Zimbabwe: Mugabe Claims Victory A Blow To West

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has declared his election victory an "enemy blow" to the "British and their allies".

Mr Mugabe accused his main rival Morgan Tsvangirai, who declared the election null and void, of being a tool of the West.

The president's re-election last week marks a 33-year unbroken run in power but there have been allegations of vote-rigging and election fraud.

Mr Mugabe, Africa's oldest leader at the age of 89, said his ZANU-PF party's two-thirds majority victory had "dealt the enemy a blow".

He added: "But now they, even as the whole of Africa is sending us messages of congratulations to say 'well done', they say the elections were not free. And where are they talking? London and Washington and Ottawa."

Voters were sent to the wrong polling stations and turned away

Mr Mugabe reminded Western governments that they had pledged to consider lifting sanctions if the elections were found to be free and fair.

Mr Tsvangirai has announced that his MDC party will challenge the outcome of the July 31 election in court, alleging vote-rigging and intimidation by ZANU-PF party officials.

The African Union and the Southern African Development Community have declare the elections "free" and "credible" but refused to go so far as to say they were fair.

This, despite, monitors finding evidence of "irregularities" including people being sent to the wrong voting stations and two million more voting cards being printed than necessary.

Some two million too many voting cards were printed

Foreign Secretary William Hague has voiced "grave concerns" over activities that "call into serious question the credibility of the election".

He said there was no evidence that the roll of eligible voters was made available for all parties to scrutinise ahead of the vote.

He added: "We also have concerns over reports of large numbers of voters who were turned away, particularly in urban areas, the very high numbers of extra ballot papers that were printed and additional polling stations apparently added on election day itself."

The United States, which maintains sanctions against Mr Mugabe, has said it does not believe Mr Mugabe's re-election was credible.

Morgan Tsvangirai will challenge the legitimacy of Mr Mugabe's victory

The European Union, which has been looking at easing sanctions, has also expressed concerns over alleged serious flaws in the vote.

Mr Mugabe, indicated his critics should not expect any let-up in economic nationalism policies, such as the violent seizure of white-owned farms after 2000, that have also earned Western disapproval.

He said: "Our task is to look ahead. What we say we shall do, we will do."

The Zimbabwe stock exchange's main Industrial Index shed 1% on Wednesday, following a 1.7% fall on Tuesday and an 11% drop on Monday, the first trading day after Mr Mugabe's re-election was formerly announced.

Investors fear that ZANU-PF's boosted majority could embolden it to pursue even more radical economic nationalism.

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Melbourne: Teenager Falls Through Glass Roof

A teenager has suffered serious injuries after falling 15 metres and crashing through the roof of a shopping centre.

Australian Police said the 18-year-old man lost his footing while climbing on a ledge at the top of the Block Arcade building in Melbourne.

He is believed to have gained access to the roof after taking an internal lift with two other people.

He slipped and fell nine metres from the roof before crashing through a glass ceiling and landing next to stunned shoppers.

Footage of what happened shows some people scattering at the moment of impact, while others tentatively approach the barely-moving victim to see if he is OK.

The teenager was taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital with serious injuries including fractures to his wrists, pelvis and legs.

A hospital spokeswoman said he was in a critical condition the day after the fall.

Paramedics also treated a woman in her 60s who was injured by a piece of falling glass.

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Big Baby: Brit Mum Has Heaviest Born In Spain

A British woman has given birth to the biggest ever baby born naturally in Spain, a hospital has said.

Maxime Marin, 40, did not even need an epidural - a painkiller delivered into the spine during childbirth.

The baby girl called Maria Lorena Marin weighed 13lb 7oz (6.095kg) which is about twice the size of an average baby.

Hospital Marina Salud in the Mediterranean city of Denia said she was in "perfect health" following the straightforward delivery.

Ms Marin said she expected the baby, born after 41 weeks, to be "big but not that big" as her three older children each weighed more than 9lb 14oz (4.480kg) at birth.

She brushed off the five-hour labour as "simple", while the newborn's Colombian father, Jaime Marin, said everything went well.

Dr Javier Rius, head of gynaecology at the hospital, said in his 40 years of practice he had never known a baby born naturally to weigh so much.

Earlier this year, a Californian woman gave birth to a child weighing even more than Maria.

Mum Maxime Marin and her newborn Maria (Pic: Hospital Marina Salud)

Jayden Sigler was 13lb 14oz (6.293kg) when he was delivered by Caesarean section.

And George King became one of the heaviest babies born naturally in England when he was delivered earlier this year weighing 15lb 7oz (7.002kg).

Almost two-thirds of babies born in England and Wales in 2010 weighed between 6lb 9oz (2.976kg) and 8lb 13oz (3.997kg), according to the Office for National Statistics.

Of the 700,000 children born during that year, more than 460,000 were in this range.

The heaviest baby ever born weighed 23lb 12oz (10.773kg) in Canada in 1879, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

But the baby, whose mother Anna Bates had giantism - a condition characterised by excessive growth and height significantly above average, died 11 hours later.

In 1955 a baby boy weighing 22lbs 8oz (10.206kg) was born to Carmelina Fedele in Aversa, Italy.

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Boy Snatched In 1964 Returned To Wrong Family

The FBI is reinvestigating the 1964 kidnapping of a newborn baby, after DNA tests revealed the wrong boy was later returned to the elated parents.

Paul Fronczak, 49, is a married father himself now, and for a long time he wondered why he did not resemble his own father and mother, Chester and Dora Fronczak.

They all underwent genetic testing earlier this year to prove once and for all that he was their biological son. The test came back negative.

Mr Fronczak wrote his parents a letter when he got the results to let them know.

"I really feel in my heart that the real Paul Fronczak is alive and well ... and nothing would make me more happy in this life than to find the real kidnapped child, and at the same time I wouldn't mind finding out who I am," he told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Hundreds of police officers and FBI agents searched for the couple's newborn son after his abduction from Michael Reese Hospital Chicago in April 1964.

Paul Fronczak underwent DNA testing to discover the truth. Pic: WCBS

The case came to an apparently happy end more than a year later when an abandoned child resembling the Fronczaks' baby was found in New Jersey and returned to them.

The police made the decision largely based on the pointed shape of the child's ears.

With no firm proof at the the time that he was their son, the happy parents had to legally adopt the one-year-old.

The elderly Fronczaks have declined to comment about the reopening of the investigation. They say they prefer not to get directly involved as it would be too painful for them.

They spoke briefly to the Sun-Times, telling the paper: "We went through this once, and we certainly don't want to go through this again."

Joan Hyde, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Chicago office, said the bureau decided to reopen the Fronczak case after reviewing the original case file.

"We decided it merited another look," she said. "The main thing is to look at physical evidence and see if technology and tests that weren't available when the case was originally worked could provide leads."

The bureau is likely to interview witnesses as part of the investigation, which is expected to "take time".

Paul Fronczak has said he just wants to learn his true identity.

"I don't know how old I am, or who I am, or what nationality, all those things you just take for granted," he has said.

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Philippines Deports Activist Who Made Cop Cry

A 20-year-old Dutch activist has been deported from the Philippines after making a police officer cry during a rally against the president of the island nation.

Thomas van Beersum was photographed by Rem Zamora of abs-cbnnews yelling at a weeping Filipino riot police officer during a protest outside parliament where President Benigno Aquino III was making his annual address.

After the confrontation between the very slight Mr van Beersum and the burly officer, the policeman was pictured still sobbing as he was comforted.

Now Mr Van Beersum has been ordered out of the country. Immigration bureau spokeswoman Antonette Mangrobang said: "He participated in a protest rally …  where he berated and (used) foul words directed at the government and a police officer."

A deportation order was issued against Mr van Beersum for violating conditions of his tourist visa and he was put on an immigration blacklist.

However, Wilson Soluren, head of Manila airport's immigration intelligence, said the activist was prevented from boarding a flight home because officials needed to verify if any Philippine court cases were pending against him.

Mr Van Beersum has been blacklisted

Mr Van Beersum wrote on his Facebook site on Tuesday: "Am now in Hong Kong waiting for my flight back to Amsterdam. I was not allowed to board my plane and to go back to my country yesterday morning. I got detained for about 30 hours at the airport just so the immigration officials could deport me.

"This harassment is obviously done to distract the people from the actual problems that the country faces, such as the almost total domination of its economy by foreign capitalists and the complicity of comprador (sic) puppets such as Aquino. And let's not forget the human rights abuses under Aquino's administration either."

Mr van Beersum has said in an open letter that he joined left-wing demonstrators because he was outraged by alleged human rights violations in the country, including the killing of Dutch environmental activist Wilhelm Geertman last year.

Mr Geertman's shooting is unsolved, and a Protestant bishops' group believes he was the target of people who would be affected by his advocacy.

Mr van Beersum's confrontation with the police officer followed a brief clash between anti-riot squads and protesters demanding jobs and land for poor farmers outside the heavily guarded House of Representatives, where President Aquino delivered a State of the Nation address on July 22.

Police said at least 15 people were hurt.

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Cherokee Girl Must Return To Adoptive Parents

A Cherokee girl who was forcibly returned to her Native American father must be immediately placed back with her adoptive parents, a US court has ruled.

Matt and Melanie Capobianco have been trying to adopt three-year-old Veronica since her birth in 2009. They raised her as their own daughter for two years.

But she has been living with her biological father, Dusten Brown, in Oklahoma since 2011, when South Carolina's Supreme Court ruled in favour of a federal law that governs the placement of American Indian children.

The Capobiancos, from Charleston, appealed to the US Supreme Court, which ruled that the state should determine the girl's placement.

South Carolina's highest court subsequently ordered a judge to go ahead and finalise the adoption. The case file is sealed, but was obtained by WCBD-TV.

Matt and Melanie Capobianco have battled for two years. Pic: WCBD-TV

The judge also approved a transition plan that laid out a gradual process for reintroducing the girl to the Capobiancos. But Mr Brown failed to show up with Veronica for the first of those scheduled gatherings on August 4.

State and federal prosecutors have been charged with immediately locating and transferring her.

"Baby girl Veronica is being unlawfully withheld from her lawful parents," Judge Daniel Martin wrote.

The Capobiancos say they can sympathise with the Brown family as they prepare to say goodbye to the girl - something the couple did nearly two years ago.

"We understand their heartbreak and their pain better than anybody," Mrs Capobianco said. "I hate that all of this has happened. It makes me sad because I do know how they feel."

Veronica has been living with Mr Brown's wife and parents in Oklahoma while he serves a month-long stint with the National Guard.

Cherokee Nation Assistant Attorney General Chrissi Nimmo called it "physically and legally impossible for Dusten to comply with the current order".

Mr Brown is also pursuing custody of his daughter through the Oklahoma court system.

Several American Indian groups are also pursuing a federal civil rights case, saying a hearing should be held to determine if it is in Veronica's best interest to be transferred to South Carolina.

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Gorbachev Forced To Deny Rumours He Is Dead

By Katie Stallard, Moscow Correspondent

Former soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has been forced to deny rumours of his own death after hackers sent false alerts from the Twitter accounts of a state news agency.

"I'm alive and well," Mr Gorbachev said last night, using a blanked-out Russian expletive to describe those behind the rumours, who he said were "hoping in vain".

His denials came after two Twitter accounts belonging to the RIA Novosti state news agency posted reports of the death of Mr Gorbachev, the first and last president of the USSR.

The agency said they had been subject to a cyberattack by hackers and that the tweets were spotted and deleted within five minutes of being posted.

They said they had asked Russia's security service, the FSB, to investigate, and apologised directly to Mr Gorbachev.

"Dear Mikhail Sergeyevich," a RIA Novosti spokesperson said.

"We are endlessly sorry that hackers used your name in another campaign to discredit the media and we ask you to accept our deepest apologies."

The messages were not the most convincing - one said: "Mikhail Gorbachev has died in the Shoko café in Yekaterinburg."

Another said that he had died whilst talking to opposition politician Yevgeny Roizman, who is standing for mayor of the Siberian city.

Mr Gorbachev has suffered health problems lately. In June, his spokesman said that he had been treated in hospital in connection with his diabetes, while in April he was not well enough to travel to Margaret Thatcher's funeral in London.

But the 82-year-old has continued to take a keen interest in Russian politics, issuing statements criticising President Vladimir Putin's rule and condemning the conviction of feminist punk band Pussy Riot and opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

In a statement on the website of Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper he co-owns, Mr Gorbachev said he suspected the hackers were "carrying out the orders of some authorities" and that he had asked the paper to investigate who was behind it.

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Cyberbullying: Arrests Over Canada Teen Death

Police in Canada have made two arrests in the case of an alleged rape victim who died after she was bullied over a viral photo of her ordeal.

Rehtaeh Parsons, 17, was taken off life support in April - with her family claiming she was driven to take her own life after she was tormented over an alleged assault in 2011.

Her mother Leah Parsons said a boy took a photo of the alleged assault, which was then passed around pupils at Rehtaeh's school.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Cpl Scott MacRae said two men were arrested and taken in for questioning. 

Officers have 24 hours to decide whether to release or charge them.

The death of Hannah Smith sparked a backlash against ask.fm

The development came as ask.fm came under pressure to tackle online bullying following the death of Hannah Smith.

Canadian police said in April that a witness had provided new information in the case and could identify the suspects.

Rehtaeh's mother said the family is hopeful charges will be brought.

She said: "I feel that the investigation wasn't handled properly from the beginning and I've never seen the file, so I don't really know why or how that happened.

"I'm just glad that it was reopened, and I'm really happy that they have two people to question."

Rehtaeh's death has been compared to similar cases in the United States, including that of Audrie Pott, a 15-year-old girl from California who killed herself after her family says she was sexually assaulted and a photo surfaced online.

Audrie Pott killed herself after photos of an alleged assault went viral

Rehtaeh's death prompted the Nova Scotia government to launch reviews of the RCMP's original investigation and the school board's handling of the matter.

The review of the RCMP's investigation is ongoing but an independent report released in June concluded that the Halifax Regional School Board could have done more, but was hindered by Rehtaeh's poor attendance record.

The report also said the Parsons family faced challenges when they turned to Nova Scotia's mental health system for help.

The arrests come a day after a new law took effect in the province that allows people to sue if they or their children are being cyberbullied.

Victims also can seek a protection order that could place restrictions on or help identify the cyberbully.

Justice Minister Ross Landry introduced the legislation weeks after Rehtaeh's death.

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Teen Suicide: Site 'Does Not Condone Bullying'

The founders of ask.fm, where teenager Hannah Smith was bullied before she took her own life, have defended the social networking website.

It comes as firms including Vodafone, Phones 4u, Specsavers, Laura Ashley, DialAFlight and Universelook as well as charities Mind and Save The Children pulled their advertising from the site amid "deep concerns over cyber bullying". 

Bosses Mark and Ilja Terebin of the Latvia-based website said they were committed to providing a "safe environment" for their users and wanted to reassure them and their parents.

They also said: "We do not condone bullying of any kind, or any form of unacceptable use of our site."

Hannah's father, Dave Smith, has called for the website's owners to be charged with manslaughter.

The 14-year-old girl from Lutterworth, Leicestershire, was found hanged on Friday after repeated messages encouraging her to kill herself and criticising her appearance.

Dave Smith and Hannah's stepmother Deborah (Pic: Mirror)

Ask.fm allows users to post anonymous questions and messages but has been criticised for not doing enough after several other teenagers took their lives - apparently after receiving abuse on the site.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror in his first on-camera interview since Hannah's death, Mr Smith said: "The people that run it should get done for manslaughter or murder because you try contacting them and they don't care.

"These websites should be got rid of, if nothing else they need to be regulated and they need to stop people from doing this."

Ask.fm has expressed its "sincerest sympathies" to Hannah's family, called her death a "true tragedy" and said it was co-operating with Leicestershire Police's investigation.

In the latest statement, the founders also said they wanted to highlight a number of existing "safety" features available for its users.

They said these included an 'in-question' reporting function, in place since 2012, and similar to the in-Tweet function announced by Twitter this week.

Hannah Smith (L) and her best friend Georgia Clarke

This feature enables our users to report with just one click any question that they may find objectionable or offensive.

The bosses added they have a team of moderators working around the clock who manually check every photograph or video posted to the site, so anything of a sexual, pornographic or violent nature is removed.

"Our moderators also read and deal appropriately with every concern or report that is raised by a user; we remove content if we feel it infringes our terms of service."

They added: "Although it is possible to post anonymously to the site, we would like to reassure parents that in almost all cases it is possible for ask.fm to identify users - through IP technology."

Earlier, staff at ask.fm refused to tell Sky News about its system for reporting abuse.

Sky's Ian Woods approached an employee in Riga, Latvia and asked to see how the firm moderates its messages and how it tackles abuse.

But the worker said the correspondent should speak to an official from the company.

The Prime Minister had said internet users should boycott "vile" websites which allow cyber bullying to avoid more deaths of young people who receive abuse online.

David Cameron said website operators must "step up to the plate" to ensure users are protected.

:: Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 08457 90 90 90 or email jo@samaritans.org.

:: BeatBullying.org is also available for advice and support.

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Zanzibar: Brit Acid Attack Victims Coming Home

Two British teenagers injured in an acid attack on the island of Zanzibar are due to fly home tonight.

Katie Gee and Kirstie Trup, both 18, were attacked by two men on a motorbike as they walked through the historic capital Stone Town on Wednesday night.

The acid was splashed over their faces, chests, backs and hands. They have been flown to hospital in Dar es Salaam on the Tanzania mainland, where they are recovering.

Katie Gee had been volunteering as a teacher

The teenagers, both from north London, are expected to leave Dar es Salaam at 8pm (UK time).

They were in the last week of a month-long trip as volunteer teachers to the predominantly Muslim island when they were attacked.

In a statement, i-to-i Travel, which organised their visit, said: "We can now confirm that both individuals are scheduled to be repatriated to the UK.

Kirstie Trup was also injured in the attack

"They are scheduled to leave Tanzania later this evening."

Jakaya Kikwete, Tanzania's president, is reported to have visited them at the Aga Khan Hospital and promised that the men responsible for the "shameful" attack would be found.

Nicky Gee says her daugther has been badly burned

Katie's mother Nicky Gee told Sky News that her daughter had suffered burns to her "whole face and her whole body".

Earlier Mrs Gee said she had been struggling with the Foreign Office and the insurance company to get them flown home.

The street in Stone Town where the attack took place

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: "We are doing all we can to support the girls' welfare and help them get home as quickly as possible.

"We facilitated the girls' flight from Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam. Consular staff have been with the girls at the hospital throughout and our High Commissioner has visited the girls.

"We are liaising with the insurance company to ensure the medical evacuation happens as quickly as possible."

The attack came at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan as people began to celebrate the Eid holiday.

Mrs Gee made it clear, however, that both of the girls were aware of how to behave appropriately in a Muslim country and had been correctly dressed for Ramadan.

An update on Miss Gee's Twitter page

A close friend of the family told Sky News the girls had been having an amazing time and were both fully aware of the customs of a Muslim country.

But the Twitter page of Katie Gee illustrates the sensitivities of their trip. She tweeted on July 24: " A Muslim woman just hit me in the street for singing on Ramadan. Is that normal".

The assault is the first against foreigners in the popular tourist destination, however, there have been a series of local attacks in the archipelago, mainly on grounds of religion.

Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous region of Tanzania

But Deputy Police Commissioner Mkadam Khamis told Sky News the attack had "nothing to do with Ramadan".

He said it is believed the girls were caught in an incident between two motorcycles and they were not the intended targets.

Zanzibar is an archipelago of islands in the Indian Ocean around 22 miles off the mainland.

The semi-autonomous region of Tanzania is predominantly Muslim and has been the scene of some religious violence in recent years.

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