Mexico missing student 'identified' from remains

Ezequiel Mora attended a vigil for his son, Alexander, after his remains were identified

At least one of 43 Mexican students who went missing in Guerrero state has been identified from charred remains, an official says.

A family member of one of the students, Alexander Mora, confirmed that the remains identified were his.

The relative said the family had received the information from a team of forensic experts.

The students were allegedly seized by local police in the town of Iguala in September and given to a criminal gang.

Prosecutors say the gang killed them and burned their bodies at a rubbish dump near the town of Cocula before scattered their ashes in a river.

The students' disappearance has triggered widespread protests across Mexico against corruption and violence.

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Will Grant on reports that DNA of one of the missing 43 students has been discovered in a rubbish dump

Another demonstration was held on Saturday in Mexico City at which parents of students spoke about the identification.

"If [the government] thinks that, because one of our boys' DNA was identified, we will sit and cry, we want to tell them that they're wrong," Felipe de la Cruz, father of a missing student, told the crowd.

"We will keep fighting until we find the other 42."

Reforms

The unrest has seen President Enrique Pena Nieto's popularity rating drop to its lowest point since he took office two years ago.

In response, he has submitted a package of reforms to Congress that include replacing all 1,800 municipal police forces with state-level units.

Demonstrators in Mexico City demanded justice for Alexander Mora and the other 42 missing students

The students are said to have been taken to this rubbish tip outside Cocula

The students had travelled from a teacher training college in Ayotzinapa to Iguala to protest against what they said were discriminatory employment practices for teachers which favour urban students over rural ones.

Police opened fire on the students, who were in buses travelling back from Iguala to their college. Three of them were killed and three more people in nearby vehicles also died.

A busload of the students tried to flee but were chased by municipal officers who then took them to the local police station.

Some of the officers, who have since been arrested, told investigators they then handed the students over to a drug gang called Guerreros Unidos (United Warriors).

Iguala Mayor Jose Luis Abarca and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda were arrested in the beginning of November in Mexico City.

Mexican officials accused Mr Abarca of ordering police to confront the students to prevent them from disrupting a public speech given by his wife.

More than 70 other people have been arrested in connection with the disappearances.

MORE INFO:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-30365680

Dutch Prince Friso dies after year in coma

Prince Friso's wife Princess Mabel spent her birthday at his bedside on Sunday, Dutch media said

Dutch Prince Johan Friso has died after a year and a half in a coma following an accident at an Austrian ski resort, officials say.

Prince Friso, who was 44, was moved from hospital in London back to the Netherlands last month, but had since suffered complications.

He was hit by an avalanche in February 2012 and buried for 15 minutes.

King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima are said to be on their way home from a holiday in Greece.

"Prince Friso has died of complications related to the hypoxic brain injury, which he suffered as the result of his skiing accident in Lech, Austria on 17 February 2012," a royal palace statement said.

He died on Monday morning in The Hague, the palace added.

The prince's wife, Princess Mabel, is said to have spent her 45th birthday on Sunday at his bedside.

'Massive' brain damage

Shortly before becoming king on the abdication of Queen Beatrix, his elder brother, Willem-Alexander spoke in April of the "terrible situation" the family had lived with for more than a year.

Prince Friso's wife and Beatrix had been doing their best to be there for him every day "to give him a chance", he said.

The prince had been skiing off-piste with friends in Lech when the avalanche struck.

An emergency beeper he was wearing enabled rescuers to find him but medical officials in Innsbruck said it took some time to revive him and he suffered "massive" brain damage. They said he had suffered a heart attack lasting some 50 minutes.

He was later flown to London for treatment at the private Wellington Hospital, which has a specialist neurological unit.

MORE INFO:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-23669317

Heathrow plane in near miss with drone

An unidentified drone came close to hitting a plane as it landed at Heathrow, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has confirmed.

An Airbus A320 pilot reported seeing a helicopter-style drone as the jet was 700 feet off the ground on its approach to the runway at 1416 GMT on 22 July.

The CAA has not identified the airline or how close the drone came to the plane, which can carry 180 people.

It gave the incident an "A" rating, meaning a "serious risk of collision".

This is the highest incident rating the CAA can give.

Investigators were unable to identify the drone, which did not appear on air traffic control radar and disappeared after the encounter.

Crash warning

In May the pilot of an ATR 72 turbo-prop plane reported seeing a helicopter drone only 80 feet away as he approached Southend airport at a height of 1,500 feet.

The incidents have prompted a warning from the British Airline Pilots' Association (Balpa) that the rapid increase in the number of drones operated by amateur enthusiasts now poses "a real risk" to commercial aircraft.

The association's general secretary, Jim McAuslan said drones could cause a repeat of the "Hudson River experience", when a plane was forced to land in water in New York in 2009 after birds were sucked into its engines.

"The risk of a 10 kilogram object hitting a plane is a real one that pilots are very concerned about" he said.

"A small drone could be a risky distraction for a pilot coming into land and cause serious damage if they hit one."

The CAA said it had to depend on people using their common sense when they operated drones

Sales of drones have increased rapidly, with UK sales running at a rate of between 1,000 and 2,000 every month.

They are expected to be very popular as Christmas presents.

They cost as little as £35 for a smaller model - more advanced drones capable of carrying a high definition camera and travelling at 45 miles per hour cost almost £3,000.

Only a very small minority of people operating drones have attended training courses in how to fly them.

'Common sense'

A spokesman for the CAA said it had to depend on people using their common sense when they operated drones.

He said the current level of risk should be "kept in perspective" but warned that breaking laws governing the use of drones could potentially threaten commercial aircraft.

"People using unmanned aircraft need to think, use common sense and take responsibility for them", he said.

"There are rules which have the force of law and have to be followed."

Drones may not be flown higher than 400 feet or further than 500 metres from the operator, and they must not go within 50 metres of people, vehicles or buildings.

There are exclusion zones around airports and the approaches to them for drones weighing more than seven kilograms.

Mr McAuslan said there was an urgent need for rules to be tightened before much larger unmanned cargo planes - potentially the size of a Boeing 737 - took to the skies.

MORE INFO:http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-30369701

Israeli jets 'strike near Damascus' - Syrian state TV

Israeli jets have launched several air strikes on Syria since the uprising began in 2011

Israel has been accused of carrying out two air strikes on Syria near the capital Damascus, according to Syrian and Lebanese television reports.

Israeli planes bombed the area near Damascus international airport and the town of Dimas, media reports said. Residents said they heard explosions.

No casualties were reported. There has been no confirmation of the air strikes from Israel.

Israel has conducted several air strikes on Syria since 2011.

Syrian state TV said the "Israeli enemy" had carried out "trespassing aggression" with the two air strikes.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the Syrian conflict, said that 10 explosions were heard near Dimas.

However, Israel's military has said it does not comment on "foreign reports".

The Israeli air force has conducted several attacks on Syria since the Syrian uprising began in March 2011.

Many previous air strikes are thought to have targeted weapons being transported to the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Israeli military has also attacked Syrian military sites in retaliation for attacks on the occupied Golan Heights.

Israel seized the region from Syria in the closing stages of the 1967 Middle East War, and thwarted a Syrian attempt to retake it in 1973.

The two countries remain technically in a state of war, and UN observers are deployed to monitor a 70km-long (44-mile) demilitarised zone.

MORE INFO:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-30370670

Xi cages big tiger in anti-corruption drive

Few will shed tears over the arrest of former Chinese security chief Zhou Yongkang

There were some who doubted that Xi Jinping had the nerve or the power to push this to a criminal trial.

China's president has answered them - and fast. A little over four months from the announcement of the party's internal investigation into Zhou Yongkang to criminal proceedings now.

Only this week, President Barack Obama was telling business leaders in Washington that Xi Jinping had consolidated power faster than any Chinese leader since Deng Xiaoping three decades ago. The arrest of Zhou Yongkang is another demonstration of how comprehensively Xi has taken control at the top of the party.

As the man who once led China's enormous internal security apparatus, Mr Zhou was long seen as invulnerable. But he will now become the most senior official in China's communist history to face criminal charges in a corruption case.

Trial and almost certain conviction will follow. And the process will be carefully managed to encourage the public to focus on the party's current efforts to tackle corruption rather than its past willingness to let abuses of power thrive.

Many political observers feel that President Xi's predecessors wasted a decade, that urgent reforms were paralysed because of resistance from vested interests at the very top of the party.

Mr Xi seems to agree. Since taking power in 2012, he has been determined to concentrate much more power in his own hands, to drive his own policy agenda and to discipline his opponents. An anti-corruption drive has served all these objectives, conveniently boosting his public popularity in the process.

President Xi Jinping says he will go after "the tigers and the flies"

All China's recent leaders have agreed that curing corruption is life and death for the party, but Xi Jinping's campaign is the most significant effort to tackle it.

Sixty-five years ago, many Chinese welcomed the Communist Party because they saw it as less corrupt and more committed to social justice than the Nationalist government that went before. Now China is one of the most unequal societies in the world and the party is widely reviled as a machine for the self-enrichment of those who control it.

Xi Jinping has embarked upon a personal mission to rebuild a Communist Party fit to rule in the 21st Century.

He has promised zero tolerance of corruption among party officials, warning that he is going after "both the tigers and the flies", villains from the top to the bottom of the system. Arresting Zhou Yongkang is caging the biggest tiger.

But many key institutions have seen top officials arrested, including the People's Liberation Army, the giant energy companies and the state broadcaster CCTV.

In some provinces, whole layers of the government and party apparatus are under investigation. Over the past week, state media have given prominent coverage to the so called "fox hunt", an attempt to bring corrupt individuals back from abroad.

President Xi is trying to make the Communist Party fit to rule in the modern world

The campaign is spreading fear. The suicide rate for officials has spiked this year. With various forms of corruption so deeply embedded in the way the government does business, almost anyone can become a potential target.

And despite another of President Xi's favourite themes, the rule of law, other rules clearly take precedence over judicial process. Neither Zhou Yongkang nor any of those associated with him have been seen in the past year. They simply disappeared. So it is with hundreds of others. The anti-corruption campaign is being run by the party's internal investigation unit. It is warning of a wave of new arrests to come.

Some doubt whether this approach can work in the long run. The Berlin-based group Transparency International, which compiles a global corruption ranking, notes that perceptions of corruption have worsened this year despite the high profile eradication campaign. It says China needs permanent and systematic changes including better whistle-blower protection and freedom of the press.

And while fear and austerity rule, is it any wonder that of those who initially applied for government jobs in 2014, more than 500,000 chose not to attend the admission exam?

"Serve the people" is their motto, but without bribes or gifts and with the ever present threat of investigation and arrest, serving the people is becoming less lucrative and more dangerous.

As for Zhou Yongkang, few will shed tears over his arrest. He was a much hated figure even by the standards of China's unloved security chiefs. Some even see a measure of justice that he is now the victim of the Orwellian system he once controlled.

MORE INFO:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30358060Article written by Carrie Gracie

Typhoon Hagupit sweeps across Philippines

Typhoon Hagupit is sweeping across the Philippines, toppling trees and power lines and threatening areas with heavy rain, flooding and mudslides.

About a million people have fled their homes for shelter. The storm has killed at least three people, officials say.

In Tacloban, where thousands were killed by typhoon Haiyan last year, roofs have been blown away and streets are flooded.

But Hagupit does not appear to have been as severe as many had feared.

Hagupit, known locally as Ruby, weakened on Sunday as it continued to move slowly across the Philippines.

It was packing maximum sustained winds of 140km/h (90mph) and gusts of 170km/h (105 mph) at 17:00 local time (0900 GMT), government forecaster Pagasa said.

The BBC's Jonathan Head in Legazpi, about 200km (125 miles) north of Tacloban, said Hagupit was clearly a powerful storm but nowhere near as powerful as Haiyan.

The authorities believed they were well prepared this time, he adds, but it could be some time before the extent of damage in more remote areas becomes clear.

Correspondents say the Philippines has undergone its largest peacetime evacuation in history.

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Typhoon Hagupit slow to clear

Homes destroyed

Officials say at least three people have been killed by Hagupit. One person was killed by a falling tree in the eastern town of Dolores.

Another two people in the central province of Iloilo reportedly died from hypothermia.

"The devastation in homes is huge because of the strong winds," Philippine Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas told local radio DzBB.

"Many people voluntarily returned to evacuate centres tonight... because they do not have homes anymore."

The BBC's Maria Byrne in Tacloban sent this image of people beginning to clear up along the seafront on Sunday morning

The government has warned residents in low-lying and mountainous areas to be alert to possible flash floods and landslides, while those on the coast were warned of the risk of big waves associated with storm surges.

Soldiers have been deployed to major roads along the typhoon's path, to clear debris from roads and prevent looting.

Joey Salceda, governor of Albay province where Legazpi is situated, told the BBC that the main lesson from Typhoon Haiyan had been to prepare well and to evacuate people from vulnerable areas.

"It doesn't happen overnight so you need to train people. I feel confident we can achieve our zero casualty goal," he said.

High winds sent waves crashing into the coast at Legazpi

Though trees were brought down in Legazpi the city appeared to have escaped extensive damage

Joey Salceda, governor of Albay province, says widespread evacuation has been vital

At the scene: Saira Asher, BBC News, Legazpi

The main cities that have so far been in the path of Typhoon Hagupit look to have avoided major damage. But Northern and Eastern Samar are the big worry now, with many small communities that are isolated.

The Philippines Red Cross says their teams are trying to get into some of these areas, but floods or fallen trees blocking roads mean they are unreachable.

Until rescue teams can get to the isolated communities, we will not know the extent of the damage or the loss of life.

Hagupit is a slow-moving typhoon which means a higher risk of prolonged rain that can cause flooding and mudslides. While we may not be seeing the scenes of mass devastation we saw after Typhoon Haiyan, there is still cause for concern.

The typhoon first made landfall in the Philippines on Saturday.

It is expected to cross Sibuyan island in the early hours of Monday. According to forecaster Pagasa, it is expected to leave Philippine territory on Thursday morning.

In Borongan city, north-east of Tacloban, buildings were brought down by the strong winds

Maulid Warfa, the head of Unicef's field office in Tacloban, said their five-storey concrete building was shaking under the force of the storm.

Speaking early on Sunday he said: "We're in this dark building and it's raining heavily and there's no electricity and we are using candles.

"We have a generator... but because of the rain and the flood and power problems we have switched it off. It's too dangerous."

Mr Warfa added: "Our concern now is not us sitting in this building. Our concern is for the little children who have had to go through this experience for the second time in 13 months."

About 19,000 people from coastal villages are in 26 evacuation centres, Tacloban's disaster office spokesman Ilderando Bernadas told Reuters.

Haiyan - known as Yolanda in the Philippines - was the most powerful typhoon ever recorded over land. It tore through the central Philippines in November 2013, leaving more INFO:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30365721

Kenya breaks 'Chinese-run cyber crime network'

China has promised to help with investigations

Kenyan police say they have cracked a cyber crime centre run by 77 Chinese nationals from upmarket homes in the capital, Nairobi.

Police believe they were involved in hacking and money laundering. The group has been remanded in custody for five days to allow for further investigations.

The foreign ministry summoned a Chinese diplomat to discuss the arrests.

A Chinese official said the embassy was co-operating with investigations.

It was checking the passports of the suspects to see whether they were, in fact, Chinese nationals, the official told the BBC on condition of anonymity.

'Military-style dormitories'

Police raids were triggered by a fire on Sunday at a home in Nairobi's Rhunda estate in which one person died.

"Preliminary findings show the fire was caused by one of the servers they were illegally operating," the director of Kenya's Criminal Investigations Department, Ndegwa Muhoro, told the privately owned Standard newspaper.

Numerous telephone headsets, computers linked to high-speed internet and monitors were found.

"The suspects are being interrogated to establish their mission in the country and what they wanted to do with the communication gadgets," Mr Muhoro is quoted by AFP news agency as saying.

The charges against the 77 so far include "being in the country illegally and operating radio equipment" without the necessary permits, AFP quotes an unnamed source as saying.

The suspects had been living in "military-style dormitories", and Chinese officials were shocked by the revelations, the Standard reports.

The group had been preparing to "raid the country's communication systems" and had equipment capable of infiltrating bank accounts, Kenya's M-Pesa mobile banking system and ATM machines, according to Kenya's privately owned Daily Nation newspaper.

Kenya's Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed summoned China's ambassador on Wednesday and "made it clear that the Chinese government should fully cooperate on this matter," Fred Matiang'i, the communications minister, said.

"China promised to send investigators to work with ours on this matter," he added.

The BBC's Paul Nabiswa in Nairobi says the raids come at a time when many Chinese companies are investing heavily in Kenya, especially in the construction industry.

The Kenyan government has signed many bilateral agreements with China and Chinese nationals have roles in government programmes, including in higher education institutions, he says.

MORE INFO:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30327412