Police officers in a southeastern London neighborhood shot two assailants after they allegedly killed a person with a machete. According to reports the victim is a soldier from a nearby barracks. The attack happened near the Woolwich Barracks.

Nick Robinson, political editor of the British Broadcasting Corporation, confirmed that British government was treating the attack as terror-related.

A bystander who witnessed the gruesome act of violence live-tweeted the entire event.

Mashable first reported on the live tweets. The Twitter account has not been verified yet but the time of the tweets match the time of the attack.

According to geolocation data, the Twitter user was also recently in the area of the attack.

A video has been circulating of the man thought to have been involved in the beheading of the soldier.

“I apologize that women had to witness this today but in our country our women see this happening all the time,” the man speaking with a London accent says in the video.

Another witness named James told London’s LBC radio, “We saw clearly two knives, meat cleavers. They were big kitchen knives like you would use in a buthcer’s. They were hacking at this poor guy. We thought they were trying to remove organs from him.”

“These two guys were crazed, they were not there, they were just animals. They then dragged him from the pavement and dumped his body in the middle of the road,” James said.

Below are the bystander’s tweets.

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Three women shield the dead soldier’s body

Members of the British parliament last night called for the nation’s highest bravery awards to be handed to a group of women who shielded the body of a soldier after he was beheaded in a gruesome terrorist attack in London today.

The women covered the dead man’s body while two men, thought to be Islamic terrorists, and who had seconds earlier killed the soldier, stood close by threatening the women.

The women refused to back off even as the killers waved machetes, a knife and a gun at them, according to witnesses.

A new image emerged tonight that showed one woman confronting one of the terrorists. In his left hand is what appears to be a very large kitchen knife. Twitter users who took the image named the woman as Ingrid Loyau-Kennett and said she was trying to distract the man until the police arrived. Her name could not be independently verified tonight.

The men later recorded a video at the scene, blaming the slaying on Western interference in Muslim countries. Although the men spoke with London accents, it was speculated last night that they were of Somali or eastern African origin.

The hunt was on last night to identify the woman as it also emerged that the specially-armed police officer who took down one of the attackers by firing the first shot, was one of a handful of female officers in London police’s elite armed unit.

Patrick Mercer, a member of parliament and a former British Army officer, said: “This is courage of the highest order, it sounds as if these members of the public are not soldiers, not policemen, not people whose duties demand this, they are extremely courageous people and that courage deserves to be recognized at the highest level.”

Another MP, Keith Vaz, told the Telegraph newspaper: “I think what they have done is extraordinarily brave and courageous. It shows the spirit of London that people are just not prepared to allow an attack of this kind. I pay tribute to what they have done.”

Meanwhile Twitter user Boya Dee, who witnessed the incident described how the female armed officer fired the first shot.

“The first guy goes for the female fed with the machete and she not even ramping. She took the man out like robocop. Never seen nutn like it.” he tweeted.

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A member of the Pussy Riot band who was jailed over a protest against President Vladimir Putin in a Russian cathedral said on Wednesday she was starting a hunger strike after she was barred from a parole hearing.

Maria Alyokhina also told her lawyers to quit the proceedings.

She and bandmate Nadezhda Tolokonnikova are serving two-year prison terms for bursting into Moscow’s main Russian Orthodox cathedral in February 2012 and singing a profanity-laced “punk prayer” urging the Virgin Mary: “Throw Putin out!”

Speaking by a video link from prison, Alyokhina told the court considering her request for release on parole that it had violated her rights by not allowing her to take part.

“In protest against the court’s refusal to allow me to appear in person to take part in the hearing, I’m going on a hunger strike,” Alyokhina was shown reading from her statement in a video from the prison in the Perm region.

“In the current circumstances I forbid all my lawyers and representatives to take part in this court hearing”.

The judge at the court in Berezniki, the Ural Mountains town more than 1,000 km (620 miles) northeast of Moscow, adjourned the hearing until Thursday.

Alyokhina’s lawyer packed up her things and left her seat behind the defense’s desk empty, acting on her client’s wishes. She said Alyokhina’s decision was a method of last resort.

“She decided that only in this way, with the attention (brought by) a hunger strike, could she show how the rights of defendants are violated,” Irina Khrunova said.

“She made this decision soundly, independently, and after deliberation.”

Alyokhina’s mother, Natalia, said she had little faith in Russian justice and would not raise her hopes of her daughter’s parole.

“I don’t expect anything good from the judge. It will be hard,” she said.

Reprimands Alyokhina received for violating the prison’s rules may block her parole. She was said to be rude to prison staff and to not respect sleeping hours.

Alyokhina, 24, and two bandmates were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred last August after a trial seen by Putin’s opponents as part of a clampdown on dissent during a third term in power he began in May 2012.

Western governments and many entertainers, including Madonna, said the sentence was disproportionate but Putin, a former KGB spy who has cultivated close ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, said the state needed to protect the faithful.

One of the three women jailed, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was freed last October when a judge suspended her sentence on appeal after she argued she had been prevented from taking part in the protest because a guard seized her.

Tolokonnikova, 23, was denied parole last month and both she and Alyokhina have had requests for their sentences deferred until their young children are older rejected by courts. They are due for release next March.

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This startling screengrab shows a man thought to have been involved in the beheading of a British soldier on a busy London street Wednesday.

Broadcast by Britain’s ITN network, the image was taken from a video taken at the scene of the slaughter.

Speaking with a London accent, the man says to the camera: “I apologize that women had to witness this today, but in our country our women see this happening all the time.”

In other parts of the video, said to be too shocking to show, it is claimed he says: “This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”

Then he walked back to the prone body of the victim, which by this stage was being protected by three women.

The British government has called an emergency meeting of its highest-level antiterrorism task force after the serving soldier was hacked to death.

The soldier, who witnesses said wore a T-shirt supporting Help for Heroes, the charity that raises funds for injured U.K. service members, was attacked by two men near the Woolwich Barracks area of London. British military units are based at the barracks.

The British Broadcasting Corporation reported that the man was first hit by a car driven by two men, after which they attacked him with knives and machetes. Witnesses said attempts were made to behead the soldier.

The attackers were said to have waited for 20 minutes while specially armed units of London’s metropolitan police service arrived. The men then attacked police officers and were shot, reports said. Latest reports say both are in local hospitals, at least one of them in a serious condition.

The calling of a meeting of the U.K.’s Cobra committee is a strong indication that the British government regards the attack as terror-related. Islamic fundamentalists have long threatened to attack British service personnel in a guerilla-style incident. Terrorist videos have also featured British Muslims threatening to behead a U.K. soldier if they got the chance.

Nick Robinson, political editor of the British Broadcasting Corporation, confirmed the British government was treating the attack as terror-related.

The attackers shouted, “Allahu Akhbar,” Arabic for “God is great” during the attack and in the confrontation with police, according to witnesses.

A witness named James told London’s LBC radio: “We saw clearly two knives, meat cleavers. They were big kitchen knives like you would use in a butcher’s. They were hacking at this poor guy. We thought they were trying to remove organs from him.

“These two guys were crazed, they were not there, they were just animals. They then dragged him from the pavement and dumped his body in the middle of the road.

“They took 20 minutes to arrive, the police — the armed response.

“There was only a few people at first, then traffic began to build up because people were getting out of their cars to shout at them. They were taking no notice, they were standing there, I think they were proud of what they were doing.

“When they dumped the body in the road, these two black guys had the opportunity to hurt other people if they wanted to because there were brave women with the dead guy on the floor. They were shielding and covering him. The attackers with the knives were standing over these women.”

Other witnesses said that as the two attackers waited for police to arrive, they taunted passengers on a nearby London bus, asking them to take their photograph using their cellphones.

Just yards away from the scene is an elementary school, which was immediately put into lockdown.

Last night it was confirmed that British Prime Minister David Cameron was returning to the country from an official visit to France in response to the incident.

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Hundreds of youths have set fire to cars and attacked police and rescue workers in poor immigrant suburbs over three nights of rioting in Stockholm, Sweden’s worst disorder in years.

Last night, a police station in the Jakobsberg area in the northwest of the city was attacked, two schools were damaged and an arts and crafts center was set ablaze, despite a call for calm from Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.

The riots in one of Europe’s richest capitals have shocked a country that prides itself on a reputation for social justice, and fuelled a debate about how Sweden is coping with both youth unemployment and an influx of immigrants.

“We’ve had around 30 cars set on fire last night, fires that we connect to youth gangs and criminals,” Kjell Lindgren, spokesman for Stockholm police, said Wednesday.

He said eight people had been arrested Tuesday night, but there were no reports of injuries.

The riots appear to have been sparked by the police killing of a 69-year-old man wielding a machete in the suburb of Husby this month, which prompted accusations of police brutality.

“Everyone must pitch in to restore calm — parents, adults,” Reinfeldt told reporters Tuesday.

After decades of practicing the “Swedish model” of generous welfare benefits, Sweden has been reducing the role of the state since the 1990s, causing inequality to spike.

While average living standards are still among the highest in Europe, governments have failed to substantially reduce long-term youth unemployment and poverty, which have affected immigrant communities worst.

The left-leaning tabloid Aftonbladet said the riots represented a “gigantic failure” of government policies, which had underpinned the rise of ghettos in the suburbs.

“We have failed to give many of the people in the suburbs a hope for the future,” Anna-Margrethe Livh of the opposition Left Party wrote in the daily Svenska Dagbladet.

An anti-immigrant party, the Sweden Democrats, has risen to third in polls ahead of a general election due next year, reflecting unease about immigrants among many voters.

Some 15 percent of the population is foreign-born, the highest proportion in the Nordic region. Unemployment among those born outside Sweden stands at 16 percent, compared with 6 percent for native Swedes, according to data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Among 44 industrialized countries, Sweden ranked fourth in the absolute number of asylum seekers, and second relative to its population, according to U.N. figures.

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French actor Gerard Depardieu said on Tuesday the Tsarnaev brothers, who are ethnic Chechen and accused of the Boston marathon bombing, had been raised American and that residents of the volatile Russian region of Chechnya were not to blame.

The actor, who accepted Russian citizenship after quitting France to avoid a planned 75 percent tax on millionaires, was echoing comments from Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, with whom he has been filmed socializing.

“I was in the United States when the terrorist act was carried out in Boston. I agree with Ramzan Kadyrov who said that the Tsarnaev brothers have a Chechen last name but their upbringing is American,” Depardieu said at a news conference.

“[Chechens] don’t carry any responsibility,” said Depardieu, who was in Chechnya to shoot a movie in the Russian North Caucasus region.

Kadyrov, who has been criticised for his strongarm rule, says tough policies are required in Chechnya to control Islamist violence in the North Caucasus, where insurgents wage almost daily violence to create an Islamic state.

He has denied that Chechnya had any links to the Tsarnaev brothers, accused of blasts that killed three people and injured 264 others at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

U.S. investigators are looking into links between Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed in a gun battle with police, and extremists who wage violence in the mountainous Russian region near Sochi, where Russia plans to hold the 2014 Winter Olympics.

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A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the government had properly classified top secret more than 50 images of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden taken after his death, and that the government did not need to release them.

The unanimous ruling by three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected a request for the images by a conservative nonprofit watchdog group.

Judicial Watch sued for photographs and video from the May 2011 raid in which U.S. special forces killed bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, after more than a decade of searching.

The organization’s lawsuit relied on the Freedom of Information Act, a 1966 law that guarantees public access to some government documents.

In an unsigned opinion, the appeals court accepted an assertion from President Barack Obama’s administration that the images are so potent that releasing them could cause riots that would put Americans abroad at risk.

“It is undisputed that the government is withholding the images not to shield wrongdoing or avoid embarrassment, but rather to prevent the killing of Americans and violence against American interests,” the opinion said.

The court ruled that the risk of violence justifies the decision to classify the images top secret, and that the CIA may withhold the images under an exception to the Freedom of Information Act for documents that are classified.

Judicial Watch did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department, which represents the Obama administration in court, had no immediate comment.

The images show a dead bin Laden at his compound in Pakistan, the transportation of his body to a U.S. ship and his burial at sea, the government has said.

Some of the photographs were taken so the CIA could conduct facial recognition analysis to confirm the body’s identity, according to court papers.

The case is Judicial Watch Inc v. U.S. Department of Defense and CIA, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, No. 12-5137.

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French policemen cordon off Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral.
Credit: Getty Images

One of Paris’ most visited sites was evacuated Tuesday.

Approximately 1,500 people were evacuated from the Notre Dame after a man committed suicide in the 850-year-old cathedral, according to the Associated Press.

A police official announced the cathedral, located on Paris’ Ile de la Cite, was closed to the public after the incident Tuesday afternoon. The police official wouldn’t confirm to French media outlets that the man had shot himself.

According to reports, the man put a letter on the altar, then pulled out a gun and shot himself in the head.

Monsignor Patrick Jacquin, the cathedral’s rector, told the Associated Press that this is the first suicide in decades at the site.

“It’s unfortunate, it’s dramatic, it’s shocking,’ he said.

An evacuation is very uncommon at the cathedral, which is visited by approximately 13 million people from around the world every year.

The cathedral will open again for an evening service that church officials said will include a prayer for the man who committed suicide.

Follow Mary Ann Georgantopoulos on Twitter @marygeorgant

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Tour guides at the world-famous Sistine Chapel in Rome have threatened to call a strike in protest at an explosion of petty crime — especially pickpocketing — in the venue.

A Facebook page run by the guides, who also take visitors through the nearby Vatican museums, say the 15th century chapel is overrun by tourists each day, turning the chapel into a magnet for thieves.

The pickpockets mainly strike as visitors peer skywards to see Michelangelo’s ceiling, and frescoes by Botticelli and Pinturicchio, taking their attention away from bags and purses.

Thieves also target nearby St. Peter’s Square and St. Peter’s Basilica.

“Petty crime, a lack of decorum, neglect … our job is becoming harder by the day,” said one guide on the Facebook forum. “The only thing to do is to organise [sic] ourselves and do something on our own initiative – no one will solve our problems for us.”

A total of 27,000 people visit the Sistine Chapel and Vatican museums.

Last month, guides at the Louvre museum in Paris threatened a similar strike over pickpockets.

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Unemployment is difficult. For one London woman, it’s even harder to find a job — because of her good looks.

Laura Fernee has been unemployed for two years, and says it’s not due to a lack of skills.

“I’m not lazy and I’m no bimbo,” Fernee told The Daily Mail. “The truth is my good looks have caused massive problems for me when it comes to employment, so I’ve made the decision that employment just isn’t for me at the moment. It’s not my fault … I can’t help the way I look.”

Fernee has a PhD in science and was working at a medical research lab from 2008 to 2011. There she earned approximately $45,000 annually. She quit in 2011 citing comments from her co-workers about her physical appearance.

“In the end, as much as I love my work, going in to work became very, very difficult because of the psychological impact on me,” she said during an appearance on ITV’s ‘This Morning.”

If you’re wondering what Fernee has been doing in the past two years to support herself, she has had her wealthy family to fall back on.

The Daily Mirror reports that her parents, Catherine and Alan, have been covering their daughter’s expenses.

“I know people will judge me for choosing not to work, but they are underestimating just what a curse good looks can be in the workplace,” Fernee insists. “Everyone thinks it must be great to be attractive, but there are serious downsides.”

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Liu Tienan, then head of the National Energy Administration and deputy chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

China’s Internet is brimming with corruption, officials collecting bribes, homes and luxury accessories online as casually as they do mistresses.

But while the government tolerates such anti-corruption vigilantism, it is also extremely leery of the threat the Internet can pose to Communist Party rule.

The Internet is the new tool in the fight against corruption – a cornerstone policy of new President Xi Jinping, who has pledged to tackle the problem head-on.

But while acknowledging that China’s online world is helpful, authorities have also moved quickly to quash rumors that might fan protests that could escalate out of control, deleting microblog posts or even entire accounts.

The accounts of two people who spread potentially panic-inducing rumors of bird flu breaking out in Guizhou province were erased, according to the China Daily newspaper.

He Bing, vice president of the law school at China University of Political Science and Law, told media that his Twitter-like microblog, or “weibo”, was closed down after he forwarded what turned out to be a rumor of a student killing an Internet enforcement officer who had suspended his account.

Author Murong Xuecun, an outspoken censorship critic, said his four weibo accounts, with 8.5 million combined followers, were deleted after he posted criticism of restrictions on what university teachers can discuss with students.

China unveiled tighter Internet controls in December, legalizing the deletion of posts and accounts, underscoring the government’s desire to muzzle online debate.

Those convicted of spreading rumors and false reports can be jailed for up to 10 years.

China has more than a half-billion Internet users, and the great popularity of weibo has spawned a legion of corruption watchdogs whose posts can circulate among millions.

“Citizens have readily transitioned from being extremely reluctant to voice their views to being extremely competitive about trying to get their views out there and to gain followers,” said Ken Lieberthal of the Brookings Institution in Washington.

PUNISHED FOR POSTING

But protests could threaten stability and the disciplinary apparatus has moved quickly to squelch hearsay.

Police this month detained a 28-year-old Beijing woman for posting that another woman, 22, was gang-raped and thrown off a building to her death and that police refused to investigate.

Police said the victim committed suicide, but were alarmed when hundreds protested against her death, demanding an inquiry.

Also this month, four people in Xinjiang province in China’s northwest were given five days’ detention for spreading rumors about a murder that police say never happened.

The latest bureaucrat to fall from grace thanks to the Internet was Liu Tienan, sacked last week as deputy chief of the National Development and Reform Commission.

Liu was accused by a journalist in microblog posts of helping to defraud banks of $200 million and of threatening to kill his mistress who reportedly balked at the scheme.

Media fanfare about Liu’s downfall “suggested the ruling party welcomes netizens to join the anti-corruption campaign”, Zhou Shuzhen, a professor at Renmin University in Beijing told the state news agency Xinhua.

The Internet has snared numerous victims.

An official in Shanxi province was dubbed “watch brother” after cybersleuths posted photos of him wearing luxury timepieces. A deputy bank manager became known online as “house sister” for buying 20 properties in northwest China worth some $160 million and more than 40 in Beijing.

One of the most notorious cases burst into public view last November, with video posted online of Lei Zhengfu, a squat and now-former apparatchik in Chongqing, having sex with an 18-year-old mistress.

Yet another official, ex-chief of the Central Compilation and Translation Bureau, Yi Junqing, was sacked in January when his mistress posted details of their affair.

“These days the government can’t ignore this kind of social pressure because it faces increasing questions of its own legitimacy,” says Li Datong, a former journalist who lost his job for challenging censorship.

But while Xi has pledged to hunt down corrupt “flies” as well as “tigers”, referring to low- and high-ranking officials, the public is still waiting for a big catch.

“We have some pretty large-size flies, but no small tigers,” said Minxin Pei of Claremont McKenna College in the United States. “The next test case will be to see whether the government will allow a minister’s wrong deeds to be exposed, and then to go after him.”

The saga of Bo Xilai, a Politburo member drummed out of the party and arrested for corruption and whose wife was convicted last year of the murder of a British businessman, occurred before Xi became president and party chief.

China’s ultimate rulers, the seven members of the Communist Party Politburo’s Standing Committee, are “off limits” for corruption probes, Pei said.

The government responded with fury when the New York Times reported in October that relatives and associates of then-premier and Standing Committee member Wen Jiabao had secretly accumulated at least $2.7 billion in assets.

The Times’ website has remained blocked in China since then.

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Rail passengers searching for love in Prague need look no further than the daily commute as the city makes plans to designate carriages on its underground trains for singles.

Prague transport company Ropid wants to set aside carriages on some or all of its trains for singles seeking a soul mate, a service that could launch in the Czech capital by end of this year.

The city-owned company will start polling passengers to determine whether they would be interested.

Spokesman Filip Drapal said the initiative was one of the activities the city-owned company hoped would lure people out of their cars and onto public transportation.

“We want to emphasize that public transport is not only a means of travel but that you can do things there that you cannot do in your car,” he told Reuters.

Prague, with a population of 1.2 million, attracted 5.4 million foreign visitors in 2012 with a mix of centuries-old architecture and cobblestone streets and cheap Pilsner beer.

The city’s three metro lines span more than 59 km and transported 580 million passengers in 2011.

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The incident happened on May 19 in the Kaluga region of Russia. Local media said the timestamp on the video was wrong.

The footage shows a car accident on the Bryansk to Dyatkovo road. The driver of an Opel Zafira car loses control and the vehicle hits a concrete and steel fence before rocketing skywards. The 30-year-old driver is reported to have died on the spot, while passengers remain in critical condition in hospital.

Local police said the accident was probably caused by a burst tire.

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Humor may not always translate well, but Jon Stewart is picking up millions of fans in China, where his gloves-off political satire is refreshing for many in a country where such criticism is a rarity — especially when directed at their own leaders.

A recent segment on North Korea scored more than four million views on microblogging Sina Weibo, and even stodgy state broadcaster CCTV has used Stewart’s “The Daily Show” in a report, though they wouldn’t let a Chinese version of him near their cameras.

Recent popular sequences have included one in which Stewart lampooned the Chinese hackers who cracked the New York Times computer system earlier this year, wondering if that was the best they could do.

But far from squelching Stewart, CCTV even used one of his sequences on Guantanamo Bay to criticize Obama in a regular broadcast — a move widely derided by netizens.

In China, however, such criticism tends not to be welcomed by the government. Dissident artist Ai Weiwei, who regularly criticizes the government for what he sees as its flouting of the rule of law and human rights, was detained for 81 days in 2011, sparking an international outcry.

“There’s nothing like political satire here,” said David Moses, who studies and writes about Chinese humor.

Though the exact timing of Stewart’s entrance to China is unclear, many have been watching him for four or five years, mainly through the Internet and Weibo.

“Being a journalist, you have to find out the truth,” said Mao Moyu, a Shanghai journalism student who got hooked on Stewart four years ago.

“If there’s … something that hurts the public interest you have to stand out, no matter how sharp the thing is. You have to stand out and say that’s not right.”

Part of Stewart’s popularity is that he seems cool to young people in love with all things foreign, but a thirst for satire that is not afraid to show its face contributes too, Moses said.

The closest thing that exists in China is coded references and puns that tweak official pronouncements or sound like obscenities.

“That’s just shooting a finger at the government. But this is full-fledged jokes and routines about North Korea or about China and trade. … It’s just what they wish they could do here,” Moses said.

Free translations into Chinese by Stewart’s fans have boosted his popularity. In fact, one — known as Gu Da Bai Hua — now even has his own fan base.

China’s thirst for foreign satire is so great that Stewart is not the only popular U.S. comic. Some Chinese say they prefer rival television satirist Stephen Colbert — although humor may not be the only issue at stake.

“I think I like Stephen Colbert’s pronunciation more because it’s much clearer for me,” said Shanghai student Peng Cheng.

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Two microscope slides bearing the blood of former Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi are to go on sale in London on Tuesday and are expected to fetch from 10,000 pounds to 15,000 pounds ($15,200-$22,800).

The slides were obtained in 1924 when the father of the Indian independence movement was recovering from an appendectomy near Mumbai. He was thought to have donated the blood to the family he was staying with at the time.

“To Gandhi devotees, it has the same status as a sacred relic to a Christian,” said Richard Westwood-Brookes, a historical documents expert at Mullock’s auctioneers which is selling the item.

“It is an artefact which is revered by disciples of Gandhi, particularly in India and therefore that is the sort of person who would go for it,” he added.

The slides are part of a larger collection of items obtained by Mullock’s, which include the former leader’s sandals, shawl and bed linen.

Demand for Gandhi memorabilia has been steadily growing since Mullock’s sold soil samples and blades of bloody grass purportedly from the spot where Gandhi was assassinated in 1948, for 10,000 pounds ($15,200) last year.

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The accident occurred near the city of Nevsehir. Most of the people injured were treated for broken bones, but one was said to be in critical condition.

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The boy was killed, and at first Israel apologized for its role in his death. But later it suggested he had been hit by Palestinian fire — a version of events it supported this morning with the release of a fresh report by a committee of inquiry into the coverage of the event.

The committee was established last year by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said continued broadcast of the footage was damaging to Israel. The committee’s 36-page report concludes that Muhammed and his father Jamal were not hit by gunfire from the Israeli Defense Force.

The report criticized the initial broadcast, by the European TV channel France 2. It said the station’s “central claims and accusations had no basis in the material which the station had in its possession at the time … There is no evidence that the IDF was in any way responsible for causing any of the alleged injuries to Jamal or the boy.”

The report said footage taken by France 2 but never broadcast showed that after it had claimed Muhammed was dead, he moves his arm and turns his head.

It added: “There is no evidence that Jamal or the boy were wounded in the manner claimed in the report. … In contrast, there are numerous indications that the two were not struck by bullets at all.”

The committee said the initial admission of culpability by Israel was issued in haste, before all the facts were known. This was blamed on the “fog of war.”

Yuval Steinitz, the minister of strategic affairs described the incident as “a modern-day blood libel against the state of Israel … The France 2 report was utterly baseless.”

But the report’s claims were denied by France 2 and its journalist Charles Enderlin, who said they were ready to cooperate with an independent inquiry. Enderlin and the boy’s father said they were willing to undergo lie detector tests.

France 2′s statement carried on: “From the start of the incident until today, France 2 has shown a willingness to participate in any official legal proceedings accompanied by legal counsel and carried out according to international standards.”

The station has launched a defamation claim against a media investigations watchdog, which previously claimed it had staged the entire incident.

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In the video a man dressed in white riding a scooter crashes into two cars, another motorcycle, a truck and finally into a huge hole in the road — in the space of about a minute.

The video, uploaded this morning, first shows the rider crashing into a car, causing his passenger to fall off. Seconds later, after remounting the machine, he loses control of the throttle again and biffs into the front of a second car.

After a minor dispute, undaunted, he gets back in the saddle — only to lose control again, hurtling towards a group of other bikers and becoming entangled with one of them.

Freeing himself, he careens into a truck. At this stage the rider gets off the bike, clutching his side. He staggers around the street for a few seconds before remounting his machine — only to come a spectacular cropper as he loses control for the fourth time and plunges into a massive hole by the side of the road being used for street repairs.

It is not known if the man was injured.

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Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley has said he will not attend tomorrow’s graduation ceremony at Boston College to protest the school’s choice in speakers.

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny is set to address graduates and receive an honorary degree, an honor O’Malley opposes due to Kenny’s promotion of abortion legislation in Ireland.

Kenny is leading an attempt to amend Ireland’s ban on abortion by allowing pregnant women to get abortions if two doctors confirm that her life is in danger. Ireland is one of two nations in the European Union where abortion is illegal.

On May 10, O’Malley released a statement saying he would not attend the graduation, as is customary, since the college did not withdraw Kenny’s invitation.

“It is my ardent hope that Boston College will work to redress the confusion, disappointment and harm caused by not adhering to the Bishops’ directives,” O’Malley said in the statement, which was posted on his blog.

Students for Life of America is also organizing a prayer vigil and public witness outside the graduation ceremony to protest Kenny’s presence.

Boston College Spokesman Jack Dunn said school officials invited Kenny to speak at the commencement due to the historically close relationship Boston College has enjoyed with Ireland.

“As a Catholic institution, Boston College supports the Church’s commitment to the life of the unborn. Prime Minister Kenny has encouraged individuals to read the proposed bill and his position statement, which reaffirms the constitutional prohibition on abortion in Ireland and attempts to clarify and regulate Ireland’s response to the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights,” Dunn said. “We respect Cardinal O’Malley and regret that he will not be in attendance. However, we look forward to our Commencement and to Prime Minister Kenny’s remarks.”

It is the school’s 137th commencement ceremony. It is set for 10 a.m. in Alumni Stadium.

Read O’Malley’s entire statement below:

Because the Gospel of Life is the centerpiece of the Church’s social doctrine and because we consider abortion a crime against humanity, the Catholic Bishops of the United States have asked that Catholic institutions not honor government officials or politicians who promote abortion with their laws and policies.

Recently I learned that the Prime Minister of Ireland, the Hon. Mr. Enda Kenny was slated to receive an honorary degree at Boston College’s graduation this year. I am sure that the invitation was made in good faith, long before it came to the attention of the leadership of Boston College that Mr. Kenny is aggressively promoting abortion legislation. The Irish Bishops have responded to that development by affirming the Church’s teaching that “the deliberate decision to deprive an innocent human being of life is always morally wrong” and expressed serious concern that the proposed legislation “represents a dramatic and morally unacceptable change to Irish law.”

Since the university has not withdrawn the invitation and because the Taoiseach has not seen fit to decline, I shall not attend the graduation. It is my ardent hope that Boston College will work to redress the confusion, disappointment and harm caused by not adhering to the Bishops’ directives. Although I shall not be present to impart the final benediction, I assure the graduates that they are in my prayers on this important day in their lives, and I pray that their studies will prepare them to be heralds of the Church’s Social Gospel and “men and women for others,” especially for the most vulnerable in our midst.

Follow Morgan Rousseau on Twitter: @MetroMorgan
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North Korea fired a short-range missile from its east coast this morning, a day after launching three similar missiles, ignoring calls for restraint from Western powers.

Launches by the North of short-range missiles are not uncommon but, after recent warnings from the communist state of impending nuclear war, such actions have raised concerns about the region’s security.

“North Korea fired a short-range missile as it did yesterday into its east sea in the afternoon, ” South Korea’s news agency Yonhap reported, citing a military official.

A South Korean defense ministry official confirmed the Yonhap report, but did not provide any details.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was concerned about North Korea’s launch of short-range missiles, urging Pyonyang to refrain from further launches and return to stalled nuclear talks with world powers.

Ban, who spoke to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti during a visit to Moscow, called Saturday’s launch a “provocative action”.

Tension on the Korean peninsula has subsided in the past month, having run high for several weeks after the United Nations Security Council imposed tougher sanctions against Pyongyang following its third nuclear test in February.

The North had for weeks issued nearly daily warnings of impending nuclear war with the South and the United States.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry criticized the missile tests as deplorable and urged the North to lower tensions and hold talks over a suspended inter-Korean industrial park in the North’s border city of Kaesong.

South Korea pulled out all of its workers from the industrial zone early this month after North Korea withdrew its 53,000 workers as tensions mounted.

(Additional reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel in MOSCOW; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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Pope Francis speaks as he leads a Pentecost vigil mass in Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican
Credit: Reuters

Pope Francis shared personal moments with 200,000 people on Saturday, telling them he sometimes nods off while praying at the end of a long day and that it “breaks my heart” that the death of a homeless person is not news.

Francis, who has made straight talk and simplicity a hallmark of his papacy, made his unscripted comments in answers to questions by four people at a huge international gathering of Catholic associations in St. Peter’s Square.

But he outdid himself in passionately discussing everything from the memory of his grandmother to his decision to become a priest, from political corruption to his worries about a Church that too often closes in on itself instead of looking outward.

“If we step outside of ourselves, we will find poverty,” he said, repeating his call for Catholics to do more to seek out those on the fringes of society who need help the most,” he said from the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica.

“Today, and it breaks my heart to say it, finding a homeless person who has died of cold, is not news. Today, the news is scandals, that is news, but the many children who don’t have food – that’s not news. This is grave. We can’t rest easy while things are this way.”

The crowd, most of whom are already involved in charity work, interrupted him often with applause.

“We cannot become starched Christians, too polite, who speak of theology calmly over tea. We have to become courageous Christians and seek out those (who need help most),” he said.

To laughter from the crowd, he described how he prays each day before an altar before going to bed.

“Sometimes I doze off, the fatigue of the day makes you fall asleep, but he (God) understands,” he said.

CRISIS OF VALUES

Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, said the world was going through not just an economic crisis but a crisis of values.

“This is happening today. If investments in banks fall, it is a tragedy and people say ‘what are we going to do?’ but if people die of hunger, have nothing to eat or suffer from poor health, that’s nothing. This is our crisis today. A Church that is poor and for the poor has to fight this mentality,” he said.

Many in the crowd planned to stay in the square overnight to pray and prepare for Francis’ Mass on Sunday, when the Catholic Church marks Pentecost, the day it teaches that the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles.

On Saturday morning, Francis met German Chancellor Angela Merkel and discussed Europe’s economic crisis.

Apparently responding to his criticism of a heartless “dictatorship of the economy” earlier in the week, Merkel, who is up for re-election in September, later called for stronger regulation of financial markets.

On Thursday, Francis appealed in a speech for world financial reform, saying the global economic crisis had made life worse for millions in rich and poor countries.

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North Korea fired three short-range missiles from its east coast on Saturday, South Korea’s Defence Ministry said, prompting Western powers to urge Pyongyang to exercise restraint.

Launches by the North of short-range missiles are not uncommon but, after recent warnings from the communist state of impending nuclear war, such actions raise concerns about the region’s security.

“North Korea fired short-range guided missiles twice in the morning and once in the afternoon off its east coast,” an official at the South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman’s office said by telephone.

The official declined to speculate on whether the missiles had been fired as part of a drill or training exercise.

“In case of any provocation, the ministry will keep monitoring the situation and remain on alert,” he said.

A Japanese government source noted the three launches, but said none of the missiles had landed in Japan’s territorial waters, the Kyodo news agency reported.

Tension on the Korean peninsula has subsided in the past month, having run high for several weeks after the United Nations Security Council imposed tougher sanctions against Pyongyang following its third nuclear test in February.

The North had for weeks issued nearly daily warnings of impending nuclear war with the South and the United States.

The United States declined to comment directly on the reported launches but said it was monitoring the situation.

“We continue to urge North Korea to exercise restraint and take steps to improve its relations with its neighbors,” the State Department and the Pentagon said in a statement.

Britain’s Foreign Office said: “We have been clear to North Korea that its long-term interests will not be served by threatening the international community and increasing regional tensions.”

North Korea conducts regular launches of its Scud short-range missiles, which can hit targets in South Korea.

It conducted a successful launch of a long-range missile last December, saying it had put a weather satellite into orbit. The United States and its allies denounced the launch as a test of technology that could one day deliver a nuclear warhead.

During the weeks of high tension, South Korea reported that the North had moved missile launchers into place on its east coast for the possible launch of a medium-range Musudan missile. The Musudan has a range of 3,500 km, putting Japan in range and possibly the U.S. South Pacific island of Guam.

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UPDATE: More than 20 ‘persons of interest’ have been identified by Scotland Yard in the mysterious 2007 disappearance of Madeleine McCann. The list includes freelancer cleaners who were seen in the area at the time of her disappearance and a middle-aged couple who reportedly admitted they had entered the apartment the night before to comfort Madeleine after hearing her cries. Investigators insist the people on the list could have vital information about the missing girl, according to the Daily Beast.

Metro’s original story is below.

On the heels of the Cleveland captivity case, authorities on the other side of the globe may be one step closer to solving another well-known missing person mystery: the disappearance of 3-year-old Madeleine McCann. The British toddler vanished without a trace from her family’s rented apartment while they were on holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal on May 3, 2007.

Officials said today they have identified several suspects who may be responsible for McCann’s abduction, according to London newspaper Evening Standard.

“There are a lot of people of interest. There are people who could be properly explored further, if only to be eliminated,” Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell, the head of Scotland Yard’s Homicide and Serious Crime Command, said. He added that Scotland Yard is urging Portuguese officials to assist further in the investigation.

On the evening of her disappearance, Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, were dining with friends at a restaurant at the resort where they were staying. Madeleine, along with her twin siblings, were put to bed by their parents and left alone in the apartment. When Kate McCann returned an hour later, Madeleine McCann was gone and the room’s doors and shutters were open.

The investigation that followed received worldwide media attention, putting the McCann family under the microscope. At one point, Kate McCann was named a suspect in her daughter’s disappearance by Portuguese officials.  Several possible sightings of Madeleine ended up producing no real leads. Sketches of other possible suspects were released to the public, but no arrests were made. The investigation was formally closed by Portuguese officials in July of 2008. However, after reviewing the case, Scotland Yard announced in 2012 that Madeleine McCann could still be alive.

Campbell echoed that sentiment Friday: “You only have to look at the case in Cleveland, Ohio, and the European cases. Of course, there is a possibility she is alive, you cannot exclude it. But the key is to investigate the case and, alive or dead, we should be able to try and discern what happened.”

The McCanns went on to launch a website, FindMadeleine, which is frequently updated with blog posts from the family and age progression photos. The most recent post by Kate McCann was added just days ago on May 3, marking six years since Madeleine’s disappearance.

“It’s difficult to know what to write as each year passes, still without news of Madeleine. In many ways, nothing’s changed,” she wrote. “We still worry about her, we miss her as much as we ever did, we remain as determined as ever to find her and to know what has happened.”

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Jewelry worth $1.4 million intended to adorn movie stars at the Cannes film festival was stolen from a hotel room in the French Riviera town, a police source said on Friday.

The jewels were in the safe of a room rented by an employee of luxury jeweler and Cannes sponsor Chopard, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“The jeweler hasn’t yet furnished details of what exactly was stolen,” the source said.

The Cannes film festival, the world’s largest, draws thousands of movie stars, industry executives and journalists to the fabled resort on the Mediterranean.

Jewelers and fashion houses use the annual event as a promotional showcase, lending gowns and accessories to celebrities who are photographed on the famed red carpet and at parties along the palm-lined Croisette waterfront.

Since the festival opened on Wednesday, pop star Lana Del Rey and former supermodel Cindy Crawford, among others, have chosen Chopard jewels for their red carpet appearances.

The incident at the Suite Novotel four-star hotel in central Cannes – opposite a municipal police station – took place on the night of Thursday to Friday.

The entire safe was removed from the wall and taken from the room, where someone entered without either forcing the door or using the magnetic key card, the source said.

The hotel declined to comment.

In an ironic twist, Sofia Coppola’s new movie “The Bling Ring”, about a gang of celebrity-obsessed teens who break into stars’ homes to steal their possessions, premiered at Cannes on Thursday evening.

(Reporting by Matthias Galante; Writing by Alexandria Sage and Brian Love; editing by Mike Collett-White)

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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford leaves his home in Toronto, May 17, 2013. REUTERS/Mark Blinch

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford denies allegations that he smoked crack cocaine, his lawyer said this morning.

Reporters for the Toronto Star newspaper and Gawker Media, a U.S. media outlet, said they had seen a video that appears to show Ford smoking crack.

The lawyer, Dennis Morris, told the Toronto Sun that the mayor is denying “any such allegation.”

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  VIDEO: Toronto Mayor Rob Ford gets Taiwanese animation treatment

The video is allegedly being shopped around for $100,000 by people said to be involved in the drug trade. Reuters could not independently confirm the existence of the video.

Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday said he has not spoken with Ford since the allegations surfaced, but he told reporters he stands by the mayor.

“Certainly, at this point, we all know that videos can be altered and we certainly know that drug dealers can’t be trusted,” he said at Toronto City Hall. “So I don’t know what we’re dealing with here, and until we do, I don’t really have much to say.”

The mayor and Morris did not immediately return Reuters’ requests for comment.

“We’re just trying to see whether or not such a video exists and whether or not any video has been doctored or altered,” Morris told the Toronto Sun.

Asked if Ford planned legal action, Morris said it is at the “bottom rung of the ladder” now.

The Toronto Star said that it stands by its reporting and that the story is just one piece of a broader investigative report about Ford it has been working on for months.

“This isn’t a story that we’re going to report lightly,” said Robyn Doolittle, one of two Toronto Star reporters who said they watched the video three times.

“This is part of an ongoing investigation that myself and a colleague, Kevin Donovan, have been working on for months,” Doolittle said.

She added: “The Toronto Star has a high bar that we always make sure we meet before we run something, especially when it comes to this mayor.”

Ford, who took office more than two years ago with a promise to “stop the gravy train” at city hall, has sparked controversy by skipping council meetings to coach high-school football and engaging in a confrontation outside his home with a reporter, among other things.

He was briefly ordered out of office in 2012 after he was found guilty of conflict of interest but won the appeal and was allowed to finish his four-year term.

Ford has not been seen in public since the allegations surfaced late on Thursday.

Early this morning, the following tweet was posted on his official Twitter account: “The long weekend is here! Catch a ferry to Toronto Island Park for a scenic picnic. Details here: http://www.toronto.ca/parks/island/ferry-schedule.htm … #LongWknd #Topoli.”

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While many people in Saudi Arabia may be using Twitter, it doesn’t mean some Saudi officials are happy with that.

Sheikh Abdul Latif Abdul Azziz al-Sheikh told BBC News that Muslims who use Twitter or any other type of social media have “lost this world and this afterlife.”

While the use of social media is increasing, Saudi Arabia’s religious police force disapprove of the sites.

Saudi government is worried social media could help the political opposition in the country organize and spread, as it has in other Middle Eastern countries.

“The Kindom is particularly concerned with how Twitter has been used to keep people informed of human rights activists who have been tried for the crime of free speech,” writes Jonathan Truly, professor of law at the George Washington University Law School. “Leaders on the web have been detained while others have been charted with apostasy and other crimes for statements made on these sites.”

A few years ago, Saudi Arabia threatened to ban BlackBerry devices unless the company allowed the government to read users’ messages. According to reports, the company reportedly decided to agree to those demands.

In a recent blog post, software engineer Moxie Marlinspike said that Saudi Arabia wants the ability to spy on other messaging services like Viber and WhatsApp as well.

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The United States condemned as “outrageous and offensive” comments by the mayor of the Japanese city of Osaka who said this week that Japan’s military brothels during World War Two were “necessary” to provide respite for soldiers.

The remarks by Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto drew strong criticism from China and South Korea, two nations sensitive to what they see as any attempt to excuse Japanese abuses before and during the war.

Historians estimate that as many as 200,000 sex slaves, known as comfort women, were forced into submission in the Imperial Japanese Army’s brothels during the war.

“Mayor Hashimoto’s comments were outrageous and offensive,” said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

“What happened in that era to these women who were trafficked for sexual purposes is deplorable and clearly a grave human rights violation of enormous proportions,” she said, adding that Washington hoped Japan would work with its neighbors to address the mistakes of the past.

The Japanese government has sought to distance itself from Hashimoto’s comments.

“The government’s stance is, as we have said before, that we feel great heartache when we think about the indescribable suffering of those who experienced this,” Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said, although he declined to comment directly on Hashimoto’s remarks.

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What’s happening?

A number of Conservative (Tory) members of Parliament have submitted a bill proposing a referendum on the UK’s EU membership before the end of 2017.

Has Parliament approved the bill?

No. It was defeated by 277 to 130 this week, as almost all Labour and the Liberal Democrat MPs voted against it.

Why is the bill such a big deal, then?

Because 114 Conservative MPs voted against their own party leadership. And, even though it was defeated, the bill has to be debated in Parliament. The debate is bound to show the huge rift among Britain’s elite – and its voters – regarding EU membership. In other words: the bill shows the opposition to the EU in Britain. The government failed to include any mention of an EU referendum in last week’s Queen’s Speech. Now parliamentarians are getting back at the government with their own bill for a referendum.

What happens next?

A parliamentary debate. After that, the government technically doesn’t have to do anything. But, with pressure building in favor of an in-out referendum on Britain’s membership in the EU, Prime Minister now says he supports such a vote.

If the referendum happens, what will Britons vote on?

It will be a straight in-out question: “Do you think that the United Kingdom should remain a member of the European Union?”

Will the referendum happen?

It seems very likely. The Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives’ coalition partner, want to remain in the EU, but their voice is weakened due to the recent electoral success of the eurosceptic UKIP party.

How are other EU countries reacting?

Germany is likely to sweeten Britain’s EU deal, making it more palatable for Britain to stay.

Will Britons vote to leave the EU?

Probably not. According to the most recent poll, 40% of Britons would vote to remain in the EU – but a sizeable minority of 34% would vote to leave.

Timeline:

1963: Britain tries to join the European Common Market but is vetoed by French President Charles de Gaulle.

1973: Britain joins the European Economic Community.

1975: Referendum on EEC membership: voters decide Britain should stay in.

1984: Britain wins a “rebate”, which means it gets a huge chunk of its annual EU contributions back.

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The White House on Wednesday released 100 pages of emails detailing discussion inside the administration over last year’s deadly attacks on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.

President Barack Obama has faced Republican criticism that his administration covered up details of the assault, especially after a news report last week said memos on the incident were edited to omit a CIA warning of an al Qaeda threat.

Senior administration officials told reporters at the White House the emails were released to clear up misinformation about the process. The emails were the basis for the controversial “talking points” memos that U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice used when discussing the attacks that killed four Americans in Benghazi.

The officials said the emails showed the talking points were based on intelligence information approved by the CIA and meant to avoid pre-judging the outcome of an FBI investigation into the September 12, 2012, attacks.

Republicans say the talking points were an attempt by the administration to portray the attacks as arising from a spontaneous protest, and not an organized terrorist assault as Obama campaigned for re-election.

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A look inside the factories of Bangladesh’s garment workers.

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