INTERNATIONAL

US President Donald Trump has denounced the removal of “beautiful” Confederate statues amid a heated national debate about US race relations. “Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments,” he tweeted. “You can’t change history, but you can learn from it,” he continued. Mr Trump ...

Spanish police say they have killed five people in the town of Cambrils to stop a second attempted van attack after an earlier one in Barcelona. The attackers were wearing explosive belts, police said. Thirteen people died and dozens were injured when a van ploughed into crowds in Barcelona’s Las Ramblas area on Thursday afternoon. The driver of the van ...

A van has ploughed into crowds in Barcelona’s Ramblas tourist area. Spanish police say several people have been injured in a “massive crash”, while emergency services are urging people to stay away from the area around Plaça Catalunya. Reports from the scene say people are taking cover in nearby shops and cafes. Reuters news agency reports that emergency services have ...

South African police have issued a “red alert” at the country’s borders for Zimbabwe’s First Lady Grace Mugabe, the police minister has said. She is accused of hitting a 20-year-old woman over the head with an extension cord in a hotel room near Johannesburg. Police expected Mrs Mugabe, 52, to turn herself in on Tuesday, but she failed to show ...

A 10-year-old rape victim who was denied permission for an abortion by the Indian Supreme Court last month has given birth to a baby girl. The girl is not aware that she has given birth. During her pregnancy she was told her bulge was because she had a big stone in her stomach. The baby weighing 2.5kg (5.5lb) was delivered ...

Nearly half of the 400 people known to have died in a mudslide and flooding on the outskirts of the Sierra Leone capital Freetown have already been buried, health officials say. The government had said mass burials would be postponed until Thursday to allow relatives to identify victims. But the chief pathologist of Freetown told the BBC that some interments ...

Spain’s coastguard says it has rescued 600 migrants crossing from Morocco in a 24-hour period amid a spike in the number of migrant arrivals. The rescued migrants were in 15 vessels including toy paddleboats and a jet ski and included 35 children and a baby. The UN says more than 9,000 people have arrived in Spain so far this year ...

Kenya’s opposition leader Raila Odinga says he will mount a legal challenge to the result of last week’s presidential election, which he claims was rigged. Mr Odinga, who was defeated by incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta, has accused the electoral authorities of fraud tantamount to “democracy’s slaughter”. But foreign observers described the election as free and fair. The international community has urged ...

Zimbabwe’s government has sought diplomatic immunity for President Robert Mugabe’s wife in the assault case against her in South Africa, South Africa’s police ministry has said. Grace Mugabe was still in South Africa, it added, contradicting earlier reports that she had returned to Zimbabwe. A 20-year-old South African model has accused Mrs Mugabe of assaulting her at a hotel in ...

At least 600 people are still missing following a mudslide and flooding that devastated parts of Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, a spokesman for the president has told the BBC. President Ernest Bai Koroma earlier pleaded for “urgent support”, saying entire communities had been wiped out. Nearly 400 people are confirmed dead after a mudslide in the Regent area and floods ...