Super Typhoon Usagi: Thousands Without Power

Typhoon Usagi has unleashed torrential rain and ferocious winds in Taiwan, leaving tens of thousands without power after the storm claimed at least two lives in the Philippines.

Southern Taiwan has been hit hard by the storm, which has reached maximum sustained winds of up to 120mph, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.

As the storm headed for Hong Kong, residents in the city have reinforced windows in anticipation of impact.

Local airline Cathay Pacific has warned that all its flights in and out of the city will be cancelled.

A man uses a makeshift raft to paddle through waves in Manila Bay

In Taiwan's southern Pintung county, storms have flooded remote villages and forced troops to rescue dozens of people, the state Central News Agency said.

"I thought a tsunami was hitting ... I've never encountered this before in my life," said a 60-year-old woman who scrambled to safety as the storm hit.

Six people were injured in Kinmen, a Taiwan-controlled island off China's southeastern Fujian province, after they were hit by fallen trees.

The typhoon also left 45,000 homes without power and more than 5,000 households without water.

The storm lashed Taiwan's southern areas

A total of 77 domestic and five international flights have been cancelled and ferry services suspended, with schools and offices in many parts of Taiwan closed, especially in the south and east.

The defence ministry deployed more than 3,000 soldiers to "high-risk" areas and placed 24,000 others on standby.

The Philippines' National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council has confirmed that a man aged about 50 and a woman of about 20 drowned in the storm.

Winds of up to 120mph have been recorded as Usagi struck Taiwan

Two women are also missing after a boat capsized the previous day. Nine passengers and crew were rescued.

In Hong Kong, officials have issued a standby signal number three, the second in a five-step tropical cyclone warning system with winds expected to strengthen.

China's National Meteorological Center issued a red alert - its highest-level warning - as it forecast gale-force winds and heavy rain.

It said Usagi would affect the coastal areas of the provinces of Guangdong, Zhejiang and Fujian.

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Iraq Suicide Bomb Kills Almost 100 At Funeral

Almost 100 people have died after two suicide bombers targeted a funeral in the Shi'ite neighbourhood of Sadr City in Baghdad.

One bomber detonated his explosives-laden car as he drove up near a tent where mourners had gathered and another on foot blew himself up nearby.

A third explosion followed as police, ambulances and firefighter were gathering at the scene.

The explosions set several cars on fire, sending a towering plume of thick black smoke over the city.

One of the mourners, Sheik Sattar al Fartousi, said: "I saw several charred bodies on the ground and tents on fire and also burning cars.

"Wounded people were screaming in pain.

The remains of the tent after the bombing

"The scene was horrible. The funeral turned into an inferno."

He said the first blast went off as dinner was being served in one of several tents set up for the funeral of a member of the al Fartousi tribe.

He estimated that more than 500 people were attending the event.

Hussein Abdul Khaliq, a government employee who lives in the area, said: "This funeral was not a military post or a ministry building, yet it was still targeted.

A plume of black smoke was sent over Sadr City

"This shows that no place and no one is safe in Iraq."

The attack happened at sunset on Saturday, hours after insurgents launched a suicide attack on a police headquarters in the city of Beiji, about 110 miles north of Baghdad, killing seven policemen and wounding 21 others.

In that attack, police said guards managed to kill one suicide bomber, but three other bombers were able to set off their explosive belts inside the compound.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Al Qaeda's branch in Iraq frequently targets Shi'ite civilians and security forces in an attempt to undermine public confidence in the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad.

Thousands of Iraqis have been killed in violent attacks in recent months - a level of bloodshed not seen since Iraq pulled back from the brink of civil war in 2008 - despite appeals for restraint from Shi'ite and Sunni political leaders.

More than 4,000 people have been killed in violent attacks between April and August, according to the United Nations.

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Air France: Ton Of Cocaine Found On Plane

More than a ton of cocaine was seized at a Paris airport after it was found packed into 30 suitcases carried on a passenger plane.

French police, who had been working with British, Dutch and Spanish colleagues, discovered the 1.3-ton haul on a flight to Charles De Gaulle airport from the Venezuelan capital Caracas.

The cocaine, which was carried on an Air France plane, had a street value of some £175m (200m euros).

French Interior Minister Manuel Valls said it was the biggest find of its type in metropolitan France.

Six people have been arrested so far, he said.

French police commander Mohamed Douhane said: "Such a seizure, in such circumstances, is quite simply exceptional.

"Now an inquiry ... will have to determine if there were other accomplices, whether within the company or at the arrival or departure airports," he added.

French police discovered the haul on September 11 but only revealed it on Saturday as they put the 30 empty suitcases on display.

None of them were apparently registered to any passengers. It is not clear how the stash would have been collected.

The office of Venezuela's attorney general said authorities were investigating how the cocaine-laden suitcases got aboard the flight at Caracas's Simon Bolivar International Airport.

Cocaine comes from coca leaves grown in countries like Colombia, Peru and Bolivia.

Venezuela does not produce cocaine, according to United Nations monitors, but experts say drug traffickers are increasingly using its territory to smuggle drugs into other nations.

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Bo Xilai Found Guilty Of Corruption In China

By Mark Stone, China Correspondent, in Jinan

Communist Party politician Bo Xilai has been sentenced to life in prison by a Chinese court following a scandal that culminated in one of the country's highest-profile trials in decades.

Bo, 64, was given a life term for taking 26.8m yuan (£2.73m) in bribes.

The court also gave him 15 years in prison for embezzlement and seven years for abuse of power.

The verdict marks the end of a protracted legal and political saga which began with the murder of a British businessman and caused political ripples right to the heart of China's Communist leadership.

Bo's five-day trial ended last month at the Intermediate People's Court in the eastern city of Jinan.

With unprecedented openness and moments of genuine suspense, it was a Chinese trial like no other before it.

Bo Xilai with wife Gu Kailai, who he dismissed as 'crazy'

Through televised highlights and minute-by-minute microblog updates from the court, the Chinese public was able to follow Bo's robust self-defence and disdainful cross-examination of witnesses.

Performing with the charisma and trademark flair which has set him apart in Chinese politics, he laughed-off the central accusation against him that he had illegally obtained the 26.8m yuan.

He said money did not interest him, claiming, rather unusually, that even his underwear was 50 years old.

In one of the most dramatic moments of the trial, Bo dismissed the two star witnesses against him - his wife, and his former chief of police - as "crazy" and a "liar" respectively.

In reference to some of the bribery allegations, he complained that "not even the worst TV script writers could come up with such plots".

At times though, the trial itself resembled a soap opera, with Bo revealing a complicated love triangle between himself, his wife Gu Kailai, and Wang Lijun, his former police chief.

The prosecution produced documentary and anecdotal evidence which it claimed showed the Bo family to be extremely wealthy with bulging bank accounts, access to private jets and a villa near Cannes in France.

Bo Guagua, son of Bo Xilai, was accused of enjoying a 'playboy' lifestyle

Stories emerged in court regarding the antics of Bo Guagua, the son of Bo and Gu Kailai.

The young Bo, who studied at Harrow, Oxford and Harvard had, according to the prosecution, jetted across Europe and Africa and been allowed to enjoy a playboy lifestyle which went against all Communist Party principles.

Many of the trips and other financial deals were, the prosecution claimed, the result of Bo's corrupt dealings with businessmen.

Bo had abused his various positions of power over decades.

He had instigated corrupt deals with numerous business associates with whom his relationship should never have been financial.

For almost two decades, from 1985, Bo climbed up the Communist Party ladder from mayor of the northeastern port city of Dalian, to governor of Liaoning Province.

The sensational trial grabbed the attention of China's media

He served as the Chinese government's commerce minister and wowed many foreign counterparts with his relaxed demeanour, modern and apparently capitalist outlook and his political drive.

At one point, it was almost certain he would be chosen as one of the seven men on the Standing Committee of the Politburo who run the country.

However, his career came to a spectacular halt four-and-a-half years after he became Communist Party secretary in the central Chinese city of Chongqing.

The fall from grace was swift and almost inevitable after his wife was accused of the murder of a friend and business associate of the Bo family, a Briton called Neil Heywood.

In a dramatic sequence of events over the winter of 2011-12, the conspiracy began to unravel.

Bo's chief of police in Chongqing left his post and fled to a US consulate.

Wang asked for political asylum and told the Americans that Bo's wife had poisoned Mr Heywood.

His asylum request was rejected but the lurid claim could not be ignored.

The fact Wang had chosen to tell the Americans and not his own superiors was an acute embarrassment for the Communist Party.

Within months, Wang and Gu were tried, convicted and jailed.

The Chinese government presented Bo's trial as the downfall of a corrupt crook.

However, it was widely seen as being far more a political purge of a man who posed a threat to the current leadership of President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang.

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Kenya: 'If You Were Muslim They Let You Go'

Al Shabaab Behind String Of Attacks

Updated: 8:12am UK, Sunday 22 September 2013

The Somali militant group al Shabaab, which has claimed responsibility for the attack on a shopping mall in Nairobi, is behind a string of terrorist atrocities across eastern Africa.

Formed in 2006, the al Qaeda-linked group can trace its roots to the Islamic Courts Union that once ran the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

It was eventually driven out of the city by African Union troops from Uganda and Burundi, who were later joined by soldiers from Kenya.

Al Shabaab uses guerrilla tactics to battle the Somali government and the troops brought in to maintain security.

It has attracted hundreds of foreign fighters, including some Britons.

Samantha Lewthwaite, from Buckinghamshire, the so-called "white widow" of 7/7 bomber Germaine Lindsay, is thought to have links to the group.

She has been on the run since Christmas 2011, when police foiled a plot to bomb buildings used by Western tourists in Mombassa.

Although al Shabaab has lost control of key towns and cities it once controlled, the group still claims vast swathes of rural Somalia, including land near the Kenyan border.

It has claimed responsibility for several deadly suicide bombings, including one in February 2009 which killed 11 Burundian soldiers on an African peacekeeping mission.

It carried out its first international attack in July 2010, killing at least 74 people in a bomb blast in the Ugandan capital Kampala, before gaining global notoriety by blocking aid from Western relief agencies during the 2011 famine in Somalia.

According to the US National Counterterrorism Centre, the group is also behind the assassinations of peace activists, aid workers, community leaders and journalists.

It was designated as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US government in February 2008.

Al Shabaab, whose name means "the youth" in Arabic, had threatened to strike Nairobi before.

In a message posted on Twitter, it said it had repeatedly warned the Kenyan government that failure to remove its forces from Somalia "would have severe consequences".

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Pakistan: Suicide Bombing At Peshawar Church

At least 78 people have been killed in a double suicide bomb attack on a Christian church in northwest Pakistan, officials say.

A man cries over the death of his brother in the blast Around 400 people were at the service

Another 120 people were wounded when the two bombers blew themselves up as worshippers left the church in Peshawar city, which had been offering a free meal of rice.

At least 34 women and seven children were among the dead, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said.

Nazir John, one of those at the church, said: "There were blasts and there was hell for all of us.

"When I got my senses back, I found nothing but smoke, dust, blood and screaming people.

"I saw severed body parts and blood all around."

Peshawar's commissioner Sahibzada Anees told reporters the bombers struck when the service had just ended.

"Most of the wounded are in critical condition," he said, adding that special security had been in force to protect the church.

Islamic militants are thought to be behind the attack

"We are in an area which is a target of terrorism and within that area there was a special security arrangement for the church.

"We are in a rescue phase and once it is over we will investigate what went wrong," 

Witnesses said they heard two blasts, the second more powerful than the first.             

An injured person is taken away from the scene of destruction

Najeeb Bogvi, a senior police officer, said: "After the service ended, people started to come out and the suicide bomber rushed towards them."

Schoolteacher Nazir Khan, 50, said: "A huge blast threw me on the floor and as soon as I regained my senses, a second blast took place and I saw wounded people everywhere."

It is the country's deadliest ever assault on Christians.

A woman mourns a victim of the attack

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's office said in a statement: "The Prime Minister said that terrorists have no religion and targeting innocent people is against the teachings of Islam and all religions.

"He added that such cruel acts of terrorism reflect the brutality and inhumane mind set of the terrorists."

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion will likely fall on one of the country's many Islamic militant groups.

Islamic militants have been blamed for previous attacks on the Muslim country's Christian minority, and other Muslim groups they consider heretics.

Christians make up about 4% of Pakistan's population of 180 million

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Syria: Russia's Lavrov Accuses US Of Blackmail

Russia has accused the United States of trying to blackmail it during negotiations over what to do about Syria's chemical weapons.

Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the only reason the West was agreeing to discussions it has proposed was so it could draw up a UN resolution that would open the way to military action.

Mr Lavrov said: "Our American partners are beginning to blackmail us."

He claimed the US was threatening to stop work on implementing Syria's chemical disarmament deal unless Russia supports a Security Council resolution allowing military intervention.

"Right now Western partners are trying to unceremoniously push through a resolution under Chapter VII," he said, adding that, if they were successful, it would "move the (chemical weapons) convention aside to advance individual, personal or geopolitical, state ambitions."

He said resolution under Chapter VII - which authorised the use of force - contradict his agreement with US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Russia put forward a plan to bring Syria's chemical weapons under international control in response to calls for action to be taken.

Syria has agreed but the final plan is still to be worked out and is subject to a degree of ratification by the United Nations.

The call for action came after Syria's regime was accused of launching a chemical attack which killed hundreds of its own people on August 21. Syria and Russia claim it was rebels that carried out the outrage.

Under the plan, Syria has until 2014 to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile, but the US, Britain and France want the order underpinned by UN charter's Chapter VII.

Chapter VII allows for sanctions or even military intervention in the event that an order is not carried out.

Chemical weapons inspectors at work in Syria last month

Russia says that the Americans are using Chapter VII as a diplomatic ploy to gain extra control in the region.

Lavrov's comments came as a mortar round slammed into the compound of the Russian embassy in Damascus, the first such hit against the site.

The attack, which caused no injuries, was confirmed by an embassy source speaking to Syrian state news agency SANA, as well as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog.

There had been hopes that a deal on chemical weapons could pave the way for peace talks to end the 30-month conflict which has killed more than 110,000 people and forced two million more to flee abroad.

But the plan has been greeted with scepticism by the Syrian opposition.

The Hague-based Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is overseeing the inventory and destruction of Syria's chemical weapons under the agreement.

The OPCW, which enforces the Chemical Weapons Convention that Syria has applied to join, postponed a meeting of its Executive Council due Sunday to discuss the practicalities of disposing of Syria's chemical weapons.

A UN report released last Monday said that sarin gas was used in the Syria attacks but did not apportion blame. It did provide details of the trajectories of the missiles that delivered the chemicals which suggested they could have been fired from Syria bases.

Assad's government and the rebels fighting to oust him have accused each other of being responsible.

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Putin Spokesman Denies Kabayeva Wedding Claim

Vladimir Putin's spokesman has been forced to deny rumours the Russian president has married a former Olympic gymnast.

Social media and internet forums were flooded with claims the recently divorced leader had tied the knot with Alina Kabayeva in a secret ceremony

The rumours were sparked by Mr Putin's political rival Alexei Navalny, who tweeted: "I'm told that Putin and Kabayeva are marrying today at the Iver Monastery. All of Valdai sealed off."

But Russian news agency Ria Novosti reported that spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the suggestions in a TV interview. He called the rumours "internet exercises out of boredom".

Alina Kabayeva won a gold medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens

Mr Putin and his wife, Lyudmila, made a joint announcement revealing they were to separate in a TV appearance in June.

Both said the reason for their split was the time-consuming nature of the president's work.

The announcement ended years of speculation about the strength of the couple's marriage, with the first lady rarely seen in public over recent years.

Mr Peskov said at the time that there was no other woman in Putin's life, and that any other information was nothing more than "gossip, hearsay and assumptions".

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Angela Merkel Romps To Victory In Election

Angela Merkel was on track to win a third term as chancellor in a German election on Sunday after her conservatives scored their best result in decades.

Despite the large lead, Ms Merkel's conservatives may be forced to govern in a "grand coalition" with the centre-left Social Democrats, the exit polls showed.

Ms Merkel's previous junior partners, the pro-business Free Democrats, narrowly failed to re-enter the parliament, it was reported after the polling booths closed.

The exit polls gave Ms Merkel's conservatives at least 42%, the Social Democrats 26%, but the Free Democrats just below the 5% needed to re-enter parliament.

The result means the most likely scenario will be a left-right "grand coalition" between Ms Merkel's Christian Democrats and their traditional opponents.

Ms Merkel hailed a "super result", the best election outcome in over 20 years and promised four more good years for Germany.

"Together we will do everything in the next four years to again make them successful years for Germany," Ms Merkel, smiling broadly, told cheering supporters of her Christian Democratic Union in Berlin.

Ms Merkel's led a fractious "grand coalition" during her first term in 2005-2009, with the SPD's chancellor candidate this time around, Peer Steinbrueck, as her finance minister.

Analysts say the coalition negotiations could drag on for weeks, with the SPD insisting on a national minimum wage.

A physicist by training Ms Merkel is only the third person to win a third term in Germany, after the immediate post-war leader, Konrad Adenauer, and Helmut Kohl, the father of German re-unification.

If she serves at least until 2017, she will become Europe's longest serving female leader beating Margaret Thatcher who was Britain's prime minister for 11 years.

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Kenya: Troops Launch Major Assault On Gunmen

A major assault is ongoing against Al Shabaab gunmen in an attempt to end a siege in a shopping centre in Nairobi, Kenyan officials told the AFP news agency.

Up to 15 terrorists remain inside the centre after the attack left 59 people dead, including at least three Britons, though the death toll could be "much, much higher" a police officer said, after reports from inside of multiple corpses.

The gang burst into the upmarket Westgate shopping centre yesterday afternoon armed with guns and grenades.

Unconfirmed reports suggest women as well as men took part in the attack.

Some of those killed were reportedly executed after failing to recite a Muslim prayer at gunpoint. Others were shot at the entrance to the mall as they tried to escape.

Military personel mobilise outside the Westgate shopping centre

The Kenyan Red Cross estimate at least 200 people have been injured and 49 others are still missing.

A Foreign Office spokesman said three Britons were among those killed and warned the number is likely to rise.

Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the "despicable attack", saying it was an act of "appalling brutality".

"Because the situation is ongoing, we should prepare ourselves for further bad news," he added.

A Kenyan army soldier takes cover behind a wall near the centre

More than 1,000 people have so far been evacuated from the shopping centre but an unknown number remain inside.

Security forces have taken control of the upper and lower levels of the building, but an army spokesman told Sky News they were yet to secure the second floor where the terrorists may be hiding.

Other reports suggested the attackers are holed up in a toilet block next to a supermarket on the ground floor of the complex.

People took cover behind cars as the stand-off continued into the night

Witnesses reported hearing fierce gunfire and explosions on Sunday morning, as police and the military tried to reach the remaining hostages.

Military helicopters have also been seen swooping low around the area as sporadic volleys of gunfire continue to rattle through the centre.

Witnesses nearby report hearing a large explosion rocking the complex late this afternoon.

The upmarket Westgate shopping centre is located in the centre of Nairobi

Two Canadians are confirmed to have been killed in the attack, while two French citizens and a Dutch woman are also among the dead.

The Somalia-based Shabaab militant group claimed responsibility and warned of further attacks.

President Kenyatta said one of his nephews and his nephew's fiancee were among the 59 people confirmed killed.

A cremation for Nehal Vekaria, a 16-year-old student who died in the attack

"They shall not get away with their despicable and beastly acts," the President said in an emotional speech to the nation. "We will punish the masterminds swiftly and indeed very painfully."

Saadia Ahmed, a radio presenter from Nairobi caught up in the attack, said the attackers released people able to prove they were Muslim.

"I witnessed a few people get up and say something in Arabic and the gunmen let them go. A colleague of mine said he was Muslim and recited something in Arabic and they let him go as well.

Some 1,000 men, women and children, were caught-up in strike

"I saw a lot of children and elderly people being shot dead. I don't understand why you would shoot a five-year-old child. They were firing at random at anyone who tried to escape."

Tales of survival are continuing to emerge as the siege continues.

Nahashon Mwangi said he was at work when he received a desperate telephone call from his son from inside the centre.

"Dad, I have been shot in the neck and hand. I am bleeding. Come and help me please," his son told him.

When he called later, his son, who survived the attack, replied: "Don't call me again. I just want you to get me out of here. If they hear me talking, they are going to kill me."

:: A helpline has been set up for people in the UK who are concerned about relatives in Kenya: 020 7008 000.

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