Egypt: Police And Protesters Clash

Four people have been killed in Egypt during clashes betwen police and protesters on the second anniversary of the revolution.

Police fired tear gas to disperse thousands of opponents of President Mohamed Morsi, gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

At least 186 people and 45 security personnel were hurt during protests in various cities, including Cairo, Alexandria and Suez, according to medics. The fatalities were in Suez.

In Ismailia, hundreds of demonstrators broke into local government offices after the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood in the city were set ablaze.

On Thursday, clashes erupted after protesters tried to dismantle a wall of concrete blocks closing a street leading to the square.

An anti-Morsi protester tries to escape from a tent sent on fire by police

The secular-leaning opposition has called for mass protests against Mr Morsi and his party, the Muslim Brotherhood, using the same slogan that brought Egypt to its feet in 2011 and ousted Hosni Mubarak: "Bread, freedom, social justice."

Opposition leader and former head of the UN's atomic agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, wrote on his Twitter account: "Go out into the squares to finally achieve the objectives of the revolution."

Tahrir Square is the iconic birthplace of the 2011 revolution, and demonstrators gathered in front of the presidential palace, where anti-Morsi rallies last December erupted into deadly clashes with Islamist supporters.

The Muslim Brotherhood has not officially called for its own rallies, instead marking the anniversary by launching a charitable and social initiative called: "Together we will build Egypt."

A man in Cairo works on graffiti representing the Muslim Brotherhood

Mr Morsi urged Egyptians to spend the anniversary in a "peaceful and civilised way" in a speech on Thursday to mark the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed.

The violence broke out ahead of a court verdict due on Saturday in the trial of dozens of defendants over the worst football disaster in Egyptian history.

More than 70 people were killed in Port Said in February last year during clashes in the Suez Canal city between fans of home side Al Masry and diehard supporters Cairo's Al Ahly, known as Ultras.

Al Ahly supporters warned of violent protests and a "new revolution" if Saturday's verdict goes against them.

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Venezuela Prison Riots Kills Dozens Of Inmates

Up to 50 people have been killed and scores more injured in clashes at a prison in Venezuela, according to hospital officials and local media.

Television footage showed National Guard troops surrounding the Uribana prison as inmates in bloody clothes were taken out of the building.

Relatives of the prisoners, most of them women in tears, waited outside.

Iris Varela, the government minister responsible for Venezuela's jails and prisons, said the riot at the Uribana prison in northwest Lara state began after inmates objected to prison authorities planning to confiscate weapons.

She said that inmates fought with troops brought in to calm the situation and with each other as rival gangs battled for control of the prison.

Hospital official Ruy Medina said many of the dozens of casualties had suffered gunshot wounds.

The South American nation's 34 prisons were designed to hold just one-third of the 50,000 inmates now in them, according to local prison advocacy groups.

Many of the prisoners are armed and hundreds are killed each year in riots and gang fights.

In 2011, there was a month-long siege at El Rodeo prison, just outside the capital of Caracas, in which 22 people died before 5,000 soldiers were able to restore order.

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Irish Garda Police Detective Shot Dead In Dundalk

A Garda detective has been shot dead in Ireland during a botched hold-up.

Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe was with a colleague escorting a cash delivery to a credit union in Dundalk, County Louth.

Several shots were fired during the incident at the Lordship Credit Union, on the Cooley Road in the town at around 9.30pm.

It is believed the force is now hunting four men in a grey Volkswagen Passat which fled the scene.

Sky's Ireland correspondent David Blevins said: "There is a very significant security operation under way with the Garda helicopter hovering overhead.

"The Irish police have set up checkpoints on the southern side of the Irish border and the Police Service of Northern Ireland have checkpoints on the northern side of the Irish border."

The officer, who was based at Dundalk Garda station, was fatally injured in the shooting.

Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan said: "I am deeply saddened to hear of the death of my colleague Detective Garda Adrian Donohoe.

"Detective Garda Donohoe died as a result of injuries sustained in the course of his duty following a shooting incident in Dundalk.

"At this time my thoughts and prayers and those of the entire force are with the family, friends and close colleagues of Adrian."

Det Donohoe is understood to leave behind three children. He lived in the Lordship area, around a kilometre (0.6 miles) from the credit union where he was killed.

Local councillor Jim Loughran described him as a quiet, decent family man.

"I just spoke to him last week on the street in town. I can't believe this has happened," he said.

The Sinn Fein councillor, who knew the detective through their local GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) club St Patrick's, also condemned those responsible for the shooting.

"This was not just an attack on a Garda detective, it was an attack on the whole community," he said.

It is believed staff at the credit union were locking up when the shooting occurred.

Councillor Declan Breathnach said it was not unusual for it to remain open late into the evening.

"It would be fairly busy on a Friday evening, with some people just getting their week's pay or wanting to sort out money for the weekend," he said.

"This was just such a despicable, heinous act. I still can't believe it but I utterly condemn it."

Gardai have appealed for witnesses to contact them at Dundalk Garda Station on 042-9388400.

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Bethlehem Clashes Continue After Killings

By Tom Rayner, Middle East News Editor

Clashes between youths and Israeli soldiers have continued for a second day in Bethlehem following the deaths of two young Palestinians.

The violence began last night following the funerals of a female student and a teenage boy, who died after being shot by Israeli soldiers in two separate incidents.

The UK Foreign Office has contacted the Israeli government to protest against its use of live ammunition for crowd control purposes.

This afternoon scores of youths took to the streets for the second day to launch rocks and Molotov cocktails at military positions near the security wall that separates Bethlehem from Jerusalem.

Tear gas was fired back at them from checkpoint towers.

Last night at least 10 young people were injured, three seriously, as plastic-coated steel bullets were fired at the angry crowds.

One of those injured was 15-year-old Ahmed al Qadi, who was hit in the face by a tear gas canister, causing serious wounds to his face which required emergency plastic surgery.

Speaking to Sky News in the Beit Jala hospital, his father insisted his son had been an observer to the violence, and had not been throwing stones at the Israeli checkpoint.

The clashes began following the deaths of 22-year-old Lubna Hanash, a female student, and 15-year-old Salih al Amarin, who were both from the Bethlehem area.

Ms Hanash was shot yesterday outside the al Aroub refugee camp near Hebron.

A Palestinian protester uses a catapult against security forces

The Israeli military claim the soldier that fired the fatal shots was travelling in a civilian car that had been attacked with fire bombs.

Salih was shot last Friday near the site of the recent clashes, but he died in hospital yesterday evening.

The deaths mean that a total of six Palestinian civilians have been killed by the Israeli military this month.

Abdi Fatah Hamayel, the governor of Bethlehem, told Sky News: "Those soldiers sitting in their towers behind the wall - are they really in danger? When a Palestinian child throws a stone or an empty bottle?

"They know for sure that none of their soldiers' lives are in danger from the rocks. We don't encourage this, but when the kids see this everyday from the Israelis, what do you expect from them? There is no excuse to shoot the kids with live bullets."

The recent spate of killings has prompted Israel's commander of operations in the West Bank, Brigadier Hagai Mordechai, to call for an immediate review of its rules of engagement .

A military police investigation has also begun into the shooting of Lubna Hanash.

But the situation has already provoked condemnation from the international community.

In a statement to Sky News a spokesperson for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said: "We are very concerned about six Palestinians killed by the Israeli Defence Force in different incidents in the past couple of weeks, including the two who died yesterday.

"We have raised these cases with the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs and the relevant Israeli authority for the OPTs (COGAT).

"The UK has repeatedly made clear to Israel our longstanding concerns about the manner in which the IDF polices non-violent protests and the border areas, including use of live ammunition."

UN Middle East Peace Process envoy Robert Serry also expressed concern at the increased use of live fire by Israeli forces in the West Bank.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad called for an "immediate intervention to compel Israel to desist from these serious attacks on our people".

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Lawyers Gagged In Delhi Gang-Rape Case

The judge hearing the case of five men accused of the fatal gang-rape of a student on a Delhi bus has barred lawyers from speaking to the press on the second day of the trial.

"The court has strictly ordered us to refrain from sharing details about the case," lawyer V.K. Anand said outside the Saket district court in New Delhi, where the suspects have made their second appearance.

Rape cases are usually held behind closed doors in India and the judge has approved an extra legal measure which prevents the media from reporting on court proceedings, despite the public interest in the case.

On Thursday, after a complaint from the prosecutor that defence lawyers were not complying with the order and were sharing details with journalists waiting outside the court, the judge warned that they could be breaking the law.

"I have already passed an order. If you are not happy with the order you can challenge it in the court," Judge Yogesh Khanna said after the hearing.

Though sexual harassment is commonplace in India, the 23-year-old student's gang rape has touched a nerve, sparking protests and an outpouring of criticism about the systemic mistreatment of women in Indian society.

The woman, who was also assaulted with an iron rod, died of massive internal injuries 13 days after the December 16 attack, prompting widespread public demands for India to introduce the death penalty for rapists.

The five men face charges including murder, rape, robbery and kidnapping, with prosecutors expected to demand the death penalty. A sixth suspect, who claims he is 17, will appear before a juvenile court.

The trial is being held in a fast-track court to circumvent India's notoriously slow and clogged-up justice system. The victim's family is leading widespread calls for quick closure on the horrifying case.

A far-right political party has begun distributing thousands of knives to women in a western Indian state to help them protect themselves in the wake of the fatal gang-rape.

Shiv Sena, a party with a reputation for intimidation and unrest, began handing out the weapons to women at a function in Mumbai late on Wednesday on the birthday of the group's late founder Bal Thackeray, who died in November.

"The way you cut vegetables, cut the hand of the person who touches you the same way," local party official Ajay Chowdhary told supporters, saying women should keep the blades in their purses.

The party intends to distribute 21,000 of them across Maharashtra state, their main base, of which Mumbai is the capital.

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Mumbai Attack: American Plotter Gets 35 Years

A Pakistani-American who helped plan the 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai has been sentenced to 35 years in prison.

David Coleman Headley conducted meticulous scouting missions before 10 gunmen carried out the devastating assault that left 160 people dead, including children, and is often referred to as India's 9/11.

The 52-year-old was sentenced on 12 counts, including conspiracy to aid the Pakistani-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which mounted the attacks on the landmark Taj Mahal Hotel and other targets.

"I don't have any faith in Mr Headley when he says he's a changed person and believes in the American way of life," said US District Judge Harry Leinenweber in imposing the sentence, which was in the range of what prosecutors had requested for Headley's widespread cooperation.

Headley faced a maximum sentence of life in prison. He pleaded guilty and cooperated to avoid the death penalty and extradition to India.

The bloody scene at a Mumbai train station after the attack

The attackers arrived by boat on November 26, 2008, carrying grenades and automatic weapons, and fanned out to hit multiple targets, including a crowded train station, a Jewish centre and the Taj Mahal Hotel. TV cameras captured much of the three-day rampage live.

Before the judge imposed the sentence, a victim shot in the attack gave emotional testimony.

Linda Ragsdale, a Tennessee children's author, spoke through tears describing how she lost friends in the attacks and her own injuries. She said she was haunted by the sounds of people suffering and her recovery from the wounds continues.

"I know what a bullet can do to every part of the human body," she said. "I know the sound of life leaving a 13-year-old child. These are things I never needed to know, never needed to experience."

The attack heightened the strain in an historically strained relationship between India and Pakistan, which have fought three major wars. Indian officials accuse Pakistani intelligence of helping to plan the assault - an allegation Pakistan denies.

Last year, India secretly hanged the lone surviving gunman, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab.

Headley was born Daood Gilani to a Pakistani father and American mother. He changed his name in 2006 to travel more easily to and from India.

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Clinton Promises Better US Security Abroad

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has insisted the department is moving swiftly and aggressively to strengthen security at US missions worldwide after the deadly September 11 raid on the Libya consulate.

In her last formal congressional testimony on Capitol Hill as America's top diplomat, Mrs Clinton once again took full responsibility for the department's mistakes leading up to assault at the US mission in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Her voice cracking at one point, Mrs Clinton said the experience was highly personal.

"I stood next to President Obama as the Marines carried those flag-draped caskets off the plane at Andrews (Air Force Base). I put my arms around the mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters," she told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at a packed hearing.

Ambassador Chris Stevens

Her voice rising at another point, she fiercely defended UN Ambassador Susan Rice, who was vilified for widely debunked claims five days after the attack that protests precipitated the raid rather than terrorism.

"The fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest? Or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they'd go kill some Americans?

"What difference, at this point, does it make?" a clearly frustrated Mrs Clinton told Republican Senator Ron Johnson.

"It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, senator," she added.

Mrs Clinton said the department is implementing the 29 recommendations of an independent review board that harshly criticised the department as well as going above and beyond the proposals, with a special focus on high-threat posts.

The review board report faulted "systematic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus of the State Department" and four employees were put on administrative leave.

"Nobody is more committed to getting this right," she said. "I am determined to leave the State Department and our country safer, stronger, and more secure."

Three weeks after her release from a New York hospital, Mrs Clinton was at times defiant and willing to chastise lawmakers.

The four American victims are brought home

She will appear before the committee on Thursday to introduce her likely successor, Democratic Senator and former presidential candidate John Kerry.

Mrs Clinton refused to back down from withering Republican criticism of the Obama administration's shifting explanations about the assault.

She complained about the congressional holds placed on foreign aid and bilateral assistance. "We have to get our act together," she told the panel.

Her testimony focused not only on the attack but the growing threat from extremists in northern Africa, pointing out that Libya was not an isolated incident.

She said the Obama administration is pressing for a greater understanding of last week's hostage-taking and rescue effort in Algeria that left three Americans dead.

Clinton had been scheduled to testify before Congress last month, but an illness, a concussion and a blood clot near her brain forced her to postpone her appearance.

Politics play an outsized role in any appearance by Mrs Clinton, who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 and is the subject of constant speculation about a possible bid in 2016.

The former first lady and New York senator - a polarising figure dogged by controversy - is about to end her four-year tenure at the State Department with favourable ratings.

A poll early last month by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found 65% of Americans held a favourable impression of Mrs Clinton, compared with 29% unfavourable.

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Alexander Lebedev In Court Over TV Punch-Up

By Katie Stallard, Moscow Correspondent

Newspaper tycoon Alexander Lebedev will appear in court today charged with hooliganism, after a televised punch-up with a fellow oligarch which could see him sent to a Siberian prison for up to five years.

Mr Lebedev does not deny that he punched property magnate Sergei Polonsky - knocking him off his stool - during a recording on NTV, a Kremlin-controlled TV channel in 2011.

However he claims it was self-defence, and that the case against him is politically-motivated.

As well as straightforward assault charges, Mr Lebedev is being tried for "hooliganism motivated by political hatred", under a section of the same law used to convict feminist punk band Pussy Riot last year.

The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years.

The former KGB spy co-owns Novaya Gazeta, one of the only independent newspapers in Russia, and is a prominent critic of Vladimir Putin's administration.

Several of its reporters have been murdered in recent years, including Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead outside her Moscow apartment on President Putin's birthday in 2006.

Mr Lebedev is a former KGB spy

She had reported extensively on human rights abuses during the Russian military offensive in Chechnya.

Mr Lebedev famously bought the British Evening Standard in 2009, telling reporters that he used to read it as a young Russian spy based in London in his earlier career.

He went on to buy The Independent, but says both titles are now owned by his London-based son, Evgeny Lebedev, and that they will be protected should he be sent to prison.

Preliminary hearings in the case are scheduled to begin at Moscow's Ostankinsky Court, but they will have trouble summoning Sergei Polonsky as a witness.

Mr Polonsky is currently under arrest in Cambodia, where he is accused of kidnapping local sailors aboard a boat he had hired during a holiday.

The controversial tycoon is well-known in Russia for his colourful antics, which have included eating part of his tie after losing a bet, naming both his son and his dog after his company Mirax, and firing 90% of his company over the course of one year after being told to make cutbacks.

Mr Lebedev has many powerful enemies in Russia, not least the ranks of the criminal and the corrupt, whose dealings his newspaper investigates.

He has said he is hopeful that justice will prevail, but that he is also prepared for the worst.

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North Korea Plans Nuclear Test 'Aimed At US'

North Korea plans a nuclear test plus more long-range rocket launches, aimed at what it calls its "arch-enemy" the United States.

"We do not hide that the various satellites and long-range rockets we will continue to launch, as well as the high-level nuclear test we will proceed with, are aimed at our arch-enemy the United States," the National Defence Commission said.

The mention of the test, which would mark the country's third detonation of a nuclear device, came towards the end of a commission statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

It gave no indication of when the test might be carried out, or explained the meaning of "high-level". The country's two previous nuclear tests were held in 2006 and 2009.

Much of the statement was devoted to condemning Tuesday's announcement by the UN Security Council of expanded sanctions against Pyongyang in response to its long-range rocket launch last month.

"We absolutely refute all the illegal and outlawed resolutions adopted by the Security Council," the commission said.

Sky's Asia Correspondent Mark Stone said: "The statement from the state news agency is pretty alarming."

Tuesday's resolution, proposed by the United States, was adopted unanimously by the 15-nation council, including North Korea's sole major ally China.

North Korea's foreign ministry had denounced the move on Wednesday, when it also gave the first hint that Pyongyang would react with a nuclear test, saying the country would take "physical actions" to boost its nuclear deterrent.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing a South Korean intelligence source, reported that Pyongyang had finished technical preparations and could conduct an atomic test within days of a decision by leader Kim Jong-Un.

Last month, a US think-tank reached a similar conclusion based on satellite photos, suggesting the North had repaired rain damage at its nuclear test site and could conduct a detonation at two weeks' notice.

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Texas College Shootout: Three People Injured

A shootout between two gunmen at a Texas community college has left three people wounded, including the two suspects.

Harris County Sheriff's spokesman Armando Tello said the shooting was the result of an altercation between two people, and at least one was a student.

He said both people involved in the altercation at Lone Star College in north Houston were wounded and taken to hospital.

Mr Tello said a college maintenance man was injured after getting caught in the crossfire and taken to hospital, and a female student was treated for a medical complication.

Lone Star College is in Houston

The college earlier posted a message on its Twitter feed that said the shooting was "between two individuals" and that the situation was under control.

Relatives identified Jody Neal, 24, as one of the people shot and said he was taken to Harris Health Ben Taub Hospital Emergency Centre.

"All I know he got shot three times. That's all I know," Reginald Neal, who identified himself as Jody Neal's uncle, told KPRC-TV. "He got shot in one of his arms, in the stomach and the leg."

Stacy Neal, Jody Neal's sister, said: "He was sitting in the study room. There (were) three people on the computer and a guy walked up the stairs and opened fire on him. They said it was just one guy that came in with a gun."

Heavily armed police patrolled the campus

Aerial footage from local television stations showed police cars and ambulances parked on the Lone Star College System campus about 20 miles north of downtown Houston.

Emergency personnel could be seen tending to people on stretchers, while others ran from a building led by officers.

The college issued an alert on its website telling students and staff to take immediate shelter or avoid the campus. The school later announced the campus had been evacuated and would remain closed for the rest of the day.

Cody Harris, 20, said he was in a classroom with about six or seven other students waiting for a psychology class to start when he heard eight shots. He and other students looked at each other, said "I guess we should get out of here," and fled.

"I was just worried about getting out," Mr Harris said. "I called my grandmother and asked her to pick me up."

The Lone Star College System has an enrolment of 90,000 students and six college campuses, according to its website.

Along with the college, four nearby schools in the Aldine Independent School District went into lockdown, a district spokesman said.

Lone Star student Daniel Flores, 19, said he was in a tutoring lab on the second floor doing homework when he heard six to seven shots.

"I didn't think they were shots," he said. "It sounded like someone was kicking a door."

About 60 people were in the lab, and they began running out of the room once they realised the sound was gunfire, he said. They fled to a nearby student services centre, where authorities kept them there for about 30 minutes before letting them go.

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