UK bomb plot suspect Abid Naseer found guilty

A Pakistani man extradited from the UK to the US has been convicted for plotting attacks in several countries.

Abid Naseer, 28, was found guilty by a New York jury of providing material support to al-Qaeda and conspiracy to use a destructive device.

He faces up to life imprisonment at sentencing.

Evidence at Naseer's trial included a document found in the raid of the bin Laden compound and MI5 officers testifying in wigs.

A jury took returned the verdict after a day of deliberation following closing arguments on Monday.

Prosecutors argued Naseer was part of a broader al-Qaeda conspiracy to attack various Western locations, including a Manchester shopping centre and the New York subway system.
Abid Naseer (seen here in 2010) was previously arrested in the UK over a bomb plot in Manchester

In closing arguments on Monday, prosecutors said Naseer lied about his history during his defence, including becoming radicalised in Pakistan.

"If the defendant hadn't been stopped, hundreds of innocent men, women and children wouldn't be alive today," prosecutor Zainab Ahmed said during closing arguments.

"The defendant has something to hide," Ms Ahmed said, according to the New York Daily News.

"He was trying to cover up his motive for revenge against the United States and its Nato allies. Revenge was the defendant's motive."

Naseer, who represented himself in court, said in closing arguments the prosecution had not directly connected him to al-Qaeda.

He insisted his emails were simply harmless banter about finding a wife.
The trial heard from MI5 operatives dressed in wigs and make-up

"He wanted to settle down," Naseer said speaking in the third person on Monday. "Is there anything wrong with that?"

His defence was largely based on his own testimony and cross-examining prosecution witnesses.

Prosecutors brought in MI5 agents who had previously tracked Naseer in 2009 at a shopping centre in the UK.

They also relied on the testimony of two co-conspirators who pleaded guilty to the subway plot - Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay - who said certain words in Naseer's emails about marriage were code.

The New York jury were also presented a letter to Osama Bin Laden outlining planned attacks.

Taken during a US Navy Seal raid on the al-Qaeda chief's Pakistan home in 2011, the papers made no mention of Manchester specifically and did not mention the defendant's name.

In the letter to Bin Laden, the author says "brothers" had been dispatched to Britain, Russia and Europe but that some had been arrested.

Iraqi forces seek to encircle IS fighters in Tikrit

IS-held areas of Tikrit have come under heavy bombardment since the offensive began

Iraqi army soldiers and Shia militiamen are seeking to encircle Islamic State fighters in Tikrit, on the third day of a major operation to retake the city.

State-run al-Iraqiya TV said government forces were "advancing" but progress has been slowed by roadside bombs.

Security sources said they had captured villages and oil fields east of the city, and blocked a key IS supply line to neighbouring Diyala province.

The offensive is being overseen at least in part by an Iranian general.

On Tuesday, the top US general said Iran's role in Tikrit could be positive, as long as it did not fuel sectarian tensions.

'Suffocate then pounce'

Some 30,000 soldiers and militiamen from the Popular Mobilisation (Hashid Shaabi) force, backed by Iraqi jets and helicopters, have advanced gradually since the offensive began on Monday.

On Wednesday, a source in the Samarra Operations Command told the BBC that government forces had taken control of the village of al-Maibdi, on the road between Tikrit and the Kurdish-controlled city of Kirkuk, as well as the nearby Ajil and Alas oilfields. The road was a key supply route for IS between Salahuddin and Diyala provinces, the source said.
Soldiers and militiamen have recaptured several towns and villages surrounding Tikrit


Another official told All Iraq News that the villages of Siha and Mazraat al-Rahim, just to the north of Tikrit in al-Alam district, had also been retaken.

However, the soldiers and militiamen have not breached IS defences around Tikrit and al-Dour, a town 19km (12 miles) to the south, which officials say is another stronghold of the jihadist group.

Military officials said on Tuesday that al-Dour had been surrounded and sealed off, but that an assault on the town had not yet been launched.


Popular Mobilisation
Iranian-backed Shia militiamen have played a key role in forcing IS to retreat north of Baghdad
The Popular Mobilisation (Hashid Shaabi), comprising dozens of Shia militia, takes a lead role in Iraqi operations against IS
It was formed by the Shia-led government in June 2014 after the army collapsed in the face of an advance by IS across northern Iraq
Thousands volunteered to fight after Iraq's most senior Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, called on people to take up arms and defend their country and its holy sites
Iran provides funding, weapons and military advisers to militia in the Popular Mobilisation, and reportedly controls several of them directly
The Popular Mobilisation is headed by Jamal Jaafar Mohammed, also known as Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis, a former Badr Organisation commander who is close to Iranian General Qassem Soleimani
Militiamen have been accused of committing atrocities and acting with impunity. Activists say Sunni Arab civilians have been forced from their homes, kidnapped, and in some cases summarily killed


A senior army commander said the operation was focused on preventing IS from launching more attacks, and cutting supply lines to stop reinforcements and weapons reaching Tikrit.

The next step would be to "surround the towns completely, suffocate them and then pounce," Lt Gen Abdul Amir al-Zaidi told the AFP news agency.

Gen Zaidi said progress along roads into Tikrit had been slowed by sniper fire and roadside bombs planted by IS militants since they seized Saddam Hussein's hometown last June. On one 8km (5-mile) stretch of road, soldiers found about 100 mines and bombs.

Sectarianism fears

Troops taking part in the offensive have so far not received the support of US-led coalition aircraft.

Coalition officials said air strikes had not been requested by the Iraqi authorities, but there are reportedly concerns about the prominent role of Iran and its allied Shia militia.

Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, was said on Tuesday to have been directing operations from near the frontline east of Tikrit.

A senior commander in the main Shia alliance, Moeen al-Kadhimi, explained his strategy against IS to the BBC's Ahmed Maher

He was seen alongside the leader of the Popular Mobilisation, Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis, and Transport Minister Hadi al-Amiri, who heads the powerful Badr Organisation.

Iranian troops are also reportedly operating artillery, rocket launchers and aerial drones.

Gen Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Tikrit campaign signalled a new level of Iranian involvement but added that it could turn out to be "a positive thing".

"This is the most overt conduct of Iranian support, in the form of artillery and other things," he said in a response to questions from members of the Senate armed services committee.

"Frankly, it will only be a problem if it results in sectarianism."

The UN warned that the operation had to be conducted "with full respect for fundamental human rights principles and humanitarian law" after militia leaders vowed to seek revenge for the massacre of hundreds of soldiers, most of them Shia, at Camp Speicher near Tikrit in June.

Million dollar motor: When an ordinary car is not enough

What do you buy when an ordinary luxury car is just not good enough? How about a Dartz Prombron?

This monster is built on a Mercedes-Benz chassis. The list of options and features is breathtaking: V8 or V12 six-litre engine, a top speed of 194mph (312km/h), armour-plating, bullet-proof windows, electrified door handles, a choice of exotic leather interiors, dual petrol tanks, signal jammer... the list is almost endless.

The vehicle, which costs at least $1.1m (£730,000; €1m), is the brainchild of Leonard Yankelovich. He was born and grew up in Latvia, when it was still part of the Soviet Union. He trained as an engineer, and made a fortune from customising windows and other car parts in the 1990s.

The Dartz workshop and offices are located on the site of the old Russo-Baltic works in Latvia's capital Riga, where in the past luxury train carriages were made, as well as early models of armoured cars.
The car's body is armour-plated to enable a driver to make a quick getaway in the event of a shooting

"I am continuing a tradition," says Mr Yankelovich.

After a period of doing increasingly elaborate customisation work, Mr Yankelovich eventually moved into creating vehicles aimed at a new target market - the ultra wealthy.

"Rich people are strange people," he says.

He mentions that he has a client from the UAE who owned a Bugatti sports car, and who then became dissatisfied when his friends also bought Bugattis.

Luxury is too common a word… luxury you can buy in a supermarket. I use the word opulence.
Leonard Yankelovich, Dartz

He says it's like "two ladies [who] will hate to come to a party [wearing] the same dress".

Mr Yankelovich says his customers are often driven by a need to own something exclusive. Essentially they want something that other people cannot have, and that has been made especially for them.

In order to serve this market, he says he has to go beyond ordinary luxury.

"Luxury is too common a word… luxury you can buy in a supermarket," he says. "I use the word opulence."

One way to achieve this is through attention to detail. For example, buttons in the car are often gold-plated or made from titanium rather than plastic.

For Mr Yankelovich the aim is to commemorate the glories of the past when, in items made for Russian tsars, sometimes parts like screws would be engraved with the owner's name. Though unseen, the owner would know they were there.

"That's opulence," he says.
The Prombron is believed to be the world's most expensive SUV
All the car's internal features, such as the steering wheel, are finished with a high level of detail
The car windows are extra thick to protect passengers from any kind of attack

But trying to achieve this goal has sometimes caused him trouble. Amongst the exotic coverings that could be used to finish the car's interior he once suggested that whale penis leather could be an option.

A storm of protests followed, including objections from the actress Pamela Anderson. Mr Yankelovich backed down, although Dartz still offers a wide range of other leather finishes, including crocodile.

Another key selling point for the vehicle is protection. Armour-plating is built into the body of the car, rather than being bolted on afterwards and even the bonnet is armoured.

Mr Yankelovich says this is sometimes overlooked but is very important. If the bonnet is not protected, an attacker might be able to shoot at the engine and disable the vehicle, and then would be free to attack the car and its occupants at leisure.

The aim, he says, is not to build a tank, but to enable the car to get away as quickly as possible if a shot is fired - so there is no time for a second shot.
A Dartz car featured in the Sacha Baron Cohen film The Dictator

It may be this aspect that has attracted the interests of Hollywood filmmakers. Dartz cars have featured in several movies, including The Dictator.

A Dartz vehicle does not come cheap. Mr Yankelovich is coy about the exact price, partly because each model is individually made, and the huge range of options mean that final prices will vary a lot. However, he indicates that a vehicle is unlikely to cost less than a million euros.

Mr Yankelovich says he has had some success with his business, with sales to customers in several parts of the world. The biggest challenge though is to find more customers and grow the business further.

But does Dartz's approach provide the basis for a viable long-term business model?

Magic 'metamaterials' storm physics

One material on display was a rubber slab with programmable stiffness

Physicists are abuzz with possibilities for "metamaterials" that can be designed to have surprising properties.

Tweaking the structure of materials to manipulate things like their appearance is already fairly well-known; the next phase is changing their mechanics.

A major conference is alive with ideas, designs and samples including springy ceramics, unfeelability cloaks and programmable rubber sponges.

They could help build spacecraft tiles or even terrain-sensitive shoe soles.

"I think this idea of metamaterials is slowly migrating into different areas," said Prof Martin Wegener, from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany.

"Originally the excitement was all about electromagnetism - and then it went to totally different areas like thermodynamics and, lately, mechanics."

Prof Wegner also told the BBC that the term "metamaterial" has been applied to all sorts of weird and wonderful designs, without much consistency - but that it usually refers to a case where unusual properties jump out, which would not be expected from the original ingredients.

Now you feel it

Prof Wegener works on cloaking, but his aim is not to make things invisible. He wants to hide them from physical forces, and last year his lab produced a honeycomb-like material that made an object beneath it unfeelable.

This particular metamaterial was a solid lattice that acts like a fluid in certain ways, deflecting pressure around its hidden cargo.
A small honeycomb structure cloaked the cylinder beneath from being felt

Now the tiny, hidden cylinder was very small in that case (less than 1mm) but related work by Prof Wegener's team was picked up by French physicists and engineers, who showed that a careful pattern of drilled holes could divert damaging earthquake vibrations.

Turning the ground itself into a sort of metamaterial, it seems, might go so far as to protect a power station from a tremor.

Here at the American Physical Society's March Meeting, Prof Wegener presented his latest work - which includes cloaking a hole at the centre of a flat sheet - saying: "It’s a design principle. You can apply it to anything you want."

Set your sole

Elsewhere at the meeting, Bastiaan Florijn, a final-year PhD student at Leiden University in the Netherlands, showed reporters what he calls thefirst ever mechanically "programmable" material.

It is a surprisingly low-tech looking slab of rubber, punched with an array of holes. But those holes, of two sizes, are specifically designed so that they can compress either vertically or sideways - and that switch is controlled by adding a small clamp.

The end result is a sort of oversized sponge that can be stiff, or soft, or flit between the two at a specific stage of the squeeze.
Prof Bertoldi has worked on metal 'metamaterials' to improve engine components

If it switches to become softer while still under pressure, this is known as "negative stiffness" - a property so weird that Mr Florijn said he still hasn't worked out an application for it.

But the slabs have another property that could be immensely useful: they absorb energy.

"Imagine a car bumper that you can program - for instance, if you drive in a neighbourhood with a lot of small kids, you want to have a very soft bumper," Mr Florign said.

"But then if you're going fast on the highway, you want it to be stiff." He and his colleagues are also talking to shoe companies, who are interested in producing soles that adjust to different terrain.

Saving engines

Prof Katia Bertoldi of Harvard University also studies strange, elastic materials like this, which have a negative "Poisson ratio".

This means that when you compress them, instead of squashing out to the sides and getting both flatter and wider, they actually shrink in all directions.

Then when stretched, they expand in all directions. Prof Bertoldi's team has engineered various useful properties into such materials, including making them absorb sound at different frequencies when squeezed.

The Poisson ratio can also affect fatigue in a metal - so she has worked with Rolls Royce to design engine components with complex slits wound into them, which withstand many more cycles of compression before breaking.

To get unique properties, Prof Bertoldi said, "we can either engineer complex building blocks, or use simple ones and arrange them in an interesting way".

Tubular bounce

A team at the California Institute of Technology, meanwhile, has madevery small ceramics that do something entirely unprecedented: they spring back after being squashed by up to 50%.

They used a technique that builds material one atomic layer at a time, to create a network of hollow ceramic tubes.

The tube walls are just a few nanometres thick (millionths of a millimetre) and the whole lattice is thinner than a piece of paper.
The group's latest ceramic designs use a lattice of lattices, rather like the Eiffel Tower

"I could have several in my hand now and you wouldn’t know," said PhD student Lucas Meza.

Their raw material is aluminium oxide, which is stronger than steel - but like most ceramics, it is usually terribly brittle.

With the right thickness in the tube walls, however, these tiny specimens simply rebound from a blow. They are still far, far too small to be useful, but with enough investment Mr Meza is sure the ceramics will find a home, particularly "in places where our normal materials don't work".

Spacecraft or jet engines, for example, might use ceramic tiling rather than a metal shell, in order to withstand heat.

Stepbrother charged with Becky Watts murder in Bristol

Becky Watts went missing from her family home on 19 February

Nathan Matthews, the stepbrother of missing 16-year-old Becky Watts, has been charged with her murder, Avon and Somerset Police have said.

His girlfriend, Shauna Hoare, 21, also known as Shauna Phillips, has been charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The pair, of Cotton Mill Lane, Bristol, are due before magistrates on Thursday.

Four other men and a woman, all in their 20s, are still being questioned on suspicion of assisting an offender.

Mr Matthews and Ms Hoare are due to appear at Bristol Magistrates Court at 10:00 GMT on Thursday.

Ms Hoare was last night taken to hospital by officers after "feeling unwell" in custody but returned after being seen by a doctor, police previously said.

Becky, who was described by her family as "wonderful", was last seen on 19 February and was reported missing the following day.
Nathan Matthews and Shauna Hoare were arrested at the weekend
Floral tributes have been left outside Becky's home in St George, Bristol

On Tuesday, body parts were found at a house in Barton Hill, Bristol.

Floral tributes have been left outside Becky's home and near the house where the body parts were found.

A fundraising page has also been set up to help pay for Becky's funeral.

St Ambrose Church, near the family home, is to hold a special hour-long service from 20:00.

On Thursday, the church will also open from 10:30 to 21:00 for people to light candles in the 16-year-old's memory.

A book of condolence has also been placed there.

The Right Reverend Mike Hill, Bishop of Bristol, paid tribute to Becky's family and said he had been "deeply" affected by the death.

"I feel sure that people both of faith and of no faith will join with me in wishing to support the friends and family of Becky Watts," he said.

On Wednesday morning, magistrates granted police a further 24 hours to question the two men aged 29, two aged 23 and a woman aged 23 who had been arrested earlier in the week on suspicion of assisting an offender.

'First human' discovered in Ethiopia

The

Scientists have unearthed the jawbone of what they claim is one of the very first humans.

The 2.8 million-year-old specimen is 400,000 years older than researchers thought that our kind first emerged.

The discovery in Ethiopia suggests climate change spurred the transition from tree dweller to upright walker.

The head of the research team told BBC News that the find gives the first insight into "the most important transitions in human evolution".

This is the most important transition in human evolution”Prof Brian VillmoareUniversity of Nevada

Prof Brian Villmoare of the University of Nevada in Las Vegas said the discovery makes a clear link between an iconic 3.2 million-year-old hominin (human-like primate) discovered in the same area in 1974, called "Lucy".

Could Lucy's kind - which belonged to the species Australopithecus afarensis - have evolved into the very first primitive humans?

"That's what we are arguing," said Prof Villmoare.

But the fossil record between the time period when Lucy and her kin were alive and the emergence of Homo erectus (with its relatively large brain and humanlike body proportions) two million years ago is sparse.

The 2.8 million-year-old lower jawbone was found in the Ledi-Geraru research area, Afar Regional State, by Ethiopian student Chalachew Seyoum. He told BBC News that he was "stunned" when he saw the fossil.

"The moment I found it, I realised that it was important, as this is the time period represented by few (human) fossils in Eastern Africa."

The fossil is of the left side of the lower jaw, along with five teeth. The back molar teeth are smaller than those of other hominins living in the area and are one of the features that distinguish humans from more primitive ancestors, according to Professor William Kimbel, director of Arizona State University's Institute of Human Origins.

These new studies challenge us to consider the very definition of what it is to be human”Prof Chris StringerNatural History Museum, London

"Previously, the oldest fossil attributed to the genus Homo was an upper jaw from Hadar, Ethiopia, dated to 2.35m years ago," he told BBC News.

"So this new discovery pushes the human line back by 400,000 years or so, very close to its likely (pre-human) ancestor. Its mix of primitive and advanced features makes the Ledi jaw a good transitional form between (Lucy) and later humans."

A computer reconstruction of a skull belonging to the species Homo habilis, which has been published in Nature journal, indicates that it may well have been the evolutionary descendant of the species announced today.

The researcher involved, Prof Fred Spoor of University College London told BBC News that, taken together, the new findings had lifted a veil on a key period in the evolution of our species.

"By discovering a new fossil and re-analysing an old one we have truly contributed to our knowledge of our own evolutionary period, stretching over a million years that had been shrouded in mystery," he said.

Climate change

The dating of the jawbone might help answer one of the key questions in human evolution. What caused some apes to climb down from the trees and make their homes on the ground.

A separate study in Science hints that a change in climate might have been a factor. An analysis of the fossilised plant and animal life in the area suggests that what had once been lush forest had become dry grassland.

As the trees made way for vast plains, apes found a way of exploiting the new environmental niche, developing bigger brains and becoming less reliant on having big jaws and teeth by using tools.

Prof Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London described the discovery as a "big story".

He says the new species clearly does show the earliest step toward human characteristics, but suggests that half a jawbone is not enough to tell just how human it was and does not provide enough evidence to suggest that it was this line that led to us.
The jawbone was found close to the area where Lucy was discovered

He notes that the emergence of human-like characteristics was not unique to Ethiopia.

"The human-like features shown by Australopithecus sediba in South Africa at around 1.95 million years ago are likely to have developed independently of the processes which produced (humans) in East Africa, showing that parallel origins are a distinct possibility," Prof Stringer explained.

This would suggest several different species of humans co-existing in Africa around two million years ago with only one of them surviving and eventually evolving into our species, Homo sapiens. It is as if nature was experimenting with different versions of the same evolutionary configuration until one succeeded.

Prof Stringer added: "These new studies leave us with an even more complex picture of early humans than we thought, and they challenge us to consider the very definition of what it is to be human. Are we defined by our small teeth and jaws, our large brain, our long legs, tool-making, or some combination of these traits?"

Boston bombing trial: Tsarnaev lawyer admits his guilt

The trial of the man accused of bombing the Boston Marathon two years ago has begun, with his defence lawyer telling the jury he committed the crime.

"It was him," the lawyer said as she prepared to defend Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's actions by saying he had been influenced by his older brother.

Mr Tsarnaev, 21, could face the death penalty and is charged with more than 30 counts relating to the bombings.

It was the deadliest terror attack on US soil since 9/11.

Speaking before the defence, a federal prosecutor said in opening statements on Wednesday that Tsarnaev had "murder in his heart" when he placed the bomb.

In 2013, Mr Tsarnaev pleaded not guilty to all charges related to the attack.

The left side of the court was filled with about two dozen of the attack's victims as the trial began.

Three people, including an eight-year-old boy, were killed after two pressure cooker bombs packed with nails, ball bearings and other shrapnel detonated in April 2013.

More than 260 people were injured, with many losing limbs.
A member of Mr Tsarnaev's defence team walks into the court Wednesday morning
Many victims of the bombings attended the first day of the trial

Opening statements

The prosecutor delivered his statements first. Mr Tsarnaev's lead defence attorney followed, and immediately shocked the court by candidly telling the jury that he was responsible for the attack.

The 21-year-old suspect slouched in his chair and stared straight ahead as the prosecutor, William Weinreb, began his opening statement.

Detailing the scene near the finish line just under two years ago, the prosecutor said: "The air was filled with the smell of burning sulphur and people's screams."

Mr Weinreb described the backpack bomb that Mr Tsarnaev allegedly planted at the finish as "the type of bombs favoured by terrorists because it's designed to tear people apart and create a bloody spectacle."

Among those in attendance were Denise and Bill Richard, whose 8-year-old son, Martin, died in the bombings.

As they looked on, the prosecutor told the jury that Ms Richard watched helplessly as "the bomb tore large chunks of flesh out of Martin Richard".

The boy had been standing on a metal barrier with other children so that he could better see the runners crossing the finish line.

Heather Abbott, who lost a leg in the attack, sat near the Richard family.

"While victims of the bombing lay in the hospital and learned that they would have to have their limbs chopped off to save their lives, the defendant pretended that nothing had happened," Mr Weinreb said, noting that Mr Tsarnaev returned to socialise with his friends at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth following the attack.
The two bombs detonated at the finishing line of the Boston Marathon


Judy Clarke, a famed attorney who has represented a number of high-profile suspects in the past, began her opening remarks by saying: "It was him."

She said that her team would not attempt to "sidestep" Mr Tsarnaev's guilt in carrying out the "senseless, horribly misguided acts carried out by two brothers".

Instead, she will argue that his elder brother, Tamerlan, was the mastermind of the plot and coerced the younger sibling into being a submissive participant.

After the lawyers concluded their opening statements, several witnesses were brought before the jury to testify.

The jurors were also shown a video of one of the explosions. It showed a huge blast of smoke, and several police officers running to the scene.

Mr Tsarnaev is also accused of killing a police officer in the days after the bombing.

A huge police manhunt followed the attacks, culminating in Mr Tsarnaev's arrest and the death of his elder brother.

World's oldest person celebrates 117th birthday in Japan

The world's oldest person, a woman from Japan, is turning 117-years-old.

Misao Okawa, who was born on 5 March 1898 in Osaka, spent time with family the day before her actual birthday, to mark the occasion.

Speaking at Wednesday's celebrations she said that 117 years didn't seem like such a long time.

She now lives in a nursing home in Osaka and staff there said she has slowed down a bit in recent months and has trouble with her hearing.

Despite this she is still in good health and eats well.

Born to a kimono maker, Mrs Okawa married her husband Yukio in 1919. He died in 1931.

They had two daughters and a son. Mrs Okawa now has four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

She was officially recognised as the world's oldest person in 2013 by Guinness World Records.