Oldest Gorilla Celebrates Her 56th Birthday

The first gorilla born in a zoo has proved you are never too old to party, as she celebrated her 56th birthday.

Colo, a western lowland gorilla, opened a pile of presents at her home in Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Ohio, where she was born in 1956.

Guests sang Happy Birthday to the primate, as she munched through a cake prepared by zookeepers and a helping of her favourite food - tomatoes.

Colo tucked into a special birthday cake and some tomatoes

Colo, named after the city in which she lives, is a mother of three and has more than two dozen descendants living at zoos across the United States.

Western lowland gorillas are listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resource's Red List as a critically endangered species.

Children at the zoo help the 56-year-old primate celebrate

Scientists estimate that their population will have decreased by more than 80% between 1980 and 2046, with poaching and loss of habitat partly to blame.

In the wild, the gorillas can be found in Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Nigeria.

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Saudi Arabian Blogger Could Face Death Penalty

A Saudi Arabian blogger is set to go on trial charged with renouncing Islam and could face the death penalty.

Raif Badawi, who started the Free Saudi Liberals website to discuss the role of religion in the country, was arrested in June.

He was initially charged with the less serious offence of insulting Islam through electronic channels, but at his latest hearing a judge referred him to a more senior court.

The judge recommended that Mr Badawi be tried for apostasy - or the abandonment of religion - which carries an automatic death sentence in the country.

King Abdullah has pushed for reforms to the country's legal system

The details of the hearing on December 17 have only just emerged, through the Human Rights Watch organisation.

Mr Badawi's website has now been removed, but included articles that were critical of senior religious figures, the monitoring group said.

A spokesman for Saudi Arabia's Justice Ministry was not available to comment.

The world's top oil exporter follows the strict Wahhabi school of Islam and applies Islamic law, or Sharia.

Judges base their decisions on their own interpretation of religious law rather than on a written legal code or on precedent.

King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia's ruler, has pushed for reforms to the legal system including improved training for judges and the introduction of precedent to standardise verdicts and make courts more transparent.

However, Saudi lawyers say that conservatives in the Justice Ministry and the judiciary have resisted implementing many of the changes that he announced in 2007.

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Egypt's Constitution Gets 'Yes' Majority

Initial results show Egypt's controversial new constitution has received a 'yes' majority in the second and final round of voting.

The results, posted on the Muslim Brotherhood's website, show that eight of the 25 million Egyptians eligible to vote - a turnout of about 30% - cast their ballots on Saturday.

The referendum was held over two days, on December 15 and 22.

In the first round, about 56% said "yes" to the charter. The turnout then was about 32%

The Muslim Brotherhood, which propelled Islamist President Mohammed Morsi to power, has accurately predicted election results in the past by tallying results provided by its representatives at polling centres.

Mohammed Morsi came to power in June

Official results are not expected to be announced for several days, but when they are, Mr Morsi is expected to call for a parliamentary election to be held in about two months.

The low turnout in both rounds is likely to feed a perception of illegitimacy for the constitution, which Islamists say will lay the foundation for a democratic state and the protection of human rights.

But the opposition claims that it places restrictions on liberties and gives clerics a say over legislation.

The referendum on the constitution has left Egypt divided into two camps: the president, his Brotherhood and ultraconservative Islamists known as Salafis in one, and liberals, moderate Muslims and Christians in the other.

The two sides brought hundreds of thousands of supporters to the streets over the past month in rival rallies.

Clashes between both sides have left at least 10 people dead and hundreds wounded.

Mahmud Mekki said he wanted to quit last month

Hours earlier, Mr Morsi's vice president, Mahmud Mekki, whose post is not mentioned in the new charter, announced he was resigning.

"Political work does not suit my professional character," he said in a statement, referring to his past role as a respected judge.

Mr Mekki said he wanted to quit last month but stayed on to help Mr Morsi tackle a crisis that blew up when the leader assumed sweeping wide powers.

State television reported that Central Bank governor Faruq el Okda had also resigned, but this was followed by strong denials from Egypt's cabinet.

Both the former governor and Mr Morsi's deputy helped steer the central bank during last year's uprising that ousted former president Hosni Mubarak and worked to keep the Egyptian currency relatively stable despite the political turmoil.

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School Shooting: Donations And Gifts Pour In

Donations of nearly $3m (£1.85m) and tens of thousands of gifts have been sent to help those affected by the massacre at a school in Newtown, Connecticut.

Earlier this month, 20 children and six staff were shot dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School by Adam Lanza, who also killed his mother before taking his own life.

The families of the victims and survivors of the massacre have been inundated with items including 60,000 teddy bears, Barbie dolls, footballs and board games.

Gifts are examined by bomb-sniffing dogs before being placed on tables for children to choose whatever they want.

Cards, flowers and toys adorn memorials to the Newtown victims

Tom Mahoney, who is responsible for handling gifts at Edmond Town Hall, said: "There's so much stuff coming in. To be honest, it's a bit overwhelming; you just want to close the doors and turn the phone off."

The United Way of Western Connecticut said $2.8m (£1.7m) had been donated to the official support fund in the days since the shooting.

A private fund set up by Sandy Hook alumni has collected nearly $150,000 (£92,800) for the school, while Rabbi Shaul Praver of Congregation Adath Israel, which is raising money to build a memorial to the victims, said one man wrote a cheque for $52,000 for the project.

Several colleges have set up scholarship funds to pay for students at Sandy Hook and the relatives of the victims to continue their education.

Postmaster Cathy Zieff sorts through some of the parcels ent to Newtown

Isabel Almeida, a spokesman for United Way, encouraged well-wishers not to send gifts to the people of Newtown but to donate money instead.

"Send those teddy bears to a school in your community or an organisation that serves low-income children who are in need this holiday season," she said.

A horse-drawn carriage brought Anna Marquez-Greene's coffin to the church

Meanwhile, the US Postal Service said it had seen a six-fold increase in mail to Newtown, including parcels decorated with rainbows and hearts drawn by schoolchildren.

Some letters arrived in packs of 26 identical envelopes - one for each family of the children and staff killed - or addressed simply to the First Responders or The People of Newtown.

"This is just the proof of the love that's in this country," postmaster Cathy Zieff said.

Funerals for three more victims were held on Saturday, including a service for six-year-old Ana Marquez-Greene, whose miniature coffin was brought to The First Cathedral church in Bloomfield, Connecticut, by horse-drawn carriage.

In Ogden, Utah, people tied pink ribbons around trees and utility poles in memory of Emilie Parker, six, while in Newtown, dozens of emergency workers paid their respects at the start of a service for Josephine Gay, seven.

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North Korean Missile 'Could Have Reached US'

The long-range rocket fired by North Korea could have reached the US and eastern Europe, according to the South Korean defence ministry.

The launch was effectively the test of a ballistic missile capable of flying more than 10,000km (6,200) miles with a half-tonne payload, according to their scientists' analysis of the rocket's wreckage.

Its range covers the whole of Asia, eastern Europe, western Africa, Alaska and a large part of the US west coast including San Fransisco.

The estimates have been based on analysis of a container recovered from the rocket's first-stage splashdown site.

"Based on our analysis and simulation, the missile is capable of flying more than 10,000km with a warhead of 500-600 kilograms," a defence ministry official said.

Rocket debris recovered by the South Korean defence ministry

However, without any debris from the second and third stages to analyse, the official said it could not be determined if the rocket had re-entry capability, which is a key element of inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) technology.

North Korea maintains the launch of the Unha-3 was not a missile test but simply designed to put the country's first satellite in space.

However, most of the rest of the world saw the launch as a disguised ballistic missile test in contravention of the UN resolutions imposed after Pyongyang conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009.

South Korea is now analysing further wreckage from the rocket, including a fuel tank, a combustion chamber and an engine connection rod.

Kim Jong-un speaks to officials at mission control after the launch

"As additional pieces have been salvaged, we will be able to look deeper into the function and structure of North Korea's long-range rocket," said the defence ministry official.

The read-out from the South Koreans comes after North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un made his first explicit call for the advancement of his country's long-range rocket programme.

On Friday, he gathered his rocket scientists together for a banquet in Pyongyang to urge them to build more powerful rockets.

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Spuds Help Improve Boeing's In-Flight Wi-Fi

Boeing engineers have been using an unusual mix of high-tech and low-tech to improve the wireless internet connection on flights.

Sacks of the humble potato were used as stand-ins for passengers while the aircraft maker's experts worked to eliminate weak spots in in-flight wireless signals.

The Chicago-based engineers needed full planes to get accurate results during signal testing, but they could not ask people to sit motionless for days while data was gathered.

"That's where potatoes come into the picture," says Boeing's Adam Tischler.

Researchers dubbed the project Synthetic Personnel Using Dialectic Substitution, or SPUDS.

But there was a serious purpose to their work as in-flight Wi-Fi on many flights can have patchy signal strength.

Airlines and aircraft makers have been striving to improve this with the growing use of wireless devices 35,000 feet (10,700m) up.

It turns out that potatoes - because of their water content and chemistry - absorb and reflect radio wave signals much the same way as the human body does, making them suitable substitutes for airline passengers.

"It's a testament to the ingenuity of these engineers. They didn't go in with potatoes as the plan," Mr Tischler said.

A member of the research team stumbled across an article in the Journal of Food Science describing research in which 15 vegetables and fruits were evaluated for their dielectric properties, or the way they transmit electric force without conduction.

Its conclusions led the Boeing researchers to wonder if potatoes might serve just as well as humans during their own signal testing, said Mr Tischler.

Despite some doubts, they ended up buying 20,000lbs (9,000kg) of them.

Video and photos of the work, which started in 2006, show a decommissioned plane loaded with row upon row of potato sacks that look like large, lumpy passengers.

The sacks sit eerily still in the seats as the engineers collect data on the strength of wireless signals in various spots.

The Boeing engineers added some complicated statistical analysis and the result was a proprietary system for fine tuning Internet signals so they would be strong and reliable wherever a laptop was used on a plane.

Boeing says the system also ensures Wi-Fi signals won't interfere with the plane's sensitive navigation and communications equipment.

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India Rape Protests: Reporter 'Shot Dead'

A journalist has been killed in violent demonstrations against sex attacks in India as police failed to contain fresh violence.

A television reporter, 36, was reportedly shot dead when officers opened fire on a protest in Imphal, the capital of Manipur state, over an attack on a film actress.

The star, known as Momoko, was dragged from stage in full public view last week by an armed militant who tried to rape her. She managed to fight him off and fled.

Momoko, also a popular model, has waived her right to anonymity to make a public appeal for her attacker's arrest.

Crowds in Manipur pelted police with stones on Saturday, prompting a curfew to be imposed for parts of the state.

This was relaxed on Sunday but soon a huge crowd assembled again to confront police who opened fire in retaliation, according to police spokesman A. Singh.

A women's rights activist Bala Bedi said: "We want a strong message to be sent that perpetrators of such crimes have no place in our society."

Water cannon were fired on the crowds

The death of the reporter, who worked for the Doordarshan network, came as separate angry protests over the brutal rape of a young woman were staged in New Delhi for a second day.

Police had tried to ban demonstrations in certain parts of the city after violence on Saturday.

On Sunday, all the routes leading to landmark government buildings were cordoned off and metro stations in the vicinity were closed to the public.

But several hundred protesters managed to breach the cordon around India Gate and braved tear gas and water cannons for the second day in a row.

The case of a 23-year-old student who was gang-raped by six drunk men last week has sparked a public outcry.

Promises by the Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde to consider demands for the six suspects to face the death penalty have failed to quell the anger.

Mr Shinde had also vowed on Saturday night that the government would take further steps to keep women safe.

A group of protesters met Sonia Gandhi, the governing Congress party chief, on Sunday to demand a speedy trial of the suspects.

The 23-year-old woman, a physiotherapy student, was attacked by six drunk men when she was travelling on a bus with a male friend.

They took it in turns to rape her and attack her with an iron rod, causing serious internal injuries. She is still fighting for her life in hospital.

Campaigners want tougher sentences for sex attackers

Her case has caught the public mood amid dismay at a massive rise in the number of sexual attacks in India.

Government figures show a woman is now raped in the country every 20 minutes after a major rise in assaults.

National crime records show that 228,650 of the total 256,329 violent crimes recorded last year were against women.

Delhi has been dubbed the rape capital of India with government figures showing the number of rapes in the city rising 17% to 661 this year.

One of Delhi's most senior police officers has pleaded for an end to the unrest, saying the protests were being "hijacked by hooligans" and insisting that the case against the six suspects was being fast-tracked.

"We have met all the demands of the protesters," Special Commissioner Dharmendra Kumar said.

Sushma Swaraj, a leader of the main opposition Bhartiya Janata Party, called for an all-party meeting to end the violence between protesters and the police.

"Please do not resort to violence. That is not the solution," she wrote on Twitter.

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Kabul Fire Rips Through Cloth Market

A huge fire has swept through a market in Kabul, destroying hundreds of shops.

The early morning blaze burned through a cloth market in the Afghan capital and forced the evacuation of the nearby money exchange.

A fire department official told the AFP news agency that an electrical short circuit was probably to blame.

The fire was so severe that Nato and Afghan army fire squads were called in to help but no-one was injured.

A Kabul police official said the currency exchange, which is the largest in the country, had to be emptied as the fire neared its walls.

"Police helped the money market evacuate and remove their money from the market to safe places," the official said.

Traders reportedly took hundreds of thousands of dollars into police vans and gold was apparently also moved out.

The Afghan capital, home to around five million people, has a poor fire safety reputation.

This is despite the fire department being upgraded with international help following the allied invasion in late 2001 and after the fall of the Taliban regime.

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Blackjack Worker At Bellagio Casino Injured

A female blackjack worker has allegedly been stabbed by her colleague at a luxury resort on the Las Vegas Strip.

Officials say the victim, who has not yet been named, was taken to hospital for treatment to deep facial cuts suffered in the attack at the Bellagio hotel and casino complex.

A woman in her 50s has been charged with battery with a deadly weapon and causing mayhem with substantial bodily harm, local television channel KSNV-TV reported.

It quoted a spokesman for MGM Resorts International, which owns the Bellagio, who said there was an altercation in one of the blackjack pits that resulted in one of the women being struck in the face with a sharp object.

A spokesman for Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department was unable to confirm whether the two women were working at the time.

The incident comes a week after a man shot dead his ex-girlfriend in the lobby of the nearby Excalibur resort, also run by MGM, before killing himself.

The Bellagio, which has nearly 4,000 guest rooms and suites, has featured in several films, including Ocean's Eleven and The Hangover.

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Syria: Deadly Air Strike On Civilian Bakery

Dozens of people have been killed in an air strike on a bakery in Syria's Hama province, according to activists.

Activist Samer al Hamawi said: "There is no way to really know yet how many people were killed. When I got there, I could see piles of bodies all over the ground.

"There were women and children. There are also dozens of wounded people"

Hamawi, who spoke via Skype, uploaded a video of the scene in Halfaya to YouTube, which showed dozens of dust-coated bodies lined up near a pile of rubble by a concrete building, its walls blackened.

The sounds of people screaming could be heard in the video, as some men rushed to the scene on motorcycles and other residents limped away from the area.

Rami Abdelrahman, of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said: "It is still very unclear what the casualties are. From looking at the videos I expect the death toll to be around or above 50, and not higher than 100. 

Activist video showed injured women and children taken away from the scene

"But for now I am keeping my estimate at dozens killed until we have more information."

The authenticity of the video could not be immediately verified. 

Halfaya was seized by rebels last week as part of a campaign to push into new territories in the 21-month-old revolt against President Bashar al Assad,

Another activist said residents picking through the bodies were still determining which were wounded and which were dead.

Shortages of fuel and flour have made bread production erratic across the country, and people often wait for hours to buy bread.

New York based Human Rights Watch condemned army air strikes on bakeries earlier this year, arguing that in some incidents the military was not using enough precision to target rebel sites and in other instances may have intentionally hit civilians.

More follows...

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