Fresh hearing for Morsi in murder trial

CAIRO: Egypt's deposed president Mohamed Morsi arrived at the courthouse on Wednesday for the second hearing in his murder trial, as police braced for rallies by his Islamist supporters.

Toppled by the military in July, Morsi is charged with inciting the killings of opposition activists in clashes outside the presidential palace in December 2012.

He used his first court appearance on November 4 for a show of defiance from the dock, insisting he was still the legitimate president.

He is on trial with 14 co-defendants, including former presidential aides and leaders of his Muslim Brotherhood movement.

Morsi arrived at the courthouse by helicopter, police officials said.

He and his co-defendants are being tried in a makeshift court room inside a police academy outside Cairo, the same venue being used for the trial of his deposed predecessor Hosni Mubarak on similar charges.

An Islamist coalition led by the Brotherhood had called for a "million man march" to coincide with the hearing, which is expected to start around 0800 GMT.

Morsi's trial is seen as a test for Egypt's new authorities, who have come under fire for heavy-handedness.

With more than 1,000 people killed since Morsi's overthrow and thousands of Islamists arrested, the chances of political reconciliation in the Arab world's most populous nation are ever more remote.

Morsi will also face separate trials on charges of espionage and colluding with militants to carry out attacks in Egypt.

He was catapulted from the underground offices of the long-banned Muslim Brotherhood to become Egypt's first freely elected president in June 2012 following Mubarak's overthrow in the Arab Spring of 2011.

But his single year in power was marred by political turmoil, deadly clashes and a crippling economic crisis.

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Bad weather delays Morsi's trial

CAIRO: Egyptian security officials say bad weather has delayed ousted President Mohammed Morsi's helicopter flight from a prison in the country's north to Cairo for the resumption of his trial on charges of inciting murder.

Morsi is being held in a prison near the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. The officials say thick fog there on Wednesday meant he could not be flown to the court in Cairo.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Morsi and 14 others are on trial for inciting the killing of protesters outside a Cairo presidential palace in December 2012, when at least 10 people were killed and hundreds wounded.

It's one of three trials that Morsi faces. Charges in all three carry the death penalty.

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4 killed in US military helicopter crash in Britain

LONDON: An US Air Force helicopter has crashed in Norfolk killing four personnel in it, in the second big copter crash in UK within a month.

The Pave Hawk HH60 helicopter from RAF Lakenheath was on a training mission and crashed at the north end of East Bank on the Norfolk Wildlife Trust Cley Marshes Nature Reserve at around 7pm on Tuesday evening. The four occupants in the helicopter died on the spot.

Details of the deceased will not be released until next of kin have been informed.

However it has now been confirmed that nobody from the surrounding area has been injured.

The crash site, which lies to the west of East Bank in marshland, was cordoned off on Wednesday for the safety of those working to investigate the crash and recover the wreckage.

A second helicopter from RAF Lakenheath which landed on the marshes shortly after the crash also remains at the scene.

Chief Superintendent Bob Scully from Norfolk Constabulary, said "In order to carry out a thorough investigation in a safe manner, the area will remain cordoned off with no access for the general public. We will be working with our partners at the Ministry of Defence, Air Accident Investigation Branch and US Air Force to gather all evidence from the scene and then recover the aircraft".

"This is difficult terrain with marshland and tides coupled with wreckage containing munitions covering a large area. We must undertake this investigation and recovery operation in a careful and methodical way so we can provide answers as to why this crash happened. The popular activities of walking and bird-watching in this area will therefore be restricted until we have completed these tasks and ensured the marshes are safe."

Investigators from the police and other partners have visited the crash site to assess the scene.

A statement from the US Air Force said "US Air Force HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter crashed at about 6pm today near Salthouse on the Norfolk coast. The aircraft, assigned to the 48th Fighter Wing, was on a low-level training mission when the crash occurred."

The $40.1m Pave Hawk is 64ft long and can travel at speeds of up to 184mph (159 knots).

The crash comes weeks after a police helicopter crashed into the Clutha Pub in Glasgow on 30 November, killing 10 people.

An evening of revelry on pay day at Glasgow turned into a horrifying inferno when a police helicopter crashed into a busy pub "like a stone from the sky".

The deaths included three people inside the helicopter and people inside the pub.

Thirty-two people were taken to hospitals across Glasgow.

The helicopter - a Eurocopter EC135 T2 - came down on the roof of the packed Clutha Vaults pub at around 22.25 on Friday night.

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Prince William begins Cambridge University course

LONDON: Britain's Prince William today started attending an agricultural management course at Cambridge, travelling to the prestigious university by train.

The Duke of Cambridge, who lives with wife Kate and baby George at Kensington Palace in London, took a train from the city's King's Cross station to arrive at the university town.

He is expected to undertake the 46-minute journey regularly during his 10-week course organised by the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership but may also take up a private residence in the town in case some of his seminars begin early or finish late.

While the programme has been specially designed for the future king, he will be studying alongside other PhD students in some classes.

The 31-year-old was greeted at St John's College, where some of his tutorials will take place, by vice-chancellor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz along with Master of St John's Professor Christopher Dobson and Polly Courtice, director of the Programme for Sustainability Leadership.

William, dressed in a navy blue suit, then toured the college grounds in the rain and stopped along the way to view a plaque commemorating a visit to the college in April 2011 by his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.

Designed to help equip William with agricultural know-how ahead of one day inheriting the vast Duchy of Cornwall estate from his father Prince Charles, the course will run until mid-March and will be funded privately by the royal family.

According to The Times, the Duke will have 20 hours of teaching time each week, including work in small groups as well as one-to-one tuition and his own additional reading.

He will also go on a series of field trips and will be taught by academics specialising in geography, land economy and plant sciences.

Modules he is expected to study include rural and planning policy, farming and supply chains, site management, agricultural policy and conservation governance.

The course is at the centre of what has been described as his transitional year after the end of his service as a Royal Air Force (RAF) rescue helicopter pilot in Anglesey, Wales, last year.

Some students at Cambridge University have accused the prince of securing a free pass to the university.

In one of its articles, university newspaper The Tab wrote, "The Tab must point out that normally students need A*AA at A-level to gain entry to Cambridge University, whilst the prince only achieved a mediocre ABC."

But others have rallied behind the royal student, who will no doubt add an edge to the traditional rivalry with Oxford University.

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Malaysia bars foreign workers from food outlets

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's fast-food restaurants will no longer be allowed to hire foreign workers; the Home ministry said today, a decision that will affect thousands of Indians who come seeking work as waiters and cooks.

The decision is aimed at giving priority to Malaysians for such jobs, the ministry said in a statement.

Malaysia relies heavily on foreign labour in the restaurant, construction, garbage collection and gardening sectors as its citizens have not been keen to take up these jobs.

Most workers in these sectors are sourced from India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Cambodia.

The Home Ministry acts as the secretariat for the Cabinet Committee on Foreign Workers and Illegal Immigrants. The decision was made during a meeting of the committee chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

The statement said it was found that many locals were interested in working in fast-food outlets.

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US envoy to visit north Sri Lanka over war crimes

COLOMBA: A top US diplomat will visit Sri Lanka's war-ravaged north tomorrow to hold talks with local officials over alleged war crimes during the last phase of the civil war against the LTTE.

The US Ambassador-at-Large at the Office of Global Criminal Justice, Stephen J Rapp, who arrived here yesterday on a week-long visit, will spend two days in the north holding talks with officials and leaders.

This is Rapp's second visit to the island and comes ahead of another US-moved resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council in March.

US officials said Rapp aims to meet government officials, political and civil society leaders to discuss issues focusing on Sri Lanka's justice, accountability and reconciliation issues.

Two US-moved similar resolutions at the UNHRC and backed by India were adopted at the UNHRC for two years running in 2012 and 2013. Both resolutions called for expeditious action from Colombo to achieve reconciliation with the Tamil minority.

Sri Lanka has also come under international pressure to institute a war crimes inquiry into the last stages of the military battle with the LTTE in 2009.

Western nations have been pressing Lanka to account for thousands of civilians suspected of being killed in the final months of the quarter-century war.

According to a UN report, 40,000 civilians may have died in the last few months of the fighting between the government forces and the Tamil Tiger rebels fighting for a homeland for ethnic minority Tamils.

Sri Lanka has resisted such calls, claiming that the island's own mechanisms were sufficient to deal with what is being seen as a domestic issue.

British Prime Minister David Cameron visited Lanka's north in November last year and met members of the Tamil community, becoming the first foreign head of state since 1948 to do so.

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N Korea execution by dog story came from satire

SEOUL: An international media frenzy over reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's uncle had been executed by throwing him to a pack of dogs appears to have originated as satire on a Chinese microblogging website.

The story, which spread like wildfire after it was picked up by a Hong Kong-based newspaper, has created an image that Pyongyang's young ruler is even more brutal and unpredictable than previously believed.

While North Korea has said it purged and executed Kim's uncle, Jang Song Thaek, last month, it did not release details of how the man who was once the second most powerful figure in the isolated country was killed.

Initial speculation was that Jang had been killed by firing squad, a fate that media outlets said was the usual one reserved for "traitors". But an alternative narrative of the 67-year old's death emerged on what appears to have been a satirical post on the Chinese Tencent Weibo site that has been repeated by many media outlets worldwide.

The December 11 post on Tencent Weibo said Jang and five aides were killed by dogs.

The post records that it was viewed 290,000 times.

The Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po newspaper released an article and a screenshot of the Weibo post which it used to justify its report that Jang had been torn apart.

Wen Wei Po, although independent, is viewed as being pro-Beijing. Its report was in turn picked up 12 days later by the Singapore-based Straits Times and then by a wide range of US and European media from print to television.

Kim Jong Un, believed to be around 30 years old, has been in power for two years and presided over a nuclear test and two rocket test launches that are banned under United Nations sanctions.

In 2013, Pyongyang threatened to strike South Korea, the United States and Japan in fiery rhetoric that triggered an arms buildup in East Asia.

One of the pitfalls of reporting on North Korea is that few independent media have offices there and visiting media are tightly controlled in a country which ranks among the lowest in global surveys of press freedom.

Because of the lack of first hand information, many lurid stories about the country gain credence.

Trevor Powell, a Chicago-based software engineer, who first spotted the link to the Weibo post and reported it on his own blog said that analysts and experts were "still all missing the obvious fact that the original source of the Wen Wei Po story was a tweet from a known satirist or someone posing as him/her."

Officials at Wen Wei Po declined to comment on the article.

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Six arrested for 'naked race' in Pakistan's Punjab province

LAHORE: Pakistani police have arrested six youngsters in Punjab province for organising a " naked race" with Rs. 20,000 as the prize money, officials said today.

According to officials at Gorali police check post, the youngsters - Arif, Maskeen, Arshad, Waqar, Ehsan and Abid - had decided among themselves that the winner of the race in Gujrat district, 120 km from Lahore, would bag Rs. 20,000.

As the naked youths made their way from Gorali to Nat village, local residents spotted them and informed police.

A police team reached the area and arrested them. A case was registered against them and police seized the prize money.

The local residents demanded strict action against the youths.

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Voldemort invoked in China-Japan feud over shrine

TOKYO : As if Harry Potter isn't popular enough, the evil Lord Voldemort from British author J K Rowling's best-selling children's series has been dragged into the feud between Japan and China over the Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo.

China and South Korea say the shrine, which Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited recently, glorifies Japan's militaristic past.

Writing in The Telegraph last week, China's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Liu Xiaoming, said: "If militarism is like the haunting Voldemort of Japan, the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo is a kind of horcrux, representing the darkest parts of that nation's soul."

A horcrux contains part of Voldemort's soul, and all seven horcruxes must be destroyed to kill him.

In response, Japanese Ambassador Keiichi Hayashi wrote in the same newspaper that fears of rising militarism in Japan are unfounded given the country's postwar record of commitment to peace.

Instead, Hayashi said that China risks playing "the role of Voldemort in the region by letting loose the evil of an arms race and escalation of tensions."

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Bombings kill 20 in Baghdad

BAGHDAD: A new wave of bombings hit Iraq's capital, Baghdad, killing at least 20 people on Sunday, officials said, the latest assault by militants who have been fighting Iraqi security forces and allied tribes in country's west.

The deadliest attack took place in Baghdad's Shia northern Shaab neighbourhood, when two parked car bombs exploded simultaneously near a restaurant and a tea house. Officials say those blasts killed 10 people and wounded 26.

Authorities said that a parked car bomb ripped through in capital's Shiite eastern district of Sadr City, killing five and wounding 10. Another bombing killed three civilians and wounded six in a commercial area in the central Bab al-Muadham neighbourhood, officials said. Two other bombings killed two civilians and wounded 13, police said.

Medical officials confirmed the causality figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to release information.

The attacks come as Iraqi security forces are besieging two key cities country's western Anbar province after they were taken over by militants from al-Qaida's local branch, known as the Islamic state in Iraq and Levant. Clashes have been taking place since Monday in Anbar's provincial capital, Ramadi, and nearby Fallujah between al-Qaida militants and pro-government Sunni tribesmen. The Baghdad bombings could be seen as an attempt by militants to distract security forces.

Earlier on Sunday, a senior Iraqi military commander said that it will take a few days to fully dislodge al-Qaida-linked fighters from two key western cities.

Lt Gen Rasheed Fleih, who leads the Anbar Military Command, told the state television on Sunday that "two to three days" are needed to push the militants out of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi. Fleih added that pro-government Sunni tribes are leading the operations while the army only is offering aerial cover and logistics on the ground. He didn't elaborate on the operations.

"The quiet and safe life that is sought by the Anbaris will not be completely restored before few hours or two to three days, God willing," Fleih said.

Residents say it has been quiet since Saturday night in Fallujah, where militants still control the center of the city. Sporadic clashes took place Sunday in and around Ramadi. The residents spoke on condition of anonymity for their safety.

Ramadi was a stronghold of Sunni insurgents during the US-led war. Al-Qaida militants largely took both cities over last week and have been fending off incursions by government forces there since.

ISIL is also one of the strongest rebel units in Syria, where it has imposed a strict version of Islamic law in territories it holds and kidnapped and killed anyone it deems critical of its rule. Also on Saturday, it claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing in a Shiite-dominated neighborhood in Lebanon.

Tensions in Anbar have run high since December 28, when Iraqi security forces arrested a Sunni lawmaker sought for terrorism charges. Two days later, the government dismantled a months-old, anti-government Sunni protest camp, sparking clashes with militants.

To ease the tension, the Shiite-led government withdrew army forces from the cities. Sunni lawmakers see the army as a tool of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to target his rivals and consolidate power.

US secretary of state John Kerry said that America would support Iraq in its combat with al-Qaida, but without sending troop on ground.

The US was "very, very concerned" by the fighting, Kerry told reporters as he left Jerusalem for Jordan and Saudi Arabia on Sunday to discuss his effort to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians. However, he said the US would not send ground troops in to support Iraqi forces.

The US recently supplied Iraq with Hellfire missiles often used against militants.

Violence in Iraq spiked in April after the government staged a deadly crackdown on a Sunni protest camp. Iraq's al-Qaida branch has fed on Sunni discontent and on the civil war in neighboring Syria, in which mostly Sunni rebels fight a government whose base is a Shiite offshoot sect.

Militants have targeted civilians, particularly in Shiite areas of Baghdad, with waves of coordinated car bombings and other deadly attacks.

According to the United Nations, Iraq had the highest annual death toll in 2013 since the worst of the sectarian bloodletting began to subside in 2007. The UN said violence killed 8,868 last year.

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