Woman charged over soldier death clips

A WOMAN has been charged with terror offences over video clips about the London murder of soldier Lee Rigby.

Rebekah Dawson, 21, from Hackney, east London, is accused of dissemination of terrorist publications and encouragement of terrorism, and will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.

She is jointly charged along with Royal Barnes, 22, also from Hackney, who appeared at the same court on Monday to face terror charges linked to the footage.

Dawson is accused of making two video recordings on May 22, the day of Fusilier Rigby's murder, and distributing them with the intention of encouraging others in the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism.

She is also accused of encouraging terrorism by publishing a statement with Barnes entitled "Muslim laughs at British Soldier killing".

Barnes is due to appear at the Old Bailey on Friday.

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Woman's nose 'bitten off' at holiday camp

AN English woman has been charged with grievous bodily harm after allegedly biting off another woman's nose at a holiday camp.

The incident is alleged to have taken place in the theatre area at Butlins in Bognor Regis on April 11 when a performance of Jack And The Beanstalk was taking place.

Tina Love, 27, of Dartford, Kent, has been charged and bailed to appear at Worthing Magistrates Court on August 27.

A Sussex Police spokesman said the 47-year-old victim was treated in hospital, "including an attempt to replace a piece of her nose which had allegedly been bitten off".

She has since been discharged from hospital to recuperate.

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Norway bars Apple from taking aerial shots

NORWAY'S intelligence agency has blocked US company Apple from flying over Oslo to take 3D aerial photos for its map application, citing national security.

"I can confirm that Apple was not authorised to take aerial photographs because the level of detail in the shots is considered too high for some of the restricted zones," a spokeswoman for the Norwegian National Security Authority (NSM), Mona Stroem Arnoey, said on Tuesday.

"We have however presented Apple with alternative solutions, including buying photos from Norwegian suppliers or from the Norwegian map authorities," she said.

Norway's neighbours Sweden and Denmark have meanwhile granted Apple permission to take aerial photos.

NSM, tasked with protecting Norway from espionage, sabotage or acts of terrorism, refused to comment on the number or nature of restricted zones in Oslo.

Photos of these zones provided by Norwegian suppliers are of a lower resolution or blurred.

According to the daily newspaper Aftenposten, the photo ban prompted Oslo's mayor - approached by the US embassy in Norway - to contact the government on Apple's behalf but to no avail.

Apple was heavily criticised for errors in the first map application it developed in-house, and has since come up with its Flyover function that enables users to fly over major cities interactively.

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Canada train crash firm loses licence

CANADA'S transportation agency says a US-based rail company whose runaway oil train caused a fire and explosion that killed 47 people in a Quebec town has lost its operating licence.

The agency said on Tuesday it was suspending the certificate of fitness for the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway.

The agency says it is not satisfied that the company has demonstrated its third-party liability insurance is adequate for ongoing operations.

The parked train, with 72 tankers full of crude oil, was unattended when it began rolling and derailed in the centre of Lac-Megantic on July 6. Several tankers exploded, destroying 40 buildings.

The disaster raised questions about the growing use of rail transport for oil.

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Scientists grow human heart tissue

SCIENTISTS say they have used stem cells to grow human heart tissue that contracted spontaneously in a petri dish - marking progress in the quest to manufacture transplant organs.

A team from the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, used induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells generated from human skin cells to create precursor heart cells called MCPs.

The heart cells were attached to a mouse heart "scaffold", from which they grew and developed into heart muscle, researchers wrote in the journal Nature Communications on Tuesday.

After 20 days of blood supply, the reconstructed mouse organ "began contracting again at the rate of 40 to 50 beats per minute", said a University of Pittsburgh statement.

"It is still far from making a whole human heart," added senior researcher Lei Yang.

Ways have to be found to make the heart contract strongly enough to pump blood effectively and to rebuild the heart's electrical conduction system.

"However, we provide a novel resource of cells - iPS cell-derived MCPs - for future heart tissue engineering," Yang told AFP by email.

"We hope our study would be used in the future to replace a piece of tissue damaged by a heart attack, or perhaps an entire organ, in patients with heart disease."

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Snowden's father gets visa to visit Russia

US National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden's father says he has secured a visa to visit his son in Russia.

Lon Snowden and family lawyer Bruce Fein aren't saying when they'll visit Russia.

They also say they haven't spoken directly with Edward Snowden since he fled the US for Russia, which has given him asylum.

Lon Snowden says he wants his son to return to the US at some point.

But he says he thinks it's unlikely his son could have a fair trial, given public statements from government officials calling the younger Snowden a traitor.

Edward Snowden has been charged in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, with violations of the Espionage Act.

Lon Snowden and Fein spoke on Sunday with ABC's TV program This Week.

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Somali rebels seized $A824,800 in aid: UK

AL-SHABAB rebels in Somalia have seized STG480,000 ($A824,800) of UK-funded humanitarian aid supplies, the British government says.

The supplies were seized between November 2011 and February 2012, when the militants raided warehouses and offices of organisations partnered with the UK's Department for International Development, which spent STG102.9 million in Somalia that year.

While the incidents occurred between 2011 and 2012, the write-off was listed in the agency's annual report for 2012 and 2013 - once an investigation into the theft was completed.

The report said the agency's partners did not have any prior warning of the attacks and did not have time to move the supplies.

The Department for International Development is working with partner organisations to ensure such risks are identified, the report added.

The agency stressed on Sunday that working in some of the most dangerous countries in the world carries "inherent risk".

It also said in a statement that it "does all it can to mitigate against this but, on occasion, losses will occur" and that when theft is suspected it will investigate and act quickly.

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