Edward Snowden gets Nobel Peace Prize nomination from Norwegian MP

Oslo:  A Norwegian member of parliament nominated former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize on Wednesday, arguing that his release of classified documents made the world a safer place.

Baard Vegar Solhjell, a former education and environment minister for the Socialist Left party, said Snowden's revelations deepened the public's understanding of the extent to which states spy on their own citizens.

"There is no doubt that the actions of Edward Snowden may have damaged the security interests of several nations in the short term," Solhjell and fellow MP Snorre Valen said in a joint statement.

"We are, however, convinced that the public debate and changes in policy that have followed in the wake of Snowden's whistle blowing has contributed to a more peaceful, stable and peaceful world order," they said.

"His actions have in effect led to the reintroduction of trust and transparency as a leading principle in global security policies."

Snowden, living in temporary asylum in Russia after disclosing U.S. government secrets on surveillance programmes and other activities, faces criminal charges in the United States after fleeing last year first to Hong Kong and then Russia.

Thousands of people around the world are eligible to nominate candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize, including any member of any national assembly. There were 259 nominees for last year's prize, which was won by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for its efforts to eliminate Syria's chemical arsenal.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee will collect nominations for the 2014 prize up to February 1 and finalise its list on March 4, when the committee holds its first meeting of the year and members submit their own nominations. The winner will be announced on October 10.

'I'll break you in half,' politician threatens reporter

Photo credit: AP

Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y. speaking on Capitol Hill in Washington. (File pic)

Washington:  U.S. Representative Michael Grimm was caught on a television camera saying to a reporter, "I'll break you in half," after he was asked in an interview about a federal investigation into campaign finance violations.

The Staten Island, New York Republican had just walked away after the interview on Tuesday night in the Capitol building in Washington with cable channel NY1 News. He was asked about the arrest this month of one of his fundraisers.

With the camera still rolling, Grimm returned and confronted the reporter, Michael Scotto. He could be heard saying, "I'll break you in half," and NY1 said he threatened to throw Scotto over a balcony.

Grimm issued a statement late Tuesday, saying the reporter had taken a "cheap shot" by asking a question about a topic other than President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, which the president had just delivered.

A fundraiser for Grimm, Diana Durand, was arrested this month on charges she illegally funneled more than $10,000 to his campaign.

As Facebook turns 10, Mark Zuckerberg wants to change how tech industry works

AFP photo

Mark Zuckerberg at the 2014 Breakthrough Prizes Awarded in Fundamental Physics and Life Sciences Ceremony at NASA Ames Research Center on December 12, 2013 in Mountain View, California.

San Jose:  Mark Zuckerberg was in his element.

Zuckerberg, whose social network turns 10 years old next week, spoke on Tuesday at a meeting of the Open Compute Project.

Open Compute is an initiative that Facebook started three years ago to help big computing centers add the kind of cost cuts and efficiency gains from open-source software - where programmers share ideas and code across company, university and even national boundaries - to single computer servers and Web management.

If that sounds technical, you are right. Speaking to this engineering audience, Zuckerberg was much less guarded than usual about what he has done and where he is going.

His goals - some achieved and others still aspirational - paint a picture of someone who wants to do more than just be the king of social media. He wants to change the high-tech business, all the way to the guts of the data centre. And he thinks he is on his way to doing it.

To start, he believes he has eliminated the technical advantages enjoyed by Amazon, Google and Yahoo.

Facebook got big after those other companies had all built proprietary global computing systems. Unable to replicate quickly what they had learned, he introduced Open Compute, which effectively crowdsourced the problem of rethinking servers, server racks, cabling, networking and a hundred other engineering problems.

"When you're first to design something, there's advantage to keeping secrets," he said, adding that "from our perspective, it was much better" to take an open-source approach. Now, he said, "we're far ahead."

He did it while saving shareholders money and hugging the planet.

According to Jay Parikh, Facebook's vice president for infrastructure, the company has saved $1.2 billion in energy and management costs by using open source products in the last three years.

"It's not just about saving money, we're saving a ton of money," he said. The server system that contains Facebook's core social graph, or all of the content that people interact with regularly, performs 4 billion operations a second, he said, at 24 percent less cost and 38 percent more efficient energy utilization than a conventional system.

Zuckerberg said Facebook's green energy approach, including windmill-based systems in Iowa and hydroelectric systems in Sweden, had saved the equivalent of power for 40,000 homes and emissions equal to 50,000 cars in the last year.

He has also done his bit to destabilize an industry worth more than $100 billion.

Big tech changes, an eminent Internet economist/investor has pointed out, require a committed buyer who will encourage young companies to endure several years of learning to perfect breakthrough products.

For most of Silicon Valley's history, this was done by the U.S. military. Facebook and the open computing project, which has drawn 150 companies, including Intel and Microsoft, looks like that firm buyer of transformational big-ticket computing technology.

As Zuckerberg put it Tuesday, "folks are heavily incentivized" to build new kinds of hardware when there is a prospect of big sales. "Facebook is a partnership company."

Innovations like servers made from cheap cellphone chips and now computer networking gear at perhaps half the operational cost of conventional products were features of the show floor at the open computing project.

"The way the market is addressed will change," said Frank Frankovsky, Facebook's vice president for hardware design and chairman of the project. "People are starting new businesses made for the way customers want to consume technology - more flexible, with more choice and control."

As tech history shows, it is tough for the incumbents to compete if that becomes the norm.

Zuckerberg really wants to connect a few billion more people. To put that another way, he is up for destroying several decades of international telecommunications practice.

That is probably a $1 trillion business. Besides Facebook and the project, Zuckerberg has started Internet.org. The headline job of the organization is to get pretty much the whole planet connected. It sounds like a noble thing to do, but it is clear he is getting ready to dive into the guts of what that will take, including remaking how the world uses wireless spectrum.

"Having a smartphone doesn't mean you're connected," he said. "An iPhone costs $2,000 for two years, and only $500 of that is the phone."

Facebook, he said, is working with carriers to deliver new services and will also seek new ways to make data hauling over wireless much more efficient.

Parikh said Internet.org was doing research, establishing partnerships with phone companies and looking at new ways to remake wireless systems, the same way it has been remaking servers and networking.

Then there is that matter of remaking how all businesses work. Oh, and much of the rest of the planet as well.

Facebook claims to have participation from 25 million small businesses, but for the most part these are little more than informational pages. That could change as Facebook finds its own ways to sell the kind of business services increasingly offered by Amazon, Google and Microsoft, wrapped inside social media.

"The line between 'work' and 'not work' is blurring," he said, adding that in the future data gathering and analytics "will just be baked into how folks do business."

Additionally, Facebook would like to connect people to things like their cars and home appliances.

"We do identity, social and enable services to easily bring their friends and content," he said. "That should automatically extend to the Internet of Things."

In Zuckerberg's own low-pulse way, realizing the scale of his ambitions freaks him out sometimes. Because of Facebook's size and reach, "we have more responsibility," he said.

Ten years ago, "I remember we had first version of Facebook at Harvard," he said. "I said, 'OK, we've done this, someone will build this for the world.'"

He added, "I had no idea we'd be the ones."

Scientists create embryonic-type stem cells without embryos

Photo credit: Reuters

A fluorescent microscope image shows human embryonic stem cells in this photo taken at Stanford University and released by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

London:  In experiments that could open a new era in stem cell biology, scientists have found a cheap and easy way to reprogramme mature cells from mice back into an embryonic-like state that allowed them to generate many types of tissue.

The research, described as game-changing by experts in the field, suggests human cells could in future be reprogrammed by the same technique, offering a simpler way to replace damaged cells or grow new organs for sick and injured people.

Chris Mason, chair of regenerative medicine bioprocessing at University College London, who was not involved in the work, said its approach was "the most simple, lowest-cost and quickest method" to generate so-called pluripotent cells - able to develop into many different cell types - from mature cells.

"If it works in man, this could be the game changer that ultimately makes a wide range of cell therapies available using the patient's own cells as starting material - the age of personalised medicine would have finally arrived," he said.

The experiments, reported in two papers in the journal Nature on Wednesday, involved scientists from the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Japan and Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in the United States.

Beginning with mature, adult cells, researchers let them multiply and then subjected them to stress "almost to the point of death", they explained, by exposing them to various events including trauma, low oxygen levels and acidic environments.

Within days, the scientists found that the cells survived and recovered from the stressful stimulus by naturally reverting into a state similar to that of an embryonic stem cell.

These stem cells created by this exposure to stresses - dubbed STAP cells by the researchers - were then able to differentiate and mature into different types of cells and tissue, depending on the environments they were given.

"If we can work out the mechanisms by which differentiation states are maintained and lost, it could open up a wide range of possibilities for new research and applications using living cells," said Haruko Obokata, who lead the work at RIKEN.

Stem cells are the body's master cells and are able to differentiate into all other types of cells. Scientists say that, by helping to regenerate tissue, they could offer ways of tackling diseases for which there are currently only limited treatments - including heart disease, Parkinson's and stroke.

There are two main types of stem cells: embryonic ones, harvested from embryos, and adult or iPS cells, which are taken from skin or blood and reprogrammed back into stem cells.

Because the harvesting of embryonic stem cells requires the destruction of a human embryo, the technique has been the subject of ethical concerns and protests from pro-life campaigners.

Dusko Ilic, a reader in stem cell science at Kings College London, said the Nature studies described "a major scientific discovery" and predicted their findings would open "a new era in stem cell biology".

"Whether human cells would respond in a similar way to comparable environmental cues ... remains to be shown," he said in an emailed comment. "I am sure that the group is working on this and I would not be surprised if they succeed even within this calendar year."

Bomb attacks kill four in Pakistan's Karachi: officials

Karachi:  Three bomb blasts including a suicide attack on Pakistani security forces in the commercial hub of Karachi killed four people on Wednesday, officials said, with the Taliban claiming responsibility.

Three paramilitary Rangers and one civilian were killed, while four other people were wounded.

In the first incident, two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were placed close to a Rangers' checkpost in the busy North Nazimabad neighbourhood, killing one soldier and wounding three when they were detonated remotely.

The IEDs were installed in cement blocks, said senior police officer Amir Farooqi.

Later, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to the Rangers' headquarters in the same area of the city, killing two of the paramilitaries and a civilian security guard, and wounding another.

"The suicide attacker walked in and tried to enter into the gate when he was intercepted by the security officials and he blew himself up," Farooqi told AFP.

A spokesman for the Rangers confirmed the toll. "The Rangers personnel who spotted and intercepted the suicide bomber will be awarded the highest Rangers gallantry award," he added.

The injured were rushed to the nearby Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for treatment.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Shahidullah Shahid claimed responsibility for the attacks.

"We carried out the attacks to take revenge for killing of our mujahideen in jails," he told AFP.

The Taliban regularly complain that their members, once incarcerated, are victims of extra-judicial killings by security forces.

Earlier this month a Taliban suicide attacker killed one of Pakistan's best-known police commanders, famed for his fearless work tackling militants in the city.

Karachi, a city of 18 million people which contributes 42 percent of Pakistan's GDP, has been plagued by sectarian, ethnic and political violence for years.

Pakistan has endured a bloody start to the year with 114 people killed in attacks in January, according to an AFP tally.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government has been under fire for failing to make a strong response to the upsurge in violence. For NDTV Updates,

Egypt to put Al Jazeera journalists on trial: prosecutor

Cairo:  Egypt will put an Australian, two Britons and a Dutchwoman on trial for aiding 16 Egyptian members of a "terrorist organisation", the public prosecutor said on Wednesday, describing the four as Al Jazeera correspondents.

According to the website of the Qatar-based television channel, three of its journalists, Peter Greste, an Australian, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, were detained in Cairo on December 29. They have not been released.

The identities of the two Britons and the Dutchwoman mentioned by the prosecutor were not immediately clear. The Dutch embassy declined to comment. The British embassy said it was aware of the report and was seeking more information.

In a statement, the prosecutor said the four had published "lies" that harmed the national interest and had supplied money, equipment and information to the 16 Egyptians. The foreigners were also accused of using unlicenced broadcasting equipment.

The 16 Egyptians are to face trial for belonging to a "terrorist organisation", an apparent reference to the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been protesting against the government since the army toppled Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July.

The government has declared the Brotherhood a terrorist group. The Brotherhood says it is a peaceful organisation.

Al Jazeera's Cairo offices have been closed since July 3 when they were raided by security forces hours after the army ousted Morsi following mass protests against him.

Qatar was a strong financial backer of Egypt during Morsi's year in power and the Gulf Arab state has vehemently criticised his overthrow and the ensuing crackdown on the Brotherhood.

The charges against the journalists are likely to further strain ties between Doha and Cairo.

Human rights groups have condemned the arrests of journalists and a general suppression of dissent in Egypt.

In December a prosecutor ordered the arrest of an Egyptian man whose 15-year-old son was detained for owning a ruler bearing a symbol associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

'Not right for United States to spy on us,' German Chancellor Angela Merkel says

Photo credit: AFP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks during a session at the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) on January 29, 2014 in Berlin.

Berlin:  Berlin and Washington are still "far apart" in their views on the U.S. National Security Agency's (NSA) mass surveillance of Germany but they remain close allies, Chancellor Angela Merkel told parliament on Wednesday.

In the first major policy speech of her third term, the conservative leader said nobody doubted that domestic and allied foreign intelligence agencies helped to protect the German people from terrorism and crime.

"But does that make it right for our closest allies, like the United States or Britain, to access all imaginable data - arguing that it helps their own security and that of their partners?" she said towards the end of a one-hour speech to the Bundestag.

"Can it be right that it's not just about defending against terrorist threats but also to gain advantage over their allies, for example, in negotiations at G20 summits or U.N. sessions?"

"Our answer can only be: 'No, that cannot be right'."

Merkel warned that ceding to the temptation to "do everything that is technically do-able" led to mistrust between allies which would eventually undermine their mutual security.

"Our views are today far apart," said Merkel, who has spoken with U.S. President Barack Obama about former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's revelations of American and British surveillance of allies.

Obama told German TV earlier this month the two countries' close friendship must not be damaged "through surveillance measures that obstruct our trusting communication".

"As long as I am the President of the United States, the German Chancellor need not worry about that," Obama said one day after announcing U.S. security reforms that banned eavesdropping on allied political leaders like the chancellor.

The NSA is likely to be on the agenda of Merkel's meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Berlin on Friday.

"NO BETTER PARTNER"

Snowden's first revelations last June caused indignation in Germany, which is especially sensitive about surveillance after its experience of abuse by the Gestapo under the Nazis and by the Stasi in Communist East Germany during the Cold War.

Reports that the NSA even monitored Merkel's mobile phone added to the anger in Germany, which has pushed - in vain so far - for a 'no-spy' agreement with the United States.

Snowden told German TV on Sunday that the NSA also spied on German industry, such as engineering firm Siemens . He has claimed asylum in Russia but has offered to go to Berlin to help a Bundestag probe into NSA activities.

Merkel said it was not helpful to link the NSA row to talks between Washington and the European Union about a transatlantic free trade area, adding that there was no other "leverage" the EU could use against the Americans regarding espionage other than "the strength of our arguments".

"Millions of people who live in undemocratic countries are today looking closely at how the democratic world reacts to security threats," Merkel said, adding that, for all their differences, "Germany can wish for no better partner than the United States".

Pope Francis makes the cover of Rolling Stone

Pope Francis is taking his place alongside the icons of American popular culture by appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine (File photo)

Washington:  Pope Francis is taking his place alongside the icons of American popular culture by appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, which hits newsstands Friday.

It's the first time the staunchly liberal rock-music bible has featured a Roman Catholic pontiff on its cover, which is typically graced by pop stars and movie idols.

"Pope Francis: the times they are a-changin'," reads the cover headline that borrows the title of Bob Dylan's classic early 1960s anthem.

The Argentine-born pope, who took office in March last year, has previously been Time magazine's Person of the Year. He also made the cover of The Advocate, the respected US gay rights magazine.

In an accompanying 8,000-word profile, seen on its website Wednesday, Rolling Stone hailed the pontiff's relaxed style and his less aggressive stance on such hot-button issues as homosexuality compared to his two predecessors.

In a statement, Rolling Stone's editors said they had been struck by his seeming effort to play down "culture war issues" and his willingness to talk "about real world economic issues in starkly moral terms."

"His tone is a breath of fresh air, but his message is a wake-up call," they said.

Roman Catholics make up the biggest Christian denomination in the United States, but polls indicate lay Catholics don't all share the national church leadership's hardline stance on abortion, contraception and gay marriage.

For NDTV Updates,

Italy: Amanda Knox murder trial nears third verdict

File photo of Amanda Knox (L) and Raffaele Sollecito

Florence, Italy:  Few international criminal cases have stirred national passions as strongly as that of American student Amanda Knox, waiting half a world away for her third Italian court verdict in the 2007 slaying of her British roommate, 21-year-old Meredith Kercher.

Whatever is decided this week, the protracted legal battle that has grabbed global headlines and polarized trial-watchers in three nations probably won't end in Florence.

The first two trials produced flip-flop verdicts of guilty then innocent for Knox and her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, and the case has produced harshly clashing versions of events. A Florence appeals panel designated by Italy's supreme court to address issues it raised about the acquittal is set to deliberate Thursday, with a verdict expected later in the day.

Much of the attention has focused on Knox, 26, who has remained in Seattle during this trial, citing her fear of "the universal problem of wrongful conviction," according to her statement emailed to the Florence court. Her representatives say she is concentrating on her studies at the University of Washington.

"We wait for the verdict, and remain hopeful," Knox's U.S. lawyer, Theodore Simon, said by telephone from Philadelphia. "But history being our guide, we know Amanda can be convicted and it is very disconcerting to her and her family. The logical position is that there is no evidence."

Knox was arrested four days after Kercher's half-naked body was discovered Nov. 2, 2007 in her bedroom in the university town of Perugia. Knox has been portrayed both as a she-devil bent on sexual adventure and as a naif caught up in Italy's Byzantine justice system.

U.S. commentators have accused the Italian judicial system of a case of misapplied justice and double jeopardy, while Italians and British observers have jumped on the image encoded in the U.S. defendant's pre-trial moniker, "foxy Knoxy."

"I don't remember any case which has been as highly publicized and where the countries have taken sides," noted defense attorney Alan Dershowitz, who has written about the case.

"I think it's fair to say that the vast number of Americans think she is innocent and a substantial number of Italians think she is guilty," he said in a telephone interview.

The courts have cast wildly different versions of events. Knox and Sollecito were convicted of murder and sexual assault in the first trial based on DNA evidence, confused alibis and Knox's false accusation against a Congolese bar owner, for which she was also convicted of slander.

Then an appeals court in Perugia dismantled the murder verdicts, criticizing the "building blocks" of the conviction, including DNA evidence deemed unreliable by new experts, and lack of motive.

That acquittal was scathingly vacated last spring by Italy's highest court, which ordered a new appeals trial to examine evidence and hear testimony it said had been improperly omitted by the Perugia appeals court, and to redress what it identified as lapses in logic.

In this trial, Judge Alessandro Nencini ordered an analysis of a tiny trace of DNA on the presumed murder weapon, a knife found in Sollecito's kitchen. In the first trial, DNA traces on the blade linked to Kercher and one on the handle linked to Knox were key to the conviction. But the appeals court trial placed the DNA findings in doubt.

The new trace tested in Florence belonged to Knox and not to the victim. The defense argued that this was further proof that Knox had merely used the kitchen knife for domestic chores in Sollecito's apartment. The prosecution, which has continued to argue the validity Kercher's DNA trace on the blade from the original trial, said the additional trace once again put the knife in Knox's hands.

The real novelty of the Florence hearings was that the new prosecutor, Alessandro Crini, redefined the motive, moving away from the drug-fueled erotic game described by his colleagues in Perugia. He contended that the outburst of violence was rooted in arguments between roommates Knox and Kercher about cleanliness and triggered by a toilet left unflushed by Rudy Hermann Guede, the only person now in jail for the murder.

Crini has demanded sentences of 26 years on the murder charge for Knox and Sollecito.

A guilty verdict would need to be confirmed by Italy's supreme court, which could take a year or more and, in theory, result in yet another appeals court trial.

For Sollecito, who has said he will be in Italy but not in court on Thursday, a guilty verdict could mean immediate arrest, house arrest or passport seizure. For Knox, the situation is more complicated.

Legal experts agree that it is unlikely that Italy would seek extradition until there is a final verdict. Still, Markus Witig, a trial lawyer in Milan with expertise in extraditions, said Italy could - but probably would not - seek immediate extradition on grounds of urgency, which could include the risk a defendant would disappear.

Dershowitz believes double jeopardy would not be an issue because Knox's acquittal was not a final judgment. He also doubts that the United States would want to set a precedent by refusing to extradite her if she is convicted, given that the United States makes frequent extradition requests for defendants sought by U.S. courts.

"The easiest thing for the court to do is acquit. It probably ends it there. If it is a conviction, it is just the beginning of what would be a very lengthy and difficult process," Dershowitz said.

Kercher's family, which has a legal team aiding the prosecution, remains persuaded that Knox and Sollecito were responsible for Kercher's death along with Guede, an Ivory Coast native and small-time drug dealer, who is serving a 16-year sentence. Kercher's sister Stephanie and perhaps one of her brothers is expected to attend the verdict, said Francesco Maresca, one of the family's lawyers.

"This trial is a tragedy for everyone," said Vieri Fabiani, one of the lawyers representing Kercher's family. "For these kids, for the poor girl who isn't here anymore. And for those who went beyond what could have been their intent."
For NDTV Updates,

Oscar Pistorius murder trial to have own TV channel

Photo credit: AP

Oscar Pistorius killed his 29-year-old girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Cape Town, South Africa:  Oscar Pistorius' murder trial will have a dedicated 24-hour television channel in South Africa, the country's top cable provider said on Wednesday, promising "round-the-clock" coverage of one of the blockbuster stories of the year.

MultiChoice said in a statement the temporary "pop-up" channel will launch on March 2, the day before the double-amputee Olympian goes on trial in a high court in the capital, Pretoria, for killing his girlfriend in his home on Valentine's Day last year.

It is the first time it has launched a channel of this kind to cover "a major news event," MultiChoice said. The provider has only had temporary channels on its DSTV network for versions of reality entertainment shows like "Idols" and "Big Brother." DSTV is also available in other African countries.

The female judge who will preside over Pistorius' trial hasn't yet ruled if television cameras will be allowed to record images of court proceedings or if the trial at North Gauteng High Court can be carried live.

Even so, MultiChoice will still tap into South Africa's and the world's fascination with Pistorius' remarkable story, which has taken a dramatic turn after he was celebrated as a sporting hero in 2012 as the first double amputee to compete on the track at the Olympics.

MultiChoice said the channel would give "inside information on the most talked-about and controversial subject in recent South African history." Its head of content, Aletta Alberts, said there would also be "a rich variety of content and social media integration" around the trial.

Pistorius killed 29-year-old girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp by shooting the model - herself a reality TV star - through a toilet cubicle door in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 14, unleashing a frenzy of media interest around the 27-year-old athlete as he was charged with murder. Pistorius said he mistook Steenkamp for a dangerous intruder and fired four shots in self-defense, but prosecutors allege the couple argued and Pistorius killed her intentionally and in a rage.

The world-famous runner faces life imprisonment with a minimum of 25 years before parole if convicted on the main charge of premeditated murder. South Africa does not have the death penalty. Pistorius also faces additional charges of possession of illegal ammunition and will likely be indicted on the first day of his trial on two more charges for allegedly recklessly shooting guns in public.

Television coverage was restricted in Pistorius' previous court appearances, when cameras were allowed to record in court only before proceedings began and after they ended, and had to be switched off when the court was in session. With television cameras off, Pistorius often broke down in tears during his bail hearing. Courtrooms during that weeklong hearing and subsequent appearances were packed out by reporters, photographers and television camera operators.

Permission to film or take photographs in court in South Africa can be given only by the presiding judge. Judge Thokozile Masipa will preside over Pistorius' trial and ultimately pronounce him innocent or guilty of murder. The country doesn't have trial by jury.

The TV channel, branded "The Oscar Pistorius Trial: A Carte Blanche Channel," will be put together by the producers of a weekly investigative journalism show in South Africa called "Carte Blanche," which also airs on MultiChoice's DSTV. For NDTV Updates,

South Sudan to put rebel leaders on trial, risking ceasefire

Photo credit: AFP

Refugees from South Sudan fetch water at the Dzaipi Refugee Transit Centre in Adjumani.

Juba:  South Sudan released seven rebel detainees on Thursday but vowed to put on trial key leaders accused of launching weeks of fighting, a move likely to threaten a fragile ceasefire.

Both sides implemented the ceasefire last Friday, but combat has only eased, not ended, with reports of continuing clashes and a worsening humanitarian crisis that has left thousands dead and forced almost 800,000 to flee their homes.

Four leaders remain in custody in South Sudan, facing trial for attempting to topple President Salva Kiir after fighting broke out in the capital Juba on December 15.

Kiir accused his sacked deputy Riek Machar and other former officials of fomenting a coup against his government.

Eleven ex-officials were arrested, while Machar -- who denied any coup plot -- fled.

Fighting quickly spread across the country. Aid groups say up to 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict, although many fear more may have died.

United Nations aid chief Valerie Amos wrapped up a three-day visit Wednesday to the war-torn country, where she saw the results of over six weeks of bloodshed, with horrific atrocities reported to have been committed by both sides.

"The future of South Sudan rests on all the people being able to work together," she said, after a tour in which she saw food stores looted of tonnes of food aid, in devastated towns where workers were still burying those recently killed in the fighting.

The fighting has seen waves of brutal revenge attacks, as fighters and ethnic militia use the violence to loot and settle old scores.

South Sudan's Justice Minister Paulino Wanawila said Tuesday that the four men in detention will face trial while three others, including Machar, will face justice if caught.

"If someone violates the law you don't go and torture that person, you prosecute that person according to the law," he said.

'Things may get worse before they get better'

But the release of all the prisoners has been a key demand of the rebels, and Kenya's foreign ministry said it was "still negotiating for the release of the remaining four."

John Luk Jok, a former justice minister, spoke on behalf of those released, who appeared in apparent good health.

"We don't feel bitter, we only feel sad that the crisis in our country is happening just after our independence," he said. "We don't see our president as our enemy."

Many fear the conflict has slid out of the control of political leaders, with ethnic violence and revenge attacks between the Dinka people of Kiir and the Nuer of Machar, the country's two largest groups. Over 76,000 civilians are still sheltering inside UN peacekeeping bases.

Government and opposition rebels are still fighting for control in key areas, with the United Nations calling the situation "fragile".

Toby Lanzer, UN aid chief in South Sudan, warned that they were in a "race against time" to support those affected, with the rainy season looming and thousands living outside.

"I think the very sad reality for people, for civilians in South Sudan, is that things may get worse before they get better," he said, but saying it was "never too early" to start reconciliation.

Clashes were reported Wednesday in the oil-producing Unity state, close to the settlement of Leer, Machar's home region.

Aid workers have said they were struggling to cope with those needing support.

"The crisis today is already very severe, you have hundreds of thousands of people displaced, and many, many wounded, who have come to our facilities," said Arjan Hehenkamp, from Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders, MSF).

"We face an emergency today, for many more than only the displaced, and we will continue to see that for the next six months and probably into the next year."

MSF has pulled out staff from its clinic in Leer fearing violence.

Both sides say the other has already broken the ceasefire, but insist they are committed to the deal.

Kiir has hinted he could use his power to grant amnesties but has said that legal processes must be completed first. For NDTV Updates,

300-year-old Stradivarius violin stolen in US

Photo credit: AFP

Representational photo of a Stradivarius violin.

Milwaukee:  A 300-year-old "priceless" Stradivarius violin was stolen from the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra's concertmaster during an armed robbery after a performance at a local Lutheran college, police said on Tuesday.

The rare violin was on loan to concertmaster Frank Almond. The robber used a stun gun on Almond and took the instrument from him shortly before 10:30 p.m. Monday in a parking lot in the rear of Wisconsin Lutheran College, where Almond had just preformed, Police Chief Edward Flynn said.

Flynn said the violin was valued in the "high seven figures," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Investigators believe the instrument, known in musical circles as the "Lipinski" Stradivarius, was the primary target, the chief said.

"The artistic heritage of Milwaukee was assaulted and robbed last night," Flynn told reporters.

As Almond lay on the pavement, the robber fled to a nearby vehicle, described as a maroon or burgundy minivan driven by an accomplice, which then left the scene, Flynn said.

In a 2008 Journal Sentinel story, Chicago violin dealer Stefan Hersh said the violin's value could be comparable to another Stradivarius that sold for more than $3.5 million in 2006.

The instrument, crafted in 1715, was on indefinite loan to Almond from its anonymous owners. Almond has characterized the owners as people with "strong ties to Milwaukee."

The violin's previous owners include virtuoso Giuseppe Tartini, who was known for his "Devil's Trill" Sonata, and Polish violinist Karol Lipinski.

In a 2013 interview, Almond explained that the Lipinski is "finicky" about temperature and humidity, responding differently some days than others.

Almond conducted an online campaign to fund "A Violin's Life," a recording that memorialized the history of the violin.A 300-year-old "priceless" Stradivarius violin was stolen from the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra's concertmaster during an armed robbery after a performance at a local Lutheran college, police said Tuesday.

The rare violin was on loan to concertmaster Frank Almond. The robber used a stun gun on Almond and took the instrument from him shortly before 10:30 p.m. Monday in a parking lot in the rear of Wisconsin Lutheran College, where Almond had just preformed, Police Chief Edward Flynn said.

Flynn said the violin was valued in the "high seven figures," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Investigators believe the instrument, known in musical circles as the "Lipinski" Stradivarius, was the primary target, the chief said.

"The artistic heritage of Milwaukee was assaulted and robbed last night," Flynn told reporters.

As Almond lay on the pavement, the robber fled to a nearby vehicle, described as a maroon or burgundy minivan driven by an accomplice, which then left the scene, Flynn said.

In a 2008 Journal Sentinel story, Chicago violin dealer Stefan Hersh said the violin's value could be comparable to another Stradivarius that sold for more than $3.5 million in 2006.

The instrument, crafted in 1715, was on indefinite loan to Almond from its anonymous owners. Almond has characterized the owners as people with "strong ties to Milwaukee."

The violin's previous owners include virtuoso Giuseppe Tartini, who was known for his "Devil's Trill" Sonata, and Polish violinist Karol Lipinski.

In a 2013 interview, Almond explained that the Lipinski is "finicky" about temperature and humidity, responding differently some days than others.

Almond conducted an online campaign to fund "A Violin's Life," a recording that memorialized the history of the violin. For NDTV Updates,

Syria has shipped out less than five per cent of chemical weapons

File photo

Amsterdam:  Syria has given up less than five percent of its chemical weapons arsenal and will miss next week's deadline to send all toxic agents abroad for destruction, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

The deliveries, in two shipments this month to the northern Syrian port of Latakia totalled 4.1 percent of the roughly 1,300 tonnes of toxic agents reported by Damascus to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"It's not enough and there is no sign of more," one source briefed on the situation said.

The internationally backed operation, overseen by a joint OPCW-United Nations mission, is now 6-8 weeks behind schedule. Damascus needs to show it is still serious about relinquishing its chemical weapons, the sources told Reuters.

Failure to eliminate its chemical weapons could expose Syria to sanctions, although these would have to supported in the U.N. Security Council by Russia and China, which have so far refused to back such measures against President Bashar al-Assad.

The deal under which Syria undertook to eliminate its chemical arsenal stopped the United States and its allies from launching bombing raids to punish Assad for a chemical attack last August and made clear the limits to international action against him.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon suggested in a report to the Security Council this week that shipments had been unnecessarily delayed and urged the Syrian government to speed up the process.

MESSAGE TO SYRIA

That is the message that will be given to Syria's representative to the OPCW during its executive council meeting on Thursday in The Hague, where the Nobel Peace Prize-winning organisation is located, the sources said.

A senior western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the U.N. Security Council will be briefed on the issue by mission head Sigrid Kaag next week.

"All the indications are, and the secretary-general's report makes clear, that actually the regime has been sort of stalling on the implementation of the agreement," the diplomat said.

"It will be important what Sigrid Kaag says about whether she thinks these delays are deliberately politically-motivated and why or whether there's any truth in the weather, the security and those more technical aspects," he said.

Syria, where civil war has killed more than 100,000 people and forced millions to flee, has blamed delays on security obstacles. It said the mission could not be safely carried out unless it received armoured vehicles and communications equipment.

A source briefed on the situation said: "Yes, it's true there is a war, but have you ever heard of a civil war without security issues? They have all the necessary means they need for transportation. Now they need to start shipping the chemicals out."

Under a deal agreed by Russia and the United States after the August 21 sarin gas attack, Syria vowed to give up its entire stockpile by mid-2014. The rocket attacks in the outskirts of Damascus killed hundreds, including women and children.

Eradicating Syria's chemical weapons stockpile, including sarin, mustard gas and VX, requires massive foreign funding and logistical support.

The bulk of the most toxic substances are to be destroyed on the Cape Ray, a U.S. cargo ship now en route to the Mediterranean, which will be loaded with the chemicals at an Italian port. The remainder will go to several commercial waste processing facilities, including in Britain and Germany.

Rare winter storm grips US South, kills at least five people

Photo credit: Reuters

Icicles are seen forming on a fountain during winter at Jackson Square Park in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Austin, Texas:  A rare winter storm gripped the U.S. South on Wednesday, killing five people, stranding children overnight at their schools, gnarling traffic across many states and canceling flights at the world's busiest airport.

At least five deaths in Alabama were blamed on the icy storm that slammed the region from Texas through Georgia and the Carolinas.

Forecasters predicted little relief from the ice on Wednesday, with temperatures unlikely to rise much above freezing for long enough to thaw roads and bridges, before freezing again early Thursday across the Southeast.

"We are all in this together and we will get through it together," read a statement from police in Anniston, Alabama. "What was to be a simple dusting (of snow) has turned into something more. None of us were prepared."

Airlines canceled thousands of flights from Houston to Atlanta, with some 500 alone halted early Wednesday at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the world's busiest airport.

The wintry mix of snow, sleet and ice had moved further to the southeast Wednesday, to southeast Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia, according to forecasters at The Weather Channel.

In Virginia, up to 10 inches of snow fell overnight in some parts of the state, said meteorologists at Accuweather.com. Two inches of sleet pelted North Carolina by Wednesday morning.

Sections of major roadways remained closed in Louisiana near New Orleans, including the 24-mile Causeway Bridge spanning Lake Pontchartrain.

Authorities rescued about 50 schoolchildren in Atlanta, whose buses were stranded overnight on an icy roadway, district officials said.

Hundreds of other students remained sheltered in schools and other locations, their parents unable to reach them after being stuck in an epic traffic snarl that continued for more than 12 hours along the I-75 highway and nearby roadways.

At E. Rivers Elementary School in Atlanta, 95 students were stranded and stayed overnight on Tuesday, Principal Matt Rogers told Reuters.

"We're feeding them, we're watching movies, eating pizza," he told Reuters early Wednesday. "We just had breakfast. It's like a sleepover."

Their overnight adventure was shared by two parents who were unable to leave after they had arrived to pick up their children, he said.

"I had some parents who were in their cars for seven hours to go seven miles," Rogers said.

In Birmingham, Alabama, about 800 students remained stranded in their schools early Wednesday, Birmingham Mayor William Bell said. Teachers stayed with them, giving them food and water, he said.

"We realize that is not good enough for parents who want to hold their children in their arms," Bell said. "We are doing all we can to reunite children with their parents."

One day after storm, Atlanta highways still gridlock

Traffic is at a standstill on the southbound lanes as the northbound side is a empty sheet of ice in Atlanta.

Atlanta:  Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal says there are no more students stranded on buses in the winter storm gridlock, but there are still thousands of kids who spent the night at schools.

Deal said Wednesday those children will get escorts home from National Guard vehicles or police. Authorities are also going out to give people stranded on the icy highways food, water, blankets and gas.

It's still not clear exactly how many people are stranded or when the clogged highways might clear. The city, along with much of the Deep South, became paralyzed Tuesday when a winter storm dumped snow, sleet and rain on the roads and they froze over. For NDTV Updates,

Bashar al-Assad adviser says he may run again

Photo credit: Reuters

File photo of Syria President Bashar al-Assad.

Geneva:  President Bashar Assad's adviser said on Wednesday it would be difficult to hold a presidential election in Syria, given its raging violence, and she rejected the opposition's call for a transitional governing body.

Bouthaina Shaaban spoke to The Associated Press as both sides claimed a somewhat more positive atmosphere in their negotiations during the peace talks in Geneva regarding the civil war.

Earlier in the day, Louay Safi, a spokesman for the opposition's negotiating teams, said the issue of a transitional government was put on the table for the first time. But he added the government delegation stuck to its demand that putting an end to terrorists was still its No. 1 priority.

"Today we had a positive step forward because for the first time now we are talking about the transitional governing body, the body whose responsibility is to end dictatorship and move toward democracy and end the fighting and misery in Syria," he said.

The government seems "more ready to discuss that issue, but still they're trying to push it to the back of the discussion," Safi said. "We told them that this has to come first, because nothing else can be achieved before we form a transitional governing body."

Shaaban said the other side seemed more willing Wednesday to talk about terrorism, and she described the day's talks as constructive.

"The problem is that they're only interested in transitional government. They're only interested in government, not interested in putting an end to this war," she said, adding nonetheless that the talks ended "on a more positive note."

Despite the apparent small step in the peace talks, chances for a breakthrough before everyone goes home Friday appear almost nil as both sides continue to blame each other for an impasse. Shaaban suggested the government may eventually accept a national unity government that might bring in opponents, but not a transitional body.

"There's nothing in the world called transitional government. We don't mind a large government, a national unity government," she said.

Shaaban hinted for the first time that a presidential election scheduled to be held this summer may not take place.

"If you think about it now, it's very difficult to imagine how presidential elections could be conducted in such an atmosphere," she said. "The logical thing to do is to try to stop violence and then to launch a political process. Whether it is a presidential election or parliamentary elections that need to be done in the country, you need peace and quiet to be able to achieve that," Shaaban added.

She reiterated what Assad has said: that should there be an election, he sees no reason why he should not run again.

Safi and Shaaban spoke after a meeting between government and opposition delegates with the U.N.-Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi. For NDTV Updates,

Hundreds of living, dead pythons found in California home

Dead snakes are shown at the home of William Buchman, Wednesday Jan. 29, 2014 in Santa Ana, California

Santa Ana, California:  A schoolteacher was arrested on Wednesday after hundreds of living and dead pythons in plastic bins were found stacked floor to ceiling inside his stench-filled suburban California home.

As investigators wearing respirator masks carried the reptiles out of the house by the score and stacked them in the driveway, reporters and passers-by gagged at the smell. Some held their noses or walked away from the five-bedroom home to get a breath of air.

"The smell alone - I feel like I need to take a shower for a week," said police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna. "They're pretty much in all the bedrooms - everywhere."

Officers said they found more than 400 snakes - at least 220 of them dead - as well as numerous mice and rats, in the Santa Ana home of William Buchman after neighbours complained about the smell. He was arrested for investigation of neglect in the care of animals, Bertagna said.

Buchman, 53, was still in custody on Wednesday afternoon, Bertagna said. The Newport-Mesa Unified School District, where he works, declined comment, saying it was a police matter.

Buchman has not yet had a court appearance or been formally charged and it wasn't clear if he had an attorney.

Authorities said he lived alone, and neighbours said his mother, who had lived with him, had passed away within the past few years.

Sondra Berg, the supervisor for the Santa Ana Police Department's Animal Services Division, said four of the five bedrooms in the home were stacked from floor to ceiling and wall to wall with plastic bins on wooden and metal racks. The bins were packed so tightly, Berg said, that they didn't require lids because there was no room for the snakes to slither out.

Each snake was catalogued by name and type, and Berg said Buchman told authorities he was involved in a snake-breeding enterprise.

"House of Horrors: That's the best way to describe it," Berg said of the house. "I mean there's so many dead snakes ... ranging from dead for months to just dead. There's an infestation of rats and mice all over the house. There are rats and mice in plastic storage tubs that are actually cannibalizing each other."

Some of the snakes were little more than skeletons. Others, only recently dead, were covered with flies and maggots. For NDTV Updates,

Deadly US ice storm turns Atlanta into parking lot, strands thousands

A car sits in a ditch along with other abandoned cars after running off the roadway due to a snow storm in Atlanta, Georgia, January 29, 2014

Atlanta:  A rare ice storm turned Atlanta into a slippery mess on Wednesday, stranding thousands for hours on frozen roadways and raising questions about how city leaders prepared for and handled the cold snap that slammed the U.S. South.

The storm, which has killed at least seven people, on Tuesday swept over a region of about 60 million largely unaccustomed to ice and snow - stretching from Texas through Georgia and into the Carolinas - and forecasts called for more freezing weather on Thursday.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed came under fire for his response to a storm that trapped hundreds of children in schools overnight, some without provisions, and created traffic jams stretching for miles on roads coated with two inches of snow.

"Folks are angry with the mayor of Atlanta, with the governor," said Flavia DiCesare, 54, who spent the night in her office at Cox Enterprises in Atlanta, about 30 miles from home.

The mayor said schools, businesses and government offices were partly to blame for sending all the workers home just as the storm was rolling in.

"During the day, we have a million to 1.2 million people in this city and all those people were out in very bad weather. It hampered our ability to get our equipment on the ground and to prepare our roads for that," Reed told a news conference.

"The error - and we have shared responsibility for the error - the error was letting everybody out at once," he said.

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal said all of Atlanta's school children had been safely returned to their families by Wednesday evening, with help from the National Guard and State Patrol.

The one-day snowfall of 2.6 inches ranked as the 20th heaviest in Atlanta, which has recorded a daily snowfall of an inch or more 55 times since 1928, according to the National Weather Service.

The city's highways became parking lots and thousands of motorists, still stuck 24 hours after the storm hit, were seeking help and food. Workers who couldn't get home were setting up makeshift accommodations in stores and offices.

The roads, littered with stranded cars, looked like a scene from the television show "Walking Dead", said DiCesare, who spent the night in her office with about 100 other employees.

"It looks like zombies walking on the side of these roads," she said.

About 800 traffic accidents were reported in the city, but there were no serious injuries, officials said. At least five deaths in Alabama and two in Georgia were blamed on the weather.

Latasha Wade, 38, said she was awaiting word of her 31-year-old brother, last heard from Tuesday night after his car was stranded in Atlanta.

"I don't know if he's laying out in the snow or what," she said. "It's the most hurtful thing because I don't know anything that's going on with my brother."

The storm took a toll on air travel across the region, with more than 2,600 U.S. flights canceled and hundreds of others delayed, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.com.

In southern Louisiana, the ice and cold were the worst the region has seen in a decade.

Near New Orleans, sections of major roadways were closed, including the 24-mile Causeway Bridge spanning Lake Pontchartrain, and nearly a full day of flights were canceled at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.

Across the South, authorities appeared caught off guard by Tuesday's storm, and were left to cope with its aftermath on Wednesday.

In Birmingham, Alabama, authorities said a lack of warning about the treacherous conditions led to thousands being stuck on roads, in shelters and in schools on Tuesday night. Snow-clearing vehicles were initially directed south of the city, where the icy conditions were expected to hit.

"We proceeded to have school and have people go to their jobs," Mayor William Bell said. "When it came, it was too late."

About 800 students were stranded overnight in Birmingham schools.

Forecasters predicted little relief to the unusual cold blast, with temperatures due to dip below freezing again across the Southeast early on Thursday. That could hinder efforts to clear ice-covered roads across the region.

Nicole Lynch, 22, a student at Kennesaw State University, was among the Atlanta motorists who found themselves stuck in frustrating traffic snarls.

"They should have at least warned any sort of road crew, or taken some precautions. They should have canceled school a lot sooner than they did," Lynch said. "It's a lot of shudda, cudda, wuddas."

A Facebook page called "Stranded Motorists Help Jan 28, 2014" which has more than 10,000 members, amassed entries from frustrated drivers and volunteers trying to come to their aid after the daylong gridlock in the Atlanta metro area.

Rachel Richter, 30, said she finally abandoned her car, after sitting in a traffic jam for six hours.

"It was more the frustration that it was just complete gridlock. Nothing was moving at all," she said. "You moved like an inch in two hours."

French President Francois Hollande announces separation from Valerie Trierweiler

AFP

September 3, 2013 file photo showing French President Francois Hollande and his partner Valerie Trierweiler at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris.

Paris:  French President Francois Hollande announced his separation from first lady Valerie Trierweiler on Saturday following a media storm over allegations he is having an affair with an actress.

"I wish to make it known that I have ended my partnership with Valerie Trierweiler," he said.

Hollande sought to put an end to turbulence that began two weeks ago when celebrity magazine Closer published a report that he was having an affair with film actress and Socialist Party supporter Julie Gayet.

Questions over Hollande's personal life - and whether Trierweiler was still first lady - have diverted public attention from a shift the president made this month towards more business-friendly policies aimed at reviving the euro zone's second-biggest economy in the face of high unemployment.

A press conference to unveil the economic plans was overshadowed by questions over Hollande's private life, as was a trip to Rome to meet the pope on Friday.

Announcing the separation, Hollande said he was speaking as an individual and not as head of state since it concerned his private life.

Trierweiler, a 48-year-old arts columnist for weekly magazine Paris Match, was not married to Hollande but they had been together since 2006. She assumed the role of first lady at official functions following his election in May 2012.

Trierweiler did not immediately respond to the announcement, but planned to travel to India on Sunday for a charity trip.

French media reports said Trierweiler, who was hospitalised for eight days for fatigue after news of the affair broke, may speak at a press conference in India on Sunday.

Hollande, 59, is the most unpopular president in modern France, according to polls. He has struggled to live up to a promise to get unemployment, currently stuck near 11 percent, firmly on a downward trend.

He has four children from a previous relationship with Segolene Royal, a senior member of his Socialist Party and a 2007 presidential candidate. Royal announced their separation just after she lost the 2007 election to Nicolas Sarkozy.

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Bill Gates takes on world chess champ, mated in 9 moves

Updated: January 25, 2014 11:28 IST

Stockholm: Newly crowned Norwegian world chess champion Magnus Carlsen took just nine moves to checkmate Bill Gates in a speed game to be aired later on Friday.

Challenged to a game in a chat show hosted by well-known Norwegian television presenter Fredrik Skavlan and due to be shown in Norway, Denmark and Sweden, Microsoft founder Gates said before the game that the challenge had "a predetermined outcome".

Gates, 58, who was ranked by Forbes magazine this year as the world's second-richest person behind Mexico's Carlos Slim, had 2 minutes to make his moves against just 30 seconds for Carlsen. He lost to the 23-year-old in around 1 minute 20 seconds.

"Wow, that was fast," he said to Carlsen, whose rockstar appeal has won him the moniker, the "Justin Bieber of chess".

The programme, clips of which Reuters received in advance, was recorded on Wednesday in London, Norwegian TV NRK said.

Asked by Skavlan under what circumstances he felt intellectually inadequate, Gates answered: "When I play chess with him (Carlsen)".

Carlsen, a grandmaster since he was 13, received non-stop television coverage in Norway when he beat defending champion Viswanathan Anand of India last November to take his first world title.

Ukraine clashes resume, fires light up night sky

A protester throws a tire onto a fire during clashes with police in central Kiev, Ukraine.

Kiev, Ukraine:  As riots spread from Ukraine's embattled capital to nearly half of the country, President Viktor Yanukovych promised on Friday to reshuffle his government and make other concessions - but a top opposition leader said nothing short of his resignation would do.

Hours after the president's comments, huge fireballs lit up the night sky in central Kiev and plumes of thick black smoke rose from burning tires at giant barricades erected by protesters.

Clashes resumed at the barricades, which are just yards from lines of riot police and also made up of bags of ice and scraps of furniture.

Angry demonstrators hurled firebombs, rocks and fireworks at officers. Riot police responded with tear gas and several dozen protesters were rushed to a makeshift medical triage area to be treated.

"We will force the authorities to respect us," 27-year-old protester Artur Kapelan said. "Not they, but we will dictate the conditions of a truce."

The fighting had stopped earlier this week as opposition leaders entered into face-to-face talks with Yanukovych.

But hundreds of demonstrators in ski masks and helmets were still armed with sticks, stones and firebombs at the Kiev barricades.

After nearly two months of ignoring mass demonstrations calling for his ouster, Yanukovych offered to meet some of their demands, after crowds angered by the deaths of at least two protesters and allegations of abuse by authorities besieged government buildings in scores of cities in western Ukraine.

At a meeting with religious leaders, Yanukovych vowed that, at a special parliament meeting on Tuesday, he would push through changes to his Cabinet, grant amnesty to dozens of jailed activists and amend harsh anti-protest legislation.

But Vitali Klitschko, an opposition leader who is a former world heavyweight boxing champion, declared the only way to end the street protests - known as the Maidan after the central Kiev square occupied by demonstrators - is for Yanukovych to resign.

"Just a month ago, the Maidan would have gone home," Klitschko told reporters Friday night, according to the Interfax news agency. "Today, people are demanding the president's resignation."

The protest law enacted last week appeared to have backfired on Yanukovych, sparking confrontations in which demonstrators threw stones and firebombs at police, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. The violence since Sunday was a harsh contrast to the determined peacefulness of the anti-government protests that have gripped the country for the last two months.

The rallies broke out after Yanukovych scrapped a key treaty with the European Union in order to secure a bailout loan from Russia. President Vladimir Putin had pressed hard to keep Ukraine in his nation's political and economic orbit, but more Ukrainians favor closer ties with the 28-nation EU than an new alliance with Russia.

At least two demonstrators were killed this week in clashes with police and protesters have seized government offices in cities in western Ukraine, where support for Yanukovych is thin.

In a separate incident, a protester was found dead outside Kiev this week after going missing from a hospital together with a prominent activist who was beaten but survived.

Meanwhile, protester anger boiled over as one activist recounted Friday how he was stripped naked, beaten and humiliated by police after being detained this week at a barricade in Kiev.

"They wanted to break my spirit and dignity but I stood firm," said Mykhailo Havrilyuk.

His plight shocked the country when a video of the abuse was posted online, showing him standing naked in the snow, covered in bruises and taunted by policemen. Protesters were further angered after Kiev courts on Friday placed about a dozen activists, detained in clashes earlier this week, under arrest.

On Friday, protesters continued occupying government buildings in a number of cities in western Ukraine, having forced two governors to resign and chasing another out of his office. Government buildings in many other cities were besieged by angry crowds.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, who spent several years backing the scrapped EU agreement with Ukraine, suggested that Yanukovych was losing control over the country. He posted a map of Ukraine on his Twitter account, where many regions were shown engulfed by protests.

"If Kiev regime tries a military solution to this situation, it will be very bloody and it will fail," Bildt tweeted.

EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fuele flew to Kiev on Friday to meet with Yanukovych and the opposition and try to broker a solution. The West has been urging Yanukovych to compromise with the protesters as well as threatening sanctions against his government.

"The country is sliding towards dictatorship and we must stop that," said Denis Nakhmanovich, a 33-year-old protester. "Molotov cocktails are louder than any empty words from politicians." For NDTV Updates,

US judge orders removal of life support for pregnant woman

Erick Munoz, husband of Marlise Munoz, is escorted out of court by his attorney in Fort Worth, Texas.

Fort Worth, Texas:  A judge on Friday ordered a Texas hospital to remove life support for a pregnant, brain-dead woman whose family had argued that she would not want to be kept in that condition.

The judge issued the ruling in the case of Marlise Munoz, who was being kept alive in a hospital in Fort Worth against her family's wishes. The judge gave the hospital until 5 p.m. Monday (2300 GMT) to remove life support.

The case has raised questions about end-of-life care and whether a pregnant woman who is considered legally and medically dead should be kept on life support for the sake of a fetus. It also has caught the attention of both sides of the abortion debate, with anti-abortion groups arguing Munoz's fetus deserves a chance to be born.

Munoz was 14 weeks pregnant when her husband found her unconscious Nov. 26, possibly due to a blood clot.

Erick Munoz says he and his wife are paramedics who were clear about not wanting life support in this type of situation. His attorney argued that keeping the woman alive would set a dangerous precedent for similar cases in the future.

John Peter Smith Hospital maintained it had to protect the life of the unborn child. Hospital officials said they were bound by a state law prohibiting withdrawal of treatment from a pregnant patient. Several experts interviewed by The Associated Press have said the hospital was misapplying the law.

The hospital said in a statement Friday that it "appreciates the potential impact of the consequences of the order on all parties involved" and was deciding whether to appeal.

Earlier this week, Erick Munoz's attorneys said the fetus, now believed to be at about 22 weeks' gestation, is "distinctly abnormal." They attorneys said they based that statement on medical records they received from the hospital.

The local district attorney's office, which is representing the hospital in the lawsuit, said the hospital was expected to issue a statement later Friday in response to the ruling.

Not much is known about fetal survival when mothers suffer brain death during pregnancy. German doctors who searched for such cases found 30 instances of survival over nearly 30 years, according to an article published in the journal BMC Medicine in 2010.

But those mothers were further along in pregnancy - 22 weeks on average - when brain death occurred. For NDTV Updates,

Three years before the vote, Hillary Clinton machine gears up

Photo credit: AFP

Washington:  With the news that America's largest liberal fundraising group is to back a Hillary Clinton presidential bid in 2016, a growing sense of inevitability is building around her prospective candidacy.

The former secretary of state who once occupied the White House as first lady and narrowly lost the Democratic nomination in 2008, has been coy about whether she plans to run again.

But she has said that she will decide this year and, with a full 24 months before even the first party primaries, the "draft Clinton" movement is not waiting for its heroine to formally announce.

She swamps other potential Democratic contenders in the polls, including Vice President Joe Biden, another 2008 Democratic challenger defeated by Barack Obama's victorious campaign.

Meanwhile, the man once seen as her most dangerous Republican challenger, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, is battling a murky political dirty tricks scandal in his home state.

Clinton is scheduled to give three speeches in April before business groups in reliably Democratic California, further fueling speculation that the 66-year-old veteran is nurturing a candidacy.

Priorities USA Action, a non-profit political group which brought in $78 million for Obama's re-election campaign in 2012, confirmed Thursday it plans to raise money for Clinton from rich Democrats.

The group named 2012 Obama campaign manager Jim Messina, a veteran political operator with deep ties to wealthy donors, as its co-chair, essentially ensuring the most high-profile Democratic push of the coming election cycle.

He is joined at the helm by former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm, an energetic Clinton backer and head of a grassroots political action committee, "Ready For Hillary."

Political analyst Tobe Berkovitz told AFP the moves are early efforts at "bigfooting potential challengers on the Democratic side and also freezing the big donors from going anywhere else."

Is it too early?

Part of the plan appears to be for the Clinton camp to burnish the inevitability of her candidacy, showing she is hungry to make history as the United States' first woman president.

But is it happening too early?

Berkovitz said news of the powerful groups aligning with Clinton was good for her but warned it may have been better to appear inevitable a year from now when voters are closer to making their decisions.

And yet the enormous early enthusiasm for Clinton is a "tremendous asset," argued Mitch Stewart, Obama's battleground states director in 2012, who now advises Ready For Hillary.

"I think you're seeing people coalesce around that excitement because it's very rare, if ever, to see something like that especially three years before the actual election," he told AFP.

"For us not to take advantage of both the enthusiasm that we're seeing across the country but also the time that we have, again I think it would be gross malpractice."

As if the world needed reminding that Clinton's gravitational pull was increasing, this week's New York Times Magazine cover features a much-debated "Planet Hillary," an orb bearing Clinton's face.

The image also contains a nod to potential threats to her campaign from the aura of scandal that still cloud memories of her husband's presidency, featuring as it does a "Friends of Bill" black hole.

If Clinton runs she will need to juggle operating in today's data-driven political climate of micro-targeting and rapid response, while also buttering up the old-school politicos who have been the power couple's inner circle for decades.

Sensing a juggernaut, Republicans have not waited for Clinton to declare before trying to set-up roadblocks.

Even before Clinton left office as secretary of state, conservative lawmakers seized on the militant attack on an under-protected US mission in Benghazi, Libya that killed the US ambassador in 2012 as evidence that Clinton is not White House material.

They have also turned to a recent memoir by former defense secretary Robert Gates, a Republican in Obama's first-term cabinet, who wrote that Clinton only opposed the 2007 troop surge in Iraq for political reasons because she was facing Obama in the primaries.

But when Gates was asked whether he felt Clinton would be a good president, he let down Clinton's critics in his own party.

"Actually, I think she would," Gates said. For NDTV Updates,

White House beard meets razor's edge

White House press secretary Jay Carney answers questions about health insurance during a briefing at the White House in Washington.

Washington:  The most tweeted-about beard in the Obama White House left the way it came in - with wisecracks.

"Here I am, the old me," a clean-shaven White House spokesman Jay Carney said at the start of his daily briefing with reporters on Friday. His announcement was greeted with laughter.

Carney debuted the beard to an amused - and not entirely complimentary - press corps on January 6, after a two-week holiday break from television cameras.

Carney said his wife liked it - but she appeared to be in a razor-thin majority.

His boss, President Barack Obama, razzed him about it, as did any number of other White House officials. Even deputy press secretary Jamie Smith's mother registered her disapproval and was pleased at the new, improved Carney.

There was applause and a couple of cheers in the press room when a fresh-faced Carney returned on Friday.

"Let's just say you're not the only ones," Carney remarked.

Carney said he was discouraged from his hirsute pursuits by Obama's speechwriter, Cody Keenan, whose much denser beard has been featured in photos on the White House website in the lead-up to Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday.

"If you've seen Cody Keenan's beard, you know that I have a daily reminder of the insufficiency of my efforts," Carney told reporters.

"I decided that the time had come to shave."

On children's website, NSA puts a furry, smiley face on its mission

Handout via The New York Times

In an undated handout image, a navigational menu on the National Security Agency's CryptoKids website.

Washington:  The turtle wearing a hat backward, baggy jeans and purple sunglasses looks just like other cartoon characters that marketers use to make products like cereal and toys appealing to children.

But the reptile, known as T. Top, who says creating and breaking codes is really "kewl," is pushing something far weightier: the benefits of the National Security Agency.

"In the world of diplomacy, knowing what your enemy is planning helps you to prepare," the turtle says. "But it is also important that your enemies do not know what you have planned. It is the mission of the National Security Agency and the Central Security Service to learn what it can about its potential enemies to protect America's government communications."

Such an enthusiastic endorsement of the NSA's mission might seem particularly timely given the criticism directed at the agency since one of its former contractors, Edward J. Snowden, began leaking documents he had stolen from it. But T. Top and a troupe of eight other smiley-faced cartoon characters have been busy promoting the NSA's mission for the past nine years as part of a governmentwide attempt to make agencies more understandable to the public. With cartoon characters, interactive games and puzzles, the NSA's CryptoKids website for "future codemakers and codebreakers" tries to educate children about spying duties and recruit them to work for the agency.

As the website says: "It is never too early to start thinking about what you want to do when you grow up."

To enter the "How Can I Work for the N.S.A." section of the site, children click on a picture of a bucktoothed rabbit, who says in his biography that he likes listening to hip-hop and rock. In his free time, the bunny says, he participates in cryptography competitions with other cartoon characters named Decipher Dog and CryptoCat.

"As a signals analyst, you will work with cutting edge technology to recover, understand and derive intelligence from a variety of foreign signals found around the world," children are told in the future employment section. "You will also attempt to identify the purpose, content, and user of these signals to provide critical intelligence to our nation's leaders."

Civil libertarians, not surprisingly, said the website was propaganda. Experts on early childhood education and marketing to children said the tactics used by the NSA were similar to the way McDonald's puts toys in its Happy Meals.

"This is the NSA putting on its best face and the way it wants to present itself without anyone else providing their opinions or making noise - and for children, it may make them feel good about what the NSA does," said Nina Huntemann, a professor at Suffolk University who studies the social impact of new media.

"Is that necessarily bad? I'm not that pessimistic; it happens all the time," Huntemann said, referring to efforts by the government, companies and educators to promote messages to children through cartoons and games. "But these sites have been shown over and over to be ineffective at actually connecting with people."

Vanee Vines, a spokeswoman for the NSA, said that "like many government agencies," the NSA "has a special website for children."

"The site," she said, "is designed to help children learn about cryptology and NSA's mission to defend the nation." The site complies with a policy memo from President Bill Clinton that called on all federal agencies to develop ways to educate children about government. The FBI and the CIA are among the other government agencies that have their own sites to try to educate children about their missions.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to oversee intelligence agencies, hosts a website that links "kids, parents and teachers to U.S. government information and services on the Web from government agencies" that are "geared to the learning level and interest of kids." Other government agencies and departments that have websites for children include the Energy Department, State Department, Treasury Department, National Counterterrorism Center and National Reconnaissance Office.

Electronic games have also been popular. In 2002, for example, the Pentagon released the video game "America's Army" to encourage people to enlist.

The NSA started CryptoKids with seven characters, according to a news release in 2005, "to make researching America's cryptologic heritage and learning about NSA/CSS fun."

In 2010, the NSA added two more characters, the CyberTwins Cy and Cyndi, to educate children about "staying safe while enjoying cyberspace."

"Both are world travelers," the NSA said in a news release about the new characters, "taking turns accompanying their Dad (a computer scientist in the U.S. Army) on his business trips around the world."

The CyberTwins are now the first cartoon characters visitors to the website see.

Although the Internet is a "great" place, Cy advises children, "there are people out there who don't have your best interests in mind - stop and think before sharing private information, especially on social networking websites."

After reading Cy's message, children can enter the website and begin to "Meet the Gang" and play the games that allow them to make secret codes. 

Iran's message at Davos has an eerie echo

Photo credit: AP

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani smiles at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Washington:  When President Hassan Rouhani of Iran commandeered the spotlight this week in Davos, Switzerland, with a message of peaceful intentions and a desire for dialogue, it was an eerie echo of 10 years ago, when Iran's last would-be change agent, Mohammad Khatami, delivered the very same message at the World Economic Forum.

Comparing their appearances demonstrates how much Iran has changed in the last decade, but also how fragile the current diplomatic opening is, and how little time Rouhani may have to negotiate a nuclear deal, while holding Iran's hard-liners at bay.

Iran, Rouhani said Thursday, was determined to pursue "constructive engagement" with the world and had no intention of acquiring a nuclear weapon. In 2004, Khatami said, "Anywhere that we sense and feel that the other side respects us and does not force anything upon us, we are prepared to talk." He, too, ruled out a bomb.

Then, as now, Iran agreed to halt some enrichment of uranium and submit to United Nations inspections, as part of an effort to negotiate a nuclear deal. Then, as now, the Iranian leaders used Davos, the annual gathering of world leaders and captains of industry, as an opportunity to lure foreign investors back to their country.

But less than a month after Khatami's star turn in the Swiss Alps, Iran held parliamentary elections marred by the government's disqualification of thousands of reformist candidates. For Khatami, whose landslide election in 1997 had stirred hopes for change, it was the final blow to his own reformist credentials. By the following summer, the nuclear diplomacy had collapsed and Iran had switched its centrifuges back on.

Rouhani faces a similarly treacherous path. To close a nuclear deal, he will have to make concessions that would engender fierce resistance from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other conservative factions. His growing international celebrity - and that of his foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, who was also at Davos - could bring him into conflict with Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"Rouhani knows Khatami's history," said Abbas Milani, an Iranian scholar at Stanford University. "He knows Khamenei's delicate position. He reads the attacks on him and Zarif in Iran. So he is trying to walk this rather sensitive line to see if he can open doors."

For a variety of reasons, Iran experts said, Rouhani has more room for maneuver than his predecessor. The pain of international sanctions on Iran's economy is a much bigger motivation to signing a nuclear deal than Iran's fear in 2004 that the United States, which had invaded Iraq the year before, would march on Tehran next.

Rouhani, never a reformist, was elected with a broad consensus of Iran's clerical and military establishment to try to negotiate a deal that would ease those sanctions. Khatami, who had long spoken out in favor of democracy and civil society, was an unorthodox victor whose election presaged deep rifts within the ranks of the mullahs.

"In contrast to Khatami, there is a widespread perception that Rouhani is working with, rather than against, the supreme leader to carry out détente abroad and reconciliation at home," said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Still, he added, "Rouhani has been winning global accolades by using a similar - although less articulate and arguably less genuine - script than Khatami began using in 1997."

The surface similarities were on display in Davos. Both leaders projected a genial, reasonable image as they greeted participants. Both steered clear of the angry, anti-Israel vitriol of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who served as president between them. Ahmadinejad's inflammatory rhetoric all but ensured that he would never be a Davos Man.

Khatami larded his speech with references to German philosophers like Hegel and Weber, and said, "Democratic norms are not identical packaged-goods, ready for export." Afterward, he gamely held a chaotic news conference, in which he brushed aside suggestions that he should meet with U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, who was also in Davos that year.

At the time, Iran was not even the world's No. 1 nuclear rogue state. Two days after Khatami spoke, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler at the time, admitted that his country's top atomic scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, had sold nuclear designs to other countries.

This year, Rouhani was guaranteed a sold-out crowd. He had held a history-making phone call with President Barack Obama; his country has signed an interim nuclear deal with the West, which has halted parts of its nuclear program for the first time in a decade; and Iran is viewed as something of a kingmaker in Syria, where its support for President Bashar Assad is one of the main reasons he has clung to power.

Speaking to an audience that included Israelis, Rouhani insisted that Iran would pursue a foreign policy of "prudent moderation." While he did not seek common ground with the United States on Syria, he said "all of us should work to push terrorists out."

Yet Rouhani also showed a more cautious, politically calculating side than Khatami. He canceled a planned news conference; his aides cited technical problems with the room. And in an interview with Fareed Zakaria of CNN, he insisted that Iran would not agree to dismantle a single centrifuge - a position that, if nonnegotiable, would be a deal breaker.

Rouhani, unlike Khatami, has shown little appetite for opening up Iranian society or challenging the authority of its clerical institutions. If he runs afoul of Khamenei, some experts say, it will be less because of what he said at Davos than because of his enthusiastic embrace of other first-world pursuits, like Twitter and Facebook, although he said in Davos that his frequent posts were ghostwritten.

"Davos is fully approved by the theocracy," said Suzanne Maloney, a senior fellow and an Iran expert at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. "It's the other elements of the strategy, like social media, that are problematic at home." 

South Sudan fighting continues after ceasefire: UN

Refugees from South Sudan fetch water at the Dzaipi Refugee Transit Centre in Adjumani.

Juba, South Sudan:  Government troops and rebels in South Sudan still fought sporadic battles after a ceasefire came into force on Friday, the United Nations said.

The ceasefire came into effect at 1730 GMT despite rebel accusations that the army had attacked their positions in two separate regions just hours earlier.

"The UN Mission in South Sudan says that sporadic fighting took place in parts of the country today," including after the ceasefire, UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Rebel spokesman Lul Ruai Koang said before the ceasefire deadline that "simultaneous attacks have been launched" by the army on positions in the northern oil state of Unity, and in the volatile eastern Jonglei region.

But army spokesman Philip Aguer said he had "no reports of fighting", and that clashes in Jonglei had taken place before the deal was signed, when rebels attacked government forces.

Both sides pledged on Thursday to halt fighting within 24 hours and end five weeks of bitter conflict that has left thousands dead, but both sides have said they doubt the other can fully control the forces on the ground.

Koang alleged that South Sudanese government troops -- as well as Ugandan soldiers and rebels from neighbouring Sudan's war-torn Darfur region, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) -- had attacked rebel positions, warning they had the "right to defend themselves against this senseless aggression."

The ceasefire agreement was signed late Thursday in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa by representatives of South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and rebel delegates loyal to ousted vice president Riek Machar, and was greeted by cheers from regional peace brokers and diplomats.

"It is critical that both parties implement the cessation of hostilities agreement in full and immediately," the UN spokesman said.

US President Barack Obama, whose country provided crucial backing on South Sudan's path to statehood, described the deal as "a critical first step toward building a lasting peace".

Kiir urged those rebels not under Machar's control to also respect the deal.

"Now that people have fought, people should come back to their senses and we sit down so that we can resolve this conflict through negotiation," Kiir said in address Friday.
Fear of revenge attacks

Up to 10,000 people are believed to have been killed in the fighting pitting forces loyal to Kiir against a loose coalition of army defectors and ethnic militia nominally headed by Machar, a seasoned guerrilla fighter.

The fighting has been marked by atrocities on both sides with some 700,000 people forced from their homes in the impoverished nation.

There has also been a wave of brutal revenge attacks, as fighters and ethnic militia use the violence to loot and settle old scores.

Food to feed a quarter of a million people for a month has been looted from UN World Food Programme stores -- a staggering 3,700 metric tons -- with the agency warning that "humanitarian needs will continue long after the fighting stops".

More than 76,000 people are crowded inside UN peacekeeper bases across the country -- the highest number since the start of the conflict -- with most hesitant to leave the protection offered by the compound.

"No one I know is preparing to leave yet, they want to wait to see how things turn out," said David Choul, one of thousands squeezed into a former sports ground turned into a UN base in Juba.

Government delegation head Nhial Deng Nhial said he was sceptical of the rebels' capacity to curb the violence, "given that the bulk of the rebels are made up of civilians" -- essentially any one of the countless people who have kept hold of their guns after decades of conflict.

"It won't happen overnight when there was so much fighting going on," said one UN Security Council diplomat following the crisis.

But Rebecca Garang, widow of South Sudan's independence leader John Garang, and who stood with Machar to make a political challenge to the government in December before fighting began, dismissed such concerns.

"The ceasefire did not just come alone in isolation without Dr Riek (Machar) knowing what is going on... so I think he will be able to talk to all of them and control them," she told the BBC. For NDTV Updates,

China's moon rover develops a snag: report

Photo credit: AP

This image taken from video shows China's first moon rover touching the lunar surface and leaving deep traces on its loose soil on December 15 2013.

Beijing:  China's Jade Rabbit moon rover has experienced a "mechanical control abnormality", state media said on Saturday, in what appears to be a setback for a landmark mission in the country's ambitious space programme.

The abnormality occurred due to "the complicated lunar surface environment," the official Xinhua news agency said, citing the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND).

Scientists were "organising an overhaul", the report added, without giving further details.

There were no reports of the abnormality on SASTIND's website.

The Jade Rabbit, or Yutu in Chinese, was deployed on the moon's surface on December 15, several hours after the Chang'e-3 probe landed.

The mission is a huge source of pride in China, the third country to successfully send a lunar rover to the moon, after the United States and the former Soviet Union.

The landing was the first of its kind since the former Soviet Union's mission nearly four decades ago. For NDTV Updates,

6.1 magnitude earthquake strikes off Indonesia's Java: USGS

Updated: January 25, 2014 12:26 IST

Jakarta:  A 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck off Indonesia's main island of Java on Saturday, the US Geological Survey reported, sending panicked residents running from their homes.

People in the town of Adipala near the epicentre said they felt the ground shaking hard for up to 20 seconds, as the quake struck in the sea off the coast of southern Java.

"We all just ran onto the street, there were so many people," Astri, a florist who goes by one name, told AFP by phone from her flower shop.

"But it doesn't seem to have damaged anything around here, and we're getting back to work," she said.

The quake struck at 12:14 pm (0514 GMT) 39 kilometres (24 miles) south-southeast of Adipala at a depth of 83 kilometres, the USGS said.

Indonesian officials said there was no risk of a tsunami and no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

"We don't expect a lot of damage because the quake was deep, but we will monitor as it was felt quite strongly on the coast near the epicentre," meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency technical chief Suharjono told AFP.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where tectonic plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

A 6.1-magnitude quake that struck Aceh province on Sumatra island in July 2013 killed at least 35 people and left thousands homeless. For NDTV Updates,

Bomb explodes near Cairo police academy, one wounded

Police officers and people gather in front of the destroyed Islamic Museum building, after a bomb blast occurred at the police headquarters nearby, in downtown Cairo on Friday.

Cairo:  A bomb exploded near a police academy in Cairo on Saturday, wounding one person, security sources said.

The explosion, which occurred on the third anniversary of the uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak, came a day after a wave of bomb attacks targeting police killed six people and raised fears that an Islamic insurgency is gaining momentum.

Islamist militants have stepped up attacks since the army toppled President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood in July. Hundreds of security forces have been killed.

Morsi's overthrow plunged Egypt into political turmoil which has hit investment and tourism hard.

More violence is expected on Saturday, when rival political factions gather to mark the anniversary of Mubarak's downfall.

Student dies after shooting at South Carolina State University

Updated: January 25, 2014 13:33 IST

Charleston, South Carolina:  A student who was shot outside a dormitory at South Carolina State University died on Friday as authorities searched for four suspects believed to be involved in the shooting, officials said.

Police said the male student was shot around 1:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT) on the campus of the historically black college in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

Officials have not identified the victim or the suspects. Authorities are still investigating a motive for the shooting, said University Police Chief Mernard Clarkson.

The frequency of shootings at schools and universities in the United States is fueling a national debate over gun control. The latest attack follows a shooting death at Purdue University earlier this week and shootings at high schools and middle schools in recent weeks.

University President Thomas Elzey turned emotional as he announced the student died several hours after the incident.

"South Carolina State University is saddened today because of the loss of one of our students," he said. "He was a very nice young man and it hurts. It hurts us all."

The university said a lock down imposed after the shooting was lifted, but warned students to remain cautious and report any suspicious activity to police, according to the school's Twitter feed.

The four suspects were believed to have left the campus, Clarkson said. Police have identified one suspect but do not know the identities of the other suspected assailants, officials said.

South Carolina State University has an enrollment of about 3,200 students. Orangeburg, a city of nearly 14,000 people, is located some 75 miles (120 km) northwest of Charleston.

The shooting was the latest in a rash of gun attacks at schools across the United States.

On Tuesday, a male student was shot and stabbed to death in a classroom at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

The day before, a student was shot and critically wounded outside an athletic center at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia.

Last week, two students were shot at a high school in Philadelphia, another was shot at a high school in Georgia, and two students were shot at a middle school in New Mexico.