Fernando Alonso Forgot 20 Years After Crash

F1 driver Fernando Alonso believed it was 1995 after suffering concussion after a crash in testing in Barcelona, it has been reported.

"I'm Fernando, I'm in karts and want to become Formula 1 driver," he told doctors who asked him who he was and what he remembered about the accident, according to Le Pais newspaper.

The Spaniard had apparently forgotten his Formula One debut with Minardi in 2001, becoming the youngest ever F1 Champion in 2005 and his second championship the following year.

He also told doctors he remembered nothing about the crash at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which saw him lose control and hit a wall. 

Alonso will not compete in Melbourbe despite a clean bill of health

Alonso will sit out the opening Grand Prix of the season in Australia despite being given a clean bill of health.

Doctors asked the McLaren driver to avoid racing in Melbourne because of the fear of "second-impact syndrome", a second concussion occurring when the effects of the first are still subsiding, potentially resulting in severe brain injuries or even death.

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1. Gallery: Two-time world champion who has become a global superstar

   In 2000, the 19-year-old Fernando Alonso (centre) is shown after winning the F3000 race in Spa, Belgium

The following year he graduates into F1, and is shown (right) with Minardi team-mate Tarso Marques

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North Korea: Envoy Attack 'Just Punishment'

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Video: US Ambassador Has Face Slashed

By Sky News US Team

North Korea has called a knife attack on the American ambassador in Seoul "just punishment" for the US decision to push ahead with joint military exercises with South Korea.

Mark Lippert was slashed on the face and wrist by a knife-wielding attacker shouting for unification of the divided peninsula.

The 42-year-old was taken to hospital after the attack during a breakfast speech in Seoul, and underwent surgery for more than two hours. His injuries were not life-threatening.

Mr Lippert needed 80 stitches for an 11cm (4in) gash to the right of his face and a cut to his left arm which ruptured a tendon and caused nerve damage.

Secretary of State John Kerry said the US would not be intimidated by the attack and vowed that anyone who threatens or harms American diplomats would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Earlier, the official North Korean KCNA news agency had described the attack as "just punishment for US warmongers" and called it a valid "expression of resistance".

The suspected attacker was restrained at the scene

Footage taken after the attack showed Mr Lippert being rushed out of the building holding one hand to his bleeding right cheek, with his other hand smeared with blood.

Security staff and police officers were seen jumping on the ambassador's assailant, who was armed with a 10-inch blade.

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1. Gallery: US Envoy Injured In Knife Attack

   US Ambassador Mark Lippert was slashed on the face and wrist by a knife-wielding attacker

The suspect, identified as im Ki-Jong, screamed demands for a unified North and South Korea

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The attack took place during a breakfast speech in Seoul

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Police patrol the US Embassy after the attack

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Several hours after the attack, Mr Lippert tweeted that he was "doing well&in great spirits" and would be back "ASAP" to advance the US-South Korean alliance.

Doctors said he would probably be in hospital for up to four days and may experience sensory problems in his left hand for several months.

President Barack Obama called Mr Lippert, a former aide, to wish him a swift recovery, while a US State Department spokeswoman said: "We strongly condemn this act of violence."

Police have identified the suspected attacker as 55-year-old Kim Ki-Jong, who was protesting against the US-South Korean military drills that he claims ruined efforts for reconciliation between the two Koreas.

"I carried out an act of terror," he shouted as he was pinned to the floor before being arrested.

Video: Ambassador's Attacker Dragged Away

Sky News producer Jen Kwon in Beijing said: "Kim Ki-Jong seems to think that he is a patriot. He had visited North Korea eight times during 2006 and 2007, tried to set himself of fire on 2007 in front of the South Korean president's residence, and had attacked the Japanese ambassador in 2010.

"South Korean politicians are worried that this might affect relations with the US. Soon after the incident, the South Korean president, lawmakers, left-wing and right-wing NGOs all condemned the attack."

South and North Korea have been divided since the 1950-53 Korean War and are still technically at war because the fighting ended in a truce.

The US and South Korea launched annual joint military exercises on Monday, leading to heightened tensions with the communist North.

Pyongyang claims they are rehearsals for an invasion, while South Korea and the US argue they are purely defensive. America has almost 30,000 troops permanently stationed in the South.

Video: Korea: A Divided Peninsula

Following the attack on the ambassador, a South Korean defence ministry spokesman said the exercises would continue as planned.

Mr Lippert, a long-time adviser to Mr Obama and a former US assistant secretary of defence for Asian affairs, only took up his post in South Korea last October.

His wife recently gave birth to their son, to whom they gave a Korean middle name.

Mr Lippert has previously served as an intelligence officer for naval special operations, and won a Bronze Star Medal following a tour in Iraq.

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Video: US Ambassador Has Face Slashed

By Sky News US Team

North Korea has called a knife attack on the American ambassador in Seoul "just punishment" for the US decision to push ahead with joint military exercises with South Korea.

Mark Lippert was slashed on the face and wrist by a knife-wielding attacker shouting for unification of the divided peninsula.

The 42-year-old was taken to hospital after the attack during a breakfast speech in Seoul, and underwent surgery for more than two hours. His injuries were not life-threatening.

Mr Lippert needed 80 stitches for an 11cm (4in) gash to the right of his face and a cut to his left arm which ruptured a tendon and caused nerve damage.

Secretary of State John Kerry said the US would not be intimidated by the attack and vowed that anyone who threatens or harms American diplomats would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Earlier, the official North Korean KCNA news agency had described the attack as "just punishment for US warmongers" and called it a valid "expression of resistance".

The suspected attacker was restrained at the scene

Footage taken after the attack showed Mr Lippert being rushed out of the building holding one hand to his bleeding right cheek, with his other hand smeared with blood.

Security staff and police officers were seen jumping on the ambassador's assailant, who was armed with a 10-inch blade.

1/4

1. Gallery: US Envoy Injured In Knife Attack

   US Ambassador Mark Lippert was slashed on the face and wrist by a knife-wielding attacker

The suspect, identified as im Ki-Jong, screamed demands for a unified North and South Korea

]]>

The attack took place during a breakfast speech in Seoul

]]>

Police patrol the US Embassy after the attack

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Several hours after the attack, Mr Lippert tweeted that he was "doing well&in great spirits" and would be back "ASAP" to advance the US-South Korean alliance.

Doctors said he would probably be in hospital for up to four days and may experience sensory problems in his left hand for several months.

President Barack Obama called Mr Lippert, a former aide, to wish him a swift recovery, while a US State Department spokeswoman said: "We strongly condemn this act of violence."

Police have identified the suspected attacker as 55-year-old Kim Ki-Jong, who was protesting against the US-South Korean military drills that he claims ruined efforts for reconciliation between the two Koreas.

"I carried out an act of terror," he shouted as he was pinned to the floor before being arrested.

Video: Ambassador's Attacker Dragged Away

Sky News producer Jen Kwon in Beijing said: "Kim Ki-Jong seems to think that he is a patriot. He had visited North Korea eight times during 2006 and 2007, tried to set himself of fire on 2007 in front of the South Korean president's residence, and had attacked the Japanese ambassador in 2010.

"South Korean politicians are worried that this might affect relations with the US. Soon after the incident, the South Korean president, lawmakers, left-wing and right-wing NGOs all condemned the attack."

South and North Korea have been divided since the 1950-53 Korean War and are still technically at war because the fighting ended in a truce.

The US and South Korea launched annual joint military exercises on Monday, leading to heightened tensions with the communist North.

Pyongyang claims they are rehearsals for an invasion, while South Korea and the US argue they are purely defensive. America has almost 30,000 troops permanently stationed in the South.

Video: Korea: A Divided Peninsula

Following the attack on the ambassador, a South Korean defence ministry spokesman said the exercises would continue as planned.

Mr Lippert, a long-time adviser to Mr Obama and a former US assistant secretary of defence for Asian affairs, only took up his post in South Korea last October.

His wife recently gave birth to their son, to whom they gave a Korean middle name.

Mr Lippert has previously served as an intelligence officer for naval special operations, and won a Bronze Star Medal following a tour in Iraq.

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Embattled Clinton Urges Release Of Her Emails

By Sky News US Team

Hillary Clinton has urged the State Department to release the emails she wrote from a private email account while serving as Secretary of State.

It was the first time Mrs Clinton had weighed in over a mounting controversy.

In a tweet late on Wednesday, she said: "I want the public to see my email. I asked State to release them. They said they will review them for release as soon as possible."

The stance was aimed at cooling a political firestorm over allegations that she inappropriately used her personal email for work during her stint at the State Department from 2009 to 2013.

The row has suddenly put Mrs Clinton into trouble just as she is planning to launch a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016. It has raised questions about transparency and security of her communications, and Republicans were quick to criticise her.

Jeb Bush has criticised Mrs Clinton over the emails

The State Department said it would review the emails provided by Clinton "using a normal process that guides such releases".

"We will undertake this review as quickly as possible. Given the sheer volume of the document set, this review will take some time to complete," spokeswoman Marie Harf said.

Mrs Clinton's tweeted statement came hours after a congressional committee investigating the September 2012 attack on a US diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, issued subpoenas for her emails.

Mrs Clinton's team said this week she acted no differently from her predecessors at the State Department who also used private email addresses.

Last year, she provided the State Department 55,000 pages of emails after the department asked her and other former secretaries for records that should be preserved.

Yet her team alone decided what would be turned over and should not, without any outside control or clarity on how those decisions were made.

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Fossil Rolls Back Human History 400,000 Years

A fossil jawbone dating back almost three million years has provided evidence that the first humans emerged 400,000 years earlier than previously thought.

The artefact unearthed in Ethiopia and dated to 2.8 million years old narrows the evolutionary gap between the first humans and their ape-like ancestors, according to scientists.

Until now the earliest known fossil of the Homo genus was 2.3 million years old, found less than 20 miles from the latest discovery, known as LD 350-1.

Specimens more than 2.5 million years old have been hard to find and are poorly preserved.

Dr Brian Villmoare, from the University of Nevada, who co-led the fossil hunters, said: "In spite of a lot of searching, fossils on the Homo lineage older than two million years ago are very rare.

"To have a glimpse of the very earliest phase of our lineage's evolution is particularly exciting."

His colleague Dr William Kimbel, director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University, said: "The Ledi jaw helps narrow the evolutionary gap between Australopithecus and early Homo.

"It's an excellent case of a transitional fossil in a critical time period in human evolution."

One theory is that global climate change and the resulting arid conditions led to the emergence of the very first humans that gave rise to the current species of Homo sapiens.

While other fossils found with the jawbone included those of animals associated with more arid habitats, the scientists said more evidence was needed.

The findings appear in the online edition of the journal Science.

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Hundreds Forced To Flee Cape Town Wildfires

Hundreds of people have been forced to leave their homes in the South African city of Cape Town because of wildfires.

The fires have been burning for several days and swept out of control, with smoke and flames illuminating the night sky around Table Mountain National Park.

People who could not stay with family were housed in a community centre and later returned home even though the fire was not yet fully under control.

A firefighter at work in Tokai Forest

An emergency services spokesman said 150 firefighters had been working 24-hour shifts in hot summer temperatures of up to 29C (84F) to tackle the blaze, which started on Sunday.

Rain showers were not enough to put it out, he said.                 

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1. Gallery: Wildfires Rage Near Cape Town

   A firefighter hoses down smouldering vegetation, as one of the largest wildfires in recent times is brought under control, near Fishoek in the greater Cape Town area

It has taken more than 1,000 professional and volunteer firefighters three and half days to bring the fire under control

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$4.8m Gold Robbery May Have Been Inside Job

By Sky News US Team

North Carolina officials say a multimillion-dollar robbery of gold bars from a truck in North Carolina may have been an inside job.

The heist last Sunday happened when two armed guards aboard the truck pulled over on a remote stretch of highway as one of them said he was feeling car sick, according to what they told police.

The guards told police they got out of the truck without their weapons.

The suspects were driving a white van

They were immediately accosted by three armed men with Cuban accents who forced them onto the ground, tied their hands with duct tape and walked them into the woods.

Wilson County Sheriff Calvin Woodard Jr said the suspicion that the robbery might have been an inside job could not be ruled out.

But he added that the guards had been co-operative. "Right now, they're still considered victims," he said.

One suspect is described as a heavy-set man of around 40

The robbers cut a lock on the back of the tractor-trailer and off-loaded 275 pounds of gold bars from barrels inside it, estimated to be worth $4.8m (£3.1m).

Nobody was hurt in the heist.

It is possible that the robbers were watching the armoured truck carrying the gold and knew it was transporting valuables, Sheriff Woodard said.

Authorities described one suspect as a heavy-set man around 40 wearing a red traffic vest and said he told the guards he was a police officer. Another was a man wearing a hooded jacket and all-black clothing, Mr Woodard said.

Another was a man wearing a hooded jacket and all-black clothing

The victims could not offer a description of the third suspect.

The armoured vehicle from TransValue Inc, a Miami-based company that specialises in transporting valuables to banks, was traveling from Miami to Massachusetts.

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ECB Starts QE Funding Amid Greek Warning

The European Central Bank is to start buying government debt as part of its stimulus package within the week.

ECB president Mario Draghi said its new €1.1tn (£796bn) quantitative easing programme would commence purchases on March 9.

This follows on from a 22 January announcement of the plan to stem downward pressure on the 19-nation eurozone economy.

Mr Draghi said: "We have already seen a significant number of positive effects from these monetary policy decisions."

He also revealed upwardly revised annual real GDP projections of 1.5% for 2015, 1.9% for 2016 and 2.1% for 2017.

Video: Quantitative Easing Explained

Inflation, he said, would be higher next year at 1.5% and 1.8% in 2018.

The announcements saw a rapid sell-off of the euro against the dollar, which was already hovering around 11-year lows.

Within minutes of the announcement the euro was trading down 0.62%, with the euro against the pound also down, around 0.55%.

Video: Does Germany Trust Greece?

The ECB said it would buy bonds from seven entities, including the Council of Europe Development Bank and the European Financial Stability Facility.

Meanwhile, the ECB also warned Greece that it cannot rely on it to help with short-term debt.

Mr Draghi explained that ECB rules prohibited direct or indirect financing of governments.

Video: Agreement To Extend Greek Bailout

"The ECB is a rule-based institution. It is not a political institution."

Options are running out for Athens to fund itself, despite striking a deal with the eurozone in February to extend its bailout by four months.

It is faced with a fall in revenues and now expected to run out of cash by the end of March.

Video: There Is 'Substantial Disagreement'

Some analysts believe funds may be exhausted before then.

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Boston Survivor To Accused: You Saved My Life

By Sky News US Team

A survivor of the Boston marathon blasts has told the alleged bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev: "You saved my life."

Rebekah Gregory DiMartino wrote in a Facebook post addressed to the accused that she had turned the ordeal of losing her leg into a positive experience.

The 27-year-old described how she had been afraid of testifying on Wednesday just a few feet away from Tsarnaev at the opening of his trial.

But she said that when the 21-year-old refused to look her in the eye as she took the stand, she realised he was a "coward".

Rebekah Gregory DiMartino is training for this year's Boston Marathon

Tsarnaev and his brother allegedly placed two pressure-cooker bombs near the marathon finish line on 15 April 2013, killing three people and injuring 264 others.

Ms DiMartino's former partner, Pete DiMartino, was also wounded in the bombings. The couple married in April 2014, but split last month.

Video: 15 April 2013: Boston Bomb CCTV

Despite having her leg amputated as a result of her injuries, Ms DiMartino is training for the Boston marathon in April this year.

She wrote: "Over the last two years, I have seen your face not only in pictures, but in almost every one of my nightmares.

"Moments before the first blast, your stupid backpack even brushed up against my arm, but I doubt you remember because I am no one to you."

She said the ordeal had gifted her and other survivors "a tremendous platform" to help others.

Video: Moment The Boston Bombs Exploded

"You can't handle the fact that what you tried to destroy, you only made stronger," she wrote.

Ms DiMartino said she now especially treasures her relationship with her young son, also a survivor.

She adds: "In so many ways, you saved my life. Because now, I am so much more appreciative of every new day I am given. And now, I get to hug my son even tighter than before."

Ms DiMartino concluded: "To me you're a nobody, and it is official that you have lost. So man that really sucks for you bro. I truly hope it was worth it."

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1. Gallery: Boston Bombings Trial: Who's Who

   Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, has gone on trial accused of the Boston Marathon bombings. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. He denies wrongdoing

His older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed days after the bombings on 15 April 2013

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Cops Rescue Dog Shot And Tied To Rail Tracks

By Sky News US Team

A dog has been rescued by police from an oncoming train after it was shot and tied to railway tracks in Florida.

Police responded to reports of gunfire to find the animal strapped with a belt to the tracks in Tampa's Sulphur Springs area at about 5:30pm on Wednesday.

The female mixed breed, named Cabela by police, had been shot twice in her neck above her right shoulder.

Authorities halted an approaching train so they could free the dog, before rushing it to Tampa Bay Veterinary Emergency Center.

Cabela's right front leg will have to be amputated, police said, but the dog is expected to survive.

Police have appealed to the public for information to find the culprit or the pet's owner.

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Top American Circus To Stop Elephant Acts

By Sky News US Team

The Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus is ending its iconic elephant acts, a feature of the show for more than a century.

The circus plans to phase out elephant acts by 2018, the AP news agency reported.

Growing public concern about how the animals are treated led to the decision, said the circus' parent company Feld Entertainment.

The elephants have been part of the show for more than 100 years

"There's been somewhat of a mood shift among our consumers," said Alana Feld, the company's executive vice president. "A lot of people aren't comfortable with us touring with our elephants."

Another reason for the decision, the company said, was that certain cities and counties have passed "anti-circus" and "anti-elephant" ordinances.

Feld's 43 elephants will live at the company's 200-acre Center for Elephant Conservation in central Florida.

A protest by animal rights group PETA

Twenty-nine animals are already there, and the other 14 will arrive as they are phased out from the circus.

PETA welcomed the decision.

"If Ringling is really telling the truth about ending this horror, it will be a day to pop the champagne corks," said the group's president Ingrid E Newkirk.

Elephant acts have been showcased by Ringling for more than a century and have often been featured in its posters. The company's president, Kenneth Feld, once said elephants were a "symbol of the 'Greatest Show on Earth'".

But in recent years the elephants have been at the centre of lawsuits and ongoing complaints from animal rights activists.

The circus will continue to use other animals and will likely showcase more motorsports and daredevils.

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