Extreme heat settles over portions of East Coast

What makes this heat wave so hot?

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Weather service: Triple-digit temperatures to remain across the eastern U.S.
• Weather expected to cool off slightly beginning Sunday, forecasters say
• About 100 concert-goers overcome by heat at Vans Warped Tour
• One says she got "overheated and I got really dizzy"

Read more about the heat wave from CNN affiliates KYW, WKOW, WPXI, KSFY and KTTC.

(CNN) -- A heat wave blamed for as many as two dozen deaths settled over portions of the East Coast as the National Weather Service issued an extreme heat warning for much of the Mid-Atlantic, saying Friday would be the hottest day in the region.
The highest heat index values -- how hot it feels -- could reach 115 degrees in some locations, the weather service said.
"These triple-digit temperatures are forecast to remain in place across the eastern U.S. through Saturday," it said.
How hot is it where you live? Share your photos, videos and stories
The weather was expected to cool off slightly to the mid-90s by Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.
The warnings came as the heat wave broke 55 record highs and tied 60 more records in portions of the Midwest and the Ohio Valley, forecasters said.

Zoo animals eat meat inside ice blocks

Is it hot enough to fry an egg outside?

RELATED TOPICS

• Heat Waves
• National Weather Service
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Millions were also being warned to avoid strenuous activity and exercise outdoors after the National Weather Service issued a number of code red air quality alerts -- meaning air pollution levels are considered unhealthy for the general population -- in a handful of cities, including Baltimore and Washington D.C.
Beat-the-heat advice from a pro
The heat has affected many outdoor activities, prompting one Minneapolis movie theater marquee to read, "We have AC. Who cares what's playing," and one Canadian couple to forgo their original plans while visiting the Twin Cities.
Scott Hoffort and his wife, Colleen, of Saskatchewan, Canada, arrived in Minneapolis Sunday with their camping gear, planning for a vacation spent mostly outdoors at a campground. Instead they're now doing "more touristy" things.
"We went from camping in a tent to staying in hotels, so that we could get air conditioning," said Hoffort said. "We spent a fair amount of time in the Mall of America yesterday because of the heat."
Heat hurts your insides too
About 100 people, primarily teenagers, were overcome Thursday by the heat at the Vans Warped Tour in Camden, New Jersey, where more than 12,000 people gathered at the outdoor concert, authorities said.
"I just, I guess got overheated and I got really dizzy," 17-year-old Maureen Meckly, who attended the concert, told CNN affiliate KYW. "I had to grab onto her (friends') shoulder to tell her I was passing out."
In Wildwood, New Jersey, tourists and residents beat the heat by heading to the ocean.
What a heatstroke feels like
But for some working hot food concession stands at Morey's Piers in Wildwood there was little relief.
"Sometimes it's so hot, I can't even breathe," Erik Perez, who works at Curley's Fries, told KYW.
In Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Cory Booker announced that facilities were available in every ward to help keep citizens cool.
"It is imperative that our residents drink plenty of fluids, stay indoors in a cool climate, and avoid strenuous activity," Booker said in a statement. "I urge our senior citizens and Newark residents who lack air conditioning to come to one of our cooling centers."
In New York, Con Edison called on customers to stay cool and not waste energy.
"Store owners who leave doors open with the A/C running could be subject to fines from the city," ConEd said.
The first confirmed heat-related death in Kansas City was declared Thursday, but it stemmed from a death last month. A 57-year-old man was found dead in his home on June 5, according to Dan Ferguson, who works for Jackson County.
In addition to the man's death, there are 13 other possible heat-related deaths in Missouri -- the youngest was a woman in her mid-30s, and the oldest were two women in their mid-70s, said Jeff Hershberger, spokesman for the Kansas City Health Department.
It may take six weeks to several months for officials to process toxicology tests to determine whether all 13 died of heat-related causes, Hershberger said.
In Wisconsin, a 65-year-old man from Fountain Prairie was confirmed by health officials to have died from heat-related causes Thursday, according to CNN affiliate WKOW. Columbia County Medical Examiner Angela Hinze said the man had underlying medical conditions that were made worse when he was helping a family member outside with housework.
In Oklahoma, four heat-related deaths have been confirmed since May, said Cherokee Ballard, a spokeswoman for the state medical examiner. Three of those occurred in the past 30 days, including a 3-year-old boy in a car in Norman and a 69-year-old man from Blackwell, she said.
An additional eight Oklahoma deaths may be related to the heat, she said, with most occurring in July.
CNN affiliate WPXI reported Thursday that a child accidentally locked in a hot car was rescued in Spring Hill, Pennsylvania. The girl's mother locked her keys in the car and immediately called for help, the report said. The girl was not hurt.
The high heat is also taking its toll on animals.
In South Dakota, 1,500 head of livestock have been lost to the heat, Larry Olsen of the Farm Service Agency told CNN affiliate KSFY.
Dozens of cattle died south of Harmony, Minnesota, CNN affiliate KTTC reported. And on a cattle farm just across the border in northern Iowa, an estimated 100 cattle died, the report said.

At the Brookfield Zoo just outside Chicago, staff kept water misters in exhibits and gave some animals huge blocks of ice filled with meat and fruit.

Giant blast hits government buildings in Oslo, Norway

Witness: Blast almost knocked us over

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Oslo police spokesman says the city center was evacuated after the explosion
• NEW: A U.S. official says it is too soon to tell if the blast is a terrorist attack
• State broadcaster NRK reports at least one person has died, dozens are injured
• Norway's prime minister was not in his office when it was hit by the blast, police say

Editor's Note: Are you there? Send your videos, stories and photos to CNN iReport

(CNN) -- A giant explosion rocked government buildings in Oslo, Norway, on Friday, state TV broadcaster NRK said, with at least one person confirmed dead.
Windows in several buildings had been blown out, and people were in the street bleeding, NRK said on its website. The cause of the blast remains unknown.
There are conflicting reports about whether a second blast followed the first, which occurred mid-afternoon in the center of the Norwegian capital.
A spokesman for Oslo police told CNN: "There has been a bomb explosion in the government area. At least one person is dead, and a number of people are injured. We don't have the exact number yet.
"We don't know if this comes from a terrorist action; we don't know yet. We don't know exactly how many explosions (there) were yet. Oslo center has been evacuated."
He confirmed that Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was not in his office at the time of the blast.
Linda Reinholdsen, a reporter for Norwegian state broadcaster NRK, said one explosion happened near the prime minister's office. Another hit near the Norwegian parliament, she told CNN.

2nd explosion rocks Oslo

RELATED TOPICS

• Norway
• Oslo

Several buildings in Oslo were on fire, she said, and smoke was pouring from them.
Walter Gibbs, a journalist with Reuters, said he saw eight injured people, including two or three with serious wounds and one who looked dead.
Gibbs said he believes one explosion happened on an upper floor of a main government building. He said it blew out every window on the side of the building.
The blast also severely damaged the Oil Ministry and left it in flames, he said.
Reuters reported that Stoltenberg was safe.
Stoltenberg, who has been prime minister since October 2005, heads a coalition government made up of the Labour Party, the Socialist Left Party and the Centre Party.
A U.S. official said it was too soon to tell what caused the explosion or whether it was a terrorist attack. The possibility of terrorism is always a concern because of the ongoing threat from al Qaeda to launch attacks in Europe, the official said.
A representative for Oslo University Hospital confirmed that seven patients were being treated there after the explosion.
"I am not aware whether they are major or minor injuries. We have spoken to the other hospitals in Oslo, and in total, we are sending 22 ambulances and five helicopters. We currently have no confirmation of any deaths."
Nick Soubiea, an American-Swedish tourist in Oslo, told CNN he was less than 100 yards from the blast, which he described as deafening.
"It was almost in slow motion, like a big wave that almost knocked us off our chairs," he said. "It was extremely frightening."
He said the streets were crowded with people trying to get away from the center of the city. "There are people running down the streets, people crying, everyone's on their cell phones calling home," he said.
Jon Martin Larsen, head of media for the Norwegian Red Cross, told CNN: "The Norwegian Red Cross has established its own crisis team and is in contact with the municipality of Oslo and the police, ready to assist with whatever they need of first aiders, rescue teams, ambulance or caretakers either in the city center or at the hospitals."
A hotel worker at Oslo's Grand Hotel, about a five-minute walk from the government building, said everyone in the hotel felt and heard the explosion, which felt like someone was shaking the entire building.
"It's crazy," she said, not wanting to be identified because she is not authorized to speak to the media on behalf of the hotel. "This happens in the big world, not in Oslo. I'm shocked."
Vivian Paulsen, media adviser for the Norwegian Red Cross, lives 20 minutes away from the center of Oslo in the northern outskirts of the city. She said she heard a "huge blast."
"I heard the big bang, I didn't think it was anything serious. I can still see smoke coming up from the place," she said, watching from her apartment balcony. She also heard sirens and ambulances.
As for Oslo, she said what others have been saying: Events like this don't happen in the northern European capital.

"There's occasional arrests of terror suspects we read about in the paper, or people planning something."

Piers Morgan rejects accusation of phone-hacking involvement

Piers Morgan blasts Mensch's 'lie'

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Louise Mensch refuses to repeat her accusation outside the protection provided in Parliament
• NEW: "Show some balls," Morgan tells the member of Parliament
• NEW: "I feel no need to apologize," Mensch says
• Mensch made the allegations Tuesday in a hearing about News Corp.

(CNN) -- Piers Morgan, host of CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight" and a former editor of two British tabloid newspapers, rejected as "nonsense" a British lawmaker's allegations Tuesday that he participated in phone hacking.
Morgan said he may have been a victim of hacking, but was never a perpetrator.
Louise Mensch, a Conservative member of Parliament on the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, made the allegations during a hearing before the committee Tuesday.
"Piers Morgan, who is now a celebrity anchor at CNN, you do not appear to have asked him any questions at all about phone hacking," Mensch told her fellow lawmakers. "As a former editor for the Daily Mirror, he said in his book 'The Insider' recently, and I quote, 'that little trick of entering a standard four-digit code allows anyone to call that number and hear all your messages.'
"In that book he boasted that using that little trick enables him to win scoop of the year for a story about (former England national soccer team manager) Sven-Goran Eriksson," Mensch said.
"So that is a former editor of The Daily Mirror being very open about his personal use of phone hacking."

Piers Morgan believes Murdoch

Mensch's comments elicited an immediate riposte from Morgan: "That MP just claimed I boasted in my book of using phone-hacking for a scoop," he said on Twitter. "Complete nonsense. Just read the book."
The book, titled "The Insider: The Private Diaries of a Scandalous Decade," was published in 2005. In it, Morgan wrote that he had suspected he was a victim of phone hacking. "I wrote in my book that someone warned me phones could be hacked, so I changed my (personal identification) number."
"Someone suggested today that people might be listening to my mobile phone messages," the book says. "Apparently if you don't change the standard security code that every phone comes with, then anyone can call your number and, if you don't answer, tap in the standard four-digit code to hear all your messages. I'll change mine just in case, but it makes me wonder how many public figures and celebrities are aware of this little trick."
Later, appearing on CNN's "Situation Room," Mensch said that she would not repeat the comments she had made to the committee. Those comments were made under parliamentary privilege, which protects her from any lawsuits.
"To repeat something outside of Parliament doesn't give me that cloak of privilege, and Mr. Morgan is a very rich man," she said. "So, I'm sure that the ferocious investigative journalists at CNN and across the news media in the United States will take careful note of what was said in the committee and look into it."
Morgan said her refusal to address the issue outside of Parliament was a mark of cowardice. "As she may be already aware, she came out with an absolute, blatant lie during those proceedings," he said. "At no stage in my book, or indeed outside of my book, have I ever boasted of using phone hacking for any stories. For the record, in my time at the Mirror and the News of the World, I have never hacked a phone, told anybody to hack a phone or published any story based on the hacking of a phone. And what she did today was a deliberate, in my view, and outrageous attempt to smear my name, CNN's name, the Daily Mirror's name."
He called Mensch's refusal to defend her accusation "an outrage."
"Show some balls," the ex-tabloid editor told the female parliamentarian. "Repeat what you said about me and then, maybe, go and buy a copy of my book, 'The Insider,' and see where in that book these claims that you made today in a televised committee watched all over the world, where that claim is in that book -- because it isn't there."
Morgan accused Mensch of abusing parliamentary privilege and demanded an apology, but Mensch held her ground.
"I feel no need to apologize," she said. "As I said, I refer American journalists to what I said in the select committee, and I'm quite perfectly content to stick with that."
Morgan worked for News Corp. as editor of the News of the World from 1994 to 1995 and served as editor for the Daily Mirror, a paper not owned by Rupert Murdoch, from 1995 to 2004. The 46-year-old British talk-show host replaced Larry King on CNN early this year

Killing of infants on the rise in Pakistan

Pakistan tragedy: The killing of newborn girls

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Records from group show more than 1,200 newborns killed and dumped in Pakistan last year
  
• Many of those killed are girls because of cultural attitudes and poverty
  
• In some countries, infanticide of girls is enough to skew population figures, U.N. says
  

Karachi, Pakistan (CNN) -- At a morgue in Pakistan's largest city, five linen pouches -- each the size of a loaf of bread -- line the shelf of a walk-in freezer.
Wrapped inside each small sack is the corpse of an infant.
The babies are victims of what one relief agency calls Pakistan's worst unfolding tragedy: the killing and dumping of newborns.
"Sometimes they hang them, and sometimes they kill by the knife, and sometimes we find bodies which have been burned," said Anwar Kazmi, a manager at Edhi Foundation, Pakistan's largest privately run social service and relief agency.
Records at Edhi Foundation show that more than 1,200 newborns were killed and dumped in Pakistan last year, an increase of about 200 from the previous year.
Families view many of these children as illegitimate in a culture that condemns those born outside of marriage.
Statistics show that roughly nine out of 10 are baby girls, which families may consider too costly to keep in a country where women frequently are not allowed to work.

Homicide among India's girls

The babies are usually just days old. Their corpses are often dumped in Karachi's sprawling garbage dumps, where they're sometimes mutilated by street animals, Kazmi said. He estimates that hundreds of baby corpses are never found.
The head of Edhi Foundation, 83-year-old Abdul Sattar Edhi, blames Pakistan's crippling poverty and a government that, for decades, has failed to educate the masses, generate jobs and provide citizens with the most basic needs.
"The distribution of resources by the government is wrong," Edhi said. "Many people don't pay taxes; there's no charity, and what you get from the government is all based on your wealth."
The Pakistani government has said it's improving education, but 55 million Pakistanis remain illiterate, according to the United Nations. And the government is billions of dollars in debt while entangled in a costly fight against the Taliban and other Islamic militant groups.
The killing of newborns gets little attention in Pakistan, and rarely are they investigated by a police force that's often poorly trained, lacks resources and stays focused on what's perceived to be more important crimes.
In many parts of the world, female infanticide is still practiced through direct violence but also by intentional neglect, according to the World Health Organization.
In some Asian countries, infanticide of girls is enough to skew the population figures in favor of males. The United Nations found, for example, that there are 130 boys to 100 girls in parts of Asia, especially in countries with extreme poverty and overpopulation such as China and India.
"Girls are seen as a burden, seen as a property which belongs to somebody else so people see that as a waste of money and the wasting of an education of a girl," said Bhagyashri Dengle, executive director of Plan India, a nonprofit for children. "Then when the girl gets married, the families have a big, heavy dowry. So that is one of the reasons here."
Dengle said awareness and education at the grass-roots level are ways to combat this practice.
"I think we really need to reach out to young people (to) create an awareness, to change attitudes and dispel the notion that having a boy is better than a girl," she said. "We launched this program 'Let Girls Be Born' -- that campaign is reaching out to masses using televisions, through newspapers and through (the) Internet. What we are trying to do is positive messaging on the girls. That girls aren't a sect; they are as good as boys."
In Pakistan, until things improve, the Edhi Foundation said, it will keep more than 300 cradles in front of its offices throughout Pakistan where families can drop off unwanted newborns. The foundation cares for them and puts them up for adoption, no questions asked.

"It's for awareness -- that please don't kill your innocent babies," Kazmi said.

Deadly heat wave to remain Thursday

'Flirting' with 100 degrees

(CNN) -- A blistering heat wave gripping much of the country is expected to remain Thursday as officials blamed nearly two dozen deaths on the high temperatures.
This heat wave could go into the weekend, forecasters say.
"After several days of deadly heat and humidity as many as 22 people have died," the National Weather Service said Wednesday.
Across the United States, about 141 million people are under heat advisories and warnings.
Almost half of the country continues to sizzle in triple-digit temperatures, with Missouri officials investigating whether 13 deaths could be heat-related.
Of the 13 possible deaths, the youngest is a woman in her mid-30s and the oldest two women in their mid-70s, said Jeff Hershberger, spokesman for the Kansas City health department.
It may take between six weeks to several months for officials to process toxicology tests to determine whether all 13 died of heat-related causes, Hershberger said.
In Oklahoma, four heat-related deaths have been confirmed since May, said Cherokee Ballard, a spokeswoman for the state medical examiner.
Three of those occurred in the past 30 days, including a 3-year-old boy in a car in Norman and a 69-year-old man from Blackwell, she said.
An additional eight Oklahoma deaths may potentially be related to the heat, she said, with most occurring in July.
Excessive-heat watches, warnings and heat advisories were in effect in more than 30 states Wednesday, in what the weather service described as "a large portion of the central U.S. and Ohio River Valley, as well as portions of the mid-Atlantic and northeastern states.
"At this point, we're still not yet at the worst level," Hershberger said. "We're at 'extreme heat warning' which is one level lower than 'heat emergency.'"
Triple-digit temperatures are forecast to remain across the eastern U.S. through Saturday before cooling off slightly to the mid-90s by Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.

By afternoon hours, temperatures will feel like 110 degrees or higher, forecasters warned.

Meet South Korea's answer to Susan Boyle

Meet South Korea's answer to Susan Boyle

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- Move over Susan Boyle. Sung-bong Choi is the next global talent show sensation.
The 22-year-old has become an Internet sensation after his appearance on "Korea's Got Talent" with well over 10 million people so far watching him on YouTube.
His powerful baritone voice sounds as if it belongs to a man twice his age and build, but it is not just his singing that reduced the presenters and much of the audience to tears.
"I was left in the orphanage when I was 3," he told the judges at this first appearance, "and when I was 5, I ran away after being beaten by people there. I sold gum or energy drinks on the street. I had that life for about 10 years."
He told the judges he used to sleep in stairwells or public toilets and decided he wanted to sing after seeing a performer in a nightclub where he was selling gum. "I was fascinated by the singer who sang on the stage so sincerely," Choi said.
Choi admits he is both scared and excited by the sudden global attention he has received. A Facebook fan page has been set up in his name, and the praise-filled comments are from people from all corners of the world.
The onetime construction worker said before his first performance that he does not sing very well. The audience and panel disagreed. "It was the first thing that I liked after I ran away and was living on the streets, the first thing I was ever able to dream about. It was a small little wish I had."
His wish of being able to sing has come true. He's odds-on favorite to win "Korea's Got Talent," and even if he doesn't, one of the judges has already promised to help him with voice training.
Choi did attend an arts high school around the age of 16, graduating in 2009 -- it was the first time he went to school.
He said he finds it unbelievable that someone like him was able to be on a show like "Korea's Got Talent," and he says he is thankful "because now, I have a reason to live."

China, ASEAN agree on plans to solve South China Sea dispute

July 21, 2011 -- Updated 0648 GMT (1448 HKT)

Picture by the Vietnam News Agency showing live fire drills June 14 on Phan Vinh Island in the disputed Spratly Island chain.

Jakarta, Indonesia (CNN) -- Chinese and Southeast Asian officials have agreed on a draft of guidelines to avert tension in the South China Sea.
China, which had until now resisted taking part in a code of conduct, changed its mind during a meeting with senior officials of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, in Bali, Indonesia, on Wednesday.
"This is an important milestone document on the cooperation among China and ASEAN countries," China's Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin told reporters. "And we have a bright future and we are looking forward to future cooperation."
The document, "Guidelines on the Implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea," will now have to be approved by the government of China and ASEAN countries.
But all sides called it a hopeful sign toward a peaceful resolution to the overlapping claims in the South China Sea.
Among the goals of the guidelines are a good-faith attempt by all sides to promote dialogue and clearly identify any project they undertake in the disputed region.
The South China Sea -- a 1.3 million square mile patch of the Pacific Ocean bracketed by China and several Southeast Asian nations -- is dotted with hundreds of largely uninhabited islands and coral atolls that are home to some of the world's most diverse marine life.
Also under its waves lie potentially huge reserves of natural gas and oil. A Chinese estimate suggests as much as 213 billion barrels of oil lie untapped in the South China Sea which, if true, would make it the largest oil reserve outside Saudi Arabia, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
That prospect has cross-stitched the sea with competing claims from China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. A recent spate of incidents between Chinese and Vietnamese vessels in the sea has fueled a growing rift between the communist neighbors, creating strange bedfellows as Hanoi embraces closer military ties with historic foes in Washington.
In late May, the Vietnamese Ministry of Defense reported that a Chinese patrol boat slashed a submerged cable of a oil and gas survey ship operated by PetroVietnam, the state energy firm.
A similar incident happened on June 9 when a Chinese patrol boat cut cables from a Vietnamese ship doing seismic surveys off its southern coast, Vietnam's Foreign Ministry reported.
Beijing maintains that Vietnamese vessels have been illegally surveying in Chinese waters and harassing Chinese fishing boats.
Vietnam is not the only nation skirmishing with Chinese patrol boats.
The Philippines, on the western border of the South China Sea, also reported Chinese boats cutting cables of a survey ship and threatening to ram its boats in March, according to Manila's Foreign Ministry.
China claims both nations were exploring in disputed waters. China says it is not to blame.
"If you want to know why there is tension in South China Sea, I think you have to go and ask the country or countries that have made all the provocations," Cui Lei, China's vice minister of the Foreign Ministry, told CNN in a rare interview last month.
China claims there could be enough oil and gas to rival Saudi Arabia's reserves, but those claims have yet to be proven, according to a U.S. Energy Information Administration report. Still, there are enough proven wells in the South China Sea to tantalize the players, which explains why oil and gas survey vessels are at the heart of the recent incidents.
The smaller nations in the region are feeling the pressure to stake their claims for oil and fishing rights, or risk losing them to a more assertive China, analysts say.
"There's a sense coastal states like Vietnam and the Philippines need to use the economic area more urgently, so they need to catch more fish now, they need to discover more oil now," said James Manicom, an expert on maritime disputes at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Canada.
At the heart of both disputes is a term of international maritime law known as "Exclusive Economic Zone," where nations are allowed sole rights to fish and develop resources within 200 nautical miles of a country's shores. That has created interest in nations' grabbing uninhabited islands -- often little more than rocky atolls -- to extend their zone.
China lays the broadest claim, covering all of the Spratly Islands in the southern part of the ocean and Paracel Islands to the north -- essentially most of the South China Sea. Taiwan and Vietnam also claim the entirety of both island groups, while Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines say they own part of the Spratlys. All but Brunei occupy some of the disputed islands with naval bases, airstrips and even resorts.
The United States waded into the water dispute a year ago when Clinton attended the annual defense meeting in Singapore. Clinton rattled Beijing when she offered to mediate the dispute and suggested a peaceful outcome was in the United States' national interests. At the time, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi called Clinton's comments "an attack on China."
The shipping lanes of the South China Sea are among the busiest in the world and a vital lifeline for China's growing hunger for commodities such as oil, natural gas and iron ore.

To hedge against a more assertive China, Southeast Asian nations are turning to Washington. Vietnam and the United States announced a new round of joint military exercises, and the United States recently held joint drills with the Philippines.

Japanese man guilty of killing British teacher; receives life sentence

Murdered Brit Lindsay Hawker was discovered dead in Ichihashi's bath in March 2007.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Ichihashi has admitted to raping and strangling Hawker
• The case centers around whether he intended to do so
• Officials: During the time he eluded arrest, Ichihashi underwent cosmetic surgery
• The case has received wall-to-wall coverage in Japan

Tokyo (CNN) -- A Japanese man who admitted to raping and strangling a British teacher has been found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.
The month-long trial of Tatsuya Ichihashi riveted Japan in much the same way the Casey Anthony trial did the United States.
The victim Lindsay Hawker's battered, naked body was found in a bathtub in Ichihashi's apartment in March 2007 -- buried in sand.
Ichihashi then went on the run, altering his face through cosmetic surgery several times to elude arrest.
After he was arrested two and half years later, Ichihashi acknowledged killing Hawker. But the question at the center of the trial was whether he intended to.
Hawker's parents who were in Chiba District Court, east of Tokyo, for the verdict had asked prosecutors to hand down the harshest sentence: death.
The case began in March 2007 when surveillance video showed Ichihashi meeting up with Hawker at a coffee shop in the town of Ichikawa in Chiba Prefecture for an English lesson.
Later, he told Hawker to follow him to his apartment so he could pay her, prosecutors said.
After the killing when police arrived to interview Ichihashi, he fled.
He snipped his own lips with a pair of scissors, cut off two moles and -- as he flitted from one construction job to another across the country -- he would drop in at clinics to undergo more cosmetic surgery, prosecutors said.
Authorities offered a 10 million yen reward ($127,000) reward for information leading to Ichihashi's capture. They finally caught up with him at a ferry terminal in the western Japanese city of Osaka in November 2009.
Ichihashi went on trial in July, amid wall-to-wall coverage in local media. Just as in the case of Casey Anthony -- the Florida mother who was accused and later acquitted of killing her 2-year-old daugther -- television stations offered play-by-play accounts of every development.
Before the verdict was read Thursday, hundreds of people lined up outside court to take part in a lottery that would allow 57 of them

Germany and France agree common position on debt crisis

Angela Merkel wants private investors to share taxpayers' burden if Greece restructures its debts

Continue reading the main story

Greece crisis

• Q&A: Debt crisis
• Austerity plans in full
• Timeline: Eurozone crisis
• EU austerity country by country

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have hammered out a common position on the euro debt crisis.

A statement by the French president's office said agreement had been reached after seven hours of talks in Berlin.
It comes ahead of a crunch meeting of eurozone leaders to resolve the Greek debt crisis and prevent further contagion to other eurozone economies.
Details of the deal have not yet been released.
Jean-Claude Trichet, the European Central Bank (ECB) president, was also brought into the discussions, according to a spokesman for Mrs Merkel.
Germany had previously insisted that Greece's lenders should be forced to take losses as part of any further rescue deal for Athens.
But this had been opposed by France and the ECB, who fear it could spark a Europe-wide banking crisis, push Spain and possibly Italy into trouble, and even jeopardise the solvency of the ECB itself.
'Very serious' Policymakers are set to discuss a range of measures at the meeting later on Thursday, including a new loan package to Greece and the role of private investors in any debt restructuring.
Reports suggest a new tax on banks will also be debated.
But German Chancellor Angela Merkel has cautioned against over optimism.
Greece received its first aid package in May last year, but the debt crisis continues to undermine confidence in global financial markets, with some commentators suggesting it threatens the future of the euro itself.
Politicians and investors are calling for decisive action to help bring the crisis to an end.
"Nobody should be under any illusion; the situation is very serious," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Wednesday.
"It requires a response. Otherwise, the negative consequences will be felt in all corners of Europe and beyond."
The Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King, has said that the crisis in the eurozone posed the most serious and immediate risk to the UK's financial system.
President Barack Obama has also weighed in, calling Mrs Merkel on Tuesday night to stress the importance of tackling the debt crisis in sustaining the global economic recovery.
The International Monetary Fund has also called on European leaders to take swift and decisive action.
Delaying such action further would be "very costly" for the world economy, it said.
Spending cuts However, there are divisions among policymakers about the best way to resolve the crisis.
There appears to be consensus on the need for a new loan agreement, analysts say, thought to be similar in size to the 110bn euro ($156bn; £97bn) package agreed last year.
However, there is also a growing consensus that this will merely act as a sticking plaster, and that the fundamental problem of Greece's indebtedness needs to be addressed.
Athens has already implemented a raft of wide ranging austerity measures, including spending cuts and tax rises, and earlier this month agreed to further drastic action to cut its debt.
Bank tax But there is a growing sense that these will not be enough. The only way to resolve the problem is to restructure Greece's debts, many observers argue.
Germany has proposed allowing Athens more time to repay, effectively rolling over existing debts into new bonds.
It wants private investors, largely banks, to participate in this restructuring.
But the European Central Bank has strongly opposed this plan, arguing that such a rollover would constitute a default in the eyes of the international credit ratings agencies and, as such, would undermine investor confidence and the euro itself.
An alternative way to get private investors to contribute to any aid package would be to introduce a new bank tax.
Reports suggest leaders will discuss precisely such a tax, even though this would prove hugely unpopular with the banks.
It is these divisions that explain Mrs Merkel's attempts to dampen expectations ahead of the summit.
The summit will take place in Brussels at 1300 local time (1100 GMT).

Bond actress Angela Scoular died drinking acid cleaner

Former Bond girl Angela Scoular was married to Carry On actor Leslie Phillips

A Bond girl actress who had suffered from bowel cancer ended her life by drinking drain cleaner, Westminster Coroner's Court has heard.

Angela Scoular, 65, who starred in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, died in April.
The actress, who lived in Maida Vale, west London, was battling alcoholism and depression and worried about debts.
Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox recorded a verdict of "killing herself while the balance of her mind was disturbed".
Ms Scoular's death was not suicide, the coroner ruled.
The court heard Ms Scoular suffered non-survivable 40% burns to her throat, body and dietary tract.
The cause of death was ingestion of a corrosive substance and multiple fractures, said Dr Wilcox.
The coroner heard the actress died two hours after drinking the liquid containing 90% sulphuric acid.
She also poured the corrosive liquid on her body.

Angela Scoular played the role of Cathy in Wuthering Heights in 1967

The inquest heard the actress was diagnosed with cancer in 2008 and was given the all clear after treatment and surgery, but months before her death she began to fear the return of the disease.
The actress, who had battled alcoholism for years, used to drink between 150 and 210 units of alcohol a week.
Weeks before her death she was arrested for drink-driving while on bail after crashing her car in Wales.
At the time she was on too much medication for bipolar disorder, the coroner heard.
The actress had married Carry On star Leslie Phillips in 1982.

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“Start Quote

She was a kind, generous person who would help me with my work and I would help with hers”

Leslie Phillips

The actor, aged 87, was too ill to attend court, said in a read statement their life together was happy.

"The only exception was her alcoholism," he said.
"But she was a kind, generous person who would help me with my work and I would help with hers."
Ms Scoular tried to kill herself in 1992 when she cut her wrists with a knife.
She was found by Mr Phillips, who said he saved her from being sectioned several years ago.
The actress landed the role of Buttercup in the 1966 Bond spoof Casino Royale and was Ruby Bartlett in On Her Majesty's Secret Service in 1969.
She acted in films, television and theatre during her career, including playing the role of Cathy in a BBC adaptation of Wuthering Heights in 1967.

Earthquake strikes Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan

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Related Stories

• Country profile: Uzbekistan
• Country profile: Kyrgyzstan
• Refugees 'forced' back to Kyrgyzstan

At least 13 people in Uzbekistan have been killed in a 6.1-magnitude earthquake centred in Kyrgyzstan near the two countries' border.

The Uzbek emergency ministry said the quake, in the Ferghana valley, also injured 86 people.
Kyrgyzstan has so far reported no casualties. The quake struck at 0135 on Wednesday (1935 GMT Tuesday).
It was centred 42km (26 miles) south-west of the city of Ferghana at a depth of 18km, the US Geological Survey said.
Walls cracked

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“Start Quote

People were on the streets all night - there was a lot of panic”

Ismat Batken resident

"As a result of the earthquake, some old buildings were destroyed in the Ferghana region," the Uzbek ministry said in a statement.

"According to initial information, 13 people were killed as a result of the damage to the houses."
Ferghana resident Dilaffrus Muminova told Reuters news agency the earthquake had lasted for about three minutes.
"Everybody was afraid. Everything was shaking."
A resident of the Kyrgyz city of Batken - who wanted to be known only by his first name of Ismat - said cracks were visible in the walls of some houses.
"People were on the streets all night. There was a lot of panic."
Uzbek President Islam Karimov has ordered officials to the region to inspect the damage, as have the Kyrgyz authorities.
"It's clear that there will be damage, the earthquake was just too strong," said Kyrgyz government seismologist Kanat Abdrakhmatov.
The Ferghana valley is split between Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and is one of Central Asia's most densely populated areas. Reuters said tremors were felt across the region.
Central Asia has a history of earthquakes.
More than 70 people died in a 2008 earthquake in Kyrgyzstan while a magnitude 7.5 quake flattened the Uzbek capital Tashkent in 1966.

Lashkar Gah: Nato hands over volatile Afghan city

Nato said the transition of power to Afghan forces would upset the Taliban

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Taliban Conflict

• Handover overshadowed
• Turbulent Kandahar
• Meeting Wali Karzai
• Taliban tactical shift

British troops in Afghanistan's volatile Helmand province have handed control of the city of Lashkar Gah to Afghan security forces.

In recent days Nato handed over the relatively peaceful province of Bamiyan and the eastern town of Mehtar Lam.
But correspondents say that maintaining stability in Lashkar Gah will be the sternest test yet for local forces.
The handover is seen as a critical step in a transition of power before foreign troops end combat operations in 2014.
A handover ceremony took place at the governor's palace in Lashkar Gah.
Afghan Minister of Defence Gen Abdul Rahim Wardak carried out an inspection of Afghan forces, before a handshake between the provincial Governor Mangal and the Isaf commander of south-west Afghanistan, General Toolan.
The new commander of Isaf forces in Afghanistan, Gen John Allen, was also present.

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Lashkar Gah

• Capital of Afghanistan's volatile Helmand province
• Historically called Bost, the city was first founded about 1,000 years ago
• The modern city was built in the 1950s as a base for US engineers working on an irrigation project
• The population of Lashkar Gah is 35,900 according to a 2006 central statistics figures

• '$1m houses' of Lashkar Gah
• Q&A: Foreign forces

The handover ended with UK forces leading a procession of their military vehicles as Afghan officials gave them flowers.

The BBC's Jonathan Beale, who attended the ceremony, says it marked the beginning of the end for British control of the area, and that a genuine transfer of responsibility for security is taking place.
But British forces are only transferring responsibility for central Lashkar Gah, our correspondent says. They are still looking after certain parts of the city and will be on hand to assist Afghan security forces.
A lot of Afghan people are sceptical of whether their government is ready to take responsibility, he adds.
There is some confidence in the army and police but about 20% of police officers are "ghosts" - there on paper but with money going into someone else's pocket, our correspondent says.
Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai told the BBC that the handover in Lashkar Gah was about more than just the transfer of security responsibilities.

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Analysis

Jonathan Beale Defence correspondent, BBC News

The Afghans put on a carefully choreographed ceremony at the heavily guarded governor's palace in Lashkar Gah. A sign that they see the transfer of security of the capital of Helmand as an important occasion, even if British officials have downplayed its significance.
The reality is that British troops will remain at their base in Lashkar Gah in a support and training role. They're also still leading the fight - along with American troops - in most of Helmand.
But the transfer of responsibility does mark an important step for Nato. It signals that as they prepare to draw down their own forces, they're getting ready to hand over the war to Afghans themselves.
The question now is whether the Afghans are up to the job? Much work has been done on training Afghan security forces, but corruption - particularly within the Afghan national police - remains a problem.
This first wave of transition has been described by one Nato official as a "soft opening". The more highly contested regions of Afghanistan - where the insurgency is still strong - will take longer to transition.

"The whole purpose of this transition process is to ensure, in the long term, that we have a stable, secure, peaceful Afghanistan because that is in the interest of security and stability in the broader region and the wider world," he said.

"The flipside of that, of course, is that an insecure and unstable Afghanistan is a threat to international security and stability, as was clearly demonstrated by 9/11 and 7/7 in the UK."
Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told the BBC that the transition of power would upset the Taliban, who have been responsible for a series of high-profile attacks in recent weeks.
"Transition means that the Taliban will be attacking their own countrymen in the future because Afghan security forces will do the combat and of course the Taliban doesn't like that.
"This is the reason why they now try to test the transition but we will stick to the timetable we outlined in November last year."
On Monday, seven policemen were killed at a checkpoint near Lashkar Gah and on Saturday a British soldier was killed while on a routine patrol in the area - some reports suggest he was shot by a man in an Afghan army uniform.
Recent violence

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The Afghan police have a crucial role in the strategy but there are serious concerns about corruption

Violence has sharply increased across Afghanistan since President Hamid Karzai's March announcement that seven areas would be passed to local forces from July.
Hours after the first handover ceremony in Bamiyan, militants killed a key presidential aide in a raid on his Kabul home.
On Tuesday, there were reports of a mortar attack near the capital of eastern Laghman province, Mehter Lam, as Nato was handing over responsibility for that city.
The remaining four areas to be handed over are:

• Kabul province
• Panjshir province
• Herat city
• Mazar-e Sharif city

Seven UN staff were killed during a protest in Mazar-e Sharif and on Wednesday four civilians died when a bomb carried on a bicycle was detonated in the city.
There have also been a number of high-profile attacks including an assault on a luxury hotel in Kabul that left 22 people dead.
There are currently about 140,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan - nearly 100,000 of them from the US - still battling the Taliban insurgency.
After their withdrawal, the primary role of foreign troops will be to train and equip Afghan security forces.
The approximately 10,000 British troops serving under Nato command are set to complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Are you in Lashkar Gah, or elsewhere in Afghanistan? What is your reaction to the handover? You can send us your views and experiences using the form below.

Irish PM in unprecedented attack on Vatican

Enda Kenny said the relationship between church and state in Ireland could not be the same again

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny has launched an unprecedented attack on the Catholic Church in parliament.

He said the recent Cloyne Report into how allegations of sex-abuse by priests in Cork had been covered up showed change was urgently needed.
Mr Kenny said the historic relationship between church and state in Ireland could not be the same again.
He said the report exposed the elitism, dysfunction, disconnection, and narcissism that dominated the Vatican.
"The rape and torture of children were downplayed or 'managed' to uphold instead the primacy of the institution, its power, standing and 'reputation'," the taoiseach said.
'Unprecedented' "The revelations of the Cloyne Report have brought the government, Irish Catholics and the Vatican to an unprecedented juncture."
Opposition leader Michael Martin said that when he met the Papal Nuncio after the Murphy report into the cover-up of abuse in the Dublin diocese in 2009, he told him the government expected the full cooperation of the Vatican into the Cloyne inquiry.
However, he said, the Vatican chose to focus on the interests of the church rather than the children abused by its clergy and shielded by its leaders.
During the debate, the church was called upon to publish the audits currently being sent to every Catholic diocese in the country.
Sinn Fein spokesperson on health and children Caoimhghin O'Caolain said the government should consider coordinating with the Northern Ireland Executive on any future inquiries - particularly as four of the Catholic dioceses straddle the border.

Serbia holds Croatia war crimes suspect Goran Hadzic

Goran Hadzic is the last major war crimes suspect wanted by the tribunal in The Hague

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Related Stories

• At a glance: Hague tribunal
• Viewpoint: Hague justice 'works'
• Overcoming Vukovar's war legacy

Serbian authorities have arrested Goran Hadzic, the last remaining fugitive war crimes suspect sought by the UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Mr Hadzic, now 52, led Serb separatist forces during Croatia's 1991-1995 war.
Within hours of the arrest, a Serbian court approved his extradition to the Hague. He has been charged with the murder of hundreds of non-Serbs.
The arrest comes less than two months after Serbia caught former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic.
Serbian President Boris Tadic confirmed Mr Hadzic's arrest at a news conference.
He said the suspect had been detained early on Wednesday in the mountainous Fruska Gora region, north of Belgrade, near his family home. He had always been presumed to be hiding there, the BBC's Mark Lowen reports from Belgrade.
Stolen Modigliani

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Analysis

Mark Lowen BBC News, Belgrade

Goran Hadzic was long eclipsed by the other big names on the most wanted list, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, who face even more serious charges from the Bosnian war.
But with the arrest of Karadzic in 2008 and Mladic in May this year, Goran Hadzic suddenly became the number one target.
State resources were redirected towards his capture; Serbia was determined that Hadzic would not be the one that got away.
President Tadic said that pressure from the EU did not drive the move. But he will now expect to be rewarded by Brussels.
Serbia will hope to receive EU candidate status and a start date for accession talks. And for this nation, desperate to move on from the 1990s, it is another big step towards its rehabilitation.

Officials say Mr Hadzic was picked up as he met a man delivering him money in a forest, the Associated Press news agency reports.

He later appeared before the war crimes court in Belgrade, which approved his extradition to The Hague.
His lawyer told AFP news agency he would not appeal against his transfer - which is expected to take up to eight days.
Gen Mladic was arrested on 26 May and flown to the tribunal on 31 May.
Serbian prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said the breakthrough in the hunt for Mr Hadzic came when he tried to sell a stolen painting by Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani.
"He was penniless," Mr Vukcevik said. "He probably got (the painting) during the war in Croatia."
Mr Hadzic went into hiding seven years ago, shortly after the sealed indictment against him was delivered to the government in Belgrade.
He was a central figure in the self-proclaimed Serb republic of Krajina in 1992-1993, leading the campaign to block Croatia's independence from Yugoslavia.
European congratulations Mr Hadzic faces 14 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including persecution, extermination, and torture.
He is held responsible for the massacre of almost 300 men in Vukovar in 1991 by Croatian Serb troops and for the deportation of 20,000 people from the town after it was captured.

President Tadic insisted that Serbian investigators had been "working very hard in the past three years" to capture Mr Hadzic.
Our correspondent says the Hadzic case was seen as the last big obstacle to Serbia gaining EU candidate status and a start date for accession talks. There was a $1.4m (£870,000) reward offered for his capture.
EU leaders said the arrest was "a further important step for Serbia in realising its European perspective and equally crucial for international justice".
"Following the capture of Ratko Mladic, this arrest sends a positive signal to the European Union and to Serbia's neighbours, but most of all on the rule of law in Serbia itself," the leaders said in a statement.
It was issued by EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and EU foreign policy chief Baroness Ashton.
Mr Hadzic lived openly in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad until 13 July 2004, when he fled because of the indictment against him, Reuters news agency reports.
For years the prosecutors in The Hague complained that Belgrade was not doing enough to track down top war crimes suspects including Mr Hadzic, and that criticism delayed progress in Serbia's EU bid.

Phone hacking: Cameron's 'regret' over hiring Coulson

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David Cameron: "You live and you learn and believe you me, I have learnt."

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David Cameron has told MPs that "with hindsight" he would not have hired ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson.

In the closest he has come to an apology, the PM said: "Of course I regret, and I am extremely sorry, about the furore it has caused."
Mr Coulson quit the NoW over phone hacking, saying he knew nothing about it but took ultimate responsibility.
Amid stormy Commons scenes Labour leader Ed Miliband said hiring him was a "catastrophic error of judgement".
And the prime minister came under pressure from Labour MPs to confirm whether he had any conversations about News Corporation's now aborted bid to fully takeover BSkyB with executives from the company such as Rebekah Brooks, Rupert or James Murdoch.
He had returned early from a trip to Africa to make an emergency statement on the phone hacking crisis - the Commons is sitting for an extra day after the prime minister delayed MPs' summer recess so he could address the issue.
In other development in the phone hacking saga:

• Mr Cameron says the public inquiry will be widened to examine broadcasters and social media and named the panel that will carry out the probe.
• Speaker John Bercow launches an investigation into the foam pie incident at Rupert Murdoch's committee hearing
• The Met Police is accused of a "catalogue of failures" over the News of the World phone-hacking inquiry in an MPs' report
• Downing St and Buckingham Palace deny claims by Labour MP Chris Bryant that royal officials raised concerns about Mr Coulson's appointment
• The protester accused of throwing shaving foam at Mr Murdoch is charged with a public order offence.
• News Corporation decides to terminate arrangements to pay legal fees of private investigator Glenn Mulcaire "with immediate effect"
• Labour MP Paul Raynsford says that, when Mr Coulson was Downing Street director of communications, the cabinet secretary was alerted to evidence of illegal phone hacking, covert surveillance and hostile media briefing directed against a senior official in the government service
• Downing Street confirms that the prime minister received and responded to a letter from Labour MP Tom Watson last October, in which he raised concerns about Mr Coulson

In the Commons, Mr Cameron said that if Mr Coulson - Mr Cameron's former media spokesman - had lied about phone hacking at his time at the News of the World then he should face "severe" criminal charges.
'Protect himself' He added: "If it turns out I have been lied to that would be a moment for a profound apology, and in that event I can tell you I will not fall short."
And he told MPs that with hindsight "I would not have offered him the job and I expect that he wouldn't have taken it".
BBC political correspondent Gary O'Donoghue said "bit by bit, Mr Cameron is cutting Mr Coulson further adrift".
But Mr Miliband said Mr Cameron's comments were "not good enough" and said repeated questions about Mr Coulson had been met "with a wall of silence" by Mr Cameron's aides.

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“Start Quote

"I never had any inappropriate conversations”

David Cameron Prime Minister

• Hacking inquiry panelists named
• Phone hacking: Cameron on Coulson
• Your views: Phone hacking claims

"The country has the right to expect that the prime minister would have made every effort to know the facts about Mr Coulson, to protect himself and his office," he said.

"This can't be put down to gross ignorance. It was a deliberate attempt to hide from the facts on Mr Coulson."
Labour MPs continued to press Mr Cameron on Mr Coulson throughout the debate - asking what advice he had received from other figures, including the deputy PM Nick Clegg, and which company had been used to vet the former editor before he was hired.
They also questioned Mr Cameron about his contacts with another former NoW journalist Neil Wallis.
Mr Cameron accused Labour of making a "litany of rather pathetic conspiracy theories to try and win a political game" and also defended his chief of staff Ed Llewellyn, after it was suggested on Tuesday he had failed to pass on information about phone hacking to the PM.
Mr Cameron also faced a barrage of questions from Labour MPs over whether he had broken the ministerial code by discussing Rupert Murdoch's bid to take control of BSkyB with News International executives such as Rebekah Brooks.
To roars of outrage from the Opposition benches, Mr Cameron replied: "I never had any inappropriate conversations".
He insisted he had taken himself out of the decision-making process entirely - and that his Labour predecessors Tony Blair and Gordon Brown had enjoyed a closer relationship with the Murdoch empire than him.
Emergency debate He grew increasingly exasperated as Labour MPs continue to press him on whether he had discussed BSkyB with News International executives - when one Labour MP asked if he had ever mentioned the word in their presence, he sighed heavily and sat back down again without saying a word, to laughter from his own benches.
Several Conservative MPs stood up to attack the previous Labour government's record on dealing with press intrusion, previous No 10 aides Damian McBride and Alastair Campbell and Mr Miliband's own communications director - former News International journalist Tom Baldwin.
It follows weeks of developments in the phone hacking saga which have seen the resignations of two senior Metropolitan Police officers, News Corporation axe the News of the World, withdraw its bid to take over BSkyB and accept the resignations of senior executives Rebekah Brooks and Les Hinton.
Downing Street released emails on Tuesday showing that Mr Cameron's chief of staff Ed Llewellyn had prevented senior police officers briefing the Tory leader on the phone-hacking investigation.
Mr Coulson's former deputy at the News of the World, Neil Wallis, also gave "informal" advice to the Conservative Party ahead of the election, the party has confirmed.
Both Mr Wallis and Mr Coulson have since been arrested and questioned by detectives on the new phone-hacking inquiry launched earlier this year.
Mr Cameron was said to "be in fighting mood" at the 1922 Committee meeting of Conservative backbench MPs on Wednesday, where was greeted by prolonged banging of desks.

UN declares Somalia famine in Bakool and Lower Shabelle

An estimated 10 million people have been affected by the drought in east Africa

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Horn of Africa drought

• Fighting and food aid
• Babies left to die
• 'A vision of hell'
• Somali militants 'recruit minors'

The United Nations has declared a famine in two areas of southern Somalia as the region suffers the worst drought in more than half a century.

The UN said the humanitarian situation in southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle had deteriorated rapidly.
It is the first time that the country has seen famine in 19 years.
Meanwhile, the UN and US have said aid agencies need further safety guarantees from armed groups in Somalia to allow staff to reach those in need.
Al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-affiliated group which controls large swathes of south and central Somalia, had imposed a ban on foreign aid agencies in its territories in 2009, but has recently allowed limited access.

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Definition of Famine

• More than 30% of children must be suffering from acute malnutrition
• Two adults or four children must be dying of hunger each day for every group of 10,000 people
• The population must have access to far below 2,100 kilocalories of food per day

• What is a famine?

An estimated 10 million people have been affected in East Africa by the worst drought in more than half a century. More than 166,000 desperate Somalis are estimated to have fled their country to neighbouring Kenya or Ethiopia.

The UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Somalia, Mark Bowden, said $300m (£186m) was needed to address the famine in the next two months.
The UK Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell, said the response by many European and developed countries to the crisis in the Horn of Africa had been "derisory and dangerously inadequate".
"The fact that a famine has been declared shows just how grave the situation has become. It is time for the world to help," he said.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday that Washington would provide an extra $28m in emergency aid to counter the famine.
She said the US had already provided $431m this year in emergency aid to the Horn of Africa, but that was "not enough".
Rare use

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At the scene

Mohamed Mwalimu BBC News, Mogadishu

More than 4,000 people are crammed in Safety - the name of the camp the Somali government has set up in Mogadishu for drought victims. Families have built their own homes at the camp with tree branches, wood and plastic sheets. There are no beds, people sleep on the floor. Some children look like skeletons while others have swollen legs and hands.
I met a woman - Amina - who came from around Sakow city in central Somalia. She managed to get a lift on a lorry, but walked the last 50km. She carried her one-and-a-half-year-old son on her back - only to realise, when she arrived, that he was dead.
Several aid agencies, including the UN refugee agency and the UK's Muslim Aid, are working at the camp. But Mogadishu's residents have also opened their hearts. They drop off water and food - cooked and uncooked. Local doctors also run a health post, referring the most critical cases to Mogadishu's poorly resourced hospital.
The weather has been cruel to those at the camp. There were heavy rains earlier this week, washing away many makeshift homes. They have been rebuilding them and hoping it will rain in the famine-affected area.

Drought, conflict and poverty have now combined to produce the necessary conditions for famine.

Those conditions include more than 30% of children being acutely malnourished, and four children out of every 10,000 dying daily.
"Across the country nearly half of the Somali population - 3.7 million people - are now in crisis, of whom an estimated 2.8 million people are in the south," said a statement by the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs for Somalia.
It said that the ongoing conflict had made it extremely difficult for agencies to access communities in the south, which are controlled by al-Shabab.
"If we don't act now, famine will spread to all eight regions of southern Somalia within two months, due to poor harvests and infectious disease outbreaks," Mr Bowden warned.
Save the Children's Sonia Zambakides told the BBC the situation in Somalia was shocking.
"I was talking to mothers with children, the children looked maybe nine months to one year old - the mothers were telling the children were three and four years old, so they are absolutely tiny."
She said some of the mothers had walked up to six days with no food to try to find help.

Click to play

Mark Bowden: "It is likely that conditions will deteriorate further in the next month"

The BBC's Mohamed Mwalimu in Mogadishu, says he met a woman called Habiba at a camp set up for the drought victims in the capital who had walked 200km (125 miles) from her village near Buurhakaba city in south-west Somalia.
Her five children were with her, but the youngest ones - aged two years and five years - died on the way.
She said she abandoned their bodies along the roadside because she was too weak to dig graves.
The BBC's Africa correspondent Andrew Harding says the emotive word "famine" is used rarely and carefully by humanitarian organisations, and it is the first time since 1992 that the word has been applied to a situation in Somalia.
Militia talks Meanwhile, the UN is calling for unhindered access to affected areas, saying that the security situation is hampering humanitarian efforts.
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Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency, told reporters that the situation for aid workers in Somalia is "not what we want it to be".

"We do have a very minimal presence, and we have regular visits into the country, but we need significantly better access than we have at the moment to address an emergency of this scale," he said, speaking from Geneva.
The UN World Food Programme, which is trying to feed 1.5 million people, estimates that as many as a million people are in areas it cannot currently access.
"Once we have the assurances of security and the ability to have full access to deliver and distribute and monitor, then we will be prepared to go back in," Emilia Casella, a spokeswoman for the WFP, told the Associated Press news agency.
Johnnie Carson, the US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said the US was assessing if they were seeing "real change" from al-Shabab, or whether the group planned to impose some kind of "taxation" on aid deliveries.
"Al-Shabab's activities have clearly made the current situation much worse," Mr Carson said.

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DEC appeal: East Africa drought

• The Disasters Emergency Committee is an umbrella organisation in the UK representing a number of aid agencies
• To make a donation in the UK call 0370 60 60 900 (charged at national rate) or visit the website www.dec.org.uk

"We call on all of those in south-central Somalia who have it within their authority to allow refugee groups and organisations to operate there to do so," he said.

Mr Bowden said discussions with al-Shabab about the safe distribution of food aid were taking place at a local level, and that responses were expected to differ depending on the locality.
In a separate development, Amnesty International says children in Somalia are being systematically recruited as child soldiers by militant groups such as al-Shabab.
Drawing on interviews from more than 200 Somalis who have fled their country, the rights group says some of those recruited are as young as eight years old.
The report says al-Shabab lures children with promises of money and mobile phones, but also carries out abduction

Media figures who have met Cameron, Clegg and Miliband

Times editor James Harding has met David Cameron several times over the past year

MAY 2010:

• Rupert Murdoch (Chairman, News Corporation - general discussion)
• Paul Dacre (Editor, Daily Mail - general discussion)
• Lord Burns (Chairman, Channel 4 - invited to Chequers )
• Deborah Turness (Editor, ITV News - invited to Chequers)

JUNE 2010:

• Rebekah Brooks (Chief executive, News International - invited to Chequers)
• Dominic Mohan (Editor, The Sun - general discussion)
• Attended News International summer party
• James Harding (Editor, The Times - interview)
• Geordie Greig (Editor, Evening Standard - general discussion)
• Attended Times CEO summit
• Attended Financial Times summer party
• Attended The Spectator summer party

JULY 2010:

• Aidan Barclay (Chairman, Telegraph Media Group - general discussion)
• Hosted National Broadcasters and Lobby reception
• Attended The Sun Police Bravery awards
• Lord Rothermere (Chairman, Daily Mail General Trust - invited to Chequers)
• Tony Gallagher (Editor, Daily Telegraph - general discussion)
• Dominic Mohan (Editor, The Sun - general discussion)
• Colin Myler (Editor, News of the World - general discussion)
• Murdoch Maclennan (Chief Executive, Telegraph Media Group - general discussion)
• Hosted Regional Broadcasters and Lobby reception
• Editors of US papers (overseas visit)
• Editors of Indian papers (overseas visit)
• Tony Gallagher (Editor, The Daily Telegraph - social engagement)

AUGUST 2010:

• Tim Montgomerie (Editor, ConservativeHome - general discussion)
• Rebekah Brooks (Chief Executive, News International - invited to Chequers)

SEPTEMBER 2010:

• John Mulholland (Editor, The Observer - general discussion)
• Attended GQ awards ceremony
• John Witherow (Editor, Sunday Times - general discussion)

OCTOBER 2010:

• Ian MacGregor (Editor Sunday Telegraph - general discussion)
• Tim Montgomerie (Tory conference)
• James Harding (Tory conference)
• Murdoch Maclennan, Tony Gallagher (Tory conference)
• Dominic Mohan, Rebekah Brooks (Tory conference)
• Attended Spectator reception at Tory conference
• Attended Daily Telegraph reception at Tory conference
• Peter Wright (Editor, Mail on Sunday - Tory conference)
• Interview with editors of regional newspapers at Tory conference
• Geordie Greg (Tory conference)
• John Witherow (Tory conference)
• Attended News International reception at Tory conference
• Sly Bailey (Chief Executive, Trinity Mirror - Tory conference)
• Attended National Magazines reception at Tory conference
• Rebekah Brooks (social engagement)

NOVEMBER 2010:

• Attended reception of Journalists Charity
• John Micklethwait (Editor, The Economist - general discussion)
• James Murdoch (Chairman, News International - invited to Chequers)
• Attended the Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year awards
• Aidan Barclay (general discussion)
• Met editors of regional newspapers (general discussion)

DECEMBER 2010:

• Attended The Sun military awards and dinner
• Hosted the National Broadcasters and Lobby reception
• Rebekah Brooks and James Murdoch (social engagement)
• Rebekah Brooks (social engagement)

JANUARY 2011:

• Evgeny Lebedev (Chairman, Evening Standard Ltd, Independent Print Ltd - general discussion)
• Geordie Greg (general discussion)

FEBURARY 2011:

• Hosted British Society of Magazine Editors
• Hosted lobby of regional journalists
• Paul Dacre (general discussion)
• Fraser Nelson (Editor, The Spectator - general discussion)

MARCH 2011:

• Alan Rusbridger (Editor, The Guardian - general discussion)
• Lionel Barber (Editor, The Financial Times - general discussion)
• Hosted News of the World's children's champions
• Met editors of Trinity Mirror owned regional daily papers (general discussion)

APRIL 2011:

• James Harding (general discussion)
• Murdoch Maclennan, Tony Gallagher (general discussion)
• Richard Desmond (Chairman, Express Newspapers - general discussion)
• Hugh Whittow (Editor, Daily Express - general discussion)

MAY 2011:

• Dominic Mohan (general discussion)

JUNE 2011:

• Sue Inglish, Steve Mitchell, Mary Hockaday (BBC News - general discussion)
• James Harding (general discussion)
• Attended News International summer party
• Gave speech to The Times CEO summit

JULY 2011:

• Hosted National Broadcasters and Lobby reception
• Fraser Nelson (interview)

NICK CLEGG - MEETINGS SINCE BECOMING DEPUTY PM

Nick Clegg has met Russian newspaper executive Evgeny Lebedev on several occasions

MAY 2010:

• Simon Kelner (Editor-in-chief, The Independent and IoS - general discussion)

JUNE 2010:

• Attended News International summer party
• Attended Financial Times summer party
• Attended Spectator summer party

JULY 2010:

• Attended reception for regional broadcasters and lobby
• John Mullholland (Editor, The Observer - general discussion)
• Geordie Greig (Editor, Evening Standard - general discussion)
• Paul Dacre (Editor, Daily Mail - general discussion)

AUGUST 2010:

• James Harding, Rebekah Brooks, James Murdoch (News International - general discussion)
• John Witherow (Editor, Sunday Times - general discussion)
• Simon Kelner (general discussion)

SEPTEMBER 2010:

• Alan Rusbridger (Editor, The Guardian - general discussion)
• Evgeny Lebedev (Chairman, Evening Standard and Independent - Lib Dem conference)
• Peter Wright (Editor, Mail on Sunday - Lib Dem conference)

OCTOBER 2010:

• Tony Gallagher and Murdoch Maclennan (Telegraph Media Group - general discussion)
• Simon Kelner and Evgeny Lebedev (social engagement)

NOVEMBER 2010:

• Attended Mirror Pride of Britain awards
• Attended Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year awards
• Evgeny Lebedev (general discussion)

DECEMBER 2010:

• Attended National Broadcasters and Lobby reception

FEBRUARY 2011:

• Geordie Greig (general discussion)
• Rebekah Brooks and Dominic Mohan (general discussion)

APRIL 2011:

• Tony Gallagher and Murdoch Maclennan (general discussion)
• John Mullin (general discussion)
• James Harding (general discussion)
• John Mullholland (Editor, The Observer - general discussion)

MAY 2011:

• Lionel Barber (Editor, Financial Times - general discussion)
• Met editors of Trinity Mirror's regional daily newspapers

JUNE 2011:

• Evgeny Lebedev (general discussion)

ED MILIBAND - MEETINGS SINCE BECOMING LABOUR LEADER

SEPTEMBER 2010:

Archie Norman, the ITV chairman, has been among those to meet Ed Miliband

• Richard Wallace (Editor, Daily Mirror - Labour conference)
• Colin Myler (Editor, News of the World - Labour conference)
• James Harding (Editor, The Times - Labour conference)
• Dominic Mohan (Editor, The Sun - Labour conference)
• Attended News International reception at Labour conference
• Attender The Mirror's conference party

OCTOBER 2010:

• Archie Norman (Chairman, ITV - general discussion)
• Bruce Waddell (Editor-in-chief, Daily Record - general discussion)

NOVEMBER 2010:

• Attended lobby reception
• John Mullin (Editor, Independent on Sunday - general discussion)

DECEMBER 2010:

• Lionel Barber (Editor, Financial Times - general discussion)
• Attended The Sun's Military Awards reception and dinner
• Alan Rusbridger (Editor, The Guardian - general discussion)
• James Harding (Editor, The Times - general discussion)

JANUARY 2011:

• Tony Gallagher (Editor, The Daily Telegraph - general discussion)

FEBRUARY 2011:

• Dominic Mohan (general discussion)
• Jason Cowley (Editor, New Statesman - general discussion)
• Jason Cowley and Spencer Neal (New Statesman - general discussion)
• Geordie Greig (Editor, Evening Standard - general discussion)

MARCH 2011:

• Lloyd Embley (Editor, The People - general discussion)
• Sly Bailey and editors of Trinity Mirror's regional newspapers (general discussion)
• Graeme Huston (Editor, Doncaster Free Press - general discussion)

APRIL 2011:

• Made speech to 30 Club

MAY 2011:

• Evgeny Lebedev (Chairman, Independent Print Ltd, general discussion)
• Simon Kelner (Editor-in-chief, Independent Print Ltd, general discussion)
• Richard Wallace (general discussion)

JUNE 2011:

• Colin Myler (general discussion)
• Attended birthday party of Richard Wallace, Editor, The Mirror
• Attended News International summer party
• Alan Rusbridger (social engagement)
• Made speech at The Times CEO summit

JULY 2011:

• John Witherow (Editor, Sunday Times - general discussion)
• Attended Westminster lobby reception