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Artist and peace activist Yoko Ono unveiled a new music scheme named after her late husband - John Lennon. The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus is a mobile recording studio set up to help budding musicians. It will operate across Europe following its launch in the former Beatle's home town: SOUNDBITE (English) Yoko Ono, saying: ''It's a good start. I think it's very very important that we opened this European tour in Liverpool. I keep coming back here. I don't know whether it's John making me come back here by pushing me or something. Also, I really feel that when I am here with John and with John's childhood as well. He's around, showing me what he loved and hated when he was a child." As well as performing at the event at the Museum of Liverpool, local band Mic Lowry got a look inside the bus too. (SOUNDBITE) (English) Member of band Mic Lowry, saying: "(This) makes a big difference because it gives people who haven't got a chance usually to

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North Korea has been holding celebrations for its 101st anniversary, unveiling statues of former leaders and hosting a marathon. Report by Fosterso. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

Police in Brazil have arrested three men they accuse of raping and robbing a foreign tourist. (SOUNDBITE) (Portuguese) POLICE DEPUTY ALEXANDRE BRAGA SAYING: "We got information about some of the places they had been, based on bank receipts and transactions that they made. We identified the places and sent teams of police where we obtained even more information about the suspects' physical characteristics and then a little while after their identity. Then we found out where they were and finally arrested them." The two tourists boarded a minibus in this street in Rio de Janeiro, when the dream holiday turned into a nightmare. The woman was raped repeatedly over six hours in this minibus. Her boyfriend was handcuffed and badly beaten. The couple were then robbed and dumped in this street in a nearby city. One of the suspects was the driver of the mini bus. Two of the men deny the charges. (SOUNDBITE) (Portuguese) SUSPECT, WALLACE APARECIDO DE S

A 14-year-old girl has been killed in Greater Manchester in a suspected attack by a pack of dogs. Police found Jade Anderson's body at a house where she is thought to have been meeting a friend. Officers were confronted by dogs they described as "aggressive" and "out of control". Local residents said Jade was eating when the animals attacked. SOUNDBITE: (English) NEIGHBOUR, JOSHUA THOMAS, SAYING: "She's run to the shop to get a pie, and when she's come back, she's come in with pie and the dogs went for it." Police marksmen shot dead four of the dogs and contained a fifth. No one else is thought to have been present at the time of the attack.

An amazing rescue at a grocery store in Perth Australia is caught on closed circuit cameras. A woman rushes to the checkout counter with her 2 year old daughter- she's stopped breathing. Thinking she's choking, a man in a gray tank top tries to help. He turns her upside down and pats her on the back. By now the girls' father, wearing red, rushes into the store in a panic. The man in gray then clears off the counter, lays the girl down and begins giving her mouth to mouth. Finally- she's breathing. The girls father and the man who saved her share a hug in relief. Local media say the girl had a high fever and passed out. She spent one night in hospital and was released.

Pope Francis prays for guidance at a Rome basilica on his first full day as pontiff. The 76-year-old Argentine had barely been Pope for 12 hours when he quietly left the Vatican on Thursday morning to pray at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Priests at the basilica said the visit was a surprise and that they had only been given 10 minutes warning that the new pope would be joining them. Francis is taking the helm at a time of great crisis with morale among the faithful hit by scandals and infighting in the Vatican bureaucracy. The 266th pontiff in the Church's history, Francis is the first to come from South America.

In a super-arid desert at an altitude of 5,000 meters, with almost no humidity or vegetation, the world's largest ground-based astronomy project opens for business ready to probe the universe with unprecedented might. Duration: 01:06

An unemployed man has died of his injuries after setting fire to himself in Tunis. Twenty-seven-year-old Adel Kedhri was selling cigarettes in the capital on Tuesday (March 11) when he started the fire. He was rushed to hospital, but died on Wednesday (March 12). His brother said he had been supporting the family but had struggled finding a job. It's the latest in a series of such acts since Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation, that many say sparked the Arab Spring.

It's Pope Benedict's final day as pontiff of the Catholic Church. Amid the Vatican buzz, Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana leads the way in bets on who will fill Benedict's shoes. But Irish book-keeper Paddy Power says it's too soon to call. (SOUNDBITE) (English) BOOK-KEEPER, PADDY POWER, SAYING: "The favourite's changed a lot over the last couple of weeks since the pope announced his resignation but now it's kind of emerged, a kind of clear favourite, is Cardinal Turkson from Ghana. So according to the betting, there's a reasonable chance that we'll have our first ever black pope, 11/4 favourite, which is every so slightly favourite ahead of the two Italians, Bertone and Scola, they are both very big movers in the market" Power said there had also been bets placed on a number of unlikely contenders, including Bono and atheist writer Richard Dawkins. Once the chair of St. Peter is vacant on Thursday night, 115 eligible cardinals who have assembled from

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Security forces open fire on secessionist protesters in the south Yemen port of Aden on Thursday killing at least six. The protests were staged for the first anniversary of the election of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, a northerner. Hadi addressed a news conference in the capital Sanaa, saying the protesters had financial and military support from an unnamed foreign state. He said these issues will top the agenda of a forthcoming national dialogue. Mass unrest that ousted authoritarian president Ali Abdullah Saleh a year ago has caused widespread disorder, reviving separatist agitation in the south almost 20 years after it was suppressed in a brief civil war. Southern Yemenis, complaining of discrimination by the north, favour creating an independent socialist state.

EDIT CONTAINS 4:3 MATERIAL The death toll continues to rise in Mexico City after a blast at the headquarters of state-owned oil company Pemex on Thursday afternoon. At least 25 are now confirmed dead. Frightened employees spilled into the street after the blast as emergency workers rushed to help the wounded. The windows of the lower floors of the building were blown out- flying debris was to blame for many of the some 100 or so injuries. As search and rescue efforts carried on into the night, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto visited the scene. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MEXICAN PRESIDENT ENRIQUE PENA NIETO, SAYING: "(Journalist: What happened?) I don't have a conclusive report for what happened and so I insist we not succumb to speculation. Let's wait until we know the results of all the investigations to be carried out. I repeat, I have directed the Interior Ministry to lead this coordination, that they (authorities) don't rest, that they don't interrupt relief efforts and support. Beyond giving any technical suggestions, they should be in places where there is debris and all the support staff should be deployed to rescue those who could be under the rubble." The cause of the incident is not yet known.

Severe summer floods on Australia's east coast. Three people have died and thousands have been ordered to leave their homes on Monday as high tides combined with torrential rains to inundate rivers in low lying areas. Queensland and northern New South Wales are the worst hit. In central Queensland, the State Emergency Service used boats and helicopters to rescue people who ignored evacuation orders or were unable to leave. State premier Campbell Newman issued a grave warning. (SOUNDBITE) (English) CAMPBELL NEWMAN, QUEENSLAND STATE PREMIER SAYING: "The velocity of the water and the rise in water levels means that literally houses, particularly in north Bundaberg and maybe other locations, could be actually swept away." Residents across the region did what they could to protect their homes from the rising waters. Others were resigned to the weather and put on a brave face. (SOUNDBITE) (English) SHERILL SHIRLEY, TUMBULGUM RESIDENT SAYING (PARTLY OVERLAID AT START): "It's going to be OK. It's just the mess afterwards, the mud." TV reports said as many as 130,000 homes are without power and could be cut off for the rest of the week. Bushfires and flooding that has devastated parts of the country this summer have already cost around $45 million in insurance claims so far.

EDIT CONTAINS 4:3 MATERIAL North Korea said on Thursday (January 24) it would carry out further rocket launches and a nuclear test that would target the United States, dramatically stepping up its threats against a country it called its "sworn enemy". "We are not disguising the fact that the various satellites and long-range rockets that we will fire and the high-level nuclear test we will carry out are targeted at the United States," said the North's state-run television KRT, quoting a statement from North Korea's National Defence Commission. The announcement by the country's top military body came a day after the United Nations Security Council agreed a U.S.-backed resolution to censure and sanction the country for a rocket launch in December that breached U.N. rules.