Fort Hood Shooting: Major Nidal Hasan Guilty

Major Nidal Hasan has been found guilty of killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 others at the Fort Hood military base.

The army psychiatrist could face the death penalty after military jurors reached unanimous verdicts on 13 counts of premeditated murder and also found him guilty of 32 counts of premeditated attempted murder.

Hasan gave no visible reaction as the verdict was read out.

The jury will begin hearing the "penalty phase" of the court martial on Monday and make a recommendation to the judge, who will determine the sentence.

If the death penalty is approved, Hasan would face death by lethal injection for the 2009 shooting spree on the Texas base.

The 42-year-old defended himself during the 13-day trial but chose not to call witnesses or testify and questioned only three of prosecutors' nearly 90 witnesses.

In statements to the judge the American-born Muslim suggested that he believed the attack was justified as a jihad against the US military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Kim Munley, who helped take down Hasan, tweeted her "joy" at the verdict

Sergeant Kim Munley, a member of Fort Hood's SWAT team who was shot three times as she took down the shooter, tweeted her delight at the verdict.

She wrote: "So overwhelmed with joy and tears!!!! I sure hope those 14 angels and dancing with joy from above!!! God Bless the victims in their strength."

Hasan never denied opening fire in a crowded waiting room at Fort Hood, where unarmed troops were making final preparations to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq.

All but one of the dead were soldiers, including a pregnant private who curled on the floor and pleaded for her baby's life.

The sentencing phase is expected to begin with more testimony from survivors of the attack in a medical center where soldiers were waiting in long lines for immunizations and medical clearance.

About 50 soldiers and civilians testified of hearing someone scream "Allahu akbar!" - Arabic for "God is great!" - and seeing a man in Army camouflage open fire.

Hasan, pictured in his uniform, carefully planned the attack at Fort Hood

Many identified Hasan as the shooter and recalled his handgun's red and green laser sights piercing a room made dark with gun smoke.

Hasan spent weeks planning the November 5, 2009, attack. His preparation included buying the handgun and videotaping a sales clerk showing him how to change the magazine.

He later offered $10 at a gun range outside Austin for pointers on how to reload with speed and precision.

An instructor said he told Hasan to practise while watching TV or sitting on his couch with the lights off.

Soldiers testified that Hasan's rapid reloading made it all but impossible to stop the shooting.

Investigators recovered 146 shell casings inside the medical building and dozens more outside, where Hasan shot at the backs of soldiers fleeing toward the parking lot.

The military's death row has just five other prisoners and no other soldier has been executed since 1961.

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Syria: US Moves Warship As Strike Calls Grow

US defence officials said an additional warship has been moved into the Mediterranean Sea as calls for military action against the Syrian regime grow following an alleged chemical attack.

The US Sixth Fleet has decided to keep the USS Mahan in the region instead of letting it return to its home port in Norfolk, Virginia.

Three other destroyers are currently deployed in the Mediterranean - the USS Gravely, USS Barry and USS Ramage.

Survivors of the alleged gas attack rest inside a Damascus mosque

All four warships are equipped with several dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles which would allow the Pentagon to act rapidly if a military strike was ordered against Syria.

US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel suggested commanders have prepared a range of "options" for President Barack Obama if he chose to launch a strike against Bashar al Assad's regime.

He said: "The president has asked the Defence Department for options. Like always, the Defence Department is prepared and has been prepared to provide all options for all contingencies to the president of the US."

Dead animals lie in the street in the suburb of Zamalka

Mr Hagel said he expected US intelligence to "swiftly" assess whether the Syrian government did use chemical weapons in two Damascus suburbs.

Mr Obama last year threatened to punish Assad's regime if it resorted to using chemical weapons during the conflict, saying the use of weapons of mass destruction constituted a "red line" being crossed.

Russia on Friday joined calls for a swift probe into the alleged chemical weapon attack.

Syrian refugees in the Quru Gusik camp in Iraq

Britain and France have pressed for a team of UN inspectors already in Syria to be granted immediate access to the sites of the gas attack that activists say killed more than 130 people.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Friday there was little chance the attack had been carried out by rebels.

He said: "The only possible explanation of what we have been able to see is that it was a chemical attack and clearly many, many hundreds of people have been killed, some of the estimates are well over 1,000.

"I know some people in the world would like to say this is some kind of conspiracy brought about by the opposition in Syria - I think the chances of that are vanishingly small."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has sent his disarmament chief to Damascus to press Assad's regime to agree to an investigation.

Immediate access would allow inspectors to collect blood and soil samples to detect what chemicals - if any - were used.

The Assad regime has denied it has used chemical weapons, calling the allegations "absolutely baseless".

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California Wildfire Threatens Yosemite Park

A giant wildfire has spread into Yosemite National Park as authorities urged more evacuations in communities where thousands fled during the week.

The fire, which started a week ago, closed hiking in the park but is not currently threatening the popular Yosemite Valley region.

It grew from 99 square miles to more than 165 square miles overnight and was only 2% contained.

Smoke billowing across the Sierra Nevada forced officials in several counties to cancel outdoor school activities and issue health warnings for people with respiratory problems.

Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said: "Most of the fire activity is pushing to the east right into Yosemite."

The fire is threatening around 4,500 homes, according to the US Forest Service.

Officials issued voluntary evacuation advisories for two new towns on Friday.

A mandatory evacuation order remained in effect for part of Pine Mountain Lake.

Already, the blaze has destroyed four homes and 12 outbuildings in several different areas, according to US Forest Service spokesman Jerry Snyder.

One firefighter has been injured tackling the blaze.

The Hetch Hetchy reservoir supplies San Francisco with 85% of its water, but the city's Public Utilities Commission said in a statement that water quality has not been affected by the fire.

Two of three hydroelectric power plants in the area have been shut down because of the fire and a four-mile section of State Route 120 has been closed.

The spectacular Yosemite Valley offers visitors iconic sights including the Half Dome and El Capitan rock formations, as well as Bridalveil and Yosemite falls.

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Syria: One Million Children Have Fled Conflict

One million children have fled war-torn Syria and another two million have been displaced by the civil war, according to the UN.

Children make up half of all refugees from more than two years of conflict in the country, the latest figures show.

Most have found a haven in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq or Egypt, but they are increasingly fleeing to North Africa and Europe.

Anthony Lake, head of UN children's agency Unicef, said in a statement: "This one millionth child refugee is not just another number.

"This is a real child ripped from home, maybe even from a family, facing horrors we can only begin to comprehend."

A girl carries a baby boy in a refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon

The UN's most recent figures show that some 740,000 Syrian refugees are under the age of 11.

Antonio Guterres, UN high commissioner for refugees, said: "What is at stake is nothing less than the survival and wellbeing of a generation of innocents.

"The youth of Syria are losing their homes, their family members and their futures.

"Even after they have crossed a border to safety, they are traumatised, depressed and in need of a reason for hope."

More than two million children have been driven from their homes in the face of the civil war.

The UN said more than 100,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which started as a crackdown on protests against the regime of President Bashar al Assad in March 2011.

According to the organisation's human rights division, some 7,000 of the dead were youngsters.

The UN also warned the refugee children face the threat of child labour, early marriage and the potential for sexual exploitation and trafficking.

More than 3,500 children in Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq have crossed Syria's borders unaccompanied or separated from their families.

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Syria: Ban Ki-Moon Warns Of 'Consequences'

Time Ticking To Prove Gas Attack

Updated: 12:24pm UK, Thursday 22 August 2013

By Alex Rossi, Sky Correspondent

The video evidence is compelling.

The pictures are horrific.

Hours of footage has now emerged on YouTube of children and adults suffering from what appear to be the after-effects of a chemical attack.

Many of the images are too distressing to show.

They would also be phenomenally difficult to stage.

Directing children to appear to be choking to death in such detail would take the budget and expertise of a Hollywood director - most experts say that this is clearly not the case.

There is now a weight of agreement that the pictures show - incontrovertibly - the aftermath of a deadly chemical assault.

The numbers of dead also suggest that that analysis is the correct one - the death toll just keeps on rising.

On Wednesday there were many questions as to why medical staff and first aiders had not been affected by secondary contamination?

Twenty four hours on and that question has been answered - they are; it just took time.

Many of the people who treated the victims are suffering the deadly consequences of exposure to a lethal nerve agent.

Experts say the timescale is similar to what was seen in the Tokyo subway attack in 1995 when sarin gas was used.

The former head of the British Army's chemical weapons unit, Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, said while video can never be 100% conclusive the evidence it presents is overwhelming.

"It very much looks like a chemical agent has been used, perhaps a nerve agent - the fact that staff have now died as well is revealing. It is disturbingly similar to what was seen in Halabja in Saddam Hussein's Iraq."

But nonetheless without investigation on the ground there are too many questions as to what really happened and who is responsible.

The Russians for instance claim what we are witnessing is an attempt to discredit the Assad regime.

YouTube after all has been used extensively by both sides to spread propaganda throughout the conflict.

The opposition, for example, knows that the widespread use of chemical weapons would be a 'Red Line' issue for the White House and the international community and could trigger Western intervention.

President Assad certainly has the capability to carry out such an assault - it is believed the regime has one of the biggest stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in the world -  but the only way to know for certain is to get a an expert UN inspection team out on the ground.  

That though is easier said than done.

Although the attacks have taken place just 20 minutes outside central Damascus the area is unsafe.

The UN is unlikely to allow the inspectors, who are already in place, to go there without a guaranteed cessation in the violence.

President Assad is also unlikely to give them permission to travel to the district of eastern Ghouta.

And there lies the problem - if a nerve agent like sarin has been used it would be a race against the clock as the evidence at the crime scene will evaporate in the coming days and weeks.

Without the on the ground analysis then, there cannot be a 100% certainty of what really happened, or who carried out the attack. 

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Egypt: Hosni Mubarak Released From Prison

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has been released from prison and flown by helicopter to a military hospital.

Television pictures showed him leaving Tora prison on the southern outskirts of Cairo and landing minutes later in the nearby suburb of Maadi.

It comes after a court ordered his release in relation to charges of receiving gifts from a state-owned newspaper.

He is expected to be placed under house arrest at the hospital on the orders of Egyptian prime minister Hazem el Beblawi - a decision made under a month-long state of emergency declared when police stormed protest camps in Cairo.

Mubarak could not be seen as his stretcher was taken from the helicopter and loaded into an ambulance, which was heavily guarded as it made the short journey to the military hospital.

Mubarak's supporters celebrate his release from Cairo's Tora prison

His supporters, many of whom gathered outside the prison where he was detained, celebrated the release of their former leader.

"We love Mubarak," said Mohamed Hussein.

His sister Fatheya added: "Isn't it enough that for 30 years he did not drag us into a war and let us live in dignity?"

However, some Egyptians expressed their disappointment at his release.

"He should stay in prison," said Hoda Saleh, whose brother is an inmate at Tora.

"The country is facing obstacles so people are turning back to Mubarak. They don't know what they are doing."

Mubarak, 85, is believed to be suffering from a heart condition, although the severity of his health problems is disputed by critics who claim he is trying to gain public sympathy and court leniency.

He was sentenced to life in prison last year for failing to prevent the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising that led to his downfall.

However, a court accepted his appeal earlier this year and ordered a retrial, which is expected to resume next week.

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Hosni Mubarak To Be Placed Under House Arrest

An Egyptian court has ordered the release of ousted former president Hosni Mubarak, according to security sources.

The 85-year-old is being retried on charges of ordering the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising that led to his downfall.

However, he has already served the maximum amount of pretrial detention permitted in that case.

Egypt's prime minister said the former leader would be placed under house arrest when he is released from prison following more than two years in detention.

Hazem el-Beblawi said in a statement on Wednesday that he had ordered the move as part of the emergency measures put in place this month.

Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison last year for failing to prevent the killing of demonstrators. But a court accepted his appeal earlier this year and ordered a retrial.

A lawyer told Reuters he could be freed on Thursday.

Leaving the Cairo prison where the court convened, Fareed El-Deeb said: "The court decided to release him." Asked when, he said: "Maybe tomorrow."

Egypt's prosecutor will not appeal against the court ruling.

"The decision to release Mubarak issued today ... is final and the prosecution cannot appeal against it," Judge Ahmed el-Bahrawi said.

The ailing former president probably has no political future. But many Egyptians would see his release as the rehabilitation of an old order that endured through six decades of military-backed rule - and even a reversal of the pro-democracy revolt that toppled him.

At least 900 people, including 100 soldiers and police, have been killed in a crackdown on Mohamed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood in the past week, making it Egypt's bloodiest civil episode in decades.

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Bo Xilai Corruption Trial Begins In China

Disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai has gone on trial accused of abuse of power and netting more than (£2.5m) in bribery and embezzlement.

Once the powerful party boss in the megacity of Chongqing, the charismatic Bo became the most senior leader to fall from power in years after revelations emerged last year that his wife had killed a British businessman.

Bo entered the courthouse in the eastern city of Jinan under police escort with nearby roads sealed off with red and yellow barriers.

Some of his supporters gathered outside the perimeter shouting "He served the people!" and "He was a good cadre!"

Police at the courthouse in Jinan

The Weibo account of Jinan Intermediate People's Court released the first pictures of him in front of the judge flanked by two police officers.

It also quoted Bo, who said: "I hope the judge will try this case fairly and reasonably, and try this problem according to our country's lawful process."

Weibo is the Chinese version of Twitter and has over 500 million users in the country.

Supporters behind the barriers at the courthouse

This measure, unseen in previous high level court cases in China, was understood to be an attempt by the authorities to make proceedings more transparent.

The scandal was triggered last year when Bo's police chief, a top aide, fled to a US consulate in a neighbouring city, an event that embarrassed the party's leadership ahead of a key political transition.

It would later emerge that the police chief had evidence of the Briton's murder, making the Bo family an international diplomatic liability for the leadership.

Prosecutors accused Bo of accepting bribes amounting to more than 20 million yuan (£2.1m) when he was posted to the eastern city of Dalian from 1999 to 2012.

Gu Kailai and Neil Heywood

He also was accused of embezzling five million yuan (£526,000) from a public construction project in a transaction that also involved his wife.

Bo denies a charge of accepting a bribe of 1.1 million yuan (£115,000) from Tang Xiaolin, General Manager of Dalian International Development Corporation - a company directly associated with Dalian government when Bo was the mayor and Party Secretary of the city.

He is additionally charged with abuse of power related to his alleged attempts in Chongqing to block an investigation into Mr Heywood's murder in late 2011, the court said.

A verdict of guilt is all but assured, because the outcome of such trials involving high-profile politicians in China are usually decided by backroom negotiations by politicians and handed down by the court.

Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, confessed to killing Neil Heywood and was handed a suspended death sentence last year that will likely be commuted to life imprisonment.

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Syria: Call For 'Force' If Chemicals Proven

France is seeking a reaction with "force" if a massacre in Syria involving chemical weapons is confirmed, its foreign minister has said.

"If it is proven, France's position is that there must be a reaction, a reaction that could take the form of a reaction with force," Laurent Fabius told BFM-TV.

"There are possibilities for responding," he said without elaborating.

He added that if the UN Security Council could not make a decision, one would have to be taken "in other ways".

The attacks are alleged to have taken place in Ein Tarma and Zamalka

The Syrian government has been urged to allow UN inspectors to visit the site where it is claimed more than 1,300 people died in a chemical weapons attack.

The National Coalition claims toxic gas was used by President Bashar al Assad's forces during a bombardment of rebel-held areas outside Damascus.

Turkey's deputy prime minister has said only the government is in possession of the type of chemical weapons the opposition claim were used in the attack.

Its foreign minister said "all red lines" have been crossed.

Government officials said the claims were "totally false" and the international news organisations reporting them were "implicated in the shedding of Syrian blood and support terrorism".

But Iran, the country's chief regional ally, has rejected claims that the regime was responsible, saying if such an attack was proven it would be down to the rebels, IRNA news agency said.

The incident comes just days after a 20-strong team of UN weapons inspectors arrived in the capital to investigate whether chemical weapons have been used in the conflict.

And following an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson, said: "We very much hope that we will be able to conduct the investigation.

"Dr Sellstrom and his team are in place in Damascus.  We hope that they will be given access to the area by the government  - it's a requirement of consent in situations like this.

"And that also the security situation will allow them to enter the area.

"The Secretary-General has already expressed his preparedness to conduct the investigation.

"We are in contact with the Syrian government - we hope that all other parties will co-operate so that we conduct the investigation and we hope that everybody realises the importance of ceasing hostilities."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague urged international supporters of the Syrian regime to "wake up to ... its murderous and barbaric nature" ahead of the UN meeting.

However Russia, which has supported the regime and vetoed past attempts to secure a tough UN resolution, suggested the attack could be a "premeditated provocation" by opposition forces.

Officials from Russia and China are reported to have blocked a stronger press statement supported by Britain, France, the US and others.

Earlier, Mr Hague said that if verified, the attack "would mark a shocking escalation in the use of chemical weapons in Syria".

He added: "Those who order the use of chemical weapons, and those who use them, should be in no doubt that we will work in every way we can to hold them to account."

Unverified footage of casualties, including children, in makeshift hospitals suffering convulsions and breathing difficulties was circulated on YouTube.

Syria is thought to have some of the world's largest stocks of chemical weapons, including mustard gas and the nerve agent sarin, but the government in Damascus refuses to confirm this is the case.

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Fukushima Toxic Leak Alert Set To Be Hiked

Efforts are continuing to contain a major toxic leak from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant with plans to heighten the alert level.

The operator of the site said about 300 tonnes of highly radioactive water has leaked from one of hundreds of steel tanks around the wrecked Fukushima Dai-ichi plant.

Amid the deepening crisis, Japan is to raise the severity to a level three "serious incident".

The international severity scale goes from 0-7, with seven being the worst.

Workers were pumping out the remaining contaminated water in the tank and moving it to other containers, in a desperate effort to prevent it from escaping into the sea.

Masayuki Ono, a spokesman for the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), said: "We found a radiation level strong enough to give someone a five year dose of radiation within one hour."

Japan's nuclear watchdog has said it is concerned that more storage tanks at the wrecked nuclear plant will spring leaks.

It also said it feared the disaster exceeded the ability of Tepco to cope "in some respects".

Four other tanks of the same design have had similar leaks since last year. The incidents have shaken confidence in the reliability of hundreds of tanks that are crucial for storing what has been a continuous flow of contaminated water.

Hideka Morimoto, a spokesman for Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority, said: "We are extremely concerned."

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said: "Any way you look at it, this is deplorable. The government will make every effort to halt the leak of contaminated water as soon as possible."

China said it was 'shocked' to hear that Fukushima was still leaking contaminated water two years after the disaster and urged Japan to provide information "in a timely, thorough and relevant way".

The plant suffered multiple meltdowns following a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 - a level 7 "major accident" and the worst since Chernobyl in 1986.

Hundreds of tanks were built around the plant to store massive amounts of contaminated water coming from the three melted reactors, as well as underground water running into reactor and turbine basements.

However, contaminated water that the operator has been unable to contain continues to enter the Pacific Ocean at a rate of hundreds of tonnes per day. Much of that is groundwater that has mixed with untreated radioactive water at the plant.

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