Human Remains Found in Himalayas Identified as Missing Backpacker Matthew Allpress

Social media campaign to find Matthew Allpress.Twitter

The remains of a man found in Nepal have been identified as Australian backpacker Matthew Allpress, who went missing last year while trekking in the Himalayas.

The 23-year-old failed to return home after a 10-day solo trekking trip in the country's Annapurna ranges last November, and his mother Margaret, who lives in Luton, flew to Kathmandu to join a search effort to find him.

Allpress's family last heard from him on 3 November when he sent a message from a guesthouse in Sikles saying he would be "out of contact for 9-11 days, heading to a place called Dudh Pokhari, then I'm back in time for my flight into Sydney on November 14".

Allpress's skeletal remains were found on 10 May by two Nepalese foragers, who were combing a mountainous area.

Later tests confirmed that the remains belong to Allpress, a family spokesman said. Experts used medical and dental records to confirm Allpress's identity.

"Margaret, Matthew's mum, attended the hospital on Thursday to view the remains and to meet with the examining doctors who had carried out the autopsy," the spokesman told the BBC.

"The police have advised us that a new team of approximately 15 officers are being immediately deployed back to the area where the remains were found to search for, and hopefully retrieve, the remaining missing effects that belong to Matthew.

"This process will take some time but as normal, we will keep everyone updated as news comes to hand."

The spokesman added that Margaret and her son's father Mark wanted to thank well-wishers for their thoughts and prayers.

Tributes to the young adventurer poured in on social media websites. One friend, Jane Suckling, said that Allpress had left a "hole in all of the hearts he touched".

Egyptian Court Jails 20 Pro-Morsi Students On Riot Charges

Pro-Morsi university students and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood occupy Tahrir Square for the first time since the removal of President Mohamed Mursi in Cairo.Reuters

An Egyptian Court has convicted 20 students from an Islamist university in Cairo on charges of rioting during a protest in support of deposed Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Morsi last year.

A judicial official said 19 of the students, all from Al-Azhar University, were each sentenced to five years in prison; one defendant was given three years, and another was acquitted, the Associated Press reported.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said 19 of the convicted students were also each fined $2,860 (£1,699) for property damage.

Students have been at the forefront of frequent rallies in support of former Egyptian president Morsi, who was ousted by the military in a coup in July 2013.

The Al-Azhar campus in Cairo has seen some of the worst violence, with several students killed and many suspended for taking part in protests.

A pro-Morsi university student and supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood gestures with four fingers in front of a burning police vehicle at Al Nahda square in Cairo.Reuters

The verdicts came just days before Egypt's presidential election, which is due to take place on 26-27 May. Former head of Egypt's armed forces Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is widely expected to win the election.

Responding to mounting international criticism of the series of mass trials held in Egypt over the past few months, Egypt's justice minister Nayer Osman said although judges can make mistakes, it does not make the country's judicial system "flawed".

"The judiciary has nothing to do with political circumstances or public emotions," Osman told a Cairo press conference.

On Saturday, the health ministry announced that three people died and 58 were injured in clashes between pro and anti-Muslim Brotherhood groups on Friday.

Security officials and activists estimate that more than 16,000 people have been arrested in Egypt in the 10 months since Morsi was ousted.

In April, 683 alleged Morsi supporters were sentenced to death, including several senior figures such as the Brotherhood's spiritual leader Mohammed Badie. The swift verdicts were criticised by Egyptian rights groups and described as "grotesque" by Amnesty International.

Tagged Sharks and Tuna 'Can Predict Hurricanes'

Reuters

Scientists have added sharks and tuna to their weather-forecasting arsenal to help predict hurricanes, cyclones and tropical typhoons.

Researchers are fitting the fish with tracking devices that record critical information used to predict hurricanes – such as water temperature, depth and salinity – from the deep seas and oceans and relay it to meteorologists via satellite.

The team, led by oceanographers at the University of Miami, have tagged 750 fish including hammerhead and tiger sharks that swim off the eastern coast of the US and between the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.

The fish follow waters with a temperature of 26C. These movement patterns are important in predicting hurricanes as this is the temperature threshold at which hurricanes form. Knowing the depth of these waters can help predict whether storms will weaken or gain in intensity as they travel.

By building a map of the ocean's heat content at varying depths, scientists can predict the intensity of approaching storms more accurately. Some fish can swim up to 100 miles a day.

Nick Shay, who is jointly leading the oceanography project, told the Times: "The fish can give a gazillion pieces of information, and that represents a really exciting opportunity."

Jerald Ault, the project's co-leader, added: "The fish act as biological sensors. They dive, so they create a vertical picture of what they water temperature looks like."

Tagging each fish costs around £2,500 ($4,000), and yields far richer information across a larger area than an underwater sensor, which costs around £120,000 ($200,000). The team is looking for a mixture of public and private funding to scale up the project and tag hundreds more large-finned fish such as Atlantic tarpon and blue marlin.

Nuns Take On Brazil's Child Sex Gangs in Run-up to World Cup

With Brazil hosting the World Cup this year, officials fear an explosion in child prostitutionReuters

A network of religious orders against human trafficking says this summer's World Cup in Brazil will encourage an increase in child prostitution.

Sister Gabriella Bottani, an Italian nun, said the "greatest concern is linked to the increase in the exploitation of child prostitution".

Bottani said the risk of child exploitation increased by up to 40% during the World Cups in Germany in 2006 and South Africa in 2010, and would be likely to rise again during Brazil's month-long tournament starting in June.

The campaign, "Play For Life, Report Trafficking", will involve nuns and others handing out leaflets at airports and key tourist areas in Brazil encouraging people to report suspected child prostitution or enslavement to police, according to an Associated Press report.

"Without awareness, without acting together in favour of human dignity, the World Cup finals may turn out to be a terrible shame instead of a feast for humanity," said Sister Carmen Sammut, president of the International Union of Superiors General, another of the member organisations.

Of particular concern are gangs recruiting under-age sex workers. Around 500,000 minors, many from poor rural areas sell their bodies for sex, cigarettes or to buy food.

The girls' parents or relatives act as pimps on a notorious road for child abuse, the BR-116, a 2,800-mile highway that runs the length of the country.

Posters at airports warn tourists that they face prison if caught soliciting minors. However, the police and courts regularly fail to follow through with action, say child prostitution activists.

A study by a parliamentary commission in Sao Paulo reported last week that there was an increase in child prostitution and sex abuse around the Corinthians stadium where the World Cup opening ceremony will be held on 12 June.

Other investigations claim that child prostitutes are positioned by pimps around other World Cup stadiums, including the Maracana in Rio.

"There is a real culture of silence," said Matt Roper, who has set up a charity called Menina Danca to help girls in the town of Medina, just off the BR-116.

The town of Medina has a population of just 15,000 but is notorious for drug gang murders and child abuse. Social workers believe about 100 girls sell their bodies there.

"Mothers or family members have no problem taking their daughters to a roadside brothel," Roper told the Times.

"It's seen as completely normal."

Two Explosions Rock Somalia's Capital Mogadishu

Somali police evacuate an injured colleague from the scene of a car bomb in Somalia.Reuters

Somalia's parliament building in Mogadishu has been rocked by two huge explosions while MPs were in session.

Heavy gunfire followed the blasts and at least four bodies are reported to have been recovered near the site.

Police official Husein Ise told the AFP news agency: "There is an attack near the parliament building. There was a car bomb explosion and gunfire broke out. We don't have details so far."

Local eyewitnesses said the al-Qaida-linked Somalian militant group al-Shabaab appeared to have carried out an attack on the parliamentary complex while politicians were in a meeting.

Al-Shabaab has waged a campaign of terror in its attempt to overthrow Somalia's internationally backed government.

Somalia's first parliament since the collapse of the national government was sworn in two years ago and the fragile government has continued to wage war on al-Shabaab insurgents.

The group admitted that it was behind last September's attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya's capital Nairobi, which killed at least 67 people and wounded 175.

The militant group said the attack was carried out in retaliation for Kenyan forces coordinating anti-militant operations in neighbouring Somalia.

Al-Shabaab was pushed out of Mogadishu in 2011 but has continued to wage a sustained guerrilla campaign, claiming responsibility for a series of suicide bomb attacks in the city.

The parliament in Mogadishu, which operated a transitional assembly from 2004 to 2012, has been attacked several times, notably in 2009 and 2010.

Earlier this month, al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for an attack in Mogadishu that killed six people, including senior city official Abdikafi Hilowle Osman, a former member of the local government in the capital city.

Last month, the group admitted to killing two parliamentary delegates in a gun and car bomb attack, and in February, al-Shabaab militants killed officials and guards in an attack on Mogadishu's heavily guarded presidential palace.

China Urumqi Suicide Bombing: Police Identify Suspects as Religious Extremists

Paramilitary policemen gesture to stop a photographer from taking pictures as they stand guard after an explosives attack hit Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of ChinaReuters

The five suspects who had carried out the bombing attack in the city of Urumqi in Xinjiang province have been identified by the police, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

Nurahmat Ablipiz, Memet Memtimin, Raghimjan Memet, Memtimin Mahmat and Ablet Abdukadir had been influenced by "religious extremism", according to the agency said.

All five of them were earlier reported to have been killed in the attack, but one of them has been arrested. He is detained in Bayingolin prefecture, south of Urumqi.

The deadly attack at a vegetable market in Urumqi killed 39 people and injured over 90, when assailants drove two vehicles into a crowd and threw explosives. One of the vehicles exploded in the attack.

The suspects were brainwashed into religious extremist beliefs and allegedly took part in illegal religious activities, apart from watching and listening to audio and video material propounding terrorist violence, Xinhua said.

"Judging from the many terrorist attacks that have taken place and the relevant perpetrators, they have received support from terrorist groups outside China's borders as well as religious extremist propaganda spread via the internet," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a press conference.

Pan Zhiping, a retired expert on Central Asia at Xinjiang's Academy of Social Science, told Reuters that the attack was the deadliest in the region.

China has now announced a one-year dedicated campaign against the militants in the restive Xinjiang province. State media said the authorities will "focus on terrorists and religious extremist groups, gun and explosive manufacturing dens and terrorist training camps".

China says that the administration is working to develop Xinjiang province and seeks cooperation of the natives, but the Uighurs feel that the government is antagonistic to their traditions.

Uighur separatists are being blamed by China for this and other terrorist attacks in the country over the past year which have claimed at least 180 lives.

Previous attacks

In April, a bomb and knife attack at a railway station killed three people and injured dozens, which also coincided with the visit of President Xi Jinping to the region.

Two months ago, a group of masked attackers, dressed in black indiscriminately slashed commuters at Kunming Railway station in southwest China, killing 29 and injuring 143.

Last October, a car crashed in the Tiananmen Square in Beijing, bursting into flames and killing five people. A Filipino man and a Chinese citizen who were nearby were killed in the attack apart from three others in the car, including the driver, his wife and mother.

In 2009, raging tensions between the Han Chinese and the Uighur minority led to fierce communal riots in Xinjiang, claiming at least 150 lives.