Francois Hollande Faces Media Over Alleged Affair

Francois Hollande is to face the media for the first time since news of his alleged affair with a French actress became public.

The French president will hold an annual New Year's news conference with journalists in Paris to discuss the economy and plans to offer French businesses tax cuts aimed at reducing unemployment.

But he is likely to face a barrage of questions about the publication of tabloid photographs in a French gossip magazine said to show him conducting a secret liaison with 41-year-old actress Julie Gayet.

French actress Julie Gayet

A similar press conference in 2007, by Mr Hollande's predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy following his divorce, was instead subject to intense interest in his links with singer Carla Bruni, whom he later married.

Reporting from Paris, Sky's Jason Farrell said: "This all comes at a very bad time for Francois Hollande. He's been seen as the president unable to turn around the French economy, he's due to speak about that subject, but he's more likely to be pressed about his private life."

Mr Hollande's partner Valerie Trierweiler was taken to hospital in a state of shock over the claims but France's First Lady is reportedly prepared to forgive Mr Hollande.

Le Parisien reported on Monday that the journalist and mother-of-three had no intention of immediately ending her relationship with the president.

Despite the media attention, a survey of French voters revealed 80% consider the matter a private affair. The faltering French economy is considered by many to be a more important issue facing the country.

"This has been disastrous for the image of the institution of the presidency," said Jean-François Cope, head of the opposition UMP conservatives.

French journalist and political commentator Agnès Poirier told Sky News: "This is trivia, because it's gossip, it's not news, because it's not something we should pay any attention (to).

"A lot of people are interested in the story, obviously, but we know we 'shouldn't be'."

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Brazil Police Linked To 'Revenge' Killings Of 12

The fatal shootings of 12 young men in Brazil could have been carried out by police officers as revenge after one of their colleagues was killed.

The wave of murders began on Sunday night and continued into early Monday in Campinas, 60 miles (100km) northwest of Sao Paulo.                

Investigators said the killings occurred within about four hours of one another.

They came after an off-duty police officer was killed while fighting armed robbers who targeted him as he stopped at a petrol station in the same region.

The men were killed in mostly drive-by style shootings.

"We're not ruling out executions, revenge nor a fight between criminals," police investigator Licurgo Nunes Costa told the newspaper Estado de S Paulo.

"It's a sequence of events in the same region and around the same time, and we have to consider the relationship between the occurrences."

Shortly after the killings protesters attacked commuter buses, burning at least three of them.

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Thai Protests: Tourists Flee On Night Buses

By Sarah Yuen, in Thailand for Sky News

Tens of thousands of anti-government protestors are flooding into the Thai capital, Bangkok, blocking major highways and intersections with their vehicles.

As determined demonstrators gather for the final push to drive caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from office, the tourists are fleeing – hundreds queuing for the night buses which will take them out of the capital to other locations.

In the Khaosan backpacker area of Bangkok, foreign visitors have been isolated in a tiny oasis of normality for weeks.

Demonstrator numbers have grown from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands around the city's Democracy Monument, just one street away.

Now the protestors are on the move – to occupy seven key traffic intersections in Bangkok indefinitely, in a bid to "shut down" the city.

Tourists have been confined to Khaosan Road, the backpacker haven

As well as blocking highways with cars the protestors are laying their roll mats or pitching their tents across once busy and now deserted roads.

The leader of the anti-government protestors, Suthep Thaugsuban, insists they will stage peaceful sit-ins to bring the city, and Thai politics, to a "dead end".

He says the caretaker prime minister will then have no option but to resign.

Mr Thaugsuban's People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) is intent on preventing the snap election Yingluck Shinawatra has called for on February 2.

It wants to establish a Reform Council to "shake-up" Thai politics.

Protestors are moving to block off major routes in the city

Thailand's Electoral Commission has already warned the caretaker government that a successful election is unlikely, and recommended a postponement.

With just three weeks to go until polling day, not a single candidate has been registered in 28 constituencies in eight southern provinces.

All of the opposition Democrat Party MPs have announced they will not run.

For a new Thai parliament to be legitimate, 95% of 500 MPs must attend the first session, but it is unlikely there will be 500 MPs.

The caretaker government has accused the Election Committee of not organising the election properly.

Yingluck Shinawatra has promised the authorities will not use force against the protestors.

Sandbags have been stacked across highways

But the Centre for Administration for Peace and Order (CAPO) has drawn a line in the sand at the eleventh hour.

It states that nobody is to enter any government offices, or any of the seven planned demonstration sites.

This advisory was distributed after thousands of protestors had already taken up position around the caretaker prime minister's home, in the government complex.

They were also across roads and at public transport entrances at three of the seven published sites.

So far Thailand's Army Chief General Prayuth Chan-Ocha has given only enigmatic replies to questions asking if the military will stage a coup to restore order in the event of violence.

The tension is palpable in both the anti-government and pro-government camps.

Groups of men with homemade sharpened bamboo sticks, and stone-tipped axes and machetes, merge with anti-government protestors armed only with colourful plastic clappy hands.

PDRC security men, all in black with their faces obscured by balaclavas, search everyone trying to enter the demonstration areas.

This weekend there was another attack on anti-government protestors in which seven people were injured by gunfire.

The protestors promised they wouldn't prevent access to the monorail elevated public transport system.

But as the new phase of the demonstrations has got underway, they have sealed off the access walkways; they claim out of fear that they will be used by pro-government gunmen as vantage points to fire down into the crowd.

Protestors also promised they would not target the city's two international airports.

But photographs are circulating on Twitter of anti-government protestors blocking access to the airport trains into the city, inside Suvarnabhumi airport.

Thailand has long been called the "Teflon" Economy because it has come through so many upheavals in the past few years, apparently without lasting damage to its prospects.

But now with international airlines drastically cutting their flights into the country due to falling demand, and not a single private jet on the runway at Don Muang Airport, a situation never seen before, concerns are growing over the impact of these latest demonstrations, and the ramifications of a protest which could stretch on for days, or even weeks, in the Thai capital.

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Iran: Date Set For Nuclear Programme Freeze

A date has been set for the start of an interim deal to freeze Iran's nuclear programme.

Iran and six world powers have agreed on how to implement the nuclear deal struck in November and it will enter into force on January 20.

The move was welcomed by Foreign Secretary William Hague as an important first step.

The announcement starts a six-month clock for a final deal to be struck over the Islamic Republic's contested nuclear programme.

The West accuses Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, but Tehran has consistently denied that.

Under the deal, Iran has agreed to halt enrichment of uranium above 5% purity and "neutralise" its stockpile of near-20%-enriched uranium.

It will also provide daily access to inspectors.

In return, the E3+3 nations - the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany - will ease some trade sanctions such as in petrochemicals and gold.

European Union negotiator Catherine Ashton praised the deal in a statement.

She said: "The foundations for a coherent, robust and smooth implementation ... have been laid."

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called the deal "a decisive step forward which we can build on."

But President Barack Obama warned of a tough road ahead to realise a comprehensive solution.

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CAR: More Violence As Foreigners Set To Leave

More violence has broken out in the Central African Republic (CAR) capital of Bangui following the resignation of the country's president and prime minister.

At least three people were killed in the clashes, including a Christian vigilante, an ex-Seleka rebel and a civilian, according to the Central African Red Cross.

The fighting came as the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) prepared to evacuate thousands of stranded foreigners caught up in the fighting. 

Sporadic gunfire was heard in Bangui and there were widespread reports of looting in the city.

The head of the Central African Red Cross, Pastor Antoine Mbaobogo, said many looters were targeting Muslim-owned shops.

Crowds gather in the streets of Bangui after the president's resignation

"Those who were looted when the (mainly Muslim) Seleka arrived (in March last year) are now looting in turn," he said.

President Michel Djotodia, the first Muslim leader in the majority Christian nation, resigned on Friday alongside his prime minister, Nicolas Tiengaye.

During his tenure, Mr Djotodia set up a transitional council and promised open elections but unrest and sectarian fighting began within months of his appointment. 

It was hoped his resignation would help ease tensions in the country.

The CAR has seen spiralling violence between the mainly Muslim Seleka rebels who brought Mr Djotodia to power last year, and Christian militias.

Michel Djotodia was the nation's first Muslim leader

More than 1,000 people have been killed in the past month alone and signs of sectarian conflict remain in Bangui where a mosque was targeted by a gang of young looters.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has called on the African Union to provide promised troops to help end the "terrible crisis" in the nation. 

So far, France has deployed 1,600 troops to help support the African Union MISCA force, which is meant to have up to 6,000 troops but has not yet reached 3,500.

European nations on Friday agreed in principle on a plan to launch a joint military operation in the country, with a final decision expected later in the month.

An interim parliament will hold a special session on Monday to discuss Mr Djotodia's replacement.

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Ariel Sharon: Ex-Leader's Body Lies In State

The body of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will lie in state in front of the Israeli parliament building today following his death at the age of 85.

Mr Sharon's body will lie in state at the Knesset in Jerusalem between 10am until 4pm local time.

He will be buried on Monday afternoon at his ranch in the Negev desert, in southern Israel, during a military ceremony.

Mr Sharon had been in a coma since suffering a stroke in January 2006.

His condition deteriorated on New Year's Day when he suffered serious kidney problems after surgery.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "his memory will forever be held in the heart of the nation", while President Shimon Peres said he would be "greatly missed".

World leaders also sent condolences, with US President Barack Obama describing him as a leader who "dedicated his life to the State of Israel".

Vice President Joe Biden will lead a US delegation to the memorial service due to be held in parliament on Monday before the burial.

Nicknamed "The Bulldozer", Mr Sharon was a veteran soldier who fought in all of Israel's major wars before beginning a turbulent political career in 1973.

As an army officer addressing his troops of the famous Unit 101 in 1955

Long considered a pariah for his personal but "indirect" responsibility for the 1982 massacre of hundreds of Palestinians by Israel's Lebanese Phalangist allies in Beirut's Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, he was elected premier in 2001.

Ministers in Israel's right-wing government and the political opposition have mourned a leader who left big footprints on the region through military invasion, Jewish settlement building on captured land and a unilateral decision to pull Israeli troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip in 2005.

In Gaza, Hamas has welcomed Mr Sharon's death and celebrated in the streets.

"We have become more confident in victory with the departure of this tyrant," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zurhi said.

"Our people today feel extreme happiness at the death and departure of this criminal whose hands were smeared with the blood of our people and the blood of our leaders here and in exile."

Prime Minister David Cameron said: "Ariel Sharon is one of the most significant figures in Israeli history and as prime minister he took brave and controversial decisions in pursuit of peace, before he was so tragically incapacitated.

"Israel has today lost an important leader."

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