US Billionaire to Pay Tuition for Young Women Who Escaped Boko Haram

American billionaire Robert Smith has reportedly offered to pay the college tuition fees of 24 girls from the Chibok community, including the 21 girls who escaped from Boko Haram captivity in October this year. 
Malam Garba Shehu, a senior special assistant on media to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhar, announced on Tuesday (Dec 27.) during a media briefing with journalists at the State House in Abuja, according to the News Agency of Nigeria. 
Shehu said that the girls will be admitted through negotiation at the prestigious American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola, with the American billionaire footing the entire bill for the girls’ tuition, accommodation, feeding and other related expenses. It costs anywhere from $5,000 to $11,000 a year to educate a student at the school which is owned by wealthy frontline Nigerian politician and businessman Atiku Abubakar.

Robert Smith

“Smith has offered to pay for the education of the 21 released through negotiations and is offering to take responsibility for all the others who will hopefully be eventually set free,’’ Shehu added.

Shehu revealed that the Nigerian government is treating the recently released 21 Chibok girls as adoptees of the Federal Government.

“But there is a lot of local and international interest in the future plans of the girls,’’ he added.

Robert Smith is a 54 year-old businessman, who attended good American colleges such as Cornell and Columbia universities.At Cornell, he picked a bachelor of science in chemical engineering and an MBA at Columbia. He lives in Austin, Texas.

According to a short bio written on him by Forbes, he was the son of Ph.D holders and was bussed across town to his school in the early days of desegregation.

“He later convinced Bell Labs when he was in high school to give him an internship typically only available to college upperclassman by calling them weekly for five months.”

Smith quit Goldman Sachs to open his own private equity shop, Vista Equity Partners, in 2000. The company is reportedly worth over $26 billion

US embassy in Nairobi closes after shooting

The US has closed its embassy in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, for the day following Thursday's shooting dead of a man who had stabbed a policeman outside the embassy building:

A statement from the embassy to US citizens in Kenya says:
"Review your personal security plans, remain aware of your surroundings, including local events, and monitor local news stations for updates. Be vigilant and take appropriate steps to enhance your personal security."

The man who was shot dead has been identified as a Kenyan Somali from Wajir and was known to the authorities, according to a police spokesman.

 The US's FBI is investigating the incident.
The AP news agency is reporting that the attacker was shot dead by the policeman who was stabbed.

Malware hits millions of Android phones

Older versions of Android are vulnerable to being infected by the Hummingbad malware

Up to 10 million Android smartphones have been infected by malware that generates fake clicks for adverts, say security researchers.

The software is also surreptitiously installing apps and spying on the browsing habits of victims.
The malware is currently making about $300,000 (£232,000) a month for its creators, suggests research.
The majority of phones that have been compromised by the malicious software are in China.

Remote control

A spike in the number of phones infected by the malware was noticed separately by security companies Checkpoint and Lookout. The malware family is called Shedun by Lookout but Hummingbad by Checkpoint
In a blogpost, Checkpoint said it had obtained access to the command-and-control servers that oversee infected phones which revealed that Hummingbad was now on about 10 million devices. China, India, the Philippines and Indonesia top the list of nations with most phones infected by the software.
Hummingbad is a type of malware known as a rootkit that inserts itself deep inside a phone's operating system to help it avoid detection and to give its controllers total control over the handset.
The ability to control phones remotely has been used to click on ads to make them seem more popular than they actually are. The access has also been used to install fake versions of popular apps or spread programs the gang has been paid to promote.
"It can remain persistent even if the user performs a factory reset," wrote Kristy Edwards from Lookout in a blogpost. "It uses its root privileges to install additional apps on to the device, further increasing ad revenue for the authors and defeating uninstall attempts."
Ms Edwards said the recent spike in infections could be driven by the gang behind the malware adding more functions or using their access to phones for different purposes.
The malware gets installed on handsets by exploiting loopholes in older versions of the Android operating system known as KitKat and JellyBean. The latest version of Android is known as Marshmallow.
In a statement, Google said: ""We've long been aware of this evolving family of malware and we're constantly improving our systems that detect it. We actively block installations of infected apps to keep users and their information safe."
Google released the latest security update for Android this month and it tackled more than 108 separate vulnerabilities in the operating system. So far this year, security updates for Android have closed more than 270 bugs.

Dallas shooting: Gunman 'wanted to kill whites' says police chief

 Micah Johnson was a member of the US Army reserve

The gunman killed in a stand-off with Dallas police said he wanted to kill white people, especially officers, the city's police chief has said.

The suspect, named by US media as Micah Johnson, 25, said he was upset about the recent police shootings of black people, Police Chief David Brown said.
Five police officers were killed and seven wounded during a march against the shooting of black men by police.
Three people are in custody but it is not clear if there were other gunmen.
The protest in Dallas took place after this week's deaths of Philando Castile in Minnesota and Alton Sterling in Louisiana.
Mr Brown said the suspect had been killed when police used explosives placed by a robot to end a tense stand-off in a building where he was holed up. Before that, he had spoken to a negotiator.


Facebook images show Micah Johnson giving a black power salute and dressed in military uniform

"He said he was upset about Black Lives Matter [protest movement]; he said he was upset about the recent police shootings," Mr Brown told a news conference.
"The suspect said he was upset at white people. The suspect stated that he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers."
Mr Brown added that the man had said he was not affiliated with any groups and he acted alone.
However, speaking earlier on Friday, Mr Brown had said two snipers had fired from "elevated positions", shooting some officers in the back.

Locusts to 'sniff out explosives'

Scientists are researching technology they hope will allow locusts to detect explosives using their sense of smell.

They say heat-generating "tattoos" will enable them to be guided into dangerous or remote areas via remote control

Neural signals from the locust's brain will then be processed by an on-board low-power processing chip that will decode the information and send a wireless alert back to the authorities.

And the result will appear on a simple LED: red for present, green for absent.

Baranidharan Raman, associate professor of biomedical engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science Washington University, has studied the way locusts smell for several years.

And the Office of Naval Research in the US has now given him a $750,000 (£565,000) grant to continue his research.

Olfaction, better known as the ability to smell, is considered a primary sensory quality in insects whereas it is more of an aesthetic sense for humans, according to Prof Raman.

But locusts have a similar sense of smell to humans in that they can identify a particular smell even when it is mixed in with other odours.

Prof Raman said they had "robotic noses" that could be trained to pinpoint and recall a smell such as dangerous chemicals.

He told the BBC: "It took only a few hundred milliseconds for the locust's brain to begin tracking a novel odour introduced in its surroundings. The locusts are processing chemical cues in an extremely rapid fashion.

"Even the state-of-the-art miniaturised chemical-sensing devices have a handful of sensors. On the other hand, if you look at the insect antennae, where their chemical sensors are located, there are several hundreds of thousands of sensors and of a variety of types," he said.

Meanwhile, Srikanth Singamaneni, associate professor of materials science, who specialises in nanomaterials, will be creating a plasmonic "tattoo" made of a biocompatible silk that will be applied to the locusts' wings to generate mild heat and help steer them towards particular locations by remote control.

The tattoos will also be able to collect samples of volatile organic compounds in their proximity for other testing methods.

Prof Raman estimates the prototype will be ready for rigorous testing in a year and if successful the locusts could be ready in less than two years.

He also believes this new sensor technology could help to detect medical conditions in humans that are currently diagnosed by smell.

Israel angered by Facebook hatred rules

Government ministers in Israel have accused Facebook of failing to tackle "inciteful" posts against the country on the social network.

Public security minister Gilad Erdan said Facebook had set "a very high bar for removing inciteful content".

Justice minister Ayelet Shaked wants social media companies to pre-emptively remove content which Israel considers to be a security threat.

Facebook said it worked closely with Israel to tackle threatening content.

Mrs Shaked has complained that threatening content must be manually reported by the website's users before any action can be taken.

"We want the companies... to remove posts by terrorist groups and incitement to terrorism without us having to flag each individual post, in just the same manner, for example, that they today do not allow posts and pages with child pornography," she told Israel's Army Radio.

In a statement, Facebook said: "We have a set of community standards designed to help people understand what's allowed on Facebook.

"We call on people to use our report tool if they find content they believe violates these rules, so that we can examine each case and take quick action.

"We work regularly with safety organisations and policymakers around the world, including Israel, to ensure that people know how to make safe use of Facebook.

"There is no room for content that promotes violence, direct threats, terrorist or hate speeches on our platform."

Blocked

In 2015, Facebook complied with a Turkish court order demanding the blocking of a page it said offended the Prophet Muhammad.

The court had threatened to block the entire website if the social media platform had refused.

At the time, Facebook said its policy was to block access to content within a country if it breaks local law.

The same year, Facebook, Google and Twitter faced pressure in Germany to remove hate speech posted on their websites.

The three internet giants agreed to assess reported posts within 24 hours, evaluating them under German law rather than Facebook's own terms and conditions.

Facebook's latest government transparency report said the company blocked 236 posts in Israel that were alleged to violate local harassment laws, or were related to Holocaust denial.

Suicide bombing near Saudi holy site

The attack occurred soon after sundown during the holy month of Ramadan

A suicide bomber has killed four security officers and injured five others near one of Islam's holiest sites in the Saudi city of Medina, according to the interior ministry.

The bomber struck as the officers were breaking their Ramadan fast near the Prophet's Mosque, al-Arabiya TV says.

The mosque is the burial place of the Prophet Muhammad and Medina the second-holiest city in Islam after Mecca.

Blasts also struck two other Saudi cities on Monday.

That the attack happened in Medina at such a place is likely to leave Muslims around the world aghast.

Suspicion is likely to fall on so-called Islamic State (IS), he adds.

Images showed a blazing vehicle near the mosque in Medina

Social media footage from Medina showed a vehicle on fire in a car park, with two security officers lying nearby.

Other footage showed ambulances and police vehicles streaming to the area.

Some reports say the security officers were about to break their fast when a young man, said by the Okaz newspaper to be 18, approached them to share food. He then detonated explosives.

Qari Ziyaad Patel, 36, from South Africa, who was in the mosque, told the Associated Press news agency people had at first thought it was the sound of the cannon fire that marks the breaking of fast.

The ground shook, he said, adding: "The vibrations were very strong. It sounded like a building imploded."

Al-Masjid al-Nabawi mosque in Medina is one of Islam's holiest sites

Earlier, at least one explosion rocked Qatif, an eastern city which is home to many minority Shia Muslims.

The blast appeared to target a Shia mosque. The attacker was killed but no other casualties were reported.

A suspected suicide bomber also died after detonating a device near the US consulate in the city of Jeddah. Two security officers were slightly injured as they tackled the man, but no-one else was hurt.

No-one has yet said they were behind any of the attacks.

They come with the holy month of Ramadan drawing to a close and ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holiday.

Saudi Arabia has been the target of attacks by IS over the past two years.

In June, the interior ministry said there had been 26 "terror attacks" in the kingdom in that time.

A series of deadly attacks worldwide were either claimed by, or blamed on, IS over the past week:

• A suicide gun and bomb attack targeted Istanbul airport on 28 June. The death toll rose to 45, with 240 injured.

• Attackers struck a cafe in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, last Friday night. Twenty hostages and two policemen were killed.

• And a massive truck bomb in Iraq's capital, Baghdad, on Sunday left at least 165 people dead.

Hajj pilgrims to be given e-bracelets

The Hajj attracts huge crowds and has often been very difficult to control

Saudi Arabia is to issue electronic bracelets to pilgrims travelling to Mecca for this year's Hajj, the world's largest Islamic gathering.

It follows a stampede last year in which more than 750 people are believed to have died, with 900 injured.

The bracelets will contain personal and medical information to help authorities care for and identify people, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

Nearly 1,000 new surveillance cameras have also been installed.

The ID bracelets will contain crucial information such as passport numbers and addresses but will also offer information to worshippers, such as timings of prayers and a multi-lingual help desk to guide non-Arabic speakers around the event.

They will be water-resistant and connected to GPS. The information can be accessed by employees of the ministry, and security and services bodies via a smartphone.

Safety push

Cameras have been installed at Mecca's Grand Mosque and will be linked to control rooms staffed by special forces monitoring pilgrim movements for the event scheduled for August, according to Saudi newspapers.

2015 was the deadliest year for the pilgrimage in 25 years.

The tragedy led Saudi's King Salman to promise improvement in the level of organisation and led to a souring of the already-strained relationship with neighbouring Iran.

Iran, which lost 400 of its citizens in the crush, has criticised Saudi Arabia's preparedness and said that it will not send pilgrims to this year's gathering.

The annual pilgrimage to Mecca is attended by more than two million Muslims from around the world and has long been something of a safety nightmare.

Over the years the Saudi authorities have spent billions of dollars on improving transport and other infrastructure.

WW2 Jewish escape tunnel uncovered

The tunnel was dug by prisoners in a pit in which they were kept

A tunnel dug out with spoons by Jewish prisoners escaping Nazi captors in World War Two has been uncovered in Lithuania's Ponar forest.

The prisoners were from the so-called Burning Brigade, who were forced to burn corpses to cover up Nazi atrocities as the Soviets advanced.

Knowing they too would be killed, they dug a tunnel in a pit where they were kept. Eleven escapees survived the war.

A research team used a ground-scanning system to map out the tunnel.

The exact location of the 34m (112ft) tunnel had been lost since the end of the war, but the international team, including the Israel Antiquities Authority and researchers from the US, Canada and Lithuania, have now located it.

The team employed the electrical resistivity tomography system, also used in oil exploration, so as not to disturb any human remains at the site.

'Yearning for life'

Ponar forest, known now as Paneriai, is outside the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, a hub of Jewish life before the outbreak of the war.

But under Nazi occupation, mass burial pits and graves were carved out of the forest to hold the bodies of up to 100,000 people, including 70,000 Jews, killed during the Holocaust.

As the Red Army closed in, the Nazis tried to cover up their atrocities. They forced about 80 prisoners from the Stutthof concentration camp, chained by the legs, to dig up bodies and burn them.

Ground scanning was used to pinpoint the tunnel

The scanning was used so as not to disturb any human remains at the site

They were called Leichenkommando (corpse unit), but later became known as the Burning Brigade.

According to one account, one brigade prisoner even identified his wife and two sisters among the bodies.

Kept overnight in one of the pits where the bodies had been buried, the prisoners began to dig a tunnel and on the night of 15 April 1944, 40 made their escape attempt through the 2 sq ft tunnel.

But guards were alerted by the noise and hunted them down. Many were shot but 12 escaped to reach partisans. Eleven survived the war to tell their story.

Jon Seligman, of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said he was reduced to tears on the discovery of the tunnel, calling it a "heart-warming witness to the victory of hope over desperation".

"The tunnel shows that even when the time was so black, there was yearning for life within that," he told Associated Press.

Archaeologist Richard Freund, also on the team, told the New York Times that Ponar was "ground zero for the Holocaust", evidence of systematic murder before the Nazis started using gas chambers.

Deaths rise in Istanbul airport attack

Deaths rise in Istanbul airport attack

CCTV shows people running in the terminal as an explosion hits.

The death toll in a gun and suicide bomb attack on Istanbul's Ataturk airport has risen to 41, 13 of them foreign nationals, with 239 injured, the Turkish city's governor says.

Three attackers arrived in a taxi and began firing at the terminal entrance late on Tuesday. They blew themselves up after police fired back.

PM Binali Yildirim said early signs pointed to so-called Islamic State.

However, no-one has so far admitted carrying out the attack.

Turkey has declared Wednesday a day of national mourning.

Turkish investigators are examining CCTV footage, witness statements and mobile phone video recorded by terrified passengers to try to determine the identity of the attackers.

The Dogan news agency said autopsies on the three dead men suggested they may be foreign nationals but this has not been confirmed.

A worker cleans blood from the roof of the international departure terminal

Turkish Health Minister Recep Akdag says that 128 people remain in hospital, including nationals of Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and Switzerland, the Associated Press reports.

Of those, 41 are still in intensive care.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron said there were no reports yet of any British casualties, but the Foreign Office was in contact with Turkish authorities. 

Nationality of dead so far confirmed (may include dual nationality)

23 - Turkish

5 - Saudi

2 - Iraqi

1 - Chinese; Jordanian; Tunisian; Uzbek; Iranian; Ukrainian; (Palestinian ambassador to Turkey says one Palestinian woman killed)

Cleaners worked through the morning to sweep up shattered glass, while workers repaired cables and ceiling tiles. Heavily-armed security personnel were patrolling the airport.

Flights had resumed in the early morning, though with many cancellations and delays.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the attack should serve as a turning point in the global fight against militant groups.

Reports of the attack vary but it appears the attackers opened fire at the entrance where X-ray machines are positioned, sparking an exchange with police. At least two of the attackers ran into the building.

Footage on social media shows one moving through the building as people around him flee. He is shot by police and remains on the ground for about 20 seconds before blowing himself up. All three attackers were killed.

The lack of any immediate claim for this attack by so-called Islamic State is not surprising. IS rarely, if ever, claims responsibility for attacks against the Turkish state yet it is quick to advertise its assassinations of Syrian activists inside Turkey.

All the signs point towards IS being the culprits. This is what British counter-terrorism officials term "a marauding terrorist firearms attack", following a pattern first seen in the Mumbai attacks of 2008.

The Istanbul targets were international air travellers and ground staff at an iconic location, the third busiest airport in Europe.

IS is targeting Turkey because it sees its government as being un-Islamic and too close to its Western allies in Nato. IS is also feeling the pressure as the Turkish authorities move to close down its networks inside Turkey.

Turkey's other main foe, Kurdish separatists, have carried out many attacks over the years but their primary targets have tended to be Turkish policemen and soldiers.

Paul Roos, who was due to fly home to South Africa, told Reuters he saw one of the attackers.

"He was wearing all black. His face was not masked. We ducked behind a counter but I stood up and watched him. Two explosions went off shortly after one another. By that time he had stopped shooting.

"He turned around and started coming towards us. He was holding his gun inside his jacket. He looked around anxiously to see if anyone was going to stop him and then went down the escalator. We heard some more gunfire and then another explosion, and then it was over."

Relatives of Siddik Turgan, a customs officer at Ataturk airport, attend his funeral

Forensic Medical Centre officials look out on family members who had gathered to hear news

The US called the attack "heinous", saying America remained "steadfast in our support for Turkey".

Russian President Vladimir Putin offered his condolences to Turkey in a phone call with Mr Erdogan, as the pair seek to rebuild ties.

French President Francois Hollande has confirmed two French nationals were injured in the attack, but not seriously.

Terrified passengers were seen leaving the airport after Tuesday's attack

Armed police sealed off the area

A Kalashnikov assault rifle was later found at the scene

Emergency teams gathered, with luggage and bodies scattered outside the building

Pope Francis denounced the "brutal terrorist attack", saying: "May the Lord convert the hearts of the violent ones and support our efforts toward the path of peace."

#PrayforTurkey began trending on Twitter after the attack.

Ataturk airport

• Europe's third-busiest in passenger traffic after London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle, serving 61.3 million passengers in 2015. World's 11th busiest

• Opened in 1924 in the Yesilkoy area, renamed in the 1980s after the nation's first president, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

• Two passenger terminals: one domestic, one international

• To be closed after the massive Istanbul New Airport - planned to be the largest in the world - opens in the Arnavutkoy district. Its first phase is due to be operational in 2017

Major recent attacks

2016

7 June, Istanbul: Car bomb kills seven police officers and four civilians. Claimed by Kurdish militant group TAK

19 March, Istanbul: Suicide bomb kills four people in shopping street. IS blamed

13 March, Ankara: Car bomb kills 35. Claimed by TAK

17 February, Ankara: 29 killed in attack on military buses. Claimed by TAK

12 January, Istanbul: 12 Germans killed by Syrian bomber in tourist area

2015

23 December, Istanbul: Bomb kills cleaner at Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen airport. Claimed by TAK

10 October, Ankara: More than 100 killed at peace rally outside railway station. Blamed on IS

20 July, Suruc, near Syrian border: 34 people killed in bombing in Kurdish town. IS blamed

Cameron to quit as UK votes to leave EU

Prime Minister David Cameron is to step down by October after the UK voted to leave the European Union.

Speaking outside 10 Downing Street, he said "fresh leadership" was needed.

The PM had urged the country to vote Remain but was defeated by 52% to 48% despite London, Scotland and Northern Ireland backing staying in.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage hailed it as the UK's "independence day", while Boris Johnson said the result would not mean "pulling up the drawbridge".

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was "absolutely determined" to keep Scotland in the EU so a second Scottish independence referendum was now "highly likely".

EU chiefs said they expected the UK to begin negotiations to leave "as soon as possible, however painful that process may be".

But Boris Johnson, the ex-London mayor and public face of Vote Leave who is now a frontrunner to be next prime minister, said there was "no need for haste" about severing the UK's ties.

He said voters had "searched in their hearts" and the UK now had a "glorious opportunity" to pass its own laws, set its own taxes and control its own borders.

Another leading Leave campaigner, Labour's Gisela Stuart said the UK would be a "good neighbour" when it left the EU.

The pound fell to its lowest level against the dollar since 1985 as the markets reacted to the results.

Flanked by his wife Samantha, Mr Cameron announced shortly after 08:15 BST that he had informed the Queen of his decision to remain in place for the short term and to then hand over to a new prime minister by the time of the Conservative conference in October.

He would attempt to "steady the ship" over the coming weeks and months, but that it would be for the new prime minister to carry out negotiations with the EU and invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which would give the UK two years to negotiate its withdrawal, he said.

"The British people have voted to leave the European Union and their will must be respected," said Mr Cameron. "The will of the British people is an instruction that must be delivered."

Area-by-area in maps: See how people voted

Bank of England governor Mark Carney said UK banks' "substantial capital and huge liquidity" allowed them to continue to lend to businesses and households.

The Bank of England is ready to provide an extra £250bn of support, he added.

The referendum turnout was 71.8% - with more than 30 million people voting - the highest turnout at a UK-wide vote since 1992.

Mr Farage - who has campaigned for the past 20 years for Britain to leave the EU - told cheering supporters "this will be a victory for ordinary people, for decent people".

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who called for the UK to remain in the EU but was accused of a lukewarm campaign, said poorer communities were "fed up" with cuts and felt "marginalised by successive governments".

"Clearly there are some very difficult days ahead," he said, adding that "there will be job consequences as a result of this decision".

He said the point he had made during the campaign was that "there were good things" about the EU but also "other things that had not been addressed properly".

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said Labour's leader had been "utterly gutless" in the way he approached the campaign.

Former Labour Europe Minister Keith Vaz described the outcome as "catastrophic for our country, for the rest of Europe and for the rest of the world".

The European Parliament is to hold an emergency session on Tuesday to discuss the referendum result.

On Twitter, EU Parliament president Martin Schulz called for a "speedy and clear exit negotiation".

But Leave supporting Tory MP Liam Fox said voters had shown great "courage" by deciding to "change the course of history" for the UK and, he hoped, the rest of Europe.

The EU referendum has revealed an ancient, jagged fault line across the United Kingdom. It is a scar that has sliced through conventional politics and traditional social structures, and it is far from clear whether the kingdom can still call itself united.

The referendum was ostensibly about membership of the European Union. But voters took it to be asking a different question: what kind of country do you want Britain to be?

Yesterday seemed to offer a fork in the road: one path (Remain) promised it would lead to a modern world of opportunity based on interdependence; the other (Leave) was advertised as a route to an independent land that would respect tradition and heritage.

Which path people took depended on the prism through which they saw the world.

Read more from Mark

Britain is set to be the first country to leave the EU since its formation - but the Leave vote does not immediately mean Britain ceases to be a member of the 28-nation bloc.

That process could take a minimum of two years, with Leave campaigners suggesting during the referendum campaign that it should not be completed until 2020 - the date of the next scheduled general election.

Traders in Tokyo monitor exchange rates

Once Article 50 has been triggered a country can not rejoin without the consent of all member states.

Mr Cameron previously said he would trigger Article 50 as soon as possible after a Leave vote but Boris Johnson and Michael Gove who led the campaign to get Britain out of the EU have said he should not rush into it.

They also said they wanted to make immediate changes before the UK actually leaves the EU, such as curbing the power of EU judges and limiting the free movement of workers, potentially in breach of the UK's treaty obligations.

The government will also have to negotiate its future trading relationship with the EU and fix trade deals with non-EU countries.

In Whitehall and Westminster, there will now begin the massive task of unstitching the UK from more than 40 years of EU law, deciding which directives and regulations to keep, amend or ditch.

The Leave campaign argued during a bitter four-month referendum campaign that the only way Britain could "take back control" of its own affairs would be to leave the EU.

Leave dismissed warnings from economists and international bodies about the economic impact of Brexit as "scaremongering" by a self-serving elite.

The CBI said many businesses would be concerned about the referendum result.

It said "the urgent priority now is to reassure the markets", but warned against "rushed decisions".

Find the result in your area

Boko Haram refugees 'starved to death'

Boko Haram refugees 'starved to death

Aid workers say one in five children is severely malnourished

Nearly 200 refugees fleeing Boko Haram militants have starved to death over the past month in Bama, Nigeria, the medical charity MSF says.

A "catastrophic humanitarian emergency" is unfolding at a camp it visited where 24,000 people have taken refuge.

Many inhabitants are traumatised and one in five children is suffering from acute malnutrition, MSF says.

The Islamist group's seven-year rebellion has left 20,000 people dead and more than two million displaced.

Nigeria's military has carried out a large-scale offensive against them but Boko Haram still attacks villages in the north-east, destroying homes and burning down wells.

Displaced people in Bama say new graves are appearing on a daily basis, according to a statement from MSF.

MSF's visit to the camp was only possible with an army escort

It quoted inhabitants as saying about 30 people died every day due to hunger or illness.

Although the area has been unsafe to travel through, MSF says one of its teams reached Bama on Tuesday.

It went in with a military convoy from the city of Maiduguri in Borno state.

"This is the first time MSF has been able to access Bama, but we already know the needs of the people there are beyond critical," said Ghada Hatim, MSF head of mission in Nigeria.

"We are treating malnourished children in medical facilities in Maiduguri and see the trauma on the faces of our patients who have witnessed and survived many horrors," he said. 

Boko Haram at a glance:

Boko Haram fighters still appear well armed in recent propaganda videos

• Founded in 2002, initially focused on opposing Western-style education - Boko Haram means "Western education is forbidden" in the Hausa language

• Launched military operations in 2009

• Thousands killed, mostly in north-eastern Nigeria, hundreds abducted, including at least 200 schoolgirls

• Joined so-called Islamic State, now calls itself IS's "West African province"

• Seized large area in north-east, where it declared caliphate

• Regional force has retaken most territory last year

On patrol against Boko Haram

Who are Boko Haram?

Trump 'fires' campaign boss Lewandowski

Corey Lewandowski (left) has left the campaign for reasons that are unclear

The campaign manager for presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is to leave his job.

A campaign spokeswoman said Corey Lewandowski would no longer be working on it and said the team was grateful to him "for his hard work and dedication".

The exact reason for Mr Lewandowski's departure is not yet clear but sources close to Mr Trump have told US media he was fired.

He oversaw the New Yorker's unlikely triumph in the primary contests.

Mr Lewandowski told CNN: "I stand by the fact that Mr Trump is a great candidate and is better than Hillary Clinton will ever be."

He told the AP news agency that top Trump strategist Paul Manafort had been in operational control of the campaign since 7 April and would not divulge more about his dismissal.

But his departure comes as the businessman faces strong resistance from senior members of his own party over his strident tone, hardline immigration policy and falling poll numbers.

Among his critics is Speaker of the House and top-ranked Republican Paul Ryan, who appeared to leave the door open to a possible revolt at next month's convention.

When asked on Sunday about reports that party delegates may rebel against voting for Mr Trump at the convention, he said: "They write the rules, they make the decisions."

Mr Trump was criticised for his reaction to the Orlando nightclub shooting in which 49 people were killed.

Following the attack, he repeated his pledge that the US should ban Muslims from entering the country.

Mr Lewandowski's firing comes as Mr Trump slips further down in the polls

Republicans also started to distance themselves from him following his personal attacks against a Hispanic federal judge overseeing two lawsuits against him.

Mr Trump is likely to face Democrat Hillary Clinton in November's election, and there were reports over the weekend that her campaign is way ahead in spending in the key swing states.

US media reaction to Corey Lewandowski's 'firing'

• Gabriel Sherman of New York Times Magazine tweeted that Lewandowski was escorted out by Trump security

• Mr Sherman also said his firing was a direct result of the Trump children

• Dana Bash of CNN was told daughter Ivanka Trump said he had to be fired or she would leave campaign

• Ali Vitali of NBC News said an aide told her dropping poll numbers, poor fundraising and lack of staff resulted in the firing

• Senior Trump adviser Barry Bennett told Fox News that Paul Manafort is "totally in charge" now

• Hadas Gold of Politico surmised that the Monday morning news may have been released on purpose to distract from Trump's other problems

• Tim Mak of the Daily Beast pointed out that after Mr Lewandowski was charged with battery, Mr Trump said he "stays with people"

• Sahil Kapur of Bloomberg said the firing is the "clearest sign Trump knows he's sinking"

Mr Lewandowski has had a contentious relationship with the press. Earlier this year, he was charged with battery after allegedly yanking a female reporter out of Mr Trump's way after a campaign event.

Mr Trump defended him throughout that incident, which concluded when the charges were dropped.

One Trump campaign director, Michael Caputo, tweeted "Ding dong the witch is dead" following the news.

Mr Lewandowski did not get along with Trump chief strategist Paul Manafort either, with sources telling the New York Times that he would try to block Mr Manafort from hiring more campaign staff.

Mr Trump is suffering in political polls lately, with most voters viewing him as "strongly unfavourable".

One Trump campaign staff member told NBC News that the campaign was not briefed on Mr Lewandowski's firing and that right now there is "bedlam in the Trump campaign. No one knows what is happening".

Prayers for Orlando 'shallow' says bishop

The Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross has condemned people of faith who don't support the LGBT community, in the wake of the shootings at a gay nightclub in Orlando.

Dr Paul Colton says when many religious people do not "include LGBT people" in daily life, "prayers are shallow".

Omar Mateen, 29, killed 49 people and wounded 53 at the Pulse club before being shot dead by police.

It's the deadliest shooting in modern US history.

FBI officials Mateen appeared to "have leanings towards" radical Islamist ideology, although it was not clear whether the attack was a case of domestic or international terrorism.

"Our prayers are shallow, an affront even, as long as so much religion fails fully to affirm and include LGBT people #Orlando," Bishop Paul Colton tweeted.

In the wake of the shooting a number of phrases trended across social media, including #PrayForOrlando and #PrayForTheWorld.

Some Christian churches in the US and elsewhere accept openly gay clergy.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, some Christian leaders are firmly against homosexuality on Biblical grounds.

In many Islamic counties, including Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, homosexual activity carries the death penalty.

Leaders in both Pakistan and Qatar have condemned the shootings and expressed sympathy for those affected.

Homosexuality is a crime in both of these countries.

Meanwhile there are also many teachers of Islam who support the LGBT community.

Other major religions including Judaism and Hinduism have texts which teach against homosexuality but many people from these faiths support gay rights.

Bishop Colton tweeted: "Non religious people are important in holding religious people to account."

Ireland was the first country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage through a popular vote.

Bishop Colton has previously publicly supported the LGBT community.

He is thought to have been the first Church of Ireland bishop to speak out in favour of same-sex marriage, back in 2014.

"Whatever about my personal views and solidarity as an individual to gay and lesbian people, it is undeniable that I am part of a religion, and indeed institution, that all too often, over the centuries, has caused deep hurt and tangible damage to gay and lesbian people," he said in a speech he gave at Cork LGBT Awareness Week last year.

"There are many Christians, including myself, who believe that God's justice, God's love and the inclusiveness of God, must bear fruit in unqualified equality for gay and lesbian people too."

Qatar court convicts 'raped' Dutch woman

June 13, 2016 10:57

Sexual acts by non-married people are punishable under Qatar's penal code

A court in Qatar has convicted a Dutch woman of having sex outside marriage after she told police she was raped.

The 22-year-old was handed a suspended sentence and fined $824 (£580). She will also be deported.

Her lawyer said her drink had been spiked at a Doha hotel in March and she had woken up in a stranger's flat, where she realised she had been raped.

Her alleged attacker, who said the sex was consensual, was sentenced to 100 lashes for having sex outside marriage.

He will be given a further 40 lashes for consuming alcohol.

The woman has been detained since making the allegation three months ago, but her case only came to light over the weekend when her family decided to go public.

'Horror'

The Dutch ambassador to Qatar, Yvette Burghgraef-van Eechoud, said after Monday's court hearing that she expected the woman to leave Qatar within days.

"We will do everything to get her out of the country as soon as possible to where she wants to go," she told AFP news agency.

Court officials said she would be deported once the fine was paid.

The woman was arrested by Qatari police immediately after reporting that she had been raped on the night of 15 March, as was the alleged assailant.

During a holiday in the emirate, she went out with a friend for drinks at a hotel where the sale of alcohol was permitted, according to her lawyer Brian Lokollo.

"She went dancing but when she returned to the table after the first sip of her drink, she realised someone had added something to her glass," he said.

The woman did not feel very well and she later woke alone in an unfamiliar flat and "realised to her great horror that she had been raped", Mr Lokollo added.

Doha-based lawyer Najeeb al-Nuaimi, Qatar's former justice minister, told the Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera the woman's lawyers would have had to prove there had been "no voluntary actions" between her and the man for him to be charged with rape.

Even if they had been seen walking together, the authorities might have doubts any sexual activity was non-consensual and instead prosecute both for having sex outside marriage, which is known as "zina" under Islamic law, Mr Nuaimi said.

Article 281 of Qatar's penal code states: "Whoever copulates with a female over 16 without compulsion, duress or ruse shall be punished with imprisonment for a term up to seven years. The same penalty shall also be imposed on the female for her consent."

According to media reports, dozens of people convicted of zina have been given flogging sentences since 2004, including at least 45 between 2009 and 2011.

The case of the Dutch woman raises further questions about how the Qatari authorities will deal with the thousands of Western tourists expected to travel to the country for the 2022 Fifa World Cup, many of whom may be unfamiliar with its laws.

In 2013, a Norwegian woman in the United Arab Emirates was given a 16-month prison sentence for perjury, extramarital sex and drinking alcohol after she told police she had been raped. She was later pardoned and allowed to return to Norway.