Kenyan Farmers Threaten Violence Over Khat Ban

By Hind Hassan, Sky News Reporter

Kenyan khat farmers have threatened violent action against the British government following its decision to ban the stimulant.

FG Machuma, who says he represents the Meru tribe, told Sky News the decision to make the plant a class C drug was a "declaration of war".

He added: "If they don't listen to us ... they have a military base in Nanyuki ... and they will have to leave.

"If they don't leave peacefully then we will take arms and deal with them in Kenya."

Men chew khat and drink coffee in London

In the UK, khat is popular among some members of Somali and Yemeni communities.

The latest figures from 2011-2012 put the plant's UK value at £13.8m.

Users chew the leaves then swallow the juice, which contains an ingredient similar to amphetamine.

After a few hours, users become talkative and experience feelings of alertness, euphoria and excitement.

But symptoms can include depression, lack of concentration and psychosis.

The majority of British trade comes from the town of Meru in Kenya.

A farmer plucking khat shoots off a tree on a plantation in Kenya

It provides a source of income for around 500,000 farmers, who say the ban threatens their livelihood.

Home Secretary Theresa May defied the Government's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to push through the ban, which was approved by the House of Lords on May 12.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "Drug misuse has a serious impact on society and the ban on khat will help protect vulnerable members of our community.

"It will also prevent the UK from becoming a single regional hub for criminals trying to make a profit, as countries across Europe have already implemented the same ban.

"Parliament has now approved the government's decision and khat will become a class C drug on June 24, 2014."

Users of the plant claim they are being unfairly targeted.

A van transporting khat meant for export to Nairobi

Mahamud Ahmed Mohamad - who owns the UK's largest khat warehouse in west London - insists that chewing khat is a Somali tradition.

He told Sky News: "It's like closing a pub ... will you feel happy if you close British pubs?

"Why don't you close alcohol which is affecting a lot of people? Why is it only khat that is a major issue?"

He currently employs around 40 workers and says they will be made redundant once the ban is implemented.

Mr Mohamad is challenging the ban in the Court of Appeal.

Farmer James Ntonyi chews khat leaves at his father's farm in Meru

Abukar Awale, a former user, insists the substance is addictive and psychologically damaging.

The anti-khat activist blames his former habit for a violent confrontation during which he was stabbed.

"Availability of khat and the legality of khat was attracting more young people," he said. "By banning it we are preventing young people from failing in society."

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India: Second Gang Rape In Days Investigated

Another teenage girl has reportedly been gang-raped in northern India as police have launched an investigation into an alleged attack on the mother of another rape victim.

Police said four men attacked a 17-year-old girl in a field in Sarai Meer, Uttar Pradesh, on Wednesday.

One man has been arrested and a manhunt was underway for the other three alleged attackers, according to The Free Press Journal.

In a separate case, three men have been arrested in Uttar Pradesh for reportedly attacking the mother of an alleged rape victim after she refused to withdraw a police complaint.

Superintendent Dinesh Kumar said the men, allegedly including the father of a man accused of the rape on May 11, followed the woman into a field and beat her.

She was in a critical condition in a hospital in Etawah.

The two cases follow the gang rape and murder of teenage sisters whose bodies were discovered hanging from a mango tree in the state.

The gang-rapes have renewed outrage over sexual violence in India

Villagers in Katra found the bodies of the girls, aged 14 and 15, who disappeared from fields they had been using because their homes had no toilet.

Two suspects have been arrested in connection with the girls' rape and murder, and another is being hunted by police. Two police officers have also been arrested over failing to investigate their disappearance.

The case has renewed public outrage over sexual violence in India.

On Friday, Amnesty International called for the impartial investigation of gang rapes, murder and violence against young women of the Dalit caste in India.

Divya Iyer, senior researcher at Amnesty International India, said: "Despite the existence of constitutional safeguards and special laws, Dalits across India - and Dalit women in particular - face multiple levels of discrimination and violence.

"Members of dominant castes are known to use sexual violence against Dalit women and girls as a political tool for punishment, humiliation and assertion of power."

Crimes against Dalit people are often not properly registered or investigated and conviction rates are low, the organisation said.

Amnesty International added that the lack of adequate sanitation facilities across India posed a serious threat to the safety of women and girls.

India tightened its rape laws last year - introducing the death penalty for gang rape - following the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in New Delhi.

The case sparked nationwide protests.

Indian society is grouped into castes, known as Jati. These include Bhramin, Kshatryia, Viasya, Sudra and a lower caste known as "untouchables" which includes Dalit people.

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India Battles With Tobacco Addiction Epidemic

By Neville Lazarus, Sky News India Producer

Naveen Khanna could never have imagined that an innocent habit of chewing tobacco, like millions of other Indians, could nearly cost him his life.

It took less than four years of chewing tobacco for the 69-year-old to develop a full-blown case of mouth cancer.

It has left his face disfigured and Mr Khanna has undergone 35 radiation therapy sessions and an operation to get rid of the cancer.

He is taking no chances and makes trips to the hospital every three months for a check-up.

Bitter and resentful, he is now the voice of victims in an anti-tobacco campaign; a campaign he started from the kiosk which sold him his first tobacco pouch.

Naveen Khanna developed mouth cancer after chewing tobacco

He told Sky News: "By simply putting notices on the pouches and cigarettes that this is dangerous and this causes cancer will not be sufficient.

"There should be a ban and the government must implement this ban."

According to medical experts, India has epidemic proportions of diseases related to the use of tobacco.

There are 275 million tobacco users in the country.

Reports estimate that close to a million people die every year due to tobacco-related diseases.

Tobacco is cheap and widely available

Dr Harit Chaturvedi, head of the oncology department at a leading hospital in Delhi, told Sky News: "It's the biggest problem.

"In India we have 1.2 million new cancer cases every year and tobacco accounts for nearly half that number.

"I see a significantly rising trend but the statistical data does not support this sharp rise. But we on the clinical side see a massive increase."

This year campaigners want a steep increase in taxes on tobacco products.

But they are up against a very rich and powerful lobby that until now has effectively blocked or slowed down legislation against it.

Dr Harit Chaturvedi advocates a ban on tobacco

According to Dr Chaturvedi "the tobacco industry mafia is riding over the willpower of the so-called people in charge. It buys their will. The product needs to be banned.

"The money spent on treatment and man hours lost is far greater than the money and taxes it generates. This industry is just giving disease."

In a right to information (RTI) disclosure, the Union government revealed that tobacco companies have made donations to political parties in the past and may continue to do so.

An ordinary packet of 10 cigarettes costs about six pence. A pack of 25 sticks of the Indian version, called Beedis, costs a penny.

Fifty new patients are added to Dr Chaturvedi's list every week and he is just one doctor in this country of more than a billion people.

Chewing tobacco has been banned in most states, but the law is not enforced

Dr Chaturvedi is concerned by the increase in mouth and throat cancer caused by chewing tobacco, which is widely available and convenient to carry and consume.

Most states in India have banned chewing tobacco but the legislation is not enforced.

According to a report by the International Tobacco Control Project (ITCP), despite signing up to a global treaty and having a number of anti-tobacco and smoking laws, India is failing and leaving its people vulnerable to addiction and ill health.

Campaigners and medical experts like Dr Chaturvedi warn not only of the sharp increase of cancer victims but also that users are getting younger, with children as young as nine or 10 becoming addicted.

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Cameron: Meriam Death Sentence Is 'Barbaric'

David Cameron says the death sentence handed down to Meriam Ibrahim is "barbaric" and has called on Sudanese authorities to intervene.

The Prime Minister joined international condemnation of the 27-year-old mother's plight, saying he is "absolutely appalled" by the case.

"The way she is being treated is barbaric and has no place in today's world," he told The Times.

"I urge the government of Sudan to overturn the sentence and immediately provide appropriate support and medical care for her and her children.

Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg have also condemned Ms Ibrahim's sentence

"The UK will continue to press the government of Sudan to act."

Ms Ibrahim was found guilty by a Sudanese court of apostasy in renouncing Islam and of adultery for marrying a Christian, Daniel Wani.

She was sentenced to 100 lashes and death by hanging earlier this month.

Her death sentence has been suspended for two years so she can nurse her daughter Maya, who was born in prison on Wednesday.

Ms Ibrahim was forced to give birth to the child while shackled to a prison floor after guards at Omdurman Women's Prison refused to release her.

Husband Daniel Wani with his newborn baby in prison

Both the UK and US governments have summoned Sudan's charge d'affaires to discuss the case.

Foreign Office Minister Mark Simmonds told Sky News Britain is doing everything it can to pressure the Sudanese government to lift Ms Ibrahim's sentence.

He said: "We are putting intense pressure on the Sudanese government to do everything that they can to ensure her release.

"Hopefully the international outrage will push the Sudanese authorities into a situation where they feel they have to release Meriam."

He said her sentencing was unconstitutional under Sudanese law and in violation of the country's commitment to treaties that relate to human rights and freedom of religion.

The US State Department has described Ms Ibrahim's incarceration as "horrific" and continues to press Sudanese officials to intervene.

US embassy officials have been attending Ms Ibrahim's public hearings and are monitoring the appeals process in Khartoum.

Mr Cameron's comments follow condemnation from former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and British politicians including Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg.

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'Real Action' Needed In Hunt For Missing Briton

The brother of a British man who disappeared while trekking on a paradise island off Malaysia has urged the Government to appeal to local authorities to step up search efforts.

Gareth David Huntley disappeared on Tuesday after attempting to find a waterfall in the jungles of Tioman Island, off the peninsula's east coast.

He told friends at a charity project he had been working with he would return by 2pm that day but he has not been seen since.

A group of volunteers and local people have been into the jungle to search for the 34-year-old but have not found him.

Gareth with his girlfriend Kit

Mark Huntley said "real action" is needed to find his brother.

He said: "We need real boots on the ground in Malaysia. We need real pressure from William Hague at the Foreign Office. So far we haven't heard a word from him or David Cameron.

"Gareth's been missing now for five days and he's alone in the jungle. This was a man working out there as a wildlife volunteer - he deserves our assistance.

"This situation of delayed searches is all too familiar. We call on David Cameron to make just one phone call to the Malaysian authorities and kindly request they step up the search."

Mr Huntley had been volunteering at a Turtle sanctuary

Mr Huntley's mother Janet Southwell, who is on her way to the region, told Sky News the police response has been "incredibly slow" and her son's disappearance is "totally out of character".

"He just would not do it, he knows there are too many people who care and love him," she said.

She has written an open letter to the Prime Minister urging him to "do the right thing" and "make one phone call to the Malaysian leader to insist that they deploy real help to find Gareth before time runs out".

Twenty Malaysian police officers and a search dog are now involved in the search.

One of his friends who is in the area and doing what he can to help is Kyle Neo Kai Fu, who told Sky News he is certain his friend is alive.

"He knows a lot of things about self-sustainability," he said. "I think he's a survivor."

Survival expert Ken Hames told Sky News there are "lots of hazards" in the jungle apart from heavy rain.

"You've got deadfall from trees that have rotted, you've got hornets … quite a lot of things to contend with."

A file picture of a beach on Tioman Island

According to one of the accountant's close friends, Malaysian authorities have so far failed to conduct a thorough search.

Sophie Wilson told Sky News: "Nothing has come from the authorities. As far as we're aware, the police were informed and haven't been doing anything. They've been incredibly lethargic.

"They've said they're performing a search but all evidence on the ground suggests they're just not taking this seriously."

Kyle Neo Kai Fu and Gareth Huntley

Mr Huntley, from east London, had been working as a volunteer at the Juara Turtle Project, a conservation charity on Tioman Island.

One of the other volunteers, Charles Fisher, said police were informed the day after he went missing but did not actively begin searching.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said the local embassy was aware Mr Huntley was missing and was offering support.

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US To Keep Nearly 10,000 Troops In Afghanistan

Barack Obama will seek to keep 9,800 US troops in Afghanistan after the war formally ends later this year, senior administration officials have said.

The president is expected to announce the post-war plans from the White House Rose Garden later on Tuesday.

The proposal calls for nearly all of the remaining US forces to be out by the end of 2016, as Mr Obama finishes his second term, officials said.

The two-year plan is contingent on the Afghan government signing a bilateral security agreement with the US.

Outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai has refused to sign the agreement, but US officials are confident that either of the candidates seeking to replace him will approve the pact.

Word of the plan comes just days after Mr Obama's surprise visit to Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan, where the president met with military officials.

More follows...

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Ukraine: '50 Insurgents Killed In Donetsk'

Ukrainian forces claim to have retaken the airport in the eastern city of Donetsk amid fierce fighting which rebels say left more than 50 of their fighters dead.

Plumes of black smoke could be seen rising from Sergei Prokofiev International Airport after Ukraine fighter jets and helicopter gunships unleashed air strikes on insurgents who took control of an airport terminal.

Members of the public were urged to stay indoors following reports the fighting had spread to residential areas of the city.

A Ukrainian helicopter Mi-24 gunship fires at rebels at Donetsk airport

The road to the airport bore signs of the heavy fighting, strewn with blood-spattered and bullet-riddled trucks of the kind used by the separatist rebels.

And heavy machine gun fire could still be heard on Tuesday morning amid signs of continuing resistance.

Speaking in the capital Kiev, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said: "The airport is completely under control. The adversary suffered heavy losses. We have no losses."

Pro-Russian insurgents took control of the city's airport terminal

Fighting has also been reported in Mariupol, Biryukovo, and Slovyansk, with further rebel losses claimed.

First Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Yarema said: "We'll continue the anti-terrorist operation until not a single terrorist remains on the territory of Ukraine."

The prime minister of the rebels' self-styled Donetsk People's Republic (DNR), Alexander Borodai, is reported as saying: "We have lost more than 50 volunteers."

The government assault, considered the most forceful action so far taken by Kiev against pro-Russian rebels, came just hours after Ukrainian billionaire Petro Poroshenko claimed victory in the country's presidential elections.

Firefighters extinguish a fire at the Druzhba sports arena in Donetsk

Mr Poroshenko has rejected any talks with "terrorists" and promised a robust campaign to end the pro-Russian insurgency in the east, which has seen rebels seize government offices and clash with Ukrainian troops.

"The anti-terrorist operation cannot and should not last two or three months," he said. "It should and will last hours."

It is too early to say if the military crackdown will defeat the rebellion in Donetsk, where a hockey stadium was set on fire on Tuesday.

Sky News Foreign Affairs Editor Sam Kiley said the military action was a significant increase in the level of violence being applied by the Ukraine government.

He said: "Clearly, Kiev has decided to exercise its prerogative in trying to stamp out this insurgency which has been growing rapidly in the last two weeks.

"The issue will be whether the Kremlin will order Russian troops across the border. All the signs are the Russians will not do that. They're stepping back to try and talk to the Kiev government."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for a halt to Ukraine's military operation, and urged peace talks between Kiev and rebel leaders.

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Sudan Death Sentence Woman Gives Birth In Jail

A woman sentenced to death in Sudan for converting to Christianity from Islam has given birth to a baby girl in prison.

Mariam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, 27, was sentenced to 100 lashes for marrying a non-Muslim man and to death by hanging after being convicted under Sudan's strict Sharia law which forbids apostasy - the abandoning of a religion.

A Western diplomat familiar with the case said: "She gave birth to a girl today. The mother and baby seem to be doing okay.

"It's a cruel treatment to be in such a situation."

Ishag's case caused outrage after a Khartoum court sentenced her to death in May.

Born to a Muslim father, she was convicted under Sharia law that has been in force in Sudan since 1983 and outlaws conversions under threat of death.

Under Islam she is viewed to be a Muslim because her father was a Muslim.

Mariam Ishag has insisted she is a Christian and has not committed apostasy

The 27-year-old, who is also being held in detention with her 20-month-old son in Omdurman, married Daniel Wani, a Christian from South Sudan.

She was ordered to recant by a judge, and then sentenced to death when she refused as well as 100 lashes for "adultery".

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said he "wholeheartedly" supported calls by the Christian Muslim Foundation for the sentence to be dropped.

He said: "Our religions tell us that human interactions should be shaped by compassion and humanity, not by death sentences.

"It is vital that all people should enjoy freedom of conscience and be able to follow their own religion.

"Christians and Muslims should be able to coexist alongside each other, we emphasise that force and compulsion are not characteristics of either faith."

Last week, the UK and Canada summoned Sudanese diplomats to express concerns over Ishag's plight.

Ishag was told she would be allowed to nurse her baby for two years before the death sentence is carried out.

If she is hanged, she would be the first person executed for apostasy under the 1991 penal code, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

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Woman Held Over Posted Corpse Case In Japan

A woman has been arrested in China after leaving Japan using the passport of a friend whose corpse was posted across the country in a parcel marked as "doll".

The 29-year-old turned herself into the Japanese consulate-general in Shanghai and was detained by police for a suspected immigration offence, say reports.

Murder detectives in Japan are expected to seek her extradition.

The arrest comes after the body of Rika Okada, 29, was found in a two-metre box in a storage locker in Hachioji city, west of Tokyo.

It had been sent from from Osaka, 230 miles (400km) to the southwest.

The parcel carrier said the package had been paid for in Ms Okada's name.

The bill for the locker's short-term rental was also settled using her credit card.

Ms Okada had been missing since late March.

Shortly before her disappearance, she had written on her Facebook page that she was going to meet an old friend whom she had not seen for a decade.

Investigators discovered more than a dozen stab wounds on her body but did not find defensive injuries on her arms.

It is reported the Japanese-Brazilian woman held in Shanghai had been at school with Ms Okada, and had flown out of Tokyo earlier this month using the dead woman's travel documents.

The schoolmate, who was not named, is believed to have lived just a few hundred yards from the lock-up with a Chinese woman of about the same age.

Both women flew from Tokyo's Haneda airport on the same flight to Shanghai, reports said.

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Missing Flight MH370 Satellite Data Released

Missing Plane: Timeline Of Events

Updated: 1:18pm UK, Thursday 10 April 2014

A summary of developments surrounding the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and search for the plane.

Wednesday, April 9

:: Search team leader Angus Houston announces that Australia's Ocean Shield has picked up two further signals in the Indian Ocean. He says they were relocated on Tuesday after a brief period of going undetected.

Monday, April 7

:: Mr Houston declares the "most promising lead" so far, after the Ocean Shield detects two signals - suggesting the presence of a flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. They are located in a separate location to those previously found by a Chinese vessel.

Saturday, April 5

:: Chinese vessel Haixun 01 reports picking up a pulse signal with a frequency of 37.5kHz in the Indian Ocean, which could be a plane's black box. Other vessels are diverted to the area to follow up the lead.

Friday, April 4

:: Australian authorities launch a new underwater phase of the search. British vessel HMS Echo and nuclear submarine HMS Tireless are in the area to help with the search for MH370.

Monday, March 31

:: An Australian pilot spots a cluster of orange objects, which turns out to be fishing equipment.

Friday and Saturday, March 28/29

:: The search continues in a new location, further north in the Indian Ocean, with a Chinese plane spotting three multi-coloured objects

Thursday, March 27

:: Thailand reports the discovery of 300 floating objects but none are found to be from MH370.

Sunday, March 23

:: French satellites pick up 122 objects 1,500 miles west of Australia but search crews are again unable to find anything of significance.

Saturday, March 22

:: Chinese satellites spot a large object further south in the Indian Ocean, but aircraft flying over the site find only clumps of seaweed and a wooden pallet.

Thursday, March 20

:: Australian satellite images released show two objects around 1,550miles west of Perth in the southern Indian Ocean but surveillance aircraft are unable to locate them.

Saturday, March 15

:: The search area is expanded to two air corridors - a northern one stretching as far as Turkmenistan and Thailand - and one which goes through Indonesia and into the southern Indian Ocean.

Wednesday, March 12

:: Evidence from military radar possibly picking up the flight saw the search area expanded westwards to the Malacca Strait and Andaman Sea.

Sunday, March 9

:: Vietnamese aircraft reports seeing a door off the south-west coast of Vietnam, but it was found to be unrelated to flight MH370.

Saturday, March 8

:: Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 leaves Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing at 00.41am local time with 239 passengers and crew on board.

:: The plane makes its last verbal contact with Malaysian air traffic control at 1.19am.

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