BBC News with Sue Montgomery.
The authorities in Nepal say more than 3,500 people are now known to have died in Saturday's catastrophic earthquake. But as rescuers reached the more remote areas, it's feared the figure could rise further. With more aftershocks, many frightened residents of the capital opted to spend Sunday night in vast tented settlements. Sanjoy Majumder is in Katmandu.
“Even in the smarter neighbourhoods, there are people who set out little carpets or brought their mattresses out in front of their homes and have been staying there through the day, through the night. If you walk into the market areas, you can see people sitting on the kerb. All people are just walking around. It looks as almost nobody in the city is indoors at any given moment. Now what the authorities are getting very concerned about is the lack of clean drinking water. In a couple of towns that I'd visited, I'd seen water tankers drive up and long queues of people waiting patiently for fill-up little jerry cans of water. Here, the government is asking the international community to try and send water along with tents at the earliest.”
People in hundreds of remote hillside communities are thought to have been left homeless, but help is still to reach them. The aid agency, Plan Asia, has managed to go into some of these communities. Syandra Keyasta, their Programme Unit Manager, is in Bangalore, 270 kilometres west of Katmandu. He told the BBC the Red Cross has been providing accommodation and medical supplies.
“They are obtaining some tents and some medicine as well, because they are staying outside their home and they are preparing to provide themselves temporary shelter. The problem of this area is damage of their houses and a school building. And some of the areas is very remote. It takes more than 3 hours, 4 hours on walking. There is no road or facilities even before the disaster also, because it lies in the western hill of Nepal.”
Improving weather has allowed helicopters to make the first rescue missions for the hundreds of climbers stranded at Everest Base Camp as they were preparing to attempt the summit.
The Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, says he's written to the Indonesian President, Joko Widodo, asking for mercy for two Australians due to be executed in the next a few days. Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran had been informed by the Indonesian authorities that they could face the firing squad as early as Tuesday. From Sydney, Jon Donnison.
“The two Australians were convicted in 2006 of leading a gang trying to smuggle 8 kilos of heroin out of Indonesia. They were among 8 foreigners, including nationals from Brazil, Nigeria and the Philippines, who were officially informed over the weekend that they would be executed imminently. On Sunday, the Australians were allowed a visit from their brothers, who've also pleaded for their relatives to be spared.”
World News from the BBC.
Opposition activists in Burundi have taken to the streets for a second day to protest against President Pierre Nkurunziza's decision to run for a third term in office. Police broke up the demonstrations. Several protesters were shot dead on Sunday. The United Nations says more than 1,500 have fled Burundi, fearing violence ahead of the elections scheduled for June.
A new study has found that 2/3 of the world's population have no access to safe and affordable surgery. The research published in the Lancet found that many in low & middle-income countries are dying from easily treatable conditions. Here is our health reporter, Tulip Mazumdar.
“Five billion people can't get proper surgical care according to this report. Around a quarter of those who do manage to have a procedure are driven into poverty as a result of the expense. International experts spent a year and a half gathering testimony from health officials, hospital staff and patients in more than a hundred countries. They say a third of all deaths in 2010 were from conditions that were treatable with surgery. That's more than the number of deaths from HIV Aids, TB and malaria combined.”
The European Commission President, Jean Claude Junker, and other E.U. leaders, are to hold talks with the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, in Kiev. Ukraine is expected to call for peacekeepers to enforce a ceasefire with pro-Russian rebels in the east of the country, as well as more international financial support. On Sunday, international monitors reported the heaviest shelling near the key government-held port city of Mariupol since fighting began there in mid-February.
Officials in Thailand say they've seized more than 3 tons of ivory, one of the biggest tolls in its history. The illegal ivory in the form of more than 500 elephant tusks was hidden in sacks of tea. It originally came from Kenya and was passing through Thailand on the way to Laos.