From New MacBook to Samsung Galaxy S6: Changing the Way We Charge in 2015

From New MacBook to Samsung Galaxy S6: Changing the Way We Charge in 2015

Goodbye cord clutter, power outlets and fumbling around to get a cable to fit perfectly into a device. This is the year electronics companies are making a push to revolutionize the way we charge the latest generation of devices. 

A slate of new releases, from the new MacBook adopting the USB-C multi-purpose charging port to Samsung's wireless charging Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge smartphones, have shown how the process of powering up is getting easier and more innovative.

Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy told ABC News there has been a shift over the past decade from battery technologies to the charging experience to create a "more experience-based focus."

The USB-C port in Apple's fanless, thin new MacBook is expected to become a standard in some new devices this year. The cable plugging into the port and a connected device has ends that are the same size, meaning there is no need to have to worry about plugging something in upside down.

It's also reversible, allowing both peripheral and host devices to share their juice -- and it accommodates even speedier data transfers at a rate of 10 GBPS. For users wanting to connect older devices, Apple is selling a USB-C multi-port adapter that can accommodate older electronics, such as cameras and flash drives.

Brad Saunders, USB 3.0 Promoter Group Chairman, announced last August the charging standard was ready for production with a single-cable solution equipped for laptops, tablets and mobile devices.

"This specification is the culmination of an extensive, cooperative effort among industry leaders to standardize the next generation USB connector as a long-lasting, robust solution," Saunders said.

When Samsung showed off its Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge smartphones at the Mobile World Congress earlier this month, the South Korean electronics company focused part of its presentation on the "relentless innovation" it had pursued, including in the area of mobile charging.

The new devices, which go on sale next month, are outfitted with wireless charging, making power cords obsolete. In ten minutes, Samsung says the devices can get enough charge for four hours of everyday use.

Seho Park, Samsung's principal engineer, said in a blog post that with a new chip released last year to support multiple charging standards, 2015 will be a game-changing year for wireless smartphone charging.

"Samsung will accelerate to democratize this wireless charging technology with compelling smartphones. With our upcoming Galaxy smartphones, users will be able to enter a new wireless world like never before," Park wrote. "Two or three years ago, wireless charging was only twenty to thirty percent as fast as wired charging. But since then, we have been able to double the charging speed."

Even Apple's new smartwatch is upping the charging game for wearables. While its battery life may differ from other wearables that have some of the capabilities of the Apple Watch, the company promised its first product in the category would be so simple to charge that wearers could do it in the dark.

All it takes to charge the Apple Watch is connecting the device to the company's MagSafe technology with inductive charging. Apple says the magnet will slide into place with no precise alignment required.

The Nexus 6 released last October also upped the ante for charging. The 6-inch smartphone has a "turbo charger," which allows users to get as much as six hours of use with just 15 minutes of charge.

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Stranded 500-lb leatherback sea turtle rescued in South Carolina

An endangered 500-pound (230-kg) leatherback sea turtle was being treated at a South Carolina aquarium on Monday after wildlife officials made a rare rescue of the reptile found alive and stranded on a remote beach.

It is the first living leatherback turtle to be recovered in South Carolina and one of only a handful ever treated at rehabilitation facilities in the United States, said Jenna Cormany, a wildlife biologist with the state's Department of Natural Resources.

"I can hardly believe it. They don't strand alive very often," said Kelly Thorvalson, manager of the Sea Turtle Rescue Program at the South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston.

State wildlife officials spotted the animal on Saturday on the beach on Yawkey-South Island Reserve, a 3.5-mile-long (5.6-km-long) barrier island and wildlife preserve near Georgetown, South Carolina.

It took five people nearly four hours to retrieve the turtle from the beach, and the animal was then driven an hour and a half south to Charleston, Cormany said. 

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Workers at the South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston treat a 500-pound leatherback turtle in this un …

"It was logistically difficult," she said. "We had a turtle stretcher on a board and we all did our best to lift it. It was very lethargic and sick looking."

Leatherbacks, the largest turtle in the world and the only sea turtles without a hard shell, can weigh up to 2,000 pounds as adults, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Wildlife officials think the turtle they found is a young female that may have eaten debris, shell or a plastic bag mistaken for a jellyfish.

The animal, named Yawkey by the aquarium's staff in a nod to the island where it was found, is being treated for a possible intestinal blockage. It is improving after having its low blood sugar corrected with fluids, Thorvalson said.

Leatherbacks do poorly in captivity, she said, so the rescued turtle will be released after receiving treatment for a few days.

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Imprint of license plate in snow leads to burglary suspects

The imprint of a license plate in a snowbank proved to be the undoing of a couple suspected of a series of burglaries in Massachusetts.

A Lakeville police officer investigating a home break-in traced the imprint to a pickup truck that matched the description of a vehicle seen at other burglaries.

Chief Frank Alvilhiera told The Enterprise of Brockton on Monday that the truck was traced to a Dartmouth hotel.

A search of a hotel room uncovered more than 300 stolen items, including jewelry, watches, wallets, laptops and cameras. Alvilhiera estimates the goods are worth at least $10,000.

Meanwhile, Robert Beaucaire and Amy Peters face charges including breaking and entering and larceny.

Working phone numbers for the suspects couldn't be found, and they can't immediately be reached for comment.

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White House: Obama emailed Hillary Clinton on her private email address

President Barack Obama exchanged emails with Hillary Clinton on her private, nongovernmental account while she was serving as secretary of state, the White House said Monday. But he did not know that she used a private system exclusively for government business, press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters.

Obama “did, over the course of his first several years in office, trade emails with the secretary of state,” Earnest said. “I would not describe the number of emails as large, but they did have the occasion to email one another.”

Obama told CBS in an interview broadcast over the weekend that he found out that Clinton had set up and maintained a private system that she used for official business “the same time everybody else learned it through news reports.”

“The point that the president was making is not that he didn’t know Secretary Clinton’s email address — he did,” Earnest said. “But he was not aware of the details of how that email address and that server had been set up, or how Secretary Clinton and her team were planning to comply with the Federal Records Act.”

That information, first disclosed by the New York Times, has raised questions about whether Clinton’s messages to other senior officials were secure and whether she used the arrangement to withhold messages that would normally be archived for potential future public release.

Earnest said that any messages to or from Obama’s email address would be archived under the Presidential Records Act.

Asked when the White House counsel’s office first found out about Clinton’s arrangement, Earnest seemed to try to distance the White House from the controversy.

“What I can tell you is that it is the responsibility of individual agencies to establish an email system and to make sure that those emails, as they're created, are properly archived and maintained, both so they can be used to respond to legitimate public inquiries and to legitimate congressional inquiries,” he said.

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Samsung is spending an insane amount of money to beat Apple to the ‘next big thing’

BGR-Samsung-Galaxy-S6-Edge-3

Samsung hasn’t had the best year financially but it’s not slowing down its spending on R&D. It was reported that Samsung spent an astonishing $13.8 billion in research and development in 2014, the single largest R&D investment in the company’s history.

Until recently, many cynics would have argued that Samsung was obviously wasting its money since its only payoff from these kinds of massive investments for a while seemed to be shallow gimmicks such as the Galaxy Gear, the Galaxy Round and the Galaxy Note Edge. However, the Galaxy S6 edge has been turning a lot of heads ever since it was unveiled at Mobile World Congress this year, which may indicate that the company’s big R&D bets are starting to yield tangible results for the first time in a while.

Interestingly, it seems that this increase in R&D spending came at the expense of Samsung’s Advertising Death Star, which saw its budget slashed by nearly 10% year-over-year. More quality products and fewer advertisements sounds like a winning formula to us, although we won’t know for a while whether Samsung has something even better up its sleeve than the Galaxy S6 edge.

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Madrid implosion 'incomprehensible' for Ancelotti

Schalke's Leroy Sane (L) collides with Real Madrid's Luka Modric during their round of 16 second leg UEFA Champions League match at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium on March 10, 2015

Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti admitted he is at a loss to explain the European champions dramatic slump in form as they sneaked into the quarter-finals of the Champions League despite losing 4-3 to Schalke.

Ronaldo twice equalised in the first-half to surpass Real legend Raul with 78 goals in European

competitions after Christian Fuchs and Klass-Jan Huntelaar had given Schalke the lead.A 2-0 first leg advantage was just enough to carry Los Blancos into the last eight for a fifth consecutive season on a night when Cristiano Ronaldo's achievement in becoming the all-time leading scorer in European competitions was overshadowed.

Karim Benzema then put Madrid in front on the night before Leroy Sane and a stunning strike from Huntelaar gave Schalke a deserved victory.

Ancelotti's men swept all before them in a 22-game winning run to end 2014 with a club record four-trophy haul for the calendar year after winning the Club World Cup.

However, since the turn of the year they have lost five times in 15 games to surrender their La Liga lead to Barcelona and were on the verge of suffering one of the biggest shocks in Champions League history.

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Real Madrid's goalkeeper and captain Iker Casillas saves a shot during the round of 16 second le …

"We are playing very badly. It is quite incomprehensible after what we did until December," said Ancelotti.

"It is clear I feel very sorry because everyone has seen we played very badly. This is not good for the image of the club.

"It is normal that the players lack confidence. I think we have dipped a bit physically too. We had problems in every aspect of the game: offensive, defensive, desire, fight and concentration."

Ancelotti was even asked whether he fears the sack in the coming days with a crucial El Clasico clash against Barcelona in the La Liga title race to come on March 22.

The Italian insisted he still has faith in the players that carried the club to their 10th European Cup win just 10 months ago.

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Schalke's Klaas-Jan Huntelaar celebrates after scoring during the UEFA Champions League round of …

- 'Rock bottom' -

"I don't think about this (being sacked). I continue doing my job, but I need to do it better. This is the responsiblity of the coach to put out a team that can play better than they did tonight.

"I continue having total confidence in this squad because I know what they can do. We are not doing it at the moment and we need to work harder, train harder, do everything better."

Madrid captain Iker Casillas said the Spanish giants had hit "rock bottom" after a three-game winless streak.

"It is clear we have hit rock bottom in a spectacular way, but the positive thing is that a week on Friday we will be in the draw and we can forget the past 10 days," said the Spanish captain

Ancelotti insisted that things can turn around for the better just as quickly as they have deteriorated, especially with key players such as Sergio Ramos and Luka Modric returning from injury.

Modric made his return after four months out for the final half an hour, while Ramos is expected to make an appearance when Levante visit the Bernabeu on Sunday.

"Things change quickly in football as we have seen. No one in December would imagine what we are going through now," said Ancelotti.

"The presence of Modric gives us more control and more possession in midfield.

"We can't ask too much of him because he was out for four months. I think he did well for 30 minutes.

"He is going to help us in the next games, as will Sergio Ramos with his qualities and character."

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7 Marines, 4 Soldiers Missing After Helicopter Crash in Florida

A UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter from Bravo Co 2/147th AVN Renegades flies support for U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel over Kuwait City December 8, 2014. Hagel flew out to Camp Buehring to visit with troops stationed there.

 Seven Marines and four soldiers were missing early Wednesday after an Army helicopter crashed during a night training exercise at Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle.

The area where the crash happened Tuesday night was under a fog advisory. The area was still extremely foggy Wednesday morning, which was affecting the search, Eglin public affairs specialist Sara Vidoni said.

Base officials said the Marines are part of a Camp Lejeune-based special operations group and the soldiers were from a Hammond, Louisiana-based National Guard unit. The helicopter was reported missing around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and search and rescue crews found debris from the crash around 2 a.m. Wednesday, Eglin spokesman Andy Bourland said.

"At this time all are missing," Bourland said.

Names of those involved were not immediately released, pending notification of next of kin, he said.

Bourland said the Army helicopter took off from a nearby airport in Destin and joined other aircraft in the training exercise.

The UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter went down during a routine training mission on a remote swath of beach between Pensacola and Destin. The beach is owned by the military and is used for test missions.

The training area includes 20 miles of pristine beachfront that has been under the control of the military since before World War II. Military police keep a close watch on the area and have been known to run off private vendors who rent jet skis or paddle boards without permission.

Test range manager Glenn Barndollar told The Associated Press in August that the beach provides an ideal training area for special operations units from all branches of the military to practice over the water, on the beach and in the bay.

The military sometimes drops trainees over the water using boats or helicopters and the trainees must make their way onshore.

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US condemns 'reign of terror' in Crimea, east Ukraine

US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland appears before a hearin on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on March 10, 2015

THE top US diplomat for Europe declared Tuesday that Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine were subject to a "reign of terror", blaming Russia for a conflict that has claimed thousands of lives.

"Even as Ukraine is building a peaceful, democratic, independent nation across 93 percent of its territory, Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine are suffering a reign of terror," Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"Today Crimea remains under illegal occupation and human rights abuses are the norm, not the exception, for many at risk groups there," she said of the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia a year ago.

Nuland cited Crimea's minority Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians who refuse to give up their passports for Russian documents as well as gays among those at risk of persecution.

Meanwhile, in eastern Ukraine, where a ceasefire between government forces and pro-Russian separatists is largely holding, "Russia and its separatist puppets" had unleashed "unspeakable violence", Nuland said.

Military vehicles of the Ukrainian armed forces are seen near Artemivsk, eastern Ukraine, February 24, 2015. Pro-Russia separatists said on Tuesday they began withdrawing heavy weapons from the frontline in east Ukraine under a ceasefire deal, but the Ukrainian military, which says it won't pull back until fighting stops, reported further shelling. 

 Nuland called the insurgency a "manufactured conflict" directed by the Kremlin, which had sent "hundreds of young Russians ... to fight and die there."

Her broadside came as British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Moscow's "aggressive behaviour" showed it had "the potential to pose the single greatest threat" to British security.

In a speech at British defence think-tank RUSI, Hammond accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of "subverting" international rules which keep the peace between nations and said Putin's actions in Crimea and eastern Ukraine also undermined the security of other former Soviet states.

NATO forces are preparing for a major exercise in the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, on Russia's western doorstep.

US military officials said the deployment of some 3,000 troops had begun for the three-month Operation Atlantic Resolve, following the Russian annexation of Crimea.

The move came as Russia said Tuesday it was quitting a European arms control agreement seen as a cornerstone of security in post-Cold War Europe.

Moscow had already suspended its participation in the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe in 2007 and has now also suspended its participation in a consulting group on the pact, the latest sign of deep tensions with the West.

Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of providing the separatists who took up arms against Kiev last year with troops, training and weaponry. The EU and US have hit Moscow with several rounds of sanctions.

Moscow denies any military involvement in the conflict but despite the lull in fighting since an EU-mediated truce was struck in mid-February, remains under strong diplomatic pressure from European capitals and Washington.

 The conflict has taken a heavy toll on Ukraine's economy, with Kiev hoping for IMF approval Wednesday of a $17.5 billion aid package needed to pull the country from the brink of bankruptcy.

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Loefven was also due to meet with President Petro Poroshenko in Kiev Wednesday after the Ukrainian leader reported progress in the implementation of the ceasefire deal.

Government forces had "withdrawn the lion's share of multiple launch rocket systems and heavy artillery" and the rebels "have also withdrawn a significant part", Poroshenko told state television Monday night.

But Ukraine continued to sustain losses in sporadic clashes, with 64 soldiers killed since the ceasefire signed in the Belarus capital Minsk came into effect on February 15.

Both sides have repeatedly accused each other of flouting the truce.

Kiev Tuesday accused the separatists of using mortars and grenades to attack government positions near the rebel-held city of Donetsk.

On Monday, nine Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in a day of fighting near the southeastern port of Mariupol, security spokesman Andriy Lysenko said.

Western leaders have warned that any attempt by the rebels to seize the steel-making city of 500,000 would trigger further sanctions against Russia.

An AFP reporter on Tuesday saw trucks transporting rebels about 20 kilometres east of Mariupol and separatists digging trenches about 60 kilometres northeast of the city. Next to them were three parked tanks.

The rebels insist they are upholding their end of the Minsk accord and accuse Kiev of failing to do the same.

"Kiev has not conducted a proper withdrawal of heavy arms," Andrey Purgin, an official from the Donetsk People's Republic told Russian Interfax news agency. 

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Prime suspect in Nemtsov killing likely confessed 'under torture'

Ex-Chechen policeman Zaur Dadayev told rights activists he confessed to the murder to secure the release of an ex-colleague

A FORMER Chechen police officer who admitted to taking part in the murder of Russian opposition activist Boris Nemtsov "likely confessed under torture", a member of the Kremlin's rights council told AFP Wednesday.

"There are reasons that lead us to believe Zaur Dadayev confessed under torture," said Andrei Babushkin, adding he had seen "numerous wounds" on the body of the prime suspect in the killing during a visit to his Moscow prison cell on Tuesday.

Zaur Dadayev, a former deputy commander in a special Chechen police unit, was charged Sunday with the brazen murder of Kremlin critic Nemstov alongside Anzor Gubashev who worked for a private security company in Moscow. They, along with three other suspects, were remanded into custody.

A court in Moscow heard the men were being probed under a section of the Russian criminal code relating to murders carried out for financial gain, in a sign investigators believe Nemtsov's murder was a hit.

But Babushkin said Dadayev claimed he had made the confession under duress after being arrested in the North Caucasus region of Ingushetia last week, alleging that he spent two days manacled and with a sack over his head.     

"They shouted at me all the time, 'You killed Nemtsov, didn't you?'. I said, no," Babushkin reported Dadayev as saying.

The suspect said he had eventually admitted to the killing to secure the release of an ex-colleague, Ruslan Yusupov, who was detained alongside him. 

"They said that if I confessed they would let him go. I agreed. I thought I would save him and they would bring me to Moscow alive," Dadayev said, according to Babushkin.

The slaying of Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister who became an outspoken foe of President Vladimir Putin, just yards from the Kremlin was the highest-profile killing of an opposition leader during Putin's fifteen years in charge.

The 55-year-old Nemtsov was shot four times in the back on February 27 as he walked along a bridge in central Moscow with his girlfriend.

The killing sent shivers through an opposition that accuses Putin of steadily suppressing dissent, and accused the Kremlin of being behind the murder of one of its last outspoken critics.

Investigators have said they were also probing the possibility he was assassinated for criticising Russia's role in the Ukraine conflict or as part of a plot to destabilise the country.

Curled from Yahoo

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Children wasting away as hunger hits 200,000 in Madagascar

Katy Perry demonstrating to children how to wash their hands at the Sahavola pre-school in Madagascar

CLUTCHING a small bag of corn in one hand, six-year-old Haova Toboha scratches the ground with the other in the hope of turning up stray kernels left from a UN food handout.

"I found these and I'll add them to the corn given to my parents" by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), said the little girl with the plastic bag in the village of Berano, southern Madagascar.

In villages across the southern part of the world's fourth biggest island, a months-long drought ravaged last season's crops.

People are famished, children are wasting away.

WFP rations currently are keeping some 120,000 people alive in the wake of the October-through-February drought that destroyed the harvest in a country where one of every two toddlers under three suffer retarded growth due to inadequate diets.

With food increasingly scarce due to the lack of rain, the UN food agency has launched an appeal to donors to help rebuild food stocks. "We need support now," said the deputy WFP representative to the Indian Ocean island, Fatima Sow Sidibe.

People are not only being forced "to use their food reserves, they're also using up their own physical reserves," she said.

Unlike 1991, when hundreds of people died of hunger in the region, experts say the situation cannot yet be described as "famine."

"In those days people would leave the village in search of water and die on the way there," said Bertrand Randrianarivo, who was born in the south and has worked in the area with non-governmental organisations since 2001.

"Drought comes every five or six years," he said, saying the largely isolated region needs to build water catchment systems and improve its links with the rest of the island. Donors were ready to invest in such projects but had been discouraged by the stance of the nation's successive leaders.

While the WFP sees the latest drought as causing acute food insecurity rather than famine, the villagers themselves say they are wasting away.

Raharisoa, a terrifyingly thin woman of 25, sits on the ground. Her two-year-old daughter died of hunger in December.

"We couldn't look after our child," she sighs. "Because of the famine, the adults are weak and cannot take care of the little ones."

"In December, four children died in our village because of the famine," said Masy, a healthcare worker in Berano.

In the neighbouring village of Imongy, the head of the area's Health Centre, Marc Andriakotonindrina, says a dozen children died of hunger in December, according to information collected by local health-workers.

"These children showed no sign of sickness, they simply lost weight bit by bit until their demise," he added.

The drought destroyed all of the crops growing in southern Madagascar and efforts by farmers to replant were to no avail, simply reducing seed stocks and food supplies.

When the rain finally came in February it was far too late.

The government says 200,000 to 350,000 people are suffering from hunger in the low-income nation of 22 million people, which is ranked 155th of 187 countries on the UNDP's Human Development Index.

More than 70 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

In the last weeks, WFP rations have enabled 120,000 people to get regular meals.

And while Agriculture Minister Roland Ravatomanga has pledged to distribute food aid to drought-struck areas, this would have to come on top of the government's efforts to find help for flood victims.

Torrential rain late last month that caused flooding and mudslides left 22 people dead and drove more than 63,000 from their homes in the capital, Antananarivo.

- See more at: http://ngrguardiannews.com/news/world-news/201362-children-wasting-away-as-hunger-hits-200-000-in-madagascar#sthash.47dBTL4J.dpuf

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Flight attendant sues Korean Air over 'nut rage' incident

A flight attendant who was harassed by a former Korean Air Lines Co. vice president in what became known as the "nut rage" case filed a civil lawsuit against the airline and the executive.

Kim Do Hee, the flight attendant, is seeking compensation through a trial in New York city after she was verbally and physically attacked by Cho Hyun-ah, according to a statement on Wednesday by two American law firms, the Weinstein Law Firm and Kobre & Kim.

Cho, a vice president overseeing cabin service at the time of the Dec. 5 incident, was enraged that Kim served her macadamia nuts in a bag, not on a dish.

After a heated confrontation with crew in the first class cabin, Cho ordered head flight attendant Park Chang-jin off the plane, forcing it to return to a gate at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

It is the first civil lawsuit connected with the nut rage case, which infuriated South Koreans and hogged global headlines. Last month a South Korean court sentenced Cho, 40, to one year in prison for violating aviation security laws, using violence against a flight attendant and other charges. Cho, who is the daughter of Korean Air's chairman, has appealed the ruling.

The summons filed Monday with the Supreme Court of the State of New York County of Queens said Cho screamed obscenities at Kim and hit and threatened her.

She was also pressured to lie to government investigators to cover up the incident and to appear in public with Cho "as part of an orchestrated effort to try and rehabilitate Cho's public image," the summons said.

Kim is seeking compensatory damages and punitive damages in an amount to be determined at the trial.

Kim was unable to resolve the dispute privately and both Korean Air and Cho did not engage in "any substantive" settlement discussions with Kim's lawyers, the statement said. Cho will be held responsible for the damage that she has caused to Kim's career, reputation, and emotional well-being, it said.

During Cho's trial in Seoul last month, Kim testified that Cho's power at the airline was "unimaginably big" and she could not refuse her orders.

She also said Korean Air was her dream job since she was a high school student but after false rumors spread on the Internet about her accepting a professorship in exchange for lying to investigators, she could not return to work as a flight attendant.

Korean Air Lines did not respond to a request for comment.

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Saudi jails rights group founder for 10 years

Mohammed al-Bajadi: jailed for ten years

A FOUNDING member of one of the few independent human rights groups in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, a regional rights group said on Wednesday.

Mohammed al-Bajadi was sentenced last Thursday by the Specialised Criminal Court in Riyadh, whose jurisdiction is related to "terrorism", the Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR) said in a statement.

Bajadi is a founder of the Association for Civil and Political Rights (ACPRA), said the GCHR, which has offices in Beirut and Copenhagen.

"The court ordered him to serve the first five years of the sentence and suspended the last five years," it said, adding that he was tried "without prior notification or access to his lawyers."

Bajadi, in his 30s, faced various accusations including acquiring banned books, organising a protest by the families of prisoners and publishing material that "would prejudice public order", the group said.

According to a report by London-based Amnesty International in October, Saudi authorities "have targeted the founding members of ACPRA one by one, in a relentless effort to dismantle the organisation and silence its members, as part of a broader crackdown on independent activism and freedom of expression since 2011."

Bajadi was one of three members of the group awaiting re-trial. Two others were detained without trial, while three were serving prison terms of up to 15 years, Amnesty said in October.

On Saturday, Saudi Arabia deplored criticism of its judiciary and said it does not accept "any form of interference in its internal affairs".

The comments came in response to worldwide outrage over the sentence of 1,000 lashes handed to another activist, Raef Badawi, for "insulting Islam."

The foreign ministry said the country's constitution "is based on sharia (Islamic law) that guarantees human rights".

Sweden announced on Tuesday that it will not renew a military cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia, effectively ending defence ties due to mounting concerns over human rights issues.

In January, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstroem condemned the kingdom's treatment of Badawi as "nearly mediaeval".

Badawi received his first 50 lashes in January but there have been no more since.

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Bomb threat forces Hong Kong jet to make emergency landing

A bomb threat to a Hong Kong-bound flight with nearly 300 people on board forced the jet to make an emergency landing in China on Tuesday, Hong Kong Airlines said.

"Hong Kong Airlines was notified of a suspected bomb threat onboard its flight HX337 from Beijing to Hong Kong, after the plane had taken off," a spokeswoman from the airline said.

The captain of the Airbus A330-200 decided to divert "in order to ensure the safety and security of the passengers and crew" and landed the plane at around 2:30 pm local time (0630 GMT) in Tianhe International Airport in the central city of Wuhan, she said.

The precise nature of the threat was not immediately known.

"All 295 passengers and crew members of the flight have since safely disembarked," she said, adding that the aircraft was undergoing security checks.

A spokesman for Wuhan airport's police told AFP that the airport was investigating the incident, without providing any further information.

Hong Kong international airport said on its website that the flight, which was originally scheduled to land in the afternoon, would arrive at 14:30 GMT.

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Reported kidney donor to Israeli student not our son, says Jadesimi

READERS that have been applauding the reported kind gesture of one Smith Jadesimi, 28, who claimed to be the son of Nigerian billionaire, Ladi Jadesimi, and donated his kidney to a 21-year-old Israeli law student in far away Israel, which was published in yesterday, have now been disappointed following the disclosure by the Jadesimi family that the said Smith is an impostor who goes by the name Edafe Ofor. 

Ladi Jadesimi is the executive chairman of Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base, and a director at FCMB. According to him, the family does not know and has never had any contact with the said Edafe. He said that the picture is a fraud and the boy has been going about deceiving people.

It was reported that young Smith had made Nigeria proud in Israel, when he allegedly gave his kidney to Omaima Halabi, a 21-year-old law student from Israel, who he had never met. 

 According the media unit of the Synagogue Church, which released the story, Smith had searched the Google engine for the words, ‘people who need help’ and discovered the website of a non-governmental organisation — Matnat Chaim — Hebrew word for Gift of Life, an organisation that desperately seeks organ donors. His resolve to donate the kidney began in December 2014, after listening to the message of the founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nation (SCOAN), Prophet T.B. Joshua, on the act of giving. 

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Polls: Babangida, Abdulsalami, Mbeki in closed-door meeting

Former South African president, Thabo Mbeki, held a closed-door meeting with the former military president, Ibrahim Babangida on issues not unconnected with the forthcoming general elections in the country.

Mbeki, it was learnt arrived the residence of Babangida in Minna with another former Nigerian head of state, General Abdulsalami Abubakar.

It was gathered that some top politicians in the state were at Babangida’s residence when the former South African president arrived, but the visit was without much people in attendance as usually witnessed in the house.

Daily Sun gathered that the visit was coordinated in a way that it was deliberately kept away from media attention and only few of Babangida men were present when Mbeki arrived his house.

Findings further revealed that the trio of Babangida, Abdulsalami and Mbeki later went for a closed-door session.

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Jeremy Clarkson 'punch': Top Gear episodes to be dropped

The BBC is expected to scrap the remainder of the current Top Gear TV series after allegations that presenter Jeremy Clarkson punched a producer.

The broadcaster said Clarkson, 54, had been suspended after what it called a "fracas" and has confirmed Sunday's episode of Top Gear will not be shown.

It is understood the two final episodes in the series will also be dropped.

An online petition calling for the BBC to "reinstate" Clarkson has been signed by more than 150,000 people.

It was started on Tuesday afternoon by political blogger Guido Fawkes.

Clarkson has not issued a statement, but has been joking on Twitter about films that could replace Sunday's show.

The Sun newspaper, in which Clarkson writes a regular column, quotes him as saying: "I'm having a nice cold pint and waiting for this to blow over." It also quotes a "source close to the star" denying Clarkson punched anyone.

Top Gear is presented by James May, Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond

The BBC had announced Clarkson's suspension in a statement which said: "Following a fracas with a BBC producer, Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended pending an investigation.

"No one else has been suspended. Top Gear will not be broadcast this Sunday. The BBC will be making no further comment at this time."

'Sorry Ed'

BBC News special correspondent Lucy Manning said sources had confirmed reports the presenter was suspended for "allegedly hitting a producer".

"The incident is believed to have happened last week, but was reported to the BBC on Monday and dealt with on Tuesday," she said.

"The next two episodes of Top Gear will not be broadcast and it's understood that a third programme, the final of the series, is unlikely to be transmitted."

Clarkson has exchanged suggestions on Twitter with Top Gear co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May about films that could be aired in place of the Sunday's planned episode.

On Tuesday evening - in an apparent reference to an interview Ed Miliband's wife Justine had given to the BBC - Clarkson tweeted: "Sorry Ed. It seems I knocked your 'I'm a human' piece down the news agenda."

Clarkson, who has presented the motoring programme since 2002, was given what he called his "final warning" last May after claims he used a racist word during filming.

Footage leaked to the Daily Mirror appeared to show Clarkson using a racist term while reciting the nursery rhyme Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe.

He later apologised for the incident, which was never broadcast.

The show's executive producer, Andy Wilman, described last year as an "annus horribilis" for the programme.

It followed an incident in Argentina where the presenters and crew were forced to flee the country after trouble erupted over a number plate reading H982 FLK - which some suggested referred to the Falklands conflict of 1982.

Last year the show was also censured by Ofcom for breaching broadcasting rules after Clarkson used a derogatory word for Asian people during its Burma special programme.

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