Venezuela vote: Authorities reject inflation claim

Venezuela's electoral authorities have dismissed a claim that turnout in Sunday's controversial vote for a new constituent assembly was inflated.

The firm behind the voting system said turnout was at least one million fewer than the government figure.

But the head of the election council hit back, calling it an "irresponsible claim, with unfounded estimations".

President Nicolás Maduro has said that the new assembly will be inaugurated on Friday.

The opposition see the assembly as an attempt by Mr Maduro to cling on to power.

They boycotted the election and also held an unofficial referendum in which they said more than seven million Venezuelans voted against the constituent assembly.

Turnout in Sunday's poll is seen as a key indicator of the level of support the government enjoys.

The government said more than eight million people, or 41.5% of the electorate, had voted.

What are the allegations?

"It is with the deepest regret that we have to report that the turnout numbers on Sunday 30th July for the Constituent Assembly in Venezuela were tampered with," the boss of Smartmatic, Antonio Mugica, told journalists in London.

He said a full audit was needed to establish the exact number of voters but he said the firm estimated there was a difference of at least one million.

But Tibisay Lucena of the election council accused Mr Mugica of trying to "raise doubt over the result of the election".

Mr Maduro said the vote was free and fair and that it would not be tainted by "a company with its headquarters in London and its bank accounts in the United States".

The opposition-controlled National Assembly has approved a request to open a criminal investigation into Smartmatic's claims.

Separately, the Reuters news agency reported it had seen an internal memo from Venezuela's electoral authorities saying fewer than four million votes had been cast just two hours before polls closed.

Venezuela's controversial vote explained

So where next?

Despite intense pressure at home and abroad, Mr Maduro is ploughing on with the constituent assembly.

The first deputies for the new body have received their credentials, among them Mr Maduro's wife and son. Swearing in has already begun and the assembly's first sitting is due on Thursday.

Mr Maduro says the constituent assembly, which has the power to rewrite the constitution and bypasses the National Assembly, is needed to restore order after months of crisis.

The opposition is calling for fresh demonstrations with a march planned to coincide with the expected installation of the assembly.

Venezuela remains in political and economic turmoil. Tumbling oil prices have hit social programmes hard and scores of people have died protesting against the government.

But despite the unrest the government retains the crucial support of the armed forces.

Brazil's President Temer survives corruption vote

The Brazilian Congress has voted not to send President Michel Temer to face trial for corruption.

Opposition lawmakers in the lower house of Congress failed to obtain the two-thirds majority needed to send the case to the Supreme Court.

Mr Temer has been accused of receiving $12m (£9m) in bribes from the boss of a giant meatpacking firm, JBS. He has denied the allegation.

The Congress session was marred by scenes of chaos and angry exchanges.

Lawmakers shouted abuse, pushed each other and threw fake bank notes at their opponents.

Voting is continuing, but more than one-third of lawmakers have either voted against a trial for President Temer, or abstained, meaning that the opposition cannot reach the two-thirds target required to send him to the Supreme Court.

The opposition needed to get 342 out of 513 votes.

Left-wing Congressman Ivan Valente, of the Socialism and Liberty Party, demanded the ousting of Mr Temer and the holding of new elections.

"The Brazilian people do not want Temer, the Brazilian people want direct elections. We do not want to change six for half-a-dozen. Out with Temer! Direct (elections) now!" he said.

• All you need to know about Brazil's corruption scandals
• Temer steps out of the shadows to lead Brazil

The lengthy session descended into chaos earlier, when both sides traded accusations of corruption.

Pro-government lawmakers displayed inflatable dolls depicting former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as a prisoner.

He was sentenced last month to nine years and six months in jail and is facing other charges of corruption.

Lula says all the accusations against him are politically-motivated.

Mr Temer's supporter say his dismissal would cause instability and damage Brazil's ailing economy.

"I am in favour of all investigations, but the moment we are living in is very delicate and we need to recover the economy," said Luiz Claudio from the centre-right Republic Party.

Mr Temer became president last year following the impeachment of his predecessor, Dilma Rousseff.

She was found guilty of tampering with the government accounts in order to hide a growing deficit ahead of her re-election in 2014.

Trump approves new 'flawed' Russia sanctions

President Donald Trump has signed into a law a bill which imposes new sanctions on Russia for their alleged meddling in the 2016 election.

The bill, which was signed in private at the White House, also imposes sanctions on Iran and North Korea.

Mr Trump accused Congress of overreach on the legislation, which "handcuffs" him from easing Russia penalties.

Moscow said the sanctions "put paid to hopes that our relations with the new American administration" would improve.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev also said this move meant the US had declared a "full-scale trade war" on Russia.

Iran said the new sanctions violated the nuclear deal and it would respond in an "appropriate and proportional" manner, reports the semi-official Isna news agency.

The Kremlin has denied interfering in the US election, and Mr Trump has rejected any allegations that his campaign staff colluded with Russia to help him win.

Hours after the US president signed the bill, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "This isn't news.

"The thing is, the bill was approved and was going to automatically become law with or without the president's signature."

Moscow had already retaliated last week to Congress passing the bill, by expelling 755 people from its US embassy and consulates.

Several European nations, including Germany, are fearful of the economic consequences and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has warned of "unintended unilateral effects that impact the EU's energy security interests".

• The Trump-Russia saga in 200 words
• Reality Check: What are the sanctions against Russia?

In signing the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, Mr Trump attached a statement calling the measure "deeply flawed".

He accused Congress, which last week overwhelmingly passed the bill and sent it to the White House, of overstepping its constitutional authority.

"As president, I can make far better deals with foreign countries than Congress," he said.

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Trump takes on Congress

Anthony Zurcher, BBC News, Washington

Donald Trump has signed the bill but he's clearly not happy about it. Hardly surprising, as any president would probably object to congressional efforts to curtail executive power included in this legislation.

As is becoming routine, however, this administration didn't draw its battle lines in the expected way.

There were several "signing statements". The first reads like a standard legalistic description of a presidential action with a bevy of "yes, but..." reservations.

Another statement is decidedly more Trumpian, complete with a shot at Congress for not passing healthcare reform and a closing boast about his business empire and negotiating prowess.

Releasing multiple signing statements with somewhat divergent tones is unusual, to say the least, and could be an indication that, despite the efforts of new chief of staff John Kelly, the administration is still not speaking with a unified voice.

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The sanctions, which are also in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea, come months after President Barack Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats.

• Russia: The 'cloud' over the White House
• Why are so many US diplomats in Russia?
• Republican Lindsey Graham praised the bill after it passed, pointing out that Mr Trump's options were limited since there were enough votes to overcome a presidential veto.
  "President Putin did something that nobody in America could do. He united the Congress," the South Carolina senator told CNN.
  Senior Russian parliamentarian Konstantin Kosachev said that Mr Trump was "capitulating" by not standing up to Congress.
  Mr Trump and Mr Putin met for the first time at the highly-scrutinised G20 summit last month in Germany.
  Allegations by the US intelligence community that Russia interfered in the US election to aid Mr Trump are currently being investigated by Congress and a special investigator.
• 
  
  

HMP Hewell: Security teams called to prison 'incident'

Specially-trained prison security teams were called to an "incident" at HMP Hewell.

Tornado squads, which are equipped to deal with riots, arrived at the prison near Redditch in Worcestershire late on Saturday night.

It is understood a handful of prisoners were attempting to cause damage to a wing.

The Prison Service said a "small number" of inmates at the category B jail were involved in the disturbance.

Men shouting and swearing, as well as banging and dogs barking, could be heard coming from the prison.

Tornado squads arrived at the site in unmarked vans using blue lights and sirens at about 19:30 BST.

'Serious concern'

HMP Hewell, which opened in its current form in 2008, is made up of six wings.

The main site is surrounded by farmland and houses about 1,000 inmates - including some category A remand prisoners.

In an inspection report published in January, Hewell was described as "a prison with many challenges and areas of serious concern".

Peter Clarke, chief inspector of prisons, said the "main concerns at the closed site were regarding issues of safety and respect".

He said levels of violence were "far too high", communal areas were "dirty" and many cells were over-crowded, with some described as "filthy".

A Prison Service spokesman said: "We are absolutely clear that offenders who behave in this way will be punished and face spending extra time behind bars."

It is understood the incident ended shortly after several loud bangs were heard at about midnight and prison authorities are now back in full control of the affected wing.

Blood donation rules relaxed for gay men and sex workers

Blood donation rules for sex workers and gay men are being relaxed in England and Scotland after improvements in the accuracy of testing procedures.

Men who have sex with men can now give blood three months after their last sexual activity instead of 12.

And sex workers, who were previously barred from donating, now can, subject to the same three-month rule.

Experts said the move would give more people the opportunity to donate blood without affecting blood supply safety.

The Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs - which advises UK health departments - recommended the changes after concluding that new testing systems were accurate and donors were good at complying with the rules.

Three-month window

All blood that is donated in the UK undergoes a mandatory test for Hepatitis B and C, and HIV, plus a couple of other viruses.

Scientists agree that three months is a comfortably long window for a virus or infection to appear and be picked up in the blood.

Prof James Neuberger, from the committee, said: "Technologies to pick up the presence of the virus have greatly improved, so we can now pick up viruses at a much earlier stage in the infection, and therefore it's much easier to tell if a blood donor has the virus."

The rule changes will come into force at blood donation centres in Scotland in November, and in early 2018 in England.

The changes affect groups including men who have sex with other men, people who have sex with high-risk partners - for example, those who have been in areas where HIV is common - and commercial sex workers.

They will now all be able to donate blood after abstaining from sex for three months.

The UK government is also considering relaxing the rules for people who have undergone acupuncture, piercing, tattooing and endoscopy, and for those with a history of non-prescribed injecting drug use.

But these also need changes to current EU legislation.

'Huge advance'

Deborah Gold, chief executive of National Aids Trust, welcomed the changes to the blood donation rules.

"It's a huge advance for gay and bisexual men to now be able to donate three months from their last sexual activity," she said.

"We are also delighted that NHS Blood and Transplant have said they will now investigate how possible it is for some gay men, depending on degree of risk, to donate without even the three-month deferral."

Alex Phillips, blood donations policy lead at Terrence Higgins Trust, said representatives of the organisation were delighted the ban on sex workers had been lifted.

She said: "The lifetime blood donation ban on anyone who works or used to work in the sex industry in the UK is based on preconceptions rather than evidence, and the rules needed reviewing to fit the facts."

NHS Blood and Transplant said there was not currently a shortage of blood in the UK but 200,000 new donors were needed every year to replenish supplies.

It said there was a particular need for more people from black, Asian and minority ethnic communities to give blood.

Princes tell documentary of 'fun' childhood with Diana

Prince William and Prince Harry have recalled the "fun" way their mother brought them up saying Princess Diana was a "total kid through and through".

In an ITV documentary to mark the 20th anniversary of Princess Diana's death, the princes said she understood the "real life outside of palace walls" and encouraged them to be "naughty".

They regret their last conversation was a brief phone call on the day she died.

Unpublished photos of the princes with their mother feature in the programme.

Prince Harry and Prince William are seen looking through Diana's personal album as they talk about how their childhood memories of their mother sat alongside her global image and influence as a campaigner for the homeless, Aids victims, and banning landmines.

Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997 when Prince William was 15 and Prince Harry was 12.

Prince William said taking part in the programme initially seemed "quite daunting" but had been "a healing process as well".

He said they wanted "her legacy to live on in our work and we feel this is an appropriate way of doing that".

Recalling Princess Diana's sense of humour, Prince Harry said: "Our mother was a total kid through and through.

"When everybody says to me 'so she was fun, give us an example' all I can hear is her laugh in my head."

He added: "One of her mottos to me was, you know, 'you can be as naughty as you want, just don't get caught'.

"She was one of the naughtiest parents. She would come and watch us play football and, you know, smuggle sweets into our socks."

Prince William said his mother was "very informal and really enjoyed the laughter and the fun".

She could be "sort of the joker", he added, and "loved the rudest cards you could imagine".

He said: "I would be at school and I'd get a card from my mother. Usually she found something, you know, very embarrassing, you know, a very funny card, and then sort of wrote very nice stuff inside.

"But I dared not open it in case the teachers or anyone else in the class had seen it."

He also talked about the "very funny memory" of coming home from school to find his mother had invited supermodels Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell to their home in Kensington Palace.

"I was probably a 12 or 13-year-old boy who had posters of them on his wall," he told Monday's documentary, Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy.

"I went bright red, and didn't know quite what to say and sort of fumbled and I think pretty much fell down the stairs on the way up. I was completely and utterly awestruck."

'Granny Diana'

The Duke of Cambridge said the last conversation with their mother weighs "quite heavily" on his mind and took place while the brothers were having a "very good time" with their cousins at Balmoral, the Queen's home in Scotland.

"Harry and I were in a desperate rush to say goodbye, you know 'see you later'... if I'd known now obviously what was going to happen I wouldn't have been so blasé about it and everything else," he said.

Prince William says in the interview he remembers what his mother said - but does not reveal details of the conversation.

Prince Harry said: "It was her speaking from Paris, I can't really necessarily remember what I said but all I do remember is probably regretting for the rest of my life how short the phone call was."

Earlier this month, the princes attended a service to re-dedicate their mother's grave at Althorp House in Northamptonshire, on what would have been her 56th birthday.

Prince Harry said he had only cried twice for his mother - one of the times was at the funeral service at Althorp in 1997.

"So there's a lot of grief that still needs to be let out," he said.

Prince William, who was accompanied at the re-dedication service by the Duchess of Cambridge, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, said he keeps the memory of his mother alive for his children by "constantly talking about granny Diana".

"She'd be a lovely grandmother, she'd absolutely love it, she'd love the children to bits," he said.

And he joked: "She'd be a nightmare grandmother, absolute nightmare... She'd come, probably at bath time, cause an amazing... scene, bubbles everywhere bath water all over the place and then leave."

Reflecting on the anniversary of Princess Diana's death, Prince Harry told ITV: "To myself and William she was just the best mother ever".

He said: "It has been hard and it will continue to be hard, there's not a day William and I don't wish that she was still around and we wonder what kind of mother she would be now, and what kind of a public role she would have and what a difference she would be making."

The princes have also both agreed to take part in a forthcoming BBC documentary about their mother.

They were were speaking to ITV from their home at Kensington Palace where they will unveil a statue of their mother in its public gardens on the 20th anniversary of her death.

Prince William said: "We won't be doing this again - we won't speak as openly or publicly about her again, because we feel hopefully this film will provide the other side from close family friends you might not have heard before, from those who knew her best and from those who want to protect her memory, and want to remind people of the person that she was."

Afghanistan: Taliban 'kidnapped dozens' of villagers

At least seven villagers have been killed after being kidnapped by suspected Taliban militants, a senior Afghan police official says.

He said about dozens of villagers were abducted in Kandahar province earlier in the week.

About 30 have been released while at least 30 remain missing, he added.

The United Nations said the number of civilians killed in the country's conflict reached a new high of more than 1,600 in the first half of 2017.

Reports said the latest abduction happened when Islamist rebels launched co-ordinated attacks on a military camp on the Kandahar-Uruzgan Highway.

Local media said the militants accused the villagers of co-operating with the government.

Elsewhere, in the north of the country, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reopened a small medical clinic in the northern city of Kunduz.

It is the charity's first facility there since US air strikes destroyed a hospital it ran, killing 42 people including patients and staff, in 2015.

A US military inquiry found the strike was the result of "human error" but MSF called it a war crime.

Gen Joseph Votel, head of the US Central Command, said at the time that it could not be a war crime as it was unintentional.

• Afghan clinic bombing 'not a war crime'
• What we know about Kunduz hospital bombing

The 2015 bombardment took place as US-backed Afghan forces were battling to reverse the Taliban's seizure of Kunduz.

"We are really happy to restart medical activities in Kunduz, though we know that the needs are much bigger than the ones we will provide," MSF's Silvia Dallatomasina told the BBC.

An MSF official said the clinic would only provide treatment for minor or chronic injuries.

"But this is just the first step to be able to - and we are willing to do it - restart proper trauma care in Kunduz city," she said.

The new facility, which has one doctor and five nurses, is not located at the site of the hospital bombed in 2015.

A US military inquiry found that doctors on the ground rang US officials 10 minutes into the attack, pleading for them to stop, but it was another 20 minutes before they did.