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BBC News, I'm John Shea.
Rescue workers in Myanmar have described scenes of utter devastation in Mandalay, the city closest to the epicenter of Friday's earthquake. Many buildings have collapsed and they're digging to reach people trapped under the rubble. It's thought that hundreds or even thousands were killed across the country. Soe Win Tan is the head of the BBC's Burmese service. It's a major devastation. Like, you know, Mandalay is very close to the epicenter. Mandalay is much more flat. There's not many high-rise buildings. Even those kind of short or not very tall buildings are flattened. We saw mosques, we saw religious buildings, monasteries, you know, collapsed. We have a reporter based in Mandalay. Then she recently gave birth a baby. The wall of her kitchen just collapsed, barely missed her. They are still sleeping outside because people were so scared to go back into their homes because tremors are going through all throughout the day. Myanmar's military ruler, Min Ong Hlaing, has appealed for international help. Rescuers in Thailand have been working through the night using floodlights and drones to try to locate dozens of people trapped under the rubble of a high-rise building in Bangkok. The skyscraper, which was under construction, collapsed following the impact of the Myanmar earthquake. Nick Marsh is there. What was supposed to be a new government's office is now a mountain of debris under which dozens of workers remain trapped. Rescuers have been here for hours, desperately searching for any signs of life. And their task is huge. First, they had to remove the enormous metal girders that had held the building up. Then they began the painstaking process of combing through the rubble. No matter what they find, tragedy has come to Thailand, more than a thousand kilometers from the epicenter of the earthquake. The U.S. vice president, J.D. Vance, has accused Denmark of under-investing in the security of Greenland, leaving its territory vulnerable at a time when China and Russia are showing increasing interest. With more, here's Andrew Harding. Speaking at a remote U.S. military base in northern Greenland, J.D. Vance said America could offer a better deal to the inhabitants of this vast island. Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to annex Greenland. Mr. Vance suggested that if the island became independent, as it may well do in the years to come, it could then choose to join the United States. The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, bristled at some of the American criticisms, but said more focus was needed on Arctic security. The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, says he's told Donald Trump that Ottawa will impose retaliatory tariffs on American goods from early April. The two leaders held their first call since Mr. Carney took office earlier this month. Mr. Trump, who's suggested Canada become the 51st state, called the talks productive. World news from the BBC. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said the army will strike everywhere in Lebanon against any threat. He said the army would continue to use force to implement a November cease-fire with Hezbollah. Israel's military said it had hit a Hezbollah target on Friday in southern Beirut after two rockets were fired from Lebanon towards Israel. Hezbollah has denied any involvement. With more, here's Carine Torbey. Luckily, it seems that everyone managed to leave the area before the building was struck. But the damage has been psychological. It woke up the trauma of everyone in Lebanon, especially people living near the southern suburb of Beirut, and more so for the kids around that area, because the building that was targeted was a few meters away from a big school. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, says his government is scrutinizing the text of the latest minerals deal it's received from the United States. He described it as an "entirely different" document from the earlier framework agreement reached with the Trump administration to ensure continued U.S. support. Mr. Zelenskyy said it included many things that had not been discussed, as well as others that had already been discarded. Sweden's foreign minister says a Swedish journalist has been detained on arrival in Turkey, where he was to report on continuing anti-government protests. Joakim Medin, who works for the newspaper, Dagens ETC, has been in custody since his arrest on Thursday. The M23 rebel group in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has agreed to facilitate the immediate evacuation of Southern African Development Community troops from the region. The 16-nation regional bloc decided to end the deployment earlier this month. Over a dozen SADC soldiers have been killed in the ongoing conflict. The forces will be permitted to leave with their weapons and equipment via Goma Airport. BBC News. |