BBC news with Jonathan Izard.
Officials in Yemen say that 70 people were drowned when a boat carrying migrants capsized off the country’s western coast. Most of those on board were from Ethiopia, rough seas are being blamed for the sinking. Alan Johnston reports.
“The red sea crossing between the Horn of Africa and Yemen is one of the world’s great migration routes. Tens of thousands attend the dangerous journey every year. Often they are trying to escape extreme poverty and they dream of finding jobs and better lives in rich places like Saudi Arabia. But too often, they never reach the Yemeni shore. They were in the hands of unscrupulous people smugglers. Every month or so another rickety overcrowded boat sinks and many lives are lost.”
Syria has accused Israel of carrying out 2 air strikes near the Syrian capital Damascus. The Syrian armed forces high command said an area closed to the main internatinal airport was hit as well as the town Dimas near the border with Lebanon. There has been no comment from Israel. From Jerusalem, here's Kaben Cololy.
“Photographs which claimed to provide proof for what happened are circulating on the internet. They shows spectacular Zip betrayals turned into orange in the late afternoon sunlight, but nothing by way of hard evidence. There are reports the target may have been stockpiles of sophisticated Russian-build anti-aircraft missiles. The Lebanon Shiite militia Hezbollah has warned enemy of Israel is fighting alongside the Assad regime in Syria. Previous Israeli attacks were apparently designed to be shoting Hezbollah, isn’t rewarded for that support of powerful weapons systems which Israel would view as a threat to its own strategic security.”
At least 36 people have been killed in attacks in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The raids took placed on Saturday night in villages near the town of Bennie where more than 250 people have died since October. A journalist in the region Darl Vicline told the BBC that the dead included women and children.
“They said that many men came into the villages, I know that a chief was killed in one village. And his entire families were killed then they burned the house and the bodies were burned. They came into different areas and killed in one area, a woman was dragged out of her house and killed. So different attacks like those and everyone has been killed by very brutally by machetes, drags out of the house.”
She said it was not clear who carried out the attacks. The authorities have blamed a Ugandan rebel group. She said thousands had been displaced by the ongoing violence and were too afraid to go out to the fields to harvest their crops.
Gunmen have broken into a prison in the central Nigerian city of Minna, freeing around 200 inmates. They stormed the jail on Saturday in Niger state. The police said it was not clear if the jail break was the work of the militant Islamic Boko Haram, which has orchestrated several prison raids in recent years or a criminal gang. Boko Haram has spread insecurity across north and central in Nigeria.
World news from BBC.
The Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam has confirmed that one of the 43 students missing for over two months has been identified from remains found in a rubbish dump in Guerrero state. Mr Karam said that forensic experts in Austria matched a piece of bone retrieved from the site to the DNA of a relative of the student Alexanda Morna. He told the journalist the students were handed over by corrupt officials to a criminal gang after taking part in a protest in the town of Iguala.
More than 130 people have been arrested in Saudi Arabia on suspicion of involvement in what have been described as terrorism offences. 26 of those detained were foreigners, including Syrians and Yemenis. The Saudian Interior Minister said 40 of those being held had returned from war zones and others were accused of manufacturing explosives or helping extremist groups in other ways.
The United States has transferred 6 prisoners held in Guantanamo bay detention center to Uruguay. The men, 4 Syrians and Tunisia and Palestinian, were detained 12 years ago because of suspected links to militant groups, but never charged. Tom Esslemont reports from Washington.
“The six men were transferred from Guantanamo bay overnight. The Uruguay government agreed to take the men as a humanitarian gesture. They cannot return to their home countries for fear of persecution or because of security concerns. In Uruguay they would be granted refugee status and would be able to live freely. The transfer brings to 19, the number of detainees transferred from Guantanamo since the beginning of the year. 136 remain.”
The Israeli authorities say they caught a gang that was stealing from an archaeological site near where the famous Dead Sea scrolls were found. Robbery has long been a problem in this area of huge historic interest in Jordan Desert. And officials say this is the first time in decades that thieves have been actually caught in the act. Among their loot was a two thousand years old artifact used to comb lice out of hair.