'Iconic' Red Ferrari Sells For Over £24m

Bought by a bidder from the US, the 1957 335 Spider Scaglietti is one of only four ever produced and won the 1958 Cuba Grand Prix.

Auction organisers described it as "one of the most iconic racing cars in motorsport".

Bidding for the vehicle began at €20m and eventually settled at €28m when the hammer fell. But the final purchase price was inflated to €32m by what's called a "premium" price, an additional fee leveraged by some auction houses to cover logistical costs.

Matthieu Lamoure, managing director of Artcurial Motorcars Auction House, which organised the sale, said: "I'm so happy because this is effectively the world record of the history for a car sold in euros.

"It is a lot of money, but it is the real price I think, and we are very honoured to have done all this work to reach such a price."

Taiwan: Buildings Collapse As Deadly Quake Hits

Seven people have been confirmed dead so far - including a 10-day-old baby and young girl, a 55-year-old woman and a 50-year-old man, according to reports.  

Dozens of residents are reported to be trapped in a block in the two million-population city of Tainan.

Firefighters said 221 people have been rescued so far from the 17-storey building that was home to 256 people.

Formosa TV said 37 people were rescued from another seven-storey property.

A bank and a market are also reported to have toppled.

Reporters said they could hear cries of help from inside one destroyed building.

Tainan resident Brent Brown told Sky News: "I awoke to my girlfriend saying, 'Oh my god'.

"I could feel the sensation of being thrown about and heard things crashing in the living room and kitchen of the apartment.

"The first thought that crossed my mind was that the building was either falling or was going to fall.

"I was worried those were the last moments. I hugged my girlfriend and told her I loved her, expecting the worst."

A 71-year-old neighbour of one collapsed building, who gave his name as Chang, said: "I was watching TV and after a sudden burst of shaking, I heard a boom.

"I opened my metal door and saw the building opposite fall down."

The US Geological Survey said the quake struck at a depth of six miles (10km), about 27 miles (43km) southeast of Tainan.

Tremors were felt in the capital Taipei, on the other side of the island.

The quake was initially reported as having a magnitude of 6.7, but was later downgraded to 6.4.

Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou said authorities were not clear on the extent of the disaster.

The disaster situation is not very clear yet," he said. "We will do our utmost to rescue and secure (survivors)."

At least five aftershocks of 3.8 magnitude or more shook Tainan 30 minutes after the initial quake.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said a tsunami was not expected.

Taiwan lies between two tectonic plates in the Pacific Ring of Fire and is regularly hit by earthquakes.

In 1999, a 7.6-magnitude quake killed around 2,400 people.

Does the Israeli occupation fuel 'extremism'?

Ban Ki-moon and the Israeli government are at odds after the United Nations secretary-general criticised the Israeli occupation in an address to the Security Council last week.

Ban said it was "human nature" for Palestinians to react to the occupation, specifically pointing to settlement building as a "provocative" action. The remarks elicited strong criticism from the Israeli government, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accusing the UN chief of "encouraging terror".

In this week's UpFront, Mehdi Hasan speaks to Tzipi Hotovely, Israel's deputy foreign minister, the country's top diplomat, about Ban's remarks.

The Reality Check points to US President Barack Obama's national security record as proof that despite many criticisms, he is more of a hawk than a dove.

In Arena, we ask a senior political adviser to the Syrian opposition about the collapse of UN-sponsored talks and what it will take to bring peace to the country.

Headliner - Israeli minister: Palestinians under 'ISIL influence'

As the Israeli leadership and United Nations trade barbs, does the Israeli government really believe UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is "encouraging terror"?

In this week's Headliner, Mehdi Hasan speaks to the country's top diplomat Tzipi Hotovely about the secretary-general's remarks.

Deputy Foreign Minister Hotovely says Israel's domestic and military intelligence agencies are "absolutely wrong" to suggest that Palestinian violence is created from hopelessness.

"It means that terrorism is the main problem, is the main issue, not frustration," the de-facto foreign minister adds.

Hotovely also suggests that Palestinians may have been influenced by the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. "There are many other people who are saying that the Palestinian society today is choosing … the extremist side, under the influence of ISIS, as the atmosphere of the way the youngsters are being raised," she says, "and unfortunately also when they're raised under the very hard incitement of the Palestinian Authority."

Reality Check: Is Obama a wimp?

A "wimp", "weak", "coward" - that's how critics often describe US President Barack Obama when it comes to what they see as national security issues.

However, a look at his record proves that he might be more of a hawk than a dove. In this week's Reality Check, Mehdi Hasan looks at his interventionist record and highlights three ways Obama is closer to his critics than some think.

Arena: Can the Syrian peace talks be saved?

Amid increased violence, the UN special envoy to Syria announced on Wednesday a temporary suspension of peace talks.

While each side placed blame on the other for the collapse of the current round of negotiations, Staffan de Mistura, the UN special envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria, said that there was "more work to be done", adding that the talks would resume no later than February 25.

Critics argue that the negotiations were doomed to fail from the start. But after almost five years of civil war, what options, if any, are available to bring an end to the violence? What brought these current talks to a halt? And what prospects are there for peace in the future?

In Arena, Mehdi Hasan speaks to Bassam Barabandi, adviser to Riad Hijab, the head of the Syrian High Negotiations Committee and  a cofounder of People Demand Change, about what it will take to bring peace to the country.

Porter Ranch gas leak could be capped in a week

A California official outlined a plan Thursday to cap a massive Los Angeles-area gas leak by the end of next week.

The final phase to intercept the ruptured Southern California Gas Co. well is expected to begin Monday, said Wade Crowfoot, an adviser to Gov. Jerry Brown. If all goes according to plan, it should to take contractors about five days to permanently seal the well that has been leaking since October.

The announcement at a public meeting is ahead of the company's worst-case prediction that it would be plugged by the end of the month. The well has been leaking for 15 weeks and has been a major disruption for the upscale Porter Ranch community in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles.

The well blowout at the largest natural gas storage facility in the West has uprooted thousands of residents and spewed more than 2 million tons of climate-changing methane in what environmentalists have said is the worst crisis since the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

Residents have complained of headaches, nausea, nosebleeds and other symptoms. Public health officials blame the woes on an odorant added to the gas, but they said there shouldn't be long-term health problems.

Crowfoot said that once the leaking well is intercepted a mile-and-a-half underground, mud and fluids will be pumped into it to stop the gas that is gushing out.

When no gas is leaking, cement will be pumped down the old well to permanently plug it, Crowfoot said. It should take a couple days for the cement to cure. When state regulators determine the plug is solid and the well is not leaking, they will declare it killed, he said.

SoCalGas Vice President Gillian Wright cautioned that the outlined plan was tentative and several steps had to be taken before it could be put in place.

"We are very close to the end of the leak, however we are also in the most technically demanding phase of the work," Wright said. "So that's a tentative schedule. It's not a definitive schedule."

The utility paid $50 million through December to relocate residents and try in vain to plug the leak, according to financial regulatory filings.

It hasn't provided a cost update since. But the number of relocations has soared to 4,400 households, and lawsuits have been filed by residents who continue to pay the mortgage on homes they can’t live in and who have had their lives turned on their heads by the disaster.

Gov. Jerry Brown declared the situation a state of emergency. The South Coast Air Quality Management District, the agency that regulates Southern California’s air quality, is suing the gas company, accusing it of negligence in the design, construction and operation of one of the wells at the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility near Porter Ranch.

SoCalGas was charged this week by the Los Angeles district attorney with misdemeanor criminal charges for failing to notify state emergency officials about the leak for three days after it was detected on Oct. 23.

Assange subject to ‘deprivation of liberty,’ should go free, UN panel says

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be allowed to go free from the Ecuadorian embassy in London and be awarded compensation for what amounts to a three-and-a-half-year arbitrary detention, a U.N. panel ruled on Friday.

Assange, a computer hacker who enraged the U.S. by publishing hundreds of thousands of secret diplomatic cables, has been holed up in the embassy since June 2012 to avoid a rape investigation in Sweden.

Both Britain and Sweden denied that Assange was being deprived of freedom, noting he had entered the embassy voluntarily. Britain said it could contest the decision and that Assange would be arrested if he left the embassy.

Speaking by video link from the embassy, Assange told a news conference the finding that he has been unlawfully detained is a significant victory that completely vindicates him. His lawyers said Assange must be freed immediately and given protection from possible extradition to the United States.

Assange, an Australian, appealed to the U.N. panel, whose decision is not binding, saying he was a political refugee whose rights had been infringed by being unable to take up asylum in Ecuador.

It ruled in his favor, although the decision was not unanimous. Three of the five members on the panel supported a decision in Assange's favor, with one dissenter and one recusing herself.

“The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention considers that the various forms of deprivation of liberty to which Julian Assange has been subjected constitute a form of arbitrary detention,” the group's head, Seong-Phil Hong, said in a statement. “(It) maintains that the arbitrary detention of Mr Assange should be brought to an end, that his physical integrity and freedom of movement be respected, and that he should be entitled to an enforceable right to compensation.” 

Assange, 44, denies allegations of a 2010 rape in Sweden, saying the charge is a ploy that would eventually take him to the U.S. where a criminal investigation into the activities of WikiLeaks is still open.

Sweden said it has no such plans.

Assange had said that if he lost the appeal then he would leave his cramped quarters at the embassy in the Knightsbridge area of London, though Britain said he would be arrested and extradited to Sweden as soon as he stepped outside.

The decision in his favor marks the latest twist in a tumultuous journey for Assange since he incensed Washington with leaks that laid bare often highly critical U.S. appraisals of world leaders from Vladimir Putin to the Saudi royal family.

In 2010, the group released over 90,000 secret documents on the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan, followed by almost 400,000 U.S. military reports detailing operations in Iraq. Those disclosures were followed by release of millions of diplomatic cables dating back to 1973.

The U.N. Working Group does not have the authority to order the release of a detainee — and Friday's ruling in unlikely to change the legal issues facing Assange — but it has considered many high-profile cases and its backing carries a moral weight that puts pressure on governments.

Recent high-profile cases submitted to the U.N. panel include that of jailed former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed and of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, an Iranian-American jailed in Iran until a prisoner swap last month.

But governments have frequently brushed aside its findings such as a ruling on Myanmar's house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in 2008, a call in 2006 for the Iraqi government not to hang former dictator Saddam Hussein, and frequent pleas for the closure of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

“This changes nothing. We completely reject any claim that Julian Assange is a victim of arbitrary detention. The U.K. has already made clear to the U.N. that we will formally contest the working group’s opinion,” a British government spokesman said.

“He is, in fact, voluntarily avoiding lawful arrest by choosing to remain in the Ecuadorean embassy,” the spokesman said. ”An allegation of rape is still outstanding and a European Arrest Warrant in place, so the U.K. continues to have a legal obligation to extradite him to Sweden.”

Swedish prosecutors said the U.N. decision had no formal impact on the rape investigation under Swedish law. A U.S. Grand Jury investigation into WikiLeaks is ongoing. 

Somalia beach attack: Survivor tells of ordeal at hands of al-Shabab

I was with my younger brother Eyman. We were were having tea, looking out at the sea, enjoying the sight and sound of the waves. It was one of those wonderful moments in life. 

Suddenly, shooting started on the side of the restaurant which spreads out onto the beach. We all got up and started running away, except those who were hit by the bullets. 

As the gunfire got louder and louder, most of the people who had been sitting on the beach side of the restaurant fell down on to the sand. 

I didn't see Eyman after he ran away, so I started shouting for him and running at the same time.

I fell down, but someone gave me a hand and I couldn't tell if he knew me or not. He pulled me towards where the kitchen and toilets were.

Those of us who had run for our lives went to hide in the toilets and shut ourselves inside, standing by the hand-wash area. 

Even though praying is forbidden inside toilets, quietly I started reciting verses of the Koran and Hadith [the stories and traditions of Muhammad's life], praying that Allah would protect us from these evil cowards. 

I wondered whether I would survive or be killed.

My thoughts also turned to my little brother Eyman. I wasn't sure if he had escaped the restaurant in time. I started shouting: "Eyman, Eyman, Eyman!" 

I remembered how much my mother loved Eyman, since he was her youngest child.

thought of how she would react to the news of our death. Eyman was not just the youngest, but my mother's only son, after she had lost her other son two years ago. 

She still feels his loss now. 

I prepared for the worst.

As the gunfire intensified, I thought about what would happen to our family.

I would take the blame for Eyman's death; it was my idea to bring him to Liido beach after all. "Why did I bring him with me?" I asked myself over and over. 

Now, some of the bullets entered the toilet, hitting some of those I was hiding with, whose blood now poured over me.

The attackers threw bombs inside the restaurant and the attack kept getting stronger and stronger. 

I could hear the cries of babies and women, of explosions and gunfire.

People were crying out: "LaaIllaaha Illalaah", which is a phrase to use when someone is on the verge of death and asking Allah for forgiveness. 

But their cries made the attackers realise that there were people still alive, so they increased their fire towards us, until we asked everyone to shut their mouths and stay silent. 

Now the restaurant was in darkness. The only lights we could see were came from the bullets flying through the air. 

I lay on the floor, with blood running all around me. Injured people were on top of me and I couldn't say a word. 

I assumed Eyman was already dead and that I was about to die too.

But then, hope came. 

Some special forces from the National Intelligence Service Agency (NISA) had arrived.

They came to the window, signalling to us with lights.

Then they started breaking down a section of the wall near the window.

First, they told those who were wounded and the women to come forward. They kept telling us to come to them, but we were still in shock and didn't know what to do. 

Then one of the special forces team, whose face was covered, raised his hand and asked me to come. 

He had a gun in one hand and he pushed my hand, asking me to move forward. 

He pulled my body and forced me to come out of the building. 

When I got outside, I checked my body to see whether I was injured or not.

Luckily I was okay, except the pain throughout my body from when I had fallen down onto the floor, and people had trodden on me as they rushed to escape. 

I was covered in shards of glass. The sounds of bombs and gunfire was fresh in my mind. 

Then, they told me "yes" - my brother Eyman was safe. 

I thought of the brave soldier who had chosen to risk his life in order to save us. The attack was still going on while the soldier was rescuing us, and we could hear the sounds of bombs and bullets all around. 

I owe my life to this soldier and if I had seen his face or knew his name, I would try to find him so I could thank him personally for what he did. 

I give my thanks to Allah, and to this solider who helped me survive the attack. 

The soldier was so kind, professional, compassionate, committed and determined to save our lives.

I know that his mission was to save people trapped in the restaurant, and every girl or boy that he saved was also his duty, but my feelings of gratitude and appreciation are so deep. 

So if you are reading this article, know that you are a brave soldier and only Allah can repay your sacrifices to humankind.

Indian crew grounded over midair Bollywood concert

India's Jet Airways has grounded five crew members for allowing a Bollywood singer to perform over the in-flight announcement system, an airline said on Friday, prompting a social media backlash against the decision.

The temporary suspension of the female crew comes after a video showing singer Sonu Nigam's impromptu performance last month went viral.

"All cabin crew on the flight have been taken off from flight duty for inquiry and corrective training to reinforce strict adherence to operating procedures," Jet Airways said in a statement.

The video showed the celebrity singer singing chart-topping Bollywood songs, with other passengers joining in on a chartered flight from the western city of Jodhpur to Mumbai on January 4.

Following its probe, government officials asked the airline to take action against the cabin crew for violating regulations and misusing the in-flight announcement system.

The crew's suspension was trending in India on Friday, with Twitter users lashing out at the authorities for suspending the crew.

"Never knew Sonu Nigam would be such a bad music to ears of Jet Airways. Suspending 5 lovely ladies for good sense of music ... Seriously??" user Yashwant Deshmukh tweeted.

However, others supported the carrier's decision, saying such actions could jeopardise flight safety.

"I'm glad @jetairways has suspended [its] crew for allowing Sonu Nigam to 'misuse' the announcement system. It is unacceptable & dangerous," tweeted Tehseen Poonawalla.