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[Black Widow]

He is just 14, too young to have any facial hair but old enough to kill.
His name is Shakirullah and he's one of the youngest Taliban prisoners being held by Afghan intelligence.

We are given rare access to him by Afghan intelligence, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), at the interrogation cells in the capital, Kabul.

The agents ponder for some minutes over whether to bring him to us handcuffed and decide against it.

Shakirullah walks in with the awkward gait of a teenager, unsure of his audience or the reception he's going to get.

Two intelligence minders are in the room with us. We are not allowed to film them or identify them but they are well known to the young boy.

There are constant interjections from them as he stumbles and mumbles his way through his story.

He says he had been studying at a madrassa, a religious school, in Pakistan for about six months.

He is from the tribal region of south Waziristan and his family are farmers. This was his first experience of education.

"I was in the madrassa," he told Sky News.

"And after I'd been studying the Koran for some time, the mullah (religious teacher) came to me and told me it was time to go to Afghanistan and be a suicide bomber.

"I didn't want to do it but they told me I had to.

"They said I couldn't stay with them any more and if I didn't, they would take me by force."

He said he was taken to Miramshah on the Pakistan border and then three men smuggled him across and into Khost in eastern Afghanistan.

The night before he was due to carry out the attack in a busy market area in Khost, the men took him for driving lessons.

He said they were spotted by police as they were leaving and the explosives were found.

"They told me when I came back (after the attack), they would give me some money and find me a woman to marry but that I would come back and not die," the boy said with astonishing naivety.

"I just want to be free. I miss my mother."

A few miles away from the intelligence cells is another 14-year-old without a mother.

She is Noorya and her mother was killed by a suicide bomber as she went to work for the Ministry of Interior on one of the buses packed with Government employees.

Qandi Gul was a cook at the Government offices and the main breadwinner in her family.

Her wage supported her husband and her daughter and two sons.

She earned 2,300 Afghani per month (about £24) but it was enough to give the family a secure living.

"I miss my mother a lot," said Noorya. "When she was alive she wouldn't let me do any housework.

"She wanted me to study. She said you are the future of your country so you should keep your eyes on your books.

"As for the 14-year-old suicide bomber who has been caught, I feel sorry for him. He is just a child and only 14.

"He cannot have had a proper education so he was set on the wrong path. I just feel sorry for him," she said with a maturity beyond her years.

Her father Mohammed Raheem is a lot more bitter.

"There were no explosions in Taliban times," he said. "But only explosions in Mr Karzai's Government.

"There are no jobs in Afghanistan now. My sons have had to go to Iran to find work and our economic situation is very desperate now."


Sky News

[Black Widow]

The wife of Austria cellar rapist Josef Fritzl has visited the underground dungeon where her daughter was held captive for 24 years for the first time.

Rosemarie Fritzl returned to the family home and reportedly collected toys and other belongings from the underground rooms.

Fritzl's wife has told police she knew nothing of the horror occurring under the house in Amstetten, Austria.

Her husband fathered seven children with their daughter, Elisabeth, who he said had run away and joined a cult.

Three of the children lived upstairs as the Fritzl's "grandchildren" after Fritzl told his wife they had been abandoned on their doorstep by their supposedly missing daughter.

Three others remained locked up with their mother in the cellar and another child died soon after birth.

The children, along with their mother and grandmother, are being cared for by psychiatrists at a nearby medical facility.

Reports say Rosemarie spent about an hour at the house and loaded up a vehicle with several suitcases before returning to the clinic.

Rosemarie has said she never wants to live in the "tainted" house again, according to reports.

Last week, the eldest child Kerstin, 19, awoke from a coma and doctors said she was recovering well.

Her admittance to hospital on April 19 brought the horrific saga to light.


Sky News

[Black Widow]

A father and two young children who were found dead in a car on a remote road in a Welsh beauty spot have been named.

The three were Brian Philcox, 52, and Amy, seven and three-year-old Owen. All had died from carbon monoxide poisoning after inhaling car fumes.

A bomb disposal unit was called to examine the Land Rover Freelander after police found a "device" at Mr Philcox's home in Runcorn, Cheshire.

Four teddy bears along with bouquets of flowers have been tied to the railings outside the address.

Police said the children lived with their mother in Cheshire and Mr Philcox was with their son and daughter under an access arrangement.

A member of the public had raised the alarm after coming across their Land Rover.

Cheshire police said the mother of the children had reported them missing after they failed to return from a Father's Day outing.

The hillside road near Llanrwst in the Snowdonia National Park remains taped off today.

Police said the incident was being treated as suspicious, but were not looking for other suspects.

The bodies were found not far from where Mike Todd, chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, was discovered dead earlier this year.

A worker from a bed and breakfast not far from where the Land Rover was parked, said: "The place where it happened is off one of the narrow roads crossing the country.

"It's in the middle of fields with only a few houses nearby, it's very isolated.

"It is one of the prettiest parts of the country. I am more sorry for the children. I think it is a selfish act taking the children away."

The deaths appear to echo the case of Keith Young, 38, who killed himself and his four sons in March 2003 in Llangollen, North Wales.


Sky News

[JohnCenaFan28]

OMG, what a story, thanks.

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the news.

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the story.

[JohnCenaFan28]

Israel and militant group Hamas have agreed on a truce starting on Thursday, Palestinian and Israeli officials have told the BBC.



Israeli officials confirmed the start of the truce, but said Israel was "looking to see if this is serious".

A Hamas official said he was confident all militant groups in Gaza would abide by the agreement, brokered by Egypt.

Earlier at least six Palestinians were reportedly killed in Israeli air strikes in southern Gaza.

Israel said it had targeted "terror operatives".

Islamic Jihad said a missile struck a car carrying five of its members near Khan Younis. A sixth man died in a separate strike nearby.

Two-stage deal

Hamas took over Gaza in June 2007, driving out forces loyal to Fatah, the political faction led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Since then, Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the international community have sought to isolate Hamas.

Israel declared the territory a "hostile entity" and has blockaded it in an attempt to pressure Hamas into stopping rocket fire from the strip into Israel.

The truce is due to come into effect at 0600 (0300 GMT) on Thursday.

This stage of the deal envisages a halt to hostilities and a partial reopening of Gaza's borders.

A second stage of the plan would focus on the return of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and on a deal to reopen the main Rafah crossing into Egypt.

Israeli officials have listed three conditions for the general success of the truce, the BBC's Tim Franks reports: that there be a total cessation of hostilities; an end to arms smuggling from Egypt into Gaza; and movement on freeing Cpl Shalit, who was captured two years ago.

Hamas official Ahmed Yousef told the BBC he hoped that the ceasefire would lead to a further opening of the crossing points from Israel into Gaza, and an increase in the number of supplies.

"I am confident that everybody will abide by what we've agreed. All the groups which went to Cairo gave their okay to the ceasefire. If anybody does anything, they will be doing it on their own," he said.

He said that the aim now was to push ahead talks on a prisoner exchange, as well as a new round of talks in Cairo between the rival Palestinian factions of Fatah and Hamas.

Egypt, which has worked for months to bring Israel and Hamas to an agreement, said both sides had accepted the first stage of the deal, state-owned news agency Mena reported.

"Egypt hopes that the two sides will exert all efforts to bring the calm to a success," the agency quoted a senior official as saying.

BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

A human foot has been found on a beach near the west-coast city of Vancouver, Canadian police say.



It is the fifth human foot to wash up on beaches in the area in the past year. The latest find is a left foot, whereas the other four were right feet.

Walkers spotted the body part floating in water off the suburb of Westham Island in British Columbia on Monday.

Police and coroners are trying to identify the foot and discover if it is linked to the others found in the area.

All were wearing shoes and had been in the water for some time.

A police spokesman, PC Sharlene Brooks, said the find was being treated as a criminal investigation.

"We are certainly not discounting the possibility that this may be linked to the other recovered feet, but it is just too premature and very speculative for us to even entertain that right now," PC Brookes said.

She said police might not be able to say for some time whether the foot's DNA matched a known missing person, or any of the feet found previously.

Gruesome finds

The previous discoveries, all right feet, were all wearing running shoes.

Last August, two human feet washed up on the beaches of small islands north of Vancouver. Then in February a third single, right foot drifted ashore.

The fourth foot was discovered on a beach in suburban Vancouver in May.

The city's newspapers and coffee shops are buzzing with theories to explain the mystery, says the BBC's Ian Gunn in Vancouver.

Organised crime, boating accidents - even the 2004 Asian tsunami - are all being offered as possible solutions, our correspondent says.

Police have said there is no evidence that the feet were deliberately severed or removed by force.

Forensic experts say it is not unusual for body parts to become separated after they have been in the water for a long time.

BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Japan and China have struck a deal for the joint development of a gas field in the East China Sea, resolving a protracted bilateral dispute.



Japanese private sector firms will take part in China's project to develop the Chunxiao gas field, which is known as Shirakaba in Japan.

A small crowd of Chinese protesters denounced the deal outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing.

China said the deal would "benefit peace and stability".

Wary of the potential for nationalist backlash, China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said that the agreement "did not harm the respective legal stance of both sides".

Tense ties

China started drilling in Chunxiao in 2003, inflaming tensions with Japan, which expressed fears that Beijing could siphon gas from what it considered its own side.

China contends that the gas field falls easily within its maritime zone, but Japan contests this.

In 2004, a Chinese nuclear submarine intruded into Japanese waters near the gas fields.

But ties have improved more recently and in May, Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Tokyo for talks with his Japanese counterpart, Yasuo Fukuda.

The agreement could herald further co-operation between Asia's two largest economies, which have been competing around the world for energy resources. Both rely on imports for the bulk of their energy needs.

Known reserves in the disputed fields are estimated at a modest 92 million barrels of oil equivalent - around three weeks of energy demand in Japan - but the two energy-hungry countries believe more could be found.

There are three other gas fields still in dispute and Japanese media said the two sides had also agreed to co-operate on a second area.

BBC News

[JohnCenaFan28]

Spain and South Africa both "gave the green light" for a failed coup in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, a British mercenary has told a court in Malabo.



Simon Mann said it felt as though the coup attempt was an official operation.

He also said that Sir Mark Thatcher, son of UK former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was one of the plot's organisers.

But Mann said London-based millionaire Eli Calil was "the boss". He and Sir Mark have both denied plotting a coup.

Sir Mark was fined in 2005 and received a suspended sentence in South Africa for unknowingly helping to finance it.

But former SAS officer Mr Mann, 55, said Sir Mark was part of the "management team... not just an investor".

He was speaking on the second day of his trial, in which Equatorial Guinea prosecutors have called for him to serve 30 years in jail.

Election rush

If the plot had been successful, veteran Equatorial Guinea opposition leader Severo Moto, then based in Spain, would have become the new president, Mann told the court.

He said Sir Mark had agreed to send a helicopter to transport Mr Moto to the region. Sir Mark has said he believed the helicopter was to be used as an air ambulance.

Mann said the plot was rushed through before the 2004 general elections in Spain, in case the government of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar was defeated, Reuters news agency reported.

A Spanish foreign ministry official has denied any involvement.

Mr Mann was arrested four years ago with 64 others in Zimbabwe when they landed in a plane from South Africa.

He served four years in prison there for trying to purchase weapons without a licence before being extradited to Equatorial Guinea earlier this year.

Mann and Sir Mark were neighbours in Cape Town.

The prosecution said they had agreed not to call for the death penalty as part of the deal to extradite him.

The trial is being held at a conference centre in the capital, Malabo, and began amid heavy security.

Journalists were allowed into the courtroom but made to leave mobile phones, cameras and even pens and notepads outside. News reports said that a verdict was expected by Thursday.

Eleven other men, including South African arms dealer Nick Du Toit, who testified that he was recruited by Mr Mann, are already serving sentences in Equatorial Guinea in connection with the coup attempt.

Equatorial Guinea, an oil-rich former Spanish colony, has been ruled by President Teodoro Obiang since he seized power from his uncle in 1979.

His government has been accused of widespread human rights abuses and of ruthlessly suppressing political opposition.

Transparency International has put the tiny nation on its list of top 10 corrupt states.

BBC News