Commuters Push Train Off Trapped Passenger

"People power" has saved a commuter after he became trapped between a train and a station platform.

Dozens of passengers helped tilt the carriage on Wednesday to free the man, who slipped as he was boarding just moments before the train was due to leave Sterling Station for Perth, Western Australia.

Security cameras captured the fall which resulted in the passenger's left leg becoming wedged in a two-inch gap between the carriage and platform.

Station staff's attempts to pull him free failed, and passengers were initially told to move to the opposite side of the carriage in the hope their weight would shift it away from his leg, without success.

The man slipped as he was boarding the Perth-bound train

Eventually, they were asked to get off the vehicle and help push the train to free up enough space for him to be lifted back up to safety.

Claire Krol, a spokeswoman for train operator Transperth, said: "It is the first time we've seen something like this happen.

"We were really fortunate that the staff were there straight away ... and all of the passengers not only listened to the instructions from staff, but pitched in and helped.

"This is a real case of passengers of working together ... and people power are the perfect words to describe it."

The man was treated by paramedics but was able to catch a later train.

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Crocodile And Shark Fight To Death In Australia

Tourists looked on in shock as a three-legged, 18ft saltwater crocodile fought a bull shark in a titanic face-off.

One of Australia's most famous crocodiles, Brutus, was spotted wrestling with the creature between its jaws on the banks of the Adelaide River in Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory.

The shark appeared to be no match for the 80-year-old reptile who, despite missing a front leg and most of his teeth, had the the sea creature firmly in his grasp.

Andrew Paice was on an hour-long wildlife cruise with his family and said his seven-year-old daughter was left "awestruck".

"So were the rest of the people (on board) including the guide - he had never seen it before either and he had been there for about 30 years. He was so excited," he said.

"It was on the way back to the jetty, we went past Brutus again, he was up on the bank.

"As we were going past, we noticed that there was a fin. We thought it was a barramundi (fish) or something.

"And the guide took the boat in for a closer look and lo and behold ... it was a shark."

Local newspaper reports on Tuesday suggested Brutus emerged the victor.

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Schumacher Medical File Suspect Found Hanged

A man arrested over the suspected theft and leaking of a medical file related to Michael Schumacher has been found hanged in his cell, prosecutors have said.

The man worked for the Rega air ambulance service, which organised the Formula One world champion's transport from a French hospital to Switzerland in June.

He was arrested on Tuesday and questioned by police, before being detained in a Zurich jail, according to a statement from the Zurich prosecutor's office.

The man, who has not been named, had denied any wrongdoing.

Schumacher struck his head on a rock while skiiing in Meribel

Prison officers found the man dead when they came to bring him breakfast. He was due to appear at a scheduled hearing before a judge today.

Prosecutors say initial investigations indicate nobody else was involved in the man's death.

Last month prosecutors tracked the IP address of a computer used in the theft of the medical records to the Zurich-based company Rega.

The company denied any wrongdoing and, along with Schumacher's family, pressed charges against "unknown persons" for violating professional secrecy.

The German driver won seven Formula One world titles during his career

The records were stolen and offered for sale to journalists for €50,000 (£39,600).

Schumacher, a seven-time F1 champion, suffered serious brain injuries in a skiing accident in the French Alps on December 29.

He was reportedly travelling at speeds of up to 60mph when the accident happened.

He spent more than five months in a hospital in Grenoble, before being brought by ambulance on June 16 to a high-tech clinic in the Swiss city of Lausanne.

Schumacher won a record 91 Grand Prix victories during his career. He left motor racing in 2013 after a disappointing three-year comeback.

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Parents Cooked And Put In Lunch Boxes 'By Son'

The son of a Chinese couple from Hong Kong allegedly killed and cut up his parents and packed them into lunchboxes "like barbecued pork", a court has heard.

Henry Chau, 30, and alleged accomplice Tse Chun-kei, 36, are on trial over the killings of 65-year-old Chau Wing-ki and his wife Siu Yuet-yee, 62, whose severed heads were found in March last year.

The heads were found stuffed into two fridges in a bloodstained apartment days after the couple had been reported missing.

The rest of their remains were salted, cooked and packed into lunchboxes with rice in a rubbish bin, in an attempt to hide the crime because the pair had run out of space in the refrigerators, the court heard.

Chau pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility on Tuesday.

Both men have denied two counts of murder, but admitted preventing the couple's lawful burial.

Prosecutors allege Chau and Tse planned the murder for months, buying knives, refrigerators, microwave ovens and a rice cooker.

Chau initially told police his parents had gone to mainland China, but later admitted to the killing on an online messaging group.

In evidence read to Hong Kong High Court on Wednesday, he claimed he had planned to mislead the police so that he had more time to say goodbye to friends.

He said: "My murdering partner and I were planning to make it a missing person case and dump the body piece by piece."

Chau, who described himself in on the online messaging group as a psychopath, said: "I cannot empathise with people's pain because of my experience from childhood and adolescence."

He claims he killed his parents because he was having a breakdown, according to the South China Morning Post.

The trial continues.

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Iraqis Suffer In Nineveh As World Watches Gaza

An ancient landscape that was once the envy, perhaps the centre, of the civilised world.

Now a desert hell for hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, Nineveh faces a religious pogrom while the eyes of the outside world are fixed on Gaza.

In the past week the self-styled Islamic State, which captured Nineveh a few weeks ago from Iraq's army, has attacked the heartland of the Yezidis.

This religious movement has roots that predate Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

Displaced Yezidis from Sinjarl arrive at Dohuk province

Its community is a living tie to the global past of monotheism with a theological tradition that incorporates Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and paganism.

Now some 300,000 - the core population - are reported to be under pressure from the IS to leave their villages near Mosul or face death.

They have joined tens of thousands of Christians from Nineveh's capital and surroundings who were given the choice to convert to Islam or die.

Now 50,000 are reported to be starving in the nearby mountains.

Christians from the region have already fled

The reported exodus of Yezidis came as the IS launched an offensive aimed at driving Kurdish forces from the neighbouring semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, from the area.

Kurdish officials are reporting that tens of thousands of ethnic Kurd Yezidis have fled into the mountains of the region and are trying desperately to reach safety behind Peshmerga lines.

The Iraqi central government has sent aircraft to support the Peshmerga to recapture the Sinjar Mountain area.

The Kurds have claimed success but there has been no independent verification of the claim.

Kurdish fighters prepare ammunition in their fight against IS

What is less in doubt is the cultural vandalism that the IS has unleashed in the region.

Nabi Yunis, an ancient tomb said to be that of the Old Testament's Jonah, has been reduced to rubble.

An architectural gem, it was an important shrine for Muslims, Christians and Jews and sat on top of a mount that experts believe was probably an Assyrian temple before it became a Zoroastrian temple, a church, and later a mosque.

The Sunni extremist fighters have removed or destroyed more than a dozen tombs, statues, mosques and shrines.

IS is intolerant of all other religions

Nabi Yunis was wired with explosives and blown to dust by IS which is emulating the Taliban's destruction of ancient monuments in Bamiyan Province.

But IS has gone to a different level. The Taliban did not attack religious shrines that did not show representations of the human form not tear down Sufi monuments.

IS has introduced a regime of total religious intolerance and even, reportedly, ordered that all women in the regions under its control submit to Female Genital Mutilation - a practice that is almost unknown in northern Iraq but has been imported from outside.

An IS sign is seen in the city of Mosul

The spokesperson for the Yezidi Spiritual Movement, Hadi Babasheikh, told Rudaw, a Kurdish news agency, that the situation of the Yezidis "is getting worse and worse".

Many Yezidi women have been taken hostage and sexually abused by the Islamic militants, he added.

Mr Babasheikh said he had met the US and British consuls in Erbil on Monday, urging them to come to the rescue of his community.

The Kurdish administration has, meanwhile, been appealing for donations of modern weapons to combat those stolen by IS from the Iraqi army when it collapsed.

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Boy Cheats Crash Death Thanks To Row Over Bed

By Karine Mayer, Latin America Editor

A family whose house was destroyed when a plane crashed into it have told how their son would have been killed had they not let him sleep with them.

All five people on board the aircraft were killed when it hit the property in Balsas, northeast Brazil.

Earlier that evening Marcio Andre had argued with his 11-year-old son, Augusto Thiago, who wanted to sleep in his parents' bedroom.

Luckily the boy got his way - his room was left in ruins.

His mum Sabrina Ertell said: "It pays to be indulgent sometimes."

She described the shock of the incident, saying: "We were fast asleep when a loud sound like an earthquake or tornado hitting woke us.

"My husband opened the door saw the fire and grabbed our son and we jumped out of the bedroom window.

"My husband is very calm and rational. He just thought about getting us out of the house.

"We jumped the window and were stuck in the yard yelling for help when the neighbours, hearing our screams, broke the gate to get us out."

The Minuano Embraer plane was transporting Maria de Jesus Cruz e Silva, 87, from a hospital in Balsas to Teresina, in the neighbouring state of Piaui on Sunday.

Her daughter Francisca Pereira, and grandson Alan Patric Silva Setulvedo, both died in the tragedy as well as the pilot Delano Martins Coelho and his wife Lorena Alves de Lima.

It is believed the pilot was on bail after a similar accident in February in which a seven-year-old child died and two others were injured.

Brazilian aviation authorities have also suggested the plane was not allowed to fly as it was overdue a service.

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Russian Hackers 'Pull Off Biggest Data Theft'

Russian hackers have stolen 1.2 billion user name and password combinations in what could be the biggest ever data theft, according to a US security firm.

The information is said to relate to half a billion email addresses.

Hold Security, based in Milwaukee, says a 'Cybervor' gang stole the information from 420,000 web and FTP sites.

It claims the gang used a botnet, a network of infected computers controlled by a hacker, to identify weaknesses in websites that people visited.

Users typically do not know their machine is being manipulated by a botnet.

"The botnet conducted possibly the largest security audit ever," says Hold Security on its website, which says it spent seven months researching the alleged breach.

A botnet hunted vulnerabilities in sites used by unwitting computer users

"Over 400,000 sites were identified to be potentially vulnerable to SQL injection flaws alone.

"The CyberVors used these vulnerabilities to steal data from these sites' databases.

"To the best of our knowledge, they mostly focused on stealing credentials, eventually ending up with the largest cache of stolen personal information, totaling over 1.2 billion unique sets of emails and passwords."

Hold Security says the Russian gang targeted every site visited by an infected botnet machine and did not differentiate between well-known sites and smaller ones.

The company has not named the sites that were affected but says the list "includes many leaders in virtually all industries across the world, as well as a multitude of small or even personal websites".

The New York Times reports that so far it appears little of the information has been sold to other online criminals.

Instead, it says it is being used to send marketing pitches and junk messages on social networks such as Twitter.

Hold Security has a history of uncovering major hacking attacks and previously uncovered a large data theft from software company Adobe.

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Israel-Hamas Gaza Truce Holds For Second Day

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is holding for a second day, giving Gaza residents a chance to return to find out what remains of their homes.

The pause comes as Egyptian mediators shuttle between delegations from both sides in Cairo to try to work out a more permanent peace deal.

Some details have emerged about the negotiating points of Hamas, including an internationally funded reconstruction of the coastal strip.

A woman inspects her burnt home in Beit Hanoun

Under the Hamas terms, the reconstruction would be overseen by a Palestinian unity government, led by President Mahmoud Abbas.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said that the United Nations was ready to help rebuild Gaza - but for the last time.

He told the UN General Assembly in New York: "Do we have to continue like this - build, destroy, and build and destroy?

Containers are filled from a broken water main in al Shejaiya, Gaza City

"We will build again but this must be the last time - to rebuild. This must stop now." 

The three-day ceasefire is the longest lull in a month-long war that has killed nearly 1,900 Palestinians. Israel has lost 67 people, three of whom were civilians.

In Gaza, cars and donkey carts loaded with household goods and mattresses filled the streets and queues formed at banks as people waited to withdraw cash.

A woman reacts at the ruins of her relatives' Khan Younis home

Volunteers in Rafah, which experienced some of the worst fighting and bombardment, began to dig graves to bury bodies which have filled up morgues. 

Across Gaza, small groups of civilians trickled back to their homes, making their way over buckled roads, through dangling power lines and overturned trees.

Along the way, rows of flattened buildings alternated with moderately damaged structures - and rare buildings with no damage at all.

Palestinians salvage items from the rubble in Gaza City

Crews from utility companies worked frantically to repair downed electricity and telephone lines, though Gaza's only power plant was damaged by an air strike.

In the Shijaiyah neighbourhood east of Gaza city, carpenter Mahmoud Al Maghani, 44,  said: "I think my workshop was here, but honestly I can't make sure of that. I came yesterday and all I found was rubble."

Mohammed Musleh, 27, said he had spent the last two weeks with his bride of four months and the rest of his family.

Men inspect the destruction in part of Gaza City's al Tufah neighbourhood

They were in the relative safety of the Jabaliyah refugee camp, south of Beit Hanoun.

He surveyed his now uninhabitable third floor apartment in the family's home, which was damaged by tank shelling.

Now, he hoped that a real solution could be found to end the isolation of Gazans.

"The war was necessary to force the blockade to be lifted," he said. "I hope that this time there will be a really permanent solution for it."

Turkey is in talks with Israel and Egypt about establishing an air corridor to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza and evacuate injured Palestinians for treatment.

The war broke out on July 8, when the Israeli military began bombarding targets in Gaza in an attempt to stop Hamas from launching rockets at Israel.

Ground troops were sent in on July 17 to destroy underground tunnels.

Tensions had been high in the wake of the June killings of three Israeli teenagers, whose bodies were found two weeks after they disappeared in the West Bank.

Israel accused Hamas of being behind the abductions, and arrested hundreds of Hamas operatives.

In early July, an Arab teenager was abducted and burned alive by Israeli extremists in an apparent revenge attack. Six Jewish Israelis were arrested in that killing.

Israel's justice ministry has now confirmed that Husam al Qawasmi, the suspected mastermind behind the killing of the three Israeli teens, was arrested in July.

It says his three-man cell is affiliated with Hamas, though the militant group has not claimed any connection to the teens' abduction and killings.

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Ebola Outbreak: 45 Deaths In Three Days

Ebola Cure 'A Long Way Off': Facts About Virus

Updated: 3:54pm UK, Wednesday 30 July 2014

A cure for the deadly ebola virus, which has killed hundreds of people in West Africa, is "a very long way off", an expert has told Sky News.

David Evans, a professor of virology at Warwick University, said ebola is the latest disease to be transmitted "very efficiently" because of international travel.

More than 670 people in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria have fallen victim to the viral illness, which has a fatality rate of up to 90%.

Those with ebola will often be overcome by a sudden onset of fever, as well as weakness, muscle pain and headaches.

The body is then gripped by vomiting, diarrhoea, rashes, kidney and liver problems and bleeding.

The time between infection and symptoms appearing is anything from two days to three weeks.

Ebola is spread through the direct contact with the blood, organs or other bodily fluids of those infected.

The liquid that bathes the eye and semen can transmit the disease, Prof Evans said.

Horseshoe bats are believed to be the natural host of the viral disease, he said.

"These bats transmit the virus between themselves, but periodically it then ends up in probably primates or other types of bushmeat which are then hunted by villagers and the virus is then transmitted from the sick animals to humans," he said.

Transmission has also been documented through the handling of chimpanzees, gorillas and porcupines.

One of the reasons for the disease's rapid spread is a tradition at burial ceremonies for mourners to have direct contact with the body of the deceased.

"Therefore barrier methods that prevent that direct contact, including things like washing of hands and things like that provide a reasonable level of protection," he said.

Healthcare workers treating patients are particularly at risk.

Public Health England said in a risk assessment published earlier this month said that the current outbreak could increase the risk for Britons working in humanitarian and healthcare delivery.

But the threat to tourists, visitors and expatriates is still considered "very low if elementary precautions are followed".

Prof Evans said there had been "periodic outbreaks" of ebola since the first recorded instances in 1976, but this is the deadliest so far.

There were two simultaneous outbreaks in Nzara, Sudan and Yambuku, a village in the Democratic Republic of Congo located near the Ebola River.

Data from the World Health Organisation shows the previous deadliest outbreak was the one in the DRC, when 280 out of 315 people infected died.

In the same country in 1995 another outbreak claimed 254 lives, with 315 patients infected.

In 2000, there were 425 cases in Uganda and 224 people died.

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British Students Stabbed To Death In Borneo

Two British medical students have been stabbed to death after leaving a bar in the Borneo city where they were on a hospital placement.

The two men, named by Newcastle University as Neil Dalton and Aidan Brunger, both 22, died after they were attacked by a group of men in Kuching.

The friends were reportedly followed in a car and knifed as they returned to a backpacker lodge from the bar, where a row had earlier taken place.

Four men have been arrested following the murders in the Jalan Padungan district.

The friends were on a medical placement in Borneo's Sarawak state

The fourth-year students were in the Malaysian part of the island in Sarawak province on attachment to a hospital in Kuching, the university's acting vice-chancellor Professor Tony Stevenson said.

Prof Stevenson said in a statement: "We were informed this morning of the very sad news that two of our fourth-year medical students working at a hospital in Kuching, Borneo, have been tragically killed.

"Neil Dalton and Aidan Brunger, both 22, were on a six-week work placement, along with five other medical students, to put the skills they had learnt during their time here at the university into practice.

"This has come as a huge shock to us all and our thoughts are with their families and friends at this very difficult time.

The city of Kuching in Borneo where the two men died. Pic: CoolCityCat

"Two of our members of staff are flying out to Kuching as soon as possible and we are working closely with the British high commissioner to support the other students and to co-ordinate their return to the UK."

The students - both keen sportsmen - were due to finish their placement on Friday.

Mr Dalton was from Ambergate, Derbyshire, had achieved four A* grades in his A-levels and had been featured in the local paper when he took part in a sponsored bike ride for the Alzheimer's Society, the Derby Telegraph reported. 

Mr Brunger, from Gillingham, took part in the 2013 Great North Run in Newcastle, raising money for Prostate Cancer UK.

Sarawak Deputy Police Commissioner Datuk Dr Chai Khin Chung said the arrests were made two hours after the 4.15am attack, the Malaysian State News Agency Bernama reported. A knife was also recovered.

Dr Chai told a news conference that two of the suspects have criminal records for drug abuse and armed robbery.

He also said a police forensic team found the first victim lying face down on the road with two stab wounds in the chest and two in the back.

The second victim was lying on a path, about two metres from the first victim, with a single stab wound to his chest.

The Borneo Post reported that they were attacked by a group of men as they made their way back to a backpacker lodge from the Travillion bar in the early hours. It followed a row in the bar over noise.

The students' bodies are at Sarawak General Hospital for post-mortem examinations.

An FCO spokesman said: "We are providing consular assistance to their families at this difficult time."

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