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BBC News with Roisin Hastie.
Teams of firefighters, soldiers and volunteers are continuing efforts to rescue any survivors of the powerful earthquake that hit western Colombia on Monday. In some areas, they've been forming human chains to remove bits of rubble by hand. There was loud applause at one site in Cali when a woman was pulled out alive after a 16-hour operation to extract her. María José Torres Macho is the United Nations resident coordinator in Bogota. "Most of the health institutions and hospitals have been down and even schools that is normally using Colombia for emergency and people gathering together once their homes are destroyed. So shelter is also a need, electricity, water and sanitation. So it's a pretty dire situation. The good news in this catastrophic event is that coordination has been extremely effective with the national authorities on the lead and the humanitarian team on the ground." Venezuela and Israel have agreed to re-establish consular relations nearly two decades after they cut diplomatic ties with each other. Steve Jackson reports. The Venezuelan government severed ties with Israel in 2009 in protest at a military offensive in Gaza. The relationship had been hostile ever since. But the toppling of Nicolás Maduro and the handing of power to his successor, Delcy Rodríguez, has changed the equation. She has been running the country under pressure from President Trump to adopt policies closer to Washington. Israel provided humanitarian assistance following June's earthquakes that killed more than 6,000 Venezuelans. The two countries today issued a joint statement saying Venezuela's Jewish population had served as an important bridge between them. Egypt's health ministry says at least 18 people, mostly children aged 13 and 14, have been killed in a collision between two trucks in the northeast of the country. Officials say at least 32 others were injured. The vehicles were transporting agricultural labors in Ismailia government when the accident occurred. The Zimbabwean authorities say 15 bodies have been recovered after a passenger ferry capsized on Lake Kariba. They say 77 people have been rescued but 27 are missing. Paddy Maguire reports. Zimbabwe's National Disaster Management Agency said the ferry had been overloaded when it set off. An inspection of ticket sales confirmed there were 114 adult passengers on board, plus five crew and an unknown number of children below ticketing age. The vessel was authorized to carry only 90 people. Footage shared online appears to show the overturned hull floating in the water. Search and rescue efforts are continuing. Lake Kariba straddles the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia and is one of the world's largest manmade reservoirs, supporting transport and fishing and providing vital hydroelectric power to both countries. BBC News. The U.N. in Afghanistan says two of its staff members have been arrested by the Taliban intelligence agency. It said it had not had access to them for two days. The office of the U.N. secretary general said it had not been informed of the charges against them or been allowed to see them. The Taliban authorities have not yet commented. U.S. Central Command says one of its helicopters fired missiles at a cargo ship that attempted to breach Washington's blockade of Iranian ports. U.S. military officials say the engine room of the Panama-flagged vessel was hit after it ignored repeated warnings. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Iran has demanded an end to the blockade as a condition for reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The British government is supporting a plan to extract lithium from abandoned mines in an effort to boost home production of the crucial metal. The project is being awarded about $10 million. Peter Hyatt reports. Cornwall in the far southwest of England used to be famous for its tin mining, memorably portrayed in the Poldark books and television shows. The mines have all been closed for years now, but the granite which held the tin is also rich in other minerals, including lithium, crucial for the batteries which power today's phones and cars. The British government is supporting a project to extract lithium from watercourses running through the granite. The company thinks it might be able to produce nearly 40 percent of Britain's future lithium needs. It also brings new jobs to one of Britain's poorest regions. Today's technology using yesterday's industry to power tomorrow. The Portuguese football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has announced he's married his long-time partner, Georgina Rodríguez. In a post on Instagram, the 41-year-old shared a photo of the couple's hands with wedding bands. Ronaldo's representative said the private and intimate ceremony took place at the Portuguese resort of Cascais, near Lisbon, with their children in attendance. BBC News. |