Building collapse leaves 45 dead

Nigeria: Rescue workers said yesterday that 45 people died and they have rescued 105 survivors from a collapsed guesthouse at the campus of preacher TB Joshua’s Synagogue Church of All Nations.

Mr Joshua claims the church was attacked by Islamist extremists in a plane on Friday.

But National Emergency Management Agency spokesman Ibrahim Farinloye said the collapse was probably caused by construction to add two storeys to the four-storey structure without any reinforcement of the foundations.

Government bans Isis symbols

Austria: The government said yesterday that it plans to introduce a law banning symbols of Islamic State and 18 other extremist groups.

Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner also says that dual nationals will lose their Austrian citizenship upon joining any foreign paramilitary organisation.

International law prohibits taking passports from people who have a single citizenship, but Ms Mikl-Leitner said Austria will lobby to change that status in such cases.

Kopacz to be next prime minister

Poland: President Bronislaw Komorowski has appointed parliamentary speaker Ewa Kopacz to be the next prime minister.

Ms Kopacz will succeed Donald Tusk, who resigned as government leader after being chosen to head the European Council.

She will head the centre-right coalition Cabinet until parliamentary elections in the autumn of 2015.

Polish media are speculating that Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski will take her place as parliamentary speaker.

Ashya King gets first treatment

Czech Republic: Five-year-old British boy Ashya King received the first treatment for his brain tumour in the Czech capital yesterday.

It was the first of 30 radiation sessions planned at Prague’s Proton Centre.

His parents Brett and Naghmeh King had fought a protracted battle to get their son treated by proton beam technology, which isn’t available in Britain.

Czech doctors say that 70-80 per cent of patients in his condition survive.

500 migrants feared dead

Malta: The International Organisation for Migration said yesterday that about 500 migrants are feared to have died after their boat was rammed and sank off the coast last week.

IOM spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume said that witnesses told the organisation that the boat left Damietta, Egypt in early September with Syrians, Palestinians, Egyptians and Sudanese aboard.

It sank on Wednesday after human traffickers rammed it with another boat.

Pilots to strike over retirement rules

Germany: Lufthansa pilots said yesterday that they would go on strike for the fourth time in three weeks today over changes to early retirement rules.

The eight-hour walkout will last from 9am to 5pm and hit long-haul flights, the pilots’ union Cockpit confirmed.

“As Lufthansa management has not put forward an offer that is suitable for a compromise, we see ourselves forced to take further action,” it said.

Snowden unveils more NSA spying

New Zealand: National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden yesterday said that the NSA is collecting surveillance data on New Zealanders through its XKeyscore programme.

Mr Snowden talked via video link from Russia to Auckland’s Town Hall last night.

Prime Minister John Key claimed the country’s spy agency has never undertaken surveillance of its own people, but wouldn’t discuss the XKeyscore programme.

Police hold terror attack suspects

Uganda: Police are holding 19 suspects arrested over an apparent terror plot as security agencies continue to dismantle what they allege was an al-Shabab cell plotting attacks.

The security agencies arrested the suspects and seized explosives as well as bomb-making materials in a raid on a suspected terrorist cell in the capital Kampala on Saturday.