Limited ceasefire under way in Gaza

4 August 2014 Last updated at 12:23

A seven-hour "humanitarian window" announced by Israel has come into effect in parts of Gaza.

A senior Israeli military official said the ceasefire would not apply to the town of Rafah and that Israeli troops would respond if they were attacked.

Palestinian officials have accused Israel of breaking the truce with a strike on a house in Gaza City.

The Israeli announcement came after a attack near a UN-run school in Gaza on Sunday sparked international outrage.

Palestinian officials said at least 10 people died in the attack on Sunday.

Earlier, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that they had begun withdrawing some troops from Gaza, saying they were "extremely close" to completing their mission to destroy a network of tunnels.

Health officials in Gaza say 1,800 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed and more than 9,000 injured since the conflict began nearly four weeks ago.

Sixty-six Israelis have died, all but two of them soldiers. A Thai national working in Israel was also killed.

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Martin Patience in Gaza and Bethany Bell in Jerusalem on reports of an explosion after the start of the latest ceasefire

Martin Patience, BBC News, Gaza

Previous ceasefires and truces have all come and gone in Gaza. Most have crumbled within a matter of hours. And while Israel has announced a "humanitarian window", nobody here has any faith in it.

Israel says that it will continue its military operations close to the southern town of Rafah. Just minutes after the ceasefire got under way, Palestinians say Israel carried out in airstrike inside Gaza city - an area that was supposed to be covered by the truce.

We heard the explosion at our Gaza bureau. A BBC team saw a house that had been destroyed - locals say that at least one person died and others were injured in the attack. There's yet to be any word from the Israeli military. But it's for this reason that Palestinians say that no place in Gaza is safe - ceasefire or not.

Bethany Bell, BBC News, Jerusalem

The news that the Israeli army has redeployed some of its troops along the Gaza border and announced a partial humanitarian ceasefire for a few hours, has prompted some speculation that it may be trying to wind down the military operation unilaterally, without an agreed ceasefire with Hamas.

But it is by no means clear that an end to the fighting is in sight. The offensive around Rafah, near the Egyptian border, continues, possibly to try and make it harder for Hamas to re-arm in future. And the army may be searching for more cross border tunnels that it has not yet identified.

There is intense international pressure on Israel to negotiate a long-term ceasefire. For now, Israel appears to be ignoring those calls, but it hasn't ruled out a possible diplomatic solution.

Violation of truce?

Hamas responded to the truce with suspicion, accusing the IDF of trying to "divert the attention from Israeli massacres".

Palestinian health officials claim Israel carried out an air strike on a refugee camp inside Gaza City just minutes after the ceasefire began.

BBC correspondents there said they heard the explosion and saw a house that had been destroyed in the attack.

Reports suggest the strike killed a young girl and injured at least 15 others, many of them women and children.

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"The UN says Israel has killed around 330 Palestinian children in under 30 days", reports Orla Guerin in Gaza

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The BBC's James Reynolds: "This does not yet look like the end of war"

Israel's temporary ceasefire - aimed at allowing Palestinians to return to their homes - would not include Rafah because there was an "Israeli military presence" there and "clashes were still ongoing", the IDF said.

The truce began at 10:00 local time (07:00 GMT) and is due to last until 17:00 (14:00 GMT). The Israeli army warned that it would "respond to any attempt to exploit this window" by Islamist militants.

Israeli air strikes on Gaza and Palestinian militant rocket fire launched at Israel continued on Monday morning ahead of the planned ceasefire.

The Islamic Jihad group said its commander in northern Gaza, Daniel Mansour, died when Israeli forces struck his home just before dawn.

'Disgraceful shelling'

More than a quarter of the 1.8 million residents in the Palestinian territory have been displaced in the most recent hostilities.

Many of those who have fled their homes have taken refuge in UN shelters across Gaza, including the UN-run school in Rafah which was hit on Sunday.

The IDF said it had targeted three Islamist militants near the school.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon described the Israeli strike as "a criminal act" and the US said it was appalled by the "disgraceful shelling".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said Israel was "sorry for any attack that unintentionally hits civilians", but accused Hamas of turning UN facilities into "terrorist hotspots".

The IDF says 2,560 rockets and mortars fired from Gaza have landed in Israel since 8 July, and that its Iron Dome defence system has intercepted another 556 rockets.

Are you in Gaza or Israel? Have you been affected by the violence? You can send us your views and experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk using the subject line "Gaza Israel". If you are willing to feature in an interview, please ensure you include your contact details and a photograph of yourself to help us illustrate the story.

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India evacuations over flood fears

4 August 2014 Last updated at 07:23

Authorities in India have evacuated 60,000 people in the northern state of Bihar amid fears of flash floods from Nepal, officials say.

Water levels in the Kosi river, which originates in Nepal, rose dramatically after a landslide there on Saturday killed 19 and left scores missing.

Officials say a huge amount of water has accumulated in a lake-like formation on the Nepal side.

Nearly 400 were killed in Bihar in 2008 after a dam on the Kosi burst in Nepal.

Officials said Saturday's landslide had created a mud wall that was blocking the Sunkoshi river which flows downstream into the Kosi.

On Sunday, the Nepalese army carried out controlled explosions to knock down part of the earth wall, allowing some water to flow out but much of it remained trapped.

Officials said the situation in Bihar was "not alarming" but this water could inundate villages and farms if the dam across the border suddenly broke.

"It would affect a large part of the state and may hit hundreds of thousands of people," news agency AFP quoted Vyasji Mishra, principal secretary of Bihar's disaster management department, as saying.

Disaster response teams and boats had been deployed for rescue operations with six military helicopters and navy diving teams on standby, the Indian government said in a statement.

Doctors and medical equipment were being sent to the state.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is visiting Nepal, "expressed concern" over the possible flooding and "directed that all possible assistance should be made available", the statement added.

'Very scared'

As a precautionary measure, villagers living along the Kosi river have been moved to 107 shelters set up by the government.

"Ours is a small village with few hundred people. Water entered our homes so we had to evacuate. I have been lucky to get my goats along. We are very scared. It reminds me of 2008 when we were hit by terrible floods," Mithilesh Das told BBC Hindi.

"My village is completely under water. My house, my cattle - I have lost everything. My family is safe but I don't know what will happen now. I have lost everything. How will we live? I wonder why the river is so furious?" said Rekha Devi of Saharsa district.

Meanwhile, rescue operations are continuing in northern Nepal where more than 150 people are still believed trapped under the rubble.

Piles of rock and mud fell on dozens of homes in Mankha village, about 120km (75 miles) east of Nepal's capital Kathmandu on Saturday morning.

In some places, bulldozers and excavators were being used to dig through the debris.

Officials, however, say chances of find anyone alive are slim.

"We have no chance of finding any of the missing people alive under this pile of debris," Associated Press quoted Yadav Prasad Koirala, head of the Department of Natural Disaster Management, as saying.

"We have the names of 159 people who are believed to be missing and buried, but there could be even more people," he added.

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Race to rescue China quake survivors

4 August 2014 Last updated at 10:03

China has sent 2,500 soldiers to the south-west province of Yunnan after an earthquake killed hundreds of people.

At least 398 people died and more than 1,800 were injured when the magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck on Sunday.

Chinese troops with life-detection instruments and digging equipment are on their way to the region to help with rescue efforts.

State broadcaster CCTV said the earthquake was the strongest to hit the mountainous province in 14 years.

President Xi Jinping called for "all-out efforts" to find survivors as he dispatched soldiers to the area.

They will join more than 300 police and firefighters from Zhaotong and about 400 emergency workers and sniffer dogs from across Yunnan province in the rescue operation.

Premier Li Keqiang was also heading to the area, Xinhua news agency said.

Xinhua reported that 12,000 houses had been destroyed and about 30,000 damaged.

The government had sent 2,000 tents, 3,000 folding beds, 3,000 quilts and 3,000 coats to the disaster zone, Xinhua said.

But rescuers trying to deliver the much-needed supplies are struggling to reach the area, reports the BBC's Celia Hatton in Beijing.

Unrelenting rain and persisting landslides have left many roads in the region too damaged to use, she adds.

Chen Wangchang, head of Ludian County hospital in Yunnan's Zhaotong City, said temporary tented medical facilities had been set up.

"All the houses had already collapsed when we arrived. Dead bodies were everywhere and there were a lot of injured people."

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"Those that could rushed to the safety of the outdoors", reports John Sudworth

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the focus of the earthquake was at a relatively shallow depth of 10km (six miles) below the Zhaotong region, in the north-east of the province.

It hit at 16:30 local time (08:30 GMT) on Sunday.

State television broadcast footage of people fleeing their homes after the earthquake, which knocked out electricity supplies and communication lines in the region.

"The walls of several buildings crumbled, and water pipes were ruptured," one local resident wrote on Weibo, China's Twitter-like service.

Another local told Xinhua that the streets there were like a "battlefield after bombardment", adding that her neighbour's house, a new two-storey building, had collapsed.

A spokesman for UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the secretary-general was "saddened by the loss of life" while the White House offered its condolences and said the US "stands ready to assist."

South-west China lies in an area that is prone to earthquakes.

An earthquake in Sichuan in 2008 killed tens of thousands of people while a magnitude 7.7 quake in Yunnan in 1970 killed at least 15,000.

Are you in Yunnan or the neighbouring provinces? Have you been affected by the earthquake? You can share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk using the subject line " Yunnan earthquake".

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Russia in air exercises near Ukraine

4 August 2014 Last updated at 10:35

Russia's defence ministry has announced it is holding military exercises this week involving 100 aircraft in the west of the country near the Ukraine border.

A spokesman said fighter jets, helicopters and the latest bombers would take part in the operation.

Every time Russia announces a new round of military exercises it is seen as a show of strength in the conflict with Ukraine, a BBC correspondent says.

Ukraine says it is gaining ground against rebels in the country's east.

Civilians there are preparing for a siege as government forces close in on the rebel-held cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Residents are stockpiling food and supplies and are sleeping in basements, with reports suggesting Luhansk is virtually surrounded and without power.

Western governments and Ukraine accuse Russia of supplying heavy weapons and volunteers to the pro-Russian rebels, who have declared independence from Kiev.

Russia denies supplying such hardware to the rebels, while condemning Kiev's military offensive in the east.

The Russian spokesman did not mention Ukraine in his announcement on the military exercise. He told the Interfax news agency that the exercise was the first in a series intended to improve the unity of the air force.

He said it would involve Sukhoi Su-27 and MiG-31 fighter jets, Mi-24 and Mi-28 helicopters and Russia's newest frontline bomber, the Sukhoi Su-34.

Russia has previously been accused of boosting its troops and weaponry along the border with Ukraine.

Stray troops

A group of Ukrainian soldiers is reported to have retreated into Russian territory because they ran out of ammunition during fighting with the separatists.

At one point during the fighting, soldiers of the 72nd motorised brigade split into two groups, the Ukrainian news agency Unian reports.

Then one of the groups ran out of ammunition and supplies, and some of their military vehicles on the battlefield were damaged, prompting them to flee across the border, a spokesman for the Ukrainian "anti-terrorist" operation in Donbass told the RBK-Ukraina news website.

Unian did not mention in its report how many soldiers were involved, but a Russian security official said that there were more than 400.

The soldiers have asked for asylum in Russia, according to the official from Russia's FSB intelligence service in the Rostov region, just across the border from Ukraine.

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Thai surrogate baby case disputed

4 August 2014 Last updated at 11:13

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Footage shows Gammy in hospital, being cared for by his Thai surrogate mother

The Australian parents and the Thai surrogate mother of a baby who has Down's syndrome have given conflicting accounts of how he was left behind.

Pattharamon Chanbua, 21, was paid by the couple to have their child. But they took home only one baby when she had twins, leaving behind Gammy.

The parents of baby Gammy have told local media that they only knew about his healthy twin sister.

But the surrogate said the father visited the twins in the hospital.

Ms Chanbua has claimed that she was asked by the couple to have an abortion once they knew about Gammy's condition. But she refused as it was against her Buddhist beliefs.

She plans to keep Gammy and raise him as her own child. Besides Down's syndrome, the six-month-old baby has a congenital heart condition and a lung infection.

The case has made international headlines and caused an uproar particularly in Australia, where both Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Immigration Minister Scott Morrison have expressed regret over the situation.

The parents reportedly told Channel 9 that they had a daughter of Gammy's age but she did not have a brother.

They said they had experienced trouble with the surrogacy agency, describing it as "traumatising".

The unnamed couple, who live south of Perth, also denied any knowledge of a son to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"We saw a few people at the hospital. We [didn't] know who the surrogate was - it was very confusing. There was a language barrier," they said.

They added that they had saved for a long time to pay for the surrogacy and it had "taken every cent we have". They have been told that the agency now no longer exists, claims the father.

But Ms Chanbua told Fairfax Media that the father, who is in his 50s, "came to the hospital to take care of the girl but never looked Gammy in the face or carried him", even though the two babies stayed next to each other.

She also said she was now considering suing the parents.

Politicians have since weighed in, with Mr Abbott calling it an "incredibly sad story". He said the Australian government would look into the case,

Mr Morrison meanwhile said that the law surrounding the case was "very, very murky" and noted that the case had happened in another country's jurisdiction.

His office told the Associated Press news agency that Gammy might be eligible for Australian citizenship. If he became a citizen, he would be entitled to free medical care in Australia.

The Attorney-General's Department said in a statement sent to the BBC that, together with Thai authorities, the Australian government was now examining "broader legal and other issues relating to surrogacy in Thailand".

It is illegal to pay for surrogacy in Australia, so couples have to find a surrogate who is happy to carry the child for no payment beyond medical and other reasonable expenses.

The difficulty in finding such surrogates has prompted some Australians to head overseas for commercial surrogacy arrangements.

So far only three Australian states - the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and Queensland - ban their residents from doing so. Gammy's biological parents reside in Western Australia.

Commercial surrogacy is largely unregulated in Thailand and is a flourishing industry, although the military government is now looking into cracking down on clinics following Ms Chanbua's case, report agencies.

An online fundraising campaign so far has raised more than $210,000 (£124,800) to help her with Gammy's medical expenses.

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Mexican mayor shot dead in Jalisco

4 August 2014 Last updated at 11:24

The mayor of the town of Ayutla in the Mexican state of Jalisco has been shot dead by unidentified gunmen.

The mayor, Manuel Gomez Torres, was killed with one of his employees as he returned to his farm on Sunday evening.

The motive for the killing is not yet clear, but police said they suspected a criminal gang to be behind it.

A little more than a month ago, the deputy police chief of Ayutla was also killed. No-one has been arrested for the killing so far.

Ayutla is a small town located in the Sierra Madre mountains in Jalisco state.

The state is the stronghold of the Jalisco New Generation cartel, which runs much of the large-scale drug trafficking along Mexico's Pacific Coast.

The Mexican Local Government Association has urged the authorities to investigate the case, which it says is one of more than 50 unsolved murders of local leaders in the past seven years.

According to figures (in Spanish) released in July by Mexico's National Institute of Federal Statistics, there were almost 3,500 fewer murders in 2013 than in 2012.

But some analysts have suggested that this may be down to the fact that relatives prefer to falsely register their loved ones' deaths as due to natural causes.

Mexico's murder rate peaked in 2011, when 27,213 people were killed, many of them in drug-related violence.

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River ferry capsizes in Bangladesh

4 August 2014 Last updated at 11:44

A ferry carrying about 200 passengers has capsized south-west of Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, officials say.

The bodies of two people have been recovered from the River Padma where the boat went down in Munshiganj district, 30km (20 miles) from Dhaka.

Emergency teams have rescued 100 people from the vessel, the Pinak-6.

Accidents are common on Bangladesh's river network and scores of people are killed every year, with overcrowding and poor boat quality often to blame.

Boats are the main form of travel in some rural parts of the country.

It was not immediately clear what caused Monday's accident.

"We have heard that the ferry was overloaded with passengers and the river was rough," local police chief Tofazzal Hossain told AFP news agency.

In May about 50 people died when a ferry sank in the same district.

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Liberia orders Ebola cremations

4 August 2014 Last updated at 12:39

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The BBC's Tulip Mazumdar witnessed the burial of an Ebola patient

Liberia's government has ordered that all bodies of people killed by the Ebola virus must be cremated.

The decision follows the refusal of some communities to allow the burial of Ebola victims on their land.

Ebola has claimed 728 lives in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone this year, the worst-ever outbreak.

It spreads by contact with infected blood and bodily fluids - and touching the body of someone who has died of Ebola is particularly dangerous.

The BBC's Jonathan Paye-Layleh in the capital, Monrovia, says cremation is not part of the culture in Liberia and health experts say burial ceremonies have played a role in the transmission of the virus.

Meanwhile, the US is planning to send at least 50 public health experts within the next 30 days to help contain the outbreak.

"We do know how to stop Ebola," said Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about the new US measures in an interview with ABC's This Week.

"It's old-fashioned plain and simple public health: Find the patients, make sure they get treated, find their contacts, track them, educate people, do infection control in hospitals."

There is no cure or vaccine for Ebola - but patients have a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment.

The current outbreak is killing between 50% and 60% of people infected.

Initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external haemorrhaging from areas like eyes and gums, and internal bleeding which can lead to organ failure.

Hand-washing warning

Liberia's Information Minister Lewis Brown made the announcement on state radio about cremations after an incident over the weekend when a community refused to allow the burial of some bodies, most of them Ebola victims.

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Ebola explained in 60 seconds

Thirty-four bodies were buried but the protests meant 12 were left out in the open for a day until it was decided to cremate them on Sunday, Deputy Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah told the BBC.

Mr Brown also warned that businesses that did not install hand-washing facilities would be shut down.

Ebola virus disease (EVD)

• Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage
• Fatality rate can reach 90%
• 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 are considered to be virus' natural host

Our reporter says the call for hand washing as part of the preventive measures has led to a boom in the sale of tap buckets in Monrovia.

On Friday, Margaret Chan, head of the World Health Organization, met the leaders of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to launch a new $100m (£59m) Ebola response plan.

In Sierra Leone, the army is in the process of deploying to the east of the country to help health officials quarantine areas affected by Ebola.

Code-named Operation Octopus, the deployment, which includes military doctors and nurses, began on Sunday and is expected to take three days.

Ebola since 1976

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French and German leaders mark WW1

3 August 2014 Last updated at 11:28

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President Francois Hollande: "A mechanised madness was set in train... and a hellish exercise begun"

The French and German presidents have been commemorating the 100th anniversary of Germany's declaration of war on France on 3 August 1914.

Francois Hollande and his German counterpart, Joachim Gauck, made a joint tribute in Alsace to soldiers killed during World War One.

They were to lay the first stone for a memorial at Vieil Armand cemetery.

On Monday, events will be held in Belgium to mark the UK's declaration of war on Germany.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron will take part in that ceremony in recognition of the day that the UK went to war.

Some 30,000 men were killed in the mountains around Vieil Armand, known in German as Hartmannswillerkopf.

The cemetery there contains the remains of 12,000 unidentified soldiers.

Mr Hollande and Mr Gauck have been paying tribute to the sacrifice those men made and celebrated the importance of the modern Franco-German relationship in Europe.

They were to lay the foundation stone for a Great War memorial and exhibition centre on the site, which is due to open its doors to the public in 2017.

The two leaders will meet again on Monday in the Belgian city of Liege, where heads of state from across Europe will mark the escalation of the war after Germany invaded Belgium.

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Lethal flood hits Italy festival

3 August 2014 Last updated at 09:53

Four people have been killed and 20 others injured after a flash flood tore through a festival in northern Italy.

Reports from the scene talk of panic as a mud-filled torrent swept people away late on Saturday night at the festival at Refrontolo, north of Venice.

The event, by an old mill house beneath a waterfall, was meant to celebrate and promote the attractions of the area.

But during the festivities, there was a burst of very heavy rain and a wall of water suddenly ripped through the area.

According to the local media, some panic-stricken party-goers managed to cling to trees while the muddy torrent raged around them.

But others were swept to their death in the flood, which also carried away cars and tents.

The rescue operation went out throughout the night; divers are continuing to look for more victims.

Other villages in the area were also affected by landslides caused by the rain, reports say.

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