Zimbabwe's Elections Were 'Free and Credible'

Zimbabwe's elections have been declared "free and credible" by the African Union, despite observers noting a number of practises that suggested heavy rigging.

Despite an admission by the head of the African Union mission, Olsegun Obasanjo, that his monitors noted some apparent irregularities, he said they did not constitute evidence of systematic tampering.

Officials say 89-year-old Robert Mugabe has been returned to power with a two-thirds majority.

Robert Mugabe casts his vote with wife, Grace

However, while declaring the elections to be free, the Union did not go so far as to declare them fair.

Mr Obasanjo, said: "Yes, the election is free," and he described the vote as credible unless any evidence to the contrary emerged

Significantly he asked election authorities to investigate reports that tens of thousands of eligible voters were turned away from the vote which marks an unbroken run of 33 years in power for Mr Mugabe.

Another poll monitoring group in Zimbabwe said as many as a million of the more than six million eligible voters were prevented from casting ballots.

Mr Obasanjo, a former Nigerian president, said: "If 25% were not allowed, then, yes, the election is fatally flawed."

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Mr Mugabe's main opponent in the presidential vote, has declared the election "null and void".

Official results announced by the election commission on Friday morning showed Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF capturing 54 of the 210 parliament seats and Mr Tsvangirai's party winning 19 seats so far.

Voters queue to get into polling stations

Full results on the presidential and parliament votes have been promised by Monday.

Among the irregularities, the African Union found the electoral commission printed 8.7 million ballot papers for 6.4 million voters – 35% above the number of registered voters. This is against the international standard of 5%-10%.

The late publicity on the location of voting stations just 48 hours before stations opened also contributed to the high number of voters who were turned away because they were not at correct polling sites.

Life goes on as normal as a two-thirds majority declared for Mr Mugabe

Monitors also reported a high number of disabled, elderly or other "assisted voters" being helped to cast their ballots by polling officers who may have influenced them against their free will.

Speaking from Harare, Sky's Special Correspondent Alex Crawford said: "At the moment the people we are seeing and speaking to are all very disgruntled members of the electorate who say they were unable to vote for one reason or another.

"When they turned up at the voting stations the polling stations they were told their names were not on the voting lists that they had been registered to vote in polling stations which were many, many kilometres away so they felt that they were disenfranchised."

She said she had heard evidence of dead people's names being used to vote and of a number of procedural irregularities.

Morgan Tsvangirai declares the election 'null and void'

She said the Southern African Development Community, a regional body, "were very much holding back from saying it was a fair election. They said it was definitely free, people appeared to be able to vote and it was very peaceful but they stopped short of saying it was fair or credible."

The head of the observer mission for the Southern African Development Community described the election as "very free" and "very peaceful".

He also noted that there were some violations and a full analysis was still under way.

"The question of fairness is broad and you cannot answer it within one day," said Bernard Membe, who is also Tanzania's foreign minister.

"And so be sure that within 30 days, through our main report, the question of fairness may come."

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Zawahiri Claims US Plotted Morsi's Downfall

Al Qaeda chief Ayman al Zawahiri has accused the United States of "plotting" to overthrow Egypt's Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

In an audio recording posted to militant Islamist forums, he said the US colluded with the Egyptian military, secularists and Christians to force out Mr Morsi.

Zawahiri, himself an Egyptian, said: "Crusaders and secularists and the Americanised army have converged ... with Gulf money and American plotting to topple Mohamed Morsi's government."

He accused Egypt's Coptic Christian minority of supporting the Islamist president's ouster to attain "a Coptic state stripped from Egypt's south".

Protests have been taking place in Egypt

They are the militant leader's first public comments on Mr Morsi's ousting.

The comments came as backers of Mr Morsi staged defiant rallies after the government ordered their protest camps to be broken up.

Supporters of Mr Morsi began to march after Friday prayers, pouring out of several Cairo mosques.

The afternoon rallies passed off peacefully, with demonstrators marching along main thoroughfares in the capital.

Mohamed Morsi was ousted in a military coup

By early evening, they held several smaller demonstrations, including by Cairo's Media Production City in the city's outskirts, where security forces fired tear gas after an alleged attempt by protesters to storm the building.

Protesters reportedly tore up the pavement to make barriers as police in armoured vehicles fired barrages of tear gas.

The marches came a day after US Secretary of State John Kerry angered Morsi loyalists by saying Egypt's military had been "restoring democracy" when it deposed the Islamist leader.

In an interview he said: "The military did not take over, to the best of our judgement - so far. To run the country, there's a civilian government. In effect, they were restoring democracy."

A spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood denounced the comments, accusing Washington of being "complicit" in the coup.

"Is it the job of the army to restore democracy?" asked Gehad al Haddad in a statement.

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Prison Massacre: 25 Police Officers Jailed

Twenty five police officers have each been sentenced to 624 years in prison for their role in Brazil's 1992 Carandiru prison massacre that left 111 prisoners dead.

More follows...

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New York Woman Killed In Balcony Fall

A woman on a first date has fallen to her death after the railing on her 17th-floor apartment balcony gave way.

Jennifer Rosoff went outside for a cigarette just before 1am on Thursday when she sat or leaned against the railing while talking to her date at her New York City apartment, police said.

The man said he warned her against it but the 35-year-old advertising executive fell moments later, authorities said.

Police spoke to the man and no foul play was suspected.

Ms Rosoff landed on building scaffolding on the first floor of the building on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Buildings officials took part of the broken railing to examine how it could have given way and plan to determine whether the other balconies are structurally sound.

Only the higher floor corner apartments of the building - built before World War II - have balconies.

Ms Rosoff worked at The New Yorker, Lucky Magazine and Cosmopolitan before recently joining a new company called TripleLift, according to her LinkedIn profile.

High-rise dramas are a staple of life in Manhattan and Thursday's was the third to make the news in recent days.

In 2010, after a 24-year-old social worker fell to his death when the railing gave way at his 24th-floor apartment terrace, the city conducted safety inspections on hundreds of residences.

Tenants at 16 buildings were ordered to stay off their balconies because they were deemed unsafe.

Some 800 building owners failed to file mandatory inspection reports on the safety of their balconies and terraces, officials found.

They are required to file every five years. For Ms Rosoff's building, the inspection report was last filed in February.

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Taiwan MPs Fight: Nuclear Vote Sparks Brawl

Water and punches were thrown by MPs in Taiwan's parliament, ahead of a vote on whether to hold a referendum over a new nuclear power plant.

Dozens of legislators threw bottles and cups from a balcony, while politicians wrestled in scrums and on the floor below.

The scuffles took place between members of the ruling Nationalist Party and the anti-nuclear Democratic Progressive Party before a vote on whether to allow a referendum over the completion of Nuke 4.

Members of the DPP waved placards, while attempting to barricade the doors to the parliament building in an effort to disrupt the vote.

Opposition members block the doors to Parliament with rope and chairs

If the referendum Bill is passed, it will allow citizens on the densely populated island of 23 million decide whether Taiwan's fourth power plant should be completed.

Opposition party DPP has been strongly against building any more nuclear sites due to the high incidence of earthquakes, especially in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan.

But economic analysts suggest that power shortages will become inevitable without completion of Nuke 4.

Opposing legislators grapple on the floor of the Parliament

Passage of the Bill is expected to be relatively easy given the large Nationalist majority in the 113-seat legislature, but the referendum itself may not be so straightforward.

Anti-nuclear sentiment in Taiwan is high and polls suggest that if people are asked whether they agree with completion, a majority would disagree.

Construction of Taiwan's fourth power plant began in 1997 but was halted while the DPP was in power between 2000 and 2008.

If the referendum is passed it could become operational by 2016.

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Iran Leader: Israel 'A Wound To Be Cleansed'

Iran's president-elect Hassan Rouhani has called Israel an old "wound" that must be removed and cast doubt on efforts to revive peace talks with the Palestinians.

"The Zionist regime is a wound inflicted for years on the body of the Muslim world that must be cleansed," Mr Rouhani told reporters attending annual Quds Day rallies in remarks reported by Iranian media.

His words echoed those of outgoing president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who earlier whipped up anti-Israel sentiment at a Quds Day rally in Tehran.

He said: "I will inform you with God as my witness, a devastating storm is on the way that will uproot the basis of Zionism. 

He added Israel had "no place in this region". 

Mr Ahmadinejad has often questioned Israel's legitimacy

Mr Rouhani will formally assume the presidency of Iran this weekend after winning elections held in June by a landslide.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately criticised Mr Rouhani's comments, saying they revealed the Iran government's real thinking.

"The true face of Rowhani has been revealed earlier than expected," he said in a statement.

"Even if the Iranians work to deny these comments, this is what the man thinks and reflects the regime's plans," he said.

In his remarks, Mr Ahmadinejad accused Israel and its Western supporters of fomenting discord in the Middle East, saying "it was their dream to see the will of regional countries bent on destroying (Israel) diverted towards civil war".

"Who is happy for what is happening in Egypt and Syria?" he asked, charging that Israel was celebrating the unrest in those countries. 

Iran staged massive rallies to mark annual Quds Day, with speeches and sermons supporting the Palestinian cause and condemning Israel.

Mr Rouhani has pledged to follow a "path of moderation" and promised greater openness over Iran's nuclear program, which has placed it at odds with the West.

His remarks about Israel - his country's archenemy - follow in a long tradition of remarks made by former Iranian leaders.

Quds Day is an annual event in Iran since 1979, traditionally held on the last Friday of Ramadan, to express solidarity with the Palestinian people.

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XKeyscore: New Snowden Spying Revelations

Agents for the US' National Security Agency have access to emails, online chats and other internet activity of millions of people under a surveillance programme revealed by Edward Snowden.

The Guardian newspaper published documents detailing the programme, called XKeyscore, including what it said were training slides.

One presentation claims XKeyscore can track "nearly everything a typical user does on the internet", the newspapers reported.

That includes everything from the contents of emails and Facebook messages to web browsing and search histories, according to the newspaper.

This can be done with almost any identifying information, be it email address, IP address, phone number, keywords, or even browser type.

The searches are all performed on the XKeyscore database, which manages enormous quantities of data.

Protesters in Berlin in support of Snowden

Analysts simply have to fill in an onscreen form "giving only a broad justification for the search", said the report.

Some of the slides appear to carry screenshots showing sample search queries such as "Show me all encrypted word documents from Iran" or "Show me all the word documents that reference Osama Bin Laden".

Snowden, a former NSA contractor, had said in an interview published by The Guardian in June that he had the authority to spy on any American he pleased - "you, your accountant, to a federal judge, to even the President if I had a personal email".

In a second interview with the newspaper, he explained that his claim was based in part on the email search capabilities of XKeyscore, which Snowden says he was authorized to use while working as a Booz Allen contractor for the NSA.

The newspaper says XKeyscore provides the technological ability - if not the legal cover - to target US citizens for electronic surveillance without the need for a warrant, provided the analyst has information such as an IP or email address.

One slide says that XKeyscore has led to the capture of more than 300 terrorists.

In a statement, the NSA said that figure only included captures up to the year 2008, and pushed back against any suggestion of illegal or arbitrary collection of data.

"These types of programmes allow us to collect the information that enables us to perform our missions successfully - to defend the nation and to protect US and allied troops abroad," the statement said.

The Guardian quoted another slide as saying that nearly 42 billion records had been captured by the system during a one-month period in 2012.

So much content was being collected, the newspaper said, that it could be stored only for short periods of time - generally just a few days.

Snowden, who is wanted in the US on espionage charges, is seeking asylum but remains stuck at a Moscow airport. He previously revealed other wide-ranging surveillance schemes employed by the US to detect possible threats to national security.

The new revelations will fuel the debate on surveillance practices in the US and the right to privacy of its citizens.

The US has defended the spying programmes, saying they have helped thwart terror attacks. But it has also tried to assuage concerns by civil rights groups.

The director of National Intelligence has declassified some documents about its bulk collection of phone and email metadata.

Snowden remains stuck at Moscow airport

Meanwhile, at a hacker convention in Las Vegas on Wednesday, the head of the NSA, Army General Keith Alexander, remained unapologetic about the surveillance programmes, even as he was heckled.

He said government methods used to collect telephone and email data helped foil 54 terror plots.

But the figure drew scepticism back in Washington.

"Not by any stretch can you get 54 terrorist plots," said the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy.

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Zimbabwe Poll 'A Huge Farce, Null And Void'

Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has dismissed the country's national elections as a "huge farce" and the results invalid because of intimidation and ballot-rigging by President Robert Mugabe's ruling party, which has claimed victory.

"In our view, that election is null and void," he said, after a senior Zanu-PF source earlier claimed a resounding victory for President Mugabe in Zimbabwe's presidential and parliamentary elections.

The unnamed senior official said the outcome was already clear and told Reuters news agency: "We've taken this election. We've buried the MDC. We never had any doubt that we were going to win."

The opposition, Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), immediately claimed the elections had been "a monumental fraud" and held an emergency meeting.

A woman with a child casts her vote in Domboshava, north of Harare

"Zimbabweans have been taken for a ride by Zanu-PF and Mugabe, we do not accept it," a senior source told Reuters.

Releasing results early is illegal, and the police had warned they would arrest anybody making premature claims before the official five days the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission had said it could take to announce the result.

Riot police took up positions outside the Zanu-PF party's headquarters in central Harare and other key locations in the capital, including an MDC office.

The party later withdrew what it said was an unauthorised message on its Twitter feed claiming a landslide win, and insisted that it was awaiting the release of the official count.

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) - the country's leading domestic election monitoring agency - said the credibility of the vote was "seriously compromised" by irregularities on polling day.

A police officer keeps watch as Zimbabweans queue to cast their votes

It said as many as one million eligible voters were not on the electoral roll, and urban voters, who mainly favour Mr Tsvangirai, had been turned away from polling stations in their thousands.

Conversely, only a small number had been prevented from voting in the countryside, where President Mugabe has most support.

It also cast doubt on the authenticity of the voters' roll, noting that 99.97% of voters in the countryside were registered, compared to 67.9% in urban areas.

"It is not sufficient for elections to be peaceful for elections to be credible," ZESN chairman Solomon Zwana said. "They must offer all citizens ... an equal opportunity to vote."

Separate reports claimed key MDC members had lost their seats, even in the capital, and that the election was looking like a "disaster" for Mr Tsvangirai.

Polling rivals Robert Mugabe (L) and Morgan Tsvangirai cast their votes

To win an outright victory, one of the candidates has to secure more than 50% of the vote.

Half the country's 12.9 million population was eligible to vote at the more than 9,000 polling stations nationwide.

The dispute erupted as polling stations closed and counting got under way amid fears of a repeat of the violence that marred the 2008 election.

Turnout was high, particularly in urban areas where the polling stations stayed open late into the evening to allow everyone in the queues to cast their votes.

The presidential contest pit the 89-year-old incumbent President Mugabe against his main rival Mr Tsvangirai, who his supporters believed a big turnout would favour, blunting the impact of any manipulation of the vote.

A ballot paper with the images of all the presidential candidates

Zimbabweans voted in large numbers despite concerns about the credibility of the electoral process, and the vote was relatively peaceful compared to disputed and violent polls in 2008.

However, the fiercely contested election was dogged by claims of intimidation and vote rigging, despite assurances by official poll monitors of "a peaceful, orderly and free and fair vote".

It is the third time Mr Tsvangirai has tried to unseat President Mugabe, who denies vote rigging and said he would step down if he failed to extend his 33-year grip on power for another five years.

Sky Correspondent Emma Hurd, in South Africa, said: "Analysts inside Zimbabwe say it was going to be close anyway - that Robert Mugabe was not going to be wiped out in a landslide victory by the opposition.

"But what all independent observers seem to agree on is that there will have been some element of rigging in the process.

"The question remains how much, and whether Robert Mugabe really needed to do it in the first place to win."

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Buenos Aires Fire Rages Near City Centre

A huge fire in Argentina's capital has engulfed an ecological reserve just a few hundred metres from the city's political and financial centre.

Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri said there were suspicions that arsonists were to blame for the inferno, which began on Wednesday.

Authorities say at least eight fire crews fought to bring the blaze under control after flames raged more than 30ft (10m) in the air.

The ecological reserve is on the banks of the Rio de la Plata

No injuries have been reported.

The Ecological Reserve covers more than a square mile (300 hectares) bordering the Rio de la Plata.

Mr Macri said it had not yet been determined how much of the park had been destroyed.

The reserve is considered the "lung" of Buenos Aires, and its vegetation is home to lizards, snakes, turtles, frogs, bats, voles and weasels.

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Zimbabwe Presidential Election: Voting Begins

Voting has begun in Zimbabwe's election as Robert Mugabe looks to extend his 33-year-rule amid suspicions of vote rigging.

The 89-year-old has said he will stand down as president if he loses and claims the army will respect any victory for his main rival, Morgan Tsvangirai.

But many have dismissed the president's words and Mr Tsvangirai himself has said he takes the promise "with a pinch of salt".

Fresh suspicions of vote rigging were sparked by a Research and Advocacy Unit study which said the electoral roll includes one million dead voters or people who have emigrated.

Voters appear keen to have their say, with some queuing up wrapped in blankets fours hours before polling stations opened.

Several hundred people waited to vote in green tents in Mbare, the oldest township in the capital, Harare.

"I am happy to have cast my vote," said Ellen Zhakata, 66.

Queues formed as Zimbabweans waited for the polls to open

"I just want an end to the problems in our country.

"All my children are outside the country because of the economic troubles here. I am so lonely. How I wish they could be working here."

Zimbabwe's economic problems have seen millions leave the country to find work in recent years.

Hyperinflation reached 231,000,000% five years ago but a scarcity of US dollars - now the country's main currency - means the economy has stabilised and inflation is back in single digits.

Violence marred the last election in 2008, with Morgan Tsvangirai pulling out of a second round run-off against Mr Mugabe after 200 of his supporters were killed.

The African Union and the The Southern African Development Community have both sent observers to monitor this year's elections.

However, there are still worries that violence and intimidation could be used.

"We are very worried that if the result does not go Robert Mugabe's way we could see a return to the violence that marred the 2008 election," said Tiseke Kasambala, Southern Africa Director for Human Rights Watch.

She told Sky News: "The heads of his security forces have made clear that they are not going to accept a victory by the opposition or by Morgan Tsvangirai."

The opposition leader has based his latest campaign on a plan to lure back foreign investors, create a million jobs in five years and improve public services.

Casting his vote in Harare, Mr Tsvangirai predicted his MDF party would win "quite resoundingly" and called it a "historic moment".

Mr Mugabe has focused his promises on expanding the redistribution of wealth to poor black Zimbabweans, as well as making threats of violence against homosexuals.

Some 6.4 million people are eligible to vote before polling stations close at 7pm local time on Wednesday. Final results are expected in about five days.

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