More US Marines Charged In Urination Video

Two more US Marines face criminal charges over a 2011 viral video showing members of a sniper platoon urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

The Marine Corps announced on Friday that Sergeant Robert W Richards will face charges including dereliction of duty and violating orders.

Military prosecutors say he filmed himself and others urinating on the corpses.

Captain James V Clement will face charges that include conduct unbecoming an officer and gentleman for failing to properly supervise junior Marines, and for making false statements to investigators.

A hearing will determine if there is enough evidence to proceed to a court martial.

Two other Marines pleaded guilty in the case that gained international attention after the video went viral on YouTube.

Staff Sergeants Edward Deptola and Joseph Chamblin pleaded guilty in earlier courts martial to their roles in the incident and were sentenced to reductions in rank.

The video, which surfaced in 2012, shows four Marines in full combat gear urinating on the bodies of three dead Afghans in July 2011.

In the video, one Marine looks down at the bodies and jokes, "Have a good day, buddy".

At his sentencing, Deptola told a judge: "I have no excuse, no reason, ma'am… it was not the correct way to handle a human casualty."

The urination video surfaced amid a string of embarrassing episodes for US forces in Afghanistan.

American troops were caught up in controversies over burning Muslim holy books, posing for photos with insurgents' bloodied remains and an alleged massacre of 16 Afghan villagers by a soldier.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the actions in the video as "inhuman", and US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta denounced the incident as "deplorable" and promised a full investigation.

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Spy Case: Canadian Navy Officer Gets 20 Years

A Canadian navy officer has been sentenced to 20 years in prison and ordered to pay a fine for leaking military secrets to Russia.

Sub-Lieutenant Jeffrey Delisle pleaded guilty in October to breach of trust and passing information to a foreign government.

His sentence is the strongest punishment for espionage in Canada's history, said prosecutor Lyne Decarie.

However, it is still not known what damage, if any, the security lapse caused to Canada or the United States.

Canada's Chief of the Defence Staff, General Tom Lawson, said Delisle's betrayal had struck at the "bedrock" of Canada and its allies' mutual defence, putting their intelligence sharing at risk.

"A critical foundation of our intelligence mission is the mutual trust we have forged with our allies, and other inter-governmental and international partners," General Lawson said in a statement.

"Through his own admission, Sub-Lieutenant Delisle violated that trust, not only with our partners, but also with the people with whom he worked on a daily basis, and with the Canadian Armed Forces as a whole."

Jeffrey Delisle seen during an interrogation in January 2012

Delisle was the first person to be charged under a new Canadian security and intelligence law, which was enacted after the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.

In addition to being sentenced to two decades behind bars, Judge Patrick Curran also slapped the 41-year-old with a $111,523 (£70,588) fine - an amount equal to what he earned while spying.

In a police interrogation video released last week, Delisle said marital woes led him to betray his country.

He said he had considered suicide but chose "professional suicide" instead, out of concern for his children.

Delisle has apologised in court during his trial, saying: "I would like to go back in time, but I can't."

Judge Curran however scolded him at sentencing for "coldly and rationally" offering his services to Moscow.

Delisle was an analyst at the HMCS Trinity in Halifax, a naval intelligence centre that processes data from satellites and drone surveillance from across the north Atlantic region.

While working there, he had access to information from several Nato countries, including the US and Britain.

In 2007, he walked into the Russian embassy in Ottawa and offered his services as a spy.

On Moscow's payroll since then, Delisle saved classified information on a miniature hard drive and sent it once a month to Russia.

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Dozens Hurt In Street Clashes Across Egypt

Protesters have marched in the streets chanting slogans against Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in cities across Egypt.

A few hundred people attacked the presidential palace in Cairo with petrol bombs and rocks.

Riot police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters, many of whom had to be taken to hospital after suffering from suffocation.

In Alexandria, Egypt's second city, dozens of protesters threw stones at police.

Earlier on Friday, a few thousand people marched around the city. The clashes took place in front of one of the city's main police stations.

Anti-regime protesters set fire to the presidential palace in Cairo

At least 45 people were hurt during the day across the country, medical sources at the health ministry said.

Two officers and three soldiers of the Republic Guard were wounded in clashes, the state news agency MENA reported.

Protests erupted last month over what demonstrators saw as Mr Morsi's attempts to monopolise power as well as wider political and economic grievances.

The main opposition alliance signed an agreement with the ruling Muslim Brotherhood last week rejecting violence and had not officially called for marches on Friday.

But distrust of Mr Morsi and of the Muslim Brotherhood - as well as a sense of political and economic malaise - continue to bring people into the streets across Egypt, however the number of protests has declined in recent weeks.

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Indian Militant Afzal Guru Hanged In New Delhi

By Neville Lazarus, Sky Producer in New Delhi

Afzal Guru, a conspirator in the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament, has been hanged in New Delhi.

The Home Minister of India said Guru was hanged at 8am local time at New Delhi's Tihar jail.

In December 2001, five armed terrorists drove into the Indian Parliament complex and opened fire.

Nine people were killed, most of them members of the security forces. All the terrorists were shot dead.

The Indian Government initially accused the Pakistan-based terrorist organisations Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) of being involved in the attack. 

In December 2002, four JeM members were caught by Indian authorities and put on trial. All four, including Afzal Guru, were found guilty of playing varying roles in the incident.

The attack brought the two nuclear power countries close to war.

A placard of Afzal Guru is held during a protest in India in December 2011

The Indian government asked Pakistan to apprehend the organisations' leaders and curb the financial assets and the groups' access to their assets.

In response, Pakistani forces were put on high alert the same day.

On December 20, India mobilised and deployed its troops to Kashmir and Punjab in what was India's largest military mobilisation since the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War.

World leaders condemned the attack on the Indian parliament and stepped in to calm the situation.

In 2004, Guru was given the death sentence by the Supreme Court.

The sentence was scheduled to be carried out on October 20, 2006, but was stayed after his wife filed a mercy petition with the President of India.

The petition was rejected and returned to the Home Ministry on February 3 this year.

Guru is from Kashmir and the government is taking all measures to quell protests in the valley. 

A curfew has been imposed in most towns in the valley in Kashmir. Cable operators have pulled the plug on news channels in some areas to prevent protests.

Many in India believe there is a political motivation for the hanging. The Congress-led government has long been seen dragging its feet on issues of terrorism and want to shun that image.

In November last year, Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist from Pakistan who was caught during the Mumbai attacks was executed in a Pune jail.

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Belgium Plane Crash Kills Five

A small passenger plane has crashed at Belgium's Charleroi airport, killing five people and closing the international hub used by low-cost carriers.

The aircraft, a Cessna, had problems on takeoff and tried to return to Charleroi to make an emergency landing but crashed on the side of the runway, airport officials said.

"There was a problem on takeoff and they tried to come back, but unfortunately the plane crashed," said Melissa Milioto, an airport spokeswoman.

After having problems the plane crashed next to the runway, trying to land

Two adults and three children, reportedly all from the same family, were killed.

According to the news website sudinfo.be, the victims were a 68-year-old grandfather, a 39-year-old mother, and three children aged 7, 6 and 3. They are thought to be from Brussels.

There were no immediate indications of what caused the crash, which happened at 10am local time (9am GMT).

Firefighters sprayed water on the plane that was reduced to a wreck of twisted metal, with only the tail still visible.

Police said the airport, which is a hub for Ryanair and other low-cost carriers, would be closed until mid-afternoon. Several flights were cancelled and others delayed or diverted.

Queues of passengers built up after the airport was closed

"Our priority is dealing with this drama. Flights are being diverted to Liege and Brussels," Ms Milioto said.

The crash came at the start of the Belgium school half-term holidays.

Charleroi airport, also known as Brussels South Charleroi, serves as the country's second international airport after Brussels' main Zaventem airport and expects to handle 140,000 passengers over the half-term holiday period.

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YouTube Suspended In Egypt Over Prophet Film

An Egyptian court has ordered the suspension of YouTube for a month for hosting a film insulting the Prophet Mohammed.

The country's administrative court ordered the ministry of communication to block the Google-owned site inside Egypt because it had carried the film "Innocence of Muslims", according to state news agency Mena.

The 13-minute video, billed as a film trailer and made in the United States, provoked a torrent of anti-American unrest in Egypt, Libya and dozens of other Muslim countries in September.

The video depicts the prophet as a fool and a sexual deviant.

For most Muslims, any portrayal of the prophet is considered blasphemous.

The court said it was ruling on a case brought about by the film several months ago, without going into further detail.

YouTube had "insisted on broadcasting the film insulting Islam and the prophet, disrespecting the beliefs of millions of Egyptians and disregarding the anger of all Muslims" the court said.

Egypt's National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority said it would abide by the ruling as soon as it received a copy of the verdict.

No-one from Google or YouTube has commented.

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Christopher Dorner: Cop 'Disturbed' Claims Ex

Details are emerging about the former police officer at the center of a massive manhunt as the high-altitude search for him enters its second day.

Court documents show an ex-girlfriend of Christopher Dorner, the suspect in three murders, called him "severely emotionally and mentally disturbed" after the two split in 2006.

In an online manifesto Dorner, 33, has vowed "warfare" against a list of "high value targets" whom he believes have wronged him.

Police say Dorner is out for revenge against people he sees as involved in his 2008 firing from the Los Angeles Police Department.

Officers have been sent to protect more than 40 potential targets, including police personnel and their families.

A former Navy reservist who served in Iraq, Dorner also goes into detail about how he was fired from the LAPD for whistle-blowing about what he claims was brutal behaviour by other officers.

Dorner's burned-out truck is towed away from Big Bear

He claims the department has not changed since the Rodney King beating incident and that he was out to correct the officers' "moral compass".

On Friday Irvine police officers and US Marshalls served a search warrant on the Las Palmas home of Dorner's mother.

His mother and sister were home at the time and were cooperating, said Irvine Lieutenant Bill Whalen.

Dorner once lived at the home but did not appear to have been there recently, he said.

Police found Dorner's burned-out pickup truck abandoned on a mountain forest road on Thursday, and followed tracks they believed to be his leading away from the scene before losing the trail.

San Bernardino County Sheriff's SWAT officers join the search

The hunt for Dorner continued on Friday in the Southern California ski resort community of Big Bear, even as a winter storm brought fresh snow to the mountain region 80 miles (130km) east of Los Angeles.

The FBI had joined the growing group of local law enforcement agencies searching for the suspect.

There have been no leads since then.

"Here's the bottom line: We don't know if he's on foot or not," said LAPD Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese. "Is he on foot up on the mountain? Is he down the mountain? We don't know."

The search for Dorner now stretches across California and Nevada and into Mexico.

Monica Quan was killed on Sunday

Court documents obtained on Friday show Dorner unsuccessfully requested a restraining order against his ex-girlfriend after she posted his badge number on a website called Dontdatehimgirl.com.

In the online posting, Ariana Williams called Dorner "twisted" and "super paranoid" and warns other women on the website not to date him.

Williams' attorney could not be reached for comment.

Dorner is wanted for the killings of Monica Quan, the daughter of a former LAPD captain and her fiance, Keith Lawrence. They were found shot in their car at their condominium in Irvine on Sunday night, authorities said.

Ms Quan, 28, was an assistant women's basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton. Mr Lawrence, 27, was a public safety officer at the University of Southern California.

Ms Quan's father, who became a lawyer in retirement, represented Dorner in front of the Board of Rights, a tribunal that ruled against him at the time of his dismissal in 2008.

Authorities also said Dorner opened fire early on Thursday on police in cities east of Los Angeles, killing an officer and wounding another.

In his Facebook manifesto, Dorner says: "I am here to correct and calibrate your morale (sic) compasses to true north."

He said: "I will bring unconventional and asymmetrical warfare to those in LAPD uniform whether on or off duty. ISR is my strength and your weakness.

An undated photo of Dorner

"You will now live the life of the prey. Your RD's and homes away from work will be my AO and battle space.

"I will utilize every tool within INT collections that I learned from NMITC in Dam Neck. You have misjudged a sleeping giant.

"There is no conventional threat assessment for me."

He also singles out various celebrities for praise, including Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Charlie Sheen and Kate Winslet, but does not issue threats against them.

Dorner has a number of weapons including an assault rifle, according to LAPD Chief Charlie Beck.

Mr Beck said: "Of course he knows what he's doing; we trained him. He was also a member of the Armed Forces," he said. "It is extremely worrisome and scary."

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German Minister Quits Over Plagiarism Scandal

Germany's education minister has resigned after being accused of plagiarism over three decades ago and having her doctorate withdrawn.

Annette Schavan, a close ally and confidante of Chancellor Angela Merkel, was stripped of her doctorate by her former university earlier this week after it was claimed she had plagiarised parts of her thesis over 30 years ago. The minister denies the allegations.

Duesseldorf's Heinrich Heine University decided to revoke her PhD following a review of her 1980 thesis after an anonymous blogger last year raised plagiarism allegations.

The university said she had "systematically and intentionally" copied parts of her thesis, titled "Person and Conscience".

On announcing her decision to quit, 57-year-old Mrs Schavan reiterated her vow to fight the allegations but said she did not want the claims to damage the office, party or Government.

The empty seat of the education minister before a Cabinet meeting this week

She said: "I will not accept the decision (by the university) and will take legal action against it.

"When a (education) minister sues a university, then that comes with strains, for my office, for the ministry, the government and for the Christian Democrats (Mrs Merkel's party). I want to avoid just that."

Chancellor Merkel said she accepted her resignation "with a heavy heart".

The resignation is a political blow for Germany's leader less than eight months before elections in which the she is hoping to win a third term in office.

Mrs Schavan becomes the second close ally of the Chancellor to step down over plagiarism.

Minister Schavan has promised to fight the plagiarism allegations

Only two years ago then-defence minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg lost his doctorate and quit when it emerged that he copied large parts of his doctoral thesis.

The extent of Mrs Schavan's alleged plagiarism is thought to be less than that of Mr zu Guttenberg's, whose actions earned the aristocrat the nicknames "Baron cut-and-paste" and "zu Googleberg".

Nevertheless, Mrs Schavan's mistakes were seen as indefensible given her position as education minister in a country where academic titles are taken extremely seriously.

At the time of Mr zu Guttenberg's downfall Mrs Schavan she said she was "ashamed" of her former cabinet colleague.

"As someone who was herself awarded a doctorate 31 years ago and who has supervised several doctoral candidates, I am ashamed and not just behind closed doors," she told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung in 2011.

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US Blizzard Dump Cuts Power To 650,000

A massive storm packing hurricane-force winds and blizzard conditions has dumped more than two feet of snow on the northeast of the United States and knocked out power to 650,000 customers.

A state of emergency has been declared in five states and thousands of air flights have also been affected as a result of the monster storm.

The storm has been blamed for at least four deaths in New York and Canada.

More than 28 inches of snow had fallen in parts of central Connecticut by early Saturday, and areas of southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire notched over two feet or more.

High winds blastered houses with driving snow

Massachusetts has also prohibited vehicles from using any road in the state.

The National Weather Service (NWS) says up to three feet is expected in Boston, threatening the city's 2003 record of 27.6 inches.

Throughout the Northeast, hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses lost electricity.

Airlines cancelled more than 5,300 flights through Saturday, and New York City's three major airports and Boston's Logan Airport closed.

The area affected stretches from Ontario through Maine to New York City

Numerous cars that had been abandoned on the Long Island Expressway on Friday night remained stuck on Saturday morning, trapped by ploughed snow.

A nuclear power plant in Plymouth, Massachusetts, automatically shot down due to the snow but regulators say there is no threat to public safety.

The most intense part of the storm moved into Connecticut on Saturday morning as conditions eased around New York City.

According to forecasters, the storm is expected to hit New England throughout Saturday afternoon, with 75mph winds and a risk of up to 36 inches of snow.

The NWS also warned about the risk of flooding along the Atlantic Coast possibly affecting up to eight million residents.

Boston was expected to receive more snow on Saturday

NY mayor Michael Bloomberg earlier advised against panic buying of food and fuel, like what occurred during Hurricane Sandy.

Central Park in New York City reportedly received up to 8in of snow during the dumping.

Flights to and from Britain and other international destinations have been badly affected and airport staff advised passengers to check status with their airlines.

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China Ready Ushers In Year Of The Snake

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent

China has ushered in the Year of the Snake as 1.3 billion people celebrate the Lunar New Year.

In cities, towns and villages across this vast country, one-fifth of the world's population is marking the close of the Year of the Dragon and the dawn of a new year.

Beijing's Temple of the Earth Park has been transformed into a sea of red lanterns. Crowds are gathered around traditional dance performances.

Hundreds of stalls sell food, drinks, toys, souvenirs and snake-themed items of an apparently infinite variety.

Police officers march as part of a re-enactment of an ancient ceremony

Food and family are the two dominant themes for Chinese New Year.

In the park we met An Ying and her parents. She lives in Beijing but is originally from Inner Mongolia.

Her parents have travelled to Beijing to be with her; a break with tradition which usually dictates that younger generations travel back to their family home.

"I will celebrate with my family here in Beijing and we will gather to watch the gala on television," she told me.

The New Year gala is a long-standing institution in China. Broadcast live on state television it is a celebration of the year with performances from comedians, singers and musicians.

A woman and a child pose for photo next to a snake sculpture

This year Celine Dion became the first non-Chinese person to perform at the gala.

All around the park are families absorbing the atmosphere, the colour and the sounds in the frozen temperatures.

Some are carrying inflatable or stuffed toy snakes and the more superstitious will be wondering what the coming year will bring. There is significantly less affection for the snake than there was for last year's rather more auspicious dragon.

Fearful that the Year of the Snake might bring with it all that the slithering reptile represents, there has been a rush of weddings and attempts at carefully planned births to ensure they fell within the last year and not the coming one.

In an attempt to overcome people's suspicions, the toy snakes produced for the new year all seem to sport unusually happy or smiley faces.

The less superstitious insist that the snake does have its value. Some refer to the snake as the little dragon. It is said that children born in the year of the snake will be rational, organised and intelligent.

As dusk falls on Chinese New Year's Eve, the tradition is to gather at the family home and watch the gala before eating a meal together at midnight.

For a country that has changed beyond recognition over the past three decades, the desire to stick to tradition is still remarkably strong though there are increasing signs of strains every year.

As the Chinese middle class grows with more money to spend, many are opting to travel abroad for the break rather than to spend it with families.

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