Glitch Stops Russia-US Space Mission Docking

A Soyuz capsule carrying Americans and Russians that was due to dock with the International Space Station has been hampered by a technical hitch.

The mission, involving astronauts from Nasa and Russia's space programme, had launched from Kazakhstan on Tuesday despite tensions between the two countries over Ukraine.

It was due to attach itself to the ISS after six hours but a problem with its approach forced the crew to suspend its attempt until Friday.

The capsule will now orbit the Earth 34 times before its next rendezvous with the space laboratory, when it tries to dock once again.

Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev and the US's Steve Swanson had taken off from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in a spectacular night-time launch that initially went off without a problem.

The issue arose once their Soyuz capsule was in orbit and a thruster failed to fire to assist its approach for docking.

US-Russia space cooperation has continued despite the diplomatic standoff over Ukraine and the joint work has been seen as one of the ways in which the two former foes can work successfully together.

Steven Swanson (L), Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev

US space agency Nasa said the Soyuz "was unable to complete its third thruster burn to fine-tune its approach" to the space station.

The trio had been using a fast-track approach to the ISS that Russia has been employing since 2013. After the problem, they are now using the traditional two-day longer approach that was employed up to 2012.

Nasa said the three men were "in good spirits" despite the change of plan.

The Soyuz capsule later carried out two manoeuvres in orbit bringing it on the correct trajectory for the rendezvous.

A third and final manoeuvre will be performed on Thursday to bring the craft to the right altitude for the eventual docking, the source added.

Head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, Oleg Ostapenko, said the three were in no danger.

He said: "The crew have taken off their space suits and are continuing their flight normally."

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Schumacher Ski Accident Recovery 'Unlikely'

It is unlikely racing legend Michael Schumacher will ever recover from the skiing accident that has left him in a coma, according to Formula One's former chief doctor.

Doctor Gary Hartstein, who was F1 medical delegate until 2012, said: "As time goes on, it becomes less and less likely that Michael will emerge to any significant extent."

Writing on his blog, he said "serious lapses" in the early treatment of Schumacher "almost certainly" worsened his condition.

Dr Hartstein said he had learned "from usually impeccable sources who have access to this information" that mistakes were made soon after the seven-time world champion hit the right side of his head on a rock in December.

"I think that serious lapses in judgement were evident during Michael's initial management ... these lapses could (and almost certainly did) worsen the outcome in Michael's case."

Schumacher retired in 2006 but came back for a second time in 2009

He stressed in another blog post that he was not criticising Grenoble University Hospital, where the 45-year-old is currently being treated, or any member of the team sent to the Meribel ski resort to treat him.

Rather, he said he was taking issue with "a system that allows head injured patients to be brought to non-neurosurgical centres, in the absence of other clear reasons to do so".

He added: "The delay in admission to a neurosurgeon, as well as deferred airway control, cannot have been good for a severely injured brain."

Schumacher was initially taken to Moutiers Hospital before being transferred to the facility in Grenoble.

The slope where Michael Schumacher fell

Sky News contacted the resort to ask about the hospital transfer but a spokesman said they would not comment.

In the last update on Schumacher's condition, on March 12, his agent said he was showing "small signs of encouragement".

"We are and remain confident that Michael will pull through and will wake up," Sabine Kehm said.

Dr Hartstein said the sporadic updates on Schumacher's condition might have allowed fans to "process what's happening and start to … detach".

"Somehow, I get the feeling that people are going to be ok, no matter what happens, because they've now had the time to process this all."

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US Mudslide: A Community Left Devastated

Dayn Brunner says he does not hold out much hope of finding his sister alive - but he can't give up the search.

"If it were me in there, she would do the same thing," he says.

Summer Raffo, 36, was driving along Route 530 in Oso on Saturday morning when the giant landslide swept through. No-one has heard from her since.

Dayn has joined rescue crews picking their way through the debris in the foothills if the Cascade Mountains.

He told Sky News: "It is important to me to get in there and get her out. Knowing this is no longer a rescue mission, it is hard."

His story is similar to dozens in this breathtakingly beautiful corner of America.

Around 30 homes were destroyed and dozens more damaged by the mudslide

While some may still hold out hope for loved ones missing or unaccounted for, the number of people thought to have been in Oso at the time of the slide means the death toll is certain to rise significantly.

I spoke to another man who had just heard from his son, searching in the wreckage of the family home. "He's found my wife and my other son. They're dead," he told me.

They had moved to their home on Steelhead Drive, the road that took the brunt of the slide, just two years ago.

"It was beautiful. My wife had never been happier," he said.

Residents attended a candlelight vigil as the death toll rose further

Everyone here knows someone who is missing.

Names and faces on Facebook pages and messages of hope are a mere indication of the pain being felt.

If talk of a 'tight-knit community' can sometimes seem clichéd, here in the wilds of the Pacific North West it is very real.

The towns either side of Oso have rallied to support those caught up in this disaster. Meals and comfort are being offered as hopes of anyone being found alive are dwindling.

Messages for victims' families have been left at a nearby Community Centre

A few miles away, the scene greeting rescue teams in Oso has been described as "unimaginable".

"It is unfathomable what kind of devastation there is. You have mounds of dirt 70ft tall by 100ft wide and 200ft long sitting in what used to be somebody's yard," said Dayn Brunner.

At the roadblock on Route 530, one can just about make out the edge of the slide between the flashing lights of rescue teams.

A sketch artist from the local newspaper stands on the banks of the River Stillaguamish and captures the scene. It is a peaceful and slightly surreal counterpoint to the devastation nearby.

People here are used to living alongside the beauty of nature. They are now living with the horror of its power.

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Disgraced Secret Service Agents Sent Home

Three Secret Service agents due to protect the US president on his trip to the Netherlands have been sent home.

President Barack Obama arrived in the country on Monday but the agents were sent home on Sunday after one agent was found drunk in a hotel in Amsterdam, the Secret Service said

Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said the three agents were "benched" for "disciplinary reasons".

He said the incident had not compromised the president's security in any way.

The agents sent home from Amsterdam were put on administrative leave, according to The Washington Post, which first reported the disciplinary action.

The newspaper said all three were on the Counter Assault Team - with one being a "team leader". The team defends the president if he comes under attack.

Secret Service staff travel with the president wherever he goes

While the drunk agent was discovered by staff at the hotel, who reported it to the US Embassy, the other two agents were considered complicit because they did not intervene despite being in a position to assist the drunken agent or curb his behaviour, an anonymous source said.

The latest incident with the Secret Service represents a fresh blemish for an elite agency struggling to restore its reputation following a high-profile prostitution scandal and other allegations of misconduct.

An inspector general's report in December concluded there was no evidence of widespread misconduct, in line with the service's longstanding assertion that it has no tolerance for inappropriate behaviour.

Before the president travels anywhere abroad, a number of Secret Service and other government officials are dispatched in advance to prepare the intense security operation needed to protect the president in unfamiliar territory.

Prostitute Dania Suarez was involved in the Columbia incident

Typically, counter assault teams travel with the president in his motorcade and, if he came under fire, the team would be called upon to engage any attackers while the president was hustled to safety.

Stricter rules implemented in the wake of a prostitution scandal involving secret service agents in Colombia in 2012 bar agents from drinking alcohol within 10 hours of starting a shift.

It is unclear whether the other two agents were drinking heavily or what time any of them would have been expected to show up for a shift.

Mr Obama was in the Netherlands on the first leg of a week-long, four-country European trip to include talks on Ukraine.

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'Burger King Baby' Finds Mum After 27 Years

A woman abandoned as a baby in the bathroom of a Burger King restaurant has tracked down the mother who gave birth to her 27 years ago.

Katheryn Deprill said she met her biological mother for the first time on Monday in the office of a lawyer after her appeal on Facebook was successful.

Ms Deprill said she felt "pure joy" and it was like "looking in a mirror".

The 27-year-old began her quest on March 2 by posting a photo of herself with a long appeal on the social media site.

She was pictured holding a sign saying: "Looking for my birth mother ... She abandoned me in the Burger King bathroom only hours old, Allentown PA. Please help me find her by sharing my post."

Ms Deprill quickly became known as the Burger King Baby after thousands of users reposted the picture and asked others to help in the search.

The image ended up being shared tens of thousands of times.

Ms Deprill was just hours old when she was abandoned, wrapped in a red sweater, in the bathroom of the fast-food restaurant in 1986.

She was raised by adoptive parents.

Now 27, she is a married mother of three - and said at the start of the appeal she had questions for her biological mother.

"Number one is, I would really like to say, 'Thank you for not throwing me away, thank you for giving me the gift of life, and look what I've become,'" she told the AP news agency.

But she added that she wanted to know "what made her do it? Why did she feel that she shouldn't leave me at a hospital? Was she going through a horrible time?"

She says she and her birth mum plan to have more meetings to get to know each other better.

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Russian Tycoon 'Depressed' Before Death

What We Know About Berezovsky

Updated: 1:09pm UK, Monday 25 March 2013

The suspicious deaths of a number of Russian exiles who had fallen foul of the regime meant that rumours swirled almost instantly that Boris Berezovsky had been killed. But so far the police have been unable to find any evidence of foul play.

Here's what we do know about Boris Berezovsky:

:: Political Exile

Mr Berezovsky was a key figure in former president Boris Yeltsin's inner circle and was also close to current president Vladimir Putin during his early years in power.

He left Russia in 2000 after a falling out with Mr Putin and became a vocal critic of the Kremlin from London, where he sought political asylum.

But in recent weeks, he is said to have written to Mr Putin suggesting that he could return to Russia, which had frequently sought his extradition on a variety of charges.

On the eve of his death, Mr Berezovsky was quoted as teling a journalist from Forbes Russia: "There is nothing I would like more than to return to Russia. I did not realise Russia meant so much to me I could not live as an emigrant."

He apparently added that he now believed he should never have left Russia and said he no longer wanted to be involved in politics.

The oligarch is believed to have survived a number of assassination attempts, including a bomb attack on his car that decapitated a chauffeur.

However, a radiation scare at his home after his body was found turned out to be a false alarm and the bodyguard who discovered him was the only person at home at the time.

:: Financial Problems

It is thought the former billionaire was facing serious financial difficulties.

He had fought a number of expensive legal battles since 2011 and reports suggest that defeat in a High Court battle with Chelsea FC owner and former business associate Roman Abramovich alone cost him tens of millions of pounds.

After losing the case, Mr Berezovsky told the widow of murdered Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko that he could no longer afford to pay her legal fees ahead of an inquest into her husband's death from radiation poisoning.

Mr Berezovsky also paid out Britain's largest divorce settlement, worth more than £100m, to ex-wife Galina Besharova last July.

Then in January, former partner Elena Gorbunova reportedly won a court order freezing £200m of assets following their split.

In recent days, The Daily Telegraph reported he would attempt to sell Red Lenin, an Andy Warhol screen print valued at between £30,000 and £50,000 by Christie's.

The artwork sold on Wednesday for £133,875 including the buyer's premium, according to the auction house's website.

Friends have been quoted as saying the oligarch was depressed by his financial troubles.

Aleksei Venediktov, the editor of Ekho Moskvy and a friend and colleague of Berezovsky, was quoted as saying: "After losing in court to Roman Abramovich he was in a serious depression. He was undergoing treatment."

:: Ill Health

Mr Venediktov is also quoted as saying Mr Berezovsky had been suffering heart problems.

"It was a heart attack," he was reported as saying late on Saturday. "For the last two weeks, he had had several."

Other reports have suggested he had been undergoing treatment in Israel.

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Jeffrey Ferguson: Missouri Executes Murderer

The state of Missouri has executed a man who was first sentenced to death 22 years ago for murdering a teenager.

Jeffrey Ferguson was convicted in 1992 of the 1989 kidnap, rape and killing of a 17-year-old girl in St Louis, but his conviction was then overturned because of problems with the trial.

He was later convicted again and put back on death row.

Ferguson received a lethal injection just after midnight on Wednesday and was pronounced dead about ten minutes later.

Reporters at the prison said he mouthed words, made funny faces and seemed to smile at a group of friends and family just as the drugs started to work.

He had been covered from neck to toe with a white sheet and strapped to a bed. 

Under the sheet, his legs made a flurry of kicking movements as the drugs took hold but he appeared to slip into unconsciousness relatively quickly, a Reuters reporter said.

He took only a few shallow breaths before becoming still. Two young women in the family witness room were seen in tears.

The execution, at Bonne Terre State Prison, is Missouri's fifth this year so far.

Ferguson abducted Kelli Hall as she finished her shift at a Mobil gas station in St Charles, on the edge of St Louis, on February 9, 1989.

Her naked, frozen body was found 13 days later on a St Louis farm. An autopsy found she had been raped and strangled.

In an attempt to spare his life, Ferguson's attorneys had made last-minute court appeals challenging, among other things, the state's refusal to disclose where it had obtained the drug it used to carry out its executions.

Ferguson, who expressed remorse for the crime, became deeply religious in prison, counselled inmates and helped start a prison hospice program.

His attorney said Ferguson was an alcoholic who blacked out the night of the murder.

But the US Supreme Court, the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals and the governor all refused to halt the execution.

Afterwards, Kelli's father Jim Hall told a news conference: "It's been a very long 25 years waiting for this execution, way too long. My family and I have been devastated for years over this."

The debate over the death sentence has been revived in the last few years, primarily as many of the companies that supplied the drugs are now refusing to do so.

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Bin Laden's Son-In-Law Guilty Of Terrorism

Osama bin Laden's son-in-law, Suleiman Abu Ghaith, has been found guilty of plotting to kill Americans by a New York court.

The 48-year-old was al Qaeda's spokesman and "principal messenger" in the wake of the 9/11 attacks but now faces life in jail after a three-week trial.

The Kuwaiti testified that he agreed to bin Laden's request to speak on videos to inspire new recruits for suicide missions.

"The storm of airplanes will not stop," Abu Ghaith warned in one October 2001 video played in court.

Another video, made the day after 9/11, shows him sat next to bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders as they try to justify the attacks.

Abu Ghaith (right) seated next to Osama bin Laden

As well as conspiracy to kill, Abu Ghaith was also convicted of providing support for terrorists.

He is the most senior al Qaeda figure to go on trial in America.

Assistant US Attorney John Cronan said he was a key player in the terror group's hierarchy.

"Going to that man was the very first thing Osama bin Laden did on September 11 after the terror attacks.

"The defendant committed himself to al Qaeda's conspiracy to kill Americans, and he worked to drive other people to that conspiracy."

A still image of Abu Ghaith taken from one of the videos

Abu Ghaith married bin Laden's eldest daughter, Fatima, five years ago. He was captured in Jordan last year.

During the trial he testified that he had met bin Laden in a cave on the night of 9/11.

"I didn't go to meet with him to bless if he had killed hundreds of Americans or not. I went to meet with him to know what he wanted," Abu Ghaith said.

He denied being an al Qaeda recruiter and said his role was a religious one to encourage Muslims to fight oppression.

The prosecution countered the claims by repeatedly showing the videos featuring Abu Ghaith's bloodthirsty rhetoric.

One video - titled Convoy of Martyrs - shows him preaching over footage of a plane flying into the Twin Towers.

Another showed him with bin Laden as the terror leader boasted about the attacks, which killed almost 3,000 people.

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Missing Plane: '122 Objects' Spotted In Ocean

A satellite has spotted 122 'potential objects' in the southern Indian Ocean in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.

The items measuring between one metre and 23 metres in length, were identified about 1,500 miles off the coast of Perth in western Australia.

Some appeared to be bright, according to Malaysian officials.

The possible debris was captured in satellite images from French company Airbus which were taken on Sunday, March 23.

New satellite images continue to provide clues in the hunt for MH370

Malaysian investigators received the pictures on Tuesday and after analysing them, they identified 122 possible objects in an area measuring around 155 square miles.

The findings were then forwarded to the Australian search command centre.

It is not currently known if the objects are connected to missing flight MH370, which disappeared more than two weeks ago on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

It is thought to have crashed on March 8 after flying thousands of miles off course.

Five ships and 12 planes have been scouring two search areas

There have now been four separate satellite leads from Australia, China, and France, showing possible debris.

The search area has now been split into two - west and east - covering around 50,000 square miles, which is the size of England.

Twelve planes from Australia, the US, New Zealand, China, Japan and South Korea, were joined by five ships to scour the area.

Malaysia's acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein told a news conference: "Our determination to find MH370 remains steadfast.

"As we have said all along, we will never give up trying to find the plane - in order to bring closure for the families, and to establish exactly what happened to MH370."

UK satellite company Inmarsat helped narrow the search for MH370

On the latest satellite images he said: "It must be emphasised that we cannot tell whether the potential objects are from MH370."

But he added they were "the most credible lead we have".

He also announced an international working group was being set up aimed at refining the data provided by the UK satellite firm Inmarsat, which helped narrow the search for MH370, with a view to more accurately pinpoint the final position of the plane.

Earlier, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said: "We are throwing everything we have at this search. We are just going to keep on looking because we owe it to people to do everything we can to resolve this riddle.

"This is about the most inaccessible spot imaginable. It's thousands of kilometres from anywhere."

Malaysia has released its own satellite images of possible debris

Australia's parliament stood in silence in remembrance of those aboard the lost airliner, who are presumed dead.

The race is now on to find the debris field, which if it turns out to be parts of the missing jet, could be used to "back-track" and help locate the point of impact.

This will be critical to finding the black box data recorders, which could hold vital clues to what happened aboard the Boeing 777.

Theories range from hijacking to sabotage or a possible suicide by one of the pilots, but investigators have not ruled out technical problems.

Grieving relatives have expressed their anger in Beijing

The search, which had to be suspended on Tuesday due to bad weather, continues amid heavy criticism of Malaysia and the airline from the relatives of the people on the flight.

Meanwhile, a US law firm is planning to take legal action Boeing and Malaysia Airlines claiming the plane crashed due to mechanical failure.

Chicago-based Ribbeck Law is set to seek millions of dollars in compensation for each passenger, believing an onboard fault rendered the crew unconscious and turned the aircraft into a "ghost plane" before it ran out of fuel.

Dozens of angry Chinese people have also clashed with police in a protest outside Malaysia's Embassy in Beijing. Most of the passengers were Chinese.

Mr Hishammuddin said he understood the feelings of those relatives, but pointed out Malaysian nationals had also been lost.

"I think history will judge us well," he said.

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Mudslide: Boy's Rescue Filmed Amid Destruction

Mudslide: 911 Calls Of Scared Witnesses

Updated: 10:15pm UK, Tuesday 25 March 2014

Terrified residents of a town swept away by a devastating mudslide called 911 to report falling trees, buried cars and neighbours screaming for help.

One caller reported a house being pushed on to the road by a wall of mud and rock, while another shouted: "Houses are gone!"

The calls were released as rescue efforts continued after the mudslide north of Seattle, which has killed at least 14 people.

Another 176 people remain unaccounted for, though officials hope that at least some might have been double-counted or been slow to alert family and officials about their whereabouts.

In one of the calls, a woman is heard reporting a "big emergency".

"There has been a huge landslide, and it has pushed the house all the way across the road," she said, adding she was speaking of a house next door.

The woman said power lines were being cut, and called for help to be sent.

"I can't believe this, oh my God," she said.

"Tell them to come on up, there's a lot of work."

The mudslide smashed through the small community of Oso, around 55 miles (90km) north of Seattle, on Saturday morning.

Around 30 homes were destroyed and dozens more damaged as much of the riverside village was swept away.

Workers continued the search but hopes of finding survivors were fading. Earlier, they pulled out a four-year-old boy, but his father and siblings are missing.

In the 911 calls, a man spoke on behalf of his wife.

"She said it sounded like an earthquake was happening," the man reported.

"There is a mudslide or something, hundreds of trees have fallen right  by my house."

He added he had not been able to extract more information from his wife as she was "in a panic".

An agitated woman screamed into the phone as she called 911.

"Houses are gone!" she shouted, adding people were calling for help as they were being flooded.

"Oh my gosh," she said, breaking into tears.

Summer Raffo, 36, was driving along Route 530 in Oso when the giant landslide swept through. No-one has heard from her since.

Her brother, Dayn Brunner, doesn't hold out much hope of finding his sister alive - but he can't give up the search.

"If it were me in there, she would do the same thing," he told Sky News.

Mr Brunner has joined rescue crews picking their way through the debris in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.

"It is important to me to get in there and get her out," he said. "Knowing this is no longer a rescue mission, it is hard."

Another man, who asked not to be named, had just spoken with his son, who was searching the wreckage of the family home.

"He's found my wife and my other son. They're dead," the man told Sky News.

The family had moved to their home on Steelhead Drive, the road that took the brunt of the slide, just two years ago.

"It was beautiful. My wife had never been happier," the man added.

The towns either side of Oso have rallied to support those caught in the disaster.

The scene greeting rescue teams in Oso has been described as "unimaginable".

"It is unfathomable what kind of devastation there is. You have mounds of dirt 70ft tall by 100ft wide and 200ft long sitting in what used to be somebody's yard," said Dayn Brunner.

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