PM: Britain Will Never Give In To Terrorism

Sotloff: Driven Reporter And Mideast Expert

Updated: 1:19pm UK, Wednesday 03 September 2014

Steven Sotloff, the US journalist who was beheaded by Islamic State militants, also held Israeli citizenship, Israel has revealed.

The information had been apparently withheld by Israel in a bid to reduce the risks to the captive.

"Cleared for publication: Steven Sotloff was #Israel citizen RIP," tweeted Paul Hirschson, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.

Friends and colleagues described 31-year-old Mr Sotloff as an honest and courageous journalist who sought to understand the culture of the places he reported from and tell the stories of the people affected by conflict.

His work appeared in Time, Foreign Affairs and World Affairs magazines. He also contributed to some Israeli publications.

"We refused to acknowledge any relationship with him in case it was dangerous for him," said Avi Hoffman, editor of the Jerusalem Report magazine, which had published Mr Sotloff's work.

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, quoting a former fellow captive, said Mr Sotloff had kept his Judaism a secret from the Islamist insurgents, pretending he was sick when he fasted for the Yom Kippur holiday.

Colleagues stressed that he understood the dangers of reporting in war zones, but remained committed to the task.

"Steven was very ethical, very driven, an exceptional journalist and an exceptional person," said Matthew Van Dyke, an activist and film-maker who met Mr Sotloff in Libya in 2012.

"He was also a cautious journalist, he did everything the right way," he told Sky News.

Mr Sotloff vanished in Syria in August 2013. His capture was kept secret for months at the request of his family, who said they were now grieving privately.

He then appeared in a video that showed the beheading of fellow US journalist James Foley last month.

A Miami native, Mr Sotloff attended the University of Central Florida, where he took an interest in journalism. He did not graduate from the university.

He covered the Arab Spring uprisings and several Middle East hotspots, including Yemen, Egypt and Libya. He learnt Arabic.

"He lived in the region for a time, he really got to know the people, the culture," said Mr Van Dyke.

"This was a region that was important to him, he wasn't somebody who jumped from conflict to conflict all over the world, he was a regional specialist and he knew what he was doing."

In his Facebook and Twitter profiles Mr Sotloff called himself a "stand-up philosopher from Miami" and often spoke of his love for baseball and the Miami Heat.

World Affairs, in an August 20 statement, described Mr Sotloff as "an honest and thoughtful journalist who strives to understand the story from local perspectives and report his findings straightforwardly."

The executive director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, Joel Simon, said: "Journalists know that covering war is inherently dangerous and that they could get killed in crossfire.

"But being butchered in front of camera simply for being a reporter is pure barbarism."

The group said at least 70 other journalists have been killed covering the conflict in Syria, including some who died over the border in Lebanon and Turkey, and that more than 80 had been kidnapped.

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Stand Up Be Counted: Thousands Get Involved

Sky News' Stand Up Be Counted: How It Works

Updated: 8:50am UK, Monday 01 September 2014

By Afua Hirsch, Social Affairs and Education Editor

There is a group of people in this country who are invisible. They have little ability to influence politics, their voices are rarely heard in the news, and their opinions are largely ignored.

:: Click here to visit the Stand Up Be Counted site

This may sound like the predicament of a small and hard to reach minority, but it has been the reality for more than half of young people in the UK.

Many 18 to 24 year olds don't vote. At the last election, only 44% of that age group voted. That means more than half not influencing who gets into power.

It means politicians can comfortably ignore a whole demographic, confident in the knowledge that they have no influence at the ballot box.

It means disengaging from the process which governs everyone's lives.

From today, Sky News is doing something different, to create a change. We are launching Stand Up Be Counted - to help give young people a voice.

Our new site will let people in this age group upload a short clip of them talking on camera about something they are passionate about.

This could range from prejudice in the criminal justice system, to the effect of the rise in tuition fees, and calls for cycling helmets to be made mandatory.

The Stand Up site is already a showcase for creative, absorbing and sometimes entertaining debate from 16-25 year olds in their bedroom, back garden or high street, talking about the things that matter to them.

You can share it too, on mobile devices on WhatsApp and Kik, and on all devices on Twitter, Facebook and email.

The process is simple. You can register via the upload button at the top of your screen. You'll need a profile picture and a short biography up to 50 words.

After that, you're a few clicks away from being able to upload your video or content. Short videos - ideally around 60 seconds - blogs and photos are all welcome on one condition - they have to come from the heart.

And it's safe to speak openly, and powerfully.

This is a place for robust debate, with zero tolerance for abuse, so that you can make your point freely, knowing that as well as starting conversations with your peers, you also have access to Sky News' audience, and crucially, those in power who have found it all too easy to ignore the views of young people.

One click on the site takes you straight to the page where you can register to vote - an act that, were every young person to do it - would drastically transform the political and decision-making landscape in this country.

This is changing Sky News, too. The voices we are hearing are informing our coverage and changing our perspective.

It's easy to think that because they don't vote, young people are disinterested.

Venting frustration on Facebook at "corruption" (one of the words young people we asked most associate with politics) is not enough.

Now is the time to speak. And, crucially, speak where the nation is listening.

:: Stand Up website: www.skynews.com/standupbecounted

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Confusion Over Ukraine 'Permanent Ceasefire'

Vladimir Putin says a ceasefire deal between Ukraine and pro-Russian rebels could be reached by Friday.

The Russian President's announcement comes after conflicting reports that a permanent ceasefire agreement had been reached by the two sides this morning.

Following witness reports of loud artillery explosions near the Ukrainian city of Donetsk, the country's President Petro Poroshenko modified his statement to remove the word "permanent".

Mr Putin and Mr Poroshenko were unable to agree when they met last week

It is unclear whether his actions were in response to reports of the explosion.

Reporting from Mariupol, Ukraine, Sky's Moscow Correspondent Katie Stallard said: "It's extremely unclear at this stage what exactly this ceasefire is supposed to be.

"No one we have spoken to on the ground seems to know about it.

"The Ukrainian president issued a statement this morning claiming he agreed with Vladimir Putin to a permanent ceasefire in the region.

"He has since slightly modified that statement and removed the word 'permanent'.

"A spokesman for President Putin said no such agreement has been reached, nor can it, because Russia is not a party to the conflict."

Mr Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov was earlier quoted as saying the leaders' views "overlap to a considerable degree".

"The heads of state exchanged opinions about what needs to be done first in order to bring an end to the bloodletting in the southeast of the country as soon as possible," said Mr Peskov.

A statement from Kiev said an understanding had been achieved which would enable the "establishment of peace".

The conflict will be at the top of the agenda at the Nato summit in Wales

News of the development was greeted with an immediate rally on the financial markets - the main Russian stock exchange, the Micex, rising 4% and stocks in London with the FTSE 100 reached a 14-year high in morning trade.

Russia later announced it was to hold major military exercises in September of the forces responsible for its long-range nuclear capability. The drills will involve more than 4,000 servicemen and 400 technical units. 

Meanwhile, world leaders have begun arriving in the UK ahead of a two-day Nato summit in Wales where the Ukraine crisis will be top of the agenda. 

Speaking in Estonia ahead of the summit, President Obama said that Nato would not accept what he called Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea.

In a thinly-veiled warning to President Putin, the US President added that the Baltic states were bound by the Nato alliance.

"We have a solid duty to each other. Article Five is crystal clear; an attack on one is an attack on all," he said.

Mr Obama added the US was working to bolster the security of Nato allies and increase America's military presence in Europe.

"It would mean more US forces, including American boots on the ground continuously rotating through the Estonia, Latvia and Ukraine militaries."

Russia has repeatedly denied claims its soldiers were recently sent into eastern Ukraine to support Ukrainian pro-Russian rebels.

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Sky News Moving To Freeview Channel 132

Sky News is moving channel on Freeview from this afternoon.

Previously on channel 82, Sky News will now be available on channel 132.

You can continue to get the first in breaking news and the best analysis on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602 and Freesat 202 as before.

And you can catch the latest news on UK and world events on the Sky News For iPad app, online at Skynews.com, and on your smartphones.

For more information visit www.digitaluk.co.uk or www.freeview.co.uk website pages or @freeviewadvice and @freeviewTV on Twitter.

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Girl Trapped In Washing Machine On Spin Cycle

A five-year-old girl is recovering in hospital after she became stuck in a washing machine in California.

Police say the girl climbed into the machine at the Washeteria dry cleaners in Pasedena while the woman she was with was not looking.

The woman had been unable to get the machine to work and when she went to use a different machine the girl managed to get inside.

Somehow the door to the machine closed and the spin cycle was activated for several minutes before the woman noticed what had happened.

The girl was taken to hospital from the dry cleaners in Pasadena. Pic: CBS

Vance Mitchell from Pasadena Police told Fox News: "Unfortunately she spun around in that washing machine for several minutes and apparently it was on high speed. She was tumbling pretty fast in there

"One person walked by and said they saw something flopping around in there they thought it was just a dress or something because it was moving pretty fast."

The owner shut the machine down and the girl was air-lifted to hospital as a precaution, though her injuries are not life threatening.

Police do not suspect foul play.

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Mysterious Fake Mobile Phone Towers Discovered

Mysterious fake mobile phone towers discovered across America could be listening in on unsuspecting callers.

A report by Popular Science says the towers have been discovered across the country, and have the ability to attack mobile phones through eavesdropping and installing spyware.

They were discovered by people using a heavily customised Android device called the CryptoPhone 500.

It uses a secure version of the software which can tell if the phone is being subjected to what is known as a baseband attack.

It is then possible to trace the location of the offending tower.

The fake cell towers were detected in July, but the report states there could be more.

Les Goldsmith, chief executive of security firm ESD America, told the magazine: "Interceptor use in the US is much higher than people had anticipated.

"One of our customers took a road trip from Florida to North Carolina and he found eight different interceptors on that trip. We even found one at a casino in Las Vegas."

He said several of the masts were situated near US military bases.

"What we find suspicious is that a lot of these interceptors are right on top of US military bases," he said.

"So we begin to wonder - are some of them US government interceptors? Or are some of them Chinese interceptors?

"Whose interceptor is it? Who are they, that's listening to calls around military bases? Is it just the US military, or are they foreign governments doing it? The point is: we don't really know whose they are."

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IS Beheading: Militants Threaten Brit Hostage

Sotloff: Driven Reporter And Mideast Expert

Updated: 1:19pm UK, Wednesday 03 September 2014

Steven Sotloff, the US journalist who was beheaded by Islamic State militants, also held Israeli citizenship, Israel has revealed.

The information had been apparently withheld by Israel in a bid to reduce the risks to the captive.

"Cleared for publication: Steven Sotloff was #Israel citizen RIP," tweeted Paul Hirschson, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.

Friends and colleagues described 31-year-old Mr Sotloff as an honest and courageous journalist who sought to understand the culture of the places he reported from and tell the stories of the people affected by conflict.

His work appeared in Time, Foreign Affairs and World Affairs magazines. He also contributed to some Israeli publications.

"We refused to acknowledge any relationship with him in case it was dangerous for him," said Avi Hoffman, editor of the Jerusalem Report magazine, which had published Mr Sotloff's work.

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, quoting a former fellow captive, said Mr Sotloff had kept his Judaism a secret from the Islamist insurgents, pretending he was sick when he fasted for the Yom Kippur holiday.

Colleagues stressed that he understood the dangers of reporting in war zones, but remained committed to the task.

"Steven was very ethical, very driven, an exceptional journalist and an exceptional person," said Matthew Van Dyke, an activist and film-maker who met Mr Sotloff in Libya in 2012.

"He was also a cautious journalist, he did everything the right way," he told Sky News.

Mr Sotloff vanished in Syria in August 2013. His capture was kept secret for months at the request of his family, who said they were now grieving privately.

He then appeared in a video that showed the beheading of fellow US journalist James Foley last month.

A Miami native, Mr Sotloff attended the University of Central Florida, where he took an interest in journalism. He did not graduate from the university.

He covered the Arab Spring uprisings and several Middle East hotspots, including Yemen, Egypt and Libya. He learnt Arabic.

"He lived in the region for a time, he really got to know the people, the culture," said Mr Van Dyke.

"This was a region that was important to him, he wasn't somebody who jumped from conflict to conflict all over the world, he was a regional specialist and he knew what he was doing."

In his Facebook and Twitter profiles Mr Sotloff called himself a "stand-up philosopher from Miami" and often spoke of his love for baseball and the Miami Heat.

World Affairs, in an August 20 statement, described Mr Sotloff as "an honest and thoughtful journalist who strives to understand the story from local perspectives and report his findings straightforwardly."

The executive director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, Joel Simon, said: "Journalists know that covering war is inherently dangerous and that they could get killed in crossfire.

"But being butchered in front of camera simply for being a reporter is pure barbarism."

The group said at least 70 other journalists have been killed covering the conflict in Syria, including some who died over the border in Lebanon and Turkey, and that more than 80 had been kidnapped.

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Furious Public Demand Rotherham Abuse Answers

Members of the public have shouted and jeered at Rotherham councillors during a meeting to discuss last week's damning report about child sexual abuse.

Dozens of people packed into a small chamber at the Town Hall, with one man demanding to know why they didn't act after a seminar about exploitation in 2005.

One woman received applause after she shouted: "We are very angry and we don't know why all of you haven't resigned."

Three attendees walked out of the public gallery as the council's chief executive, Martin Kimber, began making a formal statement to fellow councillors.

"There is no one more determined than me to ensure that people who commit vile criminal acts are brought to justice."

Martin Kimber said he was determined that abusers be brought to justice

But one victim of child sexual abuse in Rotherham, who was raped repeatedly over the course of three years as a teenager, has claimed the council does not care about those affected.

She told Sky News: "What's an apology going to solve? That's not going to change what happened to those girls, it's not going to change what happened to me, and it's not going to change what happened to kids in the future.

"They're just bothered about getting a pay rise."

The gathering came as the Police and Crime Commissioner at the heart of the scandal, Shaun Wright, faced a motion of no confidence at Sheffield City Council this afternoon.

The urgent item of business stated that councillors believed Mr Wright "no longer has the confidence of the public", and demanded that he "resign with immediate effect".

Shaun Wright is facing a vote of no confidence from Sheffield City Council

Lib Dem Councillor Colin Ross said: "Sheffield City Council needs to show that it takes its responsibility to protect vulnerable young people extremely seriously.

"If this vote goes through, I do not see how Shaun Wright can remain in post. His position will be untenable."

But Mr Wright, who did not take heed of calls to stand down last week from the Prime Minister and Home Secretary, has insisted that the failings in Rotherham were "not about one person or one organisation".

The leader of Rotherham Council, Roger Stone, is the only person to have resigned since Professor Alexis Jay outlined how at least 1,400 children were sexually exploited over a 16-year period.

On Tuesday, the Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police, David Crompton, confirmed that 12 more victims had come forward since the report was published last week.

An independent inquiry into the force's handling of sex abuse complaints has been announced, and Mr Wright has agreed to give evidence.

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Ashya's Dad: 'They Treated Us Like Terrorists'

Ashya King's father has claimed his family were "treated like terrorists" after they took their critically ill son out of hospital.

An angry Brett King said he told Southampton Hospital, where the five-year-old was receiving treatment, that they were going to travel abroad so Ashya could receive alternative treatment.

But Doctor Peter Wilson from the hospital defended their response, saying: "We absolutely refute that we over-egged it."

Naghemeh and Brett King speak to the media after their release

Mr and Mrs King have seen their son for the first time since being released, although Mr King claims they cannot move Ashya from the hospital in Malaga because of a court order obtained by Portsmouth Council.

When asked earlier if he would do the same thing again, Mr King told Sky News: "Of course. My son's worth everything.

"Worth me going to prison, worth everything, because they were going to kill him in England or turn him into a vegetable."

The Kings arrive at the hospital in Malaga

Mr King also gave a glimpse into the strain the ordeal had placed on his wife, Naghemeh, who was sat beside him.

He told a news conference she had spent most of the time in a Spanish prison crying and that he had considered moving cells because he could not bear listening to it.

He said: "Being locked up you can't do anything. You can't help your son, you can't help your wife. And you don't know the future; what's going to happen to Ashya without us. We didn't know what was happening.

Brett King said Ashya was 'worth everything'

"Hopefully now we can see our son, we can be together, we can show love to him, because without that there's no purpose to life."

Dr Wilson said that while the hospital was aware the family wanted to go to a clinic in the Czech Republic, "at no stage did the family say to us that they were going to take Ashya and go to Prague".

"When we found that he was missing from the trust, we were at first slightly surprised, and then very very worried," he said.

Brett and Naghemeh King leave jail on Tuesday night

"There's quite a lot of information surrounding this case that we've not been able to share with the media that made us worry for Ashya's safety.

"We therefore, after having looked for him to ensure that we were not over-egging and jumping to conclusions, we did what we should and what any doctor or nurse does in this situation, which is contact the police."

The proton clinic in Prague has said clinicians there are ready to treat Ashya after receiving his medical notes.

Ashya with his father

They have been in contact with Ashya's specialists at Southampton Hospital, who have agreed to refer him to the clinic after two cycles of chemotherapy in the UK, which is likely to take several weeks.

They were detained on Saturday near Malaga and taken to Madrid, where they were kept in separate jails, pending an extradition hearing.

The Crown Prosecution Service decided to drop the case against them on Tuesday.

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Ex-First Lady Details Hollande Split In Memoir

Former French First Lady Valerie Trierweiler has claimed President Francois Hollande tried to win her back with flowers, dinner invitations and text messages in her secret memoir.

The 49-year-old, a journalist for the magazine Paris March, lived with Mr Hollande at the Elysee presidential palace for 18 months until allegations of an affair with an actress surfaced.

She maintained her weekly literary column and granted some interviews after the break-up, but the memoir - written in secret and due to be published on Thursday - contains previously unknown details of their split.

In excerpts published in Paris Match, Ms Trierweiler describes the moment she was hospitalised after taking sleeping pills when news of the affair emerged.

Francois Hollande was with Ms Trierweiler for 18 months before their split

She wrote: "I run into the bathroom. I take the little plastic bag containing the sleeping pills. Francois follows me. He tears away the bag.

"He catches the bag, which tears... I manage to gather up some of them. I want to sleep. I do not want to live the hours to come."

She also wrote about her "uncontrollable" jealously towards Segolene Royal - the mother of his four children and a minister in his government.

And she claimed Mr Hollande bombarded her with up to 29 texts a day, as well as gifts, in the months after their breakup.

She wrote: "He tells me he is going to win me back as if I was an election."

The 49-year-old journalist was hospitalised after their breakup

The memoir, called Thank You For This Moment, has a first print run of 200,000 copies.

A source close to the president said he was "not aware" of the book's publication.

The source told the AFP news agency: "So, by definition, we have not read this book."

But French Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll - a close ally of Mr Hollande - said the country had more important issues to deal with.

He told i>Tele: "We have enough serious, weighty issues. We haven't got a lot of time, so we can't afford to lose it."

Mr Hollande is the most unpopular president in recent French history, with ratings below 20%.

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