Brit Killed In South Africa Farm Robbery

A British man who went to South Africa to run a nature reserve has been killed in a robbery at his farm, police say.

Christopher Preece had gone outside to check why the power was cut at the property when three men attacked him with machetes, according to officers.

The 54-year-old victim bled to death after the attack near Ficksburg, a town near the border with Lesotho, on Saturday night.

His wife, 56, was seriously wounded in the assault and is now being treated in hospital.

Captain Phumelelo Dhlamini of the South African Police Service said the robbers stole about $350 (£220) and a mobile phone.

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Australia Apologises For Military Sex Abuse

The Australian government has made an apology to military personnel who were sexually abused or otherwise mistreated during their service.

Defence Minister Stephen Smith made the apology in Parliament on behalf of the government following hundreds of claims of rape and sexual assault from members of the armed forces, past and present.

An inquiry into the allegations - which span six decades – has also begun and a compensation fund set up.

Mr Smith said: "Young men and women have suffered treatment which no member of our defence force or our community generally should experience."

The apology is the latest step in a two-year effort to reform the culture of the Australian military and make it more accepting of women.

The minister added: "Young men and women have endured sexual, physical or mental abuse from their colleagues which are not acceptable and do not reflect the values of a modern, diverse, tolerant, Australian society."

He acknowledged claims that officers had abused their positions of trust through their own behaviour or by turning a blind eye to the actions of others.

Australian Defence Minister Stephen Smith apologised in Parliament

Mr Smith also announced that retired judge Len Roberts-Smith had been appointed to examine allegations of abuse from more than 1,000 people dating back to the 1950s.

The earliest case relates to the alleged abuse of a 13-year-old navy trainee in 1951, while the most recent relates to events in 2011.

A preliminary review of these allegations by a law firm found that 750 were "plausible," Mr Smith said.

The three-month inquiry could result in compensation of up to 50,000 Australian dollars (£33,000) for each victim and the alleged perpetrators being referred to criminal authorities for prosecution.

Mr Smith warned that some of the perpetrators could still be serving in the military.

Australian Defence Force (ADF) Chief Lieutenant General David Hurley also apologised to victims and pledged to cooperate with the inquiry.

He said: "The number, nature, and range of allegations demonstrates that some members of the ADF have failed to understand the responsibility that rank imposes; that rank is a privilege and not a licence for domineering, belittling or predatory behaviour."

The government began its inquiries last year after a young woman alleged that a fellow cadet had secretly filmed a sexual encounter between the pair and broadcast it to their colleagues at the Australian military officer training academy.

That, and the attention the government focused on it, provoked a flurry of complaints of sexual misconduct over the decades.

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Second Fire At Bangladeshi Clothing Factory

There has been a second fire at a multi-storey clothes factory in Dhaka, just two days after over 100 people were killed in a blaze at another factory in the Bangladeshi capital.

The fire at the 11-storey building, housing three garment factories, in the suburb of Uttara sparked fresh scenes of panic as workers rushed to safety.

It caused widespread damage but there were no reports of deaths, with employees managing to escape to an adjacent building.

Eight workers are said to have been injured due to heavy smoke inhalation.

Workers protesting at the deaths of colleagues

The fire came as garment workers staged a mass protest at working conditions in Bangladesh following the country's worst ever factory blaze over the weekend, in which at least 112 people are thought to have died.

Survivors of Saturday night's fire joined several thousand colleagues blocking a highway during a march in the manufacturing hub of Ashulia, on the outskirts of Dhaka, with some protesters throwing stones at one factory.

They are angry at poor labour conditions and overcrowding in the factories as well as the lack of enforcement of safety laws. Locked fire doors are said to be commonplace.

Ashulia's 500-plus factories, which make clothing for top global retailers such as Walmart, H&M and Tesco, declared a "holiday", fearing the protests could worsen and turn into large-scale unrest.

Smoke engulfed the fire at the 11-storey clothes factory

"Most workers are in shock. They want to see safety improvements to these deathtrap factories," Babul Akter, head of a garment union, said.

The protesters chanted slogans, including a demand for bosses at the factory at Tazreen, where the weekend fire broke out, to be brought to justice.

Bangladesh's chief inspector of factories Habibul Islam revealed that the the nine-storey Tazreen factory, which was built in 2009, had permission for only three storeys.

Police and the government are trying to establish if the owners were to blame for the fire, for which the cause has not yet been determined.

A man searches for his daughter, missing since Saturday's fire

Habibul Islam, revealed that the the nine-storey factory at Tazreen, which was built in 2009, had permission for only three storeys.

Dozens of workplace fires have now killed more than 600 employees in Bangladesh's booming garment industry since 2006, according to the Clean Clothes Campaign, an Amsterdam-based textile rights group.

But none of the owners have so far faced prosecution for poor safety conditions.

Firefighters battled for several hours to contain the blaze on Saturday, with witnesses describing how desperate workers, most of them women, cried for help and several leaped to their deaths from upper floors as they tried to escape.

Debris on the floor of the nine-storey Tazreen fashion plant

A mass burial of the bodies of 58 workers has been postponed until Tuesday after requests from relatives who want more time for identification.

Bangladesh has around 4,500 garment factories and is the world's biggest exporter of clothing after China, with garments making up 80% of its annual exports.

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Deaths After Fire At Workshop For Handicapped

Fourteen people have died after a fire broke out at a workshop for people with disabilities in Germany.

At least six other people were also injured in the blaze, which occurred in the small town of Titisee-Neustadt in southwestern Germany.

Karl-Heinz Schmid, a spokesman for police in the nearby city of Freiburg, told local news channel N24: "We can tell you that we have 14 dead. The process of identification is ongoing.

"We also have a large number of injured who have been taken to hospital," said Schmid, adding it was too early to determine how serious the injuries were."

The fire reportedly broke out around 2pm local time (1pm GMT) and had still not been extinguished nearly two hours later.

Fireman at the Titisee-Neustadt workshop

Some 100 firefighters were said to be battling the flames.

The authorities have so far been unable to determine the cause of the fire at the workshop, which employs 120 people with either mental or physical disabilities in a variety of jobs including metalwork, woodwork and electrical installation.

Local news agency DPA quoted a source as saying there had been an explosion in a storage room.

It was still unclear whether chemicals were stored in the room, but the workshop activities include the treatment of wood.

Several people were removed from the building by firefighters wearing breathing apparatus, according to Focus magazine.

The centre in the Black Forest region is run by the Catholic Church's Caritas organisation.

More follows...

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Breivik: Video Of Killer Parking Van Bomb

CCTV footage of Anders Behring Breivik parking his van and walking off before a massive bomb inside exploded has been shown publicly for the first time.

The security camera video from July 2011 also contains pictures of the significant damage caused by the device which weighed nearly a ton and killed eight people, as well as injuring dozens of others.

Norwegian mass killer Breivik, wearing a security guard's uniform, is seen parking his white van next to a building that housed the prime minister's offices. The PM was not there at the time.

Breivik gets out of the vehicle in the capital Oslo and briskly walks away.

He then got into a second vehicle, a grey Fiat van, which he used to drive to the nearby island of Utoya where he gunned down 69 people, mostly teens, at a Labour Party youth camp.

Footage shows damage to the area after the Oslo bombing

Photographs of Breivik parking the van had previously been released and footage was shown during his trial earlier this year, but this was the first time the video was released publicly.

It is part of a documentary that Norway's public broadcaster NRK will air on Tuesday evening.

The programme also features comments by the security guard on duty that day.

Breivik was sentenced to 21 years in prison

On August 24 this year, Breivik was declared sane and sentenced to Norway's maximum sentence of 21 years in prison - a sentence that can be extended indefinitely if he is deemed a continued threat to society.

Breivik confessed to the attacks, calling them "cruel but necessary" to protect his country from the multiculturalism his victims embraced and which he hates.

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Egypt Judges Condemn President's 'Attack'

Egyptian judges have condemned a decree granting President Mohamed Morsi sweeping new powers, as angry protesters clashed with police for a second day.

A handful of rock-throwing activists battled riot police in the streets near Tahrir Square, where several thousand protesters massed on Friday to demonstrate against the decree, which effectively prevents Mr Morsi's decisions from being challenged.

The move also removed powers from the judiciary and allows the president to take any measures to protect national security.

The Supreme Judicial Council, the country's highest judicial authority, said the decree was an "unprecedented attack" on their independence, the state news agency reported.

Judges in the coastal city of Alexandria said all work at courts and prosecution offices would be suspended until the measures were reversed.

Some protesters are staging a sit-in in Tahrir Square

A number of opposition parties have called for an open-ended sit-in with the aim of "toppling" the decree, which has also drawn criticism from the US, the UN and the European Union.

A mass protest has also been called for Tuesday.

"We are facing a historic moment in which we either complete our revolution or we abandon it to become prey for a group that has put its narrow party interests above the national interest," the liberal Dustour Party said in a statement.

Mr Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood party also called its supporters out onto the streets of Cairo on Tuesday for a counter-demonstration to show support for the move.

On Friday, the president addressed his supporters at a rally outside the presidential palace, telling them he would press forward and that he was on the path to "freedom and democracy".

He said that the new powers were designed to stop "weevils" from the regime of ousted former president Hosni Mubarak blocking progress.

The decree reflects the concerns in the Muslim Brotherhood-led government that sections of the judiciary remain unreformed following the overthrown of Mubarak.

"It aims to sideline Morsi's enemies in the judiciary and ultimately to impose and head off any legal challenges to the constitution," said Elijah Zarwan, a Fellow with The European Council on Foreign Relations.

"We are in a situation now where both sides are escalating and it's getting harder and harder to see how either side can gracefully climb down."

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Catalonia Holds Vote That Could Reshape Spain

Polls have opened in Spain's wealthy region of Catalonia for an election that could determine whether it eventually breaks away from the rest of the country.

The region must choose a new assembly, after a campaign dominated by the issue of independence from Spain and financial woes.

Opinion polls show that most voters will cast ballots for pro-independence parties, with Catalan President Artur Mas expected to win re-election.

Mr Mas has advocated independence despite strong resistance from Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who has been fighting deep recession in his country.

"I hope to be the last president of a Catalonia that the Spanish state is trying to destroy," Mr Mas told a recent campaign rally for his conservative Convergence and Union Party.

"The next one will not depend on the Spanish state and they will no longer be able to destroy it," he told supporters, who chanted back to him: "Independence! Independence!"

If the vote today goes his way, he has promised to call a referendum on statehood within four years.

Like the Basque Country, Catalonia - a northeastern region of 7.5 million people - has its own language and sees itself as different from the rest of Spain.

Until recently, Catalans were content just pushing for greater autonomy, and stopped short of seeking independence.

But Spain's economic woes, including a 25% unemployment rate, and tough austerity measures imposed by Madrid have added to the Catalans' discontent and persuaded many they would be better off on their own.

Catalonia has a significant weight in Spain's economy, accounting for one-fifth of its total output, and a greater share of its exports.

It features one of the world's greatest football teams, FC Barcelona, which contributes many players to Spain's World Cup winning national squad.

However, the region has also suffered from Europe's financial crisis and has a 44bn euro debt.

In the voting for the regional assembly, called by Mr Mas two years ahead of schedule, 135 seats are up for grabs, with Mr Mas' alliance expected to take 60-64, according to recent surveys.

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First Jet Lands On New Chinese Aircraft Carrier

By Mark Stone, China Correspondent in Beijing

A Chinese fighter jet has made a successful landing on the country's first aircraft carrier.

Footage released by China's State Television shows the Chinese made J-15 jet touching down on the Liaoning sometime over the past week.

The successful landing will be seen as a further attempt by Beijing to project its military might beyond its borders.

China has been locked in a series of territorial disputes with almost all its neighbours in the region including Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam.

According to local media reports, the successful landing was completed by pilot Dai Mingmeng from the Sea Eagle Regiment of the East China Sea Fleet.

His jet, the J-15, is still in its trial stages. Nicknamed the 'Flying Shark' it is based on a similar Russian plane and is said to carry anti-ship, air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles.

Chinese State media claim that it is comparable to the US F-18, but given the secrecy surrounding Chinese military hardware, those claims cannot be verified.

The Liaoning was unveiled to the world in a lavish ceremony in September attended by Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Named after the province where it was refitted, the ship is a former Soviet aircraft carrier. It was built in Ukraine but mothballed after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Tensions are rising over the future of the Diaoyu Islands

In 1998 a Chinese tour operator bought the ship in an auction with plans to convert it into a Macao casino.

But on arrival in Chinese waters, after a lengthy and problematic journey around the world, the plans changed and an extensive military refit began.

Traditionally, China had what is known as a 'green water navy' whose sole objective is to provide coastal defences.

The acquisition of the aircraft carrier is a sign of Beijing's desire to become a 'blue-water' navy: projecting its might far from its shores.

China has a longstanding but historically dormant claim to a large swathe of the South China Sea and a number of small islands in the East China Sea.

But recently China has been much more vocal with its claim. This has caused significant diplomatic and military tensions with Vietnam, The Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Japan. 

Islands in the disputed waters are important to each of the nations involved because of what might be beneath them but also because of the domestic fallout that losing or capturing them could provoke.

Nationalism has played a significant role in stoking tensions particularly between China and Japan.

Japanese elections next month could once again escalate the tensions over a series of rocky outcrops known in China as the Diaoyu Islands and in Japan as the Senkaku Islands.

Posters have been erected in Beijing telling people that the islands 'Belong to China'.

China, Japan and South East Asia are all have vital import and export markets for Europe and the West. Any escalation of the maritime dispute could have broad consequences.

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More Than 100 Die In Bangladesh Factory Fire

At least 112 people have been killed in a fire which tore through a clothes factory in Bangladesh, an official has said.

The blaze broke out in the seven-storey building operated by Tazreen Fashions on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka, late on Saturday.

By this morning, firefighters had recovered 100 bodies, fire department operations director Mohammad Mahbub said.

Mr Mahbub said another 12 people, who had suffered injuries after jumping from the building to escape the fire, later died at several hospitals.

The death toll could rise as the search for victims is continuing, he added.

Army soldiers and border guards had been deployed to help police keep the situation under control as thousands of anxious relatives of the factory workers gathered at the scene.

It is not yet known what caused the blaze.

Firefighters at the scene of the blaze

Bangladesh has some 4,000 clothes factories, many without proper safety measures.

The country annually earns about $20bn from exports of garment products, mainly to the US and Europe.

Meanwhile, in Bangladesh's southeastern port city of Chittagong, military rescue teams were drafted in to help when a flyover collapsed just shortly before the factory fire.

"So far 13 dead bodies have been recovered," sub-inspector Mohammad Alauddin said.

The number of missing could not immediately be confirmed but police constable Shakakhawat Hossain said that dozens could be trapped under the debris.

Mr Hossain said about 20 people were injured, including some during clashes between police and an angry crowd that attacked the site offices of the construction company after the flyover collapse.

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Dangling Truck Hangs From Overpass After Crash

An Oregon man dangled several feet above a highway for nearly an hour after his truck crashed through an overpass guard rail.

Matthew Alan Hamilton was hospitalised on Saturday after firefighters plucked him from his pickup truck using a ladder with a basket.

The 38-year-old was arrested for driving under the influence after his release from hospital. 

Matthew Hamilton

His blood alcohol content was 0.50, according to Beaverton Police spokesman Mike Rowe. Oregon's legal limit is 0.08.

The crash occurred on the Southwest Danny Road overpass above Highway 217 in Beaverton, near Portland.

Emergency crews secured the truck from falling with a fire engine, and used another to bring Hamilton to safety.

The highway was closed for nearly six hours in both directions until the stranded vehicle was removed with a large crane, according to Officer Rowe.

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