Putin To Pardon Jailed Tycoon Khodorkovsky

Russian president Vladimir Putin has said he will pardon jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

The former head of Yukos Oil was arrested in 2003 and imprisoned for nine years after being convicted of fraud.

In 2010 he was put on trial again, while still serving his original sentence, and found guilty of money laundering and embezzlement. He and his business partner, Platon Lebedev, were jailed for another seven years.

Both trials have been criticised and Khodorkovsky has often been described by human rights groups as a prisoner of conscience.

Mr Putin's opponents have accused him of having the tycoon jailed to prevent him going into politics.

The president said the ex-tycoon had been through 'serious punishment'

At his annual end-of-year news conference, Mr Putin said Khodorkovsky had asked him for a pardon.

He said: "He has been in jail already more than 10 years, this is a serious punishment.

"He cites humanitarian reasons. His mother is ill. I decided that with these circumstances in mind, it is necessary to take a decision, and in the near future a decree pardoning him will be signed."

However, Khodorkovsky's main lawyer, Vadim Klyuvgant, denied that his client had requested a pardon.

Khodorkovsky, 50, grew rich during the 1990s in the economic chaos following the fall of the Soviet Union and rose to political prominence as one of the so-called "oligarchs" who surrounded president Boris Yeltsin.

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NSA Spying Sweeps 'Have Gone Too Far', Report

A panel has recommended curbing the secretive powers of the National Security Agency, warning its mass spying sweeps in the war on terror had gone too far.

The report, commissioned by President Barack Obama, said the NSA should halt the mass storage of domestic phone records, and called for new scrutiny on snooping on world leaders.

It also called for privacy safeguards for foreigners and fresh transparency over US eavesdropping.

The 300-page report unveiled 46 recommendations to reshape US surveillance policy following explosive revelations by fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

There is no guarantee the president will accept the non-binding recommendations but he will consider his next move ahead of a public statement in January.

The panel urged reforms of a secret national security court that oversees clandestine surveillance operations.

It also called for the NSA to be stripped of its ability to store telephone records - instead handing that duty to phone companies or a third party.

The report said the intelligence and security infrastructure launched after the September 11 attacks had perhaps gone too far.

"It is now time to step back and take stock," it said.

Fugitive intelligence contractor Edward Snowden

"We conclude that some of the authorities that were expanded or created in the aftermath of September 11 unduly sacrifice fundamental interests in individual liberty, personal privacy, and democratic governance."

Review board member Richard Clarke, a former White House counterterrorism aide, called for mechanisms that were more transparent and have more independent oversight to give the public a new "sense of trust".

Throughout, the report argued that a new equilibrium needed to be found between national security, and privacy and individual Constitutional rights.

It steered away from calling for outright curbs on gathering intelligence on foreign leaders, following embarrassing revelations that US spies had snooped on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone.

But it said US spy chiefs should be forced to justify surveillance on world leaders to the president and his aides.

The release of the report comes amid deepening political pressure on the White House for significant reforms in the massive NSA telephone and internet data mining operations across the world.

A federal judge in Washington this week ruled that NSA programmes, which have scooped up millions of details on telephone calls and Internet traffic on Americans and foreigners, were probably unconstitutional.

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Paul Walker Porsche Crash Down To 'Speed Alone'

The Porsche Carrera GT that crashed killing Fast & Furious actor Paul Walker and the driver had no mechanical problems, according to investigators.

A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the car lost control due to "speed, and speed alone".

The investigation also ruled out debris in the road as causing the car in which Walker was a passenger to smash into a street light and a tree.

The actor and the driver, his friend and financial adviser Roger Rodas, were both killed in the accident on November 30.

Scene of the crash in Santa Clarita, California

Investigators have refused to set a firm speed at which they think the car was travelling until Porsche engineers come to California next month to extract information from on-board data collectors.

According to reports in the US, three black boxes have been recovered from the vehicle.

One will be able to tell the last speed recorded and whether the airbags were deployed, while the other two will give information on the throttle and engine readings.

Tributes are left at an unofficial memorial for the star

As a result of 40-year-old Walker's death, Universal Pictures has announced it is putting the filming of Fast & Furious 7 on hold indefinitely.

More than half the movie has reportedly been made and it was slated for release on July 11, 2014.

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Ellen Show Winner Dies On Oz Skydiving Trip

A US Marine has died on a skydiving accident in Australia after he and his wife had won the trip thanks to The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Gunnery Sergeant Brandon McGraw, 33, was a veteran who served three tours in Afghanistan.

The couple reportedly won the trip on Ellen DeGeneres' show last January

Sergeant McGraw and his wife Cherilyn went skydiving in the same plane with members of Euroa Skydive, an Australian skydiving school based in Euroa, about 100km (60 miles) north of Melbourne.

Ms McGraw chose a tandem jump and went first, with no problems.

Sergeant McGraw, who was an experienced skydiver according to news reports, went solo.

Ian Matthews, who works at Euroa Skydive, told the Jacksonville, North Carolina-based Daily News: "McGraw watched his wife do a tandem jump before exiting the plane.

"He floated for three or four minutes with a good canopy.

"A short time before landing, he suddenly began turning his parachute dramatically to the left and right and eventually crashed into the ground."

Sergeant McGraw died at the scene last Saturday.

Ms Cherilyn posted photos on Facebook that showed moments before the jump.

In a posting she thanked everybody who expressed their sympathy, saying the social network had been her "saving grace this week".

"I'm beyond honoured and words will never be able to express my gratitude for all the love, support and prayers," she wrote.

Ms McGraw said she was working on bringing her husband's body back to the US and that she "cannot wait to be home".

There was no immediate comment from TV talk-show hosted by DeGeneres. Ms McGraw had reportedly won the trip for herself and her husband in January.

The Euroa Skydive website said the school has been open since 1983. News reports said this was the first fatality in its history.

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China Cartoon Blamed As Brothers Set On Fire

A Chinese boy was copying a scene from a cartoon when he tied his friends to a tree and set them on fire, according to a court in the country.

The popular cartoon Xi Yangyan & Hui Tailang, which translates as Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, is at the centre of the incident because the 10-year-old friend confessed he was copying a scene from the show.

Two brothers aged seven and four from eastern Jiangsu province, were badly injured.

The seven-year-old suffered 80% burns to his body and his brother 40%.

Adults as well as children reportedly watch the cartoon and it features a wolf who tries to catch the goat and prevent it from escaping, to no avail.

The young boy was said to be copying the wolf character.

Scenes include the goat being plunged into boiling water and undergoing electrocution.

Donghai county people's court ruled that the guardians of the accused boy and the producer, Guangzhou-based Creative Power Entertaining Co Ltd, are jointly responsible for the brothers' injuries,

Chinese state media said the boy's guardians will have to pay 60%,157,000 yuan (£16,000), of the injured brothers' compensation and the show's production company will pay 15% - 39,000 yuan.

According to Chinese newspaper Global Times, Wu Dun, PR manager for Creative Power, said they would spend at least 10 million yuan (£977,000) modifying the problematic episodes earlier in October.

This came after China Central Television highlighted Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf and another cartoon Bonnie Bear for their violent plots and vulgar dialogue.

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Gaia: Huge Billion-Star Telescope Launched

The world's most powerful satellite camera has been launched into space aboard a rocket.

Gaia blasts into space on the Soyuz rocket

The £620m observatory lifted off from the Sinnamary launch complex in French Guiana on time at 9.12am (UK time).

The huge telescope is going to map the precise positions and distances to more than a billion stars.

It is hoped that Gaia will give astronomers the first realistic picture of how the Milky Way galaxy is made up.

The observatory's exceptional sensitivity may also detect many thousands of previously unseen celestial objects, including new planets and asteroids.

As many as 50,000 planets outside our solar system could be spotted during the satellite's five-year life.

It will also keep a watch for exploding stars - supernovae - which are rarely observed in real time.

Gaia was aboard the Soyuz rocket which blasted off on time

The European Space Agency (Esa) satellite was sent up on a Soyuz rocket and Gaia was being released from the rocket 40 minutes later.

Gaia has been in development for more than 20 years.

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The World's Newest Country May Not Last

The world's newest country may not last the decade if the violence seen in South Sudan this week escalates.

Up to 500 people have died in days of fighting in the capital Juba and thousands, including foreign oil workers, are sheltering in or outside UN compounds. 

Amid talk of a possible coup attempt 10 senior politicians, including former cabinet ministers have been arrested and a night-time curfew imposed.

The authorities deny that the violence is on tribal lines, but the evidence suggests otherwise.

South Sudan, an oil-rich country, became independent from Sudan in 2011 following a long guerrilla war but has yet to knit itself into a unified nation.

During the war years the main ethnic groups in southern Sudan, the Dinka and the Nuer, each formed militias to fight the Sudanese army. Now the South Sudanese army is made up of units which are still divided on tribal lines.

President Salva Kiir Mayardit is a Dinka. In July he dismissed the vice president, Riek Machar, who is  Nuer, after Mr Machar announced he would compete for the presidency in the 2015 elections.

The fighting appears to have started after a Dinka unit was deployed at the presidential guard barracks which is dominated by soldiers who are Nuer. The Dinka came out on top, tensions rose throughout the capital, and the fighting spread. 

Although the city is reported to be calmer today there have been incidents of inter-ethnic violence outside of the capital.

The UK has sent an aircraft to Juba to evacuate some of the estimated 500 Britons in the country and has temporarily withdrawn some staff and dependants from its embassy.

Other countries are taking similar measures but the airport is still open and some commercial flights are operating.

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Brits Evacuated From South Sudan Amid Fighting

World's Newest Country May Not Last

Updated: 12:55pm UK, Thursday 19 December 2013

By Tim Marshall, Foreign Affairs Editor

The world's newest country may not last the decade if the violence seen in South Sudan this week escalates.

Up to 500 people have died in days of fighting in the capital Juba and thousands, including foreign oil workers, are sheltering in or outside UN compounds. 

Amid talk of a possible coup attempt 10 senior politicians, including former cabinet ministers have been arrested and a night-time curfew imposed.

The authorities deny that the violence is on tribal lines, but the evidence suggests otherwise.

South Sudan, an oil-rich country, became independent from Sudan in 2011 following a long guerrilla war but has yet to knit itself into a unified nation.

During the war years the main ethnic groups in southern Sudan, the Dinka and the Nuer, each formed militias to fight the Sudanese army. Now the South Sudanese army is made up of units which are still divided on tribal lines.

President Salva Kiir Mayardit is a Dinka. In July he dismissed the vice president, Riek Machar, who is  Nuer, after Mr Machar announced he would compete for the presidency in the 2015 elections.

The fighting appears to have started after a Dinka unit was deployed at the presidential guard barracks which is dominated by soldiers who are Nuer. The Dinka came out on top, tensions rose throughout the capital, and the fighting spread. 

Although the city is reported to be calmer today there have been incidents of inter-ethnic violence outside of the capital.

The UK has sent an aircraft to Juba to evacuate some of the estimated 500 Britons in the country and has temporarily withdrawn some staff and dependants from its embassy.

Other countries are taking similar measures but the airport is still open and some commercial flights are operating.

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Seattle Gunman Wrestled By Bus Passengers

Footage has emerged of a dramatic confrontation aboard a bus between a gun-wielding robber and the passengers who overpowered him.

The passenger managed to knock down the suspect and he was held down until police arrived and arrested him.

The suspect, 19-year-old Trevonnte Brown, has been charged with robbery offences.

The CCTV footage from the bus, dated November 25, has just been released.

The suspect was held down until police arrived

It shows Brown, a black hood over his head, approaching a passenger.

But as the man sees the gun, he reacts quickly, grabbing the weapon from the suspect's hand and punching him, as other passengers join in.

The man was hailed a hero by fellow passengers.

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Woolwich Murder: Muslim Leader Warns Of 'War'

Killers Were 'No Immediate Threat'

Updated: 2:22pm UK, Thursday 19 December 2013

By Martin Brunt, Crime Correspondent

Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale were "known" to MI5 before they killed Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich but were considered to be of no immediate threat to anyone.

In the language of the intelligence agencies, that means the Security Service was aware of their Islamic extremist views and their association with others but had no evidence they were planning any attack.

Was that the right judgement, or should MI5 have kept a closer eye on them and, if it had, could it have prevented Fusilier Rigby's death?

Whitehall sources said both men had come to MI5's attention in various investigations over several years, two among several thousand known Islamic extremists.

One source said: "It is not surprising that someone who does something like this should have come to our notice before, given the range of our investigations."

The source suggested the agency does not believe it should have given the two killers a greater priority, based on what it knew about them at the time, nor does it argue it would have done more with greater resources.

In another favourite spook phrase, the pair were "on the radar, but not under the microscope".

MI5 accepts there will be lessons to learn from the way it dealt with them.

It is known that in Kenya in 2010, Adebolajo was arrested, appeared in court and deported over his plan to travel to neighbouring Somalia and join the terror group al Shabaab.

One British newspaper report said Adebolajo was able to return to Kenya last year, despite its government warning the UK he was a "dangerous radical". It was reported he may have used a false passport.

He is thought to have joined the UK-based extremist group al Muhajiroun in 2003, several years before it was banned and its leader thrown out of Britain.

Adebolajo appeared at the group's demonstrations and was arrested during scuffles outside the Old Bailey in 2006.

According to a close friend, MI5 was doing more than just monitoring Adebolajo. It asked him to work for the agency six months before the Woolwich killing.

Abu Nusaybah told BBC's Newsnight that Adebolajo was stopped and questioned on his return from a trip to Kenya, and later followed and approached at home by MI5.

Mr Nusaybah said: "He was basically being harassed. His wording was, 'they are bugging me, they won't leave me alone'.

"Initially, they wanted to ask him if he knew certain individuals. But after him saying that he didn't know these individuals, what he said was they asked him if he would be interested in working for them.

"He was explicit in that he refused to work for them, but he did confirm he didn't know the individuals."

Straight after the interview, Mr Nusaybah was arrested by counter-terror police as he left the TV studios. He is to stand trial next year on terrorism charges unrelated to Woolwich.

Adebolajo's brother Jeremiah has claimed the foreign intelligence agency MI6 tried to recruit him and urged him to help "turn" Michael to work for MI5.

It will be up to parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee to assess whether MI5's judgement of Adebolajo and Adebolawe was correct.

The committee of MPs is investigating the role of various agencies before the Woolwich attack and is expected to report early next year.

Its chairman Sir Malcolm Rifkind said soon after Drummer Rigby's death: "I don't think MI5 is in the dock. I think that would be very unfair."

MI5 has had a huge budget increase in the past decade, with the number of staff almost doubled, the opening of regional bases and the concentration of 90% of its resources on fighting international terrorism.

It was mildly criticised for poor record-keeping and police liaison by the ISC after the 7/7 London bombings of 2005, but escaped any censure.

The committee concluded that although the 7/7 ringleader Mohammad Sidique Khan was on its radar, the agency couldn't have been expected to identify him as a bomb plotter. 

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