Lorry Crash Live Updates: 'Noise And Bangs'

North Korea Threatens To Target The White House

Written By Unknown on Senin, 22 Desember 2014 | 23.39

The North Korean government has threatened to "stand in confrontation with the US in all war spaces" as the diplomatic row over a Sony film continues to escalate.

In a strongly-worded statement, officials branded America as "an ill-famed cesspool of injustice and terrorism".

And it warned that "tough counteraction will be boldly taken against the White House, the Pentagon and the whole US mainland".

Despite being accused by the US of being behind the recent Sony hacking, the secretive state continues to insist it had no involvement.

But Pyongyang praised the "surprisingly sophisticated, destructive and threatening cyber warfare" inflicted on the company, as the movie "dared to hurt the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK".

Meanwhile, South Korea has claimed one of its nuclear power plants fell victim to hacking, but stressed no reactors were affected. The developed country has not implicated North Korea in the attack.

The Interview, which included the fictional assassination of leader Kim Jong-Un, was pulled from cinemas before its release after hackers threatened to target those who went to see the film.

A story from the Korean Central News Agency said: "The Interview is undesirable and reactionary. It should not be allowed in any country or any region. The movie has a story agitating a vicious and dastardly method of assassinating a legitimate head of state.

"DPRK is praising the 'guardians of peace' for their righteous deed which prevented in advance the evil cycle of retaliation – terrorism sparks terrorism."

The Pyongyang government claims it is taking a stand "on the US gangster-like behaviour against it" – and alleges it has clear evidence that American authorities were deeply involved in the movie's production, as it would be "effective propaganda against North Korea".

Its statement said: "The facts glaringly show that the US is the chief culprit of terrorism as it has loudly called for combating terrorism everywhere in the world, but schemed behind the scenes to produce and distribute movies inciting it.

"Nothing is a more serious miscalculation than guessing that just a single movie production company is involved. Our target is all the citadels of the US imperialists who earned the bitterest grudge of Koreans.

"The US should reflect on its evil doings that put itself in such a trouble, apologise to the Koreans and other people of the world, and should not dare pull up others."

North Korea's only significant ally, China, condemned the use of cyber-attacks and cyber-terrorism early on Monday – but stopped short of criticising the state.

President Obama, along with his advisers, is weighing up how to punish North Korea. The FBI concluded that Pyongyang was behind the Sony hacking – the first time that the US has accused another country of orchestrating such a significant cyber-attack.

David Boies, Sony's lawyer, has insisted the embattled entertainment company still plans to release its controversial film - but warned the hack was "a national security problem" and the US government needed to take the lead.

"How it's going to be distributed, I don't think anybody knows quite yet. But it's going to be distributed," he told NBC.

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Glasgow Crash: Witnesses Tell Of Screams

Horrified witnesses have been telling of the moment a bin lorry carreered along a Glasgow street, fatally hitting pedestrians.

At least six people died in the tragedy in George Square in the centre of the city.

One woman has told Sky News of "the noise, the bangs and the screams".

Still on the street in Glasgow as the daylight began to fade, she said the lorry was like "pinball" as it travelled up to 200 yards or more along the street.

"Quite horrific. Very scary," she said.

When Sky News' Scotland Correspondent James Matthews asked her to describe the people who had been hit, she said: "I can't do that."

She added: "When something is coming up behind them like that, how can they run out of the way?"

She also said there was a baby in a buggy. "There were actually two little kids. It was just horrific."

David Lyon escaped being hit by seconds, saying he moved out of the way, trying to save his girlfriend.

"It makes you appreciate life," he said.

Mr Lyon said: "I quite literally moved out the way of a moving truck. I feel quite lucky to be alive.

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Gallery: Bin Lorry Crashes Into Glasgow Shoppers

The rubbish lorry crashed through shoppers in Glasgow before hitting the Millennium Hotel in St George Square. Pic: Radio Clyde

Witnesses described the lorry mounting the pavement and driving for several hundred yards

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Westminster Child Abuse: Claims Of New Murders

By Afua Hirsch, Social Affairs Editor

Two whistle-blowers who had information about MPs' involvement in a paedophile ring could have been murdered, according to a Labour MP who has handed a dossier of evidence to Scotland Yard.

Speaking to Sky News, John Mann claims he has evidence relating to the suspicious deaths of two men – a former Lambeth council official named Bulick Forsythe, and a caretaker whose name he did not disclose.

He said the police were already aware of the potential link between one of the deaths and the child sex abuse ring, which involved "highly influential" politicians during the 1970s and 1980s.

Although Mr Mann has now handed the information to the Metropolitan Police, he has been aware of it since the 1980s and 1990s, when he said the police declined to fully investigate.

"Bulick Forsythe had significant information in relation to child abuse. The second was a caretaker who said he had tapes relating to sex parties that were taking place," he added. "Mr Forsythe went to the police at the time and got nowhere. What I want to see is both those suspicious deaths reinvestigated."

His dossier includes 22 names of MPs he believes were involved in paedophile rings in north Wales, Lambeth, Dolphin Square in London, Rochdale, and one other location which he declined to name for legal reasons.

The MPs named include 14 Conservatives, five Labour politicians and three from other parties. Of them, 13 are former ministers.

Mr Mann told Sky News that he has given the police enough evidence on some of the suspects that he would expect the police to act "soon".

"I am confident there will be people arrested," said Mr Mann. "In some cases I'd be surprised if it didn't happen soon."

The prospect of arrests for child abuse by MPs is likely to intensify calls for an inquiry into the historical allegations.

Home Secretary Theresa May has been dogged by setbacks after two successive chairs were forced to resign over their links to establishment figures in positions of power at the time.

Mrs May said last week that the inquiry should have the powers of a statutory inquiry in order to compel witnesses to give evidence but members of the panel are reported to be "devastated" that the existing inquiry, which has started preliminary work, is to be disbanded.

Scotland Yard detectives were already investigating "credible" claims that the murders of three young boys - aged between seven and 16 - were linked to high-profile abusers, including MPs. One victim was allegedly run over by a car.

Last Thursday, a fresh appeal was launched for further victims of historical abuse at the Dolphin Square estate, in southwest London, to come forward.

Children were allegedly taken to sex parties at the plush property, which was popular with politicians.

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US Families Prepare For 'Modern Day Apocalypse'

By Dominic Waghorn, US Correspondent

From the outside America may seem to be a land of endless optimism and confidence. But could it be in danger of falling apart?

An increasing number of Americans seem to think so, and they're preparing for the end.

They call themselves preppers. Mainstream suburban Americans hoarding supplies and weapons while leading otherwise perfectly normal lives.

It's a national phenomenon and it's supporting a doom boom industry worth many millions.

Braxton Southwick is a typical father-of-six in Salt Lake City, who believes the nice suburban neighbourhood he lives in could soon be swept away by some kind of modern day apocalypse.

Like other preppers, he's afraid of some impending catastrophe but also what that will do to American society.

"I think that is what I'm scared of the most," he told Sky News, "Not the actual events. I've already prepared for that. It's the aftermath, when there are no police, there are no military to protect us, we're going to be protecting ourselves."

The trigger could be a terrorist attack, a monetary collapse, cataclysmic failure in power generation, or a natural disaster. Preppers fear what comes next and have no faith in either their government or human nature.

"Once people use up all their resources, they're going to come after the people that prepared and had more resources. So basically we have to take care of ourselves."

Braxton and his wife Kara have a basement that will see them through Armageddon, literally. Enough dried and canned food to last six months. Enough guns and ammunition to turn their family into a small army.

And they have trained each of their six children, including the youngest aged 15, how to defend themselves with guns to see off the mobs of marauding looters they predict could come after them after their world collapses.

At the other end of America, another family are preparing in exactly the same way. In Virginia, Jay and Holly Blevins hoard food and weapons and run a network of like-minded families.

"We're not talking about folks walking around wearing tin foil on their heads," Jay tells Sky News. "We're not talking about conspiracy theorists.

"I'm talking about professionals: doctors and lawyers and law enforcement and military. Normal, everyday people. They can't necessarily put their finger on it. But there's something about the uncertainty of our times. They know something isn't quite right."

Jay is a celebrity in the strange but increasingly mainstream world of preppers, writing prepper books and touring America, speaking at prepper expos where a bewildering range of survival supplies and techniques are on offer.

Why is it happening? Partly, no doubt, because it allows Americans to indulge in some of their favourite pastimes: consuming, camping and buying lots and lots of guns.

And partly because fear sells, drives up numbers for cable news, and increases sales for everything from dried food to assault rifles.

But it's also arguably a sign of a country coping with economic decline. The end of the American Dream has left people more uncertain about their future, and their country's.

Katy Bryson is in Jay's prepper network. Prepping, she says, puts Americans back in charge of their destiny.

"They're not in control of whether they lose their job or not but they are in control of whether they are prepared. So I feel like that's why the industry is just booming right now for preparedness," Katy added.

It is also a fundamentally American phenomenon. In a country built on the radical individualism of its founding fathers, people have an inbuilt mistrust in their government's ability to protect them.

Sociologist Barry Glastner wrote The Culture of Fear. He told Sky News: "Americans are fairly unique as world citizens in that we tend to believe that we control our own destiny as individuals to a much greater extent than we really do."

Ironically, he points out preppers may actually be reacting to their fears in the least effective way. Dangerous weather, terrorist attacks and economic collapses are all best dealt with by higher authorities, he said.

"Where there are real dangers, to take an individualistic approach is usually exactly the wrong thing to do. So the kinds of things that the preppers are preparing to protect themselves from are much better handled on a community-wide basis than they are in your own home."

:: Dominic Waghorn meets the preppers in The Doom Boom, this Tuesday at 9.30pm on Sky News.

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Tara Palmer-Tomkinson Arrested At Heathrow

Tara Palmer-Tomkinson has blamed a panic attack for a meltdown at Heathrow Airport which led to her being arrested by armed officers.

The socialite was detained following her reaction to being refused access to a first-class lounge, The Sun said.

Video footage filmed by a witness showed her sobbing, swearing and tearing out her hair extensions during the incident on Saturday, the newspaper said.

Palmer-Tomkinson, who has battled drug problems in the past, was taken to a west London police station and accepted a caution under the Public Order Act.

Following her arrest, the former reality television star said a panic attack triggered her behaviour.

She said: "I wasn't drunk, there was no disorderly. I was cautioned, I saw a doctor, they were nice to me."

Palmer-Tomkinson has since flown to Switzerland, where she will celebrate her 43rd birthday, the paper said.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "Police at Heathrow Terminal 5 were made aware of disturbance in the forecourt of the building at approximately 3.30pm on Saturday, 20 December.

"Officers arrived at the scene and arrested a 42-year-old woman.

"She was taken to a west London police station and subsequently accepted a caution under section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986."

In June Palmer-Tomkinson told Jeremy Kyle she had become a virtual recluse who barely left her house due to anxiety.

Last year, she was arrested at Zurich airport after a scanner picked up an image of a gun in her luggage. The apparent weapon turned out to be a pair of designer Chanel shoes with a high heel in the shape of a pistol.

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Pakistan To Execute 500 Terror Convicts

Pakistan plans to execute around 500 militants after the government lifted a moratorium on the death penalty in terror cases.

It comes after Taliban gunmen killed 149 people, including 133 children, in a school massacre in the northwestern city of Peshawar last week.

Six militants have been hanged since Friday amid rising public anger over the slaughter.

Around nine gunmen stormed the army-run school on 16 December taking teachers and students hostage and killing them in classrooms.

After the deadliest terror attack in Pakistani history, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ended the six-year moratorium on the death penalty, reinstating it for terrorism-related cases.

"Interior ministry has finalised the cases of 500 convicts who have exhausted all the appeals, their mercy petitions have been turned down by the president and their executions will take place in coming weeks," a senior government official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Of the six hanged so far, five were involved in a failed attempt to assassinate the then-military ruler Pervez Musharraf in 2003, while one was involved in a 2009 attack on army headquarters.

Police, troops and paramilitary Rangers have been deployed across the country and airports and prisons put on red alert as the executions take place and troops intensify operations against Taliban militants in northwestern tribal areas.

Mr Sharif has ordered the attorney general's office to "actively pursue" capital cases currently in the courts, a government spokesman said.

The decision to reinstate executions has been condemned by human rights groups, with the United Nations also calling for it to reconsider.

Human Rights Watch described the executions "a craven politicised reaction to the Peshawar killings" and demanded that no further hangings be carried out.

Pakistan began its de facto moratorium on civilian executions in 2008, but hanging remains on the statute books and judges continue to pass death sentences.

Before Friday's resumption, only one person had been executed since then - a soldier convicted by a court martial and hanged in November 2012.

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Burglary Suspect Dies After Taser Shooting

A burglary suspect has died after being shot with a Taser by officers in Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Staffordshire Police had been called to a block of flats after receiving reports of a break-in shortly after 1am on Monday morning.

The occupants of a first floor flat, understood to be a young couple with a little boy, were not inside when officers arrived, according to a force spokesman.

However, another man was in the flat and officers deployed a Taser.

The suspected burglar became unresponsive after being taken to a police vehicle.

Paramedics from the West Midlands Ambulance Service tried to treat the man, but he died a short time later.

Uniformed officers remain on guard outside the flat's doorway, while residents spoke of their shock at the night's events.

A resident living on the ground floor with his pregnant girlfriend said he saw a "drunk-looking" man being supported and escorted by at least three police officers into a custody van.

The 22-year-old, who declined to be named, said at about 1.45am he heard the white male call "help me", as he was walked along a short path leading from the front of the flats to the main road.

He added that the first he heard of any trouble was "shouting in the corridor", but initially thought nothing of it.

"I just thought it's the lads having a few beers, but then there was banging," he said.

The resident, who lives right by the front door to the block of flats said he grew alarmed, and helped his six-and-a-half month pregnant girlfriend into her car and off to her parents while he stayed.

"It's something when you have to put your missus in the car and send her off," he said. "I just locked the door and wanted nothing to do with it."

The incident has been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

A spokesman for the Staffordshire force said: "A detailed investigation is under way and the scene will remain cordoned off while the investigation continues.

"Local officers will be in the community throughout the day talking to residents."

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Seal Stranded In Field In St Helens - Really

Take the dog out for a walk and what do you expect to find in the field? A seal, of course.

Police and residents of one Merseyside town are completely baffled after one such water-loving mammal was discovered stranded in an inland field - seven miles from the nearest waterway.

The seal was spotted by a dog walker in Newton-le-Willows, near St Helens at around 9.45am on Monday.

Officers had warned members of the public not to approach the animal, which was in a field next to a main road.

He was described as "very distressed".

Pictures showed the animal looking quite sorry for itself as it lay on a muddy patch in the field.

The animal has since been contained by officers, with conservation experts coaxing him into a trailer using mackerel.

In a statement, Merseyside Police said: "Police in St Helens were called at around 9.45 this morning by a dog walker, reporting that she'd seen what appeared to be a seal in the middle of a field in the St Helens area."

They added earlier: "Police have contained the seal and representatives from the British Diver Marine Life Rescue Service are making their way to the scene.

"Seals are powerful animals and potentially dangerous. Police are advising the public to stay away from the area."

It is thought the animal may somehow have arrived in the field from the estuary of the River Mersey which starts at Runcorn.

The mammal is being taken to the Mersey, where it is hoped it will join a seal colony there.

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Glasgow: Six Dead As Lorry Runs Over Shoppers

A bin lorry has smashed into a crowd of Christmas shoppers in Glasgow city centre, killing six people.

The number of people injured in the accident is believed to be in double figures.

The crowd were waiting to cross the road outside Queen Street station by the Millennium Hotel in the centre of the city and some people are thought to have been thrown up to 15 metres from the site of impact.

As many as six ambulances are at the scene, along with the police and fire service and pictures on social media show people being treated along the length of the street.

A woman who witnessed the entire event told Sky News: "The only way the lorry stopped was actually hitting the building."

Sky correspondent James Matthews who is at the scene asked the witness to tell him about the people on the pavement who had been hit.

The distressed woman said: "I can't, honestly I just can't do that."

She went on to say: "When something is coming up behind them like that, how can they run out of the way? It's such a horrific thing. There was noise and bangs and screams.

"There was a baby in a buggy. There were actually two little kids. It was just horrific."

Sky's James Matthews said: "There is no structural damage to the hotel. This is bang in the middle of Glasgow's shopping area.

"The lorry collided with pedestrians before ramming into the hotel."

A witness told Sky News: "People were just in shock Just standing about screaming. A mother with her baby in the pram she had fainted. Apparently the lorry had just missed her and her child."

Police have declared the scene a major incident. A statement released by Police Scotland said: "About 2.30pm today, a Glasgow City Council bin lorry was travelling north on Queen Street when it appeared to strike pedestrians outside the Gallery of Modern Art.

"It continued to travel towards George Square, when it crashed at the Millennium Hotel on Queen Street at George Square.

"There have been a number of fatalities and people injured. Emergency services are currently at the scene."

Police say the lorry travelled 300 metres from the moment of initial impact until it stopped.

Lauren Gilmore, a shopper in George Square, said: "Just over a year ago, we had another tragedy in Glasgow – it was the helicopter crash. And now this has happened again just before Christmas."

Witness Connor Gillies a reporter with Radio Clyde told Sky News that the whole of Queen Street has been cordoned off and emergency services are arriving by the minute.

Describing the scene on Twitter, Brett Molloy tweeted: "Christ something major has kicked off at Queen St."

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Gallery: Bin Lorry Crashes Into Glasgow Shoppers

The rubbish lorry crashed through shoppers in Glasgow before hitting the Millennium Hotel in St George Square. Pic: Radio Clyde

Witnesses described the lorry mounting the pavement and driving for several hundred yards

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