Written By Unknown on Senin, 22 Desember 2014 | 00.27
By Sky News US Team
President Barack Obama says he does not consider the Sony hack an act of war but an act of "cyber-vandalism".
The US is weighing up how to respond to the attack, which prompted Sony to withdraw the movie The Interview, which had been set for release during the holiday season.
The movie, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, parodies North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-Un.
The Interview had been set for Christmas Day release before it was pulled
"I don't think it was an act of war. I think it was an act of cyber-vandalism that was very costly, very expensive," the US President said in a TV interview set for broadcast later on Sunday.
"We take it very seriously. We will respond proportionately."
Video:Sony Film 'Neuralgic' To Pyongyang
Speaking to CNN, Mr Obama also said his government was considering putting North Korea back on a US list of countries that sponsor terrorism.
North Korea spent two decades on the list until the Bush administration removed it in 2008 during nuclear negotiations. Some politicians in the US have called for the designation to be restored following the hack.
Only Iran, Sudan, Syria and Cuba remain on the list, which triggers sanctions that limit US aid, defence exports and certain financial transactions.
The US believes that Pyongyang was behind the hack attack, which also involved the embarrassing leak of scores of private emails of Hollywood stars and industry executives.
Video:The Interview: Official Trailer
North Korea insists it had nothing to do with the cyber-attack on Sony and has proposed a joint investigation with the US.
The White House has rejected the idea.
Republican Senator John McCain said the hack was "more than vandalism" and called it a "new form of warfare".
The group Human Rights Foundation has urged citizens to join their Hack Them Back campaign and "break the monopoly of information that the Kim regime imposes".
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Gallery: 'The Interview' Film Pulled: Hollywood Takes to Twitter
Boko Haram militants have released a video apparently showing civilians being shot as they lie face down in a hall as the group's leader boasted the floor was "crimsoned" with blood.
Gunmen are seen struggling to move around the room, which appears to be in a school, because of the sheer number of corpses around them.
"We have made sure the floor of this hall is turned red with blood, and this is how it is going to be in all future attacks and arrests of infidels," the group's leader said in a message.
"From now, killing, slaughtering, destructions and bombing will be our religious duty anywhere we invade."
Most of the victims appear to be adult men, which the Nigerian group said had been killed because they were "infidels".
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Gallery: Profile Of Boko Haram Leader
Abubakar Shekau is the leader of Boko Haram. He took control of the Islamist group after the death of founder Mohammed Yusuf in 2009.
Little is known about him, although he was born in Shekau village in the northeastern state of Yobe and is now thought to be in his early 40s.
A woman has been charged with the murder of eight children at a house in Cairns, northern Australia, police have said.
Mersane Warria, 37, is the mother of seven of the children, who had all been found stabbed to death. The eighth child was her niece.
The youngsters - four girls and four boys - were aged between two and 14 years, police said.
Warria was formally charged following a bedside hearing at Cairns Base Hospital where she appeared before a magistrate.
She remains under police guard in the hospital.
The children were found dead on Friday
Officers were called to the home in the suburb of Manoora on Friday morning after reports of a woman suffering from stab wounds.
The children's bodies were discovered during a search of the house.
Police have not said how the children died, but Queensland Police Detective Inspector Bruno Asnicar said they are examining several knives in the home that may have been the weapon used to kill them.
Suffocation was also a possible cause of death.
Det Ins Asnicar said: "We are considering that and that's why it's taking a bit of time.
"It could be a range of things, from suffocation to 1,000 other things."
Police are not looking for any other suspects.
Residents have held a church service, candlelit vigil and laid flowers and toys for the children outside the home.
The family were members of the Torres Strait Islander community, a group of indigenous Australians viewed as distinct from the broader Aboriginal community due to their origins on islands off the Queensland coast.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott described the deaths as "heartbreaking".
He added: "All parents would feel a gut-wrenching sadness at what has happened. This is an unspeakable crime.
"These are trying days for our country."
The deaths came as Australia was reeling from a deadly siege in a Sydney cafe.
When Amanda Rabbow describes the hours she fought for her life in the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004, it is as if she is back in the wave again.
"I just got carried off in the water until I backed into a brick wall - and everything carried in the water piled up against me so I got crushed backwards against this wall - and it started stacking up and rising up above my head and started to push me under," she said.
"Then I remember taking my last breath before I went under - and I just remember thinking - I hope it's quick - because I couldn't breathe.'
Amanda was on holiday in the beach resort of Khao Lak in Southern Thailand with her boyfriend - they were in bed when the wave struck their beachside bungalow.
Miraculously, just as she thought she was going to die, she was pulled out of the water by a local Thai man, who she is convinced saved her life.
Video:10 Years On: Tsunami Memories
She was then washed into the water again and spent three hours battling struggling to survive.
"It took me in it like a washing machine, that's all I can describe it as, and I remember doing massive somersaults and then coming back up to the surface and taking a massive breath and then being taken under again - more somersaults, come up for air, more somersaults," she said.
Amanda was finally able to pull herself up into a tree. When the water receded she climbed down, surrounded by bodies - including the body of the man who saved her.
"I know that he didn't survive and I have a lot of questions in my head in life - if you do the right thing by someone - he should have survived because he saved my life without a doubt."
Video:'I Felt Like I Was Dead'
Amanda managed to find her boyfriend up on the hillside and they stayed in a temple with other survivors until rescue teams finally managed to clear the roads to Khao Lak.
She faced an horrific journey to Bangkok.
"People paid for us to get on this bus but I couldn't sit upright on a chair and so I had to be laid flat in the luggage hold of this bus - and I was sick for 14-and-a-half hours solidly, brown water and I don't know what was coming out of my body - I thought I was going to die."
At last she was back in London, but she faced months of healing both her physical and psychological scars.
Video:'I Saw Dead Bodies In The Water'
"I felt like I should have died, so I felt guilty, felt guilty for surviving and someone else not having the chance to survive," she said.
"I couldn't ever sleep - I didn't want to do anything and ... I was scared to do anything."
As the weeks passed, Amanda became determined to return to Thailand:
'I wanted to go back to Khao Lak and thank the people and to see if I could find the family of the man who I still think saved my life.'
Video:'I Lost 50 Members Of My Family'
She and a group of friends raised more than £50,000, and went back to Khao Lak to help the rebuilding effort:
"There was just a massive community of people that were there - there were survivors that were in back braces still, so injured, but they had stayed on to help.
"We could see where to use our money - there were Thai man mixing cement by hand, so we said - 'Here's some money, let's buy a cement mixer'."
Amanda remembers Boxing Day 2004 as the day her life changed forever.
Video:'It Turned Phi Phi Into A Canal'
'I know I had a life before 2004 - I was born in 1976, I know that - but I survived that day for one reason or another and I was meant to survive to have my children.
'So I think of life as of that day - that day my new life began - and I see life from 2004 - not before.'
You can see more about the Boxing Day Tsunami in a Sky News' documentary Tsunami: 10 Years After the Wave, on Sky News this evening at 9pm, and also on Catch up.
:: If you have been affected by any of the issues in Tsunami: 10 Years After The Wave, the following helplines can offer help and support:
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Gallery: Archive CCTV Stills Of Tsunami
Aceh province in Indonesia was the hardest hit by the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004. CCTV stills from the capital Banda Aceh show how the tsunami destroyed everything in its path.
People still on the street see the debris that is being swept along in the water and begin to run.
Boxing legend Muhammad Ali has been taken to hospital suffering from pneumonia.
The three-time heavyweight champion, who has Parkinson's disease, was admitted to the unidentified hospital on Saturday morning and is expected to recover.
Pneumonia can be a dangerous complication of the debilitating neurological condition.
"Because the pneumonia was caught early, his prognosis is good with a short hospital stay expected," spokesman Bob Gunnell said in a statement.
Ali training for a fight against Brian London in 1966
He declined to give other details about the 72-year-old's condition and the family have requested privacy.
Ali retired from boxing in 1981 and has devoted his time to charitable and humanitarian work.
Video:1974: Ali's Surprise School Visit
He was diagnosed with Parkinson's three years after leaving boxing.
He was seen in public in September at a ceremony for the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards in Louisville, Kentucky.
Ali dazzled the boxing world from 1960 to 1981 with his prowess in the ring and his wit outside it.
He converted to Islam in 1964, changing his name from Cassius Clay, before refusing to join the armed forces in 1967 on religious grounds.
He was convicted of draft dodging and banned from boxing for years, but in 1971 the US Supreme Court overturned the conviction.
A father and his two young sons have been found in the Australian Outback after spending days stuck in a bog.
A cattle farmer found Steven Van Lonkhuyzen, 37, and his sons Ethan, 7, and Timothy, 5, in Expedition National Park in central Queensland.
A police spokesperson said the trio, who were missing for 10 days, were "very hungry" but in "good spirits".
"We are all very thankful that we have a happy outcome," said Acting Superintendent Mick Bianchi.
The trio had left their home at Lota in Brisbane after midnight on 11 December, heading to Cairns, about 1,060 miles (1,700km) away.
Mr Van Lonkhuyzen contacted his wife from an Outback town later that day, but she heard nothing from them after that.
They were last seen at a petrol station, also on 11 December, in Miles, northwest of Brisbane.
They were meant to reach Cairns on December 15, but were reported missing when they did not reach their destination.
Police carried out extensive searches over several days and pleaded with the public to help.
They were found in Expedition National Park
Earlier Sunday, shortly before they were found, Acting Supt Bianchi said: "The search areas is several hundred thousand square kilometres in size and police can't do this alone."
The farmer had actually seen Mr Van Lonkhuyzen's vehicle enter the national park a few days earlier, but was not aware they were in trouble.
He only realised they were missing after seeing news reports, police said.
The farmer has since taken the family back to his house where they are recovering.
Mr Van Lonkhuyzen and his boys had become stranded after their four-wheel drive vehicle got stuck in a bog in the rugged and remote park, about 300km from where the petrol station they were seen at.
The national park is largely without mobile phone coverage.
Acting Supt Bianchi praised the public for helping look for the Van Lonkhuyzens.
"People from across rural Queensland have taken this story to heart and have helped police in many different ways in our search," he said.
"We've had farmers and graziers searching their properties, local store owners checking to see if they had passed by or dropped in, mining companies and mustering helicopters checking lands, as well as park rangers searching parks and camp sites.
"The response has been outstanding and I thank the community, and the media, for their efforts and support."
The group behind the devstating hacking attack on Sony has apparently posted a message mocking the FBI.
"The result of investigation by FBI is so excellent that you might have seen what we were doing with your own eyes," the message posted on the file-sharing website Pastebin by a group calling itself GOP (Guardians of Peace) said.
"We congratulate you success. FBI is the BEST in the world."
The US federal agency has named North Korea as the force behind the attack on Sony, which led the company to withdraw the comedy The Interview from its Christmas Day release.
The movie is about two hapless US journalists - Seth Rogen and James Franco - and a plot to assassinate the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.
Video:N Korea Demand Joint Investigation
The message then says: "You will find the gift for FBI at the following address" and links to a YouTube video called You Are An Idiot.
The video, which appears to have been originally uploaded in 2006, has been seen by more than half a million people.
The Sony hackers have released the contents of emails between actors, including Angelina Jolie, and industry heavyweights such as Sony co-chairwoman Amy Pascal and producer Scott Rudin.
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Gallery: Eight Other Controversial Films
Sacha Baron Cohen upset a lot of people with his Borat film. Kazakhstan's government said it portrayed its people as racist. There were also accusations of anti-Semitism
South Park's creators sent up Kim Jong-Il in Team America: World Police. North Korea reportedly asked the Czech Republic to ban the film
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Video:Cops Shot Dead 'With No Warning'
By Sky News US Team
Two New York City police officers have been killed by a lone gunman as they sat in their parked patrol car in mid-afternoon.
The pair were shot in the head in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbourhood of Brooklyn. Officials said they had been "ambushed and murdered".
The suspect has been named as Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who had posted an apparent warning on Facebook just hours earlier.
In the message, he wrote about shooting two "pigs" in revenge for the death of Eric Garner, who died after a New York police officer used a chokehold during an arrest, sparking nation-wide protests.
Ismaaiyl Brinsley turned the gun on himself after the shooting
Police Commissioner William Bratton identified the two dead officers as Liu Wenjin, 32 and Raphael Ramos, 40.
He said they were shot and killed "with no warning, no provocation".
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Gallery: Tributes As NYPD Officers Killed
A police officer lays flowers at a makeshift memorial at the scene were two officers were killed in Brooklyn
Victoms Liu Wenjin (L) and Raphael Ramos. Pics: NYPD
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The two were shot to death while sitting in a patrol car
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Fellow officers saluted the victims at the hospital where they were declared dead
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The scene at Woodhull Hospital
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"They were quite simply assassinated," Mr Bratton said.
Mr Liu, a seven-year veteran who got married two months ago, and Mr Ramos, father to a 13-year-old son, were "ambushed and murdered", officials said.
Mr Bratton added that Brinsley had published posts on Instagram that were "very anti-police".
Authorities have not confirmed the contents of the messages but an image has emerged of an Instagram post attributed to Brinsley.
Part of the caption reads: "I'm Putting Wings On Pigs Today. They Take 1 Of Ours ... Let's Take 2 of Theirs."
Brinsley shot and seriously injured his ex-girlfriend earlier on Saturday in Baltimore, Maryland, before travelling to New York.
He fired through the passenger side of the officers' vehicle with a silver semi-automatic handgun just before 3pm local time (8pm UK time).
The 28-year-old then ran inside a subway station and fatally shot himself in the head as responding officers pursued him.
The shooting occurred around the same time New York police were receiving a warning fax from authorities in Baltimore.
President Barack Obama condemned the killings, saying there was no justification for them, while Attorney General Eric Holder called the deaths an "unspeakable act of barbarism".
The shooting comes amid heightened tensions in New York and across the US over police tactics following the death of Mr Garner and the shooting dead of Michael Brown in Missouri.
Video:NYPD Union: 'Blood On Many Hands'
Several officers have been assaulted at protests in New York during demonstrations that have largely been peaceful.
Mr Bratton said they were looking at whether the suspect had attended any rallies or demonstrations.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has come under attack for not supporting the police, and on Saturday some officers turned their backs on him as he walked into the hospital where the two cops were declared dead.
The New York police union head declared there is "blood on the hands" of protesters and Mr de Blasio.
The shooting shocked the city .
One man who lives in the area, Derrick Thompson, said the shooting happened across from the Tompkins Houses public housing development.
"I was watching TV, and then I heard the helicopters," he said. "I walked out, and all of a sudden - this."
The Reverend Al Sharpton, a civil rights leader who has supported the families of Mr Brown and Mr Garner, said Mr Garner's family has no connection to the suspect and denounced the shootings.
He said: "Any use of the names of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, in connection with any violence or killing of police, is reprehensible and against the pursuit of justice in both cases."
Mr Brown's family also condemned the shootings, saying in a statement they reject "any kind of violence directed toward members of law enforcement".
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Video:Cops Shot Dead 'With No Warning'
By Sky News US Team
Two New York City police officers have been killed by a lone gunman as they sat in their parked patrol car in mid-afternoon.
The pair were shot in the head in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbourhood of Brooklyn. Officials said they had been "ambushed and murdered".
The suspect has been named as Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who had posted an apparent warning on Facebook just hours earlier.
In the message, he wrote about shooting two "pigs" in revenge for the death of Eric Garner, who died after a New York police officer used a chokehold during an arrest, sparking nation-wide protests.
Ismaaiyl Brinsley turned the gun on himself after the shooting
Police Commissioner William Bratton identified the two dead officers as Liu Wenjin, 32 and Raphael Ramos, 40.
He said they were shot and killed "with no warning, no provocation".
1/10
Gallery: Tributes As NYPD Officers Killed
A police officer lays flowers at a makeshift memorial at the scene were two officers were killed in Brooklyn
Victoms Liu Wenjin (L) and Raphael Ramos. Pics: NYPD
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The two were shot to death while sitting in a patrol car
]]>
Fellow officers saluted the victims at the hospital where they were declared dead
]]>
The scene at Woodhull Hospital
]]>
"They were quite simply assassinated," Mr Bratton said.
Mr Liu, a seven-year veteran who got married two months ago, and Mr Ramos, father to a 13-year-old son, were "ambushed and murdered", officials said.
Mr Bratton added that Brinsley had published posts on Instagram that were "very anti-police".
Authorities have not confirmed the contents of the messages but an image has emerged of an Instagram post attributed to Brinsley.
Part of the caption reads: "I'm Putting Wings On Pigs Today. They Take 1 Of Ours ... Let's Take 2 of Theirs."
Brinsley shot and seriously injured his ex-girlfriend earlier on Saturday in Baltimore, Maryland, before travelling to New York.
He fired through the passenger side of the officers' vehicle with a silver semi-automatic handgun just before 3pm local time (8pm UK time).
The 28-year-old then ran inside a subway station and fatally shot himself in the head as responding officers pursued him.
The shooting occurred around the same time New York police were receiving a warning fax from authorities in Baltimore.
President Barack Obama condemned the killings, saying there was no justification for them, while Attorney General Eric Holder called the deaths an "unspeakable act of barbarism".
The shooting comes amid heightened tensions in New York and across the US over police tactics following the death of Mr Garner and the shooting dead of Michael Brown in Missouri.
Video:NYPD Union: 'Blood On Many Hands'
Several officers have been assaulted at protests in New York during demonstrations that have largely been peaceful.
Mr Bratton said they were looking at whether the suspect had attended any rallies or demonstrations.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has come under attack for not supporting the police, and on Saturday some officers turned their backs on him as he walked into the hospital where the two cops were declared dead.
The New York police union head declared there is "blood on the hands" of protesters and Mr de Blasio.
The shooting shocked the city .
One man who lives in the area, Derrick Thompson, said the shooting happened across from the Tompkins Houses public housing development.
"I was watching TV, and then I heard the helicopters," he said. "I walked out, and all of a sudden - this."
The Reverend Al Sharpton, a civil rights leader who has supported the families of Mr Brown and Mr Garner, said Mr Garner's family has no connection to the suspect and denounced the shootings.
He said: "Any use of the names of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, in connection with any violence or killing of police, is reprehensible and against the pursuit of justice in both cases."
Mr Brown's family also condemned the shootings, saying in a statement they reject "any kind of violence directed toward members of law enforcement".
A police officer has been shot to death in Florida, authorities say, hours after two cops were killed in Brooklyn.
The shooting occurred at around 3am (8am UK time) in Tarpon Springs, about 30 miles (48km) from Tampa.
Tarpon Springs is about 30 miles (48km) from Tampa
A suspect has been taken into custody, The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
The suspect fled the scene in a vehicle and crashed into a pole and another vehicle. He was then apprehended by police.
People have started leaving flowers to the Tarpon Springs Police Department in memory of the victim, the local WTSP TV said.
The circumstances of the incident were not clear, and a news conference was scheduled later on Sunday.
But the shooting comes at a time of heightened tensions between officers and communities across America over police tactics.
On Saturday, two officers were shot while sitting in their patrol car in Brooklyn by a suspect who then took his own life. New York officials have described the killing as an assassination, and President Barack Obama has condemned it.
There is no known connection between the two cases.
