22 September 2013 Last updated at 09:37 GMT
Sentence harsher than initially expected for the former Communist party leading light found guilty of corruption
Kenya standoff: At least 59 dead, minister says
At least 59 people were killed and 175 injured in Saturday's attack on a Nairobi shopping centre, a Kenyan government minister has said.
Joe Lenku said 1,000 people had managed to escape from the Westgate centre after the assault by suspected al-Shabab militants.
He added that between 10 to 15 attackers were still in the building.
It is not known how many civilians remain trapped there - either as hostages or hiding from the militants.
There is a heavy military presence both in and around the shopping centre, and sporadic gunfire can be heard from inside.
There are reports that the gunmen are currently holed up in a supermarket.
'We are all to blame for climate change': Experts hope that the strengthening evidence will help to bolster the political will to act
Scientists are to tell the international community that they are at least 95 per cent sure that human activity is the main cause of climate change, according to one of the most authoritative reports on the subject.
The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will say next week that certainty has increased from "very likely" to "extremely likely" that human activity has caused more than half of the observed temperature rise from 1951 to 2010, in a large part due to fossil fuels and deforestation.
The Fifth Assessment Report, known as AR5, is the IPCC's most definitive yet, and will run to thousands of pages. It will be released in several stages over the coming year after contributions from more than 800 scientists in 85 countries.
China: Bo Xilai sentenced to life in verdict intended to send a message
Sentence harsher than initially expected for the former Communist party leading light found guilty of corruption
China has jailed controversial former politician Bo Xilai for life as it attempts to draw a line under the country's biggest political scandal for decades.
Bo's conviction for bribery, corruption and power abuses was a foregone conclusion, but he refused to go quietly and his cocksure performance in last month's five-day trial brought a harsher punishment than most analysts had initially predicted. Before the hearings they had expected a sentence of 15 to 20 years, given his seniority.
Instead judges at Jinan intermediate people's court handed the former Chongqing party boss life for bribery, 15 years for embezzlement and seven years for abuse of power, to run concurrently; he will be eligible for parole in about a decade. He was also deprived of his political rights for life.
Palestinian kidnaps and kills Israeli co-worker
A West Bank Palestinian lured an Israeli soldier, who worked part-time at the same restaurant, into a cab. The Palestinian confessed to killing the Israeli. He had intended to trade the Israeli for a Palestinian brother in prison in Israel.
A Palestinian lured an Israeli soldier to a village in the West Bank and killed him with the intention of trading the body for his brother jailed for terror attacks, Israel's intelligence agency said Saturday, in a slaying that casts another shadow on U.S. mediated peace talks that restarted this summer.
The killing could further sour the atmosphere for the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which resumed in July for the first time in nearly five years. The deaths of several Palestinians in Israeli raids in the West Bank intended to detain militants involved in attacks has also caused tensions, with the Palestinian side cancelling one session last month in response. Israel has made its security concerns a top priority in talks.
The 20-year-old soldier was reported missing late Friday and Israeli forces began looking for him, the Shin Bet intelligence agency said. The search led the troops to Nidal Amar, a 42-year-old Palestinian from Beit Amin village near the city of Qalqiliya in the northern West Bank.
AP freelancer says report of rebel chemical weapons use not hers
By Mitchell Prothero | McClatchy Foreign Staff
BEIRUT — A freelance contributor to the Associated Press whose byline appeared on a controversial story that alleged Syrian rebels had gassed themselves in an accident told McClatchy on Saturday that she did not write the article and has been seeking to have her name removed from it since it was published by a small Minnesota-based website.
Dale Gavlak, a long time contributor from the Middle East to for AP, released an email statement to McClatchy and several blogs denying any role in reporting the story, which was published Aug. 29 by Mint Press News, which describes itself with the phrase “independent advocacy journalism.” The article carried her byline along with that of Yahya Ababneh, a Jordanian Arab-language journalist.
Tamil party sweeps Sri Lanka's regional vote |
Tamil alliance set to form local government after securing 30 seats out of 38 following end of decades-long civil war.
Last Modified: 22 Sep 2013 03:21
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Sri Lanka's main Tamil party has scored a landslide victory in the first semi-autonomous council elections in the island's north after decades of ethnic war.
The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) swept all five districts in the Northern Provincial Council which went to the polls on Saturday, the department of Elections results showed on Sunday.
The TNA bagged 30 out of a total of 38 seats in an election held under a system of proportional representation.
In the most populous district of Jaffna, the TNA secured more than 84 percent of the popular vote, exceeding the party's own projections of 66 percent.
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