Bus Roof Ripped Off After Hitting Railway Bridge

Six people were injured when the roof of a double-decker bus was ripped off after hitting a railway bridge.

Emergency services were called to the scene of the crash in Heaton Norris, Stockport, at around 1.40pm on Saturday.

Ten passengers were on the TransPeak bus at the time of the collision in Georges Road.

One man was trapped on the top deck, but was rescued by firefighters.

The bus hit a railway bridge on Georges Road

Three women and three men were taken to hospital for treatment to cuts and bruises. The driver of the bus was uninjured.

Sergeant Danny Byrne, from Greater Manchester Police's Serious Collision Investigation Unit, said: "It is only by sheer luck that no-one was seriously injured.

"If you were in the area at the time of the crash and witnessed the incident I would urge you to contact the police with any information."

:: Anyone with information should GMP's Serious Collision Investigation Unit on 0161 856 4742 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

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Michael Cope Held For Murder Of Linzi Ashton

Wanted man Michael Cope has been arrested in Manchester on suspicion of murdering his ex-girlfriend Linzi Ashton.

A statement released by Greater Manchester Police, said: "A man has been arrested following the death of Linzi Ashton, who was killed last month in Salford.

"At about 11.55pm on Friday 26 July 2013, police were called to an address on Larch Road in Leigh following a report a wanted man was at the address.

"Armed officers attended and a 28-year-old man handed himself in to police and was arrested on suspicion of murder. He remains in police custody for questioning".

Police released this CCTV image of Cope at a supermarket in Wigan

Linzi, a mother-of-two, was found dead at her home on Westbourne Road, Winton by relatives shortly before 6pm on Saturday 29 June 2013.

A Home Office post-mortem concluded she died as a result of pressure to the neck and multiple injuries.

Cope had a brief "acrimonious" relationship with Miss Ashton, 25, who had two daughters, Destiny, seven, and Daisy, two.

In a statement issued shortly after Miss Ashton's death, her family said: "She was the most beautiful, generous, caring person anyone could ever wish to meet. She would never harm anyone and was always there for her children and family.

"Life will never be the same again without her. Our whole family and friends have been devastated by her death. The whole community is in shock."

As part of the manhunt, police searched more than 30 addresses and two men have been charged, one with perverting the course of justice and the other with assisting an offender.

Cope, who is from Salford, had been known to make visits in and around the town centre of Leigh.

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Train Crash Driver Held For 'Reckless Homicide'

The driver of a speeding train that hurtled off the rails killing 78 people in Spain has been detained for "reckless homicide", according to the country's Interior Minister.

Speaking at a news conference in the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela where the accident happened, Jorge Fernandez Diaz said: "He has been detained since 7:40pm on Thursday for the alleged crimes of reckless homicide."

The driver, named by local media as 52-year-old Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, was arrested in the hospital where he was recovering after one of Europe's worst rail disasters.

Police said he refused to answer their questions on Friday from his hospital bed and the case has been passed to the courts.

The wrecked train at the site of the crash near Santiago de Compostela

The driver will be questioned by a judge on Sunday, the interior minister added.

Under Spanish law, a suspect can be detained for a maximum of 72 hours before being heard by a judge.

"There are reasonable grounds to consider that he may have been responsible for what happened, which must be established by a judge and the investigation which has been opened," Mr Fernandez Diaz said.

Although the court hearing will be closed, it will give hints about the status of the investigation. The judge will decide whether to jail the driver as an official suspect, release him on bail, or release him without charges. If a judge finds sufficient evidence for a criminal trial, the suspect will be charged and a trial date set.

Some 78 people were killed in one of the worst crashes in Spain's history

The eight-carriage train, packed with 218 passengers, was said to have been travelling at more than twice the speed limit on a curve when it hurtled off the rails and slammed into a concrete wall, with one carriage leaping up onto a siding.

The grey-haired driver, who reportedly boasted of his love for speed online, has been under police surveillance in hospital since the accident on Wednesday evening but he was discharged today and taken to a police station.

He reportedly suffered head injuries in the accident that required stitches. Pictures showed him being led away from the scene with blood covering the right side of his head.

While Garzon's official explanation for the crash is awaited, blame has increasingly fallen on the driver, with Spain's railway agency saying it was his responsibility to brake before going into the high-risk curve where the train tumbled off the rails and smashed into a wall.

A man lights a candle in memory of the victims of the rail disaster

But it is still not clear whether the brakes failed or were never used.

The president of Adif, the Spanish rail agency, said that the driver should have started slowing the train 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) before the dangerous bend. He said signs clearly marked this point when the driver must begin to slow.

Meanwhile, doctors are continuing to try to identify the last three bodies of the 78 passengers killed in the catastrophe.

A memorial service for the victims will be held on Monday in the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela, the city just outside which the rail disaster occurred and a destination for Catholic pilgrims from around the world.  

Some 130 people were also injured in the crash.  

The Alvia 730 series train was travelling from Madrid to the port city of Ferrol when it derailed at about 8.40pm local time - 7.40pm UK time - on Wednesday.

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Barclays Faces Fresh Customer Mis-Selling Bill

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Barclays will face up to mis-selling misdemeanours on three fronts next week when it sets aside hundreds of millions of pounds more for historical malpractice.

Sky News understands that the bank will make provisions for compensation for customers who were mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI), interest rate derivatives and identity theft cover through the stricken credit card insurer CPP.

Insiders said this weekend that Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins had been told by its regulators to be "conservative" in topping up its previous £2.6bn provision for PPI and an £850m bill for mis-selling swap products - designed to insure customers against sharp interest rate movements - to small businesses.

Barclays directors are also understood to have discussed taking its first hit for compensating CPP customers at a board meeting this week.

The final bill will be signed off by Mr Jenkins, Sir David Walker, the bank's chairman, and the soon-to-depart finance director Chris Lucas on Monday.

A Barclays spokesman declined to comment on the size of the new compensation figures but it is understood that they will take the amount it has set aside for swaps mis-selling to well over £1bn.

The scale of the new provisions will partly explain why Barclays is also planning to announce a major capital-raising comprising conventional shares and contingent convertible (or 'coco') bonds alongside its results.

That follows pressure from the Prudential Regulation Authority for Barclays to meet a target measuring the strength of its balance sheet, called the leverage ratio, by the end of next year.

The announcement will be made as part of Barclays' half-year results on Tuesday, and could undermine Mr Jenkins' efforts to overhaul the bank's reputation following last summer's Libor rate-rigging scandal.

Barclays was fined £290m for its role in the affair, leading to the departure of Mr Jenkins' predecessor, Bob Diamond.

It was also recently hit with a £300m penalty by a US energy regulator for attempting to manipulate electricity prices, although the bank is appealing against it.

Barclays will not be the only lender to add to its PPI mis-selling provisions during next week's results, with Lloyds Banking Group and others also expected to belie suggestions that the tidal wave of compensation claims had abated.

Barclays has, though, been particularly affected by the way interest is calculated on PPI compensation claims because of its liabilities dating back many years.

Mr Jenkins will also spell out the progress of his overhaul of the bank, called Transform, in which he will say that Barclays is exceeding cost-reduction targets announced in February.

Barclays declined to comment.

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Hostage Stand-Off: Moment Police Killed Gunman

Television cameras have captured the moment a Swat team stormed an apartment complex and shot dead a man who had killed six people.

Officers were called around 6.30pm local time on Friday to reports that shots had been fired in the building a few miles from Miami, Florida.

Police said the gunman was inside and moving from floor to floor before eventually barricading himself with hostages inside one of the apartments in Hialeah.

There was a stand-off with officers lasting eight hours which ended with a shoot-out when the specialist team went in.

Footage showed bright red flashes and the crackle of gunfire.

Police entered the apartment as they believed two hostages were being held at gunpoint.

Sergeant Eddie Rodriguez said both hostages survived. He added officers discovered two other people - a man and a woman - shot dead in the hallway in front of one unit.

Three more people, a male and two females, were found shot and killed in another apartment on a different floor.

The scene of the shooting in Florida

Another man who was walking his children into an apartment across the street was also killed.

Mr Rodriguez said it was not immediately clear whether the gunman aimed at him from an upper-level balcony or if he was hit by a stray bullet.

Earlier, a crisis team had been able to briefly establish communication with the gunman.

Mr Rodriguez said negotiators and a special weapons team tried talking with him from the other side of the door of an apartment unit where he was holding two hostages.

But the police spokesman said the talks eventually "just fell apart."

So far, the gunman's motives remain unknown.

"We think this may have been an angry man doing random shooting perhaps," said another police spokesman Carl Zogby.

"We're going to try to figure out why this happened here."

Officers are still investigating the motive and identifying the gunman and victims.

The manager of the West 46th Street apartment building and his wife were reportedly among those killed by the gunman.

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Twitter Rape Row: Abuse At £10 Note Campaigner

Twitter has become embroiled in a rape row after the woman who headed the campaign for a female figure on banknotes was subjected to vile sexual threats on the microblogging site.

Caroline Criado-Perez received rape threats on Twitter nearly every minute in the 48 hours after the new Jane Austen £10 note was unveiled.

Ms Criado-Perez, co-founder of the Women's Room, an online database of female experts, has highlighted the abuse on her Twitter account and blog by posting a number of the messages.

It has sparked a campaign for Twitter to install a 'report abuse' button on every post.

One supporter, Norfolk woman Kim Graham, has started an online petition which, by Saturday afternoon, had garnered support from over 12,000 people.

Writing on the petition Ms Graham said: "We need Twitter to recognise that it's current reporting system is below required standards. It currently requires users to search for details on how to report someone for abuse; a feature that should be available on each user's page."

A movement has been started under the Twitter hashtag #takebacktwitter, which includes some MPs and women journalists and calls on the social networking site to take action.

Writing in the New Statesman, Ms Criado-Perez said: "The rape threats started on Thursday, and have continued for the past forty-eight hours. And this experience is by no means unique to me.

The row began after novellist Jane Austen was unveiled as the new £10 face

"Amid the abuse, I have received countless messages from women telling me of their experiences.

"The head of WHO called violence against women a 'global health problem of epidemic proportions'; she should take a look at twitter, where we have our own nasty little epidemic: an epidemic of misogynistic men who feel so threatened by any woman speaking up, that they feel they must immediately silence her with a threat of sexual violence."

She said that when supporters started posting messages to Twitter's manager of News and Journalism, Mark S Luckie, about the rape threats, he locked his account. 

She said she was getting 50 rape threats every hour.

However, Tony Wang, general manager of Twitter in the UK, posted a series of messages on Saturday which appeared to be in response to the row.

His Tweets included: "We take abuse seriously and will investigate reports made via support.twitter.com/forms. For more info, see support.twitter.com."

And: "Also, we're testing ways to simplify reporting, e.g. within a Tweet by using the "Report Tweet" button in our iPhone app and on mobile web.

And: "We will suspend accounts that, once reported to us, are found to be in breach of our rules."

Twitter says it will suspend accounts linked to abusive messages

But Ms Criado-Perez pointed out that the report process was too lengthy for someone who had been subjected to a "tidal wave of abuse".

Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, is one of those supporting Ms Criado Perez.

"What Caroline has had to deal with in the past day is not only disgusting, but criminal," she said.

"A quick look at Twitter this morning shows that women are not prepared to stand by and take this kind of abuse.

"Twitter needs to get its house in order, and fast."

Labour MP for Hackney Diane Abbott wrote on Twitter: "Shocked at the abuse @CCriadoPerez has had to put up with. Almost as shocked that @marksluckie refuses to do anything about it."

The Sunday Times columnist India Knight posted a tweet saying: "If you have concerns about the grotesque abuse directed at @CCriadoPerez, @TonyW is the general manager of UK Twitter."

While The Times journalist Caitlin Moran pointed out: "For those who say "Why complain - just block?" - on a big troll day, it can be 50 violent/rape messages an hour. exhausting and upsetting."

A spokesman from the Metropolitan Police confirmed to Sky News that officers in Camden had received "an allegation regarding comments made on a social networking site", reported on Thursday 25 July.

Inquires are continuing and no arrests have yet been made, he said. 

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Microsoft Introduces UK Child Abuse Warning

Microsoft has introduced the UK's first pop-up facility activated by anyone searching the Internet for child abuse images.

The Bing notification platform is intended to help stop anyone who may be drifting towards finding illegal content on the Internet through search engines.

When a search term is typed into Bing which indicates users are interested in child abuse images, an on-screen notification will be activated.

Warning: the screen that will greet users who search for abuse images

As well as warning users that child abuse images are illegal, the pop-up will link to the Stopitnow.org website which provides counselling for people addicted to looking at abuse images.

In a statement, Microsoft said: "Microsoft remain a strong proponent of proactive action by the technology industry in the fight against child exploitation. 

"The Bing Notification Platform is just one way Microsoft is working to tackle the scourge of online child abuse content.

David Cameron has threatened tough new laws on internet service providers

"In addition, we have teams dedicated globally to abuse reporting on our services and the development of new innovations to combat child exploitation more broadly".

The Bing Notification Platform is triggered by search terms on a list provided by the The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), Microsoft said.

Andy Baker, CEOP's deputy chief executive, welcomed the creation of the device but said it was the first step towards blocking access to the illegal images and videos, and protect children.

He called on the industry to "take ownership" of the problem.

"While the Bing project isn't the whole solution, I hope it goes some way to making those who are curious about searching for indecent images think again," he said.

Research by Experian last December showed that Bing had a 4.99% share of the UK search engine market, which is dominated by Google and its 88.3% market share.

Microsoft's PhotoDNA technology is already widely used by Internet service providers and police to help prevent the proliferation of "some of the worst" illegal images online and to identify and rescue victims.

The move comes after David Cameron this week threatened to impose tough new laws on internet giants if they fail to blacklist key search terms for abuse images by October as part a crackdown on online porn.

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North Korea: Kim Jong-Un Attends Huge Parade

North And South: A Quick History

Updated: 2:23pm UK, Thursday 25 July 2013

By Mark Stone, Asia Corespondent, in Pyongyang

On the Korean Peninsula there are two versions of history. The version people learn depends on whether they are North Korean or South Korean.

Either way though, understanding both versions is key to understanding this most unusual of countries: its quirks, its people, its politics and its government's ability to survive against the odds.

There is no logical reason why the land that makes up the Korean Peninsula should be split into two countries.

The people either side of the border speak the same language and have the same ancestors.

But since 1945, it has been two countries: the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea).

From 1910 until the end of World War Two, the Korean Peninsula was Japanese territory.

With Japan's defeat, America and the Soviet Union took control of the peninsula.

They decided to split it in two: America didn't want the communist administration in Moscow to control the whole thing. Moscow felt the same about total American control.

And an agreement was reached between Washington and Moscow and an arbitrary line was simply drawn across the middle.

The North became The Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It adopted the communist ideology of its Soviet masters.

A young war hero called Kim Il-Sung became its prime minister.

The South adopted American-style democracy and became the Republic of Korea.

Just five years later though in 1950, Kim Il-Sung and his new army, backed by communist China and Russia, invaded the South.

Within months North Korean forces controlled almost the entire peninsula.

An American-led United Nations force fought back and the Korean War had begun.

Three years of fighting left well over a million people dead. Among them were soldiers from both Koreas, America, China, Russia and Britain.

But no side could claim victory. The border remained where it had been at the start - across the 38th Parallel - and to this day it is a heavily guarded and mined demilitarised zone.

In the decades that followed, the Soviet Union and China continued to prop up the North.

Inside the closed country, Kim Il-Sung's government controlled information and adopted their own version of history which states that the US-backed South Koreans invaded the North.

In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. North Korea had lost its main communist ally and trading partner.

The 1990s were dominated by a catastrophic famine in which millions died. A once strong country began to crumble.

And yet the country remained cut off, shunning most Western offers of help.

Kim Il-Sung, at his death in 1994, was declared Eternal President.

His son Kim Jong-Il ensured continuity and - on his death in 2011 - the leadership was assumed by his son, Kim Jong-Un.

And so through extreme control and isolation spanning 65 years, the Kim dynasty has cemented its cult of personality through which the state is still run.

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Egypt: 'Dozens Killed' As Rallies Turn Violent

At least 120 people have been killed after security forces attacked a protest by supporters of deposed President Mohamed Morsi in Cairo, according to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Doctors at a field hospital said another 1,000 people had been wounded in clashes on the road to Cairo's international airport, while the Muslim Brotherhood was claiming that a total of 4,500 had been wounded.

"They are not shooting to wound, they are shooting to kill," Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad said, adding that demonstrators had been hit by gunshot in the head and chest.

He said the shooting started just before pre-dawn prayers at a round-the-clock sit-in staged by Morsi supporters at Rabaa al-Adawiya in east Cairo.

Protesters set off flares in a mass protest in support of the army in Cairo

Activists rushed blood-spattered casualties to the makeshift hospital, some carried on planks or blankets. Many had fatal head wounds.

However, the Egypt Health Ministry claimed that the number of deaths reached 65, the number of wounded 750.

Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei on Saturday strongly condemned the "excessive use of force" in Egypt after deadly clashes between supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi and security forces.

"I strongly condemn the excessive use of force and the deaths, and I am working hard and in every direction to end the confrontation in a peaceful way, God protect Egypt and have mercy on the victims," he said on his Twitter account. 

However, amid claims that rooftop snipers had opened fire on the vigil, Egypt's interior minister blamed the Brotherhood for the violence.

An Apache helicopter flies over Tahrir Square during the protests

Speaking at a news conference, Mohamed Ibrahim said the security forces would act "in a legal fashion" to disperse the protesters "as soon as possible".

The MENA state news agency, quoting an unnamed security official, reported that nine people had been killed in the violence and at least 200 wounded.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement that he was "deeply concerned" by the violence.

He said: "I am deeply concerned by recent events in Egypt, and condemn the use of force against protesters which has led to the loss of lives."

The violence broke out as rival rallies were held across Egypt for and against the overthrow of Mr Morsi, who is under investigation for murder.

Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians heeded a call by army chief General Abdel Fattah al Sisi to take to the streets, while the Muslim Brotherhood mounted counter-demonstrations in Cairo.

Protesters stand on power lines near Cairo's presidential palace

A spokeswoman for the pro-Morsi camp said eight Brotherhood supporters had died in a clash near the Cairo vigil alone, and another said rooftop snipers had opened fire.

At least 10 people have also been killed in Egypt's second city of Alexandria, where hundreds of people fought pitched battles, with birdshot fired and men on rooftops throwing stones at crowds below.

Several of those killed were stabbed, hospital officials said, and at least one was shot in the head.

The investigation into Mr Morsi over his 2011 escape from jail has signalled a clear escalation in the military's confrontation with the deposed leader and his Islamist movement.

MENA said Mr Morsi, who has been held at an undisclosed military facility since his overthrow, had been ordered detained for 15 days pending the inquiry.

Lasers are pointed at an army helicopter near the palace

Egypt's army-installed interior minister, Mohamed Ibrahim, said month-old Cairo vigils by Mr Morsi's supporters would be "brought to an end, soon and in a legal manner".

An army official said the military had given the party a Saturday deadline to end its resistance and join a military-set roadmap to fresh elections.

But the Brotherhood says it wants nothing to do with the army's transition plan and called its own crowds out for counter-demonstrations in a "day to remove the coup".

Mr Morsi has been in military detention at an undisclosed location since he was overthrown.

UN leader Ban Ki-moon has called on the military to free Mr Morsi and other Islamic Brotherhood leaders, said deputy UN spokesman Eduardo del Buey.

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Swarm Of Bees Attacks Couple And Kills Horses

A couple exercising their two miniature horses have been attacked by a swarm of about 30,000 bees, stinging the animals so many times that they died.

Kristen Beauregard, 44, was stung about 200 times and her boyfriend around 50 times as the insects chased and followed them in Pantego, north Texas.

She said they were sweeping up "piles and piles" of bees and "it was like a bad movie".

Ms Beauregard said everything was normal as she exercised Trump, a Shetland pony, until he started jumping and kicking.

Suddenly, a dark cloud of bees appeared and began stinging both of them. When their attempts to swipe the bees away failed, she jumped into the pool and the pony followed.

She said: "It got all dark, like it was night time, there were so many bees.

"We were trying to stand up in the water but every time we stuck our heads out for air, they would cover us and start stinging us.

"We were trying to breathe and they were stinging us in the face and in the nose."

She escaped into her rental home, with bees flying behind her and crashing into windows, reported the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Horrified, she watched Trump frantically run all over the yard, rubbing against bushes to wipe off the bees and stumbling.

Her boyfriend, whom she declined to identify, called 911 as the bees overwhelmed Trump and a second horse, Chip.

She said firefighters sprayed a foam substance to clear the bees, and dragged the horses to a pasture to be treated by police and paramedics.

Show horse Chip, six, died before a vet arrived, while Trump spent a night at her clinic but also died.

The bees have also killed five hens and a beekeeper has disposed of a nearby hive.

The insects are being tested to see whether they are Africanized or "killer" bees, which are a hybrid of the Western and African honeybees.

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