Mourners Remember Boxing Day Tsunami Victims

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 26 Desember 2014 | 18.46

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Survivors and families of victims have gathered across Asia for memorials to mark 10 years since the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.

Around 230,000 people died after a 9.1-magnitude earthquake off Indonesia's western coast triggered a series of huge waves in the Indian Ocean.

The rising waters caused devastation across the region, striking countries as far apart as Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Somalia.

The wave swept the whole of the Indian Ocean's shoreline, also hitting the coasts of India, Myanmar, Malaysia, the Maldives and Bangladesh.

Around six hours after the start of the disaster the coasts of east Africa - Somalia, Tanzania, Kenya - were struck by the wave.

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Gallery: Sri Lanka Marks 10th Anniversary of Indian Ocean Tsunami

Tsunami survivors offer flowers as they pray at a graveyard to commemorate the victims of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami on December 26, 2014 in Peraliya, Sri Lanka

A Sri Lankan local dancer stands in a graveyard in Peraliya commemorating victims

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Sri Lankan Buddhist monks attend the Alms Giving Ceremony for remembrance and prayer for the victims

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A young Buddhist monk prays for the victims at the Alms Ceremony

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Sri Lanka was one of the worst hit countries of the 9.1 magnitude quake with around 35,000 deaths

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The tsunami caused widespread destruction to many coastal communities.

Thousands of foreign holiday-makers were also killed.

The vast majority of Indonesia's 170,000 victims perished in Aceh province, among them tens of thousands of children.

Some 7,000 mourners gathered on Christmas Day in Banda Aceh for the first of several memorials.

Aceh governor Zaini Abdullah led the event at the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque.

He thanked Indonesians and the international community for their support in the aftermath of the tsunami, which he said had helped the area recover.

Teuku Ahmad Salman, who joined thousands at the service, said: "I cannot forget the smell of the air, the water at that time ... even after 10 years."

Indonesia's Vice President, Jusuf Kalla, led a prayer ceremony where he and other officials placed flowers at a mass grave where thousands of unknown victims were buried.

In a statement released to mark the anniversary, Prime Minister David Cameron praised the "real resilience" of those who have rebuilt their lives.

He said the UK Government had provided almost £300m to support the reconstruction of affected areas.

Some 151 British nationals killed in the tsunami.

"Today we think of all those for whom Boxing Day is no longer a happy festive celebration but the day they lost a loved one in the Indian Ocean tsunami," he said.

"At this poignant time, my prayers are with all those remembering people who were caught up in the disaster, including the 151 British nationals who lost their lives.

"In the face of tragedy and adversity, hundreds of thousands of people have demonstrated real resilience to rebuild their lives and millions more have shown extraordinary generosity to help those affected."

More than 100 survivors, along with bereaved relatives, held a memorial service on a beach in Khao Lak, Thailand.

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Gallery: Photos Taken In Indonesia After The Tsunami

Indonesian rescue workers remove a body from the fence of the Grand Mosque in the city of Banda Aceh

Refugees cover their noses from the stench of bodies

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They walked into the waves and laid flowers in the sea, while diplomats placed wreaths on the sand.

Crowds also gathered and laid wreaths at the country's tsunami memorial park in Ban Nam Khem, a southern fishing village which was decimated.

More than 5,000 people were killed in Thailand, about half of them tourists.

In Indonesia, staff members at the German, Austrian and Swiss embassies will hold a minute's silence to remember the victims.

In Sri Lanka, the water swept a train from its tracks, killing almost 2,000 people.

A symbolic recreation of the journey was planned as part of the country's commemorations.

:: A special documentary, Tsunami: Ten Years After The Wave, can be seen on the Sky News Catch Up service.

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Written By Unknown on Rabu, 24 Desember 2014 | 18.46

A black teenager has been shot dead by a police officer in the same city where the killing of Michael Brown sparked global protests.

The 18-year-old was killed at a Mobil petrol station in the suburb of Berkeley in St Louis, Missouri, on Tuesday night.

Sergeant Brian Schellman, from St Louis County Police, said a police officer was conducting a routine business check at around 11.15pm when he saw two men and approached them.

He said one of the men pulled out a handgun and pointed it at the officer.

Sgt Schellman said: "Fearing for his life, the Berkeley Officer fired several shots, striking the subject, fatally wounding him."

He added that the second suspect fled.

Detectives said they recovered the dead man's weapon at the scene.

A crowd of around 60 people gathered at the scene, where a police cordon was set up around the forecourt.

Video, which is being live-streamed online, showed a wall of police officers, some wearing riot helmets, guarding the scene with bystanders shouting at them in a tense standoff.

Footage showed fireworks or smoke bombs being let off.

A number of people were arrested and there were also reports of people trying to break into local businesses.

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Gallery: Shooting Is Close To Where The Michael Brown Killing Sparked Protests

Black teenager Antonio Martin is shot by a police officer at a petrol station in Berkeley, St Louis

St Louis Police say during a routine check two males approached officers, one of the men pulled a gun

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Deadly Tornadoes Strike Southern United States

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Four people have been killed and thousands left without power after tornadoes tore across the southern United States.

Heaviest-hit was the state of Mississippi, where the severe weather damaged hundreds of homes and businesses.

Governor Phil Bryant has declared an emergency in Jones and Marion counties where all four victims lost their lives.

Several other people have been injured by the wild weather.

"We've got whole roofs lying in the road, people trapped in houses, cars flipped over," Marion County Sheriff Berkley Hall said.

County coroner Norma Williamson said two of the victims were killed in Columbia, about 30 miles west of Hattiesburg.

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Gallery: Tornadoes Cause Widespread Devastation In Southern U.S.

Four people are confirmed dead after the tornadoes swept across the south of America Pic: @MS_TeresaM

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The states of Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama were all hit Pic: @MS_TeresaM

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Thousands have been left without power Pic: @MS_TeresaM

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A state of emergency has been declared in two Mississippi counties

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One woman died in a shopping district, while another was killed in a trailer park.

"It's chaos over here. All the lines are down," Ms Williamson said.

The other victims, a man and a woman, were killed in their mobile home in Jones County, where a separate tornado struck, county emergency management spokeswoman Tammy Wells said.

According to the governor's office, more than 7,000 people have been left without power across the two counties.

It is unclear how many people remain trapped in their homes.

The tornados were the result of thunderstorms that originated over Louisiana, a meteorologist for the national Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, said.

Tornado warnings have now been issued across parts of southern Alabama, northern Florida and southern Georgia.

Flash flood warnings have also been posted across the Florida panhandle and parts of Georgia after heavy showers hit the region.

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Written By Unknown on Selasa, 23 Desember 2014 | 18.46

North Korea's limited internet service collapsed for more than nine hours just days after the US vowed to retaliate for a cyber-attack on Sony, which has been blamed on the reclusive state.

A US-based analyst said all internet went down after a period of instability over the weekend before links were eventually restored.

"For the past 24 hours North Korea's connectivity to the outside world has been progressively getting degraded to the point now that they are totally offline," said Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at Dyn Research.

"There's either a benign explanation - their routers are perhaps having a software glitch; that's possible. It also seems possible that somebody can be directing some sort of an attack against them and they're having trouble staying online."

Sony pulled The Interview - a comedy about the assassination of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un - after hackers threatened showings of the movie.

The group, calling itself Guardians of Peace, had already leaked five unreleased films, the script of the next James Bond movie, embarrassing email exchanges between executives and private individuals' data after attacking Sony's systems.

Pyongyang has repeatedly denied any role in the attack but said it could have been carried out by the country's supporters.

But the FBI blamed North Korea for the devastating attack on the media giant and President Barack Obama said the US would respond "in a place and time and manner that we choose".

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said she could not confirm North Korea had been the target of a cyber-attack.

"We aren't going to discuss ... publicly, operational details about the possible response options or comment on those kind of reports in anyway except to say that as we implement our responses, some will be seen, some may not be seen," she said.

However, Ms Harf did respond to Pyongyang's calls for a joint investigation into the attack, saying: "If they want to help here they could admit their culpability and compensate Sony for the damages that they caused."

The internet is only available to trusted government officials in North Korea and its main web presence is through its Uriminzokkiri website, which has Twitter and Flickr feeds best known for sharing propaganda videos attacking the US and South Korea.

Mr Madory said the internet connection had historically been stable, but had come under attack in the past.

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Gallery: Sky News On China's North Korea Border

Sky News has filmed rare pictures across the Chinese border into North Korea. The images demonstrate the poverty inside the country and the degree to which China cooperates with its old ally

At the border town of Ji'an only a narrow river separates China with North Korea

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'Nerve Hack' Offers Arthritis Sufferers Hope

By Thomas Moore, Health and Science Correspondent

People with arthritis have been offered fresh hope after patients were effectively cured using a revolutionary electronic implant.

Doctors used tiny pacemaker style devices embedded in the necks of patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis to "hack" into their nervous systems.

The implant - whose effects were exclusively demonstrated to Sky News - fires bursts of electrical impulses into a key nerve that relays brain signals to the body's vital organs.

Scientists who have been conducting a groundbreaking trial of the implant say "more than half" of the patients have found their condition has now dramatically improved.

More than 400,000 patients in the UK are affected by the disease.

Researchers now believe the same technique - which can eliminate the need for patients to take drugs - could reverse other chronic conditions, including asthma, obesity and diabetes.

Sky News was given exclusive access to the study of 20 patients being carried out at the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam.

The findings are expected to be published in the New Year but already researchers say over 50% of them have shown significant improvement.

Professor Paul-Peter Tak, a rheumatologist at the hospital, said: "Even in patients who have failed everything, including the most modern pharmaceuticals, we have seen a clear trend of improvement.

"We may be able to achieve remission in 20% to 30% of patients, which would be a huge step forward in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis."

Doctors hope the nerve stimulator could be widely used within 10 years. But they admit they don't yet fully understand how it has such a powerful effect.

The implant stimulates the vagus nerve, which connects the brain to the major organs and is responsible for many 'automatic' body functions such as breathing and heart rate.

By firing impulses for just three minutes a day, scientists were able to reduce the activity of the spleen, a key organ in the immune system.

Within a matter of days the organ produced fewer chemicals and other immune cells that cause the abnormal inflammation in the joints of people with rheumatoid arthritis.

Monique Robroek had an implant fitted under her skin a year ago. She had been in so much pain that she struggled to walk across a room, despite taking the strongest possible arthritis drugs.

She has now stopped all medication and is totally pain free

"I have my normal life back," she said. "Within six weeks I felt no pain. The swelling has gone.

"I go biking, walk the dog and drive my car. It is like magic."

Ms Robroek holds a magnet over the device to switch it on.

Within seconds the altered nerve impulses cause her voice to tremble.

But scientists say they have not seen any other side effects from the treatment.

"It is very appealing to patients because they do not want to take medicines for 30-40 years," said Prof Tak. "It's also restoring the natural balance in the body."

British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline believes the potential for bio-electronics is so great that it has invested $50m (£32m) in the technology.

It is already experimenting with next-generation smart devices the size of a grain of rice.

Kris Famm, who is leading the research, said the implants could prevent the airway spasms of asthma, control appetite in obesity, and restore normal insulin production in diabetes.

He said: "I hope that in 10-20 years if you or I had diabetes, we would go to the doctor and there is an option to introduce this sort of device onto the nerve that controls that balance.

"It becomes your treatment instead of insulin injections or pills."

:: The study at the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam has now been completed and patients are not currently being accepted for treatment.

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Sydney Siege Victims Remembered At Memorials

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Memorial services have been held for the two victims of the deadly siege in a Sydney cafe last week.

Hundreds of mourners gathered at the University of Sydney to remember 38-year-old lawyer Katrina Dawson.

The mother-of-three's friend and fellow hostage Julie Taylor, who is pregnant, paid tribute.

"If there is one thing above all that we can learn from Katrina's example, it's how to love, to show love, to use love and by loving to make other people and places better," Ms Taylor said.

Ms Dawson's mother and father, her brothers, as well as former Governor-General of Australia, Quentin Bryce, who is a founding member of The Katrina Dawson Foundation, a charity set up to support education opportunities for women, also spoke at the service.

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Gallery: Funerals Held For Sydney Siege Victims

A photo tribute for Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson is seen amongst flowers at a wreath laying ceremony after they were killed in a siege in the Lindt Cafe in Sydney on 16 December

Funeral services were held for the pair on 23 December. Mr Johnson's father Ken Johnson arrives for the service at St Stephen's Uniting Church

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Mr Johnson's coffin is carried from the church

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Ms Dawson was a barrister and Mr Johnson was manager of the Lindt Cafe

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Mr Johnson's partner Thomas Zinn is comforted as he leaves the service

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In a lighter moment, her brother Angus said "the world got a bit brighter" on 9 September, 1976, when Chinese leader Mao Zedong died and their little sister was born in Perth.

"We liked to joke growing up that one dictator replaced another, for she quickly ruled the house," he said.

A separate service was held for Tori Johnson, the manager of the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in Martin Place, who was also among the hostages taken by Man Haron Monis.

Mr Johnson's partner of 14 years, Thomas Zinn, and father Ken Johnson helped to carry the white coffin into St Stephen's Uniting Church.

Tibetan monks chanted prayers at the end of the service and accompanied the coffin to a waiting hearse.

Sixteen others were taken hostage on 15 December by the shotgun-wielding Iranian, who was a self-styled cleric with a long criminal history.

The standoff ended 16 hours later when police stormed the cafe in a barrage of gunfire to free the captives.

Volunteers have removed thousands of bouquets of flowers that mourners had left at a separate site near the cafe over the past week, ahead of predicted rainy weather.

The flowers will be turned into mulch that officials hope to use at a permanent memorial, while cards and letters left to honour Mr Johnson and Ms Dawson will be preserved in memory books for their families.

The permanent memorial will be set up after officials consult with the families, New South Wales Premier Mike Baird said.

Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott warned of heightened "terrorist chatter" in the aftermath of the siege and said another attack was likely.

"A briefing from the security agencies today indicated that there has been a heightened level of terrorist chatter in the aftermath of the Martin Place siege," Mr Abbott said after a meeting of his National Security Committee.

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Gallery: Sydney Cafe Stormed After 16 Hour Siege

Police officers stand guard outside the Lindt Chocolate Cafe before a dramatic few minutes that saw hostages fleeing the scene and armed officers storming the premises with automatic weapons

A hostage makes a break for it and is seen sprinting away from the cafe in the heart of Sydney's business district

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"That's why it's important that people remain alert and aware as well as reassured that our police and security agencies are doing everything they humanly can to keep us safe."

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Written By Unknown on Senin, 22 Desember 2014 | 18.46

Pakistan plans to execute around 500 militants after the government lifted a moratorium on the death penalty in terror cases.

It comes after Taliban gunmen killed 149 people, including 133 children, in a school massacre in the northwestern city of Peshawar last week.

Six militants have been hanged since Friday amid rising public anger over the slaughter.

Around nine gunmen stormed the army-run school on 16 December taking teachers and students hostage and killing them in classrooms.

After the deadliest terror attack in Pakistani history, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ended the six-year moratorium on the death penalty, reinstating it for terrorism-related cases.

"Interior ministry has finalised the cases of 500 convicts who have exhausted all the appeals, their mercy petitions have been turned down by the president and their executions will take place in coming weeks," a senior government official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Of the six hanged so far, five were involved in a failed attempt to assassinate the then-military ruler Pervez Musharraf in 2003, while one was involved in a 2009 attack on army headquarters.

Police, troops and paramilitary Rangers have been deployed across the country and airports and prisons put on red alert as the executions take place and troops intensify operations against Taliban militants in northwestern tribal areas.

Mr Sharif has ordered the attorney general's office to "actively pursue" capital cases currently in the courts, a government spokesman said.

The decision to reinstate executions has been condemned by human rights groups, with the United Nations also calling for it to reconsider.

Human Rights Watch described the executions "a craven politicised reaction to the Peshawar killings" and demanded that no further hangings be carried out.

Pakistan began its de facto moratorium on civilian executions in 2008, but hanging remains on the statute books and judges continue to pass death sentences.

Before Friday's resumption, only one person had been executed since then - a soldier convicted by a court martial and hanged in November 2012.

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North Korea Threatens To Target The White House

The North Korean government has threatened to "stand in confrontation with the US in all war spaces" as the diplomatic row over a Sony film continues to escalate.

In a strongly-worded statement, officials branded America as "an ill-famed cesspool of injustice and terrorism".

And it warned that "tough counteraction will be boldly taken against the White House, the Pentagon and the whole US mainland".

Despite being accused by the US of being behind the recent Sony hacking, the secretive state continues to insist it had no involvement.

But Pyongyang praised the "surprisingly sophisticated, destructive and threatening cyber warfare" inflicted on the company, as the movie "dared to hurt the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK".

Meanwhile, South Korea has claimed one of its nuclear power plants fell victim to hacking, but stressed no reactors were affected. The developed country has not implicated North Korea in the attack.

The Interview, which included the fictional assassination of leader Kim Jong-Un, was pulled from cinemas before its release after hackers threatened to target those who went to see the film.

A story from the Korean Central News Agency said: "The Interview is undesirable and reactionary. It should not be allowed in any country or any region. The movie has a story agitating a vicious and dastardly method of assassinating a legitimate head of state.

"DPRK is praising the 'guardians of peace' for their righteous deed which prevented in advance the evil cycle of retaliation – terrorism sparks terrorism."

The Pyongyang government claims it is taking a stand "on the US gangster-like behaviour against it" – and alleges it has clear evidence that American authorities were deeply involved in the movie's production, as it would be "effective propaganda against North Korea".

Its statement said: "The facts glaringly show that the US is the chief culprit of terrorism as it has loudly called for combating terrorism everywhere in the world, but schemed behind the scenes to produce and distribute movies inciting it.

"Nothing is a more serious miscalculation than guessing that just a single movie production company is involved. Our target is all the citadels of the US imperialists who earned the bitterest grudge of Koreans.

"The US should reflect on its evil doings that put itself in such a trouble, apologise to the Koreans and other people of the world, and should not dare pull up others."

North Korea's only significant ally, China, condemned the use of cyber-attacks and cyber-terrorism early on Monday – but stopped short of criticising the state.

President Obama, along with his advisers, is weighing up how to punish North Korea. The FBI concluded that Pyongyang was behind the Sony hacking – the first time that the US has accused another country of orchestrating such a significant cyber-attack.

David Boies, Sony's lawyer, has insisted the embattled entertainment company still plans to release its controversial film - but warned the hack was "a national security problem" and the US government needed to take the lead.

"How it's going to be distributed, I don't think anybody knows quite yet. But it's going to be distributed," he told NBC.

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N Korea's Human Rights 'Worst In The World'

By Mark Stone, China Correspondent

The United Nations Security Council is to hold its first ever meeting to discuss "unspeakable atrocities" and "grave human rights violations" allegedly being carried out in North Korea.

The 15-member council, which includes the UK, the US, China and Russia, will discuss whether North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un should be referred to the International Criminal Court for "crimes against humanity".

The US Ambassador to the UN welcomed the meeting.

Samantha Power said: "The human rights violations in North Korea are among the worst in the world. They are widespread. They are systematic."

She added: "Given the threat they pose to peace and security, they have been going on outside the scrutiny of the UN Security Council for far too long."

The meeting was called following an unprecedented UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) report, published in February, catalogued a list of crimes which it said were "widespread and systematic" and "unparalleled in the modern world".

The COI, chaired by retired Australian judge Michael Kirby, sat through witnesses' testimony from scores of North Korean defectors who described their lives inside the country.

The report lists murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortion, sexual violence, forcible transfers and forced disappearances.

Mr Kirby said there were "many parallels" between the evidence he heard and crimes committed by the Nazis in World War Two. He said the international community could not claim, as it did with the Nazis, that they were unaware of the crimes.

"Now the international community does know. There will be no excusing a failure of action because we didn't know. It's too long now. The suffering and the tears of the people of North Korea demand action," he said.

It is not yet clear whether the Security Council will now also discuss the hacking of Sony Pictures following the announcement by US President Barack Obama that North Korea was responsible.

The UN meeting comes as Sky News has filmed rare pictures across the Chinese border into North Korea. The images demonstrate the poverty inside the country and the degree to which China cooperates with its old ally.

At the border town of Ji'an only a narrow river separates China with North Korea. Looking across, guard towers were visible every few hundred metres.

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Gallery: Sky News On China's North Korea Border

Sky News has filmed rare pictures across the Chinese border into North Korea. The images demonstrate the poverty inside the country and the degree to which China cooperates with its old ally

At the border town of Ji'an only a narrow river separates China with North Korea

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