Edward Snowden Charged With Espionage

Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who revealed secret government spying programmes, has been charged with espionage by US authorities.

A provisional arrest warrant has been issued and Hong Kong authorities have been asked to detain him.

US prosecutors have filed a criminal complaint, charging Mr Snowden with three offences including unauthorised communication of national defence information, which comes under the Espionage Act, and theft of government property.

He is also charged with willful communication of classified communications intelligence information to an unauthorised person.

All three crimes listed carry a maximum 10-year prison penalty.

The former CIA technician, who has worked for America's National Security Agency (NSA), leaked details of American telephone and internet surveillance programmes.

Court papers list three offences including theft of government property

He revealed the existence of a surveillance system called Prism that was set up by the NSA to track the use of the internet directly from ISP servers.

The NSA and FBI have said that the secret programme provided "critical leads" in preventing "dozens of terrorist events" - although some terror experts dispute the claims.

President Obama has also said the programmes were carried out with "systems of checks and balances" and overseen by the courts and the US Congress.

The Prism revelations sparked outcry in the UK when The Guardian reported that the GCHQ eavesdropping agency had been accessing information about British citizens through Prism.

Mr Snowden fled to Hong Kong on May 20 after copying the last set of documents he intended to disclose at the NSA's office in Hawaii.

Protests in support of Mr Snowden have taken place in Hong Kong

Sky News Asia correspondent Mark Stone said the move marks the official start of government attempts to bring him back to the US.

"We are yet to hear from the Hong Kong police and authorities on whether or not they will act on the request by the Americans to arrest Edward Snowden.

"It's my understanding that they know exactly where he is. The Americans haven't yet asked for his extradition, they have simply asked the authorities to arrest him."

There are reports a private plane is on standby to take Mr Snowden from Hong Kong to Iceland, where he hopes to get asylum.

The latest documents from Mr Snowden claim to show that British spies have secretly accessed fibre-optic cables carrying emails, Facebook messages and other communications.

The Guardian reports that GCHQ can analyse data from the network of cables that carry global phone calls and internet traffic under an operation codenamed Tempora.

It claims that communications between innocent people are being processed, as well as those from people marked out as security threats.

The NSA programme helped to prevent terror attacks, say US spy chiefs

"It's not just a US problem," Mr Snowden told The Guardian.

"The UK has a huge dog in this fight. They (GCHQ) are worse than the US."

Mr Snowden worked for the NSA as an employee of various outside contractors, including Dell and Booz Allen Hamilton.

"I can't in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building," Mr Snowden previously told The Guardian.

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Brazil Protests: President Promises Reforms

Brazil's President has promised to improve public services but says any further violence will not be tolerated in a speech to the nation rocked by mass protests.

During a TV broadcast Dilma Rousseff appealed for unity and said the government knew there were many things "we can do quicker and better".

"I am the president of all Brazil. Of those who support the demonstration and those who do not."

Dilma Rousseff has condemned the violence by 'a minority'

Reaching out to those who feel the government should direct more money to public services rather than on hosting major sporting events, she insisted that "football and sport are symbols of peace and peaceful coexistence".

But she added she would not stand by if demonstrations turned violent, as has been the case in several cities hit by cases of looting and attacks on public buildings including the foreign ministry and several government offices.

"The government cannot stand by as people attack public property ... and bring chaos to our streets," she stressed.

President Rousseff supports peaceful protest

"We need to inject oxygen into our political system, and make it more transparent and resistant to the tough challenges facing a countries marked by extreme disparity between rich and poor."

But she insisted that "we cannot put up with violence".

"People have a right to criticise," added Ms Rousseff saying she would staunchly defend that right.

She added: "We need to oxygenate our political system ... and make it more transparent."

Ms Rousseff, a former Marxist rebel who fought against Brazil's 1964-85 military regime and was imprisoned for three years, pointedly referred to sacrifices her generation made to free the nation from dictatorship.

Her comments came after nearly one million demonstrators took to the streets on Friday across the country to denounce alleged corruption, poor public services and billions of dollars spent preparing for next year's World Cup soccer tournament and the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.

Ms Rousseff had cancelled a trip overseas because of the unrest, but stayed away from the public eye for most of the week.

Nearly a million protesters took to the streets on Friday

But critics of Ms Rousseff and her government have accused them of paying "lip service".

Carlos Cardozo, a 62-year-old financial consultant who joined Friday's protest in Rio, said he thought the unrest could cost Ms Rousseff next year's elections.

"Her paying lip service by saying she's in favour of the protests is not helping her cause," Mr Cardozo said. "People want to see real action, real decisions, and it's not this government that's capable of delivering."

At least one protester was killed in Sao Paulo on Thursday night when a motorist - apparently enraged about being unable to drive along a street - rammed his car into a crowd of demonstrators.

Unconfirmed news reports also said a 54-year-old cleaning woman had died on Friday after inhaling tear gas.

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Mandela Stranded By Ambulance Breakdown

An ambulance carrying seriously ill Nelson Mandela to hospital broke down in freezing temperatures, it has emerged.

The military vehicle broke down at the side of the highway, leaving the iconic ex-president - known as Madiba - stranded for 40 minutes, according to CBS News.

Government spokesman Mac Maharaj confirmed the breakdown on June 8, the night the 94-year-old was taken to hospital in Pretoria, but said his convoy was well staffed with intensive care medical staff.

In a statement he said: "We confirm the media reports that the military ambulance transporting Madiba had an engine problem on the 8th and that the doctors are satisfied that the former president suffered no harm during this period.

"The fully-equipped military ICU ambulance had a full complement of specialist medical staff including intensive care specialists and ICU nurses.

President Jacob Zuma has said Mr Mandela's health is improving

"The convoy also included two quick response vehicles.

"When the ambulance experienced engine problems it was decided that it would be best to transfer to another military ambulance which itself was accompanied for the rest of the journey by a civilian ambulance.

"All care was taken to ensure that the former president Mandela's medical condition was not compromised by the unforeseen incident."

Speaking to eNews Channel Africa, he said: "It happens in life, no-one can predict (that a) fully functional vehicle would have a breakdown."

Children have been sending "get well soon" messages to the ex-president

Mr Maharaj slammed reports that Mr Mandela was unresponsive and hadn't opened his eyes in days, branding them "highly reckless".

He said he had no information on when the former leader would be discharged as that was a decision for his doctors.

The African National Congress defended the governments handling of public updates on Mr Mandela's condition and thanked medical staff caring for him.

In a statement the party said: "The ANC has no doubt that the reports they (the government) provide are indeed sufficient to ensure that, while respecting the privacy of the former president and his family, we are all kept up to date and knowledgeable about his condition within the confines of medical ethics and doctor-patient confidentiality.

"The ANC, on behalf of the people of South Africa, extends our gratitude to the medical personnel attending to him from the time he left home to be admitted into hospital on the 8th June and since then."

Mr Mandela has been in intensive care since he was admitted to hospital for the third time this year.

President Jacob Zuma has said his health continues to improve but he remains in a serious condition.

The anti-apartheid leader became South Africa's first black president in 1994 and made his last public appearance at the World Cup closing ceremony in Johannesburg in 2010.

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India Monsoon: Race To Save Thousands Stranded

Rescue workers are racing to reach tens of thousands of people stranded in rain-ravaged northern India, as the number killed in the flooding nears 600.

Scores of bodies have been pulled from the swollen River Ganges after torrential monsoon rains struck the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand earlier than predicted.

Raging rivers have swept away houses, buildings and entire villages, and destroyed bridges and narrow roads leading to pilgrimage towns in the mountainous state, which is known as the Land of the Gods for its revered Hindu shrines.

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who arrived in the state capital Dehradun on Saturday, said 73,000 people had been rescued so far with up to 32,000 still stranded.

More than 10,000 soldiers are helping evacuate those stranded by the floods

He warned rescuers to hurry because more rain is expected and said: "At least 550 people have died and 392 people are injured."

He also said steps were being taken up on a "war footing" to deal with the "national crisis".

Dozens of helicopters and thousands of soldiers have been deployed to rescue people trapped across the flood-devastated state.

The family of Kavita Tyagi, 26, who was stranded near the pilgrimage site of Badrinath for more than a week, told of their ordeal after they were air-lifted to Gauchar, a hill town in the state's Chamoli district.

She said: "We had been stuck for more than a week. We ran out of food and all our money. My three-year-old son is with me and we can't describe the harrowing times that we have faced.

"My mother and brother are still to be evacuated since the chopper could accommodate only eight people. We are now just praying that they too land safely."

A group of 20 trekkers, including six Americans, were rescued after they were marooned near a remote glacier since the rains struck last week.

"They were on a trekking trip but got trapped because of the landslides and flash floods. The chopper has landed there now and they are all safe," said Neeraj Khairwal, a top official of Pithoragarh district.

The military operation, involving some 50 helicopters and more than 10,000 soldiers, was focused on reaching those stranded in the holy town of Badrinath after earlier finding widespread devastation in the Kedarnath temple area.

The Indian Air Force was transporting heavy equipment for repairs of roads and construction of temporary helipads, according to an official press release.

Special trains and buses have been pressed into service to ferry tourists back home while medical and food supplies were also being flown in to the stranded people.

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US Wants Taliban Talks 'Back On Track'

US Secretary of State John Kerry says he hopes to get talks with the Taliban "back on track," but is unsure if that is possible.

Mr Kerry warned that a recently opened Taliban office in Qatar may have to close if the peace talks do not proceed.

"We need to see if we can get back on track. I don't know whether that's possible or not," Mr Kerry told a press conference in Doha.

"If there is not a decision ... to move forward by the Taliban in short order, then we may have to consider whether or not the office has to be closed," he said.

Mr Kerry is on a seven-nation trip through the Middle East and Asia

Mr Kerry met with his counterparts in the Qatari capital on the first stop of a seven-nation trip through the Middle East and Asia where he is tackling foreign policy issues.

Talks between the US officials and the Taliban had been set for Thursday in Qatar, but Afghan government anger at the fanfare surrounding the opening of the Taliban office in the Gulf state threw preparations into confusion.

The opening of the Taliban office was a practical step paving the way for peace talks to end Afghanistan's 12-year-old war.

But the official-looking protocol surrounding the event raised angry protests in Kabul that the office would develop into a Taliban government-in-exile.

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Clashes In Brazil As One Million March

The Brazilian government will hold an emergency meeting later amid spiralling protests over alleged corruption and high prices which have seen one million people take to the streets.

The demonstrations, which have spread to more than 80 cities across the country, look set to continue into a second week, prompting President Dilma Rousseff to assemble her top cabinet members and forcing her to cancel an overseas trip.

In Sao Paulo state, a protester was killed when a driver - apparently enraged about being unable to drive along a street - rammed his car into a crowd of demonstrators.

Riot police in Rio were faced with the largest demonstrations

In Rio de Janeiro, 300,000 people staged a demonstration near City Hall, while in the capital Brasilia, hundreds of protesters tried to storm the foreign ministry building, leaving authorities "frightened", according to local newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo.

Clashes have also taken place in the Amazon jungle city of Belem, in Porto Alegre in the south, in the university town of Campinas north of Sao Paulo and in the northeastern city of Salvador.

Sky correspondent Jason Farrell, in Rio de Janeiro, said protests there began with a "carnival atmosphere", as demonstrators arrived "draped in flags or with stripes of Brazil's national green, yellow and blue painted onto their faces".

More than 300,000 people joined protests in Rio de Janeiro

However, peaceful protesters were caught up in clashes between rioters and police, who fired tear gas and pepper spray into the crowds.

Law student Wallace Tarenta told Sky News: "I have come here because we need more money for hospitals and teachers and security - not more stadiums for the World Cup."

Protester Jorge Vieira added: "Brazil is a strong country, we have good natural resources and a strong government - but nothing goes to the people."

Riot police in Belem were confronted by stone-throwing demonstrators

The protests in Brazil were sparked by public anger about the rising cost of public transport.

Several city leaders have already revoked planned increases to bus and subway fares.

However, Sky's Jason Farrell said anger has now turned to a perceived lack of investment in public services, as well as the $15 billion cost of hosting next year's football World Cup.

Celebrations in Sao Paulo, where planned fare hikes have been dropped

"On the face of it, Brazil has it all: a growing economy, a World Cup and the 2016 Olympics to look forward to," he said.

"But protesters say a corrupt government is damaging the lives of working people while squandering money on showcase stadiums.

"With riots breaking out in cities across the country, the world is now watching Brazil and wondering how it will cope with the pressures of hosting two of the world's biggest sporting events."

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Amanda Knox's Ex Sollecito Appeals For Cash

By Nick Pisa, Sky Reporter

Amanda Knox's former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito has launched a desperate £323,000 ($500,000) online appeal for donations to fund his retrial.

Computer studies graduate Sollecito, 29, said he was hard up and needed the cash for ''legal expenses'', but added anything raised above the target he would ''donate to a research foundation''.

His request came just hours after it emerged his request to settle in Switzerland had been revoked and that his fresh trial for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher would begin in the autumn.

Sollecito was initially convicted in 2009 along with Knox of the killing and sexual assault of Meredith, who was found dead in the bedroom of the house she shared in the Italian hilltop town of Perugia with his American then-girlfriend.

Sollecito at his appeal hearing in 2011

He was given a 25-year jail term while Knox was given 26 years, but in 2011 the verdicts were overturned and they were released on appeal.

But three months ago, Italy's highest court dramatically ruled that there should be a fresh trial for both of them.

Italy's Court of Cassation ordered the retrial

This is expected to start in October in Florence and will involve witnesses being recalled and more forensic tests carried out after the Supreme Court ruled that the previous trial had ignored certain elements of evidence.

In an appeal posted on his Facebook page, Sollecito wrote: ''Well Guys, the problem for me now is pretty tough. I'm deeply concerned not just for the issue I'm facing and most of you already know about, but also because I don't have resources any more to fight this injustice.

''I badly need to be able to hire experts, when needed, or pay my attorney fees, documents fees, and so on when the new appeal will start. I hope not to bother you, but I need your collaboration to face this ordeal. Otherwise I don't want to forced to give up just for financial reason.

Sollecito in 2011 with his lawyer after hearing he was to be freed

''I hope you will understand. I'm just asking if you, buddies, know how to build up a non-profit raising funds foundation. Big Hugs, Raffaele Sollecito''

Sollecito is thought to have been paid $1m for American TV news interviews and an advance on his book Honour Bound: My Journey To Hell And Back With Amanda Knox, which was published last year.

However a sizeable proportion of that was swallowed up in legal fees to his team of lawyers including Italy's high-flying Giulia Bongiorno, who is said to have the highest fees in the country.

On his Facebook page, Sollecito invites potential donors to help him out via a page called Gofundme.com, and on it he adds: "This new trial will take another six or seven years with witnesses, transfers, documents, experts and everything being discussed all over again.

Knox reactes as she hears she is to be freed

"I'll use and certify all the expenses paid with this funds. If in the future, I will not need this funds anymore for legal expenses, I'll donate the rest of the funds to a research foundation. Please help."

On Thursday, his urologist father Francesco said: "This is an initiative of Raffaele's but it has my full support. I'm no longer in a position to fund a trial which could last another two years.

"Witnesses will have to be reheard and there is a good chance that new forensic tests will have to be carried out and as such experts and consultants will have to be paid.

"We are both very grateful for the high attention that has been paid to this case by his lawyers Giulia Buongiorno and Luca Maori."

As of Friday morning, 31 people had donated, with the largest amount being $1,000 from an anonymous donor and the total standing at more than $5,000 - at that pace he will have made his target by the time the trial starts.

The site was also subject to fierce criticism with several people posting comments expressing their outrage one woman Silvia Pavan wrote in Italian: "Why don't you ask Amanda Knox for money? Or better still why don't you kill yourself ???."

Knox is said to have been paid $4m for her book, Waiting To Be Heard: A Memoir.

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Girl, 12, Pregnant After Father's Rape In Jail

A 12-year-old girl is two months' pregnant after being raped for years by her father and others in prison - in a case which has sparked outrage in Bolivia.

There has been criticism over the practice of letting youngsters live behind bars, where they are often with convicted relatives because they have no other family, or both parents are already in jail.

About 1,500 young children and adolescents live in Bolivian prisons with their relatives, according to government figures.

This is a situation that critics say is ripe for the kind of abuse suffered by the young girl, who has been offered psychological counselling.

The child told authorities she was repeatedly raped by her father, uncle and godfather since she was eight years old, prisons director Ramiro Llanos said.

University professor and political analyst Carlos Cordero said the girl's situation was in part the result of the "miserable conditions and neglect of the inmates".

The San Pedro prison in La Paz, where 500 children live with their parents and where the incident took place, is infamous because several years ago, visitors could easily buy cocaine as police turned a blind eye.

The prison in the Bolivian capital is infamous

Youngsters share living space with violent criminals, including murderers, rapists, gang members and drug dealers.

They witness the rampant use of alcohol and drugs, as well as the bloody fights that frequently erupt.

"It is traumatic to live in a place like this," said Stefano Toricini, a volunteer for an Italian non-governmental organisation who has provided counselling to children at San Pedro for the past decade.

"The kids live in a state of constant psychological pressure, and the culture of violence that pervades prisons is not for children."

Llanos spent part of his childhood living in a jail with his father, a political prisoner of the country's military dictatorship in the 1960s.

He called on police to "stop being so corrupt and stop allowing children in prisons," in comments to the Pagina Siete newspaper.

For Yolanda Herrera, president of the independent Human Rights Assembly, "the problem is not that children are inside prisons - the problem is that there are no state policies for the protection of children."

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Latvia's Riga Castle Damaged After Fire

A major fire has caused extensive damage to Riga Castle, a medieval fortress in Latvia.

The castle is home to the country's National History Museum.

The overnight fire damaged the roof and the second and third floors of the castle, said emergency services official Viktorija Sembele.

Firefighters look at the damage after putting the fire out

She says some significant items in the museum suffered water damage but none was destroyed.

The castle is normally the residence of the Baltic state's president, Andris Berzins, but he is not living there at present but the building was having work done.

One firefighter was treated for smoke inhalation.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.               

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Western Canada Hit By Devastating Flooding

Flooding in western Canada has seen 100,000 people evacuated from their homes and washed out roads and bridges.

Thousands of residents were urged to leave Calgary and nearby towns in the heart of the country's oil patch as the mayor warned the worst of the flooding is yet to come.

The military sent in two helicopters and hundreds of troops to help clear as many as 24 neighbourhoods as heavy rains caused the Bow and Elbow Rivers to overflow their banks.

Mudslides forced the closure of the Trans-Canada Highway, isolating the mountain resort towns of Banff and Canmore.

Torrential rains and widespread flooding throughout southern Alberta have left at least one person missing.

A woman who had been stranded on top of a trailer was missing after it was swept away, STARS air ambulance spokesman Cam Heke said.

Officials said further evacuations would take place in stages as the waters peak. The province of Alberta reported that 12 communities were under states of emergency.

Province premier Alison Redford cut short a visit to New York to visit the flood-hit areas and supervise the emergency response.

Communities such as High River, south of Calgary, were hit hard, with many neighbourhoods ordered to evacuate.

Water levels were expected to reach their maximum around noon local time on Friday.

Motorists who were trapped overnight on Wednesday by water spilling over Canada's main western highway had to be rescued by helicopter, Town of Canmore spokeswoman Sally Caudill said.

"I woke up at about three o'clock in morning to the sound of this kind of rumbling, and it was the creek," said Wade Graham, a resident of Canmore.

"At first it was just intense, pretty powerful, amazing thing to watch. As daylight came, it just got bigger and bigger and wider and wider, and it's still getting bigger and bigger and wider and wider."

He added, "I watched a refrigerator go by, I watched a shed go by, I watched couches go by. It's insane."

Bruce Burrell, director of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency, said water levels on the Bow River are not expected to subside until Saturday afternoon.

The Bow River Basin already seen up to 10cm (3.9ins) of rain.

"Depending on the extent of flooding we experience ... there may be areas of the city where people are not going to be able to get into until the weekend," he told a news conference.

In High River, Mounties asked people with motorboats to help rescue at least a dozen stranded homeowners.

"We have people on their rooftops who were unable to evacuate fast enough," said Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Sargeant Patricia Neely.

Environment Canada issued a rainfall warning for the affected areas, estimating as much as 10cm more rain could fall in the next two days.

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US 'Postpones' Taliban Talks Amid Karzai Fury

Taliban Insurgency: A Timeline

Updated: 4:44pm UK, Tuesday 18 June 2013

As Afghan forces take control of national security, marking a major milestone for the withdrawal of US-led combat troops, here is a timeline of the 12 years of Taliban insurgency in the country.

:: September 11, 2001 - al Qaeda hijackers fly passenger planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 people. Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is known to live in Afghanistan, which is ruled by the Taliban.

:: October 7, 2001 - A US-led military campaign begins with air strikes against Afghanistan, followed by troops, to hunt down bin Laden and topple the Taliban.

:: December 2001 - The Taliban are forced from power, but bin Laden is not found. Plans are laid for an interim government and a multinational force. Hamid Karzai is appointed to lead the government and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) begins to deploy.

:: October 9, 2004 - Afghanistan's first presidential election takes place. Mr Karzai is proclaimed the winner. He is declared to have won another term in November 2009, amid accusations of massive electoral fraud.

:: February 2007 - Taliban insurgents attack at US base as vice president Dick Cheney visits, killing 24 people.

:: November 2008 - Barack Obama is elected US president, and vows to end the war in Iraq and focus on Afghanistan.

:: December 1, 2009 - Mr Obama orders a "surge" of 30,000 troops into Afghanistan but says withdrawals will begin in July 2011. The number of NATO-led forces reaches a peak of 150,000 in the summer of 2010.

:: May 2, 2011 - Osama bin Laden is killed by US special forces in the Pakistan town of Abbottabad.

:: June 22, 2011 - Mr Obama announces the withdrawal of 33,000 US troops by the middle of 2012.

:: July 2011 - Western troops and officials begin handing authority to Afghan forces in some areas.

:: August 6, 2011 - 30 US troops, mostly special forces, and eight Afghans die when the Taliban shoots down their helicopter in the biggest single loss for foreign troops in the war.

:: September 20, 2011 - Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former president and Mr Karzai's peace envoy, becomes the most senior politician to be killed since the start of the conflict in an assassination blamed by Afghan officials on the Taliban.

:: November 27, 2011 - US air strikes kill 24 Pakistani soldiers, prompting Pakistan to suspend overland NATO supply routes into Afghanistan for several months.

:: December 6, 2011 - At least 84 people die in suicide blasts at shrines on the Shiite holday day of Ashura. The biggest attack takes place in Kabul, killing 80.

:: February 2012 - Deadly protests kill 40 people and force Mr Obama to apologise after US troops burn copies of the Koran on an Afghan military base.

:: March 11, 2012 - A rogue US soldier walks off his base in Kandahar and kills 16 Afghans, most of them women and children.

:: February 2013 - Mr Obama announces 34,000 US troops will return from Afghanistan by mid-February 2014. There are currently 98,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan.

At least 3,336 foreign troops have died since the start of operations in 2001.

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India Floods: Up To 1,000 Feared Dead

At least 1,000 people may have died in flash floods and landslides in the north of India, officials have said.

The news comes as India's army military increases its efforts to reach tourists and pilgrims in villages and towns cut off by torrential monsoon rains in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.

Helicopters and up to 10,000 soldiers have been deployed and mobilised to "provide leadership, succour, medical, air and engineer efforts", the army said in a statement.

Houses, buildings and vehicles have collapsed or been swept away by flooding rivers and landslides, while bridges and narrow roads have also been destroyed, leaving some 65,000 people stranded mainly at remote pilgrimage sites, officials said.

Torrential rains four and a half times as heavy as usual poured into Uttarakhand, known as the "Land of the Gods", where Hindu shrines and temples built high in the mountains attract many pilgrims.

A submerged statue of the Hindu lord Shiva stands in the flooded waters

One of those stranded was Indian cricket star Harbhajan Singh, who was trying to reach a Sikh pilgrimage site but had to take refuge in a police station.

"Some people are saying that we're stuck but I wouldn't say that we're stuck, I'd say we've been saved by God," the spin bowler said. "With the kind of rainstorm we witnessed, anything could have happened. Many people lost their lives."

"We estimate more than 1,000 people have died as unattended bodies are scattered all around," said Ganesh Godiyal, chairman of a trust in charge of several shrines in the pilgrimage towns of Kedarnath and Badrinath.

A house submerged in sand in Srinagar

Over the border in Nepal, another 22 people have been killed in recent days in landslides and flash floods also triggered by rains.

In India, the military operation was concentrating on reaching the worst-hit Kedarnath temple area, as families of those missing and stranded faced an anxious wait in Uttarakhand capital's Dehradun.

"Never seen anything like this ... entire roads have vanished and villages destroyed ... there's rubble everywhere," a military officer said.

People retrieve what belongings they can from their home

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday evening that the priority was rescuing those still stranded and helping more than 10,000 people already evacuated, describing the floods as "most distressing".

Local officials said 40 relief camps have been set up to house evacuated residents and tourists. Some 18 air force helicopters are  taking many of those rescued to the camps.

The monsoon, which covers the subcontinent from June to September, usually brings some flooding. But the heavy rains arrived early this year, catching many by surprise and exposing the country's lack of preparedness.

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James Gandolfini Dies: Actors Lead Tributes

The cast of hit television series The Sopranos have led tributes to James Gandolfini, describing him as a "giant" and "the most humble and gifted actor".

The star, who was 51, died after suffering a cardiac arrest while on holiday in Italy.

Lorraine Bracco, who played his character Tony's psychiatrist Dr Melfi in the popular show, said: "We lost a giant today. I am utterly heartbroken."

Joe Gannascoli, who played Vito Spatafore, said his death came "way too young".

"James is one guy who never turned his back on me," he told TMZ. "He was the most humble and gifted actor and person I have ever worked with ... and I will forever be indebted to him."

Gandolfini worked alongside some of the biggest names in showbiz during a career spanning more than 25 years.

He co-starred with Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts in 2001 comedy The Mexican and teamed up with Denzel Washington and John Travolta for 2009 thriller The Taking of Pelham 123.

He worked with Sean Penn, Jude Law and Kate Winslet in 2006 political drama All the King's Men, as well as Nicholas Cage in 1999's 8MM.

Among the Hollywood actors to pay tribute to him were Samuel L Jackson, who tweeted: "Massive blow to the acting community today ... the passing of James Gandolfini. So talented. My heart goes out to his family!"

"Shocked and saddened by James Gandolfini's passing," wrote Michael J Fox. "My deepest sympathies to his family and friends."

Robin Williams described him as an "extraordinary actor", while Russell Crowe added: "Sad to hear about James Gandolfini. First met Jimmy back in '94. He was roommates in NY with Lenny Loftin. Lovely man. RIP Jimmy."

The Sopranos ran for six seasons from 1999-2007.

Gandolfini starred in 86 episodes currently being re-run on Sky Atlantic, which will show four of the best on Friday evening.

Elaine Pyke, the channel's director, said: "James Gandolfini was a great actor, taken tragically too soon. His legacy, in the lead of one of the greatest television series ever made, will forever stand testament to his remarkable talent."

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Sopranos Star James Gandolfini Dies Aged 51

James Gandolfini, the actor best known for his portrayal of a New Jersey mob boss in the hit TV series The Sopranos, has died at 51 after suffering a cardiac arrest.

Gandolfini died while on holiday in Rome.

He was rushed to the city's Policlinic Umberto I hospital on Wednesday night, but was pronounced dead after resuscitation attempts failed.

Hospital officials said a post-mortem examination would be performed starting 24 hours after the death, as required by law.

Gandolfini became a global superstar thanks to his portrayal of Tony Soprano and won three Emmy Awards for his performance as the brutal mobster with a tortured psyche.

A photograph of Gandolfini is displayed in a restaurant window in New York

Sopranos creator David Chase said the actor was one of the greatest of all time.

"He was a genius. Anyone who saw him even in the smallest of his performances knows that.

"He is one of the greatest actors of this or any time. A great deal of genius resided in those sad eyes."

Gandolfini married former model Deborah Lin in 2008, and their daughter was born last year. He also has a son from a previous relationship.

Many fans have flocked to the diner featured in the final scene of The Sopranos to pay their respects.

Gandolfini with co-stars Steven Van Zandt (L) and Tony Sirico (R). Pic: HBO

TV network HBO, which was behind the hit series, described him as a "special man" and a "great talent".

"We're all in shock and feeling immeasurable sadness at the loss of a beloved member of our family," a statement said.

"He was a special man, a great talent, but more importantly a gentle and loving person who treated everyone - no matter their title or position - with equal respect."

Gandolfini had been due to appear at a film festival in Sicily at the weekend. The festival directors said they would organise a tribute "to celebrate his great achievement and talent".

The Sopranos cast accept an Emmy at the 2007 awards

Since The Sopranos ended in 2007, Gandolfini has appeared in a number of big-screen roles, including thriller Zero Dark Thirty and the comedy The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.

Gandolfini also shared a Broadway stage in 2009 with Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis and Marcia Gay Harden in a celebrated production of God Of Carnage, where he earned a Tony Award nomination for best actor. He also was in On The Waterfront with David Morse.

At the time of his death, he had been working on a new HBO series titled Criminal Justice.

"It is with immense sorrow that we report our client James Gandolfini passed away today while on holiday in Rome, Italy," his managers said in a statement.

"Our hearts are shattered and we will miss him deeply. He and his family were part of our family for many years and we are all grieving."

In a December 2012 interview, Gandolfini said he gravitated to acting as a release to get rid of anger.

"I don't know what exactly I was angry about," he said. "I try to avoid certain things and certain kinds of violence at this point.

"I'm getting older, too. I don't want to be beating people up as much. I don't want to be beating women up and those kinds of things that much any more."

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Joe Torre's Daughter Catches Falling Baby

The daughter of baseball legend Joe Torre made a perfect catch when she grabbed a baby boy falling from a building in New York City, reports said.

Cristina Torre was reported to be "in shock" after she caught the one-year-old before he fell to the ground.

Ms Torre, 44, had been walking in Brooklyn on Wednesday morning when she spotted the boy hanging from the awning of the building, the New York Daily News reported.

The boy fell, but landed in Ms Torre's outstretched arms.

"The baby was dangling," she recalled.

"I just put out my arms when I saw him coming down, and luckily he literally landed straight in my arms on his back."

A witness, Kristen Bramsen, told the New York Daily News: "The baby was shaken. Everyone was going up to the woman and hugging her. I hugged her."

Joe Torre said he was 'proud' of his daughter's actions

"She just smiled and said she was in shock," Ms Bramsen added.

The boy is thought to have crawled through a piece of cardboard placed next to an air conditioning unit in the window of his family's second-floor home and fell onto the awning.

The baby was taken to Lutheran Medical Centre where he was being treated for lacerations to the face, reports said.

Both parents have been taken into custody and charged with reckless endangerment and acting in a manner injurious to a child under 17.

Joe Torre, a former all-star catcher, was New York Yankees' manager from 1996 to 2007, leading the team to four World Series championship titles.

"I am very proud of my daughter Cristina's actions today during an incident in Brooklyn involving a small child," he said in a statement.

"Fortunately for that child she was in the right place at the right time to lend a hand."

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Amanda Knox Ruling Cites 'Sex Game' Theory

Italy's top criminal court has said its decision to order a retrial of Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend in the murder of Meredith Kercher was made because their acquittals contained shortcomings and contradictions.

The Court of Cassation also said the possibility that Briton Miss Kercher was killed in a sex game that had got out of hand needs to be revisited.

Knox and her Italian ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were initially found guilty of killing the 21-year-old Leeds University student, but both were cleared on appeal in 2011.

In March of this year, however, Italy's top court overturned the acquittals and ordered a retrial. That court has only now issued its written reasoning for doing so.

Knox was convicted in 2009

It picked apart the lower court's judgment freeing Knox, saying it contained "shortcomings, contradictions and inconsistencies" and "openly collides with objective facts of the case".

The high court's 74-page document also said the judges who freed Knox undervalued the fact that the American had initially accused a man of committing the crime who had nothing to do with it.

Miss Kercher's body was found in November 2007 in her bedroom of the house she shared with Knox in Perugia. Her throat had been slashed.

Knox and Sollecito have denied any involvement, saying they were not in the apartment at the time.

Raffaele Sollecito was Knox's boyfriend at the time of the murder

A young man from Ivory Coast, Rudy Guede, was convicted of the killing in a separate proceeding and is serving a 16-year sentence.

But Guede is not believed to have acted alone.

The high court judges said the retrial would serve to "demonstrate the presence of the two suspects in the place of the crime".

They said hypotheses that must be considered involve "a group erotic game that blew up and went out of control", and urged the retrial to conduct a full examination of evidence to resolve the ambiguities.

No date has been set for the retrial.

Knox, who left Italy a free woman after her 2011 acquittal, is back in Seattle and is not expected to attend the new trial.

Italian law cannot compel her to return as defendants can be tried in absentia.

She has recently released a book titled Waiting To Be Heard.

Knox was emotional in Seattle after her 2011 acquittal

Sollecito has spent time in Switzerland trying to start a new life, but it has emerged that his residency permit has been revoked by the Swiss authorities.

In his application, he failed to mention his involvement in a criminal case, Italian news reports said.

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Kim Jong-Un 'Hands Out Hitler's Mein Kampf'

North Korea has threatened to kill the "human scum" responsible for an article that claimed its leader handed out copies of Hitler's autobiography for his birthday.

The article, by New Focus International, an online news portal run by North Korean defectors, said Kim Jong-Un had given copies of Mein Kampf to his top officials, urging them to study it as a leadership skills manual.

He distributed translations of the dictator's manifesto for his birthday in January, the report said, citing an unnamed North Korean official working in China.

"Mentioning that Hitler managed to rebuild Germany in a short time following its defeat in World War I, Kim Jong-Un issued an order for the Third Reich to be studied in depth and asked that practical applications be drawn from it," the source was quoted as saying.

North Korea's police agency has reacted angrily to the claims and has called the report a "thrice-cursed crime".

Hitler's autobiography Mein Kampf

"We are ... determined to take substantial measures to physically remove despicable human scum who are committing treasons," it said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

"Sordid human scum will never be able to look up to the sky nor be able to find an inch of land to be buried after their death," it said. 

It also vowed to launch "merciless punishment of justice" against South Korea and the United States, accusing the two nations of encouraging the defectors to defame its ruler.

Mein Kampf (My Struggle), written in 1924 while Hitler was languishing in a Bavarian prison before becoming Chancellor of Germany, is both a vicious anti-Semitic tract and a rambling memoir.

The Kim family dynasty has ruled North Korea with an iron fist and pervasive personality cult for more than six decades.

Kim Jong-Un took over the isolated communist state after the death of his father Kim Jong-Il in December 2011.

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Woman And Child 'Used As Slaves' In Ohio

A mentally disabled woman and her child were allegedly kept as slaves by three people who threatened them with snakes and a pit bull dog.

The woman and child, who the Federal Bureau of Investigation have not named, were held for many months in a basement in Ashland, Ohio.

Ashland is just 60 miles south of Cleveland, where three missing women who had themselves allegedly been held captive were discovered recently.

The FBI, who issued an indictment against the Ashland woman's alleged captors, said they threatened and abused her, and threatened the child with snakes.

Later, they allegedly forced the woman and child to sleep in a padlocked room with a "large iguana".

Jessica Hunt with her snakes that were allegedly used to terrify the child

The woman finally escaped by stealing sweets from a shop, prompting police to arrest her.

She told officers she would rather go to jail than go home as her housemates "were mean to her".

Her alleged tormentors have been arrested on human trafficking charges.

Jordie Callahan, 26, Jessica Hunt, aged 31, and 33-year-old Daniel Brown were detained on Tuesday and charged by the FBI with forced labour.

Callahan was also charged with an additional count of tampering with a witness. Callahan and Hunt are said to be in a relationship.

Stephen D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Cleveland Office, said: "These defendants violated the victim's most basic civil right, freedom, by exploiting her most basic instinct, the protection of her child.

"The FBI continues to aggressively pursue and bring to justice those individuals who abuse and harm innocent members of our community."

The FBI said the alleged 'slavery' began in May 2011 and continued until October 2012, when the woman was arrested by police.

They identified the woman only as S.E.

An FBI statement, outlining an affidavit which contained the allegations, said: "Callahan and Hunt forced S.E. to clean the house, do laundry, walk to the store to do their shopping, and care for their numerous pit bulls and reptiles.

Hunt and Callahan kept pit bulls that were allegedly used against the pair

"S.E. was timed when she went to the store and was not allowed to bring her child with her.

"At various points, Callahan threatened S.E. with a gun. S.E. and her child initially were forced to sleep on a cement floor in the basement with no mattress.

"Later, they were moved to a room upstairs, again with no bed or mattress.

"Callahan and Hunt also repeatedly taunted and threatened S.E. and (her child) with injury from the couple's snakes, including a poisonous coral snake, a ball python, and a Burmese python that weighed 130 pounds."

The affidavit said the three slammed a rock into the woman's hand on one occasion and injured her back on another so she could get medication for the pain, which they then used.

When she fled, one of those who she lived with alleged that the woman had abused the child herself. Police investigated, but have taken no further action.

Andrew Hyde, who has represented Callahan, called the charges against his client ludicrous and said the woman moved in and out as she pleased.

Mr Hyde said: "There was never any forced labour, any forced co-habitation. She was never forced to do anything."

He said: "She used this story to get out of trouble she was in," referring to the abuse she allegedly carried out on her child.

Mr Hyde accused federal investigators of not looking at all the evidence before jumping to conclusions.

Callahan's mother, Becky Callahan of Ashland, told the Associated Press that the allegations were "all lies."

She said that the alleged victim was friends with her son and Hunt, her son's girlfriend, and that they tried to help the woman out by offering her a place to live because she didn't have a home.

A federal defence attorney for Hunt, Ed Bryan, said his client will plead not guilty and said there were credibility issues with the mother.

A little more than a month ago, three women were freed from a house in Cleveland, Ohio where a man allegedly imprisoned them for a decade, raping them during that time and fathering a child with one of them.

Ariel Castro has pleaded not guilty to more than 300 counts against him, which include kidnapping, rape and felonious assault.

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Indonesia To 'Make Rain' To End Sumatra Fires

Indonesia is to use weather changing technology to try to produce rain to put out raging fires on Sumatra island that have cloaked neighbouring Singapore in thick haze.

The city-state, home to 5.3 million inhabitants, has been pressing Jakarta to take action over the fires which have pushed air pollutant levels on the island to a 16-year high.

The government planned to use a technology called "cloud-seeding" to try  put out the fires, that are mainly centred on peatlands in Riau province, said Indonesian forestry ministry official Raffles Panjaitan.

Helicopters would be sent into the skies above Sumatra to inject chemicals into clouds, which prompt the formation of heavy ice crystals, and so speed up the production of rain, he said.

Bushes on fire in the area of Rumbai

But the helicopters, from the disaster management agency, will not be dispatched until Friday at the earliest, he added.

About 100 firefighters are tackling the blazes but finding them hard to extinguish because they are smouldering underground in carbon-rich peatland, mostly in palm oil plantations.

"It is extremely difficult to extinguish the fires which are burning under the surface of the peatland," Mr Panjaitan said.

He said the cloud-seeding operation would depend on weather conditions. "Hopefully there will be lots of clouds so that we can produce a lot of rain."

Singapore has its worst levels of haze since September 1997

The worst affected area is Bengkalis district, where 650 hectares (1,600 acres) of land is ablaze - 555 fires have been detected in Riau so far, up from 356 last month.

In Singapore, the Pollutant Standards Index soared to 172 at 3pm local time (0700 GMT), well past the officially designated "unhealthy" threshold of 100, according to the National Environment Agency website.

It was Singapore's worst haze reading since September 1997 when the number peaked at 226.

The haze problem is a recurring one which happens in the dry season as a result of forest fires in the sprawling Indonesian archipelago, some of them deliberately started to clear land for cultivation.

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Obama Speaks In Berlin 50 Years After JFK

President Barack Obama has pushed for a reduction of the world's nuclear stockpiles in a speech at Berlin's iconic Brandenburg Gate.

His address comes 50 years after John F. Kennedy's famous Cold War speech in this once-divided city.

Mr Obama has said he was proud to pay tribute to a city that was a symbol of freedom.

"It is citizens who choose whether to be defined by a wall or whether to tear it down," he said.

"We can say here in Berlin, here in Europe, our values won," he added, speaking from a stage that had a row of bullet-proof glass.

In a wide-ranging speech listing challenges facing the world, Mr Obama said he wanted to re-ignite the spirit that Berlin displayed when it fought to reunite itself during the Cold War.

He promised to confront climate change, a danger he called "the global threat of our time".

Mr Obama met with Angela Merkel

"Today's threats are not as stark as they were half a century ago, but the struggle for freedom and security and human dignity, that struggle goes on," he said.

"And I come here to this city of hope because the test of our time demands the same fighting spirit that defined Berlin a half-century ago".

Mr Obama has called on Russia to agree strategic nuclear weapons cuts of up to a third and to also rein in strategic atomic arms. He said he wanted to move beyond a Cold War posture.

The president had previously called for reductions to the stockpiles.

But by addressing the issue in a major foreign policy speech, he is signalling a desire to rekindle an issue that was a centrepiece of his early first-term national security agenda.

Mr Obama's call for cooperation with Russia on the nuclear issue comes at a time of tension between Washington and Moscow, which are supporting opposite sides in Syria's civil war.

The US leader discussed non-proliferation with Russian President Vladimir Putin when they met this week on the sidelines of a G8 summit in Northern Ireland.

The secret surveillance programmes have stirred anger

Mr Obama's Brandenburg Gate speech is a momentous occasion.

On June 26, 1963, Mr Kennedy addressed a crowd of 450,000 in Berlin to repudiate communism and famously declare "Ich bin ein Berliner", German for "I am a Berliner".

In 1987, another US president, Ronald Reagan, delivered a famous address when he challenged then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

He famously said: "Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Mr Obama himself gave a major speech in Berlin - but not at the Brandenburg Gate – in 2008, when he was a hopeful presidential candidate. At the time, an estimated 200,000 people who came to see him.

This time, his visit to Berlin was overshadowed by the scandal over secret US surveillance programmes.

Moscow and Washington could not bridge differences on Syria during the G8

The president, who also met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, once again defended the NSA operations, which have been unveiled in leaks to the The Guardian and The Washington Post.

He said "lives had been saved" and about 50 terror plots thwarted, in comments that echoed similar remarks by the NSA chief, General Keith Alexander, to Congress.

Before Mr Obama had even made his call for nuclear reductions, Moscow said it wanted other powers as well as Russia and the US to be involved in any discussions about further nuclear arms cuts.

"It's necessary to bring other countries that possess nuclear weapons into the process," said Yuri  Ushakov, Mr Putin's senior foreign policy aide.

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Afghanistan: Armed Forces Take Back Control

Afghan armed forces are taking back responsibility for control of the country for the first time in nearly 12 years.

The handover from the US-led Nato coalition was announced at a ceremony in Kabul.

"This is a historic moment for our country and from tomorrow all of the security operations will be in the hands of the Afghan security forces," Afghan President Hamid Karzai said at the ceremony, held at the new National Defence University built to train Afghanistan's future military officers.

President Karzai in Qatar earlier this month

It marks a turning point for US and Nato military forces, which will now move entirely into a supporting role.

It also opens the way for their full withdrawal in 18 months.

Britain's Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said the handover was a "hard-fought milestone".

Speaking after visiting Afghanistan last week, he said: "Afghanistan will continue to face challenges as it builds towards becoming a secure and stable state.

"The Afghanistan our combat forces leave at the end of 2014 will not be perfect, but will be able to stand independently and will never again provide a haven for terrorists to attack the West.

"That is why we remain firmly committed to supporting Afghanistan beyond 2014 and into the future."

Alliance training since 2009 has dramatically increased the size of the Afghan National Security Forces, bringing them up from 40,000 men and women six years ago to about 352,000 today.

After the transition, coalition troops will provide training and mentoring, and in emergency situations providing the Afghans backup in combat, mainly in the form of air strikes and medical evacuation.

Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said: "Ten years ago there were no Afghan national security forces. Five years ago, Afghan forces were a fraction of what they are today.

"Now you have 350,000 Afghan troops and police. A formidable force. And time and again we have seen them dealing quickly and competently with complex attacks. Defeating the enemies of Afghanistan and defending and protecting the Afghan people," he said.

Foreign forces will continue to support Afghans on the battlefield when they require it, but the Afghan army and police will be responsible for planning and leading military operations against the insurgency.

The handover paves the way for coalition forces - currently numbering about 100,000 troops from 48 countries - to leave.

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Iraq Bombing: At Least 24 People Killed

At least 24 people have been killed in a suicide bombing by a Shi'ite mosque in Baghdad.

And 52 others were injured in the blast - the latest in a coordinated string of attacks on the country.

The first bomber detonated his explosives at a security checkpoint near the mosque in the middle-class, Shi'ite-majority area of the northern Qahira neighbourhood in an apparent attempt to distract the authorities, two police officers said.

Amid the commotion, a second bomber slipped into the mosque and blew himself up while worshippers were attending midday prayers, according to police.

A medic in a nearby hospital confirmed the casualties.

There was no immediate claim of who was responsible for the killings, but suicide bombings and attacks against Shi'ite worshippers are frequently the work of al Qaeda's Iraq arm.

The bombing has revived fears that the country is heading back toward the widespread sectarian bloodshed that pushed it to the brink of civil war in 2006 and 2007.

Violence has surged in Iraq in recent months, along with sectarian and political tensions. Insurgents frequently attack Shi'ites considered by Sunni extremists as infidels and non-Muslims.

The bloodshed in Iraq has risen to levels not seen since 2008. Nearly 2,000 people have been killed since the start of April, including more than 220 this month.

On Sunday, a wave of apparently coordinated bombings and a shooting killed at least 51 people.

Fifteen people were killed in bomb attacks on Monday, including one caused by a suicide bomber who set off his explosives-laden belt among a group of policemen in Fallujah, west of Baghdad.

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Turkey's New Protest Tactic: Standing Still

After weeks of sometimes violent confrontation with police, Turkish protesters have found a new form of resistance - standing still and silent.

A lone woman protester makes her stand against Turkish authorities

The first such protest was carried out on Monday by performance artist Erdem Gunduz.

He stood for hours at Istanbul's central Taksim Square, in passive defiance of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Protesters stand silently and motionless in Taksim Square

The square has been sealed off from mass protests since police cleared it over the weekend, but have not stopped pedestrians from entering.

Others have now copied Mr Gunduz around Istanbul and other cities, and the act provoked widespread comment on social media.

Performance artist Erdem Gunduz started the novel tactic

Mr Gunduz's vigil was broken up by police early on Tuesday after others joined him.

A police crackdown that began on May 31 against environmentalists and other activists in Taksim Square set off protests nationwide.

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US To Hold Talks With Taliban 'Within Days'

Taliban Insurgency: A Timeline

Updated: 4:44pm UK, Tuesday 18 June 2013

As Afghan forces take control of national security, marking a major milestone for the withdrawal of US-led combat troops, here is a timeline of the 12 years of Taliban insurgency in the country.

:: September 11, 2001 - al Qaeda hijackers fly passenger planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 people. Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is known to live in Afghanistan, which is ruled by the Taliban.

:: October 7, 2001 - A US-led military campaign begins with air strikes against Afghanistan, followed by troops, to hunt down bin Laden and topple the Taliban.

:: December 2001 - The Taliban are forced from power, but bin Laden is not found. Plans are laid for an interim government and a multinational force. Hamid Karzai is appointed to lead the government and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) begins to deploy.

:: October 9, 2004 - Afghanistan's first presidential election takes place. Mr Karzai is proclaimed the winner. He is declared to have won another term in November 2009, amid accusations of massive electoral fraud.

:: February 2007 - Taliban insurgents attack at US base as vice president Dick Cheney visits, killing 24 people.

:: November 2008 - Barack Obama is elected US president, and vows to end the war in Iraq and focus on Afghanistan.

:: December 1, 2009 - Mr Obama orders a "surge" of 30,000 troops into Afghanistan but says withdrawals will begin in July 2011. The number of NATO-led forces reaches a peak of 150,000 in the summer of 2010.

:: May 2, 2011 - Osama bin Laden is killed by US special forces in the Pakistan town of Abbottabad.

:: June 22, 2011 - Mr Obama announces the withdrawal of 33,000 US troops by the middle of 2012.

:: July 2011 - Western troops and officials begin handing authority to Afghan forces in some areas.

:: August 6, 2011 - 30 US troops, mostly special forces, and eight Afghans die when the Taliban shoots down their helicopter in the biggest single loss for foreign troops in the war.

:: September 20, 2011 - Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former president and Mr Karzai's peace envoy, becomes the most senior politician to be killed since the start of the conflict in an assassination blamed by Afghan officials on the Taliban.

:: November 27, 2011 - US air strikes kill 24 Pakistani soldiers, prompting Pakistan to suspend overland NATO supply routes into Afghanistan for several months.

:: December 6, 2011 - At least 84 people die in suicide blasts at shrines on the Shiite holday day of Ashura. The biggest attack takes place in Kabul, killing 80.

:: February 2012 - Deadly protests kill 40 people and force Mr Obama to apologise after US troops burn copies of the Koran on an Afghan military base.

:: March 11, 2012 - A rogue US soldier walks off his base in Kandahar and kills 16 Afghans, most of them women and children.

:: February 2013 - Mr Obama announces 34,000 US troops will return from Afghanistan by mid-February 2014. There are currently 98,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan.

At least 3,336 foreign troops have died since the start of operations in 2001.

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G8: Syria Statement Omits Anti-Assad Calls

Q & A: What is the G8 all about?

Updated: 3:21pm UK, Tuesday 18 June 2013

The G8 is a group of eight countries which are among the world's richest, plus the European Union.

It comprises the UK, the US, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada, Russia and the EU. As a result of their shared wealth, they have common interests and meet annually to discuss the issues that affect them.

What does it do?
It aims to overcome some of the major world problems by creating and agreeing solutions. Each year, the host sets the agenda and sometimes promotes practical ways of resolving issues.

Who are the leaders attending?
The UK's David Cameron, The US's Barack Obama, France's Francois Hollande, Germany's Angela Merkel, Italy's Enrico Letta, Japan's Shinzo Abe, Canada's Stephen Harper, Russia's Vladimir Putin and the EU's Herman van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso. 

Why is this year's being held in Northern Ireland?
Each year, a different country takes its turn to host the summit. This year it is Britain's turn. Northern Ireland, which experienced  paramilitary conflict until the Belfast Agreement brought it to a close, was chosen because it symbolises how working together can result in a successful peace.

Why do protesters demonstrate when it's held?
Much of the criticism of the G8 relates to claims that the group does not do enough to help the developing world, either through lessening Third World debt, or through reducing the cost of medicines. Other critics are against the way the grouping together of wealthy countries distorts power, by causing 'globalisation'.

Who pays for the summit and its policing?
The member country holding the G8 presidency is entirely responsible for organising and the cost of each year's summit. That includes its policing. This year's has been held at the Lough Erne Resort in County Fermanagh. The cost is estimated at £60m, with the Northern Ireland government paying £6m and the UK Treasury meeting the rest.

When was it last staged in UK and what happened?
It was last held in the UK in 2005, at Gleneagles, near Stirling, Scotland. On the agenda were the cancelling of third world debt and global warming. Ahead of the summit, finance leaders agreed to write off $40bn worth of debt owed by the 18 most highly indebted poor countries. The members also agreed a joint declaration to tackle global warming. More than 10,000 police officers from all over the UK kept order at protests. There were 700 arrests and in the middle of the event, on July 7, four terrorists set off suicide bombs on the London transport network, killing 52 people.

What has it ever achieved?
Many have argued that the G8 is becoming increasingly irrelevant, as other nations outside the eight become wealthier. The five leading developing nations, China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa are not automatically invited. As a result, the meetings are sometimes seen as being a 'rich man's club, which is limited in its decision making. Some have suggested the G20, which involves the world's 20 richest countries, should replace it.

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