Nigerian Kidnaps: Can Anything Be Done?

The temptation to "do something" is almost overwhelming. Some 270 school girls abducted, many already raped, dragged into the bush and now threatened with being sold into slavery.

Of course the "do something" instinct comes to the fore.

In fact it's only really become an international cry since the leader of Boko Haram, which means Western education is sinful, delivered a 57-minute diatribe in Hausa, Arabic and English, threatening the girls with slavery this week.

Inside Nigeria, the government has been under growing pressure to "do something".

Dr Sakyimah Akilu, a presidential adviser and spokeswoman on national security, told Sky News that it was true that there was a general impression that the Nigerian government had failed to react to the mass abductions.

The schoolgirls were taken from Chibok in the northeast of the country

"The truth is that we are pursuing every lead we have had. But you have to understand that they have been taken into the Sambisa forest and perhaps into the mountains in Cameroon - there are many places to hide," she said.

This fatalism may explain why the Nigerian administration of Goodluck Jonathan appears to have been flat footed in hunting down the radical Islamist group which is now threatening the girls with a most un-Islamic torment.

William Hague said: "Using girls as the spoils of war and the spoils of terrorism is disgusting and immoral. It should show everybody across the world that they should not give any support for such a vile organisation …

"Britain is offering assistance, but of course the primary responsibility will rest with the Nigerians, and I hope they will do what is necessary to reunite these girls with their families."

The British Foreign Secretary is vague on what that "assistance" could be.

A protest in Lagos urging the Nigerian government to get the children back

In all likelihood, it would take the form of Special Force advice on how to track the girls. Perhaps some help, too, with surveillance.

But both would be limited. More of a gesture than anything else.

Special Forces from South Africa, Britain, the United States and other Western nations have been on the trail of the similarly horrible Lord's Resistance Army in the Central African Republic for decades.

Their analysis has been that while they could probably kill the leadership of the LRA, a capture operation would be almost impossible.

A similar military analysis would emerge on Boko Haram - finding and saving the missing girls would be almost impossible - slaughtering elements of Boko Haram would not.

But killing won't solve the problem.

The sad truth is that Nigeria's missing children are likely to stay that way.

Efforts to negotiate a peace deal with Boko Haram's leader Abdulbakar Shekau over the last four years - while 4,000 Nigerians died - have come to nought.

Now he has the attention of the whole world, he won't want to give up on the limelight the missing girls have given him.

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Nigerian Girl 'Ran And Ran' To Escape Kidnap

A Nigerian girl who staged a remarkable escape when gunmen took her and more than 200 others hostage has described how she was told: "Don't worry, we're soldiers. Nothing is going to happen to you."

The 16-year-old was snatched from her boarding school in Chibok by members of the Islamic group Boko Haram. She was herded into a pick-up truck and driven away but fled when one of the vehicles in the convoy broke down.

She and her friends jumped down from the truck and darted into a nearby forest to hide when the stranded car behind them suddenly started up, illuminating the road ahead.

"We ran and ran, so fast," said the girl. "That's how I saved myself. I had no time to be scared. I was just running."

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau is wanted by Nigerian police

Some of the children clung to low-hanging branches as the kidnappers' convoy sped off into the night.

When the girls eventually made their way back to the road, they were met by a man on a bicycle who accompanied them back to the village.

The teenager described the end of her ordeal as an emotional experience.

"I'm the only girl in my family, so I hold a special place and everyone was so happy," she said. "But that didn't last long."

Remembering the siege on April 14, the girl said she knew the men were not who they claimed to be when they started shouting: "Allahu Akhbar (God is great)."

The girls were taken from the village of Chibok in northeast Nigeria

She said there were too many attackers to count, adding that she and her friends had no choice but to sit and watch as their classrooms were set alight before they were herded onto three trucks.

The kidnapping has been condemned by both the UK and the US, who have offered to help find the girls.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau appeared in a video alongside two militants brandishing AK-47s saying: "I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah.

"Allah has instructed me to sell them. They are his property and I will carry out his instructions."

The kidnappers are thought to be hiding out in a remote area on the Nigeria-Cameroon border.

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Oscar Pistorius Neighbours 'Did Not Hear Reeva'

By Alex Crawford, Special Correspondent, in Pretoria

Oscar Pistorius' next-door neighbour has told a court he heard "very loud" cries from someone "desperate for help" on the night the athlete's girlfriend was shot dead.

But Michael Nhlengethwa, whose house is just 11 metres from the bathroom where Reeva Steenkamp was fatally injured, said he did not hear a woman screaming.

It appears to contradict the claims of an earlier witness, who said she heard "blood-curdling screams" on Valentine's Day last year, despite living further away from Pistorius' home.

The trial also heard from Mr Nhlengethwa's wife, Eontle, who was asked to repeat the noise she heard while her husband was searching their house for intruders after the couple were awoken by a loud bang.

Oscar Pistorius arrives at court in Pretoria for day 27 of his trial

She made a loud shrieking noise - at which point Pistorius leant forward, covering his ears with his hands - but insisted the "vibrating, high-pitched noise" was the sound of a man crying, not a woman screaming.

The prosecutor, Gerrie Nel, has suggested Ms Steenkamp ran into the toilet to take refuge after a furious row with Pistorius.

It is claimed she was facing the toilet door, talking to the runner, when he fired four shots.

However, the Nhlengethwas told the court they did not hear sounds of any argument.

Ms Steenkamp was shot dead on February 14, 2013. Pic: Stimulii

Instead, they said, they heard wailing coming from a man who sounded like he could have been in danger.

"The cry we heard was from someone who was desperate for help," Mr Nhlengethwa said. "It was very loud."

When asked during cross-examination whether he heard the sounds of a woman screaming, the witness replied: "No, not at all."

Another neighbour, Rita Motshuane, also imitated the noises she heard, hunching her shoulders and letting out a series of loud, painful wails.

She said the sound, which was so haunting it left her unable to move from her bed, came from a man, not from a woman.

The Nhlengethwas were originally on the state's list of witnesses but neither were called by the prosecution.

Mr Nhlengethwa said Pistorius, who always greeted him by walking over to talk and shake hands, once introduced Ms Steenkamp as his fiancee and said he was moving out of the Silver Woods estate in Pretoria to Johannesburg in order to be closer to her.

The witness said he expressed regret that his neighbour was leaving but added: "If it's for her, then it's worth it. That one's for keeps."

It was the first time the court had heard evidence the couple were apparently engaged.

Mr Nhlengethwa also spoke about the moment he arrived at Pistorius' house after the shooting and peered through the front door to find Pistorius kneeling over Ms Steenkamp.

"What I saw is difficult to explain," he said, telling the court he chose to wait outside as the scene was so distressing.

Pistorius, 27, denies murdering Ms Steenkamp in a premeditated attack, claiming he mistook her for an intruder.

The case was adjourned at lunchtime and will resume on Thursday after a public holiday in South Africa.

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Pilot Crashes Into House He Used To Own

A pilot who crashed his light plane into a house in Colorado used to own the property, it has emerged.

Brian Veatch told KMGH-TV in Denver he once lived in the home, and property records indicated that he sold it in 2003.

Mr Veatch told the station that he did not realise the significance of his crash site until someone else pointed it out.

He now lives about a mile away.

Police say Mr Veatch, who managed to walk out of the wreckage virtually unhurt, may have been attempting to land in a nearby field after an apparent engine malfunction.

The veteran firefighter even tried to put out the fire with a garden hose before he was forced away by burning fuel, authorities said.

The house in Northglenn was unoccupied at the time of crash.

Five teenagers were playing soccer at a nearby track when they saw the plane.

"We were over at the field when it started going down. We said, 'That plane is way too close,'" said 15-year-old Ryder Munera.

Mr Veatch was towing a banner for an insurance company and was supposed to fly over a Colorado Rockies baseball game when the crash occurred, according to Tom Mace, who said he hired the pilot.

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'Boko Haram' Kidnaps More Girls In Nigeria

Suspected Boko Haram gunmen have kidnapped eight girls from a Nigerian village overnight, police and residents have said.

The girls, aged 12 to 15, were abducted near one of the Islamist militant group's strongholds in the northeast of the country.

Lazarus Musa, a resident of Warabe, where the attack happened, said: "They were many, and all of them carried guns. They came in two vehicles painted in army colour.

"They started shooting in our village."

A police source, who could not be named, said the girls were taken away on trucks, along with stolen livestock and food.

It came after it emerged the UK was offering "practical help" to help Nigeria secure the release of more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague revealed the country's potential involvement in the case after the organisation threatened to sell the abducted girls.

"We are offering practical help," he told reporters as he arrived for a Council of Europe meeting in Vienna to discuss ways to defuse the crisis in Ukraine.

"What has happened here ... the actions of Boko Haram to use girls as the spoils of war, the spoils of terrorism, is disgusting. It is immoral.

"I called the Nigerian foreign minister when this first arose ... to offer help from Britain, to express our concerns."

He said he did not want to discuss exactly what help Britain was offering, just as US authorities have avoided going into detail.

It is thought Nigeria has so far not accepted either country's offer.

Boko Haram militants stormed an all-girl secondary school in the village of Chibok, in Borno state, on April 14 and packed the teenagers, who had been taking exams, on to trucks. They then disappeared into a remote area along the border with Cameroon.

The raid has shocked Nigerians despite a bloody five-year-old Islamist insurgency in the north of the country, and there have been claims that other countries should have done more and been quicker to offer help.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has appeared in a video, chuckling as he stands in front of an armoured personnel carrier with two masked militants wielding AK-47s on either side of him.

"I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah," he says.

"Allah has instructed me to sell them. They are his property and I will carry out his instructions."

Boko Haram, seen as the main security threat to Nigeria, Africa's leading energy producer, is growing bolder and extending its reach.

The kidnapping occurred on the day a bomb blast, also blamed on Boko Haram, killed 75 people on the edge of Abuja, the first attack on the capital in two years.

The group's name means "Western education is sinful" and Shekau makes reference in the video to the fact the girls were undergoing Western education.

The girls' abduction has been hugely embarrassing for the government and threatens to overshadow the World Economic Forum for Africa it hosts from May 7 to 9.

On Sunday, authorities arrested a leader of a protest staged last week in Abuja that had called on them to do more to find the girls, further fuelling outrage against the security forces.

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Oscar Pistorius Trial: Athlete Was 'Frantic'

One of Oscar Pistorius' former neighbours has told the athlete's murder trial how he "begged" her to save his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp's life.

Carice Viljoen, who raced to the 27-year-old's home after he called her father for help, said the distressed athlete was "frantic" from the moment she stepped inside his house on Valentine's Day last year.

Pistorius covered his ears with his hands as an emotional Ms Viljoen told the court: "He was saying, 'Please, please'. He was begging me to put her in the car and take her to the hospital.

"I was kneeling at Reeva's side and there was blood everywhere."

Ms Steenkamp was shot dead on February 14, 2013. Pic: Stimulii

Earlier, Ms Viljoen's father, Johan Stander, who worked on the luxury estate in South Africa where Pistorius lived, recalled the desperate phone call from the sprinter in the early hours of the morning.

He told the court: "He said, 'Please, please, please come to my house, please. I shot Reeva. I thought she was an intruder. Please, please come quick.'"

He said he arrived at Pistorius' house around three minutes later to find the athlete "broken", "screaming" and carrying Ms Steenkamp's body down the stairs.

"Oscar was crying, really crying," he said. "He was in pain. He asked us to help him. He wanted us to put Reeva in a car and take her to hospital.

"We tried to calm him down. He was broken. He was screaming, crying, praying."

Ms Viljoen said that after getting Pistorius to lay his girlfriend on the floor, she ran upstairs, grabbed a handful of towels and used them to try to stop the bleeding.

"Oscar was holding pressure on her hip," she said. "He had his finger in her mouth, trying to help her breathe.

"He just kept asking me, 'Where's the ambulance, where's the ambulance?'

"We tried our very best to keep her alive."

Mr Stander, who used to look after Pistorius' dogs while the athlete was competing overseas, told the court his neighbour was "committed" to saving Ms Steenkamp.

Mr Stander said he found Pistorius carrying his girlfriend down the stairs

The witness, a former administrator at the Silver Woods estate in Pretoria, also said Pistorius would ask to be kept abreast of local crimes when he returned from his travels.

In one incident, he said, thieves broke through a fence and used a ladder to gain access to a house - a scenario the athlete has previously said he was concerned about.

A woman was tied up by intruders during another break-in, he added.

Pistorius' legal team are set to call ballistics, audio and psychological experts over the coming days, as the trial enters what is likely to prove a critical phase.

Sky's Special Correspondent Alex Crawford, in Pretoria, said: "The defence has to counter several prosecution claims - not least that there was a pause between shots which, crucially, would have given Ms Steenkamp time to shout out in anguish before the fatal head shot."

Pistorius admits shooting his partner but denies a charge of premeditated murder, claiming he mistook her for an intruder.

The trial continues.

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Amanda Knox: CCTV Casts Doubt Over Alibi

CCTV footage has emerged that could challenge Amanda Knox's alibi on the night Meredith Kercher was murdered.

A video obtained by Italian television shows a person resembling Knox walking through a car park away from the house the pair shared in Perugia.

The American, who this year was re-convicted of murder after a second trial, has always said she was with then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito on the night of the killing.

TV programme Quarto Grado claims the figure shown on the film has similar clothes to those worn by Knox in the days after the murder, and even compares the walk of the two people.

Amanda Knox says she had "no reason" to kill her housemate

It claims British student Meredith Kercher is also seen on the film two minutes before, apparently heading back to the house.

The route through the car park is said to be a shortcut between the property and the centre of Perugia.

Quarto Grado also says that Rudy Guede, the only person jailed for the murder, was recorded by the same video camera earlier in the evening.

The CCTV is stamped 20:53 on the night of the killing, November 1, 2007, but the Italian television programme says the time could be out by 10 minutes either way.

An author who wrote a book on the case, Barbie Latza Nadeau, told The Times the video was known about but neither side chose to use it in court.

Ms Kercher's throat had been slashed and she had been sexually assaulted

"It's not helpful to the prosecution or the defence. If the prosecution shows someone like Amanda Knox walking away from the crime scene it's not helpful.

"For the defence, if there is a video of her anywhere near the house it's not helpful to them because her alibi is that she was at Raffaele's house," said Ms Latza Nadeau.

Ms Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was found dead in her apartment on November 2, 2007. Her throat had been slashed and she had been sexually assaulted.

Drug dealer Rudy Guede was sentenced to 16 years for the murder

Knox and Sollecito were arrested four days later and served four years in prison before they were acquitted by an appeals court in 2011.

The high court in Italy overturned that acquittal and ordered a new trial, and in January Knox was sentenced to 28 and a half years and Sollecito 25 years.

The judge said Knox acted with Sollecito and Guede, but it was she who delivered the fatal knife blow.

Alessandro Nencini said Knox was motivated by a "desire to humiliate" Meredith Kercher after she accused the American of taking money from her room

Knox, who lives in Seattle, is appealing to Italy's highest court and last week told CNN she "never fought" with her housemate and the pair were "becoming friends".

"I did not kill my friend," she told CNN. "I did not wield a knife. I had no reason to.

"There is no trace of us. If Rudy Guede committed this crime, which he did, we know that because his DNA is there around Meredith's body - his handprints and footprints in her blood.

"None of that exists for me. If I were there, I would have traces of Meredith's broken body on me. And I would have left traces of myself around Meredith's corpse."

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Ukraine Helicopter Shot Down Over Slavyansk

A Ukrainian helicopter has been shot down over the pro-Russian stronghold of Slavyansk as the security situation in the country continues to worsen.

Ukraine's defence ministry said the pilots survived. Elsewhere in the east of the country four paramilitary policemen were shot dead in fighting.

A number of other rebels and civilians are also thought to have been killed or injured, according to Sky's Stuart Ramsay, who is in eastern Ukraine.

The helicopter, an Mi-24, came under fire from a heavy machine gun and crashed into a river.

The ministry said the crew were evacuated to a nearby camp but did not give details about their condition.

At least three other helicopters have been shot down by pro-Russian rebels in the violence that is increasing in eastern parts of the country.

Pictures shot by news wires on Monday showed pro-Russia rebels carrying rocket launchers and rocket propelled grenades.

The four Ukrainian security personnel who died were killed in fighting near Slavyansk that also injured 30 others, the interior ministry said.

The funeral of 21-year-old nurse Yulia Izotova in Kramatorsk

Ukraine's government said the dead men were ambushed by separatist rebels on the outskirts of the city but other reports said they were involved in operations to clear checkpoints from surrounding roads.

Stuart Ramsay, who saw the helicopter come down, said: "The helicopter was picking up soldiers. It would have been travelling very slowly.

"The fighting was very intense this morning. It was described as an ambush but we understand it was part of the Ukraine government's attempts to take out a ring of checkpoints."

The fighting has been intensifying since the Ukrainian forces began an operation nearly two weeks ago to remove the rebels from their strongholds in a number of eastern towns and cities.

Reuters reported that cars were seen ferrying wounded people from the sites of clashes on the separatist side but there were no casualty figures.

One civilian woman in Slavyansk was reported to have been hit in the head by a bullet, and pictures showed the funeral of a 21-year-old nurse Yulia Izotova, in Kramatorsk, who was said to have been killed in fighting in the surrounding area in the days before.

The Interior Minister drafted a new special forces unit into the southern port city of Odessa to tackle pro-Russian separatists there after a weekend of violence that left dozens dead.

The violence in Odessa, a culturally mixed city way away from the towns hit by fighting in the east, was seen as a turning point in Kiev, encroaching for the first time beyond Russian-speaking areas.

Hours of clashes between pro-Russia activists on the streets of the one million-strong city ended when the protesters withdrew to a building that later burnt down with the loss of over 40 lives - bloodshed that Moscow blamed on Kiev.

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Ukraine: Diplomatic Flurry To Limit Violence

Now that Crimea has gone to the Russians, and the east of Ukraine is sliding in the same direction, where does Foreign Secretary William Hague go? To Moldova, Ukraine, and Georgia.

This is diplomacy by signalling. The signal to Moscow is 'Don't even think about going any further', and to Moldova, Ukraine, and Georgia 'You want to be part of the West - we will help you'.

Speaking to Sky News, the Foreign Secretary said the trip was to "show our support...  Moldova, Ukraine, and Georgia have all made great efforts to build free societies and they deserve our backing".

However, there was also a stark warning about the need for reform. "In each case, they need to carry out substantial reforms to ensure the rule of law and sustainable economic development, especially in tackling corruption," he said.

There will also be a visit to Austria for a meeting of the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) which recently had several of its monitors held hostage in eastern Ukraine.

Mr Hague is travelling in a 13-seater charter jet for the whirlwind four-day tour.

The violence is continuing in Ukraine

This allows the 20-plus meetings which have been arranged to be scheduled according to his timetable, as opposed to those of the commercial airlines.

Sky News is the only news team on the plane.

The Moldova leg of the trip comes as renewed murmurings of unrest are heard from the predominantly Russian-speaking region of Transdniestria.

The region is a long way from Russia, but closer to areas in Ukraine which have Russian speakers such as Odessa.

Transdniestria is virtually self-governing and is influenced by Moscow.

The UK and other EU countries want to reassure Moldova that they will help it to lock itself into the Western system, and to cope with the rumblings of independence in Transdniestria.

A month ago, a pro-Russian demonstration was held in the Moldovan capital Chisinau but attracted only several dozen people.

Georgia has similar problems with its breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, both now under Russian domination. 

The situation in Ukraine is well-known and there is a sense in Western capitals that there is little that can be done to prevent eastern Ukraine becoming semi-autonomous or even independent.

The flurry of diplomatic activity now is to try to prevent violence in the east, and to signal to the Russians - this far and no further.

Mr Hague said: "Clearly Ukraine is under immense pressure from Russian attempts to destabilise the country, provoke violence, and, it seems, prevent elections later this month."

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Nigerian Girls' Kidnapper: 'I Will Sell Them'

The Islamist kidnapper of more than 200 Nigerian girls missing since April 14 has vowed to sell them, reports say.

Abubakar Shekau claimed in a video obtained by the AFP news wire service that a buyer for the schoolgirls would be found.

Describing the students as "slaves," he said: "I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah."

At least 276 youngsters were seized from their school in the village of Chibok, in Borno state, north Nigeria, by Boko Haram militants three weeks ago. Nigerian police said 53 managed to escape shortly after the attack, but at least 223 remain in captivity.

Relatives suggest the number of girls still missing could be considerably higher.

Reports had previously circulated that some of the girls missing have already been sold as brides across Nigeria's border with Chad and Cameroon for as little as £7 ($12).

It is not clear whether the video was recorded before or after those reports.

The girls were abducted from Borno state three weeks ago

The video marked the first time Boko Haram has admitted being behind the abduction.

The group, whose name means "Western education is sinful," regularly attacks civilian targets. However, the brazenness of the school attack - during which the girls were rounded up and put on to trucks - has shocked Nigerians accustomed to atrocities in the five-year conflict with the insurgents.

President Goodluck Jonathan took to the radio and TV on Sunday night to respond to claims his government was not doing enough to recover the girls.

He said: "We promise that anywhere the girls are, we will surely get them out."

The president said he had asked US President Barack Obama, Britain, France and China, for help to counter the activities of the Islamic terror group Boko Haram.

And he dismissed claims his government was negotiating with Boko Haram.

First Lady and President of Nigeria Patience and Goodluck Jonathan

He also pleaded for the parents of the missing girls and their local communities to co-operate with the rescue efforts during what he described as a "trying" and "painful" time.

It came amid claims that Nigeria's First Lady - Goodluck Jonathan's wife Patience - had ordered the arrest of two leaders of a protest demanding more action from the government.

One of the protest leaders said Patience Jonathan abused them, expressed doubts there was any kidnapping and accused them of belonging to Boko Haram.

Saratu Angus Ndirpaya said Mrs Jonathan accused them of giving Nigeria's government and her husband "a bad name", at a meeting at the presidential villa in Abuja. 

Ms Ndirpaya said State Security Service agents then drove her and another protest leader Naomi Mutah Nyadar to a police station, before later releasing her.

AP journalists waiting outside the police station in Abuja, where Ms Nyadar was apparently being held, saw the protest leader bundled into a presidential car and driven away.

Ayo Adewuyi, spokesman for first lady Patience Jonathan, told AP there was a meeting but he was unaware of any arrests.

"The first lady did not order the arrest of anybody, and I'm sure of that," he said.

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Thirty-Seven Al Qaeda Militants Killed In Yemen

Thirty-seven al Qaeda militants have been killed in fighting in Yemen, the country's state news agency Saba is reporting.

A military source was quoted as saying most of those killed in the southern province of Shabwa were Saudis, Afghans, Somalis, Chechens and other nationalities.

The army destroyed a number of vehicles and weapons belonging to the fighters in the town of Meyfaa, the source added.

AQAP gained a foothold in Yemen after an uprising in 2011

Yemeni forces launched a major offensive against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) militants last week.

On Friday, soldiers and warplanes killed five suspected militants in the same area as Sunday's fighting.

General Ahmed al-Yafie, commander of the Third Military Region, was quoted by Saba as saying the army is "unprecedentedly ready to face this terrorist organisation".

Soldiers stationed in Shabwa province

He added the "al Qaeda elements will not escape death" and soldiers will fight them "until they are uprooted from Yemen which cannot be a home for terrorism".

It is also being reported that a suicide car bomber has killed six Yemeni soldiers and wounded 20 more in the province.

Attacks against the army and security forces in the south have increased sharply since the launch of the offensive.

Defence Minister Major General Muhammad Nasir Ahmad on a visit to Mayfaa

AQAP took advantage of the 2011 uprising that forced President Ali Abdullah Saleh out of office to seize large parts of southern and eastern Yemen.

The group is a merger of al Qaeda's Yemeni and Saudi branches.

The United States considers it to be the deadliest branch of the organisation's global network.

Washington has used drones to kill members and leaders of the group in recent years.

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Landslide Buries Village: Rescuers Lose Hope

Rescue teams have abandoned the search for survivors after a landslide buried a hillside village in northern Afghanistan, killing at least 350 people under a tide of rock and mud.

Local people and emergency workers using shovels tried in vain to find victims trapped under the massive landslide that engulfed Aab Bareek village in Badakhshan province.

There are fears of further landslides in the area

Officials said that the final death toll could rise as high as 500 after Friday's disaster, updating earlier information that 2,500 people were feared dead.

"Based on our reports, 300 houses are under the debris," Badakhshan governor Shah Waliullah Adeeb said at the scene.

"We cannot continue the search and rescue operation anymore, as the houses are under metres of mud. We will offer prayers for the victims and make the area a mass grave."

Thousands of people have been displaced

The tragedy came after heavy rain earlier in the week.

The community in Badakhshan province which borders Tajikistan in the country's northeast, has been buried in more than 300ft of mud (100 metres).

Gul Mohammad Bedar, the deputy governor of Badakhshan, said: "The first figure (of 2,500 feared dead) that we announced was obtained from local people, not from our technical team.

"We think the death toll will not rise beyond 500."

Local people and dozens of police officers equipped with only basic digging tools began searching for survivors from first light on Saturday.

But it quickly became apparent there was no hope of finding anyone.

Afghan National Army troops in Kabul load supplies for survivors

The United Nations says the focus is now on the thousands of people who have been displaced by the disaster.

A memorial service was planned, and the site is expected to be designated as a mass grave, according to UN spokesman Ari Gaitanis.

He added the survivors need water, medical support, counselling, food and emergency shelter.

British charities are mobilising teams to help with the rescue effort. Save the Children sent five ambulances to the scene and are planning to distribute blankets and give medical assistance.

Other charities are monitoring the situation and stand ready to provide assistance if necessary.

The US and the Nato-led coalition in Afghanistan have offered to send help

There are also fears that another section of the mountainside could collapse, threatening the homeless and hundreds of rescue workers.

The Afghan military flew rescue teams to the search area on Saturday because the remote mountain region is served by only narrow, poor roads that have been damaged by more than a week of heavy rain.

Nato-led coalition troops are ready to assist, but have not yet been asked for help by the Afghan government.

US President Barack Obama has also offered to send help.

Seasonal rains and spring snow melt have brought destruction to large parts of northern Afghanistan, killing more than 100 people.

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Victim Of South Africa's 'Rich Man's Justice'

By Alex Crawford, Special Correspondent

There are two types of justice in South Africa: one for the rich and another for those without money and privilege, a human rights group in Johannesburg has claimed.

The Wits Justice Project, which investigates miscarriages of justice within the criminal system, has discovered that a paraplegic man accused of fraud waited in jail for 28 months before being given bail.

Ronnie Fakude was finally granted bail of 10,000 Rand (about £500) on April 12 and became the country's first remand detainee to be electronically tagged.

Mr Fakude is still waiting for a date for his trial

Mr Fakude, who is paralysed from the waist down, claims that during his time awaiting trial he has suffered a string of human rights abuses.

"The South African justice system has failed me," he said.

Mr Fakude, who is still waiting for a date for his fraud trial, says he endured so many indignities during his incarceration in Bloemfontein's Grootvlei Prison that he longed for death.

"Death was the best I could come up with. It was the same thing ... I was dead while I was alive."

He says the prison authorities failed to provide him with a wheelchair for the first year of his confinement and he had to drag himself through the jail using crutches, or relying on the help of other prisoners.

This extended to begging for help from other detainees for help in changing the adult nappies he has to wear.

Mr Fakude with Sky's Alex Crawford

"I believe I was tortured ... tortured in many ways," he said.

"I couldn't go to the toilet. I couldn't climb into bed by myself. I have to have a special diet and I couldn't get the right food."

Carolyn Raphaely, from the Wits Justice Project, said she was shocked when she heard Mr Fakude's story.

"This case is symptomatic of what is increasingly being called 'a rich man's justice' in this country'."

She said her investigations showed how those with money and privilege appeared to fare far better under the South African justice system.

She compared the Fakude case with that of the Olympian Oscar Pistorius.

Pistorius was granted 1 million Rand bail within days of being accused of murdering his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. His trial was set just over a year after the shooting. It is due to resume on Monday.

Official national statistics show about a third of South Africa's estimated 157,394 prisoners are on remand or awaiting trial.

About 15 to 20% of them are in jail because they cannot afford bail.

Most have been accused of relatively petty crimes but will be housed with murderers or rapists in overcrowded, desperately difficult conditions, according to the Wits Justice Project.

Mr Fakude is now determined to fight for the many others with disabilities who are languishing in South Africa's prisons.

The government's department of correctional services insists it has a clear policy for prisoners with disabilities, but has admitted to the Wits Justice Project that it has no idea of the numbers incarcerated with disabilities.

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Pro-Russian Rebels Storm Police HQ In Ukraine

Thousands of pro-Russian militants have reportedly stormed a police headquarters in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa.

An AFP reporter on the scene said around 3,000 people were involved in the attack.

The mob is said to have shouted "fascists, fascists" as they demanded the release of some of their number held since clashes on Friday.

Police have started to release some of those detained, according to Reuters news agency.

A mob attacks a police HQ in Odessa

Forty-two people were killed during fighting with pro-Ukraine supporters in the city two days ago, including at least 31 in a fire.

Ukraine's interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has visited Odessa and told Sky News he considers his country to be at war.

A rebel blockade burns in the city of Kramatorsk

"It seems to me that the entire world is facing a new type of war," he said.

"This is the new war, with the military, with no insignia on their uniforms, with agents that have a well-organised terrorist plot network.

"With the diplomatic pressure on Ukraine, with the tough and rude Russian propaganda, with playing on Ukrainian sentiments and not only Ukrainian.

Separatists in Luhansk have been bolstering barricades, fearing an attack

"And with the real threat to the global security and mainly to the European one."

Elsewhere, the Ukrainian government said armed forces and the National Guard had reclaimed a television tower in Kramatorsk.

Insurgents torched buses in the city on Saturday in an effort to ward off attacks.

A wrecked tanker blocks the road in Kramatorsk

Russian television claims 10 people have already died in the violence.

Armed personnel carriers were seen driving through Kramatorsk on Saturday but appeared to later return to their airfield base on the edge of the city.

Ukraine's efforts to fight the pro-Russian insurgency has so far concentrated on the nearby stronghold of Slavyansk.

Flowers at the scene of the deadly fire in Odessa

Rebels have seized government buildings in around a dozen cities as they push for autonomy from Ukraine.

Ukraine, which was plunged into crisis following the ousting of President Yanukovych in February, says it is fighting "terrorists" who are being encouraged and helped by the Russian regime.

The deadly fire in Odessa on Friday pushed tensions to a new high.

At least 31 pro-Russian activists died when a trade union building was petrol-bombed during fighting with groups loyal to Kiev.

Russia said it was "outraged" and denounced the "criminal irresponsibility" of the pro-Western authorities in Kiev.

Sky's Katie Stallard, in Odessa, said people are still bringing flowers to lay outside the building during a second day of official mourning.

"There are real fears about where this goes from here," said Stallard.

"There is already talk of pro-Russian separatists publishing names and contact details of who they say are pro-Ukrainian protesters, who they accuse of being involved in the violence."

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'Casualties After Explosions' Hit Kenya Buses

At least one person has been killed and several others hurt after bomb attacks against two buses in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

The vehicles were being driven along a busy highway when explosive devices were thrown at them.

The blasts happened in the Thika Road area, close to the city centre, and the scene was quickly sealed off, witnesses said.

Images on Kenyan TV showed a large red passenger bus with a large hole ripped out of its side, and a green bus with its roof and sided buckled by an explosion.

It comes a day after two explosions rocked the port city of Mombasa, killing four people.

Attackers threw an explosive device at passengers at a bus station and also targeted a luxury hotel in the coastal city.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attacks.

But Kenya has blamed similar assaults on al Qaeda-linked Somali group al Shabaab, which killed at least 67 people at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi in September.

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