Michelle Obama Tackles Human Rights In China

The US first lady has touched on human rights concerns during a visit to China, but stopped short of levelling any criticism against Beijing itself.

Michelle Obama briefly set aside her policy of 'soft diplomacy' on Saturday to give a speech advocating freedom of expression and open access to information.

She told a group of some 200 students at Beijing's prestigious Peking University that universal rights should not be dependent on a person's country of birth.

"When it comes to expressing yourself freely, and worshipping as you choose, and having open access to information - we believe those are universal rights that are the birth right of every person on this planet," she said.

"It is so important for information and ideas to flow freely over the internet and through the media.

"My husband and I are on the receiving end of plenty of questioning and criticism from our media and our fellow citizens, and it's not always easy... but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world."

The first lady said human rights are a universal birthright

Obama has generally sought to steer clear of complicated political issues during her week-long visit to China and instead focus on building goodwill through soft diplomacy.

As such she was careful to avoid calling on China directly to offer its citizens greater freedoms. 

Censorship in Chinese media and online is widespread, with the so-called Great Firewall of China blocking access to any sites which touch on sensitive topics. 

The ruling Communist Party is quick to crack down on any signs of political dissent and deletes all material it considers objectionable. 

There are also concerns over China's treatment of religious groups, with regular reports of members of "underground churches" being arrested. 

Mrs Obama was joined on a tour of Beijing's Summer Palace by her daughters

The first lady also used her speech on Saturday to offer her condolences to the friends and relatives of some of the 239 passengers on board the missing MH370 Malaysia Airlines flight, the majority of whom are Chinese.

Obama said the US was committed to offering as many resources to the search as possible.

She said: "Please know that we are keeping all of the families and loved ones of those on this flight in our thoughts and in our prayers at this very difficult time."

Obama arrived in Beijing on Thursday accompanied by her two daughters and mother.  

Their trip has already taken them to Beijing's Summer Palace and China's historic Forbidden City.

A visit to the northern city of Xi'an, home to the famed Terra Cotta Warriors Museum, and to a panda breeding facility outside Chengdu in southwestern China are also on the agenda.

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'Good Samaritan' Steals Collapsed Woman's Purse

CCTV images have been released after a woman had her purse stolen as she lay unconscious after suffering a seizure.

West Midlands Police want to trace two women in connection with the incident in Summer Row in Birmingham city centre on Saturday, February 22.

The 25-year-old victim blacked out and collapsed, and the pair - who at first appeared to be Good Samaritans - went to help.

"The thief pretended to be looking through the woman's bag in an attempt to find medication but the purse was then found to have gone," said PC David Horton, from Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter police team.

"It's not clear if the two women were together or if one of the women was indeed trying to help, but we ask people to help us trace the women pictured in order to help with our enquiries."

The victim recovered after her seizure.

Police want anyone with information to call Birmingham Central Police Station by dialling 101 or speak to Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

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Tape Measure 'Better For Weighing Up Obesity'

By Thomas Moore, Health Correspondent

The current method of judging obesity is so complex it should be replaced by a simple tape measure, according to a leading specialist.

Dr Jude Oben, from the Obesity Action Campaign, said the body mass index, or BMI, is "tedious" to calculate and poorly understood by patients.

He told Sky News that straightforward measurement of waist size was a more accurate assessment of someone's fat - and far more user friendly.

"The fat inside your abdomen is a good indicator of your metabolic risk," he said.

"For example your risk of heart disease, liver disease, diabetes, post-menopausal breast cancer, colorectal cancer. 

"So why not measure it simply? A tape measure does that."

He said studies show men should keep their waist - measured at the level of the belly-button - below 90 cm (35.5 inches). Women should keep it below 80cm (31.5 inches).

At least 2.8 million adults die each year as a result of being overweight

BMI is a complex calculation in which a patient's weight in kilogrammes is divided by the square of their height in metres.

If the result is greater than 25, patients are judged to be overweight.

"By that point most of them have switched off or left the room," said Dr Oben.

BMI takes no account of muscle mass. Athletes can register as being overweight even though they have minimal body fat.

Catherine Dias has had a weight problem for many years. But she still hasn't got to grips with BMI - and much prefers measuring her waist size.

"It's simple, it's easy. You know what you have to get down to," she said.

"To do it the other way it's a lot of calculations. I couldn't do that."

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Russian Special Forces Storm Crimea Base

Russian special forces have stormed a Ukrainian airforce base in Crimea, smashing through two walls, with one Ukrainian soldier reported shot.

It comes after a deadline to hand over the compound to Russia expired at 12.30 GMT.

"They came through the walls in armoured personnel carriers, said Sky News Chief Correspondent Stuart Ramsay, at the Belbek base.

"There have been explosions, blast bombs, one Ukrainian soldier has been shot."

"We believe they are special forces," said Ramsay. "They are all balaclaved and have slightly different uniforms to regular Russian soldiers.

Armoured carriers smashed their way into the airbase near Sevastopol

"There was a lot of firing, probably into the air, it is hard to know. I've seen at least one injured soldier."

Ramsay also heard "big explosions" which he said were probably blast bombs to disorientate the Ukrainian troops, who were then made to line up on a parade ground.

The Ukrainian commander at the Belbek base had expected the attack and told his forces to resist, instructing them they could fire warning shots before fighting back.

Ukrainian troops sang the national anthem in defiance

He has now been taken into custody by the Russians. A live camera shot of the base was also taken out after a Russian soldier climbed a mast to disable it.

Ramsay said an "air defence weapon" had been loaded by the Ukrainians and the troops ordered to stand their ground and not surrender the base.

However, any resistance appears to have had little effect.

A soldier pulled the plug on one of the cameras overlooking the base

He said that the Ukrainians were "massively outnumbered and outgunned" by the Russians, with just small arms and a few machine guns.

Russian soldiers had earlier surrounded the airbase from a nearby hill while militia wearing balaclavas and Cossack-type hats gathered outside the base.

A Russian tank outside the Belbek airforce base

Sky's Foreign Affairs Editor Sam Kiley said the base was an important capture for the Russians.

"It is a base that is home to a significant number, possibly a third, of the main combat aircraft of the Ukrainian air force - the MIG-29s - and their support aircraft and the structures that go with them.

"If you look at that and the blockage of the Ukrainian Navy in the shared port of Sevastopol in Crimea, what you see here is the Russians doing two things.

"The first is to seize territory that they now lay claim to and the second is to cripple the Ukrainian armed forces.

Russian troops had been keeping a lookout on a hill surrounding the base

"That is extremely important to them if they want to move into the Ukrainian eastern provinces where there are a predominance of Russian speakers."

At the Kremlin on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed legislation incorporating Crimea into Russia and hailed it as a "remarkable event".

International monitors are due to arrive in Ukraine in the next 24 hours to examine the political and security situation in the country.

Crimea's annexation was celebrated in the region's capital Simferopol

Russia agreed the move - claiming it would help stop "nationalist bandits" in the country - but has barred the observers from going to Crimea.

It also hit back at the widening of sanctions, calling them "divorced from reality" and said it reserved the right to impose sanctions of its own.

The 57 member countries of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) agreed an initial deployment of 100 monitors to regions in the east, south and west of Ukraine.

They will spend six months in the country and 400 more could be added "as necessary and according to the situation", diplomats said.

Moscow celebrates the annexation of Crimea with a fireworks display

Western countries have been pushing hard for an observer mission as a way of preventing an escalation of tensions in Ukraine following Russia's annexation of the Crimean peninsula.

Russia had blocked the plan on previous occasions.

OSCE vice-chairperson Thomas Greminger welcomed the decision as a "very meaningful contribution to de-escalate the situation in Ukraine".

But, in a statement on Saturday, Russia's Foreign Ministry made it clear Crimea is a 'no-go area' for the observers.

It said: "The mission's mandate reflects the new political and legal realities and does not apply to Crimea and Sevastopol, which became a part of Russia."

Sanctions against Russia's ultra-rich are still on the table, says the PM

"Russia hopes that the objective and impartial work of the international observers will help to overcome the internal Ukrainian crisis, stop rampant nationalist banditry, eradicate ultra-radical tendencies."

Prime Minister David Cameron and other EU leaders have also imposed travel bans and asset freezes on 12 more people to punish Moscow for its takeover of the Ukrainian territory.

There are now 33 Ukrainians and Russians on the list, accused of playing some part in what Western powers say is an illegal land grab of the region.

Russia said the move was necessary to prevent oppression of Russian-speaking people on the peninsula following the Ukrainian political crisis which saw President Viktor Yanukovych flee the country.

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Dozens Burn To Death In Pakistan Bus Crash

Dozens of people have died after two buses smuggling illegal Iranian gasoline were engulfed in a fireball in a crash in southwest Pakistan.

Passengers burnt to death inside the vehicles because sealed windows and hydraulic doors meant they were unable to escape from the wreckage.

The first bus, which was bound for Karachi, hit a truck coming in the opposite direction head-on, the two vehicles were then hit by a second bus and another truck.

The police chief of Baluchistan province, Ahmed Nawaz, said both buses had been smuggling fuel and were also carrying diesel-filled canisters.

The scene of the crash

He said 25 people, including women and children, died at the scene, while 10 more victims died on the way to hospital. Some 20 people were being treated for severe burns at hospital in Karachi.

Senior administration official Amir Sultan said the dead bodies were "beyond recognition".

He said: "These passenger buses travelling between Baluchistan and Karachi have automatic hydraulic doors and their windows are sealed because the buses are air-conditioned, so most of the passengers were trapped inside."

It is common practise for inter-city buses in the province, which borders Iran, to smuggle fuel, according to a bus driver who works on the Quetta-Karachi route.

Fire ripped through the buses

Mohammad Hasan Lehri said: "It is routine, we are compelled to do this even though it is illegal and dangerous."

He claimed thousands of people were involved in the fuel trade and said a number then split the profits, suggesting even policemen were getting their share.

The accident happened near Gadani, which is 370 miles south of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province.

Pakistan has one of the world's worst records for fatal traffic accidents, blamed on poor roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving.

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Jean McConville Murder: Man Appears In Court

A veteran republican charged in connection with one of the most notorious murders of the Northern Ireland Troubles has been remanded in custody.

Ivor Bell, 77, appeared in court in Belfast on Saturday charged with aiding and abetting the murder of mother-of-10 Jean McConville in 1972, along with membership of the IRA.

The court heard police had decided to charge Bell, who was part of the IRA ceasefire negotiations team, after he gave an interview to researchers compiling a Troubles archive at Boston College in America.

A US court ordered it to be handed over to the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Jean McConville was murdered in 1972

Mrs McConville, 37, was snatched from her home by the IRA in front of her children, shot in the back of the head and then secretly buried.

She was accused of passing information to the British Army, although an investigation by the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman rejected these claims.

Her children were told their mother had abandoned them.

The funeral of Jean McConville held in 2003

Her remains were not discovered until August 2003 over the border in the Republic of Ireland, on Shelling Hill beach in County Louth – 50 miles from her home.

The IRA admitted responsibility for her killing in 1999, however no one has ever been charged with her murder.

Bell, from Ramoan Gardens in the Andersonstown district of west Belfast, was arrested on Tuesday. He was refused bail by the district judge.

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Giant Vending Machine Replaces Village Shop

A giant vending machine selling eggs, milk and essentials has been built in a village after no one could be found to run the local shop.

People queue for their shopping

It sells 80 products, including washing powder, shampoo, shower gel, cereal, and, of course, tea.

Standing in the car park of the local pub, the Cock Inn, in the Derbyshire village of Clifton, the machine has already been a great success.

It takes cards and cash and was designed by electrical engineer Peter Fox, who lives just a few miles away in Ashborne.

The simple control pad

He has built in security measures, including cameras, and is able to monitor stock levels remotely.

Mr Fox said: "They (local people) think it's great fun and that the prices are reasonable. Everyone has been very supportive.

"I thought of the idea because I used to live in a small village myself and (the shop) had closed by the time I got back from work.

"I used to think 'wouldn't it be great if there was a big vending machine'."

The machine has been installed in the pub car park

Clifton lost its shop 10 years ago. Andrew Garside, landlord of the Cock Inn, said: "It  closed down because the people retired and no-one else took it on.

"Peter had the idea for the "automated shop" a while ago. It's an absolutely amazing bit of kit.

"All the basics are in there, from toothpaste, eggs, milk, bread, soup. It's gone down extremely well with villagers and people from the local area already."

There are a number of security features

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Missing Plane: Cockpit Conversations Revealed

A transcript of the final conversations between the crew of flight MH370 and air traffic control has been revealed two weeks after the aircraft vanished from radar.

The transcript, between the co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid and the control tower, includes conversations as the aircraft was taxiing at Kuala Lumpur airport up until the final exchange with Malaysian air traffic control at 1.19am.

It also includes a repeated message about the aircraft's altitude at the same time as the plane's Acars signalling technology sent its last transmission before it was apparently disabled.

Excerpts from the cockpit conversations

At 1.01am it reads: "MH370 remaining in flight altitude 350 (35,000ft)."

Six minutes later, the co-pilot said: "MH370 remaining in flight altitude 350."

The final conversation in the documents, published in The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mirror, was at 1.19am as the plane left Malaysian airspace, and reads: "All right, good night."

But former pilot Alastair Rosenschein told Sky News too much could be read into the repetition of the plane's altitude.

He said: "You make a radio call confirming your altitude and then a few minutes later you think 'gosh did I make that call?', you don't know, the easiest thing is to make it again.

"So no it's not suspicious, at least I don't see it as suspicious.

Relatives of missing passengers shout for answers in Beijing on Saturday

"If he wanted to hijack the aircraft then this was an ideal spot because it lies between Malay air space and Vietnamese air space. So you've got that handover - the Malaysians are no longer interested in the aircraft because it's left them, they've handed it over, and the Vietnamese don't yet expect a call.

"Quite frankly if you wanted to take an aircraft and didn't want anyone to know, you wouldn't have done it on a Beijing flight - you're covered by radar the whole way.

"You would have done it on a flight from Kuala Lumpur say to London where you've got plenty of fuel."

Peter Marosszeky, an aviation expert at the University of New South Wales in Australia, added: "I've sat through many thousands of flights myself and it's not something that would really strike me as unusual.

"Without being able to hear the inflection in the pilots' voices, it's very difficult to determine whether anything said is truly noteworthy.

"I'd love to hear the actual voice level of communication to see if there's any level of anxiety that might have been driving the pilot to say what he did."

It comes after the search for debris spotted on satellite in the south Indian Ocean resumed on Saturday for a third day.

Six aircraft took off from Perth to search seas around 1,550 miles southwest of the city after two large objects were spotted earlier this week.

More aircraft and shipping is expected to join the operation over the next few days.

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Couple Held After Girl 'Starved And Chained'

A California couple have been arrested on charges of severely neglecting their three children, who police say were found showing signs of starvation and physical abuse.

Authorities announced the arrests of Eraca Dawn Craig,  31, and Christian Jessica Deanda, 44, on Friday, a week after the couple's children were found.

Monterey County Sheriff Scott Miller said although they were arrested at the scene, the charges were not announced until later to allow for further investigation. 

Police say it was one of the worst cases they have seen

The children - two boys, ages three and five, and an eight-year-old girl - were discovered starving in their home in Salinas, California, on March 14. 

The girl was said to have been skeletal thin and appeared to have hardly eaten in months.

Police said large chains with a collar were found hanging from a wall in the house, which were wrapped around the girl's neck or leg to prevent her from reaching food. 

Miller told reporters: "She was extremely emaciated.

"She's been described as someone who looks like someone who had been in a concentration camp."

Miller said all three children exhibited signs of starvation, physical and emotional abuse, although it was the girl who appeared to have been the main target. 

He said she was immediately hospitalised for five days.

"(This is) one of those cases that sticks with you for some time," he said.

"When you've got over 30 years in the business, you've seen way too many of these types of things before... but this is, in terms of child abuse and neglect, this is toward the top."

The case was uncovered by authorities investigating why the children had missed several appointments.

The girl and the older boy were both adopted by the couple, who are domestic partners.

The younger boy is the biological son of one of the women.

All three children have now been taken into protective custody.

The accused have been arraigned in Monterey County Court and are scheduled for a preliminary hearing on March 28.

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Missing Plane: New Clues As Cyclone Threatens

The Chinese government has said it has located a large object in the sea after viewing satellite imagery.

During a news conference in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, Malaysian Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein was handed a piece of paper containing details of the apparent discovery.

The object is thought to be 42ft long (13m) and 74ft wide (22.5m) and was spotted somewhere in the southern search corridor in the Indian Ocean.

China's image was taken on March 18, two days after Australia's below

China said the object was captured by its high-definition earth observation satellite, Gaofen-1, and ships have been dispatched to the area.

The image was taken on March 18, two days after an Australian satellite located objects in the water. The China image shows the object is around 75 miles south of where Australia pinpointed two objects.

The Chinese location is just to the south of the patch of ocean being combed south and west of Australia.

During Saturday's search operation a civil aircraft reported sighting a number of small objects with the naked eye, including a wooden pallet, with a radius of three miles, according to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

A Royal New Zealand Air Force P3 Orion dropped a marker buoy to track the movement of the material and a merchant ship in the area has been relocated to try to identify the objects.

Relatives react angrily during a meeting with Malaysian officials in Beijng

But bad weather could affect the operation after a cyclone warning was declared for Tropical Cyclone Gillian, which is forecast to move into the southern search corridor.

Mr Hussein said: "Very strong winds and rough seas are expected there today.

Tropical Cyclone Gillian is expected to hit the Indian Ocean on Saturday

"In the area where possible objects were identified by Australian authorities, there are strong currents and rough seas. Generally, conditions in the southern corridor are very challenging."

Countries in the north search corridor, which includes China, India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Laos, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, said there had been no sightings of the aircraft on their radar.

It comes after angry scenes at a meeting in Beijing when Malaysian officials attempted to leave without answering questions on the search operation from relatives of the missing passengers.

One shouted: "You can't go. You can't leave here. We are here waiting for you 14 days. We want to know what happened, what the reality is."

Another said: "We don't even know if our family members are alive or dead. We should never let them treat us like this!"

Speaking at Peking University during a week-long visit to China, US First Lady Michelle Obama said the US was committed to offering as many resources to the search as possible.

She said: "Please know that we are keeping all of the families and loved ones of those on this flight in our thoughts and in our prayers at this very difficult time."

The plane disappeared on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing two weeks ago with 239 people on board, the majority of them from China.

Authorities face a race against time to locate the plane's black box voice and data recorder, which transmits an electronic signal only for 30 days before running out of battery power.

After that it will be much harder to locate the piece of equipment that is likely to hold the key to solving the mystery of what happened to the plane.

On Saturday, India said it had found no evidence the missing jet flew through its airspace after checking its radar records.

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