Meteor: Rescue Teams Rally To Recovery Effort

A major recovery effort is under way to replace thousands of windows shattered by the shockwave from a meteor that exploded over Russia, as some 24,000 workers began arriving in the Chelyabinsk region to help relief efforts.

The shockwave blew out glass in more than 4,000 buildings in the region and injured about 1,200 people, largely with cuts from the flying debris.

Forty of those injured remained in hospital on Saturday, two of them in serious condition, the state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Regional governor Mikhail Yurevich said the damage from the high-altitude explosion -  which was estimated to have been as powerful as 20 Hiroshima bombs - is estimated at 1bn rubles (£21m).

A man repairs the window of a damaged sports hall in Chelyabinsk

He promised to have the 200,000 square metres worth of broken windows replaced within a week.

Rescuers are also scouring the bottom of a lake for the remains of the meteor, which plunged to Earth in a fireball on Friday.

Part of the space rock, which was the size of a bus and blazed across western Siberia, is believed to have landed in the frozen Lake Chebarkul.

Curious onlookers gathered nearby were stopped from venturing out on to the lake by police as the search continued.

More than 24,000 rescuers and recovery workers have already been dispatched to the region around Chelyabinsk to help residents.

Workers in Chelyabinsk examine the damage to a large building

The workers will gather warm clothes and food, cover windows, and make other relief efforts. Crews from glass companies in adjacent regions have also begun to arrive.

Experts are also examining major buildings in case they have been structurally damaged by the blast.

Residents who had poured into the streets to watch the light show after spotting the initial flash were wounded by glass shattered by the subsequent sonic boom.

Experts said the meteor strike was the largest recorded in more than a century.

The meteor burned brightly in the sky as it plunged to Earth

As the recovery mission begins in earnest, the emergencies ministry said six divers would be inspecting the lake for any pieces of meteorite.

Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov added: "We have a special team working ... that is now assessing the seismic stability of buildings. We will be especially careful about switching the gas back on."

Scientists will be desperate to examine the rock for any clues about the cosmos but Mr Puchkov said no fragments had yet been discovered.

The explosion appears to have been one of the most stunning cosmic events over Russia since 1908 when an asteroid was blamed for a massive blast in Siberia.

Nasa estimated that the amount of energy released when the meteor crashed into the Earth's atmosphere was about 20 times more than the force of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb.                 

The meteor hit in the Urals on Friday morning

"We would expect an event of this magnitude to occur once every 100 years on average," said Paul Chodas of Nasa's Near-Earth Object Programme Office.

The drama happened just hours before an asteroid whizzed safely past the Earth at an unprecedented distance of 17,200 miles.

This is closer than some distant satellites and set alarm bells ringing in some Russian circles about the need for joint global action to protect Earth from space.

Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee chief Alexei Pushkov wrote on Twitter: "Instead of fighting on Earth, people should be creating a joint system of asteroid defence."

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$1bn Gambling Loser Stole $2m From Charity

A former San Diego mayor has admitted taking $2.1m (£1.35m) in charity funds as she won and then lost $1bn (£644m) in a decade-long gambling spree.

Maureen O'Connor claimed the addiction was brought on by grief following the death of her husband.

It drove her to use up all her savings, auction off her belongings, sell her homes, and borrow from friends.

She finally looted cash from the foundation set up by her late partner, Robert O Peterson, the owner of the Jack in the Box fast food chain.

The 66-year-old's game of choice was video poker at casinos in San Diego, Las Vegas and Atlantic City, where she would play for hours at a time.

Her cumulative winnings were put at around $1bn from 2000 to 2009, including $200m in one year alone.

Video poker was Maureen O'Connor's game of choice

But her net gambling losses topped $13m, and she is now virtually broke.

It marked a stunning fall for O'Connor, a former physical education teacher who was elected to the City Council when she was 25 and became San Diego's first female mayor in 1986.

At a news conference on Thursday, she said she always intended to repay the foundation and also appeared to partly blame her behaviour on a brain tumour that was diagnosed in 2011.

"There are two Maureens. Maureen number one and Maureen number two," she said.

"Maureen number two is the Maureen who did not know she had a tumour growing in her brain."

O'Connor pleaded not guilty to a money laundering charge under a deal with federal prosecutors that allows her to defer prosecution for two years as she works to repay the debt.

She could face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

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Asteroid Skims Past Earth In Record Near-Miss

A 150ft-long asteroid has skimmed harmlessly past the Earth - closer than any other near-miss on record.

The huge chunk of rock was travelling closer to the planet than many satellites when it reached its nearest point at 7.25pm, shooting across the sky at a speed of 17,640mph (28,388kph).

But while it may have been visible as a tiny white dot to those using binoculars - weather permitting - scientists had said there was no chance it would hit Earth.

It had been expected come as close as 17,200 miles (27,681km) away, a close shave in astronomical terms.

People gathered across the UK with binoculars and telescopes to catch a glimpse of the object, called 2012 DA14, which is now moving away from the planet.

The European Space Agency said the asteroid is not linked to the meteorite that hit Russia earlier on Friday, with scientists calling it a coincidence.

At 143,000 tons, the "city killer" DA14 is nowhere near as big as the six-mile-wide (10km) object widely believed to have brought about the extinction of the dinosaurs, but it is large enough to have wiped out an area the size of London had it struck.

Astronomers in the US were unable to see it at its closest approach, but colleagues in Australia watched the point of light speed across a clear night sky.

There was a remote possibility that it could collide with one of more than 100 telecommunication and weather satellites in fixed orbits. It was expected to have moved beyond Earth's ring of satellites within hours.

Experts have been closely tracking the asteroid since its discovery a year ago.

Astronomer and asteroid expert Dr Dan Brown, from Nottingham Trent University, said star-gazers would have seen it pass from the constellation Leo to roughly the Plough, "more or less from anywhere in the UK", and that it would have been bright for an hour.

DA14 belongs to a dangerous family of near-Earth objects (NEOs) that are small enough to be missed but large enough to cause serious damage.

It was detected in February last year by La Sagra Observatory in southern Spain as it fell under the spotlight of the Sun's rays.

Scientists at Nasa's Near-Earth Object programme at California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory estimate an object of this size makes a close approach such as this every 40 years.

Nasa live-streamed the flight path of the asteroid from various observatories and satellites on its website.

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Facebook Targeted In 'Zero-Day' Hack Attack

Facebook has revealed it was the victim of a sophisticated attack by an unknown hacking group last month.

The site's security was breached after a handful of Facebook employees unknowingly visited a website that had been compromised with malicious code.

When a suspicious file was discovered on the company's computers, a forensic investigation was launched and the origin of the file was traced to an employee's laptop.

A further search uncovered other infected computers, but Facebook insists there was no data breach and no passwords or user data were compromised.

The company said in a statement: "Facebook, like every significant Internet service, is frequently targeted by those who want to disrupt or access our data and infrastructure.

"Last month we discovered that our systems had been targeted in a sophisticated attack which occurred when a handful of employees visited a mobile developer website that was compromised.

The company has launched a major investigation into the breach

"After analysing the website we found it was using a 'zero-day' (previously unseen) exploit to bypass the Java sandbox (built-in protections) to install the malware.

"As soon as we discovered the presence of the malware, we remediated all infected machines, informed law enforcement, and began a significant investigation that continues to this day."

There have a number of cyber-attacks on prominent websites recently. Some 250,000 Twitter accounts were potentially compromised after attackers obtained access to their names and email addresses.

The websites of The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal were also infiltrated by unknown hackers apparently targeting those papers' media coverage of China.

Although Facebook claimed that no user data was compromised, the incident could raise privacy concerns about the vulnerability of personal data stored within the social network.

The company has experienced several privacy rows over the years for the way it handles user data, including a privacy investigation with regulators that was settled in 2011.

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Pope Benedict Praised By Vatican Exorcist

By Nick Pisa, Sky News Reporter

Outgoing Pope Benedict XVI has won praise from an unusual quarter - the Catholic church's leading exorcist priest.

Father Gabriel Amorth, 86, who has carried out more than 70,000 exorcisms in a career spanning 25 years after being appointed by the late Pope John Paul II, said: "Pope Benedict has done many things for exorcists.

"He has allowed them within the catechism of the Catholic Church, consenting them to administer the sacrament of exorcism to people suffering from demonic possession.

"But not only to them, also those who suffer other evil disorders such as being plagued by devils and diabolic infestation."

The Vatican, where Father Amorth once claimed the Devil was at work

Father Amorth, an outspoken and controversial figure, was speaking in a recording of a show on Pope Benedict's eight-year term of office, which will be screened on Italian TV, called: Joseph Ratzinger And The Devil. The History Of A Pontificate And The Battle Against Evil.

The priest is president of the International Association of Exorcists and it is not the first time that he has linked Pope Benedict to exorcism.

Last year in his book The Last Exorcist - My Fight Against Satan, Father Amorth described how the presence of the Pope helped cure two "possessed" men who were in St Peter's Square in May 2009 as the Popemobile drove past them.

Father Amorth said his two assistants escorted the pair into the square and managed to get them seats in an area reserved for the disabled.

He has previously claimed that watching Harry Potter films leads to 'evil'

As the Pope approached them, the men, named only as Marco and Giovanni, began to act in a strange fashion, Father Amorth wrote.

He described how they shook and how their teeth began to chatter. One of the assistants asked Giovanni to control himself, but he replied: "I am not Giovanni" in a different voice to his own, Father Amorth claims.

As soon as the Pope stepped down from his vehicle the two men threw themselves to the floor.

''They banged their heads on the ground. They were trembling, slobbering, working themselves into a frenzy.

''The Pope watched from a distance. He raised an arm and blessed the four of them. For the possessed it was like a furious jolt - a blow to their whole bodies - to the extent that they were thrown three metres backwards.

The Exorcist is reportedly his favourite film

"They stopped howling but they cried uncontrollably."

Father Amorth insisted in the book that it was the presence of the Pope that helped cure the men. Although the Vatican confirmed the incident, it later stressed the Pontiff had not actually carried out an exorcism.

Father Amorth, whose favourite film is said to be The Exorcist, has previously spoken out against Harry Potter and yoga - claiming they both "lead to evil" because of their links with magic and spiritualism.

In 2011 he said the then child sex scandals rocking the Catholic Church were evidence that ''the Devil was at work in the Vatican".

In 2006 he gave an interview to Vatican Radio in which he said that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and Russian dictator Josef Stalin were both possessed by the Devil.

According to secret Vatican documents, the then war-time Pope Pius XII attempted a ''long distance exorcism'' of Hitler but it failed to have any effect.

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Fugitive Cop Died Of 'Self-Inflicted' Gunshot

Christopher Dorner, who began a retribution campaign against his Los Angeles police colleagues, died of a single gunshot wound, a coroner has said.

The fugitive officer's charred remains were found in a burned-out California mountain cabin after a "war-zone style" standoff with armed police.

Dorner declared 'war' on his colleagues in an online manifesto

Coroner examiners have yet to determine who fired the fatal shot that killed Dorner, though San Bernardino County Coroner Kevin Lacy said current evidence suggests the 33-year-old committed suicide.

"We are not yet able to speak about the manner of death and tell you whether or not it was the result of a self-inflicted wound or another round," he said at a news conference.

But he added: "The information we have seems to indicate that the wound that took Christopher Dorner's life was self-inflicted."

The ex-LAPD cop went on the run last week after allegedly killing a couple and a policeman, and wounding three people.

Another police officer was killed and one wounded before the cabin in which Dorner was holed-up went up in flames.

Officials also said at the news conference that they had found a cache of weapons at various sites connected with Dorner.

Dorner had posted online a chilling manifesto in which he threatened to bring "warfare" to LAPD officers and their families, and blamed the LAPD for treating him unfairly in his sacking in 2008.

The six-day manhunt reached a climax on Tuesday when Dorner barricaded himself inside the cabin.

The charred remains of the mountain cabin

San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon said there was a prolonged firefight with Dorner.

He said when "other means had been exhausted", SWAT officers used a tractor-type device to open up the windows and walls of the cabin, and threw in pyrotechnic tear gas canisters to try to force Dorner to surrender.

A blaze erupted, starting at one corner of the cabin.

Sheriff McMahon said that as the flames took hold, after a period of no firing, there was "a distinct single gunshot coming from inside the house".

The sound of it "indicated to me (that) a different kind of weapon had been fired," he added.

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China Film Market Set To Take Over Hollywood

By Mark Stone, China Correspondent

China has become the world's second largest film market and is predicted to be the largest, overtaking Hollywood, by the end of the decade.

The country already boasts what is claimed to be the largest film studio in the world.

Hengdian is a three-hour flight south of Beijing. Twenty years ago it was a tiny farm village. Now it is bigger than Universal and Paramount Studios combined.

"Forget about Hollywood, here we can have 40 separate productions at the same time," Zeng YuLin, the spokesman for the studio tells me.

With a guide and a golf buggy, we took a tour of the site. There appears to be no limit to what they are able to create: we drove passed a spectrum of Chinese history from colonial Hong Kong to pre-war Guangzhou all recreated to minute detail.

Hengdian is the sight of the largest film studio in the world

At the heart of it all is a staggering full-size recreation of Beijing's Forbidden City. None of the sets are temporary and there seems to be one for every conceivable scene.

In one corner we stumbled across the filming of what appeared to be a key fight scene in a forthcoming war film. Surrounded by extras in outsized costumes was lead actor, Qi Dao.

Immaculately dressed in the uniform of a 1930s policeman, Dao was on his fifteenth take of the morning. In a brief break, he told us about Hengdian.

"It's getting better every day," he said. "There's still a way to go before it is at an international standard like Hollywood. But it is getting better and better."

He then touched on the one issue that many believe is holding China back: censorship.

China's film market is set to overtake Hollywood by the end of the decade

"Of course I'd like censorship to loosen up a bit. That would give a bigger space for us artists to create, and to deliver fresh productions to the audience."

Every TV programme and film that is produced in China is subjected to the censors for approval. The Communist Party's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television is responsible for checking everything that is filmed.

Anything remotely political is off limits, which explains the somewhat cliched subject matter of everything we saw at Hengdian.

The Japan-bashing war films and Ming period dramas may conform with Communist Party regulations but they only have a limited popularity. That may go some way to explaining why less than 5% of Chinese movies broke even in the first half of 2012.

Zhang Jingkun, a director who works regularly at Hengdian, acknowledges the restrictions but doesn't belive they have a big impact on domestic production.

Every TV programme and film produced in China is subjected to censors

"There are restrictions. The policies from different countries are different," he says.

"Compared to the capitalist system, our socialist system has restrictions on policies. But it doesn't affect the productions domestically. It's the different tradition between the east and the west, it takes time to change. It's a progress."

The censorship also has an impact on western production houses who want access to the Chinese market. All films shown in China are checked by the censorship department.

Skyfall, the latest Bond film, was released in China in January but only after one plot thread was altered and another scene was cut altogether.

Anything remotely political is off limits in the Chinese film market

Part of the film is made in Shanghai but one scene in which a Chinese security guard is shot dead in a skyscraper lobby has been removed.

In addition, the Chinese subtitles have been altered to remove any reference in the dialogue to Chinese torture and prostitution.

The threat of censorship has not put foreign production houses off the Chinese market. Foreign films make up 60% of the Chinese box office market.

Chinese producers like Yu Zheng, who is filming a Qin period drama at Hengdian, hopes to offer his work to the world.

"I hope China's TVs will go to the world." he says. "English dramas like Downton Abbey, together with a lot of American dramas, draw large audiences in. I hope many of our beautifully produced TV series will develop into the world markets."

He and his executive producer were reluctant to speak about the issues surrounding censorship.

"I'm reluctant to be associated with issues like this," Mr Yu said. "I can't answer your question."

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Backpacker: Brit Teen Drank Urine To Survive

A British backpacker missing in the scorching Australian outback for three days drank his own urine and contact lens solution to survive, his mother has said.

Sam Woodhead, 18, became lost after he set out for a jog from the remote Queensland cattle station where he had worked for less than two weeks.

But the chance discovery of packets of lenses in his rucksack - put there by his father, Peter - helped to keep him going for 72 hours in blistering temperatures of around 40C (104F).

Sam Woodhead was a keen long distance runner

The former Brighton College student, from Richmond upon Thames, London, was found about three miles away from the ranch by rescuers in a helicopter.

His mother, Claire Derry, has visited him in hospital in Longreach, about 50 miles away from where he was discovered. She said he had lost weight and his kidneys were not working properly due to dehydration.

She added: "He looks fantastic, he's suntanned, his mouth isn't blistered, he looks great, he's thinner and questionably a lot thinner than when I last saw him.

"The only concern is that his kidneys are not quite functioning normally and his blood's not normal. But that, the doctor says, is completely typical of somebody who's been completely dehydrated."

Ms Derry went on: "He  tried to drink his own urine. He said he'd run out of the contact lens fluid and the contact lens capsules said they were 69% water. But they'd all gone so the urine had become very, very concentrated.

"So he said he couldn't stomach it, so he had nothing, he had nothing to keep him going, by the time the helicopter crew got to him."

Mr Woodhead with his mother and sister Rebacca before the ordeal

She told Sky News: "Sam is an amazingly cool guy and he said 'hi mum' and I said 'Sam I didn't think I would be holding you in my arms again frankly'.

"But he didn't cry and didn't show very much emotion at all. He just said I'm really happy to see you."

Mr Woodhead, who is set on joining the Armed Forces and is a keen long distance runner, is expected to leave hospital on Sunday.

Mike Curtin from Queensland State Police said: "He was quite disorientated but, you know, his body seemed to bounce back fairly quickly once he knew that obviously he was located and so forth and he was quite happy of the fact that someone had found him."

Mr Curtin warned of the harsh Australian climate and called on young people to be careful when travelling or working in the remote Australian Outback.

He said: "It's one of those things and I think there's a lesson to be learned here from any of these young fellows who do take, or young boys and girls, who take jobs in areas like this isolated part of the state, to be careful, to be safe, and prepare.

"And never take the harshest Australian environment and our climatic conditions here for granted."

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Jude Law leads Brit hopes at Berlin Film Festival

Among the contenders for the Golden Bear top film award is Steven Soderbergh's Side Effects, which stars Jude Law and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Soderbergh has said that Side Effects is to be his last movie, and it tackles the world of prescribed drugs, with Law playing a Manhattan doctor who tries to help a depressed wife by giving her a new superdrug.

Also in contention in Berlin is Prince Avalanche, starring Paul Rudd and the fracking drama Promised Land, which features Matt Damon.

New Dreamworks 3D animation The Croods has also debuted at the festival, with Nicola Cage, Ryan Reynolds and Emma Stone among those providing voices in the prehistoric comedy.

The Berlin prize can raise the profile of low-budget films to a global audience and is an important event in the movie calendar.

Away from the bigger Hollywood films, the impact of Europe-wide austerity measures has provided inspiration for film-makers from countries hardest hit by the financial crisis.

Spanish film Ayer No Termina Nunca (Yesterday Never Ends) is set in 2017 when Spain has hit rock bottom, with more than seven million unemployed and three million homes empty because their owners cannot keep up payments.

Director Isabel Coixet says: "This film is a distillation of my confusion, of my impotence. Through the settling of scores by this couple, behind their pain, is the situation of Spain.

"Two years ago we were reading what was happening in Greece and now it's happening to us. Perhaps this film will serve to warn other countries."

In the Greek-Italian film I Kori (The Daughter), the crisis invokes fear, when a 14-year-old kidnaps the son of her father's business partner whom she blames for bankrupting him.

The hot favourite to take the Golden Bear is the comedy-drama Gloria, directed by Sebastian Lelio, which tells the story of a 58-year-old divorcee determined to live life to the full.

It is one of many films at the festival this year that have given centre-stage to an older woman in the lead role.

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Pistorius: Girlfriend's TV Show Goes Ahead

Producers are to broadcast a reality TV show featuring the dead girlfriend of athlete Oscar Pistorius later today, saying they have the backing of her family.

Tropika Island of Treasure, showing Reeva Steenkamp on location in Jamaica, will be broadcast despite her shocking death on St Valentine's Day.

Miss Steenkamp, who had been going out with Pistorius since November, was shot four times at his house in a heavily guarded complex in Pretoria on Thursday.

Local media have reported that she was shot through a bathroom door. A 9mm pistol was found at the scene.

Pistorius broke down in court at the mention of premeditated murder

The decision to air the show emerged as Pistorius' uncle said the athlete was "numb with shock, as well as grief" as he remained in custody facing charges of premeditated murder.

In the family's first public comments since the shooting, Arnold Pistorius said they were "in total shock" by what he called an "unimaginable human tragedy".

Tropika Island of Treasure producers said Miss Steenkamp's family wanted her appearance on the reality show for South Africa's national broadcaster to be aired as a tribute.

An excerpt of the programme has been released showing Miss Steenkamp swimming with dolphins and smiling broadly as she floats down a jungle-flanked river on a raft.

Pistorius (right) after his arrest on Thursday

It also featured a poignant pre-recorded interview with the 29-year-old in which she talked about the importance of leaving a positive mark in life.

"The way that you go out and make your exit is so important, you have either made an impact in a positive way or a negative way," she said.

Tropika Island of Treasure sees celebrities paired with contestants and put through a series of challenges as they compete for a cash prize.

Executive producer Samantha Moon said: "This is how they want to remember her. This is what she would have wanted. She was happy, healthy, beautiful and vibrant and that's the way she should be remembered."

Spokesman for broadcaster SABA, Kaizer Kganyago, said: "The mother agreed that we should go ahead and we are free to go ahead. We are working on how to pay tribute to her."

Miss Steenkamp's cousin, Sharon Steenkamp, said she "was proud of being in the show".

"Her last words to us personally was that she wants us to watch it," she said.

Production company Stimulii said it was "devastated" by the model's death and described her as a "wonderful human being" with a "zest for life".

Reeva Steenkamp, 29, with Pistorius last November

Pistorius, who made history by competing in both the Olympics and Paralympics last year, sobbed through his first court appearance on Friday.

He is being held in a police cell ahead of a new hearing on February 19, when prosecutors are set to oppose any request for bail.

The chief magistrate delayed the bail hearing until next week at the request of the defence who asked for more time.

A statement issued by Pistorius' family and management following the initial hearing said: "The alleged murder is disputed in the strongest terms."

And in Saturday's statement, Arnold Pistorius insisted there was "no substance" to the allegation of premeditated murder "or indeed any murder at all" as he spoke of his nephew's happiness with the model and rising star.

"They had plans together and Oscar was happier in his private life than he had been for a long time," he told the Associated Press.

"Words cannot adequately describe our feelings. The lives of our entire family have been turned upside down forever by this unimaginable human tragedy and Reeva's family have suffered a terrible loss.

"As a family we are trying to be strong and supportive to Oscar as any close family would be in these dreadful circumstances.

"We deeply regret the allegation of premeditated murder. We have no doubt there is no substance to the allegation and that the State's own case, including its own forensic evidence, strongly refutes any possibility of a premeditated murder or indeed any murder at all."

Premeditated murder carries a mandatory life sentence in South Africa. If found guilty, Pistorius would not be eligible for parole for 25 years.

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