Woman Tries To Sell Baby In Airport Toilet

A woman has been arrested in Turkey for allegedly trying to sell her baby to a couple in a toilet at an airport.

Turkish police released CCTV showing the 22-year-old, identified as Dinara A, arriving at Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen airport in a taxi with her mother - and the child in a carrycot.

The Turkish-born German couple arriving at the airport

Once the cab leaves, the woman can be seen speaking on her mobile phone.

The security footage then shows a couple at the airport - the woman with a handbag and man with a red suitcase - heading to meet her.

Dinara A enters the toilet with the baby, followed by the other woman who is seen leaving the facility with the baby.

The pair on their way to the meeting

Police said the woman agreed to hand over the child to the Turkish-born German couple in an airport toilet on September 14 in exchange for 1,000 Turkish Liras (£310), Dogan News Agency reported.

According to police sources, the German woman decided to return the baby to the toilets after she realised she could not pass through passport control with the child.

She later called police claiming she had found the baby in the toilet.

She emerges from the toilets with the baby in its carrycot

Dinara A, her baby, and mother were later deported from Turkey.

The German woman was released after providing testimony.

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Twitter's Share Price Soars On Opening Day

Twitter's share price has risen by more than 80% within the company's first two hours of trading in New York.

The social networking site, which started trading at 1430 GMT under the ticker symbol TWTR, had set a price of $26 (£16) for its public stock offering.

However, in a sign that investors are willing to bet on potential growth at the company, the price leapt to more than $49 by 1600 GMT - a rise of 88%.

The original price valued the San Francisco-based micro-blogging site at more than $18bn (£11.2bn), based on its outstanding stock, options and restricted stock expected to be available after the initial public offering (IPO).

The company has initially offered 70 million shares with an option to buy another 10.5 million.

Twitter is trading under the ticker symbol TWTR

Twitter boasts 230 million global users, including heads of state and celebrities.

However, the company lost $65m (£40m) in its most recent quarter and questions remain about its long-term prospects.

Twitter's stock market debut is the biggest of any technology firm since Facebook went public in 2012.

The floor of the New York Stock Exchange was busy with both traders and media, eager to see how the company would fair in its first few hours of trading.

Twitter had initially set a price range of $17 (£10.57) to $20 (£12.44) but raised the range on Monday signalling an enthusiastic response from prospective investors.

More follows...

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Ireland Bailout Exit Nears After Last Review

Ireland will next month become the first eurozone country to exit a bailout programme after the EU and IMF completed their final compliance review.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan and Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin said in a joint statement: "This is a significant day, that many thought, and some feared, would never be reached."

But Mr Noonan confirmed that no decision had been taken as to whether the country would require a precautionary credit line or financial backstop after it exits the bailout on December 15, though a decision on any 'overdraft' would be made by that date.

The Irish Government has claimed it is in a strong position to re-enter the international money markets.

Michael Noonan still faces tough spending choices

"We're positioned to decide as a Government which course of action is in the best interest of Ireland and it's a free choice. We're not being pressured by anybody," Mr Noonan insisted.

It was three years ago that the country went cap-in-hand to the international lenders for a €85bn bailout.

Debts resulting from a rescue of its bank sector in 2008 eventually forced Ireland into seeking the aid from the International Monetary Fund, the ECB and EU in 2010.

Five years of austerity sparked a so-called brain drain as the jobless total rose amid widespread anger at the behaviour of the banks.

But it resulted in little of the unrest that has rocked Greece and Spain and is now seen by some economists as a much-needed success story for the EU, which wants to show that the discipline of tax hikes and spending cuts can work, despite the hardship they have imposed on the Irish people.

Irish debt yields have dropped from a 2011 peak of 15% to about 3.5% and the budget deficit has fallen from nearly a third of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010 to an estimated 7.3% this year.

That is still the highest deficit-to-GDP in the EU, partly because Ireland's economy is barely growing and it needs growth rates of 2-3% to make hefty national debt sustainable.

Unemployment, though falling, is above 13% and one in five home loans, worth €25bn are not being fully repaid.

But the wider improvements have been enough to gain the government some market access, highlighted by a 10-year bond issue in March, but forgoing a precautionary line could leave it vulnerable to future market shocks and unable to access the ECB's government bond purchases scheme.

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Philippines Braced For Typhoon Haiyan

Thousands of villagers, including those from an area devastated recently by an earthquake, have been forced to leave their homes as a powerful typhoon approaches the Philippines.

Typhoon Haiyan has already built up winds of 134mph and gusts of 155mph and there are fears it could get even stronger before it reaches Eastern Samar on Friday.

The head of the government's main disaster response agency said people are being moved from communities prone to landslides and flooding.

These include residents of Bohol, many of whom are still living in tents following the earthquake.

Haiyan is expected to cause massive damage

Haiyan is not expected to hit the province directly but it will almost certainly be lashed by strong wind and rain, say forecasters.

The military says Army troops are helping to deliver food packs and other items to communities that are hard to reach and rescue helicopters are on stand-by.

The typhoon is forecast to barrel through the country's central region on Friday and Saturday before heading towards the South China Sea on Sunday.

Manila, the densely-populated capital in the north, should not be affected.

Haiyan will be the 24th such storm in the Philippines this year, even more than usual. The annual average is 20.

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Meteor 'Fireball' Lights Up California Sky

People in southern California have reported seeing a fireball that forecasters said was most likely a meteor streaking across the sky.

The sightings were made by people from Santa Barbara down to San Diego starting at around 8pm local time on Wednesday.

There were also reports from Arizona, Nevada and Utah.

The National Weather Service said the sightings were most likely associated with the South Taurids meteor shower that has been especially active in early November.

Astronomers say the Taurids do not bring big numbers of visible meteors but a high percentage of extremely bright ones that look like fireballs.

"Under clear, dark skies, some 10 to 15 Taurids may appear per hour. They are often yellowish-orange and, as meteors go, appear to move rather slowly," wrote the website space.com

Twitter lit up with reports of the sightings, though few were able to capture the streak on camera.

Twitter user @Casheets posted: "I saw a meteor tonight, the coolest scariest thing I've ever seen."

Comedian Eli Braden tweeted that he "just saw an absolutely INSANE meteor in the sky above Glendale, CA ... Either that or the alien invasion has begun."

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Castro Victim: I Was The Most Hated One

One of the three women held captive in an Ohio home for a decade has said she was forced to help captor Ariel Castro prepare a chamber for a fellow victim.

In a long interview with TV host Dr Phil McGraw, Michelle Knight has given the most detailed account so far on the ordeal the women  endured.

The 32-year-old spoke of her relationship with the other captives, Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry, and of her feelings the moment police rescued them in May last year.

Knight, who was Castro's first victim, said she had seen TV reports about the disappearance of Ms DeJesus, then 14, when Castro forced her to help prepare the room.

She said she had heard screams coming from the house.

"All I hear is fighting in the basement. I could hear things crash and I could hear somebody screaming, 'Get off me. Get off me,'" Ms Knight said.

"All I could hear was a girl screaming for help and nobody comes, nobody helps her."

Ariel Castro's home has been torn down

Castro told Ms Knight that Ms DeJesus was his daughter and that she was coming to visit – but she knew that was not true.

"He was telling me that I needed to help him prepare another room and I didn't want to prepare that room," Knight said.

"I had to help him drill holes in the wall to put the chains through to hook us together."

Ms Knight said she and Ms DeJesus were chained together often and they became close.

Ms Knight said there were times when she stopped Castro from hitting Ms DeJesus, taking the beating herself and telling him: "I'm the one you hate."

The three women endured beatings, starvation, rape and other abuse during their time in Castro's home in Cleveland.

Ms Knight said she became pregnant at least five times while in Castro's home. Each time, she said, Castro beat her brutally until she miscarried.

Amanda Berry (L) and Gina DeJesus at the time of their abduction

"I was the most hated one," she said.

The woman said Castro liked Ms Berry because of what she called his "obsession with blondes", and said she helped deliver Ms Berry's baby.

Asked how she feels about Ms Berry, Ms Knight said, "We're OK. Not the best of friends, but OK."

Castro, 53, pleaded guilty to kidnapping the three women, imprisoning them and repeatedly raping and beating them. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Ms Knight said she became pregnant at least five times

A month into his sentence, Castro was found dead in his cell. His death was initially ruled a suicide, but a prison report indicated he may have died accidentally as a result of auto-erotic asphyxiation.

Ms Knight recalled being scared when she heard police come in, saying it was a "roller coaster of mixed emotion".

"I wanted to kiss the ground that I was walking on and thank God for letting me get out of that hellhole."

Police came to the house after a dramatic 911 call in which Ms Berry cried for help.

Castro had gone out, Ms Knight said, and they were scared because they thought it might be intruders.

"So we're hiding, because we're scared. We're terrified. We didn't know that the cops were down there," the woman said.

"We thought somebody was breaking in, because it was a bad neighbourhood."

Ms Knight says she heard an officer shout, "Police!" but still did not feel safe - until she saw a badge.

"I just ran," she recalled. "I jumped on her (the officer) and I never let go."

The three women have been trying to readjust to life after their ordeal.

Ms DeJesus and Ms Berry are reportedly planning to collaborate with a Pulitzer Prize-winning team of reporters for a book about their experience.

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Cyber Most Wanted List Gets Five New Names

Five men have been added to the FBI's Cyber Most Wanted list for their roles in crimes that saw tens of millions of dollars being stolen.

The FBI says hundreds of thousands of people fell victim to the suspects for whom rewards of up to $100,000 (£62,190) are being offered.

Perez-Melara

They include Carlos Perez-Melara who is being sought for a variety of cyber crimes including running a fraudulent website in 2003 that offered customers a way to "catch a cheating lover".

People who took the offer downloaded spyware that secretly installed a programme on their computers which allowed scammers to steal the victims' identities and personal information.

Pakistani nationals Farhan Arshad and Noor Aziz Uddin are wanted for their alleged involvement in an international telecommunications hacking scheme.

Between 2008 and 2012, the pair gained unauthorised access to business telephone systems, resulting in losses exceeding $50m (£31m).

Arshad and Uddin are part of an international criminal ring that the FBI believes extends into Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Spain, Singapore, Italy, Malaysia and other countries.

The new additions to the cyber list were announced by the CBI's executive assistant director of Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch Richard McFeely.

Arshad (L) and Uddin

"Throughout its history, the FBI has depended on the public's help and support to bring criminals to justice. That was true in the gangster era, and it's just as true in the cyber era," he said.

"We need the public's help to catch these individuals who have made it their mission to spy on and steal from our nation and our citizens."

The other two on the list are Syrian national Andrey Nabilevich Taame and Alexsey Belan from Russia.

Taame (L) and Belan

Taame is wanted for his alleged role in Operation Ghost Click, a malware scheme that compromised more than four million computers in more than 100 countries between 2007 and October 2011.

There were at least 500,000 victims in the US alone.

Belan is wanted for allegedly remotely accessing the computer networks of three US-based companies in 2012 and 2013 and stealing sensitive data as well as employees' identities.

All five suspects are believed to be living outside the US.

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ECB Cuts Interest Rate To Boost Recovery

The European Central Bank (ECB) has cut its core interest rate in a bid to boost flagging economic recovery in the euro area.

The bank lowered the benchmark refinancing rate to a record low 0.25% from 0.5% at a meeting of its 23-member governing council in Frankfurt.

The move startled many investors while most economists thought the bank would wait to offer more economic stimulus at least until December, when it will have new forecasts from its own staff.

The council was responding to a slump in inflation to 0.7% in October - way below its 2% target and threatening to choke the wider economic recovery.

In addition to the ECB cutting its main refinancing rate to 0.25%, it held the deposit rate it pays on bank deposits at 0% and cut its marginal lending facility - or emergency borrowing rate - to 0.75% from 1%.

Rate correct at 13.32 GMT

The surprise move underlined the bank's newfound flexibility under its president Mario Draghi.

A lower refinancing rate makes it cheaper for banks to borrow from the ECB, in hopes that that lower rate will be reflected in what companies pay for credit.

That would make it easier for them to expand and create new jobs and growth.

The ECB's UK counterpart the Bank of England had earlier confirmed no change to its own monetary policy - leaving the base rate of interest at 0.5% amid no pressure to raise it yet despite Britain's economic recovery gaining momentum.

The ECB's decision had an immediate effect on the markets - with many of Europe's major stock markets hitting fresh five-year highs while the euro was sharply lower.

The FTSE 100 swung from losses on the day back into the black near its own five-year high on the news.

David Bloom, global head of FX strategy at HSBC said of the ECB: "They want the double whammy of a lower euro on growth and (a boost to) inflation.

"We wanted a stronger response to the stronger euro/dollar and we've got it," he said.

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Marine Afghanistan 'Murder' Audio Released

A recording of the moments a Royal Marine allegedly executed a captured Afghan national has been released by a military court.

Three men - known only as marines A, B and C - are appearing before the court martial charged with killing the unknown person on or around September 15, 2011, while on patrol in Afghanistan. They deny the charges.

A gunshot is heard on the recording shortly before Marine A is heard saying: "Shuffle off this mortal coil, you ****."

He is then heard saying: "Obviously this doesn't go anywhere fellas ... I've just broken the Geneva Convention."

A panel at the court martial in Bulford, Wiltshire, has retired to consider its verdicts in the case, after two weeks of evidence.

The whole event was filmed by a camera mounted on the helmet of one of the three commandos.

Judge Advocate General Jeff Blackett has ruled that the graphic video footage cannot be released, but has agreed that the audio can be made public.

Referring to the video, he said: "Its release may be for proper journalistic purposes ... but would also be used for sensationalist purposes by others and propaganda purposes by terrorist groups. More importantly its release will increase the threat of harm to British service personnel.

Another image from the helmet camera footage released by the court

"I am not prepared to make an order which may lead to the injury or death of a single member of the British armed forces and in making this decision I have erred on the side of safety."

The court martial heard the insurgent had been shot at by an Apache attack helicopter with 139 30mm anti-tank rounds but was still alive - albeit seriously injured - when discovered by the patrol.

The footage, which was shown to the court, shows Marine A walking forward, bending down, and shooting the man at close range in the centre of his chest with a 9mm pistol.

Giving evidence to the court martial, Marine A insisted he believed the insurgent was dead at the time and he was simply shooting into a corpse in anger.

Also released were excerpts from a diary kept by Marine C, including one extract that relates to the moments of the shooting.

It reads: "... although for one minute I thought we were actually going to treat and (have him airlifted by helicopter), Marine A squashed it and sent it up that he'd snuffed it while we treated him.

"So there I was, pistol drawn, waiting for Marine A to get off the net so I could pop this little ****** and be done with it; when Marine A came back over, and thinned me out, to (help the others keep look-out).

"As I walked off towards (name removed) and (name removed), Marine A popped him one himself! I felt mugged off, but job done; little **** was dead at the end of the day."

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Yasser Arafat 'Poisoning Was Probably Deliberate'

Timeline: Yasser Arafat

Updated: 9:52am UK, Tuesday 27 November 2012

Here are some of the key dates in Mr Arafat's life.

:: February 4, 1969 Mr Arafat, the fifth child of a Palestinian merchant, takes over the PLO chairmanship. He transforms it into a force that makes the Palestinian cause known worldwide.

:: June 6, 1982 Israel invades Lebanon to crush the PLO, forcing Mr Arafat and loyalists to flee Beirut.

:: October 1, 1985 Mr Arafat narrowly escapes death in an Israeli air raid on the PLO's Tunisian headquarters.

:: April 16, 1988 Khalil al Wazir, Mr Arafat's military commander, is assassinated in Tunis. Israel is blamed.

:: December 12, 1988 Mr Arafat accepts Israel's right to exist and renounces terrorism. Nearly two years later, Iraq invades Kuwait, Mr Arafat supports Saddam Hussein and the PLO is isolated.

:: November 1991 Mr Arafat marries his 28-year-old secretary, Suha Tawil. Their daughter Zahwa is born in 1995.

:: April 7, 1992 Mr Arafat is rescued after a plane crash lands in the Libyan desert during a sandstorm.

:: September 13, 1993 Israel and the PLO sign an accord on Palestinian autonomy in Oslo, Norway, giving Mr Arafat control of most of the Gaza Strip and about a quarter of the West Bank. He shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on the White House lawn. The two later share the Nobel Peace Prize with Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres.

:: July 1, 1994 Returning from exile, Mr Arafat sets foot on Palestinian soil for the first time in 26 years.

:: September 28, 2000 Israel's then opposition leader Ariel Sharon visits a Jerusalem shrine holy to Jews and Muslims, leading to clashes that escalate into a Palestinian uprising.

:: December 3, 2001 After three suicide bombings, Israel destroys Mr Arafat's helicopters in Gaza City, confining him to the West Bank town of Ramallah.

:: March 2002 Israel declares Mr Arafat an "enemy" two days after a Palestinian suicide bomber kills 29 people at a Passover holiday meal, prompting an Israeli incursion into the West Bank.

:: June 24, 2002 President George W Bush calls on Palestinians to replace Mr Arafat as leader. A year later, his deputy Mahmoud Abbas becomes the first Palestinian prime minister in a move pushed for by the US and Israel to sideline Mr Arafat.

:: June 4, 2003 At the first major Israeli-Palestinian summit without Mr Arafat, Mr Sharon and Mr Bush launch "road map" peace plan, which aims to end fighting and create Palestinian state by 2005.

:: October 21, 2003 Mr Arafat is diagnosed with gallstones. Nearly a year to the day later, he collapses and is flown to hospital in France with a serious, undisclosed illness.

:: November 9, 2004 A French medical team acknowledges that Mr Arafat has been in a coma for a week. He dies two days later at the age of 75.

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