Rescue teams are struggling to reach remote areas of northern Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan hit by a strong earthquake. More than 260 people are known to have died during the quake on Monday. Nearly 2000 people were injured. Innu Row is on the charity Concern Worldwide in Kabul. The information is quite sketchy. It is coming from very remote areas. The earthquake happened around 1:40 local time. And around 5 o'clock, it gets dark, so not very much assessments have been possible. Also some of the areas are insecure with the Taliban fighting.
American defense officials say a US navy ship in the South China Sea is preparing to sail towards artificial islands built by China. They say the USS Lassen will patrol the area around the Spratly archipelago and sail within a 12-nautical mile limit.
The British government has suffered a major setback in its efforts to cut billions of dollars in welfare payments as part of plans to reduce the budget deficit. The newly elected upper chamber of parliament, the House of Lords, passed measures to delay the government’s proposals on reducing tax credits to workers on lower incomes. The Finance Minister George Osborne warned the move by the upper house raised constitutional issues. Russell Ken reports. Twice defeated in the House of Lords, the government must now live with the consequences. Within an hour of the final vote, George Osborne announced a concession, although the reform will go ahead, he will now deliver a new policy certain to be presented by his opponents as a climb-down. In challenging the government’s plans to cut tax credits, the majority of peers rejected arguments that they risked prompting a constitutional crisis.
The University of Mississippi in the southern United States has taken down the state flag from its campus after complaints that its confederate battle emblem was too closely associated with slavery. Staff and students have voted overwhelmingly for the flag’s removal. The BBC's Nick Brien sent this report. The University of Mississippi used to be regarded as one of the bastion of segregation. In the early 1960s it was the scene of Battle of Ole Miss where white supremacies fought with federal troops to block the admission of its first black student. So its decision to lower Mississippi State flag which features the confederate battle colors is loaded with extra historical meaning.
The Columbian president Juan Manuel Santos says at least 12 members of the security forces have been killed in clash with left-wing rebels. In a televised address, he said the attack was carried out by members of the National Liberation Army or ELN. The defense ministry says the rebels attacked soldiers and police who were carrying ballot boxes following regional elections in Columbia. World news from the BBC.
The Attorney General of Venezuela said she had sacked a prosecutor who fled the country after criticizing the imprisonment of the opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez. The Attorney General, Luisa Ortega said Franklin Nieves has abandoned his post. She denied that her office had pressured officials to falsify evidence in the trial of Mr. Lopez who was sentenced last month to 14 years in prison on charges of inciting violence during anti-government protests.
British police say they have arrested a 15-year-old boy in Northern Ireland in connection with a cyber attack on one of the country’s biggest telecoms companies Talk Talk. They said he was being held on suspicion of computer misuse offences following a search of the house in County Antrim. Laurel Cather Jones reports. The arrest comes four days after Talk Talk revealed that it had been the victim of what it called a significant and sustained cyber attack. The following day, the firm's Chief Executive Dido Harding revealed that she had received a ransom demand from someone claiming to be behind the attack but could not be certain that it was the hackers. Talk Talk remains under pressure. Share price closed down 12 percent on Monday and it has now lost nearly a quarter of its value.
Eight senior football executives have put their names forward as candidates to succeed Sapp Blotter as president of the governing body FIFA. The deadline for nomination has now passed. The latest to announce their bids were Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, president of the Asian Football Federation and Gianni Infartino, Secretary General of UEFA, the European body. Elections will take place next February.
One of the greatest names in German football, Franz Beckonbauer has admitted making mistake in his country’s bidding process to host the 2006 World Cup, but he has denied allegations that votes were bought. Beckonbauer was the head of the German World Cup Organizing Committee which is alleged to have made a payment to the sprot's governing body FIFA. The BBC news.