'Boko Haram' Kidnaps More Girls In Nigeria

Suspected Boko Haram gunmen have kidnapped eight girls from a Nigerian village overnight, police and residents have said.

The girls, aged 12 to 15, were abducted near one of the Islamist militant group's strongholds in the northeast of the country.

Lazarus Musa, a resident of Warabe, where the attack happened, said: "They were many, and all of them carried guns. They came in two vehicles painted in army colour.

"They started shooting in our village."

A police source, who could not be named, said the girls were taken away on trucks, along with stolen livestock and food.

It came after it emerged the UK was offering "practical help" to help Nigeria secure the release of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague revealed the country's potential involvement in the case after the organisation threatened to sell the abducted girls.

"We are offering practical help," he told reporters as he arrived for a Council of Europe meeting in Vienna to discuss ways to defuse the crisis in Ukraine.

"What has happened here ... the actions of Boko Haram to use girls as the spoils of war, the spoils of terrorism, is disgusting. It is immoral.

"I called the Nigerian foreign minister when this first arose ... to offer help from Britain, to express our concerns."

He said he did not want to discuss exactly what help Britain was offering, just as US authorities have avoided going into detail.

It is thought Nigeria has so far not accepted either country's offer.

Boko Haram militants stormed an all-girl secondary school in the village of Chibok, in Borno state, on April 14 and packed the teenagers, who had been taking exams, on to trucks. They then disappeared into a remote area along the border with Cameroon.

The raid has shocked Nigerians despite a bloody five-year-old Islamist insurgency in the north of the country, and there have been claims that other countries should have done more and been quicker to offer help.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has appeared in a video, chuckling as he stands in front of an armoured personnel carrier with two masked militants wielding AK-47s on either side of him.

"I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah," he says.

"Allah has instructed me to sell them. They are his property and I will carry out his instructions."

Boko Haram, seen as the main security threat to Nigeria, Africa's leading energy producer, is growing bolder and extending its reach.

The kidnapping occurred on the day a bomb blast, also blamed on Boko Haram, killed 75 people on the edge of Abuja, the first attack on the capital in two years.

The group's name means "Western education is sinful" and Shekau makes reference in the video to the fact the girls were undergoing Western education.

The girls' abduction has been hugely embarrassing for the government and threatens to overshadow the World Economic Forum for Africa it hosts from May 7 to 9.

On Sunday, authorities arrested a leader of a protest staged last week in Abuja that had called on them to do more to find the girls, further fuelling outrage against the security forces.

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Egypt's Al Sisi: Muslim Brotherhood Is 'Finished'

Egypt's Military Strongman: Saviour Or Dictator?

Updated: 3:25am UK, Tuesday 06 May 2014

By Sherine Tadros, Middle East Correspondent

For the past three years Egypt has seen constant surprises - this month's elections though are a foregone conclusion.

Presidential candidate and former army chief Abdel Fattah al Sisi is practically guaranteed a win, formally taking the reins of the Egyptian state.

That's why Monday's interview, his first interview since announcing his candidacy, was so important and offered the biggest indication yet of what Mr al Sisi's Egypt will look like. 

He appeared on privately owned channels ONTV and CBC simultaneously with the channels' main anchors co-interviewing him.

The presenters, both vocal supporters of last July's military coup, danced around important questions seemingly afraid to offend or push too hard.

In the two-hour interview there was no mention of the killing of hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Cairo following the coup, nor the thousands currently detained without charge after the recent crackdown.

Mr al Sisi assured the Egyptian public he had not planned the overthrow of elected President Mohamed Morsi nor did he plan to become president. Rather, he reluctantly answered a call of duty as Egypt was headed for disaster.

The referendum on the constitution earlier this year, he argued, showed him the people wanted him at the helm and so despite two assassination attempts, he decided to run.

The main theme of the interview was - 'I am running for president because someone has to save Egypt'. And in a climate of fear and rumours, this rhetoric is sure to resonate with the Egyptian public.

When pushed about his strong military background and the possibility of the country being run as a military regime, he argued the military has had no role in Egyptian politics in decades.

Unchallenged by the presenters (three Egyptian presidents since 1952 came from the army's ranks) he went on to profess his neutrality and independence from the very institution recent history has shown his survival in politics will depend on.

One of the interviewers, CBC's Lamis al Hadidyi, asked the presidential candidate about his family and where he grew up.

Mr al Sisi, for the first time, spoke emotionally about his wife and four children. This nicely crafted section of the interview was designed to show his human side.

So far the Egyptian public has seen the soldier. On Monday, they had to see the husband and father. 

On terrorism, Mr al Sisi compared what Egypt is facing to what US forces are fighting in Afghanistan. He spoke about "major progress" being made in the troubled Sinai (where a military operation has been ongoing for several months) saying 1,200 out of the 1,300 tunnels between Egypt and the besieged Gaza Strip had been destroyed. 

The security issue is his trump card and he didn't miss an opportunity to explain the serious threat facing Egypt. It justifies not only the need for a president with a military background (the only person standing against him in the election, Hamdeen Sabahi, is a civilian) but also the current crackdown on Brotherhood supporters and other forces of dissent.

Mr al Sisi made clear there was no room in his Egypt for the Muslim Brotherhood. No surprise there. Under his watch the group was declared a terrorist organisation and their members and supporters imprisoned and sentenced to death.

In the end this was never going to be a hard interview to test Mr al Sisi. He had everything to gain. In fact, at times he sounded more like the president than a candidate - using the same nationalist and paternal tone to address Egyptians while offering no details of his economic or social policies.

But then again, why should he campaign?  Egyptians weren't watching to find out the campaign pledges on offer but rather for a glimpse of his first unscripted comments.

I watched the interview at home with an Egyptian family and friends and the reaction was generally positive.

Mr al Sisi delivered a convincing performance to an Egyptian public that is exhausted and looking for a saviour.

But what he sees as saving Egypt appears to others as dragging it firmly back to authoritarianism and a security state - the very things hundreds died fighting against in the 2011 uprising.

As Mr al Sisi spoke, the nation watched. But in many areas around Cairo, power cuts (which have become a common problem across Egypt due to energy shortages) meant not everyone heard what he had to say.

This is yet another indication of the huge challenges he faces if he becomes president.

He is in good favour with much of the Egyptian people now, but once he becomes accountable for the serious problems his citizens are facing, how long will this honeymoon last?

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China Station Stabbing Rampage Leaves Six Hurt

A knife-wielding gang left six people wounded in a stabbing rampage at a Chinese railway station - the country's latest in a series of mass attacks.

Reports say up to four people launched the assault in Guangzhou, southern China.

No reason has been given for the stabbings, but fears over militancy have grown in China after a car burst into flames on the edge of Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October and 29 people were stabbed to death in March in Kunming.

The government blamed militants from the far-western region of Xinjiang for both those attacks.

Guangzhou police said officers "arrived quickly on the scene" after the stabbings began on Tuesday and shot one of the attackers.

People look on as officers investigate the scene of the attack

"After verbal warnings were ineffective, police fired, hitting one male suspect holding a knife and subdued him," the force said in an online statement.

Police did not identify the attackers and it was not clear if the number of wounded included the assailants.

State-run newspaper the Nanfang Daily said police had captured a suspect who fled from the scene after the attack.

The Guangzhou Journal newspaper reported the attackers carried half-metre (20-inch) knives, wore white clothes, including white hats, and launched their assault as passengers were leaving the station.

Some other reports on Chinese media outlets said there were four attackers in total.

Photos circulated online in state media showed police cordoning off an empty plaza, with an ambulance parked nearby and spots of blood on the ground.

Chinese officials blamed religious extremists for a bomb and knife attack at a train station in Urumqi, regional capital of Xinjiang, last Wednesday that killed one bystander and wounded 79.

The government called the attackers "terrorists", a term it uses to describe Islamist militants and separatists in Xinjiang who have waged a sometimes violent campaign for an independent East Turkestan state.

In March, another hacking attack that left 33 people injured at a train station in southwest China was blamed on separatists in the country's far west.

Exiles and many rights groups say the real cause of the unrest in Xinjiang is China's heavy-handed policies, including curbs on Islam and the culture and language of the Muslim Uighur people.

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Woman In Crashed Car Wrote Notes On Umbrella

A woman has survived several days trapped in her wrecked car with no food or water, during which she wrote pleas for help on an umbrella she pushed out of the car window.

Kristin Hopkins, a 43-year-old single mother of four, will lose both her feet as a result of the injuries she suffered, her family said.

She was reported missing in Colorado on April 29 but was last seen two days earlier.

She was found on Sunday, May 4, by a group of people who spotted a wrecked vehicle at the bottom of an embankment off a highway in Park County, near Denver.

Ms Hopkins' 2009 Chevrolet Malibu hit a number of trees and rolled several times down the steep embankment before coming to rest upside down in a grove of aspen trees.

While trapped, she wrote notes on a red-and-white umbrella hoping to attract the attention of drivers on the scenic highway above.

A motorist spotted the wreckage of the car and alerted the rescuers

"She wrote a few notes. One said, 'Please help, am bleeding' and another said, 'Six days with no food or water,'" said firefighter Jim Cravener, who found her.

Ms Hopkins was entered into a police database as a missing person but since she is an adult and there were no indications of foul play, there was no active search for her.

The firefighters who first responded initially thought they were on a recovery mission.

When they arrived at the vehicle, Mr Cravener asked a colleague to break a window and feel for a pulse.

"He started to break the window and she put her hand up to the window," he said.

"At that point, it became a rescue.

"For her to have that will to survive - it's amazing."

The Colorado State Patrol said she was conscious and coherent but extremely dehydrated.

Ms Hopkins was flown by helicopter to St Anthony Hospital in suburban Denver, where she was reported in a critical but stable condition.

Her family thanked the people who found her and emergency responders.

"We sincerely appreciate all the thoughts, prayers and kind gestures from the community during such a trying time for our family," the family said in a statement.

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Pilot Crashes Into House He Used To Own

A pilot who crashed his light plane into a house in Colorado used to own the property, it has emerged.

Brian Veatch told KMGH-TV in Denver he once lived in the home, and property records indicated that he sold it in 2003.

Mr Veatch told the station that he did not realise the significance of his crash site until someone else pointed it out.

He now lives about a mile away.

Police say Mr Veatch, who managed to walk out of the wreckage virtually unhurt, may have been attempting to land in a nearby field after an apparent engine malfunction.

The veteran firefighter even tried to put out the fire with a garden hose before he was forced away by burning fuel, authorities said.

The house in Northglenn was unoccupied at the time of crash.

Five teenagers were playing soccer at a nearby track when they saw the plane.

"We were over at the field when it started going down. We said, 'That plane is way too close,'" said 15-year-old Ryder Munera.

Mr Veatch was towing a banner for an insurance company and was supposed to fly over a Colorado Rockies baseball game when the crash occurred, according to Tom Mace, who said he hired the pilot.

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Oscar Pistorius Neighbours 'Did Not Hear Reeva'

By Alex Crawford, Special Correspondent, in Pretoria

Oscar Pistorius' next-door neighbour has told a court he heard "very loud" cries from someone "desperate for help" on the night the athlete's girlfriend was shot dead.

But Michael Nhlengethwa, whose house is just 11 metres from the bathroom where Reeva Steenkamp was fatally injured, said he did not hear a woman screaming.

It appears to contradict the claims of an earlier witness, who said she heard "blood-curdling screams" on Valentine's Day last year, despite living further away from Pistorius' home.

The trial also heard from Mr Nhlengethwa's wife, Eontle, who was asked to repeat the noise she heard while her husband was searching their house for intruders after the couple were awoken by a loud bang.

Oscar Pistorius arrives at court in Pretoria for day 27 of his trial

She made a loud shrieking noise - at which point Pistorius leant forward, covering his ears with his hands - but insisted the "vibrating, high-pitched noise" was the sound of a man crying, not a woman screaming.

The prosecutor, Gerrie Nel, has suggested Ms Steenkamp ran into the toilet to take refuge after a furious row with Pistorius.

It is claimed she was facing the toilet door, talking to the runner, when he fired four shots.

However, the Nhlengethwas told the court they did not hear sounds of any argument.

Ms Steenkamp was shot dead on February 14, 2013. Pic: Stimulii

Instead, they said, they heard wailing coming from a man who sounded like he could have been in danger.

"The cry we heard was from someone who was desperate for help," Mr Nhlengethwa said. "It was very loud."

When asked during cross-examination whether he heard the sounds of a woman screaming, the witness replied: "No, not at all."

Another neighbour, Rita Motshuane, also imitated the noises she heard, hunching her shoulders and letting out a series of loud, painful wails.

She said the sound, which was so haunting it left her unable to move from her bed, came from a man, not from a woman.

The Nhlengethwas were originally on the state's list of witnesses but neither were called by the prosecution.

Mr Nhlengethwa said Pistorius, who always greeted him by walking over to talk and shake hands, once introduced Ms Steenkamp as his fiancee and said he was moving out of the Silver Woods estate in Pretoria to Johannesburg in order to be closer to her.

The witness said he expressed regret that his neighbour was leaving but added: "If it's for her, then it's worth it. That one's for keeps."

It was the first time the court had heard evidence the couple were apparently engaged.

Mr Nhlengethwa also spoke about the moment he arrived at Pistorius' house after the shooting and peered through the front door to find Pistorius kneeling over Ms Steenkamp.

"What I saw is difficult to explain," he said, telling the court he chose to wait outside as the scene was so distressing.

Pistorius, 27, denies murdering Ms Steenkamp in a premeditated attack, claiming he mistook her for an intruder.

The case was adjourned at lunchtime and will resume on Thursday after a public holiday in South Africa.

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Nigerian Girl 'Ran And Ran' To Escape Kidnap

A Nigerian girl who staged a remarkable escape when gunmen took her and more than 200 others hostage has described how she was told: "Don't worry, we're soldiers. Nothing is going to happen to you."

The 16-year-old was snatched from her boarding school in Chibok by members of the Islamic group Boko Haram. She was herded into a pick-up truck and driven away but fled when one of the vehicles in the convoy broke down.

She and her friends jumped down from the truck and darted into a nearby forest to hide when the stranded car behind them suddenly started up, illuminating the road ahead.

"We ran and ran, so fast," said the girl. "That's how I saved myself. I had no time to be scared. I was just running."

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau is wanted by Nigerian police

Some of the children clung to low-hanging branches as the kidnappers' convoy sped off into the night.

When the girls eventually made their way back to the road, they were met by a man on a bicycle who accompanied them back to the village.

The teenager described the end of her ordeal as an emotional experience.

"I'm the only girl in my family, so I hold a special place and everyone was so happy," she said. "But that didn't last long."

Remembering the siege on April 14, the girl said she knew the men were not who they claimed to be when they started shouting: "Allahu Akhbar (God is great)."

The girls were taken from the village of Chibok in northeast Nigeria

She said there were too many attackers to count, adding that she and her friends had no choice but to sit and watch as their classrooms were set alight before they were herded onto three trucks.

The kidnapping has been condemned by both the UK and the US, who have offered to help find the girls.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau appeared in a video alongside two militants brandishing AK-47s saying: "I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah.

"Allah has instructed me to sell them. They are his property and I will carry out his instructions."

The kidnappers are thought to be hiding out in a remote area on the Nigeria-Cameroon border.

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Pistorius Accused Of Intimidating Reeva Friend

Oscar Pistorius has been accused of trying to intimidate a friend of his dead girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp during a break in his murder trial.

A lawyer for Kim Myers told Sky News the athlete whispered "How do you sleep at night?" to her on his way out of the courtroom in Pretoria.

Ian Levitt confirmed a complaint had been made to the National Prosecuting Authority, and that they were considering whether to proceed with a case of intimidation.

"My client, Kim Myers, was approached by Oscar Pistorius in court today and in a very sinister tone was asked 'How can you sleep at night?'" said Mr Levitt.

"My client views this unwelcome approach as extremely disturbing and I have been in communication with the National Prosecuting Authorities as well as the Investigating Officer. All other parties have also been informed.

"My client, however, will remain focused on the trial and will continue to attend court in support of Reeva."

Sky's Special Correspondent Alex Crawford was among the journalists who put the accusation to Pistorius during an adjournment in the trial.

She said: "He vigorously denied it. He said he did not said anything to any of the Myers and that he had not spoken to them in weeks.

"He went on to say he had to pass them each day in court but that each time he felt they were avoiding his eye contact."

Kim Myers is the sister of Gina Myers - Ms Steenkamp's best friend.

Pistorius' alleged intimidation was not heard by nearby reporters.

A police photographer saw him lean towards Ms Myers and later asked the family what had occurred - leading to a complaint being made.

Ms Myers declined to comment when approached by Sky News.

Pistorius, 27, denies murdering Ms Steenkamp in a premeditated attack, claiming he mistook her for an intruder.

The case will resume on Thursday after a public holiday in South Africa.

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Nigerian Kidnaps: Can Anything Be Done?

The temptation to "do something" is almost overwhelming. Some 270 school girls abducted, many already raped, dragged into the bush and now threatened with being sold into slavery.

Of course the "do something" instinct comes to the fore.

In fact it's only really become an international cry since the leader of Boko Haram, which means Western education is sinful, delivered a 57-minute diatribe in Hausa, Arabic and English, threatening the girls with slavery this week.

Inside Nigeria, the government has been under growing pressure to "do something".

Dr Sakyimah Akilu, a presidential adviser and spokeswoman on national security, told Sky News that it was true that there was a general impression that the Nigerian government had failed to react to the mass abductions.

The schoolgirls were taken from Chibok in the northeast of the country

"The truth is that we are pursuing every lead we have had. But you have to understand that they have been taken into the Sambisa forest and perhaps into the mountains in Cameroon - there are many places to hide," she said.

This fatalism may explain why the Nigerian administration of Goodluck Jonathan appears to have been flat footed in hunting down the radical Islamist group which is now threatening the girls with a most un-Islamic torment.

William Hague said: "Using girls as the spoils of war and the spoils of terrorism is disgusting and immoral. It should show everybody across the world that they should not give any support for such a vile organisation …

"Britain is offering assistance, but of course the primary responsibility will rest with the Nigerians, and I hope they will do what is necessary to reunite these girls with their families."

The British Foreign Secretary is vague on what that "assistance" could be.

A protest in Lagos urging the Nigerian government to get the children back

In all likelihood, it would take the form of Special Force advice on how to track the girls. Perhaps some help, too, with surveillance.

But both would be limited. More of a gesture than anything else.

Special Forces from South Africa, Britain, the United States and other Western nations have been on the trail of the similarly horrible Lord's Resistance Army in the Central African Republic for decades.

Their analysis has been that while they could probably kill the leadership of the LRA, a capture operation would be almost impossible.

A similar military analysis would emerge on Boko Haram - finding and saving the missing girls would be almost impossible - slaughtering elements of Boko Haram would not.

But killing won't solve the problem.

The sad truth is that Nigeria's missing children are likely to stay that way.

Efforts to negotiate a peace deal with Boko Haram's leader Abdulbakar Shekau over the last four years - while 4,000 Nigerians died - have come to nought.

Now he has the attention of the whole world, he won't want to give up on the limelight the missing girls have given him.

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Oz's Richest Man And TV Boss In Street Brawl

By Jonathan Samuels, Australia Correspondent

The messy scrap between two of Australia's highest profile figures, businessman James Packer and TV boss David Gyngell is being called the "billionaire Bondi brawl".

The undignified fist fight outside Mr Packer's mansion in the Sydney beachside suburb of Bondi happened on Sunday afternoon.

It may have gone unnoticed had a photographer not snapped the whole ugly episode complete with grappling, wrestling and punching between the two burly men who have been friends since they were at school together.

It was also filmed on a mobile phone, with all the images sparking a media bidding war.

Channel Nine TV boss David Gyngell has taken the blame for starting the fight, which is now being investigated by police.

Reports suggest an angry text message was sent before the brawl to Mr Gyngell from Mr Packer, a casino mogul and Australia's richest man.

In the text, Packer allegedly demanded his friend have removed a Nine Network news truck from outside his home.

Mr Packer, 46, had recently arrived back in Sydney from Jerusalem and Mr Gyngell, 47, is heard yelling in a video of the incident: "I didn't even know you were in ****ing Australia."

Mr Packer was seen on Tuesday with bruising around one eye.

Chris Walker, who is Mr Packer's neighbour, described the pair as fighting like "two crazy dogs".

The Nine Network broadcast a statement regarding the fight on Tuesday.

"David Gyngell respects the job police do and will co-operate fully with their investigation," the statement said.

"He also fully accepts that he was the instigator of the incident.

"Clearly, had he not turned up at Packer's premises in an angry mood, then the confrontation would never have occurred."

The pair were best men at each other's weddings and are high profile figures in Australia where there has been frenzied coverage of the incident.

Reports suggest tensions between the two have been simmering after James Packer split from his wife last year and has since been romantically linked with Australian super model Miranda Kerr who is currently in Sydney.

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