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BBC News with Sue Montgomery.
Pakistan has accused India of bringing the nuclear-armed neighbors closer to a major conflict as the total number of confirmed dead after three days of missile, artillery and drone attacks passes 50. The Indian military said it had repulsed waves of Pakistani assaults on Friday, using drones and other munitions. Pakistan's army spokesman denied that Islamabad was carrying out such attacks, saying it was only defending itself. The White House press secretary, Caroline Leavitt, said President Trump has expressed his desire to see the conflict de-escalate as quickly as possible. "He understands these are two countries that have been at odds with one another for decades long before President Trump was here in the Oval Office. However, he has good relationships with the leaders of both countries, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, I spoke to him, he has been in constant communication with the leaders of both countries trying to bring this conflict to an end." The five European members of the U.N. Security Council - the U.K., France, Denmark, Greece and Slovenia - have called for an urgent meeting on the desperate humanitarian situation in Gaza. It's likely to be scheduled for Tuesday. Here's Charles Haviland. The British delegation said Israel's blockage of aid for over two months was inexcusable and did nothing to free Israeli hostages. It said Palestinians were at severe risk of starving. UNICEF says the same. A regular scene in Gaza is of crowds surging forward to get what little food is available. Little children can be seen collapsing in despair in the crush. Water is also scarce, while medics are dealing with masses of traumatic injuries. The five European nations on the Security Council say the Gaza cease-fire must be reinstated with a surge of aid into the Strip. The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Poland have called on Russia to agree to an unconditional 30-day cease-fire in its war in Ukraine. The demand builds on a proposal put forward by President Trump, which President Putin has so far not agreed to. On Saturday, the four European leaders will visit Ukraine for talks with President Zelenskyy. The top federal prosecutor in the U.S. state of New Jersey says New York's mayor, Ras Baraka, has been arrested at an immigration detention center. She said he had trespassed and ignored multiple warnings to leave. Here's Jake Kwon. The video of the arrest shows the New York mayor surrounded by the police. He is then dragged by his arms beyond the prison gate while his supporters scream for his release. He is accused of trespassing, but the mayor's ally said he was there to inspect the prison for violation of local laws. Mass deportation of immigrants who are undocumented or accused of crime has been Mr. Trump's main agenda. The arrest is the latest clash between Mr. Trump and local officials. BBC News. A Tufts University student has been released from an immigration detention center in the U.S. after a federal judge granted her bail. Rumeysa Ozturk was seized by masked officers and detained in March after writing an opinion piece criticizing Tufts' response to Israel's war in Gaza. Her lawyers argued her arrest was unlawful. The authorities in Ecuador say at least eight soldiers have been killed in a clash with a Colombian criminal group in the country's Amazon region. The attorney general's office said the military were carrying out an operation against illegal gold mining when they were attacked by members of the Border Command gang. The British former mercenary, Simon Mann, who once led a botched coup attempt to overthrow the despotic government of Equatorial Guinea, has died aged 72. He led a group of 70 heavily armed men who were arrested in Zimbabwe in 2004. Part of a Soviet spacecraft is expected to crash back down to Earth on Saturday, with experts still unsure where it will hit. Cosmos 482 was launched in 1972 heading for Venus, but it failed to escape orbit. Here's Pallab Ghosh. Cosmos 482 failed to escape low Earth orbit and broke into four pieces shortly after launch. And it's only now that one of these fragments, most probably the lander, will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. Spacecraft do this almost on a daily basis and usually burn up on re-entry. But the Soviet-built probe was designed to survive the descent into Venus' harsh, acidic atmosphere, so there's a chance that some of it could remain intact and land on Earth. This means it could potentially land anywhere from as far north as London to as far south as the southern tip of South America. But the chances of it impacting on a populated area are tiny. BBC News. |