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Four people have been arrested in the US city of Chicago over a video live-streamed on Facebook, in which a bound and gagged man was assaulted.

The man being assaulted has special needs, police say. His assailants can be heard making derogatory statements against white people and President-elect Donald Trump. In one part of the video they use a knife to remove part of his scalp.

Chicago police have described the video as a « sickening » possible hate crime. « It makes you wonder what would make individuals treat somebody like that, » Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said in a press conference streamed on Twitter. « I’ve been a cop for 28 years, and I’ve seen things that you shouldn’t see in a lifetime, but it still amazes me how you still see things that you just shouldn’t. »

The incident happened on Tuesday, police say, in a flat on Chicago’s West Side. In the 30-minute video, the attackers can be seen cutting the 18-year-old victim’s clothes, dropping cigarette ash on him, pushing his head back with a foot and drawing blood by cutting off some of his hair with a knife. Several people can be seen drinking, laughing and smoking, while their bound and gagged captive cowered in the corner of the room.

In other videos posted online the young man is beaten, made to drink from a toilet bowl and forced at knife-point to say « I love black people ».

An African-American woman talks to the camera, sometimes with slurred speech. At least two male African-Americans are also visible in the footage.

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The prominent Egyptian activist Ahmed Maher, one of the leaders of the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, has been released from prison.

A security source told AFP news agency that Mr Maher was freed on Wednesday evening after completing his jail term. His lawyer, Anas Sayed, said he would remain under judicial supervision.

A founder of the April 6 youth movement, Mr Maher was arrested in 2013 while protesting against a new law banning unauthorised public gatherings. He and two other activists, Mohammed Adel and Ahmed Douma, were convicted of protesting without permission and assaulting police in November of that year and sentenced to three years in prison.

Adel, another founder of the April 6 movement, was still incarcerated as of Thursday morning, according to AFP. Douma is also serving a life sentence for a separate conviction of rioting, inciting violence and attacking security forces.

The law giving the interior ministry the right to ban public meetings of more than 10 people was passed months after the military overthrew Mubarak’s democratically elected successor, Mohammed Morsi, in the wake of mass protests.

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When former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was captured in December 2003, the CIA required a specialist who could identify and interrogate him for information. That person was John Nixon.

Mr Nixon had studied Saddam Hussein since joining the CIA in 1998. His role was to gather insight into leaders around the world, analysing « what made them tick, » he tells the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme. « When a crisis hits, policy makers come to us with the questions about who these people are, what they want, why are they doing this. » He had been in Iraq when the ousted leader was discovered by US troops in a small, underground hole next to farm buildings near his hometown of Tikrit.

When the news of Hussein’s discovery came through, the US needed him to be identified – a task presented to Mr Nixon.

There had been rumours at the time that Saddam Hussein had numerous body doubles, but Mr Nixon – who left the CIA in 2011 – says « there was no doubt in my mind as soon as I saw him, that it was him ».

« When I started talking to him, he gave me the same look he had on a book that had sat on my desk for years. Surreal doesn’t come close. »

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A young Syrian man has gone on trial in Germany, accused of being deployed by so-called Islamic State to scope out potential targets in Berlin for attack.

Identified under German privacy laws as Shaas al-M, he claimed asylum in August 2015 and is now 20 years old.

Federal prosecutors say before that he fought with the Islamist militants for two years in his home country. He is being tried by a special security court in Berlin, but reports suggest he refused to testify. He has been in custody since his arrest on 22 March.

Shaas al-M’s trial comes two weeks after Anis Amri ploughed a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people. IS later released a video showing him pledging allegiance to its leader Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Dressed in a blue pullover and a black cap, he hid his face behind a folder as he took his seat in the courtroom, reported AFP news agency. Officers armed with machine guns were stationed outside the court.

Shaas al-M faces charges of being a member of a foreign terrorist organisation, which carries up to 10 years in jail, and violating laws governing military weapons.

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Turkey’s foreign minister says officials know the identity of a gunman who carried out the Istanbul nightclub attack on New Year’s Eve but he has stopped short of naming him.

Mevlut Cavusoglu gave no further details about the inquiry into the murder of 39 people at the Reina club.

Jihadist group Islamic State (IS) has said it was behind the nightclub attack in which dozens more were hurt. A number of suspects have been arrested in the western city of Izmir.

The police operation on Wednesday was said to have targeted families who had recently travelled to Izmir from Konya, a central city where the main suspect was said to have stayed for several weeks before the attack.

Turkish authorities released images of the main suspect on Tuesday but later discounted reports that he was a 28-year-old Kyrgyz national who had flown home from Istanbul. Turkey is under growing pressure while the gunman remains on the loose. Checkpoints were set up in Istanbul on Wednesday as officers checked cars and taxis. Police arrested 12 people in raids in the city on Tuesday.

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