Pope Defrocked 400 Priests Over 'Child Abuse'

The former Pope, Benedict XVI, defrocked nearly 400 priests over a two-year period for allegedly raping and molesting children, according to a leaked Vatican document.

The statistics for 2011-12 show a dramatic increase over the 171 priests removed in 2008 and 2009, when the Vatican first provided details on the number of priests who have been dismissed.

"The document shows that in two years alone, from 2011 to 2012, as 800 new cases of abuse came into the Vatican for review, the Pope actually defrocked 400 priests and the Vatican sent another 400 cases to either be tried by a Church tribunal or to be dealt with administratively," said Rome Acting Bureau Chief and Vatican Correspondent Nicole Winfield.

Before 2008, the Vatican had only publicly revealed the number of alleged cases of sexual abuse it had received.

An internal Vatican document prepared to help the Holy See defend itself before a UN committee hearing this week in Geneva compiled the statistics over the course of several years.

Analysis of the raw data cited in that document, obtained by the Associated Press news agency, confirmed the figures.

An AP review of a decade's worth of the reference books shows an evolution in the Holy See's in-house procedures to discipline paedophiles since 2001, when the Vatican ordered bishops to send cases of all credibly accused priests to Rome for review.

Before becoming pope, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger took action after determining that bishops around the world were not following church policy and putting accused clerics on trial in church tribunals.

Instead, bishops routinely moved problem priests from parish to parish rather than subject them to canonical trials - or turn them over to police.

For centuries, the church has had its own in-house procedures to deal with priests who sexually abuse children.

One of the chief accusations against the Vatican from victims is that bishops put the church's procedures ahead of civil law enforcement by suggesting that victims keep accusations quiet while they were dealt with internally.

The maximum penalty for a priest convicted by a church tribunal is essentially losing his job: being defrocked, or removed from the clerical state.

There are no jail terms and nothing to prevent an offender from raping again.

The Vatican insists nothing in its church process prevented victims from going to police.

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India: Eighteen Dead In Mumbai Stampede

A stampede in India has left 18 people dead and nearly 50 injured.

The tragedy happened as a large crowd gathered in the city of Mumbai to pay their respects to Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin, a Muslim spiritual leader who died of a heart attack on Friday.

When the gates to the 102-year-old's home in the wealthy Malabar Hill area were closed at the end of his funeral procession, chaos broke out.

The crowds surged forward and many people were crushed near the gates with no means of escaping.

Police chief Satyapal Singh said: "Organisers had closed the gates. The crowd was so huge that people started suffocating, some fainted and then people began running and falling on each other in a panic."

He said there was a lapse in crowd control due to police and organisers failing to anticipate the high turnout for the leader of the Dawoodi Bohra, a sect of Shiite Islam.

Thousands crowd around the vehicle carrying Syedna Mohammed Burhannudin

One man wearing traditional Bohra Muslim clothing told Reuters: "There were a lot of people pouring in, and there was not much attention given by the government and the police, who should have been here and who should have managed things."

TV footage showed thousands wearing white scarves and skullcaps on the streets of India's financial capital on Saturday for the procession.

Several of those who were injured were released from hospital after treatment, said a city official quoted by Reuters.

Such disasters are common in India, where hundreds have been killed in the last decade as a result of stampedes at religious festivals and public events.

They are rarer in large cities such as Mumbai, where there are greater numbers of police to monitor the crowds.

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Britons Killed In Afghanistan Suicide Attack

Two British nationals have been killed in a bomb blast and gun attack in the Afghan capital Kabul.

The Foreign Office has confirmed the Britons were among 21 people who died when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a restaurant and two gunmen entered and opened fire. One was a staff member at the EU Police Mission in the country.

A total of thirteen foreign nationals died, including two US citizens and two Canadians. It is the deadliest attack on foreigners in the country since the start of the war in Afghanistan in 2001.

The death toll includes five women, four foreign and one Afghan. Three members of staff at the United Nations died, as did the head of the International Monetary Fund in Afghanistan, Wabel Abdallah.

An Afghan official said the gunmen were shot dead by security forces when they arrived at the scene. Sporadic bouts of gunfire continued for around an hour after the explosion.

The blast happened at a heavily secured restaurant in the Afghan capital

The Taliban said it carried out the attack on La Taverna du Liban in revenge for an Afghan military operation earlier this week against insurgents that the fighters claimed killed civilians.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement: "The target of the attack was a restaurant frequented by high ranking foreigners ... where the invaders used to dine with booze and liquor in the plenty."

He added that the attack had delivered a "heavy admonitory blow to the enemy which they shall never forget".

Kebab cook Abdul Majid, who suffered leg fractures in the blast, said: "I was sitting with my friends in the kitchen when an explosion happened and smoke filled the kitchen.

"A man came inside shouting and he started shooting. One of my colleagues was shot and fell down. I ran to the roof and threw myself to the neighbouring property."

Several members of kitchen staff survived by fleeing to the roof, where they remained until they were rescued by police.

A cook named Suleiman said: "When I was in the kitchen, I heard an explosion outside. Then all the guys escaped up and I went to the roof and stayed with my back to the chimney for two or three hours."

Like many places that are popular with diplomats, aid workers and businessmen in Afghanistan, the restaurant has no signs indicating its location and is heavily secured.

It has no windows, bags of dirt are piled up outside to act as blast walls and guests are searched before entering the premises.

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Japan's Hidden WWII Jungle Soldier Onoda Dies

A Japanese soldier who hid in the jungle for three decades, refusing to believe World War Two was over, has died in Tokyo at the age of 91.

The soldier, centre, leaves the jungle nearly 30 years after the war ended

Hiroo Onoda only came out of the Philippines jungle to surrender when his former commander returned in 1974 and persuaded him to give up, bringing his one-man war to an end.

Leaflet drops and other efforts to convince him the Japanese army had been defeated had failed.

Trained as an information officer and guerrilla tactics coach, Onoda was sent to Lubang island in 1944 and ordered never to surrender, never to resort to suicidal attacks and to hold firm until reinforcements arrived.

He and three other soldiers continued to obey that order long after Japan's 1945 defeat.

Onoda surrenders his sword to the Philippines' President Marcos

In 1972, Onoda and the other surviving soldier were involved in a shoot-out with Philippine troops. His comrade died, but Onoda managed to escape.

The incident shocked Japan, which took his family members to Lubang in the hope of persuading him that hostilities were over.

But he refused to quit, saying later that he had believed attempts to coax him out were the work of a puppet regime installed in Tokyo by the US.

Onoda, believing WWII was raging on, focused on 'carrying out my orders'

Asked at a news conference in Japan after his 1974 return what he had been thinking about for the previous 30 years, he told reporters: "Carrying out my orders."

The Japan that Onoda returned to was very changed - gone from a strong militarist government that believed in its divine right to rule the region to an economy in the grip of a recession.

Japan was by then also avowedly pacifist.

Onoda had difficultly adapting to the new reality and, in 1975, emigrated to Brazil to start a cattle ranch, although he continued to travel back and forth.

"I don't consider those 30 years a waste of time," he said in an interview in  1995.

"Without that experience, I wouldn't have my life today."

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Ohio Execution Took 25 Minutes With New Drugs

An Ohio killer appeared to gasp several times as a previously unused combination of drugs was used to execute him.

It took almost 25 minutes for Dennis McGuire to die after doses of two drugs, the sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone, were used in the lethal injection.

It was one of the longest executions since Ohio resumed capital punishment in 1999.

McGuire received the death penalty for the 1989 rape and fatal stabbing of Joy Stewart, a pregnant woman, in Preble County in western Ohio.

A Dayton Daily News reporter, who was present at the execution said; "At 10:29am, his eyes rolled back as if he were going to sleep, and at 10:35am, McGuire, who appeared to be unconscious, was convulsing, gagging and struggling to breathe."

McGuire's daughter, Amber, said "Oh my God" as she watched her father's final moments. 

Officials opted for the new execution method when supplies of the state's previous drug dried up after the maker decided it no longer wanted it used for lethal injections.

Federal public defender Allen Bohnert called McGuire's death "a failed, agonising experiment by the state of Ohio".

Prior to the execution, McGuire's lawyers warned that he was at substantial risk of a medical phenomenon known as air hunger, which would cause him to experience terror as he strained to catch his breath.

But Ohio officials presented counter evidence disputing the risk.

A statement released by Carol Avery, the sister of McGuire's victim, said: "We have forgiven him, but that does not negate the need for him to pay for his actions."

Ms Stewart's slaying went unsolved for 10 months until McGuire, jailed on an unrelated assault and hoping to improve his legal situation, told investigators he had information about the woman's death.

His attempts to blame the crime on his brother-in-law quickly unravelled and soon he was accused of being the killer.

More than a decade later, DNA evidence confirmed McGuire's guilt, and he acknowledged that he was responsible in a letter to the state's governor last month.

McGuire, 53, sought a reprieve in recent weeks but his legal team's argument that a jury never got to hear the full extent of his chaotic and abusive childhood was dismissed.

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Spying: Obama To Set Out NSA Reforms

President Barack Obama is expected to announce some curbs to US spying operations in a major speech in response to months of revelations by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The leaks by Snowden, a former security contractor, have shown that surveillance activities by the National Security Agency are far more extensive than previously thought.

They have outraged human rights groups, who say the right to privacy of citizens has been violated, and soured relations with US allies whose leaders have been allegedly spied on, such as Germany.

Critics of US spying programmes have rallied in support of Snowden

US officials insist spying operations are an essential tool in the fight against terrorists, but the president has ordered a review of the programmes in the wake of the leaks.

In his speech, Mr Obama is expected to lay out plans to impose some limits on government surveillance and increase oversight of spying programmes, in an effort to restore confidence in the NSA.

According to the Washington Post, he will call on Congress to help determine the restrictions.

He will have to strike a delicate balance between the competing needs of ensuring national security while safeguarding the privacy of American citizens.

Obama "seems intent of taking a middle path", opting to "tweak rather than overhaul", USA Today said.

People demonstrate in Washington against NSA surveillance tactics

In the latest revelations to stem from Snowden's leaked documents, The Guardian reported today that the NSA has been gathering nearly 200 million text messages a day from around the world.

That includes data on people's travel plans, contacts and credit card transactions.

Code-named Dishfire the NSA programme collects "pretty much everything it can", The Guardian said.

The newspaper said the documents also showed that the British spy agency GCHQ had used the NSA database to search the metadata of "untargeted and unwarranted" communications of people in the UK.

Snowden had already leaked secrets about mass collection of telephone data and other covert eavesdropping programmes before fleeing to Hong Kong and then to Moscow.

Russia has granted him temporary asylum. The US wants him back on charges that include espionage.

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South Sudan Ferry Accident Kills Up To 300

Up to 300 civilians have drowned during a ferry accident as they fled fighting in South Sudan.

Women and children are among the dead after the incident on Tuesday, the African state's army confirmed.

Some 400,000 civilians have fled their homes over the past month amid fighting between South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar.

Tuesday's accident unfolded on the White Nile river as the civilians tried to escape battles in Malakal.

Army spokesman Philip Aguer told AFP: "The reports we have are of between 200 to 300 people, including women and children.

"The boat was overloaded. They all drowned. They were fleeing the fighting that broke out again in Malakal."

Battles raged in several sites in South Sudan on Tuesday, including Malakal, the state capital of the oil-producing Upper Nile state.

Rebel forces staged a fresh attack to seize the town, which has already changed hands twice since the conflict began on December 15.

Some 400,000 have fled their homes since fighting began in December

A United Nations peacekeeping base has been swamped by people seeking shelter, with numbers rising from 10,000 to 19,000.

Meanwhile, the army reported heavy fighting south of Bor as the government sought to retake the town from rebels, the largest in their control.

"We are marching on Bor, there was very heavy fighting late on Monday," Mr Aguer added.

Mr Aguer rejected rebel claims that they have captured the river port of Mongalla, situated between Bor and the capital Juba.

"We are north of Mongalla, we remain in full control there," he said.

Mr Aguer also confirmed fighting south of the capital, around the town of Rajaf, on Monday.

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Egypt: Voting Begins On New Constitution

Voting on Egypt's new constitution is under way, the first ballot since the military ousted President Mohamed Morsi last year.

A yes vote is expected and the result could encourage a bid for the presidency by the head of the army, General Abdel Fattah al Sisi.

Tensions in the country are high as people go to the polls. Thousands of soldiers have been deployed to guard polling stations.

Hospital officials quoted by the AFP news agency said a man was killed in clashes between Islamists and civilian opponents in the central province of Beni Sweif.

A bomb exploded outside a court in Cairo less than two hours before polling stations opened. A police general cited by AFP said it caused little damage and no injuries.

Gen Sisi forced Mr Morsi, Egypt's first freely-elected leader, from office in July following mass protests involving millions of people.

Pope Tawadros II, Pope of the Coptic Church, after casting his vote

Islamist opponents view Gen Sisi as the man who caused violence and bloodshed unprecedented in the nation's modern history. At least 1,000 people, mostly Islamists, have been killed in clashes, with thousands imprisoned.

Supporters of Mr Morsi have called for a boycott of the poll, which is set to last for two days. They have been on the end of a brutal crackdown since the coup. 

Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement was declared a terrorist organisation in December. He is currently on trial over the deaths of protesters when he was in power and his escape from prison during the 2011 uprising that got rid of former president Hosni Mubarak.

Backers of the interim government argue the referendum is the first of several votes which will restore elected rule by the end of the year.

In a speech on Sunday, Interim President Adly Mansour urged Egyptians to cast their ballots. He said: "I call on you to live up to the responsibility you owe to your nation and to ensure a better future for this country to go to your polling station and vote."

The capital Cairo has been filled with banners urging Egyptians to vote yes, with many featuring military motifs such as a general's hat, a reference to Gen Sisi.

The aftermath of a bomb which exploded in Cairo on polling day

Rights lawyer Ragia Omran told AFP at least seven activists have been detained in the last week for distributing posters or leaflets critical of the new constitution. Most were released after a few days.

The new draft of the constitution has removed a lot of the Islamist-inspired wording of Mr Morsi's constitution. This was suspended when he was removed from power.

Supporters claim it expands women's rights and freedom of speech.

The powers of the military have been boosted. If passed, the army would have the right to appoint the defence minister for the next eight years and prosecute civilians for attacks on the armed forces.

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CAR Violence: Harrowing Stories From Conflict

As efforts begin to find a new president in the crisis-ridden Central African Republic, Sky News has heard harrowing stories from victims on both sides of the conflict.

Nearly one million people have been displaced by fighting between mainly Muslim Seleka rebels and "anti-balaka" Christian militia.

A coup last year in the Christian majority country brought Michel Djotodia, the Central African Republic's first Muslim leader, to power.

It also intensified the bloodletting. The violence has left half the population, around 2.2 million people, in desperate need of humanitarian aid. Food and medical supplies are increasingly hard to find.

Many have fled to refugee camps on the borders with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon.

Mr Djotodia resigned on Friday in the face of growing international pressure. The country's provisional parliament begins a special session on Tuesday to choose his successor.

These men were filmed by Sky News cutting pages of the Koran

As the politicians attempt to bring order, people caught up in the bloodshed are trying to carry on with their lives, battling starvation and disease.

One Muslim woman Sky News filmed saw militiamen slash her husband and son slashed to death in front of her.

She has now been left to bring up her other two sons on her own and is sheltering in a makeshift camp in the courtyard of a school.

A man, also a Muslim, shook as he told of his attempts to stop his wife and two babies being burned alive. He said: "I've lost my life, I don't know what to do."

Another man in the camp described what is happening as a "big genocide".

This Muslim man's wife and two babies were burned alive

For many Christians, the situation is the same.

A Christian woman said: "These are terrible conditions. We're abandoned here and we're still being threatened by the Muslim Seleka bandits."

Sky's Special Correspondent Alex Crawford said: "There are hundreds of thousands living like this now on either side of this religious divide, and both too scared to venture out of the separate camps they run to."

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Thai Protests: Tourists Flee On Night Buses

By Sarah Yuen, in Thailand for Sky News

Tens of thousands of anti-government protestors are flooding into the Thai capital, Bangkok, blocking major highways and intersections with their vehicles.

As determined demonstrators gather for the final push to drive caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from office, the tourists have been fleeing – hundreds queuing for the night buses to take them out of the capital to other locations.

In Bangkok's Khaosan backpacker area, foreign visitors have been isolated in a tiny oasis of normality for weeks.

Demonstrator numbers have grown from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands around the city's Democracy Monument, just one street away.

Now the protesters are on the move - to occupy seven key traffic intersections in Bangkok indefinitely, in an attempt to "shut down" the city.

Tourists have been confined to Khaosan Road, the backpacker haven

As well as blocking highways with cars the protesters are laying their roll mats or pitching their tents across once busy and now deserted roads.

The leader of the anti-government protestors, Suthep Thaugsuban, insists they will stage peaceful sit-ins to bring the city, and Thai politics, to a "dead end".

He says the caretaker prime minister will then have no option but to resign.

Mr Suthep's People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) is intent on preventing the snap election Yingluck Shinawatra has called for on February 2.

It wants to establish a Reform Council to "shake-up" Thai politics.

Protestors are moving to block off major routes in the city

Thailand's Electoral Commission has already warned the caretaker government that a successful election is unlikely, and recommended a postponement.

With just three weeks to go until polling day, not a single candidate has been registered in 28 constituencies in eight southern provinces.

All of the opposition Democrat Party MPs have announced they will not run.

For a new Thai parliament to be legitimate, 95% of 500 MPs must attend the first session, but it is unlikely there will be 500 MPs.

The caretaker government has accused the Election Committee of not organising the election properly.

Yingluck Shinawatra has promised the authorities will not use force against the protestors.

Sandbags have been stacked across highways

But the Centre for Administration for Peace and Order (CAPO) has drawn a line in the sand at the eleventh hour.

It states that nobody is to enter any government offices, or any of the seven planned demonstration sites.

This advisory was distributed after thousands of protesters had already taken up position around the caretaker prime minister's home, in the government complex.

They were also across roads and at public transport entrances at three of the seven published sites.

So far, Thailand's Army Chief General Prayuth Chan-Ocha has given only enigmatic replies to questions asking if the military will stage a coup to restore order in the event of violence.

The tension is palpable in both the anti-government and pro-government camps.

Groups of men with homemade sharpened bamboo sticks, and stone-tipped axes and machetes, merge with anti-government protesters armed only with colourful plastic clappy hands.

PDRC security men, all in black with their faces obscured by balaclavas, search everyone trying to enter the demonstration areas.

This weekend there was another attack on anti-government protesters in which seven people were injured in gunfire.

The protesters promised they would not prevent access to the monorail elevated public transport system.

But as the new phase of the demonstrations got underway, they sealed off the access walkways; they claim out of fear that they will be used by pro-government gunmen as vantage points to fire down into the crowd.

Protesters also promised they would not target the city's two international airports.

But photographs are circulating on Twitter of anti-government protesters blocking access to the airport trains into the city, inside Suvarnabhumi airport.

Thailand has long been called the "Teflon Economy" because it has come through so many upheavals in the past few years, apparently without lasting damage to its prospects.

But now with international airlines drastically cutting their flights into the country due to falling demand, and not a single private jet on the runway at Don Muang Airport - a situation never seen before - concerns are growing about the impact of these latest demonstrations, and the ramifications of a protest which could stretch on for days, or even weeks, in the Thai capital.

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Australian Bushfires: Man Dies Protecting Home

By Jonathan Samuels, Australia Correspondent

A man has died trying to defend his house from bushfires in Western Australia which have destroyed more than 40 homes.

The 62-year-old man was on the roof of his property when he collapsed and died. 

Emergency crews in the Perth suburb of Hovea were unable to reach him because of the flames.

Two firefighters had to be treated for heat exhaustion as crews battled blazes along the west coast where temperatures reached 43C (109F) in Perth on Saturday, the city's hottest day in six years.

Heatwave temperatures are forecast for much of Australia this week.

Scores of firefighters have been joined by water-bombing aircraft crew to fight blazes as embers caused spot fires in the tinder-dry conditions.

The massive fire, which blazed through communities near Mundaring, east of Perth, was contained overnight on Sunday, but is still not under control.

Authorities say 44 homes have been destroyed, although that figure could rise.

One resident in Chidlow told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: "There are embers coming down like ash - we are getting the hell out of here.

"We are taking the animals, some clothes and the tax files in a box and we are leaving everything else. If it burns, it doesn't matter."

Evacuated residents of Perth Hills wait to inspect their properties

As more reports of damage emerged, the premier of Western Australia, Colin Barnett, attended a community meeting of 600 people affected by the fires.

Mr Barnett has cut short his annual leave to deal with the aftermath of the fires, including an assistance package for victims.

Photographs of the damaged properties will be shown to residents to confirm their loss, before they are taken to the ruins.

"This is the nightmare that everyone knows can happen. Yesterday was just catastrophic fire conditions, the heat the night before, the heat in the day and the wind,'' said the state's Emergency Services Minister Joe Francis.

"It is ugly, and a catastrophe for this community. I have got very good (firefighter) mates up there hoping they can knock it off this morning."

The cause of the fire is still being investigated.

Two evacuation centres have been set up for people whose homes have been destroyed or damaged.        

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Ariel Sharon Funeral: Israel Beefs Up Security

'Bulldozer' Sharon Ruthless But Courageous

Updated: 1:54pm UK, Saturday 11 January 2014

By Sam Kiley, Middle East Correspondent

In October 1953, Israeli paratroops and commandos from the Jewish State's first special forces unit, attacked the Arab village of Qibya, on the West Bank.

Some 69 villagers, many of them women and children, were killed. International condemnation followed.

But the raid did nothing to slow down the rise of the then leader of the SF - Unit 101 - Ariel Sharon.

He went on to personify all that Israel stood for - not among moderates but among those who most hated Israel, and among many who most loved it.

Many in Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan and beyond will celebrate the final passing of Mr Sharon.

His cunning, tactical finesse, brutality and uncompromising belief in the secular Zionist cause, meant he usually won battles and sometimes wars, against those who would annihilate Israel.

He will be mourned as one of the leading lights of Israeli statesmanship who began fighting for the nation before it existed, who shattered the Egyptians in the Sinai in 1967, and saved Israel from defeat in 1973.

But for one man Mr Sharon's death is a particular blow.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the current Israeli Prime Minister, will now inevitably face comparisons with Mr Sharon, and be found significantly wanting.

Mr Sharon was brave. He was ruthless. He may even have been murderous. But he also had political courage.

As prime minister of Israel from 2004-2005, he ordered the withdrawal of illegal Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip.

He had been the champion of the settlements as both a Zionist enterprise and a tactical necessity.

But to advance peace with the Palestinians he turned on his own.

Some of his confidantes even believe that when he split with the Likud party to form Kadima, shortly before his stroke eight years ago, he had been planning to pull Israeli troops out of the West Bank too. 

Such dramatic moves could only be contemplated by a man who had impeccable hardcore credentials among Israel's right.

He had the medals, and he had earned international opprobrium in defence of Israel.

As defence minister he brought disgrace on the Jewish State after the massacre of Palestinians by Lebanese Christians allied with Israel at the Sabra and Shatila camps in 1982.

An Israeli government investigation found him personally responsible for the atrocity.

In September 2000, he ignited the al Aqsa Intifada by provocatively exercising his 'right' to enter the al Aqsa Mosque complex in a move which sparked immediate bloodletting.

Yet after all this hard-headed belligerence, Mr Sharon recognised that Israel could not survive indefinitely in a regional sea of hatred.

His plans to end the most poisonous aspect of Israel's relationship with her Arab neighbours, the occupation of Palestinian lands, were cut short when he suffered a stroke.

His political heir, Mr Netanyahu, was an officer for a while in Sarayet Metkal, Israel's special force founded by Mr Sharon.

He has led the Likud party and been prime minister for longer than the man they called "the bulldozer".

But his critics fear he does not have Mr Sharon's military credibility, popularity, nor the political backbone or the personal dash that Israel so badly now needs.

This will be the year in which Bibi gets the chance to prove that he is Mr Sharon's political son, not his shadow.

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Black Rhino Hunt: Permit Sells For $350k

A US hunting club has been criticised for selling a permit to kill an endangered black rhino in Namibia for $350,000 (£212,000).

Dallas Safari Club defended the sale, saying the cash would go towards animal conservation in the cash-strapped African country.

The permit allows the unnamed buyer to kill a single, post-breeding bull, with Namibian wildlife officials on hand to make sure an appropriate animal is targeted, said club executive director Ben Carter.

"Biologists in Namibia were hopeful that a US-based auction would produce a record amount for rhino conservation, and that's exactly what happened," he said.

There are around 4,000 black rhinos left on the plant

"These bulls no longer contribute to the growth of the population and are in a lot of ways detrimental to the growth of the population because black rhinos are very aggressive and territorial.

"In many cases, they will kill younger, non-breeding bulls and have been known to kill calves and cows."

Wildlife campaigners protested outside the Dallas convention centre where the sale took place, and 70,000 people signed an online petition calling for the auction to be scrapped.

They argued that all black rhinos should be protected, given their endangered status.

"This auction is telling the world that an American will pay anything to kill their species," said Jeffrey Flocken, North American regional director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

Protesters said all black rhinos should be protected

"This is, in fact, making a spectacle of killing an endangered species."

The FBI said it was investigating "multiple" death threats against members of the club.

Mr Carter says his family and club staff have received threats.

There are an estimated 4,000 black rhinos left on the planet - down from some 70,000 in the 1960s. Nearly half of those left are in Namibia.

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Ariel Sharon: Ex-Leader's Body Lies In State

The body of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has arrived at his country's parliament building where it will lie in state the day after he died aged 85.

Mr Sharon's body is due to lie in state at the Knesset in Jerusalem between an extended 10am and 6pm local time (8am to 4pm UK time).

He will be buried on Monday afternoon at his ranch in the Negev desert, in southern Israel, during a military ceremony.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was among those expected to attend.

Mr Sharon had been in a coma since suffering a stroke in January 2006.

His condition deteriorated on New Year's Day when he suffered serious kidney problems after surgery.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "his memory will forever be held in the heart of the nation", while President Shimon Peres said he would be "greatly missed".

World leaders also sent condolences, with US President Barack Obama describing him as a leader who "dedicated his life to the State of Israel".

Vice President Joe Biden will lead a US delegation to the memorial service due to be held in parliament on Monday before the burial.

As an army officer addressing his troops of the famous Unit 101 in 1955

Nicknamed "The Bulldozer", Mr Sharon was a veteran soldier who fought in all of Israel's major wars before beginning a turbulent political career in 1973.

He was elected premier in 2001 despite experiencing a period in the political wilderness because of his personal but "indirect" responsibility for the 1982 massacre of hundreds of Palestinians.

Ministers in Israel's right-wing government and the political opposition have mourned a leader who left big footprints on the region through military invasion, Jewish settlement building on captured land and a unilateral decision to pull Israeli troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip in 2005.

In Gaza, Hamas has welcomed Mr Sharon's death and celebrated in the streets.

"We have become more confident in victory with the departure of this tyrant," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zurhi said.

"Our people today feel extreme happiness at the death and departure of this criminal whose hands were smeared with the blood of our people and the blood of our leaders here and in exile."

Prime Minister David Cameron said: "Ariel Sharon is one of the most significant figures in Israeli history and as prime minister he took brave and controversial decisions in pursuit of peace, before he was so tragically incapacitated.

"Israel has today lost an important leader."

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Venezuela: Vow To 'Rip Heads Off' Corrupt Cops

Venezuela's interior minister has given out his mobile phone number on television and asked police to call him and report corruption in their ranks.

Miguel Rodriguez said authorities would act on the information and "rip the head off" crooked officers.

It comes amid soaring crime levels in the country, which has one of the highest murder rates in the world.

Officers only solve eight out of every 100 murders and police corruption is often seen as part of the problem.

The nation's violent crime wave was highlighted in recent days by the murder of a former Miss Venezuela beauty queen and her British ex-husband, which provoked a national uproar.

Actress Monica Spear, 29, who had a starring role in a popular TV soap series, and 39-year-old Thomas Henry Berry were shot dead in front of their five-year-old daughter, who was wounded, during a robbery.

Murder victims Monica Spear and Thomas Henry Berry

The parents were killed after they had locked themselves in their car, which had broken down on a northwestern highway.

Their daughter, Maya, was treated in hospital after being shot in the leg.

The double murder is putting more pressure on President Nicolas Maduro for his failure to bring down the crime rate that has soared during 14 years of socialist rule.

And Mr Rodriguez said rooting out corruption was a way for police to regain the public's trust.

In a speech carried on state TV, he said: "New police will always have some great superiors, well-prepared ones.

The funerals have taken place in Caracas for the couple

"But they also are going to get some bad eggs. Report them fearlessly because their (corruption) undermines police authority for the Venezuelan people.

"Just give me the information right away, and we will rip the head off that immoral police superior."

Seven people, including a woman and two teenagers, have been arrested in connection with the double murder.

Although the weapon used in the robbery has not been found, it has emerged a digital camera stolen during the attack led police to a criminal group.

The group allegedly preyed on motorists on the stretch of road between Puerto Cabello and Valencia.

The camera was found at the home of one of the seven people arrested over the killings and helped officers trace other suspects in the case.

According to Jose Gregorio Sierralta, chief of Venezuela's criminal police, at least 11 people were involved in the crime - four of whom remain on the run.

The couple were buried in the capital Caracas on Friday while their daughter was being looked after by grandparents.

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