India's Top Cop Under Fire For Rape Remarks

India's top police chief is facing calls for his resignation after he said: "If you can't prevent rape, you might as well enjoy it."

Ranjit Sinha, director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) - India's equivalent of the United States' FBI - apologised for the remark.

However, his comment has sparked outrage across the country, which in the past year has seen widespread protests following the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old woman on a bus in New Delhi.

Mr Sinha made the comment during a CBI conference about illegal sports betting and the need to legalise gambling.

"Do we have the enforcement?" Mr Sinha said at the event in New Delhi on Tuesday about whether sports betting should be legalised.

There have been widespread protests demanding tougher penalties for rape

"It is very easy to say that if you can't enforce it, it's like saying if you can't prevent rape, you enjoy it."

He insisted his comments were taken out of context and were misinterpreted, but angry activists called for his resignation.

"I regret any hurt caused," Mr Sinha said. "I gave my opinion that betting should be legalised and that if the laws cannot be enforced, that does not mean that laws should not be made.

"This is as erroneous as saying that if rape is inevitable one should lie back and enjoy it. I reiterate my deep sense of regard and respect for women and my commitment for gender issues."

But civil rights campaigners and opposition politicians said his remarks risked trivialising the issue of rape and raised questions over the CBI's ability to investigate serious sexual assaults.

Kavita Krishnan, an activist with the All India Progressive Women's Association, called for Mr Sinha to step down.

"How can he remain the head of India's premier investigation agency?" she said.

There were more than 24,000 reported rapes in India in 2011

Nirmala Sitharaman, spokeswoman for the main opposition group, the Bharatiya Janata Party, described the remarks as "shocking".

"Wonder if his colleagues in the Bureau, his family and well-wishers approve of his view," she wrote on Twitter.

Communist Party of India leader Brinda Karat condemned Mr Sinha's comments as offensive to all women.

"It is sickening that a man who is in charge of several rape investigations should use such an analogy," she said. "He should be prosecuted for degrading and insulting women."

The New Delhi bus attack last December caused nationwide outrage and forced the government to change rape laws and create fast-track courts for rape cases.

New laws introduced after the attack make stalking, voyeurism and sexual harassment a crime.

They also provide for the death penalty for repeat offenders or for rape attacks that lead to the victim's death.

There were more than 24,000 reported rapes in India in 2011, but activists say the real number is many times higher.

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Nasa Video: Mars' Evolution From Watery World

Nasa has released a video revealing what Mars may have looked like as a young planet billions of years ago.

It appears to have had a thick atmosphere that was warm enough to support oceans of liquid water - a crucial ingredient for life.

The animation, created by Nasa's Conceptual Image Lab, shows how the surface of Mars might have developed over four billion years.

The artist's concept is based on evidence that Mars was once very different.

It shows vast Martian lakes surrounded by mountain ranges, beneath Earth-like blue skies and rapidly moving clouds.

The shift from a warm and wet climate to a cold and dry one is shown as the animation progresses.

Nasa's Curiosity rover has been exploring Mars since 2011

The lakes dry up and transform into a rocky landscape with canyons, volcanoes and craters.

The atmosphere gradually turns to the dusty pink and tan hues seen on Mars today.

Nasa scientist Dr Pan Conrad told Sky News: "We think that the when Mars was created it was a lot wetter and warmer than it is today.

"It probably lost much of its atmosphere over time and that's how it came to be such a desert and cold place."

Red dust - from the iron in its soil - now covers almost all of the surface of the Red Planet, which has an average temperature of -27C (-80F).

Nasa's Curiosity rover has been exploring the surface of the planet since August 2011 and has made several discoveries to support the theory that Mars was once able to support life.

These include pebbles providing evidence that a stream once flowed on the planet, and more recently, Martian dust, dirt and soil suggesting a "substantial" amount of water on Mars.

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Dad 'Snatched Children And Fled To Libya'

A mother is trying to get her two children returned to the UK after their father allegedly fled with them to Libya, claiming Britain was "too Western".

Lawyers for Priscilla Micalleff said her four-year-old daughter Aisha and one-year-old son Zakaria are being kept in breach of a court order granted in October.

They said her estranged husband Jamal Dgham had refused to comply with the order and had sent a text message to Miss Micalleff, telling her: "You're trying to play me."

A High Court judge allowed details of the case to be published in the hope it would help secure the children's return.

Priscilla Micalleff married Jamal Dgham in 2001

Pam Sangera, who represents Miss Micallef, said her client met Mr Dgham in Malta and started a relationship in 1999.

They married two years later and moved to the UK in 2008.

Ms Sangera said Mr Dgham did so "believing there to be more mosques and believing the religion to be widely recognised and practised".

"He slowly changed his view and believed the UK to be too Western," she said.

"He did not want his children to be influenced against being devout Muslims."

The children, who vanished in September, are thought to be staying with Mr Dgham's mother in the Bin Ashur area of the Libyan capital Tripoli.

In his text message to Miss Micallef, he said his mother had told him to "let her speak to the kids".

But he added: "From tomorrow, you're not going to hear or see the kids anymore and you won't know where they are."

Ms Sangera said there had been "no further communication" since the text message but added: "The mother believes the paternal grandmother will also place pressure on the father to return to the UK with the children."

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Iceberg Eight Times The Size Of Manhattan Adrift

An iceberg eight times the size of Manhattan has broken off a glacier in the Antarctica and could threaten busy international shipping lanes.

Scientists in Britain have been awarded a £50,000 grant to track the giant ice island, which came away from the Pine Island Glacier in July.

The team, led by Professor Grant Bigg from the University of Sheffield, is monitoring the iceberg's movement and rate of melting.

Professor Bigg said: "Its current movement does not raise environmental issues, However, a previous giant iceberg from this location eventually entered the South Atlantic and if this happens it could potentially pose a hazard to ships.

"If the iceberg stays around the Antarctic coast, it will melt slowly and will eventually add a lot of freshwater that stays in the coastal current, altering the density and affecting the speed of the current.

Manhattan covers an area of around 34 sq miles

"Similarly, if it moves north it will melt faster but could alter the overturning rates of the current as it may create a cap of freshwater above the denser seawater."

He added: "if these events become more common, there will be a build-up of freshwater which could have lasting effects."

The six-month project, funded by the National Environmental Research Council (NERC), is being co-managed by Dr Robert Marsh, from the University of Southampton.

He said: "The primary reason to monitor the iceberg is that it's very large. An iceberg that size could survive for a year or longer and it could drift a long way north in that time and end up in the vicinity of world shipping lanes in the Southern Ocean.

"There's a lot of activity to and from the Antarctic Peninsula, and ships could potentially cross paths with this large iceberg, although it would be an unusual coincidence."

The team's work is not only expected to provide a timely warning of any consequences of the iceberg's release to the shipping industry, but will include testing a technique which could in future be used by ice hazard warning services.

The iceberg was first spotted by scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research via the German Space Agency's earth observation satellite TerraSAR-X.

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Mummifed Boy Hamzah 'Let Down' By Systems

By Gerard Tubb, North of England Correspondent

The official report into the death of four-year-old Hamzah Khan who was starved by his mother in Bradford has been condemned by the Government as "a rubbish document".

The serious case review (SCR) concluded that Hamzah's death "could not have been predicted" and said it was systems that failed him, not people.

The boy's mother Amanda Hutton, 43, was jailed for 15 years last month after his mummified body was found in a cot in her bedroom in 2011, almost two years after he died.

At a highly-charged news conference the heads of agencies involved in Hamzah's life repeatedly refused to apologise personally, saying no individual was to blame.

Professor Nick Frost, independent chair of the Bradford Safeguarding Children Board, said: "The SCR is very clear that Hamzah's death could not have been predicted but finds that systems, many of them national systems, let Hamzah down both before and following his death."

After more than an hour of questioning, Kath Tunstall, the strategic director of Children's Services for Bradford, told journalists: "We are all sorry for what has happened."

Amanda Hutton's kitchen was full of rubbish

But the Department for Education (DfE) condemned the report, telling Sky News: "There will have to be a proper investigation to answer the serious questions it raises".

A DfE source said: "It's even more worrying that local agencies don't realise how poor an investigation this is."

And Children's Minister Edward Timpson said he has "deep concerns" because it "fails to explain sufficiently clearly the actions taken, or not taken, by children's social care".

Mr Timpson demanded that Bradford's Safeguarding Children Board answer 10 key questions missing from the report.

He said the answers to the "glaring absences" from the review must be made public to "ensure such mistakes will not be repeated in the future".

Prof Frost said: "It is my responsibility, as independent chair, to ensure that lessons are learnt."

Hamzah's father Aftab Khan

He promised to write to the minister immediately and said the answers to his questions would be provided.

"Very sadly, I cannot give assurances that a tragedy like this will never happen again in our country - as we can't control or predict the behaviour of all parents, the vast majority of whom are doing their very best to care for their children," he said.

"However, I can assure you that at this stage I am satisfied each agency is responding adequately but this is an ongoing process which requires constant monitoring.

"No child should go through what Hamzah experienced. I am satisfied that systems are in place today that minimise the chance of a situation such as this ever being repeated in Bradford."

Bradford Crown Court heard how alcoholic Hutton was living in "breathtakingly awful" conditions with five of her young children as well as Hamzah's mummified remains when shocked police entered the four-bedroom house in September 2011.

A jury found she had allowed Hamzah to starve to death in December 2009 and left his body in a cot with a teddy.

The remains were only discovered due to a rookie police community support officer's tenacious pursuit of a minor anti-social behaviour complaint because she knew something was wrong.

The family was known to all the main agencies yet Hutton had a history of failing to co-operate with services that could have helped her.

Peter Wanless, chief executive of the NSPCC, said: "Tragically Hamzah became invisible, slipping off the radar of our entire society the moment he left hospital after birth.

"We have to ask how this could happen in 21st century Britain. His mother made no attempt to register his birth; he missed midwife appointments, health visitor checks, immunisations; and he was never registered for school.

"A red flag must be raised when key appointments are missed so that children cannot disappear.

"It cannot be right that the first time someone took serious steps to track him down was six years after his birth by which time he was already dead."

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Spy In Bag: MI6 Man Probably Locked Himself In

Spy Death: The Evidence Behind The Theories

Updated: 11:31am UK, Wednesday 13 November 2013

Three general theories have been put forward to explain the death of MI6 spy Gareth Williams, with evidence to support each one.

:: Suicide

The theory that Mr Williams' chose to take his own life is perhaps the most prosaic explanation for his death and the inquest has heard evidence that suggested he was unhappy with his work.

He had passed an exam to become fully operational with MI6 just months before his death but his sister said he disliked office culture and the rat race - and had spoken of friction among colleagues.

One common theme throughout the inquest has been Mr Williams' prodigious intelligence, which saw him secure a first-class mathematics degree at the age of 17 before his eventual fast-tracking through the ranks at GCHQ.

Correlations have often been drawn between depression and the high levels of perfectionism evident in Mr Williams - an impression his intense fitness regime and pristinely tidy flat did little to dispel.

Irrespective of his state of mind, however, no-one has been able to fully explain how he would have been able to lock the bag his body was found in from the outside.

Stephen Gale, his boss at GCHQ's Cheltenham base, said Mr Williams stunned fellow intelligence specialists with his codebreaking talents when he landed his first job at 21.

"He was considered something of a prodigy and it was quite remarkable that he had achieved those levels of qualifications at such a young age," he said.

It could be argued that such outstanding achievement at such an early age could lead to the kind of listlessness later in life that can eventually develop into suicidal thoughts.

But Mr Williams' reputation as a "world-class" codebreaker may also give rise to the more outlandish theory that he took his own life while deliberately leaving an apparently inextricable riddle.

:: Accident

Mr Williams' interest in women's clothing - on which receipts showed he spent around £20,000 during 2008 and 2009 - has been among the most prominently-reported details of the case.

His curiosity with drag queen culture has also been a focus for the media, as has his apparent interest in bondage footage.

The inquest heard that in 2007, Mr Williams' landlord and landlady had to rescue him in the middle of the night after he apparently tied his wrists to the headboard of his bed to see if he could "get free".

Such revelations could contribute to a theory that Mr Williams' death was an accident, even the result of a sex game gone-wrong.

However, close friends say he never mentioned cross-dressing and he is only known to have been to see a drag act once.

Detective Constable Simon Warren also moved to quell speculation around the 31-year-old's private life, saying his interest in bondage footage on his computer was "an isolated (incident) among a sea of other data".

And it is not entirely inconceivable that a third party may have manufactured an image of someone with flamboyant personal habits in order to distract from a more sinister truth.

Indeed, this possibility was acknowledged by the coroner in her summing up, when she questioned whether leaks to the media about Mr Williams' cross dressing were attempts to manipulate evidence.

She pointed out that most of the women's clothes found would have been too small for him and said the lack of female underwear was "inconsistent".

Mr Williams was described as a cautious risk assessor by his sister, which the coroner said did not "square" with the suggestion of an interest in bondage.

:: Murder

Despite having no suspects, the police have said from the outset that they believe a third party was involved in Mr Williams' death.

Found naked, curled up in a padlocked North Face holdall in the bath of his flat in Pimlico, central London, bag experts have said that even renowned escapologist Harry Houdini would have struggled to lock himself in the bag.

One even tried and failed to carry out the task more than 300 times before saying they were "unbelievable scenarios".

Lawyers for his family have suggested "dark arts" of the secret services were responsible.

The recent emergence of the news that MI6 failed to hand over nine computer memory sticks from Mr Williams' office to Scotland Yard has done little to confound such claims.

Conspiracy theories are fuelled by the fact that the force's counter-terror SO15 branch, which has specialist security clearance and acted as a conduit between MI6 and the investigation team, only took three items from Mr Williams' office - his phone, some notes and a copy of his birth certificate.

Detective Superintendent Michael Broster, who was the main liaison from SO15, said: "I have seen no information or evidence that someone is involved. I am not saying that a member of SIS is not involved. I don't know."

Poisoning and asphyxiation are the "foremost contenders" in causing Mr Williams' death, pathologists said.

But experts believe there would have been signs of damage to his fingers and hands if he had struggled to get out of the bag within the three minutes it would have taken to suffocate.

The fact that Mr Williams was dead for up to 10 days before his post-mortem examination meant many poisons and/or bruise marks could have disappeared from his body.

Another matter to have attracted suspicion is MI6's failure to report his absence for more than a week after his disappearance.

Forensic experts hope ongoing DNA tests on a green towel discovered in his kitchen may still yield a breakthrough.

But given the assumed capabilities of MI6, the fact that no physical evidence has yet been found to establish the involvement of a third party is unlikely to halt speculation that secret service agents were to blame.

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Passenger 'Threatened To Kill' Air Steward

A passenger on a flight diverted in a mid-air security alert has told a court that the man at the centre of the scare twice told a steward he was going to kill him.

Tayyab Subhani, 30, and Mohammed Safdar, 42, were arrested on May 24 after a Boeing 777 heading to Manchester was forced to make an emergency landing at Stansted Airport in Essex.

The men, who are from Lancashire, deny endangering the safety of an aircraft by threatening to harm crew and passengers and threatening to blow up the plane.

Prosecutors told the trial at Chelmsford Crown Court, in Essex, that neither man was a terrorist or extremist but cabin crew had been forced to take his threats seriously.

Giving evidence, fellow passenger Ferzana Rana said Safdar told a steward "I'm going to kill you" twice in Urdu.

She said she had been flying home from Pakistan on flight PK709 with her husband and two young children.

During the flight Safdar became abusive towards cabin crew and refused to return to his seat, she said.

The flight was diverted to Stansted

Mrs Rana said Safdar spoke in a mix of English and Urdu as the confrontation escalated.

She added: "He was swearing in Urdu and a lot of the words and language were not something anybody would want to repeat."

Asked by Simon Mayo QC, representing Safdar, if the steward had taken the remarks seriously, she said: "No, it was just an idiotic remark."

She added: "Later on, the steward asked me to confirm what I had heard and asked me whether I had heard the word bomb.

"I hadn't heard that word or anything that might suggest the presence of a bomb."

She added that, once on the ground, many of the passengers expressed annoyance that the flight had been diverted over a "trivial incident".

The first reference she heard to a bomb came after an announcement was made informing those on-board that the flight had been diverted.

Mrs Rana said: "I heard the men say jokingly between themselves 'I bet they think there's a bomb on the plane'."

Safdar, a married father of three, of Hallam Crescent, and Subhani, of Townley Street, both in Nelson, Lancashire, claim the allegations are made up and that cabin crew encouraged passengers to corroborate their story.

The pilot, who described the incident as the most serious of his career, contacted UK air traffic control and was instructed to begin emergency procedures, the court heard.

Typhoon fighter jets were scrambled to intercept the flight.

Once on the ground, the aircraft was surrounded by armed police and a full-scale security alert was called.

The men were arrested and hundreds of passengers were forced to remain on board until investigators established there was no danger.

The trial is expected to last five weeks.

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McCririck Loses C4 Age Discrimination Case

Racing pundit John McCririck has lost his age discrimination employment tribunal case against Channel 4.

The 73-year-old had claimed he was dismissed by "anonymous suits and skirts" at the broadcaster because of his age, as part of a drive to hire younger faces.

But a Central London Employment Tribunal panel ruled against him.

In its judgment, the panel said: "All the evidence is that Mr McCririck's pantomime persona, as demonstrated on the celebrity television appearances, and his persona when appearing on Channel 4 Racing, together with his self-described bigoted and male chauvinist views were clearly unpalatable to a wider potential audience.

"The tribunal is satisfied that the respondent had the legitimate aim of attracting a wider audience to horseracing."

The colourful pundit, famed for his deerstalker, tic-tac gestures and gold jewellery, took his former employer and TV production company IMG Media Limited to the tribunal, alleging his sacking last year was motivated by age discrimination.

Both firms denied discrimination in the £3m case.

McCririck said: "This is an historic setback for all employees in their 30s to their 70s.

"After such a landmark judicial verdict, my failed legal action ensures that anonymous suits and skirts, who control the media, numerous other businesses and the public sector, will now enjoy complete freedom to replace older employees whatever their unimpaired ability and merit.

"I have let them all down along with my wife, the Booby, my legal team, friends, colleagues and countless members of the public who supported me throughout. My grateful thanks and apologies to every one of them.

"Former Labour home secretary David Blunkett MP said in August: 'The way TV executives worship the cult of youth seems to be an unstoppable fetish'. It is now.

"With my legal team we are now out of contact while studying the judgment in detail"

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Ella Hysom: Search For Missing Colchester Girl

Police are looking for a missing 15-year-old girl who had recently been in hospital suffering from depression.

Ella Hysom was last seen at 1.18pm on Monday in Clements Road, Ilford, walking in the direction of Cineworld.

The parents of the Colchester teenager, who was visiting the Goodmayes area, are appealing for her safe return.

She is described as white, 5ft 9ins to 5ft 10ins tall and was wearing blue jeans, a green hooded jumper with Ugg boots.

Officers are extremely concerned for her welfare and are asking members of public who have seen her or anyone with information to contact the Metropolitan Police immediately on 020 8345 2751 or 07979 311259, the police non-emergency line on 101 or Missing People on 116 000.

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Typhoon Haiyan Survivors' Fear And Desperation

Gunshots have reportedly forced the delay of a mass burial of victims of the huge typhoon that smashed into the Philippines.

The mayor of Tacloban, the provincial capital of Leyte province where 16ft waves flattened nearly everything in their path, made the claim on Wednesday.

Alfred Romualdez said: "We had finished digging the mass burial site. We had the truck loaded with bodies but there was some shooting. They could not proceed."

The UN estimates 10,000 people may have died in Tacloban alone

Locals in Tacloban also reported seeing members of the army firing guns, as well as armed civilians in the street.

Meanwhile it has been reported that a 13-year-old boy who was walking alone through the city at night was slashed across the neck and stabbed in the stomach.

Jonathan Salayco said he was attacked by two men he did not know late on Tuesday, who then disappeared without a trace.

Homeless Tacloban residents inside a school

Red Cross nurse Mina Joset said: "He was still holding his toy car.

"For a boy like him, this is a serious injury."

Typhoon Haiyan, known locally as Yolanda, ripped apart entire coastal communities on Friday.

The situation in Tacloban is becoming ever more dire with essential supplies low and increasingly desperate survivors jostling for aid.

An injured typhoon survivor is carried by members of the military

Eight people were crushed to death after a huge crowd of typhoon survivors rushed a government rice warehouse, causing a wall to collapse.

The incident in Alangalang town, 10 miles from Tacloban, underlined the increasing sense of fear and desperation setting in among those battling to survive the aftermath of the typhoon.

The remains of an orphanage

Sky News Asia Correspondent Mark Stone said: "Those who survived desperately need help. There is nothing like enough supplies or aid here and there is a depressing lack of co-ordination."

The international relief effort is building momentum with many countries pledging help. 

The Philippines Government said it had received over £56m in international aid so far and praised the "generous and swift response". 

Supplies of rice are loaded on to a truck, but food remains scarce

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos also applauded the international community's reaction, but said much more needed to be done in a disaster of such magnitude.

Britain's Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) appeal has reached £13m just 24 hours after it was launched, it was announced on Wednesday.

The US and the UK are sending warships carrying thousands of sailors to the Philippines.

Britain's first flight delivering urgently needed humanitarian aid has arrived, the Government has said.

A chartered Boeing 777 carrying 8,836 shelter kits from UK Government stores in Dubai landed in Cebu City and was met by Department for International Development (DFID) humanitarian workers.

President Aquino has declared a "state of national calamity", allowing the government to impose price controls and quickly release emergency funds.

A US Marine coordinates the loading of water at an air base near Manila

The latest official government death toll stands at 2,344, with 3,804 injured and a further 79 missing.

But authorities have said they have not come close to accurately assessing the number of bodies lying amid the rubble or swept out to sea.

The UN estimates 10,000 people may have died in Tacloban alone.

Tacloban's infrastructure was devastated by the typhoon's impact

Health Secretary Enrique Ona admitted authorities were struggling to deal with the sheer numbers of the dead.

He told radio station DZMM they had delayed the retrieval of bodies because "we ran out of body bags".

He said: "We hope to speed it up when we get more body bags."

The UN estimates more than 11.3 million people have been affected with 673,000 made homeless, since Haiyan smashed into the nation's central islands on Friday.

Haiyan's sustained winds when it hit Samar island, where it first made landfall, reached 195 miles an hour, making it the strongest typhoon in the world this year and one of the most powerful ever recorded.

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