OJ Simpson Home Knife 'Not The Murder Weapon'

A knife found at OJ Simpson's former Los Angeles home was not the weapon in the 1994 murders the ex-football star was cleared of committing, police say.

LAPD said they performed a range of forensic tests on the blade before ruling it out.

"We don't know if it's a hoax but there's no nexus to the murders, based on the testing we've done," LAPD Capt Andrew Neiman told Reuters news agency.

Nicole Brown Simpson (L) and Ronald Goldman

Simpson was sensationally acquitted in 1995 of the fatal stabbings of his ex-wife and her friend at the property, in what media called the trial of the century.

The police department said this month that a builder had apparently found the blade years ago when the home was being torn down.

OJ Simpson's former estate

The worker supposedly handed it to an off-duty or retired traffic officer, but detectives only recently learned of its existence.

weapon was described as a small buck knife, which some experts said was not the type of blade investigators suspected was used in the killings.

Even if it had been the knife, Simpson couldn't have been tried again for the murders under America's double jeopardy rules, police said.

The notorious case sharply divided the US

His former manager, Norman Pardo, recently told People magazine Simpson was "a little worried" the knife issue could in some way affect his parole.

Now 68, he is currently serving a prison sentence in Nevada for the 2007 armed robbery and kidnap of a sports memorabilia dealer.

Trapped civilians stall Iraqi ISIL offensive

Iraq soldiers search a convoy of families fleeing ISIL-held Heet town at a checkpoint [Maya Alleruzzo/AP]

Tens of thousands of trapped Iraqi civilians have stalled an offensive to recapture a strategic town from ISIL with the military dropping pamphlets urging people to flee so a full assault can begin.

Sabah al-Numan, a spokesman for Iraq's elite counter-terrorism forces, said an operation was launched for the town of Heet - 140km west of Baghdad - on Thursday with heavy air strikes helping ground troops advance within 3km before being forced to stop.

Heet lies along an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant supply line linking its fighters in Iraq to those in Syria.

Numan said the military made "a plan to evacuate these families" and leaflets were dropped over Heet indicating which roads can be used to flee. 

The armed group has regularly used civilians as human shields - a tactic aimed at slowing the movement of Iraqi forces and complicating air strikes essential to ground operations. 

The advance was not without resistance as eight Iraqi soldiers were killed on Thursday after an ISIL suicide car bomber detonated near an army convoy. 

Iraqi special forces - backed by army troops and US-led coalition air strikes - moved on the town in western Anbar province that has been for months under the control of ISIL, also known as ISIS.

Retaking Heet - strategically located on the Euphrates River near the Ain al-Asad airbase, where several hundred US forces are training Iraqi troops - would push ISIL further west towards the Syrian border, cutting a connection to the northern town of Samarra while leaving Fallujah as the group's only stronghold near the capital, Baghdad.

Iraq has had success in pushing back ISIL fighters in recent months, and has pledged to retake the northern city of Mosul later this year, but progress has often been fitful.

North Korea to pursue more 'nuclear deterrence'

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches a ballistic rocket launch drill in March [Reuters]

North Korea pledged to pursue its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes in defiance of the United States and its allies with a top envoy saying there is now a state of "semi-war" on the divided peninsula.

So Se Pyong, North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, made the statement on Friday as the US and South Korea held military exercises, which he said were aimed at the "decapitation of the supreme leadership of the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea]".

"If the United States continues, then we have to make the counter-measures also. So we have to develop and we have to make more deterrence - nuclear deterrence," So said in an interview with Reuters news agency.

The ambassador's statement came as North Korea fired a new short-range missile into the sea on Friday and tried to jam GPS navigation signals in South Korea, according to Seoul officials. 

The latest missile firing took place just hours after US, South Korean, and Japanese leaders agreed to work together to counter North Korea's nuclear threat.

US President Barack Obama joined South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday in vowing to ramp up pressure on North Korea in response to its recent nuclear and missile tests.

The three leaders warned they could take further steps to counter threats from Pyongyang.

'Slap in Xi Jinping's face'

In January, North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test and in February launched a long-range rocket, angering even its closest ally China, and prompting the UN Security Council to impose more sanctions on the reclusive state.  

In Washington DC on Thursday, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for dialogue to resolve the "predicament" on the Korean peninsula.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Einar Tangen, a political affairs analyst, said North Korea is increasingly defying its closest ally.

Pyongyang's latest action, he said, "is a slap to the face of Xi Jinping, a tremendous loss of face as he is meeting with Obama about nuclear issues".  

Meanwhile, So declared that North Korea is "going on our own way. [We are] not having dialogue and discussions on that", when asked whether Pyongyang felt pressure from Beijing.

So also said "the de-nuclearisation of the peninsula has gone", when asked about the resumption of stalled six-party talks on his country's nuclear programme.

Obama: ISIL 'madmen' would launch nuclear attacks

About 50 world leaders attended Obama's fourth and final summit on nuclear security in Washington DC [Reuters]

US President Barack Obama urged world leaders on Friday to step up efforts to prevent "madmen" from groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from obtaining nuclear weapons, as he announced that 102 nations have ratified a treaty on the protection of nuclear materials. 

Speaking at a nuclear security summit in Washington DC, Obama said there was a persistent and evolving threat of nuclear attacks despite progress in reducing such risks.

"We cannot be complacent," Obama said, adding that no group had succeeded in getting their hands on nuclear weapons.

He pointed out, however, that al-Qaeda had long sought them and ISIL (also known as ISIS) had already used chemical weapons, including mustard gas, in Syria and Iraq.

"There is no doubt that if these madmen ever got their hands on a nuclear bomb or nuclear material, they would certainly use it to kill as many innocent people as possible," Obama added. "It would change our world."

The US president was hosting more than 50 world leaders for his fourth and final summit on nuclear security focused on efforts to lock down vulnerable atomic materials to prevent nuclear attacks. 

During the summit, Obama announced that the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material would take effect soon. The agreement had been in existence for decades. But it was only in the past few weeks that it got the approval of at least two-thirds of all signatory countries, the number required for it to take effect.

The deal requires countries to implement more stringent methods to protect nuclear materials.   

"As a result, we expect that the treaty will enter into force in the coming weeks, giving us more tools that we need to work together in the event of theft of nuclear material or an attack on a nuclear facility," Obama said. 

North Korea's nuclear defiance was also high on the agenda.

Obama, who is pushing for a significant reduction of nuclear weapon stockpiles, has less than 10 months left in office to follow through on one of his signature policy initiatives.

But there were concerns that Russia's absence from the talks would hinder any real progress. Moscow is refusing to take part because of increased tensions with the US in recent months. 

The US and Russia hold more than 90 percent of the world's nuclear arsenal, left over from the Cold War. 

'Dirty bombs'

The deadly bomb attacks in Brussels last month have increased concerns that ISIL could eventually target nuclear plants, steal material and develop radioactive "dirty bombs".

Obama said suspected members of the armed group were reportedly found to have secretly videotaped the daily routine of a senior manager of a Belgian nuclear plant.

He added that with roughly 2,000 tonnes of nuclear material stored around the word, "not all of this is properly secured".

Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington DC, said experts have raised concerns that even a small amount of nuclear "raw materials" in the hands of armed groups "would be enough to scare a lot of people".

At the Washington summit, the US and Japan also announced they had completed the long-promised task of removing all highly enriched uranium and separated plutonium fuels from a Japanese research project.

Japan is an avowedly anti-nuclear-weapons state as the only country ever to have suffered a nuclear attack.

Earlier on Friday, Obama convened a separate meeting of the world powers that negotiated a landmark nuclear pact with Iran last July, a critical component of his nuclear disarmament agenda and a major piece of his foreign policy legacy.

He said efforts to implement the deal, which required Tehran to curb its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief, had shown "real progress" but it would take time for Iran to reintegrate into the global economy.

US air strike targets senior al-Shabab leader

A US air strike in Somalia has targeted a senior Al-Shabab leader accused of participating in deadly attacks on African forces and American citizens.  

The Pentagon said on Friday the strike was aimed at Hassan Ali Dhoore, also described as a key member al-Qaeda.

Al-Shabab denies extent of US air strikes

It was unclear whether al-Shabab members were killed in the attack on Thursday, and the US defence department was "assessing the results of this operation", a statement said. 

"Removing Dhoore from the battlefield would be a significant blow to al-Shabab's operational planning and ability to conduct attacks," Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook was quoted saying.

Dhoore was said to be a member of al-Shabab's Amniyat, or security and intelligence wing, and was heavily involved in high-profile attack planning in the capital, Mogadishu.

The Pentagon said he planned and oversaw attacks resulting in the deaths of African Union military personnel and at least three US citizens.

Last month, the US said it carried out several air strikes in Somalia's Hiiraan region, in which it claimed more than 150 of the al-Qaeda-linked group's fighters had been killed.

However, two of the al-Shabab leaders said to have died in that attack later appeared in public.

British Veterans Awarded France's Highest Honour

British Second World War Veterans, many of whom took part in the D-Day landings of June 1944, have been awarded with the Legion d'Honneur - France's top honour - for their role in liberating ther country from Nazi occupation.

At an event in London, the men, most of whom are in their 90s, were presented with their medals by the French ambassador Sylvie Bermann.

Eighty-nine-year old Harry Card was one of those honoured at the ceremony. He served aboard HMS Swift which struck a mine and sank on 24 June 1944, with the loss of 53 lives

The able seaman survived the explosion and was rescued from the sea.

The youngest veteran to be honoured, he said he accepted the Legion d'Honneur on behalf of those who lost their lives: "I remember it like it was yesterday, it is sometimes like a bad hangover, but it was worth it.

"I gave up my freedom to give France back their freedom. I hope and pray something like this never happens again."

Peter Cliffe, 94, was a captain in the Lincolnshire Regiment when he landed in Normandy on 6 June 1944. Twenty-two men in his unit were killed or wounded as they helped cover exits from bridges during the landing.

He described his relief at the moment he arrived at Leon-Sur-Mer in Normandy: "I felt like saying 'at last', I had waited for so long. I never had any doubt that we would win."

The ceremony is the latest in a number of presentations that have taken place since the 70th anniversary of D-Day two years ago, when President Francois Hollande promised to honour surviving British veterans who served in France during the Second World War.

One year ago, Buhari promised to change Nigeria

When Nigerians rouse from sleep on April 1, they will again head for filling stations to join the now de rigueur queues for Premium Motor Spirit.

This is no big news; queueing for hours at petrol stations has been the most recurring item on the itinerary of Nigerians not only for the past month, but also for the third spell in the past three months.

What is news is that when these same people woke up exactly one year ago, the majority of them trooped to the streets in jubilation. Three hours and 47 minutes into that day, opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari was declared president-elect.

But while Nigerians hailed Buhari as a Messiah of sorts, they forgot to remind themselves that no Nigerian leader, democratic or dictatorial, had ever succeeded in delivering socioeconomic prosperity to the masses.

Joy so often short-lived

There was something familiar about the sheer joy that was unleashed on the streets of Nigeria on April 1, 2015. 

More than five decades ago, on October 1, 1960, when Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa accepted the symbols of Independence from the Queen of England and cheerily declared that he was "opening a new chapter in the history of Nigeria", it was to the delight of millions of citizens.

Elites clutched at their radios as devout Catholics would the Rosary, listening as the sonorous voice of Emmanuel Omatsola blared from Race Course, Lagos: Nigeria is a free, sovereign nation. Pupils holidayed; and when they returned to school, they were served unusual rounds of sumptuous meals and handed lovingly petite green-white-green flags.

Buhari still has adequate time to turn his fortunes around, but he must be wary of the kind of executive arrogance that undid Jonathan's party and government.

But for all of Balewa's education and popularity in international circles, his reputation for championing northern interests did little to foster unity and stability in Nigeria's delicate multiethnic set-up. Both power and life were taken away from him in a coup six years later.

When Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, after decades of torture at the hands of the military, the scenarios were repeated. Olusegun Obasanjo, a retired soldier who was on the throes of death in prison, was suddenly, miraculously handed democratic power. 

Obasanjo had admitted that "the entire Nigerian scene is very bleak indeed, so bleak people ask me: where do we begin?" But he also promised to fight corruption, restore public confidence in governance, build infrastructure. Millions of overjoyed Nigerians believed him - the worst civilian government is better than the best military regime was the popular reasoning at the time.

In his book, This House Has Fallen, published a year into Obasanjo's presidency, British journalist Karl Maier had written: "The government spends up to half its annual budget on salaries of an estimated two million workers… yet the civil service remains paralysed, with connections and corruption still the fastest way to get anything done. Up to 75 percent of the army's equipment is broken or missing vital spare parts. The Navy's 52 admirals and commodores outnumber serviceable ships by a ratio of six to one. The Air Force has 10,000 men but fewer than 20 functioning aircraft."

Sixteen long years later, it is heartbreaking to see that these are still some of the issues dominating Nigerian political discourse.

Former President of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo [EPA]

Gloom of Buhari's victory

Caveat: this is not an appraisal of Buhari's reign - not yet. But some of his first words as president-elect back in 2015 were: "You voted for change and now change has come."

Goodluck Jonathan's presidency ended with a biting fuel scarcity that suffering masses felt would accompany Jonathan out of office. On the anniversary of Buhari's victory, that scarcity they so despised is exactly what they're grappling with. There are no noticeable improvements in erratic power supply, the unhealthy economy, the dearth of jobs. No "change", really.

Buhari still has adequate time to turn his fortunes around, but he must be wary of the kind of executive arrogance that undid Jonathan's party and government.