More Turbulence For Planes Amid Climate Change

Flights are set to become bumpier in the future as passengers experience more turbulence because of global warming, British scientists have warned.

Light turbulence shakes the plane, but more severe episodes can injure passengers and cause structural damage to aircraft, costing an estimated £100m a year.

A rise in turbulence would make air travel more uncomfortable and increase the risks to passengers and crew.

And detours to avoid strong patches of turbulence would lead to longer journey times, more fuel consumption and airport delays which would ultimately drive up prices, the experts said.

Climate change is not only heating up the Earth's surface but it is also destabilising the winds six miles above the planet where planes fly, the researchers at the universities of Reading and East Anglia said.

Most air passengers have probably experienced turbulence which is linked to atmospheric jet streams that are projected to strengthen with climate change.

Turbulence, which can happen without warning, is mainly caused by vertical airflow - up-draughts and down-draughts near clouds and thunderstorms.

The fasten seatbelt sign may come on more often in the future

The scientists said turbulence will be stronger and occur more often if carbon dioxide emissions double by 2050 as the International Energy Agency forecasts.

Carbon dioxide is one of the most potent greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

Increasing emissions raise the global average temperature, heating up the lower atmosphere.

However, warming also changes the atmosphere six miles above ground level, making it more unstable for planes, said Paul Williams at the University of Reading and co-author of the report.

The scientists focused on the North Atlantic flight corridor - where 600 planes travel between Europe and North America each day - using computer simulations to examine the effects of climate change on conditions there.

They found that the chances of encountering significant turbulence by the middle of the century will increase by between 40 and 170%, with the most likely outcome being a doubling of airspace containing significant turbulence.

The average strength of turbulence would also increase by between 10 and 40%.

"Aviation is partly responsible for changing the climate in the first place. It is ironic that the climate looks set to exact its revenge by creating a more turbulent atmosphere for flying," Mr Williams said.

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Iran Opens Two Nuclear Sites On 'Atomic Day'

Iran has announced it has opened two nuclear sites, just days after talks with world powers to limit the country's atomic programme.

State television said that operations are under way at a uranium production facility in Ardakan and at the country's biggest uranium mine at Saghand.

Tehran's announcement was made to mark the country's Atomic Energy Technology Day and comes just four days after talks with six world powers over curbing its nuclear ambitions.

The mines in the city of Saghand in central Iran operate 1,150ft (350m) underground and are within 75 miles (120km) of the new yellowcake production facility in the city of Ardakan, according to the report.

It gave few details of the Ardakan facility but said it had an estimated 60 tonnes of output of yellowcake, which is an impure state of uranium oxide later used in enrichment processes.

The country already has a number of smaller uranium mines and processing facilities.

Workers at a uranium production plant near Isfahan in 2005

In October, a report from the Institute for Scientific and International Security warned that Iran could produce enough weapons-grade uranium to make a nuclear bomb within two to four months.

The study, which used figures from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said it would take a further 10 months to actually build the nuclear weapon.

Its conclusion echoed a warning in September from then US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta who said Tehran could have a nuclear weapon within a year if it wanted to.

The US has come under increasing pressure from Israel to take military action over Iran's nuclear movements as Tehran remains defiant in the face of sanctions.

However, the US favours talks.

Last week, the five members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, known as the P5+1, met with Iranian negotiators in the Kazakh city of Almaty in a bid to coax Iran into curbing its programme in exchange for the easing of some sanctions.

The Israeli PM explains Iran's nuclear programme to the UN

Iran continues to insist the programme is for peaceful purposes. However, it is looking to expand its own enrichment programme amid UN sanctions that prevent it buying in nuclear material.

David Cameron last week named the country as a potential atomic threat as he argued that Britain should retain its own nuclear defence system, Trident.

Iran enriches uranium to both 3.5 and 20% levels in its Natanz and Fordo enrichment facilities.

Uranium purified at high levels can be used in a nuclear weapon.

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Hi-Tech Firms Join Forces Against Google

A group of companies led by Microsoft has asked European officials to investigate Google over alleged unfair practices in the mobile smartphone market.

"FairSearch" - which consists of 17 hi-tech firms including Microsoft, Nokia, Expedia, TripAdvisor and Oracle - has claimed that the internet giant acted unfairly with its Android operating system.

"We are asking the commission to move quickly and decisively to protect competition and innovation in this critical market," Thomas Vinje, Brussels-based counsel for FairSearch, said in a statement.

"Failure to act will only embolden Google to repeat its desktop abuses of dominance as consumers increasingly turn to a mobile platform dominated by Google's Android operating system."

FairSearch said it had filed a complaint with the commission, charging that the internet giant wanted Android operators to use its leading applications such as Maps or YouTube.

It said Google's Android is the dominant smartphone operating system, accounting for 70% at the end of 2012, while it had 96% of mobile phone search advertising.

Samsung's S4 is the flagship Android smartphone device

A spokesman for Google told Sky News: "We continue to work cooperatively with the European Commission."

Google has been under investigation by the commission for practices related to its dominance of online search and advertising markets since 2010.

Last week, six European countries including France and Britain, launched joint action against Google to try to get it to scale back new monitoring powers that watchdogs believe violate EU privacy protection rules.

The European Commission is not obliged to take any action other than reply to the complaint.

Android operating systems have the largest share of the smartphone market, followed by those made by Apple. Blackberry, Microsoft and others are far behind.

The European move comes as Taiwain's HTC saw its shares rise 1.5% even though the smartphone maker posted a record-low quarterly profit.

HTC's first-quarter net profit slumped 98% from a year earlier after sales suffered from the delayed launch of the company's new flagship smartphone.

The phonemaker saw its net profit fall to 85m New Taiwan dollars (£1.85m) for the quarter ending March 31, down from NT$4.47bn (£97m) a year earlier.

:: During 2010 HTC was the biggest seller of smartphones in the US operating on the Android system.

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Crocodiles Used To Guard Thailand House

Some homeowners go for alarms, others choose dogs, but one man has installed the ultimate deterrent to burglars - two adult crocodiles.

Owner Awirut Nathip keeps 15-year-old Thong, who was originally bought as a pet, in the yard at his home in Thailand and Nguen under the house in a ditch because he is so aggressive.

And they have both been the perfect guards so far. There has not been a single burglary for the last 15 years.

One crocodile patrols the garden

"If we're upstairs he'll come and lie in front of the door. We're not worried at all. No one would dare to get in," Mr Nathip said.

Even neighbours say they rest easy with the predators nearby and have welcomed the unusual crime prevention method.

Neighbours feel safe with the deadly reptiles close by

One of them, Prajit Charoensakkhajon, said: "I'm not frightened of him. I'd rather feel secure because he'll watch our homes.

"Thieves wouldn't dare to come round because they think the crocodile is fierce, right?"

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Serbia: Gunman Kills 13 In Shooting Spree

A gunman has killed 13 people, including his mother and son, as he went house to house on a shooting spree in Serbia, authorities have said.

The 60-year-old suspect, identified by police as Ljubisa Bogdanovic, allegedly opened fire at around 5am local time with a pistol in a village near the capital Belgrade.

Residents told reporters the gunman first killed his son before leaving his home and shooting his neighbours, some of whom were still asleep.

The victims in the apparently random shootings in Velika Ivanca were six men, six women, and a two-year-old child.

Twelve were killed at the scene, 30 miles southeast of the capital, and one person died in a Belgrade hospital, police said.

The gunman, who had a semi-automatic 9mm pistol, also shot his wife before turning the gun on himself.

The pair were both seriously injured and in a critical condition in hospital.

Police officers among those at the scene of the atrocity

Another person was also hurt in the attack, which lasted around half an hour.

Police, who blocked off the village while they investigated the attacks, said the motive for the killings was unclear.

They added the suspect lost his job in 2012 and fought as a Serb soldier in the war in Croatia in 1992.

Villager Radovan Radosavljevic said of the shootings: "He knocked on the doors, and as they were opened he just fired a shot.

"He was a good neighbour and anyone would open their doors to him. I don't know what happened."

Milorad Velijovic from the interior ministry said: "Most of the victims were shot in the head as they slept.

"They were killed in five houses, mainly relatives and neighbours."

Mr Velijovic said the gunman had a firearms permit and he and his son had been made redundant last year.

Belgrade emergency hospital spokeswoman Nada Macura said the suspect was not believed to have a history of mentally illness.

Although such apparently random shootings are rare in Serbia, weapons are readily available mostly from the war in the Balkans in the 1990s and there is a tradition of possessing firearms.

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North Korea: Japan Deploys Missile Defence

By Mark Stone, on Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea

Japan has deployed missile-defence systems in its capital as North Korea warned foreigners in the South to take evacuation measures in case of war.

The interceptors were set up as a precautionary measure, and the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun reported that North Korea would launch a missile test on Wednesday.

Two Patriot Advanced Capability-3 surface-to-air missile launchers were stationed at the defence ministry in Tokyo before dawn, and other batteries are to be installed in the semi-tropical island chain of Okinawa, officials said.

The deployment isn't unusual. Japan has responded to North Korea tests in the past by positioning interceptor missiles.

"The government is making utmost efforts to protect our people's lives and ensure their safety," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said.

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

A Musudan missile, pictured in 2010

North Korea's latest warning to foreigners intensified the threat of an imminent conflict, keeping up the fiery rhetoric employed for weeks by officials in Pyongyang.

"The situation on the Korean Peninsula is inching close to a thermo-nuclear war," said the statement by the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee.

"Once a war is ignited on the peninsula, it will be an all-out war, a merciless, sacred, retaliatory war waged by the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea)," it went on to say.

"We do not wish harm on foreigners in South Korea should there be a war."

Last week, the North Korean government told embassies in the capital it could not guarantee the safety of their staff.

However, US and South Korean defence officials have said they have seen nothing to indicate that Pyongyang is preparing for a major military action, in which it would be heavily outgunned.

North Korea has also suspended its operations at the Kaesong industrial complex, its last major economic link with the South, and recalled all 53,000 of its workers.

North Korea's young leader, Kim Jong-Un, is seen as unpredictable

The work stoppage at a key source of hard cash for the North suggests Pyongyang is willing to hurt its own shaky economy in order to display its anger with South Korea and the US.

Amid rising tensions on the peninsula, the US and South Korea have also raised their defence postures.

North Korea is believed to have moved two missiles - possibly the medium-range Musudan - to its eastern coast on the Sea of Japan, loading them on to mobile launchers.

The Musudan missile has a range of about 3,000km (1,800 miles), meaning it is capable of reaching South Korea and Japan and perhaps also the US territory of Guam in the Pacific Ocean.

There has been speculation that Pyongyang might schedule a missile launch to coincide with the birthday of the country's late founder Kim Il-Sung - the current leader's grandfather - in mid-April.

Foreign Secretary William Hague has said the threat posed by North Korea must be treated "very seriously" and the US has delayed the testing of an intercontinental ballistic missile in an effort to defuse the situation.

US Secretary of State John Kerry visits Seoul this week

North Korea is furious at UN sanctions imposed after Pyongyang conducted its third nuclear test in February, and at joint military exercises between the US and South Korea, with B-2 stealth bombers dispatched from US bases.

Seoul and Washington say those exercises are routine but Pyongyang has unleashed a torrent of threats against the allies.

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Al Qaeda In Iraq 'Merges' With Syria Group

By Tom Rayner, Middle East News Editor

The most prominent jihadist group involved in the Syrian conflict is reported to have merged with the Iraqi wing of al Qaeda, according to a leading figure in the terror network.

An online audio message, attributed to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State in Iraq, announced that his group has joined forces with the al Nusra Front in Syria.

According to the US intelligence monitoring group SITE, he said: "It is time to declare to the Levant and to the world that the al Nusra Front is simply a branch of the Islamic State of Iraq."

It is understood the groups will now operate under the title of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

The al Nusra Front has gained notoriety in Syria for its use of suicide bombings and other forms of attacks against President Bashar al Assad's regime.

A car bombing in Damascus on Monday bore the hallmarks of al Nusra

It has claimed responsibility for deadly bombings in Damascus and Aleppo, and has joined other rebel brigades in attacks on Mr Assad's forces.

The reported merger comes a day after a suicide car bomb, bearing all the hallmarks of an al Nusra-style attack, hit a central area of Damascus, killing at least 15 people and injuring 146 others.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the blast.

On Sunday a recorded message made by al Qaeda's global figurehead, Ayman al Zawahiri, encouraged rebel groups to embrace the chance to create an Islamic jihadist state in Syria.

For some time experts have speculated that the al Nusra Front was receiving support from al Qaeda-linked insurgents in neighbouring Iraq.

In December last year the US State Department labelled al Nusra a foreign terrorist organisation, saying its creation was "an attempt by AQI to hijack the struggles of the Syrian people for its own malign purposes".

Al Qaeda's global leader Ayman al Zawahiri

If verified, the announcement of the formal links between the two groups will further complicate the debate amongst the international community about whether or not to arm rebel groups in Syria.

In March, France and Britain argued that re-assessing an EU arms embargo for Syria had the potential to tilt the balance on the ground and help prompt a political settlement of the conflict.

But fears remain over sending arms to rebels due to the risk of weapons falling into the hands of groups like al Nusra.

At least 70,000 people are believed to have been killed in Syria since the rebellion against the Assad government began three years ago.

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Stars Sign Up To Obama Drug Policy Letter

Stars including Scarlett Johansson, Kim Kardashian and Lil Wayne have put their names to a letter urging Barack Obama to change US drug laws and restrict prison sentences.

Rap mogul and Def Jam Recordings founder Russell Simmons is behind the campaign which praises the president's efforts but insists the "time is right" for further change.

Other well-known personalities lending their name to the letter include Susan Sarandon, Will Smith, Mike Tyson, Demi Moore, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Longoria, Russell Brand, Nicki Minaj and Sir Richard Branson.

The letter calls for jail terms to be replaced with a focus on "intervention and rehabilitation" for non-violent offenders.

Kim Kardashian (l) and Eva Longoria are among the signatories

It also asks that judges are able to waive mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences.

"Hundreds of thousands of children have lost a parent to long prison sentences for non-violent drug offences, leaving these children to fend for themselves," says the letter.

"Many of these children end up in the criminal justice system," it adds.

"(It) comes as no surprise as studies have shown the link between incarceration and broken families, juvenile delinquency, violence and poverty."

The letter also asks Mr Obama to form a panel to handle clemency requests and requests a meeting with the President.

Drug offenders comprise nearly half the federal prison population in the US.

The issue of drugs is high on the agenda in America, with a national survey suggesting the majority of Americans are now in favour of legalising cannabis.

Colorado and Washington state voted to legalise the drug last November but it remains illegal at the federal level, prompting a debate about how police should treat producers and users.

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Iran Earthquake Strikes Near Nuclear Plant

Four people have been killed in a 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck near Bushehr in southern Iran, according to state TV.

The epicentre of the quake was Kaki, 60 miles south of Bushehr - home to the country's only nuclear power station.

The Russian company that built the plant said the quake had been felt there but operations had not been affected.

"The earthquake in no way affected the normal situation at the reactor. Personnel continue to work in the normal regime and radiation levels are fully within the norm," Russian state news agency RIA quoted an official at Atomstroyexport as saying.

Fereydoon Hasanvand, the governor of the port city, confirmed that "no damage at all has been caused" to the reactor.

A reactor at the Bushehr nuclear power plant

Two villages - Shanbe and Sana -  near the nuclear plant suffered serious damage, according to Red Crescent official Morteza Moradipour.

One Bushehr resident said her home and the homes of her neighbours were shaken by the quake but not damaged.

Nikoo said: "We could clearly feel the earthquake. The windows and chandeliers all shook."

The tremors were felt as far as Dubai, Qatar and Bahrain and five aftershocks struck within an hour.

It was much smaller than the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Japan two years ago, triggering a tsunami that destroyed back-up generators and disabled the Fukushima nuclear plant's cooling system. Three of the reactors melted down.

In the past, Gulf Arab countries and Western experts have voiced concerns about the Bushehr plant, which is in a highly seismic area.

Iran has repeatedly rejected concerns it could be unsafe.

It is the only country operating a nuclear power plant that does not belong to the Convention on Nuclear Safety, negotiated after the 1986 nuclear disaster in Chernobyl which contaminated wide areas and forced about 160,000 Ukrainians from their homes.

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Bolshoi Star In Legal Dispute With Theatre

By Katie Stallard, Moscow Correspondent

One of the Bolshoi Ballet's biggest stars is considering an out-of-court settlement with the theatre's management after suing them over his right to speak to the media.

In the latest round of the famous theatre's very public troubles, Nikolai Tsiskaridze, a principal dancer and teacher at the Bolshoi, has taken legal action after claiming the company's management was trying force him out.

The 39-year-old is demanding the theatre retracts two reprimands he received after giving interviews about an acid attack on his artistic director in January.

A third reprimand could give grounds for his dismissal.

Mr Tsiskaridze's lawyer claimed his right to freedom of speech was being restricted by a company policy requiring all media statements to be approved by the Bolshoi press office.

Bolshoi artistic director Sergei Filin was attacked with acid in January

The case was listed for a preliminary hearing at Moscow's Tverskoy District Court on Tuesday, but a spokesperson for the Bolshoi said the theatre could agree an out-of-court settlement with the dancer if he dropped his case against them.

Mr Tsiskaridze was not in court but his lawyer, Svetlana Volodina, said: "For us the information about the possibility of an out-of-court settlement, voiced by the representative of Bolshoi, was unexpected."

"We will be asking to write in this document that all of the notices are overruled."

The dancer was questioned by police as a possible witness after the attack on Sergei Filin in Moscow on January 17.

He gave interviews shortly afterwards questioning whether acid had really been used, and comparing the theatre's atmosphere to Stalin-era purges. 

Mr Filin is still being treated in Germany where surgeons are attempting to restore as much of his sight as possible. He has said he is determined to return to his job at the theatre.

Pavel Dmitrichenko, a leading soloist at the Bolshoi, has been charged with organising the attack on Mr Filin and paying two men to carry it out.

He was filmed last month apparently confessing to masterminding the assault, although he has since denied he agreed to acid being used.

Around 300 of Dmitrichenko's fellow performers at the theatre have signed a letter insisting that he could not be responsible and urging President Vladimir Putin to order a new investigation.

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