Niger army kills 14 civilians mistaken for Boko Haram fighters

Niger's army has killed 14 civilians who were mistaken for militants of the Islamist group Boko Haram in the remote southeast, officials say.
The victims, all unarmed farmers, were in a restricted zone around the village of Abadam, next to the Nigerian border.
Two were from Niger, and the rest were from Nigeria. Details of how the operation unfolded and why the civilians were there were not clear.
Boko Haram is based in Nigeria but has carried out cross-border attacks.
Thousands of people have been displaced from the south-eastern Diffa region and civilians have been banned from many areas.
Many, however, have been returning to tend their crops, correspondents say.
There were conflicting reports about the army's operation. The AFP news agency said an air strike had killed the group after they returned to check on their crops. But Reuters said soldiers were patrolling the area when they opened fire.
Yahaya Godi, Diffa's secretary general, said: "Abadam is a village located in the red zone and has been prohibited for a very long time... Any individual seen in the area is considered Boko Haram."
The Diffa region has seen a series of attacks by Boko Haram fighters in recent years. Just three days ago, suspected militants killed nine people and kidnapped dozens more there, including children.
BBC N EWS
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Qatar crisis: Saudi-led bloc vows new measures

The four Arab states leading a boycott against Qatar have condemned its rejection of their demands and warned of unspecified new measures against it.
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates said Doha was intent on continuing a "policy aimed at destabilising security in the region".
New measures would be enacted in an "appropriate and timely manner".
They cut links with Qatar in June over its alleged support of terrorism and ties with Iran. It denies wrongdoing.
The oil- and gas-rich nation was presented with a list of demands, including shutting down the Al Jazeera news network, closing a Turkish military base, cutting ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, and downgrading relations with Tehran.
Qatar vigorously denied supporting terrorism, and insisted it would not agree to any measures that threatened its sovereignty or violated international law.
The air, sea and land restrictions have caused turmoil in the country, which is dependent on imports to meet the basic needs of its population of 2.7 million.
In a joint statement issued late on Thursday, the four countries expressed their "deep surprise over the unjustified refusal by the Qatari government to the legitimate list and logical demands" aimed at fighting terrorism, combating extremism and safeguarding Arab and international security.
They stressed that the list of demands was now "null and void" and vowed to take further "political, economic and legal measures" in a manner that "preserves their rights, security and stability towards a hostile Qatari government policy".

They did not specify what the measures might include, although officials have suggested financial restrictions could be placed on flows of Qatari money or that third parties could be forced to choose between doing business with the four or with Qatar.
On Wednesday, Qatar's foreign minister accused them of imposing "a siege that is a clear aggression and an insult" and said the accusations were "clearly designed to create anti-Qatar sentiment in the West".
"The answer to our disagreement is not blockades and ultimatums, it is dialogue and reason," Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani added.
He also noted that Qatar was prepared to pay inflated prices for food supplies to be shipped in by sea or air from Turkey and Iran "indefinitely".
The US, which has a major airbase in Qatar that is crucial for the campaign against so-called Islamic State, has called for the dispute to be resolved.
"We've become increasingly concerned that that dispute is at an impasse at this point. We believe that this could potentially drag on for weeks. It could drag on for months. It could possibly even intensify," a state department spokeswoman said.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is expected to travel on Monday to Kuwait, which is acting as a mediator.

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Ms Sheila Michaels: Feminist who popularised 'Ms', dies aged 78

Sheila Michaels, an American feminist who brought the honorific "Ms" into mainstream use, has died aged 78.
Ms Michaels did not invent the term, but is credited with rescuing it from obscurity after she saw it used in an address, thinking it was a typo.
"Ms" did not convey a woman's marital status, unlike the traditional options "Mrs" or "Miss".
"I had never seen it before: It was kind of arcane knowledge," she said.
Speaking to the New York Times in an interview last year for her own obituary, she said the honorific resonated with her, both as a feminist and as the child of unmarried parents.
"[I] was looking for a title for a woman who did not 'belong' to a man. There was no place for me," she told The Guardian newspaper in 2007.
"I didn't belong to my father and I didn't want to belong to a husband - someone who could tell me what to do."
Born in St Louis, Missouri, Ms Michaels spent some of her childhood in New York City. She was a lifelong feminist activist, biblical scholar, and collected oral histories of the civil rights movement later in life.
In her professional life, she worked as a ghostwriter, editor, and even ran a Japanese restaurant - but her obituary in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes her favourite job was being a New York City taxi driver.

What's in a name?

The term Ms dates back to at least 1901, but its obscurity meant that Ms Michaels first thought it was a typo, intended to be Mrs, on a housemate's delivery of a Marxist magazine in the early 1960s.
Years later, she brought it casually, during a lull in conversation on broadcast radio - where it was heard by others, and began to attract attention.
That broadcast would lead the first editors of Ms Magazine to adopt the honorific as its title in 1972 "after prompting from Sheila Michaels, who had been pushing the women's movement to adopt its usage," the magazine wrote last month.
"'Ms' is how you address a woman as a whole person. In a culture where women were identified on the basis of their marital status... [it was a] way to define ourselves as individuals, not subordinates or partners."
And while the new honorific was in the public sphere and a subject of debate, it was not adopted by the New York Times until 1984 - seen as a landmark for its usage by a traditional stylistic conservative.
Now, the newspaper has published an extensive obituary based on interviews with Ms Michaels herself.
"Ms Michaels leaves a legacy both minute and momentous: two consonants and a small dot - three characters that forever changed English discourse," the Times wrote.
Advice from the BBC's style editors is simple: "Try to find out what the person herself uses, and stick to that."
Do you use the honorific Ms? When and why did you adopt it? If you don't use it, which one do you use and why? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:
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China's first operational aircraft carrier Liaoning arrives in Hong Kong

China's first operational aircraft carrier Liaoning has arrived in Hong Kong.
Its first trip outside mainland China is part of the events marking the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover from Britain to China.
Its follows Xi Jinping's visit last week, his first as Chinese president.
During his trip, which was marred by protests, he warned that any challenge to the Beijing central government was "impermissible".
Hong Kong's political climate has grown tense in recent years with increasing calls for self-determination and even independence.
In 2014, Beijing said it would allow direct election of the city's leader, but only from a list of pre-approved candidates. That led to mass protests - known as the umbrella demanding universal suffrage.


Mr Xi's visit to the city came amid tight police security. Following his departure on Saturday, thousands of people marched in an annual event calling from more democracy.
The Liaoning's presence has been viewed by some as a show of force by Beijing, but many in Hong Kong have also queued for free tickets to tour the ship.
It is accompanied by three warships, and will be anchored near Hong Kong's Tsing Yi island for five days.

'Unprecedented show' - Juliana Liu, Hong Kong correspondent

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has been stationed in Hong Kong since the 1997 handover. But it keeps an extremely low profile. PLA soldiers are very rarely, if ever, seen on the streets in uniform.
That is why the very public visit of the Liaoning is so significant, just days after the Chinese President Xi Jinping warned the city against independence forces.
China watchers say its very presence is an unprecedented show of military force in rebellious Hong Kong. That it will be open to the public is an additional demonstration of China's soft power.
The 300m (990ft) aircraft carrier is a refurbished Soviet ship of the Kuznetsov class purchased from Ukraine and was built in the late 1980s.
It is part of a larger effort by Beijing to boost its military presence on the global stage.

In April, the country launched another aircraft carrier - its first to be made domestically. It is expected to be operational by 2020.
China's military build-up comes amid rising tensions in the region.
Beijing's territorial claims in the South China Sea are contested by several of its neighbours and the US regularly conducts what it calls freedom of navigation operations through the resource-rich waters to contest Beijing's claims.
Tensions have also been heightened by North Korea's increasingly frequent missile and nuclear tests. On Tuesday North Korea claimed to have tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) which some experts believe has the ability to reach Alaska.
BBC NEWS
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G20: Trump and Putin meet face to face for first time

US President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin have met for the first time, shaking hands at the start of a G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.
They will hold a longer meeting later, and say they want to repair ties damaged by a crises including Russia's alleged meddling in the US election.
Climate change and trade are set to dominate as the two-day summit opens, with mass protests in the streets.
Clashes at a "Welcome to Hell" rally left 76 police officers injured.
By choosing to hold the summit in Hamburg, Germany's northern hi-tech powerhouse, Chancellor Angela Merkel is seeking to show mass protests can be tolerated in an open democracy, correspondents say.
The G20, or Group of Twenty, is a summit for 19 countries, both developed and developing, plus the EU.
The individual countries are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the UK and the US.

What can we expect from the Trump-Putin talks?

The two leaders are due to meet in the afternoon for an hour, Russian media say, though other reports suggest it could be about 30 minutes.
It is unclear if they will speak to reporters afterwards or to what extent media will be admitted to the meeting. After phone calls between the leaders in January and May, the White House and Kremlin released summaries of the conversations.
  • Trump-Putin meeting imagined
  • Donald and Vladimir: How do they compare?
  • What we do know is that the two men have staked out opposing views on major international issues in the run-up to the summit:
    • Setting out his own G20 agenda in German financial newspaper Handelsblatt, Mr Putin called for US-led sanctions, imposed in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, to be lifted on his country
    • Mr Putin also argued strongly in favour of the Paris climate agreement, saying it was a "secure basis for long-term climate regulation" and Russia wanted to make a "comprehensive contribution to its implementation". President Trump, of course, has taken America out of the agreement.
    While there was less mention of Syria, Washington supports some armed opposition groups, while Moscow is the main ally of President Bashar al-Assad, so the potential for a difference of opinion there too is high.
  • Mr Trump's choice of words aimed at Russia in his Warsaw speech suggests he recognises the political danger of being seen as too close to Mr Putin, the BBC's diplomatic correspondent James Robbins says.
    Russian media have low expectations of the meeting with one observer, Fyodor Lukyanov, writing in Rossiyskaya Gazeta: "The main thing is that nothing gets worse".

    Will climate change overshadow the summit?

    Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has urged G20 leaders to impress upon Mr Trump that he should act as a role model in addressing climate change.
    "We'll tell him it's important to take a lead role in tackling climate change and creating good jobs," he told German tabloid Bild, according to Reuters news agency.
    Mrs Merkel has said the G20 will focus on the Paris climate deal but, as the G20 host, she will work to find compromises.
    UK Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to challenge President Trump over climate change by saying that the Paris Agreement should not be renegotiated.

    What else is being discussed?

    Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the European Commission, said the EU would respond "immediately and adequately" if the US tried to impose punitive tariffs on European steel imports.
    In a dig at Mr Trump, he said a new EU-Japan trade deal signed on Thursday showed Europeans were not putting up "protectionist walls".
    Mrs Merkel and other EU leaders have expressed their commitment to an open international trading system, while the Trump administration pursues protectionism under the "America First" motto.

    Why are protesters so angry?

    Demonstrators could be seen gathering again in Hamburg on Friday morning, to the beating of drums, as businesses surveyed damage to shop fronts and firefighters hosed down freshly burnt cars.
  • Brick by brick, wall by wall, make the fortress Europe fall," protesters chanted as they marched again.
    The city's squats have long been a base for leftist militants but up to 100,000 people from Hamburg and beyond were expected to gather during the summit to protest against capitalism, war and climate change.
    One protester, Dirk Mirkow, was asked by German broadcaster Deutsche Welle why he was demonstrating.
    "For example because Donald Trump denies climate change," he replied. "And because the richest eight men own as much as a large percentage of the world's population."
    In Thursday's clashes, which continued into the night, police charged at masked protesters at the "Welcome to hell" march, which was attended by 12,000 people.
  • Police fired water cannon and pepper spray at masked protesters, who hurled bottles, stones and flares.
    Medics were seen treating several people. At least one person appeared to have been seriously hurt and was carried away covered by a foil blanket.
  • BBC NEWS
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Ashutosh Maharaj: Followers win fight to keep guru in freezer

An Indian court has granted permission for the followers of a long-dead spiritual guru to preserve his body in a freezer.
Ashutosh Maharaj, founder of the sect Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan (Divine Light Awakening Mission), died of a suspected heart attack in January 2014.
But his followers insist he is only meditating deeply, and will one day return to life.
They have kept his body in a commercial freezer at his vast ashram in Punjab.
The judgement by Punjab and Haryana High Court ends a three-year-old dispute between the guru's disciples and Dalip Kumar Jha, who claims to be his son.
Mr Jha had sought permission to cremate the guru's body, in line with Hindu rituals.
In rejecting his plea, the court set aside a 2014 judgement that had ordered the guru's cremation after doctors confirmed him clinically dead.
Mr Jha's lawyer told AFP it was unclear whether the court had agreed with the sect's argument that its founder was alive.
Mr Maharaj first established his sect in Jalandhar, Punjab, in 1983, to promote "self-awakening and global peace".
Over years, it attracted millions of followers across the world and amassed properties worth an estimated $120m (£92m) in India, the US, South America, Australia, the Middle East, and Europe.
The heavily-guarded 100-acre ashram in Punjab where the guru has been kept is just one sign of his vast financial assets.
Mr Jha has accused the guru's disciples of retaining his body as a ploy to keep control of his wealth.
Shortly after his death in 2014, the guru's spokesman Swami Vishalanand told the BBC: "He is not dead. Medical science does not understand things like yogic science. We will wait and watch. We are confident that he will come back."
BBC NEWS
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Apple to scan iPhones for child sex abuse images

  Apple has announced details of a system to find child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on customers' devices. Before an image is stored on...