General News

Iraqi government forces have made gains in their offensive to drive Islamic State militants from Falluja - one the country's two major cities in IS hands.

The nearby town of Karma, the first line of IS defence, is now in the army's hands, a BBC correspondent says.

Large numbers of elite combat troops have also been deployed near Falluja, about 45km (28 miles) west of Baghdad.

But IS hit back north of Falluja, killing and injuring some Iraqi forces in a suicide car bomb attack.

A counter-attack south of the city was repelled with the help of helicopter gunships, the BBC's Jim Muir in Karma reports.

This comes just days after the IS commander in Falluja, Maher al-Bilawi, was killed along with dozens militants in US-led coalition air strikes, according to Washington.

How tough will it be to take Falluja?

Islamic State: The full story

Ghost town

Karma is now firmly under control of government forces, including rapid reaction troops and federal police, our correspondent says.

Iran-backed Shia militias, which also took part in the fighting, have left graffiti on the walls of buildings in the town, including one saying: "Thank you, Iran."

But Karma is now a ghost town, with not a single civilian to be seen and with rows of shops battered and burnt out and some bigger buildings badly damaged, our correspondent adds.

Large number of the elite Counter-Terrorism Force have been brought up in preparation for an assault on the city itself.

However, it is not clear when the attack will begin.

Falluja - key facts:

• had population of more than 300,000 before it was seized by first al-Qaeda and then by IS in 2014
• has always been a hotbed of Sunni defiance, becoming a symbol of resistance to US forces in violent battles in 2004
• controls main highway from Baghdad to both Jordan and Syria
• is known as the "city of mosques" - more than 200 mosques in city and surrounding area

Some 50,000 civilians remain trapped in the city and have been told via leaflet drops to avoid IS areas and put white sheets on their roofs, the US military says.

The UN says it has reports of people dying of starvation and being killed for refusing to fight for IS.

Falluja fell to IS in 2014, a key moment in its rise that saw it declare a caliphate across swathes of Iraq and Syria.

The other major Iraqi city still controlled by IS is Mosul.

Source: bbc.com

Japanese PM Shinzo Abe has taken world leaders to the Shinto religion's holiest site, as the Group of Seven (G7) summit begins in the country.

Mr Abe said the visit was so that they could "understand the spirituality of Japanese people".

The two-day G7 meeting in Ise-Shima brings together industrialised nations.

On Friday, US President Barack Obama will visit Hiroshima - the site of the first atomic bomb - the first sitting US president to do so.

The visit to the shrine is controversial because critics say Mr Abe is catering to his conservative supporters who want to revive traditional values.

Ise shrine

• The shrine is 2,000 years old but in line with Shinto practice the buildings are taken down and reconstructed regularly.
• Followers of Shintoism believe that everything - rocks, fire, trees, the sky - has its own spirit or god.
• The sanctuary is dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu Omikami who is prominent in Japanese creation myths.

Top of the agenda for the G7 nations - the US, Canada, Britain, Italy, Germany, France and Japan - will be concerns over the health of the global economy.

Europe's refugee crisis will also feature prominently at the meeting. European Council President Donald Tusk said on Thursday he would ask the G7's support for more global aid for refugees.

"If we (G7) do not take the lead in managing this crisis, nobody would," Mr Tusk said to reporters.

Terrorism, cyber security and maritime security are also on the agenda.

School children welcomed the leaders to the Shinto shrine

Mr Obama has previously said there would be no apology for the dropping of the world's first atomic bomb in Hiroshima

On Wednesday, Mr Obama and Mr Abe met for talks where the US president expressed regret over the arrest of a US military base worker in Okinawa in connection with the death of a local woman.

Mr Obama also mentioned his upcoming visit to Hiroshima, saying it would "honour all those who were lost in World War Two and reaffirm our shared vision of a world without nuclear weapons, as well as highlight the extraordinary alliance that we have been able to forge over these many decades".

He has previously said he would not be apologising for the dropping of the bomb by the US.

Source: bbc.com

Workers at French nuclear power stations are due to down tools on Thursday amid growing industrial action over controversial labour reforms.

The CGT union said staff at 16 of France's 19 nuclear plants had voted for a one-day strike.

The government said on Wednesday it was dipping into strategic oil reserves as strikers blockaded refineries.

Unions want the government to reverse controversial labour reforms forced through parliament earlier this month.

• Protests as Valls forces labour laws through
• Violence mars Paris police protest
• Hollande's last throw of the dice

France's state-run power company, Electricite de France, declined to comment on how Thursday's one-day strike at nuclear plants would affect supply.

Nuclear power provides about 75% of the country's electricity.

Strikes and blockades are already disrupting six of France's eight oil refineries.

Clashes broke out at one refinery on Tuesday when police broke up a blockade at Fos-sur-Mer in Marseille.

Workers at a large oil terminal in the port of Le Havre were due to go on strike on Thursday to block imports.

Transport Minister Alain Vidalies said 40% of petrol stations around Paris were struggling to get fuel.

Motorists have been panic buying to avoid shortages.

President Francois Hollande told ministers on Wednesday that "everything will be done to ensure the French people and the economy is supplied".

Analysts say France has nearly four months of fuel reserves.

Police are trying to clear the blockades around oil refineries

Industrial action also spread to France's railways on Wednesday, with a strike by train drivers cutting some high-speed TGV services as well as regional and commuter trains. More transport disruption was expected on Thursday.

The CGT has also called for protest rallies in cities across France.

The BBC's Lucy Williamson in Paris says the escalating action is raising concerns for the Euro 2016 football championships due to begin in France in just over two weeks' time.

The government provoked union outrage when it resorted to a constitutional device to force its watered-down labour reforms through parliament without a vote.

The government says the reforms, which make it easier for companies to hire and fire staff, are needed to bring down unemployment.

French labour reform bill - main points

• The 35-hour week remains in place, but as an average. Firms can negotiate with local trade unions on more or fewer hours from week to week, up to a maximum of 46 hours
• Firms are given greater freedom to reduce pay
• The law eases conditions for laying off workers, strongly regulated in France. It is hoped companies will take on more people if they know they can shed jobs in case of a downturn
• Employers given more leeway to negotiate holidays and special leave, such as maternity or for getting married. These are currently also heavily regulated

Source: bbc.com

The Egyptian military has released images of items found during the search in the Mediterranean Sea for missing Egypt Air flight MS804.

They include life vests, parts of seats and objects clearly marked EgyptAir.

The Airbus A320 was en route from Paris to Cairo with 66 people aboard when it vanished from radar early on Thursday.

Investigators have confirmed smoke was detected in various parts of the cabin three minutes before it disappeared, but say the cause is still not known.

Speaking on Saturday after meeting relatives of victims, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said "all theories are being examined and none is favoured".

• Who were the victims?
• The problem with fires on planes
• The passenger who almost missed the flight
• The internet fakes and rumours

Images posted on the Facebook page of the spokesman for the Egyptian Armed Forces showed life vests and other items with the EgyptAir logo.

Investigators say nothing has yet been ruled out in the search for the cause of the crash

The search has also reportedly found body parts and luggage.

The main body of the plane and the two "black boxes" which show flight data and cockpit transmissions have not yet been located.

While no bodies have been recovered, memorials have been taking place for the victims.

A service was held in a Cairo church on Saturday for air hostess Yara Hani, who was aboard the doomed plane.

Smoke alarms

The Aviation Herald said that smoke detectors had gone off in the toilet and the aircraft's electronics before the signal was lost.

It said it had received flight data filed through the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) from three independent channels.

It said the system showed that at 02:26 local time on Thursday (00:26 GMT) smoke was detected in the jet's toilet.

A minute later - at 00:27 GMT - there was an avionics alert indicating smoke in the bay below the cockpit that contains aircraft electronics and computers.

The last ACARS message was at 00:29 GMT, the air industry website said, and the contact with the plane was lost four minutes later at 02:33 local time.

ACARS is used to routinely download flight data to the airline operating the aircraft.

Confirming the data, France's Bureau of Investigations and Analysis told AFP it was "far too soon to interpret and understand the cause of the accident as long as we have not found the wreckage or the flight data recorders".

Agency spokesman Sebastien Barthe told Associated Press the messages "generally mean the start of a fire" but added: "We are drawing no conclusions from this. Everything else is pure conjecture."

Philip Baum, the editor of Aviation Security International Magazine, told the BBC that technical failure could not be ruled out.

"There was smoke reported in the aircraft lavatory, then smoke in the avionics bay, and over a period of three minutes the aircraft's systems shut down, so you know, that's starting to indicate that it probably wasn't a hijack, it probably wasn't a struggle in the cockpit, it's more likely a fire on board."

Analysis: Richard Westcott, BBC transport correspondent

This data could be the biggest clue yet as to what happened. It suggests there was a fire at the front of the aircraft, on the right-hand side.

The sequence begins with a warning of an overheating window in the cockpit. Smoke is then detected in the lavatory (we assume it's the one behind the cockpit) and in a bay right underneath the cockpit, which is full of electronic equipment.

Finally, another window becomes too hot, before all the systems begin collapsing. All of this takes place over a few minutes, then the aircraft drops off the radar.

Some pilots have suggested that the 90 degree left turn the plane then made is a known manoeuvre to get out of the way in an emergency, when an aircraft needs to drop height suddenly.

The 360 degree turn after that, they say, could be the crew managing a crisis.

So it seems that the aircraft caught fire and that the fire spread very quickly. But whether that fire was deliberate or mechanical, we still can't say.

Security consultant Sally Leivesley said the timing on the data suggested an "extremely rapidly developing flame front from a fire that has overwhelmed the avionics very, very quickly".

She cited the case of "underpants bomber" Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to set off an explosive device hidden in his underwear on a Detroit-bound flight in 2009.

Although the attempt failed, a fire from the device's chemicals still spread "right up the side of the plane".

Greece says radar shows the Airbus A320 making two sharp turns and dropping more than 25,000ft (7,620m) before plunging into the sea.

The search is now focused on finding the plane's flight recorders, in waters between 2,500 and 3,000 metres deep.

In October, an Airbus A321 operated by Russia's Metrojet blew up over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, with all 224 people on board killed.

Sinai Province, a local affiliate of the Islamic State jihadist group, said it had smuggled a bomb on board.

Source: bbc.com

Families of victims of downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 are suing Russia and its President Vladimir Putin in the European Court of Human Rights.

The jet was shot down by a Russian-made missile over eastern Ukraine in 2014, killing all 298 on board.

The West and Ukraine say Russian-backed rebels were responsible but Russia accuses Ukrainian forces.

The families' claim is based on the violation of a passenger's right to life, News.com.au reported.

The claim is for 10 million Australian dollars ($7.2m; £4.9m) for each victim, and the lawsuit names both the Russian state and its president as respondents.

Jerry Skinner, a US-based aviation lawyer leading the case, told News.com.au it was difficult for the families to live with, knowing it was "a crime".

"The Russians don't have any facts for blaming Ukraine, We have facts, photographs, memorandums, tonnes of stuff."

Mr Skinner said they were waiting to hear from the ECHR whether the case had been accepted.

The Kremlin said it was unaware of the claim, the Interfax news agency reported, but a senator with Mr Putin's party is quoted in state media as saying it was "legally nonsensical and has no chance".

There are 33 next-of-kin named in the application, the Sydney Morning Herald reported - eight from Australia, one from New Zealand with the rest from Malaysia.

Sydney-based law firm LHD Lawyers is filing the case on behalf of their families.

Flight MH17 crashed at the height of the conflict between Ukrainian government troops and pro-Russian separatists.

A Dutch report last year concluded it was downed by a Russian-made Buk missile, but did not say who fired it.

Most of the victims were Dutch and a separate criminal investigation is still under way.

Source: bbc.com

The top US commander for the Middle East secretly visited Syria on Saturday, officials said.

General Joseph Votel, head of US Central Command, spent about 11 hours in northern Syria.

He met US military advisers and the leaders of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), made up of Kurdish and Arab rebel forces.

The US wants local forces to defeat the so-called Islamic State (IS) group, which holds territory in the country.

Speaking after the visit, Gen Votel said training local forces to fight IS was the right approach.

"I left with increased confidence in their capabilities and our ability to support them. I think that model is working and working well," he said.

The SDF comprises about 25,000 Kurdish fighters and about 5,000 Arab fighters. The US is hoping to increase the number of Arabs in the force.

The US is training Syrian Arab fighters to take on IS

Arab commanders who spoke to journalists during the visit said their forces needed more help.

SDF Deputy Commander Qarhaman Hasan said he wanted armoured vehicles, machine guns, rocket launchers and mortars.

The SDF currently had to rely on smuggling to get weapons, he said.

"You can't run an army on smuggling," he added.

Tribal leaders also called on the US to do more, both militarily and with humanitarian aid.

The US has about 200 military advisers in Syria, where 270,000 people have died in five years of civil war.

Source: bbc.com

Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour has probably been killed in a US air strike, US officials say.

He and another male combatant were targeted as they rode in a vehicle in a remote area of Pakistan close to the Afghan border, the officials said.

The Pentagon has confirmed it targeted Mansour in strikes but said they were still assessing the results.

Mansour assumed the leadership in July 2015, replacing Taliban founder and spiritual head Mullah Mohammad Omar.

The operation took place near the town of Ahmad Wal at around 15:00 (10:00 GMT) on Saturday and was authorised by President Barack Obama.

Both Pakistan and Afghanistan were informed about the strike, said a US State Department spokesperson, without clarifying whether the notification was made in advance.

"We are still assessing the results of the strike and will provide more information as it becomes available," said Pentagon spokesperson Peter Cook.

An unnamed Taliban commander told the Reuters news agency: "We heard about these baseless reports but this not first time. Just wanted to share with you my own information that Mullah Mansour has not been killed."

False rumours have often surrounded Taliban leaders.

Omar died in 2013 but this was only confirmed by the Taliban two years later, while Mansour was reported to have been killed in a gun battle last year, something dismissed by the Afghan government.

Mansour's appointment as Taliban chief was disputed, with a rival group selecting their own leader.

The Pentagon's statement said Mansour was actively involved with planning attacks "presenting a threat to Afghan civilians and security forces, our personnel, and Coalition partners".

The Taliban have made gains since international troops withdrew from an active fighting role in 2014.

Nato forces are increasingly being deployed in battle zones to support Afghan forces fighting the Taliban.

Who is Mullah Mansour?

• Long seen as acting head of the Taliban, and close to its founder Mullah Omar
• Born in the 1960s, in Kandahar province, where he later served as shadow governor after the Taliban's fall
• Was civil aviation minister during the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan
• Had an active role in drug trafficking, according to the UN
• Has clashed with Abdul Qayum Zakir, a senior military commander, amid a power struggle and differences over negotiations with the Afghan government
• A man claiming to be Mansour met former Afghan President Hamid Karzai for peace talks in 2010 - but it later emerged he was an imposter

Profile: Mullah Akhtar Mansour

Source: bbc.com

A massive search is continuing for a second day for an EgyptAir plane that disappeared over the Mediterranean.

Greek, Egyptian, French and UK military units are taking part in the operation near Greece's Karpathos island.

Flight MS804 was en route from Paris to Cairo with 66 passengers and crew when it vanished early on Thursday.

Greece said radar showed the Airbus A320 had made two sharp turns and dropped more than 25,000ft (7,620m) before plunging into the sea.

Egypt says the plane was more likely to have been brought down by a terrorist act than a technical fault.

• What we know

• Relatives wait at airports

• EgyptAir's troubled recent history

Most of the people on board Flight MS804 were from Egypt and France. A Briton was also among the passengers.

So far, no wreckage or debris from the aircraft has been found.

Initial reports late on Thursday, based on Egyptian officials' comments that wreckage had been found, later proved unfounded.

Greece's lead air accident investigator Athanasios Binis said items including lifejackets found near Karpathos were not from the Airbus A320.

"An assessment of the finds showed that they do not belong to an aircraft," he said.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has ordered the country's civil aviation ministry, army-run search-and-rescue centre, navy and air force to take all necessary measures to locate the wreckage.

The French air accident investigation bureau has despatched three investigators, along with a technical adviser from Airbus, to join the Egyptian inquiry.

In France, the focus is on whether a possible breach of security happened at Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport.

Security was already tight, and under review, after last November's attacks by jihadist militants in the French capital.

Since then, some airport staff have had security clearance revoked over fears of links to Islamic extremists.

Eric Moucay, a lawyer for some of those employees, told the BBC that there had been attempts by Islamists to recruit airport staff.

"That is clear. There are people who are being radicalised in some of the trade unions etc. The authorities have their work cut out with this problem," he said.

No response

Flight MS804 left Paris at 23:09 local time on Wednesday (21:09 GMT) and was scheduled to arrive in the Egyptian capital soon after 03:15 local time (01:15 GMT) on Thursday.

On the plane were 56 passengers, seven crew members and three security personnel.

Greek aviation officials say air traffic controllers spoke to the pilot when he entered Greek airspace and everything appeared normal.

They tried to contact him again at 02:27 Cairo time, as the plane was set to enter Egyptian airspace, but "despite repeated calls, the aircraft did not respond". Two minutes later it vanished from radar.

Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos told reporters: "The picture we have at the moment on the accident as it emerges from the Greek air force operations centre is that the aircraft was approximately 10-15 miles inside the Egyptian FIR [flight information region] and at an altitude of 37,000 feet.

"It turned 90 degrees left and then a 360-degree turn toward the right, dropping from 37,000 to 15,000 feet and then it was lost at about 10,000 feet."

Egyptian Aviation Minister Sherif Fathi said: "Let's not try to jump to the side that is trying to identify this as a technical failure - on the contrary.

"If you analyse the situation properly, the possibility of having a different action, or having a terror attack, is higher than the possibility of having a technical [fault]."

In October an Airbus A321 operated by Russia's Metrojet blew up over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, with the deaths of all 224 people on board. Sinai Province, a local affiliate of the Islamic State jihadist group, said it had smuggled a bomb on board.

French President Francois Hollande said: "We will draw conclusions when we have the truth about what happened.

"Whether it was an accident, or whether it was - and it's something that is on our minds - terrorism."

Flightradar24 listed details of the plane's journey on Wednesday which showed it had flown from Asmara, in Eritrea, to Cairo, then on to Tunis, in Tunisia, before heading, via Cairo, to Paris.

Aviation analyst Alex Macheras told the BBC that Airbus A320s were regularly used for short-haul budget flights and had "an amazing safety record".

In March, an EgyptAir plane was hijacked and diverted to Cyprus. The attacker later surrendered and all hostages were released.

Source: bbc.com

San Francisco's Police Chief Greg Suhr has stepped down hours after a police officer shot and killed a young black woman driving a suspected stolen car.

The resignation was announced by Mayor Ed Lee, who had asked him to quit.

Mr Suhr and city police had in recent months come under fierce criticism over fatal police shootings of several black suspects.

Reports also recently emerged that a number of officers had exchanged racist text messages.

• Why do US police keep killing black men?

• How one shooting sparked national protests

At a news conference on Thursday, Mayor Lee said he hoped the resignation would help "to heal the city".

The mayor, who until now had supported Mr Suhr, added: "The progress we have made has been meaningful but it hasn't been fast enough, not for me and not for Greg, and that's why I have asked Chief Suhr for his resignation."

He named Toney Chaplin as acting police chief.

Earlier, protesters held a rally outside the city hall, demanding the sacking of Greg Suhr

The black woman, 27, was shot and killed earlier on Thursday in the city's Bayview area.

Police said one of their patrols approached her as she sat in a car that had been reported stolen.

The woman allegedly tried to drive off and then crashed into a nearby vehicle.

There was no immediate indication that she had a weapon or had tried to run down a police officer before the shooting, the city authorities said.

Analysis: BBC's David Willis in California

A 34-year veteran of the San Francisco PD, Greg Suhr was once a popular and professional policeman.

"Greg was always respectful, always a servant of the community," recalled London Breed, who first encountered Suhr when the latter was a young narcotics officer working the beat. Both men would go on to greater things: Suhr to police chief, Breed to president of the local Board of Supervisors.

But for Suhr there were missteps along the way - among them a demotion from deputy chief after a female friend told him she had been assaulted by her boyfriend and he failed to file a police report.

Reflecting on Suhr's resignation, London Breed said he hoped the city would now come together so that everyone would feel safe in their communities.

The job of reforming the police department now rests with Greg Suhr's former deputy Toney Chaplin - another insider, with 26 years of service under his belt.

In April, five people went on a hunger strike, demanding Mr Suhr be sacked. They ended their strike last week.

Mr Suhr, a veteran officer, was appointed city police chief in 2011.

There are more than 1,000 fatal shootings by police in the US each year, and those killed are disproportionately African-American.

Source: bbc.com

A new report into the financial impact of the McMurray fires says some C$763m (£527m) in oil sands production has been lost.

The analysis says the blaze has meant the loss of 1.2 million barrels of oil a day over two weeks.

The sum is equivalent to 0.33% of the province of Alberta's projected GDP this year, as well as representing 0.06% of the country's projected GDP.

"These are big numbers," Kevin Birn, an analyst at IHS Energy, said.

"The industry was already feeling the impact of a very low price environment in the first quarter of the year, with prices lower than in the rest of the world," he told the BBC's Bill Wilson.

The analysis, by economic research organisation the Conference Board of Canada, projects that national economic impacts will be "minimal".

He said the oil sands firms affected were among the biggest energy companies in the world, and that they would be "pushing to get facilities up and running as soon as possible".

"Some facilities had already started ramping up ready to restart production, but have had to stand down again and evacuate workers. There is rain forecast for this weekend which will hopefully bring an end to this disruption."

Mr Birn added that most of the Canadian sands oil produced was sent to the US mid-west for processing, and that a knock-on effect would be that refineries there would be having to look for alternative sources, "which comes with additional costs for them".

The fire is now 1,366 square miles (3527km) and conditions are getting more dangerous for fire fighters north of Fort McMurray.

It is moving east and encroaching the border with Saskatchewan, officials said on Tuesday, and continuing to "burn out of control".

The Alberta government is taking a "second look" at plans for re-entry into Fort McMurray, said Alberta premier Rachel Notley.

"We're not going to have people going back until we know it's safe," she said.

She said said it is unclear when oil production can resume.

Gas service has returned to 60% of the city and electricity is restored in undamaged areas, she said.

Workers who were sent to Fort McMurray to begin working on the hospital have now been evacuated.

Alberta Highway 63 is likely to be threatened and could be closed for a period of time, she said.

Canada's oil sands industry

• Oil sands are a mixture of sand, water, clay and a thick, heavy oil called bitumen

• Bitumen is extracted using surface mining and drilling, and must be treated before it can be turned into petrol and other usable fuels

• Canada has the third largest oil reserves in the world after Venezuela and Saudi Arabia

• The Alberta oil sands produced about 2.3 million barrels a day in 2014

Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau told CBC News that the cost of the disaster was still being evaluated.

"We're obviously going to stand shoulder to shoulder with the people in Fort McMurray and rebuild the city," he said.

Source: bbc.com

A West Virginia mom who traveled to Florida to undergo cosmetic surgery died Thursday after police say she suffered medical complications during the procedure, WSVN reports.

Heather Meadows, 29, who has a 6-year-old and a newborn, was rushed to a Hialeah ER from Encore Plastic Surgery and pronounced dead after experiencing medical complications.

CBS Miami reports Meadows was having a "Brazilian Butt Lift" done at Encore; the procedure begins with a liposuction, with the removed fat then injected into the buttocks.

The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner says death was caused by fat clots in the arteries of her lungs and heart. When the fat was injected, it probably was introduced to her bloodstream via a vein, reports the Miami Herald.

Per the New York Daily News, although there aren't any active complaints against Encore, two doctors listed as working there, Orlando Llorente and James McAdoo, are also tied to a practice called Vanity Cosmetic Surgery, where a 51-year-old woman died in 2013 after a breast augmentation.

A third doctor listed in Yelp reviews for Encore has been deemed "an immediate serious danger" to public health by state health officials and banned from performing lipo and fat transfers to the buttocks after four patients were reportedly badly injured as he performed those procedures.

A woman set to have surgery at Encore and standing outside its Hialeah office tells WSVN, "I'm not having surgery here. Are you kidding me? This is a chop shop." The station says she got her $4,000 back, while NBC Miami notes she said it could have cost up to $12,000 at another practice.

(What happens when people get cheap leg-lengthening.)

This article originally appeared on Newser: WV Mom Dies While Getting 'Brazilian Butt Lift'

Source: foxnews.com

The Obama administration has told schools to let transgender pupils use toilets matching their gender identity.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said schools that don't comply may face lawsuits or lose federal aid if they do not comply.

One senior Republican politician has condemned the move as the "beginning of the end" of the current school system.

In a separate move, the president also strengthened protections for LGBT people receiving health care.

The federal government is fighting the state of North Carolina in court over a law requiring people to use toilets according to their gender at birth.

However the Obama administration education and justice departments say public schools must respect transgender pupils' gender identity even if their education records or identity documents indicate a different sex.

"There is no room in our schools for discrimination of any kind, including discrimination against transgender students on the basis of their sex," Ms Lynch said.

Mapping safe toilets for transgender Americans

How one woman's 'bathroom bill' campaign went viral

Why bathrooms matter to trans rights

Campaigners hailed the move.

"This is a truly significant moment not only for transgender young people but for all young people, sending a message that every student deserves to be treated fairly and supported by their teachers and schools," said Chad Griffin from Human Rights Campaign, a gay, lesbian and transgender rights organisation.

But the directive, which has been sent to all public schools, was immediately rejected by senior Republican Party politicians meeting at a convention in Texas.

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said: "This will be the beginning of the end of the public school system as we know it."

"President Obama, in the dark of the night - without consulting Congress, without consulting educators, without consulting parents - decides to issue an executive order, forcing transgender policies on schools and on parents who clearly don't want it," he told 5NBC television.

A new gender identity comes into force as soon as a parent or guardian notifies the school that their child's identity "differs from previous representations or records" and must be respected even if it makes others uncomfortable, the directive says.

Ms Lynch said North Carolina's new state law had echoes of policies of racial segregation and efforts to deny gay couples the right to marry.

The federal government and the state are suing each other over the law, which the federal authorities say violates the Civil Rights Act.

North Carolina's Governor Pat McCrory has said the law is a "common sense privacy policy" and that the justice department's position is "baseless and blatant overreach".

However, many businesses and entertainers have criticised the measures as discriminatory.

Musicians have cancelled concerts in the states and several companies have pledged to curtail their business in North Carolina.

Last month a US appeals courts ruled that a Virginia school policy that barred a transgender pupil from using the boys' toilet was discriminatory.

Transgender health care

On Friday afternoon, President Obama and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) gave the LBGT community further protections when receiving health care.

A new rule in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act guarantees equal treatment for transgender people by insurance companies and health care providers.

It states people must be treated in line with their gender identity, including access to facilities such as toilets, and given the same treatments which are available to their chosen gender.

The rule applies to all federal funded health care and insurers.

The Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said the measure was a step towards "realizing equity within our health care system and reaffirms this Administration's commitment to giving every American access to the health care they deserve."

Transgender Americans can make civil rights claims if denied coverage or care based on their sex, which will be assessed by HHS's Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

HHS said the new rule was the first federal civil rights law that tackled sex discrimination in government-funded health care.

Source: bbc.com

An online auction for the pistol used to kill unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin has apparently reached $65m (£45m), organisers say.

The sale has been plagued by fake bidders including "Racist McShootface".

George Zimmerman, who shot and killed the teenager, had planned to auction what he called "an American icon" on the website Gun Broker on Thursday.

But the web posting was removed just as the auction was due to begin with a reserve price of $5,000 (£3,450).

United Gun Group is now hosting the auction.

In a statement on Twitter they defended the sale of the gun on their site. They were "truly sorry" for the Martin family's loss but said it was their goal to "defend liberty".

"Unless the law has been violated, it is the intention of the United Gun Group to allow its members to use any of the available features. While not always popular this is where we stand."

Mr Zimmerman said the gun was recently returned to him

On Friday afternoon, the top bidder was a user named Craig Bryant.

Mr Zimmerman, 32, a neighbourhood watchman, was cleared over the death of the 17-year-old in February 2012 after saying he acted in self-defence.

Does the gun belong in a museum?

In an online posting to announce the auction, Mr Zimmerman said that he would use the profits to "fight" the Black Lives Matter movement and oppose Democrat Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

A lawyer for the Martin family told the Washington Post that "it is insulting to this family that he would decide that he would sell the gun that he killed their child with".

"Think about what that means: This is a gun that took a child's life and now he wants to make money off of it."

On the auction site, Mr Zimmerman said it was recently returned to him by the US Department of Justice.

He claimed that the Smithsonian museums had expressed interest in buying the 9 mm handgun, but Smithsonian officials denied that in a statement.

Speaking to a Florida television station, Mr Zimmerman had defended the auction saying "I'm a free American, and I can do what I'd like with my possessions."

Zimmerman has had several encounters with police since being acquitted

Analysis - Nick Bryant, BBC North America correspondent

Few cases in recent years have been more racially sensitive or led to such an anguished national conversation as the killing of Trayvon Martin. It sparked demonstrations around the country, prompted President Obama to remark that if he had a son, he'd have looked like the black teenager and brought about the first use on social media of the hashtag "Black Lives Matter."

So the decision of the former neighbourhood watchman, George Zimmerman to put the gun he used up for auction not only seems extraordinary but also cruel and callous - especially since he refers to the weapon on the online site as an "American icon."

This is not the first time that Zimmerman has sought to cash in on his notoriety. His first painting of an American flag, emblazoned with the words "God One Nation with Liberty and Justice For All," sold on eBay for the staggering sum of $100,000. But it did not impress critics, who called it "primitive" and "appalling."

Harsher language will no doubt be used to describe the sale of the pistol that killed Trayvon Martin.

Protests were launched nationwide following Martin's death, which helped to create the Black Lives Matter movement

Congressman Hakeem Jeffries said on Thursday that "Trayvon Martin's cold-blooded killer should be in prison. Instead, he is trying to profit from the stunning miscarriage of justice."

Florida police did not arrest Mr Zimmerman for six weeks after the shooting in Sanford, Florida, provoking mass rallies in Florida and throughout the US.

Police justified their decision not to detain him by citing the state's controversial "stand your ground" law, which allows a citizen to use lethal force if he or she feels in imminent danger. Police initially said the law prevented them from bringing charges.

Profiles: Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman

Mr Zimmerman's defence said Trayvon Martin had punched their client, slammed his head into the pavement and reached for Mr Zimmerman's gun. Prosecutors accused Mr Zimmerman of telling a number of lies.

The case led to protests in several cities in the US and to the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Mr Zimmerman's name has been in news headlines several times since his closely watched trial.

Twice, assault charges against his girlfriend were dropped.

Source: bbc.com

Two US senators have urged airlines to temporarily stop charging passengers baggage fees in an effort to speed up security queues.

Senators Richard Blumenthal and Edward Markey said passengers often bring extra items through the security screening process to save money.

They asked major US airlines to suspend the fees during the busy summer season.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has struggled with long queues at major airports.

"Passengers report waiting for so long in these lines that they miss flights, despite arriving at the airport hours in advance." the senators wrote in a letter to the airlines.

"Travel officials, including TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger, have expressed fears of a meltdown this summer as travel increases."

Senators Blumenthal and Markey said baggage fees encourage passengers to bring more luggage into the cabin

A spokeswoman representing the many of the airlines said the senators plan is a misguided attempt to re-regulate airline and would raise ticket prices.

Jean Medina of Airlines for America said the TSA should hire additional staff at the busiest airports instead.

Federal budget cuts have recently reduced the number of TSA screeners.

American and Delta airlines said they planned to loan employees to the TSA to handle low-level tasks.

The TSA was created in response to the 9/11 attacks, but the agency has been often accused of mismanagement and using inept screening procedures.

American Airlines recently complained to Congress about TSA checkpoints, saying more than 6,000 American passengers missed flights in one week because of security delays.

"The lines at TSA checkpoints nationwide have become unacceptable," said Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for American.

Many airlines introduced baggage fees in 2008 to cope with soaring fuel costs.

Despite historically low oil prices and record airline profits, the fees have not been revoked.

Source: bbc.com

The US Navy has fired the commander of the 10 US sailors who in January entered Iranian territorial waters and were briefly detained.

In a statement, the US Navy said it had lost confidence in Eric Rasch, who was in charge of a riverine squadron at the time of the incident in the Gulf.

A Navy official said Mr Rasch had been re-assigned, the Associated Press says.

The sailors were released after intense diplomacy between US Secretary of State John Kerry and senior Iranian officials.

On Thursday, the US Navy official said that Mr Rasch had failed to provide effective leadership, leading to a lack of oversight, complacency and failure to maintain standards in his unit.

The official - who spoke on condition of anonymity - did not say what the former commander's new role was.

In January, the sailors - nine men and a woman - were detained when one of their two vessels broke down while training in the Gulf.

They were then taken to Farsi Island, in the middle of the Gulf, where Iran has a naval base.

The incursion was "unintentional", the Iranian Revolutionary Guards were quoted as saying at the time.

The sailors were released after about 15 hours, and after Iran said they apologised.

But Vice-President Joe Biden later said that the boat had had simply a problem and there was "nothing to apologise for".

The US said at the time it was investigating how the sailors entered Iranian waters.

Sourcee: bbc.com

A London receptionist was sent home from work after refusing to wear high heels, it has emerged.

Temp worker Nicola Thorp, 27, from Hackney, arrived at finance company PwC to be told she had to wear shoes with a "2in to 4in heel".

When she refused and complained male colleagues were not asked to do the same, she was sent home without pay.

Outsourcing firm Portico said Ms Thorp had "signed the appearance guidelines" but it would now review them.

More on this story and other news from London

High heels and flip-flops: Work dress code victims

PwC said the dress code was "not a PwC policy".

Ms Thorp said she would have struggled to work a full day in high heels and had asked to wear the smart flat shoes she had worn to the office in Embankment.

But instead she was was told she should go and buy a pair of heels on her first day, back in December.

"I said 'if you can give me a reason as to why wearing flats would impair me to do my job today, then fair enough', but they couldn't," Ms Thorp told BBC Radio London.

"I was expected to do a nine-hour shift on my feet escorting clients to meeting rooms. I said 'I just won't be able to do that in heels'."

The office in Embankment where Nicola Thorp was told to wear high heels for work by Portico

Ms Thorp said she asked if a man would be expected to do the same shift in heels, and was laughed at.

She then spoke to friends about what had happened, and after posting on Facebook realised that other women had found themselves in the same position.

"I was a bit scared about speaking up about it in case there was a negative backlash," she said. "But I realised I needed to put a voice to this as it is a much bigger issue."

She has since set up a petition calling for the law to be changed so women cannot be forced to wear high heels to work. It has had more than 10,000 signatures, so the government will now have to respond.

Is this legal?

As the law stands, employers can dismiss staff who fail to live up to "reasonable" dress code demands, as long as they've been given enough time to buy the right shoes and clothes.

They can set up different codes for men and women, as long as there's an "equivalent level of smartness".

Read more here.

"I don't hold anything against the company necessarily because they are acting within their rights as employers to have a formal dress code, and as it stands, part of that for a woman is to wear high heels," Ms Thorp said.

"I think dress codes should reflect society and nowadays women can be smart and formal and wear flat shoes.

"Aside from the debilitating factor, it's the sexism issue. I think companies shouldn't be forcing that on their female employees."

Simon Pratt, managing director at Portico, said it was "common practice within the service sector to have appearance guidelines", which Ms Thorp had agreed to.

"These policies ensure customer-facing staff are consistently well presented and positively represent a client's brand and image."

However, he said the firm had "taken on board the comments regarding footwear and will be reviewing our guidelines".

A PwC spokesman said the company was in discussions with Portico about its policy.

"PwC outsources its front of house and reception services to a third party supplier. We first became aware of this matter on 10 May, some five months after the issue arose," the spokesman said.

"PwC does not have specific dress guidelines for male or female employees." Ms Thorp said she did not blame the company involved but the law should be changed so women could not be required to wear high heels.

Source: bbc.com

BBC correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes and his team are being expelled from North Korea after being detained over their reporting.

Our correspondent, producer Maria Byrne and cameraman Matthew Goddard were stopped by officials on Friday as they were about to leave North Korea.

He was questioned for eight hours by North Korean officials and made to sign a statement.

All three were held over the weekend but have now been taken to the airport.

The BBC team was in North Korea ahead of the Workers Party Congress, accompanying a delegation of Nobel prize laureates conducting a research trip.

The North Korean leadership was displeased with their reports highlighting aspects of life in the capital.

A BBC spokesman said: "We are very disappointed that our reporter Rupert Wingfield-Hayes and his team have been deported from North Korea after the government took offence at material he had filed.

"Four BBC staff, who were invited to cover the Workers Party Congress, remain in North Korea and we expect them to be allowed to continue their reporting."

Source: bbc.com

More than 30 people were injured when an Etihad Airways flight hit "severe and unexpected turbulence" flying into Indonesia, the airline said.

The flight from Abu Dhabi was about 45 minutes away from Jakarta on Wednesday when the turbulence hit.

The plane, an Airbus A330-200, landed safely after the incident, but 10 people were taken to hospital.

Video footage apparently from the flight showed passengers crying out as the plane shook.

The United Arab Emirates' national airline told AFP news agency the cabin luggage bins were damaged and passengers said oxygen masks were released during the shaking.

The airline did not provide details on the severity of the injuries but nine passengers and one crew member were taken to hospital. The rest were treated by airport paramedics.

Etihad said it had cancelled the return flight and was booking alternative flights and providing accommodation.

Airport and Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee officials are inspecting the plane, the airport said.

Source: bbc.com

Stealing small amounts of food to stave off hunger is not a crime, Italy's highest court of appeal has ruled.

Judges overturned a theft conviction against Roman Ostriakov after he stole cheese and sausages worth €4.07 (£3; $4.50) from a supermarket.

Mr Ostriakov, a homeless man of Ukrainian background, had taken the food "in the face of the immediate and essential need for nourishment", the court of cassation decided.

Therefore it was not a crime, it said.

A fellow customer informed the store's security in 2011, when Mr Ostriakov attempted to leave a Genoa supermarket with two pieces of cheese and a packet of sausages in his pocket but paid only for breadsticks.

In 2015, Mr Ostriakov was convicted of theft and sentenced to six months in jail and a €100 fine.

'Right and pertinent' ruling, say papers

For the judges, the "right to survival prevails over property", said an op-ed in La Stampa newspaper (in Italian).

In times of economic hardship, the court of cassation's judgement "reminds everyone that in a civilised country not even the worst of men should starve".

An opinion piece in Corriere Della Sera says statistics suggest 615 people are added to the ranks of the poor in Italy every day - it was "unthinkable that the law should not take note of reality".

It criticised the fact that a case concerning the taking of goods worth under €5 went through three rounds in the courts before being thrown out.

The "historic" ruling is "right and pertinent", said Italiaglobale.it - and derives from a concept that "informed the Western world for centuries - it is called humanity".

However, his case was sent to appeal on the grounds that the conviction should be reduced to attempted theft and the sentence cut, as Mr Ostriakov had not left the shop premises when he was caught.

Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation, which reviews only the application of the law and not the facts of the case, on Monday made a final and definitive ruling overturning the conviction entirely.

Stealing small quantities of food to satisfy a vital need for food did not constitute a crime, the court wrote.

"The condition of the defendant and the circumstances in which the seizure of merchandise took place prove that he took possession of that small amount of food in the face of an immediate and essential need for nourishment, acting therefore in a state of necessity," wrote the court.

Source: bbc.com

A 10-year-old boy Finnish boy named Jani has been given $10,000 (£7,000) after he found a security flaw in image-sharing social network Instagram.

The boy, who technically is not allowed to even join the site for another three years, discovered a bug that allowed him to delete comments made by other users.

The issue was "quickly" fixed after being discovered, said Facebook, which owns Instagram.

Jani was paid soon after - making him the youngest ever recipient of the firm's "bug bounty" prize.

After discovering the flaw in February, he emailed Facebook.

Security engineers at the company set up a test account for Jani to prove his theory - which he did.

The boy, from Helsinki, told Finnish newspaper Iltalehti he planned to use the money to buy a new bike, football equipment and computers for his brothers.

Facebook told the BBC it had paid $4.3m to bug bounty recipients since 2011.

Many companies offer a financial incentive for security professionals - and young children, evidently - to share flaws with the company, rather than selling them on the black market.

Source: bbc.com