Syrian Refugee Rescue Caught On Film

By Stuart Ramsay, Chief Correspondent

Illegal immigrants are dying in the Mediterranean in record numbers because criminal gangs know that rich northern European countries such as the UK are too scared to address the issue of international migration because of domestic politics.

As European leaders meet this week to discuss demands for help from frontline countries like Malta, Sky News has obtained exclusive pictures of the moment hundreds of Syrians are left swimming for their lives over a hundred miles from shore.

Hundreds of refugees were tipped into the sea when their boat sank

Mediterranean countries say the whole European Union has to do more and must ignore local politics to help genuine refugees.

There is nothing more scary that being in heavy waters in a rubber dinghy when you are fleeing a war-torn country and you are already completely exhausted.

For refugees and illegal migrants that is normal. Life is basically terrible.

Malta, Spain and Italy are trying to deal with this daily problem.

Survivors scrambled onto life rafts thrown to them by the Maltese navy

The system is not perfect and to be frank they are not being as vigilant as they could be because they cannot really cope with what is going on.

This is a huge international problem that has been going on for years - but nobody so far has done anything significant to stop it.

Sky News obtained a remarkable series of videos from the Maltese government that show for the first time an entire rescue.

The migrants' boat has been shot at by Libyan gunmen who are traffickers and have not been paid off.

Young children were among those pulled from the water

Within hours the boat either capsizes or sinks, with Syrian migrants dumped into the sea.

By chance a Maltese spotter plane sees them and a rescue mission, lasting more than 20 hours, begins.

This man does not know if his two children survived

The spotter plane drops a life raft that gives the survivors a point to aim for. They swim in their dozens to try to find something to hold onto.

It will take over an hour of treading water before the rescue boats arrive. Many people die in this time.

Patrol boats and launch vessels pick the survivors from the sea. This is a joint venture between the Maltese and the Italian navy.

Men, women and children are transferred from the rubber boats to the safety of the patrol vessels.

Among them, a little girl and her father clutching one another survived. Her twin sister has died; her mother, his pregnant wife, perished trying to save the girl.

They know nothing of this as they stand on the rescue ship deck being dried. As with all these disasters many families are split forever in the rescue.

On shore the Syrian migrants wait in a detention centre for news of family members who have simply disappeared. A man cries in anguish and writes on a shoe box: "Where are my two children?"

A translator says he does not know if they are dead or not.

A doctor represents the people in an emotional appeal for more information. I speak to him quietly. I ask why a paediatrician is here, risking this dreadful trip.

"We have no choice, Stuart, you know that," he says. "It is too dangerous in Syria so I decided to take my family to somewhere safe.

"But this has been terrible. Worse than I ever imagined."

I ask if he would do it again.

"Yes," he says. "There is no choice."

These are not work-shy foreigners looking for benefits. These are refugees.

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Cannabis Cat Smuggled Drugs Into Moldova Jail

A cat has been been caught smuggling drugs on its collar into a prison in Moldova.

Guards at the jail in the village of Pruncul became suspicious when they saw an odd collar on the black and grey feline, which routinely entered through a hole in a fence.

On closer inspection, they found two packets of cannabis attached to the purple collar.

When the cat was caught and the content of the bags revealed, it became obvious that the cat was about to deliver drugs to prisoners, the jail said.

The Department of Penitentiary Institutions said that someone in Pruncul was using the cat as a courier to supply inmates at the local prison.

It is not the first time an unwitting feline has been used to infiltrate a prison.

Earlier this year, authorities at a Brazilian jail apprehended a cat with a mobile phone and tunnel-digging tools strapped to its stomach.

And in northern Russia guards caught a cat carrying mobile phones and chargers taped to its belly to inmates in a prison near the city of Syktyvkar.

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Al Libi 'Upset' By Special Forces Operation

An al Qaeda suspect charged over a deadly plot to bomb US embassies in Africa has said being snatched by special forces in Libya "upset" him.

Abu Anas al Libi's new lawyer said his client had been affected by the experience of being snatched at gunpoint in front of his home and interrogated on a US warship.

The lawyer also said following a hearing for the defendant in federal court in Manhattan that Al Libi maintains he is innocent.

Al Libi denies charges of plotting to bomb US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

Prosecutors told a judge on that they want the Libyan to go on trial with two other men also charged in the embassy plot.

The judge put off a decision, but indicated a joint trial probably wouldn't happen until late next year.

Al Libi, 49, was captured during an October 5 special forces raid in Libya.

He pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges in New York earlier this month.

The 1998 Kenya embassy bombing caused devastation

The suspected al Qaeda leader is accused of helping plan and conduct surveillance for the bombings that killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans.

A prosecutor said it is not a death penalty-eligible case.

Al Libi's family and former associates have denied he was ever a member of al Qaeda and said he has lived an ordinary life after living in Afghanistan and Pakistan and coming home in 2011.

His capture angered the Libyan government, which labelled the secret US forces raid a "kidnapping".

Al Libi was interrogated aboard a US Navy warship for a week before being taken to New York on October 12.

He had been on the FBI's most wanted terrorists list since it was introduced shortly after the September 11 attacks.

A reward of $5m (£3.1m) was offered for his capture.

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Irish Roma Family Await Decision On Taken Girl

A Roma family in Ireland who had a blonde, blue-eyed girl removed from them over concerns she was not theirs are due to hear if she will be returned.

The seven-year-old was taken into care on Monday when a member of the public reported the youngster was living with the family in a house in the south Dublin suburb of Tallaght.

It follows the case in Greece where a four-year-old girl, known as Maria, was taken into care, and a Roma couple were charged with abduction.

Police spent several hours at the property in Dublin after asking for the family to produce documents to confirm the child is theirs.

It is understood a name and date of birth the parents gave does not match records with the register office.

A birth certificate was deemed to be inconclusive, and a passport bore a picture of a baby and could not be matched to the seven-year-old.

No arrests have been made, and family members are not facing an allegation of abduction.

A number of other children, believed to be the girl's siblings, were in the house at the time and not taken into care.

It is understood the police have sought to have DNA tests carried out on the child to confirm she is the daughter of the Roma couple.

Members of a group of about 15 friends and relations from the Roma community said they were upset, claiming that the girl was part of the family, and should be returned as the family have documentary proof.

Others said the girl was not the only member of the family with blonde hair.

The only similarity with the Greek case is that both girls are blonde-haired and blue-eyed, and had a different appearance from that of the couples they were found living with.

In Greece, a DNA test on Maria proved she was not related to Christos Salis, 39, and Eleftheria Dimopoulou, 40, and the couple have been held on charges of abduction and document fraud.

Authorities in Ireland briefly removed another child from a family in Athlone due to concerns about his identity.

The two-year-old boy was returned a short time after he was placed into the temporary care of the health service.

Denise Charlton, chief executive of Pavee Point, a rights groups that works on behalf of Irish travellers and the Roma community, warned against "racial profiling" following the latest incident.

"Any targeting of members of an individual community for such scrutiny, on the basis of unfounded perceptions that they are more likely than others to break the law, is wrong," she said.

A spokesman for the organisation added: "There is a real danger that precipitative action, undertaken on the basis of appearance, can create the conditions for an increase in racism and discrimination against the Roma community living here."

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Boston Bomb Suspect 'Involved In Triple Murder'

Boston marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was involved in a triple murder whose victims included one of his friends, it has been claimed.

Ibragim Todashev made the allegation before he was later shot to death by an FBI agent during questioning, prosecutors said.

The alleged involvement of Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the three killings in Waltham, Massachusetts, two years ago was disclosed in a government court filing.

The document is part of prosecutors' attempt to block his younger brother and suspected fellow marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from getting hold of investigative documents about the deaths in September 11, 2011.

Dzhokhar's defence team is seeking to use the records to help him avoid the death penalty, MyFoxBoston.com reports. A judge's ruling on the motion is pending.

In the Waltham murders case, three men, 25-year-old Brendan Mess, 31-year-old Erik Weissman, and 37-year-old Raphael Teken, were found in an apartment with their necks slit and their bodies reportedly covered with marijuana.

One of the victims, Mess, was a boxer and friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

Dzhokhar is trying to get hold of government documents

Todashev, a 27-year-old mixed martial arts fighter, was fatally shot at his Orlando home during a meeting with an FBI agent and two Massachusetts state troopers in May, authorities said.

He had apparently turned violent while being questioned.

Prosecutors wrote: "The government has already disclosed to Tsarnaev that, according to Todashev, Tamerlan Tsarnaev participated in the Waltham triple homicide.

"Any benefit to Tsarnaev of knowing more about the precise 'nature and extent' of his brother's involvement does not outweigh the potential harm of exposing details of an ongoing investigation into an extremely serious crime, especially at this stage of the proceeding."

The possibility that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, may have played a role in the killings surfaced soon after he was killed on April 19 this year, following a shoot-out with authorities in the Boston suburb of Watertown.

Four days earlier, prosecutors say the Tsarnaev brothers detonated two bombs near the finish line of the annual race, killing three people and injuring more than 260.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 20, who was captured after a manhunt, faces 30 federal charges, including using a weapon of mass destruction and 16 other charges that carry the possibility of the death penalty.

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Critical White House Tweets: Official Fired

A senior White House official has been fired after being unmasked as the person behind a series of critical tweets about the Obama administration.

Jofi Joseph - a director in the nuclear non-proliferation section of the National Security Council - had been helping negotiate nuclear issues with Iran.

But for more than two years he sent hundreds of anonymous and abrasive tweets using the Twitter handle @NatSecWonk.

Among those he criticised was former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power.

This month, Mr Joseph tweeted Mrs Clinton "had few policy goals and no wins" in the Middle East.

And White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett was referred to as a "vacuous cipher".

He sniped at Ms Power's use of the microblogging site, writing: "Can someone again brief @AmbassadorPower that (Syrian president) Bashar Assad likely doesn't follow her Twitter feed?"

And he appeared to support an investigation into the 2012 terror attack on the US consulate in Benghazi in Libya, tweeting, "Look, (Rep. Darrell) Issa is an ass, but he's on to something here with the @HillaryClinton whitewash of accountability for Benghazi."

Jofi Joseph said Hillary Clinton 'had no wins'

Mr Joseph also criticised Republicans, asking in a tweet last October: "When will someone do us the favor of getting rid of Sarah Palin and the rest of her white trash family?"

John Noonan, a national security staffer on Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign, was referred to as an "overweight paid Romney shill".

After being unmasked, Mr Joseph told the Politico website he regretted the tweets.

He wrote: "What started out as an intended parody account of DC culture developed over time into a series of inappropriate and mean-spirited comments.

"I bear complete responsibility for this affair and I sincerely apologize to everyone I insulted."

For months, White House and State department officials searched for @NatSecWonk, Politico reported.

It said the hunt intensified after he repeatedly expressed doubts about the official administration accounts about the September 11, 2012, attack in Benghazi.

It reported the probe included an investigation into Mr Joseph's travel and shopping patterns - analysed from over 2,000 tweets.

Lawyers from the White House counsel's office confronted the official and ordered him to leave the executive complex, the website added.

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China Paper's Plea For Release Of Reporter

Detained Reporter: Article In Full

Updated: 11:17am UK, Wednesday 23 October 2013

Dear Readers, our reporter Chen Yongzhou reported on financial problems at Zoomlion and was taken into custody by the Changsha police outside their jurisdiction, accused of damaging business prestige. Over this matter, we must speak out . . .

Please Release Him

Imagine, you are a journalist, and you write some reports that are critical of a certain company. Then, one day, Uncle Policeman come and arrests you.

Don't get over-excited. They have their reasons, after all. [They accuse you of] "damaging [the company's] business reputation." So can't they investigate you for a few days, or for a few weeks?

Now, our New Express reporter Chen Yongzhou has the misfortune of becoming that poor soul.

We really want to come clean.

Because we have always believed that if we just go out and responsibly do our reporting, there won't be any problem; and if by chance there are problems, we can print corrections in the newspaper, and apologise. And if things are really serious, we prepare for the courtroom - and if we lose, we pay compensation as it's demanded. If [given such eventualities] we must close our doors, well then, that's only what we deserve.

But the facts show that we have been too naive.

When, after three days and three nights in custody, Chen Yongzhou finally got to see a lawyer, he said he could hold out for another 30 days - longer than that, he dare not say.

He tried to weep but there were no tears.

It must be said that we exercised extreme restraint in dealing with this attack - for five mornings last week, after he was taken away, we didn't make a sound. Last Saturday, we said nothing. On Sunday, we said nothing. On Monday, we said nothing. Yesterday still, we said nothing.

Why? Because we thought all along that the safety of our lively colleague was the most important thing, and if we could get him back through forbearance and working under the table, this was worth it. We hope readers, and especially our colleagues, will forgive us for these decisions, which were so unrighteous, which showed such lack of revolutionary dedication and courage. We were truly cowardly, selfish and shameful.

However, we have no regrets.

Because while the police are strapped with guns and are capable of force, and while Zoomlion pays a lot of taxes to the city of Changsha and has powerful backing, they are still our class brothers, and a disagreement is still a disagreement among the people.

If we were given another opportunity, we would still say: Uncle Policeman, Big Brother Zoomlion, we beg of you, please set Chen Yongzhou free!

If we were given another chance to speak, we would also say:

We have diligently studied all 15 of the reports Chen Yongzhou wrote about Zoomlion, but could only find that we mistakenly wrote what should have been "advertising and entertainment fees of 513 million" as "advertising fees of 513 million." If Brother Policeman can find any evidence of shabby reporting on our part, please make notice of it and we will gladly doff our hat. Because we still believe that - some day, at least - you will have the same full respect for the law that we have.

We would like to thank those four police officers who came from Changsha for keeping one eye closed, so that yesterday night Chen Yongzhou's young wife, shaking with cold, could peacefully leave her own home.

We would also like to thank you for not employing your secret weapon to arrest another person you have set your eyes on, the head of our economic news desk. Just for the record, he really isn't at home. For days, he hasn't dared to return home. I'm not kidding.

Oh, and to Gao Hui, the esteemed assistant to the CEO of Zoomlion, we brought a case against you for infringement months. We hope you'll give us a bit of face and acknowledge the case. We won't make any sudden moves against you. We pay just a bit of tax every year, and our business is far short of the hundreds of millions.

The Hunan native, and Qing dynasty official Zeng Guofan, once wrote: "Two old bones [backbone] can keep a vigorous mind and spirit alive."

Our newspaper may be small, but we have those two bones at least.

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Pope Suspends Germany's £26m 'Bling Bishop'

Pope Francis has suspended a German Catholic bishop dubbed the "bling bishop", who spent £26m (€31m) on his new residence.

The Vatican said: "The Holy See deems it appropriate to authorise a period of leave from the diocese for Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst."

The suspended Bishop of Limburg Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst

The Most Rev Tebartz-van Elst, Bishop of Limburg, faced calls for his resignation after it was revealed that the cost of his residence was more than six times the planned amount.

His private quarters in a new diocesan building are reported to have cost some £2.47m (€2.9m) and included a 63sq m dining room and a £12,800 (€15,000) bathtub - paid for using the revenue from a religious tax in Germany.

He was investigated by a Vatican envoy after protests in his diocese against lavish spending.

The decision to suspend him was taken after Bishop Tebartz-van Elst met Pope Francis in Rome on Monday.

The Vatican did not say if the bishop would permanently leave the diocese  but it said newly-named vicar general, Monsignor Wolfgang Roesch, would administer the diocese during his "period of time away".

Protesters pray and sing in front of the new residence of the bishop

In a statement, the Vatican said the situation in the diocese had become such that Bishop Tebartz-van Elst "could no longer exercise his episcopal ministry".

The 53-year-old bishop has defended the renovation, saying it involved 10 different projects and that there were additional costs because of regulations on buildings under historical protection.

But his alleged extravagance is at odds with Pope Francis's shift of the Church's focus towards simplicity and poverty.

The soaring cost of the stately residence next to Limburg's hilltop cathedral has been strongly criticised by churchgoers and officials after it was made public by the diocese.

Anger that taxes paid to the Church by ordinary Germans are apparently being squandered has led to demonstrations outside the bishop's residence.

The bishop's new home is part of a complex of buildings

Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Treves, in West Germany, last week told Germany's public television chain ARD that the situation has "escalated to the extent that bishop Franz-Peter can no longer on principle work in Limburg".

When the cost emerged local Catholic Raimund Champert said: "Such prestige projects simply don't fit with Catholicism.

"The Church, like the Pope, has a responsibility to be humble and lead by example. We are not in the Middle Ages any more."

His wife, Roswitha Champert, added: "It's actually shameless what's going on. I may be a Catholic but I don't agree with it."

Christoph Hefter, a lay member of the diocesan council, said: "The cost is shocking, it is beyond belief."

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Australia Bushfire 'Started By Army'

By Jonathan Samuels, Australia Correspondent

A massive fire burning in Australia's Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, was caused by explosives training being carried out by the Department of Defence, a probe has found.

The Rural Fire Service (RFS) said the training exercise was responsible for causing the blaze, which has burnt out more than 46,000 hectares and sparked fears of it becoming a "mega-fire".

"The investigation has concluded the fire started as a result of exploding ordnances on the range on Wednesday," said an RFS spokesman.

Blue Mountains mayor Mark Greenhill told ABC News that even though there was no fire ban on the day the fire started, the exercise should not have gone ahead.

"I would have hoped on a day like that which was a dry day, a hot day, with the winds, the Australian military would have known it wasn't a good time to be igniting," he said.

Fire crews have been working flat-out for a week to contain the blazes

"The fire has caused great concern to my community and it just shouldn't have happened."

A Department of Defence statement said: "Defence is aware the NSW Rural Fire Service is of the view that the cause of the State Mine Fire near Lithgow was as a result of a Defence live ordnance exercise at Marangaroo Training Area."

The statement said it "continues to co-operate fully" with the investigation and is also conducting its own inquiry.

The news comes after another day of drama for the bushfire crisis in the state of New South Wales.

Strong winds and hotter temperatures forced authorities to declare the situation was "as bad as it gets" prompting all schools in the Blue Mountains region to close and many businesses to shut. Thousands of locals also fled the area.

Last week the town of Springwood and the surrounding area lost more than 200 homes.

The ruins of a fire-damaged house in the Blue Mountains

At one stage Springwood came under renewed attack as strong winds pushed burning embers towards houses.

Thick smoke hung over residential streets as water-bombing aircraft and fire trucks targeted new areas of burning bush.

Resident Craig Robinson told Sky News he was staying to protect his home, which backs onto the bush.

"I won't go until they tell me I can't stay," he said. "We feel well prepared. We have cleared around the house and we have moved out valuables, cars and animals so we will wait and see what happens."

Back burning efforts in recent days along with non-stop water bombing meant no properties were lost despite the threat and residents were told it was safe for them to return to their homes.

NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitszimmons declared firefighters had triumphed in extreme conditions.

"It would be safe to head back home tonight because the risk has been averted," he said.

Helicopters are used to drop water onto the flames

However, he warned there was still a lot of difficult and dangerous firefighting being carried out.

State premier Barry O'Farrell lauded the "magnificent planning and preparation" which helped avert disaster.

Authorities expect a southerly change to come but it will be dry and bring "fairly strong" southwest winds on Thursday, meaning the danger is still not over.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has been forced to deny climate change was to blame for the fires.

Speaking on 3AW radio he said: "Look, climate change is real, as I often said, and we should take strong action against it, but these fires are certainly not a function of climate change, they are just a function of life in Australia."

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Iran Execution Survivor Saved From Hanging

An Iranian man who was found alive in a morgue after a botched execution will not be hanged for a second time.

Iran has decided to spare the life of convicted drug trafficker, identified only as Alireza M, following calls from within Iran and appeals from international rights groups against a second execution.

Justice Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi told the official IRNA news agency: "The convict who survived (the death penalty) will not be executed again.

"After putting much effort to prevent the second execution of this convict, we have received a positive response."

Earlier this month the man was pronounced dead by the attending doctor after hanging for 12 minutes from a noose suspended from a crane at a jail in the country's northeast.

But the next day, staff at the mortuary in the city of Bojnord discovered Alireza M was still breathing.

Media later reported that he had fallen into a coma.

All judicial affairs and decisions in the Islamic republic rest with the judiciary, which constitutionally operates independently from the government.

The incident led to a heated debate between jurists, with some arguing against a repeat hanging and others for.

According to the media, a petition signed by jurists and attorneys was sent to judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, appealing for a stay in the exceptional case.

Amnesty International also called for an immediate stay of execution.

Iran has one of the highest rates of execution in the world, with more than 500 cases last year and some 508 executions so far this year, according to Human Rights Watch.

Tehran says the death penalty is essential to maintain law and order, and that it is applied only after exhaustive judicial proceedings.

Murder, rape, armed robbery, drug trafficking and adultery are among the crimes punishable by death in Iran, based on its interpretation of sharia law in force since its 1979 Islamic revolution.

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