Thailand Elephants 'Trample' American Tourist

An American tourist has been found dead in a reserve in Thailand after apparently being trampled by elephants, park rangers said.

The woman went missing after leaving a camping ground in Kaeng Krachan National Park, the country's largest, last week.

Seventy people were involved in a five day search for her and when her body was recovered, the severity of the injuries indicated she was likely trampled to death.

"Her arms, her wrists and other parts of the body were broken, so we assumed she was trampled by elephants because no humans could have caused such powerful damage to the body," said police Colonel Woradet Suanklaai.

"Looking at the pictures she took in her camera, we see a lot of animals, birds, snakes, lizards," he said.

"We assumed she wanted to take pictures of elephants because that's what the Kaeng Krachan National Park is famous for."

The woman, who was in her 20s, was travelling alone.

Kaeng Krachan covers nearly 3,000 square metres (32,300sq ft) of forest. It is about  124 miles (200km) southwest of Bangkok.

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Gang Rape Ordered By Indian Village Elders

By Neville Lazarus, Sky News India Producer

A woman in India has been allegedly gang-raped by 13 men on the order of village elders.

The 20-year-old was reportedly attacked by the men in Subalpur village in West Bengal's Birbhum district.

She told the police she was gang-raped through the night so many times that she lost count.

"People from the village, men my father's age, and those who I knew as neighbours, as uncles and brothers raped me," she said.

She was accused of breaking tribal rules by having an affair with a man from a different tribe.

The pair were found by the villagers who set up a kangaroo court and levied a fine of 50,000 Indian rupees (£500) on the couple.

The girl's family could not afford to pay the crime and as punishment ordered the gang rape.

The following day the family sneaked out of the village and reported the matter to the police.

The woman was accused of an affair with a man from another tribe

Birbhum's police superintendent PC Sudhakar said: "Our preliminary investigation has revealed that the villagers held a meeting and the morol  (village headman) ordered that the girl be gang-raped.

"Family members took her to the block hospital in Labhpur and after preliminary treatment, the girl went to the police station with her mother and lodged the complaint."

All of the accused, including the village head man who allegedly ordered and led the assault, have been arrested.

The village is the home district of the Indian President Pranab Mukherjee.

A few years ago a tribal teenager was paraded naked on the orders of a similar medieval-style village court in the same district.

The government of West Bengal is facing immense anger over atrocities against women.

In October last year a woman was gang-raped twice by the same men for complaining to the police. She was set ablaze and died of burn injuries.

All suspects have since been arrested.

Large protests took place in Kolkatta over the handling of the case by the police and government and now the courts have set up a separate investigation into the matter.

The gang rape of a woman on a Delhi bus sparked protests across India

India has been reeling under the problem of violence against women.

The horrific Delhi bus gang rape and murder in December 2012 brought the issue into the lime light.

Unprecedented protests took place in the national capital and across the nation, and the government brought in new laws to protect women.

Fast-track courts were established to try cases of violence against women and punishments were made more severe.

Even with the changes there has been a spate of sexual violence against women.

Last week a 51-year-old Danish tourist was gang raped in the heart of Delhi.

She had asked for directions to her hotel before five men took her to an isolated spot near the New Delhi railway station and gang-raped her.

Last year a British tourist jumped off her balcony out of fear that she would be raped by the hotel manager where she was staying.

According to India's National Crime Records Bureau, rape is the singular fastest-growing crime in India.

From 1971 to 2012 the number of reports has grown by 900%. The conviction rate is just 1%.

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Exclusive: Dieudonne Breaks Silence On Quenelle

Lifting The Lid On Player's Gesture

Updated: 11:37pm UK, Monday 30 December 2013

By Tim Marshall, Foreign Affairs Editor

Nicolas Anelka may or may not have known what he was doing with his Nazi-like salute, but his great friend, the French comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala, almost certainly does.

Dieudonne is smart. Very smart.  He's smart enough to invert an idea, and invent a gesture, and direct them towards the same place – modern anti-Semitism.

His "quenelle" inverts the Heil Hitler salute.

It signals what it is, but in a manner allowing apologists to argue it has nothing to do with anti-Semitism.

He inverts the idea of anti-Semitism by saying that in fixating on Jews he is actually the good guy, standing up against what he believes are the ultra-powerful Zionists and their control of the world.

This is a world view he shares with the French National Front and one which has gained popularity in France and may help it to make huge gains in the May European elections.

It also plays into the reasons behind the wave of attacks on Jewish people and their property over the past decade. 

In recent years he has done this in an insidiously clever way. 

In an increasingly post-Christian Europe it's no good using the 1,600-year-old canard that the Jews killed Christ, because it is past its sell-by date.

Also dated is the "they keep themselves to themselves" card as Jewish emancipation has allowed people out of the ghettos and into society to play full lives as citizens.

Dieudonne instead inverts this to argue, as we heard in the 1930s, and again more recently, that a powerful Jewish lobby is now "controlling" the system.

He is on record as having said this several times, most recently to Iranian television.

He appeals to "anti-racists" who can point to a Jewish influence in the slave trade, and to Muslims, by celebrating the Palestinian cause.

Thus you can support him, pretend you believe the nonsense he spouts about the quenelle not being anti-Semitic and move on to bask in the warm glow of the self-righteously prejudiced.

Dieudonne has been convicted seven times in French courts for incitement against Jews.

To get around the strict laws on Holocaust denial he has again used his guile.

The Hebrew word for holocaust is "Shoah". The French word for pineapple is "Ananas".

So, Dieudonne talks close to the line about the Holocaust but calls it the "Shoananas".

This is so amusing to some people that they take photographs of themselves performing the "quenelle" alongside pineapples.

If the "quenelle" is not anti-Semitic, why then has a trend spread across Europe in which young people, usually men, pose for photos, doing the salute in front of a variety of Jewish buildings and symbols?

Can it be a coincidence that these are as varied as the Auschwitz death camp, the Western Wall, the Anne Frank house, various synagogues, Jewish-owned shops, and the Holocaust memorial in Berlin?

The Harry's Place site has even turned up a photograph of a man doing it front of the school where earlier this year a gunman killed three Jewish children and their teacher.

What is it about Dieudonne that has caused hundreds of people to come to the same conclusion and fixate on one idea? 

He can dissemble, linguistically slip and slide, verbally duck and dive, but the people who chose their location for these photos cannot.  

Dieudonne is an activist, a provocateur, a satirist; he thrives on controversy and has read which way the wind is blowing, especially in France. He rails against many things in life, but time and time again returns to one theme.

Why? You'd have to be stupid not to know.

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Australia Raid On Drugs Linked To Terror

Australian authorities have seized more than Aus $580m (£300m) worth of drugs and assets as part of an investigation into money laundering that could be linked to terrorist activities.

The haul included $26m (£13.5m) in cash.

The Australian Crime Commission (ACC), which has tracked a global network of criminals in more than 20 countries for a year through special covert taskforce Eligo, says funds were syphoned off to groups such as Hizbollah.

Paul Jevtovic, acting chief executive of the ACC, said: "This money, we need to be very clear, was destined to facilitate further criminal activity such as drug importations and drug trafficking which affects our nation both in a harm context of our citizens and of course, our economy.

"The reality is - and it's well-recorded - that terrorist groups have relied on these exchange houses located all over the world and are involved with them.

"What our operation has indicated to date is that the monies that we have been following do go to these very same exchange houses."

Police stand guard over the seized cash

The operation has disrupted 18 criminal syndicates and resulted in the arrest of 105 people, the commission said.

Mr Jevtovic said that criminal groups are using new methods such as money transfer services to launder their money and send it around the world.

Authorities allege that the groups are made up of motorcycle gangs, drug cartels, people smugglers and other criminals.

One of those arrested was a 58-year-old US citizen who appeared in court on Wednesday in connection with a record haul during the past week of $5.7m (£3m) found in cash in suitcases in an apartment in Sydney.

The man, who has not been named, arrived in Australia from Costa Rica two days before his arrest on Saturday at an apartment near Sydney airport, police said.

The Australian authorities have been working with the US Drug Enforcement Administration to try to disrupt the illegal flow of money internationally.

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Israel 'Foils' Al Qaeda's US Embassy Bomb Plot

Israel has said it thwarted plans by al Qaeda to bomb the US embassy in Tel Aviv and other targets.

The plan to carry out a suicide bombing on the embassy was at an "advanced" stage, Israeli officials said.

Three Palestinian men have been arrested for allegedly plotting bombings, shootings, kidnappings and other attacks.

The suspects were recruited by an operative based in the Gaza Strip who worked for al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri, said the Shin Bet intelligence agency.

Two were from Jerusalem and one from the West Bank, said the Shin Bet intelligence agency.

Analysts said it would be the first time the global terror network's leadership has been directly involved in plotting an attack inside Israel.

However, groups inspired by al Qaeda have carried out attacks against Israel before.

The report also reinforces suggestions that the group has been taking root among Palestinians.

But many experts say al Qaeda and its global agenda have had only a fringe appeal among Palestinians, who pursue a more nationalist conflict with Israel.

Shin Bet said the two Palestinians planned to provide bomb vests to foreign militants posing as Russian tourists for attacks on an Israeli convention centre in Jerusalem and the US Embassy.

It said they also planned to kidnap a soldier and attack an Israeli bus in the occupied West Bank.

The Shin Bet said the three suspects made contact with al Qaeda over the Internet and planned on travelling to Syria for training.

Hamas Islamists governing Gaza rejected the spy agency's account as "silly fabrications" aimed to justify Israeli military strikes in the Palestinian territory.

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Syria: Al Qaeda Boss Urges Halt To Infighting

Al Qaeda's leader has called on rival Islamist groups in Syria to stop fighting between themselves and use their energies instead to fight against President Bashar al Assad's forces.

The call from Ayman al Zawahri came as activists claimed that fighting between the al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and an array of other Islamist militant groups has killed more than 1,000 over the past three weeks, mostly fighters on both sides.

Al Zawahri says the internal fighting "has bloodied our hearts" and that it should stop immediately.

An image of the al Qaeda leader taken from a video posted on a website

In a five-minute audio message posted online, he called on groups in Syria to set up an Islamic court that would mediate and resolve their differences.

The message was posted as Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said elections would be the best way of ending the civil war in Syria and warned the West it could not impose a political solution on Tehran's ally.

Speaking as fledgling Syrian peace talks entered a second day in Switzerland, President Rouhani told the World Economic Forum that the Syrian people should be allowed to decide their own destiny.

President Rouhani in Davos - Iran was 'uninvited' to the Syria talks

"The best solution is to organise free and fair elections inside Syria," Mr Rouhani said at the forum in Davos.

"No outside party or power should decide for the Syrian people and Syria as a country."

Meanwhile, in talks on Syria in Geneva, UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi was meeting Syria's warring sides behind closed doors on Thursday to gauge if they are willing to sit down face-to-face after the first day of a peace conference ended in bitter exchanges.

Walid al Muallem, Ahmed Jarba, John Kerry, Ban Ki-Moon are at the talks

Mr Brahimi is holding separate meetings with delegations from Mr Assad's regime and the opposition before full talks resume in Geneva on Friday.

The UN-sponsored conference - the biggest diplomatic effort yet to resolve Syria's devastating three-year civil war - opened in the Swiss town of Montreux on Wednesday with heated disagreements among the two sides and world powers.

Officials have said the talks could last between seven to 10 days and possibly resume after a break.

Expectations are low for a breakthrough at the conference, but diplomats believe that simply bringing the two sides together for the first time is a mark of some progress and could be an important first step.

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South African Platinum Miners Agree To Talks

A hardline South African union behind a crippling mass strike at the country's platinum mines has agreed to mediation talks.

Joseph Mathunjwa, head of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), confirmed it "will be part of the negotiations".

The government-mediated talks are tentatively set for Friday.

"It's a mediation meeting between the unions and the mine owners," Labour Ministry spokesman Musa Zondi said.

Platinum producers Anglo American Platinum, Lonmin and Impala Platinum have suffered as a result of the ongoing tension.

The three mining firms have long said they would enter talks to help end unrest in the mining sector.

Meanwhile in London, mining firms Resnillo, Rand Gold and Anglo American saw their share price rise on the FTSE 100 on Thursday afternoon after the news was confirmed.

Bosses of mining firms in South Africa have long been ready for any talks that could end the unrest in the key mining sector, which is located in the platinum belt northwest of Johannesburg.

However the AMCU, which is known for its militancy, had previously said it wanted approval from members ahead of any talks.

The approval came at a rally in Marikana at the start of the strike on Thursday.

The Marikana mine was the scene of multiple deaths in 2012 after police opened fire on protesters.

Around 80,000 platinum mine workers joined the strike on Thursday, demanding that starting salaries are doubled to £700 a month.

On Monday, the South African government warned that the country cannot afford industrial action as it tries to improve the country's infrastructure and attempts to pull citizens out of poverty.

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Ukraine PM Slams Protests As 'Attempted Coup'

Police and protesters in the Ukrainian capital Kiev were locked in a tense standoff, as the president called an emergency parliamentary session over the street battles which have claimed three lives.

Prime Minister Mykola Azarov accused opponents of attempting to stage a coup and dismissed demands for a snap election as "unrealistic".

"A genuine attempt at a coup d'etat is being carried out," he said, while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Fires continue to rage in central Kiev

Opposition leaders earlier called for "calm" and an eight-hour truce ahead of fresh talks with President Viktor Yanukovych, which witnesses said appeared to be holding.

They had told them to go on the offensive on Thursday morning after they said Wednesday's peace talks had proved useless.

Vitali Klitschko said if this involved going onto the streets under bullets - that is what he and they were prepared to do.

They have called on Mr Yanukovych to announce early elections within 24 hours - by 6pm (UK time) - or face more violence on the streets.

And they have demanded he dismiss the government and scrap harsh anti-protest legislation.

The leader of the opposition Fatherland party Arseniy Yatsenyuk said he was ready to die for the cause.

Demonstrators have made their own shields out of wood to defend themselves

"If he does not go down that path then we will go forwards together and if it means a bullet to the head, then it is a bullet to the head. Viktor Yanukovych you have 24 hours. Take a decision. I have taken my decision," he said to cheers, speaking to around 40,000 people in Kiev's Independence Square.

Mr Klitschko added: "Early elections will change the situation without bloodshed and we will do everything to achieve that."

Medical staff in Kiev told Sky News that three people have been killed during the clashes.

Two protesters died after being shot, while another died from injuries sustained in a fall. One of the dead protesters was named locally as Serhiy Nihoyna.

Mr Azarov said the police did not have live ammunition and that opposition leaders should be held responsible for the deaths.

Police and protesters clashed again overnight, turning an area at the heart of the city into a virtual war zone with demonstrators setting fire to barricades, hurling stones and Molotov cocktails and police using tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets.

Opposition leaders have told protesters to go on the offensive on Thursday

Sky's Katie Stallard, in Kiev, said: "Protesters also burned tyres, mattresses, whatever they could find to keep going, and reinforcing barricades too.

"They have made homemade shields out of planks of wood and are rehearsing their tactical formations - how they plan to stand together and how they plan to protect themselves."

Police have thrown stun grenades and broken through protesters' barricades, made from burnt-out buses.

Protesters have also lobbed petrol bombs at police during ferocious clashes in the city's snow-covered streets.

During confrontations on Wednesday, riot police beat and shot at protesters, volunteer medics and journalists.

The Interior Ministry said 73 protesters had been arrested and 53 of them were being investigated for "mass riots". It is a charge that was recently introduced and carries a jail sentence of up to eight years.

The US State Department has threatened to impose sanctions against the Ukraine in response to the continued use of violence against protesters.

Image said to show one of the dead, Serhiy Nihoyna (Pic: Serhiy Proskurnia)

Spokeswoman Marie Harf said the US would continue to call upon Mr Yanukovych "to protect the democratic rights of all Ukrainians, including the rights of peaceful protest".

"I don't have more details on what those sanctions might look like, but we will continue to consider additional steps, as I said, including sanctions, in response to the use of violence," she said.

The rioting intensified when some 200,000 took to the streets at the weekend in a show of anger over the new anti-protest laws rushed through by Mr Yanukovych.

The laws allow for jail terms of up to five years for those who blockade public buildings. They also ban protesters from wearing masks or helmets.

Meanwhile, Russia said it would not intervene, according to President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

"We consider we do not have the right to intervene in any way in the internal affairs of our brother Ukraine. That's unacceptable and Russia has not done this and will not do it," he said in an interview published on the website of Komsomolskaya Pravda.

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'Goodfellas' Heist: Suspects Due In Court

FBI officials have indicted a suspected mobster for the 1978 Lufthansa heist at Kennedy International Airport, which was billed as the largest robbery in US history at the time.

The robbery on December 11, 1978, was dramatised in Goodfellas, the Martin Scorsese movie inspired by the life of Henry Hill.

Hooded gunmen invaded the airline's cargo terminal and made off with $5m in cash and nearly $1m in jewels. The cash was never found.

Federal prosecutors issued a wide-ranging indictment against five defendants, alleging murder, robbery, extortion, arson and bookmaking.

One of them, Vincent Asaro, was accused of participating in the Lufthansa heist.

The FBI searching Burke's property last June

Asaro is an alleged captain in the Bonanno crime family. He and the other defendants are due in court later.

The robbery was planned by James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke, an associate of the Lucchese crime family who inspired the character played by Robert De Niro in the film.

The FBI last June searched Burke's property in Queens, where the robbery was believed to have been planned.

Burke died in prison in 1996 while serving time for the murder of a drug dealer.

Hill, the mobster-turned-informant played by Ray Liotta in the movie, admitted to his role.

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Justin Bieber 'Smoked Marijuana' Before Arrest

Justin Bieber has been charged with driving under the influence and resisting arrest after being stopped by police in Miami early this morning.

The singer failed a sobriety test during his arrest after driving at 55-60mph in a rented yellow Lamborghini in a residential area.

A police spokesman said Bieber's car was going at almost double the speed limit before his arrest.

Justin Bieber pictured after he was arrested. Pic: Miami Beach Police

Speaking at a press conference, Raymond Martinez said Bieber "had been smoking marijuana and he did consume a beer".

He said the singer had also taken a prescription drug.

Mr Martinez said 19-year-old had been "belligerent" and had used some "choice words" when he was arrested but was not violent.

Bieber's booking form after his arrest

Mr Martinez said Bieber had been very cooperative once he got to the station.

The star has arrived at Miami-Dade County Jail where he will have mugshots and fingerprints taken.

The van transporting the singer, with blacked-out windows, was trailed by squad cars.

The van transporting Bieber to jail

Miami Dade-Police spokesman Sergeant Bobby Hernandez told WSVN in South Florida that officers saw two cars racing at 4.09am.

Mr Hernandez said two vehicles apparently had been used to block off an area on Pine Tree Drive and 26th Street for the race.

He said the second car was a red Ferrari, and that driver, a singer known as Khalil, was also arrested. Both cars were towed.

Tests showed that Bieber was under the influence of drugs and resisted arrest, Miami Beach police chief Raymond Martinez reportedly told the Miami Herald.

Bieber posted this graffiti photo on Instagram just hours before his arrest

The Canadian pop star was pictured in the car with a woman, named in some reports as model Chantel Jeffries, in the driving seat before his arrest.

The teenager has been in Florida for the past few days and has been spotted in nightclubs and at a skate park.

He posted photos on Instagram of him performing tricks on his skateboard and spraying his initials onto a wall at the park.

He is also alleged to have spent thousands of dollars at a strip club called the King of Diamonds.

Bieber promoting his film Believe in December

If Bieber is charged he could face a fine or even imprisonment.

A first conviction could bring a fine of between $250 (£150) and $1,000 (£600), depending on the level of alcohol, as well as community service and possibly a jail sentence.

Bieber's arrest comes just a week after the singer's California home was raided by police over claims he pelted his neighbour's house with eggs, causing thousands of dollars of damage.

In that case, authorities arrested one member of Bieber's entourage, rapper Lil Za, on suspicion of drug possession.

Last year the singer disappointed thousands of fans in the UK by showing up to gigs late, which left many of his young followers having to leave his performances only moments after he started performing to catch trains home.

He was also involved in a scuffle outside his hotel in London during his colourful visit.

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