Gold Bullion Heist From Boat In Curacao

Thieves dressed in jackets emblazoned with the word "police" boarded a fishing boat and stole 70 gold bars worth an estimated $11.5m (£7m), officials on the Caribbean island of Curacao have said.

The boat's captain was hit on the head in the early-morning assault before the thieves made off with the gold in three cars, police spokesman Reggie Huggins said.

Authorities believe there were at least six men involved in the heist. No arrests have been made.

Mr Huggins declined to say who owned the gold bullion but he said it was a legal shipment that was passing through Curacao and officials had been advised in advance that it was coming as part of "normal security protocols".

He declined to disclose the eventual destination of the metal.

Guards to the port area let the thieves inside a restricted area in the mistaken belief that they were customs officials.

The men's jackets had the word "police" in English, but in Curacao the word would be written in Papiamento, one of the island's three official languages, as "polis".

During the robbery, crew members said the gang wore hoods and masks and made off with the gold in a matter of minutes.

"The crew said it was like a movie operation, very fast," Mr Huggins said.

The captain and three crew members were from the South American country of Guyana, he said.

By its appearance with rust streaks on its white cabin and no visible security, the fishing boat would seem an unlikely place to stash that amount of gold.

A crew member who gave his name as Raymond Emmanuel told the Associated Press that they left Guyana several days ago and arrived early on Friday in Curacao.

Contradicting police, he said they were delivering the gold to a company in Curacao but said he did not know the name of the business.

Mr Emmanuel said the gold was locked away when the thieves boarded the vessel, and neither he nor anyone else on the vessel was armed.

"This is normal," he said. "We never carry arms. Since I started working here, I've transported gold once before, and this is the system."

Curacao, just north of Venezuela, is a popular tourist destination as well as an offshore financial centre, especially for people from South America.

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West Bank Settlement Plan Blow To Peace Hopes

By Dominic Waghorn, US Correspondent

Palestinians say the two-state solution to the Middle East conflict is at death's door after Israel announced it is reviving plans to build on occupied land in a controversial area of East Jerusalem.

William Hague called on Israel to reverse the plan, saying the move undermined Israel's international reputation and created doubts about its commitment to achieving peace.

The British Foreign Secretary said he was "extremely concerned", warning it would make the two-state solution "difficult to achieve".

The US government also criticised Israel for the move.

"This administration - like previous administrations - has been very clear with Israel that these activities set back the cause of a negotiated peace," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Washington.

E1 is the only large area of empty land left between East Jerusalem and the West Bank, sandwiched between Israeli settlements.

Reviving plans to build a settlement there could be fatal for the peace process, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told Sky News in Washington.

"It would kill it. This would be the last nail in the coffin of the peace process a process that fulfils that which has been and has become a matter of international consensus. The two-state solution to this conflict. It simply cannot happen if E1 is implemented."

Palestinians say they cannot sign any peace deal that does not have at least a part of Jerusalem as their capital, for religious and political reasons.

An Israeli settlement on E1 would make a land corridor between that capital and the rest of a Palestinian state impossible.

That makes building on E1 a very different proposition to other Israeli settlement plans. For that reason former US President George Bush made then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promise not to build on E1 and put construction plans there on ice.

Danny Seidemann, from Jerusalem NGO Ir Amim, told Sky News: "E1 is the fatal heart attack of the two-state solution.

"If E1 is built there is no possibility of a contiguous viable Palestinian state and no possibility of connecting East Jerusalem and its hinterland on the West Bank."

An Israeli government spokesman told Sky News those plans are now being unfrozen.

"Planning is now going ahead," he said.

No decision to build has yet been taken but extensive plans are known to already exist.

Israel is responding to a vote in the United Nations General Assembly to recognise Palestine as a non-member state. Some 138 countries voted in favour of the move, only eight supported Israel in opposing it.

Israel has also said it will build 3,000 new units in existing settlements.

Under all interpretations of international law, Israel's settlements on occupied land are illegal.

Israel agreed to freeze settlement construction under the Roadmap For Peace plan in 2002, but has failed to comply with that commitment.

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UK Eyes Oz's Tough Anti-Smoking Laws

By Jonathan Samuels, Australia Correspondent

The British Government is considering following Australia's lead by stripping all branding and logos from tobacco packaging.

From today, Australia becomes the first country in the world to put all tobacco products in standardised packs which are a drab olive colour and have the manufacturer's brand in a simple uniform font.

The packs are covered in graphic health warnings portraying dying cancer sufferers, diseased feet and ill babies.

The law bans the use of logos, brand imagery, symbols, other images, colours and promotional text.

Australia's plain packaging laws are a potential watershed for the global industry, which serves one billion regular smokers, according to World Health Organisation statistics.

Australia's government says the aim is to deter young people from smoking by stripping the habit of glamour.

It is relying on studies showing that if people have not started smoking by the age of 26, there is a 99% chance they will never take it up.

The potential hitch, experts say, is the popularity of social media amongst the very demographic the plan is targeting.

After a series of Australian laws banning TV advertising and sports sponsorship and requiring most sellers to hide cigarettes from view, online is the final frontier for tobacco marketing.

"If you are a tobacco marketer and you've only got this small window left to promote your products, online is the compelling place for you to be in," said Becky Freeman, a public health researcher at Sydney University.

Australia has become the first country to introduce plain cigarette packs

The tobacco industry recently lost a High Court bid to have the legislation stopped.

Scott McIntyre of British American Tobacco Australia, the maker of Winfield cigarettes, says the new packs are easier to fake and will boost black market trade, leading to cheaper, more accessible cigarettes.

"There will be serious unintended consequences from the legislation," he said. "Counterfeiters from China and Indonesia will bring lots more of these products down to sell on the streets of Australia."

The industry has shifted its focus to potential copycat legislation elsewhere. Ukraine, Honduras and the Dominican Republic have filed complaints with the World Trade Organisation, funded by the tobacco industry, claiming the laws unfairly restrict trade, although their trade with Australia is minimal.

Many smokers in Australia say the new packs won't change their habit. "As a 14-year veteran smoker the packets make no difference to me," one man told Sky News.

Another smoker said she may be more inclined to keep the packet, with its gruesome health warnings, hidden from view, but that it wouldn't stop her smoking.

Earlier this year, the British Government launched a consultation on plans to introduce similar standardised packaging. Information generated by the consultation, which closed in August, is still being analysed by health officials.

Dr Harpal Kumar, Cancer Research UK's chief executive, said: "The Australian Government is to be applauded. Today marks the day when tobacco companies are further stymied in their efforts to recruit Australian children into a lethal addiction.

A UK Department of Health spokesman said: "We have received many thousands of responses to the tobacco packaging consultation. We are currently in the process of carefully collating and analysing all the responses received.

"The Government has an open mind on this issue and any decisions to take further action will be taken only after full consideration of the consultation responses, evidence and other relevant information."

Australia aims to cut the number of people smoking from 15% of the population to just 10% in six years' time.

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Powerball Lottery Jackpot Winners Revealed

A 52-year-old Missouri mechanic and his wife have claimed their share of the record $588m Powerball lottery jackpot.

Lottery officials said Mark and Cindy Hill held one of the two winning tickets, representing the second-largest jackpot in US history.

Before the official announcement, Mr Hill had confirmed via Facebook that he had bought one of the winning tickets at a Trex Mart near his hometown Dearborn in Missouri about 35 miles (56km) north of Kansas City.

"We are truly blessed ... we were lucky winners of the powerball!" Mr Hill posted, according to newspressnow.com.

'We'll be able to give out Christmas bonuses,' said the store manager

A friend of Mr Hill, Myron Anderson, pastor of the Baptist Church, said the couple have older children and a younger school-age daughter.

"He's a really nice guy, and I know his wife, and they have this nice little adopted daughter that they went out of their way to adopt," Mr Anderson said.

The Trex Mart store will be awarded $50,000 for selling the winning ticket.

The other winning ticket was sold in Arizona, at a 4 Sons Food Store in Fountain Hills, just outside of Phoenix.

The winner lives in Tucson and has told lottery organisers they want to remain anonymous.

The odds of winning Wednesday night's draw were estimated to be one in 175 million.

Americans went on a ticket-buying spree in the run-up to the lottery, the big money enticing many people who rarely, if ever, play the lottery to purchase a shot at the second-largest payout in US history.

Tickets sold at a rate of 130,000-a-minute nationwide, about six times the volume from a week earlier, which pushed the jackpot even higher.

The jackpot had rolled over 16 consecutive times without a winner.

The 4 Sons Food Store in Fountain Hills, Arizona

Powerball's website crashed shortly after the winning numbers - 5, 16, 22, 23, 29 and Powerball of 6 - were announced, as did that of the Multi-State Lottery Association, which oversees Powerball.

Besides the jackpot, Powerball players can win as much as $1m if they hold tickets with most but not all the drawn numbers, but many people are unaware of these prizes and they can end up going unclaimed.

The biggest jackpot in US lottery history of $656m was claimed in March 2012 by MegaMillions players in Kansas, Illinois and Maryland who all held tickets bearing the same winning numbers.

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Crocodile Attacks Boy Swimming In Australia

Australian police are searching for a 12-year-old boy who is believed to have been attacked by a crocodile and dragged out to sea.

The boy was swimming with a group of people at Port Bradshaw, in the Northern Territory, when he was attacked.

"Initial reports suggest adults within in the group tried to save the boy by spearing the animal, but the crocodile dragged the child out to deeper water," police Superintendent Michael White said in a statement.

Supt White said the incident highlighted the dangers of swimming in waterways in northern Australia.

Two weeks ago a seven-year-old girl was feared killed by a crocodile at a waterhole about 340km (210 miles) east of the city of Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory.

Police searching the waterhole shot dead a three-metre (10ft) crocodile, and an examination of the animal revealed what were believed to be human remains in its stomach.

Saltwater crocodiles, which can be up to seven metres (23ft) long and weigh more than a ton, are a common feature of Australia's tropical north.

They have been protected since the 1970s and their numbers have increased steadily since.

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Chinese Home In Middle Of Road Is Torn Down

A home that was left standing in the middle of a busy new road in China after its owners refused to leave has been demolished.

The couple living there, duck farmer Luo Baogen and his wife, were the lone holdouts from a neighbourhood that had been demolished to make way for the road.

Builders built it despite their stubbornness and their home ended up being surrounded by asphalt with motorists having to navigate around it.

The five-storey building was bulldozed on Saturday after the pair finally accepted compensation of 260,000 yuan (£25,000), officials said.

Luo Baogen, 67, points to his now-demolished home

Pictures of their home became an internet sensation in recent weeks and the building was a symbol of resistance by homeowners against officials accused of offering residents unfair compensation to move out.

Officials said Mr Luo, tired of the media attention, had consented to the deal voluntarily.

"Luo Baogen received dozens of people from the media every day and his house stands in the centre of the road. So he decided to demolish the house," Xiazhangyang village chief Chen Xuecai said.

Property has helped drive China's growth in recent decades, but it has also raised objections from homeowners who have been forced out to make way for new constructions.

Once complete, the highway through Xiazhangyang village, on China's eastern coast, will lead to Wenling railway station, which is served by the country's super-fast bullet trains.

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North Korea Unveils New Rocket Launch Plan

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent, in Beijing

North Korea says it is to launch a long-range rocket later this month.

The launch, planned for between December 10 and December 22, has significantly increased already strained tensions with South Korea, which holds a presidential election later this month.

South Korea's Foreign Ministry reacted swiftly to the news, expressing "grave concern" and saying Pyongyang could face severe repercussions from the international community.

North Korea tried in April to launch a long-range rocket but it broke apart shortly after lift off, crash-landing in the Yellow Sea.

Critics believe leader Kim Jong-un is flexing his military muscles

The country's space agency, the Korean Committee for Space Technology, said it had studied the mistakes made in the April launch and had improved the rocket.

"Scientists and technicians of the DPRK analysed the mistakes that were made during the previous April launch and deepened the work of improving the reliability and precision of the satellite and carrier rocket, thereby rounding off the preparations for launch," it said.

Pyongyang claimed that the much-hyped failed April launch was intended to put a polar-orbiting earth observation satellite into orbit.

However, the US, South Korea and the UN all insisted it was a disguised ballistic missile test using a three-stage variant of the Taepodong-2 inter-continental ballistic missile.

The April test put a halt to the latest international effort to engage with North Korea, with the US calling off plans to deliver badly needed food assistance.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned Saturday's announcement and urged authorities to drop the plan.

"Failure to do so must lead to a further response by the international community, and will damage the prospects for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula," Mr Hague warned.

The announcement confirmed more than a week of speculation that a new launch was imminent.

Satellite imagery, released by DigitalGlobe, showed a marked increase in activity at a North Korean launch site.

Comparisons with earlier satellite imagery of the Sohae Satellite Launch Station near the Chinese border showed an increased number of people, trucks and other equipment.

"Given the observed level of activity ... a new tent, trucks, people and numerous portable fuel/oxidiser tanks, should North Korea desire, it could possibly conduct its fifth satellite launch event during the next three weeks," DigitalGlobe said in a statement last week accompanying its image.

Reports in Japan and the US had also suggested intelligence analysts in those countries were concerned about an increase in activity.

On Thursday, the UN Security Council had cautioned Pyongyang against going ahead with another launch, saying it would be "extremely inadvisable".

South Korea has reacted with anger to the latest launch plan, saying the "so-called rocket launch" is a long-range missile that violates a UN ban.

Voters in South Korea go to the polls on December 19. The neck-and-neck contest pits the ruling conservative party candidate Park Geun-hye, daughter of former South Korean leader Park Chung-hee, against Democratic Union Party candidate Moon Jae-in.

The policies they are expected to adopt in relation to North Korea differ markedly. Democratic candidate Mr Moon is expected to adopt a "carrot and stick" approach. Ms Park's stance is more "stick, then carrot".

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Egypt: Islamists Rally For Mohamed Morsi

Islamist backers of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi are staging a mass rally in Cairo in support of his expanding powers and the drafting of a new constitution.

"The Muslim Brotherhood supports President Morsi's decisions," read a banner carried by supporters who chanted: "The people want the implementation of God's law."

Mr Morsi plunged Egypt into a new crisis last week when he issued a decree placing his decisions beyond judicial challenge and gave himself sweeping powers.

Its new Muslim Brotherhood President said it was a temporary measure to speed-up Egypt's democratic transition until the revised charter was in place.

A supporter of Mohamed Morsi holds a portrait of the Egyptian President

Saturday's demonstration in the heart of the capital comes a day after tens of thousands converged on Tahrir Square to protest against Mr Morsi's decree and the speedy adoption of the draft constitution which they see as a dictatorial power grab.

Mohamed Noshi, 23, a pharmacist from Mansoura, north of Cairo, said: "Those in Tahrir don't represent everyone. Most people support Morsi and aren't against the decree."

"There are people who want instability," said another demonstrator, referring to anti-Morsi protesters.

"There needs to be a constitution for there to be stability."

Members of the constituent assembly are due to later hand the President the final draft of the constitution, which was adopted after a marathon overnight session on Thursday that was boycotted by liberals, seculars and Christians.

They are opposed to the haste in which the charter has been adopted and some of its provisions on rights and freedoms.

Heba Morayef, Human Rights Watch Egypt directors, said some of the draft articles on freedom of expression and religion resemble a "penal code".

"Some of the provisions are penal code provisions. You don't list all the things that you are not allowed to do, you're supposed to set up the rights and limitations," she said.

Pro-Morsi protests are also taking place in Nahdet Misr Square in Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo, Alexandria and the central Egyptian province of Assiut.

The Muslim Brotherhood and their supporters have branded the opposition as enemies of the revolution that toppled longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

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Hector Camacho: Funeral Held In New York

A funeral is being held in New York for former world champion boxer Hector "Macho" Camacho as police in Puerto Rico continue to investigate his fatal shooting.

The ceremony took place on Saturday morning at St Cecilia's Catholic Church in Manhattan's Spanish Harlem, the neighbourhood where the flamboyant boxer grew up.

A carriage drawn by white horses carried his body through the neighbourhood to a public wake at the church on Friday night.

Camacho celebrates beating Sugar Ray Leonard in 1997

Around 300 people were in the church, with scores more waiting behind police barricades outside.

Camacho, 50, was fatally wounded in a shooting on November 20.

In the 1980s, he won titles in three weight classes and had memorable bouts with Felix Trinidad, Oscar De La Hoya and Sugar Ray Leonard.

But after his career peaked, he was plagued by drug, alcohol and other problems.

In 2007 he was sentenced to seven years in prison for the burglary of a computer store in Mississippi. While arresting him on the burglary charge in January 2005, police also found the drug ecstasy.

A judge eventually suspended all but one year of the sentence and gave Camacho probation, but he ended up serving two weeks in jail after violating that probation.

Camacho will be buried after the service at St Raymond's Cemetery in the Bronx.

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Miami Airport: One Dead After Bus Hits Overpass

A bus has hit an overpass at Miami International Airport, killing at least one person and injuring dozens more, according to officials.

Airport spokesman Greg Chin said the bus, thought to be a cruise or tour bus, hit the overpass going into the airport's arrivals section this morning.

It was travelling at around 20mph when it clipped the roof entrance, he said.

Some 32 people were on board the bus, and all have some sort of injuries.

The arrivals area remains blocked off by fire trucks and police cars.

Mr Chin said buses are supposed to travel through the departure area, because it has a higher clearance for large vehicles.

Miami-Dade police lieutenant Rosanna Cordero-Stutz said the bus was privately owned.

It was unclear where it was travelling to, but Ms Cordero-Stutz said the driver was unfamiliar with the area and had not intended to go to the airport.

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