Police Officer Hurt By Man Armed With Machetes

A police officer has been injured while confronting a man wielding two machetes near a Glasgow school.

The suspect was spotted in Hill Street in the city centre after officers responded to reports of a disturbance on Friday morning.

Witnesses reported seeing a man wearing a balaclava near the private school St Aloysius College and the Glasgow School of Art.

He reportedly threatened a lollipop man and tried to attack a janitor.

Glasgow School of Art said the janitor had been left "shaken, but unharmed" after confronting the man.

A spokeswoman said: "The Glasgow School of Art can confirm that a member of our staff did encounter the individual described, whilst parking his car near to a GSA building."

Police said a man had been arrested and no members of the public were believed to have been injured.

"One officer sustained a minor injury during the arrest," a spokesman said.

"Inquiries are ongoing to determine the circumstances surrounding the incident."

Fraud Probe Into Police Federation Accounts

Detectives are investigating claims of fraud within the Police Federation of England and Wales.

Its vice chairman, Will Riches, has resigned but no reason for his departure has been revealed.

The federation represents the majority of the country's police officers

The body said it was working with Surrey Police who are leading the investigation into "potential fraudulent activity" surrounding accounts held by its Constables' Central Committee.

The federation, which represents police officers from the ranks of inspector, sergeant and constable, said in a statement: "On Tuesday 15 March, the Police Federation of England and Wales contacted Surrey Police to ask them to investigate potential fraudulent activity relating to accounts held by the federation's Constables' Central Committee.

"The issue was identified by the PFEW itself and we are fully co-operating with their initial investigation which is being undertaken to determine whether any offences have been committed.

"Until those inquiries are complete it would be inappropriate to comment further."

The investigation began on Tuesday and is focused on accounts held by one of the federation's national committees.

A German ‘Triple Agent’ Has Been Jailed for Spying

In a tale of espionage that sounds like it came out of Cold War, a German man attempting to be a triple agent has been sentenced by a Munich court to eight years in prison for spying and treason.

Markus Reichel passed over 200 classified documents the U.S. while working in the mail room of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service until his arrest in July 2014, according to Euronews. He said he felt unappreciated.

Reichel, it seems, was an indiscriminate mole. He also sent the Russian consulate in Munich an email with three classified files attached, Euronews reports. The message designed to prove his credibility and solicit work, however, ultimately became his undoing. The communiqué was intercepted and his activities were exposed.

At the time of his arrest, Euronews recounts, U.S.-German relations were strained over whistle-blower Edward Snowden’s revelations that Washington had been carrying out extensive snooping operations in Germany.

Mark Zuckerberg Just Jogged Through Beijing Smog to the Concern of the Internet

The worst smog of the year hung low and thick over Beijing this week, with the air-quality index (AQI) climbing past 300 — twice as potent than Los Angeles on a bad day, and 10 times higher than the World Health Organization’s recommended exposure limit. This apparently didn’t discourage Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg from taking a spirited jog through the capital city’s Tiananmen Square, an excursion he documented and shared on Facebook on Friday.

“It’s great to be back in Beijing!” Zuckerberg wrote in the caption accompanying the photo. He’s grinning as he runs, seemingly undeterred by the grey soupy haze that shrouds the vast concrete plain behind him. From his portrait hanging over the gates of the Forbidden City, Mao Zedong gazes stoically into the miasma.

Zuckerberg has in recent months made a point to showcase his affinity for the world’s only communist superpower, where Facebook — and Twitter, and Google, and the websites of many Western news outlets — are blocked under draconian web censorship laws. But a seemingly unperturbed Zuckerberg was apparently able to get around them in order to make his post.

The photo went up on Friday morning local time, and within hours, its comments section was flooded with wry observations. Many, including one made by the Hong Kong student activist Joshua Wong, noted the irony of his effusive praise for a country that bans the product he sells. Some were distressed by Zuckerberg’s choice of venue: Tiananmen Square is where, in June 1989, the Chinese government massacred an inestimable number of student protesters who had gathered there to demand democratic reforms.

Others were simply concerned for his physical well-being. Beijing vies with New Delhi for the dubious honor of being the world’s most polluted capital. The current bout of smog is the most severe of 2016 so far. At 9 a.m. on Friday — about an hour and a half before Zuckerberg shared the photo of his run — the U.S. embassy in Beijing measured the AQI at 305, which qualifies as “hazardous.”

“Everyone should avoid all physical activity outdoors,” the embassy warns, enumerating the attendant risks: “Serious aggravation of heart or lung disease and premature mortality in persons with cardiopulmonary disease and the elderly; serious risk of respiratory effects in general population.”

US hands down longest-ever sentence for ISIL support

Pizza shop owner Mufid Elfgeeh pleaded guilty only to trying to recruit two individuals to join ISIL [AP]

A New York state resident was sentenced to 22-and-a-half years in prison for trying to recruit fighters to join Islamic State of Iraq and the Levent (ISIL), the longest prison term handed out yet to an American convicted of supporting the group.
Mufid Elfgeeh, a 32-year-old pizza shop owner of Rochester, was sentenced in a Western District court on Thursday after the district's attorney, William Hochul, called Elfgeeh "one of the first ISIL (also known as ISIS) recruiters ever captured".
Convictions for ISIL-related activity by US citizens have become more frequent in recent months as more than 80 such cases brought by US prosecutors since 2013 work their way through federal courts.

Although Elfgeeh pleaded guilty in December only to trying to recruit two individuals to join ISIL, he was also originally charged with trying to kill US service members and unlawfully possessing firearms and silencers.

Beginning in 2013, the FBI paid two informants to help investigate Elfgeeh, according to court records.

The informants recorded conversations in which Elfgeeh talked about wanting to kill members of the US military and Shia Muslims in New York. One of the informants eventually sold Elfgeeh firearms and ammunition.

Elfgeeh tried to send the two individuals to Syria to fight on behalf of ISIL, buying them a laptop computer, a high-definition camera, an expedited passport and other travel documents, according to his plea agreement.

He used Facebook and WhatsApp to activate a network of ISIL sympathisers in Turkey, Syria and Yemen who could facilitate their trip, the plea agreement said.

During the same months, Elfgeeh also helped the alleged commander of a Syrian rebel battalion contact ISIL leadership so that the battalion could join the larger group, prosecutors said.

Honcho said Elfgeeh fell for ISIL's propaganda.

"They try to create this false narrative that everyone is in favour of them," Honchul said.

According to Honchul, in court Elfgeeh said, "I used to be one of them and I was wrong ISIL is a terrible group". 

Migrant crisis: EU agrees joint position to put to Turkey

EU leaders have agreed a joint position to put to Turkey in an attempt to reach a deal over the migrant crisis, Luxembourg's prime minister says.

Xavier Bettel said the common EU position would be put to Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu on Friday morning. 

The proposed deal would see all migrants travelling to Greece from Turkey sent back.

In return it is thought the EU might offer Turkey financial aid and visa-free access to Schengen countries.

The plan suggests that for every Syrian refugee sent back, another Syrian would be resettled in the EU directly from refugee camps in Turkey.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Turkey had to meet international standards of protection for all migrants.

She said that the legal resettlement of Syrian refugees could start a few days after the first returns from Greece.

However, she added that the EU needed to be ready to start returning migrants from Greece to Turkey rapidly to avoid a "pull factor" creating a surge of migrants before the new system takes effect.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite has warned that the plan to return people to Turkey is "on the edge of international law" and difficult to implement. 

Mr Davutoglu has said he will not accept Turkey becoming an "open prison" for migrants.

To meet concerns over the plan's legality, the leaders discussed providing assurances that each person claiming asylum will be given a full hearing in Greece, the BBC's Damian Grammaticas reports from Brussels.

French President Francois Hollande warned that "I cannot guarantee that there will be a happy outcome" to the search for a solution.

Since January 2015, a million migrants and refugees have entered the EU by boat from Turkey to Greece. More than 132,000 have arrived this year alone.

Tens of thousands are now stuck in Greece as their route north has been blocked.

Under initial proposals, the EU had suggested it would double financial aid to Turkey promised last year, make a fresh push on talks over Turkey's eventual membership of the EU and offer visa-free travel to Europe's Schengen states.

However, those proposals have since been watered down, lowering expectation on greater financial help and talks on EU membership and linking visa-free travel to 72 conditions to which Turkey must agree.

A number of EU countries have raised concerns about what is on offer to Turkey amid a clampdown by the Ankara government on academics and journalists.

Worker Dies After Falling 800ft From Skyscraper

An electrician has died after falling more than 800ft (245 metres) from a Los Angeles skyscraper that will be the tallest on the West Coast once it is completed.

The worker, who was on his second day of the project, fell from the 53rd floor of the Wilshire Grand Center at around noon on Thursday onto the back edge of a passing car.

Its driver did not appear to be seriously hurt but was taken to a hospital.

The incident happened at one of the busiest times of day at one of the busiest intersections in downtown Los Angeles.

The $1bn, 73-storey skyscraper will be about 1,100ft tall (335 metres) when it is finished next year.

Chris Martin, CEO of Martin Project Management which is supervising the construction, could not confirm if the man had a safety harness on as is required on the project.