The car manufacturer Volkswagen has denied claims by US regulators that some of its luxury brands were also fitted with devices to cheat pollution tests. The Environmental Protection Agency said at least 10,000 vehicles with 6 cylinders 3-liter engines such as Porsche's and Audi's were affected. Our Washington correspondent Garry explains VW's responses. There are a couple of statements actually which are not entirely consistent. One is from parent company in Germany which says there wasn't any software installed in these models they're talking about Audi and Porsche models. They were designed to give misleading emissions levels. Then a separate statement from Porsche, the division which says they are surprised because all their information up till now, it was that cars work plant. The problem here of course is that the man was heading up the whole group now. Matthias Muller, he used to lead the Porsche division, and there will be more questions for him now.
The head of Russia's Federal Aviation Agency Alexander Neradko had said it was too early to speculate what caused the crash of a Russian plane in Egypt on Saturday. The airline Metrojet said it ruled out pilot error or technical fault, blaming on what it called 'an external influence for the disaster'. Mr Neradko said this view was not based on facts. All 224 people on board died when the plane broke up over the Sinai Peninsula. The BBC's Sara Ray is in in St Petersburg. She says the airline has been on the defensive since the disaster. The very first press statement that they made they were extremely and extremely defensive or rather peculiar attitudes I suppose you might say immediately after their plane had come down. Their latest statement essentially looks to be pointing the finger of blame as far away as possible from the airline itself.
A group of British MPs have strongly opposed the UK joining airstrikes against IS militants in Syria. The influential Foreign Affairs Select Committee said there should be no extension of military action without a coherent international strategy to defeat IS militants and to end the civil war in Syria. The committee says the government's focus on extending air strikes is a distraction from the task of resolving the conflict.
The three owners of a night club in the Romania capital Bucharest where 31 died in a fire on Friday who have been arrested on suspension of man slaughter. James Kelly reports.
Prosecutors said the men were questioned for several hours about the blaze which started when firework set off by band performing in the venue ignited the insulation foam on the pillar and spread quickly. More than 400 people were inside the building, many were trapped as they tried to leave by the one small exit. Romanian media and witnesses have questioned the safety procedures of the club, the absence of the emergency exit and the use of flammable material to sun proof the building. More than 130 people are still in hospital, half of them are in a critical condition. James Kelly reporting. World news from the BBC.
The BBC has received pictures of what appeared to be a rocket making factory belonging to the IS group Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria. The pictures show a number of freshly made rockets in what is believed to be a laboratory at college in Borno state.
The Vatican says and a priest and a former employee have been arrested on suspension of leaking confidential documents to journalists. The leaked papers form the basis of two forthcoming books on the state of Vatican’s finances. Both of those arrested were members of commission set up by Pope Francis to help reform the church bureaucracy.
Police in Lyon have arrested 2 French pilots who fled the Dominican Republic last week after being convicted of drug trafficking. Bosca Forry and Bruno Rondo have been sentenced 20 years in jail after 26 suitcases stuffed with cocaine were found on their plane. According to French media, the men escaped from the Dominican Republic with the help of a former intelligence agents. The 2 pilots denied the charges. The authorities in the Dominican Republic say they will seek their extradition.
President Obama has signed into law a two-year budget without which the government could have defaulted on its debts by Tuesday. The deal passed by congress last week allows the government to increase spending by an extra 80 billion dollars. President Obama praised democratic and republican leaders for compromising. I'll take it as a signal of how Washington should work and my hope is now to build on this agreement with spending bills that also invested America's priorities without giving sidetrack by a whole bunch of ideological issues that have nothing to do with our budget.
A new star trek television series is to be produced but it won't include Captain Kerk and Mr. Spoke. The US TV network CBS said the series would premiere in January 2017 and would introduce new characters and new civilizations. It's unclear when the rest of the world will see it. BBC news.