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BBC News with Chris Barrow.
The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that more than half of his military aims over Iran have been achieved but he didn't want to put a schedule on the timeline for ending the conflict. He was speaking after President Trump threatened to destroy Iran's key oil export hub of Kharg Island along with power and desalination plants unless Tehran quickly accepts the deal. The White House press secretary Caroline Levitt said Iran was increasingly eager to negotiate. "Despite all of the public posturing you hear from the regime and false reporting, talks are continuing and going well. What is said publicly is of course much different than what's being communicated to us privately. As a result President Trump issued a 10-day pause to postpone planned strikes on Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure." Officials in the United Arab Emirates say a Kuwaiti oil tanker in the port of Dubai has been hit in an Iranian air attack sparking a huge fire. Maritime firefighting teams have been working to bring the blaze under control. All 24 crew members are reported to be safe. Earlier Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insisted that Tehran's attacks in the region were not aimed at Gulf countries but at enemy aggressors who he said had no respect for Arabs or Iranians. The United Nations Security Council is to hold an emergency meeting on Tuesday following the deaths of two more U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon where Israeli forces have been fighting the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah. The U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric condemned the killings. "We've had three of our U.N. peacekeepers killed in the last 48 hours. Others have paid the ultimate price serving with UNIFIL. These are soldiers sent there on behalf of the international community, on behalf of the Security Council and everyone needs to ensure that they are protected and never targeted." The Mexican government has said it will be supporting a class-action lawsuit filed earlier this month in the U.S. over the confinement conditions at an immigration processing center in California. The move follows the death last week of a Mexican man, José Guadalupe Ramos, at the Adelanto facility. Will Grant reports. ICE said that Mr. Ramos had been found unconscious and unresponsive in his bunk and following attempts by staff to carry out CPR he was pronounced dead in hospital. At a news conference in California, Mr. Ramos's children said their father's treatment in the ICE facility had been inhumane. He suffered from diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia for which ICE said he had received daily medication to treat his illness. However, questions have been raised as to whether he was given the correct dosage for each illness. The Department of Homeland Security is yet to respond. This is the world news from the BBC. At least 16 people are known to have been killed in a gang attack in central Haiti although the number of dead is expected to rise. The violence involving one of the country's largest gangs took place in the Artibonite region. Australia's internet regulator says it's investigating the world's biggest social media companies for allegedly failing to keep children off their platforms despite a law that came into effect late last year. The legislation bans all under the age of 16 from 10 platforms. The regulator said it had significant concerns about the compliance of the social media companies. They could face fines of over 30 million U.S. dollars. The United States is to resume processing some asylum applications after a crackdown introduced in response to the shooting in November of two National Guard members by an asylum seeker. But asylum seekers from countries regarded as high-risk by Washington will still face restrictions. Bernadette Kehoe reports. Since November, all asylum claims to the U.S. have been halted. Now the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has said it will lift the hold on applications. The restrictions will remain for a range of countries Washington deems high-risk. That's mostly countries in Africa as well as Iran, Afghanistan and Syria. The Trump administration blamed vetting failures dating back to President Biden's time in office for the admission to the U.S. of an Afghan immigrant accused of shooting the National Guard members in November, one of whom later died. The singer Celine Dion has announced her return to the stage four years after she was diagnosed with a rare disease that affected her singing voice. The 58-year-old who's one of the best-selling artists of all time will play a ten-night residency in Paris later this year. She was diagnosed in 2022 with an incurable condition. And that's the latest BBC news. |