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Police have launched a murder hunt after a man was stabbed to death in front of his girlfriend and her two young children in Scotland.

Sean Hay was attacked by three men in Wardieburn Street West in the Granton area of Edinburgh.

Officers said one of the attackers produced a weapon and stabbed the 23-year-old, who was from Edinburgh.

He was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, where he later died from his injuries.

The three men were last seen running away from the scene of the crime, which happened at around 10.30pm on Tuesday night.

The crime scene was sealed off and officers have been carrying out door-to-door inquiries.

Detective Inspector Richard Thomas, who is leading the investigation, described it as a "shocking" attack, and urged anyone with information to contact them.

He said: "The fact there were two young children present doesn't appear to have discouraged the men from initiating the attack in any way.

"We believe there were a number of people who were in the area at around the time of the disturbance.

"We are appealing for anyone who was in the area and saw what happened to contact police immediately."


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OMG, that's awful...

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China says it will allow demonstrations in three designated city parks during the Olympic Games in Beijing.

But anyone wanting to protest will have to apply for permission from the city's government and police.

The announcement suggests China will have a more relaxed attitude towards protesters during the Olympics than it had in the past.

Chinese citizens are already allowed to stage rallies, although in reality there are few anti-government protests.

Liu Shaowu, director of the Beijing organising committee's security department, said protests would be allowed in Shijie, Zizhuyuan and Ritan parks.

"They are all close to the city proper and the Olympic venues," he told a press conference on the city's security preparations.

But Mr Wu was hazy about how potential protesters would apply for permission, and on whether spontaneous demonstrations would be allowed.

"As for the concrete application, and who handles those applications, I have no clear information at this time," he said.

'Encouraged'

The issue of protests is a sensitive one for China, which this year has had to deal with unrest in Tibetan areas in western China.

Chinese law – as Mr Wu made clear – lets ordinary people stage demonstrations, but few protests take place that are not sanctioned by the government.

To underline just how sensitive the issue is, the Chinese authorities seemed reluctant to publicise exactly where protests would be allowed.

A transcript of Wednesday's press conference on the Beijing organising committee's website expunged the parks' names.

Earlier, Mr Wu made it clear no activities involving ethnic, political or religious activities would be allowed inside Olympic venues.

Previously, Olympic cities have set aside areas for protests, and the International Olympic Committee wanted China to follow suit.

"Past organisers have found ways to manage any protests, and the Chinese authorities were encouraged to do the same," said an IOC spokeswoman.

At the press conference, Mr Wu also dismissed suggestions that the Olympics would be a "kill-joy games" because of excessive security restrictions.

His assessment appears to be shared by the vast majority of Chinese people.

An investigation by the US-based Pew Research Centre found that 96% of Chinese people think the Olympics will be a success.

Nearly as many believe the Olympic Games will improve China's image across the globe.

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Hurricane Dolly has hit the Mexico-Texas coast, lashing the region with winds of up to 100mph (161km/h).

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Dolly dumped about 12in (30cm) of rain over Texas before weakening from a category two to a category one storm, says the US national weather service.

Towns and cities in the Rio Grande Valley in southern Texas were put on alert in case the rain causes flooding.

Power cuts have left more than 12,000 customers without electricity, according to a Texas power company.

Earlier, residents were urged to move away from levees in case they were breached.

"Preparation to protect life and property should be rushed to completion," the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami warned.

Storm surge

The leading edge of the storm reached Texas's South Padre Island before dawn, damaging the roof of an apartment building.

The causeway linking the island to the mainland had been closed earlier.

Storm's path

Forecasters have predicted Dolly would bring a coastal storm surge of up to 6ft (1.8m) above normal.

Based on Dolly's projected path, the US Census Bureau said that about 1.5 million Texans could feel the storm's effects.

Cari Lambrecht, a spokesman for Hidalgo County, Texas, said that shelters able to hold about 400 people have been opened.

She said they were encouraging people in low-lying areas to use the shelters.

"It's so much easier for them to go now instead of us having to pull them out later," she said.

Texas Governor Rick Perry has called up 1,200 National Guard members to help in any emergency caused by the hurricane.

In Mexico, Governor Eugenio Hernandez of the state of Tamaulipas, said officials planned to evacuate 23,000 people to government shelters in Matamoros, Soto La Marina and San Fernando.

In the Gulf of Mexico, Shell Oil evacuated workers from oil rigs, but said it did not expect production to be affected.

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A British woman charged with causing the death of her newborn baby son in a hotel room is appearing in court in Crete.

Leah Andrew, 20, is charged with infanticide.

The Crete prosecutor's office said the magistrate would be deciding later whether she would be held in prison or released on bail before her eventual trial.

Police found the dead baby, weighing 5lb 8oz, in a room in the Natali hotel, Malia, in the early hours of Monday morning.

A coroner said the baby, which was discovered wrapped in sheets, showed signs of suffocation.

Andrew was taken by police from Iraklion University Hospital to give evidence at today's hearing.

She was being kept under police guard at the hospital, where she was taken after suffering extensive bleeding.

Police denied she was put on suicide watch and said she was being guarded by two officers simply because she was under arrest.

On Sunday, Andrew was on a night out with her 24-year-old sister, Lydia, and a friend.

It is understood she had not told them she was pregnant, despite being just two weeks short of her due date.

She returned to the hotel at around 3.30am, where she gave birth alone.

Police said that when the sister and friend arrived at the room they saw a sheet with something inside.

They did not open it but called the police.

It is believed Andrew has two sons, aged three and 15 months, who are being looked after by her parents.

A Foreign Office spokesman confirmed that the British Consulate on Crete is providing Andrew and her family with assistance.


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A 50-year-old woman has witnessed her husband and three children falling to their deaths while climbing near Europe's highest peak.

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The Dutch woman watched as the four victims, who were roped together, fell 1,600ft (500m) down an icy slope in the French-Italian Alpine range.

The woman was treated in hospital for the effects of shock.

The family had been climbing Mont Dolent - part of the Mont Blanc massif - which is 12,500ft high.

"We think one of them slipped and pulled the others down," Oscar Tajola, head of the mountain rescue team in the Italian town of Courmayeur, told the Associated Press news agency.

The woman saw the accident as she descended the mountain alone by another route, officials said.

She later identified the bodies of her husband, who was 56, their 20-year-old son, and two daughters, aged 17 and 23, which were recovered by Italian mountain rescue workers.

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A female suicide bomber has killed eight people and wounded more than 20 in Iraq, police have said.

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The woman detonated her explosives near a military patrol or checkpoint in the town of Baquba, a frequent flashpoint, security officials said.

Those killed were reported to be local Sunni troops recruited to work with US and Iraqi forces.

Baquba, some 65km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, remains a major centre for insurgents and suicide bombers.

The city, the capital of Diyala province, remains a stronghold for al-Qaeda, with regular attacks against US and Iraqi forces and against Sunni tribes who have agreed to work alongside the Americans and the national army.

Earlier this month, another female suicide bomber struck in a busy market near Baquba, killing nine people and wounding many more.

Women are less likely to attract the attention of male security guards because of Arab conventions on relations between men and women, correspondents say.

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A powerful explosion by a beach in the Gaza Strip has killed at least three Palestinians, including a young girl, Hamas officials and medics say.

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At least 20 people were reportedly injured by the blast, which destroyed a car close to the coast in Gaza City.

Reports said the blast was the third in Gaza on Friday. Violence in the area has fallen since the militant group Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2007.

Unconfirmed reports said the three men killed were Hamas fighters.

The series of bombings amounted to one of the most serious outbreaks of deadly violence since Hamas took power.

Mysterious blasts

Earlier on Friday, a bombing outside a cafe in Gaza City killed one person and injured four others, Palestinian police reported.

The blast, just after midnight local time, caused extensive damage.

It was unclear why the area was bombed, but there have been attacks on internet cafes, music shops and Christian institutions in Gaza in recent months.

Police also reported a bombing near the home of Marwan Abu Ras, a Hamas official who issues fatwas, or religious edicts, in Gaza. No-one was injured.

The militant Hamas movement seized control of Gaza by force more than a year ago from the Fatah movement of Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority.

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need better mountain climbing equipment - oh snap

Barack Obama has arrived in London on the final leg of his whistle-stop tour of the Middle East and Europe.

He has already met the French president Nicolas Sarkozy - and the last handshake of the headline-grabbing trip will be with Conservative leader David Cameron, who he'll meet at the House of Commons before heading to the airport and home.

After a successful tour for Mr Obama, in London Britain's political elite will be hoping to get the best photo opportunity of the day with him.

Because before meeting Mr Cameron at the House of Commons he'll walk through the door of Number 10 Downing Street to meet Gordon Brown. And before that there'll be a breakfast meeting with former Prime Minister Tony Blair who's now a Middle East envoy.

Mr Blair's new role gives the two men a huge amount to talk about. Mr Obama has put the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli question at the heart of his foreign policy - pledging to 'roll his sleeves up' from the moment he takes office.

We're told that the conversation between Mr Brown and Mr Obama will build on a meeting the two had in Washington in April - the meeting then was described as 'warm and wide-ranging' and that theme will continue.

Last weekend both men were in Iraq - Mr Brown on Saturday and Mr Obama on Sunday - but they didn't bump into each other.

Having both made recent trips to the Middle East they'll have plenty to discuss - not least troop withdrawal from Iraq. Mr Obama has consistently stated that he wants to get US troop's home from Iraq within 16 months of taking office.


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(CNN) -- At least 29 people were killed and 88 wounded in 17 blasts within a little more than an hour Saturday night in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, police and government officials said.

All metropolitan areas in India have been put on high alert.

Several media outlets and the country's Intelligence Bureau received an e-mail, purportedly from the Muslim militant group Indian Mujahedeen, warning about a possible attack. The group has claimed responsibility for two similar attacks in the past nine months in northern India.

Most of the explosions were in eastern Ahmedabad and within a 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) radius, according to CNN's sister network CNN-IBN.

One explosion was at a bus stop, others at a railway station and on a bus. Another bomb went off under a car at a hospital where injured people were being taken, the network said. Video Watch the commotion at one blast scene »

Video footage from the scene of one explosion showed charred and twisted bicycles and motorcycles lying on the street as a crowd milled around. At least one of the bombs was on a bicycle, authorities said.

The blasts began about 6:30 p.m. and lasted until about 7:40 p.m., according to CNN-IBN.

Leaders including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemned the explosions.

Indian Mujahedeen claimed responsibility in May for near-simultaneous bomb attacks that killed 63 people in the northwest Indian city of Jaipur. In that claim, the group declared "open war" against India in retaliation for what it said were 60 years of Muslim persecution and the country's support of U.S. policies.

The group also claimed responsibility for near-simultaneous blasts outside courts in three northern Indian cities in the state of Uttar Pradesh in November. More than a dozen people were killed and 80 injured.

In both the Jaipur and the Uttar Pradesh bombings, one of the blasts came from an explosives-laden bicycle.

In May, security analysts described Indian Mujahedeen as a relatively unknown group. It may be a new home-grown terror network, an alias for an existing group or a foreign militant organization.

Ahmedabad is the largest city in Gujarat state. Officials there were holding an emergency meeting in the wake of the explosions, CNN-IBN said.

The blasts come a day after nine small explosions went off in the city of Bangalore, CNN-IBN reported. Two people were killed and six injured.
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"The blasts seem to be along the lines of yesterday's Bangalore blasts," Union Minister of State for Home Sri Prakash Jaiswal said. "It is a conspiracy to unsettle the country."

Officials said they believe that the goal of the explosions was to create panic, not to kill a large number of people.


CNN.com

A woman has died in hospital after falling down disused mine workings in Ayrshire.

The 44-year-old fell about 40ft into the mine, close to the Barrwood Gate housing development in Galston.

Firefighters and the police mountain rescue team were called to the scene at about 0215 BST.

She was freed at about 0800 BST and airlifted to Crosshouse Hospital near Kilmarnock where she later died. The woman has not yet been named by police.

It is thought she had been using the area, which is popular with walkers and dog walkers, as a shortcut home.

A spokesman for Strathclyde Police said a report will be prepared for the procurator fiscal.

Inquiries are continuing to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident.


BBC News

A church in County Londonderry has been vandalised with an neo-Nazi slogan.

'C18', which alludes to the extreme far right Combat 18 organisation, was painted across a gable wall at St Mary's Oratory in the village.

The parish priest, Father Aidan Mullan, described the incident, which took place on Thursday night, as "disturbing".

"I'm told Combat 18 is a breakaway group from the National Front in the UK," he said.

"They were more right wing, and someone has also suggested that they have association with some paramilitaries.

"It is sinister if the 18 represents neo-Nazi prejudice and bigotry, which is a frightening thing."

It is understood the 18 refers to first and eighth letters of the alphabet, A and H - Adolf Hitler's initials.


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Cuban President Raul Castro has warned that Cubans must be prepared for the consequences of the current global economic crisis.

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He said that developing countries had already felt the effects of rising fuel and food prices.

The speech was part of the celebrations marking the 55th anniversary of the beginning of the communist revolution.

President Castro had been expected to announce new economic policies, but in the event did not do so.

He has already introduced significant changes in the country since succeeding his ailing brother, Fidel, in February.

The president recently announced a move to allow some private farming and relaxed limits on mobile phones and computers.

'Excessive prohibitions'

Speaking for 48 minutes, President Castro warned the crowds that the economic austerity suffered in recent years would not be helped by increases in world food prices.

"The revolution has done and will continue to do whatever is possible to continue to advance and reduce to the bare minimum the inevitable consequences of international crises to our people," he said.

"But we must explain to our people the difficulties and thus prepare them to deal with them."

Raul Castro also had a message for Cuba's ideological enemy, the United States.

"We shall continue paying special attention to defence, regardless of the results of the next presidential elections in the United States," said the president.

Since taking over from his elder brother, Raul Castro has made available more unused state land to private farmers, eased restrictions on mobile phones for ordinary citizens and allowed some workers to seek legal titles for their homes.

He has also signed UN human rights accords and announced that workers can earn productivity bonuses, doing away with the egalitarian concept that everyone must earn the same.

Mr Castro delivered his speech to a crowd of some 10,000 people at the parade grounds of Santiago's historic Moncada army barracks, where he and his brother led a fruitless rebel assault exactly 55 years ago.

Both men were jailed for the attack, but did of course eventually go on to seize power from the then Cuban leader, Fulgencio Batista, on 1 January 1959.

"When we attacked the Moncada, none of us dreamed of being here today," the president told the crowd.

The Rebellion Day celebrations two years ago were the last public event at which Fidel Castro was seen before he underwent emergency intestinal surgery. He has since appeared only in official videos and photographs.

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Some European Union countries have expressed concerns over proposed concessions made by trade negotiator Peter Mandelson at talks in Geneva.

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The discussions are trying to save the Doha round of talks, begun in 2001, intended to liberalise world trade.

But senior politicians from Italy, France and Ireland are worried about moves which would force them to cut subsidies to their farmers.

Mr Mandelson insisted that the emerging deal could not be undone.

The talks are due to continue until Wednesday.

But the fear is that even if a deal finally emerges, it won't be in keeping with Doha's original purpose - a trade agreement that will genuinely boost economies in the developing world, reports the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva.

An 'emerging' deal

After four days of deadlock, a compromise emerged on Friday, which is now being reviewed by ministers from some 35 countries.

The proposed settlement, brokered by Pascal Lamy, the head of the World Trade Organization, calls for cutting limits of European farm subsidies by 80% and US payments by 70% to about $14.5bn.

However, this would not mean the US would have to cut its actual spending on support to farmers, which totalled about $9bn last year.

The compromise proposal also involves cuts in tariffs on agricultural imports and on industrial goods.

In another area of contention, Mr Mandelson said the EU would offer 80,000 temporary visas a year for working in the services sector.

And US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said the US would extend the number of sectors open to foreign workers.

Such moves were welcomed by developing countries, such as India.

"These are constructive signs," said Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath. "There is good movement by the United States and EU... the process of engagement is continuing."

And Brazil's foreign minister said there had been a "good atmosphere".

"Everybody there was speaking about services and trying to be as positive as each one can be without any attempt to spoil the game," said Celso Amorim.

Caution in Europe

But Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he and French President Nicolas Sarkozy had "deep concern" about the plan.

Following a telephone discussion, the two leaders stressed "the absolute necessity for Europe of a positive and balanced result which offers European citizens benefits in regard to the sacrifices" which might be required.

"We have a couple of issues and one, of course, is agriculture," said Irish Deputy Prime Minister Mary Coughlan.

"And we don't see the balance in Nama (non-agricultural market access)."

But European Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said: "A huge majority of member states supported the Commission... on the basis of the paper on the table, to continue negotiations."

And Mr Mandelson stressed again that the core principles of the proposed deal must stand and said he was "moderately encouraged" by the talks on Saturday.

"I heard some interesting signals from India, [a] couple of things from China, one in particular that I want to specify, to follow up," he added.

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