Aleppo cemeteries run out of room to bury victims of bloody conflict

Bodies are being left to rot on the streets or buried in backyards in the Syrian city of Aleppo because there is no room left in the cemeteries.

Officials said a graveyard opened last year was already full while the old cemetery had reached capacity even before the bloody civil war began four years ago.

Since the conflict has intensified, residents have had to resort to desperate measures to bury their dead.

Medical officials have said it is impossible to dig graves because it is too dangerous with Syrian troops attacking rebel-held areas.

They also said ambulances and rescue vehicles cannot reach people because they have been targeted or fuel has run out.

The head of the local forensic authority, Mohammed Abu Jaafar said: "We have no more room. I have 20 to 25 bodies from different parts of Aleppo that we don't know where to bury.

"Even if I were to consider mass burials, I don't have the machines to do the digging."

Residents of one neighbourhood only discovered a body was lying in a ditch when a cat started eating the corpse.

More than 300 people have been killed in the Damascus regime's assault on east Aleppo in the past three weeks, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Prior to the ground offensive, airstrikes knocked out all seven medical facilities, including five equipped with trauma and intensive care units.

It is understood doctors have set up small clinics underground to avoid detection, but are only able to give only basic care.

One nurse who works in one of the makeshift medical facilities said some wounded had died as they waited for treatment while others perished after surgery because of the cold weather.

There are also concerns the bodies piled up on roadsides will reveal the secret locations of the clinics.

Meanwhile, Syria's army has given rebel fighters an ultimatum to leave eastern Aleppo or face "inevitable death".

The warning came as government forces and its allies continue to advance on rebel-held areas.

Brigadier General Samir Suleiman said: "We will continue fighting until we restore stability and security to all neighbourhoods."

Residents have also started to go back to their abandoned homes as Syrian forces have recaptured half of the rebel areas in east Aleppo.

At least 10 buses made the trip from the west of the city to the east on Saturday with every seat and standing room taken.

"I haven't been to my house for almost six years," said Hala Hassan Fares, who was on one bus with her husband and son.

"Our house is totally burned, but we're going to see my father, who is 80-years-old.

"He stayed behind there, with my sisters and other relatives."

Many families arrived back home to a scene of devastation with rubble strewn streets and the fronts of buildings ripped away.

Trust in politicians 'approaching rock bottom', survey finds

Trust in politicians is “approaching rock bottom” as just 15% of the public believe they can be depended on to tell the truth, a poll has found.

Politicians were ranked as the least trustworthy professionals in the annual Ipsos Mori "veracity" survey, sinking a further 6% over the year that brought the Brexit vote.

At the other end of the trust scale, nurses topped the index with the backing of 93% of respondents - ahead of doctors, teachers and judges.

The report authors said the drop in trust for politicians would have been "surprising" had it not been for the EU referendum.

They said: "2016 is, of course, some way away from being a normal year, and voters' levels of trust in mainstream politicians seem to be approaching rock bottom."

The report added: "One rare point of agreement between Leave and Remain voters is that neither of the campaigns covered themselves in glory; between them they demonstrated most of the characteristics that turn voters off.

"Politicians in Westminster in particular have much work to do to start reconnecting with voters and demonstrating that they have priorities other than getting their own viewpoints across and ignoring debate."

According to the index, which polled 1,019 adults between October and November, government ministers, journalists and estate agents are also among the least trustworthy professionals.

Trust in lawyers, priests and the police has climbed, while pollsters fell two places in the index.

Most trusted professions (% of people who trust them to tell the truth)

:: Nurses (93%)
:: Doctors (91%)
:: Teachers (88%)
:: Judges (81%)
:: Scientists (80%)

Least trusted professions (% of people who trust them to tell the truth)

:: Business leaders (33%)
:: Estate agents (30%)
:: Journalists (24%)
:: Government ministers (20%)
:: Politicians (15%)

Green Party switches strategy in Pennsylvania recount

Hours after a Green Party-backed campaign dropped its case in state courts they announce a change to their strategy to force a statewide recount of Pennsylvania's Nov. 8 presidential election, won by Republican Donald Trump, and said late Saturday night that it will seek help in the federal courts, rather than the state courts.

The campaign announced that it would seek an emergency federal court order on Monday for a recount.

"Make no mistake — the Stein campaign will continue to fight for a statewide recount in Pennsylvania," recount campaign lawyer Jonathan Abady said in a statement issued a little before midnight. "We are committed to this fight to protect the civil and voting rights of all Americans."

Abady said barriers to a recount in Pennsylvania are pervasive and the state court system is ill-equipped to address the problem.

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, raised over $6.9 million to fund recount efforts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Stein framed the issue as an effort to explore whether voting machines and systems had been hacked and the election result manipulated. Despite Stein's lawyers having offered no evidence of hacking in Pennsylvania's election.

The state Republican Party and Trump asked for a dismissal in the state court case.

The decision came two days before a state court hearing was scheduled in the case. Saturday's court filing to withdraw the case said the Green Party-backed voters who filed it "are regular citizens of ordinary means" and cannot afford the $1 million bond ordered by the court by 5 p.m. Monday. Green Party-backed efforts to force recounts and analyze election software in scattered precincts were continuing. The court's order can be read here.

The Wisconsin recount began on Thursday, while a potential recount could begin in Michigan next week.

No Republican presidential candidate had captured Pennsylvania since 1988.

Stein announced Pennsylvania's recount purpose was to ensure "our votes are safe and secure."

They have unsuccessfully sought to get various counties to allow a forensic examination of their election system software.

Trump’s lawyers and the state Republican Party claimed there was no evidence or allegations that tampering occurred with Pennsylvania's voting systems. Pennsylvania law does not allow a court-ordered recount, they argued, and a lawyer for the Green Party had acknowledged that the effort was without precedent in Pennsylvania.

Republican lawyers also argued that the case has threatened the state’s ability to certify its presidential electors by the December 13 federal deadline.

On Saturday, a GOP lawyer, Lawrence Tabas, said the case had been meant "solely for purposes to delay the Electoral College vote in Pennsylvania for President-Elect Trump."

The state's top elections official, Secretary of State Pedro Cortes, a Democrat, has said there was no evidence of any sort of cyberattacks or irregularities in the election. Cortes predicted that a recount would change few votes.

As of Friday, Trump's margin of victory in Pennsylvania was 49,000, or less than 1 percent, out of 6 million votes cast, according to state election officials. State and county officials did not expect any outstanding uncounted votes to change the outcome of the presidential election in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania's automatic statewide recount trigger is 0.5 percent. Stein drew less than 1 percent of the votes cast.

Cuba begins Fidel Castro's private burial

Fidel Castro's ashes were taken on Sunday to a cemetery in the southeastern city of Santiago - the cradle of the Cuban revolution - for funeral with the military firing a 21-gun salute for their fallen leader.

The remains of the man who ruled Cuba for a half-century left the Plaza of the Revolution in the eastern city at 6:39am local time, more than 20 minutes ahead of their scheduled departure. The funeral caravan entered the cemetery at 7:12am local time.

Thousands of people lined the two-mile route to Santa Ifigenia cemetery, waving Cuban flags and shouting "Long live Fidel!"

The funeral was closed to the public and no images of the tomb have been released so far.

Castro, who died on November 25 at age 90, is being laid to rest during a "simple" ceremony near the mausoleum of 19th century independence icon Jose Marti and other national heroes.

After two days of events in Havana, Castro's funeral cortege departed on a three-day, 800km journey east, retracing the route that the triumphant rebels took upon overthrowing US-backed Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

On Saturday evening, President Raul Castro, his brother and successor, said "millions" had come out to pay tribute.

Crowds have greeted the caravan along the whole route, with volunteers sprucing up bridges and houses

With his brother at his side, Castro began his revolution on July 26, 1953, with a failed assault on the Moncada barracks in Santiago.

He went on to build a Soviet-sponsored communist state 145km from the United States and survived a half century of US attempts to topple or kill him.

Prince Harry crowned with feathers during rainforest visit

Prince Harry has been crowned with a headdress of feathers as he met villagers from a remote indigenous community while touring Guyana's tropical forests.

When his plane touched down in Surama, Harry was treading in the footsteps of his father who visited the area in 2000 - and just like the Prince of Wales, was presented with the colourful gift.

Abigail Buckley-Allicock, 31, placed the piece on Harry's head and he adjusted it before watching men and women perform a welcome dance.

Afterwards, Harry was taken to an open-air community hall where he was welcomed by elders and received gifts.

The fourth in line to the throne then made a speech in which he praised the villagers.

The prince said: "My father told me what an amazing time he had here, when he was far younger and had far more hair.

"The positive thing you are doing here, it's incredible, your leadership is so important to ensure the protection of this place."

Harry, who is nearing the end of a 15-day tour of the Caribbean, will travel to a children's centre in the capital Georgetown and meet first lady Sandra Granger at State House on Sunday.

Italians head for polls in referendum as anxious Europe looks on

Italians are heading to the polls in a referendum which could have significant ramifications for the whole of Europe.

The public are being asked to vote 'yes' or 'no' to constitutional change which would reduce the power of the Italian senate in order to streamline Italy's notoriously gridlocked legislative process.

On the face of it, it's dry domestic politics which, while important for Italy, wouldn't normally prick much interest beyond the country.

:: Sky Views: The EU isn't going to break up... yet

However, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who called the referendum and wants the change to be voted for, has staked his political career on winning.

If the vote is 'no', he has pledged to resign; a promise he made when the polls suggested he'd win by a margin.

Now the polls are neck and neck. If he sticks to his resignation pledge, it could plunge the country into political turmoil.

That in turn would cause economic instability in a struggling eurozone country.

And so at the EU headquarters in Brussels, the eurozone headquarters in Frankfurt and in capitals across the continent they're watching anxiously.

Prime Minister Renzi's promise to go has, for many voters, turned the poll into a referendum on his leadership.

Prominent populist opposition parties have pushed for a 'no' vote to force Mr Renzi from office.

On the far right of politics and powerful in the north of the country, the Lega Nord, or Northern League, is led by Matteo Salvini.

An MEP in the European Parliament, Mr Salvini's popularity as the party leader has been boosted by his anti-immigration views and pledges to federalise the country.

At the other end of the spectrum, The Five Star Movement is more of a threat to the centrist government led by Mr Renzi.

Led by comedian Beppe Grillo, it is populist, anti-establishment and now counts the powerful mayors of Rome and Turin among its number.

And so, in a now globally familiar way, the referendum has become about knocking out the establishment. Consequently the motivation to vote - either way - is huge.

In the ancient Tuscan town of Siena we found the referendum was exercising minds.

This is a place that would feel the consequences of the economic turmoil which a Renzi resignation could cause.

"The economic difficulties we have faced? No one has been able to avoid them," Stefanio Osti tells me.

Mr Osti is the General Secretary of the local football club.

Until 2011, Robur Siena were in the top league of Italian football. Then their main backer and sponsor, the local struggling bank, pulled out. The club went bankrupt.

"Everything is so connected to the bank that whatever happens to the bank happens to us," Mr Osti says.

That principle of interconnectivity applies at a much larger level too, between Italy and Europe.

The football club's troubled bank, which happens to be the world's oldest, is Monti Dei Paschi di Siena.

Founded in 1472 it has been lending for 544 years. Now its balance sheet is in tatters.

With political instability, the uncertainty hanging over the Monti Dei Paschi would increase and it's not alone.

Unicredit is Italy's largest lender. It has 20 billion euros of bad debts and it owns a large German bank.

Eurozone banks are intertwined and vulnerable. The continental strain of an Italian banking collapse would be huge.

The University in Siena is even older than the bank. Pierangelo Isernia runs the department of political science.

"The problem is that when you have multiple crisis facing you at the same time, from very different angles, you are in trouble," he tells me.

"We have at least three crises going on in Europe. One: financial and economic. Another: the refugee and immigration crisis and last but not least, the security crisis, because most of what is going on in terms of civil wars is taking place at our borders; Syria, Libya."

Addressing public angst, anti-establishment political parties are capitalising on the multiple stresses.

Italy is deeply affected by all three of the crises the professor lists. That's motivating the decisions Italians are taking this weekend. The direction they chose could be critical to the continents stability.

"Can Europe face all these crises at the same time? Hard to know but that's why I am worried," Professor Isernia says.

Italians head for polls in referendum as anxious Europe looks on

Italians are heading to the polls in a referendum which could have significant ramifications for the whole of Europe.

The public are being asked to vote 'yes' or 'no' to constitutional change which would reduce the power of the Italian senate in order to streamline Italy's notoriously gridlocked legislative process.

On the face of it, it's dry domestic politics which, while important for Italy, wouldn't normally prick much interest beyond the country.

:: Sky Views: The EU isn't going to break up... yet

However, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who called the referendum and wants the change to be voted for, has staked his political career on winning.

If the vote is 'no', he has pledged to resign; a promise he made when the polls suggested he'd win by a margin.

Now the polls are neck and neck. If he sticks to his resignation pledge, it could plunge the country into political turmoil.

That in turn would cause economic instability in a struggling eurozone country.

And so at the EU headquarters in Brussels, the eurozone headquarters in Frankfurt and in capitals across the continent they're watching anxiously.

Prime Minister Renzi's promise to go has, for many voters, turned the poll into a referendum on his leadership.

Prominent populist opposition parties have pushed for a 'no' vote to force Mr Renzi from office.

On the far right of politics and powerful in the north of the country, the Lega Nord, or Northern League, is led by Matteo Salvini.

An MEP in the European Parliament, Mr Salvini's popularity as the party leader has been boosted by his anti-immigration views and pledges to federalise the country.

At the other end of the spectrum, The Five Star Movement is more of a threat to the centrist government led by Mr Renzi.

Led by comedian Beppe Grillo, it is populist, anti-establishment and now counts the powerful mayors of Rome and Turin among its number.

And so, in a now globally familiar way, the referendum has become about knocking out the establishment. Consequently the motivation to vote - either way - is huge.

In the ancient Tuscan town of Siena we found the referendum was exercising minds.

This is a place that would feel the consequences of the economic turmoil which a Renzi resignation could cause.

"The economic difficulties we have faced? No one has been able to avoid them," Stefanio Osti tells me.

Mr Osti is the General Secretary of the local football club.

Until 2011, Robur Siena were in the top league of Italian football. Then their main backer and sponsor, the local struggling bank, pulled out. The club went bankrupt.

"Everything is so connected to the bank that whatever happens to the bank happens to us," Mr Osti says.

That principle of interconnectivity applies at a much larger level too, between Italy and Europe.

The football club's troubled bank, which happens to be the world's oldest, is Monti Dei Paschi di Siena.

Founded in 1472 it has been lending for 544 years. Now its balance sheet is in tatters.

With political instability, the uncertainty hanging over the Monti Dei Paschi would increase and it's not alone.

Unicredit is Italy's largest lender. It has 20 billion euros of bad debts and it owns a large German bank.

Eurozone banks are intertwined and vulnerable. The continental strain of an Italian banking collapse would be huge.

The University in Siena is even older than the bank. Pierangelo Isernia runs the department of political science.

"The problem is that when you have multiple crisis facing you at the same time, from very different angles, you are in trouble," he tells me.

"We have at least three crises going on in Europe. One: financial and economic. Another: the refugee and immigration crisis and last but not least, the security crisis, because most of what is going on in terms of civil wars is taking place at our borders; Syria, Libya."

Addressing public angst, anti-establishment political parties are capitalising on the multiple stresses.

Italy is deeply affected by all three of the crises the professor lists. That's motivating the decisions Italians are taking this weekend. The direction they chose could be critical to the continents stability.

"Can Europe face all these crises at the same time? Hard to know but that's why I am worried," Professor Isernia says.