Sirena Seaways ferry damaged hitting Harwich dock

Almost 500 passengers were stranded on a ferry for more than two hours after it struck the quay while docking and started to let in water.

The DFDS ferry Sirena Seaways, with 489 passengers on board, hit Parkeston Quay, in Harwich, Essex, just after midday.
Eyewitnesses said the ship was listing after the accident, which holed the vessel beneath the water line.
Essex Fire and Rescue Service said no-one was trapped or injured.

The fire service said the ship's crew plugged the hole from inside and built a compartment with watertight doors to stem the leak.

There had been no pollution, a spokesman added.
A Department for Transport spokesman said a team from the Maritime Accident Investigation Branch was at the scene investigating how the accident happened.

 Very successful outcome'
The Walton Coastguard rescue team, the Harwich RNLI lifeboat, the harbour launch boat, and an RAF search and rescue helicopter from Wattisham Airfield attended the incident, along with a number of other nearby vessels and tugs that went to assist.
At 14:45 BST the ferry was brought along the quayside and all the passengers on board started disembarking.
Aimee Rampton, watch manager at Thames Coastguard, said: "We had a very successful outcome today: 489 people onboard and no injuries incurred."

The 23,000-tonne vessel had just arrived from Esbjerg, Denmark.
It is described on the DFDS website as a "modern cruise ship with a real focus on passenger entertainment and comfort".
Eric Chalmers, who was at quay when the crash happened, said the ferry was "only just" upright in the water following the collision.
Mr Chalmers said: "I heard a horrible, really loud crumpling, thundery noise.
"I snapped my head around and there she is, ploughing straight into the docks bows-on."
Chris Vincent, 50, was on board the ship having returned from a motorcycle tour to the Arctic Circle and said the ship "juddered" as it hit the quayside.

                                            Passenger Chris Vincent said he heard a loud bang
  
'Heard a bang'
"We were coming into the port at about 11:45 BST and were due to arrive at 12:00. The ferry seemed to be coming in at quite some speed," he said.
 We heard a bang and some metallic noises. We looked out of the cabin window and could see the ship had hit a hydraulic boarding ramp and some metal bollards. The front of the ship ploughed into the quay."
"The crew were quite good and kept everybody calm. They put tea and coffee and soft drinks on for everybody."
Mr Vincent, a salesman from Syston, Leicestershire, said messages over the ship's public address system told passengers what was happening.
Ch Insp Nick Lee, of Essex Police, said: "We worked closely with DFDS, the Port of Harwich authorities and the coastguard. The boat was redocked and the passengers were able to disembark."
Gert Jakobsen, vice-president of communications for DFDS, said it was "difficult to say" why the ship had struck the quayside.
"There might have been some wind, we don't know why, but it hit the quay," he said.
"A ship is very heavy and it caused some damage to the quayside. There was also some damage to the ship in the front at the starboard side.
"It took in a little water but not much. The ship was fully able to handle it so it only took in water for a short period of time."

Leading human rights group evicted from Moscow office

                                                 The stand-off began on Friday afternoon 

A prominent Russian human rights group has been forcibly evicted from its office in Moscow after a stand-off with the city authorities over the lease.

Security guards removed veteran activist Lev Ponomarev and his For Human Rights group in a dramatic operation in the middle of the night.
Mr Ponomarev, 72, said later he had been beaten and kicked, and others had been assaulted too.
Non-governmental organisations have come under mounting pressure in Russia.
A law passed since Vladimir Putin was re-elected president last year obliges them to register as "foreign agents" if they receive any foreign funding, thereby stigmatising them in the eyes of many Russians.
Hundreds of NGOs in Russia have been raided in recent months.
Mr Ponomarev, a founding member of Russia's Memorial human rights organisation in the late 1980s, has publicly refused to register For Human Rights.
He suggested the eviction was linked to his group's stance and that it had paid its rent on the property, which it had occupied for 15 years, to the end of June.
However, Moscow city council said the lease had expired. "We simply evicted them because the Moscow government is not in the mood to have anyone freeload on its property," a spokesperson told AFP news agency, speaking on condition of anonymity.
'Dragged and kicked' The stand-off in Maly Kislovky Alley, in the city centre, began on Friday afternoon when council bailiffs arrived at the office for the eviction.
As they sought to change the locks, Mr Ponomarev and his staff of six refused to leave, and he spoke to reporters through a window.
Several liberal opposition politicians joined him in a gesture of solidarity.
At around 02:00 on Saturday (22:00 GMT Friday), a large group of men stormed the office.
"They treated us very roughly," he told Reuters news agency by telephone. "I was dragged across the floor and then kicked."
He added that he and five others had been taken by ambulance to a first-aid clinic with bruises and scrapes, but none were in hospital.
Moscow police said they had kept order outside the office but had not taken part in the actual eviction, which was carried out by private security guards. Opposition politicians insisted police had been involved too.
A small group of protesters gathered outside the office on Saturday.
Russian human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin said the dispute should have been resolved through the courts.

Canada floods: Three killed as waters threaten Calgary

                                  Footage of a roof colliding with a bridge in Bragg Creek, Alberta

At least three people have been killed and more than a 100,000 forced to flee their homes as floods triggered by torrential rain hit western Canada.

Officials have ordered the evacuation of the centre of Calgary, Alberta, after both rivers that flow through it, the Bow and Elbow, overflowed.
The floods have washed away roads and bridges, cut-off electricity and submerged hundreds of homes.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper toured flood-damaged areas on Friday.
He has promised federal assistance for those affected.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt Patricia Neely confirmed that three people were dead and two bodies had been recovered.
She said the bodies recovered are of two men found in the Highwood River near High River, about 40 miles (64km) south of Calgary, on Thursday.

                                        Flood waters surround the hospital in Canmore, Alberta

 This is incredible," said Mr Harper, a Calgary resident. "I don't think any of us have seen anything like this before. The magnitude is just extraordinary."
Alberta Premier Alison Redford warned residents should be prepared for more flooding downstream.
Communities further south were under total evacuation orders. Roughly half the homes in High River were flooded.
Swept away While an estimated 230,000 people live and work in central Calgary, officials believed there would be few people to evacuate because many did not come to work on Friday.
Some 25 neighbourhoods in Calgary, a city of one million, had already been evacuated. An estimated 75,000 residents have been ordered out of their homes.
The floods come after a rainy week in Alberta, capped by 4in (10cm) of downpour on Thursday.
Military helicopters rescued about 30 people off rooftops in the Calgary area. At least 350 soldiers are being dispatched to the flood zone, according to the defence minister's office.
The mountain resorts of Banff and Canmore were left isolated after the Trans-Canada Highway was closed.
One resident of Canmore said he awoke in the middle of the night to a "kind of rumbling" sound and realised it was the nearby creek.
"At first it was just intense, pretty powerful, amazing thing to watch," Wade Graham told the Associated Press.

               Canmore resident Sarah Pearson describes escaping across a bridge on a school bus

 As daylight came, it just got bigger and bigger and wider and wider, and it's still getting bigger and bigger and wider and wider."
"I watched a refrigerator go by. I watched a shed go by. I watched couches go by. It's insane," he added.
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said about 1,500 people went to emergency shelters while the rest were staying with family or friends.
Daniel Kilgallon, who is staying with his relatives after evacuating his flat, told the BBC: "The city has stopped functioning. Nobody can remember a flood like this ever happening here."
'An ocean' Mr Nenshi warned that although the Elbow had crested, the city was not yet out of danger.
The Bow river, which Mr Nenshi said looked like "an ocean at the moment", is expected to remain at its current level for the next 12 hours.
Police have advised people against travelling to the city centre. Public transit there has been shut and schools are closed.
Officials said lions and tigers from the Calgary Zoo may need to be transferred to prisoner holding cells. Two zebras and two pigs have already been moved to a conservation centre.
The Saddledome, home to Calgary's professional hockey team, is also flooded with water levels rising to the stadium's 10th row.
Calgary resident Marshall Strong told the BBC several of his family members' homes were flooded.
"One farm that we went to had 60 cattle drowned in the fields," he said.
"It is truly unbelievable what has happened in such a short time. Calgary is a strong city and we have held it together better then we imagined."

India floods: Rescue efforts intensify, as death toll rises

                                                  The Indian Army is leading rescue efforts

Efforts have intensified in northern India to rescue tens of thousands of people trapped by flash floods that have already killed nearly 600 people.

The army is evacuating survivors in mountainous Uttarakhand state by helicopter and special trains are carrying people from affected areas.

More than 40,000 people are still stranded in what the government has described as a "national crisis".

Officials have admitted a lack of co-ordination in the rescue effort.

Forecasters are predicting more rain.

Early monsoon rains in India this year are believed to be the heaviest in 60 years.

The rainy season generally lasts from June to September, bringing rain which is critical to farming.

'Lack of co-operation'

Government officials say more than 33,000 people have already been rescued from the worst-hit areas over the past several days.

But during a visit to the area, Home Minister Shushil Shinde admitted there was a 'lack of co-ordination amongst agencies involved in relief operations".

Many locals are also complaining of neglect from relief agencies, alleging priority is being given to tourists and Hindu pilgrims, the BBC's Nitin Srivastava in Dehradun reports.

"Whatever is humanly possible is being done," Information Minister Manish Tewari told reporters.

The authorities say they are yet to reach many survivors in remote areas cut off by flash floods, as the army is struggling to repair roads and bridges.

One of the worst-hit areas is the Kedarnath Valley, where thousands of pilgrims remain stranded.

Many survivors have been evacuated to the state capital Dehradun, where relatives of those missing await news.

Dehradun is also the base for the relief effort, from where rescue workers, medicines and food are being flown to the affected areas.

                                 The floods have flattened homes and washed away roads and bridges

 At least 560 are known to have been killed and thousands are missing. The death toll is expected to rise further.

On Friday, 40 bodies were recovered from the river Ganges in the temple town of Haridwar, a local police official said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the situation there as "distressing" and announced a 10bn rupee ($170m; £127m) aid package for the state.

Google has opened up its person finder tool in Hindi and English to help trace missing people in Uttarakhand.

India's National Disaster Management Authority has published control room phone numbers for flood-affected districts.

Working Lives Georgia

                                                        Working Lives Georgia: Surgeon

Gia Gvaramia's patients can't wait for him to get his hands on them. Literally.

At 56, he is a pioneering plastic surgeon who opened Georgia's first cosmetic surgery clinic in 2000.

 Since then business has bloomed in line with an explosion in consumerism for a growing middle class. Average household incomes have risen nearly 50% since the war with Russia in 2008.

Gia now has a further six clinics.

Every year he and his colleagues see 3,000 new patients.

Georgians, young and old, come to his surgeries for Botox, nose jobs, breast enhancement, liposuction and other treatments, luxuries not everyone can afford.

He is surprised by the popularity of his business

"When I began my business people asked me if I was crazy. They'd ask: 'Who needs this business in Georgia?'"

Gia says he has since proven people wrong.

"Now we have so many competitors it means plastic surgery is a business people need."

Back in Gia's family home, his wife, daughter and grandchildren discuss how work is going over coffee and cakes.

Has he ever had to perform plastic surgery on any of his family members I ask.

"Yes, sometimes," he says with a wide grin though not yet on Marika his wife, he confides.

"There are things I think I could do for her," he says as Marika gives a wry smile.

Syria 'friends' agree urgent support for rebels

Foreign ministers of the Friends of Syria group, who are meeting in Qatar, have agreed to provide urgent support to rebels who are fighting President Bashar al-Assad.

Qatar's PM Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani said "providing arms may be the only means of achieving peace".

The group also condemned the Syrian government for its use of Iranian and Hezbollah fighters.

More than 90,000 people have died in more than two years of conflict.

The Syrian government says it is fighting foreign-backed "terrorists".

'Balance on the ground'

The Friends of Syria group includes the US, Britain, France and Germany as well as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan.

Its joint statement said the members had agreed to "provide urgently all necessary materiel and equipment to the opposition on the ground, each country in its own way in order to enable them to counter brutal attacks by the regime and its allies".

Support would be channelled through the Western-backed rebel military command.

The group also called on the immediate withdrawal of Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian fighters from Syria.

The meeting in Qatar's capital, Doha, comes a week after the US announced it would provide Syrian rebels with "direct military aid".

That decision followed what the US said was evidence of small-scale chemical weapon attacks by the government.

The Friends of Syria group was set up in response to moves by Russia and China to block UN resolutions on Syria.

On Saturday, the Qatari PM said that "failure to reach an agreement in the UN Security Council will not stop us moving forward".

He said that moral support for the rebels was not sufficient, adding: "A balance must be achieved on the ground so the regime can accept negotiations."

The group's statement did not mention the specifics of the support that would be provided.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said again that the Syrian government had crossed a line in using chemical weapons

But he insisted that the decision to provide military support to the rebels was "not to seek a military solution" but to give the rebels more power in negotiating an end to the conflict.

Mr Kerry said the group was still pushing for a peace conference in Geneva between the two opposing sides in Syria.

But he said Mr Assad had responded to the calls for a conference by bringing in Iranian and Hezbollah fighters to confront the rebels.

                            The rebels say they have begun a new offensive in the northern city Aleppo

"That is a very, very dangerous development,'' he said. "Hezbollah is a proxy for Iran... Hezbollah in addition to that is a terrorist organisation."

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said: "We have been talking about how we can help the opposition, how we can help save lives. Different countries will have different ways of doing that.

"We have to cooperate and we have to coordinate as much as possible to try to save the lives of innocent people in Syria."

He said again that the UK government had taken no decision to arm the rebels.

New offensive

The rebels have suffered a series of military setbacks recently.

But on Friday, they said they had received new weapons that could lead to "changes" in the civil war.

A spokesman for the rebel Free Syrian Army said they had not come from the US.

"We've received quantities of new types of weapons, including some that we asked for and that we believe will change the course of the battle on the ground," FSA spokesman Louay Muqdad told AFP news agency.

On the ground in Syria on Saturday, government forces were reported to have stepped up their attacks on rebel positions north of the capital, Damascus.

The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported activists as saying there had been heavy shelling in a number of districts.

But the rebels said they had declared a new offensive of their own in the northern city Aleppo, the last major rebel stronghold.

They are attempting to capture government-held areas in the west of the city, Syria's largest.

Messi summons over Spain tax fraud

Lionel Messi is one of the world's most highly-paid sportspeople

A Spanish judge has summoned Barcelona's Argentine footballer Lionel Messi to appear in court on 17 September over tax fraud allegations.

The 25-year-old, who has four times been named World Player of the Year, and his father are accused of defrauding the Spanish authorities of more than four million euros (£3.4m).

They are suspected of using companies abroad - in Belize and Uruguay - to sell the rights to use Messi's image.

They both deny the allegations.

Lionel Messi's net salary from Barcelona is said to be around 16m euros a year, making him one of the world's most highly-paid sportspeople.

He has also signed multi-million-dollar endorsements with commercial sponsors around the world.

The player and his father are accused of three times defrauding the Spanish state of taxes related to income from the use of his image.

If he is convicted, Messi could face up to six years in prison and a big fine, according to Spain's EFE news agency.

He wrote on his Facebook page, after the allegations became known last week: "We have never committed any infringement. We have always fulfilled all our tax obligations".

Messi is due lined up to play a prominent role in the Adidas World Cup marketing campaign.

Adidas CEO Herbert Hainer has told reporters that the company "will continue to work with Lionel. He's the best football player in the world", he said, "and we are happy that we have him".