South Korea apology for Yoon Chang-jung US sex scandal

South Korea's presidential office has apologised after an official was sacked during a US visit over "shameful" sexual harassment allegations.

Yoon Chang-jung, who was a spokesman for President Park Geun-hye, was alleged to have groped a Korean-American intern in a Washington hotel.

The incident overshadowed President Park's first visit to the US last week.

Her former spokesman denies sexually harassing the intern, putting it down to "cultural differences".

President Park's chief-of-staff, Huh Tae-yeol, told reporters on Sunday that the case was "unconditionally wrong" and "unacceptable" and he apologised to the victim, her family and all South Koreans.

The unnamed intern, in her early 20s, was said to have been employed by South Korea's embassy specifically for President Park's four-day trip. The incident was said to have taken place in a hotel bar not far from the embassy.

A police report obtained by the Washington Post and Yonhap news agency said a 56-year-old man had "grabbed her buttocks without permission".

Mr Yoon, 56, told a televised news conference on Saturday that "if I have hurt her, I ask for her understanding and offer an apology".

The former spokesman, an ex-newspaper columnist, also apologised for the harm he had caused "to the accomplishments of the successful US visit".

During the trip, President Park's first foreign visit since taking office in February, she held a summit with President Barack Obama.

Mr Obama said that they both agreed on the need to "maintain a strong deterrent" towards North Korea and were not going to reward "provocative behaviour".

US government orders removal of Defcad 3D-gun designs

The US government has demanded designs for a 3D-printed gun be taken offline.

The order to remove the blueprints for the plastic gun comes after they were downloaded more than 100,000 times.

The US State Department wrote to the gun's designer, Defense Distributed, suggesting publishing them online may breach arms-control regulations.

Although the files have been removed from the company's Defcad site, it is not clear whether this will stop people accessing the blueprints.

They were being hosted by the Mega online service and may still reside on its servers.

Also, many links to copies of the blueprints have been uploaded to file-sharing site the Pirate Bay, making them widely available. The Pirate Bay has also publicised its links to the files via social news site Reddit suggesting many more people will get hold of the blueprints.

Cody Wilson, who founded Defense Distributed, told the BBC that the genie was out of the bottle.

"Once people heard what happened, Pirate Bay has exploded. I'm sat here watching it now, seeing the downloads go up and up."

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The Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance emailed Mr Wilson a document demanding the designs be "removed from public access" until he could prove he had not broken laws governing shipping weapons overseas by putting the files online and letting people outside the US download them.

Explosive force

Mr Wilson said that Defense Distributed had complied with the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) rules. He said the rules were pretty convoluted, but he believed his project was exempt as Defense Distributed had been set up specifically to meet requirements that exempted it from ITAR.

"Our gun operations were registered with ITAR."

He said the letter was unclear in that the Office was conducting a "review" yet at the same time he had to remove the files.

"They are stalling, they are going to make this review last as long as they can," he said. "They are getting a lot of political pressure." He added that he had taken legal advice about what to do next.

"We've also had offers of help from lawyers from all around the country," he said.

He welcomed the US government's intervention, saying it would highlight the issue of whether it was possible to stop the spread of 3D-printed weapons.

Unlike conventional weapons, the printed gun - called the Liberator by its creators - is made out of plastic on a printer. Many engineering firms and manufacturers use these machines to test prototypes before starting large-scale production.

While desktop 3D printers are becoming more popular, Defense Distributed used an industrial 3D printer that cost more than £5,000 to produce its gun. This was able to use high-density plastic that could withstand and channel the explosive force involved in firing a bullet.

Before making the Liberator, Mr Wilson got a licence to manufacture and sell the weapon from the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The Bureau told the BBC that any American could make a gun for their own use, even on a 3D printer, but selling it required a licence.

Mr Wilson, who describes himself as a crypto-anarchist, said the project to create a printed gun and make it widely available was all "about liberty".

Cambridge-based scientists develop 'superwheat'

British scientists say they have developed a new type of wheat which could increase productivity by 30%.

The Cambridge-based National Institute of Agricultural Botany has combined an ancient ancestor of wheat with a modern variety to produce a new strain.

In early trials, the resulting crop seemed bigger and stronger than the current modern wheat varieties.

It will take at least five years of tests and regulatory approval before it is harvested by farmers.

Some farmers, however, are urging new initiatives between the food industry, scientists and government.

They believe the regulatory process needs to be speeded up to ensure that the global food security demands of the next few decades can be met, says the BBC's Tom Heap.

Primitive grains

One in five of all the calories consumed round the world come from wheat.

But despite steady improvement in the late 20th century, the last 15 years have seen little growth in the average wheat harvest from each acre in Britain.

Just last month, cereal maker Weetabix announced that it would have to scale back production of some of its products due to a poor wheat harvest in the UK.

Now British scientists think they may have found the answer to increasing productivity again.

Around 10,000 years ago wheat evolved from goat grass and other primitive grains.

The scientists used cross-pollination and seed embryo transfer technology to transfer some of the resilience of the ancient ancestor of wheat into modern British varieties.

The process required no genetic modification of the crops.

Jury clears Brazil police of 1996 murder of PC Farias

Four former policemen who stood accused of failing to prevent the murder of Brazilian businessman Paulo Cesar Farias and his girlfriend have been cleared of the charges.

The four officers worked as Mr Farias's bodyguards at the time of his killing.

The couple were found shot dead in their room on 23 June 1996 in Alagoas state, in north-eastern Brazil.

The death of Mr Farias and his partner, Suzana Marcolino, is considered one of Brazil's most famous murder mysteries.

'Crime of passion'

Mr Farias, 50, was the treasurer for the political campaign of then-President Fernando Collor de Melo.

He was suspected of being a key figure in the corruption scheme which forced Mr Collor to resign in 1992.

When he was found shot dead in his bed next to Suzana Marcolino, 28, who had also been killed by a bullet, most people assumed Mr Farias had been silenced.

But the forensic report at the time concluded Mr Farias had been shot by Ms Marcolino in a crime of passion.

The report said Ms Marcolino had pulled the trigger and then killed herself.

But with speculation continuing to run rife, the bodies were exhumed in 1999.

Absolved

Forensic experts said they could not rule out that Ms Marcolino had committed suicide, but neither could they rule out murder, with some evidence pointing to the latter.

The role of the four bodyguards has also been the subject of much speculation.

Two of the four men were on guard the night of the shooting, and prosecutors had argued they had turned a blind eye to the crime.

But in a four-to-three ruling the jury decided to absolve all four of them.

"The jurors understand that the accused Adeildo [Costa dos Santos] and Jose Geraldo had the obligation of protecting their [PC Farias's and Suzana Marcolino's] lives, but the jurors decided to show clemency and absolve them," Judge Mauricio Breda explained.

Judge Breda said the decision to grant clemency was rare, but within the remit of the jurors.

The jurors also ruled that the death of the couple had been a double homicide, adding new fuel to what local media call "Brazil's most famous murder mystery".

The judge said the prosecution had five days to appeal against the ruling.

Michael Gove would vote for Britain to leave the EU

Education Secretary Michael Gove would vote for Britain to leave the EU if there was a referendum today, he has said.

He told the BBC's Andrew Marr show "life outside would be perfectly tolerable, we could contemplate it".

But he said the best course was to follow David Cameron's plan to renegotiate powers and "lead" the change Europe needed.

And then to put the in/out question to the public in a referendum.

Mr Gove is the most senior Conservative to date to publicly contemplate backing Britain's exit from the EU, although "friends" of the cabinet minister have previously told a newspaper that is where he stands.

'Letting off steam'

"I am not happy with our position in the European Union but my preference is for a change in Britain's relationship with the European Union," said Mr Gove.

"Life outside would be perfectly tolerable, we could contemplate it, there would be certain advantages."

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Tory backbenchers have tabled an amendment to the Queen's Speech regretting the absence of legislation paving the way for a referendum in the government's plans for the year ahead.

Mr Gove described this as "letting off steam".

And he said he planned to abstain if there was a Commons vote on the amendment.

"My own view is let the prime minister lay out our negotiating strategy, make sure he has a majority, which I am convinced he will secure at the next election, and let's have the referendum then."

Home Secretary Theresa May also said she would abstain in the Commons vote, which will be held on Tuesday or Wednesday if it is called by Speaker John Bercow.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond also suggested, on the BBC's Sunday Politics, that he would abstain.

"Voting in favour is absolutely out of the question because we have collective responsibility for the Queen's Speech," he said.

"But I would not want to vote against it and allow that to be misinterpreted as in any way questioning our commitment to, our belief in, the idea of a referendum."

He said the significance of the vote had been "enormously inflated," adding: "We are all violently agreeing here: we all believe that there needs to be a referendum on Europe; we all believe that the British people need to have a say; and we also all agree that we need to make very clear to the public that commitment to a referendum."

Like Mrs May, he refused to be drawn on whether he would also vote yes to Britain's exit in a referendum.

Unusual step

David Cameron has promised an in/out referendum in 2017 - if the Conservatives win the next election.

A group of Conservative backbenchers, led by John Baron, have been campaigning for him to firm up this commitment by legislating in the current Parliament for a referendum.

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The rebel MPs wanted the legislation to be included in last week's Queen's Speech setting out the government's plans for the year ahead.

Mr Cameron has said he was prevented from doing so by the Lib Dems.

So the rebels have taken the unusual step of tabling an amendment to the Queen's Speech debate, raising the prospect of government MPs voting against their own programme. It is thought about 100 backbench MPs could do so.

The amendment, tabled by Mr Baron and fellow Eurosceptic Peter Bone, expresses regret that the government has not announced an EU referendum bill.

It is highly unlikely to be passed, as Labour, the Lib Dems and many Conservatives will vote against it or abstain but Mr Baron has said it will keep the issue in the spotlight.

'Destabilising'

The furore has been seized on by Labour as a sign that Mr Cameron has lost control of his party.

The Conservatives say Mr Miliband is unwilling to give the public a say on a vital issue.

Speaking on Sky's Murnaghan programme, shadow chancellor Ed Balls said: "I don't think we should set our face against consulting the British people."

He said Labour would back a referendum if there was "any proposal to change the powers between Britain and the European Union which would take powers away from Britain".

But he said the party would not make a commitment to a referendum at a time when there was a push to reform the EU as it would be "destabilising" and not "statesmanlike"

Astronauts replace pump on emergency spacewalk

Two US astronauts have replaced a pump on a spacewalk aimed at fixing a leak of ammonia from the International Space Station's cooling system.

Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn completed the work an hour ahead of schedule, reporting no further escape.

The crew had spotted particles of ammonia drifting away from the laboratory on Thursday.

Nasa said the crew were not at risk but managers wanted to solve the problem before Mr Marshburn left the station.

He is due to return to Earth early next week along with the space station's Canadian commander Chris Hadfield and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, after six months in space.

Liquid ammonia is used to extract the heat that builds up in electronic systems, dumping that excess energy to space through an array of radiators.

"No leaks! We're bringing Tom & Chris back inside," Mr Hadfield wrote on his Twitteraccount, some four and a half hours into the spacewalk.'No leaks!'

The leak was coming from the station's port side, at the far end of the backbone, or truss, structure that holds one of the laboratory's huge sets of solar arrays.

Mr Hadfield reported seeing "a very steady stream of flakes" on Thursday.

It is not the first time that the station's cooling systems have caused problems.

A very small leak was identified in 2007 in the same location, and a spacewalk was organised in 2012 to reconfigure coolant lines and isolate the problem.

While the crew may have been safe, damage to the power system from the leak could affect the station's scientific work.

The station currently has a crew of six.

Pope canonises 800 Italian Ottoman victims of Otranto

Pope Francis has proclaimed the first saints of his pontificate in a ceremony at the Vatican - a list which includes 800 victims of an atrocity carried out by Ottoman soldiers in 1480.

They were beheaded in the southern Italian town of Otranto after refusing to convert to Islam.

Their names are unknown, apart from one man, Antonio Primaldo.

Within two months of taking office, Pope Francis has proclaimed more saints than any of his predecessors.

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Among those canonised on Sunday were two Latin American nuns - Laura Montoya from Colombia and Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala from Mexico - who both died in the 20th Century.

Colombia's first saint, Mother Laura Montoya dedicated her life to helping indigenous people while the woman named by Pope Francis as Mother "Lupita" sheltered Catholics during a government crackdown against the faith in the 1920s.

The Italian "Martyrs of Otranto" were executed after 20,000 Turkish soldiers invaded their town in south-eastern Italy.

There was no hint of any anti-Islamic sentiment in the homily that Pope Francis delivered before tens of thousands of worshippers gathered in St Peter's Square, the BBC's David Willey in Rome reports.

Later this month an Italian priest, Fr Giuseppe Puglisi, who was murdered by the Sicilian mafia 20 years ago will be beatified - the last step before being declared a sainWhile it was Francis's predecessor, Pope Benedict, who gave the go ahead for their canonisations, the new pope is continuing the process of honouring a new generation of modern as well as historic martyrs, our correspondent says.