Ukraine will get up to 100 of France's Rafale F4 fighter jets as well as advanced air defence systems in a major deal to boost Kyiv's ability to protect itself against deadly Russian attacks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the move as "historic", after signing the letter of intent with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron at an air base near Paris.

Deliveries of the Rafale F4's are planned to be completed by 2035, while the joint production of interceptor drones is starting this year.

Financial details are yet to be worked out, but reports say France plans to attract EU financing and also access frozen Russian assets - a controversial move that has split the 27-member bloc.

"This is a strategic agreement which will last for 10 years starting from the next year," Zelensky said at a joint briefing with Macron on Monday.

Ukraine would also get "very strong French radars", eight air defence systems and other advanced weaponry, he added.

Zelensky stressed that using such advanced systems "means protecting someone's life... this is very important".

Russia has in recent months increased its drone and missile attacks against Ukraine, targeting energy and rail infrastructure and causing massive blackouts across the country.

Dozens of civilians have been killed in the strikes, in what Kyiv and its Western allies describe as war crimes. In the latest overnight Russian missile attack, three people were killed and 15 injured, in the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Balakliya, local officials said.

Speaking alongside Zelensky, Macron said: "We're planning Rafales, 100 Rafales - that's huge. That's what's needed for the regeneration of the Ukrainian military".

The French president added that he wanted to help Ukraine prepare for whatever was coming next.

These Rafale fighter jets are seen as crucial to protecting Ukraine's skies, because the country is almost powerless in preventing long-range air strikes on its border towns and cities.

"The Russians are using 6000 glide bombs per month," Serhiy Kuzhan, a Ukrainian defence analyst, told the BBC. "It would be important to have a French air to air system, with a 200km range, because Russians have their own system with a range of 230km."

While this announcement between Kyiv and Paris is sizeable, Justin Bronk from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) points out: "The difference they'll make will depend on the timeframe and the missiles that come with them".

This is a long-term political agreement, rather than a detailed purchase order, so few are expecting this announcement to dramatically change the dynamics of Russia's grinding invasion.

The promises of Western military hardware are only as effective as the training and logistics they come with. Whether it's a German-made Leopard 2 Tank or an American F16 fighter jet, they all require intensive training, sizable support crews and a lot of spare parts.

With the Rafales, further complexities arise around the question of who pays. It's thought France will dip into its own budget contributions for Kyiv, as well as look as joint EU borrowing mechanisms to help pay for the deal.

But what you hear privately admitted in EU's corridors of power in Brussels, is that the money is slowing running out.

The bloc has agreed to help support Ukraine's battered economy for the next two years, but there is less consensus on whether to unlock €140bn ($162bn; £123bn) of frozen Russian assets to help support Ukraine financially and militarily.

The proposals are currently illegal under international law, and some members are nervous about the prospect of having to pay Russia back when the war ends.

Ukraine's air force is already using France's Mirage warplanes as well as US-made F-16s. Kyiv has also recently provisionally agreed to obtain Sweden's Gripen fighter jets.

After France, Zelensky will travel to Spain to seek further military and other support for Ukraine.

Over the weekend, he secured a gas deal with Greece. Vital supplies of US liquefied natural gas are now expected to start flowing into Ukraine this winter via a pipeline across the Balkans.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukraine's territory and Russian troops have been making slow advances along the vast front line - despite reported huge combat casualties.

The Louvre museum in Paris has announced it is closing one of its galleries because of structural weaknesses.

The Campana Gallery - consisting of nine rooms which host Greek ceramics - will remain shut as engineers investigate "certain beams supporting the floors", the Louvre said.

The announcement adds to the museum's unwelcome attention following a high-profile heist last month in which jewels worth €88m (£76m; $102m) were taken.

Criticism has focused on lax security at the world's most-visited museum in the French capital.

Four people have been arrested over the heist, but the jewels have not been recovered.

In a statement on Monday, the Louvre said that structural issues in offices on the second floor - above the Campana Gallery in the Sully wing of the museum - had led to its decision.

"During these investigations, the Campana Gallery... will be closed to the public as a precautionary measure," it said.

Three weeks after the jewel theft, a report was released in which the Court of Auditors criticised managers who had preferred to invest in new artworks and exhibitions rather than basic upkeep and protection of the museum.

Basing its findings on the years 2018-24, the report found the museum had spent €105.4m (£92.7m) on buying new artworks and €63.5m on exhibition spaces.

But at the same time it spent only €26.7m on maintenance works, and €59.5m on restoration of the palace building.

On the day of the heist, the suspects arrived at 09:30 (07:30 GMT), just after the museum opened to visitors.

The suspects arrived with a stolen vehicle-mounted mechanical lift to gain access to the Galerie d'Apollon (Gallery of Apollo) via a balcony close to the River Seine. The men used a disc cutter to crack open display cases housing the jewellery.

Prosecutors said the thieves were inside for four minutes and made their escape on two scooters waiting outside at 09:38, before switching to cars.

One of the stolen items - a crown - was dropped during the escape. The other seven jewels have not been found.

The fear is that they have already been spirited abroad, though the prosecutor in charge of the case has said she is still hopeful they can be retrieved intact.

Those arrested over the heist that shocked France were all petty criminals rather than organised crime professionals, Paris's prosecutor has said.

Since the incident, security measures have been tightened around France's cultural institutions.

The Louvre has even transferred some of its most precious jewels to the Bank of France.

Second-hand clothing platform Vinted is under investigation in France after some user accounts were found to be directing visitors to pornographic content.

France's Children's Rights Commissioner Sarah El-Haïry said she had asked watchdog Arcom to examine the allegations first reported in French media.

Vinted, which has 23 million users in France, has no age-verification procedure - meaning children and teenagers could have been exposed to pornographic material without having to show proof they were over 18.

In a statement, the Lithuania-based company said it had a "zero-tolerance policy regarding unsolicited communications of a sexual nature or the promotion of sexual services".

"All inappropriate and illegal content is removed, and where necessary we take measures against users, including blocking them definitively from our site," it said.

Vinted is taking the situation "very seriously", it added.

Reports first surfaced after some sellers showing photographs of swimwear or lingerie were found to be luring viewers to their personal pages on adult platforms such as OnlyFans.

"Predators have been using the sale of ordinary items of clothing to direct people to porn sites," El-Haïry said.

France has recently issued warnings to other global e-commerce platforms, including Shein - headquartered in Singapore - after products including childlike sex dolls appeared in their marketing listings.

French officials say the case against Shein forms part of a wider investigation into other major e-commerce platforms accused of allowing illicit products to be sold online.

Paris prosecutors are examining whether Shein, AliExpress, Temu and Wish breached laws relating to violent, pornographic or "undignified" content accessible to minors.

Shein and AliExpress are also being investigated specifically over the alleged dissemination of child-related pornographic material. The cases have been referred to the Paris Office des Mineurs, which handles offences involving the protection of children.

Shein has already banned the sale of all sex dolls on its platform worldwide and says it is permanently blocking seller accounts linked to the items.

The French consumer watchdog, the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control, said descriptions of the dolls left "little doubt as to their child-pornography nature".

Bangladesh's longest-serving prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed began her political career as a pro-democracy icon, but fled mass protests against her rule in August 2024 after 15 years in power.

Since then, Hasina has been in self-imposed exile in India, where she flew after being deposed by the student-led uprising which spiralled into nationwide unrest.

On 17 November, a special tribunal in Dhaka sentenced her to death after convicting her of crimes against humanity. It was found Hasina had ordered a deadly crackdown on protesters between 15 July and 5 August 2024. She denied all charges against her.

Up to 1,400 people were killed during the weeks of protests leading up to her ousting, most by gunfire from security forces, UN human rights investigators said. Their report found that she and her government had tried to cling to power using systematic, deadly violence against protesters.

It was the worst bloodshed the country had seen since independence in 1971.

The protests brought an unexpected end to the reign of Hasina, who had ruled Bangladesh for more than 20 years.

She and her Awami League party were credited with overseeing the South Asian country's economic progress. But in recent years she was accused of turning autocratic and clamping down on any opposition to her rule.

Politically-motivated arrests, disappearances, extra-judicial killings and other abuses all rose under her rule.

An order to 'use lethal weapons'

In January 2024, Hasina won an unprecedented fourth term as prime minister in an election widely decried by critics as being a sham and boycotted by the main opposition.

Protests began later that year with a demand to abolish quotas in civil service jobs. By summer they had morphed into a wider anti-government movement as she used the police to violently crack down on protesters.

Amid increasing calls for her to resign, Hasina remained defiant and condemned the agitators as “terrorists”. She also threw hundreds of people into jail and brought criminal charges against hundreds more.

A leaked audio clip suggested she had ordered security forces to "use lethal weapons" against protesters. She denies ever issuing an order to fire on unarmed civilians.

Some of the bloodiest scenes occurred on 5 August, the day Hasina fled by helicopter before crowds stormed her residence in Dhaka. Police killed at least 52 people that day in a busy neighbourhood, making it one of the worst cases of police violence in the country's history.

Hasina, who has been tried in absentia, called the tribunal a "farce".

"It is a kangaroo court controlled by my political opponents to deliver a pre-ordained guilty verdict... and to distract the world's attention from the chaos, violence and misrule of [the new] government," she told the BBC in the week before her verdict.

She called for the ban on her party to be lifted before elections due in February.

Hasina is also charged with crimes against humanity relating to forced disappearances during the Awami League's rule in another case at the same tribunal in Bangladesh. Hasina and the Awami League deny all the charges.

Hasina and other senior members of her former government are also facing trial for corruption in a separate court - charges they deny.

How did Sheikh Hasina come to power?

Born to a Muslim family in East Bengal in 1947, Hasina had politics in her blood.

Her father was the nationalist leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's "Father of the Nation" who led the country's independence from Pakistan in 1971 and became its first president.

At that time, Hasina had already established a reputation as a student leader at Dhaka University.

Her father was assassinated with most of his family members in a military coup in 1975. Only Hasina and her younger sister survived as they were travelling abroad at the time.

After living in exile in India, Hasina returned to Bangladesh in 1981 and became the leader of the Awami League, the political party her father belonged to.

She joined hands with other political parties to hold pro-democracy street protests during the military rule of General Hussain Muhammed Ershad. Propelled by the popular uprising, Hasina quickly became a national icon.

She was first elected to power in 1996. She earned credit for signing a water-sharing deal with India and a peace deal with tribal insurgents in the south-east of the country.

But at the same time, her government was criticised for numerous allegedly corrupt business deals and for being too subservient to India.

She later lost to her former ally-turned-nemesis, Begum Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, in 2001.

As heirs to political dynasties, both women have dominated Bangladesh politics for more than three decades and used to be known as the "battling begums". Begum refers to a Muslim woman of high rank.

Observers say their bitter rivalry resulted in bus bombs, disappearances and extrajudicial killings becoming regular occurrences.

Hasina eventually came back to power in 2009 in polls held under a caretaker government.

A true political survivor, she endured numerous arrests while in opposition as well as several assassination attempts, including one in 2004 that damaged her hearing. She has also survived efforts to force her into exile and numerous court cases in which she has been accused of corruption.

Achievements and controversies

Once one of the world's poorest nations, Bangladesh achieved credible economic success under her leadership from 2009.

Its per capita income tripled in the last decade and the World Bank estimates that more than 25 million people have been lifted out of poverty in the last 20 years.

Much of this growth has been fuelled by the garment industry, which accounts for the vast majority of total exports from Bangladesh and has expanded rapidly in recent decades, supplying markets in Europe, North America and Asia.

Using the country's own funds, loans and development assistance, Hasina's government also undertook huge infrastructure projects, including the flagship $2.9bn Padma bridge across the Ganges.

But Hasina has long been accused of enacting repressive authoritarian measures against her political opponents, detractors and the media - a remarkable turnaround for a leader who once fought for multi-party democracy.

Rights groups estimate there have been at least 700 cases of enforced disappearances, with hundreds more subject to extra-judicial killings, since Hasina took power again in 2009. Hasina denies involvement in these.

Bangladesh's security forces have also been accused of serious abuses. In 2021, the US sanctioned its Rapid Action Battalion - a notorious police unit accused of carrying out numerous extra-judicial killings - citing human rights violations.

Human rights activists and journalists also faced increasing attacks including arrests, surveillance and harassment.

Hasina's government was also accused of "judicially harassing" targets with court cases, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus - who became head of the interim government after Hasina fled. He had been jailed earlier in 2024 and faced more than 100 charges, in cases his supporters say were politically motivated.

Hasina's government flatly denied claims of such abuses, while also restricting visits when it was in power by foreign journalists seeking to investigate the allegations.

The protests against civil service quotas, which sparked last year's uprising, came as Bangladesh struggled with the escalating costs of living in the wake of the pandemic. Inflation skyrocketed, the country's foreign exchange reserves dropped precipitously, and its foreign debt doubled since 2016.

Critics blamed this on mismanagement by Hasina's government, claiming that Bangladesh's economic progress only helped those close to her.

A South African man who was seen attending neo-Nazi rally outside an Australian state parliament has had his visa revoked.

Matthew Gruter, who has been Australia since 2022, took part in an anti-Jewish protest outside the New South Wales parliament organised by the National Socialist Network earlier this month.

He was seen in the front row of around 60 men clad in black, who held up a banner that said "Abolish the Jewish lobby", Australian media reports.

Australia has seen a recent rise in right-wing extremism. Its government made the Nazi salute punishable by a mandatory prison term earlier this year.

Australia's Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke confirmed the cancellation of Mr Gruter's visa, saying: "If you are on a visa, you are a guest.

"If you're a citizen, you're a full member of the Australian family. Like with any household, if a guest turns up to show hatred and wreck the household, they can be told it's time to go home."

Mr Gruter moved to Australia with his wife and works as a civil engineer, according to ABC News.

The National Socialist Network, which organised the rally on 8 November, is a well-known neo-Nazi group in Australia. Mr Gruter is a senior member of the group in New South Wales, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Protesters repeatedly chanted "blood and honour", a slogan associated with the Hitler Youth, according to ABC News.

It last less than 20 minutes and was legally authorised, the Guardian reports.

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

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Armed men have killed a teacher and abducted at least 25 students in an attack on a girls' secondary school in north-western Nigeria, police say.

The gang invaded the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi State, at around 04:00 local time (0300 GMT) on Monday, they said.

The attackers "engaged police personnel on duty in a gun duel" before scaling the perimeter fence and seizing the students from their hostel, a statement said.

One member of staff was killed while trying to protect the students. A second sustained gunshot wounds and is now receiving treatment.

Eyewitnesses described a large group of attackers, known locally as bandits, who arrived firing sporadically to cause panic.

Residents told the BBC that the gunmen subsequently marched a number of girls into nearby bushland.

The police said they had deployed "additional police tactical units, alongside military personnel and vigilante groups" to the area.

A coordinated search and rescue operation is underway in surrounding forests and suspected escape routes.

Over the past decade, schools in northern Nigeria have become frequent targets for armed groups, who often carry out abductions to seek ransom payments or leverage deals with the government.

However, this is the first major school abduction since March 2024, when more than 200 pupils were seized from a school in Kuriga, Kaduna state.

The attack in Kebbi State highlights the persistent security crisis plaguing the region, leaving families in Maga in a state of fearful exhaustion as they wait and hope for their daughters' safe return.

You may also be interested in:

• Nigeria's kidnapping crisis: Should ransom payments be banned?
• Kuriga kidnap: More than 280 Nigerian pupils abducted
• The bandit kidnap crisis in Nigeria

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica

US President Donald Trump has called on House Republicans to vote to release the Epstein files, in a reversal from his previous position.

"House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide," Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday night.

The shift from days of Trump fighting the proposal comes as the House is expected to hold a vote this week on legislation that would force the Justice Department to release the files to the public.

Supporters of the proposal appear to have enough votes to pass the House, though it is unclear whether it would pass the Senate.

Democrats and some Republicans have been pushing a measure that would force the Justice Department to make public more documents from the case.

Republican Representative Thomas Massie, a co-sponsor of the bill, said in an interview with ABC News on Sunday that as many as 100 Republicans could vote in favour.

Known as the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the aim of the bill is to make the justice department release all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials linked to Jeffrey Epstein.

This is a a breaking news update. More to follow shortly.

Vital supplies of US liquefied natural gas are due to start flowing into war-ravaged Ukraine this winter via a pipeline across the Balkans.

The deal was announced after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens on Sunday. Greece has been working to increase the flow of American LNG to its terminals to "replace Russian gas in the region", Mitsotakis said recently.

The European Commission plans to ban all imports of Russian gas to EU member states by the end of 2027, arguing that revenue from such sales funds Russia's war in Ukraine.

Zelensky is now in France for talks with President Emmanuel Macron over a major deal on air defence hardware.

Fighting continued overnight, with six people reported killed in Russian attacks in the Kharkiv, Kherson and Donetsk regions of Ukraine.

Russia's military said it had taken control of three more Ukrainian villages - one each in the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

None of the reports could be independently verified.

Speaking earlier in Athens, Zelensky was quoted as saying that deliveries of American LNG would begin in January.

"We rebuild each time the Russians destroy but this truly requires time, much effort, equipment and, regarding gas... imports to compensate for the destruction by the Russians of our own production," he said.

"Greece is becoming an energy security provider for your homeland," Mitsotakis told the Ukrainian president.

According to Reuters news agency, Zelensky said Ukraine had allocated funds for gas imports from European partners and banks under European Commission guarantees, as well as from Ukrainian banks, to help cover imports through to March at a cost of nearly €2bn (£1.8bn; $2.3bn).

Since 2015, when it stopped buying Russian gas directly, Ukraine has been receiving supplies from various EU states.

The Soviet-era Trans-Balkan pipeline links Ukraine to LNG terminals in Greece via Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria.

On Monday, Zelensky met Macron at Villacoublay airbase near Paris where he was to inspect Rafale fighter jets, the SAMP-T air defence system and several drone systems.

He was also due to inspect the nascent headquarters of a planned multinational force that may one day help oversee a Ukraine-Russia ceasefire.

Tens of thousands of people, most of them soldiers, have been killed or injured, and millions of civilians have fled their homes, since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Jurors in a high-profile Australian murder trial have been taken to the remote Queensland beach where the victim was found.

Toyah Cordingley was "repeatedly" stabbed with a sharp object and put in a shallow sandy grave with "little or no hope of surviving", the jury has heard.

Rajwinder Singh, 41, denies murdering Ms Cordingley on a Sunday afternoon in October 2018 in Far North Queensland.

The 24-year-old's body was discovered by her father the following day on Wangetti Beach - a stretch of coastline between the tourist centres of Cairns and Port Douglas.

The jury of ten men and two women plus three back up jurors attended the beach along with the judge and barristers on Monday morning local time, as the second week of the trial got underway.

In a nod to the tropical conditions and temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius, the judge, Justice Lincoln Crowley wore a T-shirt, sports shorts and trainers rather than a wig and robes. Both the lead prosecution and defence barristers opted for polo shirts, shorts and baseball caps.

The jurors were led around 1.2km north up the sand to see where Ms Cordingley was discovered.

Earlier, as they arrived by bus, four red and white cones marked where the victim's car had been parked.

The trip was intended to help the jurors get familiar with key locations in the case and no official evidence was given.

Last week, the Cairns Supreme Court heard that the day after Ms Cordingley's body was discovered, Mr Singh flew from Australia to India – leaving behind his wife, three children and parents. He was not heard from until he was arrested four years later, the prosecution said.

It is alleged that Mr Singh, who was working as a nurse in the town of Innisfail south of Cairns, had a confrontation with Ms Cordingley, whom prosecutor Nathan Crane described as "a young woman, blonde and attractive".

The pharmacy worker was found wearing a bikini, with all her other clothes and most of her possessions missing. Those items were taken by the killer to avoid detection, the crown alleged.

Her dog, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had taken to the beach for a walk, was found tied up to a tree hidden in shrubland about 30 metres from the grave.

No murder weapon was ever recovered, and no eyewitnesses have been found.

But the prosecution says the crown's case – though circumstantial – was made up of evidence that pointed to Mr Singh "and eliminated others".

This will include evidence that DNA recovered from a stick at the scene was 3.8 billion times more likely to have come from Mr Singh than a random member of the public.

The jury has already heard evidence suggesting that Ms Cordingley's phone left the beach after the killing – and that its movements matched those of a blue Alfa Romeo owned by the accused.

Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also pointed to his guilt, the prosecution has argued.

"As the police were finding Toyah's body, he was organising … a hurriedly-arranged one way trip back to India," Mr Crane said last week as he opened his case.

The defence is yet to present any evidence, but in his opening address, Mr Singh's barrister Greg McGuire described his client as a "placid" and "caring" man, who was in the "wrong place at the wrong time".

He also foreshadowed evidence to come later in the trial that after his arrest, Mr Singh told an undercover officer he had seen two masked men attack Ms Cordingley and then had run away in fear - something he said was his "biggest mistake".

Mr McGuire has also said he will give evidence about other people "both known and unknown" who should come under suspicion.

Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, Marco Heidenreich, whom police quickly ruled out as a possible suspect, was among those who gave evidence last week.

The court heard he was an immediate police suspect - and that he had faced questions from Ms Cordingley's father about whether he was involved in his girlfriend's disappearance, even before her body was found.

Photographs showing Mr Heidenreich on a hike with a friend on the day Ms Cordingley went missing have been shown to the court, with an expert saying he was confident the pictures were genuine and had not been doctored in any way.

The trial will return to the more conventional setting of the court house on Tuesday.

A South African man who was seen attending neo-Nazi rally outside an Australian state parliament has had his visa revoked.

Matthew Gruter, who has been Australia since 2022, took part in an anti-Jewish protest outside the New South Wales parliament organised by the National Socialist Network earlier this month.

He was seen in the front row of around 60 men clad in black, who held up a banner that said "Abolish the Jewish lobby", Australian media reports.

Australia has seen a recent rise in right-wing extremism. Its government made the Nazi salute punishable by a mandatory prison term earlier this year.

Australia's Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke confirmed the cancellation of Mr Gruter's visa, saying: "If you are on a visa, you are a guest.

"If you're a citizen, you're a full member of the Australian family. Like with any household, if a guest turns up to show hatred and wreck the household, they can be told it's time to go home."

Mr Gruter moved to Australia with his wife and works as a civil engineer, according to ABC News.

The National Socialist Network, which organised the rally on 8 November, is a well-known neo-Nazi group in Australia. Mr Gruter is a senior member of the group in New South Wales, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Protesters repeatedly chanted "blood and honour", a slogan associated with the Hitler Youth, according to ABC News.

It last less than 20 minutes and was legally authorised, the Guardian reports.

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica

A Singapore court has sentenced an Australian man to nine days in jail for grabbing Hollywood star Ariana Grande at a movie premiere.

Johnson Wen, 26, was found guilty of being a public nuisance in the high-profile incident last Thursday at the Asia premiere for Wicked: For Good.

Videos posted on social media showed Wen jumping the barriers, charging at a visibly shocked Grande, and grabbing her shoulders while jumping up and down.

The incident sparked outrage in Singapore where many called for the arrest and deportation of Wen, who has a history of disrupting concerts and celebrity events.

Several accused him of "re-traumatising" Grande. The pop star turned actress has spoken of experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder after a suicide bomb attack at her May 2017 concert in Manchester, killing 22 people and injuring hundreds.

Singapore media reported that in Wen's trial on Monday, the court heard he had attempted to intrude on the movie premiere twice.

Moments after he grabbed Grande, her co-star Cynthia Erivo forcibly pried him off and security staff escorted him out.

He then made a second attempt to jump the barricades. Security staff stopped him and this time pinned him down.

Wen later posted videos of the incident on his social media accounts thanking Grande and stating that he was "free".

Singapore police arrested him the next day and charged him for public nuisance. Wen pleaded guilty.

Prosecutors sought a week's jail for Wen, arguing that he was a "serial intruder" who publicised his behaviour to gain popularity online.

Wen has posted videos of himself disrupting concerts by Katy Perry and The Weeknd, and invading the pitch at various sporting events. Australian media have reported he is banned from some stadiums and has incurred large fines.

Wen, who was not represented in the Singapore court, told the judge in mitigation that he would "not do it again".

Under Singapore's laws against public nuisance, Wen could have been jailed for up to three months, fined up to S$2,000 (£1,167; $1,537), or both.

Grande has not commented on the case, while continuing to appear in public at events in Los Angeles over the weekend.

But two days after the incident Erivo appeared to allude to the incident when she spoke about her relationship with Grande while making the movie, saying: "We have come through some stuff in our lives, our daily workings... even this last week, let's be honest."

"This is the room where my whole family was killed," says Safa Younes.

Bullet holes pepper the front door to the house in the Iraqi town of Haditha, where she grew up. Inside the back bedroom, a colourful bedspread covers the bed where her family was shot.

This is where she hid with her five siblings, mum and aunt when US marines stormed into their home and opened fire, killing everyone apart from Safa, on 19 November 2005. Her dad was also shot dead when he opened the front door.

Now, 20 years on, a BBC Eye investigation has uncovered evidence that implicates two marines, who were never brought to trial, in the killing of Safa's family, according to a forensic expert.

The evidence - mainly statements and testimony given in the aftermath of the killings - raises doubts about the American investigation into what happened that day, and poses significant questions over how US armed forces are held to account.

The killing of Safa's family was part of what became known as the Haditha massacre, when US marines killed 24 Iraqi civilians, including four women and six children. They entered three homes killing nearly everyone inside, as well as a driver and four students in a car, who were on their way to college.

The incident triggered the longest US war crimes investigation of the Iraq war, but no-one was convicted of the killings.

The marines said they were responding to gunfire after a roadside bomb went off, killing one of their squad members, and injuring two others.

But Safa, who was 13 at the time, tells the World Service: "We hadn't been accused of anything. We didn't even have any weapons in the house."

She survived by pretending to be dead among the small bodies of her sisters and brother - the youngest was three years old. "I was the only survivor out of my entire family," she says.

Four marines were initially charged with murder, but they gave conflicting accounts of the events, and over time US military prosecutors dropped charges against three of them, granting them immunity from further legal action.

That left squad leader Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich as the only one to face trial in 2012.

In a video recording of a pre-trial hearing, which has never been broadcast before, the most junior member of the squad, Lance Corporal Humberto Mendoza is questioned and re-enacts events at Safa's house.

Mendoza - who was a private at the time and was never charged - admits to killing Safa's father when he opened the front door to the marines.

"Did you see his hands?" a lawyer asks him. "Yes sir," Mendoza responds, and goes on to confirm that Safa's father was not armed. "But you shot him anyways?" the lawyer asks. "Yes sir," Mendoza says.

In his official statements, Mendoza had initially claimed that after entering the house, he opened the door to the bedroom where Safa and her family were, but when he saw there were only women and children inside he did not go in, and instead shut the door.

However, in a newly discovered audio recording from Wuterich's trial, Mendoza gives a different account. He says that he walked about 8ft (2.4m) into the bedroom.

This is hugely significant, according to forensic expert Michael Maloney. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service sent him to Haditha in 2006 to investigate the killings and he examined the bedroom where Safa's family was shot.

Using the crime scene photos taken by the Marine Corps at the time of the killings, he concluded that two marines had entered the room and shot the women and children.

When we played him the recording of Mendoza saying he had walked into the room, Maloney said: "This is just amazing to me, what we're listening to, and I've never heard this before today."

He said it showed Mendoza was placing himself in the position where Maloney concluded the first shooter stood, at the foot of the bed.

"If you were to ask me: 'Is this a confession of sorts?' What I'd say is: 'Mendoza confessed to everything except for pulling the trigger.'"

Safa had given a video deposition to military prosecutors in 2006 but it was never shown in court. In it, she described how the marine who opened the bedroom door threw in a grenade, which failed to explode, and then the same man came into the room and shot her family. Mendoza is the only marine who ever said he opened the door.

Another marine, Lance Corporal Stephen Tatum did not deny he took part in the shootings, but said he had followed the squad leader, Wuterich, into the bedroom and initially claimed he did not know there were women and children there because of poor visibility.

But in three later statements obtained by the BBC, Tatum gave a different account.

"I saw that children were in the room kneeling down. I don't remember the exact number but only that it was a lot. I am trained to shoot two shots to the chest and two shots to the head and I followed my training," Tatum told the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in April 2006.

A month later, he said he "was able to positively identify the people in the room as women and children before shooting them".

And then a week after that, he said: "This is where I saw the kid I shot. Knowing it was a kid, I still shot him." He described the child as wearing a white T-shirt, standing on the bed, and having short hair.

Tatum's defence lawyers claimed these later statements had been obtained under duress. Charges against Tatum were dropped in March 2008, and the statements were disregarded at Wuterich's trial.

Forensics expert Michael Maloney said the statements by Mendoza and Tatum point to them being the two marines who shot Safa's family. He believes Mendoza went into the bedroom first and Tatum followed "firing across the head of the bed".

We put the allegations to Mendoza and Tatum. Mendoza did not respond. He has previously admitted to shooting Safa's father, but said he was following orders. He was never charged with a criminal offence.

Through his lawyer, Tatum said he wants to put Haditha behind him. He has never withdrawn his testimony that he was one of the shooters in Safa's house.

Maloney told the BBC that the prosecution "wanted Wuterich to be that primary shooter". But before Maloney was able to testify, Wuterich's trial ended in a plea deal.

Wuterich maintained he could not remember what had happened in Safa's house, and agreed to plead guilty to one count of negligent dereliction of duty - a charge unrelated to any direct involvement in the killings.

Wuterich's military lawyer, Haytham Faraj, a former marine himself, said the punishment was "tantamount to a slap on the wrist… like a speeding ticket".

Neal Puckett, the lead defence lawyer for Wuterich, said the whole investigation and prosecution against his client was "botched".

"The prosecution, in granting immunity to all their witnesses and dismissing all their charges… essentially rendered themselves incapable of achieving justice in this case," he said.

Haytham Faraj agreed the process was deeply flawed.

"The government paid people to come in and lie, and the payment was immunity, and that's how they misused the legal process," he told the BBC.

"The trial of Haditha was never meant to give voice to the victims," he added.

He said that survivors' "impressions of a show trial with no real outcome, with no-one being punished, was right".

The US Marine Corps told us it is committed to fair and open proceedings under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, ensuring due process of law. It added that it would not reopen the investigation unless a wealth of new, unexamined, and admissible evidence was introduced.

The lead prosecutor in the case did not respond to the BBC's request for comment.

Now aged 33, Safa still lives in Haditha and has three children of her own. She says she can't understand how no marine was punished for her family's deaths.

When we show her the video of Mendoza, she says he "should have been imprisoned from the moment the incident happened, it should have been impossible for him to see the light of day".

"It's as if it happened last year. I still think about it," she says of the day her family was killed.

"I want those who did this to be held accountable and to be punished by the law. It's been almost 20 years without them being tried. That's the real crime."

Additional reporting by Namak Khoshnaw and Michael Epstein

Armed men have killed a teacher and abducted at least 25 students in an attack on a girls' secondary school in north-western Nigeria, police say.

The gang invaded the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi State, at around 04:00 local time (0300 GMT) on Monday, they said.

The attackers "engaged police personnel on duty in a gun duel" before scaling the perimeter fence and seizing the students from their hostel, a statement said.

One member of staff was killed while trying to protect the students. A second sustained gunshot wounds and is now receiving treatment.

Eyewitnesses described a large group of attackers, known locally as bandits, who arrived firing sporadically to cause panic.

Residents told the BBC that the gunmen subsequently marched a number of girls into nearby bushland.

The police said they had deployed "additional police tactical units, alongside military personnel and vigilante groups" to the area.

A coordinated search and rescue operation is underway in surrounding forests and suspected escape routes.

Over the past decade, schools in northern Nigeria have become frequent targets for armed groups, who often carry out abductions to seek ransom payments or leverage deals with the government.

However, this is the first major school abduction since March 2024, when more than 200 pupils were seized from a school in Kuriga, Kaduna state.

The attack in Kebbi State highlights the persistent security crisis plaguing the region, leaving families in Maga in a state of fearful exhaustion as they wait and hope for their daughters' safe return.

You may also be interested in:

• Nigeria's kidnapping crisis: Should ransom payments be banned?
• Kuriga kidnap: More than 280 Nigerian pupils abducted
• The bandit kidnap crisis in Nigeria

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica

The UN Security Council is expected to vote on a draft resolution backing Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza.

The text, submitted by the US, would give a mandate for the deployment of an International Stabilization Force (ISF) and to set up transitional governance there.

The US says multiple unnamed countries have offered to contribute to the ISF, though it is unclear whether it would be required to ensure Hamas disarms or function as a peacekeeping force.

Its formation is a central plank of Trump's 20-point plan which last month brought a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in their two-year war.

The draft also raises the possibility of a Palestinian state - something Israel strongly opposes.

There have been intense negotiations over the draft text of the resolution, with Washington warning that any vote against it could lead to a return to fighting with Israel.

As well as authorising an ISF, which it says would work with Israel and Egypt - Gaza's southern neighbour - the draft also calls for creation of a newly trained Palestinian police in Gaza. Until now, the police there have operated under the authority of Hamas.

According to reports on the latest draft, part of the ISF's role would be to work on the "permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups" – including Hamas – as well as protecting civilians and humanitarian aid routes.

This would require Hamas to hand over its weapons - something it is meant to do under Trump's peace plan.

But in a statement published overnight, Hamas called the draft resolution "dangerous" and an "attempt to subject the Gaza Strip to international authority".

It said Palestinian factions rejected any clause relating to the disarmament of Gaza or harming "the Palestinian people's right to resistance".

The statement also rejected any foreign military presence inside the Gaza Strip, saying it would constitute a violation of Palestinian sovereignty.

The draft goes on to endorse the formation of a Board of Peace, expected to be headed by President Trump, to oversee a body of Palestinian technocrats that will temporarily administer Gaza and take charge of its redevelopment.

Following pressure from key Arab states, the latest text mentions a possible future Palestinian state, though without calling for one as the goal.

Even so, the inclusion of such a reference drew sharp reaction from Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after allies in his governing coalition criticised the draft, including threatening to leave the government if Netanyahu did not push back.

"Regarding a Palestinian state," he said on Sunday, "our opposition to a Palestinian state in any territory west of the Jordan [River], this opposition is existing, valid, and has not changed one bit."

Trump's peace plan in effect suspended the fighting between Israel and Hamas which had raged since Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on 7 October 2023. About 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage in that attack.

More than 69,483 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military action in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The Amazon rainforest could face a renewed surge of deforestation as efforts grow to overturn a long-standing ban that has protected it.

The ban - which prohibits the sale of soya grown on land cleared after 2008 - is widely credited with curbing deforestation and has been held up as a global environmental success story.

But powerful farming interests in Brazil, backed by a group of Brazilian politicians, are pushing to lift the restrictions as the COP30 UN climate conference enters its second week.

Critics of the ban say it is an unfair "cartel" which allows a small group of powerful companies to dominate the Amazon's soya trade.

Environmental groups have warned removing the ban would be "disaster", opening the way for a new wave of land grabbing to plant more soya in the world's largest rainforest.

Scientists say ongoing deforestation, combined with the effects of climate change, is already driving the Amazon towards a potential "tipping point" – a threshold beyond which the rainforest can no longer sustain itself.

Brazil is the world's largest producer of soya beans, a staple crop grown for its protein and an important animal feed.

Much of the meat consumed in the UK – including chicken, beef, pork and farmed fish - is raised using feeds that include soya beans, about 10% of which are sourced from the Brazilian Amazon.

Many major UK food companies, including Tesco, Sainsbury's, M&S, Aldi, Lidl, McDonald's, Greggs and KFC, are members of a coalition called the UK Soy Manifesto which represents around 60% of the soy imported into the UK.

The group supports the ban, which is known officially as the Amazon Soy Moratorium, because they argue it helps ensure UK soy supply chains remain free from deforestation.

In a statement earlier this year the signatories said: "We urge all actors within the soy supply chain, including governments, financial institutions and agribusinesses to reinforce their commitment to the [ban] and ensure its continuation."

Public opinion in the UK also appears to be firmly behind protecting the Amazon. A World Wildlife Fund survey conducted earlier this year found that 70% of respondents supported government action to eliminate illegal deforestation from UK supply chains.

But Brazilian opponents of the agreement last week demanded the Supreme Court - the highest court in the country – reopen an investigation into whether the moratorium amounts to anti-competitive behaviour.

"Our state has lots of room to grow and the soy moratorium is working against this development," Vanderlei Ataídes told the BBC. He is president of the Soya Farmers Association of Pará state, one of Brazil's main soya producing areas.

"I don't understand how [the ban] helps the environment," he added. "I can't plant soya beans, but I can use the same land to plant corn, rice, cotton or other crops. Why can't I plant soya?"

The challenge has even divided the Brazilian government. While the Justice Ministry says there may be evidence of anti-competitive behaviour, both the Ministry of the Environment and the Federal Public Prosecutors Office have publicly defended the moratorium.

The voluntary agreement was first signed almost two decades ago by farmers, environmental organisations and major global food companies, including commodities giants such as Cargill and Bunge.

It followed a campaign by the environmental pressure group Greenpeace that exposed how soya grown on deforested land was being used in animal feed, including for chicken sold by McDonald's.

The fast-food chain became a champion of the moratorium, whose signatories pledged not to buy soya grown on land deforested after 2008.

Before the moratorium, forest clearance for soya expansion and the growth of cattle ranching were the main drivers of Amazonian deforestation.

After the agreement was introduced forest clearance fell sharply, reaching an historic low in 2012 during President Lula's second term in office.

Deforestation increased under subsequent administrations – notably under Jair Bolsonaro, who promoted opening the forest to economic development - but has fallen again during Lula's current presidency.

Bel Lyon, chief advisor for Latin America at the World Wildlife Fund - one of the agreement's original signatories – warned that suspending the moratorium "would be a disaster for the Amazon, its people, and the world, because it could open up an area the size of Portugal to deforestation".

Small farmers whose plots are close to soy plantations say they disrupt local weather patterns and make it harder to grow their crops.

Raimundo Barbosa, who farms cassava and fruit near the town of Boa Esperança outside Santarém in the southeastern Amazon, says when the forest is cleared "the environment is destroyed".

"Where there is forest, it is normal, but when it is gone it just gets hotter and hotter and there is less rain and less water in the rivers," he told me as we sat in the shade beside the machines he uses to turn his cassava into flour.

The pressure to lift the moratorium comes as Brazil prepares to open a major new railway stretching from its agricultural heartland in the south up into the rainforest.

The railway is expected to significantly cut transport costs for soya and other agricultural products, adding yet another incentive to clear more land.

Scientists say deforestation is already reshaping the rainforest in profound ways. Among them is Amazon specialist Bruce Fosberg, who has spent half a century studying the forest.

He climbs 15 stories up a narrow tower that rises 45 metres above a pristine rainforest reserve in the heart of the Amazon. From a small platform at the top, he looks out over a sea of green stretching to the horizon.

The tower is bristling with high-tech instruments - sensors that track almost everything happening between the forest and the atmosphere: water vapor, carbon dioxide, sunlight, and essential nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus.

The tower was built 27 years ago and is part of a project - the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment (LBA) - that aims to understand how the Amazon is changing, and how close it is to a critical threshold.

Data from the LBA together with other scientific studies show parts of the rainforest may be nearing a "tipping point", after which the ecosystem can no longer maintain its own functions.

"The living forest is closing down," he says, "and not producing water vapour and therefore rainfall".

As trees are lost to deforestation, fire, and heat stress, the forest releases less moisture into the atmosphere, he explains, reducing rainfall and intensifying drought. That, in turn, creates a feedback loop that kills even more trees.

The fear is that, if this continues, vast areas of rainforest could die away and become a savannah or dry grassland ecosystem.

Such a collapse would release huge amounts of carbon, disrupt weather patterns across continents, and threaten the millions of people – as well as the countless plant, insect and animal species – whose lives depend on the Amazon for survival.

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Chile's presidential election will go to a run-off vote in December between a Communist Party and a far-right candidate, after the first round on Sunday produced no outright winner.

The election campaign was dominated by crime and immigration, as migration to the country has grown in recent years and candidates pledged to fight foreign gangs like Venezuela's Tren de Aragua.

The Communist Party's Jeannette Jara, from the governing coalition, narrowly won the first round followed closely by far-right candidate José Antonio Kast.

The result is expected to give a boost to Kast, as Jara was the only left-wing candidate running against several right-wing candidates, which split the right-wing vote.

In the 14 December run-off, voters will have to coalesce around one of these two candidates.

Kast is expected to pick up votes from other candidates who did not make the final two, including the centre-right senator Evelyn Matthei and the radical libertarian congressman Johannes Kaiser.

If this happens, it would make Chile the latest country in Latin America to shift to the right.

Kast is a conservative lawyer and former congressman who lost the 2021 election's run-off to President Gabriel Boric. This is his third time running for president.

The father of nine has promoted a tough crackdown on immigration including a Trump-style "border wall", opposes abortion even in cases of rape, has criticised environmental and indigenous activism, and wants to shrink the state.

His brother was a minister during Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship and his father was a member of the Nazi party.

Speaking on election night, he said Chile needed to avoid "continuity of a very bad government. Perhaps the worst government in the democratic history of Chile."

Jara is a member of the Communist Party but many see her as centre-left in practice. She was a minister in President Boric's government and her platform has included pledging to increase lithium production, raising the minimum wage, building new prisons and deploying the army to protect Chile's borders.

Both candidates talked up their pledges to tackle crime and immigration, as organised crime and kidnappings having risen in the country.

Chile's foreign population has grown since 2017. The National Migration Service said in December 2023 it reached more than 1.9 million people. Official estimates suggest at least 330,000 are undocumented migrants living illegally in the country, many from Venezuela.

Kast has blamed rising crime on immigration, although several studies suggest that those born abroad commit fewer crimes on average than Chileans.

Chile, perceived as more prosperous and safe compared to some other Latin American nations, is a desirable destination for migrants in the region, and for those returning from the US after President Trump's migration crackdown.

Kast has pledged to build ditches along Chile's northern border with Peru and Bolivia, as well as mass deportations of undocumented migrants and people who entered the country illegally.

He has also promised new maximum-security prisons, like those that have been built in El Salvador.

Jara has promised to build new prisons and expel foreigners convicted of drug trafficking.

This election was the first time that all eligible voters were automatically registered to vote, and voting was compulsory in Chile.

Forty-five Indian pilgrims have been killed after the bus they were travelling in caught fire in an accident near Medina in Saudi Arabia, the police commissioner of India's Hyderabad city has said.

The bus had 46 passengers, said VC Sajjanar in a press conference, adding that one man who survived the accident has been admitted to an intensive care unit in a local hospital.

Most of the victims are from Hyderabad, which is in southern Telangana state.

The pilgrims were travelling from the Islamic holy city of Mecca to Medina when the accident took place, the Telangana government said in a press statement.

They had gone to Saudi Arabia for the Umrah pilgrimage, which is a shorter version of Hajj, the biggest Islamic pilgrimage.

Mr Sajjanar said that an oil tanker was involved in the accident but did not give more details.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said in a post on X that he is "deeply saddened" by the news of the accident and that Indian authorities are in close contact with officials in Saudi Arabia.

"Our Embassy in Riyadh and Consulate in Jeddah are providing all possible assistance," he wrote.

Control rooms have been set up in Jeddah and Hyderabad to assist the families of the victims.

Asaduddin Owaisi, a lawmaker who represents Hyderabad in parliament, told news agency ANI that he has requested the federal government for help in bringing the bodies of the victims back to India.

Mr Sajjanar said that 54 people had travelled from Hyderabad to Jeddah on 9 November for the pilgrimage. Of these, four people stayed back in Mecca while four went to Medina by car. The remaining 46 people travelled on the bus.

As news of the tragedy broke, distraught relatives have been speaking to the media.

Mohammed Tehseen, a resident of Hyderabad, told ANI that seven of his relatives were in the bus. Mr Tehseen said that he heard the news after receiving a call from his relative, Shoaib, who survived the accident and is in hospital.

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Ecuadoreans have voted against allowing the return of foreign military bases in the country, frustrating US hopes of expanding its presence in the Eastern Pacific region.

The referendum result is a blow to Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa, who had campaigned to change the constitution in order to reverse a ban that the country's legislature passed in 2008.

He said it would help fight organised crime and reduce the soaring violence the country has seen in recent years, during which it has become one of the world's biggest drug-trafficking hotspots.

The US had hoped the referendum would pave the way for it to open a military base, 16 years after it was made to close a site on the Pacific coast.

While Ecuador does not produce cocaine, its huge ports and proximity to Colombia and Peru - where large quantities of the drug are made - make it a desirable and lucrative location for drug-trafficking gangs.

According to Noboa, about 70% of the world's cocaine passes through Ecuador.

His presidency has been defined by a tough military crackdown on criminal gangs, including by putting armed soldiers on the streets.

Supporters say his approach has helped to fight crime, but critics say his government has resorted to authoritarian tactics.

The US's former military base on Ecuador's Pacific coast was closed after left-wing president Rafael Correa decided not to renew its lease and pushed for a constitutional ban which was passed by lawmakers.

US Homeland Secretary Secretary Kristi Noem recently toured military facilities in Ecuador with Noboa.

In a BBC interview earlier this year, Noboa said he wanted foreign "armies" to join what he has described as a "war" against narco-trafficking groups. He has recently held talks over increased regional security and migration co-operation with US officials.

The referendum also saw voters reject ending public funding for political parties, shrinking the size of Congress, and establishing a constitutional assembly to re-write the Ecuador's constitution.

Noboa had argued a fresh constitution could allow for tougher punishments for criminals and stronger measures to secure the borders, but critics argued it would not solve wider social problems like insecurity and poor access to education or healthcare in some areas.

Critics also feared the plans to reduce funding for political parties and the size of Congress could lead to a reduction in checks and balances on the government and representation in poorer areas, though the government hoped it would save public funds.

Noboa reacted by saying he would "respect" the outcome of the vote.

On the day of the referendum, the leader of one of Ecuador's biggest drug-trafficking gangs, Los Lobos, was captured in an operation involving Spanish police.

According to Noboa, Wilmer "Pipo" Chavarria had faked his own death and had been hiding in Europe while controlling criminal operations like drug-trafficking, ordering murders and illegal mining in Ecuador.

Both Ecuador and the US have designated Los Lobos as a terrorist organisation under domestic law.

This referendum played came as the US sent its largest military deployment to the Caribbean in decades, including the world's largest warship and bomber planes.

It has carried out at least 21 strikes on alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Eastern Pacific and the Caribbean, killing at least 83 people. It has not provided evidence about who is on board and some lawyers have said the strikes could breach international law.

Speculation is mounting over whether the US will strike land targets in Venezuela.

The US alleges that its President Nicolás Maduro is the head of a narco-trafficking organisation, an accusation he strongly denies.

Many observers believe the US military build-up in the region is also an attempt to put pressure on Maduro to force him from power.

Hacked CCTV videos from a maternity hospital in India have been sold on Telegram, police say, raising serious questions about privacy and security in a country where such cameras have become commonplace.

Earlier this year, police in Gujarat state were alerted by the media to videos on YouTube - some showed pregnant women undergoing medical exams and receiving injections in their buttocks - in a maternity hospital in a city.

The videos had a link directing viewers to Telegram channels to buy longer videos.

The director of the hospital told the BBC that the cameras had been installed for the safety of doctors. The BBC is not naming the city or hospital to protect the identity of the women in the videos. None of them have filed a police complaint.

Police say their investigation uncovered a massive cybercrime racket where sensitive footage from at least 50,000 CCTVs from across the country was stolen by hackers and sold on the internet.

CCTVs have become ubiquitous in India, especially in urban areas. They are installed in malls, offices, hospitals, schools, private apartment complexes and even inside people's homes.

Experts warn that while CCTV boosts security, poorly installed or managed systems can threaten privacy. In India, cameras are often handled by staff without cybersecurity training, and some domestically manufactured models are reportedly easily exploitable.

In 2018, a tech worker in Bengaluru city said that his webcam was hacked, and that the hacker demanded payment in exchange for not sharing his private videos. In 2023, a YouTuber reportedly found out that his home CCTV had been hacked after private videos went viral.

Last year, the federal government asked states to not procure CCTVs from suppliers with a history of security and data breaches and also introduced new rules to improve cyber security of CCTV cameras. But hacking incidents like these are still reported.

In Gujarat, police say they ended up discovering a "network of individuals spread across the country".

"[They] were hacking into the video surveillance systems - or CCTV systems - of hospitals, schools, colleges, corporate offices and even the bedrooms of private individuals in multiple states," Lavina Sinha, who heads the Ahmedabad cyber crime department investigating the case, told reporters.

Hardik Makadiya, Gujarat's top cybercrime official, says videos were sold for 800–2,000 rupees ($9-22; £7-17, with Telegram channels offering live CCTV feeds via subscription.

Police have registered a case under various sections of the law, including violating a female patient's privacy, publishing obscene material, voyeurism and cyber terrorism - which is a non-bailable offence. They say that they reached out to Telegram and YouTube, and the videos have been taken down.

Since February, police have arrested eight people in the case - four from Maharashtra and others from Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Delhi, and Uttarakhand. They remain in judicial custody as the case proceeds in court.

• CCTV: Why do so many Indians love surveillance?

Yash Koshti, lawyer for three of the accused, denied the allegations, saying they were not hackers or cyber criminals and that someone else carried out the breach.

Cybercrime investigator Ritesh Bhatia warns that weakly protected CCTV and home networks are easy targets and must be properly secured.

"Wireless CCTV systems help you access the footage remotely, like on your smartphone or laptop. But once a system is connected to the web, it's easy for hackers to decode its IP address and default password. And once they get into the system, they can see or record live footage, download it or even shut down the system," Mr Bhatia says.

He says that one way to secure surveillance systems is to change IP addresses and the default password.

Mr Bhatia advises using a robust password that mixes letters, numbers, and symbols and cannot be found in a dictionary, and recommends periodic audits by a cybersecurity professional.

He adds that CCTV manufacturers also bear responsibility, and their packaging should clearly warn users to replace default passwords with strong ones - similar to cigarette packet health warnings.

Mr Makadiya told the BBC that many of the hacked CCTVs used default passwords - like Admin123 - or weak ones.

"The hackers used brute force (the use of certain programmes to generate thousands of letter-number password combinations) to break into these systems and access videos," he said.

Audrey Dmello of Majlis, a legal centre for women's and children's rights, highlights the ubiquity of CCTVs in India, often installed without consent. She urges organisations, especially in sensitive spaces, to ensure their systems are properly secured.

"Organisations and institutions that set up surveillance systems, especially in sensitive spaces, must see to it that their systems are adequately secured. It's an absolute must," she says.

The director of one of the affected hospitals told the BBC the CCTVs in exam and injection rooms were meant to protect doctors from false allegations. He added that the cameras have since been removed from sensitive areas.

Police in Gujarat told the BBC that neither the hospital nor any patient had come forward to file a formal complaint. The complaint was finally lodged by a police officer.

"Female patients fear that their identity will be revealed. Therefore, they are not willing to lodge a complaint," said an officer.

Ms Dmello says that the shame women face around such incidents only adds to its horrific nature.

"When there is a sexual angle involved, the victim is re-victimised because of the patriarchal nature of Indian society. If we want women to assert their rights and we want criminals to be brought to justice, we, as a society, should first stop shaming and blaming women for the crime," she says.

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Bangladesh's longest-serving prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed began her political career as a pro-democracy icon, but fled mass protests against her rule in August 2024 after 15 years in power.

Since then, Hasina has been in self-imposed exile in India, where she flew after being deposed by the student-led uprising which spiralled into nationwide unrest.

On 17 November, a special tribunal in Dhaka sentenced her to death after convicting her of crimes against humanity. It was found Hasina had ordered a deadly crackdown on protesters between 15 July and 5 August 2024. She denied all charges against her.

Up to 1,400 people were killed during the weeks of protests leading up to her ousting, most by gunfire from security forces, UN human rights investigators said. Their report found that she and her government had tried to cling to power using systematic, deadly violence against protesters.

It was the worst bloodshed the country had seen since independence in 1971.

The protests brought an unexpected end to the reign of Hasina, who had ruled Bangladesh for more than 20 years.

She and her Awami League party were credited with overseeing the South Asian country's economic progress. But in recent years she was accused of turning autocratic and clamping down on any opposition to her rule.

Politically-motivated arrests, disappearances, extra-judicial killings and other abuses all rose under her rule.

An order to 'use lethal weapons'

In January 2024, Hasina won an unprecedented fourth term as prime minister in an election widely decried by critics as being a sham and boycotted by the main opposition.

Protests began later that year with a demand to abolish quotas in civil service jobs. By summer they had morphed into a wider anti-government movement as she used the police to violently crack down on protesters.

Amid increasing calls for her to resign, Hasina remained defiant and condemned the agitators as “terrorists”. She also threw hundreds of people into jail and brought criminal charges against hundreds more.

A leaked audio clip suggested she had ordered security forces to "use lethal weapons" against protesters. She denies ever issuing an order to fire on unarmed civilians.

Some of the bloodiest scenes occurred on 5 August, the day Hasina fled by helicopter before crowds stormed her residence in Dhaka. Police killed at least 52 people that day in a busy neighbourhood, making it one of the worst cases of police violence in the country's history.

Hasina, who has been tried in absentia, called the tribunal a "farce".

"It is a kangaroo court controlled by my political opponents to deliver a pre-ordained guilty verdict... and to distract the world's attention from the chaos, violence and misrule of [the new] government," she told the BBC in the week before her verdict.

She called for the ban on her party to be lifted before elections due in February.

Hasina is also charged with crimes against humanity relating to forced disappearances during the Awami League's rule in another case at the same tribunal in Bangladesh. Hasina and the Awami League deny all the charges.

Hasina and other senior members of her former government are also facing trial for corruption in a separate court - charges they deny.

How did Sheikh Hasina come to power?

Born to a Muslim family in East Bengal in 1947, Hasina had politics in her blood.

Her father was the nationalist leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh's "Father of the Nation" who led the country's independence from Pakistan in 1971 and became its first president.

At that time, Hasina had already established a reputation as a student leader at Dhaka University.

Her father was assassinated with most of his family members in a military coup in 1975. Only Hasina and her younger sister survived as they were travelling abroad at the time.

After living in exile in India, Hasina returned to Bangladesh in 1981 and became the leader of the Awami League, the political party her father belonged to.

She joined hands with other political parties to hold pro-democracy street protests during the military rule of General Hussain Muhammed Ershad. Propelled by the popular uprising, Hasina quickly became a national icon.

She was first elected to power in 1996. She earned credit for signing a water-sharing deal with India and a peace deal with tribal insurgents in the south-east of the country.

But at the same time, her government was criticised for numerous allegedly corrupt business deals and for being too subservient to India.

She later lost to her former ally-turned-nemesis, Begum Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, in 2001.

As heirs to political dynasties, both women have dominated Bangladesh politics for more than three decades and used to be known as the "battling begums". Begum refers to a Muslim woman of high rank.

Observers say their bitter rivalry resulted in bus bombs, disappearances and extrajudicial killings becoming regular occurrences.

Hasina eventually came back to power in 2009 in polls held under a caretaker government.

A true political survivor, she endured numerous arrests while in opposition as well as several assassination attempts, including one in 2004 that damaged her hearing. She has also survived efforts to force her into exile and numerous court cases in which she has been accused of corruption.

Achievements and controversies

Once one of the world's poorest nations, Bangladesh achieved credible economic success under her leadership from 2009.

Its per capita income tripled in the last decade and the World Bank estimates that more than 25 million people have been lifted out of poverty in the last 20 years.

Much of this growth has been fuelled by the garment industry, which accounts for the vast majority of total exports from Bangladesh and has expanded rapidly in recent decades, supplying markets in Europe, North America and Asia.

Using the country's own funds, loans and development assistance, Hasina's government also undertook huge infrastructure projects, including the flagship $2.9bn Padma bridge across the Ganges.

But Hasina has long been accused of enacting repressive authoritarian measures against her political opponents, detractors and the media - a remarkable turnaround for a leader who once fought for multi-party democracy.

Rights groups estimate there have been at least 700 cases of enforced disappearances, with hundreds more subject to extra-judicial killings, since Hasina took power again in 2009. Hasina denies involvement in these.

Bangladesh's security forces have also been accused of serious abuses. In 2021, the US sanctioned its Rapid Action Battalion - a notorious police unit accused of carrying out numerous extra-judicial killings - citing human rights violations.

Human rights activists and journalists also faced increasing attacks including arrests, surveillance and harassment.

Hasina's government was also accused of "judicially harassing" targets with court cases, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus - who became head of the interim government after Hasina fled. He had been jailed earlier in 2024 and faced more than 100 charges, in cases his supporters say were politically motivated.

Hasina's government flatly denied claims of such abuses, while also restricting visits when it was in power by foreign journalists seeking to investigate the allegations.

The protests against civil service quotas, which sparked last year's uprising, came as Bangladesh struggled with the escalating costs of living in the wake of the pandemic. Inflation skyrocketed, the country's foreign exchange reserves dropped precipitously, and its foreign debt doubled since 2016.

Critics blamed this on mismanagement by Hasina's government, claiming that Bangladesh's economic progress only helped those close to her.

Bangladesh's former prime minister has been sentenced to death for crimes against humanity over her crackdown on student-led protests which led to her ousting.

Sheikh Hasina was found guilty of allowing lethal force to be used against protesters, 1,400 of whom died during the unrest last year.

Hasina was tried in absentia by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in Bangladesh, having been exiled in India since she was forced from power in July 2024.

Prosecutors accused her of being behind hundreds of killings during the protests. Hasina has denied all charges, calling the trial "biased and politically motivated".

The verdict marks a pivotal moment for Bangladesh, as the protests unleashed anger over years of repression. Families of those killed and injured had called for tough penalties.

Reacting to the verdict in a five-page statement, Hasina said the death penalty was the interim government's way of "nullifying [her party] the Awami League as a political force" and that she was proud of her government's record on human rights.

"I am not afraid to face my accusers in a proper tribunal where the evidence can be weighed and tested fairly."

The capital, Dhaka, where the tribunal took place, was under tightened security ahead of the verdict on Monday, with many of Hasina's critics staging a rally and cheering as the verdict was read.

The city has seen a recent spike in unrest, with dozens of bombs exploded and buses set on fire in the days leading up to the verdict.

At least one bomb explosion was reported in Dhaka on Monday morning, with no casualties reported, local police official Jisanul Haque told the BBC.

The student-led uprising last year started with demands to abolish government job quotas but morphed into a wider anti-government movement.

UN human rights investigators said in a report in February that the approximately 1,400 deaths could amount to "crimes against humanity".

The report documented the shooting at point-blank range of some protesters, the deliberate maiming of others, arbitrary arrests and torture.

Leaked audio of one of Hasina's phone calls verified by BBC Eye earlier this year suggested she had authorised the use of "lethal weapons" in July 2024. The audio was played in court during the trial.

Ahead of the verdict, family members of those killed during the protests told the BBC they wanted Hasina to be punished severely.

Ramjan Ali, whose brother was shot dead in July 2024, said he wanted "exemplary punishment" for Hasina and others who have "committed acts of vengeance and abused their power".

Lucky Akther, whose husband was killed near Dhaka in August 2024, said she wanted Hasina's sentence to be "carried out before the election".

"Only then the families of those killed [in the protests] will find peace in their hearts."

Since Hasina's ousting, an interim government led by economist Muhammad Yunus has taken charge. A parliamentary election is scheduled for February 2026.

However, the Awami League, Hasina's political party, was banned by Bangladesh's interim government in May.

Hasina warned last month that if the party's candidates were banned from standing in the upcoming election, millions would boycott the vote.

The verdict now poses a diplomatic challenge for India and Bangladesh. Dhaka has formally requested her extradition but so far India has shown no willingness to comply.

Hasina's state-appointed lawyer Mohammad Amir Hossain said he was "sad [and wishes] the verdict had been different".

"I even cannot appeal because my clients are absent; that's why I am sad," he added.

Last week, Hasina's lawyers said they had filed an urgent appeal to the UN raising serious fair trial and due process issues at the ICT.

Hasina was tried alongside her former home minister and police chief.

While the sentence offers some closure to families of killed in the protests, it may do little to soothe the country's political divisions.

"The anger against Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League has not subsided," Shireen Huq, a Dhaka-based rights activists told the BBC. "Neither she nor the party has apologised or shown any remorse for the killings of hundreds of people."

She said "It makes it difficult for the party to be accepted by a majority of people in this country."

Ms Huq added that the punishment was not closure for the families of those killed and injured.

"We work with several people who lost their limbs forever, they are amputees now, due to the crackdown. They will never be able to forgive her."

David Bergman, a journalist and a long-time Bangladesh watcher, said the "very nature of the conviction could make it even more difficult" for Awami League to become a normal feature of Bangladeshi politics again.

This may change if "there is some kind of apology and a distancing from Sheikh Hasina and the old leadership", he said.

Vital supplies of US liquefied natural gas are due to start flowing into war-ravaged Ukraine this winter via a pipeline across the Balkans.

The deal was announced after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens on Sunday. Greece has been working to increase the flow of American LNG to its terminals to "replace Russian gas in the region", Mitsotakis said recently.

The European Commission plans to ban all imports of Russian gas to EU member states by the end of 2027, arguing that revenue from such sales funds Russia's war in Ukraine.

Zelensky is now in France for talks with President Emmanuel Macron over a major deal on air defence hardware.

Fighting continued overnight, with six people reported killed in Russian attacks in the Kharkiv, Kherson and Donetsk regions of Ukraine.

Russia's military said it had taken control of three more Ukrainian villages - one each in the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

None of the reports could be independently verified.

Speaking earlier in Athens, Zelensky was quoted as saying that deliveries of American LNG would begin in January.

"We rebuild each time the Russians destroy but this truly requires time, much effort, equipment and, regarding gas... imports to compensate for the destruction by the Russians of our own production," he said.

"Greece is becoming an energy security provider for your homeland," Mitsotakis told the Ukrainian president.

According to Reuters news agency, Zelensky said Ukraine had allocated funds for gas imports from European partners and banks under European Commission guarantees, as well as from Ukrainian banks, to help cover imports through to March at a cost of nearly €2bn (£1.8bn; $2.3bn).

Since 2015, when it stopped buying Russian gas directly, Ukraine has been receiving supplies from various EU states.

The Soviet-era Trans-Balkan pipeline links Ukraine to LNG terminals in Greece via Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria.

On Monday, Zelensky met Macron at Villacoublay airbase near Paris where he was to inspect Rafale fighter jets, the SAMP-T air defence system and several drone systems.

He was also due to inspect the nascent headquarters of a planned multinational force that may one day help oversee a Ukraine-Russia ceasefire.

Tens of thousands of people, most of them soldiers, have been killed or injured, and millions of civilians have fled their homes, since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The UN Security Council is expected to vote on a draft resolution backing Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza.

The text, submitted by the US, would give a mandate for the deployment of an International Stabilization Force (ISF) and to set up transitional governance there.

The US says multiple unnamed countries have offered to contribute to the ISF, though it is unclear whether it would be required to ensure Hamas disarms or function as a peacekeeping force.

Its formation is a central plank of Trump's 20-point plan which last month brought a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in their two-year war.

The draft also raises the possibility of a Palestinian state - something Israel strongly opposes.

There have been intense negotiations over the draft text of the resolution, with Washington warning that any vote against it could lead to a return to fighting with Israel.

As well as authorising an ISF, which it says would work with Israel and Egypt - Gaza's southern neighbour - the draft also calls for creation of a newly trained Palestinian police in Gaza. Until now, the police there have operated under the authority of Hamas.

According to reports on the latest draft, part of the ISF's role would be to work on the "permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups" – including Hamas – as well as protecting civilians and humanitarian aid routes.

This would require Hamas to hand over its weapons - something it is meant to do under Trump's peace plan.

But in a statement published overnight, Hamas called the draft resolution "dangerous" and an "attempt to subject the Gaza Strip to international authority".

It said Palestinian factions rejected any clause relating to the disarmament of Gaza or harming "the Palestinian people's right to resistance".

The statement also rejected any foreign military presence inside the Gaza Strip, saying it would constitute a violation of Palestinian sovereignty.

The draft goes on to endorse the formation of a Board of Peace, expected to be headed by President Trump, to oversee a body of Palestinian technocrats that will temporarily administer Gaza and take charge of its redevelopment.

Following pressure from key Arab states, the latest text mentions a possible future Palestinian state, though without calling for one as the goal.

Even so, the inclusion of such a reference drew sharp reaction from Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after allies in his governing coalition criticised the draft, including threatening to leave the government if Netanyahu did not push back.

"Regarding a Palestinian state," he said on Sunday, "our opposition to a Palestinian state in any territory west of the Jordan [River], this opposition is existing, valid, and has not changed one bit."

Trump's peace plan in effect suspended the fighting between Israel and Hamas which had raged since Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on 7 October 2023. About 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage in that attack.

More than 69,483 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military action in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

A Singapore court has sentenced an Australian man to nine days in jail for grabbing Hollywood star Ariana Grande at a movie premiere.

Johnson Wen, 26, was found guilty of being a public nuisance in the high-profile incident last Thursday at the Asia premiere for Wicked: For Good.

Videos posted on social media showed Wen jumping the barriers, charging at a visibly shocked Grande, and grabbing her shoulders while jumping up and down.

The incident sparked outrage in Singapore where many called for the arrest and deportation of Wen, who has a history of disrupting concerts and celebrity events.

Several accused him of "re-traumatising" Grande. The pop star turned actress has spoken of experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder after a suicide bomb attack at her May 2017 concert in Manchester, killing 22 people and injuring hundreds.

Singapore media reported that in Wen's trial on Monday, the court heard he had attempted to intrude on the movie premiere twice.

Moments after he grabbed Grande, her co-star Cynthia Erivo forcibly pried him off and security staff escorted him out.

He then made a second attempt to jump the barricades. Security staff stopped him and this time pinned him down.

Wen later posted videos of the incident on his social media accounts thanking Grande and stating that he was "free".

Singapore police arrested him the next day and charged him for public nuisance. Wen pleaded guilty.

Prosecutors sought a week's jail for Wen, arguing that he was a "serial intruder" who publicised his behaviour to gain popularity online.

Wen has posted videos of himself disrupting concerts by Katy Perry and The Weeknd, and invading the pitch at various sporting events. Australian media have reported he is banned from some stadiums and has incurred large fines.

Wen, who was not represented in the Singapore court, told the judge in mitigation that he would "not do it again".

Under Singapore's laws against public nuisance, Wen could have been jailed for up to three months, fined up to S$2,000 (£1,167; $1,537), or both.

Grande has not commented on the case, while continuing to appear in public at events in Los Angeles over the weekend.

But two days after the incident Erivo appeared to allude to the incident when she spoke about her relationship with Grande while making the movie, saying: "We have come through some stuff in our lives, our daily workings... even this last week, let's be honest."

A South African man who was seen attending neo-Nazi rally outside an Australian state parliament has had his visa revoked.

Matthew Gruter, who has been Australia since 2022, took part in an anti-Jewish protest outside the New South Wales parliament organised by the National Socialist Network earlier this month.

He was seen in the front row of around 60 men clad in black, who held up a banner that said "Abolish the Jewish lobby", Australian media reports.

Australia has seen a recent rise in right-wing extremism. Its government made the Nazi salute punishable by a mandatory prison term earlier this year.

Australia's Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke confirmed the cancellation of Mr Gruter's visa, saying: "If you are on a visa, you are a guest.

"If you're a citizen, you're a full member of the Australian family. Like with any household, if a guest turns up to show hatred and wreck the household, they can be told it's time to go home."

Mr Gruter moved to Australia with his wife and works as a civil engineer, according to ABC News.

The National Socialist Network, which organised the rally on 8 November, is a well-known neo-Nazi group in Australia. Mr Gruter is a senior member of the group in New South Wales, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Protesters repeatedly chanted "blood and honour", a slogan associated with the Hitler Youth, according to ABC News.

It last less than 20 minutes and was legally authorised, the Guardian reports.

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Forty-five Indian pilgrims have been killed after the bus they were travelling in caught fire in an accident near Medina in Saudi Arabia, the police commissioner of India's Hyderabad city has said.

The bus had 46 passengers, said VC Sajjanar in a press conference, adding that one man who survived the accident has been admitted to an intensive care unit in a local hospital.

Most of the victims are from Hyderabad, which is in southern Telangana state.

The pilgrims were travelling from the Islamic holy city of Mecca to Medina when the accident took place, the Telangana government said in a press statement.

They had gone to Saudi Arabia for the Umrah pilgrimage, which is a shorter version of Hajj, the biggest Islamic pilgrimage.

Mr Sajjanar said that an oil tanker was involved in the accident but did not give more details.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said in a post on X that he is "deeply saddened" by the news of the accident and that Indian authorities are in close contact with officials in Saudi Arabia.

"Our Embassy in Riyadh and Consulate in Jeddah are providing all possible assistance," he wrote.

Control rooms have been set up in Jeddah and Hyderabad to assist the families of the victims.

Asaduddin Owaisi, a lawmaker who represents Hyderabad in parliament, told news agency ANI that he has requested the federal government for help in bringing the bodies of the victims back to India.

Mr Sajjanar said that 54 people had travelled from Hyderabad to Jeddah on 9 November for the pilgrimage. Of these, four people stayed back in Mecca while four went to Medina by car. The remaining 46 people travelled on the bus.

As news of the tragedy broke, distraught relatives have been speaking to the media.

Mohammed Tehseen, a resident of Hyderabad, told ANI that seven of his relatives were in the bus. Mr Tehseen said that he heard the news after receiving a call from his relative, Shoaib, who survived the accident and is in hospital.

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Jurors in a high-profile Australian murder trial have been taken to the remote Queensland beach where the victim was found.

Toyah Cordingley was "repeatedly" stabbed with a sharp object and put in a shallow sandy grave with "little or no hope of surviving", the jury has heard.

Rajwinder Singh, 41, denies murdering Ms Cordingley on a Sunday afternoon in October 2018 in Far North Queensland.

The 24-year-old's body was discovered by her father the following day on Wangetti Beach - a stretch of coastline between the tourist centres of Cairns and Port Douglas.

The jury of ten men and two women plus three back up jurors attended the beach along with the judge and barristers on Monday morning local time, as the second week of the trial got underway.

In a nod to the tropical conditions and temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius, the judge, Justice Lincoln Crowley wore a T-shirt, sports shorts and trainers rather than a wig and robes. Both the lead prosecution and defence barristers opted for polo shirts, shorts and baseball caps.

The jurors were led around 1.2km north up the sand to see where Ms Cordingley was discovered.

Earlier, as they arrived by bus, four red and white cones marked where the victim's car had been parked.

The trip was intended to help the jurors get familiar with key locations in the case and no official evidence was given.

Last week, the Cairns Supreme Court heard that the day after Ms Cordingley's body was discovered, Mr Singh flew from Australia to India – leaving behind his wife, three children and parents. He was not heard from until he was arrested four years later, the prosecution said.

It is alleged that Mr Singh, who was working as a nurse in the town of Innisfail south of Cairns, had a confrontation with Ms Cordingley, whom prosecutor Nathan Crane described as "a young woman, blonde and attractive".

The pharmacy worker was found wearing a bikini, with all her other clothes and most of her possessions missing. Those items were taken by the killer to avoid detection, the crown alleged.

Her dog, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had taken to the beach for a walk, was found tied up to a tree hidden in shrubland about 30 metres from the grave.

No murder weapon was ever recovered, and no eyewitnesses have been found.

But the prosecution says the crown's case – though circumstantial – was made up of evidence that pointed to Mr Singh "and eliminated others".

This will include evidence that DNA recovered from a stick at the scene was 3.8 billion times more likely to have come from Mr Singh than a random member of the public.

The jury has already heard evidence suggesting that Ms Cordingley's phone left the beach after the killing – and that its movements matched those of a blue Alfa Romeo owned by the accused.

Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also pointed to his guilt, the prosecution has argued.

"As the police were finding Toyah's body, he was organising … a hurriedly-arranged one way trip back to India," Mr Crane said last week as he opened his case.

The defence is yet to present any evidence, but in his opening address, Mr Singh's barrister Greg McGuire described his client as a "placid" and "caring" man, who was in the "wrong place at the wrong time".

He also foreshadowed evidence to come later in the trial that after his arrest, Mr Singh told an undercover officer he had seen two masked men attack Ms Cordingley and then had run away in fear - something he said was his "biggest mistake".

Mr McGuire has also said he will give evidence about other people "both known and unknown" who should come under suspicion.

Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, Marco Heidenreich, whom police quickly ruled out as a possible suspect, was among those who gave evidence last week.

The court heard he was an immediate police suspect - and that he had faced questions from Ms Cordingley's father about whether he was involved in his girlfriend's disappearance, even before her body was found.

Photographs showing Mr Heidenreich on a hike with a friend on the day Ms Cordingley went missing have been shown to the court, with an expert saying he was confident the pictures were genuine and had not been doctored in any way.

The trial will return to the more conventional setting of the court house on Tuesday.

The Amazon rainforest could face a renewed surge of deforestation as efforts grow to overturn a long-standing ban that has protected it.

The ban - which prohibits the sale of soya grown on land cleared after 2008 - is widely credited with curbing deforestation and has been held up as a global environmental success story.

But powerful farming interests in Brazil, backed by a group of Brazilian politicians, are pushing to lift the restrictions as the COP30 UN climate conference enters its second week.

Critics of the ban say it is an unfair "cartel" which allows a small group of powerful companies to dominate the Amazon's soya trade.

Environmental groups have warned removing the ban would be "disaster", opening the way for a new wave of land grabbing to plant more soya in the world's largest rainforest.

Scientists say ongoing deforestation, combined with the effects of climate change, is already driving the Amazon towards a potential "tipping point" – a threshold beyond which the rainforest can no longer sustain itself.

Brazil is the world's largest producer of soya beans, a staple crop grown for its protein and an important animal feed.

Much of the meat consumed in the UK – including chicken, beef, pork and farmed fish - is raised using feeds that include soya beans, about 10% of which are sourced from the Brazilian Amazon.

Many major UK food companies, including Tesco, Sainsbury's, M&S, Aldi, Lidl, McDonald's, Greggs and KFC, are members of a coalition called the UK Soy Manifesto which represents around 60% of the soy imported into the UK.

The group supports the ban, which is known officially as the Amazon Soy Moratorium, because they argue it helps ensure UK soy supply chains remain free from deforestation.

In a statement earlier this year the signatories said: "We urge all actors within the soy supply chain, including governments, financial institutions and agribusinesses to reinforce their commitment to the [ban] and ensure its continuation."

Public opinion in the UK also appears to be firmly behind protecting the Amazon. A World Wildlife Fund survey conducted earlier this year found that 70% of respondents supported government action to eliminate illegal deforestation from UK supply chains.

But Brazilian opponents of the agreement last week demanded the Supreme Court - the highest court in the country – reopen an investigation into whether the moratorium amounts to anti-competitive behaviour.

"Our state has lots of room to grow and the soy moratorium is working against this development," Vanderlei Ataídes told the BBC. He is president of the Soya Farmers Association of Pará state, one of Brazil's main soya producing areas.

"I don't understand how [the ban] helps the environment," he added. "I can't plant soya beans, but I can use the same land to plant corn, rice, cotton or other crops. Why can't I plant soya?"

The challenge has even divided the Brazilian government. While the Justice Ministry says there may be evidence of anti-competitive behaviour, both the Ministry of the Environment and the Federal Public Prosecutors Office have publicly defended the moratorium.

The voluntary agreement was first signed almost two decades ago by farmers, environmental organisations and major global food companies, including commodities giants such as Cargill and Bunge.

It followed a campaign by the environmental pressure group Greenpeace that exposed how soya grown on deforested land was being used in animal feed, including for chicken sold by McDonald's.

The fast-food chain became a champion of the moratorium, whose signatories pledged not to buy soya grown on land deforested after 2008.

Before the moratorium, forest clearance for soya expansion and the growth of cattle ranching were the main drivers of Amazonian deforestation.

After the agreement was introduced forest clearance fell sharply, reaching an historic low in 2012 during President Lula's second term in office.

Deforestation increased under subsequent administrations – notably under Jair Bolsonaro, who promoted opening the forest to economic development - but has fallen again during Lula's current presidency.

Bel Lyon, chief advisor for Latin America at the World Wildlife Fund - one of the agreement's original signatories – warned that suspending the moratorium "would be a disaster for the Amazon, its people, and the world, because it could open up an area the size of Portugal to deforestation".

Small farmers whose plots are close to soy plantations say they disrupt local weather patterns and make it harder to grow their crops.

Raimundo Barbosa, who farms cassava and fruit near the town of Boa Esperança outside Santarém in the southeastern Amazon, says when the forest is cleared "the environment is destroyed".

"Where there is forest, it is normal, but when it is gone it just gets hotter and hotter and there is less rain and less water in the rivers," he told me as we sat in the shade beside the machines he uses to turn his cassava into flour.

The pressure to lift the moratorium comes as Brazil prepares to open a major new railway stretching from its agricultural heartland in the south up into the rainforest.

The railway is expected to significantly cut transport costs for soya and other agricultural products, adding yet another incentive to clear more land.

Scientists say deforestation is already reshaping the rainforest in profound ways. Among them is Amazon specialist Bruce Fosberg, who has spent half a century studying the forest.

He climbs 15 stories up a narrow tower that rises 45 metres above a pristine rainforest reserve in the heart of the Amazon. From a small platform at the top, he looks out over a sea of green stretching to the horizon.

The tower is bristling with high-tech instruments - sensors that track almost everything happening between the forest and the atmosphere: water vapor, carbon dioxide, sunlight, and essential nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus.

The tower was built 27 years ago and is part of a project - the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment (LBA) - that aims to understand how the Amazon is changing, and how close it is to a critical threshold.

Data from the LBA together with other scientific studies show parts of the rainforest may be nearing a "tipping point", after which the ecosystem can no longer maintain its own functions.

"The living forest is closing down," he says, "and not producing water vapour and therefore rainfall".

As trees are lost to deforestation, fire, and heat stress, the forest releases less moisture into the atmosphere, he explains, reducing rainfall and intensifying drought. That, in turn, creates a feedback loop that kills even more trees.

The fear is that, if this continues, vast areas of rainforest could die away and become a savannah or dry grassland ecosystem.

Such a collapse would release huge amounts of carbon, disrupt weather patterns across continents, and threaten the millions of people – as well as the countless plant, insect and animal species – whose lives depend on the Amazon for survival.

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Warning: This story contains graphic descriptions of violence and gunshot injuries.

A crowd runs in panic along a dusty street. Shots ring out. A woman wearing a purple jacket carrying a stick falls to the ground.

Another woman can be heard pleading, "Mama, mama, stand," as she tries to lift her. Blood is spreading around her stomach as another stain appears on her back.

This verified footage, filmed in Tanzania's city of Arusha, is just one of many graphic scenes to have emerged showing the violent actions of police as they attempted to crush widespread protests last month during the country's presidential and parliamentary elections.

The protests started in the city of Dar es Salaam on 29 October and spread across the country over the following days. The demonstrations had largely been organised by young people left angry at what they see as a political system dominated by one party since Tanzania gained independence in the 1960s.

Several opposition leaders were arrested and others banned from standing during the elections while a number of opposition activists were detained. Incumbent President Samia Suluhu Hassan ultimately secured victory after the electoral commission declared she received 98% of the vote.

Since then the UN human rights office (OHCHR) said it had reports indicating that hundreds of people were killed during the protests, with many more injured or detained. A diplomatic source in Tanzania told the BBC there was credible evidence that at least 500 people had died.

Footage of the protests was suppressed for almost a week when the government imposed a near-total internet blackout and threatened to jail anyone caught sharing any videos from the protests, saying it could cause unrest.

Only once the block was lifted on 4 November did dozens of videos begin to emerge online showing violent scenes: uniformed officers appearing to fire at crowds, bodies lying on the streets, with others piled up outside a hospital.

To understand what happened, BBC Verify has analysed, geolocated and confirmed footage, building a clearer picture of how police responded to the demonstrations.

Violence in Tanzania's largest city

In the footage our team has verified the protests appear to have been dominated by groups of young men, drawing strong parallels with a global Gen-Z youth movement frustrated at economic decline and entrenched leadership in countries across Africa.

The first demonstrations we identified took place early on election day in Dar es Salaam, the country's largest city and economic hub. They spread to other urban areas across the country, including the cities of Mwanza and Arusha.

The internet blackout makes it difficult to establish a clear sequence of events, but what is clear from videos and images posted online is that protesters were confronted by heavily armed police units blocking their progress and firing tear gas to disperse crowds. In many of the videos, gunfire can clearly be heard as people scatter in the ensuing chaos.

A key flashpoint was along the Morogoro Road, a main highway through Dar es Salaam. In two separate highly graphic videos, two bodies can be seen lying on the side road next to St Andrew's Anglican Church. One lies unresponsive, with heavy wounds visible on their head, surrounded by a pool of blood.

We identified more bodies lying nearby around the same stretch of road: one next to a bus stop and two more on the ground surrounded by blood. One body is later seen wrapped in a white shroud.

Further casualties are also visible along this stretch of highway and in the neighbouring side streets.

Footage from another location close to the Open University of Tanzania shows a motionless body on the ground with an open head wound. In a later video taken from the same scene we see the body covered in a cloth and carried towards a group of policemen standing by the university building.

"Killers, killers," the group chants at the officers, one of whom is armed with a rifle, another carries a pistol. The body is then placed in the back of a truck.

BBC Verify has confirmed at least a dozen other videos from Dar es Salaam showing people with a range of injuries, some of whom are being carried away.

We have also documented casualties from protests more than 700 miles (1125km) away in Tanzania's second-largest city, Mwanza, that took place on election day.

Within the grounds of the city's Sekou Toure Hospital, several videos show a pile of 10 bodies, all of whom appear to be young men. Some of them have visible open wounds. Other footage from within the hospital shows bodies laid out in what appears to be a hospital morgue.

Footage shows police firing on crowds

We have verified multiple videos of police shooting towards groups of protesters.

In three videos posted online, police vehicles are seen chasing dozens of people as the attempt to flee along Nelson Mandela Road in Dar es Salaam. Several rounds of gunfire can be heard as the police advance.

In Arusha, footage shows a police vehicle passing a crowd of chanting youths. Gunshots ring out and people are seen scattering and running for safety. Another video taken shows an injured man with those around him saying he's been shot.

In the northern Kijitonyama area of Dar es Salaam, two men in uniform were filmed taking aim and firing along a main road in the direction of protests. We have confirmed the location next to a local school. The green uniforms and flat-topped peak caps worn by the two men closely match those worn by the Tanzanian police.

Less than 100 metres away a man is shown lying on the street with a bloody head wound. In the distance, men wearing similar green uniforms can be seen. Someone shouts: "He has been shot in the head. They have killed [him]." As the video continues, more gunshots can be heard.

There are also multiple videos seen by BBC Verify of men in the same green uniforms firing weapons - sometimes into the air, sometimes along open streets.

Investigators from audio forensics experts, Earshot, said what can be heard in those videos confirms live rounds were used on protesters.

After analysing the audio from the scene, they said: "Rubber bullets typically do not travel at supersonic speeds.

"The presence of these shockwaves therefore indicates the use of live rounds."

Not all the people we've seen carrying guns are wearing uniforms. In footage filmed in Sam Nujoma Road, Dar es Salaam, three men in civilian clothing are seen firing guns by a saloon car. It's unclear who they are.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has called for an investigation into the killings and other violations committed during Tanzania's elections, and for the unconditional release of all those arrested before the vote took place and others who have since been detained.

The Tanzanian government and police have been contacted for comment.

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