Plane Plunges Into Water Near Bali Airport

A plane with more than 100 people onboard has overshot a runway on the island of Bali and plunged into the sea.

Despite dramatic pictures showing the Lion Air jet with a broken fuselage, officials said everyone on board had survived.

The brand new Boeing 737-800 came to rest in shallow water and bright yellow life jackets could be seen littering the shore.

Passengers spoke of screaming in terror it hit the water and "chaos" erupting amid fears they would drown before escaping.

"There was no sign at all it would fall but then suddenly it dropped into the water," Tantri Widiastuti, 60, told Metro TV.

Tourists and locals gathered on the shoreline after the crash

Dewi, who suffered head wounds, added: "The aircraft was in landing position when suddenly I saw it getting closer to the sea, and finally it hit the water.

"All of the passengers were screaming in panic in fear they would drown. I left behind my belongings and went to an emergency door. I got out of the plane and swam before rescuers jumped in to help me."

Passengers in life jackets could be seen in the water as police in rubber dinghies rowed out from the shore.

The plane came to rest just yards beyond the airport edge

Lion Air said there were 95 adults, five children and a baby on board - as well as seven crew. They included three foreigners - a Frenchman, a Singaporean woman and a Singaporean man.

Bali police chief Arif Wahyunadi told local TV One that everyone had been evacuated and taken inside Denpasar airport.

He said the jet had flown in from Bandung, the capital of West Java province.

Some 40 people were treated for injuries including broken legs, head wounds and shock, though only four were admitted to hospital, officials said.

Ignatius Juan Sinduk, 45, was treated for breathing difficulties after his chest was injured in the crash.

A passenger being attended to a hospital in Kedongan, near Denpasar

Speaking from his hospital bed, he said: "The plane plunged into the sea at high speed. Everybody screamed and water suddenly surged into the plane.

"Passengers panicked and scrambled for life jackets. Some passengers fell, some ran into others, it was chaos. I managed to grab one (a lifejacket) and slowly swam out of the plane and to the shore."

The twin-engined aircraft was operated by local carrier Lion Air, a budget airline whose operating base is in Bandung.

Company spokesman Edward Sirait said the jet had been delivered to Lion Air in Indonesia on March 18 and had come "straight from the factory".

It started operations a week later and the pilot had been flying for the airline for six years, the firm added.

He refused to comment on the cause of the crash but said: "The plane broke into two pieces," adding that "judging from visual observation, the plane cannot be used any more."

Lion Air - the first private airline in Indonesia was founded in 1999 by multi-millionaire brothers Kusnan and Rusdi Kirana.

Bali is a popular tourist destination in Indonesia

It started operating in 2000 with just one aircraft in its fleet but quickly expanded operations to more than 36 locations across the sprawling archiplego nation.

The airline also flies to foreign locations including Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam and used a fleet Boeing 737 aircraft.

Last month, it signed a $24bn (£18bn) deal with Airbus for 234 passenger jets and two years ago, it signed a contract with Boeing for 230 planes.

However, the rapidly-expanding carrier is reportedly banned from US and European airspace due to safety concerns.

Between 2004 and 2006, Lion Air suffered a series of six accidents which all involved planes overshooting or missing the runway - but no-one died. 

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Miss Russia Reveals Shock Over Racist Vitriol

By Katie Stallard, Moscow Correspondent

The newly-crowned Miss Russia has told Sky News she is still proud to represent her country, even after racial slurs accusing her of not being Russian enough.

Elmira Abdrazakova's father is Tatar, one of Russia's oldest ethnic minorities, and she was born in Kazakhstan, but she was brought up in Russia and considers herself thoroughly Russian, as do the authorities.

The 18-year-old has been targeted by critics online and received so many vitriolic messages after winning the competition she was forced to temporarily close her social networking sites.

One fairly typical message, still posted on a Russian news site, describes her as an "ordinary Azeri parsley seller" and says the user would not even glance in her direction.

Another says she is "an ordinary market stall worker" and would be considered "a real beauty among sheep".

The new Miss Russia told Sky News she had been shocked to read the messages.

Elmira Abdrazakova has rose to fame but not without a price

"The nationality question - I don't really understand it, I don't understand why men would write to a young girl offensive things about her nationality.

"It humiliates first of all not me, but those people who write it.

"It was bizarre for me when men were writing things like that to me, I was surprised we have people of that sort here."

Ms Abdrazakova comes from a small coal-mining town in Siberia and there is an almost fairy tale quality to her rise to fame.

She says she only entered the competition to get the chance to try new experiences and visit the capital, Moscow, and that she never dreamed she had a chance of winning.

She now hopes to inspire other young girls and to prove that you can achieve success in Russia without a wealthy background.

She explained: "For many teenage girls Miss Russia will become a role model, a measure of beauty.

The beauty queen says she will try to represent Russia as best as possible

"Maybe some girls will look at me and get inspired by my experience to grow, to develop, to work hard. I hope they can see that in life you can reach something without big money."

"I wasn't expecting to win, to get this crown. The host announced that Elmira Abdrazokova won and I remember standing there and thinking, what a lucky girl who won it. Then it dawned on me - that's me.

"All that evening I couldn't believe it, only when I got back home I sat down and realised - I'm Miss Russia!"

Miss Russia 2013 might not conform to the Slavic ideal still expected by some here, but she will now go on to compete for Russia at the Miss World contest.

Ms Abdrazakova told us it was a great honour, and that she would try to represent her country as well as she could, even if not everyone in that country believes she truly represents them.

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North Korea Missile Alert After Japan Blunder

A Japanese official mistakenly announced the launch of a North Korean missile instead of sending an alert about a strong earthquake.

An official at the western Osaka aviation bureau emailed 87 airport offices to say a North Korean missile had been launched, Japan's transport ministry said.

The official was trying to send a message to check on possible airport damage immediately after the 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck near the southwestern city of Kobe, injuring dozens of people and destroying several homes.

But instead the official dispatched a pre-prepared alert ready to go in the event of a North Korean missile launch.

The incorrect message was retracted six minutes later but at least one domestic flight was delayed due to the mistake.

Japan is on full alert ahead of an expected mid-range missile launch by North Korea, with Patriot missiles stationed in its capital to protect the 30 million people who live there.

In addition to PAC-3 batteries, Aegis destroyers equipped with sea-based interceptor missiles have been deployed in the Sea of Japan (East Sea).

On Wednesday officials in the Japanese city of Yokohama were left red-faced after mistakenly announcing the launch of a North Korean missile to 40,000 followers on Twitter.

Saturday night's earthquake was in the area where a magnitude 7.2 quake killed more than 6,400 people in 1995.

The Meteorological Agency warned there may be aftershocks for about a week.

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Mubarak Retrial: Judge Withdraws From Case

The retrial of former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak has been plunged into chaos after the judge quit on the first day.

Mubarak returned to court on Saturday to face a new trial over the deaths of 800 protests during the 2011 revolt that led to him being ousted.

But Judge Mustafa Hassan Abdullah said he had decided to refer the case to the Cairo appeals court because he felt "unease" in reviewing it.

Sky's Tom Rayner said Mr Abdullah also blamed health problems and suggested he did not want to embarrass himself - which may be connected to his sympathies with the Mubarak regime.

A man calls for Mubarak to face a court in the Hague

As he filed out of the courtroom after a hearing that lasted just seconds, there was uproar with people shouting and waving their arms.

Civil society lawyers attending the trial chanted: "The people want the execution of the president."

Last October, the same judge acquitted the defendants in the infamous "Battle of the Camels" trial, who were accused of sending men on camels and horses to break up a protest during the 2011 uprising.

"This judge and this circuit acquitted all the defendants in the battle of the camels and there is a lot of doubt over their position. This prevents him from conducting this trial," said Amir Salem, a lawyer for the victims of families.

There was uproar in the courtroom as the judge walked out

Mubarak is facing retrial on charges of complicity in the murder of more than 800 protesters killed during the revolt.

Last year, he was sentenced to life imprisonment on the same charges, which include indictments related to corruption.

But the conviction was overturned due to failings in the prosecution case after a successful appeal in January.

He will now face those charges again, alongside his former interior minister Habib El Adly and four aides.

The findings of an independent fact-finding report, leaked to the Guardian newspaper, may bolster some of the evidence against him.

It indicates that Mubarak and other senior officials may have had knowledge or been complicit in the widespread use of torture and killings by the regime's forces during the height of the revolution.

Some families of the victims gathered outside court

Earlier on Saturday, television footage showed Mubarak, dressed in white and wearing sunglasses, wheeled out of an ambulance on a stretcher and taken into the capital's Police Academy in a suburb of the capital for the hearing.

In the courtroom, he was seen sitting up, smiling and waving from inside a barred cage before the proceedings were adjourned.

He was flown in from a military hospital where he is being treated.

The 84-year-old has suffered several health scares and the official news agency MENA even reported him clinically dead at one point as he slipped into a coma.

Outside the compound, pro-Mubarak demonstrators outnumbered opponents with the two groups kept apart.

Relatives of victims of Mubarak's security forces held posters of young men killed in the revolt.

"What can I expect from this trial? If there was justice in this country, the first trial would have been fair," said Eman Saeed, whose 24-year old son Mohab died in January 2011 after marching to Tahrir Square

Until Saturday's courtroom turmoil, the fate of the ousted strongman has been largely eclipsed by deadly violence and economic woes currently gripping Egypt.

Mohammed Morsi's presidency has been plagued by unrest and deadly clashes between protesters and police, a revolt in the canal cities, sectarian violence and a devastating economic crisis.             

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Psy Unveils Sequel To Gangnam Style Hit

South Korean rapper Psy has unveiled his follow-up to the global smash Gangnam Style.

The 35-year-old performed his latest single "Gentleman" at a stadium concert streamed live on YouTube.

Fans had been asked to wear white for the event in Seoul, which was a sell-out with 50,000 people in the audience.

It was streamed live so that the dance video could be seen by fans across the globe in the hope it will spark a new viral hit.

The single became available online at midnight on Friday, in a rolling release across 119 countries.

Posters advertising Psy's Seoul concert

The move surprised some industry experts and frustrated many fans because it was released without the video.

It was the YouTube video of Gangnam Style, and in particular Psy's signature horse-riding dance, that pushed him to global stardom last year.

A satire on the luxury lifestyle of Seoul's Gangnam district, it has become the most-watched YouTube video of all time, registering more than 1.5billion views since it debuted in July.

In South Korea and other Asian markets like Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia, the new release went straight into the Top Five of their respective iTunes charts.

It could only manage 90th spot in the crucial US equivalent but in Britain, it rose quickly to number 25.

Psy performing at South Korean president Park Geun-Hye's swearing in

The song did not impress UK critics, with The Times saying it was "like a seven-year-old on a Casio" and The Guardian calling it "a fairly standard issue, pop-dance single".

The song - a satire of a self-proclaimed "gentleman" trying to woo women at a party - contains more English lyrics than Gangnam Style in a clear nod to the singer's newfound global audience.

"Let me tell you about myself. I'm such a charmer with guts, vigour and humour," Psy sings in Korean before launching into the song's English catch-line: "I'm a mother-father gentleman."

"Gonna make you sweat. Gonna make you wet. You know who I am? Wet Psy!" he sings in English.

Psy, real name Park Jae-sang, described the division of the Korean peninsula as a "tragedy" and said he wanted North Korean people to share in the "fun and happiness" of his music.

"Tonight me and 50,000 Korean people... we are going to sing out loud. We are going to shout out loud and we are really close to them, so they can hear," he said.

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End Of The Rainbow For Australian Street Art

By Jonathan Samuels, Australia Correspondent

A colourful rainbow street crossing painted to celebrate Sydney's 35th Mardi Gras has been dug up in what the city's mayor called an "aggressive act".

The crossing was painted in the heart of the city's gay district and campaigners had asked for the popular street art to remain as a tourist attraction.

But now it is the end of the rainbow, its stripes stripped away and covered with asphalt, on the orders of New South Wales Roads Minister Duncan Gay.

He insisted the painted rainbow had to go because there was a safety risk as pedestrians sat or lay down on the crossing to have their photos taken.

Supporters had hoped the crossing might one day reach the status of the Abbey Road zebra crossing in London made famous by the Beatles.

In a row almost as colourful as the crossing itself, Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the NSW government's removal of the rainbow pedestrian crossing was an "aggressive act" against the community.

Ms Moore said she had wanted to hold talks with Mr Gay about the issue, but a road gang moved in without the city being notified.

"I thought it was an unwarranted aggressive act against the Sydney community," she told ABC Radio.

In response, Mr Gay said Ms Moore was engaged in a political stunt.

"I think she's done a disservice to the gay community in trying to make this a political issue rather than one of road safety," he said.

He said he had no option but to order the work in the interests of road safety.

"The behaviour we have seen recorded by CCTV cameras, including people sitting and laying on the crossing, has set off alarm bells at the high risk of injuries and fatalities," the minister said.

Angry fans of the crossing made their own versions in the area using chalk, while others joined a Facebook page "Save the rainbow crossing".

Eden Dietrich said: "The grey men do it again. They have no idea about anything much except how to stop fun and colour."

"So sad and unfair," posted Susana Moris.

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Womb Transplant Patient Falls Pregnant

The first woman to have a successful womb transplant from a dead donor is two weeks pregnant, according to a hospital in Turkey.

Derya Sert, 22, was born without a womb and was given a uterus in August 2011 in what was described as a "medical miracle" at the time.

She has now conceived after having in-vitro fertilisation treatment (IVF) and is in the early stages of pregnancy.

Doctors waited for 18 months before implanting the embryo to make sure that the organ was still functioning properly.

"Early test results are consistent with pregnancy. The patient is in good health at the moment," Akdeniz University Hospital in Antalya said in a statement.

The baby is expected to be delivered by Caesarean.

The womb will then be removed in the months after the birth to avoid further complications and the risk of rejection.

Experts warn the pregnancy carries several health risks to the patient as well as to the baby.

These include birth defects due to the use of immuno-suppressive drugs as well as premature delivery.

Miss Sert was the second woman in the world to have a womb transplant.

The first went to a woman in Saudi Arabia in 2000 but was from a living donor.

Doctors had to remove the organ when it failed after 99 days due to heavy clotting.

The groundbreaking news of Miss Sert's pregnancy will rekindle hopes for thousands of childless women.

One in every 5,000 women globally is born without a womb, while thousands more have the organ removed due to cancer or other diseases, leaving them unable to get pregnant.

In September, doctors in Sweden performed the world's first mother-to-daughter womb transplants on two Swedish women, both in their 30s.

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Jonathan Winters, Comedic Legend, Dies At 87

Comedian Jonathan Winters, whose improvisations and gift for mimicry inspired the likes of Robin Williams and Jim Carrey, has died at the age of 87.

Winters' career in stand-up comedy, on television and in film spanned more than 50 years.

He died on Thursday of natural causes at his home in Montecito, California, surrounded by family and friends.

The cherub-faced Winters was a pioneer of improvisational stand-up comedy, with an exceptional gift for facial contortions and sound effects.

He made regular appearances on The Tonight Show with hosts Jack Paar and then Johnny Carson, and had his own TV variety shows in the 1960s and 1970s.

Jim Carrey (L) and Robin Williams were influenced by Winters' style

He also appeared in such films as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and The Loved One.

"I love improvisation," he once said. "You can't blame it on the writers. You can't blame it on direction. You can't blame it on the camera guy."

"It's you. You're on. You've got to do it, and you either sink or swim with what you've got."

Winters was introduced to millions of new fans in 1981 when he featured in the final season of ABC's Mork and Mindy, the show where Williams played a goofball alien on planet Earth.

The two often strayed from the script.

Williams said: "The best stuff was before the cameras were on, when he was open and free to create. Jonathan would just blow the doors off."

A devotee of Groucho Marx and Laurel and Hardy, Winters also inspired Billy Crystal, Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin.

Winters battled alcoholism and depression for years. He spent time in mental hospitals and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

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North Korea: US Urges China To Help End Crisis

The US and China have said they are committed to finding a peaceful means of ridding North Korea of its nuclear weapons.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said there had been enough confrontational language on North Korea and he did not want to get into a cycle of threats and counter-threats with the reclusive nation.

"We are determined to make that goal a reality," he said after a series of meetings with top Chinese officials, including the country's foreign policy chief Yang Jiechi.

"China and the United States must together take steps in order to achieve the goal of a denuclearised Korean peninsula. And today we agreed that further discussions to bear down very quickly with great specificity on exactly how we will accomplish this goal.

John Kerry with China's foreign policy chief Yang Jiechi

"We agreed that this is of critical importance for the stability of the region and indeed for the world and indeed for all of our nonproliferation efforts," he added.

Mr Yang said China was "firmly committed to upholding peace and stability" in the region, and finding a peaceful way to ensure a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.

"To properly address the Korean nuclear issue serves the interests of all parties," he added.

The joint pledge follows talks between Mr Kerry and China's communist leaders including President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and foreign minister Wang Yi.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-UN has vowed to beef up its nuclear arsenal

Mr Kerry arrived in Beijing this morning from talks in Seoul with South Korean President Park Geun-Hye, where he warned North Korea a further missile test would be a "huge mistake".

He said the current situation on the Korean peninsula was at a "critical time" and called for Beijing's intervention to halt the escalating tensions with North Korea.

The US wants China - historically Pyongyang's ally - to increase its pressure on North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un to back down.

Tensions have soared on the Korean peninsula since December, when North Korea test-launched a long-range rocket. In February, it conducted its third nuclear test and drew fresh UN sanctions.

Mr Kerry holds talks with China's President Xi Jinping

Without naming any countries, President Xi had said recently that "no-one should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gains".

In his opening remarks during Saturday's meeting, he assured Mr Kerry China's relationship with the US was "at a new historical stage" and had "got off to a good start".

According to state television, he went on to say that rising tensions in the region were in no-one's interests.

"All sides must bear responsibility for maintaining regional peace and stability and be responsible for the consequences," he was reported to have said.

Mr Kerry was first met by China's foreign minister Wang Yi in Beijing

The purpose of Mr Kerry's visit is to persuade Beijing to help rein in its aggressive ally and bring Pyongyang back to the negotiating table over its suspect nuclear programme.

"I think it's clear to everybody in the world that no country in the world has as close a relationship or as significant an impact on the DPRK than China," Mr Kerry said in Seoul before leaving for Beijing.

In the past few weeks, North Korea has declared itself to be in a "state of war" with the South, announced that a mothballed nuclear site is to be reopened and threatened to carry out nuclear attacks against the US

China has backed North Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War and could wield tremendous leverage over the isolated communist regime thanks to the vital aid it provides, including almost all of its neighbour's energy imports.

North Korean soldiers seen at work today on Hwanggumpyong Island

It is estimated to provide as much as 90% of its neighbour's energy imports, 80% of its consumer goods and 45% of its food, according to the US-based Council on Foreign Relations.

But analysts say it is wary of pushing too hard for fear of destabilising North Korea, which could send a wave of hungry refugees flooding into China and ultimately lead to a reunified Korea allied with the United States.

After China, Mr Kerry will head to Japan which is also deeply involved in the North Korea issue and which deployed Patriot missiles around Tokyo this week as anticipation of a missile launch by the North's mounted.

Mr Kerry said he hoped China, Japan and the United States would be able to find the "unity" required to offer a "very different set of alternatives for how we can proceed and ultimately how we can defuse this situation".

South Korean army soldiers standing guard on Unification Bridge in Paju

Last week the US brought forward its drone deployment to Japan and sent an unmanned spy plane to its airbase in Misawa, Northern Japan, after North Korea moved two missile launchers to its east coast.

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Rijksmuseum In Amsterdam Reopens After Overhaul

The Netherlands' Queen Beatrix has officially opened the newly-restored Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam following its decade-long renovation costing £320m.

A 10,000-strong crowd gathered for the spectacle, which featured brass bands and a colourful daytime fireworks display.

Making one of her final official public appearances before her abdication, the 74-year-old Dutch monarch turned a golden key to open the renovated national museum of art and culture.

More than 75,000 tickets were reportedly sold, with staff expecting as many as 30,000 visitors to the museum on Saturday.

The attraction is home to Rembrandt van Rijn's 'The Night Watch' and other Dutch masterpieces.

The famous Rembrandt, showing Amsterdam's Civic Guard setting off on a march, is the only painting in the collection to have been returned to its original place.

"It really belongs there, at that spot. It has beautiful colours," said 58-year-old visitor Marry Straathof.

The huge painting is approached along a Gallery of Honour featuring works such as Johannes Vermeer's 'Woman Reading a Letter' and 'The Merry Drinker' by Frans Hals.

Many of the prize pieces in the collection of 8,000 works have been re-displayed in a broader context, with related paintings, furniture, silver and ceramics arranged in close proximity to each other as part of the museum's new layout.

The museum houses the largest collection of treasures from the Netherlands' naval and cultural history.

The renovation by Spanish architectural firm Cruz y Ortiz sought to bring light into the courtyards at the centre of the 1885 brick structure, which resembles a fairytale castle.

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