BBC news 2010-07-25
BBC News with Zoe Diamond.
At least 15 people have been crushed to death in Germany at a techno music festival known as the Love Parade. One hundred others were injured, 45 of them seriously. Up to one million people have been attending the festival which this year is being held in the city of Duisburg. The tragedy occurred at an entrance tunnel to the festival area where hundreds of fans were waiting to be let in. A crush developed, triggering panic. Despite the deaths, the authorities have decided to let the festival continue. Safine Black, journalist at Radio Duisburg, was at the festival and told the BBC there seemed to be hardly any attempts to control the crowd.
“There were only one entrance to the festival and the people were coming from two sides and they collided there at the entrance, and, I don't know, the organization was ... it was terrible.”
Two Americans serving with ISAF(International Security Assistance Force), the International Force in Afghanistan, have reportedly been captured by the Taliban. They are believed to have been seized in Logar province. From Kabul, David Loyn reports.
This was a very unusual incident in Afghanistan where US forces move around only with a lot of protection. The two left their base in Kabul shortly before sunset on Friday and then disappeared. The spokesman for the governor of Logar province said that the men ignored warnings in setting out into a known Taliban-held area. After an exchange of gunfire, the two were captured. The American military have appealled for the return of the two men, offering a reward on local radio and giving a description of the two, confirming that they were in US military uniform. According to unconfirmed reports, one of the two captives has already been killed.
Civilians in Sanguin in southern Afghanistan say as many as 40 people were killed on Friday when a cluster of several houses was hit by a missile. Local people said they'd gathered inside the buildings to escape fighting between insurgents and US-led forces. The civilians say they suspect the missile was fired by international troops, but there has been no independent confirmation of this. A local journalist told the BBC that he'd visited the area and seen the damaged houses.
The ships that were working on the leaking BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico are heading back to the site after having to move away because of a tropical storm. The storm has now blown out and the ships should be back within 24 hours. Madeleine Morris has this report from Washington.
Ships which were evacuated late Friday to avoid possible high seas caused by tropical storm Bonnie are now being returned to their posts over the broken well. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen says the evacuation has put back operations to drill a relief well by 7 to 10 days. But BP's engineers are now considering another option to close the well -pumping mud through the cap that has stopped the flow of oil for the past 8 days. That could start later this week, the first of two stages to create a permanent seal.
This is the World News from the BBC in London.
The authorities in Mexico say they’ve now recovered more than 50 bodies from a clandestine cemetery in the northern state of Nuevo Leon. The dead are thought to be victims of drugs gangs who have been fighting for control of smuggling routes into the United States. Investigators have been using heavy machinery to dig for the bodies which were buried in pits.
The Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has met the intelligence agents deported from the United States in a spy-swap earlier this month. He told reporters they'd sung Soviet songs and talked about life, and he was in no doubt they'd have bright futures in Russia. Mr Putin was speaking on a visit to Ukraine, but did not say where they'd met. The prime minister, who served as a KGB agent himself during the Soviet era, said he told the agents that he admired what they'd done.
More than 100,000 people have been moved from their homes in China as heavy rain continues to soak large swaths of the country, swelling rivers and reservoirs. Engineers at the Three Gorges Dam have been releasing water through its sluice gates as the level behind the dam continues to rise. From Beijing, Christ Hawk reports.
There are concerns again about the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. On Friday, the water level there was the highest it had ever been. On Saturday morning, it was just 17 metres below the maximum height of 175 metres. Engineers are pumping water through the sluice gates to try to control the water levels, but they have to be careful not to allow too much to flow downstream where communities are already waterlogged. The heavy rain in the area around the dam is forecast to continue.
The Brazilian football authorities have appointed a new national team coach Mano Menezes, a day after their first choice turned down the job. Muricy Ramalho, Brazil's most successful manager of recent years, declined the offer on Friday, saying that his club had refused to let him break his contract.
BBC World News.