US Military Strike Targets Shabaab Leaders

The US military has said it carried out an operation against al Shabaab militants in Somalia as reports emerged of a drone strike against the group's leaders.

A Somali governor said an airstrike targeted al Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane, also known as Abu Zubayr, as he left a meeting of the group's top leaders.

"The Americans carried out a major air strike targeting a gathering by senior al Shabaab officials, including their leader Abu Zubayr," Abdukadir Mohamed Nur, governor for southern Somalia's Lower Shabelle region, said.

He added that there were "casualties" but it was not clear if Godane or any other senior figures had been killed.

However, an unnamed Somali intelligence official told the AP news agency that intelligence indicated Godane "might have been killed".

Al Shabaab claimed its fighters carried out the 2013 attack on a Kenya mall

The 37-year-old militant was was reportedly trained by the Taliban in Afghanistan and took over the leadership of Shabaab in 2008 after Adan Hashi Ayro was killed in a US missile attack.

The US announced a $7m (£4.2m) reward for information on his whereabouts in 2012.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said in a statement: "We are assessing the results of the operation and will provide additional information as and when appropriate." 

No further details about the operation were immediately available.

Al Shabaab militants controlled much of southern Somalia until 2011

Al Shabaab is an al Qaeda-affiliated Islamist group that wants to impose its own strict version of Sharia law in Somalia and has also carried out attacks in Kenya and Uganda.

It controlled most of the southern region of Somalia from 2006 until 2011, when African peacekeeping troops marched into the capital, Mogadishu.

The reported airstrike came as the African Union and Somali forces launched a major offensive aimed at seizing key ports.

Mr Nur said the Shabaab leadership were meeting to discuss the "current offensive". 

He said they were gathered at a location used as a training camp for suicide bombers in a remote area of the Lower Shabelle region, south of the capital.

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Chinese War On Terror May Breed Extremists

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent in Xinjiang Province, China

Sky News has obtained rare access to China's Xinjiang Province to investigate reports Muslims are being targeted and oppressed by the government.

China's leaders say foreign Islamist extremists, perhaps with links to IS and al Qaeda, are infiltrating its population, responsible for growing unrest in the region.

Since December, a series of bloody bomb and knife attacks have killed more than a hundred people across China.

There are reports of authorities targeting and oppressing Muslims

Urumqi, a city on the old Silk Road with a population of three million, is the provincial capital and a place on edge right now.

Soldiers stand guard outside the city's great mosque. Armoured police vehicles are parked in the shadows.

Oil and gas rich, the far-western province of Xinjiang is home to the Uighur people, China's Muslim minority. The province was once almost all theirs.

These days, they share it with the Han Chinese, the country's dominant ethnic group; the people who would be globally recognisable as Chinese.

Xinjiang is home to the Uighur people, China's Muslim minority

In recent years, relations between the Uighurs and the Han have become increasingly difficult.

Ancient Uighur homes have been destroyed. Uighur culture has been diluted and their freedom to practise Islam has been restricted.

In May, two 4x4 vehicles drove up a busy market street in a Han Chinese district of Urumqi. It was early morning and Gongyuan Street was crowded with shoppers.

Explosives were thrown from the vehicles as they passed up the street. Forty-three died and more than 90 were injured.

Today, the same street is almost deserted. We meet Mr Sun, a retired Han Chinese teacher.

He saw it all happen and we ask him who did it. "Minorities," he says. He leans forward and whispers: "Muslims."

The Uighur heartland lies under 200 miles from Afghanistan and Pakistan

Our taxi driver, also Han Chinese, goes further. Echoing the government line, he says the attack was the work of religious fanatics infiltrating the south.

"From Kashgar," he says. "It's only those who are uncultured who cause problems.

"People who were not educated, who live in the south. They are brainwashed by terrorists."

The Chinese government says it is facing an unprecedented threat from Islamist extremism.

They say foreign extremists are infiltrating the Uighur population and radicalising them.

Ancient Uighur homes have been destroyed... ...and replaced by tower blocks

However, Uighurs in exile, human rights organisations and the US government doubt that Islamist extremism is to blame.

They believe the Communist Party is blaming external forces as a way of dealing with internal unrest.

The tactics used to counter the violence are exacerbating the problem, they say.

Kashgar is further west from Urumqi; closer to Baghdad than it is to Beijing.

It is the Uighur heartland and lies just under 200 miles from the Afghan and Pakistani borders.

10 million Uighurs live in China's far-western Xinjiang Province

At the city's centre, the Id Kah mosque is the country's largest. In July, the Imam was murdered here; stabbed and clubbed to death.

"He deserved to die," a Uighur shopkeeper tells me quietly. He does not want to be identified. All Uighurs fear government reprisals if caught talking to foreigners.

The shopkeeper tells me that the Imam was a stooge of the Chinese government and condoning a series of restrictions for Uighurs in the region.

The restrictions are spelt out on a sign in a neighbouring street. With pictures, it states that beards are banned for young men and veils are banned for women.

Other policies include preventing Muslims from fasting at Ramadan.

"You understand what this sign means?" a young Uighur man says. "There's no freedom for us here."

The message was the same from the other Uighurs we spoke to. If you pressure and restrict people, they will fight back.

There are signs all around that this Chinese "war on terror" is intensifying. As it does, the resentment will only increase.

If religious extremists are among the Uighur population, and we saw no evidence of it, their efforts to recruit and to rally will only be made easier.

For the Chinese government, Islamist extremism could become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

:: Click here to watch an extended version of Mark Stone's journey into Xinjiang

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Rare Visit To Town At Centre Of Massacre Claims

Avoiding The Chinese Authorities

Updated: 1:55am UK, Tuesday 02 September 2014

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent in Xinjiang Province, China

Reporting anything sensitive in China requires planning, a bit of stealth and some luck thrown in too.

China's far western province of Xinjiang is one of those areas (like Tibet and Tiananmen Square) where the country's Communist government is particularly sensitive.

Foreign journalists are not banned from visiting Xinjiang, it's just that we can't report freely when we get there.

The Chinese government is obsessed with controlling the message. Its state-run media is the perfect tool, loyally conveying the government-endorsed line.

And so the idea of foreign journalists wandering around in a region which China considers to be the frontline in its "war on terror" is not something they are willing to allow.

They do not want scrutiny of the tactics they deploy to deal with those they believe to be Islamist extremists.

The team at Sky's bureau in Beijing had tried for months to get permission for a fully sanctioned trip to the region.

The Chinese government has pumped huge investment into the resource-rich province. They claim to have transformed the lives of millions - both indigenous Uighur Muslims and the Han Chinese who have moved here over the past few decades.

We wanted to see that investment: the new high-speed rail line, the new hospitals, schools, universities.

We also wanted to examine the suggestions that the Chinese government is eroding the culture and religion of the Uighurs, perhaps fuelling unrest.

Our trip was initially given a tentative green light. But then, a week before we were due to travel, they U-turned: the trip was off.

No explanation was given. We decided to come anyway.

Colleagues of mine from other media organisations have been here recently. Most have been detained and some have had their images and video deleted.

So it's necessary to stay one step ahead of the authorities. Flights are booked at the last minute, different hotels night to night, check in late, check out early. We use small tourist-style cameras.

I'll admit, it's easy to get overly paranoid. Do the authorities really care that much about what we're doing? It turns out they do.

In Kashgar we tried to check into one hotel but were turned away. The staff noticed our journalist visas in our passports.

"You can't stay here," the receptionist said. "You must stay in the hotel down the road: it's the hotel for journalists."

After a few days of moving every day, complacency set in: we stayed two nights in the same place. It was a mistake.

On the second day, we had a call. "This is reception. The Kashgar police are downstairs to see you. Please come down."

We had a chat with two men. What were we reporting on? Did we have permission?

We showed them the paperwork for our original pitch for the rejected trip. It seemed to work.

The police took photos of us and then left, but not before admitting that they'd been trying to track us down for three days.

A constant worry is the prospect of having our footage deleted or destroyed. In 2012, a German TV crew was on an assignment in another part of China.

They left their hotel room for dinner. When they returned, the reporter's tablet computer and smartphone had been dunked in water. They were still wet and their contents destroyed.

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Islamic State Guilty Of 'Ethnic Cleansing'

Iraq Warns Of 'Imminent Danger' Of IS Militants

Updated: 3:17pm UK, Monday 01 September 2014

Miltants from Islamic State pose a threat to every country in the world, Iraq was warned the United Nations.

The jihadist group - previously known as ISIS - has committed barbaric acts against civilians and threatens to break up Iraq in its aim of establishing a caliphate across a large swathe of the Middle East, Iraq's human rights minister told an emergency debate at the UN Human Rights Council.

The debate took place as Human Rights Watch (HRW)  released evidence of Islamic State (IS) fighters using widely-banned cluster munitions in Syria - where they are already in common use by President Bashar al Assad's forces.

Mohammed Shia al Sudani said: "The land of ancient Babylon is subjected to threats starting with its very independence, they are attempting to change its demographic and cultural composition.

"ISIS is not an Iraqi phenomenon, it is a transnational phenomenon that poses an imminent danger to all countries of the world, it defies all human rights principles and international law."

Iraq's appeal came after the first Islamic State suicide bomber captured in Iraq spoke to Sky News, warning that jihadists from around the world, including Britain, are flooding into Iraq and Syria to join the extremist cause.

Senior UN officials said there was evidence that both IS and Iraqi government forces have killed civilians and committed atrocities in three months of fighting.

UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Flavia Pansieri said there was "strong evidence" that IS fighters and linked groups had carried out targeted killings, forced conversions, abductions, sexual abuse and torture.

She also said Iraqi police have executed detainees, while Iraqi soldiers have shelled towns and carried out airstrikes, killing and injuring many civilians.

Ms Pansieri voiced deep concern at the persecution of Christians, Yazidis, Shia, Turkmen and other ethnic groups by IS forces that have swept through western and northern Iraq since June, driving 1.2 million Iraqis from their homes.

She said: "The reports we have received reveal acts of inhumanity on an unimaginable scale."

Violence in Iraq killed at least 1,420 people in August, with more than 1,370 injured during the month, the UN's Iraq mission said.

The one-day session in Geneva was called by Iraq with the support of allies including the United States.

The 47-member state forum is expected to agree to Baghdad's request to send a team of UN experts to investigate crimes committed by IS and others in the conflict.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Kurdish forces and Shia militiamen retook Sulaiman Bek from IS on Monday - regaining a key stronghold held by the extremists for more than 11 weeks.

Fighting to retake the village of Yankaja, also located in Salaheddin province, northeast of Baghdad, was ongoing, the official responsible for the nearby Tuz Khurmatu area said.

In Amerli, where Iraqi security forces, Kurdish fighters and Shia militiamen broke an 11-week siege over the weekend, outgoing PM Nouri al Maliki vowed that Iraq would be "a graveyard" for IS.

A clean-up was also under way in Ramadi - 70 miles (115km) west of Baghdad - after a suicide bomber rammed an explosive-packed car into a police checkpoint, killing at least 14 people.

In Syria, New York-based group HRW said reports from local Kurdish officials and photographic evidence suggested IS had used cluster bombs on July 12 and August 14.

They were deployed in fighting around the town of Ayn al Arab in Aleppo province, near the border with Turkey, in clashes between the jihadist group and Kurdish fighters.

The group said it was believed to be the first time IS had used cluster bombs, but it was unclear how it had acquired them.

Cluster munitions contain dozens or hundreds of small bomblets and can be fired in rockets or dropped from the air.

They spread explosives over large areas and are indiscriminate in nature, often continuing to maim and kill long after the initial attack when previously unexploded bomblets detonate.

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First Photos From Jolie And Pitt Wedding

Angelina Jolie wore a dress decorated with her six children's artwork for her wedding to Brad Pitt, it has been revealed.

The pictures are a Hello! exclusive

The first photos from the Hollywood couple's wedding in France on August 23 have been published.

The Oscar-winning actress wore a custom-designed ivory gown and veil by Atelier Versace which was decorated with colourful images by their children Maddox, 13, Pax, 10, Zahara, nine, Shiloh, eight, and six-year-old twins Vivienne and Knox. 

A tweet from Donatella Versace said: "Congratulations Angelina Jolie! You look sensational in my creation for your special day! Lots of love, DV."

People magazine reported that Pitt wore a suit that he already owned for the ceremony at Chateau Miraval in the south of France.

The couple said Pax baked the wedding cake for their "fun and relaxed" day.

"It was important to us that the day was relaxed and full of laughter. It was such a special day to share with our children and a very happy time for our family," Pitt and Jolie told Hello! magazine, which covered the event with People.

Zahara and Vivienne were flower girls at the wedding while Maddox and Pax walked Jolie down the aisle.

All of the children are reported to have helped their parents write their vows.

The pair's wedding took the world by surprise when it was announced on August 28, five days after they secretly tied the knot.

Jolie and Pitt met on the set of Mr And Mrs Smith in 2005. They were engaged for more than two years with Pitt supporting his partner while she went through a preventative double mastectomy last year.

In June Jolie was awarded an honorary damehood by the Queen for her charity work.

The actress was previously married to actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton. Pitt was married to actress Jennifer Aniston until October 2005.

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Beauty Queen Refuses To Return Tiara After Row

A Burmese beauty queen is refusing to return her $100,000 (£60,398) tiara after pageant organisers accused her of lying about whether she had breast implants.

May Myat Noe, 18, reportedly disappeared with the crown after Miss Asia Pacific World organisers arranged to give her plastic surgery.

Pageant organisers say one of the goals of the event is to turn contest winners into actresses, pop stars, and world-class models by changing their looks.

The teenager denies she accepted an offer of a breast enlargement

And pageant director David Kim said Ms Noe was provided with a breast enhancement free of charge after winning the contest; a claim she denies.

"We thought she should be more beautiful, so we sent her to the hospital to operate on her breasts," Kim said.

"It's our responsibility. If she has no good nose, then maybe, if she likes, we can operate on her nose. If it's breasts, then breasts."

Mr Kim added the teenager was stripped of her title and "dethroned" because she was dishonest and unappreciative – and that she absconded with her bejewelled crown.

"She thinks as long as she keeps this crown she's the winner," Mr Kim said. "She's not."

Miss Noe has demanded an apology "to rectify the damage they have done to the integrity of my country".

"I will return the crown only when they apologise to Myanmar, for the dignity of our country," she said.

"I was put under duress to undergo head-to-toe cosmetic surgery which I refused...I didn't have breast implants, but I don't want to go into details, to preserve my dignity."

She said she flew back to Myanmar before realising organisers had decided to remove her title.

It was reported that Ms Noe's mother wanted to control her career

It has also been claimed there was disagreement over who was supposed to manage Ms Noe's career, with both her mother and event organisers wanting control.

Fifty years of self-imposed isolation kept Myanmar contestants off the international beauty contest stage until 2012.

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Napa Valley Quake Due To Lesser-Known Fault

An earthquake that shook Northern California this month was due to the lesser-known West Napa Fault, according to scientists studying images from a new satellite.

The magnitude 6.0 quake on August 24 injured three people and sent panicked residents out onto the streets of Napa and other cities.

It damaged homes and historic buildings, and sparked fires that caused further damage.

The wine-making region Napa Valley was among the hardest-hit areas.

The European Space Agency's satellite allowed scientists with the Centre for the Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics (COMET) to map the earthquake and the surface rupture.

They determined that the West Napa Fault was responsible for the earthquake.

"This fault had not been identified as being particularly hazardous prior to the event," said a statement by University of Leeds, one of the institutions attached to COMET.

Faults are fractures between two blocks of rock that form the Earth's crust. 

There are several hundred known faults in California, including the San Andreas fault, which is extremely active and produces a major earthquake every 100 to 200 years.

The US Geological Survey said the Napa earthquake was the most powerful to hit the San Francisco Bay area since the Loma Prieta magnitude 6.9 earthquake in 1989.

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Ebola Patient Flees Clinic In Search For Food

Video has emerged of Liberian ebola clinic workers dressed in contamination suits chasing an escaped patient through the streets after he left a treatment centre to visit a market.

There were chaotic scenes as crowds followed infected man, who was wearing a wristband to show he had tested positive for the disease, and some stallholders argued with him as he approached.

The patient escaped from Monrovia's Elwa hospital, which last month was so crowded with cases of the deadly disease that it had to turn people away.

One woman at the scene said: "The patients are hungry, they are starving. No food, no water.

"The government needs to do more. Let Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf [the President of Liberia] do more."

Crowds followed the escaped ebola patient at a distance

Onlookers cheered as health workers arrived in their protective outfits and try to convince the patient to give himself up.

The man, who shows no outward signs of the diarrhoea and bleeding that the virus causes, refuses to return with the health workers and they eventually grab him and carry him away to a waiting ambulance.

At least 1,552 people have been killed by the current ebola outbreak, with 3,062 patients infected overall, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization.

The UN agency has warned that more than 20,000 people could be infected with ebola before the outbreak comes to an end.

The patient was eventually confronted by health workers

There has been widespread panic buying, a shortage of staple foods and severe prices in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia since movement restrictions were imposed to stop the spread of the virus.

At one market stall in Liberia, a nation which has suffered 694 fatalities so far, the price of cassava skyrocketed by 150% in a matter of days.

And despite the UN's World Food Programme launching an emergency operation to get 65,000 tonnes of supplies sent to deprived areas, many patients in quarantined areas are starving.

The UN has launched an operation to feed people in deprived areas

To compound the problem, labour shortages are expected in all three West African countries, weeks before the main harvesting season for maize and rice begins.

The production of other crops such as rubber, palm oil and cocoa could also be seriously affected, sending thousands of vulnerable people further into poverty.

Vincent Martin of the FAO added: "Even prior to the ebola outbreak, households in some of the affected areas were spending up to 80% of their incomes on food.

"Now these latest price spikes are effectively putting food completely out of their reach."

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Chris Brown Pleads Guilty To Washington Assault

Chris Brown has pleaded guilty to punching a man who tried to join a picture the singer was taking outside a hotel in Washington DC.

Brown walked free from the court after being sentenced to time served. He had already been in jail for two days in connection with the case.

He was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault in October after the scuffle outside the W hotel.

The victim in the case said Brown hit him after he tried to get in a photograph the star was taking with two women.

Brown's bodyguard, Christopher Hollosy, was also charged in the same incident.

Hollosy was convicted of misdemeanor assault in April. He has not yet been sentenced.

Brown was on probation for assaulting Rihanna when he was arrested

Brown had previously pleaded not guilty in the case. His trial had been set for April, but it was delayed.

At the time of his Washington arrest, Brown was on probation in a felony assault case in California for attacking his then-girlfriend, pop star Rihanna, hours before the 2009 Grammy Awards.

Because Brown was still on probation, the outcome of his Washington case had potential repercussions in California.

During a court hearing in May, a Los Angeles judge sentenced Brown to serve an additional 131 days in jail. He was released in June.

Brown's lawyer, Danny Onorato, argued that Brown had already been punished extensively for the assault, noting the time he spent in jail in California and four months he spent receiving inpatient counselling after his probation was revoked.

Brown's lawyer said the case had put the star's career on hold

"To say that he's been punished severely in this matter is an understatement," Mr Onorato said.

He said Brown's career has been on hold for nearly a year and he wanted to take responsibility for his actions so he could go back to work, including a tour in support of a new album.

Brown spoke only briefly, saying: "I would like to say to the court that I'm sorry."

He did not comment as he left court, swarmed by photographers and a handful of fans.

A shooting took place at a party Chris Brown was hosting in LA before the MTV Music Video Awards.

The co-founder of Death Row Records, Marion "Suge" Knight, was treated for a number of gunshot wounds. Brown was not injured.               

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Wedding Brawl Ends With Groom Held By Police

A groom has spent his wedding night in police custody after allegedly harassing a waitress at the reception and then getting into a brawl.

According to a criminal complaint, Mark Williams, 35, touched the waitress several times during a wedding cruise in Pennsylvania.

He allegedly tried to pour alcohol down her throat - even as she told him she was pregnant.

The couple leaving a court the day after their wedding. Pic: KDKA

After the boat docked early on Monday, he allegedly scuffled with the waitress' boyfriend.

The police were called and Williams was led away by officers as his wife stood on the dock in her wedding dress.

He faces charges including riot, harassment and resisting arrest, news reports said.

The couple were seen leaving a municipal court on Monday, but did not speak to reporters.

Also facing charges is Williams' off-duty state trooper brother, David Williams, who allegedly assaulted two Pittsburgh police officers who were called to the scene.

A third man, a member of a local school board, also faces charges. CBS said he punched at a car window and screamed he was HIV positive as he was being taken away.

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