Deadly building collapse in Mumbai

Rescue workers brought in to search for survivors in the spotlight

At least 27 people died after a building under construction near the Indian city of Mumbai police say.

Many more are trapped under the seven-story building in Thane, Indian media report quoting officials feared.

Four floors of the unauthorised building were occupied by families, a police spokesman told AFP news agency.

Building collapses are common in India. Poor construction material and practices are often to blame.

"A part of a seven-storey under-construction building collapsed suddenly at around 6: 30 am," a police official in Thane, Maharashtra, India, told AFP.

Rescue efforts continued into the night.

At least 13 people died In December as part of a half-built building in the Wagholi area of Maharashtra collapsed.

Last september, at least six people were killed when a building collapsed in Pune city of Maharashtra.

Tribute paid to American critic Ebert

5 April 2013 Last update on 05: 17 ET

Ebert the death was ' an incalculable loss ' Scorsese said in a tribute to his "good friend"

Hollywood actors and directors have paid tribute to American film critic Roger Ebert that age 70 has died after a long battle with cancer.

Director Martin Scorsese, which produces a documentary about Ebert, said it ' incalculable loss '.

Oscar-winning actor Samuel L Jackson called the critic "the real deal" in his tribute tweet to his "good friend".

Steven Spielberg, who Ebert praised for his "talent and his flexibility", said it was "the end of an era".

Actor and Director Mel Gibson called the writer "a gentle soul" who was a "film historian and lover of art" than a critic.

' I was looking for opinions and thoughts are often out and he was always extremely generous with his time, "he said in a statement.

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Ebert's top 10 movies of all time

• Aguirre, Wrath of God-Werner Herzog (1972)
• Apocalypse Now-Francis Ford Coppola (1979)
• Citizen Kane-Orson Welles (1941)
• La Dolce Vita-Federico Fellini (1960)
• The General-Buster Keaton (1926)
• Raging bull-Martin Scorsese (1980)
• 2001: a space Odyssey-Stanley Kubrick (1968)
• Tokyo Story-Yasujiro Ozu
• The tree of life-Terrence Malick (2011)
• Vertigo-Alfred Hitchcock (1958)

Ebert, who also wrote 1970 film Beyond the Valley of the dolls, earned the respect of the film industry during his 46 years reviewed movies for the Chicago Sun-Times.

Oscar host Seth MacFarlane tweeted: "one of the few critics who actually films had written. His opinion important always for me. "

In his statement, Scorsese tribute to his "best friend".

"Roger was always supported, he was always there for me when I needed the most, when it really counted," he said.

"At the beginning, when every word of encouragement precious; and again, when I was at the lowest EBB of my career, there he was, just as encouraging, just as many supportive.

"We all knew that this moment was coming, but that doesn't make the loss less heartbreaking. I'll miss him — my dear friend. "

There was more praise for the writer on Twitter with directors like Cameron Crowe and Ron Howard, Wes Craven, Darren Aronofsky lead the mass outpouring of affection.

"We lost a passionate and broad minded force for cinema in all genres, shapes sizes" Howard said.

Aronofsky recalled his first review of Ebert as a "career highlight".

While Craven tweeted: "Roger Ebert gave my first movie, last House on the left, the only positive review. Anyone taunted it, but he saw in the merit. "

Actor and Director Robert Redford called Ebert "one of the great champions of the freedom of artistic expression" in his statement.

"His personal passion for cinema was limitless, and that is sure to be his legacy for generations to come," he added.

Actor Steve Martin tweeted link to the balcony from which Ebert used to film his review show with co-host Gene Siskel: "Goodbye Mr Ebert. We had fun. The balcony is closed. "

S-Korea warships ' to keep track of missiles '

5 April 2013 Last update on 03: 25 ET

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Tension between the two Koreas is at the highest level in years

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South Korea has deployed two warships with missile-defense systems, reports say, a day after the North moved apparently a rocket to the East Coast.

Military officials told South Korean media that the two warships would be deployed on East and west coasts.

Seoul has sought to downplay the North's latest move, saying they can prepare for a missile test.

In recent weeks the North has ramped up its rhetoric and specific threats to focus on American territory.

One of the objectives that named by Pyongyang was the Pacific island of Guam, which hosts an American military base.

The United States on Thursday confirmed that it would deploy a missile-defense system to Guam in response to the threats.

"The movements we make are designed to ensure and to ensure the American people and our allies that we can defend the United States," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

Nikkei hits highest level since 2008

4 April 2013 Last update on 21: 53 ET

The Tokyo Stock Exchange has a strong year so far

Japan's stock market rose to a nearly five-year high on Friday after the central bank the boldest stimulus measures unveiled yet.

The main Nikkei 225 index climbed more than 4% to 13, 225.62, the highest level since August 2008.

On Thursday said the Bank of Japan to raise the country's money supply the double of inflation.

Economists believe that more than a decade of deflation in Japan contributed to a stagnant economy.

Doctor warned Holmes ' was a danger '

4 April 2013 Last update on 22: 17 ET

James Holmes (Centre) offered to plead guilty, but prosecutors rejected

A psychiatrist who's husband accused of killing 12 massacre in Colorado in July before police had treated cinema warned he was a danger to the public.

New released documents that show Dr. Lynne Fenton told police of threatening text messages that James Holmes sent after he stopped attending counselling Court.

Mr Holmes, 25, has been charged with multiple counts of murder at the attack during a Prime Minister of a Batman movie.

Prosecutors have rejected a guilty plea and seek the death penalty.

The process had planned for August, but a judge has pushed it back until February 2014.

Burned accounts

In an affidavit taken after the shooting and unsealed on Thursday, University of Colorado Denver police officer Lynn Whitten told investigators that Dr Fenton had contacted her in June.

Dr Fenton followed a legal claim to the report of a specific threat to the authorities, according to the document.

MS Whitten said the psychiatrist was making the report "as a result of murderous statements [Mr Holmes] had made" and that Dr. Fenton said he sent threatening text messages to her after he stopped attending counseling sessions.

James Holmes parents have participated in some sessions Court

Mr Holmes was a graduate student in Neuroscience at the University of Colorado in Denver but was retires from his studies on in the absence of an important exam.

Earlier reports said that Dr. Fenton had told campus authorities about Mr Holmes, but not that they had made a report of specific threats.

A warrant also unsealed on Thursday described a package sent to Dr Fenton before the massacre, apparently by Mr Holmes. It included a Brown laptop labeled "of life" that officials believe like a diary, as well as partially burned $ 20 bills.

The documents were previously sealed, but a new judge overseeing the case ordered them released in response to requests from the media organizations.

Separately, Judge William Sylvester has removed themselves from the case after prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty.

Judge Sylvester said en route that the case would take so much time, that he is not of his administrative duties as Chief Judge of a busy four-county district could carry.

The district judge Carlos Samour took the case on Monday.

OECD predicts stronger global growth

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AppId is over the quota

28 March 2013 Last updated at 06:44 ET

Austerity measures in Europe are continuing to hamper growth

The world's major economies will see stronger growth this year, but Europe's recovery will continue to be slow, an international organisation has said.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) predicted stronger growth in the US, Japan and Germany.

But it said concerns remained over the recovery of the wider eurozone.

It said governments would need to maintain special measures in place to boost economic growth.

Overall, the OECD forecast an average annualised growth of 2.4% among the seven biggest economies in the first quarter of this year.

That suggests a marked recovery from the last three months of 2012, when leading economies shrank at an annualised rate of 0.5%.

"The bottom line is that we are moderately more optimistic," the OECD's chief economist Pier Carlo Padoan told Reuters.

But the organisation paints a picture of contrasting fortunes in Europe, where German growth is expected to be relatively strong, while France and Italy are expected to stay in recession until at least the second quarter of the year.

The OECD said it was still too soon for governments to consider ending economic stimulus measures that are helping to boost growth.

Pope to wash young offenders' feet

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AppId is over the quota

27 March 2013 Last updated at 20:53 ET

The Pope held his first general audience in St Peter's Square on Wednesday

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Pope Francis will wash the feet of prisoners in a youth detention centre near Rome on Maundy Thursday.

Thousands of pilgrims and tourists are arriving in Rome to attend ceremonies during the holy week ahead of Easter.

The washing of feet on the Thursday before Easter is a Christian tradition commemorating Christ's Last Supper.

It is part of a papal calendar of events running up to Easter, the most important festival in the calendar of the Catholic Church.

On Easter Sunday morning, the new Pope will deliver his first "Urbi et Orbi" message to the city of Rome and to the world.

During his inaugural general audience Wednesday, Francis called for an immediate political solution to the conflict in the Central African Republic after last weekend's coup.

Gesture of humility

The new leader of the world's 1.2bn Roman Catholics has brought a new sense of simplicity to the Vatican, reports the BBC's David Willey in Rome.

He has decided to live in a small suite in a residence for clerics, eating with other priests in a common dining room, after deciding not to move into the palatial apartments occupied by his predecessors in the Apostolic Palace.

He has again broken with tradition for the foot-washing ceremony, which is normally performed on lay people in one of Rome's basilicas.

This time the Pope will visit the Casal del Marmo detention centre on the outskirts of Rome.

Pope Benedict XVI visited the centre in 2007, but not for the Holy Thursday Mass. Only for the first two years of his pontificate did he perform the feet-washing himself, after which the task was delegated to priests.

During the service, the pope washes and kisses the feet of 12 people to replicate the Bible's account of Jesus Christ's gesture of humility towards his 12 apostles on the night before he was crucified.

Some of the young detainees volunteered to have their feet washed, while others were given an invitation to help them overcome their embarrassment, the Catholic News Agency quoted the prison chaplain as saying.

On Good Friday evening the Pope will carry a wooden cross and pray at a ceremony at Rome's ancient amphitheatre, the Colosseum, commemorating Jesus' crucifixion.

And on Saturday evening Pope Francis will celebrate the main Easter Vigil Mass in St Peter's Basilica.

Pope Francis - renowned for his modest former life as bishop of the Argentine capital Buenos Aires - refuses to be awed by the magnificent surroundings of his new Vatican City home, visited every year by five million tourists and pilgrims, our correspondent says.

Some past popes vaunted their riches, but Francis wants a simpler church mindful of the plight of the world's poor people, he adds.