Iraqi forces 'reach besieged Amerli'

31 August 2014 Last updated at 13:10

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A number of women and children were evacuated from Amerli by Iraqi forces on Saturday

Iraqi forces have reached the besieged town of Amerli in northern Iraq, where thousands have been trapped by jihadists, military officials say.

The apparent breakthrough comes after the US carried out air strikes overnight on Islamic State (IS) positions near the town.

The UK, France and Australia joined the US in dropping humanitarian aid.

Some 15,000 minority Shia Turkmen in Amerli have been surrounded by Islamic State militants for two months.

Military sources told BBC Arabic that the Iraqi Army and volunteer militia entered Amerli town on Sunday.

Fifteen Islamic State fighters were said to have been captured.

The operation to reach Amerli began on Saturday when an alliance of Iraq government forces, Shia militias and Kurdish Peshmerga began a two-front attack on IS positions.

US and Iraqi planes provided air cover.

At the scene: Jim Muir, BBC News, Tuz Khurmatu

No-one here seems to be in any doubt that the combination of forces backed up by Iraqi government air power has in fact broken the siege.

There is a lot of celebration here, including gunfire. We cannot go into the town yet as the Islamists have left lots of booby traps and bombs.

The situation inside is is said to be dire because Amerli has been cut off for two months.

However, what we're told from recent figures is that the number of civilians there is much fewer than thought. We were told 15-16,000, but now perhaps 2,500 remain. Many of those are now fighters, having taken up arms.

So there might not be as many desperately needy people as first thought.

Massacre fears

Reports described it as the biggest military operation since IS began making major gains in Iraq in June.

"Security forces and militia fighters are inside Amerli now after breaking the siege and that will definitely relieve the suffering of residents," Adel al-Bayati, mayor of Amerli, told Reuters news agency.

One resident of Amerli, Amir Ismael, told Reuters by phone: "I can see the tanks of the Iraqi army patrolling Amerli's street now. I'm very happy we got rid of the Islamic State terrorists who were threatening to slaughter us.

The UN had expressed fears there could be a massacre if IS took the town, which lies in Kurdish-controlled Iraq.

IS has been accused of atrocities in areas of Iraq and Syria under its control.

The jihadists see the Shia Turkmen in Amerli as apostates.

Islamic State has seized large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in recent months, including Iraq's second city, Mosul.

Pledging allegiance to their leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the jihadists have imposed a harsh form of Islamic rule in areas under their control.

The group has declared a new caliphate, or Islamic state ruled by a religious leader, and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has announced himself as caliph.

The IS ideology has attracted would-be jihadists from a number of Western nations, including the UK, and has spread its message aggressively on social media, often posting gruesome pictures of beheadings and mass killings.

The group responded to the US beginning air strikes against it by killing the American journalist James Foley.

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First openly gay NFL player dropped

30 August 2014 Last updated at 22:03

Michael Sam, the first openly gay American Footballer drafted into the US National Football League, has failed to make the St Louis Rams' final roster.

The Rams filed their roster before Saturday afternoon's deadline and Sam was not among the 53-strong squad.

The 24-year-old defensive end can still be picked up by another team ahead of the season-opening matches next week.

Sam's move to declare his homosexuality in February was applauded by many, including President Barack Obama.

'I can play'

Sam was one of 22 players waived in the Rams' final cut.

He had been selected by the Rams on the final day of this year's draft in May and he kissed his boyfriend as a national television audience looked on.

Head coach Jeff Fisher had said he was mainly focused on what the footballer could do on the field.

Fisher said on Saturday there would be no challenge for any team that picked up Sam.

"He's not about drawing attention to himself. He kept his head down and worked and you can't ask anything more out of any player for that matter," Fisher said.

"The most worthwhile things in life rarely come easy, this is a lesson I've always known. The journey continues," Sam tweeted after the Rams' decision was announced.

Sam featured in the 26-24 loss to the New Orleans Saints, saying afterwards: "You know, I can play in this league."

Sam played college football at the University of Missouri.

He had revealed his sexuality to his former college teammates, but admitted doing so publicly was "a weight off his chest".

"I probably may be the first but I won't be the last. And I think only good things will come from this," he added.

In February, basketball player Jason Collins become the first openly gay athlete to play in a competitive game for a major US professional sports league when he came on for the Brooklyn Nets against the LA Lakers.

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Philippine troops in Syria rescued

31 August 2014 Last updated at 05:26

Thirty-two Philippine peacekeepers trapped by rebels in the Syrian Golan Heights have been rescued, the UN says.

A UN spokesperson said the "situation on the ground is calm but tense", without providing further details.

Another group of 40 peacekeepers escaped a seven-hour siege by rebels after returning fire in self-defence, said the head of the Philippines army.

The rebels - said to be from the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front - have taken 44 Fijian peacekeepers captive.

They have also seized a crossing point into the Israeli-occupied Golan.

Worsening security

"Everyone is in a safe position. We left our (old) position but we brought all our arms," said Philippine Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala.

The head of the Philippine armed forces, General Gregorio Pio Catapang, speaking Manila, said: "We may call it the greatest escape."

The Fijian members of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (Undof) were detained on Wednesday near Quneitra, during fighting between rebels and government forces.

An online statement posted by the Nusra Front said the Fijians "are in a safe place, and they are in good health, and that we have given them what they need of food and treatment".

It said the peacekeepers had been seized because the UN ignored "the daily shedding of the Muslims' blood in Syria".

Last week the Philippine government said it would bring home its 331 peacekeeping troops from the Golan Heights in October, amid deteriorating security there.

Israel seized most of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau in south-western Syria, during the 1967 Six-Day War.

The two countries signed an armistice in 1974, after which Undof was put in place to monitor the demilitarised zone.

It has 1,224 lightly-armed military personnel from Fiji, India, Ireland, Nepal, the Netherlands and the Philippines.

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China rules out open Hong Kong poll

31 August 2014 Last updated at 10:16

Chinese authorities have ruled out open nominations for elections to choose Hong Kong's leader.

Authorities said two to three candidates will be nominated by a "broadly representative" committee.

The decision is expected to limit the selection of candidates to pro-Beijing figures.

The pro-democracy Occupy Central movement says it will launch a sit-in in the city's central business district in protest.

The election for Hong Kong's chief executive is due in 2017 and will be the first time the holder of the post is directly chosen by voters.

The Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress said in its decision that while the election would represent "historic progress", "the sovereignty, security and development interests of the country are at stake," and therefore "there is a need to proceed in a prudent and steady manner".

The pro-democracy Occupy Central movement condemned the decision, saying it had "dashed people's hopes for change and will intensify conflicts in the society".

"We are very sorry to say that today all chances of dialogue have been exhausted and the occupation of Central will definitely happen," the group said.

On Saturday China warned foreign countries against "meddling" in Hong Kong's politics, with an article in a state-run newspaper accusing some in Hong Kong of "colluding" with unnamed "outside forces".

A foreign ministry spokesman was quoted as saying this would "absolutely not be permitted".

Fierce debate

The decision from Beijing comes in amid a huge debate in Hong Kong over its relationship with the mainland.

In June, almost 800,000 people cast ballots in an informal referendum organised by Occupy Central on how the chief executive should be chosen.

This was followed by large-scale rallies held by both sides.

Hong Kong is a former British colony now governed by China under the principle of "one country, two systems". It has retained wide legal and economic powers since being handed back to China in 1997.

But some activists are worried that China's central government is seeking to exert greater political control over the territory.

Also on Sunday, the pro-Beijing leader of the neighbouring territory of Macau was re-elected unopposed by an election committee composed mostly of Beijing loyalists.

A small group of pro-democracy activists protested outside the venue, saying the election would be meaningful only if all citizens could have a say.

More than 90% of voters who responded to a week-long unofficial referendum on the city's political future said they wanted to directly elect their leader.

Are you in Hong Kong? What do you think about the Chinese position regarding the elections? Please share your experiences by contacting haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk

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Lesotho PM flees 'military coup'

30 August 2014 Last updated at 15:53

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Thomas Thabane says he will return to Lesotho

The prime minister of the southern African kingdom of Lesotho has fled to South Africa, alleging a coup by the army and saying his life is in danger.

Speaking to the BBC, Thomas Thabane said he would return from South Africa, which surrounds Lesotho, "as soon as I know I am not going to get killed".

Reports say the capital, Maseru, is now calm after soldiers seized buildings. The army denied staging a coup.

Lesotho has seen a series of military coups since independence in 1966.

Mr Thabane has headed a unity government since elections in May 2012, but suspended parliament sessions in June amid feuding in his coalition.

He denied accusations that his actions had undermined his government.

'Illegal coup'

Mr Thabane said the army had rendered the government "dysfunctional", an action that amounted to a coup.

"I have been removed from control not by the people but by the armed forces, and that is illegal," he told the BBC's Newshour programme.

"I came into South Africa this morning and I will return as soon as my life is not in danger. I will not go back to Lesotho to get killed."

South Africa's government described the situation as "worrying", with spokesman Clayson Monyela saying the country would not tolerate "unconstitutional change of government".

At the scene: Basildon Peta, Maseru, Lesotho

This whole thing started around 03:00. There were gunshots since early morning. The city is currently calm. People are playing it safe within their homes, but there is basically a media blackout.

To all intents and purposes it is a military coup with the aim of ousting the prime minister. There can be no other reason of soldiers behaving the way they have been behaving other than to seize power.

So far we have no reports of killings. It would be correct to call it a bloodless coup attempt. But I am not going to stick around. The chances are the situation may deteriorate. One does not know what is going to happen.

Basildon Peta is the publisher of the Lesotho Times

The army is understood to have acted after the prime minister attempted to remove its chief, Lt Gen Kennedy Tlai Kamoli.

The army said the general was still in charge, saying the military "supports the democratically elected government of the day," Reuters news agency reported.

A spokesman, Maj Ntlele Ntoi, denied staging a coup, saying: "There is nothing like that, the situation has returned to normalcy... the military has returned to their barracks."

Earlier, troops were seen on the streets of Maseru and there were reports of gunfire.

Radio stations were taken off air and phone lines were cut, although later reports suggested they were working again.

Sports Minister Thesele Maseribane told the AFP news agency that troops had surrounded State House, a key government building.

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Anti-PM clashes continue in Pakistan

31 August 2014 Last updated at 07:31

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Police tried to disperse the protesters, who were regrouping on Sunday morning

Clashes are continuing in Pakistan between police and protesters demanding the resignation of PM Nawaz Sharif.

Police again fired tear gas as the demonstrators tried to regroup after a night of violence near Mr Sharif's residence in the capital, Islamabad.

Two people died during the clashes and at least 300 were injured.

Demonstrators loyal to opposition politician Imran Khan and cleric Tahirul Qadri have been taking part in a sit-in for two weeks.

They want Mr Sharif to resign, alleging corruption and electoral fraud. The prime minister denies the accusation.

Islamabad police chief Khalid Khattak told the BBC that close to 100 protesters had been arrested as the crowds tried to march on Mr Sharif's official residence in the capital.

"Many of them were armed with axes, hammers and cutters, and I'm sure they also have firearms though we haven't seen one yet," he said.

An official at the Polyclinic hospital in Islamabad told reporters that the wounds of those injured were caused by teargas shells, stones and batons.

One protester died of a heart attack in a ditch near the clashes, said Dr Wasim Khawaja, spokesman for the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences hospital in Islamabad.

The man, Naveed Razzaq, was a supporter of cleric Tahirul Qadri, AP reports.

'Unimaginable attack'

On Friday Pakistan's powerful army chief, Gen Raheel Sharif, stepped in to mediate amid an ongoing deadlock.

Imran Khan ended talks with the government last week.

A government minister said that repeated attempts to resolve the two-week long standoff with protesters had failed.

Speaking to BBC World TV, cleric Qadri condemned the police's actions as an "unimaginable attack by the state upon the people", and denied that protesters were armed with weapons.

Local TV pictures showed police throwing tear gas shells, and protesters throwing rocks back at them, some wielding sticks and slingshots.

Military helicopters were despatched to survey the scene on the Constitution Avenue, one of the most secure zones in the city, housing a number of government buildings and residences.

The violence was sparked when the two opposition leaders ordered their supporters, many whom were wielding batons, to move closer to the PM's house.

The protesters began their sit-in after a huge march from Lahore to Islamabad, vowing to camp out in the capital until the government stood down.

Last year's elections marked Pakistan's first civilian transfer of power.

Are you in Islamabad? Did you take part in the protests? You can email your experiences to haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk

Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.

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Putin 'urges talks on east Ukraine'

31 August 2014 Last updated at 12:57

President Putin has called for talks to discuss "statehood" for eastern Ukraine, Russian media report.

He said the issue needed to be discussed to ensure the interests of local people "are definitely upheld".

His comments came after the EU gave Russian a one-week ultimatum to reverse course in Ukraine or face sanctions.

Russia denies Western accusations that its forces have illegally crossed into eastern Ukraine to support separatists there.

Mr Putin said it was impossible to predict the end of crisis.

"It largely depends on the political will of current Ukrainian authorities," the Russian Itar Tass agency quoted him as saying.

"Russia cannot stand aside when people are being shot at almost at point blank," he added.

He dismissed the EU's threat of further sanctions, accusing the EU of "backing a coup d'etat" in Ukraine.

Pro-Russian rebels have made gains against Ukrainian troops in recent days in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Some 2,600 people have died in fighting.

The conflict in the east erupted in April following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula a month before.

Also on Sunday, Russian media reported that 10 Russian paratroopers returned home in exchange for 63 captured Ukrainian soldiers held by Russia.

Speaking after a summit in Brussels, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said the EU "stands ready to take further significant steps in light of the evolution of the situation on the ground", adding that the EU was working urgently on further restrictive measures.

The EU and US have already imposed asset freezes and travel bans on many senior Russian officials and separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine.

Western sanctions also restrict loans for Russian state banks, block defence-related technology exports and certain oil industry exports to Russia.

Russia denies that its forces are backing the rebels, instead accusing Ukrainian forces of aggression and deliberately firing at civilians.

Several European leaders at the summit condemned Russia's actions and expressed support for further sanctions if necessary.

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Angel Merkel says EU leaders are united in avoiding a military solution to the Ukrainian crisis

But Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb said the "jury is still out" on whether sanctions had worked, adding: "We need to find a ceasefire, a peace plan."

Federica Mogherini, named on Saturday as the EU's future foreign policy chief, said there could be no military solution to the crisis and that while sanctions were being worked on, the diplomatic process would need to continue.

Government forces have lost ground in recent fighting to pro-Russian rebels.

Western and Ukrainian officials say this offensive has been substantially helped by Russian regular troops, opening a new front. Russia denies the accusation.

War in eastern Ukraine: The human cost

• At least 2,593 people killed since mid-April (not including 298 passengers and crew of Malaysian Airlines MH17, shot down in the area) - UN report on 29 August
• 951 civilians killed in Donetsk region alone, official regional authorities said - 20 August
• In some particularly dangerous places, such as Luhansk region, victims are said to have been buried informally, making accurate counts difficult
• Rebels (and some military sources) accuse the government of concealing true numbers
• 155,800 people have fled elsewhere in Ukraine while at least 188,000 have gone to Russia

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Iceland issues new volcano alert

31 August 2014 Last updated at 12:45

Iceland has raised its aviation warning level after a fresh eruption from a fissure near the Bardarbunga volcano.

However, Iceland's Met Office described the eruption as "a very calm lava eruption" which could "hardly be seen on seismometers".

The warning means planes will be banned from flying within 6,000 feet of the volcano peak.

Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted in 2010, producing ash that disrupted air travel across Europe.

Sunday's eruption in the Holuhraun lava field area was "calm but continuous", authorities said.

It happened in roughly the same place as an earlier eruption on Friday morning, and is the third to happen in the area in the last week.

The latest eruption is more intense than Friday's with around 10 times more lava said Armann Hoskuldssonk, a geologist from the University of Iceland.

BBC transport correspondent Richard Westcott says that even if a big cloud of volcanic ash were emitted, it would not cause the same level of disruption to flights that brought Europe to a halt in 2010.

He says new equipment that airliners and engine makers have been testing would allow planes to identity and fly around ash clouds.

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Jews 'forced' from Guatemala village

30 August 2014 Last updated at 02:38

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The Lev Tahor are now hoping to find a place to live somewhere else in Guatemala

Some 230 members of an Orthodox Jewish group have begun leaving a village in western Guatemala after a bitter row with the local indigenous community.

The Lev Tahor members were asked to leave San Juan La Laguna after meetings with elders of the Mayan community.

The elders accused the Jews of shunning the villagers and imposing their religion and customs.

The Lev Tahor had settled in the village six years ago as the group searched for religious freedom.

'Self-defence'

Over the last several days they were seen packing their belongings on lorries in preparations for the departure from the village, about 150km (90 miles) west of the capital Guatemala City.

"We are a people of peace and in order to avoid an incident we've already begun to leave," Lev Tahor member Misael Santos told the AFP news agency.

"We have a right to be there, but they threatened us with lynching if we don't leave," he added.

Lev Tahor members, who practise an austere form of Judaism, also complained that they received threats that water and electricity would be cut if they stayed on.

Meanwhile, the village elders said the Jewish members "wanted to impose their religion" and were undermining the Catholic faith that was predominant in San Juan La Laguna.

"We act in self-defence and to respect our rights as indigenous people. The (Guatemalan) constitution protects us because we need to conserve and preserve our culture," Miguel Vasquez, a spokesman for the elders council, said.

The Lev Tahor said it hoped to settle elsewhere in Guatemala.

Many of the Jewish group members had been living in the village for six years but some had arrived earlier this year from Canada after a row with the authorities.

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India's growth hits two year high

29 August 2014 Last updated at 17:52

India's economy grew by 5.7% in the three months to June, its fastest pace in two-and-a-half years, according to an official estimate.

The economy was helped by strong growth in electricity, gas and water supply, and financial services, the Ministry of Statistics said.

The growth figure was higher than analysts had been expecting.

India's new government has launched policies designed to encourage business investment, including changes to tax.

Analysis: Sameer Hashmi, India Business Report

Ever since the Narendra Modi government took charge, business sentiment has improved on the ground. Investors have started pumping in money again, capital markets have been roaring, consumer demand has revived & hiring has picked up.

But this euphoria is primarily driven by sentiment and more steps would be required to sustain this optimism.

The performance of the Modi government as it approaches a hundred days in office - has been a mixed one.

While it has initiated measures to minimize tax litigation and opened up defence manufacturing along with railway infrastructure to attract foreign investors, it is still to announce big bang reforms that would give a major boost to the economy.

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IMF voices 'confidence' in Lagarde

29 August 2014 Last updated at 23:08

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has expressed confidence in its leader Christine Lagarde, despite her being investigated for negligence in France.

Ms Lagarde, 58, has been questioned about her role in awarding compensation to businessman Bernard Tapie in 2008. She denies any wrongdoing.

Ms Lagarde was France's minister of finance at the time of the award.

In a statement, the IMF executive board said it was confident Ms Lagarde could continue to lead the organisation.

"It would not be appropriate to comment on a case that has been and is currently before the French judiciary," the executive board, which appoints the IMF's chief, said in a statement.

"However, the executive board has been briefed on recent developments related to this matter, and continues to express its confidence in the managing director's ability to effectively carry out her duties," it added.

Ms Lagarde was placed under formal investigation by the French authorities on Wednesday. She described the case against her as "without merit".

'Best solution'

Formal investigations in France do not necessarily lead to charges, but indicate that a magistrate believes there are signs of wrongdoing.

Investigators suspect Mr Tapie was granted a deal in return for his support of Nicolas Sarkozy in the 2007 presidential election.

Ms Lagarde was finance minister in Mr Sarkozy's government when he was given compensation.

Mr Tapie was once a majority shareholder in sports goods company Adidas but sold it in 1993 in order to become a cabinet minister in Francois Mitterrand's Socialist government.

Mr Tapie sued Credit Lyonnais over its handling of the sale, alleging the partly state-owned bank had defrauded him by deliberately undervaluing the company.

His case was later referred by Ms Lagarde to a three-member arbitration panel which awarded the compensation.

Ms Lagarde said last year that her decision to refer Mr Tapie's long-running dispute with Credit Lyonnais to a panel of judges was "the best solution at the time".

She replaced Dominique Strauss-Kahn as IMF managing director in 2011. He quit over sexual assault charges in New York, which were later dropped.

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Rescuers free Nicaraguan miners

30 August 2014 Last updated at 07:00

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Onlookers cheered as the miners emerged from their underground ordeal

Most of 24 trapped Nicaraguan gold miners have been freed after a mine collapse, officials said.

The miners were slightly dehydrated but otherwise in good health said Deputy Interior Minister Carlos Najjar.

It is not known if the remaining miners have been located yet.

They were trapped when a shaft at the El Comal mine collapsed after heavy rains on Thursday. The mine lies near Bonanza, a town 420km (260 miles) north-east of the capital Managua.

The men were reportedly freelance miners who were not directly employed by a mining company.

The mine's owner, Colombian firm Hemco, said it had recently found the mine to be unsafe.

It said it had warned miners against entering the mines after two men died in a landslide last month.

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Philippine Syria troops 'attacked'

30 August 2014 Last updated at 10:41

Philippine peacekeepers trapped by rebels in the Syrian Golan Heights are "under attack", Philippine Defence Minister Voltaire Gazmin says.

He said the assault had started early on Saturday, but gave no details on any casualties.

In recent days the Syrian rebels have taken 44 Fijian peacekeepers hostage in the area and surrounded 75 Filipinos manning two separate UN posts.

The rebels have also seized a crossing point into the Israeli-occupied Golan.

They are believed to include members of the al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria.

Mr Guzman told reporters on Saturday that the Philippine soldiers had been attacked at one post, identified as camp 68.

The others, based at camp 69 about 4km (2.5 miles) away, are said to be safe.

Worsening security

The Fijian members of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (Undof) were detained on Wednesday near Quneitra, during fighting between rebels and government forces.

Last week the Philippine government said it would bring home its 331 peacekeeping forces from the Golan Heights in October, amid deteriorating security there.

Israel seized most of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau in south-western Syria, during the 1967 Six-Day War.

The two countries signed an armistice in 1974, after which Undof was put in place to monitor the demilitarised zone.

It has 1,224 lightly-armed military personnel from Fiji, India, Ireland, Nepal, the Netherlands and the Philippines.

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China warns of Hong Kong 'meddling'

30 August 2014 Last updated at 11:35

China has warned foreign countries against "meddling" in Hong Kong's politics ahead of a crucial announcement on the territory's election process.

Chinese state media said using Hong Kong as a "bridgehead to subvert the mainland" would not be tolerated.

China is expected to limit elections to a selection of pro-Beijing candidates.

Pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong have threatened mass disobedience if elections are not opened up.

They say they will stage a mass sit-in in the city's financial district if an acceptable agreement is not reached.

Outside forces

An article in the Chinese state-run People's Daily on Saturday said that some in Hong Kong were "colluding" with outside forces.

"Not only are they undermining Hong Kong's stability and development, but they're also attempting to turn Hong Kong into a bridgehead for subverting and infiltrating the Chinese mainland", the article said (in Chinese).

"This can absolutely not be permitted" it said, quoting an unnamed foreign ministry official.

The article did not identify which outside forces were being accused of involvement, although many countries in the west have called for more open government in the former British territory.

The Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress has been meeting to determine election regulations in Hong Kong, and will announce their decision on Sunday.

Correspondents say it is highly likely that China will require candidates for the position of chief executive to obtain support from a nominating committee.

Most expect that committee to be made up of pro-Beijing businessmen and individuals, thereby giving mainland authorities an effective veto over candidates.

The issue is the subject of huge debate in Hong Kong, a former British colony now governed by China under the principle of "one country, two systems".

In June, almost 800,000 people cast ballots in an informal referendum organised by Occupy Central on how the chief executive should be chosen.

This was followed by large-scale rallies held by both sides.

Hong Kong has retained wide legal and economic powers since being handed back to China in 1997.

But some activists are worried that China's central government is seeking to exert greater political control over the territory.

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Lesotho PM flees 'military coup'

30 August 2014 Last updated at 12:17

The prime minister of the southern African kingdom of Lesotho has fled to South Africa, alleging a coup by the army and saying his life is in danger.

Speaking to the BBC, Thomas Thabane said he was in neighbouring South Africa and would return "as soon as I know I am not going to get killed."

Reports from Lesotho say the capital, Maseru, is now calm after soldiers seized key buildings.

Lesotho has seen a series of military coups since independence in 1966.

Mr Thabane has headed a unity government since but suspended parliament in June amid feuding in his coalition.

'Illegal coup'

"I have been removed from control not by the people but by the armed forces, and that is illegal," Mr Thabane said.

"I came into South Africa this morning and I will return as soon as my life is not in danger.

"I will not go back to Lesotho to get killed."

However, an army spokesman said the military "supports the democratically elected government of the day," Reuters news agency reported.

Earlier, troops were seen on the streets of Maseru and there were reports of gunfire.

Radio stations were taken off air and phone lines were cut, although later reports suggested they were back working.

Sports Minister Thesele Maseribane told AFP news agency that troops had surrounded State House, a key government building.

Geographically, Lesotho is surrounded by South Africa on all sides.

Are you in Maseru or elsewhere in Lesotho? You can share your views and experiences by emailing Haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk

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EU hits out at 'Russian aggression'

30 August 2014 Last updated at 13:15

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European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso: "We may see a situation where we reach the point of no return"

European Union foreign ministers have expressed "deep concern" at Russia's "aggression against Ukraine", as the bloc's leaders prepare to consider new sanctions on the Moscow government.

Speaking after the ministerial meeting in Milan, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Aston urged Russia to "withdraw its forces from Ukraine".

EU leaders meet in Brussels later to consider their response to the crisis.

Russia denies that its forces are backing rebels in eastern Ukraine.

But Baroness Ashton said there was "deep concern" over "direct aggression by Russian forces". She called on Russia to stop the flow of arms, equipment and personnel into Ukraine.

In Brussels European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso warned Russia that the EU was ready to "stand by its principles" and called for a political solution before the crisis reached a "point of no return".

He was speaking after talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who is due to attend the EU leaders' summit later on Saturday.

Mr Poroshenko said Ukraine was a victim of "military aggression and terror" involving "thousands of foreign troops and hundreds of foreign tanks".

Government forces have suffered have lost ground in recent fighting.

A Ukrainian military spokesman said on Saturday that Russian tanks had attacked the town of Novosvitlivka near Luhansk and "destroyed virtually every house".

A number of troops remain encircled by the rebels near the town of Ilovaisk in the Donetsk region.

Some 2,600 people have died in fighting in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Further south, people have been leaving the southern port city of Mariupol, after advancing rebels captured the town of Novoazovsk to the east.

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Cars queue to leave Mariupol from where Yuri Vendik reports

Western and Ukrainian officials say that offensive has been substantially helped by Russian regular troops, opening a new front. Russia denies the accusation.

The conflict there erupted in April following Russia's annexation of Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula a month before.

Satellite evidence?

On Friday, Nato released satellite images it said showed columns of Russian armed forces inside Ukrainian territory.

Also on Friday, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned that the "already dangerous situation" in Ukraine had now entered "a whole new dimension".

Sweden's Carl Bildt said a clear message had to be sent to Russia: "We are in the midst of the second Russian invasion of Ukraine within a year," he added.

It remains unclear if a new round of sanctions will be adopted in Brussels.

The EU and the US have already imposed sanctions against dozens of senior Russian officials, separatist commanders and Russian firms accused of undermining Ukrainian sovereignty.

In late July, the EU also targeted some key economic sectors, prompting Russia to retaliate by banning food imports.

War in eastern Ukraine: The human cost

• At least 2,593 people killed since mid-April (not including 298 passengers and crew of Malaysian Airlines MH17, shot down in the area) - UN report on 7 August
• 951 civilians killed in Donetsk region alone, official regional authorities said - 20 August
• In some particularly dangerous places, such as Luhansk region, victims are said to have been buried informally, making accurate counts difficult
• Rebels (and some military sources) accuse the government of concealing true numbers
• 155,800 people have fled elsewhere in Ukraine while at least 188,000 have gone to Russia.

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Iceland lowers volcano ash alert

29 August 2014 Last updated at 13:03

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Bardarbunga is part of a large volcano system hidden beneath the Vatnajokull ice cap in central Iceland

The Icelandic Met Office has lowered its aviation warning from red to orange near the Bardarbunga volcano, which saw an eruption begin overnight.

The new alert, the second-highest, means that aviation authorities can now decide if planes may travel over the volcano's airspace.

Scientists said a fissure eruption 1km (0.6 miles) long started in a lava field north of the Vatnajokull glacier.

The volcano has been hit by several recent tremors.

The Icelandic Met Office confirmed to the BBC that since no ash was detected in emissions from the volcano's eruption, it was now possible to downgrade the earlier alert level.

Civil protection officials said Icelandic Air Traffic Control had closed the airspace above the eruption up to a height of 5,000ft (1,500m), but now some aircraft will be able to pass over the volcano if aviation authorities give airliners the go-ahead.

The fissure eruption took place between Dyngjujokull Glacier and the Askja caldera, according to a statement from the Department of Civil Protection.

Bjorn Oddsson, a geophysicist from Iceland's Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management, said the eruption was currently not affecting air travel.

"It's mostly effusive; there's no ash in the air, and not even in the vicinity," he said.

"So mostly lava is pouring out of the craters right now and the only flight restriction is over the area. All airports are open, and things are quite in control."

BBC transport correspondent Richard Westcott says that even if a big cloud of volcanic ash were emitted, it would not cause the same level of disruption to flights that brought Europe to a halt in 2010.

He says new equipment that airliners and engine makers have been testing would allow planes to identity and fly around ash clouds.

Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted in 2010, producing ash that disrupted air travel across Europe.

Analysis by BBC science correspondent Rebecca Morelle

Initial fears that this might trigger a scenario just like the 2010 Eyjafjallajokull volcano have been put aside - at least for now. The worry was that the magma might erupt beneath a thick ice glacier, triggering an explosive ash cloud. Instead, the molten rock has moved north, where the ice is less thick, and we have a fissure eruption, emanating from a 1km-long crack in the ground.

At the moment, scientists say it's not explosive, instead a mixture of lava and steam is slowly coming out of the vent. Only small spurts of ash have been spotted and they are not jetting up into the sorts of altitudes that would cause disruption to flights. There are still concerns about flooding - the water level in one lake is thought to have risen by 5-10m in the past few days.

This could be a repeat of Iceland's "Krafla fires", which for 10 years produced spectacular fountains of lava that were more of a tourist attraction than a threat. However, there is also a chance the magma could start to move towards another large volcano called Askja, where it could trigger a much larger blast.

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Libya's prime minister resigns

29 August 2014 Last updated at 11:18

Abdullah al-Thinni has stepped down as Libya's prime minister in a move to end the power struggle in the country.

The cabinet said it was resigning to enable the elected parliament to choose a new, inclusive government.

The Islamist-linked militia which seized the capital, Tripoli, last week has called for the elected MPs to be replaced by the previous body, the General National Congress (GNC).

Libya has been hit by instability since the 2011 ousting of Muammar Gaddafi.

The various armed groups which united against Libya's long-time leader have refused to disarm, leaving the government unable to exert control.

France's President Francois Hollande on Thursday called for the UN to give "exceptional support" to Libya to prevent the country sliding further into chaos.

The BBC's Rana Jawad in Tripoli says the key issue for MPs to mull over is that the new cabinet needs to be an inclusive government with ministers acceptable to all sides of Libya's political divide.

Anything less will see the country's current stalemate continue, she says.

Following the call by the Misrata-led militia for the GNC to reform, some members gathered this week in Tripoli and said they had appointed a new prime minister.

The UN this week stressed that it only recognised the elected body, the House of Representatives, which is dominated by liberal and federalist lawmakers.

The GNC had an Islamist majority.

Because of the instability in Tripoli, and the second city Benghazi, the House of Representatives has been meeting in the far eastern town of Tobruk.

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More than 3m have fled Syria - UN

29 August 2014 Last updated at 09:02

More than three million Syrians are now registered as refugees and the desperate crisis is only getting worse, the UN's refugee agency says.

The UNHCR says Syria is now "the biggest humanitarian emergency of our era" with almost half of all Syrians forced to flee their homes.

The majority of refugees have fled to countries neighbouring Syria, with most now seeking shelter in Lebanon.

More than 190,000 have been killed in Syria's three-year civil war.

Opposition groups in Syria have been fighting forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad since his government violently suppressed protests against his rule in March 2011.

The situation has been worsened in recent months by the formation and advance of the Islamic State group, which now controls large swathes of Syria and Iraq.

'Exhausted and scared'

The UNHCR says one in every eight Syrians has fled across the border and a further 6.5 million are displaced within Syria. It says more than half of those uprooted are children.

The number of registered Syrian refugees has soared from two million just under a year ago.

Families arriving at refugee camps in neighbouring countries are exhausted and scared, with some having spent a year or more fleeing from village to village inside Syria.

The UN agency says the journey out of Syria is also becoming tougher, with many people forced to pay bribes to armed gangs.

Where Syrian refugees are

1,175,504 in Lebanon

832,508 in Turkey

613,252 in Jordan

215,369 in Iraq

139,090 in Egypt

23,367 in North Africa

6.5 million others are displaced within Syria

Source: UNHCR

In addition to the registered refugees, Syria's neighbours estimate that hundreds of thousands more Syrians have sought sanctuary in their countries - causing enormous strain.

"The Syrian crisis has become the biggest humanitarian emergency of our era, yet the world is failing to meet the needs of refugees and the countries hosting them," said Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

"The response to the Syrian crisis has been generous, but the bitter truth is that it falls far short of what's needed."

Continue reading the main story

The response to the Syrian crisis has been generous, but the bitter truth is that it falls far short of what's needed"

End Quote Antonio Guterres UN High Commissioner for Refugees

'Violence at a new level'

On Thursday, French President Francois Hollande voiced his regret that the West had failed "to find a solution for the situation in Syria," saying the consequences were clear to all.

"Bashar al-Assad's regime continues without restraint its policy of repression. Refugees continue to gather, their numbers increasing every day, in the neighbouring countries. And terrorist groups are winning more territory - that's the result," he said.

The UN's deputy humanitarian chief, Kyung-wha Kang, said Islamic State was taking violence against civilians in Syria "to a new level" and threatening aid operations in the country.

But US President Barack Obama insisted Thursday that the West would not contemplate working with President Assad against the extremist group.

"I don't think there's a situation where we have to choose between Assad or the kinds of people who carry on the incredible violence that we've been seeing there," he told reporters at the White House.

Have you been affected by this story? Are you working or living in one of the refugee camps? Contact us and tell us your story at haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk

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2.6m historic pictures posted online

29 August 2014 Last updated at 09:18 By Leo Kelion Technology desk editor

An American academic is creating a searchable database of 12 million historic copyright-free images.

Kalev Leetaru has already uploaded 2.6 million pictures to Flickr, which are searchable thanks to tags that have been automatically added.

The photos and drawings are sourced from more than 600 million library book pages scanned in by the Internet Archive organisation.

The images have been difficult to access until now.

Mr Leetaru said digitisation projects had so far focused on words and ignored pictures.

"For all these years all the libraries have been digitising their books, but they have been putting them up as PDFs or text searchable works," he told the BBC.

"They have been focusing on the books as a collection of words. This inverts that.

"Stretching half a millennia, it's amazing to see the total range of images and how the portrayals of things have changed over time.

"Most of the images that are in the books are not in any of the art galleries of the world - the original copies have long ago been lost."

The pictures range from 1500 to 1922, when copyright restrictions kick in.

Piggyback program

Mr Leetaru began work on the project while researching communications technology at Georgetown University in Washington DC as part of a fellowship sponsored by Yahoo, the owner of photo-sharing service Flickr.

To achieve his goal, Mr Leetaru wrote his own software to work around the way the books had originally been digitised.

The Internet Archive had used an optical character recognition (OCR) program to analyse each of its 600 million scanned pages in order to convert the image of each word into searchable text.

As part of the process, the software recognised which parts of a page were pictures in order to discard them.

Mr Leetaru's code used this information to go back to the original scans, extract the regions the OCR program had ignored, and then save each one as a separate file in the Jpeg picture format.

The software also copied the caption for each image and the text from the paragraphs immediately preceding and following it in the book.

Each Jpeg and its associated text was then posted to a new Flickr page, allowing the public to hunt through the vast catalogue using the site's search tool.

"I think one of the greatest things people will do is time travel through the images," Mr Leetaru said.

"Type in the telephone, for example, and you can see that all the initial pictures are of businesspeople, and mostly men.

"Then you see it morph into more of a tool to connect families.

"You see another progression with the railroad where in the first images it was all about innovation and progress that was going to change the world, then you see its evolution as it becomes part of everyday life."

'Hit and miss'

Archivists said they were impressed with the project.

"Finding images within texts and tagging large collections of images are notoriously difficult," said Dr Alison Pearn, a senior archivist from the University of Cambridge and associate director of the Darwin Correspondence Project.

"This is a clever way of providing both quantity and searchability, and it's great that it is freely available for anyone to use.

"The image identification has picked up things like library stamps and scribbles in the margins, and the tagging is a bit hit and miss, but research has always been at least in part about serendipity, and who knows what people will find to do with them."

Mr Leetaru's own ambition is a tie-up with the internet's most famous encyclopaedia once his project is completed next year.

"What I want to see is... Wikipedia have a national day of going through this to illustrate Wikipedia articles," he said.

"Take a random page about a historical event and there's probably a good chance that you're going to find an image in here that bears in some way on that event or location.

"Being able to basically enrich [them] would be huge."

He added that he also planned to offer his code to others.

"Any library could repeat this process," he explained.

"That's actually my hope, that libraries around the world run this same process of their digitised books to constantly expand this universe of images."

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Malaysia Airlines to cut 6,000 staff

29 August 2014 Last updated at 11:31

Malaysia Airlines is to cut 6,000 staff as part of recovery plan after being hit by two disasters this year.

The reduction in staff numbers represents around 30% of its workforce of 20,000.

The airline will become completely state owned, and a new chief executive will eventually be put in place.

Investigators continue to hunt for flight MH370, the Kuala Lumpur to Beijing flight which went missing in March.

The MH17 air crash in eastern Ukraine is also under investigation. The plane was shot down on 17 July, with the loss of all 298 people on board.

The recovery plan will cost about 6 billion Malaysian ringgit (£1.1bn, $1.9bn).

Khazanah Nasional, the state investment company that owns a 69% stake in the troubled firm, will take 100% ownership.

"The combination of measures announced today will enable our national airline to be revived," said Khazanah's managing director Azman Mokhtar.

"Success is by no means guaranteed - while it is imperative that MAS [Malaysia Airlines] as a critical enabler in national development is revived, public accountability for the use of the funds mean that it cannot be renewed at any cost," he added.

Recovery plan

Long-haul routes will be slashed, and the airline aims to return to profitability by 2018.

Malaysia Airlines warned on Thursday that it had seen a sharp decline in weekly bookings following the two air disasters.

However, the company has been in trouble over the past few years, and has lost billions of ringgit in that time.

The firm will be completely delisted from the Bursa Malaysia stock exchange by the end of 2014.

Relevant assets, operations and liabilities of Malaysia Airlines will be transferred to a new company by 1 July 2015.

The current chief executive, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, will continue to lead the firm until the new company is formed next year.

Travel expert Simon Calder said that the staff cuts and business reorganisation should allow the company to turn its fortunes around.

"There is a slice of business to have, but nothing like the scale and dominance it once enjoyed," he said.

Competition from low-cost airlines for short-haul flights, coupled with the expansion of long-haul Gulf carriers, had eaten into the firm's profitability in the past, he added.

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Biggest Japan defence budget sought

29 August 2014 Last updated at 11:45

Japan's defence ministry has made its biggest ever budget request, amid severe tensions with China over a maritime dispute in the East China Sea.

The ministry is seeking 5.05 trillion yen (£29.4bn; $48.7bn) for the year - a 3.5% rise.

If approved, it would mark the third year the defence budget had been increased, after a decade of cuts.

Earlier this month, the ministry described the security environment around Japan as "increasingly severe".

Beijing and Tokyo are engaged in a bitter dispute over islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

In its annual white paper, the ministry spoke of "great concern" over China's activities in the East China Sea and also cited North Korea as a security threat.

According to its budget request, the ministry wants to purchase 20 maritime patrol aircraft.

It also wants to buy five crossover aircraft, which have both airplane and helicopter functionalities, three drones and six stealth fighters.

"It is not a sudden increase in defence equipment for us, but rather a typical necessity in the process of keeping up with the maintenance of the Japanese defence system," said Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera at a budget meeting, according to the Associated Press.

Earlier this week, Kyodo news agency reported that Japan's Coast Guard had requested a doubling of its current budget to 50.4bn yen, amid plans to acquire more patrol vessels and increase patrol personnel.

Jiji Press said it also planned to construct a large patrol ship for a security unit specifically for the disputed islands.

The islands are controlled by Japan. But since the Japanese government purchased three of them from their private Japanese owner in 2012, a long-simmering row over their ownership has escalated dramatically.

Chinese boats and aircraft have since been patrolling in and out of what Japan says are its territorial waters, prompting fears of a clash.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who took power in December 2012, has been more assertive in boosting Japan's military.

Under its pacifist constitution, Japan is barred from using force to resolve conflicts except for self-defence.

But in July Japan's cabinet approved a landmark change that paves the way for its military to fight overseas. The government has also eased curbs on weapons exports.

The defence ministry budget request will now be the subject of negotiations with government spending chiefs before the full budget is compiled at the end of the year.

China has seen a sharp increase in its official defence budget, which is more than two and half times larger than Japan's.

The US has by far the world's largest military budget, spending $600bn on defence last year.

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Pakistan army to mediate in protest

29 August 2014 Last updated at 12:21

Pakistan's powerful army chief has stepped in to the political deadlock between the PM and two opposition figures leading huge anti-government rallies in the capital, Islamabad.

Cleric Tahir ul-Qadri told thousands of his followers that General Raheel Sharif had asked to be given a day in which to mediate.

His ally, cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, echoed his comments.

The two opposition figures want PM Nawaz Sharif to resign.

The move appears to mark a return to politics of the military, barely a year after Pakistan's first democratic transfer of power.

The BBC's Shahzeb Jillani says it is the first time in the current political crisis that the army chief has overtly taken a central role as a mediator.

Senior Pakistani politicians have denounced the move, with one constitutional expert called it "a moment of collective disgrace for all politicians across the political spectrum".

Our correspondent says the Pakistani military has a history of meddling in the country's politics. Many suspect the current crisis was encouraged by elements in the army to weaken the civilian government of Mr Sharif. Publicly, both the army and the government deny this.

'24 hours'

It was not immediately clear who made the initial request for the army chief to mediate the impasse, says the BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad.

Mr Sharif said he had received a call from an army official asking whether he would accept a request from the two opposition figures for the army chief's mediation.

Mr Qadri denied this, saying instead that the request was made by Mr Sharif himself.

Protesters led by Mr Qadri and Mr Khan have been demonstrating in Islamabad for two weeks, after travelling from Lahore.

Both protest leaders want a change of government, with Mr Khan claiming that last year's general elections, which brought Mr Sharif to power, were fraudulent.

Mr Qadri wants Mr Sharif to face charges over the deaths of 14 demonstrators near Lahore in June. On Thursday police named the prime minister as a suspect in the case, officials said.

But, say correspondents, it is not automatic that Mr Sharif will be arrested and appear in court, because this is only a preliminary investigation following the filing of a complaint.

Late on Thursday night, Mr Qadri told thousands of supporters that Gen Raheel had offered to mediate.

"The army chief has asked us to give him 24 hours to solve the crisis," he said.

"The army will compile and put together a package of our demands and make sure they are implemented."

Mr Khan later confirmed the move, saying "the talks have already started".

The announcement came after Mr Sharif met the army chief earlier in the day for talks on the stand-off.

The protests have been peaceful so far, but thousands of people have been demonstrating in the capital's Red Zone, home to government buildings and embassies.

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Nato accuses Russia over Ukraine

29 August 2014 Last updated at 13:06

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Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen: "Russia is blatantly violating Ukrainian sovereignty"

Nato has accused Russia of a "blatant violation" of Ukraine's sovereignty and engaging in direct military operations to support pro-Russian rebels.

Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that "despite hollow denials", it was now clear that Russia had illegally crossed Ukraine's border.

He said Nato would respect any Ukrainian decision on security, after its PM said he was putting the country on course for Nato membership.

Russia denies sending troops and arms.

Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the Ukrainian government for the crisis, comparing its siege of two cities held by separatists, Donetsk and Luhansk, to the siege of Leningrad by the Nazis in World War Two.

"It is necessary to make the Ukrainian authorities start substantial talks [with the rebels]," he said.

Nearly 2,600 people have been killed since April, the UN says, when Russia's annexation of Crimea prompted the rebels to take control of large parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the far east of Ukraine.

Earlier, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk said the government was re-opening the question of Nato membership.

He said it was sending a bill to parliament calling for Ukraine's non-aligned status to be cancelled, in effect paving the way for Ukraine to join Nato.

'Dangerous pattern'

Speaking at a news conference after an emergency meeting of Nato ambassadors, Mr Rasmussen said that it was clear Russia had illegally crossed into Ukraine and was engaged in direct military operations.

"This is not an isolated action, but part of a dangerous pattern over many months to destabilise Ukraine as a sovereign nation," he said.

"This is a blatant violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. It defies all diplomatic efforts for a peaceful solution."

He called on Russia to cease military action, stop supporting the rebels and "take immediate and verifiable steps towards de-escalation of this grave crisis".

Mr Rasmussen indicated Nato was open to considering Ukraine's application to join if it met the conditions.

"I am not going to interfere with political discussions in Ukraine, but let me remind you of Nato's decision taken at the Bucharest Summit in 2008 according to which Ukraine will become a member of Nato, provided of course that Ukraine so wishes and provided that Ukraine fulfils the necessary criteria," he said.

Heavy fighting is continuing near Ukraine's strategic port of Mariupol, on the Azov Sea. Rebel forces are trying to capture the city but Ukrainian government troops are digging in.

On Thursday the separatists seized the nearby town of Novoazovsk.

The advance has raised fears that the Kremlin might seek to create a land corridor between Russia and Crimea - a territory annexed by Russia from Ukraine in March.

Rebels are also reported to have surrounded government soldiers in several places further north, near the city of Donetsk.

Ukrainian forces near the town of Ilovaysk say they are cut off and have been urgently asking for supplies and reinforcements.

Overnight, Mr Putin called on the rebels to open a "humanitarian corridor" to allow encircled Ukrainian troops to leave without unnecessary casualties, though he did not specify the location.

Rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko later told Russian TV that his fighters had agreed to the request, on condition that the Ukrainians hand over heavy weapons and ammunition.

Ukraine security officials said in a statement that the proposal demonstrated that the rebels "are led and controlled directly from the Kremlin".

On Thursday Nato released satellite images it said showed columns of Russian armed forces inside Ukrainian territory, adding that more than 1,000 Russian troops were operating inside Ukraine.

War in eastern Ukraine: The human cost

• At least 2,593 people had been killed since mid-April, not including the 298 passengers and crew of the Malaysian Airlines MH17 shot down in the area, a UN report on 7 August said
• 951 civilians have been killed in Donetsk region alone, the official regional authorities said on 20 August
• Official casualty counts only record certified deaths while in some particularly dangerous parts of the war zone, such as Luhansk region, victims are said to have been buried informally, for instance in gardens
• Rebels (and some military sources) accuse the government of concealing the true numbers of soldiers killed
• 155,800 people have fled elsewhere in Ukraine while at least 188,000 have gone to Russia.

Have you been affected by what's going on in Ukraine? Tell us your story by emailing us at haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk

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FBI probe JP Morgan 'cyber-attack'

28 August 2014 Last updated at 11:40

The FBI says it is investigating reports in the US media of recent cyber-attacks against several US banks.

The reports suggest between two and five banks have been targeted, including Wall Street giant JP Morgan Chase.

JP Morgan Chase declined to comment on the reports directly, but said companies of its size experienced cyber-attacks "nearly every day".

The FBI did not indicate who it suspected of being behind the attacks.

A statement from the bureau said it was working with the US secret services to determine the scope of the attacks.

But Bloomberg News, which first reported the attacks, said the investigation was looking at the possible involvement of Russia, amid worsening relations with the US over crises in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Bloomberg quoted security experts saying that the capabilities of the hackers to breach several layers of security appeared to be "far beyond the capability of ordinary criminal hackers".

Eastern Europe

But others questioned why this attack involved the apparent theft of data, rather than the disruption of services more characteristic of retaliatory attacks from state actors.

"This is very different from the alleged Iranian attacks earlier in 2012 and late 2013 that were purely of a denial-of-service nature," said Amichai Shulman, chief technology officer at security firm Imperva.

"I find it odd that someone who was actually able to break into a bank is not using it for making immediate profit.

"Everyone is trying hard to tie this with the whole political situation with Russia. However, it is well known that for a few years now, a large portion of banking attacks and financially related hacking has consistently been coming from Eastern Europe."

A spokeswoman for JP Morgan Chase said: "Companies of our size unfortunately experience cyber-attacks nearly every day.

"We have multiple layers of defence to counteract any threats and constantly monitor fraud levels."

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Ambassador 'suspect in girl beating'

28 August 2014 Last updated at 05:55

Equatorial Guinea's ambassador to the US is suspected of beating a girl with a wooden chair leg but will not be arrested because he has diplomatic immunity, officials say.

Police in Arlington, near Washington DC, were called to Ambassador Ruben Maye Nsue Mangue's residence on Monday.

Police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck said they found a juvenile with a large cut to her head and other injuries.

"We determined the ambassador was the primary suspect," he said.

Mr Sternbeck said the girl had sustained a "significant laceration" to her head, bruises and a swollen eye and was taken to Virginia Hospital Center.

He said she had been beaten with the wooden leg of a chair.

Mr Sternbeck added that police officers, who do not have jurisdiction in cases involving diplomats, did not make any arrests and informed the US state department.

A state department official said the agency was in contact with local authorities but could not discuss the incident further.

The girl was widely reported to be the ambassador's teenage daughter. On Wednesday, a woman at the residence told the Associated Press news agency by telephone that the ambassador's daughter was fine and was in good spirits.

The embassy of Equatorial Guinea - a Central African country with a population of about 740,000 people - has not commented on the incident.

Mr Sternbeck said Arlington police had been called to the same residence over a domestic incident in December 2013 but due to diplomatic immunity no-one was detained or charged,

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France urges special Libya support

28 August 2014 Last updated at 11:48

France is calling for "exceptional support" for Libya, warning the country could fall into chaos without United Nations intervention.

If no action is taken, French President Francois Hollande warned, "terrorism will spread across the region."

His comments come a day after the UN Security Council called for an immediate ceasefire in Libya.

It is also seeking sanctions against those involved in the surge in violence between rival militias.

The names of those to face sanctions have not yet been decided.

However, the Security Council has been alarmed by the increase in fighting between militia groups and Libya's army factions in recent weeks.

On 23 August a coalition of militias, including some Islamist groups, operating under the banner Libya Dawn, seized control of the international airport in the capital, Tripoli from a Zintan-based militia.

The victory, which secures the alliance's control over the capital, ends a five-week siege.

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Missing plane search area refined

28 August 2014 Last updated at 07:28

Australia says the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will focus on the southern part of the search area in the Indian Ocean.

Officials said further refinement of satellite data found the plane may have turned south earlier than thought.

The announcement came as Australia and Malaysia signed an agreement on the search's next phase, which will see the two countries sharing costs.

The Beijing-bound plane disappeared on 8 March with 239 people onboard.

Based on analysis of satellite data, it is believed to have ended its journey in seas far west of the Australian city of Perth.

Investigators do not know what happened to the flight and finding its "black box" flight recorders is seen as key to understanding the factors behind its disappearance.

'Interest and priority'

Australia, which is responsible for search and rescue operations, has been looking for the plane in an area about 1,800km off its west coast.

The latest detail on the plane's possible flight path came from an analysis of a failed attempted satellite phone call from Malaysia Airlines to the plane, said Australia's Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss.

"The search area remains the same, but some of the information that we now have suggests to us that areas a little further to the south... are of particular interest and priority," he told reporters in Canberra.

A Dutch contractor, Fugro Survey, will kick off the next phase in the search in September. Three vessels towing underwater vehicles will scan for the plane.

The search will focus on an area of about 60,000 sq km and is estimated to cost about A$52m (£29m, $49m).

Malaysia's Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai signed the memorandum of understanding with Mr Truss.

The two were also briefed on search efforts, together with China's Transport Vice-Minister He Jianzhong.

Most of the passengers onboard the flight were Chinese. The ministers issued a statement saying they "remain cautiously optimistic" that the plane will be found.

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IS 'kills dozens of Syrian soldiers'

28 August 2014 Last updated at 11:15

Jihadist militants from Islamic State (IS) appear to have executed "dozens" of Syrian army soldiers, activists say.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the soldiers were captured while attempting to flee to Hama province after IS stormed the Tabqa airbase.

Twitter accounts belonging to jihadists had boasted about 200 deaths, it added.

On Wednesday, photos and a video were posted online appearing to show more than 100 men in their underwear being marched through the desert at gunpoint.

In the video, militants shout "Islamic State" and "There is no going back".

In images published earlier this week, IS fighters wearing balaclavas could be seen shooting dead at least seven kneeling men at the airbase.

'Mass atrocities'

Tabqa airbase - near the northern city of Raqqa, an IS stronghold - fell to IS on Sunday after weeks of fierce fighting.

The Observatory said 346 IS fighters and more than 170 members of the security forces were killed in the final battle, which lasted five days.

The head of the Observatory, Rami Abdul Rahman, told the AFP news agency that about 1,400 troops had been stationed at the airbase, 700 of whom managed to escape.

Two hundred appeared to have been caught and executed by IS as they attempted to cross the desert to government-held territory in the Orontes Valley to the west, he said. Another 500 men were on the run, he added.

After the airbase's capture, Syrian state television said the army was "regrouping" and that a "successful evacuation" had taken place.

On Tuesday, UN investigators said Islamic State militants had committed "mass atrocities" in Syria and had recruited children as fighters.

Their report said public killings were a "common spectacle" in areas run by the jihadist group and that local people were forced to watch.

At the same time, the investigators said that Syrian government forces had also committed atrocities by dropping barrel bombs and chlorine gas from helicopters, shelling hospitals and torturing and killing civilians.

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Iceland examines volcano 'cauldrons'

28 August 2014 Last updated at 12:40

Scientists in Iceland say they are examining several 'cauldrons' found near Bardarbunga volcano, which could potentially be a sign of an eruption.

The cauldrons, depressions in the volcano's surface, each between 10-15m (49 ft) deep and 1km (0.6 miles) wide, were seen during a flight on Wednesday.

Iceland's Met Office said they were formed "as a result of melting, possibly a sub-glacial eruption."

Bardarbunga volcano has been hit by several recent tremors.

The area experienced a magnitude 5.7 earthquake on Tuesday. Experts say these earthquakes are caused as magma flows beneath the ground, cracking the rocks as it moves.

The Met Office has kept its aviation warning level - indicating the potential threat of volcanic activity to air travel - at orange, its second-highest.

'Sinkholes formed'

Scientists discovered the new cauldrons south of the Bardarbunga volcano during a surveillance flight over Vatnajokull glacier on Wednesday night, the Met Office and Civil Protection Department said.

It is not clear when they were formed, and the data is still being examined, they said.

They added that they had not observed increased tremors in the area so far.

Meanwhile, the University of Iceland tweeted: "New fractures and sinkholes seen on #Bardarbunga during surveillance flight tonight. Data currently being evaluated by our geologists & IMO [Icelandic Met Office]".

However it cautioned that the sighting was limited by poor visibility, and said more information would be available after a second surveillance flight on Thursday morning.

Flooding risk

Bardarbunga is part of a large volcano system hidden beneath the 500m-thick (1,600ft) Vatnajokull glacier in central Iceland.

The authorities said on Saturday that a small eruption had taken place under the Dyngjujokull ice cap, part of the same volcano system, but that there were no signs that gases or ash had broken through the ice.

The region, located more than 300km (190 miles) from the capital Reykjavik, has no permanent residents but sits within a national park popular with tourists.

Officials have previously warned that any eruption could result in flooding north of the glacier.

Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted in 2010, producing ash that disrupted air travel across Europe.

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Ebola spreads to Nigeria oil hub

28 August 2014 Last updated at 13:02

Nigeria has confirmed its first Ebola death outside Lagos – a doctor in the oil hub of Port Harcourt.

His wife has been put under quarantine, while a further 70 people in the city are under surveillance.

Latest figures show more than 1,550 people have died of Ebola, with at least 3,000 confirmed cases - mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the total number of cases could potentially exceed 20,000.

In an action plan to deal with the outbreak, the WHO said that "the actual number of cases may be 2-4 fold higher than that currently reported" in some areas.

Speaking to reporters, the WHO assistant director-general, Bruce Aylward, said the possibility of 20,000 cases "is a scale that I think has not ever been anticipated in terms of an Ebola outbreak".

He added: "That's not saying we expect 20,000... but we have got to have a system in place that we can deal with robust numbers.''

This unprecedented outbreak is currently out of control as medical agencies struggle to cope with the increasing number of cases on the ground and continue to face hostility from communities in certain affected areas, the BBC's West Africa correspondent Thomas Fessy reports.

Before any results are seen on the ground, the number of infected people will probably continue to grow given that most treatment centres are already operating at full capacity, our correspondent adds.

Vaccine trial

West Africa's health ministers are meeting in Ghana to discuss how to tackle the world's most deadly Ebola outbreak.

Meanwhile, an international health consortium says that a trial vaccine against Ebola could be given to healthy volunteers in the UK in September, followed by trials in The Gambia and Mali.

Ebola Virus Disease (EVD)

• Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage
• Fatality rate can reach 90% - but current outbreak has mortality rate of about 55%
• Incubation period is two to 21 days
• There is no vaccine or cure
• Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and vomiting can help recovery
• Fruit bats, a delicacy for some West Africans, are considered to be virus's natural host

Ebola was taken to Nigeria by Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian-American man who travelled to Lagos before dying.

One of his contacts evaded Nigeria's surveillance team and travelled to Port Harcourt, where he sought medical treatment, Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said.

Although the man later recovered, the doctor who treated him died and tests showed he had Ebola, the minister said.

The doctor had died last Friday but the results of the tests have only just been announced by the health minister.

The doctor who treated Mr Sawyer also died.

Nigeria schools shut

More than 240 health workers have been infected with Ebola - a rate which the World Health Organization (WHO) said was "unprecedented".

It noted that in many cases protective suits, even rubber gloves and face masks, were not available.

The doctor becomes the sixth fatality in Nigeria, which is Africa's most populous country.

On Wednesday, Nigeria announced that schools would not reopen until 13 October in order to try and contain the disease.

Nigerian voices: Ali Sadiq, public servant based in Abuja

"The postponement of the schools' resumption by the federal government is a good move but the extension is too long. I can't imagine my two kids wasting six more weeks at home. Two to three weeks would have been enough for all that."

Mixed reaction to Nigeria schools closure

Are you in the affected regions? Your can send your experiences to haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk

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'Russian troops deployed' in Ukraine

28 August 2014 Last updated at 13:10

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Ukrainian officials have expressed a great deal of worry and concern, as David Stern reports

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has cancelled a visit to Turkey, citing "Russian troop deployments" in the east of the country.

Mr Poroshenko said his place was in Kiev in view of a sharp deterioration in the situation in Donetsk region.

His remarks came as pro-Russia rebels took the coast town of Novoazovsk and threatened the strategic port city of Mariupol, in the region's south.

Russia said no forces were crossing Ukraine's border "at any point".

The rebel successes constitute the opening of a new front in the conflict.

Mr Poroshenko said he was calling a meeting of the Ukrainian security council.

He added that Ukraine would initiate an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the crisis.

"I have made a decision to cancel my working visit to the Republic of Turkey due to sharp aggravation of the situation in Donetsk region... as Russian troops were actually brought into Ukraine," Mr Poroshenko's statement said.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk said Russia had "unleashed a war in Europe" and said the world should take "effective steps".

A Nato official said he believed there were more than 1,000 Russian troops operating inside Ukraine, both supporting the separatists and fighting on their side.

But Russia's envoy at the Organisation for Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE), Andrey Kelin, denied there were any Russian troops.

Government forces had made significant advances against the separatists in recent weeks, but these gains seem in doubt with rebels now operating in two distinct areas of Donetsk region.

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Ukrainian prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk: "Russian military boots are on Ukrainian ground'

All Russians 'volunteers'

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said that Russia has been sending troops and equipment to the rebels, but Russia has denied arming or covertly supporting them.

Separatist leader Alexander Zakharchenko told Russian TV that 3-4,000 Russian citizens were fighting in their ranks.

He said many of the Russians were former service-people or current service personnel on leave, insisting that all were volunteers.

In other developments:

• An "increasing number of Russian troops" are involved in the fighting, the US ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, wrote on Twitter
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel demanded an explanation from Russia's President Vladimir Putin amid the reports of an incursion
• French President Francois Hollande said it would be "intolerable" if Russian troops were in Ukraine, and demanded that Russia stop sending aid to the rebels
• The OSCE is holding a special meeting in Vienna to discuss developments in Ukraine.

Ukraine's security and defence council confirmed reports that Novoazovsk had been captured by the rebels, whom they described as "Russian troops".

It said it had withdrawn its forces to save lives, and that Ukrainian soldiers were now reinforcing Mariupol's defences.

A Ukrainian company commander, Vladimir Shilov, told Ukrainian TV that he had heard from sources inside the town that it was blocked by tanks and no-one was allowed to leave. Local officials had already fled to Mariupol, he added.

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Francois Hollande: "If it were to be proven that Russian soldiers are on Ukrainian soil, this would be intolerable and unacceptable"

A spokesman for the rebels told Interfax news agency that Novoazovsk was under their control and they would soon "liberate" Mariupol.

Reports on Twitter suggested the rebels were already advancing towards Mariupol, and rebels said they had captured checkpoints to the west of the city.

The port has until now been peaceful and cut off from rebel positions.

Rebels have been trying for weeks to break out of an area further north in the Donetsk region where they are almost encircled.

Analysts say the separatists could also be seeking a land link between Russia and Crimea, which also would give them control over the entire Sea of Azov.

Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in March.

War in eastern Ukraine: The human cost

• At least 2,119 people had been killed and 5,043 wounded since mid-April, a UN report on 7 August said
• 951 civilians have been killed in Donetsk region alone, the official regional authorities said on 20 August
• Official casualty counts only record certified deaths while in some particularly dangerous parts of the war zone, such as Luhansk region, victims are said to have been buried informally, for instance in gardens
• Rebels (and some military sources) accuse the government of concealing the true numbers of soldiers killed
• 155,800 people have fled elsewhere in Ukraine while at least 188,000 have gone to Russia

Are you in south-east Ukraine? Have you been affected by recent events in the area? You can send us your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.

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