Australia Fires: Military Investigates Blaze

The Australian military is investigating whether it is responsible for starting a major bushfire, as firefighters battle blazes that have destroyed or damaged 300 homes.

The Rural Fire Service said some 85 fires were burning across New South Wales state, with about 20 of them uncontained despite Saturday's cooler weather conditions.

Among the major fires was one burning between the towns of Lithgow and Bilpin, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) northwest of Sydney.

The blaze, called the State Mine Fire, has so far burned through 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) and destroyed a number of properties.

There are around 85 fires burning across the state

The Australian Defence Force said its personnel were carrying out explosive ordnance training in the area on Wednesday, the day the fire started.

"The fire started on 16 October, the same day that Defence personnel were conducting an explosive ordnance training activity," it said in a statement.

"Defence is investigating if the two events are linked.

"Our thoughts are with those who have lost property or whose property is threatened by these devastating fires."

More than 130 firefighters are still battling the blaze.

The military said it will work with fire authorities to investigate the blaze once the fire is extinguished.

"The primary concern at this stage is for the safety of the communities in the vicinity of the fire, then the ongoing investigation which will review both the incident and Defence procedures," the statement said.

Arson investigators are examining the origins of several more fires that have threatened towns surrounding Sydney in recent days.

About 300 homes have been destroyed or damaged

The bushfires across the state could take weeks to fully overcome, particularly with more hot and gusty weather forecast for as soon as Sunday.

One man has already died while trying to protect his home on the Central Coast north of Sydney, possibly succumbing to a heart attack, but authorities are hopeful no other people are unaccounted for in the blazes.

The fires took hold in warm and windy conditions on Thursday and the worst affected areas have been in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, where some 193 properties were destroyed and 109 damaged in the towns of Springwood and Winmalee.

Yellow Rock resident Christine Senior lost her family home.

"I said to my husband, 'I remember when you carried me across the threshold'. I remember having all my babies here. All of that hard work that we put into everything for all years and it's just gone," she said.

NSW Rural Fire Service Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers said Saturday's conditions were a "pause" but that the fire perimeter stretched for more than 500 kilometres.

"We're by no means out of the woods," he told national broadcaster ABC.

"It's just calmed down a little bit and obviously we're bracing ourselves for these worsening conditions."

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Mystery Blonde Girl: Greece Charity In Appeal

An international search is under way to identify the parents of a blonde girl found in the care of a couple on a Roma camp in Greece.

DNA tests have shown the four-year-old is not related to the couple - and their accounts of how she came to be living with them differ.

Police found the girl, who recognises the name Maria, during a raid on the camp, in Farsala, central Greece, on Wednesday.

She has now been taken into the care of a Greek charity called The Smile Of The Child, which has put out a Europe-wide alert.

A poster released to help find the girl's parents

A statement from the charity said: "The features of the girl and the controversial claims of the persons who claimed to be the parents of the child led the authorities to collect a DNA sample test.

"The results of DNA testing proved that these people are not the biological parents of the child.

"The Smile of the Child in co-operation with national police authorities is taking all necessary steps to inform the competent actors at national and international level."

The director of The Smile Of The Child praised an observant prosecutor who went on the camp raid along with dozens of police.

Costas Giannopoulos told Greece's Skai TV: "She saw a little blonde head poking out from under the bedclothes. It struck her as odd, and that's how it all started."

The girl recognises the name Maria

Apparently, the couple's various excuses included that the girl was found in a blanket and that she was handed to them by strangers. They later claimed she had a foreign father.

Maria is described as: born around 2009, white, with blue eyes, long blonde hair, 100cm tall and weighing 17kg.

The couple - a 39-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman - have been arrested and are now under investigation for abduction and falsifying identity and family certificates.

They claimed to have 14 children, police said, and had registered different numbers with authorities in three different parts of Greece. Including Maria, the couple only actually had four.

The woman is also said to have claimed to have given birth to six children within a space of less than 10 months.

Police say they also found drugs and unregistered firearms in other parts of the camp, which is about 170 miles (280km) north of Athens.

Officers are now working on the theory that, because of her appearance, Maria may be northern or eastern European.

The case, which some people have likened to the Madeleine McCann disappearance, has raised concerns about how easy it appeared to be for people to get official documents for children who are not their own.

A spokesman for Madeleine's family said: "This gives Kate and Gerry great hope that Madeleine could be found alive."

The Smile Of The Child director Costas Giannopoulos said Maria was being examined by doctors.

"We are shocked by how easy it is for people to register children as their own," he told the Greek TV station Skai.

"There is much more to investigate ... and I believe police will unravel a thread that doesn't just have to do with the girl."

Greece has only acquired a central system of registration for births in the last five months.

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China: Man 'Kills Pregnant Wife And Family'

A man has been arrested over fatally stabbing his pregnant wife and six of her relatives, including her parents, grandparents and two young nieces.

Ma Yongdong was captured by police in China's northwest autonomous region of Ningxia.

State media said the 24-year-old had quarrelled with his wife, Lan Xiaohong, who was six months pregnant.

Later that day he went to her parents' home in a village in Pengyang county and killed seven people including his wife and in-laws following an argument.

The youngest victims were aged four and one.

Ningxia police offered cash rewards of up to 100,000 yuan (£10,145) for information leading to Ma's arrest.

They said on their official microblog he had admitted the killings following his capture.

Police posted one photo of him in handcuffs as he was being interrogated and another of him being taken back to Pengyang county.

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Kenya Mall Attack: New Video Of The Gunmen

New CCTV footage has emerged from inside the Nairobi shopping mall showing how the attackers calmly shot people before taking time out to pray.

The video shows shoppers running away from the gunmen and dropping to the floor as bullets fly through the air.

At one point an injured man, who is bleeding heavily, is seen trying to pull himself to safety before apparently being shot again and then dying.

The silent video is taken from a number of CCTV cameras around the upmarket Westgate Mall in Kenya's capital and was obtained by CNN.

It appears that the footage was taken on September 21, the first day of a four-day siege, which left at least 67 people dead.

The attackers are also shown taking in turns to pray in what appears to be a store room.

Another section shows two militants casually walking through a supermarket while firing their guns and then talking on their mobile phones.

A woman with two children and pushing another in a shopping trolley are seen walking past a line of tills before a teenage girl follows them with a gunman behind her pointing the way.

It is believed they were all eventually released.

The al Qaeda-linked group al Shabaab claimed the attack was in retaliation for Kenyan military operations in Somalia.

Five of the attackers were killed by security forces.

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Snowden Denies Taking NSA Files To Russia

Edward Snowden has said he did not take any secret National Security Agency documents with him to Russia, telling a newspaper "it wouldn't serve the public interest".

In an interview with The New York Times, the former NSA analyst said he handed over all material to journalists during his stay in Hong Kong and that he did not keep copies for himself.

China and Russia could not get access to the documents he had obtained before leaving the US, he insisted.

Snowden, who worked for a contractor as a systems administrator at an NSA facility, said he was able to protect the documents from Chinese agencies because he was familiar with Beijing's intelligence capabilities.

"There's a zero per cent chance the Russians or Chinese have received any documents," he told the paper.

The US has faced protests at home and abroad over its spying operations

Snowden's leaks of highly classified material have unveiled US surveillance activities at home and abroad, sparking debate about the privacy implications for Americans.

In the Times interview, Snowden described himself as a whistleblower who was acting in the nation's best interests by revealing information about the NSA's programmes.

"The secret continuance of these programmes represents a far greater danger than their disclosure," he said in the interview, which took place over several days and involved encrypted online communications.

Snowden said he feels he has boosted US national security by prompting a public debate about the scope of US data collection.

"So long as there's broad support amongst a people, it can be argued there's a level of legitimacy even to the most invasive and morally wrong programme, as it was an informed and willing decision," he said.

"However, programmes that are implemented in secret, out of public oversight, lack that legitimacy, and that's a problem."

Snowden, 30, has polarised opinion in the US, where some consider him a civil rights hero who wants to empower citizens, and others a traitor who stole secrets after vowing to protect them.

Snowden, who faces espionage charges in the US, is now in Russia, which granted him asylum for one year.

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Australia Fires: Man Dies As Homes Destroyed

By Jonathan Samuels, Australia Correspondent

Around 100 bushfires continue to burn across the state of New South Wales in Australia with the crisis claiming its first life.

A man died from a heart attack on the Central Coast north of Sydney whilst trying to protect his home from the flames.

Dozens of houses have been destroyed with the authorities suggesting the eventual number of properties burned down could be in "the hundreds".

Barry O'Farrell, New South Wales State Premier, said: "Regrettably, overnight we had what we hoped wouldn't occur which is a loss of life up there at Lake Munmorah.

"A 63-year-old man who apparently collapsed fighting a fire to defend his property, taken to Wyong Hospital and unfortunately couldn't be resuscitated. That's the worst that anyone wants to happen."

Firefighters were assisted by milder conditions on Friday after unseasonably hot temperatures and strong winds fanned flames across the parched landscape threatening areas to the North, South and West of Sydney, Rural Fire Service officials said.

Around 30 fires are still understood to be burning out of control.

Two firefighters were taken to hospital with injuries, and one had undergone surgery, Mr O'Farrell said. He did not give details of their injuries.

Hundreds of residents spent Thursday night in dozens of evacuation centres in the Blue Mountains, a popular tourist region to Sydney's west, and elsewhere in New South Wales.

One of the houses destroyed in Winmalee in Sydney's Blue Mountains

Most were unaware of the fate of their homes.

One homeowner from Springwood, west of Sydney told reporters: "You do your best and it just kind of gets to the stage where you just realise that you can't do any more and you go.

"You take what you can and go. In my case, it was the dog."

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, himself a volunteer firefighter, has been visiting Winmalee, one of the areas affected.

He said he wanted to "convey our nation's sympathy to all those who are suffering, to all those who have lost homes".

"And in particular, to acknowledge there has already been a loss of life and we fear more," he said.

"Australia is a country which is prone to natural disaster but, every time it strikes, it hurts and we grieve for all of those who are now hurting."

Temperatures west of Sydney made conditions easier for fire crews, reaching around 23C (73F) - around 10C (18F) cooler than on Thursday.

However, high temperatures and strong winds are forecast to return on Sunday and Monday.

Wildfires are common throughout Australia in the warmer months.

In February 2009, wildfires killed 173 people and destroyed more than 2,000 homes in Victoria state.

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Stocks Soar Over US Debt Deal But Trouble Looms

Stocks soared on Wall Street as the markets got wind of a deal in Washington.

By the end of the day, the Dow Jones had climbed over 200 points, or 1.4%, the S&P 500 had gained 1.4%, pushing it close to a record high, and the Nasdaq gained 1.2%.

The volatility index, or VIX, which is considered one of the best measures of fear in the markets, experienced its biggest daily drop since August 2011.

Portfolio manager at Evercore Wealth Management Judy Moses described it as a "relief rally", and a welcome "reprieve" from the uncertainty surrounding the debt ceiling row.

But the market's expectation was always that the United States, the issuer of the world's reserve currency, would not default on its debt.

That would be too catastrophic to contemplate.

It would have pushed America into unchartered territory.

Even the most experienced analysts and bankers struggled to predict what might have happened had US government debt, considered one of the word's safest investments, suddenly become risky.

Billionaire businessman Warren Buffet said in a television interview with financial news channel CNBC that a default was "unthinkable", and that the debt ceiling row was a "political weapon of mass destruction".

To a certain extent then, the markets displayed a degree of immunity to the chaos on Capitol Hill.

Senior portfolio manager at US bank Eric Wiegand said: "Investors have become, unfortunately, accustomed to some of the dysfunction.

"It's become more the norm than the exception."

In 2011, when legislators wrangled over the debt limit, markets plunged and ratings agency Standard & Poor's cut America's credit rating.

This time, although volatility was up, Fitch put the US credit rating on negative watch, and treasury debt became less popular, the widely predicted market mayhem failed to materialise, and there was no panic or large-scale sell off.

Some suggest it is good that Wall Street doesn't appear to be so tied to the ups and downs of a bitterly divided political system, but others warn of a lasting negative effect.

Chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial David Joy said: "To me the market has yet to reflect the economic damage and the psychological damage this has done."

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Shutdown: Congress Passes Bill To Stop Default

Stocks Soar After US Debt Deal

Updated: 3:12am UK, Thursday 17 October 2013

By Hannah Thomas-Peter, US Correspondent

Stocks soared on Wall Street as the markets got wind of a deal in Washington.

By the end of the day, the Dow Jones had climbed over 200 points, or 1.4%, the S&P 500 had gained 1.4%, pushing it close to a record high, and the Nasdaq gained 1.2%.

The volatility index, or VIX, which is considered one of the best measures of fear in the markets, experienced its biggest daily drop since August 2011.

Portfolio manager at Evercore Wealth Management Judy Moses described it as a "relief rally", and a welcome "reprieve" from the uncertainty surrounding the debt ceiling row.

But the market's expectation was always that the United States, the issuer of the world's reserve currency, would not default on its debt.

That would be too catastrophic to contemplate.

It would have pushed America into unchartered territory.

Even the most experienced analysts and bankers struggled to predict what might have happened had US government debt, considered one of the word's safest investments, suddenly become risky.

Billionaire businessman Warren Buffet said in a television interview with financial news channel CNBC that a default was "unthinkable", and that the debt ceiling row was a "political weapon of mass destruction".

To a certain extent then, the markets displayed a degree of immunity to the chaos on Capitol Hill.

Senior portfolio manager at US bank Eric Wiegand said: "Investors have become, unfortunately, accustomed to some of the dysfunction.

"It's become more the norm than the exception."

In 2011, when legislators wrangled over the debt limit, markets plunged and ratings agency Standard & Poor's cut America's credit rating.

This time, although volatility was up, Fitch put the US credit rating on negative watch, and treasury debt became less popular, the widely predicted market mayhem failed to materialise, and there was no panic or large-scale sell off.

Some suggest it is good that Wall Street doesn't appear to be so tied to the ups and downs of a bitterly divided political system, but others warn of a lasting negative effect.

Chief market strategist at Ameriprise Financial David Joy said: "To me the market has yet to reflect the economic damage and the psychological damage this has done."

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US Government Open For Business After Deal

The US government has reopened its doors after Congress passed a last-minute deal to end the shutdown and pull the world's biggest economy back from the brink of default.

Barack Obama signed the bill after the Senate and the House approved the measure with bipartisan support following weeks of political brinkmanship.

"There's a lot of work ahead of us. We need to earn back the trust of the American people that's been lost over the past few weeks," the president said.

The White House directed all agencies to reopen promptly and in an orderly fashion. Furloughed federal employees across the country are returning to work.

The impasse had shuttered national parks and monuments, and mostly closed down Nasa, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department. It had forced some 800,000 federal workers to take unpaid leave.

The closure and potential default weighed on the economy and spooked the financial markets.

"We fought the good fight, we just didn't win," said John Boehner

Standard & Poor's estimated the shutdown has taken $24bn out of the economy, and the Fitch credit rating agency warned Tuesday that it was reviewing its AAA rating on US government debt for a possible downgrade.

There were signs early Thursday that the federal government was slowly coming back to life.

"We're back from the #shutdown!" the Smithsonian Institution crowed on Twitter, announcing that museums would reopen today and the National Zoo in Washington on Friday.

Yosemite National Park, one of the most popular national attractions, reopened to visitors immediately after the deal on Wednesday night.

The agreement was brokered by the Senate's top Democrat, Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, and its Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. They stepped in after the House was unable to coalesce around a Republican-only approach on Tuesday.

The down-to-the-wire deal, however, offers only a temporary fix and does not resolve the fundamental issues of spending and deficits that divide Republicans and Democrats.

The shutdown began on October 1

It funds the government until January 15 and raises the debt ceiling until February 7, so Americans face the possibility of another bitter budget fight and another government shutdown early next year.

Democrats and Republicans must sit down to agree a long-term budget blueprint by December 13 under the agreement.

"Hopefully next time it won't be in the 11th hour. We've got to get out of the habit of governing by crisis," said the president, seen by most observers as outmanoeuvring Republican who had tried to de-fund his health care law.

GOP House speaker John Boehner said: "We fought the good fight, we just didn't win."

The agreement sent the stock market soaring on Wednesday, pushing the Standard & Poor's 500 index close to a record high.

Most traders had expected some sort of deal, given that a failure to reach a deal could have pushed the US into another recession.

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Al Libi Denies Terrorism Charges In NY Court

By Sky News US Team, in New York

A Libyan charged in the 1998 al Qaeda bombings of US embassies in Africa has pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges in New York.

Abu Anas al Libi entered the plea in a federal court in Manhattan.

Al Libi, who has a thick grey beard, kept his hands folded on his lap as the judge read the charges.

The 49-year-old was captured during an October 5 special forces raid in Libya.

Al Libi allegedly helped plan the 1998 embassy bombing in Kenya

Al Libi, whose full name is Nazih Abdul-Hamed al Ruqai, was handcuffed and led out of court after the judge ordered him to be detained because he is a flight risk.

The suspected al Qaeda leader is accused of helping plan and conduct surveillance for the bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans.

A prosecutor said it is not a death penalty-eligible case.

Al Libi was put on the FBI's most wanted list following the 9/11 attacks

Al Libi's family and former associates have denied he was ever a member of al Qaeda and said he has lived an ordinary life after living in Afghanistan and Pakistan and coming home in 2011.

His capture angered the Libyan government, which labelled the secret US forces raid a "kidnapping".

Al Libi was interrogated aboard a US Navy warship for a week before being brought to New York on Saturday.

His prosecution in the United States continues a policy of bringing suspected al Qaeda sympathisers and operatives to civilian courts rather than military tribunals.

Al Libi had been on the FBI's most wanted terrorists list since it was introduced shortly after the September 11 attacks.

A reward of $5m (£3.1m) was offered for his capture.

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