CAR President And Prime Minister Resign

The president of the Central African Republic has resigned over violence that has killed more than 1,000 people in the country.

Michel Djotodia agreed to step down alongside his prime minister, Nicolas Tiengaye.

The country has seen spiralling violence between the mainly Muslim Seleka rebels who brought him to power last year, and Christian militias.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in the past month alone.

The resignations came as the two men met African leaders in Chad to try to find a solution to the crisis.

Protesters in Bangui urged the president to give up power

Thousands of protesters in the CAR capital, Bangui, took to the streets on Friday calling for Mr Djotodia to resign.

He was due to step down in a year's time, following a transitional period, but the bloodshed in the country intensified calls for him to go sooner.

Mr Djotodia forced his way to power in a March 2013 coup that saw him become the first Muslim leader of the Christian-majority country.

He set up a transitional council and promised open elections but unrest and sectarian fighting began within months.

Violence such as machete attacks and rapes are a "daily occurrence", says Sky News Special Correspondent Alex Crawford, who is in the CAR.

Ex-Seleka fighters pass French troops on patrol in Bangui

She said: "There are a huge number of people being attacked: Djotodia's men - rebels who he's lost control of, and these Christian militia that have been set up in response ... There doesn't appear to be anyone in control."

More than one million people have fled their homes over fears of being attacked, while some 100,000 have sought protection from the French troops controlling Bangui airport.

Former colonial power France has 1,600 troops into the country and around 6,000 African Union forces are also helping peacekeeping efforts.

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Ex-Miss Venezuela: Funeral For Murdered Model

The funerals are taking place of a former Miss Venezuela beauty queen and her British ex-husband who were murdered as they returned from holiday.

Monica Spear and Thomas Henry Berry are being laid to rest a day after their families held a private wake in Caracas before allowing fans of the model-turned-actress to view her body.

The pair were killed in a robbery on an isolated stretch of highway while they were returning to the Venezuelan capital with their five-year-old daughter.

Mourners line up to pay tribute to the Venezuelan star

Although the weapon used in the robbery has not been found, it has emerged that a digital camera stolen during the attack led police to a criminal group which allegedly preyed on motorists on the stretch of road between Puerto Cabello and Valencia.

The camera was found at the home of one of seven people arrested over the killing and helped officers trace other suspects in the case.

According to Jose Gregorio Sierralta, chief of Venezuela's criminal police, at least 11 people were involved in the crime - four of whom remain on the run.

The pair had been returning to Caracas from holiday with their daughter

The commissioner claimed the 32-year-old alleged ringleader of the group, known as Fat Danilo, supplied younger men in the gang with guns and drugs.

The deaths of Ms Spear and her ex-husband provoked a national uproar over Venezuela's rampant violent crime.

Hundreds of mourners waited in long lines outside the Caracas chapel to pay their respects to the 29-year-old, who had a starring role in a popular TV soap series.

The former Miss Venezuela had become and actress

District mayor Ramon Muchacho said: "It is a crime that shakes the foundation of the country. And that puts in front of our eyes the awful reality we live in.

"Sometimes Venezuelans live in escapism, looking one way or the other, trying to forget what happens every day. But this crime reminds us that there are more than 20,000 families, who are left in mourning every year in Venezuela (due to violence)."

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California Suffers Worst Drought Since 1970s

By Greg Milam, US Correspondent

While most of the United States has been gripped by the polar vortex, one part of the country is suffering a very different weather extreme.

California, the most populous state in America, is experiencing its worst drought since the 1970s.

Last year was one of the driest on record and farmers across the state are warning of devastation and rising food prices unless rain arrives soon.

Water levels in reservoirs are down to around 20% of normal levels and officials say it is only conservation efforts that have prevented a state-wide catastrophe so far.

Water levels in California reservoirs are down to 20% of normal levels

The level has dropped so low at Folsom Lake reservoir in Northern California that a Gold Rush-era village, which was deliberately flooded in the 1950s, has re-emerged.

Tourists have flocked to see the foundations of Red Bank, close to an area called Mormon Island, and pick through remnants and debris scattered the now-exposed lake bed.

But the drought could have serious costs with farmers warning of rising food prices if it goes on.

The drought in California is the worst since the 1970s

Paul Van Leer, who farms land adjoining the Pacific Ocean near Santa Barbara, says the irony is not lost on farmers that the rest of the country has had more than their share of wet weather.

"It is a shame we just can't pipe it down here," he told Sky News.

"I have never seen it this bad. Everyone is feeling it. We're looking out of the window wondering when it is going to come.

"We're in the heart of a rainy season right now and if we don't get it in the 30 to 45 day window, we're pretty much done."

The drought may take a major toll on farmers and food prices

A third of the water for Californians comes from the snow pack in the Sierra Nevada mountains - measurements this winter have shown it to be at just 20% of the required level.

Even the state's famous vineyards have been affected. Growers have been forced to begin irrigating vines much earlier than normal, or face seeing them dying off.

Brad Goehring, who grows wine grapes in the San Joaquin Valley, said: "It is the same as real rain but it the best we can do."

Weather forecasters have little good news - there is no significant rain forecast for the weeks ahead, increasing the prospect of the drought worsening.

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Teen Hero Dies Tackling School Suicide Bomber

A teenager has been hailed as a hero in Pakistan after he was killed while chasing down a suicide bomber outside a school.

Aitzaz Hasan died when an Islamist militant detonated a device outside the school in the village of Hangu, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

A teacher at the school told police he saw 17-year-old Hasan running after the bomber before being killed by the explosion.

Hundreds of people have attended the teenager's funeral to pay their respects and a Facebook tribute page has been set up in his honour.

Hasan's father Mujahid Ali returned to Pakistan from the UAE, where he was working, to celebrate his son's life.

"My son made his mother cry but saved hundreds of mothers from crying for their children," he told the English-language Express Tribune newspaper.

Local resident Miqdar Khan said many people in the district have hailed Hasan as a hero, adding that the teen was known for openly criticising militants.

"Aitzaz Hasan used to tell all that one day he would capture some suicide bomber and his class fellows used to laugh," he said.

"But this boy proved what he said and I am sad that he left us too early."

Suicide bombings and killings have become a regular occurrence in many regions of Pakistan.

A study by the Islamabad-based Pak Institute for Peace Studies found that the number of terrorist attacks increased by 9% in 2013 compared to the previous year.

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Argentina: Three Killed In Lightning Strike

Three people have been killed and 15 injured after a bolt of lightning hit a beach packed with holidaymakers.

"The lightning hit and then there were people lying all over the beach," one witness said.

"We ran with my father to help but it was ugly because all of them (the injured) were screaming and no one really knew what to do.

"We did what we could - it was the best that could be done."

Witnesses described the panic after the strike

Witnesses described panicked tourists running from the scene and rushing to check if loved ones were safe.

The lightning strike happened at the Villa Gesell beach 200 miles (300km) south of Buenos Aires.

A lifeguard who saw the bolt hit the beach said: "Some people had pain in their feet, some people were in convulsions and some were under cardiac arrest."

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French Comic's Tour In Doubt After Court Ban

Riot police had to be brought in to contain furious fans of a controversial French comedian after he was banned from perfoming by a court just hours before he was due on stage.

The 47-year-old comic Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala, who has been condemned as an anti-Semitic "pedlar of hate", was scheduled to perform his controversial show when France's highest administrative court, the Council of State, ruled he could not take the stage.

The ban on Dieudonne's Nantes show was greeted with boos and jeers by hundreds of the comedian's fans at the Zenith theatre, where the performance was due to take place.

Many of the comic's supporters performed "quenelle" gestures as riot police blocked access to the theatre.

Youths make the "quenelle" gesture outside the Zenith theatre

It sparked angry protests by hundreds of jeering fans, at the Zenith Theatre, where the performance was due to take place.

As police blocked access to the venue, supporters sang the French national anthem and gave the gesture, popularised by the performer, known as the "quenelle".

Described by critics as a disguised Nazi salute, it involves holding the right arm straight while pointing to the ground, then touching the right bicep with the left hand.

The court ruling banning the show overturned a decision made only hours earlier by Nantes Judge Jean-Francois Molla, who had determined it could go ahead.

But Judge Bernard Stirn of the Council of State said in his decision that there was an "established" risk of "trouble to public order" should the show proceed.

Striker Anelka seen performing the gesture at Upton Park

The decision leaves the rest of Dieudonne's national tour dates in doubt.

The comedian is scheduled to perform a series of shows through to June, including performances in Belgium and Switzerland.

At least eight other French cities have already sought bans to prevent Dieudonne from performing.

The comedian is at the centre of an increasingly bitter row about race and freedom of speech in France.

French police gathered outside the theatre

The French government has condemned him as a "pedlar of hate", and the comic has repeatedly been convicted under anti-racism legislation.

Supporters of the comedian have been photographed performing the "quenelle" gesture outside Jewish synagogues in France and abroad, and even outside the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.

Last month the West Bromwich Albion striker Nicolas Anelka faced criticism after he performed the gesture while celebrating a goal at Upton Park.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls, who has led a campaign to ban the comedian, hailed the Nantes ban as a victory.

"We cannot tolerate hatred of others, racism, anti-Semitism or holocaust denial," he said.

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Suicide Vest Afghan Girl, 10, Asks For New Home

Afghan Army 'Will Lose Helmand'

Updated: 11:52am UK, Tuesday 07 January 2014

By Tim Marshall, Diplomatic Editor

The story of 10-year-old Spozhmai helps us to understand why the Taliban will take Helmand province when Nato troops leave Afghanistan at the end of the year.

The details are sketchy, nothing is proven, but the story still holds as a way of explaining why, after 10 years of training by Nato forces, the Afghan army will not be strong enough to hold on to the province.

It is claimed Spozhmai's brother, a Taliban commander, forced her to wear a suicide vest and ordered her to detonate it at a police checkpoint. Her story is that she became cold and frightened crossing a river and refused to carry out the mission.

Mao Tse Tung said that "the people are the stream in which revolutionaries swim". In this instance the girl appears to have been a very unwilling revolutionary, but she came from the people, and the people, her own family, are said to have ordered her to her death.

The majority of the population in southern Afghanistan are ethnically and linguistically Pashtun. However, most of the Afghan troops deployed to the south are from elsewhere and do not even speak Pashtun.

Afghanistan is not a nation state in the way most Western people understand the concept. Loyalty to country comes a long way down a list which includes family, tribe, and religion.

An Afghan soldier who is ethnically Tajik, or Uzbek, or a Persian speaking Hazara, may not be motivated in defending Pashtun Helmand from the predominantly Pashtun Taliban.

On the other hand the Taliban are operating on home territory, and crucially, are so fanatical they are willing to send children, even relatives, to their deaths as suicide bombers.

Faced with this degree of commitment, the Afghan army is unlikely to hold firm down south without the technical and physical back up of the Nato forces.

Helmand, and Kandahar, may not fall immediately, but within a couple of years it is quite possible the Afghan army will have retreated to defend Kabul and the north.

Nato commanders are fond of issuing statistics about how many tens of thousands of Afghan troops they have trained up to a decent standard and how increasingly "as we step back they will step forward". 

A statistic they are less likely to draw attention to is the one which suggests that each year about 25% of Afghan soldiers desert.

President Hamid Karzai is still threatening to ensure that every single American soldier goes home by December 31.

However, he will not be president after this spring's elections, and anyway, his mind may be concentrated by the fate of the president in charge when the Taliban last rode into Kabul in 1996.

His predecessor was dragged out of the Presidential Palace and hanged from a lamp post.

A few thousand Americans near the capital might come in useful in 2015/16.

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Ex-SS Soldier, 88, Charged Over Nazi Massacre

An 88-year-old former member of Hitler's SS has been charged with taking part in a massacre of hundreds of French villagers.

It is nearly 70 years since one of the most infamous Nazi atrocities, in which Waffen-SS men took the small French village of Oradour-sur-Glane by surprise and killed nearly all of its inhabitants.

The death toll from the methodical slaughter in 1944 was 642 men, women and children.

The men were herded into barns and shot dead, while the women and children were burned alive in the village church.

Achim Hengstenberg, court spokesman for Cologne, said: "The prosecution charges an 88-year-old pensioner from Cologne with (joining in) the destruction of Oradour-sur-Glane in France.

French president Francois Hollande at the site with a survivor (C) in 2013

"He and another shooter are said to have killed 25 men in a barn with his machine gun. He is also said to have aided the burning down of the village church."

The accused denies the charges, saying he did not fire a single shot in Oradour, according to his lawyer Rainer Pohlen.

He said he even tried to save the lives of some of the victims.

Mr Pohlen said: "He could have fired. He says, however, 'I had the great luck of being deployed for something else'.

"He said 'I heard shots, I saw people shouting, I saw the village burning. It was terrible. It was absolutely awful. But I was not myself involved in any of the action'."

A memorial at Oradour-sur-Glane

Mr Hengstenberg said the charge lay with the young offenders chamber of the Cologne court because the suspect was only 19 years old at the time of the crime.

He was not named in the statement. The young offenders chamber will decide whether or not to open proceedings against the accused.

The SS massacre was meant to be an example to French Resistance guerrillas after a vehicle carrying an SS doctor was ambushed on a road leading to the village and its occupants abducted.

Among those killed were 207 children, the youngest eight weeks old. Only five men and a woman survived the massacre.

Robert Hebras, one of the survivors, said: "It's important that we find someone even if it's 70 years afterwards."

More than 600 people died in the massacre

Oradour is an example of a post-war failure to punish the perpetrators.

Heinz Lammerding, the Waffen-SS general in command of the unit that committed the massacre, was captured by Allied forces, but never extradited to France and was sentenced to death in absentia by a Bordeaux military court in 1951. He died in his bed in Bavaria in 1971.

Mr Hengstenberg said the new charge resulted from a fresh look at a previous investigation into the events.

In 1953, 12 Alsatian soldiers who took part in the massacre while serving in the SS unit were sentenced to life in prison and one to death, but France's parliament immediately pardoned them in the name of "national reconciliation".

Their province of Alsace had been annexed by Germany in 1940 and Alsatians were deemed to have been forced to join the German forces, even though some clearly enlisted voluntarily.

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'Multiple Deaths' In Japan Chemical Plant Blast

A number of people have been killed in an explosion at a chemical factory in Japan, according to reports.

At least five people were killed and several injured following the explosion at the plant in central Japan, police said.

"We confirmed that there was an explosion at our plant in Yokkaichi, where we produce silicon materials," said Ranko Hirai, a spokeswoman at Mitsubishi Materials.

"We have also confirmed that people were injured. We don't know about deaths."

More follows...

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Polar Vortex: Deep Freeze Strikes East And South

The record-breaking polar air blast affecting more than half the US population has spread to the East and South, sending the mercury plunging into the single digits.

The polar vortex that started in the Midwest over the weekend covered about half of the country by Tuesday.

In New York City, the temperature fell to -12C (11F), slightly cooler than Boston's -8C (18F).

Across the South, records were shattered.

Freezing passengers wait for trains in Chicago

Birmingham, Alabama, dipped to a low of -14C, breaking the record of -12C set in 1970.

Atlanta saw a record low of -14C and Nashville, Tennessee, got down to -17C.

It was just -17C at Washington Dulles International airport, eclipsing the 1988 mark of -13C.

The crippling cold continued to impact the Midwest as well, with the mercury dipping to -24C overnight in the Chicago area.

More than 500 Amtrak passengers were stranded overnight on three Chicago-bound trains that were stopped by blowing and drifting snow in Illinois.

The waterfall frozen oustide a museum in Washington

In Kentucky, a fugitive who escaped a minimum security facility on Sunday, surrendered to authorities on Monday because of the cold when temperatures plunged to -29C with the wind chill.

The weather also has been blamed for a number of deaths across Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.

They included a 48-year-old Chicago man who had a heart attack while shovelling snow on Sunday and an elderly woman who was found outside her Indianapolis home early on Monday.

The worst of the big freeze should be over in the next day or two.

A satellite image shows the polar vortex sweeping across the US. Pic: Nasa

Warmer weather - at least, near or above freezing - is in the forecast for much of the stricken part of the country.

On Tuesday, many schools and day care centres across the eastern half of the US were closed.

Officials opened shelters for the homeless and anyone else who needed a warm place.

With the bitter cold slowing baggage handling and aircraft refuelling, airlines cancelled more than 2,000 flights, bringing the four-day total to more than 11,000.

Pensacola, Florida - a Gulf Coast city better known for its white sand beaches than frost - saw its streets deserted as temperatures plummeted.

Nearly half of the US has been impacted by the freezing temperatures

Monica Anderson and Tommy Howard jumped up and down and blew on their hands while they waited for a bus.

"I'm not used to it. It is best just to stay inside until it gets better," said Ms Anderson, who added she could not recall it ever being so cold.

PJM Interconnection, which operates the power grid that serves more than 61 million people in the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest and South, asked users to conserve electricity because of the cold.

Across the South, the Tennessee Valley Authority said power demand in the morning reached the second-highest winter peak in the history of the Depression-era utility.

Temperatures averaged -15C across the utility's seven-state region.

In Chicago, it was too cold even for the polar bear at the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Although polar bears can handle sub-zero temperatures in the wild, the zoo said Anana was kept inside on Monday because she does not have the thick layer of fat that bears typically get from feeding on seals and whale carcasses.

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Former New York City Cops Held Over 9/11 Fraud

Former New York police officers and firefighters, who falsely claimed they were disabled as a result of the September 11 attacks, have been arrested in a sweeping fraud investigation.

They are among more than 100 people charged over the "massive" Social Security fraud worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The accused allegedly collected tens of thousands of dollars a year in Social Security disability benefits by claiming they were completely incapacitated by serious psychiatric disorders and other ailments.

But, according to court documents, they were in fact living normal lives; one of the accused flew a helicopter while another played blackjack in Las Vegas.

One of the accused taught and performed mixed martial arts but was still claiming benefits of typically between $30,000 (£18,000) and $50,000 (£30,400) a year. In some instances, the total amount fraudulently obtained was nearly $500,000 (£305,000) per applicant.

William Bratton called the alleged crimes were "disgraceful"

Of the 106 charged in the decades-long scam, 80 were retired New York police officers or firefighters.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said: "Many participants cynically manufactured claims of mental illness as a result of September 11, dishonouring the first responders who did serve their city at the expense of their own health and safety."

As far back as 1988, the four main defendants - Raymond Lavallee, 83, Thomas Hale, 89, Joseph Esposito, 64, and John Minerva, 61 - conspired to help or make hundreds of applicants falsely claim disabilities in order to collect benefit payments in addition to their public pensions, court documents say.

Prosecutors said the applicants claimed they suffered from a psychiatric condition that prevented them from working, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety or depression.

Mr Vance said: "This alleged scam further depleted the already limited resources available for battling the real and complex conditions of PTSD and depression."

New York City Police Department commissioner William Bratton said: "The retired members of the NYPD indicted in this case have disgraced all first responders who perished during the search and rescue efforts on September 11, 2001, and those who subsequently died from 9/11 related illness, by exploiting their involvements that tragic day for personal gain."

Hale and Esposito, the latter a retired member of the NYPD, allegedly coached benefit applicants to falsely describe symptoms of depression and anxiety to doctors they had recruited.

They instructed applicants on how to fail memory tests with plausibility, how to dress, and on their demeanour.

For example, almost every claim included phrases such as "I nap on and off during the day" and "I have the TV on to keep me company".

More than 2,700 people were killed in New York on September 11, 2001, when two passenger planes, hijacked by Islamist militants, slammed into the World Trade Center.

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Former Miss Venezuela And Ex Killed In Robbery

Armed robbers have shot dead a former Miss Venezuela and her British ex-husband in front of their five-year-old daughter.

Monica Spear, 29, and Thomas Henry Berry, 39, were on holiday in Venezuela when the attack happened between Puerto Cabello and Valencia.

Their daughter Maya was shot in the leg during the attempted robbery. She survived and is recovering in hospital.

Authorities said police had arrested five suspects, some under the age of 18.

Monica Spear was crowned Miss Venezuela in Caracas in 2004

President Nicolas Maduro said the victims' car burst a tyre after running over something on the road, apparently placed by robbers to stop traffic.

He said a recovery truck arrived to help the family but its crew were chased away after they were ambushed by armed robbers.

"They were inside the car and were riddled (with bullets)," the president said on state TV.

"I ask those who assassinated this young person: what explanation do you have?"

It is understood the couple separated last year

Friends have left messages on Twitter. Venezuelan salsa singer Oscar D'Leon wrote: "I'm so sad for my Venezuela. My condolences for Monica Spear's family.

"Rage and impotence are what I feel right now."

The 2004 Miss Venezuela winner lived in the US but was on holiday at the time of the shooting.

Venezuela has one of the world's highest murder rates, with 79 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2013, according to the Venezuelan Observatory of Violence.

Mr Maduro says beating violent crime is his top priority but opponents say the government's plans do not tackle root causes, such as impunity for criminals, corrupt courts and complicity by some poorly-paid police.

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles said he and Mr Maduro should leave their political differences to one side.

"We should unite to win the war against violence and insecurity. We're in an emergency ... this situation calls for all of us to take a look at ourselves as a country."

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Newborn Baby's Body Found Dumped In Rubbish

The body of a newborn girl has been found dumped in a biomedical waste disposal truck at a hospital in India.

The child died in the early hours of Monday morning and her family paid the privately-owned Mata Chanan Devi Hospital 1,500 rupees (£15) to keep her body in a mortuary overnight.

However, it was missing when the family returned to collect it at around 10am.

Ashok Kumar, the newborn's uncle, said: "We asked for it and it wasn't there.

The child had been treated at the Mata Chanan Devi Hospital

"One of the hospital staff suddenly ran towards a truck collecting biomedical waste.

"He looked in the garbage bags and found her there."

The hospital has denied medical negligence, and the hospital's medical superintendent Dr Nidhi Sareen promised to conduct an internal inquiry.

The hospital's biomedical waste storage site

Delhi's chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said: "Dumping a newborn's body into the garbage is cruel and inhuman.

"We'll investigate the matter and take action against the guilty."

According to some reports, it is thought that the hospital staff mistook the newborn's body as an amputated limb and dumped it into the truck.

Rajesh Kumar Verma, the newborn's father, said his daughter was born prematurely at Khanna Nursing Home in Janakpuri at 1.30pm on Sunday.

The family said she had swelling in her head and the doctors advised them to take her to the hospital.

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Polar Vortex: Deep Freeze Moves Across US

A whirlpool of freezing, dense air known as a "polar vortex" has gripped the US Midwest and is making its way east and south, bringing record low temperatures.

Thermometers plunged to -32C (-25F) in Fargo, North Dakota, while Madison, Wisconsin, hit -28C (-19F) and even Chicago and Minneapolis saw temperatures reach -20F, with wind chills of -50F.

Forecasters say some 187 million people could feel the effects of the frigid blast by the time it has spread across the country.

Nearly 3,200 flights - one out of every 10 domestic departures - were cancelled on Monday, following a weekend of travel disruption across the US.

Snow is removed from the tarmac as a plane lands at New York's JFK Airport

Airline officials said de-icing fluid was freezing and fuel was pumping sluggishly.

More than a foot of snow has been dumped on a large part of the nation's midsection, forcing officials to close schools in Chicago, St Louis and Milwaukee.

In Chicago, transit officials believe the frigid conditions caused a commuter train to strike a bumping post at a central station, injuring 14 passengers.

The polar vortex will hit temperatures in 48 US states by Tuesday

Authorities said six people were taken to hospital with minor injuries after the accident - the second such incident of the day.

The National Weather Service (NWS) is predicting 48 US states will have wind chills of below zero - an area of 1.5 million square miles.

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard upgraded the city's travel emergency level to "red" for a time, making it illegal for anyone to drive except for emergencies or to seek shelter.

The last time the city issued such a warning was in 1978.

The extreme weather is affecting area of 1.5 million square miles

Utility crews worked to restore power to more than 40,000 Indiana customers affected by the weekend storm and cautioned that some people could be in the cold and dark for days.

In New York City, the temperature was expected to drop sharply from about 11C (52F) to around -12C (10F) as the Arctic air moved in.

Missouri transport officials said it was too cold for rock salt to be effective and several roads in Illinois were closed because of drifting snow.

Government offices and courts in several states have also been closed.

Predicted temperatures across the US on Tuesday morning

In Newfoundland, Canada, around 30,000 customers remain without power because of rolling blackouts over the last few days.

The record cold temperatures are also affecting southern states.

Louisiana citrus farmers have been warned they could lose any fruit they cannot pick as two nights of freezing temperatures are forecast.

Packers fans watch the seventh coldest NFL game in history

Fans braved subzero temperatures to watch the Green Bay Packers lose 20-23 to the San Francisco 49ers at Lambeau Field on Sunday night.

The game kicked off with temperatures of -15C (5F), making it the seventh coldest NFL game in history.

People in Canada have also been reporting hearing loud "booms" known as "frost quakes"

The phenomenon - or cryoseism - takes place when water underground freezes and then expands, forcing the ground to crack and creating the noise.

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Afghan Girl, 10, In 'Suicide Bomb Attempt'

A 10-year-old girl who apparently attempted to carry out a suicide attack wearing a vest packed with explosives has been detained by Afghan authorities.

The girl, named only as Spozhmai, appeared at a news conference in Lashkar Gah, capital of Helmand province.

She told how her brother, reportedly a Taliban commander, had forced her to wear the vest and ordered her to detonate herself at a police checkpoint.

"I was tired of my stepmother. My brother told me to wear the black vest, go to the police checkpoint and press the button," she told reporters.

"I went past a river and decided to drop the vest. My brother fled and police arrested me."

There are conflicting accounts of the incident, with some officials saying she was wearing the vest when she was arrested and others saying no vest had been recovered.

The Afghanistan-based Tolo TV news channel said the girl was unable to operate the button to detonate the explosives.

The interior ministry said that her brother was a Taliban commander who coerced her into putting on the vest and walking towards the police post in Khanashin district in the southern heartlands of the insurgency.

Taliban militants have been accused in the past of using young boys to plant roadside bombs and act as suicide bombers.

The insurgents, who made no comment on the latest incident, have always denied using children to launch attacks.

The Taliban has been fighting against the US-backed government since it was ousted from power in late 2001 after the 9/11 attacks in the United States.

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Dennis Rodman: I Love Kim Jong-Un

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent in Beijing

US basketball star Dennis Rodman has told Sky News he "loves" the North Korean leader and claims that "when the time comes" he will discuss human rights with Kim Jong-Un.

Mr Rodman was speaking at Beijing airport as he departed for his latest trip to the secretive country.

He is travelling to Pyongyang with a group of 11 American basketball players to play a match marking Mr Kim's birthday on Wednesday.

He said: "The only thing we are doing right now, as you can see right now, is all the NBA players here to play a game right now. And that's the one thing we're trying to do right now."

It is almost universally accepted that North Korea has the worst human rights record in the world.

Kim Jong-Un recently had his uncle (L) executed

As many as 200,000 political prisoners are locked up in labour camps around the country. Escapees have said that torture is routine.

Asked whether he would bring up the subject of labour camps, Mr Rodman said it was not his job.

Given that he is the only American with such unprecedented access to Mr Kim, Sky News put it to him that it was his responsibility to raise the issue.

"That's not my job," he said. "The only thing I am doing right now, I am only doing one thing: this game is for his birthday. It's for his birthday.

"And I hope that if this opens doors and we can actually talk about certain things, then we can do certain things but I am not going to sit there and go in and say "hey guy, you're doing the wrong thing."

The Paddy Power promotional image for the event

"That's not the right thing to do. He's my friend first. He's my friend. I don't give a ****. I tell the world: he's my ******* friend, I love him."

Under the North Korean regime's "three generations of punishment" system, individuals found guilty of a crime are sent to the labour camps with their entire family.

The subsequent two generations of that family are then born in the camp and live their lives locked up inside.

Mr Rodman was asked if he was aware of the 200,000 or so political prisoners in North Korea.

He replied: "Are you aware that lots of people in America is locked up like that too?"

Mr Rodman's unlikely friendship with Mr Kim dates back to February last year when he accompanied the US documentary maker Vice to North Korea with the Harlem Globetrotter basketball team.

Sky News understands that Mr Rodman initially believed he was going to meet the South Korean pop star Psy. He even tweeted that he might bump into the star behind the hit song 'Gangnam Style'.

For reasons which are yet to become clear, Mr Rodman and Mr Kim became friends.

Sky News has seen unpublished photographs of the two men horse-riding last summer at the North Korean leader's ranch outside Pyongyang.

Mr Kim doesn't speak English and Mr Rodman doesn't speak Korean. Their conversations are conducted through North Korean interpreters.

This latest trip was due to be sponsored by the Irish bookmaker Paddy Power. However, on Christmas Eve, the bookmaker claimed it had pulled its participation.

"Given changed circumstances, Paddy Power has decided to withdraw its association with the Dennis Rodman basketball initiative in North Korea," the company said in a statement.

However, Sky News understands that the bookmaker is still providing private funding for the trip, which it catch-phrased "Hoops not Nukes".

North Korean analysts are split over whether engagement with North Korea by an unusual and eccentric American is an unpalatable publicity stunt or an opportunity for future dialogue.

Dr Daniel Pinkston, North East Asia Deputy Project Director, at International Crisis Group, was supportive of the relationship when the Paddy Power event was announced.

"The last few years have been difficult for North Korea watchers seeking new policy prescriptions for dealing with Pyongyang," Dr Pinkston said in a statement on Paddy Power's website in September.

"Thanks to the support of Paddy Power, Rodman's visit had opened a window of opportunity to bring change to North Korea."

In December, Shin Dong-hyuk, the only person born in a North Korean prison camp known to have escaped to the west, wrote an open letter to Mr Rodman calling on him to engage with Mr Kim.

"I am writing to you, Mr Rodman, because, more than anything else, I want Kim Jong-Un to hear the cries of his people. Maybe you could use your friendship and your time together to help him understand that he has the power to close the camps and rebuild the country's economy so everyone can afford to eat," he wrote.

As Mr Rodman left Beijing airport on this latest trip, he left that possibility open.

"When the time comes when I do that  I am going to sit down and talk to all the people around the world, when the time comes, I am going to tell you everything that happens. But right now I want these guys to go over there and put on a good show for his birthday. We will talk about political stuff and anything about refugee camps."

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Iraq: Militants Pledge To Fight Government

Al Qaeda-linked militants and tribal fighters who have taken over parts of the strategic Iraqi city of Fallujah have pledged to fight the government.

An unnamed commander of the anti-government Fallujah military council said: "The revolutionaries of Fallujah tribes are resolved to punish those, the covetous, who are linked to the sectarian government."

Al Qaeda's Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) has been steadily tightening its grip in the vast Anbar province in recent months to try to create a Sunni Muslim state straddling the frontier with Syria.

But last week's capture of positions in nearby Ramadi and large parts of Fallujah was the first time in years that Sunni insurgents had taken ground in the province's major cities and held their positions for days.

Militants have gained a foothold in Iraq

Iraqi government forces battling an al Qaeda offensive near the Syrian border launched an air strike on Ramadi city on Sunday, killing 25 Islamist militants, according to local officials.

In Fallujah, Isil's task has been made easier by disgruntled tribesmen who have joined its fight against the government.

Dozens of families from Fallujah and Ramadi have fled to Kerbala to take refuge from Iraqi government bombardments.

Mohammed, a resident of Ramadi, said: "We are going to Kerbala to get food and cooking gas. We are displaced people, we thank the people of Kerbala."

Kerbala resident Abu Faris said: "We are providing the people of Ramadi with foodstuffs and flour. They were affected (by the violence) and they have nothing, so we are providing them with relief aid."

US Secretary of State John Kerry made it clear that, although Washington would provide "assistance" to Iraqi security forces, it would not put American "boots on the ground".

Mr Kerry told reporters in Jerusalem: "We are not obviously contemplating returning, we are not contemplating putting boots on the ground, this is their fight.

"But we're going to help them in their fight ... we are going to do everything that is possible to help them."

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Polar Vortex: NFL Fans Brave -26C Wind Chill

Diehard football fans have braved freezing temperatures and a wind chill of -26C (-14F) to watch an NFL playoff match in Wisconsin.

San Francisco players wrapped up in thick red blankets during game breaks

The Green Bay Packers took on the San Francisco 49ers at their home field on Sunday night, in one of the coldest American football matches ever played.

A phenomenon described as a polar vortex has plunged states in the north and northwest US into a deep freeze, causing transport chaos and school closures.

Fans at the Packers' Lambeau Field swaddled themselves in multiple thick layers of clothing and covered themselves with blankets for the tie, which lasted around three hours.

Some Packers fans - affectionately known as cheeseheads - wore costumes

The 49ers' stars - who are more used to balmy California temperatures - wrapped up on the touchline in signature red blankets.

Despite not being accustomed to the inclement weather, they won 23-20, putting them one step closer to February's Superbowl.

The weather phenomenon has seen super-chilled air from the Arctic sucked into North and South Dakota, the Great Lakes states and New England, sending temperatures plunging.

Thick layers were neccessary for the three-hour game

Washington DC has already seen its coldest temperatures for 20 years and several states in the Midwest have recorded their lowest mercury readings for more than a decade.

Icy weather is feared to have been a factor that led to a Delta Airways flight skidding off the runway at JFK Airport on Sunday.

None of the flight's 35 passengers was injured and the aircraft was safely towed to a gate.

Snow at JFK Airport in New York

The busy New York airport suspended operations for about two hours due to slick runways.

In Chicago, about 1,200 flights were cancelled at the city's O'Hare and Midway international airports.

Weather Bell meteorologist Ryan Maue described the current weather conditions as a once-in-a-generation event.

Scituate, Massachusetts, is among the places to have seen blizzards

"If you're under 40 (years old), you've not seen this stuff before," he said.

With much of the northeast of the country already under thick snow and well below zero, a newly emerging weather system is threatening to cause further misery.

The "polar vortex" is an anti-clockwise rotating pool of cold, dense air that forms close to the North Pole, but typically hangs over Canada.

People enjoy Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro during a heatwave in Brazil

Meteorologists say that unusually, this year, it is heading south and moving towards the north and eastern United States.

Fargo in North Dakota is expected to dip to -31C (-25F), International Falls, Minnesota will fall to -35C (-31F) and Indianapolis, Indiana and Chicago, Illinois, will reach -26C (-15F).

The frigid forecast prompted Minnesota public school officials to announce a statewide closure for Monday, marking the first such mass closing in 17 years.

The Wisconsin cities of Milwaukee and Madison have also announced school closures to start the week.

At least 16 deaths have been blamed on a snow storm that swept across the eastern half of the US at the end of last week.

Only a few thousand people have been left without power in the US despite heavy snowfalls, but in Canada, which has seen unusually heavy snow in a country used to cold winters, nearly 90,000 are without power in Newfoundland.

Meanwhile, in Brazil, soaring temperatures in Rio de Janeiro set off fire sprinklers in shopping malls as the thermometer topped 40C (102F).

Thousands headed to the beach as temperatures rose to more than 50C in the sunshine.

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