Forty people have died after a bus fell into a ravine in Balochistan in Pakistan, local media reported.
The incident took place at Lasbela, a mountainous region in the south of the country.
The bus was carrying 44 passengers.
Lasbela Assistant Commissioner, Hamza Anjum Nadeem, said the bodies of 40 people, including women and children, were recovered, while four injured passengers were rescued.
He said: "The accident happened due to over-speeding and the bus crashed into the pillar of a bridge.
"It caught fire soon after falling into the ravine."
Image:Most of the passengers were killed in the wreckage. Pic: AP
The officer added that the bodies were charred beyond recognition and were being taken to Karachi for DNA sampling.
He said that after identification, they will be handed over to the victims' relatives.
The chief minister of Balochistan, Mir Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo, expressed his sorrow for the loss of life and ordered the authorities to provide the best medical facilities to the injured.
Israel's security cabinet has approved measures to make it easier for Israelis to carry guns after two separate attacks by Palestinians in Jerusalem over the past two days.
The attacks took place after an Israeli army raid in the occupied West Bank killed nine people.
The new measures also include depriving an attacker's family members of residency and social security rights.
The full cabinet is due to consider the measures on Sunday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had promised a "strong" and "swift" response ahead of the security cabinet meeting.
Israel's army also said it would be reinforcing troop numbers in the occupied West Bank.
"When civilians have guns, they can defend themselves," the controversial far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, told reporters outside a Jerusalem hospital.
The measures will revoke the rights to social security of "the families of terrorists that support terrorism", the security cabinet said.
The proposals are in step with proposals from Mr Netanyahu's far-right political allies, who allowed him to return to power last month.
The announcement came after Israeli police said a 13-year-old Palestinian boy was behind a shooting in Jerusalem's Silwan neighbourhood on Saturday that left an Israeli father and son seriously wounded.
An Israeli police force spokesperson previously said the assailant ambushed five people as they made their way to prayers, leaving two in a "critical condition". The 13-year-old was shot and injured by passers-by and is being held in hospital.
In a separate shooting on Friday at a synagogue in East Jerusalem, seven people were killed and at least three more injured as they gathered for prayers at the start of the Jewish Sabbath. The gunman was shot dead at the scene.
The man behind Friday's synagogue attack was identified by local media as a Palestinian from East Jerusalem.
Police have arrested 42 people in connection with that attack.
Israeli police commissioner Kobi Shabtai called it "one of the worst attacks we have encountered in recent years".
Palestinian militant groups praised the attack, but did not say one of their members was responsible.
Mr Netanyahu called for calm and urged citizens to allow security forces to carry out their tasks, while the military said additional troops would be deployed in the occupied West Bank.
"I call again on all Israelis - don't take the law into your hands," Mr Netanyahu said. He thanked several world leaders - including US President Joe Biden - for their support.
Tensions have been high since nine Palestinians - both militants and civilians - were killed during an Israeli military raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Thursday.
This was followed by rocket fire into Israel from Gaza, which Israel responded to with air strikes.
Reuters
Since the start of January, 30 Palestinians - both militants and civilians - have been killed in the West Bank.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas suspended its security co-operation arrangements with Israel after Thursday's raid in Jenin.
Friday's synagogue shooting happened on Holocaust Memorial Day, which commemorates the six million Jews and other victims who were killed in the Holocaust by the Nazi regime in Germany.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the attack, saying that one of the victims was a Ukrainian woman.
"Terror must have no place in today's world - neither in Israel nor Ukraine," he said in a tweet.
British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly wrote on Twitter: "To attack worshippers at a synagogue on Holocaust Memorial Day, and during Shabbat, is horrific. We stand with our Israeli friends."
President Joe Biden talked to Mr Netanyahu and offered all "appropriate means of support", the White House said.
Shortly after the incident, Mr Netanyahu visited the site, as did Mr Ben-Gvir.
The controversial national security minister promised to bring safety back to Israel's streets, but there is rising anger that he has not yet done so, the BBC's Yolande Knell in Jerusalem said.
Getty Images
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was "deeply worried about the current escalation of violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory", a spokesperson said.
"This is the moment to exercise utmost restraint," UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
On Saturday, the European Union expressed alarm at heightened tensions and urged Israel to use lethal force only as a last resort.
"The European Union fully recognises Israel's legitimate security concerns - as evidenced by the latest terrorist attacks - but it has to be stressed that lethal force must only be used as a last resort when it is strictly unavoidable in order to protect life," said the EU's chief diplomat, Josep Borrell.
Israel has occupied East Jerusalem since the 1967 Middle East war and considers the entire city its capital, though this is not recognised by the vast majority of the international community.
Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the future capital of a hoped-for independent state.
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By Rob Cameron in Prague and Maria Zaccaro in London
BBC News
Retired Nato general Petr Pavel has been elected as the new president of the Czech Republic, seeing off his populist challenger Andrej Babis.
The 61-year-old took 57.6% of the vote, initial results released by the state statistics office showed.
Mr Babis - who served as prime minister between 2017 and 2021 - conceded defeat in a speech to supporters soon after the results were announced.
The ex-general will replace Milos Zeman, whose second term ends in March.
The second-round runoff between Mr Babis and Mr Pavel was portrayed as a contest between populist oligarchy and liberal democracy.
The elections' results follow an ill-tempered campaign marred by alleged death threats and disinformation.
Reuters
Earlier this week Mr Pavel was forced to take to Twitter to deny rumours of his own death, circulated by a fake website and emails hosted by Russia's Yandex server.
The disinformation was condemned by Mr Babis, who a few days ago cancelled all remaining in-person campaign appearances over fears for his personal safety after receiving an anonymous death threat.
Speaking after the announcement of the results on Saturday, Mr Pavel said values such as truth, dignity, respect and humility had won.
"The vast majority of Czechs share these values, and it's time to return them to the castle and to politics," he added.
There were thunderous chants of "Pavel na Hrad" (Pavel to the Castle) - a deliberate echo of the chants of "Havel na Hrad" that filled the streets and squares of Czechoslovakia in November 1989.
Indeed Mr Pavel, a firm advocate of Czech membership of Nato and the EU, has often invoked the spirit of Vaclav Havel, the playwright, dissident and first president of the Czech Republic after the Velvet Revolution against communist rule.
And his victory will be seen as an affirmation his country is firmly rooted in the West.
In congratulating Mr Pavel, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she welcomed his "strong commitment to our European values".
Other world leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Kosovo's president Vjosa Osmani, have also taken to social media to congratulate the newly elected president.
Meanwhile, Slovakia's president Zuzana Caputova - a fellow liberal, pro-western politician - made a surprise appearance on stage alongside Mr Pavel within several hours of the results being announced.
MARTIN DIVISEK/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
There was rapturous applause from Mr Pavel's supporters, many of them dressed in the flannel shirts that have become an unofficial symbol of his campaign.
Across town, at the offices of ANO - the political party created by Mr Babis - there were smiles but the disappointment was palpable.
"I wish you a world without Babis. Forget about Babis. Try to live without Babis," the former prime minister told reporters, in a barb at his many opponents on Twitter.
"Stop waking up in the morning with hatred towards Babis and falling asleep with hatred towards Babis," he said, after congratulating his opponent and denying he had run a negative campaign.
Mr Pavel has backed keeping the Czech Republic anchored in the European Union and Nato and has come out strongly in favour of further military aid for Ukraine to fight against Russia's invasion.
By contrast, Mr Babis was forced to backtrack earlier this week after he suggested that he would not live up to the country's obligations to defend a fellow Nato member if attacked.
"I want peace, I don't want war," Mr Babis said during a televised debate. "In no situation would I send our children or the children of our women to war."
In the Czech Republic, the role of president is a mostly ceremonial but still influential post. The presidents choose prime ministers and central bank bosses, as well as having a say in foreign policy.
Is this the week when the war dramatically turned in Ukraine's favour? It was certainly a decisive moment, with a coalition of Western nations confirming they were finally willing to supply modern-made main battle tanks.
Germany said it would send Leopard 2 tanks and the US said it would send M1 Abrams tanks. Both the UK and Poland have already made concrete pledges, and other nations are expected to follow. Some commentators have described the move as a potential "gamechanger".
But is it really enough to win the war?
Ben Barry, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (ISS), tells the BBC that Western tanks will make a difference. But the former British Army Brigadier also warns that the pledges made so far are unlikely to prove decisive.
In modern warfare, tanks have been a key element for offensive operations - to punch through enemy lines and retake territory.
Used effectively, they provide mobile firepower, protection, shock and surprise. Concentrated in numbers, they can dislocate an enemy's defences. But they also need the support of artillery to first weaken those defences and then the support of infantry to hold retaken ground.
History shows tanks alone don't win battles. The British first used hundreds of tanks at the battle of Cambrai in November 1917 - to end the deadlock of static trench warfare. Initially they made significant advances, but many tanks soon broke down and a German counter offensive turned British gains into losses.
Tanks can also be used in defence. In 1940 they were used by the retreating British and French armies at Arras to stall the Nazi invasion, allowing the subsequent evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk.
But Ukraine has made clear that it wants weapons not just to stall any potential Russian spring offensive, but to retake its own territory - to go on the attack.
How Ukraine might use tanks as attack spearheads
It would make little sense for Ukraine to disperse its additional tanks across a frontline of more than 1,000km (621 miles). To break through Russian defences, Ukraine will need to concentrate its forces - possibly over an area of between five and 20km (between three and 12 miles).
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former colonel in the British Army's Royal Tank Regiment, says numbers do matter for a breakthrough. An armoured brigade for a significant offensive operation would normally include at least 70 tanks. So more than 100 Western battle tanks could make a big difference, he says.
If Ukraine had more it could try to conduct simultaneous offensive operations in different places, as it did last year in the north and the south.
Then there's the additional support required for what the military call "combined arms manoeuvre".
The UK is not just sending Ukraine 14 Challenger tanks, but also 30 artillery self-propelled guns and armoured vehicles to carry and protect troops.
That new package of military support also includes mine breaching and bridge-laying vehicles. In other words, the essential elements needed for any offensive operation.
The US is also providing Ukraine with more than 100 Bradley and Stryker armoured vehicles, and Germany 40 of its Marder infantry fighting vehicle - as well as tanks.
Tanks are the tip of the spear, designed to move quickly over open ground. The Challenger 2, Leopard 2 and M1 Abrams are faster than most Russian-made tanks with speeds of more than 25mph (40km per hour) on rough terrain.
To take ground quickly, with any element of surprise, they would likely avoid urban areas where they would be more vulnerable to attack. Russia showed early on in this war, in its failed attempt to surround Kyiv, that a long column of armour on a road is an easy target.
Mr Barry, of ISS, says any spearhead attack would look for an enemy's weak points. But he also warns that Russia has spent the last few months reinforcing defensive positions with trenches and tank traps.
Western tanks are also about 20 tonnes heavier than their Russian counterparts. The additional armour gives better protection but it also means the tanks may be too heavy to cross some makeshift bridges. Russia and Ukraine have both blown bridges to slow down advances.
Surprise attacks at night
Mr de Bretton Gordon, who commanded a squadron of British Challenger tanks, says one of the big advantages of Western-made tanks is their ability to fight at night.
Night sights and thermal imaging camera are standard. Only Russia's more advanced tanks - like the T-90 - are fitted to fight at night. Attacks under the cover of darkness also add to the element of shock and surprise.
The greatest challenge for Ukraine will be logistics - maintaining the flow of fuel, ammunition and spare parts. Ukraine is not just having to maintain its old Soviet-era arsenal, it is also having to worry about an increasingly complex inventory of Western supplied weapons.
Britain's Challenger 2 tanks, for instance, do not use the same Nato standard ammunition as the Leopard and Abrams. The Challenger 2 is no longer in production and even the British Army has had to cannibalise some spare parts from its existing fleet.
Mr Barry says Ukrainian engineers may be familiar with repairing diesel engines - like those in the Leopard and Challenger. But he says the US-made Abrams runs on a more complicated gas turbine engine. It also consumes about twice the amount of fuel as a German-made Leopard.
Getty Images
If Western pledges are firmed, Ukraine's armed forces could be boosted by more than 100 tanks. That would still fall well short of what Ukraine's overall military commander asked for.
Last October, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi said Ukraine needed an additional 300 tanks, 700 infantry fighting vehicles and 500 howitzers for his planned offensive this year. It might end up with just half of that.
The training required on the weapons will take time too - weeks if not months. And it's still not clear when all this equipment will arrive.
The US has indicated that its 31 M1 Abrams tanks might not be ready for months. Ukraine is also waiting for the West to respond to its repeated request for modern warplanes. An army attacking on the ground will need protection from the air.
Western officials had hoped that Ukraine may be able to mount an offensive as soon as this spring. They believe there is now a window of opportunity while Russia struggles to recruit and rebuild its battered forces, and to replenish its dwindling supplies of ammunition.
Ukraine has managed to prove the doubters wrong in the past - but it will still need more Western support if it is to achieve its goal of expelling Russian forces.
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By Chelsea Bailey in Memphis and Jude Sheerin in Washington, DC
BBC News
Footage of a traffic stop that has seen five ex-Memphis police officers charged with murder shows them kicking and punching a motorist for several minutes as he cries out for his mother.
Officers are seen beating Tyre Nichols, 29, in the videos from the 7 January arrest, with no signs of him resisting.
US President Joe Biden said he was "deeply pained" by the "horrific" clip.
Lawyers for Mr Nichols' family likened the assault to the 1991 police beating of Los Angeles motorist Rodney King.
This article contains descriptions of violence that some people may find distressing
Police initially said Mr Nichols had been stopped on suspicion of reckless driving, which has not been substantiated. He died in hospital three days later, on 10 January.
Mr Nichols was black, as are all five officers charged in the case.
Memphis Police Department released four graphic videos of the traffic stop and its violent aftermath on Friday, totalling more than an hour of footage.
Reuters
The first clip shows officers pulling Mr Nichols out of his vehicle and shouting at him to get on the ground.
"I didn't do anything!" he says. Officers demand that he lie down flat.
"Get on the [expletive] ground!" one officer shouts, as another is heard saying: "Tase him!"
An officer shouts: "Put your hands behind your back before I break your [expletive]."
"You guys are really doing a lot right now," Mr Nichols says to the officers. "I'm just trying to go home."
Within seconds one of the officers fires a Taser at Mr Nichols, who leaps up and manages to run away.
A separate video, from a CCTV camera mounted on a utility pole, shows officers beating Mr Nichols after catching up with him in a residential area.
Two officers are seen holding Mr Nichols down while others take turns kicking and punching him and striking him with an expandable baton.
They drag him across the ground and prop him sitting up against a squad car. More than 20 minutes elapse until an ambulance is seen arriving.
The third and fourth videos show police body camera footage of the beating, with Mr Nichols being held down, pepper-sprayed and assaulted as he repeatedly shouts: "Mom!"
The videos also show officers milling about recounting details of the incident as Mr Nichols lies slumped against the car.
Some of them claim Mr Nichols "swung" at them or reached for their guns, though neither allegation is clear from the released video.
Officers can also be heard saying that nothing was found in his car.
Mr Nichols' mother, RowVaughn Wells, has said her son was only about 230ft (70m) from home when Memphis police officers "murdered him".
Representatives of the family have described Mr Nichols as the father of a four-year-old son and a keen skateboarder who had recently enrolled in a photography class. He worked for the FedEx parcel delivery firm.
One of the lawyers, Antonio Romanucci, said: "This young man, by definition of the law in this state, was terrorised."
MPD
The five officers - Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr, Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith - were fired last week.
They were taken into custody on Thursday and each faces charges of second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.
Four of the five posted bail and were released from custody by Friday morning, according to jail records.
Lawyers for Mr Martin and Mr Mills have said their clients will plead not guilty.
Memphis Police Director Cerelyn Davis described the five officers' actions as "heinous, reckless and inhumane".
With protests anticipated, she told US media that local officials had decided to release the video on Friday evening so that schoolchildren and commuters would have time to get home.
Dozens of protesters shut down a road bridge in the Memphis area on Friday night, while small-scale demonstrations were held in other US cities, including New York and Washington DC.
One protester at the Memphis rally, 21-year-old Kyrion, told the BBC he had dreamed as a child of joining the city's police force, but now that dream was shattered."It's just wicked, the system is forever going to be wicked," he said. "Which is why I'm out here today, as of right now I can't count on [police] to protect me.
"How do I know the man is not going to put his knee into my neck, or hold me down and beat me into a pulp?"
After the videos were released, Shelby County Sheriff's Office said two of its deputies had also been relieved from duty pending an investigation into their conduct.
A gunman opened fire and killed at least seven people at a synagogue in East Jerusalem before being shot, raising fears of another round of deadly violence between the Israelis and Palestinians.
After Friday’s shooting, the Magen David Adom emergency service said it was treating 10 wounded, some in critical condition.
“What we understand happened was a car pulled up at the front of a synagogue, a gunman got out and opened fire,” Al Jazeera’s James Bays reported from the scene. “The figures we have now are seven people dead, including a 15-year-old boy.”
A second person was possibly in the car and the Israeli authorities were now searching that individual, Bays said.
There was no initial claim of responsibility. The emergency response agency reported a total of 10 gunshot victims, including a 70-year-old man and a 14-year-old boy.
Israeli police said the attack occurred in Neve Yaakov, a Jewish area in East Jerusalem. TV footage showed several victims lying on the road outside the synagogue being tended to by emergency workers.
“I heard a lot of bullets,” Matanel Almalem, an 18-year-old student who lives near the synagogue, told AFP news agency.
A police statement said there was “terror attack in a synagogue in Jerusalem … The shooting terrorist was neutralised [killed]”.
The attack followed a deadly Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank on Thursday in the Jenin refugee camp. Nine Palestinians were killed, including an elderly woman, after dozens of Israeli soldiers attacked a house containing suspected fighters, leading to several hours of intense fighting.
Gaza fighters then fired rockets and Israel carried out air raids overnight, but the exchange was limited.
‘A natural response’
In Gaza, Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem told the Reuters news agency Friday’s attack was “a response to the crime conducted by the occupation in Jenin and a natural response to the occupation’s criminal actions”. He stopped short of claiming the shooting.
Israeli civilians and troops have also been killed in attacks by Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories.
Friday’s shooting came amid heightened tensions. Palestinians marched in anger as they buried the last of the Palestinians killed by Israeli troops the day earlier.
Scuffles between Israeli forces and Palestinian protesters erupted after the funeral for a 22-year-old Palestinian north of Jerusalem and elsewhere in the occupied West Bank.
Crowds of Palestinians waved the flags of both Fatah, the party that controls the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas, which rules Gaza. In the streets of the town called al-Ram, masked Palestinians threw stones and set off fireworks at Israeli police who responded with tear gas.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir reportedly attended the scene soon after Friday’s attack.
There was no immediate response from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel’s opposition leader, former Prime Minister Yair Lapid, called it “horrific and heartbreaking”.
The shooting was the deadliest on Israelis since a 2008 attack killed eight people in a Jewish seminary, according to Israel’s foreign ministry. Given the location and timing, it threatened to trigger a tough response from Israel.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant scheduled a meeting with his army chief and other top security officials.
Months of violence in the West Bank have heightened concerns the already unpredictable conflict may spiral out of control, triggering a broader confrontation between Palestine and Israel.
Israeli security forces deploy at the site of Friday’s attack [Ahmad Gharabli/AFP]
The alleyways that run inside the Balata refugee camp are narrow, claustrophobic and full of uncollected rubbish.
Posters celebrating dead militants are stuck to the walls. Children are everywhere - more than half the population of the camp is under 25.
We were escorted to meet fighters from Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, one of the largest and oldest militant groups in the West Bank.
They are a proscribed terror group by Israel, the EU and US, but not the UK.
Out front, I turned a corner and they were there - dressed all in black, M16 assault rifles in hand and balaclavas covering their faces.
They are young men, heavily armed and say they are ready to die defending their land.
We made our introductions and then moved down another alleyway - an Israeli military lookout post was on the hill above us; snipers watch every move in the camp below.
"We're seeing an escalation by the [Israeli] occupation forces across camps in the West Bank, especially in Jenin and Balata," one of the militants tells me.
"Most of the operations are carried out by the Israeli special forces. Yesterday, two of our men were killed in clashes when they entered inside the camp."
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The fighters are relaxed. This is their stronghold.
CCTV cameras seem to be everywhere, they joke it's like Paris or London; the militia has its own reconnaissance unit that watches for undercover Israeli special forces entering the camp.
Violent clashes have been more frequent in recent months - 2022 was the deadliest year since 2005 and already 2023, only a few weeks old, is more deadly still.
One of those killed was a 61-year old woman, Magda Obaid, caught in the crossfire.
The IDF says it's investigating her death, but the list of unexplained civilian fatalities is growing.
"I think because of the policies of the right-wing Israeli government there will be an escalation in the West Bank," the militant from Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades predicts.
Image:Ibrahim Ramadan, governor of Nablus, says people have 'no hope'
Image:A poster of dead militants hangs above a fruit and veg stall
Talk of a new uprising, a third intifada, which has been so often threatened in recent years, is emerging again.
"I think that there is an intifada coming," Ibrahim Ramadan, governor of Nablus tells me.
"Why? There is not any hope among my people. The Palestinian people need hope, small hope for their freedom."
The deputy mayor of Nablus, Dr Husam Shakhshiris, is more sanguine but equally blunt in his assessment of the current situation.
"It [Nablus] is occupied by the state of Israel. The Israeli army is entering the city everyday," he says.
"We have two military camps on top [of the surrounding hills], we have seven settlements surrounding Nablus city connected by bus routes, and it's easy for the Israelis to close the city and prevent the movement in and out of the city."
As we walk around the city together, Dr Husam is clearly popular. Residents stop to greet him.
Unlike the militants we met, he has the wisdom of age and is thoughtful and considered in his words, but no less damning of Israel.
"How bad is it?" I ask him.
Image:Nablus's deputy mayor says the current situation is the worst he's ever seen
"This is bad. I see all the time in the past that there was hope to have a peace solution, to have a two-state solution implemented, especially after Oslo," says Dr Husam.
"Now we don't see this hope, we don't see a peaceful solution and we are stuck in these contours created by the policies of the state of Israel. They don't see or recognise our national right of self-determination.
"It is the worst situation in my life."
Violence in Israel and the West Bank goes in cycles.
Right now, any prospect of peace talks, or even a two-state solution, feels a long way off.
Neither side is in the mood to talk or to compromise, and so for many Palestinians fighting seems like the only route to more freedoms.
