UN: Syria War Has Killed More Than 100,000

The Syrian war has now claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people, according to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, an increase of 7,000 in just over a month.

The United Nations chief called on both sides to stop the violence and said it was "imperative to have a peace conference in Geneva as soon as possible".

US Secretary of State John Kerry, who was meeting Mr Ban in New York, said the fighting was futile.

"There is no military solution to Syria," Mr Kerry told reporters.

"There is only a political solution, and that will require leadership in order to bring people to the table."

The milestone came on another day of violence in the country, which saw a car bomb in Damascus kill 10 people and injure  62.

A regime offensive on the city of Homs, dubbed the "capital of the revolution", is also continuing into a fourth week.

John Kerry and Ban Ki-moon say Geneva talks must happen as soon as possible

Heavy shelling and the collapse of buildings hit by missiles has been reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Some 5,000 are being killed every month in Syria, says the UN.

The war started in March 2011 after President Assad's regime unleashed a brutal crackdown against a movement calling for change.

The US and Russia are trying to organise a conference in Geneva, along with the UN, to try to agree on a transitional government.

Mr Kerry said he had talked to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and that both countries remained committed to bringing the Syrian regime and the rebels together for talks.

"We will try our hardest to make that happen as soon as is possible," Mr Kerry said.

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Bo Xilai Charged With Bribery And Corruption

Disgraced Chinese politician Bo Xilai has been charged with bribery, corruption and abuse of power.

Bo, who is accused of multiple counts of corruption and misuse of office, has been in custody since his dramatic downfall almost exactly a year ago.

He was formerly the Communist Party chief of Chongqing.

His wife, Gu Kailai, was convicted of the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood last year.

She was sentenced to life in prison for poisoning Mr Heywood in a Chongqing hotel room in November 2011.

More follows...

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Tearful Pope Gives First Public Mass In Brazil

By Greg Milam, Sky Correspondent, in Rio de Janeiro

Pope Francis has urged Catholics to resist the "false idols" of money, power and pleasure and focus instead on the values of faith, generosity and fraternity.

The pontiff was speaking at the first public Mass of his trip to Brazil - the first overseas visit of his papacy - at one of the most important shrines in Latin America.

Thousands packed into the Basilica of the Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida near Sao Paolo, with tens of thousands more braving the rain outside to catch a glimpse of the Pope.

Earlier in the day the Pope had appeared tearful

Before the Mass, Francis' eyes filled with tears as he stood in silent prayer before the 15-inch-tall (38cm) image of the Virgin of Aparecida - a potent symbol to all Brazilian Catholics.

His words called on young Catholics to learn the skills to build a better nation and world.

He told them: "I too come to knock on the door of the house of Mary - who loved and raised Jesus - that she may help all of us, pastors of God's people, parents and educators, to pass on to our young people the values that can help them build a nation and a world which are more just, united and fraternal."

Brazilians had been hopeful that the Pope would address some of the country's social inequalities that have led to violent protests on the streets in the last few weeks.

Francis has made a priority of reaching out to the world's poor and trying to inspire Catholic leaders to go to slums and other outposts to preach.

He is now due to visit a notorious favela shantytown before addressing one million pilgrims on Copacabana Beach.

The Church is struggling in Latin America to keep Catholics from straying to evangelical and Pentecostal churches that often promise help in finding material wealth, an alluring attraction in a poverty-wracked continent.

The Pope is in Brazil to join in with World Youth Day events, an effort by the Vatican to galvanise young Catholics at a time when many are disillusioned by the Church's continuing sexual and financial scandals.

His message of humility and rejection of the luxurious trappings used by papal predecessors has endeared him to many Catholics.

The 76-year-old pontiff was greeted by rapturous crowds on Monday, but there has been no repeat of the chaotic scenes surrounding his motorcade.

A huge security operation will remain in place throughout his visit.

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Tall Ship Astrid Sinks After Hitting Rocks

Twenty-three teenagers and seven adult crew members have been rescued after a tall ship struck rocks off the Irish coast.

The Astrid, which takes groups of aspiring sailors on training voyages around the world, lost power in its engine, leaving the crew helpless to save it from being tossed onto the rocky shoreline.

Lifeboats scrambled from across Co Cork and arrived within 30 minutes to help rescue the 23 teenagers and seven crew.

Two Irish Coast Guard helicopters were also deployed to the scene in response to the mayday call.

The Astrid was one of 50 vessels taking part in a flotilla-style five-mile journey from Oysterhaven to Kinsale as part of Ireland's 2013 Gathering initiative.

As it started to sink around 12pm, the crew assembled on deck to await rescue.

Eighteen of the crew were rescued and taken back to Kinsale harbour in another vessel taking part in the event - the Spirit of Oysterhaven, with the remainder being ferried to land in a lifeboat.

RNLI crews reported that some of those rescued were in a very shocked state.

The Astrid was one of 50 vessels taking part in an event

Crew members were medically assessed at Kinsale Yacht Club and none required hospital treatment.

The trainees on board the Astrid came from Ireland, England, the Netherlands, Spain, France and Belgium.

Ineke de Kam owns the ship with her husband Pieter, 62. He was captaining the vessel during the incident.

"I spoke with him on the phone and he's okay," she said.

"All the people are safe and that is very important - the crew and all the trainees are safe.

"But, everything is lost. We cannot believe it.

"He was using the small motor and it would not start and then he put all the sails up, but it was too late, he was on the rocks.

"Then he called the Coast Guard and they arrived in time to help and everyone is safe."

Two Irish Coast Guard helicopters were also deployed

Vincent O'Donovan from the RNLI said: "That is a very rocky part of the coastline, there is a famous old shipwreck that lies in that area, it is a place inaccessible by land.

"It was very hairy, anything could have gone wrong, if the liferafts were blown onto the rocks it could have been very serious."

The drama is likely to mark the final chapter in the Astrid's already colourful history.

Built in the Netherlands in 1918 as a cargo ship, the vessel was transferred into Swedish ownership and worked Baltic sea trade routes until 1975.

After another sale the ship was alleged to have fallen into the hands of drug smugglers.

She was found abandoned and burnt to a shell off the coast of England in the early 1980s. A salvage operation saved her then and she was transformed into a training vessel for young people.

Mr and Mrs de Kam bought the ship around seven years ago.

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Rescued Hikers Make Fatal Turn Into Ocean

Two women who got lost hiking and were successfully rescued have died later the same evening after driving their car into the ocean.

The friends presumably drowned, according to authorities in eastern Maine.

They were named as Amy Stiner, 37, who was five months' pregnant and lived locally, and Melissa Moyer, 38, who was visiting from her home in Sunbury, Pennsylvania.

Mrs Stiner appears to have accidentally steered her 2001 blue Dodge people carrier, in foggy weather, down a boat ramp at the end of the ocean road at about 9pm on Tuesday.

Washington County Sheriff Donnie Smith called the deaths a tragic accident.

"They called on the phone that they were in the water and the car was filling up. Then the phone went dead," he said.

"An hour later, the deputies found the car."

The boat ramp at Roque Bluffs in Maine. Pic: Google Maps

Earlier that day, the women had been hiking in Roque Bluffs State Park, but got lost and called for help.

An off-duty firefighter found them and their dog and gave them a lift on his quad bike back to his house, where a warden met them and took them to their parked car.

But Mrs Stiner then appears to have turned right out of the car park towards the boat ramp, instead of in the other direction towards her home in Machias.

Volunteer firefighter Travis Preston found the submerged car in about 20ft of water about 175ft off the boat ramp.

The women and the dog were inside on the back seats, with the doors closed and the windows up.

The weather could well have contributed to the accident, Sheriff Smith said.

"It appears they went the wrong direction and drove off the ramp," he added. "If you don't know the area, in the fog and rain it wouldn't be a difficult thing to do."

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Maniac: Elijah Wood's Slasher Film In NZ Ban

A horror movie starring Elijah Wood as a scalp-collecting serial killer has been banned in New Zealand after censors decided it was too graphic and disturbing for the public.

The decision means the film, which was directed by Frank Khalfoun, can only be shown at festivals or as part of academic study. It will also be unavailable on DVD.

Maniac, a remake of a 1980 slasher film, is shot entirely from the perspective of Frank, the serial killer played by Wood.

"The murders are depicted in first-person perspective, inviting a viewer's vicarious participation," the Office of Film and Literature Classification wrote in a summary of its reasons behind the restriction.

"While the feature does not actively promote or support this material, the tacit invitation to enjoy cruel and violent behaviour through its first-person portrayal and packaging as entertainment is likely to lead to an erosion of empathy for some viewers."

It said the movie contained "content that may disturb" and a wide release "is likely to be injurious to the public good".

Monster Pictures, the distributor of the film in Australia and New Zealand, said the decision was a gross overreaction and an insult to the intelligence of New Zealanders.

Maniac premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year to mixed reviews.

The Hollywood Reporter's Megan Lehmann said the film was a "sadistic art-house bloodbath".

Wood is well-known in New Zealand as part of the large ensemble cast in The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings, which were filmed in the country.

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Kim Jong-Un: Western Media Get Rare Glimpse

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent, in Pyongyang

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Un, has made a rare public appearance in front of Western journalists.

Mr Kim appeared, unannounced, at an event in the capital Pyongyang to mark the opening of a new war cemetery.

A delegation of journalists from around the world, including a team from Sky News, has been granted unusual access to the reclusive country as it prepares to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of the Korean War.

Kim Jong-Un opened the new war cemetery

We arrived at the war cemetery on a bus from the hotel we are instructed to stay in for the duration of our trip.

Our destination remained a mystery as we drove through early morning Pyongyang mist.

On arrival at the cemetery, immaculately built into a hillside just outside the capital city, security was tight but there was still little to suggest that the leader himself might appear.

Many people attended the ceremony

Then, shortly before 9am local time, he strolled onto the parade ground in front of the cemetery to loud applause.

The extraordinary devotion for the leader among the people we saw seemed entirely genuine.

But then people are only granted permission to live in Pyongyang if they are considered, through remarkable background checks, to be loyal.

Among the key figures there was his aunt Kim Kyong Hui

Mr Kim was surrounded by generals and other senior regime figures including his aunt, Kim Kyong Hui, who is the sister of the former leader Kim Jong-Il.

She is thought to hold significant back-room regime power but had been rumoured to be critically ill. Her appearance on Thursday was the first for many months.

We arrived in the country on a charter plane from the Chinese capital Beijing on Wednesday night.

The Sky News team was taken by bus to the event

Operating as journalists in North Korea is strictly controlled and monitored.

Each broadcaster or newspaper is assigned two so-called guides. In reality they are minders. There are two so that they can watch each other as well as us, such is the level of suspicion here.

Pyongyang is a beautiful city surrounded by green hills. Vast Soviet-like buildings dominate the landscape and everywhere are portraits of the founder of the nation, Kim Il-Song, and his son, Kim Jong-Il, both now dead.

Two minders at the ceremony

Immaculately dressed traffic police stand on street corners, but with no traffic to control. This is one of the most sanctioned countries in the world. It is also one of the poorest.

Ancient trolley-buses limp along but most people seem to walk everywhere. There is little chance of speaking at random to them, though.

An elderly woman makes her way around the cemetery

Our minders - themselves being controlled by an invisible state machine - politely tell us where we can go and who we can talk to.

And so it is extremely hard to get under the skin of this place.

:: Sky News will be broadcasting from inside North Korea for the next five days and is operating under the supervision of the North Korean government.

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Dreamliner: Airlines Told To Remove 787 Beacons

The US aviation regulator has advised airlines using Boeing's troubled 787 Dreamliner to remove the existing emergency beacons, following a fire on a flight at London's Heathrow airport.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) published an airworthiness directive advising all carriers to inspect or replace the safety device, made by Honeywell.

The move comes after investigators examined the cause of a fire on an Ethiopian Airlines 787 in early July.

The directive goes farther than the FAA indicated last week, when it said airlines should inspect the units on 787s for pinched wires in the casing and evidence of heat or moisture.

In early January, a Japanese plane caught fire in Boston

Boeing advised airlines last week to inspect or remove the device, known as an emergency locator transmitter or ELT.

A team from Britain's Air Accidents Investigations Branch (AAIB) looked at a number of components during their examination of the plane at Heathrow.

The investigation included the ELT, which was positioned in the upper rear part of the aircraft, near to the spot where the fire broke out on July 12.

The fire on the Ethiopian plane was one of the most recent problems to occur for Boeing's flagship next generation aircraft.

Problems have plagued instrumentation, battery circuits and some engine items.

The January problems were centred on mysterious battery pack problems

The world's Dreamliner fleet was grounded earlier this year after lithium-ion batteries overheated on the planes.

Although it has spent thousands of man-hours investigating the cause, Boeing still has not poinpointed the problem.

The ELT overheating is unconnected to the lithium-ion battery woes.

Despite the problems with the Dreamliner, Boeing posted larger than expected second-quarter profits on Wednesday as deliveries of commercial planes such as the 737 and 777 rose.

Boeing's net income rose 13% to $1.09 billion (£711m), or $1.41 per share. During the same period last year it earned $967m (£631m), or $1.27 per share. Revenue rose 9% to $21.82bn.

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Tunisia Protests Over Mohamed Brahmi Killing

Thousands of Tunisians have gathered to protest over the assassination of leading opposition politician Mohamed Brahmi.

Mr Brahmi was shot dead by gunmen outside his home on Thursday.

The protesters massed in front of the interior ministry building in Tunis and called for the government's resignation, shouting slogans such as "Down with the rule of the Islamists!"

Large protests have also been reported in in Sidi Bouzid, the birthplace of the Tunisian revolution, where he was MP.

Mr Brahmi, 58, was a member of the nationalist and secular Popular Party.

He was also one of the politicians helping to write a new constitution for the North African country.

"He was riddled with bullets in front of his wife and children," Mohsen Nabti, a fellow member of the small leftist movement, said on Tunisian radio. 

Mohamed Brahmi's daughter joined protests outside the hospital

His killers reportedly fired at his car before speeding off on a motorbike.

It is the second assassination of an opposition politician following the murder of another leftist politician, Chokri Belaid, in February.

That assassination led to a political crisis, mass protests, and the resignation of Islamist prime minister Hamadi Jebali.

The government has blamed Mr Belaid's assassination on Islamic extremists and said six suspects will soon be identified.

Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring, is struggling with a democratic transition after the overthrow of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.

The country is now led by the moderate Islamist Ennahda Party, which rules in a coalition with two secular parties.

However, the opposition has criticised Ennahda for not cracking down on hardline Islamists, who have been blamed for many acts of violence in the last few years.

Ennahda has condemned the latest killing as a "cowardly and despicable crime".

In a statement, it called on the government to "urgently arrest those who committed this crime and reveal those behind them who have targeted the stability of the country".

A day of mourning has been declared for Friday.

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Spain Train Crash: Footage Of Disaster Emerges

The moment a train derailed in a crash that has left at least 80 people dead in Spain has been caught by security cameras at the side of the tracks.

The video shows the train entering a sharp bend at high speed, then coming off the rails, with carriages smashing into a wall.

An official source has told the Reuters news agency the train was travelling at excessive speed.

Survivors have described carriages flipping over and bursting into flames after the derailment just outside Santiago de Compostela, a popular pilgrimage city in northwestern Spain.

In the video, the carriage immediately behind the locomotive appears to derail first. Then all the carriages can be seen piling up behind it as the engine hurtles toward the camera position.

Rescue workers pull passengers from the wreckage

More than 140 people, including a Briton and several Americans, were hurt in the crash, and 35, including four children, remain in a serious condition. Local government officials have warned the death toll could rise further.

Bodies were strewn across the tracks and rescuers worked into the night to help the survivors.

Officials have opened an investigation, with reports the train was travelling at twice the speed limit.

Sky's Robert Nisbet, in Santiago, said: "Whether the speed of the train was due to human error or some kind of technical problem is going to be the source of some inquiry."

According to El Pais newspaper, one of the two drivers reported the train was travelling at almost 120mph (190kph) when it entered the curve.

"I'm going at 190!" he told the railway station by radio, according to the Spanish newspaper, which cited sources close to the investigation.

Relatives of the passengers await news in Santiago

"We're only human! We're only human!" said the driver, who was trapped in his cabin.

"I hope there aren't any dead because it will weigh on my conscience."

The speed limit on that section of track is 50mph (80kph), El Pais said. Reuters said one driver was under investigation.

The train "did not have any technical problems" and had been inspected just hours earlier, the state-owned Renfe railway company said.

The Alvia 730 series train travelling from Madrid to the port city of Ferrol was carrying 218 passengers plus crew when it crashed about 8.40pm local time - 7.40pm UK time - on Wednesday.

The crash was the deadliest in Spain in decades

It was one of the worst train disasters in Spain for decades.

Firefighters, who called off a strike to help with the disaster, clambered over the twisted metal as they tried to get survivors out of the windows.

Bodies covered in blankets lay next to the overturned carriages as smoke billowed from the wreckage.

Neighbours who ran to the site to help emergency workers have described a scene of horror.

"It was like an earthquake," said Martin Rozas who helped pull the wounded from the wreckage and laid blankets over the dead.

"I started helping pull people out. I saw about five people dead."

At dawn, some carriages were lifted from the tracks. By midday, the rescue workers had stopped looking for bodies.

Emergency crews at the scene hours after the crash

Many of the dead were taken to a makeshift morgue set up in a sports arena in Santiago, where police and court officials were identifying the bodies.

Relatives of victims sobbed and hugged each other at a nearby information point for families seeking news about their missing loved ones.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who was born in the city, visited the site and the main hospital, announcing three days of mourning across Spain.

He said: "For a native of Santiago, like me, this is the saddest day."

The crash occurred on the eve of a major Christian religious festival honouring St James, the disciple of Jesus whose remains are said to rest in a shrine.

Many of the dead or injured were believed to be Catholic pilgrims converging on the city. Officials have now cancelled ceremonies planned for today.

The Spanish royal family has suspended all engagements.

Alvias are high-speed trains but they do not go as fast as Spain's fastest bullet trains, which are called AVEs.

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