Ben Affleck Gets 'Las Vegas Blackjack Ban'

Oscar-winning actor Ben Affleck has reportedly been banned from playing blackjack at a Las Vegas casino.

Security staff stopped him during play at the Hard Rock Casino earlier this week, telling him "you are too good", according to a source close to the star.

He was apparently told he could play other games and was not barred.

Some reports suggest casino bosses believe Affleck was card counting - gaining a slight advantage by keeping track of which cards have been dealt to predict the next hand.

The practice is not illegal but is heavily frowned upon by casinos.

The actor is a well-known gambler and scooped more than $350,000 (£207,000) when he won the California State Poker Championship in 2004.

The 41-year-old also played an online gambling tycoon in 2013 film Runner Runner.

Affleck is reported to have been on a break in Vegas with his wife before starting to film his role as Batman in the upcoming Man of Steel film.

The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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North Korean Defectors' Harrowing Stories

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent

In a series of rare and harrowing interviews, defectors have told Sky News of their horrific lives inside North Korea and their extraordinary journeys to escape the country.

The men and women agreed to talk from their new homes in the South Korean capital, Seoul.

Their interviews form part of a special programme to be shown on Sky News this weekend.

Two of the defectors had spent time inside North Korea's notorious political prison camps.

Another was a tank commander in the secretive state's army before managing to escape.

One women describes, for the first time, the torture she endured at the hands of North Korean prison camp guards.

From her Seoul apartment, Cheon YoungSuk sobbed uncontrollably as she recalled the torture.

"With that plank, they hit me until it split into two or they won't stop hitting me. It must split into two. Then the beating stops. They hit me like that, they starved me, kicked me," she said.

Lee Soon Shil managed to escape from North to South Korea

"During the torture the hardest thing was they made me kneel on a chair. The guard had ridges on the bottom of his shoes. He would stand on my bare skin and start twisting (his feet).

"When bare skin and shoe soles are twisted with pressure it grinds the skin. That was the most hard. That was the time I shouted. It hurt too much.

"Because it hurt too much I shouted to him to grind faster. Twist faster to finish it more quickly.

"They wrapped my hair on their hand and start smashing my face on the corner of the desk.... [they are] crueller than beasts. How could a human do that to another human?"

On Thursday, diplomats addressed the United Nations saying that North Korea must act immediately to halt its "litany of abuses" and "crimes against humanity".

"We note with concern that... human rights violations and crimes against humanity continue to take place with impunity," British UN representative Karen Pierce told the Geneva forum.

Sky's Mark Stone speaks to a defector in Seoul

North Korea denies the existence of prison camps. It reacted angrily to a United Nations Human Rights Council Commission of Inquiry (COI), published in February.

The COI conducted scores of interviews with defectors all of whom told stories similar to those heard by Sky News.

The UN body concluded that "systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations have been and are being committed" by North Korea.

It said that "the gravity, scale and nature of these violations reveal a state that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world".

It described a catalogue of "unspeakable atrocities" which amounted to "crimes against humanity".

The report is currently being considered at the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York.

The detailed findings of the report were also discussed at informal meeting of the UN Security Council two weeks ago. However, two members of the council, Russia and China, both historically allied to North Korea, failed to attend.

Speaking after the informal meeting, the chairman of the Commission of Inquiry, retired Australian judge Michael Kirby, said he was disappointed that China and Russia failed to attend but still hoped that the UN would now act against North Korea.

"The time has come for effective action from the United Nations," he said.

"If ever there is to be a case for referral of a matter to the International Criminal Court, it is difficult to imagine a stronger case than has been made out in the case of North Korea.

"If this is not a case for such a referral, it is difficult to imagine what would be."

The level of abuse uncovered in North Korea, both in the UN report and the interviews conducted by Sky News has been compared to some of the abuses during the holocaust of World War Two.

Mr Kirby said that the descriptions he heard reminded him of Holocaust abuses.

He said: "I never thought that in my professional life, my life as a judge or as an officer of the United Nations, I would sit there and hear descriptions that were so similar to the descriptions of what went on in those places.

"I thought we had said as a world community, 'never again'.

"I thought that was what the charter of the United Nations was about. I thought that was why in the charter it speaks of international peace and security and the protection of universal human rights together."

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Far-Right Dutch MP Seeks Tie-In With UKIP

By Robert Nisbet, Europe Correspondent

A Dutch MP who leads a far-right party in the Netherlands has said he hopes to join forces with UKIP and Marine Le Pen's Front Nationale in the European Parliament.

Geert Wilders, founder of the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV), told Sky News: "I hope that after the elections in May ... Mr Farage and my party ... can work together because I know one thing: if we really want to be a good advocate of all those millions of voters (who) cast their vote not against Europe but against the European Union, that they would benefit more if we were able to overstep our shadows and work together."

The 50-year-old politician is the subject of a fatwa and death threats from al Qaeda affiliates for his comments on Islam, has already proposed a deal with Ms Le Pen, who runs the Front Nationale, to unite their parties.

Both propose reigning in immigration, leaving the single currency and taking their respective countries out of the EU altogether, while continuing to access the single market.

It is an uncompromising position which appears to have chimed with many voters.

Polls in France and the Netherlands put the parties in either first or second place of those intending to vote in this month's parliamentary elections.

Front Nationale's Marine le Pen has also been approached

Ms Le Pen and Mr Wilders have also tried to convince other populist, EU critical parties around Europe to join forces including Vlaams Belang in Belgium, Finland's Finns Party and the relatively new Alternative for Germany.

All are expected to make significant gains in this year's elections, although polls across Europe suggest left-leaning pro-EU parties are expected to edge a small majority.

The same surveys suggest a move to the extremes from the centre ground after years of recession and austerity brought about by the global recession and sovereign debt crisis.

Mr Wilders has been mired in controversy again after he asked supporters at a rally in March whether they wanted "more or fewer" Moroccans in the Netherlands.

When the audience started chanting "fewer, fewer," the PVV leader said "we will take care of that".

That remark prompted several people to leave the party and 5,000 complaints to the public prosecutors accusing him of inciting racial hatred.

Mr Wilders said: "I believe that our culture which is based on Christianity and Judaism and humanism is better than the Islamic culture.

"I've nothing against the people but I have a problem with the culture. I'm not afraid of that.

"In the world today, in the Netherlands today, Europe today, you pay a very high price to say that: you get taken to court you get a fatwa, you get called a bigot and a racist. Once again it's not true."

The UKIP leader has said he is "not interested" in the offer of joining forces with Mr Wilders.

Mr Farage already chairs an anti-EU grouping in the European Parliament called the Europe of Freedom and Democracy, and it is clear he sees any association with Mr Wilders or Ms Le Pen as potentially damaging.

But the UKIP leader may face renewed pressure to strike deals with the biggest EU critical parties if he wants to make waves in Brussels and Strasbourg.

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British Fighters Filmed In Syria 'War Crime'

By Tom Rayner, Middle East Reporter

Video has emerged implicating British fighters in Syria in an apparent war crime.

Footage uncovered by researchers at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR) shows jihadist rebels killing a prisoner, said to be a loyalist of President Bashar al Assad.

The incident is thought to have happened in the last two weeks near Raqqa in northern Syria.

The footage was posted on the Instagram account of a man believed to be from London.

The caption accompanying the video describes the prisoner as one of "Bashar [al Assad's] dogs" and says the killing was retribution for the deaths of four fellow rebels and the rape of a woman.

The ICSR monitors the social media accounts of hundreds of foreign fighters inside Syria.

Researchers say one of the executioners is a Briton seen in other videos

They believe the man that posted the video is part of a group of British fighters, known as Rayat al Tawheed, an affiliate of the Sunni jihadi movement ISIS, which controls large swathes of northern Syria.

Shiraz Maher, a senior ICSR researcher based at King's College London, said the killing of prisoners is a war crime in international law.

"It's incredibly serious," he said.

"We believe the main characters involved with Rayat al Tawheed come from London.

"We have deduced this based on our discussions with foreign fighters, our extensive record-keeping of foreign fighter activity in Syria, and our maintenance of social network maps which allows us to plot activity and associations in a visual form."

In one video a British fighter says a bullet is "the pen of the mujahid"

Although no audible English is spoken in the video itself, analysts from the ICSR believe they have identified one of the gunmen as being a British citizen.

A man is seen in the video firing shots into the body of the prisoner in the seconds after the initial bullet was fired by the main shooter.

Analysis of the gunman's physical build, wristwatch and balaclava led the ICSR to conclude he is the same man seen speaking English with a London accent in other videos posted by the group.

"We don't know if the prisoner was alive or dead when he fired, but he did partake in the execution, he did fire shots at the individual from his weapon, and we believe he is a British citizen," said ICSR researcher Joseph Carter.

On two separate videos posted on YouTube, the man identified as the gunman by the ICSR is heard berating the British Muslim community for failing to provide sufficient financial support for the jihad or the families the fighters have left behind.

The group lobbies for donations to buy more weapons and ammunition

"You know who you are, from the capital, the Midlands, up north, wherever you may be… it's a disgrace, that brothers know where these wives are, where these families are, and yet you are buying your nephew or your child a PlayStation 4 or taking them out to Nando's," he said.

The Government's counter-terrorism programme last week launched a campaign urging the families of young men planning to travel to Syria to intervene.

It is estimated that up to 400 Britons have travelled to fight or train in Syria in the last two years. 

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "This demonstrates why we have consistently called for the situation in Syria to be referred to the International Criminal Court.

"Horrific atrocities have been committed by both the Assad regime and by extremists. The international community must ensure that all those responsible are held to account.

"Our priority is to dissuade people from travelling, but any extremists should know we are prepared to take action to protect national security, and intelligence agencies and police are working to identify potential threats."

Amnesty International UK Syria campaign manager Kristyan Benedict said: "This alleged British member of the extremist group ISIS says it's 'a disgrace' other British Muslims will not join him in Syria.

"The real disgrace is people like him and other extremists brazenly committing war crimes and holding Syrians back from realising their aspirations for a Syria free from violent authoritarianism.

"The scale of unlawful killing, torture and arbitrary detention from the Syrian government side still dwarfs abuses carried out by numerous armed groups, but the Assad government certainly doesn't have a monopoly on atrocities.

"All these crimes will need to be properly investigated and the perpetrators held to account."

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Al Qaeda Boss Orders End To Jihadist Infighting

Al Qaeda's chief has called on members of the group's Syrian affiliate, the al Nusra Front, to stop fighting with their jihadist rivals.

In an audiotape posted online, Ayman al Zawahiri ordered "all soldiers of the front immediately cease fighting" one another.

And al Nusra's leader Abu Mohammed al Jolani was told to "devote himself to combat the enemies of Islam, specifically Baathists, Shiites and their allies".

The Baath is Syria's ruling party, headed by President Bashar al Assad.

Al Nusra has been locked in fierce fighting with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) since the start of the year.

ISIL - a rebranding of al Qaeda in Iraq - has recently been accused of atrocities against rival opposition fighters.

ISIL fighters burn confiscated cigarettes in the city of Raqqa

Its leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, has previously been warned by al Zawahiri to restrict its activities to Iraq.

That order was repeated by al Zawahiri in Friday's message, with the ISIL chief being told to "devote himself to wounded Iraq, which needs you to redouble your efforts".

He said ISIL's presence had hindered the fighting against forces loyal to the Syrian president because it had created divisions which had proved to be "a gift to Assad".

Al Qaeda, which is intolerant of non-Sunni branches of Islam and regards liberal Muslims and other sects including Shias, Sufis to be heretics, threatened in February to break links with ISIL.

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US And Germany United In Russia Warning

Germany and the US appear to have hardened their line on potential sanctions on Russia.

This is surprising and raises the stakes for what happens in the region.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Barack Obama both set a new threshold for action over Ukraine after meeting at the White House on Friday.

More severe "sectoral sanctions" have been held in reserve until now. Both leaders previously warning they could be used to punish a Russian military invasion.

But they are now threatening their use if elections in Ukraine on May 25 are disrupted.

Putin warned of "consequences" over military action

In the run up to their meeting much had been made of differences between the two allies.

German industry has been vigorously lobbying the Chancellor not to impose more severe sanctions. Germany is closer to Russia and has more trade than America, meaning it has more to lose than the US.

There have been differences of opinion on the degree to which sanctions should be ramped up. But if the two leaders are sincere in the warning issued to Russia from the White House Rose Garden those divisions have not prevented agreement on when more stringent sanctions should next be imposed.

Until now, sanctions have targeted individuals and some companies and banks. Assets have been frozen, visa bans imposed.

The White House has talked up the impact on the Russian economy. Others have pointed out it was heading in a negative direction before all this started.

But sectoral sanctions would be far more punishing, They would target entire sectors of the Russian economy - banking, mining, financial services, for instance.

It would hurt Russia, but its trading partners too.

While sceptics will question how much Mr Obama and Ms Merkel mean what they say, it is still significant that they said it.

A variety of factors may be pushing them closer.

Ukraine has launched a major offensive against pro-Russian forces

The German chancellor is reportedly furious about the continued detention of OSCE observers, some of them German, by pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine.

The US president poured scorn on Russian actions and propaganda, ridiculing the claim what is happening in Eastern Ukraine is a local protest.

Local protestors, he said, generally do not have the capacity to shoot down helicopters. The president knows recent polls show the Ukraine situation is weakening his popularity and approval ratings.

The German-US response makes escalation more likely.

It is hard to see how the May 25 elections can avoid disruption given the takeover of towns in the east of the country and the presence of shadowy militia.

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Samsung Told To Pay Apple $119m In Patent Row

Samsung has been ordered to pay $119.46m (£70m) in damages to Apple after the South Korean company was found guilty of violating two patents on smartphone features.

In the latest lawsuit involving the two tech giants, a jury in a federal court in San Jose, California, ruled that Samsung had copied key features of the iPhone in creating its own line of smartphones, including universal searching and slide to lock.

But the verdict was a far cry from the $2.2bn Apple sought and the $930m it won in a separate 2012 trial making similar patent infringement claims against Samsung products, most of which are no longer for sale in the US.

In a counter-claim, the jury found that Apple had infringed one of Samsung's patents in creating the iPhone 4 and 5.

The jury awarded Samsung $158,400 - a fraction of the $6m sought by Samsung.

Brian Love, assistant professor at Santa Clara University's school of law, said: "Though this verdict is large by normal standards, it is hard to view this outcome as much of a victory for Apple.

"This amount is less than 10% of the amount Apple requested, and probably doesn't surpass by too much the amount Apple spent litigating this case.

"Apple launched this litigation campaign years ago with aspirations of slowing the meteoric rise of Android phone manufacturers. It has so far failed to do so, and this case won't get it any closer."

Apple said the ruling reinforced its stance that "Samsung willfully stole our ideas and copied our products."

Samsung representatives were not immediately available for comment.

The verdict marks the latest intellectual property battle between the world's top two smartphone makers.

For over three years, Apple and Samsung have sued each other in courts and trade offices around the world.

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Over 2,000 Confirmed Dead In Afghan Landslide

More than 2,000 people are feared dead in a landslide in Afghanistan after part of a hill above a village collapsed.

The community, in Badakhshan province which borders Tajikistan in the country's northeast, has been buried in more than 300ft of mud (100 metres).

"More than 2,100 people from 300 families are all dead," Naweed Forotan, a spokesman for the Badakhshan provincial governor, told the Reuters news agency.

There are fears of further landslides in the area

Other officials have said the death toll is lower, in the hundreds. 

Hundreds of mud brick homes were destroyed when two landslides triggered by torrential rain hit Hobo Barik, in Argo district.

At least 100 people have been injured.

A digger works to clear the mud

The side of the mountain collapsed as villagers were trying to recover belongings and livestock following a smaller landslip a few hours earlier.

Mark Bowden, the humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan, has told Sky News as many as 2,700 people could have been killed, with at least 4,500 people displaced.

Local people and dozens of police officers equipped with only basic digging tools began searching for survivors from first light on Saturday.

Thousands of people have been displaced

But it quickly became apparent there was no hope of finding anyone.

The United Nations says the focus is now on the thousands of people who have been displaced by the disaster.

A memorial service was planned for later on Saturday, and the site is expected to be designated as a mass grave, according to UN spokesman Ari Gaitanis.

Afghan National Army troops in Kabul load supplies for survivors

He added the survivors need water, medical support, counselling, food and emergency shelter.

British charities are mobilising teams to help with the rescue effort.

Save the Children sent five ambulances to the scene and are planning to distribute blankets and give medical assistance.

Other charities are monitoring the situation and stand ready to provide assistance if necessary.

There are also fears that another section of the mountainside could collapse, threatening the homeless and hundreds of rescue workers.

The US and the Nato-led coalition in Afghanistan have offered to send help

The Afghan military flew rescue teams to the search area on Saturday because the remote mountain region is served by only narrow, poor roads that have been damaged by more than a week of heavy rain.

Nato-led coalition troops are ready to assist, but have not yet been asked for help by the Afghan government.

US President Barack Obama has also offered to send help.

Seasonal rains and spring snow melt have brought destruction to large parts of northern Afghanistan, killing more than 100 people.

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India Election Sees Fatal Shootings In Assam

By Neville Lazarus, India Producer

Election violence has claimed the lives of at least 30 people within 24 hours in India's remote northeastern state of Assam.

The killing of Bengali-speaking Muslims by tribal separatists has caused hundreds to flee the area.

A curfew has been imposed and the Indian Army has been called in to keep the peace in the face of threatened retaliation for the killings.

This four-year-old was among those injured in the indiscriminate violence

The deadly attacks in the Baksa district are reported to have been carried out because the large Muslim population did not vote for the candidate loyal to the National Democratic Front of Bodoland - a separatist group fighting for autonomy in the northern part of the state.

In one incident, militants raided a village and fired indiscriminately at a house killing three women instantly and wounding two others.

Another attack saw 12 people shot dead near Manas National Park, where 30 thatched homes were also burnt down.

Appealing for calm, chief minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi said: "We request people not to flee their homes.

"We will do everything possible to frustrate the designs of the insurgents and apprehend them at the earliest."

Ethnic violence is not new to the area, with tensions simmering for decades between the indigenous Bodo people and the migrant Bengali-speaking Muslims from Bangladesh.

It is claimed migrant numbers have been on the rise, leading to increased competition for jobs and land.

Widespread violence in 2012 left more than 100 people dead.

And during the 1983 state elections more than 3000 people were killed in days of ethnic cleansing and violence.

Around 815 million people have registered to vote in India's general election - a number exceeding the population of Europe and a world record.

The results of the mammoth exercise, which concludes on May 12, are due on May 16.

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Ukraine Observers Freed Amid New Offensive

Military observers kept prisoner in Ukraine for more than a week have been released as bloody clashes in the country show no sign of letting up.

The seven observers and their five assistants, from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, were seized in Slavyansk on April 25.

The separatists had previously accused the observers of being "Nato spies" and said they were to be used as human shields.

A prisoner-swap was thought likely, although they were set free today without any conditions.

Scuffles broke out outside the burned building in Odessa on Saturday

Colonel Axel Schneider, the head of the observers, said the group had shown "strength" and that the captivity was "unforgettable for us".

The release comes as Ukraine launched a dawn military operation against separatists in the east of the country.

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said troops had seized control of a television tower in Kramatorsk, near the rebel stronghold of Slavyansk.

Two of the observers pictured while they were being held in Slavyansk

"We are not stopping," Mr Avakov wrote on his Facebook page. Heavy fighting is now being reported in the town, according to Ukraine's anti-terrorist centre.

The violence comes hours after 31 people died after a building in Odessa was set on fire during clashes between protesters.

Police said some people inside the trade union building were overcome by smoke and others were killed jumping from windows as they tried to escape.

Pro-Russian and pro-Kiev activists fought running battles as the southern city saw some of its worst violence since President Victor Yanukovych was ousted in February.

Police are guarding the charred trade union building in Odessa

The Interior Ministry said a total of 42 people had died.

Sky News' Katie Stallard said emotions were running high on the city's streets on Saturday as a few hundred officers guarded the charred building and people came to lay flowers.

"There is anger toward these officers. People feel they stood by yesterday; that they did very little to protect people.

"One woman told us she saw a young man and woman jump together from this building. People here witnessed something terrible last night."

A protester throws a petrol bomb at the building during Friday's clashes

Moscow said it was "outraged" and denounced the "criminal irresponsibility" of the pro-Western authorities in Kiev.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has asked his US counterpart John Kerry to press Ukraine to halt its military operation in the east of the country.

At an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council, the UK accused Moscow of "breathtaking" hypocrisy over the latest clashes.

People wait for rescue on an upper-storey ledge during the fire

The UK's ambassador to the UN, Sir Mark Lyall Grant, said Russia had "funded, equipped and directed" some of those involved in the insurgency.

The European Union has urged "utmost restraint" in the Ukraine conflict.

"Many" pro-Russian separatists were also said to have been killed on Friday as the Ukrainian army took control of checkpoints around Slavyansk.

Two Ukrainian soldiers were also killed as two helicopters were shot down in the city, acting president Oleksandr Turchynov said.

The Ukrainian Security Service said one was shot down with a surface-to-air missile, adding that the sophisticated weapon undermined Russia's claims that Slavyansk was simply under the control of armed locals.

Sky News Chief Correspondent Stuart Ramsay, in Donetsk, said the Ukraine government is in a "very difficult position".

"If they want to take control of these towns they are going to have to put a lot of soldiers on the ground and bring in police from other parts of the country. If that happens it will absolutely be violent – it will only escalate further.

"Russia has made it clear that would be a reason for them to intervene to protect ethnic Russians.

"If Kiev doesn't do that, they are going to see the eastern parts of the country drift away."

Russia has tens of thousands of troops near Ukraine's border, and Kiev claims its neighbouring country is preparing to invade and that it is stoking the unrest in the east.

Moscow denies the allegations, but has warned Russia would respond to attacks on Russian citizens or interests in the east, where insurgents have seized government buildings in around a dozen cities.

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