in east Jerusalem "in the coming months", was part of "understandings" reached with both the Palestinians and Washington.

Some Israelis are disgusted at the release of men they consider terrorists

The latest army radio report said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Interior Minister Gideon Saar had agreed to build 1,500 new homes in the east Jerusalem settlement of Ramat Shlomo.

All 26 newly-released prisoners were convicted of killing Israelis, with most of the attacks occurring before the 1993 Oslo Accords, which granted the Palestinians limited self-rule, but failed to usher in an independent state.

Palestinians started celebrating hours before the 26 men were released

Mr Netanyahu agreed to release 104 prisoners in stages as part of the resumption of talks after three years in late July. A first tranche of 26 was freed on August 13.

Israel announced plans for more than 2,000 new settler homes in tandem with the August prisoner release, enraging the Palestinians.

The talks are held under a US-imposed media blackout, but a senior Palestinian official said Israel had adopted a hardline stance and negotiations had so far produced "no tangible progress".

A boy plays with a duck at the home of one of the prisoners who was freed

"The current Israeli negotiating position is the worst in more than 20 years," Yasser Abed Rabbo, a top official with the Palestine Liberation Organisation, said in a statement.

"They want security first, and that the borders of the state of Palestine should be set out according to Israeli security needs that never end, and that will undermine the possibility of establishing a sovereign Palestinian state."

A boy kisses a photo of his grandfather ahead of his release after 30 years

Although Israel is engaged in direct peace talks with the Palestinians the prisoners' release has sparked tensions within Mr Netanyahu's coalition.

"The decision to release the prisoners is one of the most difficult I've had to make," he told his right-wing Likud party on Monday.

"It is unjust because these terrorists are being released before completing their sentence. My heart is with the families of the victims."

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Dying Man Writes Love Letters In Wreckage Of Car

A man wrote goodbye letters to his family as he lay dying in the wreckage of his van after crashing into a remote ravine in Utah.

Mr Welch wrote a letter to his wife, Kelly, among other family members

David Welch, 54, disappeared after leaving home in Manhattan, Kansas, on September 3.

His body was discovered on October 18 by a hitchhiker who spotted the crash site on a desolate stretch of Interstate 70 - more than 50 miles from any town and nearly 900 miles from his home.

Mr Welch was injured in the crash and was unable to get out of his vehicle.

According to reports the salesman could have survived for more than a week and during this time he kept a diary and wrote notes to his wife Kelly and four sons.

Mr Welch's car lies in the ravine in Utah

Utah Highway Patrol Lt Scott Robertson told the Salt Lake Tribune: "It's a pretty lonely stretch out there."

But when asked what the letters contained he told the paper it was "a pretty private matter".

The Tribune quoted Mr Welsh's wife Kelly as saying on Twitter: "Dave was entrapped in the vehicle down the 80ft ravine, he wrote each of us a love note.

"He knew he was dying and there was no way out."

Police have said they do not know why Mr Welch left his home without telling his family where he was going and there are no clues suggesting why he was driving through Utah.

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India: Bus Crash Kills At Least 40 People

At least 40 people, including children, have been killed after a bus crashed into an oil tanker and burst into flames in southern India.

It is being reported that many victims, who were apparently asleep at the time of the collision, were trapped inside and were burned alive in the inferno.

The vehicle, which was carrying around 44 passengers, was travelling from Bangalore city to Hyderabad when the crash happened, around 800 miles from the Indian capital, New Delhi.

The bus hit the tanker on Kothakota flyover in Mahbubnagar district, police said.

Authorities were questioning the survivors to get further details.

The driver was among those who managed to escape through a window, according to a district official.

Road accidents are common in India, where roads are often in poor repair.

The country has the highest annual road death toll in the world, according to the World Health Organisation, with police figures showing more than 110,000 people are killed every year.

Transport officials blame a large number of accidents in the country on reckless driving and untrained drivers.

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Spain Exits Recession But Recovery Years Away

Spain's economy has finally emerged from recession but with shaky GDP growth of just 0.1% measured in the third quarter.

The figure, announced by the country's National Statistics Institute, ended more than two years of contraction following nine straight quarterly declines but it could still be revised when more information becomes available next month.

The institute said the economy grew by 0.1% in the July to September period compared to the previous quarter, when it shrank by the same rate but on a year-on-year basis, the economy contracted by 1.2% as dismal domestic spending offset gains in exports.

The government has admitted that while the recession may have technically ended, it could take years for the country to recover from the economic crisis.

A quarter of the Spanish workforce remains unemployed

It continues to face almost daily anti-austerity protests amid anger over continuing cuts to public services, including education, to help manage its debt burden and maintain the confidence of the markets.

Spain's second recession in five years was sparked by the collapse of a building boom in 2008 which just last year made the country a focus of concern for the stability of the whole eurozone.

The health of the country's banks - damaged by toxic mortgage loans - remains a concern while consumer spending has slumped amid a jobless rate of 26% which only started to improve during the summer after two years of growth.

Spain has relied on tourism to fuel spending

More than 50% of the country's 15 to 24 year olds not in education are without work while Spain has also witnessed a so-called brain drain, with many thousands fleeing abroad to seek employment.

A report on the latest economic statistics from analysis group Capital Economics said: "While economic prospects are considerably better than a year ago, particularly in the external sector, domestic weakness is likely to hold back any recovery in the wider economy.

"We expect the unemployment rate to remain around its current high levels for some time yet and public debt to continue to climb."

The Spanish government expects an overall GDP contraction of 1.3% for 2013 - slightly better than the 1.6% in 2012 - before a return to timid annual growth of 0.7% in 2014.

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US Spy Chief Quotes Casablanca To Defend NSA

The US spy chief has said snooping on foreign leaders is a "basic tenet" of intelligence operations worldwide, rejecting criticism of American surveillance practices.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified before an intelligence committee in Congress amidst reports that the US had listened in on the phone calls of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and monitored 34 other leaders.

He played down European allies' complaints about spying on their leaders, saying they do it, too.

Actor Claude Rains played Captain Renault in Casablanca

"That's a hardy perennial," he said.

Mr Clapper cited a scene from the movie Casablanca to suggest that all nations spy on foreign leaders and had done so for decades.

"Some of this reminds me a lot of the classic movie Casablanca: 'My God, there's gambling going on here!'" he said.

He was referring to the scene in which the French Captain Renault said he was "shocked" that gambling was going on at Rick's Cafe - before being approached by a croupier who tells him: "Your winnings, sir."

Mr Clapper also said the White House was informed in general terms of the National Security Agency's overseas eavesdropping, though not necessarily on the details of specific efforts.

The spying row exploded months ago when revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden unveiled the scope of the US government's spying operations.

It has deepened in recent weeks with claims of overseas spying.

Barack Obama has spoken to foreign leaders including Ms Merkel to quell the storm, and has recently said a reassessment of the practices was necessary. The president is also said to be considering whether to stop spying on foreign leaders.

Also testifying before an intelligence committee on Tuesday was NSA director General Keith Alexander, who said European reports that the US collected data on tens of millions of phone calls in France, Spain and Italy are false.

The NSA director also defended the agency's record

General Alexander insisted the agency was acting within legal boundaries and operated under "strict oversight".

He said: "It is much more important for this country that we defend this nation and take the beatings than it is to give up a programme that would result in this nation being attacked."

Some of the data referenced in documents leaked by Snowden was "provided to NSA by foreign partners", he said.

"This is not information that we collected on European citizens.

"It represents information that we and our Nato allies have collected in defence of our countries and in support of military operations."

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Arizona Dust Storm Pile-Up Leaves Three Dead

Three people have been killed and a dozen more injured after a dust storm led to a pile-up in Arizona.

Officials said 19 vehicles, including at least six trucks, were involved in the chain-reaction crash.

The accident took place on Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Tucson.

Officials said at least one person was pinned between two

"One truck hit another truck. Cars start piling into each other, and they pushed that one truck right into me and off to the side of the road," witness Henry Wallace told KSAZ-TV.

"I couldn't see anything because the (dust) was so thick, but I could just hear it: boom, boom, boom, boom, boom."

Authorities said at least one passenger car was pinned between two big rigs.

One of the three people killed has been named by officials as Gordon Lee Smith of Mead, Washington.

Officials said Mr Smith's wife was among the injured, but her condition was not immediately known.

The National Weather Service issued a dust-storm warning shortly before the collision, with reported wind gusts up to 30mph, KSAZ reported.

Officials urged people faced with similar conditions to slow down or pull off the road.

"You can have someone who can be the first into the dust event and do everything right," one official at the scene said.

"The problem is the second, the third, the fourth that go in ... it's just a wall of dust and they don't realise there's something in the middle."

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Tunisia: Suicide Bomber Strikes At Beach Resort

A man has blown himself up at a Mediterranean resort town in Tunisia which is popular with British holidaymakers.

The man, who was wearing a belt of explosives, detonated his charge near the Riadh Palm Hotel in Sousse - moments before security forces foiled a second similar attack elsewhere.

Witnesses told Tunisian media that the man appeared to be about to enter the hotel when the bomb detonated.

It is believed to be the first suicide bombing ever to take place in the country.

A would-be suicide bomber who tried to blow himself up at the tomb of former President Habib Bourguiba in the southern city of Monastir was captured by police.

The suicide bombing was in Sousse, and a second attack foiled in Monastir

"An attempted attack targeting the compound of the Bourguiba mausoleum was foiled ... and a young man carrying explosives was arrested," said ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Laroui.

Both men appeared to belong to an extremist group, he added.

The suicide bomber in Sousse, which is situated 90 miles south of the capital Tunis, was the only person killed in the attack, the interior ministry said.

There were no immediate reports of any other casualties.

Sousse has long been a major destination for European tourism, a sector that is now recovering from a catastrophic drop following the country's 2011 revolution which kick-started the Arab Spring.

The country has been battling unrest since the overthrow of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's secular dictatorship, and has seen the rise of a hardline Islamist movement that has armed itself and carried out attacks.

Earlier this year, Tunisia's moderate Islamist government began a crackdown on Ansar al Sharia, one of the most radical groups to emerge since the uprising.

The group's leader is a former al Qaeda veteran who once fought in Afghanistan.

Nine police officers were killed in clashes with militants earlier this month.

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Forbes: Putin Named 'World's Most-Powerful'

By Tim Marshall, Foreign Affairs Editor

The Forbes list of the World's Most Powerful People is an annual event allowing everyone to have a guess. After all, if the Forbes editors can do it, so can we.

They seek to quantify the unquantifiable. A list of the world's most wealthy people is measurable and at the top is the person with the most money.

A list of the best Premier League football teams in England last season is achievable. At the top, Manchester United, in 20th position, QPR.

However, a league table of powerful people is subjective, and inevitably flawed.

Forbes has four criteria to select what they boldly, perhaps coldly, describe as the "72 people that matter from the 7.2 billion people on the planet".

They are: How many people they have power over; The financial resources they control; If they have influence in more than one sphere; How actively they wield their power to change the world. 

This writer's guess is that Vladimir Putin is not more powerful than the man he knocked off the number one place - Barack Obama.

Against Mr Putin's 142 million population (and falling), Mr Obama has 314 million (and growing).

Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, is only 57th on the list

The American economy dwarves Russia's, while the American military is 20 years ahead of its Russian counterpart and has military bases around the world from which to project its overwhelmingly power.

Mr Putin may well have outfoxed Mr Obama on Syria this year, he may dominate Russia and Russia's 'near abroad', but by the criteria of Forbes surely the American has more influence in the rest of the Middle East, in North America, South America, Africa, Australasia, and in controlling the world's sea lanes.

The Forbes guys think differently and they are entitled to be wrong. They are also entitled to think that the Amazon boss, Jeff Bezos, in at 15, is more powerful than the prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe (57) who himself is 18 places behind the man he nominated to be the Governor of the Bank of Japan - Haruhiko Kuroda (39).

Britain's Prime Minister falls out of the top ten to 11 and is replaced at number ten by the CEO of Wal-Mart, Michael Duke.

One of these men spent the year planning the departure of thousands of troops from Afghanistan, overseeing the world's sixth largest economy, and curtailing hundreds of millions of pounds in aid to India, the other bestrode the American retail market like a colossus.

You can decide who you think wields the most power and therein lays the strength and weakness of the list.

The list is essentially opinion, which draws a conclusion guaranteed to gain bigger headlines than if Mr Obama has remained number one.

It's froth, it's fun, and it has its use in sparking debate about geo-politics and power projection. After all, who could argue that the Pope should be in at number four and the King of Saudi Arabia at eighth? Or vice versa.

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Tiananmen Square 'Terror Attack' Arrests

Five people have been arrested over a fatal car crash in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, as Chinese police described it as a terrorist attack for the first time.

The incident took place directly underneath the iconic portrait of Chairman Mao, which hangs on the Tiananmen Gate at the north end of the square, and represents one of the country's most symbolic locations.

The 4x4 vehicle left the main highway that crosses the square and veered into a crowd of tourists queuing to visit the Forbidden City, before bursting into flames.

The three occupants of the car were killed, while two tourists - one Chinese and one Filipino - also died, and at least 38 people were injured.

Initially, Chinese authorities said the incident was a car crash, but they have now said it was "a violent terrorist attack which was carefully planned, organised and premeditated".

Five people were killed in what authorities are now calling a terror attack

Police said knives, iron rods, fuel and a flag imprinted with religious slogans were found in the vehicle.

The authorities said that the three people in the car were from the same family - a man, named as Usmen Hasan, his wife and mother.

It is claimed they set light to the petrol inside the car causing it to catch fire.

The names released for the dead and the five suspects suggest they are members of the Muslim Uighur people of the western Xinjiang province.

The car also had a licence plate identifying it as being from that region.

The Uighurs have accused the Chinese government of violently eroding their religion and their culture.

They consider themselves to be culturally and ethnically much closer to the central Asian nations than to China and claim their ethnic identity is being diluted by the co-ordinated mass migrations of Han Chinese, the country's majority ethnic group, into the province.

Screens were put up to hide the area while a clean-up was carried out

The Chinese central government in Beijing, more than 2,000 miles to the east, has long claimed the Uighurs are waging a campaign of violence in an effort to secure themselves an independent state.

Incidents of violent clashes between Chinese state security forces and Uighurs in Xinjiang are common.

However, facts are extremely hard to verify independently because foreign journalists are restricted from reporting in the region.

At the time, no mention of Monday's crash was made on state television.

Chinese language newspapers reported simply that there was an accident in Tiananmen Square, although the English language state-run newspapers included the suggestion that there may be links to the Uighur people of Xinjiang Province.

As authorities stepped up security in Xinjiang, Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the main exiled Uighur group, the World Uyghur Congress, warned against believing China's side of the story.

"Beijing has always made these kind of accusations, but they refuse to make public the reasoning behind them," he said.

"They will not make the story behind the accusations transparent."

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Cirque Du Soleil Faces Fines After Fatal Fall

Performance company Cirque du Soleil and Las Vegas casino MGM Grand face thousands of dollars in fines after an acrobat died in a fall.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has completed its investigation into the death of 31-year-old Sarah Guillot-Guyard.

Investigators concluded she fell 28 metres (94 feet) to the floor when a wire rope she was suspended from was severed due to her rapid ascent.

Teri Williams, a spokeswoman for the Nevada Department of Business and Industry, said: "She ascended too quickly which caused the rope to come out of the sheave/pulley.

"The rope was severed when it encountered a shear point. The investigation concluded that she ascended too quickly, in part, because she did not receive proper training."

OSHA proposed more than $25,000 (£15,500) in penalties for Cirque du Soleil Nevada, and three citations totalling $7,000 (£4,350) for the MGM Grand, where the performance took place.

Among other things, OSHA reported Cirque did not provide proper training for the performer, and did not properly assess the workplace for hazards.

MGM faces citations because its employees were exposed to hazards due to deficiencies in Cirque's hazard assessments, according to OSHA.

Officials from both entities said they will appeal the decision.

Cirque du Soleil spokeswoman Renee-Claude Menard said: "Cirque du Soleil completed an exhaustive review of its safety policies and procedures in the wake of the tragic accident involving Sarah.

"We have redoubled our efforts to ensure the overall diligence and safety of our performers and crew."

Ms Guillot-Guyard was being hoisted up the side of the stage when it appeared that she detached from her safety wire and plummeted to an open pit below the stage.

The show was cut short after the acrobat's fall, and reopened 17 days after her death.

Ms Guillot-Guyard was the first Cirque du Soleil performer to die in an onstage accident in the company's 29-year history.

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