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A gunman has shot dead a Christian on a train in Egypt, though it is not clear whether the attack was sectarian.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Private Vatubua’s family attended a private service at RAF Lyneham The body of the first member of the British armed forces to be killed in Afghanistan in 2011 has been repatriated to the UK.
Private Joseva Saqanagonedau Vatubua, 24, died on 1 January in an explosion in Helmand’s Nahr-e Saraj district.
His friends said it was like “losing a brother” as they joined his family in Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire.
Pte Vatubua was serving with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders 5th Battalion, based in Canterbury, Kent.
The body of Pte Vatubua, who was originally from Fiji, was flown to RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire where a private service was held for his family.
As the cortege passed through nearby Wootton Bassett a bell tolled as his widow, Claudette, placed a single rose on top of the hearse.
Local people and members of the Royal British Legion also paid their respects.
Lance Corporal Niko Bolatagane, of The 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, said: “He was a very good soldier, very good at his job.
“Everyone felt it [when he died], everyone knows each other, it’s like a brother, it’s like losing a brother.
“This was the first death this year, it’s so sad.”
Friends and family of watch as Pte Vatubua’s coffin is driven through Wootton Bassett Pte Vatubua had intended to renew his marriage vows and his widow wept silently as she watched the hearse pull away.
In a statement released after his death, Pte Vatubua’s family said: “We can’t put into words how proud we are of Joseva.
“He loved his job and he loved being in the family of The Royal Regiment of Scotland.”
Pte Vatubua was deployed to Afghanistan in October last year and was part of an operation targeting known enemy firing positions north of the village of Saidabad Kalayk when he was killed.
Pte Vatubua, who attended Laucala Bay Secondary School in Fiji, joined the British Army in 2007 and was deployed to Afghanistan in October last year.
He was a member of the Battalion’s Fijian Choir and sang in Canterbury Cathedral, where a memorial service will be held later this week.
He was also a keen rugby player and belonged to Canterbury Rugby Club.
Pte Joseva Vatubua’s colleagues described him as fearless in battle, loyal and much-loved
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The latest clashes took place in the neighbourhood of Ababo in Abidjan At least two people have been killed in clashes between supporters of presidential rivals in Ivory Coast.
The bodies of two civilians with gunshot wounds were seen in the neighbourhood of Abobo, Abidjan, a stronghold of Alassane Ouattara.
Mr Ouattara is recognised internationally as the winner of a November election, but his rival, Laurent Gbagbo, has refused to concede.
Hundreds of police were reported to be patrolling Abobo on Tuesday.
At least 200 people have been killed in sporadic violence since the election, according to the UN.
The presidential vote was supposed to reunify Ivory Coast, which has been divided between north and south since a conflict in 2002.
Mr Ouattara has been blockaded for weeks at a hotel in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s main city, protected by UN peacekeepers and New Forces former rebels who control the north of the country.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Edward Woollard was among protesters who broke into 30 Millbank A student who admitted throwing a fire extinguisher from the roof of a central London building during the student fees protests has been jailed.
Edward Woollard, 18, from Hampshire, was among protesters who broke into the Tory party headquarters and emerged on the roof on 10 November.
He was jailed for two years and eight months after admitting at an earlier hearing to committing violent disorder.
Sixty-six people were arrested following the violent protests.
The sixth-form student was filmed throwing an empty metal fire extinguisher from the seventh-floor of 30 Millbank as hundreds of people gathered in a courtyard below.
The canister narrowly missed a line of police officers attempting to protect the looted and vandalised building from further damage.
The Brockenhurst College student later went with his mother to a police station and admitted to throwing the extinguisher – after footage of the incident was shown on television.
Woollard, from Dibden Purlieu, in the New Forest, was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court.
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Police exposed a little boy to danger by helping move him and his mother out of NI to be with her loyalist paramilitary agent partner, a court hears.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Nick Clegg said a healthy banking system was needed to aid the economic recovery Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has urged banks to be “sensitive to the public mood”, as details of multi-million pound bonuses are revealed.
Among the payments, the boss of state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland is reportedly in line for up to £2.5m.
Mr Clegg told the BBC he understood public “anger”, but restoring lending to people and firms was the priority.
Labour has called on ministers to “take action”, but the coalition said it could not “micromanage” banks.
Mr Clegg’s comments come as Bob Diamond, the chief executive of Barclays, is set to face the Commons Treasury select committee, where he is expected to be questioned about a reported annual bonus of £8m.
The total annual payments meted out to bank staff this year are expected to reach £7bn, down from £7.3bn last year.
Labour leader Ed Miliband has asked the government to extend last year’s one-off bonus tax, which he said had raised £3.5bn.
But the coalition said its own, permanent, bank levy would bring in more revenue in the long term and help prevent tax avoidance by leading executives.
Mr Clegg told the BBC: “I totally understand the frustration, if not anger, of people who work hard, pay their taxes and play by the rules.
“People in what I call ‘alarm clock Britain’ are really trying to do well by themselves and their families and just see these sky-high bonuses announced or pre-announced by banks.”
Several banks, including RBS and Lloyds TSB, were bailed out by the government in the wake of the financial crisis, adding to criticism over the payment of bonuses to their leading executives.
The decreased availability of loans for businesses and homebuyers has also caused anger.
But Mr Clegg said: “We’ve got to acknowledge that we need a healthy banking system for a healthy economy.
“We’ve also got to acknowledge that this government’s done a whole lot of things. We’ve imposed a levy on the banks which will raise much more money than Labour’s one-off bonus bank tax ever did.
“Of course we’ve got to put pressure on those people who run state-owned banks… to be sensitive to the public mood.
“We’ve also got to get the banks to lend more money. That’s the most important thing of all to businesses, to first-time borrowers. That’s what will get the wheels of the economy going.”
It is reported that Stephen Hester, chief executive of RBS, which is 84% taxpayer-owned, is in line to receive a £2.5m payment.
At his monthly press conference on Monday Mr Miliband said: “They should not get the scale of bonuses that is being talked about.”
He said Labour’s one-off bonus tax measure – which has now expired – had raised £3.5bn in a year, while its Conservative-Liberal Democrat replacement levy would make just £1.25bn.
The Conservatives disputed Mr Miliband’s figures, saying the Treasury had found the bonus tax had raised just £2.3bn and that the coalition’s levy would gather £2.6bn a year by the end of this parliament.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Activists have rallied for Irina Khalip and her son outside the Belarus embassy in Moscow A woman in Belarus is battling to prevent the authorities taking custody of her infant grandson, whose parents are jailed opposition activists.
Lyutsina Khalip said Danil, aged three-and-a-half, “asks constantly where his mum and dad are”.
His parents, Andrei Sannikov and Irina Khalip, were arrested after an opposition rally on 19 December at which police clashed with protesters.
Observers have said President Alexander Lukashenko’s re-election was flawed.
Police arrested hundreds of people including opposition candidates in the capital Minsk after the election. Many are still being held at a KGB detention centre.
So far 31 have been charged in connection with the opposition protests, Interfax news agency reports.
Lyutsina Khalip, whose jailed daughter Irina is an investigative journalist, said she had had to prove to child welfare officers that she was capable of looking after Danil.
“They suggested that perhaps I wasn’t well enough to look after him. I told them I had everything he needed. I applied to be his guardian,” she told the Europe Today programme on the BBC World Service.
“In the last few days I’ve been running back and forth from place to place, to prove that I’m not mad, not taking drugs and don’t have any sexual diseases.
“They now say I’m medically well enough,” she said, but added that Danil had also undergone a medical check, including a blood test.
“They’ll check where I live to see if it’s suitable, then they’ll decide my grandson’s fate,” she said.
Irina’s husband, Andrei Sannikov, was an opposition candidate in the 19 December presidential election, which Mr Lukashenko won with nearly 80% of the vote.
A Belarus foreign ministry spokesman, Andrei Savinykh, said the detained opposition activists “have access to lawyers and all their rights within the investigation process are being honoured”.
He accused opposition activists of having tried to organise “a political upheaval that was outside all legal scenarios”.
The former Soviet republic saw violent unrest as Mr Lukashenko’s election victory was tarnished by fraud allegations.
Election monitors from the European human rights watchdog, the OSCE, said many of the vote counts had been “very bad”.
The Belarus authorities later closed the mission of the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe).
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The latest flash floods in Queensland are some of the most violent so far
Police have ordered the evacuation of parts of Australia’s third largest city – Brisbane – as the biggest floods in years approach the Queensland state capital.
Residents have been told to leave their homes in low-lying areas.
The waters are rising fast and one local official said he saw the river level go up by 1.5m (4ft 10in) in just an hour.
At least eight people have been killed and more than 70 are missing.
“This has been a night of extraordinary events,” Queensland State Premier Anna Bligh told a news conference early on Tuesday.
“We’ve seen acts of extreme bravery and courage from our emergency workers. We know they’re out on the front line desperately trying to begin their search and rescue efforts, and we know we have people stranded and people lost,” she added.
At least two of the dead were children and Ms Bligh warned that the death toll was likely to rise.
Sandbags have been given out to residents of Brisbane, where the flooding is expected to peak Wednesday.
Torrential rain has already caused flash floods in other parts of Queensland. A massive deluge overwhelmed Toowoomba, a city west of Brisbane, without warning.
Ms Bligh called the flash floods there Queensland’s “darkest hour” since the flood crisis began.
“The event that started in Toowoomba can only be described as a complete freak of nature, an extraordinary deluge that almost came out of nowhere,” she said .
“What we have here in Queensland tonight is a very grim and desperate situation.”
Helicopters have joined the rescue operation to reach those trapped in cars and on the roofs of buildings.
Toowoomba resident Charlie Green told the BBC he was stranded by the floods.
“It would be ironic if it wasn’t so tragic,” he said. “Toowoomba sits in the cradle of an extinct volcano about 2,000 feet (610m) above sea level, and we have just endured 10 years of drought, unable even to wash our cars with town water for the last several years.
“We are going to sit tight until we’re sure that it’s safe to move around. The flooded creeks are within a mile of our house so we can’t get anywhere.
“We can’t even get down the hill. We’ll be stocking up on supplies from local shops.”
The tropical storms began in November, triggering the worst flooding in the state in decades. Some 200,000 people have been affected across Queensland.
The flooding has been so widespread that while some communities are still bracing themselves for the worst, in others the clean-up is well under way.
The forecast is for more rain to come, and there are reports of flooding in neighbouring New South Wales.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has warned that the recovery will take a long time.
Police said a woman and a child died in Toowoomba when their car was washed away, and a man and a boy died after being swept from their house.
Toowoomba’s mayor described the scale of the floods as “unbelievable” and said the city was in shock.
Residents said the flash floods had devastated the town Mayor Peter Taylor said: ”It’s a real disaster scene where I’m standing at the moment in Russell Street, Toowoomba. There’s furniture and furnishings and it’s just blown shops away.
”We have a railway line about 60 or 70 metres suspended in mid-air and two cars that are virtually unrecognisable that have floated and smashed into the rail.”
Queensland Deputy Police Commissioner Ian Stewart said there had been many calls from people needing to be rescued and that emergency crews were struggling to cope.
“We’ve had multiple calls requesting urgent assistance from people caught in vehicles, caught on the street, caught in flood ways,” he said.
“It is an evolving and obviously quite desperate situation for them,” he said. “There has been no warning of this event.”
This is some of the most violent and frightening flooding that Queensland has yet witnessed, says the BBC’s correspondent in Australia, Nick Bryant.
One eyewitness said vehicles were being swept down streets.
“One car we did see come down with its lights on, it ended up crashing into one of the power poles and people were in it for quite a while before they were rescued,” Deanna Ward told state broadcaster ABC.
Heavy rain has lashed the region for the last 36 hours, with 16cm (6in) falling in just one hour. Most of the rainwater hit an already saturated catchment.
The enduring floods in Queensland have washed away roads and railways, destroyed crops and brought the coal industry to a near standstill.
The state premier has estimated that the price of rebuilding homes, businesses and infrastructure, coupled with economic losses, could exceed A$5bn (£3bn).
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Four skiers are killed in an avalanche while skiing off piste in the French Alpine resort of Val d’Isere, police say.
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Rangers are drawn to face Old Firm rivals Celtic at Ibrox in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup.
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Julian Assange arrived at court with his solicitor, Mark Stephens Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has arrived at court, where he is expected to find out the date of his full extradition hearing.
The 39-year-old Australian is wanted in Sweden but denies sexual offences against two women.
District Judge Nicholas Evans will oversee a case management hearing at Belmarsh Magistrates’ Court, sitting at Woolwich Crown Court, at 1000 GMT.
The two-day extradition hearing is due to take place in early February.
Last week the US government handed out subpoenas to the social networking site Twitter, requesting personal details of people connected to Wikileaks, including Mr Assange.
It comes amid speculation a grand jury in the US is investigating Mr Assange and others for espionage.
Mr Assange was released on bail by a High Court judge just before Christmas after spending nine days in Wandsworth prison.
He has been staying at a manor home on the Norfolk-Suffolk border owned by his journalist friend Vaughan Smith.
“Inside Belmarsh magistrates – it’s only taken an hour!”
BBC’s Anna AdamsFollow Anna’s updates from court via Twitter
Mr Assange denies sexually assaulting two female supporters during a visit to Stockholm in August.
He and his supporters claim the inquiry is politically motivated.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Mr Illsley was re-elected in May 2010 with a majority of more than 11,000 The trial of an MP accused of dishonestly claiming parliamentary expenses is expected to begin later.
Eric Illsley faces three charges of false accounting relating to claims for council tax, maintenance, repairs and utility bills between 2005 and 2008.
Mr Illsley, who was re-elected as Labour MP for Barnsley Central at the general election, denies the charges.
He was suspended by the party after being charged and now sits as an independent in the Commons.
The Crown Prosecution Service has alleged that the MP – being tried at Southwark Crown Court – falsely claimed more than £20,000 in payments towards his second home in London over a three year period.
Mr Illsley has been an MP since 1987 and was re-elected with a majority of more than 11,000 in 2010.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The children were held with their parents at Yarl’s Wood immigration centre The detention of two children of failed asylum seekers at Yarl’s Wood immigration centre in Bedfordshire has been ruled unlawful by the High Court.
Asylum seekers Reetha Suppiah, from Malaysia, and Nigerian Sakinat Bello said the detention of their children could cause them serious harm.
The pair were arrested in February 2009 and detained with their children for between 12 and 17 days.
Government lawyers argued the detention of families was “workable and lawful”.
Ms Suppiah, 37, and Ms Bello, 25, were both refused asylum and detained along with their children after UK Border Agency raids on their homes.
BBC News correspondent Dominic Casciani, at the High Court, said: “The judge did not rule that the detention of families was in principle unlawful, only that it had been wrong in these instances.”
He added: “The two families were detained prior to the coalition government’s decision to close the family unit for failed asylum seekers as part of its commitment to end the detention of children.
“But the judgement paves the way for the claimants to sue for damages.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Mrs Clinton is on a tour of Gulf states US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in Yemen on an unannounced visit to bolster support for efforts to combat an al-Qaeda insurgency.
Arriving in the capital Sanaa under tight security, Mrs Clinton said she wanted to convince Yemen’s government the US wanted more than military ties.
She is the first US secretary of state to visit Yemen for more than 20 years.
Yemen has seen numerous anti-US attacks since the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Aden which killed 17 US sailors.
Recent attacks are thought to have been inspired by the radical US-Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, thought to be hiding in Yemen.
The Yemen-based group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is also thought to be behind a foiled attempt to blow up a US airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.
Mrs Clinton met Yemeni President Abdullah Saleh shortly after arrival, and is planning to meet opposition figures, NGO representatives and students in the next few hours.
She will discuss women’s rights and the practice of child marriage, and highlight the work of local NGOs.
Mrs Clinton, who is on a tour of Gulf states, said Washington wanted to address the underlying causes of the violence, including poverty and social inequality.
“It’s not enough to have military-to-military relations,” she said.
“We need to try to broaden the dialogue. We need to have this dialogue with the government.”
“We have rebalanced our aid package so it is not so disproportionately consisting of funding necessary for the counter-terrorism agenda but also includes the other priorities,” she added.
The Yemeni government welcomed the visit.
“Yemen is keen on continuing bilateral discussions to address development and security challenges,” it said in a statement.
Over the last couple of years, US military and civilian aid to Yemen has increased almost 100% to around $300m but experts say this is not enough to address Yemen’s problems or deal with the threat posed by radical groups in the country.
As well as fighting al-Qaeda, Yemen’s government is trying to deal with a Shia rebellion in the north and a secessionist movement in the south.
Mrs Clinton’s visit comes a month after cables released by Wikileaks suggested that Yemen had allowed secret US air strikes against al-Qaeda militants.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Andrew Curran died of a sword wound to the neck Two brothers who killed a man in front of his sons during a pre-arranged fight in Glasgow have been jailed for life.
Angus Malavin, 26, and his 17-year-old brother Zak were previously convicted of murdering Andrew Curran, 41, in Maryhill Park last April.
The High Court in Glasgow heard how he died from a sword wound to the neck.
Judge Lord Matthews ordered Angus Malavin to serve a minimum of 18 years while his younger brother will be detained for a minimum 17 years.
Co-accused Steven Souley, 21, who was convicted of the reduced charge of culpable homicide had his sentencing further deferred for a risk assessment to be compiled.
At their trial in November, all three men were also convicted of assaulting Mr Curran’s friend James McGregor, 50, by striking him on the body with a sword and shooting his body with a crossbow, causing severe injury and permanent disfigurement.
The court heard that trouble began when Andrew Curran junior’s friend Paul Brown urinated on a bottle of alcohol belonging to Zac Malavin.
“You are both young men with a great deal to look forward to but also a great deal to lose”
Lord Matthews Judge
After this incident Zac Malavin stabbed Mr Brown and Andrew Curran Jr, although the matter was not reported to the police, and tried to run down Mr Curran Jr with a car.
Mr Curran Sr become involved when he tried to sort out the problem by telephoning the Malavins.
He spoke to Angus Malavin, who said that anyone who went near his brother was getting a bullet in the head.
Both sides agreed to meet in Maryhill Park on the evening of 16 April 2010 and the court was told that some were armed.
Mr Curran went there with friends and his sons and the Malavins headed to the park with friends.
Both sides clashed near the running track during which Mr Curran was stabbed in the neck and stomach.
The Malavin brothers and Souley had denied killing Mr Curran and claimed they were acting in self defence and that it was the other group who were the aggressors.
Jailing the Malavin brothers, Lord Matthews said: “You are both young men with a great deal to look forward to but also a great deal to lose.”
He added that others had done themselves no credit with what happened that night, but that Mr Curran had “not emerged at all”.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.