BBC News with Fiona McDonald
A series of bombings and shootings has killed more than 60 people in Iraq during celebrations marking the end of holy month of Ramadan. Nearly 300 people were wounded.
Most of the casualties occurred in the capital Baghdad in a spate of apparently coordinated car bombings. Here is Alhassan Sillah from Baghdad.
The car bombs were parked in alleys, restaurants and cafes to cause as many casualties as possible. Families were all celebrating the third day of the Eid al-Fitr
holiday marking the end of holy month of Ramadan. At least eight districts were hit, most of them Shiite. To the north of capital in Tuz Khurmato a suicide bomber blew
up a car bomb near a police checkpoint. Blame has fallen on al-Qaeda and the Sunnite minority especially supporters of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party that many Iraqis
suspect foreign agents are trying to provoke a resumption of sectarian thrive.
Seven police officers have been questioned in Kenya by investigators who suspect them of looting during a fire that destroyed the arrival’s hall of Nairobi’s
international airport earlier this week. Those been investigated also include immigration staff, airport workers and taxi drivers. Genc Lamani has more details.
The authorities in Kenya cannot hide their embarrassment following revelations that some of the very people who were supposed to raise the alarm and protect public and
private property were involved in the looting that followed the destructive fire. The seven suspected police officers including an inspector as well as a number of
immigration personnel were filmed by security cameras stealing. Items allegedly stolen from some of the destroyed airport shops that were found on them include cash
and alcohol.
The Italian authorities have recovered the bodies of six migrants who drowned when their boat hit a sandbank dawn just meters from a tourist beach at Catania in
Sicily. It thought the victims jumped off the overcrowded fishing boat thinking they reached the shore. About 100 other migrants on the boat came ashore safely. David
Willey reports from Rome.
Fine weather and calm seas in recent days have meant an increased in arrivals on the Italian islands of Sicily and Lampedusa of undocumented migrants from the Middle
East and from North Africa. This is the first major arrival of refugees from the civil war in Syria on the Mediterranean Island. The human traffickers who make huge
profits dumping migrants on Italian shores often abandon their passengers as soon as Italian or Maltese coast guards spot them.
Spanish police say they’ve broken up a human trafficking ring arresting 75 people smugglers in Spain and France. A spokesman said the group was trafficking Chinese
nationals into European countries and the United States for fees of up to 50,000 euros per person.
World News from the BBC
A volcano has erupted on a small island in central Indonesia killing six people. Pictures show Mount. Rokatenda sending a whole cloud of ash over the island of Palue
and into the sea. Among the dead were three adults and two children who’d been sleeping in a village by the beach.
A bus carrying members of the Moroccan royal guard has crashed into a ravine killing at least 16 guardsmen and injuring more than 40 others. Officials said the
guardsmen who accompanied King Mohammed at official in ceremonial event were traveling between the coastal towns of Tetouan and al-Hoceima when the bus driver lost
control of the vehicle on a bend.
The Colombian government and leaders of the country’s largest rebel group Farc has said they are closer to an agreement on the eventual participation of the rebels in
politics. The Colombian chief negotiator Humberto de Calle said peace talks had never got this far before.
The vice president of the International Olympic Committee has said he’s certain next year’s Winter Games in Sochi will go ahead despite calls to boycott them. Sir
Craig Reedie told the BBC that it’s highly unlikely the IOC would move the Games away from the Russian city calling any boycott damaging to athletes and to sport.
High-profile campaigners have stirred up a wave of protest over a newly enactive Russian law that among other things bans a promotional homosexual relationships to
minus. One of them, the British actor/broadcaster Stephen Fry explained why he thought the law was bad for the gay community in Russia.
“There is a piece of legislation which claims, innocent kid that all it asks is that homosexuality not be discussed to anybody age for under 18. That’s all it is.
But under that and because of that we now have a situation in Russia where neo-Nazis, paratroopers and others in public squares are beating up thrashing killing. There
is real blood on the pavements.”