Costa Concordia heads for scrapyard

23 July 2014 Last updated at 08:02

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This time-lapse footage shows the first 15 minutes of the operation

The wrecked Italian cruise ship, the Costa Concordia, is being towed on its final journey to the port of Genoa for scrapping.

Its removal is one of the biggest ever maritime salvage operations.

The Concordia struck a reef off the Italian island of Giglio in January 2012 and capsized, killing 32 people.

It was re-floated nine days ago and is being kept above the surface by giant buoyancy chambers. Over a dozen vessels will help to tow the ship.

The wreck was hauled upright in September last year but was still partially submerged, resting on six steel platforms.

The cruise ship is being towed to Genoa at two knots, almost at walking pace, with an escort of more than a dozen tug boats.

The journey, which is expected to take four days, began shortly before 09:00 local time (07:00 GMT).

Senior salvage master Nick Sloane said early on Wednesday that everything was going according to plan.

However, French ecology minister Segolene Royal has said she will monitor the ship's movement from Corsica. Residents on the island fear that any oil leak from the cruise ship could cause significant environmental damage.

The Concordia is set to sail 25km (15 miles) from Corsica and close to the islands of Elba and Capraia before its expected arrival in Genoa late on Saturday.

Investigators are still looking for the body of Indian waiter Russel Rebello, whose body is the only one not to have been found.

The Costa Concordia's owners, Costa Crociere, estimate the operation to remove the wreck from the reef and tow it for scrapping will cost 1.5bn euros (£1.2bn; $2bn) in total.

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Rival to challenge Indonesia result

23 July 2014 Last updated at 10:20

The losing candidate in Indonesia's presidential election, former general Prabowo Subianto, will challenge the result in court, his spokesman says.

On Tuesday Joko Widodo, the former Jakarta governor, was declared the winner of the 9 July poll with 53% of the vote.

Mr Subianto pulled out of the count just before the result was declared, alleging massive fraud.

His spokesman said he was preparing a challenge in the Constitutional Court.

Mr Subianto has file it within the next three days.

The Election Commission announced on Tuesday that Mr Widodo - widely known as Jokowi - won 53.15% of the vote to Mr Subianto's 46.85%.

It followed a vote-counting period in which both candidates raised concerns about voting irregularities.

But Mr Widodo's winning margin of 6% win is seen as decisive by analysts.

They say that even if Mr Subianto's claim of electoral fraud in certain areas proved to be true, this would be unlikely to change the overall results.

The BBC's Alice Budisatrijo says that a spokesman for Mr Subianto said recommendations from the election monitoring agency that voting be repeated in more than 5,000 polling stations were ignored.

But an agency official told the BBC that the claim was incorrect. He said the recommendations were for revotes to be done in only about a dozen places, and they had taken place last week.

On Tuesday, Mr Subianto declared he was "withdrawing" from the election process hours before the formal announcement of the results.

His spokesman has since told agencies that this meant he was pulling out of the vote count, and not withdrawing his candidacy.

In Indonesia, a candidate can face imprisonment and hefty fines if he or she withdraws from an election.

'Free and fair'

About 130 million votes were cast on 9 July following an intense election campaign.

Politics in Indonesia have traditionally been dominated by establishment figures from the political elite and military.

But Mr Widodo, a former furniture-maker who grew up in a small village, has promised a decisive break with Indonesia's authoritarian past and better social welfare for the poor.

Joko Widodo: Key facts

• Born in 1961 in city of Solo, the son of a wood-seller
• Began political career with the PDI-P party when he was elected mayor of Solo in 2005
• Elected for second term in 2010 with more than 90% of the vote
• Elected governor of Jakarta in 2012
• Backer of technology who promises to implement "e-governance" to help cut bureaucratic corruption

Who is Joko Widodo?

What does Jokowi win mean for Indonesia?

His rival Mr Subianto is a former general closely associated with the traditional elite. He has faced multiple questions over alleged human rights abuses.

The court is not expected to rule on Mr Subianto's legal challenge until mid-August.

Mr Subianto has asked the international community withhold any congratulatory statements until due process is completed.

But world leaders have already congratulated Mr Widodo on his victory. US Secretary of State John Kerry congratulated Indonesia on "free and fair" elections and said Washington looked forward to expanding ties.

Australia also congratulated Mr Widodo, saying ties with Indonesia were "extraordinarily important to us".

The relationship between the two nations has been badly hit by allegations of Australian spying and the ongoing differences over how to tackle people-smuggling.

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MH17 victims begin long journey home

23 July 2014 Last updated at 10:27

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Richard Galpin reports from Kharkiv airport as some of the victims' "long journey home" begins

The first planes carrying victims' bodies from crashed flight MH17 have left Ukraine for the Netherlands, where experts will begin identifying them.

The Dutch prime minister will meet the planes in Eindhoven, amid a national day of mourning for the victims.

A total of 200 bodies have so far been accounted for from the 298 victims, 193 of whom were Dutch nationals.

The US says it believes pro-Russian rebels shot down the Malaysia Airlines passenger plane on 17 July by mistake.

The rebels, who control the area around the crash site, have also been accused of stalling the release of the bodies and tampering with evidence.

A refrigerated train carriage carrying about 200 bodies arrived at the government-held city of Kharkiv on Tuesday, four days after the crash.

Experts said they would continue to search the crash site.

On Wednesday morning, 40 coffins were slowly loaded on to two military planes at Kharkiv airport.

The BBC's Daniel Sandford in Kharkiv says ambassadors, officials and soldiers gathered to see off the planes.

Australian government envoy Angus Houston said the ceremony was intended to give the victims the "respect and dignity they deserve" after a "tragedy of unspeakable proportions".

Dutch government representative Hans Docter said the victims had begun their "long journey" home.

The first flight is due to arrive in Eindhoven at 16:00 local time (14:00 GMT) and will be met by members of the Dutch royal family and the Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

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A day of mourning is being held in the Netherlands, Anna Holligan reports

The bodies are then due to be taken to the Korporaal van Oudheusden barracks south of Hilversum for identification.

Mr Rutte said that process could take months.

In a separate process, the "black box" flight-data recorders from MH17 have arrived in the UK, where they will be examined at the headquarters of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch in Farnborough.

Continue reading the main story

In Washington, officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence presented evidence they had gathered on the involvement of the rebels.

"It's a solid case that it's an SA-11 [missile] that was fired from eastern Ukraine under conditions the Russians helped create," said the officials, who requested that their names not be reported.

They said the "most plausible explanation" for the shooting down of the plane was that rebels mistook it for another aircraft.

The evidence they presented included:

• Satellite images of a facility allegedly used to train rebels near the Russian city of Rostov, which were later tweeted by Geoffrey Pyatt, US ambassador to Ukraine
• Other images purportedly showing a surface-to-air missile launcher in the area
• Analysis of voice recordings of pro-Russian rebels apparently admitting bringing the airliner down
• Photos and messages from social-media sites pointing to rebel involvement

Separately, a rebel militiaman told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that he had been ordered to the crash site minutes after the plane had gone down.

He said his commanders had told him: "We've just shot down one of the Kiev fascists' planes."

The militiaman said: "We thought we were looking for baled-out Ukrainian pilots but instead we found dead civilians."

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The train carrying bodies from the MH17 crash site arrived in Kharkiv on Tuesday

The US and other nations have accused rebels of blocking access to the crash site, putting valuable evidence at risk.

In Australia, former American President Bill Clinton paid tribute to six HIV/Aids campaigners who were on board MH17.

He said their lives had been "overpowering in their contribution to a shared future".

Meanwhile, the conflict between Ukrainian government forces and rebels has continued, with reports of fighting near Donetsk and Luhansk.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on Tuesday the army had captured the town of Severodonetsk, 140km (90 miles) from the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.

The fighting in eastern Ukraine erupted in April and is believed to have claimed more than 1,000 lives.

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UN warns of Israel Gaza 'war crimes'

23 July 2014 Last updated at 11:55

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UN Human Rights boss Navi Pillay says Israel's military actions in Gaza "could amount to war crimes"

The UN's top human rights official has condemned Israel's military actions in the Gaza Strip, saying that war crimes may have been committed.

Navi Pillay told an emergency debate at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that Israel's military offensive had not done enough to protect civilians.

She also condemned Hamas for "indiscriminate attacks" on Israel.

Israel launched its offensive on 8 July with the declared objective of stopping rocket fire from Gaza.

"There seems to be a strong possibility that international law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes," Ms Pillay said.

However Israel, which claims the UN Human Rights Council is biased, is unlikely to co-operate with any authorised UN investigation, the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva reports.

At least 649 Palestinians and 31 Israelis have been killed in the past 15 days of fighting, officials say.

Meanwhile US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Israel on Wednesday to try to help negotiate a truce.

He landed at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv, despite a 24-hour ban on US flights there imposed by American aviation authorities.

Several European airlines have also suspended flights to Israel after a rocket from Gaza landed near the airport.

'Hamas accountable'

Fighting continued overnight on Tuesday. An air strike in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip left at least five people dead. An Israeli soldier was also killed.

A Palestinian woman whom the BBC filmed being pulled from the rubble of a Gaza blast on Sunday also died from her injuries, her doctor said. Ten of her relatives were killed in the blast.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Mr Kerry are in the region to try to bring an end to the fighting.

They have both called for an immediate end to hostilities and for the underlying causes of the conflict to be addressed.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas should be held accountable for rejecting an Egyptian ceasefire proposal.

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Are Israeli air strike warnings effective? The BBC examines footage from both sides

Referring to a 16 July Israeli air strike that killed children playing on a beach in Gaza, Ms Pillay said "the disregard for international humanitarian law and for the right to life was shockingly evident".

She also condemned rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel.

"The principles of distinction and precaution are clearly not being observed during such indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas by Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups," she told the UN Human Rights Council.

Despite her condemnation of Hamas attacks on Israel, Ms Pillay clearly views Israel's actions in Gaza as disproportionate, our correspondent says.

A 2009 UN human rights report said that Israel's military and Hamas had each committed potential war crimes during Israel's 2008-2009 offensive in Gaza.

The Goldstone report was rejected by Israel and the US as biased and flawed.

In 2011, the report's author, South African judge Richard Goldstone, said that new accounts indicated Israel had not deliberately targeted civilians.

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'Foreigners' killed in Kabul attack

22 July 2014 Last updated at 09:50

A suicide bomber has killed four people, including at least three foreign security guards, in an attack outside Kabul airport, officials say.

The Taliban said they carried out the bombing, which targeted a key counter-narcotics building.

Four insurgents were also died, officials say. There is no word on the nationalities of the foreigners killed.

The attack comes days after security forces repelled an attack on Kabul airport by the Taliban.

In a separate attack on Tuesday, a roadside bomb injured a civilian close to the Afghan meteorology department near the civilian entrance of the airport.

'Invader forces'

Heavily armed militants attacked the counter-narcotics building with grenades and automatic weapons.

Police say the bomber rode a motorcycle and detonated his explosives outside the main entrance, located close to a foreign military base 2km (1.2 miles) from the main runway.

In addition to the security guards and insurgents killed in the exchange, at least six other guards were wounded.

An interior ministry spokesman said that the guards were protecting the entrance to the building, where counter-narcotics operations throughout Afghanistan are organised and executed.

Taliban spokesman Zabihulllah Mujahid told the Reuters news agency that "up to 15 invader soldiers were killed or wounded and many vehicles were damaged".

The attacks come against the backdrop of a hotly disputed election process.

The election commission is conducting an audit of votes cast during a presidential run-off, held on 14 June.

Ashraf Ghani won the run-off, according to preliminary results. His rival Abdullah Abdullah came top in the first round in April, but failed to secure 50% of the vote to avoid the run-off.

Both candidates accuse each other of electoral fraud.

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MH17 bodies leave Ukraine rebel area

22 July 2014 Last updated at 11:55

A train carrying the remains of victims of the Malaysian airliner which crashed in Ukraine has arrived in the city of Kharkiv, outside rebel territory.

The transfer of bodies from flight MH17 follows international pressure on pro-Russia rebels, amid accusations that the aircraft was shot down.

Meanwhile international monitors say parts of the wreckage have been changed since they first saw it.

The Boeing 777 crashed last Thursday, killing all 298 people on board.

The Malaysia Airlines flight came down in rebel-held territory near the eastern village of Grabove.

Most of those who died were Dutch and the remains will be flown from a co-ordination centre in Kharkiv to the Netherlands for identification and forensic identification.

Five refrigerated freight wagons carrying remains and a passenger carriage marked "Donbass-Moscow" arrived at Kharkiv-Balashovsky train station and are due to be taken to the Malyshev tank factory, Interfax-Ukraine news agency reports.

There, the bodies will be loaded into refrigeration units supplied by the Dutch, the agency says.

The Ukrainian government has said it will do "its best" to send the remains to the Netherlands on Tuesday.

Countries directly affected by the disaster, such as the Netherlands, Australia, and the UK, have been concerned that the crash site was not properly sealed off with the risk that valuable evidence could go missing.

A spokesman for the OSCE monitors at the site, Michael Bociurkiw, told the BBC that major pieces of the plane had been cut into and that large parts now looked different.

Western nations say there is growing evidence that flight MH17 was hit by a Russian-supplied missile fired by rebels. Russia has suggested Ukrainian government forces are to blame.

Clues

Late on Monday the rebels, including Alexander Borodai, self-styled Prime Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic, handed over the "black box" flight recorders to Malaysian officials at a ceremony in Donetsk.

Investigators hope the devices, described as being in good condition, will provide vital clues about what happened to the plane.

The handover of the "black boxes" and the transfer of remains followed talks between Mr Borodai and the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Sanctions

European Union foreign ministers are meeting to consider further sanctions against Russia over its alleged backing for the rebels - something Moscow denies.

The meeting in Brussels is thought likely to discuss expanding the list of Russian officials targeted by sanctions, but the EU has so far steered clear of targeting whole sectors of the Russian economy.

Both the EU and the US imposed sanctions on Russia following its annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of hostilities in eastern Ukraine.

In a further sign of international concern, the UN Security Council called on Monday for a "full, thorough and independent international investigation" into the downing of the plane .

The resolution, proposed by Australia, also demanded that those responsible "be held to account and that all states co-operate fully with efforts to establish accountability".

The conflict between Ukrainian government forces and rebels has continued, with clashes on Monday in Donetsk.

In the latest move, Ukraine's parliament has approved the call-up of more military reserves and men under 50, Reuters reports.

After the vote, scuffles were reported between nationalist politicians and members of the party that was led by former President Viktor Yanukovych, who was overthrown in February.

Thirteen Ukrainian soldiers have been killed over the past 24 hours, a Ukrainian security official said. Three of them died as an explosives-packed bus blew up at a roadblock.

The fighting in eastern Ukraine erupted in April and is believed to have claimed more than 1,000 lives.

Have you been affected by this story? You can send us your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk, using the subject line 'Malaysia Plane'.

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Joko Widodo 'wins Indonesia poll'

22 July 2014 Last updated at 12:06

Popular Jakarta governor Joko Widodo is poised to win Indonesia's hotly-contested presidential election, according to results broadcast on television.

The election commission is yet to formally announce the result, but a tally shows Mr Widodo, also known as Jokowi, won 53.15% of the vote.

His rival, former general Prabowo Subianto, garnered 46.85% of the vote. He has said he is withdrawing from the election process, alleging fraud.

He has vowed to challenge the results.

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Fresh push to broker Gaza truce

22 July 2014 Last updated at 12:11

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John Kerry: Sending aid "to try to alleviate the immediate humanitarian crisis"

A diplomatic push to broker a truce in the Gaza Strip is intensifying, as Israel continues its military operation against militants in the territory.

US Secretary of State John Kerry met UN chief Ban Ki-moon in Cairo, and more high-profile talks will be held later.

Meanwhile, Israeli media have quoted the army as saying a soldier is missing. Media say he is presumed dead.

More than 600 Palestinians and 29 Israelis have been killed in the past 14 days of fighting, officials say.

The latest Palestinian death toll was announced by Gaza's health ministry, who also said that 3,640 people had been injured.

The UN relief agency in Gaza says more than 100,000 Palestinians have taken refuge in its schools. It says 43% of Gaza has been affected by evacuation warnings or declared no-go zones.

The majority of Palestinians killed were civilians, including dozens of children, according to the UN.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says 27 Israeli soldiers have died. The other two victims were civilians.

The IDF also says it has killed at least 170 militants.

Early on Tuesday, Israeli air strikes destroyed several mosques and targeted a stadium and the home of the late leader of Hamas's military wing.

'Spare civilians'

After the talks with Mr Ban, John Kerry said the US was concerned about Palestinian casualties, but lent his support to Israel's "appropriate and legitimate" military operation.

Mr Kerry also said the US was sending $47m (£28m) in aid to Gaza "to alleviate the immediate humanitarian crisis".

America's top diplomat arrived in Egypt on Monday and is expected to stay in Cairo until at least Wednesday for talks with top Egyptian officials and the Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi.

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Gaza 'terror tunnels' - in 60 secs

Gaza tunnels

• Constructed by Palestinian militants under Israel's high-security border fence with Gaza
• Israel says dozens of tunnels exist which are used by Hamas to carry out attacks
• Tunnels are reinforced with hundreds of tons of concrete and have electricity and provisions to last occupants months
• Israel says tunnels are interconnected, with passages leading to rocket launchers, command and control centres and in some cases mosques
• Tunnel was used to capture Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006
• Longest tunnel, found in March 2014, in excess of 1.7km (1 mile)

Mr Kerry urged Hamas militants to "make the decision to spare innocent civilians", a call echoed by Mr Arabi, who said the group should accept an Egyptian proposal to end the fighting.

Hamas rejected that proposal last week, with its armed wing saying agreeing to it would amount to "surrender".

The UN Security Council has issued a call for an "immediate cessation of hostilities", but did not endorse a strongly worded draft resolution backed by Arab states.

Mr Ban reiterated the call for an immediate ceasefire ahead of travelling to Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and meetings with Palestinian officials in the West Bank.

Mr Ban said he appreciated Israel's right to defend itself, but said restrictions on Gaza should be lifted "so that people should not resort to this kind of violence as a way of expressing their grievances".

Israel launched its ground operation in Gaza after days of air strikes, following rocket fire by militants into Israeli towns.

It says the move is necessary to target Hamas' network of tunnels, which have been used by militants to get into Israel and carry out attacks.

On Tuesday, the IDF named 21-year-old Sgt Oron Shaul as the last of seven soldiers reported killed in a single incident in Shejaiya, near Gaza City, on Sunday.

The troops are all believed to have died when their armoured personnel carrier was attacked.

Hamas said on Sunday evening that it had captured an Israeli soldier, but Israel's UN ambassador denied the claim.

Are you in Israel or Gaza? How has the violence affected you? You can email your experiences to haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk, using the subject line 'Israel Gaza'.

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Kenya defence Twitter account hacked

21 July 2014 Last updated at 11:04

The Twitter accounts of the Kenyan defence forces and its spokesman have been hacked by activists protesting about corruption.

"All of you who have stolen money #Kenya, we are coming after you," reads one post.

The hacked posts were signed as being from activist group Anonymous.

Kenyan military spokesman Major Emmanuel Chirchir often uses Twitter to give updates of the war against Somalia's al-Shabab militant group.

The hackers criticised the government of President Uhuru Kenyatta, saying it only protected the interests of the elite and was not doing enough to tackle poachers and drugs traffickers.

Last year, a group called Anonymous Africa hacked into the account of Zimbabwe's defence ministry, and targeted the website of South Africa's governing African National Congress.

Anonymous, a loosely-knit group, has been involved in a number of high-profile online protests and attacks in recent years.

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UN calls for Gaza ceasefire

21 July 2014 Last updated at 10:03

The UN Security Council has called for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza.

It comes as US Secretary of State John Kerry heads to Cairo for talks on the crisis amid a mounting death toll.

Over 500 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed since the Israeli offensive began two weeks ago, Gaza's health ministry says.

Twenty Israelis - 18 of them soldiers - have died, Israel says, as it seeks to end rocket fire on the country.

On Sunday Gaza saw its deadliest day since the start of Israel's Operation Protective Edge, with 13 Israeli soldiers and more than 100 Palestinians killed.

Israel says it has killed at least 120 militants since the ground offensive began on Thursday night.

In Monday's early developments:

• Artillery fire and air strikes are continuing to the east of Gaza City, with Israeli aircraft seen over Shejaiya district for a second day, and the Maghazi neighbourhood
• Ten Hamas militants were killed after using tunnels in the northern Gaza Strip to infiltrate Israel 1km (0.6 miles) from the town of Sderot, Israel said
• Twenty Palestinians have been killed in strikes so far on Monday, Gaza's health ministry says, 16 of them in southern Gaza.

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Lyse Doucet in Gaza City: A mother of four children was one of those killed in Shejaiya on Sunday

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John Simpson reports: ''Israel isn't used to losing soldiers on such a scale''

'Sobering session'

Sunday's late-night UN Security Council session was convened at the request of Jordan, which is understood to have proposed a strongly worded draft resolution for consideration.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke out on the situation, describing Israel's operation in Shejaiya as "an atrocious action".

However, the 15-member council instead issued a statement to the press, with Rwanda's UN ambassador calling for "an immediate cessation of hostilities".

Eugene Gasana said members voiced alarm at the escalation of violence during a "sobering session".

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Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu to BBC Arabic: "I regret any civilian casualty"

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Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour said the UN must take responsibility

'A massacre'

More than 60 Palestinians alone were killed during heavy shelling in Shejaiya, in what Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called "a massacre".

He called for urgent talks, saying the "situation is intolerable" in Gaza and describing the Israeli attacks as "crimes against humanity."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue operations "as much as we need to" despite the number of Israeli soldiers killed rising to 18 at the weekend.

Two of the soldiers killed were American citizens, US state department spokesperson Jen Psaki said.

Sunday's death toll for Israel's military is higher than that sustained during the entire three-week duration of Operation Cast Lead in 2008-2009, the last time Israel sent troops into Gaza.

The deaths of so many soldiers on a single day will shock Israeli society, the BBC's Chris Morris reports from southern Israel.

Hamas said on Sunday evening that it had captured a member of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), prompting celebrations on the streets of Gaza and West Bank.

However Israel's UN ambassador Ron Prosor denied the claim, saying "those rumours are untrue".

The UN says 83,695 people have now been displaced in Gaza and that the figure is "rising all the time".

There were scenes of panic in Shejaiya, with thousands of residents fleeing.

Analysis: Jonathan Marcus, BBC defence correspondent

The fact that the battle has moved into a heavily-populated urban area means that the civilian death toll will rise markedly.

With it will come added pressure from outside to end the operation once and for all.

Hamas's infiltration tunnels prompted the Israeli movement on the ground. Many civilians may have fled but clearly others remained. Now the fighting is close-up and bitter and it's taking a toll on the Israelis as well.

This may well be exactly what Hamas military commanders wanted: to draw the Israeli forces into a close urban environment, a difficult battleground for any modern army.

Jonathan Marcus: Turning point reached?

In an interview with BBC Arabic, Mr Netanyahu called Shejaiya a "terror stronghold" and a centre for rocket attacks on Israel.

Mr Netanyahu said Israeli troops had no choice but to enter densely populated areas and that they had asked civilians to leave.

Israel sent ground troops into Gaza after days of heavy air and naval barrages failed to stop rocket fire.

Israel says the ground operation is necessary to target Hamas' network of tunnels, which have been used by militants to infiltrate Israel and carry out attacks.

Are you in the area affected? Are you or is someone you know affected by the situation? Email your comments to haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk using the subject 'Gaza'.

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