Iran Nuclear Talks Make 'Very Good Progress'

British Foreign Minister William Hague has said global powers negotiating with Iran over its nuclear programme must "seize the moment" as talks enter an unscheduled third day.

Six world powers - the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - are working on a deal to cap some of Iran's atomic programme in exchange for limited relief from economic sanctions.

As delegates arrived on Saturday, Mr Hague told reporters: "We are very conscious of the fact that real momentum has built up in these negotiations and there is now real concentration on these negotiations and so we have to do everything we can to seize the moment.

However, he cautioned that it was not clear whether a deal could be reached by the end of the day.

France's Laurent Fabius said the sticking points were a call for Iran to halt operations at its Arak research reactor - a potential producer of bomb-grade plutonium - while the negotiating process continues and questions about Iran's stock of uranium enriched to 20%.

Both issues reflect Western concerns that Iran is enriching uranium for use in atomic weapons rather than in a civilian nuclear energy programme as it claims.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, who cut short a Middle East tour to attend the talks in Geneva, Switzerland, had also struck a note of caution after a five-hour meeting drew to a close last night.

Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (centre) is at the talks

"There is not an agreement at this point," Mr Kerry told reporters. "There are still some very important issues on the table that are unresolved."

Iran's deputy foreign minister Abbas Araqchi had stressed: "It was productive but still we have lots of work to do."

Earlier on Friday, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov raised hopes after he said the six countries and Iran could agree a "road map" to end the differences over the programme at the talks.

He told reporters he did not wish to prejudge the outcome but said Iran should be allowed to have a peaceful nuclear programme under the watch of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Unlike previous encounters between Iran and Western powers in the past decade, all sides have remained quiet about details of the negotiations, without the criticism and mutual allegations of a lack of seriousness that have been typical of such meetings in the past.

Diplomats involved in the talks say this is a sign of how serious all sides are.

If some sort of agreement is reached, it would be a breakthrough after a decade of negotiations between Iran and the six world powers.

A potential deal could see Tehran freeze its nuclear efforts for as long as six months in exchange for some relief from the sanctions that have battered its economy.

But Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that his country "utterly rejects" a deal being forged, adding that "Israel will do everything it needs to do to defend itself and defend the security of its people".

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Lampedusa Boat Victims 'Raped And Tortured'

Italian police have arrested a Somali man accused of raping and torturing asylum seekers fleeing Libya on a boat which sank off the island of Lampedusa last month killing more than 365 migrants.

Mouhamud Elmi Muhidin, 34, faces charges of kidnapping, sexual assault, people trafficking and criminal association with the goal of aiding illegal immigration after he was identified by survivors.

Some 130 Eritreans were assaulted in Libay according to police

Some 130 migrants from Eritrea told police they were held for ransom at a detention centre in the Libyan desert by people traffickers from Somalia, Libya and Sudan.

A 17-year-old Eritrean girl interviewed by police said: "They forced us to watch our men being tortured with various methods including batons, electric shocks to the feet; whoever rebelled was tied up."

The migrants were forced to pay up to $3,500 (£2,180) for their freedom and their onward journey to the Libyan coast and a boat that due to take them to Italy.

Those who survived the crossing are held at detention centres in Italy

"The women who could not pay were assaulted," the girl said.                 

She also described in her own sexual assault, claiming Muhidin was one of three men who raped her.

"They threw me on the ground, held me down and poured fuel on my head. It burnt my hair, then my face, then my eyes.

"Then the three of them raped me without protection. After a quarter of an hour I was beaten and taken back to the house."

Muhidin was arrested on Lampedusa after he was spotted by some of the survivors on the island. He has now been flown to Sicily where he faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.

Police also held this Tunisian man suspected of driving one of the boats

Investigators say he arrived on the island last week and had been staying in the local migrant centre, pretending to be one of the refugees.

"He was one of the leaders of the trafficking organisation," a police spokeswoman said, adding that he may have come to Italy to look for criminal contacts.

Italian authorities have vowed to crack down on the people trafficking rings that have been behind the influx of more than 35,000 asylum seekers so far this year to the country's coasts.

Most of them come from Eritrea, Somalia and Syria and Italy has asked for the European Union to step up assistance in dealing with the arrivals and countering the criminal networks behind them.

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Super Typhoon Haiyan: Hundreds Feared Dead

An airport worker in the Philippines has reported seeing one hundred bodies lying in the streets in just one town after Super Typhoon Haiyan ravaged the country.

At least 20 more were confirmed dead on Saturday but there are fears for hundreds more after the tropical cyclone smashed through the country with winds gusting up to 170mph.

Manila-based journalist Mike Cohen told Sky News: "We are thinking (the death toll will be) in the higher hundreds.

A man walks amid shattered homes in Tacloban

"The video images that we are seeing are so gruesome we cannot show them. There are bodies piled up upon bodies in several areas.

"This is from Leyte and Samar provinces. We are still not through the other four provinces."

Dozens of towns and villages are thought to have been inundated with water after storm surges flooded low-lying areas, drowning many it their path.

A mother weeps beside the dead body of her son

TV pictures showed cars, trees and rubble from houses strewn across streets after they were picked up by giant waves and carried inland.

One survivor said: "We thought it was a tsunami."

"Almost all houses were destroyed, many are totally damaged. Only a few are left standing," said Major Rey Balido, a spokesman for the national disaster agency.

Children play among downed power lines

A British team of humanitarian experts is due to fly out to the far eastern country to help the UK Government decide what aid to send.

An appeal launched by the British Red Cross has already raised more than £100,000.

About a million people who were evacuated because they were living in the typhoon's path have been returning to find out what is left of their houses.

Residents carry the body of a loved one

Hundreds of thousands are said to have lost their homes.

Many of the most heavily damaged areas are still to be contacted because power and telephone lines are down, suggesting the final death toll could be much higher.

Captain John Andrews, deputy director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, said he had spoken to colleagues in some of the affected areas by radio who had told him there were bodies lying in the street.

Soldiers walk outside of Tacloban's shattered airport terminal

There were "100-plus dead, lying on the streets, with 100 plus injured" in Tacloban, the airport worker had told him.

Tacloban is the capital of Leyte, a large island of about two million people that suffered a direct hit from Haiyan on Friday morning when the storm was at its strongest.

Leyte Island, about 350miles south of the capital Manila, is one of five islands that was in the path of the super typhoon.

Children ran and cowered in terror as the typhoon hit

A news team for local television network GMA reported counting at least 20 bodies in a church, 20 more at a pier and a further 11 that had been washed ashore, including one child.

An AFP photographer who reached the city aboard a military plane said large areas of Tacloban had been flattened.

Minnie Portales, a spokesman for the aid agency World Vision, said: "As we wait for early reports from some of the hardest-hit provinces, we fear for the worst. This could be very bad."

A map showing the path of the typhoon and affected islands

At one point before it hit land the super typhoon had been even stronger, with winds gusting up to 235mph, which made it among the most powerful ever.

Meteorologists said that it had slowed to 100mph after passing over the Philippines but could pick up strength again as it sweeps across the South China Sea toward Vietnam.

Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese have been moved away from coastal areas as authorities prepared for Haiyan to make landfall around 10am Sunday.

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Taliban Leader Fazlullah Vows Revenge Attacks

The Pakistani Taliban has promised a wave of revenge attacks against the government a day after naming Mullah Fazlullah as its new leader.

Fazlullah, the man behind the attack on teenage activist Malala Yousafzai, was chosen after the US killed the group's previous chief, Hakimullah Mehsud, in a drone strike.

The group said its offensive "will target security forces, government installations, political leaders and police".

"We have a plan," said Asmatullah Shaheen, head of the Taliban's leadership council.

"But I want to make one thing clear. We will not target civilians, bazaars or public places. People do not need to be afraid."

Shaheen said the Taliban's main target included army and government installations in Punjab province, the political stronghold of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud was killed last week

The Taliban statement condemned the Pakistani government, calling it a "slave of America" and claiming it has "full information" about US drone attacks in the group's tribal heartland.

Pakistan publicly condemns the strikes as a breach of its sovereignty but in private the government is said to broadly support them.

The Taliban's new leader was quickly chosen by the shura, the group's leadership council, and named on Thursday.

Fazlullah served as the Pakistani Taliban's leader in the northwest Swat Valley and rose to prominence in radio broadcasts demanding the imposition of a harsh brand of Islam, earning him the nickname "Mullah Radio".

His election came after Mehsud was killed entering his compound in a village in North Waziristan on November 1.

Mehsud and his allies had been tentatively open to the idea of ceasefire talks with the government, but Fazlullah strongly opposes any negotiations.

No meaningful talks have taken place between the Taliban and the government since Mr Sharif was elected prime minister in May.

Fazlullah now looks to have moved even further from that possibility, signalling a new period of uncertainty and violence in the country.

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Super Typhoon Haiyan Hits The Philippines

At least four people have been killed after Super Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful typhoons ever recorded, hit the Philippines.

The victims are reported to include a mother and child who drowned in South Cotabato, and a boy who was struck by lightning in Zamboanga City.

A fourth was killed by a falling tree but the death toll is expected to rise as the worst affected areas after currently cut off.

Children have been left in tears by the typhoon in Cebu city

Three quaters of a million people were ordered to leave their homes in villages in Haiyan's path amid fears the storm damage could be the worst in the Philippines' history.

President Benigno Aquino III threatened to use guns to force people living in high-risk areas, including 100 coastal communities, to move in a desperate bid to save lives.

War-like preparations were swung into place with three C-130 air force cargo planes and 32 military helicopters and planes on standby, along with 20 navy ships.

"No typhoon can bring Filipinos to their knees if we'll be united," Mr Aquino said in a televised address.

The US Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Centre in Hawaii said Haiyan's maximum sustained winds were 195mph (314kmph), with gusts up to 235mph (379kmph).

Some meteorologists have claimed it is the strongest severe tropical storm to make landfall. The previous record holder, according to Reuters and AP, was Hurricane Camillie in 1969 which had winds up to 190mph.

Residents of Legazpi city in Albay province, south of Manila

The cyclone whipped up the seas, producing waves that reached 6m (19ft) high, threatening to inundate low lying areas.

Local journalist Mike Cohen told Sky News: "We're seeing a lot of strong winds but not a lot of rain.

"There are already reports of some landslides and very strong storm surge entering towns and villages in the path of the storm.

Damage to buildings in Ormoc City. Credit: Ritchel M. Deleon

"Trees are falling and there is lots of damage reported across the region."

The typhoon is believed to have made landfall on the northern tip of Cebu Province, about 350 miles south east of the capital Manila.

Up to 12million people live in the affected areas, including the tourist districts of Leyte Island and Borocay Island.

Children sheltering in Cebu. Picture: Red Cross

At the moment the cyclone  - known locally as Yolanda - is about 300miles across. It is expected to pass over the south end of Mindoro Island around noon on Friday, hitting Busuanga at about 1pm.

According to Mr Cohen, power has been cut to the worst-affected areas, mainly as a preventative measure to avoid electrocution, but this was making communications difficult.

Among the 720,000 evacuated are thousands of refugees from a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Bohol last month, who have been living in tents since the tremor hit.

Waves up to six metres high have been reported as a result of high winds

Jeff Masters, a former hurricane meteorologist who is a director at the private firm Weather Underground, warned that there would be "catastrophic damage".

He said: "195mph winds; there aren't too many buildings constructed that can withstand that kind of wind. The wind damage should be the most extreme in Philippines' history."

The strength of the wind made it one of the four most powerful typhoons ever recorded in the world, and the most powerful to have made landfall, he added.

A closer look reveals the eye of the storm over the Philippines

But other meteorologists forecast lower readings, saying the storm's speed at landfall had sustained winds at 145mph (234kmph) with gusts of 170mph ( 275kmph).

Haiyan is expected to sweep through the Philippines' central region before moving toward the South China Sea over the weekend, heading towards Vietnam.

Meteorologists fear that it could intensify further as it approaches the Vietnamese coast.

A map showing the path and predicted path of Typhoon Haiyan

The head of the government's main disaster response agency in the capital Manila said people are still being moved from communities prone to landslides and flooding.

But there is hope that, as Haiyan is a fast-moving storm, flooding from heavy rain - which usually causes the most deaths from typhoons in the Philippines - may not be as bad.

Haiyan is the 24th tropical storm to hit the Philippines this year. Last year, Typhoon Bopha, which had maximum sustained winds of 175mph, killed 1,100 people in the country.

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Iran Nuclear Deal 'Utterly Rejected' By Israel

Israel's prime minister has dismissed an agreement expected to made between world powers and Iran over its nuclear programme as a "bad deal".

Six world powers - the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - are working on a deal to cap some of Iran's atomic programme in exchange for limited relief from economic sanctions.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the six countries and Iran could agree a road map" to end the differences over the programme at the talks in Geneva, Switzerland.

He told reporters he did not wish to prejudge the outcome but said Iran should be allowed to have a peaceful nuclear programme under the watch of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Sergei Lavrov is hoping for a "concrete result"

But Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu - who last year drew a red line across a cartoon bomb to illustrate the point at which Iran will have amassed enough uranium to fuel one nuclear bomb - said his country "utterly rejects" the deal being forged.

"I understand the Iranians are walking around very satisfied in Geneva as well they should because they got everything and paid nothing," he said.

"They wanted relief of sanctions after years of gruelling sanctions, they got that. They paid nothing because they are not reducing in any way their nuclear enrichment capability.

"So Iran got the deal of the century and the international community got a bad deal.

Iran's president denies his country wants to make nuclear weapons

"This is a very bad deal and Israel utterly rejects it. Israel is not obliged by this agreement and Israel will do everything it needs to do to defend itself and defend the security of its people."

Meanwhile, a senior US State Department official travelling with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Amman, Jordan, said he was going to Geneva "to help narrow differences in negotiations".

Foreign Secretary William Hague and the foreign ministers of France and Germany will also attend the talks, further raising hopes a deal could be imminent.

If an agreement is reached in Geneva, it would only be the start of a long process to reduce Iran's potential nuclear threat, with no guarantee of ultimate success.

US Secretary of State John kerry

But even a limited accord would mark a breakthrough after nearly a decade of mostly inconclusive talks focused on limiting, if not eliminating, Iranian atomic programmes.

The talks are primarily focused on the size and output of Iran's enrichment programme, which can create both reactor fuel and weapons-grade material suitable for a nuclear bomb.

Iran insists it is pursuing only nuclear energy, medical treatments and research, but the US and its allies fear that Iran could turn this material into the fissile core of nuclear warheads.

Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, has indicated he could cut back on the nuclear programme in exchange for an easing of sanctions.

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Philippines Braced For Typhoon Haiyan

Thousands of villagers, including those from an area devastated recently by an earthquake, have been forced to leave their homes as a powerful typhoon approaches the Philippines.

Typhoon Haiyan has already built up winds of 134mph and gusts of 155mph and there are fears it could get even stronger before it reaches Eastern Samar on Friday.

The head of the government's main disaster response agency said people are being moved from communities prone to landslides and flooding.

These include residents of Bohol, many of whom are still living in tents following the earthquake.

Haiyan is expected to cause massive damage

Haiyan is not expected to hit the province directly but it will almost certainly be lashed by strong wind and rain, say forecasters.

The military says Army troops are helping to deliver food packs and other items to communities that are hard to reach and rescue helicopters are on stand-by.

The typhoon is forecast to barrel through the country's central region on Friday and Saturday before heading towards the South China Sea on Sunday.

Manila, the densely-populated capital in the north, should not be affected.

Haiyan will be the 24th such storm in the Philippines this year, even more than usual. The annual average is 20.

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Yasser Arafat: Tests 'Support' Polonium Claims

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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Twitter IPO: Shares Hit Stock Exchange At $26

Twitter has set a price of $26 (£16) for its public stock offering due to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.

The price values the San Francisco-based micro blogging site at more than $18bn (£11.2bn) based on its outstanding stock, options and restricted stock expected to be available after the Initial Public Offering (IPO).

It is offering 70 million shares with an option to buy another 10.5 million.

Twitter had originally set a price range of $17 (£10.57) to $20 (£12.44), but raised the range on Monday signalling an enthusiastic response from prospective investors.

A statement from the company read: "We've priced our initial public offering of 70,000,000 shares of our common stock at a price to the public of $26 (£16) per share.

"In addition we've guaranteed the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 10,500,000 additional shares of common stock.

"Our shares are expected to begin trading on the NYSE on November 7 under the symbol TWTR."

Analysts said they expected shares in the company to experience a small rise during the first day of trading.

Investor enthusiasm for Twitter, which boasts 230 million users, is strong even though the micro-blogging site has never turned a profit.

Despite this, Securities and Exchange Commission chairwoman Mary Jo White suggested technology companies with large numbers of users will not always translate them into big profits.

"In the absence of a clear description, it can be hard not to think that these big numbers will inevitably translate into big profits for the company.

"But the connection may not necessarily be there. What if only a fraction of those users are paying customers?

"What does that mean for future financial results? What if the bulk of the growth in the number of users is in an area where the company has not yet figured out how to turn those users into paying customers?

"What does that then say about the meaning of user growth rates?"

As is customary on the NYSE, there will be a person designated to ensure that the IPO is not marred by technical glitches - as happened when Facebook floated on the tech-focussed Nasdaq.

Twitter has hired Barclays Capital to be its "designated market maker (DMM)," a critical role when a stock starts trading.

A DMM is an experienced trader who supervises the trading of a company's stock on the NYSE.

If technical problems arise, the NYSE uses DMMs to bypass electronic trading systems, allowing people to trade a company's stock which is not possible on all-electronic stock exchanges such as the Nasdaq.

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Greenpeace Arrests: Dutch Take Russia To Court

By Katie Stallard, Russia Correspondent

Representatives of the Dutch government will go to an international maritime court later to try to secure the release of the Arctic Sunrise and its crew.

The Greenpeace ship, which was sailing under the Netherlands flag, was seized by Russian security forces in September after a protest near an arctic oil rig.

Thirty people on board, including two freelance journalists, a cook and the ship's doctor were arrested at gunpoint and taken to a pre-trial detention centre in Murmansk.

Last week, without explanation, they were transferred to a prison in St Petersburg.

Initial charges of piracy have reportedly been downgraded to hooliganism, an offence punishable by up to seven years in prison. But Greenpeace said the original charges also remain in place.

Russian security services seize Arctic Sunrise

The Dutch government has applied to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to order the immediate release of the ship and its crew.

Based in Hamburg, the tribunal was set up to resolve global maritime disputes.

A hearing has been set for Wednesday, but Russia has already said it will not take part, and does not accept decisions that concern its national sovereignty.

The tribunal's website says its has no means to enforce its decisions.

But Greenpeace legal counsel Daniel Simons told Sky News the Netherlands had a very strong case, and it would be more appropriate for Russia to contest the issue of jurisdiction in court.

He said: "Russia has failed to indicate any legal basis for the boarding and detention of the vessel and those persons on board.

"So I think there's every prospect the tribunal will order their release, pending the arbitration case that the Netherlands has filed against Russia."

The Netherlands insists the ship was in international waters when it was stormed.

Inside the detention centre in Murmansk

Russia has said it was in its exclusive economic zone, endangered a Russian oil platform, and should be subject to Russian laws.

Relations between the two countries have been strained since the incident.

The Netherlands and Russia celebrate 400 years of cultural ties this year.

That is not quite going according to plan.

Two weeks after the Arctic Sunrise was seized, a Russian diplomat was arrested and, he has claimed, treated roughly by police in The Hague.

Ten days later, a senior Dutch diplomat was assaulted in his Moscow flat.

Now Russian public health officials are investigating concerns about the safety of imported Dutch tulips and cheese.

Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans told reporters ahead of the hearing: "The Netherlands is hoping now that all this, eventually, will mean that pending a final solution of the issues, the crew will be released and that also the ship is going to be released."

"Our interpretation of the law of the sea is that nothing happened which justifies the crew being in prison.

"The judge must now decide."

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New Jersey Governor Chris Christie Wins Poll

Chris Christie has been re-elected as New Jersey governor in a landslide victory over his Democrat rival.

Mr Christie won 60.5% of the vote against 38% for Barbara Buono, with 99% of precincts reporting.

The 51-year-old Republican - whose popularity soared after his response to Superstorm Sandy last year - is seen as a possible 2016 presidential contender. 

The margin of victory makes Mr Christie the first Republican in 25 years to receive more than 50% of the vote in the state, which voted overwhelmingly in favour of President Barack Obama last year.

Mr Christie told supporters: "We have a big, big win tonight.

"I did not seek a second term to do small things. I sought a second term to finish the job - now watch me do it."

Mr Christie, who attracted national attention by working closely with Mr Obama after the storm that devastated the New Jersey coastline, said Sandy had brought people together.

He said: "The spirit of Sandy will stay with us well beyond the days that the recovery will take. I will govern with the spirit of Sandy."

Speaking around 40 minutes after polls closed on Tuesday night, Ms Buono told her supporters she had called Mr Christie to congratulate him.

In Virginia, former top Democratic Party official Terry McAuliffe defeated Ken Cuccinelli, the state attorney general.

Mr Cuccinelli's campaign was damaged by his ties with the Tea Party movement, which was widely blamed for instigating last month's federal government shutdown.

Meanwhile, New Yorkers voted to elect Democrat Bill de Blasio as their new mayor.

And Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed was re-elected to a second term, defeating three little-known challengers. Mr Reed is perhaps best known for his strong support of Mr Obama.

In Boston, Congressman Martin Walsh narrowly defeated fellow Democrat John Connolly in a hard-fought race to succeed long-time mayor Thomas Menino.

Final results posted on the city's website showed Mr Walsh with 52% to 48% for Mr Connolly.

And in financially troubled Detroit, Mike Duggan defeated Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon. The city was taken into bankruptcy in July by emergency manager Kevyn Orr.

In Seattle, Ed Murray, who led the successful campaign to legalise gay marriage in Washington state, was leading the mayoral race after early returns.

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Knox's Ex Sollecito Gives Evidence At Retrial

Raffaele Sollecito, the former boyfriend of Amanda Knox, has been giving evidence in an Italian court at a retrial hearing in Florence.

The 29-year-old is attending the appeal trial, which sees the former lovers accused of killing the British student in Perugia in November 2007.

The trial is the latest in a drawn-out legal process that saw Knox, 26, and Sollecito convicted and jailed in Perugia in 2009, before being released after four years when they were cleared on appeal, only for that verdict to be overturned by Italy's supreme court this year.

Knox has refused to travel to Italy for the new appeal

While Knox has refused to travel from her home town of Seattle to appear in court for the new appeal, Sollecito has returned from a holiday in the Dominican Republic, an island with which Italy does not have an extradition treaty and which has hosted numerous Italian fugitives from justice.

Sollecito's father Francesco played down suspicions that his son was preparing to head back there after the hearing.

He said: "It was just a holiday - you can't be a fugitive for life."

He added that Raffaele Sollecito will now go back to his family home in Puglia, in southern Italy.

At the hearing, results will be revealed from a DNA test ordered by the judge on a knife found in Sollecito's apartment, which prosecutors believed to be the murder weapon.

Police originally claimed to have found both Miss Kercher's and Knox's DNA on the knife, but the Kercher DNA was challenged by a forensic evidence review during the appeal.

The latest trace to be analysed, which was considered too small to test during the review and is known as Trace "I", is likely to be Knox's DNA, results have shown.

Meredith Kercher was found dead in her room in Perugia in 2007

Carlo dalla Vedova, a lawyer representing Knox, said: "The trace is a low copy number which the police say is not male, not Kercher, and could be Knox."

Mr Sollecito said: "The result means it was just a kitchen knife used by Knox in Raffaele's kitchen.

"The new trace is between the blade and the handle, the normal position for a finger when cutting bread.

"The DNA review has already excluded the possibility of Kercher's DNA being on the knife and the Supreme Court did not contest that, and now this new test shows again that there is no trace of Kercher on the knife."

Mr Dalla Vedova said that by showing the trace was not Miss Kercher's DNA, the test had bolstered Knox and Sollecito's defence.

"It's another element of the prosecution that falls down," he said.

However, apart from considering the knife, the court will also consider the Supreme Court's ruling that the appeal acquittal was full of "shortcomings, contradictions and inconsistencies".

After Wednesday's hearing, the trial will pick up again on November 25 for final arguments from the prosecution.

Dates will then be set for the final arguments from defence lawyers and rebuttals.

Francesco Sollecito confirmed his son has visited Miss Kercher's grave in the UK last year, apparently in defiance of the Kercher family who have asked for the grave to be kept private.

"It was before the Supreme Court ruling," he said. "Raffaele was in London and was taken by a friend whose idea it was."

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Nazi Art Loot: Unknown Marc Chagall Work Found

German authorities say the trove of Nazi-looted art seized in a Munich flat included works dating from the 16th century by artists such as Canaletto, Courbet, Picasso, Chagall and Toulouse-Lautrec.

"A total of 121 framed and 1,285 non-framed works ... were seized," said Augsburg state prosecutor Reinhard Nemetz.

"There were oil paintings, others in Indian ink, pencil, water colours, colour prints, other prints from artists like Max Liebermann and others."

A previously unknown work by Marc Chagall was among the collection found in a nondescript flat owned by Cornelius Gurlitt the reclusive elderly son of a war-time art dealer.

The late Hildebrand Gurlitt was a specialist collector of the modern art of the early 20th century that the Nazis branded as un-German or "degenerate" and removed from show in state museums.

Investigators said they searched the apartment on February 28, 2012, as part of a tax investigation that started with a routine check on a Zurich-Munich train in late 2010.

Meike Hoffmann, art historian at Berlin Free University, said another unknown masterpiece by fellow modernist painter Otto Dix was also part of the haul.

She said the Chagall painting, an allegorical scene dating from the mid-1920s, had a "particularly high art-historical value". The Dix work is a rare self-portrait believed to have been painted in 1919.

Works have been examined by art historian Meike Hoffmann

Augsburg state prosecutor Reinhard Nemetz told a news conference: "Regarding these artworks with an ideal value so high that it can not be estimated, there are concrete indications that this is so called 'degenerate art' or stolen art."

Siegried Kloeble of Munich Custroms Office said: "When we investigated the matter we immediately noticed that these were classic modern works.

"Let me name a few of the artists: Max Liebermann, Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Oskar Kokoschka, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, August Macke, Emil Nolde, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Pablo Picasso, Carl Spitzweg, Marc Chagall, Renoir, Schmidt-Rottluff, Hofer."

Ms Hoffman said: "When you're standing in front of these works which for a long time were believed to have disappeared or to have been destroyed, it is an incredible feeling of joy.

"They are in relatively good condition, some of them are dirty but not damaged. As far as I can see, these works are of an absolutely outstanding quality, aesthetic quality but also in a good condition so they represent a huge scientific value.

"I pointed out that a lot of the works were not known at all until now. So this will mean a great challenge for the research on the individual artists once this case has been evaluated fully and the works can be displayed publicly."

The story of the artworks was revealed in a report by news magazine Focus over the weekend.

Focus estimated that the works found amongst stacks of hoarded groceries in the flat of Cornelius Gurlitt, could be worth well over 1 billion euros.

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Norway Bus Murder Suspect 'Due To Be Deported'

A man arrested on suspicion of stabbing three people to death after hijacking a bus in Norway had been due to be deported today, police have revealed.

The bus driver, who was in his 50s, and his two passengers, a 19-year-old woman and a Swedish man in his 50s, were killed in the attacks.

The 30-year-old suspect was an asylum seeker from South Sudan who had been living at Ardal reception centre, near the scene of the stabbings.

And police officer Aage Loeseth said the man had been scheduled to fly alone and without security to capital city Oslo on Tuesday before being transported out of the country.

He said his asylum application had been refused because he had made an earlier application in Spain, where he was to be sent.

The deputy director of the organisation managing the reception centre in Ardal, Tor Brekke, said the attack had been "completely unexpected".

Ambulance workers at the scene of the killings

"There was nothing to indicate any imbalance, or that he could do this," he said.

The nearest police patrol when the alarm was raised after the attacks at around 5.30pm on Monday was 55 miles away.

The first emergency workers to arrive at the scene were firefighters followed by ambulance staff, with the hijacking initially reported as a traffic accident.

Norwegian newspaper VG said an ambulance worker approached the man while firefighters armed with hammers helped overpower him by spraying him with powder extinguishers.

Police arrived around 1 hour and 20 minutes after the alarm was raised and took the man into custody. He is now being held under armed guard at Haukeland hospital in Bergen, having reportedly suffered only minor cuts.

Olaug Holme, from Hordaland Police, told Dagbladet: "We have police on site who are guarding him.

"There will be a medical assessment as to when he may be transported elsewhere, (but) I cannot say much about the medical situation now."

Emergency terror police were initially scrambled to the location of the stabbings from Oslo, but turned back when it became clear the suspect had been arrested.

Forensics officers remained at the scene overnight, while a centre was set up nearby for relatives of those affected.

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Dublin: Picture Of Girl Found In Street Released

Police in Dublin have released a picture of a teenage girl found wandering who they fear may be the victim of sex trafficking.

More follows...

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Edward Snowden's Plea For Clemency Rejected

The White House and intelligence officials have rejected Edward Snowden's plea for clemency, saying he should face justice for disclosing classified documents.

The former National Security Agency contractor has called for international support to stop what he says is Washington's "persecution" of him.

White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer said: "Mr Snowden violated US law. He should return to the US and face justice."

He added that no offers for clemency were being discussed.

Snowden's revelations, including allegations that the US has eavesdropped on allies including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, have led to calls by allies to cease such spying.

The disclosures also prompted moves by Congress to overhaul US surveillance laws and curb the agency's powers.

The revelations have led to protests in the US and abroad

The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee said if Snowden had been a true whistle-blower, he could have reported it to her committee privately.

"That didn't happen, and now he's done this enormous disservice to our country," said Senator Dianne Feinstein.

"I think the answer is no clemency."

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Rogers, called clemency for Snowden a "terrible idea".

"He needs to come back and own up," said Mr Rogers.

"If he believes there's vulnerabilities in the systems he'd like to disclose, you don't do it by committing a crime that actually puts soldiers' lives at risk in places like Afghanistan."

The US has charged Snowden with espionage. But to his supporters the 30-year-old, who was granted asylum in Russia for at least a year, is a human rights champion.

The NSA has allegedly listened in on Angela Merkel's phone calls

In A Manifesto For The Truth published in German news magazine Der Spiegel on Sunday, Snowden said current debates about mass surveillance in many countries showed his revelations were helping to bring about change.

"Instead of causing damage, the usefulness of the new public knowledge for society is now clear because reforms to politics, supervision and laws are being suggested," he wrote.

"Citizens have to fight against the suppression of information about affairs of essential importance for the public.

"Those who speak the truth are not committing a crime."

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Ryanair Moves To Fully Allocated Seating

Ryanair has announced a plan to move to fully allocated seating on all of its flights.

The budget carrier said the new system will be in force from February 1.

The move comes after numerous customer complaints about the frenzied rush by passengers to secure the best seats.

The company said in a statement: "This return to allocated seating is Ryanair's response to the enormous demand from our customers in recent weeks via Ryanair's 'Tell MOL' customer feedback initiative.

"Ryanair's decision to launch fully allocated seating is also part of the airline's commitment to listen to its customers."

The announcement comes as the company revealed a profit rise of just 1% to £510m, in the six months to September 30.

Two months after Ryanair issued its first profit warning in a decade, the Ireland-based firm has now cut its profit forecast further for the financial year ending in March, to £423m and £440m.

It had previously estimated the full-year profit at £487m.

Ryanair, Europe's largest carrier by seats sold, said traffic rose 2% to 49 million passengers in the period, but said intense competition was pushing down winter fares by around 10%.

Shares in Ryanair were down more than 11% in early Monday trading, as investors fled from airline stocks.

Easyjet and IAG, the parent company of BA, were also down as a result.

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Egypt: Morsi Trial Halted Due To Chanting

The trial of former Egyptian leader Mohamed Morsi and 14 others has been postponed until January 8 after the defendants refused to cooperate.

The postponement - on the first day of the controversial trial - came after persistent chanting from the defendants and a two-hour delay to the start of proceedings.

Security officials said the delay was caused by Mohamed Morsi not wanting to change into prison uniform, part of his refusal to recognise the trial's legitimacy.

Some 20,000 police officers have been deployed to maintain order as Morsi goes on trial accused of inciting the deaths of at least 10 protesters outside the presidential palace in December 2012.

Morsi supporters have been protesting outside the trial

Egypt's first democratically-elected president could face the death penalty or a life sentence if found guilty.

A statement from the deposed leader, published in the Al Ahram newspaper, said: "I am the legitimate president of the country. I refuse to accept that the Egyptian judiciary be a cover for the criminal military coup.

"I am present here by force and I demand that the head of this court not participate in the coup and restore my authority as president."

Riot police are keeping watch at the police academy

Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, which is now a banned group, accuse the army-installed government of fabricating the charges and has called for protests, raising fears of new clashes.

Hundreds have gathered outside the trial to support him.

The trial is being seen as a test for Egypt's new authorities, who have come under fire from human rights groups for their heavy-handed approach in dealing with dissent.

Morsi, who has been held by the army at a secret location since he was ousted on July 3, was flown to the police academy in east Cairo earlier today for the start of proceedings.

Tahrir Square, the main site of protests in the past, was sealed off ahead of the trial by army vehicles and barbed wire.

Protesters attack a TV truck outside the court

Sky News' Sam Kiley, who is in Cairo, said Morsi supporters chased away some media organisations outside the trial.

"(They) have taken the view that the Egyptian media - the Arab media in general - has not represented their side of the story, has not sufficiently examined whether or not this was a coup."

The Muslim Brotherhood gained power in elections after the 2011 uprising against former president Hosni Mubarak, on trial facing similar charges.

However, millions of Egyptians soon grew disillusioned with the group's rule and took to the streets this summer to demand Morsi's resignation.

The army - whose regime now runs the country - removed him from power, saying they were responding to the will of the people.

More than 1,000 people have died in a security crackdown since the military took charge, including hundreds on August 14 when security forces broke up two protest camps.

During a six-hour visit to Cairo on Sunday, US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Egyptians to ensure a return to a democratically-elected government.

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LA Airport Gunman May Face Death Penalty

The suspected gunman in the deadly shooting at Los Angeles International Airport has been charged with murder - and could face the death penalty.

Authorities arrested Paul Ciancia, 23, after Friday's attack, which left security officer Gerardo Hernandez dead and five others wounded.

As well as murder, Ciancia was also charged with commission of violence at an international airport.

Suspected gunman Paul Ciancia

A note allegedly found in the suspect's bag said that he wanted to kill at least one transport officer with his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and didn't care which one. 

"Black, white, yellow, brown, I don't discriminate," the note read, according to a paraphrase by a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. 

The suspect's screed also mentioned "fiat currency" and "NWO," possible references to the New World Order, a conspiracy theory that foresees a one-world government.

Terminal 3, the area where the shooting happened, reopened on Saturday.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) planned to review its security policies in the wake of the shooting.

The attack caused major disruption to travellers

Administrator John Pistole did not say if that meant arming officers.

A few more details emerged about Ciancia, who was described as reserved and solitary.

Former classmates barely remember him, and could say little about the young man who moved from New Jersey to Los Angeles less than two years ago.

"He kept to himself and ate lunch alone a lot," a former classmate, David Hamilton, told the Los Angeles Times.

"I really don't remember any one person who was close to him .... In four years, I never heard a word out of his mouth."

A police officer at Los Angeles airport

Ciancia, who was shot four times by airport police, remained in hospital on Saturday, but there was no word on his condition.

He was wounded in the mouth and the leg, authorities said.

On Friday, Ciancia's father called police in New Jersey, worried about his son after the young man sent texts to his family that suggested he might be in trouble.

Ten minutes earlier, police said a suspect walked into the airport, pulled a rifle from a bag and began firing.

When searched by police, the attacker had five 30-round magazines, and the bag contained "hundreds of rounds in 20-round boxes," a law enforcement official said.

Mr Hernandez, 39, was the first TSA official in the agency's 12-year history to be killed in the line of duty.

Allen Cummings, the police chief in the small town where Ciancia grew up, said the texts the suspect's family had received did not mention suicide or hurting others.

The attack at the nation's third-busiest airport caused hundreds flights to be delayed and cancellations nationwide.

Leon Saryan had just passed through security when he gunfire. He fled and as he was cowering in a corner, the shooter approached.

"He looked at me and asked 'TSA?'. I shook my head no, and he continued on down toward the gate. He had his gun at the ready and, but for the grace of God, I am here to tell about it," said Mr Saryan.

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New Pakistan Taliban Leader After Drone Strike

The Pakistani Taliban's number two commander has been promoted to leader after its previous chief Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike.

Khan Said, also known as Sajna, now heads the militant group following a meeting of the supreme ruling council, according to security officials.

However, some commanders were reportedly unhappy with the choice and wanted more talks.

The move comes as the fallout from the strike continues to grow, with Pakistan summoning the American ambassador to register a protest.

Pakistan's interior minister Chaudhry Nisar accused the US of "scuttling" attempts to get the Taliban to take part in peace talks.

He said "every aspect" of co-operation with Washington would be reviewed in the wake of the attack.

"The murder of Hakimullah is the murder of all efforts at peace," said interior minister Chaudhry Nisar. "Americans said they support our efforts at peace. Is this support?"

Hakimullah Mehsud (c) seen with other Taliban militants in a video in 2009

Khan Said is believed to have masterminded an attack on a jail in northwest Pakistan in 2012 that freed nearly 400 prisoners, as well as an assault on a Pakistani air force base in the same year.

Previous leader Mehsud had a $5m (£3.1m) US government bounty on his head and was one of Pakistan's most wanted men.

He has been buried after being killed on Friday along with four associates when a drone targeted his car in a compound in the country's North Waziristan tribal district.

The Pakistani Taliban has vowed revenge for the killing, with spokesman Azam Tariq saying: "Every drop of Hakimullah's blood will turn into a suicide bomber.

"America and their friends shouldn't be happy because we will take revenge for our martyr's blood."

The death comes at a politically sensitive time and follows months of debate over potential peace talks between the Taliban and the new government of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who swept to a landslide victory in May elections.

Pakistan's government has been trying to cut a peace deal with the militants to end years of fighting that has killed thousands of Pakistani civilians and security forces.

The government reacted angrily to Mehsud's killing, with information minister Pervez Rashid saying: "The US has tried to attack the peace talks with this drone but we will not let them fail."

A Pakistani Taliban fighter said Mehsud's body was "damaged but recognisable". His bodyguard and driver were also killed.

The US offered the $5m bounty after he appeared in a video with a Jordanian suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees at a base in Afghanistan in 2009.

Mehsud, said to be aged in his mid-30s, was also believed to be behind a failed car bombing in New York's Times Square in 2010, as well as brazen attacks inside Pakistan.

His killing is the latest in a series of setbacks for the militant group.

A drone strike in May killed Mehsud's number two, Waliur Rehman, and one of his most trusted lieutenants was captured in Afghanistan last month.

The group, known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), is an umbrella organisation founded in December 2007 following a deadly military raid on the radical Red Mosque in Islamabad.

The TTP officially swears allegiance to Mullah Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, who ruled Kabul from 1996-2001, but the two groups are separate, with independent command structures.

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EBay: Nazi Holocaust Memorabilia Removed

Auction site eBay has apologised after Nazi Holocaust memorabilia, including clothes worn by concentration camp victims, were traded online.

Journalists claim to have found several items for sale, including a complete Auschwitz uniform worn by a Polish baker who died in the camp.

The Auschwitz uniform had reportedly been priced at £11,300 by the seller, a Ukrainian man in Canada, named as Viktor Kempf.

Survivors liberated from Auschwitz in 1945

He had apparently sold similar clothing for $18,000 (£11,491) last year.

It was claimed Mr Kempf had been criticised in the past for selling such items, but did so to "document" them and to fund history book projects.

Mr Kempf was quoted as saying: "I don't want people to think I'm just doing it for the money. These periods in history are horrific, nobody should ever forget them."

How Mr Kempf described the items on eBay

EBay has offered to donate £25,000 to charity after the items were discovered and admitted they breached the terms of use.

The online retailer said: "We are very sorry these items have been listed on eBay and we are removing them.

"We don't allow listings of this nature, and dedicate thousands of staff to policing our site and use the latest technology to detect items that shouldn't be for sale.

Schindler's list failed to sell on eBay when offered for sale for £3m

"We very much regret that we didn't live up to our own standards. We have made a donation to charity to reflect our concern."

Other items found on eBay, by journalists at the Mail On Sunday, included shoes and a toothbrush said to have belonged to concentration camp victims.

There were also yellow Star of David armbands used by the Nazis to identify Jews for persecution.

An original copy of Schindler's list of Jews saved from the Holocaust by Oskar Schindler went unsold on eBay in July.

The 14-page typewritten list - bearing the names of 801 men - originated from the German industrialist's right-hand man Itzhak Stern, and had a steep opening bid of $3m (£1.96m).

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