West Bank Settlement Plan Blow To Peace Hopes

By Dominic Waghorn, US Correspondent

Palestinians say the two-state solution to the Middle East conflict is at death's door after Israel announced it is reviving plans to build on occupied land in a controversial area of East Jerusalem.

The US government is also criticising Israel for the move.

"This administration - like previous administrations - has been very clear with Israel that these activities set back the cause of a negotiated peace," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Washington.

E1 is the only large area of empty land left between East Jerusalem and the West Bank, sandwiched between Israeli settlements.

Reviving plans to build a settlement there could be fatal for the peace process, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told Sky News in Washington.

"It would kill it. This would be the last nail in the coffin of the peace process a process that fulfils that which has been and has become a matter of international consensus. The two state solution to this conflict. It simply cannot happen if E1 is implemented."

Palestinians say they cannot sign any peace deal that does not have at least a part of Jerusalem as their capital, for religious and political reasons.

An Israeli settlement on E1 would make a land corridor between that capital and the rest of a Palestinian state impossible.

That makes building on E1 a very different proposition to other Israeli settlement plans. For that reason former US President George Bush made then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promise not to build on E1 and put construction plans there on ice.

Danny Seidemann, from Jerusalem NGO Ir Amim, told Sky News: "E1 is the fatal heart attack of the two-state solution.

"If E1 is built there is no possibility of a contiguous viable Palestinian state and no possibility of connecting East Jerusalem and its hinterland on the West Bank."

An Israeli government spokesman told Sky News those plans are now being unfrozen.

"Planning is now going ahead," he said.

No decision to build has yet been taken but extensive plans are known to already exist.

Israel is responding to a vote in the United Nations General Assembly to recognise Palestine as a non-member state. Some 138 countries voted in favour of the move, only eight supported Israel in opposing it.

Israel has also said it will build 3,000 new units in existing settlements.

Under all interpretations of international law, Israel's settlements on occupied land are illegal.

Israel agreed to freeze settlement construction under the Roadmap for Peace plan in 2002 but has failed to comply with that commitment.

A European diplomatic source told Sky News: "If Israel officially confirms plans to expedite settlement building in E1 area, it will elicit a 'strong response' from European states."

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UK Eyes Oz's Tough Anti-Smoking Laws

By Jonathan Samuels, Australia Correspondent

The British Government is considering following Australia's lead by stripping all branding and logos from tobacco packaging.

From today, Australia becomes the first country in the world to put all tobacco products in standardised packs which are a drab olive colour and have the manufacturer's brand in a simple uniform font.

The packs are covered in graphic health warnings portraying dying cancer sufferers, diseased feet and ill babies.

The law bans the use of logos, brand imagery, symbols, other images, colours and promotional text.

Australia's plain packaging laws are a potential watershed for the global industry, which serves one billion regular smokers, according to World Health Organisation statistics.

Australia's government says the aim is to deter young people from smoking by stripping the habit of glamour.

It is relying on studies showing that if people have not started smoking by the age of 26, there is a 99% chance they will never take it up.

The potential hitch, experts say, is the popularity of social media amongst the very demographic the plan is targeting.

After a series of Australian laws banning TV advertising and sports sponsorship and requiring most sellers to hide cigarettes from view, online is the final frontier for tobacco marketing.

"If you are a tobacco marketer and you've only got this small window left to promote your products, online is the compelling place for you to be in," said Becky Freeman, a public health researcher at Sydney University.

Australia has become the first country to introduce plain cigarette packs

The tobacco industry recently lost a High Court bid to have the legislation stopped.

Scott McIntyre of British American Tobacco Australia, the maker of Winfield cigarettes, says the new packs are easier to fake and will boost black market trade, leading to cheaper, more accessible cigarettes.

"There will be serious unintended consequences from the legislation," he said. "Counterfeiters from China and Indonesia will bring lots more of these products down to sell on the streets of Australia."

The industry has shifted its focus to potential copycat legislation elsewhere. Ukraine, Honduras and the Dominican Republic have filed complaints with the World Trade Organisation, funded by the tobacco industry, claiming the laws unfairly restrict trade, although their trade with Australia is minimal.

Many smokers in Australia say the new packs won't change their habit. "As a 14-year veteran smoker the packets make no difference to me," one man told Sky News.

Another smoker said she may be more inclined to keep the packet, with its gruesome health warnings, hidden from view, but that it wouldn't stop her smoking.

Earlier this year, the British Government launched a consultation on plans to introduce similar standardised packaging. Information generated by the consultation, which closed in August, is still being analysed by health officials.

Dr Harpal Kumar, Cancer Research UK's chief executive, said: "The Australian Government is to be applauded. Today marks the day when tobacco companies are further stymied in their efforts to recruit Australian children into a lethal addiction.

A UK Department of Health spokesman said: "We have received many thousands of responses to the tobacco packaging consultation. We are currently in the process of carefully collating and analysing all the responses received.

"The Government has an open mind on this issue and any decisions to take further action will be taken only after full consideration of the consultation responses, evidence and other relevant information."

Australia aims to cut the number of people smoking from 15% of the population to just 10% in six years' time.

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North Korea Unveils New Rocket Launch Plan

North Korea says it is to launch a long-range rocket later this month.

The launch, planned for between between December 10 and December 22, will heighten already strained tensions with South Korea ahead of its presidential election on December 19.

North Korea tried in April to launch a long-range rocket but it broke apart shortly after lift off.

The North's Korean Committee for Space Technology said that it had looked at the mistakes made in the April launch and had improved the rocket.

Critics believe leader Kim Jong-un is flexing his military muscles

"Scientists and technicians of the DPRK analysed the mistakes that were made during the previous April launch and deepened the work of improving the reliability and precision of the satellite and carrier rocket, thereby rounding off the preparations for launch," it said.

The much-hyped rocket was intended to put a polar-orbiting earth observation satellite into orbit, it said.

The US and United Nations insisted it was a disguised ballistic missile test using a three-stage variant of the Taepodong-2 inter-continental ballistic missile.

The April test put a halt to the latest international effort to engage with North Korea, with the US calling off plans to deliver badly needed food assistance.

Saturday's announcement ended weeks of intense speculation, based on satellite image analysis, that the North was preparing a fresh launch from its Sohae satellite launch station.

On Thursday, the UN Security Council had cautioned Pyongyang against going ahead with another launch, saying it would be "extremely inadvisable".

South Korea has reacted angrily to its neighbour's move, saying the "so-called rocket launch" is a long-range missile that violates a UN ban.

South Korean officials have accused North Korea of trying to influence its presidential election with what they consider provocations meant to put pressure on voters and on the US.

Some analysts, however, question whether North Korean scientists have corrected whatever caused the misfire of its last rocket.

"Preparing for a launch less than a year after a failure calls into question whether the North could have analysed and fixed whatever went wrong," wrote physicist David Wright, on the website of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

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Chimpanzee Attack: Victim Gets $4m Settlement

A woman who was blinded, lost both hands and underwent a face transplant after being mauled by a chimpanzee has agreed a $4m (£2.5m) settlement.

Attack victim Charla Nash's family had filed a lawsuit seeking $50m (£31.2m) in damages from chimp owner Sandra Herold, who died in 2010.

Ms Nash was attacked outside Ms Herold's home in Stamford, Connecticut in February 2009.

"The case is resolved," said Brenden Leydon, the lawyer representing Ms Herold's estate. "I think it was a fair compromise on all sides."

Ms Nash, 57, now lives in a nursing home outside of Boston.

She had gone to Ms Herold's on the day of the attack to help lure the 200lb (91kg) chimpanzee, Travis, back into her home.

But the animal went berserk and ripped off Ms Nash's nose, lips, eyelids and hands before being shot dead by a police officer.

A month after the mauling, Ms Nash's family sued Ms Herold for alleged negligence and recklessness.

The lawsuit alleged Ms Herold knew Travis was dangerous, but failed to confine him to a secure area and allowed him to roam her property.

Travis had previously bitten another woman's hand and tried to drag her into a car in 1996. Two years later he had bitten a man's thumb.

In 2003, he escaped from Ms Herold's home and roamed around the town for hours before being captured, according to the court papers.

The family is trying to sue the state for $150m (£93m), but is awaiting permission from the state claims commissioner.

Ms Nash also wants to sue the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, which she holds responsible for not seizing the animal before the attack despite a state biologist's warning it was dangerous.

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Weapons Stolen In Raid On Australia Navy Base

By Jonathan Samuels, Australia Correspondent

A cache of weapons has been stolen from an Australian navy vessel after at least one intruder overpowered military personnel on guard.

The Australian Department of Defence said the infiltrator "overwhelmed a duty member onboard a patrol boat" which was moored at HMAS Coonawarra, a naval base in the northern city of Darwin.

In a statement, it said: "The intruder overpowered the duty member, accessed the vessel's armoury and removed a number of weapons.

"The person then departed the vessel with the weapons."

The Australian newspaper said an Armidale-class patrol boat would be expected to carry a stock of machine guns, assault rifles, shotguns, 9mm pistols and ammunition in its armoury.

The attack happened on the Larrakeyah Naval Base which is now in lock-down. It was unclear whether the intruder accessed the boat from land or sea and the types of weapons taken have not been revealed.

Vice Admiral Ray Griggs told the Australian Broadcasting Association the intruder was "armed", adding that the young sailor who was on guard is safe but very shaken by the incident.

He said: "Clearly his life was threatened, he is quite shaken but otherwise okay."

Earlier reports suggested the sailor had been tied up.

The incident is being investigated by Northern Territory police and Australian Federal Police in conjunction with defence personnel.

Tropical Darwin is a key defence hub for Australia, with US Marines based in a barracks outside the city since April this year as Washington looks to deepen its presence in Asia.

Almost 600 Navy personnel are based in the area.

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Palestinian Status Upgraded After UN Vote

The UN General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly in favour of upgrading the Palestinians' status to a non-member observer state, defying the wishes of Israel and the US.

It marks a major diplomatic triumph for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who had met fierce opposition from the US and Israel over the vote.

The resolution was approved by a vote of 138-9, with 41 abstentions. It gives the Palestinian Authority the same status as the Vatican and enables it to join UN agencies, sign international treaties and access bodies such as the International Criminal Court (ICC).

A Palestinian flag was quickly unfurled on the floor of the General Assembly, behind the Palestinian delegation.

Thousands of Palestinians who had gathered in the West Bank city of Ramallah celebrated the news by firing shots into the air, embracing each other and chanting "God is greatest".

In his speech to the General Assembly before the vote, Mr Abbas said the assembly was "being asked ... to issue the birth certificate of Palestine".

His speech angered the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mr Abbas celebrates the result of the vote

"The world watched a defamatory and venomous speech that was full of mendacious propaganda against the IDF (army) and the citizens of Israel," he said in a statement.

Mr Netanyahu said the UN move violated past agreements between Israel and the Palestinians and that Israel would act accordingly, without elaborating what steps it might take.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dubbed the vote as "unfortunate and counterproductive", saying it would "place further obstacles in the path to peace".

She said: "Only through direct negotiations between the parties can the Palestinians and Israelis achieve the peace that both deserve: two states for two people, with a sovereign, viable and independent Palestine living side-by-side in peace and security with a Jewish and democratic Israel."

The UK abstained in the vote after Foreign Secretary William Hague said he could only back the move if the Palestinians gave a commitment to an immediate and unconditional return to the negotiating table with Israel.

He said he respected the decision but added: "We continue to believe that the prospects for a swift return to negotiations on a two state solution - the only way to create a Palestinian state on the ground - would be greater ... if President (Mahmoud) Abbas had been able to give the assurances we suggested, and without which we were unable to vote in favour of the resolution."

The vote had been certain to succeed, with most of the member states sympathetic to the Palestinians.

Several key countries, including France, this week announced they would support the move to elevate the status of the Palestinians.

Some countries fear the Palestinians' new access to the ICC could become a springboard for pursuing Israel for alleged war crimes or its ongoing settlement building on war-won land.

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Tornado Hits Huge Steel Factory In Italy

A freak tornado has smashed into Europe's largest steel plant in the Italian city of Taranto, leaving one person missing and dozens injured.

Video footage shows the storm rolling in off the sea and tearing through the port city before hitting the huge IVLA site.

It brought down a chimney stack and caused significant damage to buildings at the factory's docks.

A total of 38 people - including 20 staff at the plant - are reported to be injured and divers have been searching for a worker who is unaccounted for after a dockside crane collapsed.

Three other people on the crane were rescued.

One worker is unaccounted for

The sudden storm filled the sky with grey swirls of cloud that ripped across the harbour.

It is the latest blow to IVLA, which has become one of the most pressing issues confronting the government of Prime Minister Mario Monti.

Workers stormed the plant on Tuesday to protest about a planned closure announced on Monday. Managers have been attempting to address health concerns amid reports of an elevated incidence of cancer in the area.

The government wants to save the factory, which employs around 20,000 people in a region of high unemployment, saying its closure would have devastating effects on the wider economy.

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Afghan Girl's Throat Slit Over Refusal To Wed

A 15-year-old girl in Afghanistan has been murdered after her family refused a marriage proposal.

The teenager had her throat slit as she was carrying water from a river to her village home in the northern Kunduz province on Wednesday.

Two men have now been arrested over the attack.

Police said one of suspects had earlier proposed to the girl but the offer had been rejected by her family.

A police spokesman added: "The two men attacked her and slit her throat with a knife.

"They were arrested and are in police custody."

Extreme violence against women and girls remains a major problem in the conservative Muslim nation more than a decade after US-led troops brought down the notoriously brutal Taliban Islamist regime.

Figures from Oxfam show 87% of Afghan women have experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence or forced marriage.

Last month a 20-year-old woman was beheaded by her husband's family in the western province of Herat after she refused to become a prostitute, police said. Four people were arrested over the brutal killing.

And in September, five people were arrested over the public flogging of a 16-year-old girl for allegedly having an affair.

The girl was whipped 100 times in front of village elders and family members in the central Ghazni province. Her alleged boyfriend was fined.

Unmarried girls are often confined to the home and forbidden from maintaining any contact with men outside the immediate family.

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Pussy Riot: Court Bans Videos From Internet

Videos made by the jailed feminist punk band Pussy Riot, including the infamous "Punk Prayer" in a Moscow cathedral, have been branded "extremist" by a Russian court.

It ordered that access to the videos should be banned online.

The judge hearing the case also restricted access to the official Pussy Riot website and the band's popular Livejournal blog.

The decision came after prosecutors told the court that linguistic experts found the clips offensive.

Judge Marina Musimovich said the video "has elements of extremism, in particular there are words and actions which humiliate various social groups based on their religion".

Materials officially branded "extremist" are put on a blacklist kept by the Russian justice ministry.

Three Pussy Riot members stood trial over the Punk Prayer

Currently the list has about 1,500 items, mostly related to banned religious and ultra-nationalist groups or those considered to be fascist.

Two Pussy Riot members are currently serving two-year prison terms after their cathedral performance was ruled an act of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.

The video of the February Punk Prayer has gone viral and been viewed on YouTube several million times.

Pussy Riot also sang a song "Putin Got Scared" on Red Square, and staged an illicit concert on the roof of a Moscow prison for those detained at a protest rally last December.

The band's Yekaterina Samutsevich, who has been convicted for the church stunt but freed with a suspended sentence, called the latest ruling a "direct recognition of artistic censorship" in Russia.

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'Sexy Kim Jong-Un' Spoof Fools Chinese Paper

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent

The Chinese Communist Party's official newspaper appears to have fallen for a spoof by a US satirical website.

An article in The Onion last month declared North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un to be the "Sexiest Man Alive For 2012".

"With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-bred heartthrob is every woman's dream come true," the spoof article read.

"Blessed with an air of power that masks an unmistakable cute, cuddly side, Kim made this newspaper's editorial board swoon with his impeccable fashion sense, chic short hairstyle, and, of course, that famous smile."

However, The People's Daily appears to have taken it all rather too seriously.

In their English and Chinese editions, the newspaper not only quoted The Onion and its editor but also ran a 55-page photo special - a dedicated slideshow of the North Korean leader.

The original story in The Onion

"He has that rare ability to somehow be completely adorable and completely macho at the same time," the paper quoted Marissa Blake-Zweiber, editor of The Onion Style and Entertainment as saying.

Responding to the People's Daily report, The Onion has now updated its own article: "For more coverage, please visit our friends at the People's Daily in China, a proud Communist subsidiary of The Onion, Inc. Exemplary reportage, comrades."

The Onion has a history of fooling unsuspecting overseas news outlets.

In September, Iran's Fars News Agency published a made-up poll from The Onion that claimed many Americans preferred Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to President Barack Obama.

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Syria: Deadly Car Bomb Blasts Rock Damascus

At least 34 people have been killed after two suspected car bombs exploded in the Syrian capital Damascus, state TV quoted the interior ministry as saying.

Addounia television said the blasts occurred early in the morning in the eastern district of Jaramana.

It broadcast footage of firefighters hosing down two vehicles. Debris from damaged buildings had crushed other cars in the area.

State TV blamed "terrorists" for the bombings - a phrase its uses to refer to the rebels battling to force the regime of President Bashar al Assad from power.

It also said 10 bags of unidentified remains had been collected from the scene and 83 people had been seriously wounded.

The explosions happened as the opposition coalition was due to meet in Cairo to discuss forming a transitional government.

The Jaramana district is mostly home to Christians and Druze

"The objective is to name the prime minister for a transitional government, or at least have a list of candidates ahead of the Friends of Syria meeting," said Suhair al Atassi, one of the coalition's two vice presidents.

Countries friendly to the rebels are also meeting in the Egyptian capital over the coming days.

Meanwhile, a UN committee condemned "gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms" by both the Syrian regime and government-controlled militias.

The resolution urges Syrian authorities to immediately release all detainees and calls for a prompt independent international investigation into abuses and violations of international law with a view to bringing to justice those responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other crimes.

It makes no mention of opposition forces but does express "grave concern at the escalation of violence" in the country.

The resolution is almost certain to be adopted by the 193-member General Assembly next month, however will not be legally binding.

More than 40,000 people are estimated to have died since the uprising against Assad's regime began 20 months ago.

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Egypt: Major Protest Against President Morsi

More than 200,000 people packed Cairo's Tahrir Square to protest against Egypt's president Mohamed Morsi's new 'pharoah' powers.

They accused the Islamist leader of seeking to impose a new era of autocracy after he issued a decree that expanded his powers and barred court challenges to his decisions.

The demonstration in the iconic plaza was as large as some of the protests during last year's uprising that drove ex-president Hosni Mubarak from power.

The same chants aimed against Mr Mubarak have now been directed towards the country's first freely-elected leader.

Police fired tear gas at stone-throwing youths in streets near the protest and there were clashes between Mr Morsi's opponents and supporters in a city north of Cairo.

Mr Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, faces the biggest challenge in his five months in office.

Protesters in Tahrir Square

"The people want to bring down the regime," protesters in Tahrir Square chanted, echoing slogans used in the 2011 revolt.

"We don't want a dictatorship again. The Mubarak regime was a dictatorship. We had a revolution to have justice and freedom," said 32-year-old Ahmed Husseini in Cairo.

Protesters also demonstrated in Alexandria, Suez, Minya and other Nile Delta cities.

A 52-year-old demonstrator died after inhaling teargas in Cairo, the second protester death since Mr Morsi issued his decree last week.

The president's administration has defended the decree as an attempt to speed up reforms and complete a democratic transformation.

But opponents say Mr Morsi is behaving like a modern-day pharaoh, a jibe that was levelled at Mr Mubarak.

Mr Morsi's move also provoked a rebellion by judges and has hit confidence in an economy struggling after two years of turmoil.

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Eurozone And IMF Reach Greece Debt Deal

Eurozone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund have reached an agreement on Greek debt, which paves the way for the release of much-needed loans.

After nearly 10 hours of talks, it was agreed that the country's public debt should fall to 124% of GDP in 2020 through a package of extra debt cutting measures.

The deal emerged in Brussels after a meeting of finance ministers from the 17 eurozone countries, the European Central Bank and the IMF on how to make Greek debt sustainable - their third meeting on the issue in as many weeks.

"It's going very slow, but we have financing and a Debt Sustainability Analysis. We've filled the financing gap until the end of programme in 2014," one official said, adding that talks on the details of the debt cutting measures with the IMF were still ongoing.

The deal is a breakthrough towards releasing the next tranche of loans, totalling 44bn euros (£35bn).

It comes after Greece's aid package was suspended in the summer over concerns it was not meeting the conditions of its bailout programme.

The Greek finance minister Yannis Stournaras said earlier that Athens had fulfilled its part of the deal by enacting tough austerity measures and economic reforms, and it was now up to the lenders to do their part.

The IMF has said Greece's debt as a proportion of GDP must be cut to around 120% by 2020, from a forecast 190% next year, for it to be manageable in the long-term.

It was not immediately clear how the debt would be reduced from its currently forecast level of 144% in 2020 to the target, but it is expected to involve a series of measures including the lowering of interest rate on loans to Greece.

Last week Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras criticised the failure to deliver bailout funds to Athens after 12 hours of emergency talks among the eurozone finance ministers and representatives of the troika of lenders had ended without agreement.

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Arafat Poisoning Probe: Remains Tested

Timeline: Yasser Arafat

Updated: 9:52am UK, Tuesday 27 November 2012

Here are some of the key dates in Mr Arafat's life.

:: February 4, 1969 Mr Arafat, the fifth child of a Palestinian merchant, takes over the PLO chairmanship. He transforms it into a force that makes the Palestinian cause known worldwide.

:: June 6, 1982 Israel invades Lebanon to crush the PLO, forcing Mr Arafat and loyalists to flee Beirut.

:: October 1, 1985 Mr Arafat narrowly escapes death in an Israeli air raid on the PLO's Tunisian headquarters.

:: April 16, 1988 Khalil al Wazir, Mr Arafat's military commander, is assassinated in Tunis. Israel is blamed.

:: December 12, 1988 Mr Arafat accepts Israel's right to exist and renounces terrorism. Nearly two years later, Iraq invades Kuwait, Mr Arafat supports Saddam Hussein and the PLO is isolated.

:: November 1991 Mr Arafat marries his 28-year-old secretary, Suha Tawil. Their daughter Zahwa is born in 1995.

:: April 7, 1992 Mr Arafat is rescued after a plane crash lands in the Libyan desert during a sandstorm.

:: September 13, 1993 Israel and the PLO sign an accord on Palestinian autonomy in Oslo, Norway, giving Mr Arafat control of most of the Gaza Strip and about a quarter of the West Bank. He shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on the White House lawn. The two later share the Nobel Peace Prize with Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres.

:: July 1, 1994 Returning from exile, Mr Arafat sets foot on Palestinian soil for the first time in 26 years.

:: September 28, 2000 Israel's then opposition leader Ariel Sharon visits a Jerusalem shrine holy to Jews and Muslims, leading to clashes that escalate into a Palestinian uprising.

:: December 3, 2001 After three suicide bombings, Israel destroys Mr Arafat's helicopters in Gaza City, confining him to the West Bank town of Ramallah.

:: March 2002 Israel declares Mr Arafat an "enemy" two days after a Palestinian suicide bomber kills 29 people at a Passover holiday meal, prompting an Israeli incursion into the West Bank.

:: June 24, 2002 President George W Bush calls on Palestinians to replace Mr Arafat as leader. A year later, his deputy Mahmoud Abbas becomes the first Palestinian prime minister in a move pushed for by the US and Israel to sideline Mr Arafat.

:: June 4, 2003 At the first major Israeli-Palestinian summit without Mr Arafat, Mr Sharon and Mr Bush launch "road map" peace plan, which aims to end fighting and create Palestinian state by 2005.

:: October 21, 2003 Mr Arafat is diagnosed with gallstones. Nearly a year to the day later, he collapses and is flown to hospital in France with a serious, undisclosed illness.

:: November 9, 2004 A French medical team acknowledges that Mr Arafat has been in a coma for a week. He dies two days later at the age of 75.

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Organ Transplant Pioneer Joseph Murray Dies

The doctor who won a Nobel Prize for performing the first ever successful organ transplant has died at the age of 93.

Dr Joseph Murray died on Monday after suffering a stroke last week, at the same Boston hospital where he performed the landmark kidney transplant on twins Ronald and Richard Herrick on December 23, 1954.

Dr Murray put his interest in the emerging science of transplants down to the three years he spent on the surgical ward of an army hospital in Pennsylvania during the Second World War.

Surgeons there would often treat severely burned soldiers with skin grafts from dead bodies as a temporary measure.

"The slow rejection of the foreign skin grafts fascinated me. How could the host distinguish another person's skin from his own?" Dr Murray would later write in an autobiographical essay published by the Nobel committee.

Dr Murray learned that the chief plastic surgeon, Colonel James Brown, had earlier carried out a skin graft on identical twins in which the recipient's body had accepted the foreign tissue rather than instinctively attacking it.

"This was the impetus to my study of organ transplantation," he later wrote.

The prospect of transplanting organs from one living patient to another was controversial from the beginning, with critics viewing it as a violation of nature that endangered both the donor and the recipient.

Surgeons carrying out a kidney transplant

But the public started coming around to the procedure after Dr Murray's historic operation in 1954, when he transplanted a kidney from Ronald Herrick to his identical twin brother Richard, extending his life by eight years.

In those eight years, Richard Herrick married his post-operative nurse, had two children and toasted his brother for "the extra drink". His twin died in 2010.

Dr Murray helped to develop the drug Imuran in the 1960s, which suppressed the immune system to allow patients to accept transplants from unrelated donors.

He won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1990, sharing the honour with E Donnall Thomas, who pioneered bone marrow transplants; their discoveries have been used to cure or provide a decent life for tens of thousands of severely ill patients.

Dr Murray later focused on plastic surgery, specifically the repair of facial defects in children.

"My life as a surgeon-scientist, combining humanity and science, has been fantastically rewarding," he wrote in the Nobel essay.

"In our daily patients we witness human nature in the raw - fear, despair, courage, understanding, hope, resignation, heroism. If alert, we can detect new problems to solve, new paths to investigate."

The doctor is survived by his wife, three sons, three daughters and 18 grandchildren.

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Egypt Clashes: President Morsi To Meet Judges

A teenager has reportedly been killed outside an office of Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood, as President Mohamed Morsi prepares to meet senior judges to try to ease violent clashes.

The violence at the Freedom and Justice Party headquarters in the Nile Delta town of Damanhour, south of Alexandria, also left dozens injured.

"Brotherhood member, Islam Fathy Masoud, 15, was killed and 60 were injured after thugs attacked the Muslim Brotherhood's headquarters in Damanhour in the total absence of police forces," the party's website said.

It came amid widespread anger in Egypt over President Morsi's decision to award himself sweeping new powers.

Mr Morsi had sought to calm the anger over the decree which effectively protects the president's decisions from any legal challenge.

"The presidency reiterates the temporary nature of the said measures, which are not meant to concentrate power, but ... to devolve it to a democratically elected parliament ... as well as preserving the impartiality of the judiciary and to avoid politicising it," a statement from the president's office said.

The statement also reaffirmed that the new powers - which Mr Morsi says were taken to protect Egypt's revolution from followers of former president Hosni Mubarak - would only apply until a new constitution is adopted.

Egyptian protesters clash with security forces near Cairo's Tahrir Square

Mr Morsi will meet senior members of the judiciary, which has changed little since the Mubarak era, after they called the move an "unprecedented attack" on their authority.

The country's highest judicial authority has hinted at compromise to avert a further escalation, although Mr Morsi's opponents want nothing less than the complete cancellation of the decree they see as a danger to democracy.

The Supreme Judicial Council said Mr Morsi's decree should apply only to "sovereign matters", suggesting it did not reject the declaration outright, and called on judges and prosecutors, some of whom have begun a strike, to return to work.

Angry protesters have clashed with police for a fourth consecutive day in central Cairo, as Egypt's stock market reacted with a nearly 10% fall.

More than 500 people are believed to have been injured in violent protests since the decree was announced on Thursday.

Activists have been staging a sit-in at Cairo's Tahrir Square - the symbolic hub of the popular uprising that forced Mubarak from power - and a mass protest has been called for Tuesday. The Muslim Brotherhood is planning a counter demonstration.

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Gas Worker's Blunder Caused Strip Club Blast

An explosion which flattened a strip club in Springfield, Massachusetts, has been blamed on a gas worker who accidentally pierced a high-pressure pipeline while looking for a leak.

The blast was caused by a gas worker who accidentally punctured a pipeline

The blast levelled the Scores Gentlemen's Club on Friday evening, and blew out the windows of dozens more buildings up to three blocks away.

Eighteen people were hurt. Most of the injured were part of a group of gas workers, firefighters and police officers who ducked for cover behind a lorry just before the blast.

Officials said it was a miracle no one was killed.

State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan has confirmed the explosion was caused by "human error".

He said a Columbia Gas company worker had been responding to reports of a gas leak when he damaged the underground pipe with a metal probe.

The explosion damaged buildings in a three-block radius

A flood of gas then built up in a building that housed the strip club, and a spark triggered the blast, Mr Coan said.

Preliminary reports show that the blast damaged 42 nearby buildings and 115 residential units.

Three buildings were immediately condemned, while 24 others will need additional inspections by structural engineers to determine whether they are safe.

The building that housed the Scores Gentleman's Club was completely destroyed and a children's day care centre next door was heavily damaged.

Several buildings were evacuated after the gas pipe was ruptured.

The injured were mostly gas workers, police officers and firefighters

Springfield Fire Commissioner Joseph Conant has praised the actions of firefighters.

"The firefighters did an excellent job evacuating the area which certainly prevented additional civilian injuries and saved many lives," he said.

Columbia Gas said it planned to open a claims centre for residents and businesses affected by the explosion.

Company officials have been co-operating with investigators and have determined there are no more gas leaks in the area.

Springfield, which is 90 miles (145km) west of Boston and has about 150,000 residents, is the largest city in western Massachusetts.

The city is still recovering from a tornado that caused extensive damage in June 2011.

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Brit Killed In South Africa Farm Robbery

A British man who went to South Africa to run a nature reserve has been killed in a robbery at his farm, police say.

Christopher Preece had gone outside to check why the power was cut at the property when three men attacked him with machetes, according to officers.

The 54-year-old victim bled to death after the attack near Ficksburg, a town near the border with Lesotho, on Saturday night.

His wife, 56, was seriously wounded in the assault and is now being treated in hospital.

Captain Phumelelo Dhlamini of the South African Police Service said the robbers stole about $350 (£220) and a mobile phone.

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Egypt Judges Condemn President's 'Attack'

Egyptian judges have condemned a decree granting President Mohamed Morsi sweeping new powers, as angry protesters clashed with police for a second day.

A handful of rock-throwing activists battled riot police in the streets near Tahrir Square, where several thousand protesters massed on Friday to demonstrate against the decree, which effectively prevents Mr Morsi's decisions from being challenged.

The move also removed powers from the judiciary and allows the president to take any measures to protect national security.

The Supreme Judicial Council, the country's highest judicial authority, said the decree was an "unprecedented attack" on their independence, the state news agency reported.

Judges in the coastal city of Alexandria said all work at courts and prosecution offices would be suspended until the measures were reversed.

Some protesters are staging a sit-in in Tahrir Square

A number of opposition parties have called for an open-ended sit-in with the aim of "toppling" the decree, which has also drawn criticism from the US, the UN and the European Union.

A mass protest has also been called for Tuesday.

"We are facing a historic moment in which we either complete our revolution or we abandon it to become prey for a group that has put its narrow party interests above the national interest," the liberal Dustour Party said in a statement.

Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood party also called its supporters out onto the streets of Cairo on Tuesday for a counter-demonstration to show support for the move.

On Friday, the president addressed his supporters at a rally outside the presidential palace, telling them he would press forward and that he was on the path to "freedom and democracy".

He said that the new powers were designed to stop "weevils" from the regime of ousted former president Hosni Mubarak blocking progress.

The decree reflects the concerns in the Muslim Brotherhood-led government that sections of the judiciary remain unreformed following the overthrown of Mubarak.

"It aims to sideline Morsi's enemies in the judiciary and ultimately to impose and head off any legal challenges to the constitution," said Elijah Zarwan, a Fellow with The European Council on Foreign Relations.

"We are in a situation now where both sides are escalating and it's getting harder and harder to see how either side can gracefully climb down."

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More Than 100 Die In Bangladesh Factory Fire

At least 112 people have been killed in a fire which tore through a clothes factory in Bangladesh, an official has said.

The blaze broke out in the seven-storey building operated by Tazreen Fashions on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka, late on Saturday.

By this morning, firefighters had recovered 100 bodies, fire department operations director Mohammad Mahbub said.

Mr Mahbub said another 12 people, who had suffered injuries after jumping from the building to escape the fire, later died at several hospitals.

The death toll could rise as the search for victims is continuing, he added.

Army soldiers and border guards had been deployed to help police keep the situation under control as thousands of anxious relatives of the factory workers gathered at the scene.

It is not yet known what caused the blaze.

Firefighters at the scene of the blaze

Bangladesh has some 4,000 clothes factories, many without proper safety measures.

The country annually earns about $20bn from exports of garment products, mainly to the US and Europe.

Meanwhile, in Bangladesh's southeastern port city of Chittagong, military rescue teams were drafted in to help when a flyover collapsed just shortly before the factory fire.

"So far 13 dead bodies have been recovered," sub-inspector Mohammad Alauddin said.

The number of missing could not immediately be confirmed but police constable Shakakhawat Hossain said that dozens could be trapped under the debris.

Mr Hossain said about 20 people were injured, including some during clashes between police and an angry crowd that attacked the site offices of the construction company after the flyover collapse.

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Catalonia Holds Vote That Could Reshape Spain

Polls have opened in Spain's wealthy region of Catalonia for an election that could determine whether it eventually breaks away from the rest of the country.

The region must choose a new assembly, after a campaign dominated by the issue of independence from Spain and financial woes.

Opinion polls show that most voters will cast ballots for pro-independence parties, with Catalan President Artur Mas expected to win re-election.

Mr Mas has advocated independence despite strong resistance from Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who has been fighting deep recession in his country.

"I hope to be the last president of a Catalonia that the Spanish state is trying to destroy," Mr Mas told a recent campaign rally for his conservative Convergence and Union Party.

"The next one will not depend on the Spanish state and they will no longer be able to destroy it," he told supporters, who chanted back to him: "Independence! Independence!"

If the vote today goes his way, he has promised to call a referendum on statehood within four years.

Like the Basque Country, Catalonia - a northeastern region of 7.5 million people - has its own language and sees itself as different from the rest of Spain.

Until recently, Catalans were content just pushing for greater autonomy, and stopped short of seeking independence.

But Spain's economic woes, including a 25% unemployment rate, and tough austerity measures imposed by Madrid have added to the Catalans' discontent and persuaded many they would be better off on their own.

Catalonia has a significant weight in Spain's economy, accounting for one-fifth of its total output, and a greater share of its exports.

It features one of the world's greatest football teams, FC Barcelona, which contributes many players to Spain's World Cup winning national squad.

However, the region has also suffered from Europe's financial crisis and has a 44bn euro debt.

In the voting for the regional assembly, called by Mr Mas two years ahead of schedule, 135 seats are up for grabs, with Mr Mas' alliance expected to take 60-64, according to recent surveys.

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