One Thousand Inmates Escape From Libya Prison

Inmates have staged a major jailbreak at a prison in the east Libyan city of Benghazi as the facility was also attacked from the outside.

Security official Mohammed Hejazi said the prisoners staged a riot inside Koyfiya prison as an attack took place outside the facility.

Gunmen fired into the air outside the prison as inmates began setting fires inside, suggesting the escape was pre-planned.

Special forces later arrested 18 of those who escaped, while other returned on their own, according to security officials.

It was unclear if the jailbreak was part of protests taking place at the offices of Islamist-allied parties in Libya's main cities.

Those who escaped either face or had been convicted of serious charges.

Protesters have massed across the country angry over the killing of an activist critical of the country's Muslim Brotherhood group.

Hundreds gathered in the capital Tripoli to denounce the shooting of Abdul Salam al Musmari, setting fire to tyres and demanding the dissolution of Islamist parties.

Al Musmari, who publicly criticised the Brotherhood, was killed by unknown attackers in a drive-by shooting in Benghazi.

Benghazi's security situation is among the most precarious in post-revolution Libya.

Last year, the US ambassador and three other Americans were killed in an attack there.

Libyan prime minister Ali Zeidan said he would reshuffle the cabinet and reorganise the government to cope with the "urgent" situation.

He added: "What is happening is an attempt to obstruct the state's progression."

The country's government is struggling to assert its authority over armed groups that helped topple Colonel Gaddafi in 2011 during the Arab Spring uprisings.

It comes after Iraq's prime minister Nouri al Maliki ordered the detention of several senior security officials in connection with a major jailbreak that saw hundreds of inmates escape from the notorious Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad.

A statement from his office said those detained included the chief of staff of the federal police's fourth division.

Al Qaeda's Iraq branch claimed responsibility for the attack and a simultaneous raid on Taji prison. Members of the terror organisation were among the prisoners thought to have escaped.

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China: Video Shows Car Hit By Landslide

Video of a car almost being washed away by floods and a landslide in northwest China has been released.

The footage shows the driver trying to get away from the deluge, but changing his mind when he realises what is happening.

All the car's occupants escaped unhurt.

Almost a million people have been affected by flooding in the region since the start of July.

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Mali Elections Held As Voters Defy Threats

Malians are defying Islamist threats and voting in presidential elections - the first polls since last year's jihadist uprising and France's military intervention.

Voters have a choice of 27 candidates in the first election since a military coup upended one of the region's most stable democracies as Islamist militants hijacked a separatist uprising to seize a vast swathe in the desert north of the country.

A total of 6.8 million people have registered to vote in the West African nation of nearly 15 million.

People queue to vote in a school being used as a polling station

The president they elect is expected to usher in a new dawn of peace and stability in the conflict-scarred country.

The ballot opened at 8am local time (9am BST) under heavy security after one of the main Islamist armed groups in northern Mali said on Saturday it would "strike" polling stations.

"The polling stations and other voting places for what they are calling the elections will be targeted by mujahedeen strikes," the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) said in a statement carried by neighbouring Mauritania's ANI news agency.

Soldiers sit outside a polling station

It did not specify what form the attacks would take but the group warned Malian Muslims to "stay away from the polls".

In a polling station at a school in the capital Bamako, hundreds of voters had been queuing for more than an hour to cast their ballots.

"We are tired of bad governance. I'd urge the candidates to accept the results of our vote," said 56-year-old machine operator Kalifa Traore.

A ballot paper showing all the presidential candidates

The three-week election campaign ended on Friday. It played out without a major attack but continued violence in the north of the country has raised doubts over Mali's readiness to deliver a safe and credible election.

Critics at home and abroad have argued that Mali, under pressure from the international community, is rushing to the polls and risking a botched election that could do more harm than good.

But Louis Michel, the head of the European Union observation mission, sounded a note of optimism, saying conditions had been met for a credible first round.

A woman gets her finger marked with ink to cast her vote

"I believe that these elections can take place in a context and in conditions that are acceptable and do not allow for a distortion or an abuse of the result," he said.

Much of the worry ahead of the polls has been focused on Kidal, occupied for five months by Tuareg separatists until a ceasefire accord allowed the Malian army earlier this month to provide security.

Clashes between Tuaregs and black Africans in the run-up to the election left four people dead.

A man places his ballot in the box at a polling station in Timbuktu

And gunmen thought to be from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) kidnapped five polling officials 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of Kidal.

Voting opened late in many parts of the town.

The ballot is the first since the military mutiny in March last year that toppled democratically elected president Amadou Toumani Toure.

The polls come after months of political turmoil

The ensuing confusion helped the MNLA, MUJAO and other groups allied to al Qaeda to seize northern Mali.

Haidara Aichata Cisse, the only woman in the race, goes head-to-head with 26 men, including past premiers Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Cheick Modibo Diarra, Modibo Sidibe and Soumana Sacko.

Keita is seen as the main frontrunner alongside Soumaila Cisse, a former chairman of the Commission of the West African Monetary Union.

Polls close at 6pm local time (7pm BST) and results are expected within five days.

A UN peacekeeping mission, which took control from an African mission at the beginning of the month, has allowed France to start withdrawing most of the 4,500 troops it sent to Mali in January to stop the Islamists from advancing towards Bamako.

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Spain: Teenager Gored To Death By Bull

A 16-year-old boy has been gored to death at a running-of-the-bulls festival celebrating the patron saint of a Spanish town, police say.

The animal caught the teenager in the back as he took part in the event marking the Apostle James feast at Isso, around 200 miles southeast of Madrid.

He underwent two failed operations to repair massive injuries to his liver, but doctors were unable to save him and he died hours later.

A 60-year-old man taking part in the festivities was also injured, when he was gored in a leg.

Fiestas including bulls are common in Spain, and critics and aficionados alike often agree that health and safety measures are almost non-existent at many small town bull runs.

That means almost anyone can participate, even if they are drunk or unfit.

The police spokesman who revealed the news did so on condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to be cited by name.

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Indianapolis: Church Bus Crash Kills Three

Three people were killed and 26 injured when a bus carrying mostly teens from a church camp crashed in Indianapolis.

A total of 37 people, including adults, were on board the bus, which was on its way back to an Indianapolis church when it crashed.

Witnesses said the bus came speeding off of an interstate highway on Saturday afternoon, struck a retaining wall as it tried to round a curve and overturned.

Local station WTHR-TV reported the bus driver told witnesses his brakes failed.

The injured were taken to hospitals in the area

Footage showed the bust resting on its side as medical helicopters and fire officials rushed to the scene.

No other vehicle was believed to have been involved in the accident.

The dead included a man and a woman, while there was no immediate information on the third victim.

Lieutenant Ato McTush of the Indianapolis Fire Department said many had sustained head injuries.

The passengers were members of Colonial Hill Baptist Church and the bus was church-owned.

Witnesses to the crash described a horrifying scene.

Duane Lloyd told WTHR that he heard a loud noise behind him and saw the crash unfold.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the accident

"I heard a skid. I looked back. I see this bus in the air and people falling out of the bus," Mr Lloyd said.

Sasha Sample told The Indianapolis Star some victims were lying in the road, while others were able to limp to the side.

"Everybody had boils and scrapes on them," she said.

"People were trying to climb from under the bus."

Authorities investigating the cause of the accident said they had not yet determined whether the bus had mechanical issues.

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Cannes: Jewels Stolen In Armed Hold-Up

An armed man has stolen jewels worth around 40m euros (£35m) from a hotel in the French Riviera resort of Cannes, police say.

Authorities said the hold-up took place during a jewellery exhibition at the Carlton Hotel in the city, which is best known for its annual film festival.

The lone gunman managed to evade security and escape with a briefcase containing the valuable stones.

A Cannes police spokesman said: "A full an urgent operation is under way to catch the culprit and recover these jewels. Thieves see Cannes as rich pickings."

The Carlton Hotel was a central setting for legendary director Alfred Hitchcock's romantic thriller To Catch A Thief, about a series of jewel thefts on the French Riviera.

The latest robbery comes after a heist at the film festival last May that saw thieves make off with £910,000 worth of jewellery that was due to be loaned to movie stars.

That raid took place in the hotel room of a female American employee of Swiss jeweller Chopard, while she was out for the evening.

Police said a strongbox containing jewels was ripped out of the wardrobe and carried off.

In a second theft during the festival, robbers stole a diamond necklace with an estimated value of £1.2m.

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Israel Agrees Release Of Palestinian Prisoners

Israel has agreed to release 104 long-held Palestinian prisoners in a move that could see the resumption of peace talks after a three-year diplomatic standstill.

The highly contentious decision will see the release of prisoners who have served between 19 and 30 years for taking part in deadly attacks on Israel in four stages over nine months.

The vote saw 13 ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 22-strong cabinet vote in favour of the wide-scale release. Seven voted against and two abstained, according to a government official.

A statement released by the prime minister's office following the vote said: "The government approved the opening of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians ... and mandated a ministerial committee for the release of prisoners during the course of the talks."

The list of the prisoners has been provided by the Palestinians, who have made their release a condition of participating in Washington-based talks about restarting peace negotiations with Israel.

Jewish settler homes in the West Bank

As part of the deal, brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry, they agreed to talks despite Israel's refusal to stop settlement building on land the Palestinians consider should be theirs.

The chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erakat, hailed the vote and said: "We welcome the Israeli government's decision to release the prisoners.

"We consider this an important step and hope to be able to seize the opportunity provided by the American administration's efforts."

The talks between the two sides, the first since discussions stalled in September 2010, are due to begin on Tuesday.

The Palestinians want to establish a state which comprises the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, lands which the Israelis captured in the 1967 six-day war.

Palestinians celebrate UN statehood decision

Late last year, the UN General Assembly recognised the State of Palestine within those 1967 borders.

In an attempt to secure talks as a precursor to the restarting of proper peace negotiations, Mr Netanyahu wrote an open letter to the Israeli public.

In it he said: "I agreed to release 104 Palestinians in measured stages, after the start of the negotiations and in accordance with their progress.

"This is an incredibly difficult decision. It's painful to the bereaved families, it pains the entire people of Israel, and it's very painful to me."

Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian Prisoners' Club which tracks the well-being of Palestinians in Israeli jails, said there would be no talks unless all 104 prisoners returned to their homes.

"If they don't free all of them, there will be no negotiations," he told public radio.

In past deals, Israel has expelled some freed prisoners from the occupied West Bank or annexed east Jerusalem to the Gaza Strip or abroad, but Fares said that would not be acceptable this time.

"Expulsion is punishment," he said. "These people, who are now over 50 years old, all of them sick, need to be released to their homes."

Around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners are held in Israeli jails, according to the latest figures at the end of June.

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Spain Train Crash: Driver Arrives At Court

A judge is preparing to question the driver of a train that hurtled off the tracks killing 78 people in Spain.

Francisco Jose Garzon Amo is being held on suspicion of "negligent homicide" and has arrived at court where he is due to appear before Judge Luis Alaez, who is heading the judicial investigation into the crash.

Judge Alaez will decide whether to press formal charges at the hearing.

Garzon, 52, is suspected of driving too fast on a dangerous section of the line near the city of Santiago de Compostela.

Reports suggest the train was travelling at around 190km per hour (120mph), more than twice the 80km per hour (50mph) speed limit when it entered the bend.

Garzon, who was pictured staggering from the wreckage with blood pouring from a head wound, has refused to make a statement or answer questions about the crash.

His court appearance will be closed but the judge will decide whether to remand the driver as an official suspect, free him on bail or release him without charge.

Investigating judge Luis Alaez is due to question the train driver

The hearing comes as authorities said forensic experts have identified the last three bodies of the 78 people killed when the intercity train derailed and smashed into a concrete wall.

They did not reveal the victims' names but said their families had been informed.

A resident of the town where the train crashed has claimed Garzon admitted going fast and said he "wanted to die" in the aftermath of the crash.

In a television interview broadcast on Spain's Antena 3, Evaristo Iglesias said he and another person accompanied Garzon to a stretch of flat ground where other injured people were being laid out, waiting for emergency services to arrive.

Mr Iglesias said: "He told us that he wanted to die."

He added that Garzon said he "had been going fast" and "he said he had needed to brake but couldn't".

An American passenger, Stephen Ward, said he was watching the train's speed on a screen in the carriage, which indicated it was going at 194km per hour (121mph) moments before derailing.

The train wreckage remains at the crash scene near Santiago de Compostela

Officials have so far not said how fast the train was going when it derailed and it is not clear whether the brakes failed or were never used.

The "black box" that records journey data is with the investigating judge.

All eight carriages of the train, packed with 218 passengers, careered off the track on the express route between Madrid and Ferrol on the Galician coast.

The train cut through electricity lines and leaking diesel fuel burst into flames in some carriages.

At least 130 people were taken to hospital after the crash, with dozens remaining in a critical condition.

Five US citizens and one Briton were among the injured and one American was among the dead.

Two separate investigations are being carried out into the catastrophe - one to look into possible failings by the driver and the other to examine the train's in-built speed regulation systems and see if it was a technical malfunction that meant the driver was not warned of the reduced speed limit around the bend.

The train crash is the worst Spain has experienced since a three-train accident in a tunnel in the northern Leon province in 1944.

Due to heavy censorship at the time, the exact death toll for the Torre del Bierzo disaster has never been established.

The official figure was given as 78 dead, but it is thought that as many as 250 could have been killed.

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Egypt: Fresh Fears Of Military Crackdown

Egypt: Timeline Of Unrest

Updated: 3:52pm UK, Saturday 27 July 2013

Key developments in Egypt since the beginning of the Arab Spring.

:: 2011

January 25: Egyptians stage nationwide demonstrations against the rule of President Hosni Mubarak.

February 11: Mubarak steps down and turns power over to the military, which dissolves parliament and suspends the constitution.

November 28: Egypt holds mutiple-stage parliamentary elections and the Muslim Brotherhood wins nearly half the seats in the law-making lower house.

:: 2012

May 23: First round of voting in the presidential elections.

June 30: Mr Morsi, elected with 51.7% of the vote, is sworn and becomes Egypt's first civilian and Islamist president.

August 12: The new president scraps a constitutional document that gave sweeping powers to the military and sacks Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who ruled after Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February, 2011.

November 22: Mr Morsi announces sweeping new powers for himself.

November 30: Islamist-dominated constituent assembly adopts a draft constitution despite a boycott by liberals and Christians.

December 8: The president annuls the decree giving himself increased powers.

December 15 and 22: 64% of voters in a two-round referendum back the new constitution. Egypt plunges into political crisis, with demonstrations by Morsi supporters and opponents sometimes turning deadly.

:: 2013

January 24: There is violence between demonstrators and police on the eve of the second anniversary of the uprising that toppled Mubarak. Nearly 60 people die in a week.

April 5: Four Christians and a Muslim are killed in sectarian violence.

May 7: President Morsi's cabinet reshuffle falls short of opposition demands.

May 16: Gunmen kidnap three policemen and four soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula. They are freed on May 22.

June 2: Egypt's highest court invalidates the Islamist-dominated senate, which assumed a legislative role when parliament was dissolved, and a panel that drafted the constitution.

June 15: Mr Morsi announces "definitive" severing of ties with Syria.

June 21: Tens of thousands of Islamists gather ahead of planned opposition protests.

June 23: Defence Minister Abdel Fattah al Sisi warns the army will intervene if violence erupts.

June 28: The US says non-essential embassy staff can leave after an American is killed during the protests.

June 29: The Tamarod (Rebellion) campaign which called rallies for June 30 says more than 22 million have signed a petition demanding Mr Morsi's resignation and a snap election.

June 30: Tens of thousands of Egyptians take to the streets nationwide determined to oust the president on the anniversary of his turbulent first year in power. At least 16 people die in protests across the country.

July 1: The opposition gives President Morsi a day to quit or face civil disobedience. Egypt's armed forces warn they will intervene if the people's demands are not met within 48 hours.

July 2: The presidency rejects the army's ultimatum, saying it will pursue its own plans for national reconciliation.

July 3: Mr Morsi is overthrown late in the day as the country's most senior army official announces the suspension of the Islamist-tinged constitution and a "road map" for a return to democratic rule to stop the bloodshed.

July 4: As Mr Morsi is held by the army, Supreme Constitutional Court Chief Justice Adly Mansour is sworn in as Egypt's interim president.

July 6: Fierce street battles between supporters of Morsi and their opponents leave at least 36 people dead.

July 8: Some 35 people are shot dead in clashes between Morsi supporters and the Egyptian army outside the Republican Guard's headquarters in Cairo.

July 9: Mr Mansour appoints economist Hazem el-Beblawi as prime minister and opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei as vice president. A military announcement backs up the appointments.

July 26: Millions pour into the streets of Egypt in rival demonstrations after a call by the country's military chief for protesters to give him a mandate to stop "potential terrorism" by supporters of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood. Five are killed in clashes. Prosecutors announce Morsi is under investigation for a host of allegations including murder and conspiracy with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

July 27: Clashes in the early morning hours between security forces and Morsi supporters kill at least 120 protesters in Cairo.

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Pope Francis Holds Rio Mass For Three Million

Pope Francis has ended an historic trip to his home continent with a Mass on Copacabana Beach that drew a reported three million people.

Nearly the entire 4km (2.5 mile) crescent of Copacabana's famous beach overflowed with people, some of them throwing T-shirts, flags and football shirts into the pontiff's open-sided car as he drove by.

Even the normally stern-faced Vatican bodyguards smiled as they jogged alongside his vehicle.

Many of the crowd had spent the night on the beach, with pilgrims wrapped in flags and sleeping bags.

Up to three million people were on Copacabana Beach for the Mass

The Vatican has said more than three million people were expected to attend the Mass, based on information from World Youth Day organisers and local authorities. World Youth Day was on Saturday.

That was far higher than the one million at the last World Youth Day vigil in Madrid in 2011.

Among the crowds were presidents Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, Argentina's Cristina Kirchner and Evo Morales of Bolivia.

Pope Francis also held a Mass on the beach on Friday.

Pope Francis waves to the crowds from his car

The 76-year-old pontiff will later meet bishops from Latin America and the Caribbean before leaving for Rome on Sunday night.

During his visit, he criticised the "intellectual" message of the church and told Brazil's bishops that people needed to hear simpler messages of love, forgiveness and mercy.

He said: "At times we lose people because they don't understand what we are saying, because we have forgotten the language of simplicity and import an intellectualism foreign to our people

"Without the grammar of simplicity, the church loses the very conditions which make it possible to fish for God in the deep waters of his mystery."

In a speech outlining the kind of church he wants, Francis asked bishops to reflect on why hundreds of thousands of Catholics have left the church for Protestant and Pentecostal congregations that have grown exponentially in recent decades in Brazil, particularly in its favelas.

According to census data, the number of Catholics in Brazil dipped from 125 million in 2000 to 123 million in 2010, with the church's share of the total population dropping from 74% to 65%.

During the same time period, the number of evangelical Protestants and Pentecostals skyrocketed from 26 million to 42 million, increasing from 15% to 22% of the population in 2010.

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