Guantanamo: Guards Fire Rounds To Quell Unrest

Guantanamo Bay prison guards have fired several rubber shots to quell prisoner unrest as they moved inmates into individual cells, US military officials said.

The violence erupted during an early morning raid carried out because, according to military officials, prisoners had covered up security cameras and windows as part of a protest and hunger strike over their indefinite confinement and conditions at the US base in Cuba.

Prisoners fought guards with makeshift weapons that included broomsticks and mop handles when troops arrived to move them, said Robert Durand, a military spokesman.

Guards responded by firing four "less-than-lethal rounds" in the section of the prison known as Camp Six, he said.

Mr Durand said there were "no serious injuries to guards or detainees" during the operation aiming "to reestablish proper observation" at the facility.

The rounds included a modified shotgun shell that fires small rubber pellets as well as a type of bean-bag projectile, said Army Colonel Greg Julian.

The violence broke out at so-called Camp Six (file image)

Mr Durand said inmates were being isolated "to ensure the health and security" for prisoners at the facility, where dozens of detainees are in the third month of a hunger strike.

"This action was taken in response to efforts by detainees to limit the guard force's ability to observe the detainees by covering surveillance cameras, windows, and glass partitions," the statement added.

"Round-the-clock monitoring is necessary to ensure security, order and safety, as detainees continued a prolonged hunger strike by refusing regular camp-provided meals."

The prison houses scores of detainees swept up more than a decade ago during in America's so-called war on terror.

The hunger strike began when the men claim prison officials searched their Korans for contraband. Officials have denied any mishandling of Islam's holy book.

An attorney representing some of the inmates slammed their treatment.

"It's just another example of force being used in GTMO (Guantanamo), instead of a sense of human rights," said military lawyer Lieutenant Colonel Barry Wingard.

"The sad thing is that it doesn't appear to matter which political party is in power in Washington. The officials in GTMO always resort to force over common sense."

Activists at an April 11 rally campaign for the closure of Guantanamo Bay

He said the prisoners had asked prison officials to take their Korans instead of "disrespecting" them.

"The officials refused to take the Korans, and continued to search the books in plain view of the prisoners," Col Wingard added.

"Of course, the bigger issue is the 11.5 years without charges and hopelessness of never being released."

Attorneys representing inmates at the prison have said that most of the estimated 130 detainees at Guantanamo's Camp Six wing, which houses "low-value" prisoners, are on hunger strike.

US authorities, however, put the number of hunger strikers at about three dozen.

US President Barack Obama ordered the closing of the Guantanamo detention centre when he took office in 2009, but that was blocked by a Republican-led bill that cut off funding to move the detainees to the US.

The politicians cited security concerns, saying the presence of the detainees would encourage terror attacks in the states or cities where they were being held.

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Bali Crash: Data Recorder Retrieved From Jet

Indonesian air crash investigators have started working to determine what caused a new passenger jet to miss a runway while landing in Bali and crash into the sea.

A data recorder remains in the submerged tail section

The Boeing 737-800 overshot the runway on the resort island and plunged into shallow water near the airport boundary.

All 101 passengers and seven crew members safely escaped from the Lion Air plane, although up to 45 people suffered injuries.

Some were forced to swim to safety while others waiting atop the wings of the twin-engine jet to be rescued by boat.

The rear broke free after being hit by tide and swell

Transportation Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said the National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) is examining the wreckage.

He said aviation authorities have removed the flight data recorder from the aircraft operated by West Java-based budget air carrier.

Local fisherman and eyewitness Fendi Yono said: "I saw two planes approaching the runway.

Investigators retrieved items from the sea near the Denpasar airport

"The first one landed smoothly while the second plane went very slowly (before it crashed into the sea), probably because the weather was foggy at the time."

The fuselage of the recently purchased plane was fractured during the crash.

Waves hitting the plane completely severed the rear of the aircraft from the main body, causing it to partially submerge.

Possessions spilled from the plane after the accident

Survivor  Santi Widiastuti said: "I don't know how this accident happened. I just heard a notification that the aircraft would be landing soon.

"Not long after that notice, I heard a loud noise like a plane crashing into something. Suddenly, from under the deck, water began to enter the plane. All happened so fast."

Salvage crews are now hoping to tow the aircraft and retrieve its cockpit voice recorder, which is located in the tail.

The plane overshot the runway on the resort island in Indonesia

Last month Lion Air signed a £18bn deal with Airbus for 234 passenger jets and two years ago it signed a contract with Boeing for 230 planes.

However, the rapidly-expanding carrier is reportedly banned from US and European airspace due to safety concerns.

Between 2004 and 2006, Lion Air suffered a series of six accidents, which all involved planes overshooting or missing the runway, although no one died in those incidents.

The plane's back was fractured by waves but later severed it completely

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Dozens Killed In Northern Peru Bus Crash

More than 30 people have been killed after a bus veered off a cliff and plunged into a river in the Peruvian highlands.

The bus fell 200 metres down a ravine near the town of Otuzco, some 570km (350 miles) north of the capital Lima.

At least 33 died and several others were injured in the accident.

The victims included three doctors, two nurses and several rural school teachers.

The wet road conditions may have been to blame

Rescue workers arrived at the crash site near Rio Moche in search of survivors and to retrieve the bodies of victims from the wreckage.

Around 40 passengers were estimated to be on board the bus when it crashed.

It was travelling from the town of Huamanchuco towards the regional capital of Trujillo on Saturday when the crash happened in a treacherous mountain area with winding roads.

Police said the cause of the crash was unclear, but it is thought wet road conditions may be to blame.

Road accidents are common on Peruvian roads, and have claimed thousands of lives in recent years.

Last month, faulty brakes were to blame when a bus went off a cliff in southern Peru, killing 14 people.

In 2011, some 1,124 people were killed and 2,583 injured in 1,108 highway accidents, according to the latest official figures.

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North Korea Missile Alert After Japan Blunder

A Japanese official mistakenly announced the launch of a North Korean missile instead of sending an alert about a strong earthquake.

An official at the western Osaka aviation bureau emailed 87 airport offices to say a North Korean missile had been launched, Japan's transport ministry said.

The official was trying to send a message to check on possible airport damage immediately after the 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck near the southwestern city of Kobe, injuring dozens of people and destroying several homes.

But instead the official dispatched a pre-prepared alert ready to go in the event of a North Korean missile launch.

The incorrect message was retracted six minutes later but at least one domestic flight was delayed due to the mistake.

Japan is on full alert ahead of an expected mid-range missile launch by North Korea, with Patriot missiles stationed in its capital to protect the 30 million people who live there.

In addition to PAC-3 batteries, Aegis destroyers equipped with sea-based interceptor missiles have been deployed in the Sea of Japan (East Sea).

On Wednesday officials in the Japanese city of Yokohama were left red-faced after mistakenly announcing the launch of a North Korean missile to 40,000 followers on Twitter.

Saturday night's earthquake was in the area where a magnitude 7.2 quake killed more than 6,400 people in 1995.

The Meteorological Agency warned there may be aftershocks for about a week.

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Plane Plunges Into Water Near Bali Airport

A plane with more than 100 people onboard has overshot a runway on Bali and plunged into the sea.

According to the AFP news agency, an Indonesian official said around 130 passengers and crew survived the accident.

Other reports put the passenger and crew total at more than 170 people.

The aircraft, operated by local carrier Lion Air, came to rest in shallow water near the shoreline.

The jet plane appeared to have suffered a broken fuselage behind the wings.

Bright yellow inflatable life jackets littered the nearby water and shore.

Access was made difficult because of the concrete shore protection blocks.

Some rescuers appeared to have paddled out to the stranded aircraft on surfboards.

Lion Air began operating in 2000 with just one aircraft in its fleet.

It quickly expanded operations to more than 36 locations in Indonesia.

It also flies to foreign locations including Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam and uses a fleet Boeing 737 aircraft.

More follows...

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Mubarak Retrial: Judge Withdraws From Case

The retrial of former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak has been plunged into chaos as the judge quits on the first day.

Judge Mustafa Hassan Abdullah said he had decided to refer the case to the Cairo appeals court as he felt "unease" in reviewing it.

Some families of the victims gathered outside court

As he filed out of the courtroom after a hearing that lasted just seconds, there was uproar with people shouting and waving their arms. Civil society lawyers attending the trial chanted: "The people want the execution of the president".

Mubarak is facing retrial on charges of complicity in the murder of more than 800 protesters killed in the uprising that toppled him in 2011.

A man calls for Mubarak to face a court in the Hague

Last year, Mubarak was sentenced to life imprisonment on the same charges, which include indictments related to corruption, but after a successful appeal against his conviction in January the ruling was overturned due to failings in the prosecution case.

He will now face those charges again, alongside his former interior minister Habib El Adly and four aides.

Earlier on Saturday, television footage showed Mubarak, dressed in white and wearing sunglasses, wheeled out of an ambulance on a stretcher and taken into the capital's Police Academy in a suburb of the capital for the hearing.

He had been flown in from a military hospital where he is being treated.

Inside the courtroom, he was seen sitting up, smiling and waving from inside a barred cage before the proceedings were adjourned.

Last October, the very same judge had acquitted the defendants in the infamous "Battle of the Camels" trial, who were accused of sending men on camels and horses to break up a protest during the 2011 uprising.

More follows...

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Tornadoes And Severe Storms Hit US Midwest

A severe spring storm in the US midwest has left at least one person dead and several injured.

The fatality came after a tornado hit eastern parts of Mississippi, with one resident capturing a huge twister in Noxubee County on video.

In Missouri, the National Weather Service says that the St Louis suburb of Hazelwood was hit by a tornado on Wednesday night.

A National Weather Service meteorologist said emergency crews were still assessing whether tornadoes were to blame for other damage in Missouri and neighbouring Illinois.

Lightning strikes across the skies of Patterson, in Arkansas

Missouri governor Jay Nixon has declared a state of emergency.

The storms have also brought ice and snow to much of the midwest and parts of the south east of the US.

The latest one formed a giant T on Thursday, NBC News reported, leading to snow in upstate New York, ice-covered roads in Wisconsin and heavy rain in Ohio and New Orleans.

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North Korea: Missile Test Could Occur 'Any Time'

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent, In Seoul

US Secretary of State John Kerry has arrived in the South Korean capital Seoul as tension mounts over a possible missile test by North Korea.

The crisis on the Korean peninsula is bound to dominate talks between Mr Kerry and his South Korean counterpart, Foreign Minister Yun Byung Se.

Intelligence reports from the Japanese, South Koreans and Americans indicate that a North Korean missile test could take place at any time, though there has been silence from the leadership in Pyongyang.

The focus in the North Korean capital has been on a weekend of celebrations to mark a year in office for Kim Jong Un, which fell yesterday, and the anniversary of Mr Kim's grandfather, Kim Il Song, the founder of the nation.

"On the agenda for their talks would be the topics related to the security situation on the Korean Peninsula, how to cope with North Korea's threats and how to deter the North's provocations," foreign ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young said.

The level of rhetoric to emerge from North Korea is unprecedented.

A US agency believes that Kim Jong Un does have nuclear weapons

Over several weeks, the regime has declared itself to be in a "state of war" with the South, announced that a mothballed nuclear site is to be reopened and threatened to carry out nuclear attacks against the US.

Mr Kerry arrives in the region as confusion surfaced in Washington over the true status of North Korea's nuclear capability.

The broad consensus is that while Kim Jong Un does poses nuclear devices and has crossed the "nuclear threshold", he does not have the capability to launch a nuclear missile.

However, at a congressional hearing on Thursday night, it emerged that one US government agency believes that Kim Jong Un does have nuclear weapons which could be placed inside a ballistic missile and fired.

"[The] Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) assesses with moderate confidence the North currently has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles, however the reliability will be low," said Republican US Representative Doug Lamborn, quoting from a March 2013 DIA report which was inadvertently labelled "unclassified".

North Korea is celebrating a year in office for Kim Jong Un

The Pentagon was quick to issue a written clarification on the matter.

"In today's House Armed Services Committee hearing on the Department of Defence budget, a member of the committee read an unclassified passage in a classified report on North Korea's nuclear capabilities," Pentagon spokesman George Little said.

"While I cannot speak to all the details of a report that is classified in its entirety, it would be inaccurate to suggest that the North Korean regime has fully tested, developed, or demonstrated the kinds of nuclear capabilities referenced in the passage."

Washington added it was concerned about unexpected developments linked to the inexperience of 30-year-old Kim Jong Un.

One official said: "Kim Jong Un's youth and inexperience make him very vulnerable to miscalculation. Our greatest concern is a miscalculation and where that may lead.

Flower displays for the anniversary of Kim Il Sung's death feature missiles

"We have seen no indications of massive troop movements, or troops massing on the border, or massive exercises or anything like that that would back up any of the rhetoric that is going on."

North Korea has said that it does possess advanced nuclear devices.

President Barack Obama, speaking after White House talks with UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, said "nobody wants to see a conflict".

He added: "We both agree that now is the time for North Korea to end the kind of belligerent approach that they've been taking.

"It's important for North Korea, like every other country in the world, to observe basic rules and norms."

This whole crisis stems from Pyongyang's desire to pursue a nuclear programme which it says it needs to defend itself from "American aggression".

By manufacturing this crisis, Kim Jong Un is likely to be demonstrating strength domestically and thus bolstering his legitimacy.

Internationally, he is determined that his country is taken seriously as a nuclear power.

He would want an acceptance from the Americans that he is part of the 'nuclear club' as a pretext to any negotiations to end this crisis.

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North Korea: Defector Reveals Harrowing Escape

Visiting Secretive North Korea

Updated: 11:52am UK, Wednesday 10 April 2013

Despite the current tensions on the Korean Peninsula, tourists have been able to travel to North Korea.

A Sky News employee has just returned from a four-day trip. Journalists are strictly banned from the county without visas, which are rarely issued, so we are not revealing her name, but here is her story:

I flew from Beijing to Pyongyang. On the flight with me were lots of North Koreans with plenty of excess baggage: TVs, vegetables and meat.

Nothing felt abnormal. There was no feeling of tension.

Only when I arrived at the Demilitarised Zone were we prevented access to some of the buildings because of the current situation.

Throughout the four-day trip, which was organised by a Chinese travel company, we were assigned two North Korean minders.

One of them was more senior than the other. She watched us and watched her colleague too.

They did not want the war but were also determined to fight if the country decided to start a war. They emphasised to us that they believed in the country from their hearts.

We were not allowed to move freely. We could only do tourist things according to the guidance of the tour "guards".

We were not allowed to take photographs in the car or anywhere without the minder's permission. We were told not to photograph anything that looked bad or makes North Korea look bad.

"Don't bring bad impressions out of Pyongyang," they said.

People were very friendly. There was little traffic, so people would stare at our bus wherever we drove.

People there are very aware of the potential war.

Every time we arrived at the places of interest, the tour guides would always ask us in Korean (the minders would translate into Chinese) about the latest situation and our opinions about the situation, particularly our opinions about the US, as they all believe the tensions are the fault of America.

When we asked the minders what would happen if the war breaks out tomorrow, they said: "If the war breaks tomorrow, until midnight tonight, we are still building the socialist constructions."

We also asked them whether they know where Kim Jong-Un lives and works, as we explained to them that in Beijing, all the top leaders work and live in a place called Zhongnanhai. They all said they had no idea.

The two minders liked to sing. One of the songs they sang was apparently written by a South Korean musician to express his admiration toward Kim Jong-Il.

On one of the days we went to Myohyang San, a North Korean mountain. The six of us on the tour were locked in the restaurant because the North Koreans were so afraid that we would wander around.

There is a museum near the mountain, where gifts from foreign countries are displayed. A lot of them came from Japan.

We asked them how could they receive so many gifts from Japan given that North Korea considers the Japanese as enemies. They told us that the Japanese really admire the leaders, so they gave us many gifts.

We stayed in the Yanggakdo International Hotel, where we could watch international TV channels including the BBC, NHK, (Japanese TV), Phoenix (Hong Kong TV) and CCTV (Chinese TV).

The minders live on a specific floor where they only have three North Korean channels to watch. They never ate with us and when we asked what they had eaten, they always refused to tell us.

We were not allowed to use the local currency, and they never showed us their money. We could use Chinese RMB, US dollars or euros.

There were not many opportunities to see any ordinary North Korean people apart from the shopkeepers, tour guides or waitresses in the hotel.

There is a casino on the underground floor of the Yanggakdo International Hotel, where most of the staff members come from Liaoning Province over the northern border in China, and North Koreans are not allowed to enter.

The casino is managed by people from Macau. The staff there told us it was empty because the tensions mean far fewer people are travelling to North Korea.

Staff at the casino are all Chinese. When we asked to go to the casino, one of the minders said to us: "You must be non-communists, because communist members don't go to casinos."

Wherever we go to visit, they always asked us if we think their places or things are pretty. They only wanted to show us the good side of the country.

As soon as we travelled outside the capital city, it felt very like the real North Korea: rural, no tall buildings, only farmland.

We never felt the tension of war on our trip. On the streets, on our tour, in the hotel and even at a school we visited, the students were studying as normal.

The people we spoke to asked us if it was true that living in Beijing is hard. They think living in North Korea is the happiest thing in the world.

It feels as though those North Koreans who have travelled outside the country have never mentioned what the outside world really looks like.

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Syria Airstrikes 'Targeted Civilians'

By Lisa Holland, Foreign Affairs Correspondent

The Syrian Air Force has been accused of repeatedly carrying out indiscriminate airstrikes against civilians.

A new report by the campaign group Human Rights Watch (HRW) says in some cases government forces deliberately targeted civilians from the air.

HRW said the attacks were a serious violation of international human rights law and that those responsible were guilty of war crimes.

The report is based on visits to 50 government air strike sites in opposition-controlled areas of Aleppo, Idlib and Latakia, plus more than 140 interviews with witnesses and victims.

HRW said at least 152 civilians were killed in the air strikes they documented.

A network of local Syrian anti-government activists put the number at 4,300 civilians killed in air strikes across Syria since July 2012, although this cannot be independently substantiated.

A Syrian man walks amid destruction in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo

Ole Solvang, from HRW, said: "In village after village we found a civilian population terrified by their country's own air force."

Mr Ole, who is an emergencies researcher and visited the sites, interviewing many of the victims and witnesses, added: "These illegal air strikes killed and injured many civilians and sowed a path of destruction, fear and displacement."

HRW said it has gathered information which indicates government forces deliberately targeted four bakeries where civilians were waiting in bread lines a total of eight times. It claims other bakeries were hit by artillery attacks.

The report said there were aerial attacks on at least two hospitals. During visits by HRW, staff said the hospitals had been attacked a total of seven times.

HRW concluded in 44 other cases that air strikes were unlawful under rules of engagement. It said methods used included unguided bombs dropped by high-flying helicopters which could not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The report said civilians may have been deliberately targeted but more information is needed before that can be stated conclusively.

The campaign group said it only visited sites in opposition-controlled areas in northern Syria because the government had denied it had access to the rest of the country.

It said whilst further investigation was needed, interviews with witnesses and victims of air strikes in other parts of the country indicated a similar pattern of unlawful attacks had taken place.

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