Israel Plans Palestinian Prisoner Release

Israel has said it will release some Palestinian prisoners after the two sides agreed to lay the groundwork to resume peace talks frozen for three years.

A "limited number" of "heavyweights" - who have been held in Israeli prisons for up to 30 years - will be released, Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz told public radio.

"There will definitely be a certain gesture here," he added.

His announcement came hours after US Secretary of State John Kerry revealed the breakthrough in negotiations.

John Kerry visiting the West Bank

Mr Kerry said that as a first step Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat and his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni would meet him in Washington "to begin initial talks within the next week or so".

Foreign Secretary William Hague welcomed the announcement.

He said: "This is of course a beginning, not an end. Britain stands ready to do all we can over the coming weeks and months to support the parties and the US in their efforts to achieve a lasting peace for the Israeli and Palestinian people."

The last round of direct talks broke down in 2010 over the issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

The issue of continued expansion of settlements remains one of the biggest stumbling blocks between the two sides.

According to a recent assessment by Israeli rights group B'Tselem, at least 4,713 Palestinians are imprisoned in Israel.

Mr Steinitz stressed that aside from the prisoner releases, Israel would not be compromising on "diplomatic issues".

He added that there was no agreement on a settlement construction freeze or on accepting the borders that existed prior to 1967 Six-Day war as the basis for talks as demanded by the Palestinians.

He said for their part the Palestinians had committed to "negotiate seriously" for "at least nine months" during which they would refrain from action at the United Nation and other international institutions.

John Kerry meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank

Mr Kerry warned that while this was a significant step forward, the issues separating the sides were "difficult" and "complicated".

A US State Department official said Mr Kerry had wrenched a commitment from both sides "on the core elements that will allow direct talks to begin".

The Israelis and Palestinians remain far apart on final status issues including the borders of a future Palestinian state, the right of return of Palestinian refugees, and the fate of Jerusalem which both want as their capital.

Analysts cautioned against reading too much into the latest developments.

Chico Menashe, diplomatic commentator for Israeli public radio, likened the situation to "a half-baked cake Kerry removed from the stove. Kerry convinced the Israelis and Palestinians it was edible, and both sides agreed to eat it".

Predictably, the Islamist Hamas movement which runs the Gaza Strip rejected a return to talks, its spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri saying Abbas had no legitimate right to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinian people.

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Alexei Navalny Vows To Run For Moscow Mayor

Russian political activist and blogger Alexei Navalny has been greeted by hundreds of ecstatic supporters following his release from prison on fraud charges.

Navalny, 37, shouted his thanks as he was presented with flowers and lifted over the heads of opposition activists at a Moscow railway station.

Navalny intends to challenge Putin for the Presidency

Hand in hand with his wife Yulia, Russia's main opposition leader stepped off a train from the city of Kirov after being unexpectedly freed pending an appeal against his five-year sentence.

Police in riot gear linked arms to hold back supporters who gathered on an opposite platform and beyond the ticket barriers, some wearing T-shirts with the slogan: "Navalny's brother".

A few managed to break through and handed bouquets of roses and chrysanthemums to Navalny's wife.

Grabbing a megaphone, Navalny thanked the crowd for their support.

"I didn't doubt for a second that we would win," he said. "I just didn't believe it would only take two days!

"I want to say 'sorry' for not believing in you enough."

He confirmed his bid for Moscow mayor was back on track, having registered as candidate shortly before his conviction on Thursday.

"The campaign will continue," he vowed. "Let's get to work."

The corruption-fighting lawyer, rose to prominence among the opposition during a series of protests in Moscow against President Vladimir Putin's re-election in March 2012.

Demonstrators had taken to the streets of Moscow to protest his detention

His conviction prompted criticism from the US and the European Union.

He has said he wants to challenge Mr Putin for the presidency in the next election, and believes his prosecution was politically motivated.

Meanwhile, Russian police have said they will pursue vandalism charges against whoever wrote offensive graffiti on the building of Russia's parliament, deriding President Putin.

Several thousand protesters had taken to the streets of Moscow to protest Navalny's imprisonment during which "Putin is a thief" and "Putin is gay" was scrawled on the lower house of parliament.

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Six Jailed For Life Over India Gang Rape

Six men have been sentenced to life in jail for the gang rape of a Swiss woman in India, according to reports.

"All the accused have been convicted and we are satisfied with the judgement," said the public prosecutor in the case, Rajendra Tiwari, according to the Press Trust of India.

The 39-year-old woman was raped during a cycling trip in the country with her husband in March.

The pair were in the impoverished Madhya Pradesh state when they were attacked. The perpetrators tied up the man and raped the woman in his presence.

They also stole 10,000 rupees (£122) and a mobile phone from the woman.

The rape occurred three months after the fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student on a bus in Delhi, which brought simmering anger about the treatment of women in India to the surface.

More follows...

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Beijing Airport Blast 'Caused By Wheelchair User'

A man has been hurt after apparently detonating a homemade bomb in an arrivals hall at Beijing International Airport.

Pictures posted on the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, Weibo, showed smoke in Terminal 3 after the blast at around 6.30pm local time.

Witnesses have claimed that a man was sitting in a wheelchair in the arrivals hall, shouting and waving a small bag in the air before the explosion took place.

The Weibo microblog of state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) said a man detonated a package of black gunpowder used to make firecrackers just outside the international arrivals exit.

Photos taken in the minutes after the explosion showed a wheelchair lying on its side, medical workers attending to someone and people running through the terminal.

Police appear to tend to a casualty. Pic: @mild_luna

A man, who local media named as Ji Zhongxing, who was born in 1979 and in Shandong Province, was injured in the blast and has been taken to hospital.

No one else was hurt in the incident and airport operations are now back to normal.

"The explosion sound was loud," said a witness who gave only his family name, Chen. He said he was only 25m away from the explosion when it occurred.

Chen said there was only one explosion, and that the terminal was crowded with people.

"Since there was no second explosion, many people took out their phones and gathered near the explosion spot to take photos," he said.

He said police responded to the explosion immediately.

Only the wheelchair user was injured in the blast

Sky's China Correspondent Mark Stone, at the airport, said the man may have travelled to the capital to petition for a particular social cause.

"This is looking like a tragic story really. There are a lot of people in China who call themselves 'petitioners'.

"Every now and again they go a little bit further and it's a very much more extreme form of petitioning and that I think, is what this appears to be."

Stone said most petitioners complain of local corruption, land grabs and beatings.

He added that a blog purporting to have been written by the man contains claims he was beaten and paralysed by Chinese police in 2005. This has not been verified.

Terminal 3, which opened in 2008 just ahead of the Beijing Olympics, is the airport's hub for international flights. United Airlines and American Airlines operate out of the terminal.

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Chris Froome Set For Tour De France Win

Team Sky's Two Remarkable Riders

Updated: 4:42pm UK, Saturday 20 July 2013

By Paul Kelso, Sports Correspondent

When Team Sky was founded in 2010, Sir Dave Brailsford's stated ambition of winning the Tour de France within five years was greeted by the sound of people laughing behind their hands.

Some did not even both concealing their mirth.

A Briton, after all, had not won cycling's greatest test at all in its 97 years. Three years later, in the centenary running of Le Tour, a Brailsford Brit is about to win it for the second successive year.

There are many reasons for the British annexation of the Champs Elysees but chief among them is the presence in Sky's black-and-blue ranks of two extraordinary athletes.

The first, Sir Bradley Wiggins, was familiar to the public when he won the race last year having developed within the Olympic track team run by Brailsford.

He secured national treasure status a week later in the 2012 Games.

Chris Froome, who come sunset in Paris on Sunday night will inherit Wiggins's title, is a very different character, but his rise is no less remarkable.

Both men have been shaped by bumpy upbringings outside the UK, and both have lost a parent. But there are few other similarities, beyond the bikes.

Wiggins grew up in Belgium, close to cycling's roots, and endured the absence of his father who left the family having planted the seed of cycling in his son's head.

Froome was schooled in the sport as far from its European epicentre as it is possible to imagine.

Born in Kenya to English parents who separated when he was just 11, he learned the sport riding with a cycling club founded for poor black Africans.

It was an early lesson in self-sufficiency that has served him well throughout his career.

His peers and teachers at boarding school in South Africa talk of Froome's fierce motivation, and hours spent on the rollers in his room hammering out static miles that laid the foundations of the astonishing strength and determination we have seen this last three weeks.

He ploughed a lonely furrow, struggling to find a professional berth in South Africa and then in Europe before his talent and promise was spotted by Brailsford, who signed him up to his formative team.

That came two years after Froome's mother Jane died from cancer.

His formative years did not leave him with the purest technique. While Wiggins's flat back and languid leg strokes seem to eat up the miles, Froome strikes a hunched silhouette.

It may not be pretty but it is just as effective, particularly in the mountains that have punctuated this ferociously tough Tour.

It is arguable that in taking victory in this of all years Froome has demonstrated that in the Grand Tours at least, he is a superior performer to Wiggins.

There was evidence last year, which Froome spent as Wiggins's super-domestique, leading him up the most testing climbs and, notoriously, suggesting at times that he had the team leaders' measure.

This year there has been no argument that Froome is the strongest man in the field, and certainly his own team, which has been a shadow of the devastating black road-train that propelled Wiggins to yellow last year.

His strength in the mountains has left rivals in awe, in part because he has often had to defend the yellow jersey above the tree-line alone.

The defining stage came a week ago on Mont Ventoux, when Froome rode away from the peleton and his rivals with a superlative display of climbing.

It was immediately hailed as one of the great stage wins in 100 years of the Tour, and more immediately consolidated his grip on the yellow jersey.

He has not looked like relinquishing it, not on the double ascent of Alpe D'Huez last week or the final mountain stages on the road back to Paris.

On Sunday he will find the Champs Elysee en fete and ready for a floodlit firework celebration of the world's greatest bike race.

And its champion will be a Briton so good even the most partisan Frenchman will have to applaud.

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Dreamliner Turns Back After Fuel Pump Warning

A Boeing 787 Dreamliner has been forced to return to an airport in the United States because of a possible fuel pump problem.

The Japan Airlines flight from Boston to Tokyo turned back as a "standard precautionary measure" around five hours after taking off, according to a company spokeswoman.

Pilots landed the plane safely after a maintenance warning indicated a possible fault.

Japan Airlines only resumed its 787 operations in June, five months after a battery caught fire on board one of the planes in its fleet.

At the time, company president Yoshiharu Ueki said he would "ensure safety, security and reliability in operations of every aircraft in the group's fleet".

The Dreamliner has been beset by glitches since its first commercial flight in October 2011.

The aircraft was grounded worldwide in January after batteries overheated on two Japanese-operated jets.

Damage caused to an Ethiopian Airlines 787 following a fire at Heathrow

It resumed commercial service in May after Boeing installed a redesigned battery system.

However in June, a 787 operated by United Airlines was forced to make an emergency landing because of an issue with its braking system.

Days later, another of the company's fleet landed safely when pilots became aware of a potential oil filter problem.

Meanwhile, a fire on an Ethiopian Airlines 787 that caused major disruption at Heathrow Airport earlier this month is believed to have started in the battery of an emergency locator transmitter.

A report from the UK's Air Accident Investigation Branch said that if a similar fault occurred mid-flight, "it could pose a significant safety concern and raise challenges for the cabin crew in tackling the resulting fire".

British Airways and TUI Travel have both taken delivery of Dreamliners this year, while Virgin Atlantic is awaiting the arrival of 16 of the planes.

More than 900 787s have been ordered worldwide since 2004.

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Alexei Navalny: Russia Blogger Freed For Appeal

Russian anti-corruption blogger and Putin opponent Alexei Navalny has been freed from custody after just 24 hours behind bars.

The release came after a surprise request by prosecutors, who said that because Navalny is a candidate in this autumn's Moscow mayoral race keeping him in custody would deny him his right to seek election.

He will remain free until any appeals against his conviction for embezzlement are completed.

After the decision, Navalny emerged from the caged-off defendants' section of the courtroom and thanked supporters who had held protest rallies on Thursday after his conviction.

Navalny talks to the media following his release

"What happened now is a completely unique phenomenon in the system of Russian justice," he said.

Navalny, a popular blogger and corruption-fighting lawyer, rose to prominence among the opposition during a series of massive protests in Moscow against President Vladimir Putin's re-election to a third presidential term in March 2012.

His conviction prompted criticism from the United States and the European Union.

Navalny, 37, has blogged about his investigations into corruption at state-owned companies where he owned shares.

Navalny wants to challenge Mr Putin for the presidency

He and his team of lawyers and activists have sifted through property registers abroad to identify top officials and politicians who own undeclared foreign assets and hold foreign citizenship.

On Thursday, 40 people were arrested during protests against his five-year sentence.

Navalny has said he wants to challenge Mr Putin for the presidency in the next election, and believes the prosecution was politically motivated.

He will not be allowed to travel outside Moscow while the appeals process is under way.

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Nazi Cafe: Indonesian Owner 'No Fan Of Hitler'

The owner of a Nazi-themed cafe in Indonesia has defended his decision to cover the walls with a flag bearing the swastika and a giant picture of Adolf Hitler, saying it has been good for business.

Staff at the Soldatenkaffee (Soldier Cafe) dress in Waffen-SS, Luftwaffe (air force) and Heer (army) uniforms, and can be seen posing in front of the building on its Facebook page.

The cafe, located in the West Java provincial capital of Bandung, one of Indonesia's tourist destination cities, has been open since April 2011.

Local officials want the cafe owner to explain his theme. Pic: Facebook

But a recent article in a local English-language newspaper provoked a backlash from both foreigners and Indonesians on social networking sites.

Authorities in Indonesia plan to ask the restaurant owner to explain his reasons for choosing a Nazi theme for the cafe.

A large flag with a swastika is on display in the cafe. Pic: Facebook

Ayi Vivananda, the deputy mayor of Bandung, said a letter was sent on Thursday summoning cafe owner Henry Mulyana to a meeting to ask whether his objective was to incite racial hatred.

"Those symbols are internationally recognised to represent violence and racism," Mr Vivananda said.

The cafe in Bandung has been open since 2011

But Mr Mulyana has insisted he did not want to breed hatred. Instead, he said he wanted to decorate his restaurant with Nazi symbols to attract customers, both local and foreigners.

He also denied being pro-Nazi or supporting Hitler.

"I'm just a businessman, not a politician," Mr Mulyana said.

"I have a right to design my restaurant with anything that attracts people to come. I'm sure that I'm not violating any laws."

Cafe owner Henry Mulyana denies his cafe is pro-Nazi. Pic: Facebook

He said the recent controversy has forced him to temporarily close his restaurant, but declined to say whether he would consider changing the Nazi theme if authorities requested him to do so.

"Let's wait and see," he said. "I don't want the workers here to lose their jobs."

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Kerry Heads To West Bank In Peace Talks Push

US Secretary of State John Kerry is flying to the West Bank in an attempt to salvage his Middle East bid.

He will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as part of an attempt to get peace talks back on track.

A Palestinian official announced the surprise move after Mr Kerry twice met Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat on Friday morning in his Amman hotel.

A senior US State Department official confirmed the report saying: "Secretary Kerry will travel to Ramallah this afternoon to meet with President Abbas."

The whirlwind diplomacy came after the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah rejected Mr Kerry's proposals for a framework to guide the relaunch of peace talks with the Israelis, which have stalled for nearly three years.

Talks have stuttered and started for decades in the elusive bid to reach a final peace deal between the Arab world and Israel.

But they collapsed completely in September 2010 when Israel refused to keep up a freeze on settlement building in Palestinian territories.

A State Department official said in a statement that serious Palestinian debate over resuming talks was "appropriate and encouraging".

Mr Kerry arrived in the Jordanian capital on Tuesday and has met twice already with Abbas. He also won endorsement from the Arab League for his proposals to resume talks.

US President Barack Obama on Thursday urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resume talks.

"The president encouraged Prime Minister Netanyahu to continue to work with Secretary Kerry to resume negotiations with the Palestinians as soon as possible," the White House said in a statement, after the two leaders spoke by telephone.

An Israeli newspaper editorial pinned the blame squarely on the Palestinians for any setback in Mr Kerry's peace push.

"The Palestinians again did what they do best: they shot themselves in the foot and then cried that it hurt," Alex Fishman wrote in Yediot Aharonot.

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Nigeria Kidnapping: British National Taken

A British national has been kidnapped shortly after landing at Lagos International Airport in Nigeria, the British High Commission has revealed.

Gunmen targeted a four-wheel drive car at around 8.30pm on Tuesday after it left the airport's international terminal, seizing the British man who was returning to a residential area of Lagos, according to security sources.

The Nigerian driver of the vehicle was shot but survived.

In a statement, the British High Commission (BHM) said: "The BHM is working closely with others to secure the release of the hostage.

"Because of the nature of this incident, the BHM is not going into further detail about it."

Major companies with British connections operating in Nigeria include oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, British Airways, Unilever and PricewaterhouseCoopers. There was no indication of where the kidnapped man was employed.

Kidnapping of expatriates and Nigerians by armed gangs seeking ransom has been rife in Nigeria's oil producing southeast, but is rarer in Lagos were most foreigners live.

Four Chinese nationals and the three-year-old son of a state legislator have previously been reported kidnapped this month.

Risk analysts Drum Cussac have reported a "noticeable upsurge" in the number of kidnappings in the southwest of the country, including Lagos.

The consultancy said: "Foreign nationals were targeted in the affluent Lagos areas of Ikoyi, Victoria Island and Epe-Lekki, sparking speculation that organised criminal gangs have renewed their focus on the city's upscale districts given their relatively permissive security environments."

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