Media captionUS woman casts a spell to curb President Donald Trump
Most of Donald Trump's opponents believe they will have to wait four more years to see him leave the White House.
But America's witches are more optimistic.
At the stroke of midnight on Friday, followers of witchcraft across the US performed a mass spell designed to remove the president from office.
A Facebook group devoted to the ritual has attracted over 10,500 likes, and coined the hashtag #magicresistance.
The development has sparked fury among Christian conservatives, who have accused the witches of "declaring spiritual war".
Writer Michael Hughes, who describes himself as a "magical thinker" posted a version of the spell online, saying he had seen multiple versions on private witchcraft groups.
In it, he suggests using a stubby orange candle, an unflattering picture of Mr Trump, and a Tower tarot card.
Image copyrightAFPImage caption Tarot cards are used all over the world to assist in magical rituals
Followers of magic are told to carve the president's name into the candle using a pin, recite an incantation, and then burn his picture in the flame.
'You're fired!'
The words of the spell include a plea to the Wiccan deities to "bind Donald J Trump, so that his malignant works may fail utterly" and so that he "shall not break our polity, usurp our liberty, or fill our minds with hate, confusion, fear, or despair".
Mr Trump's supporters don't escape either, as the spell asks that their "malicious tongues" be curbed too.
Mr Hughes suggests that instead of the normal closing line, "So mote it be!", witches could burn the former Apprentice host's image with the words, "You're fired!"
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The writer said he published details of the spell because he felt "it would be very welcome to a lot of people".
Under the tenets of witchcraft, a "binding spell" does not wish harm on its target, but aims to stop them from doing harm themselves.
"This is not the equivalent of magically punching a Nazi," Mr Hughes wrote. "Rather, it is ripping the bullhorn from his hands, smashing his phone so he can't tweet, tying him up, and throwing him in a dark basement where he can't hurt anyone."
MaryPat Azevedo, who took part in the ritual in Arizona, said she saw the ritual as "a unity prayer".
She told the BBC: "A true witch would never cast a spell on anyone without their permission. This prayer is for wellbeing and peace for all beings."
Ms Azevedo said she hopes to see "physical, emotional, and spiritual changes in Donald Trump and American politics".
Image copyrightFacebook/BindTrumpImage caption A Facebook page has been set up to promote the mass spell-casting
'Urgent warning'
Participating witches plan to repeat the spell on days when there is a waning crescent moon, until Mr Trump leaves the Oval Office. The next ritual is set for 26 March.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, some of the president's followers are less than thrilled.
Joshua Feuerstein, an evangelical pastor who has previously condemned Starbucks for taking Christmas symbols off its seasonal red cups, issued an "urgent warning", saying "millions of witches" were trying to curse the president.
"Their bippity-boppity-boo isn't more powerful than the name of Jesus!" he declared in an online video.
Image copyrightAFPImage caption Some of the president's supporters see the spell as an assault on Christianity (file picture)
The Christian Nationalist Alliance, a conservative religious group, named 24 February a "day of prayer" to counter the magical fraternity.
In a post online, it called the witches "occultists" who want to summon dark spirits against Mr Trump.
The group said it will urge people to pray every time the spell-casters reach for their candles.
Thus far, Mr Trump has failed to comment on the battle between Bible and broomstick.
Image copyrightEPAImage caption Moscow has already demolished some of its Khrushchyovka buildings - this one was brought down in October
Moscow city authorities are to tear down about 8,000 blocks of flats built in the 1950s and 1960s in a major clearance programme that will involve rehousing 1.6 million people in the coming years, it's reported.
Mayor Sergei Sobyanin told a council meeting on Wednesday that the decision follows a positive review of an earlier, more modest demolition of about 1,700 of the low-rise prefabricated buildings known throughout the former Soviet states as "Khrushchyovkas", Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reports.
They were named after the then Communist leader Nikita Khrushchev, who had millions of the brick or concrete blocks built across the Soviet Union to help overcome the crippling housing shortages of the Stalin era. But buildings designed to last no more than 25 years - a period in which Khrushchev thought full Communism could be achieved - are now showing their age.
"Many people in Moscow are still living uncomfortably in ancient housing, to put it mildly," Mr Sobyanin told his colleagues, acknowledging a problem that has troubled councillors, the press and residents for years. He said the buildings are in such a state that demolition makes more sense than any attempt to repair them.
The project will require serious money and changes to federal planning law, but President Vladimir Putin backed the plan at a meeting with the mayor on Tuesday. It isn't clear how long the overall process will take.
The mayor has ordered the city authorities to propose construction sites for new housing within a month, and will chair the committee overseeing the building designs himself. Komsomolskaya Pravda says Muscovites are now awaiting __news of which blocks will be the first to go.
Next story: German council asks veggie event to serve sausages
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Julius Kaggwa was born intersex, which meant it was not clear if he was a girl or a boy. It made for a confusing, isolating and sometimes dangerous childhood growing up in the conservative society of Uganda.
"I was brought up as 'Julia' but I never felt like I belonged," Julius, now 47, tells the BBC.
Around the age of seven, he began to work out that his body was different to most other children's.
"Not much. Just that I was a little different and that this could cause me to be ridiculed."
Julius comes from what he calls an ordinary peasant family, with a religious background.
His mother was loving and protective and his wider family "accepted and still accept me unconditionally".
'Considered a curse'
This is not something that can be taken for granted with intersex children in Uganda, he says.
"In our culture, being intersex can be considered a curse, and something to get rid of."
Image copyrightOpen Society FoundationsImage caption Julius' mother was very protective of him, but it sometimes isolated him from other children
Although Julius was not permanently hidden at home like some intersex children, some of his earliest memories involve being kept away from others.
"Mostly it was the constant reminder by my parents to avoid certain modes of play because I could be harassed or abused.
"Also, my mother's strict protection of me meant I kept changing schools. It was a very isolating feeling, [and] it made it very difficult to make and sustain friendships at that early age."
His mother also took Julius to traditional herbalists, who tried to "cure" him. Inevitably, the treatments failed.
Image copyrightOpen Society FoundationsImage caption As a child, Julius was taken to herbalists seeking to "cure" him
"When I was 11, I had to study hard to get a place in an Anglican girls' boarding school," he says. "My mother thought it would be the safest place for me - but it was a real nightmare.
"Obviously, because of all the changes that come with adolescence, everything they [the girls] loved, talked about and did, I was not interested in, like plaiting hair, discussions about romance novels and body grooming.
"I was completely different in my outlook and likes and didn't feel the need to disguise it. That made it a nightmare to belong.
"And some of the girls started to look pretty to me, which was more than a nightmare to comprehend and contain, given I could not speak about it or act on it."
What is intersex?
Intersex people are born with a mixture of male and female sex characteristics.
To determine the sex of an intersex child doctors try to work out what happened during the baby's development.
They check the body's DNA containers, the chromosomes, to see whether the child is genetically female or male.
They see if the baby has ovaries or testes, and whether they have a womb or not.
They also test the hormones the body is producing and try to determine how the baby's genitals may develop.
Test results can be on a scale between male or female.
According to the United Nations, the condition affects up to 1.7% of the world's population.
Read more:
Model Hanne Gaby Odiele reveals she is intersex
At 12 I grew a beard and had a period
Male or female? Babies born on the sliding sex scale
By the time Julius was 16, it was obvious he was becoming a man. His voice and hair were changing. He fitted in even less than before at a girls' school.
"I found myself at a crossroads," he says. "I had to leave the school."
Image copyrightOpen Society FoundationsImage caption Reaching adolescence, Julius's body changed and remaining at a girls' school became untenable
Visiting a doctor, he learned that he had a condition where his body "did not respond to the typical male hormones responsible for typical male body formation and that it was neither a disease nor witchcraft, just a biological condition".
"That information was a relief because then, having become born again, I changed my prayers from deliverance from demons to just healing of an otherwise common condition."
But with all the physical changes his body had undergone, he could not continue living as a girl.
Julius left Uganda to continue his studies in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, where under guidance from his doctor he came to a decision.
"I made up my mind to discard the female image and start living as the man I was - albeit with all the ambiguity," he says.
"It was a hard change socially, especially because I was still young but it was also a relief."
Threats
When he returned to Uganda, it was no longer as Julia, but Julius.
At first, Julius pretended to be his "brother" but it wasn't long before people saw through the ruse, recognising him as the person who used to be called Julia.
Image copyrightOpen Society FoundationsImage caption One day, Julius says his story was leaked to a newspaper in Uganda: "Everybody wanted a piece of me. They wanted to dissect me."
A little later, a situation that might have been complicated or awkward became dangerous.
Someone told a newspaper about him and suddenly, without warning or consent, Julius's private journey became public.
"I received threats and a lot of harassing comments in the news," he says. "It is a very disturbing and frightening thing at that age to have everybody give opinions on what they think you are.
"You get to believe some of these things. Some of the comments alleged I had a sex change and people like me should be burnt.
"That scares a young person to death, and it scared me in ways hard to describe."
Julius credits his Christian faith - the feeling that, with God, he was not alone - for keeping him afloat at this time.
Image copyrightOpen Society FoundationsImage caption Julius found work in South Africa as a technical writer for a software company
But he had good reason to believe he was not safe in Uganda and left again, this time travelling to South Africa.
A friend helped him get a technical writing job with a software company, which paid well.
"This made it easy for me to be allowed to stay there and kept me psychologically safe for some years," he says.
Cheered on live TV
Then one day, flicking through the news, a story caught his attention. The Ugandan media were discussing an intersex boy.
Julius knew he had to do something.
"I was concerned," he says. "I decided to go back home to help him."
Image copyrightOpen Society FoundationsImage caption Julius received a standing ovation after returning to Uganda and telling his story to an audience on national TV
"For him and others like him, I faced my fears in front of a live audience on national TV, and I told my story."
When he had finished, the whole room stood and cheered.
It was another turn taken.
Repressive laws
Now Julius, who is married with four children, works as a full-time educator in Uganda, as head of intersex health and rights organisation SIPD Uganda.
He educates and counsels people about intersex issues, working with community midwives to fight the stigma around intersex babies, advocating for policy change and building capacity and partnerships in the field.
Image copyrightOpen Society FoundationsImage caption He now works full-time as an educator on intersex issues
"The standard treatment of intersex conditions in Uganda is still, unfortunately, to try to normalise the child as much as possible," he says.
"This involves deafening silence and isolation and, in worst case scenarios, child murders of the intersex infant. There are also a lot of abandonments on rubbish heaps and in latrines."
The combination of traditional religious values, pop culture that defines what maleness and femaleness look like, and repressive laws that equate intersex identities with homosexuality ("and, in some instances, an intersex person can also be gay") create "an even more dangerous climate to operate in", he says.
As recently as 2014, Uganda tried to introduce a draconian anti-homosexuality law, which required homosexuals to be jailed for life. It was overturned, but had a chilling effect.
Despite this, and his own grim assessment, Julius believes his public education work, allied with more sympathetic media coverage, is beginning to shift attitudes.
Image copyrightOpen Society FoundationsImage caption Julius now has four children of his own.
His own thinking has also continued to develop.
"Certainly as I get older, I am now thinking about different kinds of safety, especially for the children and also blackmail that comes from people who feel the need to remind me that I once wore a skirt," he says.
"That said, I have developed greater resilience with age and even with threats still coming my way now and again, I have more control of my life and how to live it.
"Yes, I sometimes feel I can do better with this or other surgery or hormone treatments but it is something to contemplate in light of social expectations - not something I feel I must do to be a normal human being.
"There is nothing wrong with me and there is often nothing wrong with most intersex children or people."
The images in this article were produced for the Open Society Foundations by PositiveNegatives.
Image copyrightJeff BusbyImage caption A new play, Lady Eats Apple, is inspired by near-death experiences
People with disabilities are becoming more visible in professional arts companies in Australia, reports Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore.
In 2000, Bruce Gladwin, artistic director of the Back to Back theatre company, received a call from a newspaper in the city of Geelong. New statistics showed that fewer people were being born with Down's syndrome due to increasing abortion rates. Would he comment?
For Back to Back - a theatre made up of actors with intellectual disabilities, including Down's syndrome - such __news could be worrying. But Mr Gladwin saw an opportunity. Prenatal testing, and a growing prevalence of "designer babies", would become the subject of the Geelong-based company's new production SOFT.
"It led us to make a work that looks at the huge implications [concerning] the number of actors in the company that have genetic conditions. It's a work about the questions of our own existence in society," says Gladwin of the 2002 play.
Back to Back remains one of Australia's most successful theatre companies. Next month their new production Lady Eats Apple, inspired by stories of near-death experiences, will be shown in Perth and Sydney. The 2011 hit Ganesh Versus the Third Reich, meanwhile, has toured in 35 cities and 18 countries.
Disability across the performing arts is becoming more visible. Proponents include dance companies Rawcus in Melbourne and Restless Dance Theatre in Adelaide. Last December, Opera Queensland's Orpheus and Eurydice featured amateur disabled performers alongside lead singers.
For productions, technology can be one way to circumvent physical challenges.
Image copyrightJeff BusbyImage caption Theatre company Back to Back's plays often do not focus on disability at all
"Putting [cast members] into a large space, you think, how are they going to project their voice?" says Gladwin of Back to Back's ensemble, who are not formally trained. In Lady Eats Apple, radio microphones attached to audience headphones project sound. Yet rather than seeing this as a disadvantage, Gladwin insists such decisions "start to define the aesthetics of the company".
The history of disabled performers in the West is long, if fraught. So-called "freak shows" were a key component of travelling exhibitions in the Victorian era. And in more recent decades a focus has been on community projects, which are often more about charity and occupational therapy than professional art.
Today, however, disabled performers are making a stand. They are claiming the right to both control their own narratives and to put on productions judged not by the context of their own life stories but on merit.
"Our objective is to make the best art possible," says Gladwin.
Back to Back's productions often do not focus on disability at all as a subject matter. As important is "that the actors are seen as professional artists and are paid for their work", says Gladwin.
It is a cause that has been taken up by national lobbying body Arts Access Australia, which, in 2012, launched the campaign "Don't Play Us, Pay Us", which called for disabled characters to be played by disabled actors.
Hollywood-style narratives, however, continue to tap into storylines of characters overcoming a disability to achieve great things - with characters often played by able-bodied actors.
Talk of an individual's "success 'in spite of' their impairments" is common, wrote former Arts Access Australia chief Kate Larsen in an article for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Larson views such language as "disempowering" and, when it creeps out of scripts and into theatrical criticism, detrimental.
Image copyrightBryony JacksonImage caption Heather Lawson (left) and Michelle Stevens in the multi-sensory show Imagined Touch
"If every piece of work that features people with disability is patronised as being 'inspirational' and 'amazing'[even when it's not], it … perpetuates the [incorrect] assumption that arts and disability work equates only to community, amateur or therapeutic art," she wrote.
Gladwin, for one, has witnessed a critical change in the way theatre featuring disabled actors is reviewed.
"That older guard could only see the company as some of benevolent organisation that was giving people an opportunity and somehow if they kept trying they would get somewhere," he says. Since then, there has been a "shift of their understanding".
Michelle Ryan, artistic director of youth dance company Restless Dance, which has performers with and without disabilities, believes productions should be informed by, but not defined by, disability.
Intimate Space, premiering at the Adelaide Festival in March, has no mention of the word disability in promotional material. "I see our dancers as artists," says Ryan.
"I think a lot of people can go to a performance with the expectation of 'isn't it nice that disabled people are dancing'," she adds. "And that really irks me. I wanted Restless to be sexy; I wanted it to be not the poor cousin of other dance companies. It's about the art, it's not about the disability - we just happen to have disability."
Ryan's artistic direction is informed by her own experiences. The professional dancer was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis aged 30 and now uses a wheelchair.
"Immediately I didn't fit into the dance sector which was very much about body beautiful," says Ryan, now 46. "I lost my career and my identity."
It was only in 2011 when Ryan once again performed on stage - sitting in a chair - that she realised her vocation as a dancer was not over. "My perception of who I was was holding me back, but also a lack of opportunities in Australia. It was that moment where I felt my soul soar again," she recalls.
Image copyrightBryony JacksonImage caption Heather Lawson (left) meets audience member through touch
Jodee Mundy, director of multi-sensory show Imagined Touch, which premiered at the Sydney Festival in January, has a different aim: to confront disability head-on and plunge the audience into what it's like to be deaf-blind.
Created by deaf-blind artists Michelle Stevens and Heather Lawson, Imagined Touch uses headphones and goggles to restrict light and sound, and asks audience members to break an abiding societal taboo: touch amongst strangers.
"There is almost a sense of voyeurism," says Mundy. Yet the work is about "what it is to be human - that fundamentally we are all the same".
"Heather and I are just like anyone else," says Stevens. "The only difference is that we communicate in a different way than most people. Often people's ignorance and a lack of knowledge about deaf-blindness is our disability. We want the audience to take away compassion, not pity, for us."
Above all, she says, "we wanted to do this in an artistic way".
Thirty-year-old Back to Back actor Scott Price, who has autism and Tourette's Syndrome and has been with the company for a decade, agrees. As he says: "Art needs to come first, disability second."
Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption The Moonlight cast and crew turned out for the California ceremony
The cast and creators of Moonlight have warmed up for Sunday's Oscars by winning the top prize at Saturday's Independent Spirit Awards.
The touching and beautifully-shot drama about growing up gay and black in Miami is seen as an outside bet to upset the La La Land bandwagon at the Oscars.
It confirmed its status as the awards circuit's second favourite film with six Independent Spirit Awards.
La La Land wasn't eligible for the awards, which reward low-budget films.
Moonlight was made for $1.5m (£1.2m) over 25 days - but has now recouped $21.5m (£17.3m) at the North American box office. It also has eight Oscar nominations, compared with La La Land's 14.
Could Moonlight cause an Oscars upset?
Moonlight: Small budget, big impact
Oscars 2017: Full coverage
Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption Moonlight's Barry Jenkins won best director and best screenplay
Key Independent Spirit Awards winners
Best feature - Moonlight
Best female lead - Isabelle Huppert, Elle
Best male lead - Casey Affleck, Manchester By The Sea
Best supporting female - Molly Shannon, Other People
Best supporting male - Ben Foster, Hell Or High Water
Best director - Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Best screenplay - Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney, Moonlight
Image copyrightReutersImage caption Casey Affleck will find out on Sunday if he can add an Oscar to his Independent Spirit Award
In his acceptance speech, Casey Affleck, who won best male lead, gave a taste of the political tone that is likely to dominate the Oscars.
He told the ceremony: "The policies of this administration are abhorrent and they will not last. They're really un-American.
"I know this feels preachy and boring and I'm preaching to the choir but I'm just lending my little voice to the chorus here."
Image copyrightGetty ImagesImage caption Naomie Harris: "It's going to be a very political year this year at the Oscars"
British actress Naomie Harris, who appears in Moonlight, said the current political climate is "definitely going to be reflected" at the Oscars.
"Really great art reflects society," she told BBC News. "It also edifies us. It shows us a different way of operating. So I definitely think it's going to be a very political year this year at the Oscars."
She also said Moonlight has struck a chord because it has fed "our universal yearning for connection".
She said: "We're all yearning to connect, and I think in a society where we have so much technology that makes us feel as though we're connected, but it's not really about true connection. It's not heartfelt connection.
"And that's what we're all longing for, and I think that, in Moonlight, is what's demonstrated."
The Independent Spirits ceremony is the traditional precursor to the Oscars and is one of the awards season's more informal events. It honours films made for less than $20m (£16m).
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.
Media captionCCTV footage appears to show the moment Kim Jong-nam is attacked
Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korea's leader, was given a very high amount of the toxic nerve agent VX and he died in pain within 15-20 minutes, Malaysia's health minister says.
No antidote would have worked, said Subramaniam Sathasivam.
Mr Kim died two weeks ago after two women accosted him in a check-in hall at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
They say they thought they were doing a TV prank. North Korea denies killing the high-profile critic of the regime.
Who could be behind the attack?
Unravelling the mystery of Kim Jong-nam's death
VX is classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations. A drop on the skin can kill in minutes.
Indonesian national Siti Aisyah, 25, one of two women held, told Indonesian embassy officials that she was given 400 Malaysian ringgit ($80; £72) to smear Kim Jong-nam's face with "baby oil" as part of a reality show joke.
Doan Thi Huong, a Vietnamese national born in 1988, has also said she thought she was taking part in a television prank.
Image copyrightReutersImage caption Tens of thousands of passengers have gone through the airport since the murder took place
Malaysian police say the attackers had been trained to wash their hands immediately after the attack.
Some experts have suggested that they might have each smeared two different non-lethal elements of VX, which became deadly when mixed on Mr Kim's face.
Image copyrightEPAImage caption Siti Aisyah "met some people who looked Japanese or Korean", Indonesian officials said
A North Korean man has also been arrested in connection with the killing.
At least seven other suspects are wanted for questioning by police, including Hyon Kwang Song, 44, second secretary at the North Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
On Sunday, Malaysian authorities swept the airport and declared it safe.
They are also analysing samples found at a flat said to have been rented by suspects.
What is the deadly VX nerve agent?
Image copyrightScience Photo LibraryImage caption Molecular model of VX nerve agent shows atoms represented as spheres
The most potent of the known chemical warfare agents, it is a clear, amber-coloured, oily liquid which is tasteless and odourless
Works by penetrating the skin and disrupting the transmission of nerve impulses - a drop on the skin can kill in minutes. Lower doses can cause eye pain, blurred vision, drowsiness and vomiting
It can be disseminated in a spray or vapour when used as a chemical weapon, or used to contaminate water, food, and agricultural products
VX can be absorbed into the body by inhalation, ingestion, skin contact, or eye contact
Clothing can carry VX for about 30 minutes after contact with the vapour, which can expose other people
Banned by the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention
Read more about VX
Media captionRupert Wingfield-Hayes: Three reasons why the use of VX is so extraordinary
Who was Kim Jong-nam?
The well-travelled and multilingual oldest son of late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, he was once considered a potential future leader. He has lived abroad for years and was bypassed in favour of his half-brother, Kim Jong-un.
Image copyrightAPImage caption North Korea has not identified the man who died as Kim Jong-nam, only as a North Korean citizen
He had been travelling on a passport under the name Kim Chol. North Korea has yet to confirm that the deceased was actually Kim Jong-nam.
For many years, it was believed Kim Jong-nam was being groomed to succeed his father as the next leader.
But that appears to have come to an end in 2001 when Kim was caught sneaking into Japan on a fake passport.
He later became one of the regime's most high-profile critics, openly questioning the authoritarian policies and dynastic succession his grandfather Kim Il-sung began crafting in 1948.
Image copyrightEPAImage caption Arson attacks on shelters used by asylum seekers are common in Germany
Nearly 10 attacks were made on migrants in Germany every day in 2016, the interior ministry says.
A total of 560 people were injured in the violence, including 43 children.
Three-quarters of the attacks targeted migrants outside of their accommodation, while nearly 1,000 attacks were on housing.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to open up Germany to people fleeing conflict and persecution has polarised the country and boosted hate crime.
Germany is struggling with a backlog of asylum applications and there are fears about security following a series of terrorist attacks across Europe.
The interior ministry figures
3,533 attacks on migrants and asylum hostels in 2016
2.545 attacks on individual migrants
560 people injured, including 43 children
988 attacks on housing (slightly fewer than in 2015)
217 attacks on refugee organisations and volunteers
But the number of asylum seekers arriving in Germany in 2016 was 280,000, a drop of more than 600,000 from the previous year, following the closure of the Balkan migrant route and an EU deal with Turkey.
The issue is expected to feature heavily in parliamentary elections this September.
Image copyrightAFPImage caption The left is urging the government to focus more on attacks by far right groups
Sunday's interior ministry figures, which are preliminary, were released in response to a parliamentary question.
There was no comparison with previous years because attacks against individual migrants only started to be counted as a separate category in 2016.
Attacks on asylum shelters and migrants
December 2015 - 12 people injured after fires broke out at two hostels in Wasserstein, Bavaria
January 2016 - Live grenade thrown at hostel housing 170 people in the south-western town in Villingen-Schwenningen but fails to detonate
February 2016 - Fire in Bautzen, eastern Germany, destroys roof of building planned to house migrants. Police say some onlookers cheered the fire and tried to prevent firefighters from extinguishing the blaze
September 2016 - Residents clash with migrants in Bautzen
February 2017 - Politician from the far-right NPD jailed for eight years for burning down a sports hall to be used to house migrants in Nauen, west of Berlin, in August 2015
In its statement, the interior ministry said it strongly condemned the violence.
"People who have fled their home country and seek protection in Germany have the right to expect safe shelter," the statement read.
Migrant crisis: A Syrian's struggle to become German
Swedish asylum shelter hit by blaze
MP Ulla Jelpke from the leftist Die Linke party said that the government was too focused on a perceived security threat from migrants while the real threat was coming from the far right.
"Do people have to die before the rightwing violence is considered a central domestic security problem and makes it to the top of the national policy agenda?" she said, quoted by the Funke media group.
"Nazis are threatening refugees and therefore our democracy."
A note on terminology: The BBC uses the term migrant to refer to all people on the move who have yet to complete the legal process of claiming asylum. This group includes people fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria, who are likely to be granted refugee status, as well as people who are seeking jobs and better lives, who governments are likely to rule are economic migrants.
Image copyrightAPImage caption Taliban fighters are encouraged to take part in the tree-planting drive
The leader of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Hibatullah Akhundzada, has urged Afghans to plant more trees.
In a statement, he called on civilians and fighters to "plant one or several fruit or non-fruit trees for the beautification of Earth and the benefit of almighty Allah's creations".
Afghanistan has a severe problem of deforestation. Trees are cut down for heating and illegal timber sales.
Statements from the Taliban on environmental issues are rare.
Akhundzada, who became leader of the Taliban last May, has a stronger reputation as a religious leader than a military chief.
Sunday's "special message", carried on official Taliban outlets, was in stark contrast to the more familiar fiery rhetoric against the Afghan government and its Nato coalition backers.
Who are the Taliban?
Protecting Afghanistan’s environment and tourist future
Profile: Hibatullah Akhundzada
"Tree plantation plays an important role in environmental protection, economic development and beautification of earth," the Taliban leader said, in a report carried by the Afghan Taliban Voice of Jihad website.
Image copyrightEPAImage caption Most Afghans cook on and heat their homes with wood-burning stoves
"Planting trees and agriculture are considered actions which hold both worldly good and benefit as well as immense rewards in the hereafter."
A spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Shah Hussain Murtazawi, described the statement as an attempt to deceive public opinion and to distract from the Taliban's "crimes and destruction".
The Taliban is more usually associated with Afghanistan's illicit production of opium, which it taxes in areas under its control.
The group ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 until it was toppled by a US-led coalition in 2001.
Image copyrightAfghan Islamic PressImage caption Hibatullah Akhundzada is a hardline religious scholar from Kandahar
It has since been offered a role in government in return for ending their insurgency but its leaders have so far refused.
The presence of international troops in the country is believed to be the main stumbling block.
Image copyrightArtpusher 2017Image caption People are being invited to gather at the Swedish embassy at 17:00 local time
A mock vigil is planned in Copenhagen on Friday to show solidarity with Swedes over an event that never happened.
Many people were baffled when US President Donald Trump suggested during a rally on Saturday that a security incident had occurred in Sweden the night before - none more than Swedes themselves, as it was a fairly uneventful evening. The White House later said Mr Trump was referring to rising crime in general, but his comments were still widely mocked.
Danish artist Artpusher has organised the ironic memorial at Sweden's embassy in Copenhagen to honour the "victims" of the non-existent incident, in what he says is a protest against misinformation and fake news.
"Following the terrible attack on our sister country Sweden reported by US President Trump, the Nordic countries now stand united," the Pray For Sweden Facebook page reads, adding that the "love-filled" event has been approved by the Danish police.
Artpusher tells The Local that the vigil is not an anti-Trump protest. "This is about being able to make your own mind up and make a decision based on facts. This is bigger than Trump," he says. "I don't have money or power, but I can try and use humour and irony to make people aware of things."
More than 1,200 people have responded to say they will attend, although ArtPusher thinks that the actual number will be much lower. Nonetheless he's hoping it will be a pleasant affair, telling Metroxpress that he might try to persuade the embassy to provide some hot chocolate and buns to those who show up.
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Dr Naomi Walsh, of the National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology at Dublin City University
Shocking new figures about survival rates show that nearly four in five Irish people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer will die within a year.
Almost 500 new patients are told annually they have the disease. About 400 will be dead within 12 months.
The stark statistics come as a UK charity has warned that pancreatic cancer will become one of the top four killer cancers in the next decade. Pancreatic UK forecast yesterday that by 2026, some 11,279 people are expected to die every year from the disease, a 28pc rise on the 8,817 in 2014.
A lack of medical breakthroughs in diagnosing the cancer early means many patients are diagnosed too late to receive surgery across the world.
The National Cancer Registry of Ireland said pancreatic cancer was among the top five causes of deaths from the disease in women and men. The underlying risk may be increasing due to factors such as more people being overweight.
Dr Naomi Walsh, of the National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology at Dublin City University, has just started research on DNA changes which could help in the development of an earlier screening test for the disease. She warned pancreatic cancer has one of the lowest survival rates of all cancers.
Dr Walsh said: "93pc of patients will die within five years. The poor prognosis is mainly attributable to late diagnosis and rapid spread of the disease. Therefore, in order to improve survival, more research into early detection and diagnosis is essential.
"Recently, advances in new technologies have uncovered changes in the DNA of patients with pancreatic cancer, but we do not fully understand the importance of these variants on pancreatic cancer development.
"This new research uses 3D models to study how these changes affect the development of pancreatic cancer and if they can be used to detect the disease at an early stage."
The good __news for Irish patients, however, is that treatment for the disease has improved.
Mortality rates have declined since the 1980s and this is partly linked to a drop in smoking.
The centralisation of surgical and allied services to St Vincent's in Dublin with a satellite centre at Cork University Hospital, along with the recruitment of more surgeons, has allowed for a more co-ordinated approach.
The warning signs are vague which means the cancer can be advanced by the time it is picked up. The first noticeable symptoms of pancreatic cancer can often be pain in the back or stomach area. This may come and go at first and is often worse lying down or after eating. A person can also suffer unexpected weight loss and jaundice.
The cancer was the cause of death of former finance minister Brian Lenihan, who died in his early 50s in 2011.
The Irish Cancer Society said that people are free to contact the Cancer Nurseline on Freephone 1800 200 700 or email cancernurseline@irishcancer.ie if they have any questions.
A video-journalist films the wreckage of an entrance of an apartment building after a raid of a French anti-terrorist police unit in Clapiers, southern France (AP)
Anti-terrorism forces have arrested four people in southern France, including a 16-year-old girl, and uncovered a makeshift laboratory with the explosive TATP and other ingredients for fabricating a bomb.
France's top security official said the raid thwarted an "imminent attack".
A police official said the teenager had pledged loyalty to Islamic State (IS) in a recent video.
The prosecutor's office said around 70 grams (2.5 ounces) of TATP were seized in the Montpellier-area home of a 20-year-old man, along with a litre of acetone and other materials.
TATP, which can be made from readily available materials, was used in the deadly November 2015 attacks in Paris and the March 2016 attack in Brussels carried out by IS extremists.
Two other men were arrested, a 33-year-old and a 26-year-old, along with the teenage girl, according to the prosecutor's office, which handles terrorism investigations in France.
The police official said one of the suspects was believed to be planning a suicide attack but that the investigation had not yet uncovered a specific target.
He said a person in the group had tried to reach Syria in 2015 and was known to intelligence services.
The group - notably the girl - attracted new attention with their social media postings, he said.
Interior minister Bruno Le Roux said the arrests in three locations in the Montpellier area "thwarted an imminent attack on French soil".
The country's prime minister praised the work of anti-terror investigators.
"Faced with the heightened threat, there has been an extremely strong mobilisation of our intelligence services to ensure the French are protected to the utmost," said Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.
France is still under a state of emergency after several deadly attacks in 2015 and 2016.
Enda Kenny at a 1916 Rising exhibition in 2016. Photo: Mark Condren
So yesterday didn't bring about the end of the Government. But there's little doubt that we witnessed the beginning of the end of Enda Kenny's tenure as Taoiseach.
In his six years in the top job, Kenny never appeared weaker and more beleaguered than he did at Leader's Questions yesterday.
In the context of the appalling wrongs that have been done to the McCabe family, what the Taoiseach did or didn't say to Katherine Zappone around the time the Children's Minister was due to meet Sgt Maurice McCabe is largely irrelevant.
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Taoiseach Enda Kenny was aware that the Tusla file on Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe referenced allegations of sexual abuse, it has emerged.
In the latest twist to the ongoing controversy, Children's Minister Katherine Zappone revealed that she briefed the Taoiseach before a Cabinet meeting where the terms of reference on the proposed Commission of Investigation was discussed.
"I told him that I had met with the McCabes, that we had discussed false allegations of sexual abuse made against Sgt McCabe to Tusla.
"The Taoiseach said that this would be covered by the Commission of Investigation," she told the Dáil last night.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny Photo: Tony Gavin
The statement called into question the series of events outlined by to the Dáil by Mr Kenny just moments earlier.
However, later the Taoiseach acknowledged that while the minister didn't divulge details of the sexual abuse, she did mention it to him.
Ministers have agreed to hold a public tribunal into the alleged smear campaign against Sgt McCabe, which is expected to have a deadline of around 12 months.
A special Cabinet meeting will be held today or tomorrow amid serious concern from Independent Alliance members about the controversy.
The independent TDs have maintained a public silence in recent days, but behind the scenes are extremely frustrated at how the issue has been handled by Government colleagues.
Sources confirmed to the Irish Independent they have major concerns about contradictions in the Taoiseach's version of events.
They were due to release a statement last night, but will seek further clarifications today from Mr Kenny before guaranteeing they will back the Government in a confidence motion.
During a heated Dáil debate last night, Mr Kenny was asked on at least 10 occasions to reveal when he first learned of the false allegations that Sgt Maurice McCabe had molested a child. He repeatedly insisted that he was unaware of the accusations until the 'Prime Time' programme relating to the Tusla file last Thursday night.
Dramatic
However, in one of the more dramatic interventions, Fianna Fáil's John McGuinness said the Taoiseach was aware long before last week.
Mr McGuinness famously met former garda commissioner Martin Callinan in a hotel car park in 2014, when he says the ex-garda told him Maurice McCabe was "not to be trusted and there were serious issues about him".
He told the Dáil last night that "everybody in this House knew" about the allegations hanging over Sgt McCabe.
"Efforts were made to derail Maurice McCabe and the story he was telling. Everyone knew. The fact of the matter is it was a deliberate attempt to undermine Maurice McCabe," Mr McGuinness said.
"You did nothing about Maurice McCabe until now when you're put in the spotlight."
In response, Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald questioned why the deputy did not alert people to his meeting with the former commissioner sooner. But Mr McGuinness said he had "followed legal advice" and like Minister Zappone "didn't want to give legs to something that was totally untrue".
Ms Fitzgerald and Fianna Fáil's justice spokesperson Jim O'Callaghan also continued to row last night over whether he had warned her during a Dáil bar meeting last Wednesday of the Tusla link to the McCabe case.
The Tánaiste questioned why "if he was so concerned about Tusla" didn't Mr O'Callaghan raise the issue during his Dáil contribution last week.
Mr O'Callaghan refused to back down, asking: "Is it credible that a Minister for Justice would agree to amend terms of reference of an important commission of investigation based on a television programme and not ask what the programme was about?"
A completely innocent family had a lucky escape after two shots were fired into their north Dublin home in a terrifying gun attack, which gardai believe was carried out by thugs linked to the Kinahan cartel.
The shocking incident happened at the property in Charlestown Park, Finglas, shortly after 9.15pm, when shots were fired from a handgun at a window and a door of the house.
Two men were seen fleeing the scene on a motorbike, which has not yet been recovered by gardai.
Senior sources say that it is believed that the shooting is linked to a “personal dispute” between a major local drug-dealing gang and a man who was not even in the house when it was targeted.
Sources say the intended target is not involved in criminality and no arrests have been made so far in the case.
The targeted house is in the corner of a quiet residential street near the Charlestown Shopping Centre.
One of the bullets left a hole in the living room window frame at chest level.
The occupants of the house, who were left shaken by the incident, did not wish to comment on the matter.
“It is lucky that this incident did not cause serious injury or worse. The occupants of that house are completely innocent people,” a source said last night.
“It is only a matter of time before this crowd kill someone,” the source added.
The house was sealed off by gardai for a number of hours after Monday night’s shooting, while ballistic and forensic examinations took place.
It is understood the up-and-coming thug who ordered the shooting was not in the country when it happened.
Gardai have become increasingly concerned about the activities of this man and his associates, who have become the suburb’s biggest drug-dealing gang.
This young man, who is in his 20s and has barely any previous convictions, was previously involved in a major public order and property damage incident in Finglas village with a number of his pals.
He is closely aligned to a 24-year-old drug dealer who has become the new kingpin for the Kinahan cartel in a major patch of north Dublin.
The man has taken over a drug-dealing patch belonging to one of his closest associates, who fled the country months ago.
The on-the-run thug’s home has been raided and he has been arrested and questioned about the murder of Eddie Hutch Snr on February 8 last year.
He is now believed to be hiding out in Birmingham with two notorious brothers from the Cabra area.
The 24-year-old thug has a core network of at least 20 loyal associates, all of whom are regularly stopped and searched by gardai – including the young criminal who is suspected of ordering Monday night’s attack.
A journalist films the debris of an explosion in front of an apartment building after a raid by French police in Clapiers, near Montpellier, southern France, yesterday. Photo: Jean-Paul Pelissier
A notorious terrorist recruiter linked to a string of Isil-inspired attacks in France has been killed in an American drone strike in Iraq, French police sources said yesterday.
The report came as French police thwarted an "imminent" suicide attack, possibly on a Paris tourist site, with the arrests of four suspected Isil recruits, including a 16-year-old girl, who were manufacturing explosives.
Rachid Kassim is believed to have been killed on Wednesday near Mosul, an Isil stronghold in northern Iraq. He was linked to the Brussels terror attacks and is believed to have masterminded the murders last year of a French police couple and that of an elderly priest whose throat was slit in a Normandy church.
French sources said the information had come from the US military and French intelligence was checking that it was Kassim who died, according to BFM television. Kassim, a 29-year-old Frenchman, was a leading online Isil recruiter who was also linked to a failed attempt to set off explosions near Notre-Dame cathedral in the heart of Paris.
After the Nice lorry attack last July, video footage appeared online showing Kassim beheading captives and threatening similar attacks on the streets of France by French citizens.
He directly threatened President Francois Hollande and warned that Isil was planning more attacks in France.
The arrests were made yesterday near Montpellier, in southern France, after intelligence agents monitored social media postings by the teenage girl, named locally as Sara, in which she said she wanted to attack France and go to Syria or Iraq.
Her boyfriend (20), named as Thomas, was also arrested along with another two men, aged 26 and 33. Thomas is suspected of planning to blow himself up at an unspecified Paris tourist attraction.
The couple, believed to be converts to Islam, were planning an Islamic marriage before Thomas carried out the suicide bombing. Sara was then to have travelled to Syria to join Isil as a "martyr's widow", judicial sources said.
Explosives and bomb-making equipment were found during a dawn raid on the apartment where they were living. According to the landlord, named as Mohammed, they moved in recently after he agreed to shelter them because they claimed they had nowhere else to go.
The 33-year-old man in custody is suspected of putting them in contact with jihadists in Syria and helping the teenage girl obtain a fake passport.
Bruno Le Roux, the interior minister, said the arrests in Clapiers, on the outskirts of Montpellier, and in Marseillan, about 50km away, "foiled an imminent plan to carry out an attack on French territory."
Denise and Nicholas Montgomery, parents of Robert Montgomery, leave the Four Courts Photo: Collins Courts
A boy who sued over his care when brought to a hospital when he was eight days old and later diagnosed with meningitis has settled a High Court action for €5.5m.
Robert Montgomery (6) has cerebral palsy, is visually impaired, cannot talk and is unwell, the court was told.
He had sued the National Maternity Hospital (NMH), Holles Street, Dublin, which denied claims of negligence.
Denis McCullough SC, for Robert, said his side would say appropriate antibiotics were not given in time and the possibility of meningitis being dealt with was missed. Had the antibiotics been given in time, Robert's condition "would be much less severe," he said.
Counsel told the court "an expression of regret" was being prepared by the hospital for Robert and his family which was part of the settlement agreed after mediation talks.
Through his mother, Denise Montgomery, of Upper Kilmacud Road, Stillorgan, Dublin, Robert sued over his care in 2010.
It was claimed the baby who had woken up with a piercing cry, was very listless and not feeding. His parents brought him to the hospital at noon on November 5, 2010, and it is claimed were told that in the absence of an appointment they would have to wait. He was admitted two hours later and then admitted to intensive care.
Ms Montgomery told the court it was very hard to accept the €5.5m because of what her son had suffered and because it was not the full value of the case.
THE European Commission is prosecuting Ireland for failing to stop raw sewage from being discharged into waters.
Despite being warned in 2005 to tackle pollution and address the public health risks, the State has failed to provide waste water treatment facilities in 38 areas across the country.
The move comes after the Government was warned in September 2015 and again in September last year that failure to put in place wastewater treatment facilities in areas including Arklow in Wicklow, Ringsend in Dublin and Cork and Waterford cities would result in prosecution.
The European Court of Justice could impose steep fines it if rules in the commission’s favour. It has previously fined Greece for failing to comply with a 2007 judgment on a similar matter, with a €10m fixed sum imposed and daily fines of up to €20,000.
In a statement, the commission said it was taking Ireland to court for its failure to ensure that urban waste water in 38 areas was “adequately collected and treated to prevent serious risks to human health and the environment”.
It also raises concerns about the failure to ensure that a correct operating licence has been issued for the treatment plants serving Arklow and Castlebridge.
Member States had until the end of 2000 to ensure appropriate treatment of wastewater from large areas with populations of more than 15,000, and until the end of 2005 for other areas.
“According to a recent Commission report on the implementation of EU environmental policy and law in Member States, one of the main challenges Ireland faces is maintaining the important investments required for water services, given the urgent need to invest in water infrastructure,” it added.
Some works are already under way or in planning, including an upgrade of Ringsend and treatment plants in Clifden and Arklow.
Irish Water said that works required to comply with the directive would cost in excess of €1bn.
“Since taking over responsibility for water services in 2014 Irish Water has put in place a prioritised range of projects to deal with historic deficits and lack of investment in wastewater treatment across the country," it said.
"The utility has identified key projects in our current and recently approved future capital investment plans to address all non-compliances in our treatment plants by 2021 in each of the areas identified by the EU as part of this ECJ case. This element of our investment programme will exceed €1bn."
Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said the legal action should be focused upon by the Dáil committee on the future funding of water services, which meets today.
“It’s a critical issue for the Water Committee as it reaches the end of its deliberations.
"The question is how are we going to fund this? We have to make sure it doesn’t come out of housing, or education or our transport budgets. We’ve forgotten about water for years, and we can no longer ignore it.”
A journalist films the debris of an explosion in front of an apartment building after a raid by French police in Clapiers, near Montpellier, southern France, yesterday. Photo: Jean-Paul Pelissier
Three suspects in a thwarted attack last week in the southern French city of Montpellier have been handed preliminary terrorism charges, Paris prosecutors said.
Authorities gave only the suspects' first names. A teenage girl, Sara, and a man called Thomas were charged with terrorist association and possessing explosives on Tuesday night. Another man, Malik, was also charged with justifying terrorism.
Last week, anti-terrorism forces uncovered a makeshift laboratory for fabricating a bomb. France's top security official on Friday said the raid thwarted an "imminent attack."
A police official said the teenage girl - among several arrested - had pledged loyalty to the Islamic State group in a recent video.
France is still under a state of emergency after several deadly attacks in 2015 and 2016.
Kim Jong Nam, eldest son of then North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, is surrounded by the media upon arrival from Macau at Beijing airport in Beijing (Kyodo News via AP, File)
Malaysian authorities have detained a woman from Myanmar in connection with the investigation into the death of Kim Jong Nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Malaysian state __news agency Bernama reported on Wednesday.
The woman was detained in the low-cost terminal of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Bernama reported, citing a deputy inspector general of police.
CCTV image of the suspect. Picture: YTN
The woman was carrying a Vietnamese travel document and was alone at the time of the arrest, Malaysian Police report.
No other details were immediately available.
South Korea's spy agency suspects two female North Korean agents assassinated the estranged half-brother of the North Korean leader on Tuesday, South Korean lawmakers in Seoul said earlier.
Fresh CCTV images have emerged of a female assassin suspected of carrying out the astonishing assassination .
The 46-year-old was targeted on Monday in a shopping concourse at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. He had not yet gone through security.
Kim, who died on the way to a hospital, told medical workers before he died that he had been attacked with a chemical spray, a senior government official said.
Read More: Kim Jong-un's brother dies after 'poison sprayed in his face'
South Korea's spy service said on Wednesday that North Korea had been trying for five years to kill him, citing Kim Jong Un's "paranoia" about his estranged half-brother.
Kim Jong Nam had been tipped by some outsiders as a possible successor to his dictator father, although others thought that was unlikely because he lived outside the country, including recently in Macau, Singapore and Malaysia.
Japan: Female spies suspected in Kim Jong-nam killing likely dead https://t.co/4YTMIUqFQu pic.twitter.com/u6DuSzO9bN
— Tokyo Reporter (@tokyoreporter) February 15, 2017
He reportedly fell further out of favour when he was caught trying to enter Japan on a false passport in 2001, saying he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland.
Multiple South Korean media reports said he was killed at the airport by two women believed to be North Korean agents. They fled in a taxi and were being sought by Malaysian police.
Malaysian police confirmed the death of a 46-year-old North Korean man whom it identified from his travel document as Kim Chol, born in Pyongyang on June 10, 1970.
"Investigation is in progress and a post-mortem examination request has been made to ascertain the cause of death," the police said.
Ken Gause, of the CNA think tank in Washington who has studied North Korea's leadership for 30 years, said Kim Chol was a name that Kim Jong Nam has travelled under.
He is believed to have been born on May 10 1971, although birthdays are always unclear for senior North Koreans, Mr Gause said.
The killing came as North Korea celebrated its latest missile launch, which foreign experts were analysing for evidence of advancement in the country's missile capabilities.
Since taking power in late 2011, Kim Jong Un has executed or purged a series of high-level government officials in what the South Korean government has described as a "reign of terror".
The most spectacular was the 2013 execution by anti-aircraft fire of his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, once considered the country's second-most-powerful man, for what the North alleged was treason.
North Korean assassins reportedly tried to shoot Kim Jong Nam in Macau in 2011, though the details of the attempted killing are murky.
South Korea also reportedly jailed a North Korean spy in 2012 who admitted to trying to organise a hit-and-run accident targeting Kim Jong Nam in China in 2010.
Despite the attempts on his life, Kim Jong Nam had reportedly travelled to North Korea since then, so it was assumed he was no longer under threat.
While the most likely explanation for the killing was that Kim Jong Un was removing a potential challenger to North Korean leadership within his own family, he could also be sending a warning to his officials.
It follows the defection last year of a senior diplomat from the North Korean Embassy in London who has spoken of his despair at Kim's purges.
Kim Jong Nam, eldest son of then North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, is surrounded by the media upon arrival from Macau at Beijing airport in Beijing (Kyodo News via AP, File) Pictured in February 2007, a man believed to be Kim Jong Nam is surrounded by the media at Beijing airport (Kyodo News via AP) Kim Jong-nam, half-brother of Kim Jong-un, was reportedly targeted by two female North Korean agents who sprayed a poisonous liquid in his face while he waited for a flight to Macau. Photo: AP A TV screen at Seoul Railway Station shows pictures of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, and his older brother Kim Jong Nam (AP)
A failed attempt to sneak into Japan to visit Disneyland in 2001 may have doomed the leadership dreams of the half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, who was assassinated this week in an airport in Malaysia.
Banished from his dictator father's favour, the exiled Kim Jong Nam frequented casinos and five-star hotels, and travelled around Asia with little say in North Korean affairs.
That ended on Monday when he was killed in Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Officials in South Korea say they believe the attack was carried out by North Korean agents.
Despite multiple reported assassination attempts over the years, Kim Jong Nam was still a member of the most important family in North Korea, a direct blood descendent of the state's founder Kim Il Sung.
Estranged for years from his relatives, the 45-year-old gambler and playboy played a key, if complicated role in the dynasty that has ruled for three generations since North Korea's foundation in 1948.
Read more: Kim Jong Un's half-brother 'assassinated' at Malaysian airport
Who were his parents?
Kim Jong-nam, half-brother of Kim Jong-un, was reportedly targeted by two female North Korean agents who sprayed a poisonous liquid in his face while he waited for a flight to Macau. Photo: AP
Kim Jong Nam is the eldest son of Kim Jong Il, the second member of the Kim family to rule North Korea. Kim Jong Il had three known sons with two women. Jong Nam was born from his father's unofficial relationship with North Korean actress Sung Hae Rim.
Kim Jong Il forced Sung to divorce her first husband and live with him, but Kim Il Sung - the first leader of North Korea and Kim Jong Il's father - never accepted Sung as his daughter-in-law. Kim Jong Il reportedly kept Kim Jong Nam's 1971 birth a secret from his father for several years. Sung was reportedly forced to leave North Korea and died in Moscow in 2002.
Despite his mother's exile, some foreign experts believed Kim Jong Nam would end up inheriting power because of a traditional Korean value system that favours the eldest son as heir.
Unlike his mother, Kim Jong Nam eventually won the affection of his grandfather, who died in 1994, according to South Korean media reports.
A TV screen at Seoul Railway Station shows pictures of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, right, and his older brother Kim Jong Nam (AP)
... and his brothers and sisters?
Kim Jong Nam's two younger brothers share a mother, Kim Jong Il's Japan-born mistress, the dancer Ko Yong Hui.
Ko's links to Japan, which colonised the Korean peninsula in the early part of the 20th century, led some to believe that Kim Jong Nam would outpace his siblings in the succession race. Ko moved to North Korea in the 1960s from Japan, where she had lived among the ethnic Korean minority. She died in Paris in 2004.
Kim Jong Un eventually won the succession race and became the North's supreme leader in late 2011 upon the death of his father. Believed to be in his early 30s, he has carried out a series of high-profile executions and purges, and outside experts say few can now challenge his rule.
Kim Jong Nam's other half-brother, Kim Jong Chol, was once viewed by some outsiders as a potential candidate for leader, but a former sushi chef of Kim Jong Il said the late leader derided the middle son, known as a huge fan of rock guitarist Eric Clapton, as "girlish".
The brothers also had at least two known sisters. One is Kim Yo Jong, who shares a mother with Kim Jong Un and who works as a senior propaganda official.
Another sister, Kim Sol Song, was born from Kim Jong Il's relationship with another woman, Kim Yong Sok. There has been little information about Kim Sol Song, but unconfirmed rumours in the South say she is being detained.
Read more: Woman detained in connection to astonishing assassination of Kim Jong Un's half brother
Anything else?
Kim Jong Nam's aunt, Kim Kyong Hui, is Kim Jong Il's younger sister. She was reportedly behind the expulsion of Kim Jong Nam's mother to the then Soviet Union in the 1970s. Kim Kyong Hui and her husband Jang Song Thaek then acted as Kim Jong Nam's caretaker.
But Jong Nam gradually lost favour with his father. He reportedly spent too much money at a Pyongyang hotel and made wild shopping excursions to China. When he was detained in Tokyo for trying to enter the country with a fake Dominican passport, he sported a diamond-encrusted Rolex watch and carried wads of cash.
Kim Kyong Hui and Jang were believed to have played a major role in grooming Kim Jong Un as the next leader. After he took power, the two initially enjoyed great power. Jang was seen as the country's number two until he was stripped of all posts and executed in a sudden purge for alleged treason in 2013. Kim Kyong Hui, who was reportedly seriously ill, disappeared from the public eye.
