Fukushima Toxic Leak: Workers Check 300 Tanks

Workers at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant say they have found radiation hotspots but no new leaks after checking hundreds of water tanks.

Some 300 tonnes of toxic liquid is believed to have escaped from one of the tanks, which are used to cool the broken reactors.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), which operates the plant, warned some of it may have flowed into the Pacific Ocean.

In a statement, the company said: "We have confirmed two spots where radiation doses are high."

However, the levels of water in the plant's 300 tanks have not changed and the ground around them was dry, it said.

Tsuyoshi Numajiri, a spokesman for TEPCO, previously said traces of radioactivity were detected in a drainage stream, adding: "We cannot rule out the possibility that part of the contaminated water flowed into the sea".

On Wednesday, nuclear regulators said the leak represented a level-three "serious incident" on the UN's seven-point International Nuclear Event Scale (INES), which measures radiation accidents.

It is the most serious single event since the plant was declared to be in a "state of cold shutdown" - effectively indicating it was under control at the end of 2011.

The meltdowns at the plant in March 2011, triggered by the earthquake and tsunami, were a level seven on the INES scale.

The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 is the only other incident to have been given the most serious ranking.

TEPCO said puddles of water near the leaking tank were so toxic that anyone exposed to them would receive the same amount of radiation in an hour that a nuclear plant worker in Japan is allowed to receive in five years.

The utility did not have a water-level gauge on the 1,000-tonne container, which experts say would have made it more difficult to detect the problem.

Sky's Lisa Holland, in Fukushima province, said: "People here say they're not about to leave town and the older generation say that, frankly, it's too late. They say that if there are health risks, they'll put up with them.

"Among the younger generation, perhaps those with children, lots of them have families who have lived here for many years. They have jobs and homes here and they simply don't want to relocate to other parts of the country.

"Many people in Japan don't want the kind of testing that people in other countries might call for because they don't want the answers that might bring."

The safety checks at Fukushima come after Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) chairman Shunichi Tanaka voiced concern about the safety of containers at the site.

He said: "We must carefully deal with the problem on the assumption that if one tank springs a leak the same thing can happen at other tanks."

TEPCO, which faces huge clean-up and compensation costs, has struggled to cope with the disaster.

In July, the company admitted for the first time that radioactive groundwater had been leaking outside the plant.

This month it started pumping it out to reduce leakage into the Pacific.

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Syria: Call For 'Force' If Chemicals Proven

France is seeking a reaction with "force" if a massacre in Syria involving chemical weapons is confirmed, its foreign minister has said.

"If it is proven, France's position is that there must be a reaction, a reaction that could take the form of a reaction with force," Laurent Fabius told BFM-TV.

"There are possibilities for responding," he said without elaborating.

He added that if the UN Security Council could not make a decision, one would have to be taken "in other ways".

The Syrian government has been urged to allow UN inspectors to visit the site where it is claimed more than 1,300 people died in a chemical weapons attack.

The National Coalition claims toxic gas was used by President Bashar al Assad's forces during a bombardment of rebel-held areas outside Damascus.

It said the death toll was likely to rise after a neighbourhood with many casualties was discovered in Zamalka.

Government officials said the claims were "totally false" and the international news organisations reporting them were "implicated in the shedding of Syrian blood and support terrorism".

The attacks are alleged to have taken place in Ein Tarma and Zamalka

A spokesperson from the British Foreign Office said: "Our immediate priority is to verify the facts and ensure the UN  team is granted access to investigate these latest reports.

"We believe a political solution is the best way to end the bloodshed. However, the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary have said many times we cannot rule out any option, in accordance with international law, that might save innocent lives in Syria."

But Turkey's deputy prime minister has said only the government is in possession of the type of chemical weapons the opposition claim were used in the attack.

Its foreign minister said "a red line" had been crossed.

Iran, Syria's chief regional ally, has rejected claims that the regime was responsible, saying if such an attack was proven it would be down to the rebels, IRNA news agency said.

The incident comes just days after a 20-strong team of UN weapons inspectors arrived in the capital to investigate whether chemical weapons have been used in the conflict.

A survivor rests inside a mosque near Damascus

And following an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson, said: "We very much hope that we will be able to conduct the investigation.

"Dr Sellstrom and his team are in place in Damascus.  We hope that they will be given access to the area by the government  - it's a requirement of consent in situations like this.

"And that also the security situation will allow them to enter the area.

"The Secretary-General has already expressed his preparedness to conduct the investigation.

"We are in contact with the Syrian government - we hope that all other parties will co-operate so that we conduct the investigation and we hope that everybody realises the importance of ceasing hostilities."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague urged international supporters of the Syrian regime to "wake up to ... its murderous and barbaric nature" ahead of the UN meeting.

However Russia, which has supported the regime and vetoed past attempts to secure a tough UN resolution, suggested the attack could be a "premeditated provocation" by opposition forces.

Officials from Russia and China are reported to have blocked a stronger press statement supported by Britain, France, the US and others.

Earlier, Mr Hague said that if verified, the attack "would mark a shocking escalation in the use of chemical weapons in Syria".

He added: "Those who order the use of chemical weapons, and those who use them, should be in no doubt that we will work in every way we can to hold them to account."

Unverified footage of casualties, including children, in makeshift hospitals suffering convulsions and breathing difficulties was circulated on YouTube.

Syria is thought to have some of the world's largest stocks of chemical weapons, including mustard gas and the nerve agent sarin, but the government in Damascus refuses to confirm this is the case.

On Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed government forces carried out air raids and shelling in an area near where the alleged chemical attack was launched.

"Warplanes carried out several raids this morning on Khan al Sheikh and Zamalka, wounding several people" and sparking fierce clashes, the monitoring group said.

Their claims have not been independently verified.

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Manning Says He Wants To Live As Woman

Bradley Manning, the US soldier sentenced for leaking classified documents, has said he wants to live the rest of his life as a woman.

"As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me.

"I am Chelsea Manning. I am female," Manning said in a statement to NBC.

"Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible.

"I hope that you will support me in this transition.

Manning will serve his sentence in a military prison

"I also request that, starting today, you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun (except in official mail to the confinement facility)," the statement read.

Manning, 25, signed the letter "Chelsea E. Manning".

The US Army does not provide hormone therapy or sex-reassignment surgery, a spokeswoman said.

Military inmates have access to mental health professionals, including a psychiatrist, psychologist, social workers and behavioural science specialists, she said.

The confession came a day after Manning was sentenced to 35 years in a military prison for turning over classified files to WikiLeaks in the biggest breach of secret data in US history.

He had been found guilty of 20 charges ranging from espionage to theft for leaking more than 700,000 documents to the whistle-blowing website while working in Iraq in 2010.

Julian Assange has called the sentence a 'tactical victory'

The prosecution had sought to portray him as a traitor, asking for at least a 60-year term.

But he was not convicted of the more serious crime of aiding the enemy, which could have carried a life sentence without parole.

Manning will be eligible for parole within nine years.

His lawyers argued during the trial that Manning suffered extreme inner turmoil over his gender identity - his feeling that he was a woman trapped in a man's body - while serving in the macho military, which at the time barred gays from serving openly.

Among the evidence was a photo of him in a blonde wig and lipstick.

Manning supporters have called for his release

The defence team also maintained he was an idealistic soldier who wanted to expose brutal truths about America's military and diplomatic corps, and generate debate over the wars and US policy.

During the sentencing phase, he apologised for the damage he caused, saying: "When I made these decisions, I believed I was going to help people, not hurt people."

His lawyer said after the sentencing that Manning plans to send a letter to Barack Obama to request a presidential pardon.

"If you deny my request for a pardon, I will serve my time knowing that sometimes you have to pay a heavy price to live in a free society," said the text of the letter.

"I will gladly pay that price if it means we could have a country that is truly conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all women and men are created equal."

Manning is to serve his sentence in Fort Leavenworth, home to the American military's most famous prison.

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Four Rockets Fired At Israel From Lebanon

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to "strike anyone who tries to harm us" after four rockets were fired towards northern Israel from Lebanon.

None of them landed in the territory, according to military officials, and no-one was hurt.

"Anyone who harms us, or tries to harm us, should know - we will strike them," the PM said in a televised address.

Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said the rockets were from a location south of the Lebanese port city of Tyre.

And one of them was intercepted by Israel's "Iron Dome" defence system.

He said the others did not land in Israel. Earlier reports said two rockets came down in an open area near the border town of Nahariya.

There was some minor damage to a vehicle and a street.

Mr Lerner said that was probably caused by falling debris from the rocket defence system.

Witnesses reported hearing explosions and sirens wailing close to Nahariya.

Keinan Engel from the town told Israel Radio he heard a siren following a loud boom nearby.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

The Israeli military said it was investigating and officials accused "global jihad" elements of being behind the attack, referring to groups either linked to or inspired by al Qaeda.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity under military guidelines.

South Lebanon, the scene of bitter fighting between Israel and Lebanese militant Hizbollah guerrillas in 2006, is considered a Hizbollah stronghold

There are also Palestinian radical groups and Islamic militants that could also provoke a border incident. Several such incidents in the past were claimed by radical Palestinian groups.

The Israel-Lebanon border has remained very quiet since Israel and Hizbollah militants fought each other in a month-long war seven years ago.

Sporadic incidents of rocket fire have taken place since.

But tensions have remained high, especially as Hizbollah has become increasingly involved in the civil war in neighbouring Syria.

Israel fears that Syria will transfer sophisticated weapons to Hizbollah.

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Egypt: Hosni Mubarak Released From Prison

Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has been released from prison and flown by helicopter to a military hospital.

Television pictures showed him leaving Tora prison on the southern outskirts of Cairo and landing minutes later in the nearby suburb of Maadi.

It comes after a court ordered his release in relation to charges of receiving gifts from a state-owned newspaper.

He is expected to be placed under house arrest at the hospital on the orders of Egyptian prime minister Hazem el Beblawi.

Mubarak's supporters celebrate his release from Cairo's Tora prison

Mubarak could not be seen as his stretcher was taken from the helicopter and loaded into an ambulance, which was heavily guarded as it made the short journey to the military hospital.

The 85-year-old is believed to be suffering from a heart condition, although the severity of his health problems is disputed by critics  who claim he is trying to gain public sympathy and court leniency.

He was sentenced to life in prison last year for failing to prevent the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising that led to his downfall.

However, a court accepted his appeal earlier this year and ordered a retrial, which is expected to resume next week.

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Russian Navy Hovercraft Lands On Busy Beach

A huge military hovercraft has made an unexpected landing on a packed beach in Russia.

Hundreds of people were sunbathing on the beach when the vessel powered towards them.

No one was injured, although witnesses said beachgoers were surrounded by paratroopers and asked to move on.

A spokesman for the Russian defence ministry told local newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda that the hovercraft was on a tactical mission in an area owned by the military.

"Docking at the beach ... is a normal event," a spokesman was quoted as saying. "What people were doing at the beach on the territory of a military (base) is unclear."

However, the newspaper said the base the ministry was referring to was in Khmelevka, several kilometres away.

The hovercraft is believed to have been one of the Russian Navy's Zubr-type crafts, which are built in St Petersburg and can travel at speeds of up to 60 knots (110kmh, 68mph).

They weigh around 550 tonnes and measure nearly 60 metres in length.

The vessels carry up to 500 troops and can be fitted with missile launchers, automatic gun mounts and equipment to lay mines.

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Dolphins Washing Up Dead On US East Coast

Dozens of dead dolphins have been washing up on the East Coast, as worried scientists try to find out why.

Since early July, seven times the usual number of bottlenose dolphins have been found stranded on the shores in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said.

"All age classes of bottlenose dolphins are involved and strandings range from a few live animals to mostly dead animals with many very decomposed," the agency said in an Unusual Mortality Event note on its website.

A chart published by NOAA showed that there have been 299 cases so far this year - compared to 111 in all of last year.

In Virginia alone, 80 animals were stranded this month, compared to less than 10 in August 2012.

Dozens of marine biologists along the Atlantic are examining stranded dolphin carcasses for clues.

NOAA said some of the dead animals had pulmonary lesions.

Bottlenose dolphins live in groups

One animal might have contracted morbillivirus infection, preliminary testing of tissues suggests.

In 1987, more than 700 animals died, with morbillivirus identified as the main culprit.

The agency said it was evaluating all potential causes, but it added that "an infectious pathogen is at the top of the list".

"Work is underway to determine whether an infectious agent affecting these dolphins is present in collected tissue samples," it said.

Charles Potter, a marine mammal expert with the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, said there might be underlying causes.

He said on the Smithsonian's blog that heavy metals, pesticides and hydrocarbons might play a role.

Other stresses attributable to human activity, such as increased noise and competition for space and food with humans, might make the animals more susceptible to infectious pathogens, he said.

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'Pink Panther' Jewel Heist Robber Arrested

French police have arrested a suspected member of the infamous Pink Panther gang of international jewel thieves.

The 47-year-old, born in Montenegro but with French and Macedonian citizenships, was detained at his home in the southern Montpellier region on Monday, a police source said. 

The suspect, who had been on the run since escaping from a Swiss prison in May, tried and failed to escape through a window at the time of his arrest, the source said.

A former member of the French Foreign Legion, the suspect is wanted in several countries, including under two international arrest warrants issued by Switzerland, where he had been in prison for armed robbery.

He and four other prisoners escaped from the Bois-Mermet prison, near Lausanne, on May 14, using weapons and tools passed to them from accomplices on the outside - two have since been recaptured, the other two are still free.

Milan Poparic was one of those who escaped from the Swiss jail

The gang emerged from the war in the former Yugoslavia to become the most successful jewel thieves in the world.

According to Interpol, they have, since 1999, snatched jewels with a value in excess of €330m (£281.5m) in heists that are often executed with breathtaking speed and precision.

Among the latest robberies carried out were two in the South of France.

A lone gunman walked into the world-famous Carlton Hotel in Cannes and stole diamonds worth nearly £90m from an exhibition.

In another raid in the same town, two gunmen held up a luxury shop and left with goods valued at up to £1.3m.

The gang gained their nickname with a raid on a London branch of Graff Diamonds in 2003, in which two of them posed as wealthy would-be customers, persuading staff to open doors for them before helping themselves to diamonds worth millions.

Although one of the robbers was overpowered at the scene and another later arrested, only a fraction of the diamonds were recovered, one of them hidden in a pot of face cream.

That was reminiscent of a scene from the 1975 film The Return of the Pink Panther and resulted in a nickname that the gang members themselves adopted, wearing pink shirts for a subsequent raid in Zurich.

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Hosni Mubarak's Release Ordered By Court

An Egyptian court has ordered the release of former president Hosni Mubarak, according to security sources.

The 85-year-old is being retried on charges of ordering the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising that led to his downfall.

However, he has already served the maximum amount of pretrial detention permitted in that case.

Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison last year for failing to prevent the killing of demonstrators. But a court accepted his appeal earlier this year and ordered a retrial.

A lawyer told Reuters he could be freed on Thursday.

Leaving the Cairo prison where the court convened, Fareed El-Deeb said: "The court decided to release him." Asked when, he said: "Maybe tomorrow."

Egypt's prosecutor will not appeal against the court ruling.

"The decision to release Mubarak issued today ... is final and the prosecution cannot appeal against it," Judge Ahmed el-Bahrawi said.

The ailing former president probably has no political future. But many Egyptians would see his release as the rehabilitation of an old order that endured through six decades of military-backed rule - and even a reversal of the pro-democracy revolt that toppled him.

At least 900 people, including 100 soldiers and police, have been killed in a crackdown on Mohamed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood in the past week, making it Egypt's bloodiest civil episode in decades.

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Manning Jailed For 35 Years In WikiLeaks Case

Bradley Manning has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for giving classified documents to whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

The former US Army intelligence analyst - convicted on 20 counts, including six violations of the Espionage Act - had faced up to 90 years behind bars.

WikiLeaks described the sentence as a "strategic victory" as Manning will be eligible for parole within nine years.

Manning, 25, was not convicted of the more serious crime of aiding the enemy, which could have carried a life sentence without parole.

Manning supporters outside the court

Manning will get credit for the more than three years he has been held, but he will have to serve at least one-third of his sentence before he is eligible for parole. 

Colonel Morris David, a military lawyer who was third chief prosecutor in the Guantanamo military commissions, said the sentence meant Manning would probably be released in between eight and nine years.

His rank was reduced, he was dishonourably discharged and he forfeited his pay.

The sentencing in a military courtroom at Fort Meade, near Baltimore, capped a 12-week trial and a much longer legal battle over Manning's intentions when he reached out to WikiLeaks.

Prosecutors, who had asked for at least a 60-year sentence, portrayed Manning as "the determined insider", an anarchist hacker and traitor.

Among the evidence was a photo of Manning in a blond wig and lipstick

They said Manning started working within weeks of his 2009 deployment to Iraq to provide WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange with exactly what they wanted.

Manning and his defence team maintained he was an idealistic soldier who wanted to expose brutal truths about America's military and diplomatic corps.

Manning, from Oklahoma, digitally copied and released more than 700,000 documents, including Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield reports and State Department cables.

He also leaked video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad that mistakenly killed at least nine people, including a Reuters photographer.

Manning and his defence team maintained he was an idealistic soldier

At his trial, Manning said he gave the material to the secrets-spilling website to expose the US military's "bloodlust" and generate debate over the wars and US policy.

During the sentencing phase, he apologised for the damage he caused, saying: "When I made these decisions, I believed I was going to help people, not hurt people."

His lawyers also argued that Manning suffered extreme inner turmoil over his gender identity - his feeling that he was a woman trapped in a man's body - while serving in the macho military, which at the time barred gays from serving openly.

Among the evidence was a photo of him in a blond wig and lipstick.

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Australian Student 'Shot For Fun' By US Teens

An Australian student on a baseball scholarship in the US has been gunned down for "the fun of it", in an alleged random shooting by three teenagers.

Chris Lane, 23, was jogging in the small town of Duncan in Oklahoma last Friday, after visiting his girlfriend Sarah Harper, when he was shot in the back and left to die.

"He went by a residence where these three boys were, they picked him as a target, they went out and got in a vehicle and followed him," said Danny Ford, chief of Duncan Police Department.

"(They) came up from behind and basically shot him in the back with a small calibre weapon, then sped away."

Chris Lane was on a baseball scholarship

Witnesses saw him stumble across the road and collapse in the gutter.

A woman tried CPR, and paramedics were quickly on the scene, but the student was pronounced dead an hour later.

The young couple had only been back in the US for three days after visiting Chris' family in Melbourne.

Sarah posted an emotional tribute on Facebook, calling their four years together "the most amazing of my life".

"I love you so much babe," she wrote.

"From 2009 until forever you will always be mine and in a very special and protected place in my heart."

The student's devastated father, Peter Lane, said his son's death was so pointless.

"There's not going to be any good come out of this because it was just so senseless," he told reporters in Melbourne.

"There wasn't anything he did or could have done. He was an athlete going for a jog like he would do five or six days a week in terms of his training schedule. To try and understand it is a short way to insanity."

Police at the murder scene. Pic: KOCO-TV

Police in Oklahoma said it appeared the 15, 16 and 17-year-olds were on a "killing spree", after leaving a chilling message on Facebook.

"They wanted to be Billy Bob Badasses," Chief Ford said.

"I think they were on a killing spree. We would have had more bodies that night if we didn't get them."

On one of the alleged killer's Facebook pages, investigators said they found the message: "Bang. Two drops in two hours."

The boys were arrested, with the 16-year-old allegedly confessing to the killing, saying it was done "for the fun of it".

The three are due to face first degree murder charges, which carry a potential death penalty in Oklahoma.

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Egypt's Ex-Dictator Mubarak 'To Be Freed'

Deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak is expecting to be freed from jail after being cleared of corruption charges, his lawyer claims.

Mubarak was toppled from power in February 2011 following an uprising and has been held by authorities since.

He has made numerous appearances at Cairo's courthouse since on charges relating to the death of protesters during the revolution and of corruption.

However, according to his lawyer Fareed El Deeb, judicial authorities ordered that 85-year-old Mubarak should be released on one of the remaining corruption charges against him.

He said that the only legal grounds for the former leader's detention would be another corruption case, which is expected to be concluded later this week.

He said: "All we have left is a simple administrative procedure that should take no more than 48 hours. He should be freed by the end of the week."

Mubarak still faces charges of complicity in the murder of protesters during the 2011 revolution. His trial has been adjourned until August 25.

The development came after Egyptian authorities disclosed that suspected militants had attacked two police minibuses with rocket-propelled grenades, killing 24 officers in Sinai.

The ambush, condemned by Egypt's interior ministry as the work of "armed terrorist groups", took place as the two vehicles were driving through a village near the border town of Rafah in the volatile Sinai Peninsula.

The van was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades

Two officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said that three officers had also been injured.

Sinai has been witnessing near daily attacks by suspected militants since the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was ousted on July 3.

It is estimated nearly 50 security officials have been killed in the region since then, and the army claims to have killed nearly 70 "terrorists" in the same time.

In response to the attack Egypt closed the Rafah border crossing with the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

The latest attack follows the suppression of Mr Morsi's supporters in Cairo in scenes of bloodshed over the last five days, which have left at least 750 people dead.

A police officer in hospital after violent clashes in Cairo

The military, which assumed control of the country from Mr Morsi, has been rounding up the former president's Muslim Brotherhood supporters and there have been more than 1,000 arrests.

The Brotherhood has vowed to continue its demonstrations.

Foreign Secretary William Hague has said that the continued unrest across the Middle East represented one of the most significant events of the 21st century so far.

He told the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme that events in Egypt and surrounding countries could echo for decades and that the international community should expect significant "setbacks".

European Union ambassadors are discussing the crisis in Egypt amid international alarm.

Demonstrators inside the al Fath mosque in Cairo

Meanwhile, the family of four Irish siblings caught up in violence have said their relatives are being held by Egyptian authorities.

Omaima Halawa, 20, her two sisters Fatima, 22, Somaia, 27, and their younger brother Ibrihim, 17, were among hundreds of people cleared out of the al Fath mosque when security forces stormed the building on Saturday.

They were forced to seek sanctuary in the mosque on Friday after violent clashes between supporters of Mr Morsi and the security forces killed more than 80 people.

Speaking from the family home in Dublin, their sister Nasaybi Halawa said that her 17-year-old brother could have been beaten in the mosque.

Security forces arrive at the Cairo mosque

Miss Halawa said: "The person I'm speaking to told me they were beating men to hell. She doesn't know how my brother looks but she told me 'I can guarantee for you, all the men were beaten there. They didn't exclude anyone from hitting them'."

However, Sky sources understand that the four have been visited in Tora Prison by a Turkish diplomat who reported they were "all well".

Irish diplomats have said they are due to be brought to the prosecutor's office at 2pm on Monday and they were "confident" they would be released.

Hundreds of Morsi supporters also fled to the building in the Ramses area of Cairo, shoving furniture against the doors to stop police from breaking their way in.

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Oscar Pistorius: 100 Witnesses Due At Trial

Paralympic star Oscar Pistorius will go on trial in March over the killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, a judge has decided.

Pistorius returned to Pretoria Magistrates' Court this morning for the short hearing, in which a judge set his trial date for March 3 next year.

The judge asked him if he was well, to which he replied: "Under the circumstances, your honour."

He was formally charged and told that his bail conditions remained the same.

Court documents show that more than 100 witnesses will be called to give evidence at the trial, including one of Pistorius' ex-girlfriends.

Sky's Alex Crawford said that Pistorius was "very emotional", and appeared to be praying with his brother and sister before the proceedings started.

The three siblings held hands in a small circle, and at one point Pistorius wiped his face with a tissue.

Ms Steenkamp was shot dead at Pistorius' home in February

His brother Carl later tweeted a photograph of Pistorius and Ms Steenkamp, adding: "Remembered like yesterday. My life was impacted by u @reevasteenkamp & the lady u were! Always close to our hearts."

The 26-year-old double amputee is accused of killing Ms Steenkamp, who would have turned 30 today, in a shooting incident at Pistorius' home in February.

Pistorius denies he committed murder and says he shot Ms Steenkamp by mistake, thinking she was an intruder.

The case was sent to the High Court in Pretoria.

A judge will preside over the trial and ultimately pronounce the world-famous athlete innocent or guilty. South Africa does not have trial by jury.

The mandatory sentence for someone convicted of premeditated murder in South Africa is life with a minimum of 25 years in prison.

Meanwhile, Ms Steenkamp's uncle has said he has already forgiven Pistorius for killing her.

Mike Steenkamp said the family have coped with her death by concentrating on her life rather than how she died.

In an interview on ITV's Daybreak, Mr Steenkamp said: "I think from the beginning and onset that we decided that we could never be sidetracked from Reeva's life, and I think that's helped us tremendously."

The family have gathered in Port Elizabeth for a family event to mark Ms Steenkamp's birthday.

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German City Hall Hostage Crisis: People Held

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been forced to cancel a rally in the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt after an armed man took three people hostage in the city hall.

The 24-year-old, who was believed to be stalking a worker at the Old City Hall, detained her and two others on the second floor of the building.

After negotiating he agreed to release one of the hostages, deputy mayor Sepp Misslbeck.

Special forces police arrive at the hostage situation

However, he continued to hold Mr Misslbeck's secretary, the woman believed to be the victim of his stalking, and the city government's complaints manager, according to the German media.

The Bavarian Interior Minister Joachimm Herrmann, who has been negotiating with the gunman, said that the man had previously been banned from the city hall premises.

He is believed to have been committed to a psychiatric institution in the past.

Emergency vehicles line up outside the Old City Hall

Mayor Alfred Lehmann said the man had a history of violent assault and intimidation.

Police spokesman Guenther Beck said that the man had taken the hostages shortly before 9am (7am GMT) on Monday.

The scenes unfolded just hours before Ms Merkel was due in the city, home to car manufacturer Audi, for a rally which has now been called off.

A police tactical response unit is positioned around the cordoned off building as negotiators continue to talk to the hostage-taker and encourage him to release the remaining hostages.

Some 200 police officers have been called in to help deal with the unfolding situation.

The Old City Hall is home to the mayor's office, the tourist information office and a number of other administrative departments, and is one of two city halls in the Ingolstadt.

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Second Shark Attack On Hawaiian Islands

A 16-year-old boy has suffered leg injuries after being attacked by a shark in Hawaii.

It is the second shark in a week on the Pacific islands.

A 20-year-old German tourist had her arm bitten off while snorkelling in Maui on Wednesday.

The latest attack took place on Sunday near Hilo on Hawaii island, the largest of the eight islands that make up the archipelago.

The boy was airlifted to hospital but details of his condition were not available.

Hawaii's Department of Land and Natural Resources closed the waters along the Pohoiki coastline after the attack.

Hapuna Beach, on the island's northwest shore, was also closed on Sunday after lifeguards spotted a shark.

There have now been eight shark attacks on the Hawaiian islands this year.

A PE teacher was hailed as a hero following last week's attack on the German holidaymaker.

Rick Moore, 57, jumped into the water and brought the 20-year-old woman back to shore moments after she was attacked off Palauea Beach.

There were 11 shark attacks in Hawaii last year. The last fatal attack was in 2004.

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