Good Samaritan bled to death on New York street as 25 pedestrians ignored him for more than an HOUR .Cruel city to live in.

Ignored: At least 25 people walked past Hugo Tale-Yax as he lay bleeding to death on a New York pavement. He was knifed after intervening to stop a man attacking a woman

One passerby stops and shakes the wounded man, but fails to call the emergency services

CCTV shows a man approaching the woman who he went on to attack

After getting involved, Mr Tale-Yax is knifed in the chest but gives chase. But he then staggers and collapses on the pavement.

Blood oozing from his body, this is the homeless man who more than 20 people ignored for nearly an hour as he lay on a New York street after saving a woman from being mugged.

CCTV footage of Guatemalan immigrant Hugo Tale-Yax, 31, shows pedestrians walking past the stricken man.

Some turn their heads to look, others stop to gawk. One even lifts his body, exposing what appears to be blood on the pavement underneath him, before walking away.
His death has prompted New Yorkers to question whether their city has become more heartless.

'Is anybody human anymore?' asked Raechelle Groce, visiting her grandmother who lives in flat near where Mr Tale-Yax died. 'What's wrong with humanity?'

'I just think that's horrible, whether you're homeless or not. He's a human being; he needs help.'

CCTV footage, before the Guatemalan intervenes, shows a woman walking along the pavement in the Queens district of the city, when a man approaches her from behind.

As she is attacked by the man, Mr Tale-Yax goes to her aid.

Cameras then capture the attacker fleeing, followed seconds later by the victim who stumbles on the pavement and falls.He lies fatally injured, face down, after being stabbed several times in the chest with a knife.

South Korean becomes first woman to climb world's 14 highest mountains

Top of the world: Oh Eun Sun, 44, celebrates on South Korean television after reaching the top of Mount Annapurna in Nepal

Achievement: Miss Oh has become the first woman to climb all 14 of the world's mountains higher than 8,000m

Record: The climber had to turn back hundreds of yards from the top of Annapurna in a previous climb after bad weather and high winds

A South Korean mountaineer became the first woman to scale the world's 14 highest mountains, officials have said.

Oh Eun Sun, 44, was captured on live television as she reached the summit of Mt Annapurna in the Himalayas to claim the record.

But her closest rival, Edurne Pasaban of Spain, has accused her of cheating by failing to reach the highest point on one of her climbs.
Miss Oh crawled on all fours to reach the summit of Mt Annapurna yesterday, before pulling out a South Korean flag and shouting 'victory!'

Officials said the mountain was the last of the 14 peaks above 26,247ft (8,000m) she needed to climb to set the mark.

She reached the summit - 26,545ft above sea level - 13 years after she scaled her first Himalayan mountain, Gasherbrum II, in 1997. She scaled Everest in 2004.

Footage on KBS showed her breathing heavily after each step in -29C temperatures at the top of the mountain.

She said after reaching the top: 'I'm so happy, and I would like to share this joy with the South Korean people. Thank you, thank you.'

Israel 'quietly halts construction of controversial settlements in East Jerusalem after pressure from US'

Diplomatic spat: Benjamin Netanyahu meets with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden last month after Barack Obama refused to be photographed with the Israeli Prime Minister

Halted: Israel is thought to has suspended plans to build more Jewish homes on land such as The compound known as the Shepherd's Hotel in East Jerusalem

Israel has quietly halted construction of controversial settlements in East Jerusalem at the behest of America, it has been claimed.

Settlement building in the contested Israeli capital caused a diplomatic spat last month when plans for new erections were unveiled during a trip to the country by US Vice President Joe Biden.

The announcement caused a fall-out between the two countries and led President Obama to 'snub' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a return visit to Washington.
Mr Netanyahu struggled to defend himself during the furore but insisted that the settlement construction plans would not be stopped by America's outraged response.

However, a leading member on the city's council said a 'de facto' freeze was now in effect.

Meir Margalit, an opposition member of the Jerusalem City Council, said: 'The government ordered the Interior Ministry immediately after the Biden incident to not even talk about new construction for Jewish homes in east Jerusalem.

'It's not just that building has stopped: The committees that deal with this are not even meeting anymore.'
I know there are several projects of Jewish buildings in East Jerusalem and the committee told them wait for better timing. De facto, not one project of settlers in East Jerusalem has been approved or come for approval to the committee,' he said.

Mr Netanyahu and Nir Barkat, the Mayor of Jerusalem, denied that construction had been put on hold.

The Prime Minister has repeatedly vowed that Jerusalem will remain 'the eternal undivided capital of the Jewish people under Israeli sovereignty' and says President Obama is interfering in a domestic planning issue.

He said a freeze singling out housing for Israelis in East Jerusalem would be against Israeli law.
'It’s illegal in the United States, it’s illegal in Europe and it’s illegal in Israel. Therefore, it’s a straight no.

'The same rules for Jews and Arabs apply in all the city of Jerusalem. It’s a free market. They can buy and sell as long as they obey the law,' he said.

Mayor Nir Barkat said that he was pushing ahead with a master plan to increase the population of Jerusalem, both Israeli and Arab, from its current 800,000 to a million in the next 20 years.

He said he had not been asked to freeze any plans for Jewish housing in East Jerusalem and, if asked, he would refuse to do so.

East Jerusalem was captured by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War but is seen by Palestinians as the capital of their future state.

It is now home to about 250,000 Palestinians and some 300,000 Israelis.

Palestinians are insisting on a complete freeze on Israeli development across the pre-1967 border before they will agree to indirect peace talks brokered by the United States.

It became a major issue when plans for a new housing development in Ramat Shlomo, an ultra-orthodox area in what used to be no man’s land, was announced in the middle of Vice-President Biden's trip in March.

An engineer who oversees residential construction in a Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem said requests for proposals to build hundreds of apartments haven't gone out.

'I think it's related to the political situation,' he said, adding that he knew of no official order to block construction.

Clinton urges Iraq to form new government quickly-50 electoral candidate were suspended hampering election results amid factional squabbling.

 

Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law party won 89 seats in the Iraqi elections

 
Iyad Allawi's secular coalition narrowly won the March 7 vote


 
Iraq has suspended more than 50 electoral candidates.


US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday urged Iraqi leaders to resolve rows over the March elections and form a new government quickly, as more winning candidates risked being disqualified.

With a major US troop drawdown set for August hanging in the balance, Clinton amplified concerns among US officials over Iraq's long drawn-out effort to finalize the election results amid factional squabbling.

A judicial panel was set to rule Wednesday on the fate of nine other election-winning candidates who stand to be disqualified in a process that has thrown formation of the government into disarray.

On Monday, the panel eliminated at least one winning candidate and around 50 others who failed to secure parliamentary seats, drawing anger from former premier Iyad Allawi whose secular coalition narrowly won the March 7 vote.

One of those disqualified was a winning candidate from Allawi's Iraqiya bloc, which has alleged that it is being targeted by officials and religious parties who do not want him to obtain power.

White House apology after Obama adviser makes 'Jewish merchant' joke to room full of Jews

To be funny, or not to be funny: National Security Adviser James Jones, shown here in 2004 in his role as Nato Supreme Allied Commander

WHAT WAS THE JOKE?

The lost Taliban fighter had been wandering the desert searching for water when he came across the Jewish merchant's shop, Mr Jones explained.

When he asked for water, the merchant said he had none - but offered to sell the Taliban a tie.

The Taliban launched into a stream of curses, at the end of which the Jewish merchant told him that over the hill was a restaurant where he could find water.

Still muttering, the Taliban headed off towards the hill. An hour later, he was back at the shop.

He said: 'Your brother says I need a tie to get into the restaurant.'


The White House has been forced to issue an apology after an adviser to Barack Obama caused a furore with a Jewish merchants joke.

National Security adviser Jim Jones was speaking to the pro-Israeli think tank Washington Insitute for Near East Policy when he made the joke about a Jewish merchant and a Taliban fighter.

The joke was met with laughter as General Jones, a former Nato Supreme Allied Commander, delivered it at the gala celebrating the 25th anniversary of the think tank yesterday.
But not everyone in the audience found it funny - in particular one anonymous audience member who happened to be a member of the Anti-Defamation League, an international non-governmental organisation that protects against anti-Semitism.

The League complained and the White House did not include the joke in its official transcript of the event.

Iraq election turmoil as panel invalidates votes

A policeman stands guard at a checkpoint at the entrance to Sadr City, northeastern Baghdad, April 24, 2010.

A review panel on Monday invalidated votes cast for 52 candidates in Iraq's election, throwing into doubt the slim lead of a Sunni-backed alliance and setting the stage for a possible spike in sectarian violence.

Electoral officials and politicians said Monday's decision may not alter the final outcome of the election, but a more significant ruling was expected on Tuesday, when the panel considers the fate of six to nine winning candidates.

The developments could raise tensions at a vulnerable time, with Iraq adrift in a political vacuum almost two months after the inconclusive March 7 vote, and U.S. troops preparing to end combat operations in August ahead of a full withdrawal by 2011.

British ambassador escapes with his life after Al Qaeda suicide bomber attacks his armoured car

Tim Torlot, the British ambassador to Yemen, was targeted by a suicide bomber as he went to work

Yemeni forces secure the scene in the country's capital shortly after the suicide bombing

Yemeni officials carry out their examination of the blast scene

The British ambassador to Yemen narrowly escaped death yesterday after an Al Qaeda suicide bomber targeted his car.

Tim Torlot was travelling in a convoy through a suburb of the capital Sanaa when a man, dressed as a schoolboy and wearing an explosive vest, blew himself up.

The 52-year-old diplomat, pictured, was in an armoured car and despite the blast being triggered alongside, it suffered little damage and was able to speed away.

Officials said the bomber died and a bystander suffered shrapnel wounds. Two security officials travelling in the motorcade were also injured.

The British embassy, which has been targeted before, was immediately closed indefinitely and security surrounding UK diplomats was under review last night. UK

citizens in Yemen were advised to keep a low profile amid concerns about how Al Qaeda had known the route Mr Torlot would be taking after an early morning meeting.

Yemen’s interior ministry said the attack ‘bore the hallmarks of Al Qaeda’ and the bomber had been dressed in the sports uniform of a schoolboy as part of his disguise.

Chilling video that shows failed Christmas Day bomber training with Al Qaeda in Yemen .Seen failed airline underwear bomber

Learning to kill with Al Qaeda: The man believed to be Umar Farouk Abdulmultallab shoulders a gun with other members of his training class in Yemen in the new video footage

Another unidentified militant braces his gun on his feet as he practices shooting up in to the air at aircraft

Christmas Day airline bomb suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has been shown on a video training with Al Qaeda in Yemen.

The video, obtained and broadcast yesterday by ABC World News, shows the 23-year-old Nigerian firing weapons and speaking in Arabic about the impending attack in Detroit, Michigan.

He is shown reading from the Koran and saying: 'God said those who punish you must be punished.'
A U.S. intelligence official said last night that the preliminary judgement was that it was Abdulmutallab in the video and the footage was consistent with the understanding that he was in training.

Widespread torture at secret Baghdad prison revealed by human rights group

PRISONERS held in a secret Baghdad jail suffered a variety of tortures from electric shocks to sodomy, according to a report released today by the Human Rights Watch organisation.

The group is calling for Iraq to investigate and prosecute those government and security officials found to be responsible.

Human Rights Watch, a worldwide organisation that strives to shine the light on such abuse, interviewed 42 of the men in the al Rusafa Detention Centre on April 26, 2010.

They were among about 300 detainees transferred from the secret facility in the old Muthanna airport in West Baghdad to al Rusafa over the past several weeks, after the existence of the secret prison was revealed.

Those held were allegedly hung upside-down, deprived of air, kicked, whipped, beaten, given electric shocks, and sodomized.

'We've found Noah's Ark!'... claim evangelical explorers on mission to snow-capped Ararat (but British scientists say 'show us your evidence')

The snow-capped peak of Mt. Ararat. The discovery is said to have been made 12,000ft up the mountain which lies in eastern Turkey

Wooden beams which the explorers said they found at the site. The search for the physical remains of Noah's Ark has held a fascination for Christians, Jews and Muslims for hundreds of years. But despite various claims no scientific evidence has ever been found

This picture released by the evangelical group claims to show one of the explorers examining part of a structure which they claim might prove the existence of Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat. There are no external images of the site and the Hong Kong-based group refuse to say precisely where they made their discovery until the Turkish government designate it an archaeological site

This photo, also put out by the evangelical group, is said to show part of a wall inside the structure found by the explorers. One of the team said: 'It's not 100 per cent that it is Noah's Ark but we think it is 99.9 per cent that this is it'

In 2006, U.S. national security analyst Porcher Taylor claimed this satellite image revealed a baffling 'anomaly' on the mountain's north-west corner that he believed to be the remains of the Ark

As believers in the literal truth of the Bible, they knew it was there.

Even so, the explorers who say they found seven large wooden compartments beneath snow and volcanic debris near the peak of Mount Ararat can be forgiven their excitement.

'It's not 100 per cent that it is Noah's Ark, but we think it is 99.9 per cent that this is it,' said Yeung Wing-cheung, a filmmaker working with the 15-strong team of fundamentalist Christians exploring the Turkish mountain.They said wood taken from the site, which is more than 13,000ft above sea level, dates to 2,800BC. If it is the ark, the discovery would be the greatest in the history of archaeology and bear out one of the most famous stories in the Bible.

The team of Turks and Chinese researchers from Noah's Ark Ministries International in Hong Kong say they made the discovery on Ararat - the biblical resting place of the ark - in October.

Bullfight audience asked to give blood to gored Spanish matador... who needed 17-pint transfusion

Stricken: The popular matador needed 17 pints of blood and doctors operated at the bullring without anaesthetic

Critical: Spanish matador Jose Tomas is gored in the groin during a national fair in Aguascalientes, Mexico

Transfusion: Doctors asked members of the crowd to donate A type blood to help Mr Tomas

One of Spain's leading matadors was seriously injured in Mexico when a one ton bull gored him in the groin and hurled him into the air, his manager said yesterday.

Jose Tomas received an emergency transfusion of 17 pints of blood after he was gored by a bull named Navegante in the Mexican city of Aguascalientes.

The bull's horn punctured a vein and an artery, manager Salvador Boix told Spanish radio station Cadena Ser.
Mr Tomas, one of Spain's most popular matadors, has a relatively rare blood type - A - and bled so heavily that bullring officials appealed over the arena loudspeakers for compatible donors.

Devastating fire turns Philippine shanty town into towering inferno.Fulled by strong winds and liquid petroluem stores.Thousands homeless.

Control: The blaze began around 3pm local time

Billowing: Acrid smoke covers the residential area of Manila

Destruction: A fireman attempts to battle the blaze as more than 200 fire trucks raced to the scene

A huge fire sweeping through a shantytown outside the Philippine capital has left around 7,000 people homeless and destroyed at least 300 houses.

Firefighters in Manila were tackling the intense fires which razed homes to the ground in Quezon city on Sunday afternoon.

Fuelled by strong winds and scorching temperatures, the fire spread rapidly throughout the slums, fire chiefs said.
At least two people were injured.

Election 2010: Tories to target Labour heartlands

The Conservatives hope to build on their opinion poll lead

The Conservatives are to step up campaigning in seats where Labour are defending healthy majorities, in the wake of the Lib Dem poll surge.

Tory strategists have identified a number of seats where they believe support for Labour is ebbing away.

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has said first-past-the-post votes made "no sense at all" in a three-party system.

Lord Mandelson has warned Labour voters in Labour/Tory marginals: "Vote Nick, get Dave and George".

Labour will focus campaigning on its plans for the NHS on Monday, while the Lib Dems are highlighting their plans for a pay rise for junior ranks in the armed forces.

BBC political correspondent Ben Wright said the surge in the polls for the Lib Dems, in the wake of TV prime ministerial debates, had upset both the Tories' and Labour's election strategies.

Ash-hit Europe on track to normal, sporadic disruptions to air travel likely to occur

An airplane of British Airways is about to land at the Heathrow Airport in London, capital of Britain, April 21, 2010.


Flights and life are returning to normal in Europe as Iceland's Eyjafjjoell volcano has reined in her temper, though sporadic disruptions to air travel are expected to occur due to the drifting volcanic ash.

Flights in Europe have returned to normal, one week after the volcanic eruption caused the continent to almost completely shut down its airspace, the European air safety coordination body Eurocontrol said on Friday.

"At the current time, almost all European airspace is available, with the exception of part of northern Scotland," Eurocontrol said in a statement. It expected 29,000 flights to take place on Friday, the normal number.

On the same day, Finnish Civil Aviation Administration said in a statement that all airspace restrictions had been removed in Finland and all airports across the country had been opened for air traffic and were operating normally.

The statement also noted that no new flight restrictions were to be expected, based on the latest forecast on volcanic ash cloud movements on Friday morning.

However, the situation remains unstable. The airspace in southern Finland, southern Norway, northern Scotland and western Sweden had to be closed again Thursday, as a change in the wind direction brought volcanic ash from Iceland back into Scandinavian skies.

Strong quake in Taiwan, Philippines; no damage reports

A seismological centre specialist pointing at earthquake curves. A strong 6.9 magnitude quake struck southeast of Taiwan Monday, the US Geological Survey said, but no tsunami warning was immediately issued.

A 6.9 magnitude quake struck in an ocean area north of the Philippines on Monday and was felt throughout Taiwan, officials said, but there were no immediate reports of damage and no mass tsunami warnings.

Philippine authorities forecast little damage after the 10:59 a.m. (0259 GMT) quake that struck 300 km (180 miles) off the Batan Islands of the Philippines and 314 km (195 miles) southeast of Taiwan.

Philippine officials warned people on the coast to watch for a tidal surge, though it was unlikely to cause casualties or damage, while the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center advised that local tsunamis on coastlines within 100 km (60 miles) of the quake's center were possible.

The United States Geological Survey put the quake at a depth of 10 km (six miles), while Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said it was 20 km (12 miles) deep and registered 6.6 on the Richter scale, which is the local measurement standard.