Iran Nuclear Deal Stalls Over Two Issues

The gap has closed but not enough yet for the handshakes, photographs and smiles which will greet a deal if it comes.

As Sky News understands it there is agreement that Iran will stop enriching uranium to 20% for up to six months. There is also agreement that Iran can continue to enrich to 3.5%. 

However, there are two sticking points.

The first is that the French and possibly the USA also wants Iran to reduce its stockpiles of 20% uranium by oxidising it and thus putting it further away from being weapons grade material. 

The second appears to be a demand by at least one country that Iran will not fully open its plutonium plant at Arak next year. 

One side has to compromise on at least one of those issues if there is to be a deal today.

If there is, the Iranians will have billions of dollars currently frozen in foreign bank accounts unfrozen, and it will become easier to sell their petrochemical products abroad.

Tehran also wants more concrete guarantees that other sanctions will soon be lifted, and would like a cast iron statement from President Obama that the USA does not seek regime change in Iran.

It is unlikely that if they cannot reach agreement by late tonight they would go into an unscheduled fourth day of negotiations.

None of the foreign ministers were supposed to be here at all, but once Secretary of State Kerry said he was coming, there was a stampede.

The ministers have now spent some political capital in betting on handshakes and smiles all round. 

By late tonight we should know if it has paid dividends.

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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford 'Considering' Rehab

Toronto's troubled mayor, who smoked crack cocaine and was taped drunkenly issuing threats to kill, is considering rehab, according to his lawyer.

Video was made public on Thursday of Mayor Rob Ford pacing around a room, swearing and threatening to "kill that ******* guy". It came two days after his public admission of smoking crack cocaine.

His lawyer, Dennis Morris, said on Friday that Mr Ford was "considering his options" in regards to treatment.

However, he said it was "best we hear from his (Mr Ford's) lips".

"When you go left, he goes right," Mr Morris added.

Rob Ford admits the latest video is "extremely embarrassing"

The mayor acknowledged he had a drinking problem for the first time on Sunday while on his weekly radio show.

He told listeners that he was "hammered" at a street festival in August and "out of control" drunk, carrying a half empty bottle of brandy around city hall after St Patrick's Day last year.

Mr Morris said Thursday was a defining day for the Mayor, after a video emerged of him threatening murder.

In the video, Mr Ford said: "I'm going to kill that ******* guy. I'm telling you it's first-degree murder.

The Toronto Mayor has refused to resign or take a leave of absence

"He dies or I die, brother ... But when he's down, I'll rip his ******* throat out. I'll poke his eyes out!"

The date and location of the video, which appears on the Toronto Star's website, is unknown and it is unclear who Mr Ford is addressing.

Mr Ford told reporters he was "extremely, extremely inebriated" in the video.

"It's extremely embarrassing. The whole world is going to see it," he said.

The Mayor was previously caught on video using a crack pipe

Mr Ford has been under pressure to quit since allegations surfaced months ago that he had been caught on video using a crack pipe.

He continues to brush aside calls to resign or take a leave of absence.

City Councilor Denzil Minnan-Wong says he plans to amend a motion he has filed that would ask Mr Ford to take a leave of absence.

The amendment takes the unprecedented step of asking the province of Ontario to pass legislation to remove the mayor should he not agree to take a leave of absence.

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Iran Nuclear Talks Make 'Very Good Progress'

British Foreign Minister William Hague has said global powers negotiating with Iran over its nuclear programme must "seize the moment" as talks enter an unscheduled third day.

Six world powers - the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - are working on a deal to cap some of Iran's atomic programme in exchange for limited relief from economic sanctions.

As delegates arrived on Saturday, Mr Hague told reporters: "We are very conscious of the fact that real momentum has built up in these negotiations and there is now real concentration on these negotiations and so we have to do everything we can to seize the moment."

However, he cautioned that it was not clear whether a deal could be reached by the end of the day.

Iran's deputy foreign minister Abbas Araqchi also said that if there was not a deal on Saturday then any remaining issues would have to be carried out over to another date.

"There is greater agreement on some issues and less agreement on other issues," he told the ISNA news agency.

France's Laurent Fabius said the sticking points were a call for Iran to halt operations at its Arak research reactor - a potential producer of bomb-grade plutonium - while the negotiating process continues and questions about Iran's stock of uranium enriched to 20%.

Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (centre) is at the talks

Both issues reflect Western concerns that Iran is enriching uranium for use in atomic weapons rather than in a civilian nuclear energy programme as it claims.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, who cut short a Middle East tour to attend the talks in Geneva, Switzerland, had also struck a note of caution after a five-hour meeting drew to a close last night.

"There is not an agreement at this point," Mr Kerry told reporters. "There are still some very important issues on the table that are unresolved."

Earlier on Friday, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov raised hopes after he said the six countries and Iran could agree a "road map" to end the differences over the programme at the talks.

He told reporters he did not wish to prejudge the outcome but said Iran should be allowed to have a peaceful nuclear programme under the watch of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Unlike previous encounters between Iran and Western powers in the past decade, all sides have remained quiet about details of the negotiations, without the criticism and mutual allegations of a lack of seriousness that have been typical of such meetings in the past.

Diplomats involved in the talks say this is a sign of how serious all sides are.

If some sort of agreement is reached, it would be a breakthrough after a decade of negotiations between Iran and the six world powers.

A potential deal could see Tehran freeze its nuclear efforts for as long as six months in exchange for some relief from the sanctions that have battered its economy.

But Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that his country "utterly rejects" a deal being forged, adding that "Israel will do everything it needs to do to defend itself and defend the security of its people".

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Lampedusa Boat Victims 'Raped And Tortured'

Italian police have arrested a Somali man accused of raping and torturing asylum seekers fleeing Libya on a boat which sank off the island of Lampedusa last month killing more than 365 migrants.

Mouhamud Elmi Muhidin, 34, faces charges of kidnapping, sexual assault, people trafficking and criminal association with the goal of aiding illegal immigration after he was identified by survivors.

Some 130 Eritreans were assaulted in Libay according to police

Some 130 migrants from Eritrea told police they were held for ransom at a detention centre in the Libyan desert by people traffickers from Somalia, Libya and Sudan.

A 17-year-old Eritrean girl interviewed by police said: "They forced us to watch our men being tortured with various methods including batons, electric shocks to the feet; whoever rebelled was tied up."

The migrants were forced to pay up to $3,500 (£2,180) for their freedom and their onward journey to the Libyan coast and a boat that due to take them to Italy.

Those who survived the crossing are held at detention centres in Italy

"The women who could not pay were assaulted," the girl said.                 

She also described in her own sexual assault, claiming Muhidin was one of three men who raped her.

"They threw me on the ground, held me down and poured fuel on my head. It burnt my hair, then my face, then my eyes.

"Then the three of them raped me without protection. After a quarter of an hour I was beaten and taken back to the house."

Muhidin was arrested on Lampedusa after he was spotted by some of the survivors on the island. He has now been flown to Sicily where he faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.

Police also held this Tunisian man suspected of driving one of the boats

Investigators say he arrived on the island last week and had been staying in the local migrant centre, pretending to be one of the refugees.

"He was one of the leaders of the trafficking organisation," a police spokeswoman said, adding that he may have come to Italy to look for criminal contacts.

Italian authorities have vowed to crack down on the people trafficking rings that have been behind the influx of more than 35,000 asylum seekers so far this year to the country's coasts.

Most of them come from Eritrea, Somalia and Syria and Italy has asked for the European Union to step up assistance in dealing with the arrivals and countering the criminal networks behind them.

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Super Typhoon Haiyan: Thousands Feared Dead

Thousands of people are feared to have been killed in the areas of the Philippines hit by Super Typhoon Haiyan.

The country's Red Cross says it has been told there are 1,000 dead in Tacloban and 200 in Samar alone.

A Red Cross spokesman said: "We now fear that thousands will have lost their lives."

Flooded fields and wrecked villages in Iloilo Province

The scale of devastation led one UN disaster official to compare the destruction to that caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

The official death toll had reached 138 by 1pm on Saturday (UK time) but there are fears the eventual death toll will be "massive" after the tropical cyclone smashed through the country with winds gusting up to 170mph.

And there are growing fears for Vietnam which is now in the path of what has been called one of the most powerful recorded cyclones in history.

A truck was picked up by the high winds and slammed against a tree

Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, head of a United Nations disaster assessment coordination team, said: "This is destruction on a massive scale.

"The last time I saw something of this scale was in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami."

Around 220,000 people died as a result of that disaster.

Typhoon Haiyan pictured from International Space Station

Gwendolyn Pang, Philippine Red Cross secretary general said: "An estimated more than 1,000 bodies were seen floating in Tacloban. In Samar, about 200 deaths. Validation is ongoing."

When asked how many had died in just the coastal town of Palo and its surrounding area, Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla said: "I think hundreds. Palo, Ormoc, Burauen... Carigara, they all looked the same."

Scores of towns and villages are thought to have been inundated with water after storm surges flooded low-lying areas, drowning many in their path.

A mother weeps beside the dead body of her son

TV pictures showed cars, trees and rubble from houses strewn across streets after they were picked up by giant waves and carried inland.

"Almost all houses were destroyed, many are totally damaged. Only a few are left standing," said Major Rey Balido, a spokesman for the national disaster agency.

About a million people evacuated because they were living in the typhoon's path have been returning to find out what is left of their houses.

Children play among downed power lines

Many of those who died are thought to have left shelters in an urgent bid to rescue valuables from their homes, unaware of the giant waves flooding through coastal towns.

Hundreds of thousands are thought to have been left homeless.

British team of humanitarian experts is due to fly out to the Philippines to help the UK Government decide what aid to send.

Residents carry the body of a loved one

An appeal launched by the British Red Cross has already raised more than £100,000. US Secretary of State John Kerry said that America stood "ready to help".

Many of the most heavily damaged areas are still to be contacted because power and telephone lines are down, making the work of providing relief all the more difficult.

Captain John Andrews, a Philippines aviation chief, said he had spoken to colleagues by radio who had told him there were "100-plus dead lying on the streets" in Tacloban.

Soldiers walk outside of Tacloban's shattered airport terminal

Tacloban is the capital of Leyte, a large island of about two million people that suffered a direct hit from Haiyan on Friday morning when the storm was at its strongest.

Leyte Island, about 350 miles south of the capital Manila, is one of six islands that was in the path of the super typhoon's centre.

An increasing problem for the authorities now is looting, with many of the survivors desperate to get hold of supplies from the shattered shops.

Many children became seperated from their parents and were left in tears

Thousands of police and army personnel are being flown into the affected areas to start relief operations and to uphold law and order.

At one point the super typhoon had been stronger than it was when it hit land, with winds gusting up to 235mph making it among the most powerful ever.

Meteorologists said that it had slowed to 100mph after passing over the Philippines but is still expected to be of typhoon force as it sweeps across the South China Sea toward Vietnam.

A map showing the path of the typhoon and affected islands

Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese have been moved away from coastal areas as authorities prepared for Haiyan to make landfall around 10am Sunday. Millions are thought to be living in its path.

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Arafat Poisoning: Israel Is 'Only Suspect'

Who Poisoned Yasser Arafat?

Updated: 6:13pm UK, Thursday 07 November 2013

He fell ill on October 12, 2004. On the 29th he was flown to a French hospital for emergency treatment. By November 11, he was dead.

The mystery of the Palestinian leader's sudden medical decline while under Israeli siege in his Ramallah headquarters has been, partly, solved by Lausanne University.

Scientists there found between 18 and 36 times the anticipated amount of the deadly radioactive Polonium-210 and ruled out accidental contamination.

Sixty samples of soil around his body, his hips and ribs, disinterred from his mausoleum in Ramallah last November were sent to the Swiss experts as well as scientists in France and Russia.

The Swiss findings, couched in scientific language, leave little room for real doubt.

They said: "Taking into account the analytical limitations, mostly time lapse since the death and the nature and quality of the specimens, the results moderately support the proposition that the death was the consequence of poisoning with polonium-210."

The French results are not due until magistrates finish their murder investigation into Arafat's death. The Russian findings are due out any day.

Surrounded in his palace, the Muqata, Arafat may have been one of the world's first Polonium poisonings - a victim of a method usually associated with a nation state.

As Suha Arafat, his widow, said: "Answer lies in the Muqata (Palestinian government headquarters), where my late husband had spent his last three years under siege.

"And the head of the investigation committee Mr (Tawfik) Tirawi is, I'm sure, willing now to go further for investigation to know who committed this shameful crime, this assassination - political assassination - of an elected leader."

Now - whodunit? Israel will inevitably face accusations - but the killers themselves may have been close members of Yasser Arafat's own entourage - an embarrassing allegation to face for the heirs to the father of the modern Palestinian nation.

"You don't accidentally or voluntarily absorb a source of polonium - it's not something that appears in the environment like that," said Patrice Mangin, director of the Lausanne University Hospital's forensics centre.

"Our results reasonably support the poisoning theory," said Francois Bochud, director of the Institute of Radiation Physics that carried out the probe, though he was careful to emphasise the lingering questions that will require further investigation to answer.

That Mr Arafat may have been poisoned by someone close to him, by someone perhaps acting for a foreign power, is not something that either the Palestinian Authority nor Israel, nor indeed many Palestinians want to reflect upon too hard - not right now, anyway.

Israel and the PA are locked in tense and acrimonious negotiations aimed at ending the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

They are hung up on the thorny old issues of the Palestinian insistence on invoking the right of return of refugees and their descendants from territory captured by Israel in 1948 and 1967.

On Palestinian insistence that Israel end its illegal constructions of Jewish settlements on Palestinian land.

On Palestinian claims, which Israel rejects outright, on East Jerusalem as a future capital.

On Israel's insistence that it needs to keep troops in the Jordan valley and control Palestine's eastern border as part of its defences.

These are issues that Arafat and successive Israeli negotiators failed to resolve but which are now the object of intense diplomacy that the US secretary of state, John Kerry, has thrown enormous personal energy into.

A solution to the Arab-Israeli puzzle remains extremely hard to see. It would be impossible to discern if the puzzle was thrown to the floor over Arafat.

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Iran Nuclear Deal 'Utterly Rejected' By Israel

Israel's prime minister has dismissed an agreement expected to made between world powers and Iran over its nuclear programme as a "bad deal".

Six world powers - the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - are working on a deal to cap some of Iran's atomic programme in exchange for limited relief from economic sanctions.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the six countries and Iran could agree a road map" to end the differences over the programme at the talks in Geneva, Switzerland.

He told reporters he did not wish to prejudge the outcome but said Iran should be allowed to have a peaceful nuclear programme under the watch of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Sergei Lavrov is hoping for a "concrete result"

But Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu - who last year drew a red line across a cartoon bomb to illustrate the point at which Iran will have amassed enough uranium to fuel one nuclear bomb - said his country "utterly rejects" the deal being forged.

"I understand the Iranians are walking around very satisfied in Geneva as well they should because they got everything and paid nothing," he said.

"They wanted relief of sanctions after years of gruelling sanctions, they got that. They paid nothing because they are not reducing in any way their nuclear enrichment capability.

"So Iran got the deal of the century and the international community got a bad deal.

Iran's president denies his country wants to make nuclear weapons

"This is a very bad deal and Israel utterly rejects it. Israel is not obliged by this agreement and Israel will do everything it needs to do to defend itself and defend the security of its people."

Meanwhile, a senior US State Department official travelling with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Amman, Jordan, said he was going to Geneva "to help narrow differences in negotiations".

Foreign Secretary William Hague and the foreign ministers of France and Germany will also attend the talks, further raising hopes a deal could be imminent.

If an agreement is reached in Geneva, it would only be the start of a long process to reduce Iran's potential nuclear threat, with no guarantee of ultimate success.

US Secretary of State John kerry

But even a limited accord would mark a breakthrough after nearly a decade of mostly inconclusive talks focused on limiting, if not eliminating, Iranian atomic programmes.

The talks are primarily focused on the size and output of Iran's enrichment programme, which can create both reactor fuel and weapons-grade material suitable for a nuclear bomb.

Iran insists it is pursuing only nuclear energy, medical treatments and research, but the US and its allies fear that Iran could turn this material into the fissile core of nuclear warheads.

Iran's new president, Hassan Rouhani, has indicated he could cut back on the nuclear programme in exchange for an easing of sanctions.

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Syria Refugees 'Could Spread Polio To Europe'

Refugees fleeing the civil war in Syria could cause an outbreak of polio in Europe, two German infection experts have warned.

Writing in The Lancet medical journal, they say the polio vaccine used in Europe is not effective enough to withstand transmission of the virus.

There are fears it may have been carried to neighbouring countries by refugees living in unsanitary conditions ideal for the transmission of disease.

The inactivated polio vaccine (IPC), which is injected, usually forms part of a combined diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and polio jab.

Syrian refugees cross the border into northern Iraq

IPC provides protection from infection but it does not prevent the spread of the virus.

Professor Martin Eichner, from the University of Tubingen, and Dr Stefan Brockmann, from the Department of Infection Control in Reutlingen, point out that because only one in 200 polio infections cause symptoms, the virus could be circulating for nearly a year before a single case occurs.

By this time, hundreds of individuals may be carrying the virus.

Prof Eichner and Dr Brockmann wrote: "Routine screening of sewage for polio virus has not been done in most European countries.

"But this intensified surveillance measure should be considered for settlements with large numbers of Syrian refugees.

"Vaccinating only Syrian refugees - as has been recommended by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control - must be judged as insufficient; more comprehensive measures should be taken into consideration," they wrote.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed an outbreak of at least 10 cases of polio in Syria, where vaccination coverage has dramatically decreased because of the civil war.

Nearly all Syrian children were vaccinated against the disease - which begins with fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck and pain in the limbs - before the civil war began more than two years ago.

Polio was last reported in Syria in 1999.

In 1998, polio was endemic in 125 countries and there were an estimated 350,000 cases but that had fallen to just 223 cases in 2012 and it was endemic in just Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

However, WHO warns that if just one child remains infected the risk of the disease spreading again remains and eradication efforts in Nigeria and Pakistan have all been harmed by attacks by Islamist militants.

On Wednesday, the WHO increased the number of people it said must be vaccinated to 20 million as part of a vaccination campaign that will target children in Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

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Super Typhoon Haiyan Hits The Philippines

At least four people have been killed after one of the most powerful typhoons ever recorded hit the Philippines.

The victims of super typhoon Haiyan are reported to include a mother and child who drowned in South Cotabato, and a boy who was struck by lightning in Zamboanga City.

A fourth person was killed by a falling tree, according to the AP news agency.

Children have been left in tears by the typhoon in Cebu city

However, the number of confirmed deaths is expected to rise as emergency workers reach the worst affected areas, many of which remain cut off.

Some 750,000 people living in villages in Haiyan's path were ordered to leave their homes amid fears the storm damage could be the worst in the Philippines' history.

Many of them are refugees whose homes were reduced to rubble when a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck Bohol last month.

Waves up to six metres high have been reported as a result of high winds

The typhoon, which is now careering across the South China Sea towards Vietnam, packed sustained winds of 195mph and gusts of up to 235mph, according to the US Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Centre in Hawaii.

On land, differing reports from meteorologists put the wind speeds at between 145mph and 170mph.

Jeff Masters, a former hurricane meteorologist who is a director at the private firm Weather Underground, warned there would be "catastrophic damage".

Damage to buildings in Ormoc City. Pic: Ritchel M. Deleon

"There aren't too many buildings constructed that can withstand that kind of wind," he said. "The wind damage should be the most extreme in the Philippines' history."

The 300-mile-wide cyclone, known locally as Yolanda, whipped up waves that reached six metres high and threatened to inundate low lying areas.

Local journalist Mike Cohen told Sky News there were already reports of some landslides and a "very strong storm surge" entering coastal towns and villages.

Children sheltering in Cebu. Picture: Red Cross

Up to 12 million people live in areas affected by the typhoon, including the tourist districts of Leyte Island and Borocay Island.

President Benigno Aquino III, who had threatened to use guns to force people living in high-risk areas to leave, put dozens of military planes, helicopters and ships on standby.

"No typhoon can bring Filipinos to their knees if we'll be united," he added.

A closer look reveals the eye of the storm over the Philippines

Some meteorologists have claimed Haiyan is the strongest severe tropical storm ever to make landfall.

According to the Reuters and AP news agencies, the record is currently held by 1969 storm Hurricane Camillie, which had winds of up to 190mph.

Meteorologists fear the storm could intensify further as it approaches the Vietnamese coast, where it is expected to make landfall on Sunday morning.

A map showing the path and predicted path of Typhoon Haiyan

Haiyan is the 24th tropical storm to hit the Philippines this year.

Last year, Typhoon Bopha, which had maximum sustained winds of 175mph, killed 1,100 people in the country.

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Video Shows Russians Seizing Greenpeace Ship

Greenpeace has released new footage showing the moment its ship was seized by Russian authorities in September.

The Arctic Sunrise crew were protesting oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean and claim their actions were legal because they were in international waters.

The video shows a masked Russian coastguard officer abseil down from a helicopter hovering above the ship.

Greenpeace activists are then seen trying to block more guards from boarding the deck.

More masked coastguard officers, carrying guns, abseil onto the ship and are seen corralling crew members.

The ship's 30 crew members, including six Britons, were arrested when two activists tried to scale a state-owned Arctic Gazprom oil rig in the Barents Sea.

Russian investigators initially charged all 30 with piracy but said last month they were changing the charge to hooliganism, cutting the maximum jail sentence they face to seven years from 15 years.

Prime Minister David Cameron has urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to ensure fair treatment of the prisoners. 

Mr Cameron's intervention comes after relatives and supporters of British journalist Kieron Bryan, who was covering the protest, held a silent protest outside the Russian embassy in London on Saturday.

An international maritime court in the German city of Hamburg has begun hearing a Dutch complaint over Russia's detention of the Netherlands-flagged ship.

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Woman Tries To Sell Baby In Airport Toilet

A woman has been arrested in Turkey for allegedly trying to sell her baby to a couple in a toilet at an airport.

Turkish police released CCTV showing the 22-year-old, identified as Dinara A, arriving at Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen airport in a taxi with her mother - and the child in a carrycot.

The Turkish-born German couple arriving at the airport

Once the cab leaves, the woman can be seen speaking on her mobile phone.

The security footage then shows a couple at the airport - the woman with a handbag and man with a red suitcase - heading to meet her.

Dinara A enters the toilet with the baby, followed by the other woman who is seen leaving the facility with the baby.

The pair on their way to the meeting

Police said the woman agreed to hand over the child to the Turkish-born German couple in an airport toilet on September 14 in exchange for 1,000 Turkish Liras (£310), Dogan News Agency reported.

According to police sources, the German woman decided to return the baby to the toilets after she realised she could not pass through passport control with the child.

She later called police claiming she had found the baby in the toilet.

She emerges from the toilets with the baby in its carrycot

Dinara A, her baby, and mother were later deported from Turkey.

The German woman was released after providing testimony.

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Yasser Arafat 'Poisoning Was Probably Deliberate'

Timeline: Yasser Arafat

Updated: 9:52am UK, Tuesday 27 November 2012

Here are some of the key dates in Mr Arafat's life.

:: February 4, 1969 Mr Arafat, the fifth child of a Palestinian merchant, takes over the PLO chairmanship. He transforms it into a force that makes the Palestinian cause known worldwide.

:: June 6, 1982 Israel invades Lebanon to crush the PLO, forcing Mr Arafat and loyalists to flee Beirut.

:: October 1, 1985 Mr Arafat narrowly escapes death in an Israeli air raid on the PLO's Tunisian headquarters.

:: April 16, 1988 Khalil al Wazir, Mr Arafat's military commander, is assassinated in Tunis. Israel is blamed.

:: December 12, 1988 Mr Arafat accepts Israel's right to exist and renounces terrorism. Nearly two years later, Iraq invades Kuwait, Mr Arafat supports Saddam Hussein and the PLO is isolated.

:: November 1991 Mr Arafat marries his 28-year-old secretary, Suha Tawil. Their daughter Zahwa is born in 1995.

:: April 7, 1992 Mr Arafat is rescued after a plane crash lands in the Libyan desert during a sandstorm.

:: September 13, 1993 Israel and the PLO sign an accord on Palestinian autonomy in Oslo, Norway, giving Mr Arafat control of most of the Gaza Strip and about a quarter of the West Bank. He shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on the White House lawn. The two later share the Nobel Peace Prize with Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres.

:: July 1, 1994 Returning from exile, Mr Arafat sets foot on Palestinian soil for the first time in 26 years.

:: September 28, 2000 Israel's then opposition leader Ariel Sharon visits a Jerusalem shrine holy to Jews and Muslims, leading to clashes that escalate into a Palestinian uprising.

:: December 3, 2001 After three suicide bombings, Israel destroys Mr Arafat's helicopters in Gaza City, confining him to the West Bank town of Ramallah.

:: March 2002 Israel declares Mr Arafat an "enemy" two days after a Palestinian suicide bomber kills 29 people at a Passover holiday meal, prompting an Israeli incursion into the West Bank.

:: June 24, 2002 President George W Bush calls on Palestinians to replace Mr Arafat as leader. A year later, his deputy Mahmoud Abbas becomes the first Palestinian prime minister in a move pushed for by the US and Israel to sideline Mr Arafat.

:: June 4, 2003 At the first major Israeli-Palestinian summit without Mr Arafat, Mr Sharon and Mr Bush launch "road map" peace plan, which aims to end fighting and create Palestinian state by 2005.

:: October 21, 2003 Mr Arafat is diagnosed with gallstones. Nearly a year to the day later, he collapses and is flown to hospital in France with a serious, undisclosed illness.

:: November 9, 2004 A French medical team acknowledges that Mr Arafat has been in a coma for a week. He dies two days later at the age of 75.

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Philippines Braced For Typhoon Haiyan

Thousands of villagers, including those from an area devastated recently by an earthquake, have been forced to leave their homes as a powerful typhoon approaches the Philippines.

Typhoon Haiyan has already built up winds of 134mph and gusts of 155mph and there are fears it could get even stronger before it reaches Eastern Samar on Friday.

The head of the government's main disaster response agency said people are being moved from communities prone to landslides and flooding.

These include residents of Bohol, many of whom are still living in tents following the earthquake.

Haiyan is expected to cause massive damage

Haiyan is not expected to hit the province directly but it will almost certainly be lashed by strong wind and rain, say forecasters.

The military says Army troops are helping to deliver food packs and other items to communities that are hard to reach and rescue helicopters are on stand-by.

The typhoon is forecast to barrel through the country's central region on Friday and Saturday before heading towards the South China Sea on Sunday.

Manila, the densely-populated capital in the north, should not be affected.

Haiyan will be the 24th such storm in the Philippines this year, even more than usual. The annual average is 20.

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Castro Victim: I Was The Most Hated One

One of the three women held captive in an Ohio home for a decade has said she was forced to help captor Ariel Castro prepare a chamber for a fellow victim.

In a long interview with TV host Dr Phil McGraw, Michelle Knight has given the most detailed account so far on the ordeal the women  endured.

The 32-year-old spoke of her relationship with the other captives, Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry, and of her feelings the moment police rescued them in May last year.

Knight, who was Castro's first victim, said she had seen TV reports about the disappearance of Ms DeJesus, then 14, when Castro forced her to help prepare the room.

She said she had heard screams coming from the house.

"All I hear is fighting in the basement. I could hear things crash and I could hear somebody screaming, 'Get off me. Get off me,'" Ms Knight said.

"All I could hear was a girl screaming for help and nobody comes, nobody helps her."

Ariel Castro's home has been torn down

Castro told Ms Knight that Ms DeJesus was his daughter and that she was coming to visit – but she knew that was not true.

"He was telling me that I needed to help him prepare another room and I didn't want to prepare that room," Knight said.

"I had to help him drill holes in the wall to put the chains through to hook us together."

Ms Knight said she and Ms DeJesus were chained together often and they became close.

Ms Knight said there were times when she stopped Castro from hitting Ms DeJesus, taking the beating herself and telling him: "I'm the one you hate."

The three women endured beatings, starvation, rape and other abuse during their time in Castro's home in Cleveland.

Ms Knight said she became pregnant at least five times while in Castro's home. Each time, she said, Castro beat her brutally until she miscarried.

Amanda Berry (L) and Gina DeJesus at the time of their abduction

"I was the most hated one," she said.

The woman said Castro liked Ms Berry because of what she called his "obsession with blondes", and said she helped deliver Ms Berry's baby.

Asked how she feels about Ms Berry, Ms Knight said, "We're OK. Not the best of friends, but OK."

Castro, 53, pleaded guilty to kidnapping the three women, imprisoning them and repeatedly raping and beating them. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Ms Knight said she became pregnant at least five times

A month into his sentence, Castro was found dead in his cell. His death was initially ruled a suicide, but a prison report indicated he may have died accidentally as a result of auto-erotic asphyxiation.

Ms Knight recalled being scared when she heard police come in, saying it was a "roller coaster of mixed emotion".

"I wanted to kiss the ground that I was walking on and thank God for letting me get out of that hellhole."

Police came to the house after a dramatic 911 call in which Ms Berry cried for help.

Castro had gone out, Ms Knight said, and they were scared because they thought it might be intruders.

"So we're hiding, because we're scared. We're terrified. We didn't know that the cops were down there," the woman said.

"We thought somebody was breaking in, because it was a bad neighbourhood."

Ms Knight says she heard an officer shout, "Police!" but still did not feel safe - until she saw a badge.

"I just ran," she recalled. "I jumped on her (the officer) and I never let go."

The three women have been trying to readjust to life after their ordeal.

Ms DeJesus and Ms Berry are reportedly planning to collaborate with a Pulitzer Prize-winning team of reporters for a book about their experience.

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Twitter Shares 'Could Rise To $47 Each'

Shares in Twitter could rise by at least 60% on the company's first day of trading in New York, early estimates suggest.

The social networking site, which began trading at 1430 GMT under the ticket symbol TWTR, had set a price of $26 (£16) for its public stock offering.

Although it may take some time for moves in the share price to become available, there are indications that investors may bet on potential growth at the company.

Some analysts estimated Twitter's share price could rise to $44, white others suggested it could end the day even higher - potentially up to $47, an increase of 81%.

The original price values the San Francisco-based micro-blogging site at more than $18bn (£11.2bn), based on its outstanding stock, options and restricted stock expected to be available after the initial public offering (IPO).

Twitter is trading under the ticker symbol TWTR

The company is offering 70 million shares with an option to buy another 10.5 million.

Twitter boasts 230 million global users, including heads of state and celebrities.

However, the company lost $65m (£40m) in its most recent quarter and questions remain about its long-term prospects.

Twitter's stock market debut is the biggest of any technology firm since Facebook went public in 2012.

The floor of the New York Stock Exchange was busy with both traders and media, eager to see how the company would fair in its first few hours of trading.

Twitter had initially set a price range of $17 (£10.57) to $20 (£12.44) but raised the range on Monday signalling an enthusiastic response from prospective investors.

More follows...

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Kercher Murder: Sollecito In Emotional Plea

By Tom Kington, in Florence

Raffaele Sollecito has denied murdering Meredith Kercher and begged for his life back, in a dramatic court room appeal to an Italian jury.

Speaking six years after the British student was killed in the Italian city of Perugia, 29-year-old Sollecito made the emotional plea to the appeal trial in Florence.

He appealed to the jury "as an Italian, like you, to have a life".

"Because I don't have a real life," he said, before thanking the jury while appearing close to tears.

During his 15-minute speech, which gripped the jurors after a morning of complex DNA results that often left them looking lost, Sollecito described his brief romance with co-defendant Amanda Knox as a "little fairytale".

He said the relationship was shattered when the pair were accused of fatally stabbing Ms Kercher in the house she shared with Knox, pushing the defendants into a "nightmare beyond imagination".

Meredith Kercher was found with stab wounds to the neck in 2007

"I have been described as a ruthless killer but I am nothing of the sort," he said, during a softly spoken and occasionally rambling speech.

The trial is the latest in a drawn out legal process that saw Knox, 26, and Sollecito convicted and jailed in Perugia in 2009, before being released after four years when they were cleared on appeal in 2011, only for that verdict to be overturned by Italy's supreme court this year.

While Knox has refused to travel from her home in Seattle to appear in court for the new appeal, Sollecito returned from a holiday in the Dominican Republic to appear at the fresh appeal, flanked by his father.

Sollecito said he was "proud" to come from a "good Italian family" which had taught him strong values and had never had legal problems.

"I have always been honest, but I have been called an assassin," he said.

He claimed he had been a reserved student at Perugia, had not been an "obsessive partier" and did not drink.

In an apparent reference to the now infamous photos of him kissing Knox at the crime scene, he apologised, telling the jury "I didn't take the situation seriously at the start".

From being one week away from obtaining his degree, he was plunged into six months in isolation followed by a spell in a maximum security jail, he said, adding: "I don't recommend it to anyone in the world. All my life was cancelled."

Sollecito apologised over this picture of he and Knox and kissing

Speaking without notes, Sollecito condemned the "hallucinatory persecution" he faced, complaining that police had believed a footprint found at the house was his before changing their mind eight months later.

Sollecito said he had never known Rudy Guede, the local drifter who was convicted for his role in the murder.

"I would not have had a minimal interest in committing this atrocious act against a 20-year-old," he said.

Sollecito has faced suspicions that he was preparing to flee Italy after he took a holiday in the Dominican Republic, which does not have an extradition treaty with Italy.

But his father said his decision to fly in for the hearing showed he had no plan to escape Italian justice.

Sollecito complained that he had been hounded by photographers.

"I need to defend myself in the media for the most banal thing," he said.

"I have tried to stay out of the limelight. And today I am here before you to get to know you and tell you the truth of this matter."

Sollecito's speech followed an explanation by two Italian police officers of the results of a test on a DNA trace carried out on a knife found at his flat, which prosecutors have argued is the murder weapon.

Amanda Knox has refused to appear at the appeal

The officers said the results allowed the police to "support, in an extremely significant manner, the hypothesis that genetic material of Amanda Marie Knox is present" in the trace.

An earlier police report decided that a separate trace could contain Ms Kercher's DNA, which was used to suggest that the knife was the murder weapon.

But that test was challenged as unreliable by a second analysis carried out during the first appeal.

The latest result on the separate trace has been seized by lawyers representing Knox and Sollecito as proof that the knife was used by Knox and Knox only in Sollecito's kitchen.

Carlo Dalla Vedova, a lawyer representing Knox, said: "This is just a kitchen knife."

But Francesco Maresca, a lawyer representing the Kercher family, said he was sticking by the initial report that found a trace of Ms Kercher's DNA on the blade.

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Greenpeace Arrests: Dutch Take Russia To Court

By Katie Stallard, Russia Correspondent

Representatives of the Dutch government have appealed to an international maritime court to try to secure the release of the Arctic Sunrise and its crew.

The Greenpeace ship, which was sailing under the Netherlands flag, was seized by Russian security forces in September after a protest near an arctic oil rig.

Thirty people on board, including two freelance journalists, a cook and the ship's doctor were arrested at gunpoint and taken to a pre-trial detention centre in Murmansk.

Last week, without explanation, they were transferred to a prison in St Petersburg.

Initial charges of piracy have reportedly been downgraded to hooliganism, an offence punishable by up to seven years in prison. But Greenpeace said the original charges also remain in place.

Russian security services seize Arctic Sunrise

The Dutch government has applied to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to order the immediate release of the ship and its crew.

Based in Hamburg, the tribunal was set up to resolve global maritime disputes.

Russia had already said it would not take part in the hearing, and does not accept decisions that concern its national sovereignty.

The tribunal's website says its has no means to enforce its decisions.

But Greenpeace legal counsel Daniel Simons told Sky News the Netherlands had a very strong case, and it would be more appropriate for Russia to contest the issue of jurisdiction in court.

He said: "Russia has failed to indicate any legal basis for the boarding and detention of the vessel and those persons on board.

"So I think there's every prospect the tribunal will order their release, pending the arbitration case that the Netherlands has filed against Russia."

The Netherlands insists the ship was in international waters when it was stormed.

Inside the detention centre in Murmansk

Russia has said it was in its exclusive economic zone, endangered a Russian oil platform, and should be subject to Russian laws.

Relations between the two countries have been strained since the incident.

The Netherlands and Russia celebrate 400 years of cultural ties this year.

That is not quite going according to plan.

Two weeks after the Arctic Sunrise was seized, a Russian diplomat was arrested and, he has claimed, treated roughly by police in The Hague.

Ten days later, a senior Dutch diplomat was assaulted in his Moscow flat.

Now Russian public health officials are investigating concerns about the safety of imported Dutch tulips and cheese.

Dutch Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans told reporters ahead of the hearing: "The Netherlands is hoping now that all this, eventually, will mean that pending a final solution of the issues, the crew will be released and that also the ship is going to be released."

"Our interpretation of the law of the sea is that nothing happened which justifies the crew being in prison.

"The judge must now decide."

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New Jersey Governor Chris Christie Wins Poll

Chris Christie has been re-elected as New Jersey governor in a landslide victory over his Democrat rival.

Mr Christie won 60.5% of the vote against 38% for Barbara Buono, with 99% of precincts reporting.

The 51-year-old Republican - whose popularity soared after his response to Superstorm Sandy last year - is seen as a possible 2016 presidential contender. 

The margin of victory makes Mr Christie the first Republican in 25 years to receive more than 50% of the vote in the state, which voted overwhelmingly in favour of President Barack Obama last year.

Mr Christie told supporters: "We have a big, big win tonight.

"I did not seek a second term to do small things. I sought a second term to finish the job - now watch me do it."

Mr Christie, who attracted national attention by working closely with Mr Obama after the storm that devastated the New Jersey coastline, said Sandy had brought people together.

He said: "The spirit of Sandy will stay with us well beyond the days that the recovery will take. I will govern with the spirit of Sandy."

Speaking around 40 minutes after polls closed on Tuesday night, Ms Buono told her supporters she had called Mr Christie to congratulate him.

In Virginia, former top Democratic Party official Terry McAuliffe defeated Ken Cuccinelli, the state attorney general.

Mr Cuccinelli's campaign was damaged by his ties with the Tea Party movement, which was widely blamed for instigating last month's federal government shutdown.

Meanwhile, New Yorkers voted to elect Democrat Bill de Blasio as their new mayor.

And Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed was re-elected to a second term, defeating three little-known challengers. Mr Reed is perhaps best known for his strong support of Mr Obama.

In Boston, Congressman Martin Walsh narrowly defeated fellow Democrat John Connolly in a hard-fought race to succeed long-time mayor Thomas Menino.

Final results posted on the city's website showed Mr Walsh with 52% to 48% for Mr Connolly.

And in financially troubled Detroit, Mike Duggan defeated Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon. The city was taken into bankruptcy in July by emergency manager Kevyn Orr.

In Seattle, Ed Murray, who led the successful campaign to legalise gay marriage in Washington state, became mayor after defeating incumbent Mike McGinn.

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Venice: Liners To Steer Clear Of Historic Centre

Cruise ships are to be diverted away from Venice's historic centre from 2016 - although concerns have been raised about the proposed new route for the vessels.

The Costa Concordia disaster in January 2012 has increased pressure on the authorities to keep liners away from the central Giudecca canal and St Mark's Basin.

At present they pass within 300m (330 yards) of St Mark's Square, providing a stunning view from aboard the vessel but a jarring sight from the shore.

The MSC Magnifica passes near St Mark's Square

A commission made up of government ministers and local officials has approved plans to dig a new canal so ships can enter the lagoon from the west, avoiding the historic centre.

The Venice Port, which campaigned successfully to preserve the existing passenger terminal, estimates the project will take two years to complete.

Venice Mayor Giorgio Orsoni said the decision "finally inverts the tendency toward gigantism in the lagoon."

A campaign group opposed to the cruise ship traffic in Venice called it "a first victory for our movement".

But they are concerned about the environmental impact of the new canal, claiming it could have "devastating" consequences, and are to press for another route.

View of the Magnifica from the shore

In the meantime, cruise-ship traffic is to be reduced by 20% from January, while smaller ferries will be banned from passing through Venice altogether.

It is claimed this will reduce the amount of traffic in front of St Mark's by one quarter.

From November 2014 ships larger than 96,000 tons, with a capacity of 3,000 to 3,500 passengers, will also be banned from the city.

St Mark's Square

In the last 15 years Venice has become one of the world's top cruise destinations, with up to nine turnarounds a day in high season.

Under the new measures the number of cruise ships berthed at one time will be limited to five and passage will only be allowed at sunrise and sunset.

The Costa Concordia capsized after striking rocks off close to the Italian island of Giglio in January last year. Thirty-two people were killed in the disaster.

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Kerry's $75m Bid To Boost Middle East Talks

US Secretary of State John Kerry has pledged an extra $75m ($46m) in aid to help Palestinians, as he arrived in the Middle East to join peace talks.

Designed to boost Palestinian public support for the faltering negotiations, the additional cash is intended to create jobs and improve roads, schools and other infrastructure.

The announcement came as Mr Kerry met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of attempts to overcome the host of problems hindering the talks.

"I am very confident of our ability to work through them," he told reporters as he opened the meeting in a Jerusalem hotel.

Palestinian protesters during a demonstration as Kerry visited Bethlehem

"That is why I am here. This can be achieved with good faith and a serious effort on both sides."

He also urged both Mr Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who he met later in the day, to make "real compromises and hard decisions."

Senior Palestinians say an Israeli plan announced last week for 3,500 more settler homes in the occupied West Bank represents a major obstacle in the negotiations.

But Mr Netanyahu claimed the Palestinians' behaviour posed a greater threat to the discussions.

"I am concerned about the progress because I see the Palestinians continuing with incitement, continuing to create artificial crises, continuing to avoid, run away from the historic decisions that are needed to make a genuine peace," he said.

Mr Kerry also met Mahmoud Abbas

He said he hoped Mr Kerry's discussions in Jerusalem and with Mr Abbas "will help steer (the negotiations) back to a place where we could achieve the historical peace that we seek."

Speaking after meeting Mr Abbas, Mr Kerry reaffirmed the US' view of the settlements as "illegitimate".

Meanwhile, Palestinians held demonstrations in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, holding banners demanding an end to the settlements and criticising 'Israeli occupation and apartheid'.

On the sidelines of the peace talks, Israel has released half of the 104 Palestinian prisoners it pledged to free under a US-brokered deal to draw Mr Abbas back to negotiations that Palestinians abandoned in 2010 over settlement building.

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Norway Bus Murder Suspect 'Due To Be Deported'

A man arrested on suspicion of stabbing three people to death after hijacking a bus in Norway had been due to be deported today, police have revealed.

The bus driver, who was in his 50s, and his two passengers, a 19-year-old woman and a Swedish man in his 50s, were killed in the attacks.

The 31-year-old suspect was an asylum seeker from South Sudan who had been living at Ardal reception centre, near the scene of the stabbings.

And police officer Aage Loeseth said the man had been scheduled to fly alone and without security to capital city Oslo on Tuesday before being transported out of the country.

He said his asylum application had been refused because he had made an earlier application in Spain, where he was to be sent.

The deputy director of the organisation managing the reception centre in Ardal, Tor Brekke, said the attack had been "completely unexpected".

Ambulance workers at the scene of the killings

"There was nothing to indicate any imbalance, or that he could do this," he said.

The nearest police patrol when the alarm was raised after the attacks at around 5.30pm on Monday was 55 miles away.

The first emergency workers to arrive at the scene were firefighters followed by ambulance staff, with the hijacking initially reported as a traffic accident.

Norwegian newspaper VG said an ambulance worker approached the man while firefighters armed with hammers helped overpower him by spraying him with powder extinguishers.

Police arrived around 1 hour and 20 minutes after the alarm was raised and took the man into custody. He is now being held under armed guard at Haukeland hospital in Bergen, having reportedly suffered only minor cuts.

Olaug Holme, from Hordaland Police, told Dagbladet: "We have police on site who are guarding him.

"There will be a medical assessment as to when he may be transported elsewhere, (but) I cannot say much about the medical situation now."

Emergency terror police were initially scrambled to the location of the stabbings from Oslo, but turned back when it became clear the suspect had been arrested.

Forensics officers remained at the scene overnight, while a centre was set up nearby for relatives of those affected.

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Bangladesh Sentences Mutinous Troops To Death

More than 150 Bangladeshi border guards have been sentenced to death over a mutiny in 2009 that left 74 people dead, including several senior officers.

Another 160 mutineers were jailed for life, including a former politician of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

"The court announced the death sentence to them for the heinous killing of the country's brave sons," said prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajol.

The sentences were handed out after a mass trial which involved 846 defendants, leading to criticism from human rights groups.

An army soldier cries as he carries the coffin of a fallen officer

"Trying hundreds of people en masse in one giant courtroom, where the accused have little or no access to lawyers is an affront to international legal standards," said Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch.

More than 256 people received prison terms between three and 10 years, and 277 soldiers were acquitted. 

The 30-hour revolt by members of a unit known at the time as the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) was motivated by poor pay and conditions.

The victims were hacked to death, tortured or burnt alive before their bodies were dumped in sewers and shallow graves.

"The atrocities were so heinous that even the dead bodies were not given their rights," judge Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman told the packed court as he read out the verdicts.

Army soldiers inspect the assembly hall damaged by the mutineers

The violence began at the BDR headquarters in Dhaka - which has its own rose garden and zoo - before spreading across the country.

An official probe into the mutiny blamed years of pent-up anger over ignored pleas for pay rises and improved treatment of the ordinary troops, who resented their better-paid superiors.

The judge said the soldiers should have been given better pay and privileges to defuse the resentment, saying they could not afford to send their children to military-owned schools.

Nearly 6,000 soldiers have already been convicted by dozens of special courts.

The mutiny shook the stability of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's newly elected government, which ended the revolt by negotiating a settlement.

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Nazi Art Loot: Unknown Marc Chagall Work Found

The trove of Nazi-looted art seized in a Munich flat included works dating from the 16th century by artists such as Canaletto, Courbet, Picasso, Chagall and Toulouse-Lautrec, German authorities say.

"A total of 121 framed and 1,285 non-framed works ... were seized," said Augsburg state prosecutor Reinhard Nemetz.

"There were oil paintings, others in Indian ink, pencil, water colours, colour prints, other prints from artists like Max Liebermann and others."

A reproduction of a painting by artist Marc Chagall

A previously unknown work by Marc Chagall was among the collection found in a nondescript flat owned by Cornelius Gurlitt, the reclusive elderly son of a war-time art dealer.

The late Hildebrand Gurlitt was a specialist collector of the modern art of the early 20th century that the Nazis branded as un-German or "degenerate" and removed from show in state museums.

Investigators said they searched the apartment on February 28, 2012, as part of a tax investigation that started with a routine check on a Zurich-Munich train in late 2010.

Meike Hoffmann, art historian at Berlin Free University, said another unknown masterpiece by fellow modernist painter Otto Dix was also part of the haul.

She said the Chagall painting, an allegorical scene dating from the mid-1920s, had a "particularly high art-historical value".

A combination of two formerly unknown paintings by German artist Otto Dix

The Dix work is a rare self-portrait believed to have been painted in 1919.

Augsburg state prosecutor Reinhard Nemetz told a news conference: "Regarding these artworks with an ideal value so high that it cannot be estimated, there are concrete indications that this is so called 'degenerate art' or stolen art."

Siegried Kloeble of Munich Custroms Office said: "When we investigated the matter we immediately noticed that these were classic modern works.

"Let me name a few of the artists: Max Liebermann, Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Oskar Kokoschka, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, August Macke, Emil Nolde, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Pablo Picasso, Carl Spitzweg, Marc Chagall, Renoir, Schmidt-Rottluff, Hofer."

Ms Hoffman said: "When you're standing in front of these works which for a long time were believed to have disappeared or to have been destroyed, it is an incredible feeling of joy.

"They are in relatively good condition, some of them are dirty but not damaged.

The block of flats where the loot is believed to have been found

"As far as I can see, these works are of an absolutely outstanding quality, aesthetic quality but also in a good condition so they represent a huge scientific value.

"I pointed out that a lot of the works were not known at all until now.

"So this will mean a great challenge for the research on the individual artists once this case has been evaluated fully and the works can be displayed publicly."

The story of the artworks was revealed in a report by news magazine Focus over the weekend.

Focus estimated that the works found amongst stacks of hoarded groceries in the flat of Cornelius Gurlitt, could be worth well over €1bn.

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