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'No inch here was spared': Hurricane Melissa destroys Jamaica town
The BBC's Nada Tawfik reports from Black River, Jamaica, where the strongest storm to hit the country in modern history has left scenes of desperation. The storm made landfall 28 October as a category five hurricane with sustained winds of 185mph (298kph). Thousands of people remain without power.
JamaicaHurricanesUnited StatesShareSave
Trump administration will tap emergency fund to pay partial food stamp benefits5 hours agoShareSaveAna FaguyShareSaveGetty ImagesUS President Donald Trump's administration has said it will provide reduced food aid to more than 42 million Americans, as the government shutdown this week heads towards becoming the longest ever with no resolution in sight.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in a court filing that Americans who receive food assistance will get half their normal monthly allotment, after the government dipped into emergency funding.
Judges had given the Trump administration until Monday to provide a plan for how it would pay out Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) benefits, also known as food stamps.
Funding for the programme has been in limbo due to the more-than-month-long shutdown.
While individual US states administer the benefits, the programme relies on money from the federal government, which has been unfunded and shut down since 1 October..
CloseRussia unleashes ‘Oreshnik’ hypersonic missile on freezing civiliansThe Ministry of Defence has announced it will develop new tactical ballistic missiles for Ukraine, code-naming the initiative “Project Nightfall”.
Defence secretary John Healey said the UK was determined to arm Ukrainians with advanced weapons to fight back against Vladimir Putin's invasion.
The new missiles will have a conventional 200kg warhead and be capable of striking targets at a range of 500km – deep inside Russian territory.
Healey said last week's hypersonic missile strike on western Ukraine showed “how Putin thinks he can act with impunity, targeting civilian areas with advanced weaponry”.
The defence secretary was in the Ukrainian capital when that attack took place, and heard the air raid sirens at the time.
Later on Monday the UN Security Council is due to hold an emergency meeting to discuss Russia's use of its Oreshnik hypersonic missile just 60 miles from the border of Nato member Po..
'They just kept killing': Eyewitnesses describe deadly crackdown in Iran10 hours agoShareSaveRoja AssadiandSarah Namjoo,BBC PersianShareSavePublic domainA protester holds up a picture of crown prince Reza Pahlavi in Kaj Square, north-western Tehran on Friday”I saw it with my own eyes – they fired directly into lines of protesters, and people fell where they stood.”
Omid's voice was shaking as he spoke, fearful of being traced. Breaking the wall of silence between Iran and the rest of the world takes immense courage, given the risk of reprisals by the authorities.
Omid, in his early 40s and whose name we have changed for his safety, has been protesting on the streets of a small city in southern Iran over the past few days against worsening economic hardship.
He said security forces had opened fire at unarmed protesters in his city with Kalashnikov-style assault rifles.
“We are fighting a brutal regime with empty hands,” he said.
The BBC has received similar accounts of ..