Philippines: Mayon Volcano Eruption Kills Five

Five climbers have been killed after one of the Philippines' most active volcanoes erupted - leaving more than a dozen others trapped.

Ash rises after the eruption of Mayon volcano

Rescue teams and helicopters were sent to the centre of the country as huge rocks and ash began pouring out of Mayon volcano early on Tuesday morning.

Albay provincial Governor Joey Salceda said at least seven people from a group of around 20 mountaineers were injured after being caught by surprise by the sudden eruption.

Clouds have cleared over the volcano, which was quiet later in the morning.

Guide Kenneth Jesalva told ABS-CBN TV network the climbers who died - including a German, an Austrian and a Filipino - were struck by huge rocks.               

He said he was in the group that spent the night on the picturesque mountain, known for its almost-perfect cone, when the volcano rumbled back to life and rocks "as big as a living room" came raining down on them - before he rushed back to the base camp to call for help.

Eduardo del Rosario, chief of the national disaster agency, said the injured included foreigners and Filipino guides, with some in a critical condition.

The head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, Renato Solidum, said the eruption was normal for the restive Mayon, about 212 miles southeast of the capital Manila.

It has erupted around 40 times during the last 400 years.

It last erupted in 2010, when thousands of residents moved to temporary shelters when the volcano ejected ash across a five-mile zone surrounding the crater.

Mr Solidum said no alert was raised for the volcano following the latest eruption and no evacuation was being planned.

Climbers are not allowed when an alert is up, and it is thought the recent calm may have encouraged this week's trek.

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Somalia: Optimism Endures Among The Rubble

The customers at Ahmed Jama Mohamed's restaurant in the Somali capital Mogadishu sip lattes just yards from the rubble caused by another suicide bomber.

But despite the constant physical reminder and the barbed wire surrounding the restaurant, they are stoic and mostly optimistic about what the future holds for their war-ravaged country.

Some are returning exiles, finally coming home after years of being away because of the instability and dangers of staying at home.

Sonkor Geyre left his job in Chicago to restart his career in Somalia 14 months ago.

"As soon as I got the chance, I took it and I don't regret it," he said.

He now teaches at the city's university. He's sharing a meal with another who fled the extremists to live in America - but Abdullah Jama is only visiting Mogadishu.

He won't be coming home permanently to live anytime soon.

"Al Shabaab is everywhere, there is too much corruption, there are bombs all the time and they need to sort out the governance," he said.

Yes, there are bombs still. There was another suicide bombing in the capital on Sunday which killed at least eight.

A few weeks earlier, around half a dozen gunmen stormed the capital's main court building killing another 20 people.

Somalia has elected its first permanent government for more than 20 years

But the terror incidents are far fewer than they were a year ago when there was fighting in the streets.

The 18,000 African Union troops in the country have been mostly successful in driving out al Shabaab extremists from the capital and reclaiming territory they previously held in the major cities.

But there are clearly still terror cells operating and able to mount attacks almost at will.

Nonetheless, the capital and the country appear to have renewed hope of a better future ever since the election - less than a year ago - of their first permanent government and president in more than two decades of hostilities.

World leaders are gathering in London to try to work out how best to help Somalia now. There are signs of reconstruction already in Somalia but much more needs to be done.

The security there is fragile and eminently reversible unless the Somali National Army continues to be bolstered by the thousands of international troops who also train and mentor them.

New President Hassan Sheik Mohamed has a mountain of challenges to overcome ranging from education, tackling corruption, enforcing human rights and ensuring female empowerment, but he has to first of all make sure he stays alive.

Only two days after taking office, the extremists tried to kill him. He has to stay constantly alert but exudes an air of comfortable confidence.

"Every day, every hour al Shabaab is working on trying to spill Somali blood," he told me a few days ago in the capital.

"But our security forces are also working every hour and every day to stop them - and we will."

His job this week is to convince the international donors he can actually follow through on his plans.

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Cleveland: Women Missing For Decade Rescued

Three women who disappeared separately more than 10 years ago have been found alive in a house in Cleveland, Ohio - just a few miles from where they went missing.

Police said they thought Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight had been tied up in the property and had been there since they vanished.

They have been taken to a hospital for checks and were being reunited with relatives.

They have also been described as being in good health after being found in a residential area just south of the city.

A poster with images of Amanda Berry on

Three brothers were arrested. One of the men, a 52-year-old, lived at the home, and the others, ages 50 and 54, lived elsewhere.

Ms Berry disappeared aged 16 on April 21, 2003, when she called her sister to say she was getting a lift home from her job at a Burger King.

Ms DeJesus went missing aged 14 on her way home from school about a year after Ms Berry.

The third woman, Ms Knight, had been missing since 2002 when she was believed to have been 20.

Cheering crowds gathered on the street near the home where the women were found.

Gina DeJesus went missing on her way home from school

The long nightmare for the trio ended when Ms Berry reached her arm through a crack in the front door and called for help.

Neighbour Charles Ramsay heard her screaming, tried to get her out through the door but could not pull it open.

So he kicked the bottom and she crawled through "carrying a little girl".

Ms Berry went into a nearby home and called police, begging them to come as soon as they could, "before he gets back".

In a recording of the 911 call, she told the dispatcher: "I'm Amanda Berry. I've been kidnapped. I've been missing for 10 years. I'm free. I'm here now."

Ms DeJesus' father wants a change in Amber Alert rules

She pleaded for officers to arrive at the home on Cleveland's west side before her alleged kidnapper returned. When police arrived, she said two other women were being held captive.

They were rescued and police said a six-year-old also was found in the home, but the child's identity or relationship to anyone in the home was not revealed.

Mr Ramsay told how he rescued Ms Berry. He said: "I hear this girl screaming and she's going nuts.

"So I come outside and I know there's nobody supposed to be screaming next door to my house because there's no girl that lives in that house.

"When I came to the front door and looked at her she said: 'My name is Amanda Berry - please get me out of this house'."

Age-progressed images of Gina DeJesus (L) and Amanda Berry

Kayla Rogers, a childhood friend of Ms DeJesus told The Plain Dealer newspaper: "I've been praying, never forgot about her, ever.

"This is amazing. This is a celebration. I'm so happy. I just want to see her walk out of those doors so I can hug her."

Ms Berry's cousin Tasheena Mitchell told the newspaper: "I'm going to hold her, and I'm going to squeeze her and I probably won't let her go."

In January, a prison inmate was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison after admitting he provided a false burial tip in the disappearance of Ms Berry.

Two men arrested for questioning in the disappearance of Ms DeJesus in 2004 were released from the city jail in 2006 after officers did not find her body during a search of the men's house.

No Amber Alert was issued the day Ms DeJesus failed to return home because no one witnessed her abduction.

That angered her father, Felix DeJesus, who said in 2006 he believed the public will listen even if the alerts become routine.

"The Amber Alert should work for any missing child," he said then.

"It doesn't have to be an abduction. Whether it's an abduction or a runaway, a child needs to be found. We need to change this law."

Cleveland police said then that the alerts must be reserved for cases in which danger is imminent and the public can be of help in locating the suspect and child.

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Moscow: Thousands Set To Protest Against Putin

By Katie Stallard, Moscow Correspondent

Thousands of protesters are expected to take to the streets in central Moscow on the first anniversary of a mass rally that saw hundreds arrested in violent clashes with police.

More than 600 people were arrested on May 6 2012, on the eve of Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin.

Protesters accuse the police of using excessive force and say any violence on their part was in self-defence - they claim the authorities were determined to clear the streets ahead of the  presidential inauguration on May 7.

At least 15 people are still being held in detention centres across Moscow awaiting trial, in many cases without charge.

Several more are under house arrest, including Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov, who is accused of conspiring to organise mass riots.

Russians march in a protest rally in May 2012

Udaltsov is not allowed to use the telephone or internet and is barred from contact with all but his closest family and legal team.

He has tried and failed to secure permission to leave his house for a daily walk.

Their supporters claim they are political prisoners, and that authorities are reverting to Stalinist tools of repression, but President Putin has insisted recently that he sees no "elements of Stalinism" in modern Russia.

Amnesty International has expressed concerns about the weight of publicly-presented evidence against many of those detained, and says there are grounds to consider at least some of them "prisoners of conscience".

Human Rights Watch has accused President Putin of presiding over the harshest crackdown on civil society in Russia's post-soviet history since his return to the Kremlin last year.

President Putin has been accused of a harsh crackdown on civil society

They note the ongoing raids on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) across the country, the series of new laws being passed, and the intimidation, harassment and in a number of cases imprisonment of political activists.

Sky News spoke to the wife of one man who has been held without charge for the last eight months on suspicion of rioting during the May 6 protests.

Leonid Kovyazin was arrested in September, but because he has not yet been charged, he does not know the details of the case against him.

His wife insists they are not political activists and that Leonid was only at the Moscow demonstration as a journalist.

"It's clearly politically motivated," Evgeniya Tarasova said.

"What can I say about our country? People have always been put in jail for politics. Always have, always will.

"It's hard for me to evaluate this situation objectively, because I am inside this process."

The couple got married in prison in March in a short ceremony overseen by security guards.

She explained that by becoming his wife she gained the right to see him.

"The ceremony lasted about seven minutes, but they checked our documents for ages before that. That was the beginning of the wedding.

"When Lenya and I saw each other for the first time, the most important thing for me was that he was alive and well. This was a moment of absolute happiness for me. I think the same for him.

"I think he needs to know that there is someone by his side and I need to know that too. It doesn't matter if it's through the walls and distances, but what can you do. He needs to feel the support from the outside world.

"We here can never understand how he feels being locked up. Whatever we say, we can't understand how it feels, we are here - we walk and breathe freely."

He will be one of those in whose name the protesters gather tonight.  If their detention was intended to serve as a warning – to keep people off the streets – it could have just the opposite effect.

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Bangladesh Protests: At Least 22 Killed

At least 22 people have been killed after police clashed with Islamists demanding a new blasphemy law in the Bangladeshi capital.

The bodies of 11 victims, including a policeman, were taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Mozammel Haq, a police inspector based at the hospital, told AFP.

Officials at three private clinics in Dhaka confirmed that they had received the bodies of 11 other victims.

Police officials said that about 200,000 people had marched to central Dhaka on Sunday, where fierce clashes erupted between thousands of rock-throwing protesters and security officials.

Thousands took to the street of Dhaka

Witnesses said rioting broke out after police tried to intercept stick-wielding protesters, most travelling from remote villages, in front of the country's largest mosque. Trouble then spread to central districts of Dhaka.

"This government does not have faith in Allah. This is an atheist government, we will not allow them to live in Bangladesh. Muslims are brothers, we must protect Islam," one protester was seen chanting.

Police fired rubber bullets from armoured vehicles at protesters, who went on the rampage, torching a police office, scores of vehicles and shops, attacking government offices and beating policemen.

Dozens of small bombs exploded, leaving smoke hanging in the air around the mosque.

The protest was staged as the country was recovering from its worst industrial disaster, which saw at least 620 people killed when a factory building collapsed just outside the capital on April 24.

It said it staged the mass protest to push a 13-point list of demands, which also include a ban on men and women mixing freely together and the restoration of pledges to Allah in the constitution.

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Bride-To-Be Among Five Killed In Limo Fire

A bride-to-be was among five women who died when a limousine burst into flames as it carried her and eight of her friends to her hen party.

The car caught fire at around 10pm on Saturday on one of the busiest bridges across San Francisco Bay.

Five of the women were trapped but the four other women managed to get out after the vehicle came to a halt on the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge.

Rosita Guardiano, whose daughter survived, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the bride-to-be was due to be married next month.

Four women and the driver were able to escape the burning vehicle

Investigators have not established what caused the fire, although a photo taken by a witness and broadcast on KTVU-TV showed flames shooting from the back.

Aerial video shot after the incident showed about one-third of the back half of the limousine had been scorched.

The driver of the white stretch limo, 46-year-old Orville Brown from San Jose, was the only person to escape unhurt.

"Four people got out, as far as what was going on inside, I don't know," California Highway Patrol officer Jeremy Lofstrom said.

The limo was travelling westbound on the bridge when it caught fire

Investigators are appealing for witnesses to the incident.

All five women were pronounced dead at the scene.

Mrs Guardiano said her daughter, 42-year-old Mary Grace Guardiano from Alameda, was being treated for smoke inhalation.

The three other women who escaped, Jasmine Desguia, 34, from San Jose; Nelia Arrellano, 36, from Oakland; and Amalia Loyola, 48, from San Leandro, were taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation and burns. 

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Belgium: One Dies In 'Toxic Train' Crash Fire

One person has died and 17 others have been injured after a train carrying highly toxic chemicals derailed in Belgium, causing a major fire.

The blaze erupted and spread along a drainage ditch

The accident and blaze prompted authorities to evacuate nearly 300 people from their homes.

Jan Briers, governor of eastern Flanders, had earlier said there were two dead and 14 injured, but late Saturday authorities announced that 17 injured people have been hospitalised and officials were investigating the cause of one fatality.

Flammable liquid caught alight and explosions occurred

Some of the injured were people living well away from the scene of the accident. Interior Minister Joelle Milquet blamed toxic fumes from the highly flammable liquid chemicals.

The accident happened at around 2am local time, between the towns of Schellebelle and Wetteren, on the Belgian railway network.

Once daylight arrived the extent of damage could be seen

Six of the train's 13 cars derailed and two were thrown on to their side by the force of derailment. The blaze led to a series of explosions in the railway cars.

Fire then spread over hundreds of yards, prompting authorities to evacuate residents living more than 500 yards from the site of the accident.

The train crash, near Ghent, occurred near a set of track crossing points

But Ms Milquet said toxic fumes reached much further through the drainage system.

"There is a problem of poisoning linked to the smoke," she said.

"But there is also another reaction, since some of the chemical product went into the drains and caused a kind of chemical reaction with gases that are toxic and escaped into certain streets beyond the perimeter that had already been evacuated due to the fire."

Smoke and fumes were subdued by spraying water across the scene

Firefighters decided to let the cars burn out in a controlled manner as water could have released further toxic chemicals.

The causes of the accident remained unclear. The cars derailed as the train changed tracks and observers said it might have been travelling too fast.

The train came from the Netherlands and was bound for Ghent's seaport, Gent-Zeehaven.

Officials said the tracks would be shut for days

Train services were disrupted and problems were expected for several days, with buses laid on to transport passengers.

Two similar accidents involving trains carrying tanks of toxic products occurred in Belgium in May 2012.

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Palestinian TV Show To Find Would-Be President

By Sam Kiley, Middle East Correspondent In Ramallah

Palestinians have been gulping down a dose of reality - reality television with a political twist.

The hit show, called simply The President, has grown out of widespread frustration among Palestinians at their own moribund politics in the real world.

The current president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, remains in office four years after his mandate expired.

His party, Fatah, rules over the West Bank while in Gaza, Hamas, the Islamist movement labelled a terrorist organisation by many countries in the West, reigns - also years beyond the mandate it won in 2006.

The Palestinian assembly hasn't met for many months. The roster of leaders hasn't changed for decades.

Part Apprentice part X-Factor, viewers are gripped by a show in which they get to chose who should be their next president.

The show is proving a hit with Palestinian TV audiences

Enter Raed Othman, the director general of the Ma'an broadcast network.

"I thought of this programme because we have to show that the Palestinian people understand and want real democracy. We want elections - real elections. But if we cannot have them then we can do our own," he said backstage during the filming of the latest episode of his show which has whittled 1,200 potential presidents to 16.

He added:  "There are a lot of people who say we don't have leaders, so we need to prove to them that there are a lot of leaders in Palestine. We want to teach the people that democracy is possible whenever we want".

Contestants are filmed taking on tasks - being an ambassador to a European country for a day, running a major corporation, taking questions from foreign and local journalists, even how to inspect guards of honour.

They are then put through the ringer by a panel of judges, among them leading politicians like Hannan Ashrawi, a former spokeswoman for the Arab League. Viewers combine votes sent in by text message with the judges' marks in early rounds.

The show's judges include leading politicians

The winner will be chosen entirely by the public by text.

He, or she, won't be rewarded with high office, just a modest family car. But the real prize is the opportunity to break into the Palestinian political scene.

"This programme will give me the chance, me and the other competitors, my colleagues, to get inside this procedure without needing at least 20 or 30 years of step-by-step involvement in the political situation," said Baha'a al Khateeb, an adult education manager, as he prepared to step on set - a conference room in a Ramallah hotel.

He is careful not to criticise the current Palestinian leadership. Not because he fears reprisals, Palestinians enjoy freedom of speech, but because he has spent several weeks presenting himself as a unifying figure.

Baha'a al Khateeb battles for the coveted title of 'President'

Fatah and Hamas remain bitterly opposed to each other and fought a bloody civil war in Gaza in 2007.

These divisions have weakened the ability of Palestinian leaders to negotiate an end to the occupation on the West Bank and the siege of Gaza by Israel.

Mr Khateeb, like most of the contestants, favours uniting the factions, stepping up non-violent actions and civil disobedience against the Jewish State. Plus a boycott of all Israeli products by Palestinian shoppers.

There is no immediate prospect of Palestinian elections - but by using his media exposure to call for a boycott, Mr Khateeb may have found a platform which can transform an idea into a political reality.

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'Israel Rocket Strike' On Syria Military Site

Israeli missiles have struck a military research centre near the capital Damascus, setting off explosions, Syrian state television has said.

The rockets were said to have struck a military research centre in Jamraya on the outskirts of the capital in the early hours of this morning.

The building was the target of an earlier Israeli strike in January.

Israel has declined to comment on the latest attack, but a Western intelligence source said "stores of Fateh-110 missiles that were in transit from Iran to Hizbollah" were the target of the strike.

Video footage uploaded online by activists claims to show a huge ball of fire rising into the night sky.

More of the unverified footage uploaded by activists

Meanwhile, hundreds of families are fleeing a Syrian coastal area where activists say government troops have massacred nearly 200, many of whom were women and children.

The opponents of Bashar al Assad's regime say that fighters loyal to the President carried out two massacres last night and on Thursday in a Sunni Muslim area driving by a policy of ethnic cleansing.

Activists posted a video online of the bodies of 10 people it said were killed in Ras al Nabaa, in the city of Banias, in an attack overnight.

Half of them were children.

Activists said that the number of dead could be as high as 60.

It comes just two days after pro-Assad militias are alleged to have killed as many as 100 Sunnis in the nearby village of Baida.

Protests in Banias at the beginning of the uprising in 2011

Amateur video showed a man and at least three children dead inside a room.

A baby had burned legs and a body stained with blood. Next to him was a young girl whose face had been deformed after apparently being hit with sharp metal.

Other footage from activists showed entire families killed in their beds, a dead mother cradling her child in her arms, two toddlers lying next to them.

The videos have not been independently verified.

Syria's crisis, that began in March 2011 with pro-democracy protests and later turned into a civil war that has killed an estimated 70,000 people, has largely broken along sectarian lines.

The Sunni majority forms the backbone of the rebellion, while Mr Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, anchors the regime's security services and the military's officer corps.

Syria's crisis has claimed the lives of an estimated 70,000 people

Other minorities, such as Christians, largely support Mr Assad or stand on the sidelines, worried that the regime's fall would bring about a more Islamist rule.

It has been estimated as many as 4,000 people are fleeing from the predominantly Sunni southern parts of the Mediterranean city of Banias amid fears of further large-scale killings.

The US has condemned the May 2 attack. State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said: "We strongly condemn atrocities against the civilian population and reinforce our solidarity with the Syrian people."

Her statement added: "The United States is appalled by horrific reports that more than 100 people were killed May 2 in gruesome attacks on the coastal town of Bayda, Syria.

"Regime and Shabiha forces reportedly destroyed the area with mortar fire then stormed the town and executed entire families, including women and children."

It came as Israeli officials confirmed the country's air force carried out a strike against Syria, saying it targeted a shipment of advanced missiles bound for the Lebanese militant group Hizbollah.

The violence in the coastal region shows the sectarian nature of the two-year conflict that has killed tens of thousands and sent more than a million Syrians as refugees to neighbouring countries.

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Kenya: 'Criminal' President Invited To UK

Britian has invited a world leader who is indicted by the International Criminal Court to a conference in London next week.

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta has been asked to attend a conference on Somalia on Tuesday - co-hosted by both Britain and Somalia.

Mr Kenyatta, who won elections for the Kenyan presidency on March 4, is due to go on trial in July at The Hague for crimes against humanity.

He stands accused of orchestrating violence in Kenya after the last presidential elections in 2007 and 2008 during which up to 1,500 died.

Britain has said it has a policy of only "essential contact" with anyone charged by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

A Whitehall source said that having Mr Kenyatta at the conference "is seen as essential".

A spokesman for Kenya's High Commission in Nairobi said the High Commissioner had delivered a letter to Mr Kenyatta.

The commission said in a statement: "Kenya plays a vital role on Somalia, having nearly 5,000 troops in Somalia, and hosting more Somali refugees than any other nation."

January 2008: Violence broke out in the wake of the election

The statement said Mr Kenyatta and High Commissioner Christian Turner also "discussed how the two countries would work together not only on the shared agendas of regional security and stability, but also prosperity and development".

It added that London wanted to support Nairobi in its aims to double UK-Kenya trade.

Mr Kenyatta's election was predicted to pose problems for European countries and America, which are nervous about dealing with alleged criminals against humanity.

Until recently, Kenya had been considered the West's ally in the war against Islamic extremism centred in Somalia.

Recent gains have been made in pushing back the al Shabaab militant group, which had come to control parts of Somalia after the US withdrawal in the late 1990s led to a power vacuum.

Military victories against al Shabaab have in-part been spearheaded from Kenya, where the US has a base.  Ethiopia has also played a major role.

Britain is also believed to be keen to keep Kenya on side in the fight against international terrorism.

In 2012, The British Army Training Unit in Kenya (BATUK) built a new base just outside the town of Nanyuki, about 80 miles north of Nairobi.

The London conference will be the first trip outside Africa for Mr Kenyatta since his election, which was held to be fraudulent by the losing candidate Raila Odinga.

Uhuru, meaning freedom, is the son of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya's first president, who was put on trial by the ruling British colonial powers for inciting rebellion and kept in jail for seven years.

After independence and Kenya being declared a republic, Jomo was promoted from interim prime minister to president.

Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto, who also faces trial at the ICC, have both said they will co-operate fully with the ICC. They deny the charges against them.

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