Christopher Dorner: Cop 'Disturbed' Claims Ex

Details are emerging about the former police officer at the center of a massive manhunt as the high-altitude search for him enters its second day.

Court documents show an ex-girlfriend of Christopher Dorner, the suspect in three murders, called him "severely emotionally and mentally disturbed" after the two split in 2006.

In an online manifesto Dorner, 33, has vowed "warfare" against a list of "high value targets" whom he believes have wronged him.

Police say Dorner is out for revenge against people he sees as involved in his 2008 firing from the Los Angeles Police Department.

Officers have been sent to protect more than 40 potential targets, including police personnel and their families.

A former Navy reservist who served in Iraq, Dorner also goes into detail about how he was fired from the LAPD for whistle-blowing about what he claims was brutal behaviour by other officers.

Dorner's burned-out truck is towed away from Big Bear

He claims the department has not changed since the Rodney King beating incident and that he was out to correct the officers' "moral compass".

On Friday Irvine police officers and US Marshalls served a search warrant on the Las Palmas home of Dorner's mother.

His mother and sister were home at the time and were cooperating, said Irvine Lieutenant Bill Whalen.

Dorner once lived at the home but did not appear to have been there recently, he said.

Police found Dorner's burned-out pickup truck abandoned on a mountain forest road on Thursday, and followed tracks they believed to be his leading away from the scene before losing the trail.

San Bernardino County Sheriff's SWAT officers join the search

The hunt for Dorner continued on Friday in the Southern California ski resort community of Big Bear, even as a winter storm brought fresh snow to the mountain region 80 miles (130km) east of Los Angeles.

The FBI had joined the growing group of local law enforcement agencies searching for the suspect.

There have been no leads since then.

"Here's the bottom line: We don't know if he's on foot or not," said LAPD Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese. "Is he on foot up on the mountain? Is he down the mountain? We don't know."

The search for Dorner now stretches across California and Nevada and into Mexico.

Monica Quan was killed on Sunday

Court documents obtained on Friday show Dorner unsuccessfully requested a restraining order against his ex-girlfriend after she posted his badge number on a website called Dontdatehimgirl.com.

In the online posting, Ariana Williams called Dorner "twisted" and "super paranoid" and warns other women on the website not to date him.

Williams' attorney could not be reached for comment.

Dorner is wanted for the killings of Monica Quan, the daughter of a former LAPD captain and her fiance, Keith Lawrence. They were found shot in their car at their condominium in Irvine on Sunday night, authorities said.

Ms Quan, 28, was an assistant women's basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton. Mr Lawrence, 27, was a public safety officer at the University of Southern California.

Ms Quan's father, who became a lawyer in retirement, represented Dorner in front of the Board of Rights, a tribunal that ruled against him at the time of his dismissal in 2008.

Authorities also said Dorner opened fire early on Thursday on police in cities east of Los Angeles, killing an officer and wounding another.

In his Facebook manifesto, Dorner says: "I am here to correct and calibrate your morale (sic) compasses to true north."

He said: "I will bring unconventional and asymmetrical warfare to those in LAPD uniform whether on or off duty. ISR is my strength and your weakness.

An undated photo of Dorner

"You will now live the life of the prey. Your RD's and homes away from work will be my AO and battle space.

"I will utilize every tool within INT collections that I learned from NMITC in Dam Neck. You have misjudged a sleeping giant.

"There is no conventional threat assessment for me."

He also singles out various celebrities for praise, including Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Charlie Sheen and Kate Winslet, but does not issue threats against them.

Dorner has a number of weapons including an assault rifle, according to LAPD Chief Charlie Beck.

Mr Beck said: "Of course he knows what he's doing; we trained him. He was also a member of the Armed Forces," he said. "It is extremely worrisome and scary."

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Dozens Hurt In Street Clashes Across Egypt

Protesters have marched in the streets chanting slogans against Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in cities across Egypt.

A few hundred people attacked the presidential palace in Cairo with petrol bombs and rocks.

Riot police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters, many of whom had to be taken to hospital after suffering from suffocation.

In Alexandria, Egypt's second city, dozens of protesters threw stones at police.

Earlier on Friday, a few thousand people marched around the city. The clashes took place in front of one of the city's main police stations.

Anti-regime protesters set fire to the presidential palace in Cairo

At least 45 people were hurt during the day across the country, medical sources at the health ministry said.

Two officers and three soldiers of the Republic Guard were wounded in clashes, the state news agency MENA reported.

Protests erupted last month over what demonstrators saw as Mr Mursi's attempts to monopolise power as well as wider political and economic grievances.

The main opposition alliance signed an agreement with the ruling Muslim Brotherhood last week rejecting violence and had not officially called for marches on Friday.

But distrust of Mr Mursi and of the Muslim Brotherhood - as well as a sense of political and economic malaise - continue to bring people into the streets across Egypt, however the number of protests has declined in recent weeks.

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Dreamliner Inquiry Questions Safety Approval

The US government should reconsider its safety approval of the lithium ion batteries used in Boeing 787 airplanes, the nation's top accident investigator has said.

The findings released on Thursday are casting doubt on whether the airliner's troubles can be quickly solved.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating last month's battery fire in a Japan Airlines 787 "Dreamliner" while it was parked at Boston's Logan International Airport.

The results so far contradict some of the assumptions made about the battery's safety as part of its government approval, said NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman.

The investigation's findings were released on the same day as the Federal Aviation Administration said it would allow Boeing to conduct test flights on its 787s to collect data about battery performance while the planes are airborne.

It was unclear when those test flights would begin.

The NTSB investigation found the fire was started by multiple short-circuits in one of the battery's eight cells.

That created an uncontrolled chemical reaction known as "thermal runaway" which spread the short-circuiting to the rest of the cells and caused the fire, Ms Hersman said.

One of All Nippon Airways' 787s made an emergency landing in Japan

The findings do not match up with what Boeing told the FAA when that agency certified the technologically advanced plane for flight, Ms Hersman said.

Boeing said its tests showed a short-circuit would be contained within a single cell, preventing thermal runaway and fire, she said.

"The assumptions used to certify the battery must be reconsidered," Ms Hersman said.

Boeing's tests also showed the batteries were likely to cause smoke in only one in 10 million flight hours, she said.

But the Boston fire was followed nine days later by another smoking battery in an All Nippon Airways plane that had to make an emergency landing.

The 787 fleet has recorded less than 100,000 flight hours, Ms Hersman added.

The plane that caught fire in Boston was delivered to Japan Airlines less than three weeks before its fire and had recorded only 169 flight hours over 22 flights.

The board's findings appear to raise doubts about the thoroughness of FAA's safety certification of the 787's batteries.

The FAA relies to some degree on the expertise of the manufacturer's engineers, especially in the case of a cutting-edge plane like the 787.

There are also questions as to whether Boeing can fix the problems with the addition of a few quick safeguards.

After the fire in Boston, US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FAA Administrator Michael Huerta ordered a review of the 787's design, certification, manufacture and assembly.

That review is still underway.

FAA officials have ordered the only US carrier with 787s - United Airlines, which owns six - to ground them.

Aviation authorities in other countries swiftly followed suit and a total of 50 planes operated by seven airlines in six countries are grounded.

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Manhunt For Ex-Cop Accused Of Killing Three

A huge manhunt is under way for a former Los Angeles policeman who is now believed to have killed three people in revenge for his sacking.

The search for 33-year-old Christopher Dorner stretches throughout Southern California and Nevada.

On Thursday afternoon police said they found Dorner's burned-out pickup truck on a forrest road near a Southern California ski resort two hours east of Los Angeles.

There was no sign of Dorner, but police were conducting a door-to-door search in the area. The nearby ski resort and local schools had been put on lockdown and several police agencies had joined the search effort.

Officers surround LAPD headquarters

Police found fresh tracks believed to be Dorner's leading away from the truck, but San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon did not say where they led other than that they did not go into a residential area.

Authorities have issued a state-wide "officer safety warning" and police have been sent to protect people named in an online posting thought to be by Dorner in which he warned he would target those on the force who wronged him.

"I will bring unconventional and asymmetrical warfare to those in LAPD uniform whether on or off duty," said the manifesto.

Police Chief Charlie Beck said Dorner, who has military training, has access to multiple weapons including an assault rifle. He should be considered "armed and extremely dangerous".

Police respond to the shooting in Riverside where one officer was killed

More than 40 protection officers have been assigned to Dorner's suspected targets - possibly the largest in department history, Mr Beck said.

The search for Dorner, who was dismissed from the LAPD in 2008 for making false statements, began after he was linked to a weekend killing in which one of the victims was the daughter of a former police captain who had represented him during the disciplinary hearing.

Police say Dorner opened fire on police in this cruiser

Authorities also said Dorner opened fire early on Thursday on police in cities east of Los Angeles, killing an officer and wounding another.

In a Facebook post, Dorner said he knew he would be vilified by the LAPD and the news media, but that "unfortunately, this is a necessary evil that I do not enjoy but must partake and complete for substantial change to occur within the LAPD and reclaim my name".

As police searched for him, the packed Los Angeles area was on edge. The nearly 10,000-member LAPD dispatched many of its officers to protect potential targets.

Chief Beck said Los Angeles officers guarding a target named in the posting shot and wounded several people in Torrance who were in a pickup similar in description to Dorner's truck.

He said: "Tragically we believe this was a case of mistaken identity by the officers."

Monica Quan

Both victims, who were delivering newspapers, were taken to hospital. One was listed in stable condition and the suffered a "minor wound", Chief Beck said.

Meanwhile, a wallet containing a detective badge and a picture ID belonging to Dorner was handed in to police in San Diego less than four hours after a man matching his description attempted to steal a 47-foot boat from the city's Shelter Island marina.

San Diego Detective Garry Hassen said the suspect tied up an 81-year-old man who was on the boat and then fled after the engine failed to start.

Nevada authorities also joined the search for Dorner, who owns a house nine miles from the Las Vegas Strip, according to authorities and court records.

Authorities said the US Navy reservist may be driving a metallic grey 2005 Nissan Titan pickup truck.

Dorner is wanted in the killings of Monica Quan and her fiance, Keith Lawrence. They were found shot in their car at their condominium on Sunday night in Irvine, authorities said.

Ms Quan, 28, was an assistant women's basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton. Lawrence, 27, was a public safety officer at the University of Southern California.

Ms Quan's father, a former LAPD captain who became a lawyer in retirement, represented Dorner in front of the Board of Rights, a tribunal that ruled against Dorner at the time of his dismissal in 2008, LAPD Captain William Hayes told The Associated Press.

According to documents from a court of appeals hearing in October 2011, Dorner was fired from the LAPD after he made a complaint against his field training officer, Sgt Teresa Evans.

Dorner said that in the course of an arrest, Sgt Evans kicked suspect Christopher Gettler, a schizophrenic with severe dementia.

Richard Gettler, the schizophrenic man's father, gave testimony that supported Dorner's claim.

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Tunisia Dissolves Govt After Politician Killed

Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali has dissolved the government amid mass protests over the murder of opposition leader Chokri Belaid.

He said he would be forming a non-partisan administration to govern until fresh elections can be held after the failure of negotiations between parties on a cabinet reshuffle.

"I have decided to form a government of competent nationals without political affiliation, which will have a mandate limited to managing the affairs of the country until elections are held," Mr Jebali said in a televised address to the nation.

He said the ministers would not run for office in the next election.

The announcement came amid reports that a police officer had been killed in clashes between the security forces and protesters in the capital Tunis.

Thousands of people have taken to the streets following the murder of Mr Belaid.

The interior ministry said 46-year-old policeman Lotfi Alzaar died after sustaining a chest injury caused by rocks thrown as he attempted to disperse a group of protesters in central Tunis.

"These protesters were in the process of ransacking shops," it added.

Chokri Belaid was a human rights lawyer

Mr Belaid, who headed the opposition Democratic Patriots party and was a harsh critic of Tunisia's Islamist-led government, was shot dead outside his home.

The 48-year-old lawyer's family has accused the ruling Ennahda party of being behind the murder - allegations it denies.

It was the first assassination of a political leader in post-revolutionary Tunisia, and has bolstered fears that the country may face the same chaotic road as other Arab Spring nations transitioning to democracy.

Protesters outside the interior ministry chanted "the people want the fall of the regime".

The secular parties in government have been demanding that key ministries be assigned to independents, a move rejected by Ennahda hardliners, including party head Rached Ghannouchi.

Mr Jebali is considered a moderate within his party and is said to be supportive of the idea the justice and foreign affairs ministries could be allocated to non-political figures.

Planned fresh polls are unable to take place before the adoption of a new constitution - the drafting of which has also failed to make progress because of wrangling within the National Constituent Assembly.

It was tasked with the charge after the Tunisians overthrew long-ruling dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011.

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Iran: Syria's Assad Regime Ready To Negotiate

Syria's government is ready to sit down with the opposition to bring a two-year uprising against the regime to an end, Iran's foreign minister believes.

Ali Akbar Salehi told the Egyptian state news agency MENA: "I think that the Syrian government is ready to negotiate with the opposition."

Opposition leader Moaz Alkhatib has offered to talk to Syria's rulers about trying to end the conflict - subject to conditions including the release of 160,000 detainees.

But President Bashar al Assad has not yet commented on the offer and a key opposing faction flatly rejected the initiative.

The Syrian National Council, the main component of the opposition, has dismissed the possibility of any negotiations.

It said it was committed to ousting the Assad regime, rejecting dialogue with it, and protecting the revolution.

But Mr Alkhatib, who called on Mr Assad to agree to let Vice President Faruq al Sharaa open peace talks with his coalition, appealed for the opposition to "declare our willingness to negotiate" the regime's departure.

However, he also set a deadline of Sunday for the government to release all women detainees, otherwise he would regard his offer of dialogue as rejected by the president.

The Assad regime has signalled it believes it can still break the military stalemate, as its forces relentlessly pounded rebel lines around Damascus.

Fighting between rebels and the regime continues

"The army has launched a co-ordinated all-out offensive on all of the areas surrounding the capital," a Syrian security official said.

"All entries to Damascus have been sealed," he told the AFP news agency.

Artillery and air strikes have prevented rebels entrenched to the east from advancing despite their capture of army fortifications, opposition activists said.

"We have moved the battle to Jobar," said Captain Islam Alloush of the rebel Islam Brigade. The district links rebel strongholds in the suburbs with the central Abbasid Square.

"The heaviest fighting is taking place in Jobar because it is the key to the heart of Damascus," he added.

Shia Iran is Mr Assad's main backer in the region, and has disagreed with mostly Sunni-led Arab states that have called for him to step down.

Meanwhile, the presidents of Iran, Turkey and Egypt held a meeting on the sidelines of an Islamic summit in Cairo to discuss the crisis.

"There was a three-way summit of Egypt, Turkey and Iran about the crisis and we look forward to it leading to the resolution of this crisis. We are optimistic," Mr Salehi said.

He said Iran had welcomed Mr Alkhatib's remarks. "In the end, the government and the opposition must sit together to negotiate," he said.

The UN has said more than 60,000 people have died in violence since the uprising started in March 2011.

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Alabama Hostage Drama Ended In Deadly Shootout

A man who held a five-year-old boy hostage in an underground bunker for almost a week engaged in a firefight with US agents before he was killed during a rescue operation.

It was also revealed that Jimmy Lee Dykes, 65, had reinforced the bunker in Midland City, Alabama, in an attempt to prevent entry by armed Special Weapons and Tactics (Swat) officers.

Dykes abducted five-year-old Ethan from his school bus

Bomb technicians later found two explosive devices, one inside the bunker and another inside a plastic pipe through which he had been talking to negotiators trying to secure the boy's release.

Authorities raided the shelter after determining Dykes had a gun, saying he appeared to be increasingly agitated and that negotiations had deteriorated.

They initially declined to elaborate on how they had observed Dykes or on how he died.

The rescue ended a hostage drama that disrupted the lives of many in a tranquil town of 2,400 people set amid peanut farms and cotton fields some 100 miles southeast of the state capital of Montgomery

Dykes was understood to have been a decorated Navy veteran, having spent around five years in Vietnam.

He had had some scrapes with the law in Florida, including a 1995 arrest for improper exhibition of a weapon. The misdemeanour was dismissed. He also was arrested for marijuana possession in 2000.

He returned to Alabama about two years ago, moving onto the rural tract about 100 yards from his nearest neighbours.

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Tsunami Formed After Solomon Islands Quake

A major 8.0 magnitude earthquake is feared to have flattened villages in the Solomon Islands and has triggered a tsunami with destructive potential for Pacific nation coasts.

A small tsunami has already reached part of the Solomons and alerts are in effect as far afield New Zealand, but there is no threat to Australia.

"We know that a tsunami has been created," said Geoscience Australia seismologist David Jepsen. He said depending on the location of the quake, bigger waves could hit elsewhere.

"It's a big earthquake anyway in terms of just the shaking," he said.

The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at 0112 GMT near the Santa Cruz Islands in the Solomons, which have been hit by strong tremors over the past week, at a depth of 3.5 miles (5.8 kilometres).

Schoolchildren are evacuated to safety in the Suva district of Fiji

Two powerful aftershocks of 6.4 and 6.6 magnitude were also recorded.

Locals in the Solomons capital Honiara, 580 kilometres (360 miles) from the epicentre, said the quake was not felt there, but some villages on the Santa Cruz islands were destroyed, according to a hospital director.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said the wave may be destructive near the epicentre. 

In Honiara, the capitial city of the islands, the warnings prompted residents to flee for higher ground, although most people remained calm.

"People are still standing on the hills outside of Honiara just looking out over the water, trying to observe if there is a wave coming in," Herming said. 

"People around the coast and in the capital are ringing in and trying to get information from us and the National Disaster Office and are slowly moving up to higher ground," Tahu said. "But panic? No, no, no, people are not panicking."

Tsunami warnings are in effect for the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, New Caledonia, Kosrae, Fiji, Kiribati, Wallis and Futuna, while American Samoa, Australia, New Zealand and eastern Indonesia are under a less serious tsunami watch.

In 2007 a tsunami following an 8.1-magnitude earthquake killed at least 52 people in the Solomons and left thousands homeless.

The Solomon Islands are part of the "Ring of Fire", a zone of tectonic activity around the Pacific Ocean that is subject to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

More follows...

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Malala: Schoolgirl Shot By Taliban Speaks Out

The Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban has spoken out about her recovery for the first time since she was nearly killed.

Malala Yousufzai, 15, underwent successful surgery to reconstruct her skull and restore her hearing at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham at the weekend.

She escaped death by a matter of inches when she was shot on a school bus in northwestern Pakistan on October 9 last year - as the bullet entered just above her left eye and ran along her jaw, "grazing" her brain.

The Islamist gunmen said they targeted her because she promoted girls' education and "Western thinking".

In a message recorded by the hospital on Sunday, Malala said she was "feeling alright" and "happy that both the operations were successful".

She said: "I can also walk a little bit, I can talk and I'm feeling better."

Despite having five hours of surgery, Malala added: "It does not feel like I had a very big operation."

Malala on her path to recovery

Her doctors have expressed their delight at her recovery. They hope that the latest procedures - to put a titanium plate on her damaged skull and to fit a cochlear implant - will be the last surgery she needs.

Neurosurgeon Anwen White said that her "brain is healing very well" and she did not expect any long lasting cognitive problems.

She said the teenager would continue with rehabilitation and then "hopefully be discharged home fairly soon".

University Hospitals Birmingham medical director Dave Rosser said Malala was "doing very well".

He added that just a day after the operations Malala was "already talking about resuming her work and furthering her cause for women's education".

"Most of us would be feeling sorry for ourselves 24 hours after an operation like that, not talking about helping other people."

In another video interview, filmed before her surgery on January 22 but only just published, Malala is heard saying that she was "getting better, day by day".

Surgeons operating on Malala

Speaking clearly but with a slight stiffness in her upper lip, she said: "Today you can see that I am alive. I can speak, I can see you, I can see everyone.

"It's just because of the prayers of people. Because all people - men, women, children - all of them have prayed for me. And because of all these prayers God has given me this new life, a second life.

"And I want to serve. I want to serve the people. I want every girl, every child, to be educated. For that reason, we have organised the Malala Fund."

Malala was airlifted to Britain from Pakistan in October to receive specialist medical care and protection against further Taliban threats.

She is expected to remain in the UK for some time as her father, Ziauddin, has received a diplomatic post based in Birmingham.

The Malala Fund is a girls' education charity set up in late 2012. It launched with a $10m (£6.4m) donation from Pakistan.

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Alabama Hostage Siege Ends As Boy Saved

A boy who was held hostage for a week is safe and his captor is dead after FBI agents stormed an underground bunker in Alabama.

Officials said the raid went ahead after negotiations with 65-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes deteriorated and he was seen with a gun.

Fearing the child was in imminent danger, agents entered the bunker to rescue the five-year-old. It was not immediately clear how Dykes died.

Officials break the news to gathered media

The boy was taken to hospital nearby. Officials have said the child has Asperger's syndrome.

Dykes had been accused of snatching the boy from a school bus last week after killing the driver, Charles Poland.

Before the news conference, an ambulance that had been parked near the scene could be seen driving away. However, it was not clear if anyone was inside, and the vehicle did not have its sirens or emergency lights on.

Daryle Hendry, who lives about a quarter-mile from where Dykes was holed up, said he heard a boom followed by a gunshot.

Officials had been sending food and medicine to Dykes and the boy in the bunker.

The scene of the hostage drama

Neighbours described Dykes as a man who once beat a dog to death with a lead pipe, threatened to shoot children for setting foot on his property, and patrolled his yard at night with a flashlight and a firearm.

Government records and interviews with neighbours indicate that Dykes joined the Navy, serving on active duty from 1964 to 1969. His record shows several awards, including the Vietnam Service Medal and the Good Conduct Medal.

He had some scrapes with the law in Florida, including a 1995 arrest for improper exhibition of a weapon. The misdemeanour was dismissed. He also was arrested for marijuana possession in 2000.

He returned to Alabama about two years ago, moving onto the rural tract about 100 yards from his nearest neighbours.

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Assad: Syria Can Confront Israeli Aggression

President Bashar al Assad has accused Israel of trying to destabilise Syria after an air strike on a military research base near Damascus last week.

The comments by Mr Assad are the first since the attack on Wednesday that US officials say was targeting a convoy of anti-aircraft weapons inside Syria bound for Hizbollah.

State TV said Mr Assad spoke during a meeting with visiting top Iranian official Saeed Jalili.

Saeed Jalili and Bashar al Assad

The president said Syria is capable of facing current challenges and can "confront any aggression" that would target the Syrian people.

Purported images of the targeted site show destroyed cars, trucks and military vehicles. A building has broken windows and damaged interiors, but no major structural damage.

State news agency SANA quoted Mr Jalili as reaffirming Tehran's "full support for the Syrian people ... facing the Zionist aggression, and its continued coordination to confront the conspiracies and foreign projects".

Following the attack, Syria's ambassador to Lebanon, Ali Abdul-Karim Ali, said Damascus "has the option and the capacity to surprise in retaliation," but that it was up to the relevant authorities to choose the time and place.

Israel's defence minister has indicated that his country was behind the air strike, in the first public comments from his government on the attack.

Ehud Barak brought the issue up at a gathering of the world's top diplomats and defence officials in Germany, initially saying: "I cannot add anything to what you have read in the newspapers about what happened in Syria several days ago."

But he added: "I keep telling frankly that we said - and that's proof when we said something we mean it - we say that we don't think it should be allowed to bring advanced weapons systems into Lebanon."

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Syria: 'Children Are Biggest Casualty'

By Stuart Ramsay, Chief Correspondent, in Aleppo

The anguished cries of a little boy receiving treatment without anaesthetic for a shrapnel wound to the face fills the putrid air of a converted shop that is an Aleppo field hospital.

The walls are splattered with blood. All around are store fronts with medics working on the latest injured.

A car pulls out and a young man shot in a drive-by attack staggers inside followed by his screaming mother.

In rebel-held Aleppo, this is just another day. It isn't particularly busy. It is just constant.

Medics, who have gone underground after their hospital was reduced to rubble by a targeted Syrian government bombing campaign, say that children are being injured and killed in greater numbers now than the rebel fighters.

Stuck inside this city the children are on the streets more than anyone else. Playing or scavenging amongst piles of rubbish for anything of value to take home, they are now the most vulnerable.

Hamid Sakia was shot by a sniper while playing football

A short distance away in another makeshift hospital room nine-year-old Hamid Sakia whimpers in pain; a sack of draining blood lies on the floor. He was shot by a sniper while playing football. He will lose his kidney. The medics are waiting for a surgeon to get enough anaesthetic to operate.

He whispers a "Yes" as I ask him if it hurts. His mother looks on holding back tears. She buried her daughter this week. Her family is being torn apart.

It is not about the lack of food or heating or supplies she says.

"What will happen in the future?" She asks: "What will happen? Everyone is scared."

In a room next door, surrounded by seat cushions to try to keep the breeze from her skin, Aya Hussein stares motionlessly ahead. She is dreadfully burnt. Her tiny body a web of fierce welts caused by a fire when her apartment was hit by an artillery round.

Aya Hussein was burned when she was hit by an artillery round

The cushions are her treatment. This is life in Aleppo.

This city is slowly being destroyed. There is barely a building unscarred by the bombing from fighter jets and artillery. A million plus people still live here amongst the ruins where shells and snipers are a constant.

Cars cross the most dangerous parts of town protected by mud walls. You can hear the sniper rounds thudding into the barricade or whining over head as you pass.

The dreadful sound of artillery rounds smashing into buildings never stops wherever you go.

Once tree-filled parks are now open spaces. There is no heat or electricity in Aleppo so wood has become a precious commodity.

In the markets there are plenty of local vegetables. But meat, gas, fuel and pretty much everything else comes from Turkey at a huge cost. Gas bottles are 15 times their proper cost.

Aleppo's battered buildings

People are living in battered apartment blocks. Their's is a virtual twilight of dark stair wells and shuttered rooms.

The artillery comes from the south so they huddle in north facing homes. But the shrapnel and the explosive power of the bombs means nowhere is truly safe.

"I am hopeless. I can only trust in my God," 78-year-old Mahmoud tells me. He and his wife Emira are alone. Their family has fled, they depend on the handouts of neighbours. Their flat is freezing and bare.

On the next storey Rada cuddles two of her six children. It is freezing inside and they have just a few scraps of food to eat.

"My husband won't leave Aleppo. We want to stay here whatever happens. Our children are ill, they are frightened, but we have nowhere else to go," she says.

The rebels and the government forces appear to have fought themselves to a standstill. In the middle a population is stuck, surviving but dying as well, every day. This is Aleppo.

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Egypt: Police Beat Protester Outside Palace

Bloody Scenes Expected In Port Said

Updated: 11:11pm UK, Thursday 31 January 2013

By Sam Kiley, Middle East Correspondent, in Port Said

This city has always prided itself on resistance to invaders.

The people of Port Said believe they saw off the British in the 1950s and the Israelis in the 1960s.

Now they're rolling up their sleeves to take on Egypt's president, Mohammed Morsi, promising a second round of bloodletting in as many weeks.

A beach resort city that guards the Mediterranean entrance to the Suez Canal, Port Said, was torn by violence last weekend.

Thirty people and two policemen were killed in running street battles.

Locals deny that any of them shot at the police. But there are bullet holes in the walls of the partly burned officers club on the sea front that say otherwise.

Still, there is no hiding the violence that the city met when protestors attacked the prison.

Dozens of market stalls and tiny homes were razed during the fighting – local businesses were riddled with bullets.

The prison was attacked because it housed 21 men condemned to death for their parts in the killing of 74 football fans during a riot on February 1 last year.

Some 59 others, among them nine police, are still waiting for their verdicts in the jail.

The killings last week have fuelled what was already going to be an incendiary brew on the day marking the first anniversary of the riot in which supporters of the Cairo team Al Ahly were beaten and crushed to death.

Ansaf Mousa's son Osama el Sherbiri, 23, an IT graduate was killed last week during the demonstrations.

"Morsi has blood on his hands. Osama el Sherbini exploded the whole world. His death will fuel an explosion.

"There will be a protest against Morsi like none before. This will be the nuclear explosion that blows up the whole place."

Her anger is shared by families across the city.

The bullet that killed Osama wounded his friend Mohammed.

"The youth will be on the streets (on February 1), they have to be to take revenge for Osama and all the others. This isn't going to end here."

A state of emergency was declared in Port Suez, Ismailia and Port Said last week. Curfews imposed for most of the night hours have since been cut back to a token regulation of the small hours of the morning as they were entirely ignored anyway.

General Abdel Fatteh al Sisi, the commander of the Egyptian armed forces, has warned that he fears the nation may fall apart .

He singled out the Suez City as especially troubling – promising to ensure the security of the canal as his top priority.

The region, though prosperous and benefiting from tax free zones and $5.2bn (£3.3bn) in revenues to Egypt for transit fees for shipping, is not associated with the secular middle class that had driven so much of the revolution in Cairo.

Osama's family are deeply religious. Many of the men have callused foreheads from years of prayer.

Yet they object to the Muslim Brotherhood's domination of Egypt's constitutional process and presidency.

"The Muslim Brotherhood are not Muslims – they are just after power," said Osama's mother.

That, in Port Said, seems to be the dominant view.

In a downtown coffee house clattering with domino players El Badry Farghali, a veteran MP who has opposed the military governments which were swept away two years ago and the new Muslim Brotherhood regime ever since, held court to a new generation of young protestors.

"The Muslim Brotherhood will not give up power. They will only manoeuvre. They are backward. They do not have the capacity to run the country on their own. And they will not make concessions. But the Egyptian people will force them to back down," he said.

Port Said has chosen the anniversary of the football chaos to drive home a political message. The odds are that it will be written in blood.

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Far-Right Marchers Decend On Athens

By Anthee Carassava in Athens

It was supposed to be a remembrance rally, but as thousands packed Athens to honour three fallen heroes, the black-clad crowd of men in military fatigues and baseball caps crested with mangled swastikas, offered the grimmest reminder yet of Greece's tireless march to the far right.

Organised by Golden Dawn, which emerged from political obscurity here to win 7% of the national vote last June, last night's event showcased the group's biggest public gathering to date.

Toting blue-and-white Greek flags, orange-red flares and wooden torches, some 30,000 supporters, according to organisers, gathered in central Athens, shouting slogans indicative of the party's virulent and truculent beliefs.

"We are winning the hearts and minds of the people, because we say it as it is," roared Ilias Kassidiaris, the party's spokesman.

"These politicians who have ruled us for decades are crooks. They have betrayed our national interests. They have led us to humiliating defeats," he said, referring to a near-war showdown with Nato ally Turkey in 1996.

Three Greek Airforce pilots were killed in that crisis and the dispute over contesting claims to a barren outcrop in Aegean Sea forced then US trouble-shooter Richard Holbrooke to intervene, ordering both Nato allies not only to climb down from their conflicting claims but to refrain from further ownership disputes of islands in the oil-rich Aegean.

For hard-core nationalists like Golden Dawn sympathisers, the retreat marked an embarrassing sell-out of national sovereignty - a theme gaining fresh appeal among the country's young and unemployed youth as foreign creditors demand greater control over the Greece's failing finances.

"They calls us fascists, thugs and criminals," says Vassilis, a 23-year-old recruit, who joined the party because of his disenchantment with the country's feckless political elite.

"We're nationalists. We're patriots. And if these guys who ruled the country for decades had a fibre the nationalism we're running on, they would have never brought the country to its current predicament."

Golden Dawn party leader Nikos Michalioliakos addresses the rally

With extremism - left and right - polarising Greek society, hundreds of riot police and undercover officers were on alert on Saturday in a bid to thwart potential attacks, springing from the gathering, held within yards of the prime minister's office and the Turkish embassy in Athens. Surrounding roads, also, were cordoned off by police, bringing traffic to a halt and angering locals.

"For a nation that suffered dearly under the Nazis, neo-Nazi gatherings, like these, should be banned," said Sofia Laniti, a 47-year-old saleswoman.

Leftist radicals argue the so-called Imia day protest is a veiled tribute to the party's true ideological mentor: Adolf Hitler.

The Nazi leader was appointed to the head of the German Chancellery on January 30, 1933, marking the start of a 12-year reign of terror across Europe.

Eighty years later, far-right parties feeding on popular resentment to growing fiscal austerity policies, are attracting growing applause in many corners of Europe. Sliding economies and rising unemployment, have voters largely giving the boot to mainstream parties they hold most responsible.

In Greece, attempts by the government to exclude Golden Dawn and its vehement nationalism that singles out immigrants as a threat, have backfired.

If anything, polls show, the far-right group has gained even greater political ground, since its startling entry to Parliament, becoming Greece's third largest party with over 10% national support.

Mr Kassidiaris said: "This is a day of remembrance. It's a day to remember that Golden Dawn is here to stay. And so long as it does, there will be hope for the country."

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