Nasa's Maven Mission To Mars Set For Launch

Nasa is preparing to launch its new mission to Mars to study the Red Planet's upper atmosphere.

The rocket carrying Maven is ready for launch

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution spacecraft, also known as Maven, has been readied on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The robotic explorer is due to blast off later on a 10-month journey to Mars, where it will go into orbit and study the atmosphere to try to understand how the planet morphed from warm and wet to cold and dry.

The satellite, which is equipped with instruments to study the Martian atmospheric climate change over the planet's history, is set to be carried into space by an Atlas V rocket.

A two-hour launch window from 11:28am to 1.28pm local time (4.28pm to 6.28pm UK time) has been set.

Michael Meyer, lead Mars scientist at Nasa, said "It's only a little over 50 years ago that we first sent a planetary probe into space to move from just myth and fable to actually observation and measurements.

Curiosity rover has been on Mars since 2011

"We now have evidence with other measurements showing that there was water flowing on the surface of Mars. The environment at one point in time on Mars was able to support microbial life.

"But, you look at Mars today, it's cold, it's dry. We want to know what happened."

When Maven reaches Mars next September, it will join three functioning spacecraft, two US and one European.

Technicians work on Maven at the Kennedy Space Center

Indian orbiter Mangalyaan will also be arriving at about the same time to study the atmosphere, but will go a step further, seeking out methane, a possible indicator of life.

Nasa's Curiosity rover has been exploring the surface of the planet since August 2011 and has made several discoveries to support the theory that Mars was once able to support life.

These include pebbles providing evidence that a stream once flowed on the planet, and more recently, Martian dust, dirt and soil suggesting a "substantial" amount of water on Mars.

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Typhoon Haiyan: Video Shows Home Swept Away

Huge waves can be seen crashing into and washing away a house in amateur footage from one of the typhoon-hit areas of the Philippines.

Shot from the top floor of a boarding house in Hernani as a storm surge hit, the video released by an aid organisation shows the home disappear after being completely engulfed by water.

The footage emerged as the United Nations warned that some Philippine islands may have not been reached 10 days since the disaster struck, claiming more than 3,900 lives.

Millions have been displaced by the disaster

Nickson Gensis, from the Plan International development organisation, filmed the video from the building he and five others were staying in a few hundred metres from the sea.

"Five were praying and I was filming," he said.

"Three of our group were male and we all wore trunks so that we could swim if we needed to. We were so scared. But I thought, 'If I die, so be it'.

"It was like a huge tsunami but the water receded quickly afterwards."

With thousands dead and hundreds of thousands of homes destroyed, Philippine president Benigno Aquino visited the town of Palo, just south of worst-hit Tacloban city, where engineers have salvaged generators from a flooded IT park to light up the streets and town hall again.

A survivor surveys the devastation in a part of Tacloban

"One is tempted to despair, but the minute I despair, then everybody, it cascades down and everybody gets hampered in their efforts," he said.

Authorities in the country, the US military and international agencies face a mounting humanitarian crisis, with the number of people displaced by the catastrophe estimated at four million.

Bernard Kerblat, UN High Commissioner for Refugees representative for the Philippines, said the agency was still facing co-ordination problems.

"As of now, personally, I am not so sure that we've reached every single portion of the territory where people are in need of aid," he said.

"And, in fact, I wouldn't be surprised that unfortunately that there might still be, as I'm speaking to you, day 11 of this disaster, there might be still very isolated islands."

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Tornadoes Sweeping Across US Midwest Kill Six

At least six people have died as powerful tornadoes carved a path of destruction across the US Midwest.

Entire neighbourhoods were flattened within seconds as the twisters, triggered by a "very dangerous" and fast-moving weather system, touched down in as many as 10 states.

Forecasters said the extreme weather - which destroyed homes, uprooted trees and flipped cars upside down - could affect more than 50 million people.

The devastation left behind by a tornado in Washington, Illinois

According to the National Weather Service, more than 60 tornadoes struck, unleashing 80mph winds and hail stones up to two inches in diameter.

Illinois was struck the hardest. At least six were killed and dozens more injured, but with communications difficult and many roads impassable, it remained unclear how many people might be hurt.

At one hospital in Peoria, Illinois, doctors were treating at least 24 casualties, some of whom had head injuries and broken bones.

The storm moved toward the east coast, causing major damage in Illinois

Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin were buffered by the storm, which weakened as it tracked east towards Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and New Jersey.

Washington, a town of 16,000 in Illinois, appeared to have the most severe damage. 

Anthony Khoury, who saw a twister rip through Washington, told Sky News: "Most of my neighbourhood is completely destroyed, everything has been demolished.

"Families have lost their homes, people don't have anywhere to sleep and the electricity has gone."

Michael Perdun, a fellow Washington resident, said: "I stepped outside and I heard it coming.

Entire communities were flattened in seconds

"My daughter was already in the basement, so I ran downstairs and grabbed her, crouched in the laundry room.

"All of a sudden I could see daylight up the stairway and my house was gone."

Jeff Leeman, who was in his backyard with his son when a tornado struck Pekin, Illnois, added: "In a matter of seconds ... it was right on top of us.

"We hustled in the house and before we knew it, it was gone. It was that fast."

Two people, an 80-year-old man and his 78-year-old sister, were killed in Washington County; three were killed in Massac County, near the Kentucky border; and the sixth victim was reported in Tazewell County.

A car crushed by a fallen tree in Pekin, Illinois

The tornadoes brought down phone lines, caused thousands of power failures and left debris strewn across roads.

The severe weather also caused the cancellation of many flights, while the Baltimore Ravens' game against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field was temporarily suspended in the first quarter due to lightning in the area.

Meteorologist Matt Friedlein said such powerful storms rarely occur so late in the year because the climate is usually too cold.

However, temperatures had been forecast to climb to as high as 26C (78F), he said, which is warm enough to produce severe weather when coupled with strong winter winds.

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Russia Crash Plane Was 'Vertical' On Impact

Russia's transport minister says a plane that crashed at Kazan airport, killing everybody on board including a British woman, was "vertical" when it hit the runway and exploded.

Forty-four passengers and six crew members were killed when the Boeing 737-500 airliner crashed on Sunday evening.

The Tatarstan Airlines flight from Moscow was trying to abort its landing in order to make a second approach when it struck the runway and exploded.

Transport minister Maxim Sokolov said the plane appeared to fall out of the sky.

The site of the crash

"The plane simply fell. It went vertically into the ground. After the plane hit the ground there was an explosion," he was quoted as saying by the state RIA Novosti news agency in Kazan.

Mr Sokolov cited security footage that shows the plane at its point of impact.

British woman Donna Bull, an A-levels programme manager at Bellerbys College in Cambridge, was killed in the crash, along with her Moscow-based colleague, Yana Baranova. The pair were heading to Kazan for a 10-day marketing trip.

Donna Bull was on a marketing trip

The UK Foreign Office confirmed the death and said it was providing consular assistance.

Ms Bull was described by her employer as a "very popular and well-respected member of staff".

Also among the dead was the son of the leader of the Tatarstan region, Irek Minnikhanov, and the head of Russia's FSB security service in Tatarstan, Alexander Antonov.

The plane took off from Moscow's Domodedovo airport at 6.25pm local time and crashed just over an hour later.

According to eyewitnesses, the Boeing lost altitude quickly and its fuel tank exploded on impact.

There were high winds and cloudy skies over the airport in central Russia at the time of the crash.

Boeing officials at the Dubai Airshow declined to comment on the crash.

The flight was operated by the regional Tatarstan airline, according to a spokeswoman from Russia's Emergencies Ministry.

A man reacts at Kazan airport to news of the crash

Kazan, which is 500 miles east of Moscow, is the capital of the oil-rich region of Tatarstan.

A new runway was built at the airport ahead of the World Student Games, held in the city earlier this year.

A spokesman for state aviation oversight agency Rosaviatsia said authorities would search for the flight recorders.

Russia and the former Soviet republics combined had one of the world's worst air traffic safety records in 2011, with a total accident rate almost three times the world average, according to the International Air Transport Association.

Flowers and a teddy bear are left near a fence of Kazan airport

IATA said last year that global airline safety had improved, but accident rates had risen in Russia and the ex-Soviet Commonwealth of Independent States.

In April 2012, at least 31 people were killed when a Russian passenger plane crashed shortly after take-off in Siberia.

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Paris Shootings: Attack At Liberation Paper

A manhunt is under way in Paris after two separate shootings, including one at a newspaper that left a man fighting for his life.

A photographer's assistant was seriously injured at the offices of the Liberation newspaper before another shooting about two hours later outside the headquarters of Societe Generale bank.

In a third incident, a man was taken hostage close to the bank and forced to drive to the Champs-Elysees before being released.

There are also unconfirmed reports that the suspect may be carrying grenades.

The hostage was released on the Champs-Elysees

Police said descriptions of the car-jacker matched that of the gunman. Shotgun cartridges found after both attacks also match up.

Officers are guarding media offices across Paris and are investigating a link with an incident on Friday when a man with a shotgun threatened journalists at a French news channel.

The victim at the Liberation newspaper was shot in the chest and arm, according to police union spokesman Christophe Crepin.

The shooter reportedly entered the lobby of the building wearing a bulletproof vest just before 10.15am, fired several shots with a pump-action shotgun and then fled.

Police stand guard outside the Liberation newspaper office

Liberation said the 27-year-old victim is in a critical condition at the city's Pitie-Salpetriere hospital.

No one was injured at the bank shooting, according to a Societe Generale spokesperson.

Police confirmed three shots were fired outside the building, which is located about six miles (10km) from the newspaper's office.

Sky News' Robert Nisbet said shortly after the bank shooting, a man called police and said he had been taken hostage in the nearby town of Puteaux.

The second shooting was outside the Societe Generale headquarters

"He was told he should drive to the Champs-Elysees - right in the centre of Paris," said Nisbet.

The shootings come three days after a man stormed into the Paris headquarters of news channel BFMTV brandishing a shotgun and warned a senior editor: "Next time, I will not miss you."

Police are investigating a link with that incident and comparing CCTV footage.

Freelance journalist Peter Allen, who is on the Champs-Elysees, said there is an "eerie silence on the streets" and that people in the area have been told to stay inside.

France's Interior Minister Manuel Valls speaks to media after the attack

"The hunt is on for this man," said Allen. "He has been described as between 40 and 45 years old, stout, shaven headed, wearing a cap and jeans.

"Rather disturbing reports say he is actually brandishing hand grenades as well as a shotgun.

"No one has seen him for a while and there are reports that he disappeared down into the Metro system - specifically line one - a hugely popular line full of tourists at all times of the day."

French President Francois Hollande said in a statement he had ordered authorities to "mobilise all means to clarify the circumstances of these acts and arrest the perpetrator or perpetrators".

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Antibiotics Warning: Resistance 'Growing'

By Enda Brady, Sky News Reporter

The world faces "unimaginable setbacks" unless it tackles the growing threat of resistance to antibiotics, according to an international group of experts.

The latest research by the 26-strong group predicts major problems unless governments work together immediately.

Antibiotic resistance happens when bacteria evolve mechanisms to withstand the drugs which are used to fight infection.

Lead author Professor Otto Cars, of Uppsala University in Sweden, said: "The causes of antibiotic resistance are complex and include human behaviour at many levels of society.

"The consequences affect everybody in the world.

"Within just a few years, we might be faced with unimaginable setbacks - medically, socially, and economically - unless real and unprecedented global co-ordinated actions to transform the way antibiotics are regulated and developed are taken immediately."

In the UK, research is focusing on how plant chemicals keep insects at bay

In September, the UK Government announced plans for a five-year strategy to tackle the problem, setting aside £4.5m.

Recent decades have seen vast increases in the use of antibiotics across medicine and agriculture, but the scientists argue that without adequate regulatory controls and better patient awareness, the huge global surge in antibiotic resistance will continue.

They say the problem is compounded by a desperate shortage of new drugs to treat multi-drug resistant bacterial infections.

Prof Cars added: "Antibiotic resistance is a complex ecological problem which doesn't just affect people, but is also intimately connected with agriculture and the environment.

"We need to move on from 'blaming and shaming' among the many stakeholders who have all contributed to the problem, towards concrete political action and commitment to address this threat.

Prof Laura Piddick says more funding is needed to develop new treatments

"Consumers and providers of antibiotics alike need to be empowered to tackle antibiotic resistance, as well as ensuring that those in need benefit from affordable, effective antibiotics."

One of the British scientists who helped compile the report said that alarm bells have been ringing - and ignored - for many years.

"For a long time there has been a sense of crying wolf over this," said Professor Laura Piddock, from the University of Birmingham.

"Science has been telling us about this problem for years. We need more academic research and funding. New treatments have been hampered by a lack of funding. It has always been viewed that this is something that the pharmaceutical industry should do."

At the John Innes Centre in Norwich scientists are going back to nature for the answers, studying how plants like eucalyptus trees produce chemicals to keep insects at bay.

"Plants have a distinct disadvantage in that they can't move out of the way of predators," Tony Maxwell, the centre's head of biological chemistry, told Sky News.

"And they have no end of predators, large and small animals, insects and bacteria. They have to produce a whole array of chemicals to defend themselves. What we are trying to work out is how we can use those chemicals for our own usage in antibiotics."

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Mandela's Granddaughter: My Battle Of Survival

By Alex Crawford, Special Correspondent

Nelson Mandela's granddaughter Zoleka has told Sky News how her grandparents inspired her in her battle to beat breast cancer.

Her interview with Sky comes as a leading South African newspaper reported her grandfather could no longer speak because of all the "tubes that are in his mouth to clear (the fluid off) his lungs".

The South African Sunday Independent splashed the news across its front page this morning following an interview with Mandela's second wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. 

The former South African president is considered to be medically stable by doctors although still critical and is being cared for at a 24-hour medical unit set up at his home in Houghton, a suburb of Johannesburg.

When Hope Whispers was published last week

The newspaper reports that Mr Mandela now communicates using facial gestures.

"He can't actually articulate anything," the newspaper reported Mr Mandela's ex-wife as saying.

The news coincides with the publication of a book by Zoleka in which she charts her painful journey with breast cancer, but also goes into startling detail about her drink, drug and sex addiction and touches on her childhood sexual abuse.

She stops short of explaining who was responsible for the sex abuse or how it happened.

"That's a story for another book," she told me when we met.

"It's still too painful."

The life of 33-year-old Zoleka has been anything but staid.

Her book, When Hope Whispers, begins with the words: "By the time I was born, on 9 April 1980, my mother (Zindzi Mandela) knew how to strip and assemble an AK-47 in exactly 38 seconds.

"She was 20 years old, trained in guerrilla warfare and already a full-fledged member of Umkhonto we Sizwe (the armed wing of the African National Congress)."

Her family's fight against South Africa's apartheid laws, which discriminated between different skin colours, dominated their lives and left a personal legacy which they are still coping with.

For Zoleka that meant a descent into drink and drug addiction and multiple sexual partners - but also the loss of two children; one was killed in a car accident, the other died after being born prematurely. And now, it has meant coping with breast cancer.

Zoleka said when she was first diagnosed she refused treatment for three months.

"I think I was in denial," she said.

She feared the chemotherapy and surgery would mean she would be unable to be a healthy mother to her surviving son.

Nelson Mandela can no longer speak, according to a newspaper report

It is a decision she regrets and the aim of the book, she says, is to provide some hope and inspiration to others coping with addictions, loss of children or a potentially terminal disease.

She detailed her chemotherapy in video blogs and pictures too. They show her hair being shorn and a sobbing Zoleka speaking about the pain of being bald. "I feel so ugly," she says.

She was persuaded by her medical team to save her eggs so she could possibly try for a family in the future but talks movingly about how heartbreaking it was for her to come to terms with the fact that with a double bilateral mastectomy, she would never be able to breastfeed again, should she become pregnant.

And she pays tribute to her grandparents. Her grandmother Winnie was by her side through much of her cancer treatment.

"Having the name I have, means there is a certain responsibility that I can't run away from," she said.

"And one of the things I learned from my grandparents is that everyone has the power to make a difference in other people's lives, no matter how difficult their own circumstances, and that's what I'm trying to do."

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Kurt Caselli: Motocross Star Dies After Crash

Motocross star Kurt Caselli has died after crashing during a race in Mexico.

The 30-year-old was leading the 833-mile off-road Baja 1000 race when he reportedly hit a small animal and crashed.

He later died as a result of severe head trauma.

Roger Norman, the president of race organiser Score International, said: "Our desert racing family has lost a very special person in Kurt.

"Kurt was a superb racer and this is a tragedy that affects us all.

Caselli pictured in action in January this year

"We extend our deepest condolences, thoughts and prayers to the Caselli family.

"Their loss is immeasurable and we grieve with them."

Caselli's team KTM Racing said in a statement that traces were discovered on the remains of his bike "that indicate he had collided with some small animal, which apparently caused the crash".

The statement added: "We are hugely shocked and saddened to hear of the death of Kurt Caselli.

"A huge loss to his family, team and to our sport. Kurt was a wonderful competitor and an all round top guy."

The crash happened on Friday, and there were initial reports that a booby trap was responsible for the crash.

Caselli was a decorated American racer who won the 2011, 2012 and 2013 American Motorcyclist Association National Hare and Hound National Championships.

He was also named the 2007 AMA Sportsman of the Year and won several races at the association's International Six Days Enduro competitions.

He had just started to compete in international races and in June he won the Desafio Ruta 40 Rally in Argentina - only his second career international race.

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Typhoon Haiyan: HMS Daring Arrives To Help

British warship HMS Daring has arrived in the Typhoon Haiyan disaster zone, as the president of the Philippines visited devastated areas.

The Type 45 destroyer and her crew docked at the island of Cebu ready to provide humanitarian assistance, the Department for International Aid and Development said.

It has spent the last three days carrying out reconnaissance work in and around the southeast Asian nation, using a helicopter to survey 48 islands, including areas which have not yet been reached by international relief teams.

The Lynx helicopter will now be used to fly shelter kits, food and medical supplies to those remote areas.

Members of a 12-strong medical team from the UK, which arrived in the Philippines earlier this week, will also be flown to different areas to treat injured victims of the typhoon.

The Lynx helicopter is on board HMS Daring

HMS Daring Commander Angus Essenhigh told Sky News: "We're very much looking forward to getting into the fight tomorrow and delivering some of the aid where it's most needed."

Sky's Defence Correspondent Alistair Bunkall, on board the warship, said: "They will no doubt be the first outsiders to reach some of these devastated areas since typhoon struck."

The typhoon - said to be the strongest ever to make landfall - slammed into the Philippines on November 7, killing thousands of people.

The typhoon hit the country on November 7

President Benigno Aquino, caught off guard by the scale of the disaster and criticised by some for the sometimes chaotic response, has been visiting affected areas.

Not for the first time, he sought to deflect blame for the problems onto local authorities whose preparations he said had fallen short.

Mr Aquino delivers a speech in Guiuan

In Guiuan, a hard-hit coastal town in eastern Samar province, he praised the city mayor for conducting a proper evacuation that had limited deaths to less than 100, saying that was a contrast to other towns.

"In other places, I prefer not to talk about it. As your president, I am not allowed to get angry even if I am already upset," he said.

"I'll just suffer through it with an acidic stomach."

Mr Aquino spoke of his appreciation for the volunteers, and also promised his nation that those who have been affected will receive continued support.

"Your government will not be remiss in providing everything, everything, everything that you will need," he said.

While aid packages have begun to reach more remote areas, much of it carried by helicopters brought by the USS George Washington aircraft carrier, the United Nations said people were still going hungry in some mountainous provinces.

It said information about several provinces in the west of the Visayas region remained "limited", with 60% of people in towns in the northeast part of Capiz province needing food support.

Victims run to an aid helicopter in a mountainous area west of Tacloban

More than a week after Typhoon killed at least 3,633 people, the UN has doubled its estimate of homeless to nearly two million.

There are still 1,179 people missing, according to national figures.

A number of Britons are missing following the disaster, Foreign Secretary William Hague confirmed on Saturday.

Among those feared dead is Colin Bembridge, 61, from Grimsby, who was staying with his partner Maybelle, 35, and their three-year-old daughter Victoria near Tacloban when the storm hit.

British Prime Minister David Cameron pledged an additional £30m on Saturday for international aid agencies working in the country. It brings the total amount pledged by the British Government to £50m

The amount the British public has donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee's (DEC) typhoon appeal has reached 35m. 

Sunday mass still went ahead in adestroyed cathedral in Palo

Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious is also being sent to replace HMS Daring.

The aid effort continues as the DEC appeal charities warned leaders meeting at UN climate talks in Warsaw that the disaster offers a glimpse of the future if urgent action is not taken.

Aid agencies including Christian Aid, Cafod, Care International, Oxfam and Tearfund said ministers meeting in the Polish capital must act urgently because climate change is likely to make such extreme weather events more common in future.

Climate models forecast that typhoons could become more powerful and that weather-related events around the world will be more extreme and frequent, they warned.

Delegates from 195 countries are taking part in the annual UN climate talks, which are taking place until November 22.

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Hague: 'UK Visit Put Spotlight On Sri Lanka'

The Foreign Secretary has insisted it is in Sri Lanka's own interests to hold an independent inquiry into alleged war crimes, as international pressure would only continue to grow.

Speaking on Sky News' Murnaghan programme, William Hague also defended the attendance of the UK at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) in Colombo, arguing it had shone a "spotlight" on human rights concerns.

David Cameron has come under fire from campaigners for not joining the leaders of Canada, India and Mauritius in boycotting the summit in protest over the regime's record.

But the Prime Minister said he had used the occasion to highlight issues, and raise them directly with Sri Lanka's president Mahinda Rajapaksa.

During his visit Mr Cameron became the first world leader to travel to Sri Lanka's war-torn north since the country gained independence in 1948.

As many as 40,000 civilians are estimated to have died in the final months of the regime's 26-year fight with Tamil Tiger separatists in 2009, according to the UN, whose call for an international investigation if no new inquiry is held are backed by Mr Cameron.

Mr Cameron is the first world leader to visit Sri Lanka's war-torn north

But these demands have been rejected by Mr Rajapaska, who denies claims of war crimes and ongoing abuses.

Mr Hague told Sky News: "Clearly the Sri Lankan government don't want to do that.

"But the point we have been making and the Prime Minister's made very forcefully to the President is that they do need to do that unless there's going to be more and more international pressure, including when the United Nations Human Rights Council meets next March."

He added: "It would be in the interests of Sri Lanka to build real reconciliation in this country after a terrible war, and that means respecting human rights, it means making sure that there's a true feeling of reconciliation among the people of Sri Lanka, and accountability for what's happened in the past.

"I think what's happened at this Commonwealth heads of government meeting is that it has shone a spotlight.

"The attendance of the UK at this meeting has shone a spotlight on these things and has put them under greater international pressure.

"Unless they take some action to set up their own thorough, independent, credible inquiry into allegations about the past, then that international pressure not just from the UK but from many other countries is going to grow and I think that does cause them concern."

Mr Hague also said the UK government raised human rights concerns with countries around the world, including Zimbabwe.

He said: "Do we meet, have we met ministers in the government in Zimbabwe and discussed human rights issues with them? Yes of course we have.

"We do that with countries all over the world."

Many Commonwealth countries face claims of human rights abuses, with 41 out of 53 states having laws that make homosexuality illegal.

Mr Hague hailed the Commonwealth a remarkable "network", but went on: "Does that mean we agree about everything? No it doesn't.

"You are right that many of them have laws about homosexuality we don't agree with."

But meetings provided the opportunity to lobby on cases of discrimination.

"These meetings do put peer pressure on those countries.

"There's a lot of positive pressure that comes from these meetings and we should keep that up," he said.

But human rights activist Bianca Jagger argued Mr Cameron had been wrong to attend the meeting in Sri Lanka, and said it have the regime in Colombo credibility.

She said, also on Murnaghan: "If he had not gone it would have challenged not just what happened in the northern part of Sri Lanka, and the fact that this country probably committed war crimes, and it would have as well questioned whether the Commonwealth is committed to human rights, good governance and democracy."

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