"WikiLeaks gave some 250,000 confidential and secret diplomatic cables to several news outlets, which published them Sunday. The leaks could prove embarrassing and potentially dangerous.
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Heavily armed operatives 'conquered' Complexo do Alemao in explosive confrontations that left at least 50 dead
More than two thousand heavily armed police operatives swept into Rio's most notorious shantytown today following a week of explosive confrontations that have left at least 50 people dead.
The operation, unprecedented in the city's history, began at around 8am and focused on the Complexo do Alemao, a gigantic network of slums that is the HQ of Rio's Red Command drug faction and houses around 70,000 impoverished residents.
According to police the favela had been 'conquered' by around 9.30am, with drug traffickers offering little resistance.
Gang members reportedly attempted to flee the 2,600 police and army operatives through the favela's sewage system or by disguising themselves as Bible-carrying evangelical preachers.
They left behind 'mansions' filled with wide-screen televisions, swimming pools and a sauna. In the home of Pezao, one of the area's top traffickers, police found a giant poster of the Canadian singer Justin Bieber.
Around 10 tonnes of marijuana were seized along with a small arsenal of assault rifles and a missile. At least three suspected drug traffickers died in confrontations with police operatives while several gang members handed themselves in at special 'surrender centres' that opened around the slum.
'This was the HQ, the fortress and the heart of the drug faction with the greatest firepower,' said Colonel Mario Sergio Duarte, the head of Rio's military police. 'We will continue chasing them wherever they are.'
In an interview with Brazilian TV, Rio's mayor, Eduardo Paes, said the operation represented 'virtually a re-foundation of this city'. He added: 'Rio will go back to being the marvellous city. There is still a lot of work to be done but today this city has taken a major step forwards.'
Among those arrested on Sunday was Zeu, a notorious Red Command trafficker who was behind the 2002 murder of the Brazilian journalist Tim Lopes.
Lopes, a reporter for Brazil's Globo television channel, was dismembered with a Samurai sword after being caught trying to film gang members selling drugs with a hidden camera. His body was burned in a so-called 'microwave', a makeshift crematorium made of car-tyres.
Rodrigo Oliveira, the head of civil police operations, said: 'The population of Rio can celebrate. But we do not pretend we will be able to pacify the Complexo do Alemao in two or three hours. The situation seems to be calm.'
The head of Rio's drug squad, Marcus Vinicius Braga, described the operation as 'worryingly calm' and suggested further confrontations were likely. 'We are winning, but we haven't won yet,' he said.
The week-long wave of violence that has rocked the 2016 Olympic city has shocked Brazil, with tourists from across the country reportedly cancelling holidays there. Samba schools cancelled their pre-carnival rehearsals and tens of thousands of students were unable to study.
Yesterday, the Pope sent a message of solidarity to Rio authorities and slum residents.
Rio's governor, Sergio Cabral, said the operation was an attempt to make up for '30 years of neglect' in the city's slums.
'We are recovering Rio de Janeiro from decades of ills, economic and social crises and political failure,' he said, vowing to promote a 'social' invasion of the newly conquered slum.
This afternoon Brazilian troops hoisted the country's green and yellow flag at the crest of the Complexo do Alemao.
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• England openers both score centuries
• Australia trail England by 88 runs
Given the circumstances that confronted them overnight, this was one of England's finest days in Australia in many years, perhaps one of their best ever. If there was a time when England, at Fortress Gabba, faced with the level of adversity after one innings each of this match, would have rolled over, then those days are gone. Expectation in the Australian camp has surely been replaced now by the realisation that in Andrew Strauss's team, they have a competitor which will scrap to the brink of its existence. There is nothing to fear now: no Shane Warne to torment them on a wearing pitch, no Glenn McGrath to dissect them with surgical precision.
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By the time the first innings deficit of 221 runs had been erased, Strauss, leading magnificently from the front, had made his first Test century in 25 innings since his 161 propelled England to victory against these same opponents at Lord's last year, and Alastair Cook was well on the way to the 14th of his career. It is, history tells us, 72 years since Charlie Barnett and Len Hutton each made centuries at Trent Bridge, the last England openers to do so in the same innings against Australia before yesterday
When Australia, seeking inspiration in their desperation, took the second new ball shortly after tea, they had claimed only the wicket of Strauss, stumped for 110, off the part-time spin of Marcus North, but that only after the captain and Cook, as a pair more prolific now in terms of aggregate runs, than the legends that were Hobbs and Sutcliffe, had added 188 for the first wicket, the highest England partnership for any wicket at the Gabba. Twice now Strauss has resurrected from a first innings nought to make a century, the last time, in Napier nearly three years ago, saving his career.
There was no respite for Australia with the new ball. Cook, mindful of his Essex mentor Graham Gooch, simply remarked his guard and continued, so that by the time bad light ended play with seven overs remaining he had reached 132, adding 121 unbroken for the second wicket with Jonathan Trott who had made 54. Australia looked flat, bereft of ideas, and glum when they trailed gratefully from the field. England, on 309 for one, had a lead of 88, by no means out of the woods but with the trees thinning at least.
There is little pace in the pitch and scant variation in bounce. There is plenty of rough but they possess no spinner of real quality to exploit it. Chances created during the day that might have turned things around were spurned: Strauss, when on 69, miscued a lofted drive over mid-off where Mitchell Johnson made a mess of it; Cook, in the first over with the second new ball, hooked Ben Hilfenhaus just on the half volley to a diving Peter Siddle at fine leg; and Trott, then on 34, laced a short ball from Siddle to Michael Clarke at deepish point, who, diving to his left, clutched the ball in his fingertips, only for it to jar out as his arm hit the ground. These are the pivotal moments that tend to go the way of a team when they are rampant and against them when they are down, a sort of cause and effect. And if there was one thing flatter than the pitch as the day wore on, then it was Ricky Ponting's team.
Strauss was inspirational. Four years ago, having begun the tour in an uncharacteristic blaze of strokeplay, he found the Australians with a plan. So at The Gabba, he was fed the bouncer and twice succumbed to the hook shot. Most teams would have seen this as a sign of weakness and offered an increased diet throughout the series. Instead, they deprived him, kept him waiting and waiting for four Tests, with a single short ball, from Brett Lee hitting him on the helmet. That was it. Precision bowling tormented him with the length full and the line straight: Strauss then did not have the game to counter that. It is different now. He still pounces ravenously on the square cut, fed to him more than was appropriate by the bowling yesterday, but now he has the capacity to drive down the ground and through extra cover rather than sliding the ball off an open face. By the time he charged North and misread the length (did the bowler see him coming?), he had hit 15 fours, playing the offside, the legside, so often the bread and butter for left handers,as Australia tried to avoid straying onto his pads.
Cook provides the counterpoint, for while Strauss is no thunderbat, Cook by contrast, ploughs his own steady unperturbed furrow. He is by nature and essence a Test match cricketer who understands the virtue of crease occupation and thus far he had stood solidly for almost seven monumentally patient hours. Until a spurt took him on to his century, reached with a typical square cut boundary, overs had near enough kept pace with him. He will get called a plodder with a single tempo. But he has bags of character and is moving better, more fluidly, into the ball than he has done for some while.
It is said that Cook has abandoned some of the coaching ideas that made him seem so wooden, and has returned to the set-up that brought him his early success. In which case it is good to know that a young man can have the clarity of thought and the courage of his convictions, to go against the grain. There was criticism of his selection from some quarters, who feared for the top order, but Andy Flower, happily back at The Gabba today, has always seen a batsman who could flourish on Australian pitches. This surely will not be the pinnacle of Cook's tour. He is not 26 years old until Christmas Day, and only Sachin Tendulkar, with 19, and Bradman, with 15, have made more Test centuries before that milestone. He has four more innings before then."
Northern Britain is hardest hit as the arrival of Arctic air causes temperatures to plummet. Now all of the UK is forecast to see snow by midweek
Snow storms and freezing winds caused chaos across Scotland, Northern Ireland and north-east England yesterday. Forecasters warned that the disruption and bitter conditions will spread across the rest of Britain later this week.
Falls of up to 14 inches of snow were reported yesterday, causing police in many areas to urge people to stay indoors. The AA said it had been called out to 16,000 breakdowns by the end of Friday. Yesterday, calls from motorists were pouring in at the rate of 900 an hour. 'On that basis we will probably exceed 12,000 by the end of the day, up 40% on a normal Saturday in November,' a spokesman said. 'There are lots of flat batteries and lots of people failing to get out of the driveway, and ice is causing a lot of problems.'
Two people were injured in a multiple vehicle pile-up on the M1 near Sheffield where snow has covered minor roads. All three lanes of the southbound carriageway between junctions 34 and 33, near the Tinsley viaduct at Sheffield, were closed while emergency services tended to the injured.
The East of England Ambulance Service also reported a spate of traffic accidents, with cars skidding into ditches, lampposts, fences and fields, while Northumbria police urged motorists to stay off the roads.
The Met Office said the earliest widespread snowfall for 17 years has been caused by high pressure over Greenland and low pressure in the Baltic region, forcing cold winds across Europe. High-altitude jet streams had also moved south allowing a mass of Arctic air to move south over the British Isles.
Forecasters warned that heavy snow is likely to spread to other parts of Britain in the next two days with southern England likely to experience falls today or Monday.
'By Tuesday and Wednesday the snow and freezing weather will have spread across most of central and southern England,' said Met Office forecaster Tom Morgan. 'There will be few places in the British Isles that will escape.'
London could see snow and temperatures that could drop to –2C this week, he added. Temperatures in most other areas will reach –3 or –4C, even in major cities, while in some rural areas they will drop to below –10C.
Trawscoed in Powys saw the mercury dip to –10.2C on Friday, while Dalwhinnie in the Highlands recorded –8.2C and Glasgow –3.5C. In England, Chesham in Buckinghamshire was among the coldest places at –7C, and at Preston in Lancashire the temperature fell to –5.8C.
Flights at some airports were delayed or diverted yesterday. And although Scotland and north-east England experienced the worst of the weather, the Met Office reported that snow was drifting across Wales and the south-west. The M4 westbound in south Wales saw a 26-mile tailback.
The RSPCA urged pet owners to keep dogs away from lakes and ponds which may have iced over and to avoid shutting cats out of houses for long periods. 'Winter can be hard for wildlife and every year the RSPCA rescues lots of animals which are dehydrated, hungry and cold,' said RSPCA wildlife scientist Sophie Adwick.
Yesterday's horseracing at Newcastle was cancelled after almost seven inches of snow fell on Gosforth Park overnight, as was the meeting at Towcester, Northamptonshire. Today's events at Leicester and Carlisle have also been called off.
Meanwhile, Thames Water has offered its meter readers and maintenance engineers the use of 'anti-skate overshoes' to prevent slips. The shoes are normally used by people who work in ice houses or maintain ice rinks and have studs on the sole that bite into the ice.
Maintenance engineer Pete Cotton said: 'It's icy out there, which causes more burst pipes – and you can't fix pipes if you're floundering around like Bambi on ice.' "
North Korea says if US deploys nuclear carrier in Yellow Sea 'no one can predict the consequences'As US and South Korean forces prepared for joint war games in the Yellow Sea today, North Korea threatened further attacks and accused its neighbour of using civilians as 'human shields'.
The developments deepened fears of serious armed conflict in the region, which is undergoing its greatest period of tension since the 1950-53 Korean war. Using typically bellicose language, a state-run website in the North warned that the military exercises would be an 'unpardonable provocation' and that it would create a 'sea of fire' if any of its own territory was violated.
At the same time the North Korean state news agency accused the South of causing casualties by using civilians as shields around military installations on the island of Yeonpyeong, where Northern artillery fire killed two South Korean marines and two civilians last week.
'Responsibility lies in enemies' inhumane action of creating a 'human shield' by deploying civilians around artillery positions,' the agency said, blaming the US for creating a 'propaganda campaign' against it. Such accusations by the North are a common feature of the periodic crises that flare up on the Korean peninsula, but there seems little doubt the current situation is gravely serious. This time the public mood in the South appears to have turned away from placating its unpredictable neighbour in favour of a more punishing policy.
At a funeral yesterday for the marines killed on Yeonpyeong, the South Korean military commander, Major-General You Nak-jun, laid flowers at an altar and vowed that his country would retaliate if there was a further attack from the North. 'Our marine corps ... will carry out a hundred – or thousand-fold…' in retaliation, he said at the ceremony. 'We will put our feelings of rage and animosity in our bones and take our revenge on North Korea,' he added.
At the same time protesters in Seoul took to the streets demanding a tougher response. They included a demonstration by some 70 former special forces troops who donned white headbands and confronted riot police with wooden batons and fire extinguishers in front of the defence ministry. Elsewhere 1,000 marine veterans burned photographs of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and chanted slogans urging action. 'Time for retaliation. Let's hit the presidential palace in Pyongyang,' they shouted.
The crisis has already cost the South Korean defence minister, Kim Tae-young, his job amid accusations that the response to North Korea's initial attack had been too weak. Now the South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, has sent 4,000 troops as reinforcements to Yeonpyeong and other nearby islands with extra weapons and new rules of engagement that give them greater scope to respond if attacked.
The world's diplomatic corps is working feverishly to contain the crisis and make sure there is no further conflict. China, which is widely seen as having influence over the North, has held talks with the US between its foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, and the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. 'The pressing task now is to put the situation under control,' the Chinese foreign ministry quoted Yang as telling Clinton.
Meanwhile the US stressed that its military operation with the South – which includes deployment of a nuclear-armed aircraft carrier – was not intended to provoke the North. Yet the North's news agency addressed that issue: 'If the US brings its carrier to the West Sea of Korea [Yellow Sea] at last, no one can predict the ensuing consequences.'
The crisis has special resonance due to the delicate nature of politics in the secretive North. The country is undergoing a mostly opaque transition of power from the elder Kim to his son Kim Jong-un, who is only in his 20s. It also comes just after the North unexpectedly revealed a new, apparently ultra-modern uranium enrichment facility that could improve its ability to add to its nuclear weapons capability."
 CTV.ca | Fiery cargo plane crash kills 9 in Pakistani city Forbes KARACHI, Pakistan -- A cargo plane crashed in flames into a residential area in Pakistan's largest city soon after takeoff Sunday, killing all eight Russian crew and at least one person on the ground, |
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