Rescue workers are searching the ruins of a mosque in Lombok, Indonesia, where it is feared people were trapped by Sunday’s deadly earthquake.
The 6.9 magnitude quake is now known to have killed nearly 100 people and left at least 20,000 people homeless.
The mosque is one of thousands of buildings in North Lombok that were damaged.
Two have already been rescued from the rubble, according to the national search and rescue agency.
The spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency shared footage of one man being brought out from under the collapsed building.
The impact of Sunday’s quake has been far greater than a quake that hit Lombok last week, killing 16 people.
The official death toll now stands at 98, but officials believe that may rise.
Most of the victims were killed by falling debris.
Aid agencies say their priority now is to provide shelter for displaced people, with aftershocks continuing to rattle the area.
In Lombok’s main city of Mataram, medical staff there have been struggling to cope with the injured in damaged hospitals. They have resorted to treating people in the open air.
Buildings in Bali were also left damaged by the earthquake and at least two people are known to have died there.
Meanwhile search and rescue teams have rescued at least 2,000 people from the Gili Islands, three islands just off the north-west coast of Lombok which are popular with backpackers and divers.
Videos and images from the Gilis show hundreds of tourists crowded on beaches waiting to board small boats.
“It’s understandable they want to leave the Gilis, they are panicking,” Muhammad Faozal, the head of the tourism agency in West Nusa Tenggara province had earlier told AFP.
President Joko Widodo has urged the speedy evacuation of casualties, calling for more flights to be sent to the affected areas.
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Iran sanctions: Rouhani condemns US ‘psychological warfare’
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has hit out at the United States over its reinstatement of economic sanctions.
He described the measures, which came into effect overnight, as “psychological warfare” which aimed to “sow division among Iranians.”
The sanctions take aim at various sectors, with further punitive action planned against Iran’s oil trade.
The European Union has spoken out against the measures, vowing to protect firms doing “legitimate business.”
It follows the US withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal, earlier this year.
The deal, negotiated during the presidency of Barack Obama, saw Iran limit its controversial nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
Mr. Trump says the deal is “one-sided” and he believes renewed economic pressure will force Iran to agree to a new deal and end its “malign” activities.
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order which brought sanctions back into place at 00:01 EDT (04:01 GMT) on Tuesday. They target:
* The purchase or acquisition of US banknotes by Iran’s government
* Iran’s trade in gold and other precious metals
* Graphite, aluminium, steel, coal, and software used in industrial processes
* Transactions related to the Iranian currency
* Activities relating to Iran’s issuance of sovereign debt
* Iran’s automotive sector
A second phase is planned to come back into effect on November 5 which will have implications for Iran’s energy and shipping sectors, petroleum trading and transactions by foreign financial institutions with the Central Bank of Iran.
The imposing of sanctions follows Mr. Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 deal earlier this year.
Mr. Trump had long spoken out against the agreement, labelling it “disastrous” and the “worst deal I’ve ever seen.”
Only the US has withdrawn, with other signatories remaining committed to the original agreement.
But Iran’s currency has taken a lost almost half of its value since, squeezing the economy.
Mr. Trump says Iran faces a choice to “either change its threatening, destabilising behaviour and reintegrate with the global economy, or continue down a path of economic isolation.”
“I remain open to reaching a more comprehensive deal that addresses the full range of the regime’s malign activities, including its ballistic missile programme and its support for terrorism,” Mr. Trump said on Monday.
Mr. Rouhani rebuked Mr. Trump’s decision to reinstate sanctions, saying the US government had “turned their back on diplomacy” with the action.
“They want to launch psychological warfare against the Iranian nation,” Mr. Rouhani said. “Negotiations with sanctions don’t make sense.”
“We are always in favour of diplomacy and talks… but talks need honesty,” he said.
He also accused the Trump administration of using Iran as domestic political leverage ahead of November’s midterm elections in the United States.
The foreign ministers of Germany, the UK and France released a statement on Monday that said the nuclear deal remained “crucial” to global security.
They also unveiled a “blocking statute” which is intended to protect European firms doing business with Iran despite the new US sanctions.
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California wildfire declared ‘largest in state’s history’
Twin wildfires in California, known as the Mendocino Complex Fire, have grown to become the largest active wildfire in state history, officials said on Monday.
The fires have spread rapidly in recent days to burn 283,800 acres of land – an area almost the size of Los Angeles.
Firefighters are tackling 16 major blazes across the state amid hot weather, strong winds and low humidity.
At least seven people have been killed in the Carr fire in the state’s north.
Meanwhile US President Donald Trump has reiterated social media comments that the fires’ spread is being “made so much worse” by California’s environmental laws.
Local officials and experts have criticised and dismissed his tweets.
More than 14,000 firefighters and hundreds of US army personnel are trying to contain the more than a dozen major fires burning throughout the state.
National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Hurley has warned conditions are not going to immediately improve – with temperatures as high as 43C (110F) being forecast for some areas.
Officials say the Mendocino Complex Fire, which is made up of two nearby fires being treated as the same incident, has surpassed last year’s Thomas Fire to become the largest in state history.
Scott McLean, a deputy chief with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CalFire) described the wildfires as “extremely fast, extremely aggressive, extremely dangerous.”
“Look how big it got, just in a matter of days… Look how fast this Mendocino Complex went up in ranking. That doesn’t happen. That just doesn’t happen,” he said on Monday.
It is only 30% contained so far, with authorities warning it could take another week to get the blaze under control.
Experts say 2018 has the worst start to the fire season in 10 years – partly due to the 2012-2017 drought that killed off large amounts of vegetation.
The US president has criticised Governor Jerry Brown and California’s environmental laws on social media in recent days.
He tweeted on Monday that the wildfires were being “magnified & made so much worse” because of a Californian policy to divert water into the Pacific Ocean.
Deputy fire chief, Mr. Mclean, dismissed Mr. Trump’s comments to US media, saying firefighters had “plenty of water” to tackle these wildfires.
“Our changing climate is leading to more severe and destructive fires that we are seeing this year and last,” he told Time magazine.
Some believe Mr. Trump’s tweets refer to a row about water supplies, fish habitat protection and local farmers – but environmental experts say this has no relevance to the state’s firefighting capability.
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Brazil closes border to Venezuela migrants
Brazil has closed its border with Venezuela to people fleeing economic and political turmoil in its northern neighbour.
Judge Helder Barreto ordered the frontier to be shut until Brazil can put in place the right conditions to receive the huge influx of people.
The authorities in the state of Roraima in Brazil’s Amazon region say some 800 Venezuelans cross the border every day.
However, the border remains open to Brazilians and other non-Venezuelans.
It is also open for Venezuelans who are returning north out of Brazil.
Sea and air borders are unaffected by the ruling.
An apparent assassination attempt on Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro at the weekend has raised tensions in the country even further.
Many thousands of Venezuelans have fled into neighbouring countries, mainly Colombia and Brazil, in search of better economic conditions over the past three years.
Roraima, in the heart of Brazil’s Amazon region, is one of the country’s poorest states.
Most of the Venezuelans who have crossed the border in recent months are living in appalling conditions in the streets of the state capital, Boa Vista, and other cities.
For months, the authorities in Roraima have been calling for the border to be shut.
They say that public services have collapsed and that migration has brought about a sharp rise in crime.
Last week, a rule was introduced requiring Venezuelans seeking medical or social assistance in Roraima to present a valid passport, which many of the migrants do not have.
Judge Barreto ruled this move to be “discriminatory” and ordered the temporary border closure to allow state bodies to come up with a plan to deal with the crisis.
Brazil’s central government had opposed any border closure, saying that ordinary Venezuelans were suffering the consequences of a humanitarian crisis and that Brazil must continue to help.
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Texas student poses with alligator in graduation snaps
A US college student has made sure her graduation snaps are ones to remember – after posing in her cap and sash with a 14ft (4m) alligator.
Makenzie Noland is a student at Texas A&M University who will graduate on Friday with a degree in wildlife and fisheries sciences.
The senior has been interning at a Beaumont rescue centre which is home to about 450 alligators, crocodiles and other reptiles.
But it’s Big Tex that steals the show – a gargantuan alligator who was adopted in 2016 after overfeeding turned him into a nuisance for local boats.
Makenzie and Tex have developed a special relationship since she joined the centre in May.
She says he responds to his name and reacts to her hand signals when she regularly enters his pond to feed him.
“I get in the water with that animal every day – he’s one of my best friends there!” she tells the BBC, shrugging off a question about being scared.
The 21-year-old grew up in Bellevue, Nebraska where spotting an alligator in your garden is not the ordinary occurrence she now deals with every day.
“Starting from a young age I was always picking up snakes, holding animals, talking to kids and educating the public,” she says of her love of wildlife.
She initially intended the graduation snaps to serve as a showcase for the work she has been doing this summer.
“In all reality we don’t want to bring these animals back, we want them to live in the bayous and canals out in the swampy areas,” she says about the Gator Country centre, where she works.
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“But since he is with us, he’s a wonderful representation of what it’s like to train an animal and show off his personality. They’re wonderful creatures – and they’re not all maneaters!”
Makenzie says she has been overwhelmed by the reaction to her posts, which have now been shared and liked hundreds of times.
“I was not expecting this; I just expected to post a couple of cute photos on my Instagram. It’s been incredible.”
She hopes to continue to working with wildlife after graduating.
“I just want to be immersed in animals and educate the public in them,” she says.
