UN's Global Arms Trade Treaty Is Blocked

A ground-breaking UN treaty that would regulate the international arms trade has been blocked by Iran, Syria and North Korea.

The three nations refused to ratify the treaty, which required agreement by all 193 UN member states, at a meeting in New York.

For more than a decade, activists and some governments have been pushing for international rules to regulate the estimated £40bn global arms trade and try to keep illicit weapons out of the hands of terrorists, insurgent fighters and organised crime.

After two weeks of intensive negotiations, many delegates had been optimistic that consensus - which does not require a vote - was within reach.

Both Iran and North Korea are under UN arms embargoes over their nuclear programmes, while Syria is in the third year of a conflict that has escalated to civil war.

The United Nations headquarters in New York

Amnesty International said all three countries "have abysmal human rights records - having even used arms against their own citizens".

But the British Foreign Secretary said he was determined to find a resolution.

William Hague said: "I am deeply disappointed that the negotiations on an Arms Trade Treaty closed today without consensus.

"After seven years of intensive work, the international community had never had a better chance to agree a global, legally binding treaty that would make the world a safer place.

"The UK has played a leading role and spared no effort to secure a treaty which would be both strong and globally applied, based on consensus.

"We have come very close. It is disappointing that three countries blocked the historic agreement that lay within our reach."

North Korea is under a UN arms embargo

The Arms Trade Treaty would be the first international, legally binding treaty setting controls on the transfers of weapons, Mr Hague said, and would ban sales of weapons that would be used for genocide or war crimes.

Arms brokering would also be regulated, protecting legitimate trade.

He added: "This treaty is too important for us to let it end here. The overwhelming majority of the international community want this treaty and we are determined to take it forward."

Other countries also refused to let the treaty die.

Mexico proposed that the UN conference go ahead and adopt the treaty without the support of the three dissenting countries, saying there was no definition of "consensus". Several countries supported the idea, but the Russian delegation objected.

Jo Adamson, the British ambassador to the UN Conference on Disarmament, struck a hopeful note. "This is not failure," she said. "Today is success deferred, and deferred by not very long."

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Veteran Who Fought For Syrian Rebels Charged

An American army veteran has been charged in the US for fighting alongside a Syrian rebel group linked to al Qaeda.

Eric Harroun boasted on Facebook and posted videos of his military adventures with Jabhat al Nusrah, which is designated as a terrorist group by the US.

But he is now facing charges of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the US, specifically firing rocket-propelled grenades as part of an attack against the government of President Bashar al Assad.

Harroun filmed these images of a downed Syrian helicopter

The 30-year-old from Phoenix in Arizona - who served three years in the US Army before being medically discharged in 2003 - told the FBI that he crossed into Syria from Turkey in January.

He claimed credit on Facebook for downing a regime helicopter and told investigators that he shot an estimated 10 people in his various battles, though he was unsure if he had ever killed anyone.

Harroun also stated that "the only good Zionist is a dead Zionist", and that he intended to travel to the Palestinian territories because of Israeli atrocities there, according to the FBI.

In media interviews, he described himself as a "freedom fighter" and said joining up with al Nusrah is "not rocket science".

Although at other times he disputed a connection with the group.

The former soldier never saw overseas action with the US military

His father, Darryl Harroun, has said the car accident that led to his son's military discharge left him with a steel plate in his head, and exacerbated depression from which his son already suffered.

"They treat Eric like a hero over there. He was trying to save lives," he told KNXV.

"He was working with the same rebels that Obama was going to fund," he added.

Harroun faces up to life in prison if found guilty of breaking the American law which makes no exception for anyone who may be fighting a hostile regime.

He is due to appear in court in Virginia next Tuesday.

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North Korea Rockets 'Ready To Hit US Bases'

North Korea's leader has told rocket units to be on standby for an attack on US bases, according to state media.

The country's KCNA news agency said Kim Jong-Un had signed off on the order to train sights on American bases in South Korea and the Pacific after a midnight meeting with top generals.

The move was followed by reports of increased activity at North Korea's mid to long-range missile sites, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

Mr Kim at a meeting of army information workers on Thursday in Pyongyang

It comes after two American stealth bombers flew over South Korea in a show of force to Pyongyang, following an escalation of rhetoric from the North's young leader.

Both China and Russia have appealed for calm.

Moscow said the heightened military activity was slipping into a "vicious cycle" that could get out of control, implicitly criticising the US bomber flights.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested that North Korea should also cool down, calling on "all sides not to flex their military muscle" and avoid the danger of a belligerent response.

The US uses B-2 bombers as a 'deterrence' measure in the region

China's foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said: "We call on all relevant parties to make joint efforts to turn around the tense situation. Peace and stability on the Korean peninsula as well as Northeast Asia serves the common interest."

The two nuclear-capable B-2 planes flew a 13,000-mile round trip from an air base in Missouri, dropping a dummy bomb on a target range in the South.

The planes were taking part in a joint South Korea-US military exercise that has inflamed tensions with Pyongyang, which earlier this month threatened to unleash an "all-out war" backed by nuclear weapons.

Mr Kim presides over an urgent operations meeting

"This .... demonstrates the United States' ability to conduct long range, precision strikes quickly and at will," the US military said in a statement.

"The B-2 bomber is an important element of America's enduring and robust extended deterrence capability in the Asia-Pacific region."

KCNA reported that Mr Kim had "judged the time has come to settle accounts with the US imperialists in view of the prevailing situation".

The agency said: "He finally signed the plan on technical preparations of strategic rockets of the KPA, ordering them to be on standby for fire so that they may strike any time the US mainland, its military bases in the operational theatres in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in South Korea."

Following their leader's call to arms, thousands of North Koreans turned out for a mass rally in the main square in the capital.

Chanting "Death to the US imperialists" and "Sweep away the US aggressors," soldiers and students marched through Kim Il-Sung Square during the 90-minute rally.

The US has denied its military exercise was provocative but said it was "committed to a pathway to peace" and "prepared to deal with any eventuality" in the region.

Mr Kim had 'judged the time has come to settle accounts with the US'

Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel and General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the B-2 bombers were a message intended more for allies than Pyongyang.

"The North Koreans have to understand that what they're doing is very dangerous," Mr Hagel said.

"I don't think we're doing anything extraordinary or provocative or out of the ... orbit of what nations do to protect their own interests."

The US, he added, must make it clear to South Korea, Japan and other allies in the region that "these provocations by the North are taken by us very seriously, and we'll respond to that".

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Brazil Doctor 'May Have Killed 300 Patients'

A Brazilian doctor charged with killing seven patients at a hospital could be responsible for up to 300 deaths, an investigator has said.

Virginia Helena Soares de Souza and her medical team gave muscle relaxing drugs to patients and reduced their oxygen supply, causing them to die of asphyxiation, claim prosecutors.

The doctor and her seven assistants were suspected of injecting patients with "drug cocktails" and of tampering with their respirators, a health ministry official said.

If prosecutors prove De Souza was responsible for 300 deaths, it could be one of the world's worst serial killings, rivalling the case of British GP Harold Shipman who killed at least 215 patients.

Prosecutors said De Souza's taped phone conversations revealed her motive was to free up beds for other patients at an intensive care unit, which she headed up.

"I want to clear the intensive care unit. It's making me itch," she allegedly said in one recording released to Brazilian media.

Deaths are being investigated at the Evangelical Hospital in Curitiba

"Unfortunately, our mission is to be go-betweens on the springboard to the next life," she reportedly added in the same phone call.

Prosecutors said De Souza felt "all powerful" running the unit, to the point where she "had the power to decree the moment when a victim would die".

In some cases, she was absent from the hospital and gave instructions to end the life of a patient by phone to members of her medical team, it was alleged.

The 56-year-old widow was arrested last month and charged with seven counts of aggravated first degree murder. She was released on bail a week ago pending the outcome of the investigation.

Three other doctors, three nurses and a physiotherapist who worked for her have also been charged with murder.

GP Harold Shipman killed at least 215 patients

More cases are expected to emerge as investigators look through 1,700 medical records of patients who died in the last seven years at the Evangelical Hospital in the southern city of Curitiba.

"We already have more than 20 cases established, and there are nearly 300 more that we are looking into," the chief investigator assigned by Brazil's health ministry, Dr Mario Lobato, told Globo TV.

He said the deaths he reviewed happened under similar circumstances: a muscle relaxant such as Pancuronium was administered, increasing the patients' dependence on artificial respiration; then the oxygen supply was reduced, causing death by asphyxiation.

Some of the patients were conscious moments before they died, he said.

De Souza's lawyer, Elias Mattar Assad, said investigators had misunderstood how an intensive care unit works and she would prove her innocence.

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Pistorius Can Leave South Africa To Compete

Paralympian Oscar Pistorius, who is charged with murdering his girlfriend, has been allowed to compete overseas.

The 26-year-old, has won an appeal over his bail restrictions, permitting him to leave South Africa to compete in international competition, with conditions.

His lawyers told the North Guateng High Court that while the Olympic and Paralympic athlete had no immediate plans to compete, he might in time need to run at track meets again to continue earning a living.

Judge Bert Bam agreed to ease Pistorius' bail restrictions, but said the runner must provide authorities with his travel plans at least a week before he leaves the country.

He must also return his passport to the court within 24 hours of returning to South Africa.

"I find no reason why the appellant should he forbidden to leave the country if invited to compete," the judge told the hearing.

Reeva Steenkamp was killed by Oscar Pistorius last month

Pistorius was released on bail on February 22, a week after he was arrested on charges of murdering girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

He says he shot her after mistaking her for an intruder at his home on Valentine's Day.

Her body was discovered at the athlete's property in the Silver Woods gated community in eastern Pretoria.

The 30-year-old top South African model died at the scene.

Prosecutors believe Pistorius killed her intentionally after an argument.

The Johannesburg-born athlete, known as the Blade Runner because of the carbon fibre blades he uses on the track, made history in 2012 when he became the first amputee to compete in the Olympics.

In the Paralympics, he won gold in the 400m and another in the 4x400m relay.

Both of his legs were amputated below the knee just before his first birthday because of a congenital condition.

Last year Time Magazine named him as one of the world's 100 most influential people.

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Cyprus Banks Reopen With Capital Restrictions

By Tom Parmenter, Sky News Correspondent in Cyprus

Cyprus' banks have opened their doors after the longest enforced bank holiday in Europe's history.

Queues grew outside branches across the country, but there were no signs of panic as employees limited the number of customers allowed in at any one time.

But many customers expressed anger at the country's controversial bailout - which requires Cyprus to raise 5.8bn euros (£4.9bn).

Banks are giving customers information about the capital restrictions

"They have stolen our money," Mr Lucas told Sky News.

"I have been working for 60 years. I am 80 years old. I cannot work again for my living - they have cut the lot.

"Our money, our social insurance - they have cut them. How are we going to live?"

Another Cypriot, Stelios, came out of the bank empty handed.

"I tried to get my February wages and they gave me a piece of paper only," he said.

The British security firm G4S deploys 180 guards to banks across Cyprus

"I have two children in the army and they asked for money - I don't have money to give them.

"The Government didn't pay anybody. My old parents didn't get their pension."

Cash withdrawals and other transactions are subject to tough restrictions, introduced by the country's Finance Ministry in an effort to avoid a run on the banks.

The country's crippled banking system was effectively closed down on March 16 while the terms of the 10bn euro (£8.5bn) bailout were agreed and implemented.

Large depositors face losses of as much as 40% of their savings as part of the deal, leading to fears that customers would attempt to withdraw large amounts of money when the banks reopened.

As a result, strict capital controls include a withdrawal limit of 300 euros (£253) a day and a ban on cashing cheques.

Travellers leaving the country can only take up to 1,000 euros (£845), or the equivalent in foreign currency, with them in cash - significantly less than expected.

Demonstrations against austerity measures continued in Cyprus on Wednesday

Police and security staff were deployed to maintain order at branches, and G4S employees worked to ensure cash machines were filled up overnight.

The giant global firm was the contractor that failed to meet their promises over security at the London Olympics prompting the British military to step in.

G4S's managing director in Cyprus, John Arghyrou, told Sky News: "I feel we have the resources, I feel extremely confident as a security company that we can undertake and meet the requirements of our customers."

Some 180 guards were deployed to banks across Cyprus to work alongside police officers and other security firms.

Mr Arghyrou added: "It is not really guarding it is assistance services ... but close co-operation with the police is essential."

With just 860,000 people, Cyprus has around 68bn euros (£57bn) in its banks.

This outsized financial system attracted deposits from foreigners but has struggled since investments in neighbouring Greece went sour.

More follows...

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Amanda Knox Told To Stay Away From Retrial

By Greg Milam, in Seattle

An American judge who campaigned for the release of Amanda Knox has told Sky News she "may" return to Italy to face renewed proceedings - but that he would recommend she stay away.

Michael Heavey, a Superior Court judge in Knox's home state of Washington, says he is disappointed but not surprised that the Italian Supreme Court has ordered a retrial for her and former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito.

The couple were released by an appeals court 18 months ago after it found fault with their convictions for murdering the British exchange student Meredith Kercher at the home she and Knox shared in Perugia in 2007.

Judge Heavey, who attracted criticism for writing to the Italian authorities about the case while still serving in his role in the US, says he remains convinced the couple are innocent and that the prosecution case is flawed.

Meredith Kercher was killed in 2007

When asked if Knox might return to Italy for any part of the new proceedings, he said: "She may. The intelligentsia of Italy knows she is absolutely innocent.

"But a good proportion of the population, because of what's called confirmation bias, what they've been told so many times, they can't tell you why, but they think she's guilty and that is not a healthy climate for her to be in."

He said he would not criticise the Italian judicial system - and that the US has its own examples of such mistakes being made - but added that he believed the case was set to drag on for years.

He said: "It is terribly disappointing. You just feel like you have been kicked in the stomach. My heart goes out to Amanda and Raffaele and their families for what they're going to have to go through. The nightmare continues."

No-one in the Knox camp has commented on whether she plans to return to Italy for the retrial. If she were to be convicted and that conviction upheld, Italy could seek her extradition from the United States.

A 'Free Amanda Knox' sticker on a car outside her Seattle home

One Knox lawyer in Italy has said he does not believe she will attend the trial, which is her right under Italian law.

Since the Supreme Court announcement, Amanda Knox has been keeping a low profile in her home city of Seattle. Members of her family politely told reporters outside their home in the Arbor Heights suburb they would not be commenting on the developments.

The 25-year-old has returned to complete her studies at the University of Washington and it is reported she plans to go ahead with a television interview next month to promote a book about the case.

Five thousand miles away from Seattle, a woman claiming to be the new girlfriend of Sollecito told reporters at his apartment that the couple planned to move to Switzerland. She confirmed that he and Knox had spoken to each other about the Supreme Court decision.

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Brazilian Olympic Stadium Closed Indefinitely

A stadium in Brazil that was expected to hold some of the main events of the 2016 Olympics has been closed indefinitely because of problems with its roof.

Rio de Janeiro's Joao Havelange Olympic Stadium, which was scheduled to host athletics at the 2016 games, will have to undergo roof repairs, the city's mayor said.

The stadium, completed less than six years ago, is currently the city's main soccer venue while the Maracana is rebuilt for this year's Confederations Cup and the 2014 World Cup.

Although the Joao Havelange Stadium was due to host the athletics in 2016, the opening and closing ceremonies will both take place at the Maracana.

The upgrade of the Maracana is also behind schedule, however.

Rio's mayor Eduardo Paes told a news conference: "Today, they informed me that the roof has structural problems.

"I asked if this represented a risk for spectators and they told me it did, depending on the wind speed and temperature.

"On that basis, I immediately decided to close the stadium until we had more details."

Mr Paes added: "It's simply not acceptable that a stadium which was inaugurated such a short time ago now has to face this sort of situation."

The stadium was built for the 2007 Panamerican Games at a cost of 380 million reais (£125m) and opened just one month before the event.

Afterwards, it was leased to local soccer club Botafogo although it is frequently used by other teams.

The first event to be affected was Wednesday's Carioca championship match between Brazilian champions Fluminense and Macae.

It has not yet been announced what other effects the closure will have.

The England football team were due to play Brazil in Rio de Janeiro on June 2, but the FA said the stadium where that match was due to take place at has not yet been confirmed.

The Maracana is due to re-open at the end of April, four months behind schedule.

The capacity of the Joao Havelange stadium was due to be increased from 46,000 to 60,000 ahead of the Olympics.

The stadium is named after Joao Havelange, the Brazilian former president of Fifa and later member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who has been accused of taking bribes while head of world football.

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North Korea Cuts Military Hotline To South

North Korea has cut another military hotline with the South as state media said the country's leadership would meet in the coming days to discuss taking a "drastic turn".

A message to South Korean military officials said staff at the military communications liaison office would stop their activities "from this moment".

"Under the situation where a war may break out any moment, there is no need to keep north-south military communications which were laid between the militaries of both sides," it said.

"Not words but only arms will work on the US and the South Korean puppet forces."

Several weeks ago North Korea severed the Red Cross hotline that had been used for government-to-government communications in the absence of diplomatic relations.

Severing the military hotline could affect operations at the Seoul-funded Kaesong industrial complex, established in the North in 2004 as a symbol of co-operation, as the hotline was used to organise movement of people and vehicles in and out.

North Korea has become increasingly bellicose in recent weeks, ending an armistice agreement with the South and ordering the military to be ready to strike US bases in Guam, Hawaii and mainland America.

However, it military threat maybe not be as fearsome as portrayed in images of North Korean military exercises released by the state news agency on Tuesday.

South Korea's Park Geun-Hye

Experts said images of a sea-borne assault using hovercraft on an unidentified beach on the country's east coast had been doctored, with one or two vessels copied and pasted a number of times along the shore.

Sky's Asia Correspondent Mark Stone said: I was slightly currious yesterday ... because what usually happens in these cases is that they release the stills and then within an hour or two there we get the video.

"The people who are watching the state television channel will never hear that this was photoshopped, what they will hear is that they have got some sort of great military."

Pyongyang's latest threats followed the decision to impose new sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear ambitions and military exercises involving US and South Korean troops.

Cho Han-Bum, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said the forthcoming meeting of the politburo of the ruling Workers' Party would probably seek to keep "the momentum going" through some symbolic gesture.

"I envisage a resolution that further raises the alarm, like declaring a top alert for the entire nation beyond the military, or something like that," Mr Cho said.

The North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, a state body in charge of propaganda and inter-Korean affairs, has also launched an attack on the South, accusing President Park Geun-Hye of slander and provocation.

It said she would meet a "miserable ruin" if she keeps "defying the warnings" of the North.

On Tuesday, President Park warned North Korea that its only "path to survival" lay in abandoning its nuclear and missile programmes, and she urged Pyongyang to "change course".

Meanwhile, a Chinese border province, Jilin, has said it will improve its trade and transport links with North Korea, building new railways and a road link.

The Jilin government proposals come despite Beijing working with the US on a UN Security Council resolution targeting Pyongyang's efforts to raise funds for its nuclear programme.

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Cyprus Crisis: Banks Shut Until Thursday

Cyprus Facing Jobless Total Of 30%

Updated: 10:40am UK, Tuesday 26 March 2013

By Tom Parmenter, Sky Correspondent, in Nicosia

Cyprus is facing a recession so deep that 30% of people may find themselves unemployed.

The EU bailout means massive restructuring of the financial system, the inevitable loss of many investors and thousands of people seeing their jobs disappear.

Professor Hari Tsoukas, a business analyst, told Sky News: "Unemployment is likely to at least double from 14% to at least 25% and possibly up to 30%. Not so long ago it was just 5%.

"It is a huge challenge now facing the Cypriot people, we have been resilient before and we will need all that again," he added.

For a week now people have been rationed to how much they can withdraw from cashpoints.

Wages have not been paid, businesses have been unable to pay suppliers and the whole economy has seized up.

Banks have been closed since March 16 but Cyprus' president Nicos Anastasiades has said they will reopen on Thursday.

However, he added that the island will introduce some limits on transactions to prevent a huge outflow of money.

Politicians have been struggling to come up with a plan that would raise enough funds to qualify for an international bailout.

In a televised address to the country, the president said: "The central bank will implement capital controls on transactions. I want to assure you that this will be a very temporary measure that will gradually be relaxed."

He did not specify what limitations would be imposed on transactions.

He said he had taken "painful decisions to save the country from bankruptcy" and pledged Cyprus "would find its feet again".

It follows a bailout deal which reports suggest could see Bank of Cyprus savers with deposits above 100,000 euros (£85,000) hit with a levy of "around 30%".

In a smart fourth floor apartment, Sky News met one Cypriot woman prepared to show us where she has been stashing her money.

Fearful of losing control of her cash by leaving it in the bank she now has a daily routine of hiding it in drawers or cupboards around her bedroom.

She didn't want to be identified but said: "You just want to know your money is safe, this is quite small scale but it is all I can do."

Her flat was burgled last year so she is taking no chances - every time before she leaves home for over an hour she collects together her growing stash of notes and takes it with her stuffed in her handbag.

She hates having to do it but while banks remain closed some people feel they have little option but to take control of their own money.

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