Driver held on suspicion of murder as investigation is launched into possible role of organised crime groups
Police have searched two addresses in Northern Ireland overnight in relation to the discovery of 39 bodies inside a refrigerated lorry trailer in Essex. Work is continuing to identify those who died as part of a wide-ranging murder investigation into the UK?€?s worst such tragedy in almost 20 years.
The two searches on Wednesday night are believed to be linked to the arrest of the driver, named in reports as 25-year-old Mo Robinson, from Portadown, who is being held and questioned on suspicion of murder by Essex police.
Farmers given until 2022 to make changes or pay higher taxes as party of net-zero emissions by 2050 policy
New Zealand farmers have five years to reduce their carbon emissions before the government introduces financial penalties, prime minister Jacinda Ardern has announced.
Ardern?€?s Labour coalition government has committed to making New Zealand carbon net-zero by 2050, with the PM likening the climate change battle to the previous generations?€? struggle against the rise of nuclear power.
Political tensions over an intensifying impeachment inquiry reached fever pitch on Wednesday as Republicans ?€?stormed?€? a closed-door committee hearing on Capitol Hill disrupting a crucial deposition related to the Ukraine controversy was appearing - a day after devastating testimony from a key diplomat.
Women?€?s photography of greater sea snake, once believed to be an anomaly in the Baie des Citrons, help scientists understand the ecosystem
A group of snorkelling grandmothers who swim up to 3km five days a week have uncovered a large population of venomous sea snakes in a bay in Noumea where scientists once believed they were rare.
Claire Goiran from the University of New Caledonia and Professor Rick Shine from Australia?€?s Macquarie University were studying a small harmless species known as the turtle?€?headed sea snake located in the Baie des Citrons, but would occasionally encounter the 1.5 metre-long venomous greater sea snake, also known as the olive-headed sea snake.
Democratic lawmaker challenges Facebook CEO during hearing over Libra cryptocurrency
Mark Zuckerberg faced a grueling examination from the Democratic lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday, with questions over the Cambridge Analytica scandal and Facebook?€?s reluctance to police political advertising.
Ocasio-Cortez and other lawmakers grilled the Facebook CEO during a hearing in front of the US House of Representatives financial services committee regarding the launch of Facebook?€?s cryptocurrency project, Libra.
Hundreds of firefighters brought in to tackle blaze as Jacinda Ardern promises to restore venue
A fire in Auckland?€?s city centre continues to smoulder 48 hours after thousands of people were evacuated from the heart of New Zealand?€?s largest city.
Hundreds of firefighters have been working in shifts to put out the blaze on the roof of the SkyCity convention centre, with reinforcements called in from towns as far away as Hamilton, two hours to the south, which provided 30 firetrucks.
In a week of palace intrigue which has gripped the country, King Maha Vajiralongkorn fired six high-ranking officials from the royal household bureau, including ?€?a nurse at the bedroom guard service?€? and a veterinarian, according to two separate announcements released by palace mouthpiece the Royal Gazette.
Parliamentary report says Nilantha Jayawardena had information on attacks 17 days before they happened
A Sri Lankan parliamentary committee that investigated the Easter suicide bombings has concluded the country?€?s spy chief was primarily responsible for the intelligence failure that led to the deaths of 269 people in the attacks.
In a report released on Wednesday the committee said Nilantha Jayawardena received information on possible attacks as early as 4 April - 17 days before the suicide bombings took place - but there were delays on his part in sharing the intelligence with other agencies.
Prime minister awaits decision of EU27 over extension before next move
Boris Johnson?€?s cabinet is divided over how to proceed with Brexit, as the prime minister faces the stark choice of pressing ahead with his deal or gambling his premiership on a pre-Christmas general election.
After an inconclusive meeting with Jeremy Corbyn on Wednesday morning in an attempt to agree an acceptable timetable for parliament to consider the bill, the prime minister told MPs at Wednesday?€?s PMQs that he was awaiting the decision of the EU27 over whether to grant an extension before settling his next move. The EU?€?s decision is unlikely to come before Friday.
President said in a televised speech the right ?€?prepared the coup?€? with foreign powers amid growing tensions over the election
Bolivia?€?s president, Evo Morales, has accused opposition leaders and foreign powers of attempting a ?€?coup?€? against him amid growing tensions over the result of Sunday?€?s desperately tight election.
In an angry televised speech on Wednesday, Morales said: ?€?A coup d?€?etat is under way. The right wing prepared the coup with international support.?€?
Band reveal details of double album Sunrise and Sunset among ads for bales of hay and whitegoods
Coldplay has revealed the tracks of its new album by placing ads in the classified sections of newspapers around the world.
They started close to home with local papers in north Wales and Devon but also included Australia?€?s Sydney Morning Herald, the Otago Daily Times in New Zealand and Le Monde in France.
The Indian Ocean beachfront, the restaurant strip of Florida Road and the market at Warwick offer three very different models for the future of South Africa?€?s third largest city
It?€?s an early start on Durban?€?s beachfront Golden Mile. By 6am the surfers have arrived, followed by the runners and their dogs, then executives-cum-cyclists, speed walkers and yoga instructors. By 7am the cafes are open for breakfast and children, on holiday from inland schools, are already in the water.
Where fellow oceanside metropolis Cape Town has marketed itself to the world, Durban has positioned itself as South Africa?€?s playground. Beachfront theme parks and twirling public waterslides attract families from around the country, and all walks of life. This accessibility and affordability have made this eight-kilometre strip arguably one of South Africa?€?s most inclusive public spaces.
Farmers fear development of Cape Town?€?s Philippi urban farmlands could cost them their livelihoods and worsen the city?€?s already extreme food inequality
?€?Losing the Philippi Horticultural Area to development would be catastrophic,?€? says farmer Nazeer Sonday who has been fighting to protect this farmland in the heart of Cape Town for nearly a decade.?€?The area is key to the city?€?s climate resilience and resolution of its food crisis.?€?
The coming months are critical. Last week, a court battle began which Sonday fears may determine not only his own future, but that of the most fertile agricultural land in South Africa.
In the shadow of South Africa?€?s car industry, making use of discarded parts is a way of life - so Port Elizabeth?€?s Kevin Kimwelle makes a virtue of it
?€?You?€?re lucky you arrived on a Monday,?€? says architect Kevin Kimwelle as we drive through the twisting back streets of Port Elizabeth. ?€?The municipality collects rubbish on a Monday ?€? but later in the week, it?€?ll be a terrible mess.?€?
In South Africa waste collection is just one of the services that government struggles to deliver. A little under half of the country (41% of households) is without basic waste collection services, let alone recycling: as a nation, only 10% of waste is recycled, while 90% ends up in landfills.
My mother tells me the house where I was born in the Chiawelo section of Soweto in 1973 didn?€?t have windows, doors or a paved floor when they moved in. My father earned very little as a cleaner at the post office and had no money to fix it.
So my mother and her friends would go to a nearby farm to steal cow dung to make the floor. One day she got bitten by the farmer?€?s dog. That scar of poverty is still engraved on her hand like an ugly tattoo.
They?€?ve conquered the box office. Now it?€?s payback time. As they are attacked by filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, are TV and movie superheroes fighting a losing battle against reality?
Alan Moore?€?s celebrated 1986 series Watchmen revolved around a conspiracy to kill off masked vigilantes, and in effect that?€?s what it did in real life. Compared with the complex, mature, literary nature of Watchmen, most other comic-book titles looked juvenile and two-dimensional. This was at a time when ?€?comic-book movies?€? meant Christopher Reeve?€?s wholesome Superman series, and when the only inhabitant of the Marvel movie universe was Howard the Duck. The entire industry had to up its game, and a new era of mature ?€?graphic novels?€? was born.
Now we appear to have come full circle - which is fitting for a story so heavy with clock symbolism. With uncanny timing, HBO?€?s lavish new Watchmen series arrives at a moment when comic-book movies are again in what you might call a decadent phase of the cycle. They have decisively conquered our screens and our box offices, with ever grander and more improbable forms of spectacle, to the extent that we?€?re now beginning to question how much more of them we need. Could Watchmen kill off the superheroes once again?
Donald Tusk tells Boris Johnson he has recommended that the EU27 accept request for extension
Boris Johnson will be left waiting for the EU?€?s terms for a further Brexit extension until Friday, with signs of momentum building behind Donald Tusk?€?s plan for a delay up to 31 January.
The French government has privately voiced its concerns about taking the pressure off MPs to vote for the deal, which they believe could be ratified in 15 days, but EU sources said the bloc was seeking a ?€?solution that works for all?€? and avoids a no deal exit.
The largest protests in Lebanon in 14 years have shut down the country as a revolt against a weak government, ailing services and a looming economic collapse continues to gain momentum. The demonstrations began last week amid anger over the government?€?s plan to impose new taxes, and have since widened into demands for resignations and a secular state
Bumi Thomas, whose sister got citizenship, wins appeal against removal from UK
Two Windrush sisters who describe themselves as inseparable are celebrating after a judge ruled that one of them should not be sent back to Nigeria.
Bumi Thomas, 36, was at risk of removal from the UK and at one point was given 14 days to leave, while her sister Kemi, 38, was not because of their different dates of birth.
24 October 1938: US liberals say the health of the poor is an obligation of the government; the American Medical Association resists this tendency as leading towards ?€?socialism?€?
A bitter public debate is in progress in the United States over the question of medical care for the poor. Broadly speaking, American Liberals are insisting that the health of the poor is an obligation of the Government. The American Medical Association, the powerful national society of physicians and surgeons, resists this tendency as leading towards ?€?Socialism?€? and endangering the relation between doctor and patient.
Thousands take to streets of Santiago for sixth day running
Pińera scraps fare hike and raises pensions and minimum wage
Tens of thousands of protesters have flooded Chile?€?s capital, setting up flaming barricades and clashing with riot police after an apology and promises of economic reforms from President Sebastián Pińera failed to quell unrest and rioting has led to at least 18 deaths.
Trade unionists in the world?€?s top copper-producing country joined demonstrators with a general strike in a movement that started with anger at a small rise in subway fares, but expanded into protests against inequality and to demand improvements in education, healthcare and wages in one of Latin America?€?s wealthiest, but most unequal nations.
Survey of EU citizens reveals overwhelming belief in importance of helping people in poorer countries
The British public remains firmly behind efforts to support people in poorer countries, with almost two-thirds of people canvassed in a survey of EU citizens believing that maintaining overseas aid at its current level should be ?€?a major priority?€?.
The results from Eurobarometer, the EU?€?s polling organisation, also found that almost 90% of people thought helping people in developing countries should be a priority of the EU and national governments.
She was still a teenager when she was sold into sexual slavery and sentenced to life imprisonment for murder. Now Cyntoia Brown-Long hopes her new memoir will highlight the flaws in the US justice system that failed her so badly
Cyntoia Brown-Long was just 16 when she was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a man she claims bought her for sex. The homeless runaway had been in and out of the juvenile justice system, survived multiple rapes and assaults and was forced into sex slavery by her then-boyfriend, a pimp known as Kut Throat, who regularly sold her for drug money.
Yet few details of Brown-Long?€?s troubled childhood were heard by the Tennessee court in 2004, which instead repeatedly described her as a ?€?teen prostitute?€? and tried her as an adult. Today, 15 years on and just months after her life sentence was commuted by the state governor, Brown-Long has rewritten the narrative behind her incarceration - and her past - in a memoir she began while still in prison.
Faced by a ?€?rising chorus of voices?€?, not least that of legislator Rustonlyn Dennis, President George Weah is considering setting up a long-awaited tribunal into decades-old war crimes
As a child in Liberia?€?s first civil war, Rustonlyn Dennis remembers seeing dead bodies in the street. In 1991, her immediate family managed to get out of the shattered capital, Monrovia, and survived, but a dozen relatives starved to death.
Civilians were attacked, child soldiers recruited and ethnic groups were targeted in that war, setting a pattern for many of the wars that were to follow on the African continent. Hundreds of thousands of people died.
Javed Iqbal denies involvement in scandal over alleged use of CCTV footage to extort money from students in Balochistan
The vice-chancellor of a university in the volatile region of Balochistan in Pakistan has temporarily stepped down from his role following the launch of an investigation into allegations of harassment and blackmail on campus.
Javed Iqbal said on Sunday that he was leaving his post at the University of Balochistan until the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) concluded its inquiry into claims that CCTV footage of students was used by university officials to blackmail them. Most of the students allegedly affected were female.
Our two-year study shows the lake has been stable since the 1990s. Costly ?€?solutions?€? shift focus from the complex causes of the region?€?s deadly crisis
Lake Chad is a hydrological miracle - a life-giving, freshwater lake in the Sahara desert. But the region around the lake has been engulfed in a violent crisis for more than a decade, which has left nearly 10 million people in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
Military crackdowns on insurgent groups such as Boko Haram have failed to end the violence. Bringing durable peace to the region requires unpicking a Gordian knot of many interlinked factors: poverty, sectarian mistrust, political marginalisation and corruption. The risks posed by the climate crisis to the rainfall-dependent livelihoods of the people of Lake Chad are an important strand of this challenge.
The impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump has heard some extraordinary testimony over the last month. From the first mention of Trump?€?s desired ?€?deliverable?€? from Ukraine, successive layers of witnesses and documents have added to an indictment of the president?€?s conduct that only gets heavier, as Trump howls his defenses to the wind.
The Ukraine diplomat said Trump put pressure on Zelenskiy to investigate Biden and gave the most detailed account so far
The US?€?s top diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor, gave damning evidence on Tuesday to congressional committees in Washington investigating Donald Trump. Taylor told impeachment inquiry hearings that Trump had explicitly put pressure on Ukraine?€?s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to investigate former vice-president Joe Biden - Trump?€?s Democratic rival in the 2020 election - and to pursue the conspiracy theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 US election on the side of Hillary Clinton. Taylor released his version of events in a 15-page document, in the most detailed account of the scandal so far.
Vajiralongkorn wields dominant control over his country?€?s politics and media
When Thailand?€?s 67-year-old King Maha Vajiralongkorn stripped his royal consort of her titles on Monday, it sent shockwaves through Thai society. Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi had spent several years as a companion to the monarch alongside the now queen, but had only been given her official title in July.
The palace claimed her title was stripped because Sineenat, 34, tried to convince the king to elevate her to the same standing as his fourth wife and current queen, Suthida Tidjai, 41.
Canada?€?s 43rd election campaign capped a particularly bruising year for Trudeau, but in the end his right-leaning rivals fared worse
Liberal supporters trickled into the party headquarters in downtown Montreal on Monday night, apparently worried that they were about to witness an electoral comeuppance for Justin Trudeau.
Yet any jitters quickly turned to cheers as the party secured a minority government, thereby rescuing Trudeau?€?s legacy - and probably tilting Canada?€?s political landscape further to the left in the process.
Donald Trump has said he will lift the economic sanctions imposed on Turkey after its government informed the US that it would make the ceasefire in Syria ?€?permanent?€?. Claiming success at the US-brokered effort, the US president said on Wednesday that ?€?this was an outcome created by us?€?
The death toll on Tuesday morning stood at 15. The Chilean government claimed all those who died were looters, but there have been widespread allegations of brutality by the military.
A fire burned in the heart of New Zealand?€?s largest city, Auckland, starting from the roof of the SkyCity centre, which is still under construction. Thousands of people were evacuated. Workers on the site were sent away immediately, but as the fire continued to rage, other areas - including New Zealand's tallest building, Sky Tower - were cleared.
The New Zealand fire service asked residents to stay clear of the city centre and a spokesperson said it was 'a very, very difficult fire to extinguish'
Canada's Conservative party leader, Andrew Scheer, said he had spoken to Justin Trudeau to congratulate him on winning the most seats. In his concession speech he added that the election result, in which the Liberals lost 20 seats, showed that the 'Conservatives have put Trudeau on notice'. Scheer said: 'Mr Trudeau, when your government falls, Conservatives will be ready and we will win'
Jean-Claude Juncker has spoken in the European parliament as his five-year term as president of the European commission comes to an end. He said Brexit had been a waste of time and a waste of energy and that Brussels would be watching Westminster closely as it votes on a withdrawal agreement. Boris Johnson will make a final attempt on Tuesday to force his deal through by 31 October
Large number of US citizens demonstrated against the war in Iraq (and the possible war in Iran) during this October weekend. Massive turnout in Boston and San Fransisco, and also in Chicago, LA and DC people took to the streets. The message was: NO more war in Iraq! NO to a war with Iran!
