Taiwan plane in deadly river crash

4 February 2015 Last updated at 10:12

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Footage of the crash appeared to show the plane clipping a road bridge

A plane carrying mostly Chinese tourists has crashed into a river in Taiwan, killing at least 16 people.

Dramatic video footage emerged showing the TransAsia Airways plane clipping a bridge as it came down shortly after take-off from a Taipei airport.

The plane, carrying 58 people, has broken up and the fuselage is lying half-submerged in the Keelung River. Rescue efforts are ongoing.

Another TransAsia plane crashed in bad weather last July, killing 48 people.

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Cindy Sui reports: ''Many of the people on board are still inside the aircraft''

Rescuers on boats have cut the plane open to gain access, attempting to access passengers reportedly trapped in the front section of the fuselage.

TransAsia said in a statement that one passenger had already been discharged from hospital, but the number of survivors was unclear.

The ATR-72 turbo-prop plane had just taken off from Taipei Songshan Airport and was heading to the Kinmen islands, just off the coast of the south-eastern Chinese city of Xiamen.

The final communication from the pilots to air traffic control was "Mayday, mayday, engine flame out", according to a recording played on local media. The recording was not immediately verified by aviation officials.

Flight controllers lost contact with the plane at 10:55 local time (02:55 GMT).

Footage of the plane filmed from inside passing cars showed it banking sharply, hitting a taxi and clipping the bridge before crashing into the river.

"I saw a taxi, probably just metres ahead of me, being hit by one wing of the plane," an eyewitness told local media.

"The plane was huge and really close to me. I'm still trembling."

Reports on the number of dead varied, with many citing numbers higher than the 16 confirmed by TransAsia. An official at the scene told the Telegraph that the 195-strong rescue team had not found any survivors for five hours, and that the death toll had risen to 22.

TransAsia Airways

• Founded in 1951 as Taiwan's first private civilian-operated domestic airline, later expanded to overseas routes
• Has about 20 planes in its fleet - a mix of Airbus and dual-propeller ATR planes
• Gained popularity due to its low-cost tickets
• Flies many routes between Taiwan and mainland China, and to parts of South East Asia

TV footage showed rescuers standing on large sections of broken wreckage trying to pull passengers out of the plane with ropes.

But officials said some passengers were still trapped inside the wreckage, which appeared to be upside down.

"We're asking the public works department for heavy cranes to be deployed in the hope that the body of the plane can be lifted up," said Wu Jun-Hong, assistant director of Taipei's fire department.

"At the moment, we think a lot of the trapped people are in the head of the plane."

The plane's flight data recorders, also known as black boxes, have been recovered. Footage from the crash site showed them in a car belonging to the rescue services.

The plane was carrying five crew and 53 passengers, including 31 tourists from the south-eastern Chinese city of Xiamen.

TransAsia said it had contacted relatives of all the 22 Taiwanese passengers and was attempting to reach relatives of the Chinese nationals on board.

The BBC's Cindy Sui in Taipei says the Chinese tourists could have been on their way home as many people come to Taiwan through Kinmen island.

TransAsia chief Chen Xinde offered a "deep apology" in a televised news conference, but said his planes had been "under thorough scrutiny" since mid-2014.

"Both our planes and our flight safety system are following strict regulations, so we also want to know what caused the new plane model to crash, but I don't want to speculate," he said.

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Greek leaders hold key Europe talks

4 February 2015 Last updated at 10:39

Greece's new government has taken its case to the leaders of the European Commission and European Central Bank (ECB) as it tries to renegotiate the terms of a €240bn (£182bn) bailout.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was warmly welcomed by Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels.

And Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said he had "fruitful talks" with ECB chief Mario Draghi in Frankfurt.

Greece's radical left government was elected on a pledge to end austerity.

Mr Varoufakis is keen to convince the ECB that Greece's debt payments could be linked to the performance of the economy - the more it grows the more interest Greece would pay - through the use of debt swaps.

However a report in the Financial Times newspaper quoted officials involved in the negotiations as saying that the ECB would oppose a crucial part of his plan - the sale of short-term treasury bills to raise €10bn.

Mr Varoufakis told German newspaper Die Zeit (in German) that he was the finance minister of a bankrupt nation and tried to reassure Germany that Athens' new policies did not mean it was turning its back on reform.

"You should not trust us, but you should hear us out," he said.

His visit to Frankfurt, and the prime minister's meeting in Brussels were the latest in a series of European trips to reassure leaders about the plans of a government elected on 25 January on a promise of writing off most of Greece's spiralling debt.

Mr Tsipras's Syriza party had also sparked alarm on the markets and among eurozone officials when it said it would refuse a new tranche of bailout funding, prompting questions about how it would finance itself.

Greece's current programme of loans ends on 28 February. A final €7.2bn is still to be negotiated, but the new government has already begun to roll back austerity measures.

Mr Varoufakis is hoping to obtain quick cash for Greece while a new plan is agreed amongst the various eurozone members.

Eurozone finance ministers are due to meet on 11 February to discuss Greece's debt proposals.

The Greek prime minister first met Mr Juncker and then European Council President Donald Tusk on Wednesday, as part of the new government's diplomatic offensive.

Mr Juncker was expected to press Mr Tsipras for a "technical" extension of Greece's current deal.

The Greek leader will then travel to Paris to meet President Francois Hollande later.

Greek economy in numbers

• Unemployment is at 25%, with youth unemployment almost 50%
• Economy has shrunk by 25% since the start of the eurozone crisis
• Country's debt is 175% of GDP
• Borrowed €240bn (£188bn) from the EU, the ECB and the IMF

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Jordan executes convicted jihadists

4 February 2015 Last updated at 10:59

Jordan has executed two convicts, including a female jihadist, following the killing of one of its air force pilots by Islamic State (IS) militants.

The woman, failed suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi, and al-Qaeda operative Ziyad Karboli - both Iraqi nationals - were hanged at dawn, officials said.

The executions came hours after IS posted a video appearing to show pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh being burned alive.

He was seized after crashing during an anti-IS mission over Syria in December.

Jordan had attempted to secure Lt Kasasbeh's release in a swap involving Rishawi, but IS is believed to have killed him a month ago.

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The BBC's Paul Adams: "The mood here in Amman tonight is furious"

The militants had sought Rishawi's release as part of a deal to free captive Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, but a video of his killing was posted online four days ago.

Rishawi had been on death row for her role in attacks in Jordan's capital, Amman, which killed 60 people in 2005.

Karboli was convicted in 2008 of killing a Jordanian national.

The two prisoners were executed at 04:00 local time (02:00 GMT), government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani said on Wednesday morning.

'Revenge will be huge'

Jordan earlier vowed an "earth-shattering" response after IS posted a video online showing what militants say is the pilot standing in a cage engulfed in flames.

One of the leading authorities in Sunni Islam condemned the killing, saying the burning to death of Lt Kasasbeh violated Islam's prohibition on the mutilation of bodies.

In a statement released on Tuesday night, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar University in Egypt, called for the "killing, crucifixion of IS terrorists".

Mamdouh al-Ameri, a spokesman for the Jordanian armed forces, said on Tuesday that Lt Kasasbeh had "fallen as a martyr", adding: "Our punishment and revenge will be as huge as the loss of the Jordanians."

Safi al-Kasasbeh, the pilot's father, called for the Jordanian government to do "more than just executing prisoners".

The blood of his son was the blood of the nation, he said, "and the blood of the nation must be avenged."

"I call for [IS] to be eliminated completely," he told reporters on Wednesday.

Analysis: Paul Adams, BBC News, Amman

This morning, the talk is all of revenge. Newspapers scream for it in their headlines and Lt Kasasbeh's father has asked the Jordanian government and US-led coalition to exact it. The process has already begun, but to what effect?

The two prisoners hanged had both already received death penalties. Jordan had quietly forgotten them until IS suddenly demanded the release of Sajida al-Rishawi.

Neither Rishawi nor the other executed prisoner, Ziyad Karboli, were members of IS. Their only tenuous connection to the group was as members of its brutal precursor, al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Last week, Jordan was willing to exchange Rishawi for Lt Kasasbeh, but it now seems certain the pilot was already dead. IS strung Jordan along in order to foster doubt among Jordanians over the wisdom of their participation in the US-led coalition. It's a tactic that has, to a certain extent, worked.

With the murdered pilot's powerful tribe demanding revenge, Wednesday's executions were probably inevitable. But having bowed to tribal instinct, King Abdullah must now find a way to get back on the front foot, at a time when others seem to be dictating events.

Jordan's King Abdullah hailed Lt Kasasbeh as a hero, saying Jordan must "stand united" in the face of hardship.

The king decided to cut short a visit to the US after news of the pilot's death, but he met President Barack Obama on Tuesday evening before flying home.

Many in Jordan have questioned its role in the air strikes against IS but the two leaders sought to reaffirm their joint resolve to destroy the group.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported on Wednesday that the United Arab Emirates suspended its involvement in the anti-IS air strikes after Lt Kasasbeh was captured in December.

It cites US officials as saying the UAE wants the Pentagon to improve its search-and-rescue efforts in Iraq before it resumes bombing missions.

Timeline: Jordanian pilot held hostage

24 December 2014: Jordanian Lt Moaz Youssef al-Kasasbeh captured by IS after his plane crashes

25 December 2014: Pilot's father urges IS to show mercy

20 January 2015: IS threatens to kill two Japanese hostages unless Japan pays $200m ransom within 72 hours

24 January: IS releases video of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto holding a picture apparently showing Haruna Yukawa's decapitated body

24 January: IS calls for release of Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi militant sentenced to death in Jordan

28 January: Jordan offers to release Rishawi in exchange for Lt Kasasbeh

29 January: Deadline to kill Lt Kasasbeh and Mr Goto expires

31 January: Video released appearing to show Kenji Goto's body

3 February: Video released appearing to show Lt Kasasbeh burnt alive, with Jordanian media suggesting he was killed weeks earlier

Profile: Lt Moaz al-Kasasbeh

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Deadly shell hits Donetsk hospital

4 February 2015 Last updated at 11:17

At least four people are reported dead after a shell hit a hospital in the rebel-held city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

City authorities said most of the casualties were outside the building.

There are unconfirmed reports of further deaths.

Violence has surged in the east in recent weeks, and the pro-Russian rebels have captured territory from government forces outside Donetsk, including the city's airport.

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US ponders arming Ukraine forces

3 February 2015 Last updated at 03:02

The US administration is considering whether to send arms to help the Ukraine government against pro-Russian rebels in the east, US media report.

They suggest officials are exploring the possibility of sending defensive weapons and other lethal aid.

No decision has been made, but National Security spokesperson Bernadette Meehan said the US was "constantly assessing" its policies in Ukraine.

The reports come amid an upsurge in fighting in the east of the country.

President Barack Obama had originally been firmly opposed to arming the Ukrainian military, fearing a proxy battle between the US and Russia, says the BBC's Jon Sopel from Washington.

The US provides only non-lethal military equipment to Ukraine such as gas masks and radar technology.

But the New York Times reported on Monday that the failure of such aid and of economic sanctions to stop Russia from helping the rebels is pushing the issue of defensive weapons back into discussion.

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Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer advocates the supply of defensive weaponry to Ukrainian forces

The deliveries could include anti-tank, anti-air and anti-mortar systems, CNN reported.

An unnamed senior US official told Reuters news agency that the idea of lethal defensive aid was getting "fresh look".

"Where things will end up, we don't know," he added.

Ms Meehan said: "Although our focus remains on pursuing a solution through diplomatic means, we are always evaluating other options that will help create space for a negotiated solution to the crisis."

An unnamed official told The Associated Press news agency that a decision on the matter was not imminent but that the recent spike in violence has led to a re-examination of US policy.

US Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Kiev for talks with Ukraine's government later in the week. Russia denies Western accusations that it is supplying weapons and personnel to the rebels.

Recruitment drive

Dozens of people including civilians were killed in clashes and artillery fire at the weekend.

In a sign of the escalating violence, Pro-Russian separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenk has said that the rebels will aim to boost their forces to 100,000 men.

Ukraine's government has also announced a major mobilisation, with plans to bring the numbers in its armed forces to 200,000 in 2015.

Military officials in Kiev said on Monday that five soldiers had been killed in 24 hours, although separatists said the number was more than 20.

Fifteen civilians were killed in the rebel-held city of Donetsk over the weekend, rebel sources said.

Overall, more than 5,000 people have been killed and some 1.2 million have fled their homes since last April, when the rebels seized a big swathe of Luhansk and Donetsk regions, following Russia's annexation of Crimea.

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Journalist gives up Egypt passport

3 February 2015 Last updated at 09:11

Mohamed Fahmy, one of two al-Jazeera journalists still held in Egypt, has renounced his Egyptian citizenship to secure his release, his family say.

Mr Fahmy's brother said the journalist, who is also Canadian, was told to give up his nationality or his freedom.

Canada says his release is imminent. The status of his Egyptian colleague Baher Mohamed remains unclear.

Peter Greste, who was freed on Sunday, said he felt "incredible angst" at leaving his colleagues in a Cairo jail.

The Australian journalist was freed from prison and deported after 400 days behind bars.

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Peter Greste: "The prison warden said it's time to pack your stuff"

The three al-Jazeera English journalists were arrested in 2013 after being accused of collaborating with the banned Muslim Brotherhood after former President Mohammed Morsi was ousted by the military.

All three denied the charges against them and said their trial was a sham.

'Release imminent'

A decree issued by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi last November allows the deportation of foreign prisoners.

Mr Fahmy's brother, Adel, told reporters that the Egyptian authorities gave the journalist the choice between "dropping the nationality or his freedom".

"It was a very difficult decision. Mohamed is very proud and comes from a patriotic family of high-ranking military and policemen that have defended this country and fought its wars," Adel Fahmy said.

Many of his family members were offended by Mr Fahmy's decision to relinquish his citizenship, he added, but said his fiance and his mother had pushed him to do so.

Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird said on Monday that Mr Fahmy's release was "imminent" but gave no details of a resolution.

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Orla Guerin: "Peter Greste and his colleagues insist that the only thing they are guilty of is doing their jobs"

There are still concerns over the fate of Mr Mohamed, however, because he is an Egyptian who holds no dual nationality.

'Step forward'

Speaking on Monday, Mr Greste said: "If it's right for me to be free then it's right for all of them to be free."

He described his release as "a massive step forward" for the Egyptian authorities but added that he felt a "real mix of emotions" after learning he would be freed.

There was "real stress in having to say goodbye to my colleagues and friends - people who've really become family inside that prison," he said.

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Peter Greste's family spoke of their happiness at his release from prison

In June last year, Mr Fahmy and Mr Greste were sentenced to seven years in prison and Mr Mohamed to 10. Their sentences sparked an international outcry.

The three men's convictions were overturned on 1 January but they remained in custody pending a retrial.

Several students have also been held in the same case. The students deny working for Al-Jazeera but it is thought that material filmed on their phones was used by the network.

In a separate case, Abdullah El-Shamy, a journalist for Al-Jazeera's Arabic channel, was arrested in August 2013 when police broke up a protest by supporters of Mr Morsi.

He was released on health grounds in June 2014 after a hunger strike of nearly five months.

According to campaign group Reporters Without Borders, there are currently 165 journalists imprisoned around the world, including 15 in Egypt.

Timeline: Journalists' detention

• 29 December 2013: Peter Greste and Mohamed Fahmy arrested in police raid on Cairo's Marriott Hotel. Baher Mohamed later arrested at home
• 29 January 2014: 20 people including the three journalists referred to trial, charged with spreading false news, belonging to a terrorist organisation and operating without a permit
• 22 February: First court appearance of the three journalists
• 23 June: Defendants sentenced to seven years, with Baher Mohamed receiving an additional three years
• 12 November: President Sisi signs decree allowing repatriation of foreign prisoners
• 1 January 2015: Highest court orders retrial, but the three journalists not allowed bail
• 1 February 2015: Peter Greste freed and deported, his two colleagues remain behind bars

Muted reaction in Egypt media

How journalists were jailed in Egypt

Who are the jailed journalists?

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Death penalty for S Korea soldier

3 February 2015 Last updated at 07:40

A South Korean soldier who shot dead five of his colleagues and injured seven others has been sentenced to death by a military court.

The sergeant opened fire in June 2014 at his post near the North Korean border and fled, sparking a manhunt.

He was captured two days later after he shot himself during a tense stand-off with troops.

It reignited debate on military culture in South Korea, where all males must do about two years military service.

The conscript's attack had previously been attributed by a defence ministry spokesman to his "difficulties in adapting to military life".

He had been placed on a list of conscripts requiring special attention.

In July last year, the military completed its investigation into the incident and said the attack, at a post near the border town of Goseong, was in revenge for bullying in the army and at school.

The 23-year-old recruit, surnamed Im in previous reports but named as Lim by Yonhap news agency, was found guilty of killing and injuring his comrades by detonating a grenade and firing at them.

He was also found guilty of running away with a rifle and ammunition, said the news agency.

Under South Korea's military law, a soldier must face the death penalty for killing a superior. One of those killed was a staff sergeant.

The soldier expressed remorse in a statement last month before his sentence was announced, AFP news agency reported.

"I feel deeply sorry for the victims and their relatives... I am overcome with remorse... How happy would I be, had it been merely a dream and had it been possible to return to the past?" he said.

Bullying culture?

Past incidents in South Korea's military have been linked to bullying and mental health problems.

Last year, several suicides by young conscripts were reported. In April, a private died after he was beaten by his superiors - an incident which was only uncovered months later by a civic group.

A sergeant was later sentenced to 45 years in military prison for the crime. Four other soldiers were jailed for between 15 and 30 years while a sixth was given a suspended prison sentence.

In September last year, two special forces soldiers died after collapsing during captivity training, apparently from suffocation.

The incidents sparked a public outcry and prompted the army to take a tougher stance on bullying and abuse.

Its chief of staff resigned and his replacement ordered the establishment of a military human rights commission and investigations into hundreds of bullying cases.

Prior to last year, South Korea also saw major incidents in 2005 and 2011 where conscripts killed several of their comrades.

South Korea has said it needs a conscription system to ensure national security. It technically remains at war with North Korea, as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

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Court rejects Balkan genocide claims

3 February 2015 Last updated at 11:09

The International Court of Justice has ruled that Serbia and Croatia did not commit acts of genocide against each other during the Croatian war of secession from the former Yugoslavia.

The Croatian government had alleged that Serbia committed genocide in the town of Vukovar and elsewhere in 1991.

Serbia later filed a counter-claim over the expulsion of more than 200,000 Serbs from Croatia.

About 20,000 people died during the 1991-1995 war, mostly Croatians.

The Croatian town of Vukovar was devastated when it was occupied by Serbs for three months in 1991. Tens of thousands of ethnic Croats were displaced, and about 260 Croat men were detained and killed.

Four years later, the Croatian military's Operation Storm bombarded the majority ethnic-Serb Krajina area, forcing about 200,000 people from their homes.

Speaking in court on Tuesday, Judge Peter Tomka dismissed both the Croatian claim and the Serbian counter-claim.

Forces on both sides had carried out violent acts during the war, Judge Tomka said. However, neither side had provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate the "specific intent required for acts of genocide".

UN 1948 Genocide Convention

• Act committed with intent to destroy in whole or part a national, ethnical, racial or religious group
• Killing members of the group
• Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
• Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring physical destruction
• Imposing measures intended to prevent births
• Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

Croatia filed its initial case with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) - the top UN court - in 1999, accusing Serbs, led by President Slobodan Milosevic, of targeting ethnic Croats during the conflict.

It wanted Serbia to pay compensation for damages "to persons and properties as well as to the Croatian economy and environment".

In 2010, Serbia responded to Croatia's case with a countersuit, saying that ethnics Serbs were expelled when Croatia launched its 1995 operation to retake territory captured by Serbs.

The BBC's Anna Holligan in The Hague says although genocide is the most serious of international crimes, it is also the hardest to prove.

'End of a process'

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Anna Holligan explains the background to the cases being heard at the ICJ

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic earlier described the verdict as "one of perhaps the most important events for our bilateral relations with Croatia".

"It will probably be the end of a process that has lasted for 15-20 years [and] will put an end to both sides' fight to prove who the worst criminal is," he told reporters on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Croatian Justice Minister Orsat Miljenic has previously said that the government's main goal is to "present what happened in the war and that was aggression against Croatia".

"Expectations have already been met" through the case being discussed at the ICJ, Mr Miljenic added.

Relations between the two countries have improved in recent years but in 2012 Serbia was outraged when Operation Storm commander Ante Gotovina, was cleared on appeal by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Last week, ahead of the verdict, Vukovar resident Kata Lozancic told Reuters news agency that she believed genocide had taken place in her town.

"Everything from cultural and natural sites, to people, everything was destroyed," she said. "The town and its vicinity are full of former camp sites, places where they held people in detention, searched them, tortured them."

Meanwhile, a refugee in Serbia, identified only as Dragica, expressed unhappiness at the Croatian government's claims.

"They expelled us Serbs, and now they [claim they] are not criminals, and we are," she told Reuters.

"[They say] we ran away... [but] who would be crazy enough to run away from their own home, leaving everything behind, everything we worked so hard for."

Former Yugoslavia was a Socialist state created after World War Two. It consisted of six republics: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.

The federation began falling apart in the early 1990s. Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia declared independence, sparking conflicts with the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army. All four countries were eventually recognised as independent by the UN.

In 2006, Montenegro also emerged as a sovereign state after a referendum for independence, ending the former Union of Serbia and Montenegro.

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Strauss-Kahn pimping trial to begin

2 February 2015 Last updated at 05:27

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is set to go on trial in France to face pimping charges.

Mr Strauss-Kahn, 65, is accused of helping to procure sex workers for an alleged prostitution ring based at a hotel in Lille.

The former presidential hopeful has admitted attending sex parties there, but says he did not know that some of the women were prostitutes.

The case is the latest sex-related allegation to trouble Mr Strauss-Kahn.

He stepped down as International Monetary Fund leader after being accused of attempted rape by a hotel maid in New York in 2011.

The charges were eventually dropped, and Mr Strauss-Kahn reached a settlement with the maid, Nafissatou Diallo.

Two other cases against him, concerning allegations of sexual assault and gang rape, have already been dropped.

On Monday, he will appear in court along with 13 others, including the owner of a brothel known as "Dodo the Pimp".

Mr Strauss-Khan is facing a charge of "aggravated pimping" and is accused of using his business contacts to hire women for sex parties in Paris, Lille and Washington.

His lawyers argue that although he has admitted attending these parties, that he was completely unaware that many of the women involved were paid prostitutes.

The BBC's Lucy Williamson in Paris says the case has been described as a litmus test for changing attitudes in France with the private lives of public figures now facing more scrutiny than in the past.

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Greste to pursue colleagues' release

2 February 2015 Last updated at 08:11

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Peter Greste's family spoke of their happiness at the journalist's release from a Cairo prison

Al-Jazeera journalist Peter Greste will not rest until his colleagues are released from prison in Egypt, his family says.

After 400 days behind bars, Mr Greste was freed and deported on Sunday. He landed safely in Cyprus, on his way to his native Australia.

He was arrested in 2013 and tried on charges that included spreading false news and aiding the Muslim Brotherhood.

Two al-Jazeera colleagues, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, remain jailed.

Mr Fahmy, who holds dual Egyptian and Canadian citizenship, could be freed if he renounces his Egyptian nationality, presidential sources said.

But there are still concerns about Mr Mohamed, an Egyptian who holds no dual nationality.

Mr Greste spoke about his concerns for his colleagues to his family after his release.

'Small cogs'

Speaking at a press conference in the Australian city of Brisbane, brother Andrew Greste said: "We want to acknowledge that Peter's two other colleagues are still there."

His father Juris Greste said that they felt very deeply for those left behind.

Andrew Greste also thanked all those who had supported his brother and worked for his release.

"We are small cogs in this massive campaign," he said.

Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Peter Greste had told her in a telephone conversation that he was eager to return to his family in Brisbane.

"He was immensely relieved and he was desperate to come home to Australia and reunite with his family," said Ms Bishop.

"From my discussion with him, he was very keen to be back on a beach and lying in the sun in Australia."

Timeline: Journalists' detention

• 29 December 2013: Peter Greste and Mohamed Fahmy arrested in police raid on Cairo's Marriott Hotel. Baher Mohamed later arrested at home
• 29 January 2014: 20 people including the three journalists referred to trial, charged with spreading false news, belonging to a terrorist organisation and operating without a permit
• 22 February: First court appearance of the three journalists
• 23 June: Defendants sentenced to seven years, with Baher Mohamed receiving an additional three years
• 12 November: President Sisi signs decree allowing repatriation of foreign prisoners
• 1 January 2015: Highest court orders retrial, but the three journalists not allowed bail

How journalists were jailed in Egypt

Who are the jailed journalists?

The three journalists had been accused of collaborating with the banned Muslim Brotherhood after the overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi by the military in 2013.

All the defendants denied the charges against them and said their trial was a sham.

Mr Fahmy and Mr Greste were sentenced to seven years in prison and Mr Mohamed to 10. Their convictions were overturned on 1 January, but the men remained in custody pending a retrial.

'Overjoyed'

Mr Greste's release on Sunday came after a long international campaign.

His family said that he would return to Australia when he felt ready.

His mother, Lois Greste, said she had been quietly dreaming about this moment.

"I think he will recover well," she added.

Andrew Greste told BBC Breakfast that "to know that Peter's out of Egypt and in a safe place is just indescribable".

His brother was "in good mental and physical shape", and was "overjoyed" to be released, he added.

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Orla Guerin: "Peter Greste and his colleagues insist that the only thing they are guilty of is doing their jobs"

The first hints of Mr Greste's release came in November, when President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi said he was considering granting pardons to the two foreign al-Jazeera journalists.

He had earlier signed a decree on repatriating foreign prisoners.

Mr Greste's release was eventually confirmed by a statement issued by the Egyptian interior ministry.

UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond welcomed the decision to release Mr Greste.

However, he expressed concerns that Mr Greste's two colleagues remained in jail, adding: "It also appears that charges remain against the other journalists convicted in absentia, including British nationals Dominic Kane and Sue Turton."

Mr Hammond said he called on the Egyptian authorities to review their sentences "as a matter of urgency".

"I call on the Egyptian government to take further action to ensure the release of other journalists from prison, to release political detainees and to relax restrictions on civil society," Mr Hammond added.

According to campaign group Reporters Without Borders, there are currently 165 journalists imprisoned around the world, in countries including China, Iran, Eritrea, Egypt, Uzbekistan and Russia.

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