Syrian Soldiers In Iraq Killed In Ambush

At least 42 Syrian soldiers and a number of Iraqis have been killed after they were attacked by unidentified gunmen

The Syrians had sought refuge in northern Iraq during clashes with rebels close to the border earlier in the week.

Iraqi authorities moved them from Nineveh province to the capital Baghdad, but were transporting them back to the Syrian border through Anbar province when the attack took place.

Armed men attacked the convoy from two sides with mortar rounds, automatic weapons and mines, according to Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Khalaf al-Dulaimi of the Iraqi border protection forces.

Eight Syrians and four Iraqis were also wounded, and three vehicles in the convoy destroyed, he added.

Ali Mussawi, a spokesman for Iraqi prime minister Nuri al Maliki, said: "This confirms our fears of the attempt of some to move the conflict to Iraq, but we will face these attempts by all sides with all of our power."

The attack came as opposition activists claimed the rebels had pushed government troops from most of the northern city of Raqqa, setting off celebrations in a central square where scores of cheering protesters tore down a bronze statue of President Bashar Assad's late father.

Britain is to provide greater assistance to the rebels

Photographs showed a burning guard post, men ripping down a poster of Assad and the fallen statue, while video footage posted on the internet purportedly showed an abandoned prison in the centre of the city.

Iraq's government, which is dominated by Shia Muslims like Syria's principal backer Iran, has so far not backed calls for President Assad to stand down but has called for both sides to end the violence.

Anbar province is dominated by Sunni Muslims, who also make up the majority of the rebels fighting Assad's soldiers.

However, the Syrian National Council has accused Baghdad of giving "political and intelligence support to the Syrian regime".

The United Nations estimates that more than 70,000 people have been killed and one million have fled their homes because of the conflict in Syria.

Foreign Office Minister Hugo Swire has defended the decision to provide "technical assistance and non-lethal equipment" to the opposition after being summoned to the Commons to be questioned on whether greater support would aid terrorists.

"The longer the situation goes on, the greater the danger extremism takes hold, the greater the danger of destabilising neighbouring countries and the greater the extreme humanitarian distress involved," he said.

"We must do more to try and help save lives in Syria. That is why we led the way in agreeing an amendment to the EU sanctions regime to ensure that the possibility of further assistance is not closed off."

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Baby Death Hit-And-Run Suspect Named

A baby delivered by doctors after his parents were killed in a hit-and-run car crash in New York has died, a community spokesman has confirmed.

Nachman and Raizy Glauber, both 21, died in the crash in Brooklyn but their baby initially survived after doctors performed an emergency caesarean section on the mother.

However, Isaac Abraham, a spokesman for the family's Orthodox Jewish community, said the child died on Monday morning.

Julio Acevedo (New York Police Department)

Police are searching for the suspected driver, 44-year-old Julio Acevedo. The authorities claim he was travelling in a BMW at 60mph (97 kph) when he collided with a car hired to take the couple to hospital.

"This guy's a coward and he should pay his price," said Mr Abraham, adding that the community wants a murder prosecution.

The registered owner of the BMW, who was not in the car at the time of the crash, has been charged with insurance fraud.

Many of the Glaubers' fellow Orthodox Jews attended the couple's funeral, which was held hours after their deaths. Jewish law calls for the burial of the dead as soon as possible.

Mr Glauber was described as "the sweetest, most charming human being, always with a smile on his face".

His cousin, Sara Glauber, said of the couple: "If one had to go, the other had to go too because they really were one soul."

The accident occurred in Brooklyn

The hit-and-run happened in the Williamsburg neighbourhood of Brooklyn, as the couple made their way to a local hospital in a cab.

Mrs Glauber, who was seven months pregnant, was sitting in the back of the car. Her body was thrown from the vehicle and landed under a parked lorry, according to witnesses.

Her husband was trapped in the vehicle and emergency workers had to cut the roof off to free him from the wreckage.

The cab driver was treated for minor injuries at a local hospital and released.

Hundreds attended the couple's funerals on Sunday

The Glaubers were married about a year ago and had started a life together in Williamsburg, relatives said. He was studying at a rabbinical college nearby.

At their funeral, men in black hats gathered around the coffins in the middle of the street, while women in bright headscarves stood on the pavement, in accordance with the Orthodox Jewish tradition of separating the sexes at religious services.

A man could be heard sobbing as he spoke through a loudspeaker, while Yitzchok Silberstein, Mrs Glauber's father, said: "I will never forget you, my daughter."

Brooklyn is home to the largest community of ultra-Orthodox Jews outside Israel. More than 250,000 live in the New York borough.

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Woman Dies After Nurse Refuses To Perform CPR

A retirement home in California has defended a nurse who refused pleas by an emergency call operator to perform CPR on an elderly woman who later died.

At the beginning of the call, the nurse - who did not give her full name - asked for paramedics to come and help the woman, who had collapsed in the home's dining room and was barely breathing.

In a tape of the conversation, dispatcher Tracey Halvorson is heard pleading for the nurse to perform CPR, and after several refusals asks her to find a resident, a gardener or anyone not employed by the home to get on the phone, take her instructions and help the woman.

"Is there anybody that's willing to help this lady and not let her die," Ms Halvorson says on the 911 recording released by the Bakersfield Fire Department.

"Not at this time," said the nurse, who added that the home's rules prevented her from giving medical help to the woman, who has been named in reports as Lorraine Bayless, 87.

Glenwood Gardens in Bakersfield, California

"Can we flag someone down in the street and get them to help this lady?" Ms Halvorson went on.

"Can we flag a stranger down? I bet a stranger would help her."

Ms Bayless was later declared dead at Mercy Southwest Hospital, officials said.

The executive director of Glenwood Gardens, Jeffrey Toomer, defended the nurse's actions, saying she had followed policy.

He said in a statement: "In the event of a health emergency at this independent living community our practice is to immediately call emergency medical personnel for assistance and to wait with the individual needing attention until such personnel arrives.

"That is the protocol we followed."

Mr Toomer offered condolences to the woman's family and said a "thorough internal review" of the incident would be conducted.

He told KGET-TV that residents are informed of the policy and agree to it when they move in.

He said the policy does not apply at the adjacent assisted living and skilled nursing facilities.

Police in Bakersfield are investigating whether there was any criminal wrongdoing.

CPR, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, is a first-aid technique involving chest compressions and sometimes rescue breaths that can be used if a person is not breathing properly or if their heart has stopped.

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Japan: Family Killed As Car Is Buried In Snow

Four members of a family have been killed after their car was buried in a snowstorm in the main northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.

Four other deaths linked to the weekend's snowfall have been reported.

Kazuyo Miyashita and her three children died at a hospital on Saturday night of carbon-monoxide poisoning after their vehicle got buried in the snow.

Her daughters were 17 and 14, and her son was 11.

The snowstorm hit during the weekend, burying vehicles

Separately, a 23-year-old woman froze to death after leaving her car, which was stuck in the snow.

The Kyodo news service said a 53-year-old man had died after getting buried in the snow, although his nine-year-old daughter found with him was recovering.

Two other men collapsed in the snow in another part of Hokkaido and were confirmed dead.

Several vehicles were stranded and buried under snow in the island in northern Japan.

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HIV Baby: Doctors Say Infected Girl 'Cured'

A baby girl born with HIV has been cured after very early treatment with standard drug therapy, researchers say.

The child, from Mississippi in the US, is now two-and-a-half years old and has been off HIV drugs for about a year with no signs of infection.

More testing needs to be done to see if the treatment would have the same effect on other children.

But the case could change the way high-risk babies are treated and possibly lead to a cure for children with HIV, which causes Aids.

"This is a proof of concept that HIV can be potentially curable in infants," said Dr Deborah Persaud, a virologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

She presented the findings at the conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta.

If the baby stays healthy, it would be only the second reported case of a person who has recovered from HIV after that of Timothy Ray Brown, known as "Berlin patient", in 2007.

Timothy Ray Brown became the first person to have recovered from HIV

His HIV infection was completely eradicated through an elaborate treatment for leukaemia that involved the destruction of his immune system and a stem cell transplant from a donor with a rare genetic mutation that resists HIV infection.

The treatment used for the baby girl was, however, very different as it involved the use of a cocktail of widely available drugs already used to treat HIV infection in infants.

The girl was born in a rural hospital to a woman who had just tested positive for HIV infection.

Because her mother had not received any prenatal HIV treatment, doctors knew the child was born at high risk of being infected.

So they transferred the baby to the University of Mississippi Medical Centre in Jackson, where she was put on a cocktail of three standard HIV-fighting drugs when she was just 30 hours old - even before lab tests came back confirming her infection.

After starting on treatment under the care of Dr Hannah Gay, a paediatric HIV specialist, the baby's immune system responded and tests showed levels of the virus were diminishing until it was undetectable 29 days after birth.

The latest case offers promising clues in HIV research, scientists say

The baby received regular treatment for 18 months, but then stopped coming to appointments for a period of about 10 months, when her mother said she was not given any treatment.

When the child came back under the care of Dr Gay, she ordered standard blood tests to see how the child was faring before resuming antiviral therapy.

The first blood test did not turn up any detectable levels of HIV. Neither did the second.

And tests for HIV-specific antibodies - the standard clinical indicator of HIV infection - also remained negative.

"At that point, I knew I was dealing with a very unusual case," Dr Gay said.

Further, more sophisticated blood tests followed, and there was no detectable virus in the child's blood.

The doctors advised that she not be given antiretroviral therapy. Instead, she will be monitored.

Dr Rowena Johnston, vice president and director of research for the Foundation for Aids Research, which helped fund the study, said it is "imperative that we learn more about a newborn's immune system, how it differs from an adult's and what factors made it possible for the child to be cured".

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India: Twelve Children Die In School Bus Crash

At least 12 children have been killed after their school bus collided with a truck carrying bricks in northern India.

The crash, which also killed the driver, happened on the outskirts of Jalandhar, a city nearly 250 miles (400km) north of the capital Delhi.

Police officer Harmeet Singh said seven children died at the scene and another five died from their injuries in hospital.

It has been reported the impact of the accident was so bad the roof of the minibus was torn off and the vehicle was virtually reduced to a heap of metal.

The truck was also very badly damaged

Police are looking for the truck driver, who fled after the accident.

India has the world's deadliest roads, with more than 110,000 people killed every year. Most crashes are blamed on reckless driving, poorly maintained roads and ageing vehicles.

The children's bags and shoes near the scene

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Mokhtar Belmokhtar: Gas Terror Chief 'Killed'

Belmokhtar: Profile Of Mr Marlboro

Updated: 12:54am UK, Sunday 03 March 2013

By Sam Kiley, Middle East Correspondent

He was known as Mr Marlboro because of his cigarette smuggling. The French intelligence service called him "The Uncatchable".

Born in central Algeria in 1972, Mokhtar Belmokhtar grew obsessed with Jihadi ideology in his teens. At 19 he volunteered to fight alongside the mujahedeen in Afghanistan.

He missed most of the fighting there as the Soviets withdrew as he arrived but he did encounter senior members of what was to become al Qaeda - receiving training in a Jalalabad base.

In the early 1990s he returned to Algeria to join Islamic militant groups. He served them as a quartermaster - rapidly rose to dominate operations in the south of the country during the Algerian civil war.

Described by the then head of France's Territorial Surveillance Directorate (Direction de la surveillance du territoire – DST) as Algeria's link to al Qaeda, Belmokhtar maintained strong links to the movement's core in Pakistan.

But he was a vital element in the expansion of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). A franchise of the Jihadi movement AQIM was seen as the poorly performing franchise during the last decade. 

But Belmokhtar forged links with Tuareg rebels in the south Sahara from Mali to Niger and into Mauritania.

He rapidly expanded a criminal empire to fund his political and military operations from smuggling cigarettes, diamonds, drugs and people into Europe.

He further stuffed his war chest with funds from hostage taking operations. In 2003 he was implicated in the kidnapping of 32 Europeans in the Sahara.

In 2008, he took control of negotiations for the release of two Austrian hostages. And in 2009 took control of two Canadians kidnapped in Mali and released by him for allegedly £3m and freedom for several of his associates from Malian jails.

Robert Fowler was a UN special envoy in Mali when he was kidnapped and then handed on to Belmokhtar.

He described the man who has now projected himself on to the world stage from the relative obscurity of the Saharan wastes.

"He is very cold. Very business-like. I was afraid for my life all the time. I was afraid for my life when I woke up in the morning and when I went to sleep at night. He is a very serious player," Mr Fowler told ABC News in the US.

Belmokhtar's movement got a huge boost from the collapse of the Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi.

The Tuareg fighters he had employed from Niger, Mali and Chad, fled his service carrying with them vast stockpiles of heavy weapons and bringing many years of combat experience.

This influx of new weapons and fighters allowed for al Qaeda-related groups to capture much of northern Mali and establish closer links between groups from Mauritania to Somalia and into the Arabian Peninsula.

Some intelligence agencies believe that Belmokhtar fell out with the AQIM leader in the north of Africa, Abdulmalek Droukel.

But al Qaeda is a franchise. Its strength lies in fragmentation. A devolved series of groups are harder to infiltrate or destroy than one large organisation.

Al Qaeda expert Aaron Zelin describes this as "controlled fragmentation".

French intelligence services had been trying to kill or capture Belmokhtar for more than a decade. They believed that he had the capacity to mobilise French citizens with their roots in North Africa for terror operations inside Europe.

After France launched its war against Islamists in Mali, many of whom are connected to Belmokhtar, his organisation which calls itself "The Masked Ones", vowed to continue attacks against western targets in Africa and beyond.

Belmokhtar's attack in Algeria meant his name was heard more widely as his movement posed a strategic threat to Europe's energy supplies.

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UK Explorer: Green Campaigning Has Failed

By Tom Rayner in Ushuaia, Argentina

One of Britain's leading polar explorers has told Sky News that decades of campaign efforts to get people engaged with climate change have failed.

Robert Swan, who was the first man to walk to both the North and South poles, was speaking in Argentina on the eve of the launch of his latest expedition to Antarctica - one which he hopes will help turn the tide of public apathy towards green issues.

He said: "People are really sick and tired of seeing pictures of another glacier melting, another forest dying.

"This whole approach of the doomsday scenario is not working because people switch off and they think - 'well we can't do anything'.

"It's not working, this whole showing endless pictures saying there is a problem, I think anyone in the real world knows there's a problem, what we've got to do now is say, how can we inspire people?"

Mr Swan will be leading a group of 80 young people from 28 countries across the world to the Antarctic Peninsula.

His mission is to impress upon them the importance of maintaining the current international legal frameworks that protect the frozen continent from mining and drilling for energy resources.

Mr Swan hopes the expedition members will take plans of action back to their own countries after seeing Antarctica for themselves.

"We've got 80 people coming together to get a really good story that they can take back with them. They can go to Antarctica, come back, and then inspire people with ideas about change and solutions, not doomsday scenarios."

Made up of high-flyers from industry, business, banking, politics, NGOs and education, the expedition is comprised of young people from across the Middle East, Asia, Europe, Africa and America.

Some have had travel paid for by their companies or organisations, others have personally raised money through private sponsorship to pay for a place on the expedition.

The group, described as 'decision-makers of the future', will travel from the most southerly city in the world, the Argentinian port of Ushuaia, across the notoriously stormy sea channel known as Drake's passage, and then finally onwards to the Antarctic Peninsula.

Mr Swan's campaign is known as 2041 - a reference to the year when the international community could begin to re-evaluate the international treaty and environmental protocols which currently ban all exploitation of Antarctica's natural resources.

The continent, which is governed by an international treaty and not owned by any one state, is known to have significant reserves of minerals such as iron ore and coal, and scientists believe there are likely to be oil and natural gas reserves too, although they have not yet been identified.

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Assad Hits Out At UK Government In Interview

Syrian President Bashar al Assad has heavily criticised the British government, calling it "shallow and immature".

In an interview with The Sunday Times, he dismissed any suggestion that Britain could help to resolve the conflict saying: "We do not expect an arsonist to be a firefighter."

He said Britain was not trusted by many in the Middle East, saying its has been viewed as "unconstructive" in the region for centuries.

"There's no contact between Syria and Britain for a long time.

"You cannot separate the role from the credibility, and you cannot separate the credibility from the history of that country.

"To be frank, Britain has played famously in our region (an) unconstructive role in different issues, for decades, some say for centuries."

He added: "How can we expect to ask Britain to play a role while it's determined to militarise the problem?

"How can you ask them to play a role in making the situation better, more stable, how can we expect them to make the violence less when they want to send the military supply to the terrorist?

"I think they are working against us, and they are working against the interests of the UK itself.

"This Government is acting in a naïve, confused, and unrealistic manner. If they want to play a role they have to change this, they have to act in a more reasonable and responsible way."

Earlier this week the Syrian Government said it is ready for talks with its armed opponents.

However, Syrian rebel leader Selim Idris said there could be no negotiations unless Mr Assad stepped down and leaders of the army and security forces were put on the trial.

The UN estimates that around 70,000 people have been killed since fighting began in Syria almost two years ago.

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South Africa Cops Charged Over Van Man Murder

Eight South African police officers have been charged with murder after a video showed a man being handcuffed to a moving van.

South Africa's police watchdog earlier arrested the men over the death of a Mozambican taxi driver who died in custody after being dragged by the police vehicle.

Police in Pretoria held a press conference to placate a nation outraged by the footage showing Mido Macia being dragged through the streets.

He was later found dead in a police cell with serious head and internal injuries.

National Commissioner of the South African Police Service, General Riah Phiyega, said the eight officers had been suspended and disarmed. They have since been charged with murder.

Taxi driver Mido Macia with his sister Melida

The station commander in Daveytown, a township east of Johannesburg, has also been removed from his post, she said.

"Any one death is one too many," Ms Phiyega said. "We believe in the principle of police being policed."

The Daily Sun, a South African newspaper, posted footage of the dragging incident, which occurred on Tuesday.

It was apparently filmed by several people on mobile phones.

Witnesses said Mr Macia, 27, drew the attention of police when he parked in a way that blocked traffic, and then got into an row with officers.

"We are going to film this," several onlookers shouted in Zulu as the police subdued Mr Macia.

One bystander can be heard shouting: "What has this guy done?"

President Jacob Zuma condemned the killing of Mr Macia.

Some commentators drew comparisons with the 1977 death of anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko, who also suffered head injuries in police custody.

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