'No good news in Puerto Rico' says mayor

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Media caption'No power for 6-8 months' in Puerto Rico

The mayor of Puerto Rico's biggest city has berated a Trump cabinet official who called the US response to Puerto Rico, "a good news story".

Homeland Secretary Elaine Duke had said she was "very satisfied" with progress, calling it "a good news story in terms of our ability to reach people".

The San Juan mayor hit back: "Damn it, this is not a good news story. This is a people are dying story."

Over a week after Hurricane Maria struck, millions still need urgent aid.

The category 5 hurricane, the most powerful to hit Puerto Rico in at least 90 years, has claimed 16 lives on the island and left millions lacking medicine, food, cellular communications, shelter, and clean water.

"Well maybe from where she's standing it's a good news story," Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz told CNN as Mrs Duke was preparing to board a plane for Puerto Rico, a US island territory.

"When you're drinking from a creek, it's not a good news story. When you don't have food for a baby, it's not a good news story."

'Will my dad get his cancer treatment?'

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Media captionWhy Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico so hard

Around 44% of Puerto Ricans lack access to potable drinking water, and utility officials say it may takes months before electricity is restored, allowing clean water to begin flowing again.

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Shipping containers stocked with emergency supplies are piling up in San Juan, the capital city, and US and local officials are attempting to rally lorry drivers to help deliver the supplies to remote corners of the island.

"Everything has been wiped out... we're literally starting from scratch," President Donald Trump said in Washington on Friday morning.

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Media captionSignal loss: Why Puerto Rico is suffering in silence

On Thursday, he lifted shipping restrictions to help fuel and supplies reach the storm-ravaged island.

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Yemen war: UN agrees to send war crime experts

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The UN has agreed to send war crimes investigators to Yemen to examine alleged violations committed by all parties to country's civil war.

The UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution to set up a group of "eminent" experts.

It was a compromise between Western powers and a group of Arab states that included Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi-led coalition is backing Yemeni pro-government forces in a conflict with the rebel Houthi movement.

More than 8,530 people, 60% of them civilians, have been killed and 48,800 injured in air strikes and fighting on the ground since March 2015, according to the UN.

The conflict has also left 20.7 million people in need of some kind of humanitarian assistance, created the largest food security emergency in the world, and led to a cholera outbreak that is believed to have affected 700,000 people since April.

Under the deal agreed in Geneva on Friday, a group of "eminent international and regional experts" will carry out a comprehensive examination of "all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights and other appropriate and applicable fields of international law" in Yemen.

It will "establish the facts and circumstances surrounding the alleged violations and abuses, and where possible, identify those responsible".

Image copyright EPA Image caption More than 8,500 people, 60% of them civilians, have been killed in the past two and a half years

The resolution was approved after a proposal from some EU states and Canada for a more robust investigation with the formal status of a "commission of inquiry" was withdrawn.

An alternative proposal from the Arab group to send three experts to Yemen to investigate and to engage with a domestic inquiry established by Yemen's government was also shelved.

Saudi Arabia, which had lobbied hard against a commission of inquiry - even reportedly threatening to restrict trade ties with countries which backed it - publicly thanked the UK, US and France for their co-operation in achieving a compromise. The three states also back the coalition's intervention in Yemen.

The weaker resolution may be a disappointment to human rights groups, who had called for a commission of inquiry, the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva reports.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Human rights groups say all parties to the conflict have flagrantly flouted international law

They allege that war crimes and crimes against humanity are being carried out with impunity in Yemen, and that the conflict is directly responsible for the cholera epidemic.

UN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Raad Al Hussein had also asked the council to approve a commission of inquiry; his office has doubts that Yemen's domestic inquiry can be impartial.

Earlier on Friday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said "excessive" numbers of civilians were being killed in disproportionate air and artillery strikes carried out by all sides to the conflict.

The ICRC has repeatedly warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen, and now expects cholera cases to reach 900,000 by the end of this year.

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'No power for 6-8 months' in Puerto Rico

The situation in Puerto Rico is dire, with devastation she has never seen before, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz tells the BBC.

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Anger as German ex-chancellor Schroeder heads up Rosneft board

Image copyright AFP Image caption Some Germans suspect Mr Schroeder of trying to promote Russian interests in Germany

Former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is facing a backlash after being elected chairman of the Russian state-controlled oil giant Rosneft.

The appointment deepens his controversial links with Moscow. He has long been friends with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The West imposed sanctions on Rosneft after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

The chair of the German parliament's foreign affairs committee said Mr Schroeder's move was "unbelievable".

German news provider Deutsche Welle quoted Norbert Roettgen as saying Mr Schroeder was "cashing in" on his former role as chancellor.

Back in August, Mr Schroeder was criticised by Chancellor Angela Merkel when he was nominated to join the Rosneft board. On Friday, shareholders voted to back his nomination.

What's the background to this story?

Mr Schroeder was chancellor from 1998 to 2005 - but his links with Russia go back almost as far.

As chancellor, he was a staunch backer of plans for a pipeline to be built between Russia and Germany by the Nord Stream consortium, and an agreement was signed in his last days in office. Once out of office, he became chairman of the Nord Stream shareholders' committee.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Mr Schroeder has had a long friendship with Vladimir Putin - the two pictured here in 2005 at the end of his chancellorship

As such, he also works closely with Russia's other energy giant, Gazprom, and last year he became chairman of the board of directors at Nord Stream 2, a Gazprom subsidiary.

He has long been friends with President Putin - in 2014 they were pictured embracing at Mr Schroeder's 70th birthday party. Mr Schroeder also opposed the sanctions over Crimea.

But what's the problem?

This all sits increasingly uncomfortably in Germany, where there has been deepening public distrust of the Russian state.

There have been fears that Russia could try to undermine German democracy since Russian hackers were accused of targeting German lawmakers in 2015.

Mr Roettgen accuses Mr Schroeder of trying to increase German energy dependence on Russia.

Deutsch Welle also reports that members of Mr Schroeder's former party, the SPD, feared he could have contributed to their disastrous showing in recent federal elections. It describes party members as "incensed".

What does Mr Schroeder say?

He defends Rosneft, saying last month some of his critics simply wanted to ignite a new Cold War: "Imagine if I had been proposed not for a Rosneft board position but for Exxon in America. Nobody would ask my true motives.

"It is the largest oil company in the world, with important links to Germany. It is not the long arm of the Kremlin.

"They are the majority shareholder, but BP is a shareholder - not a small shop. Qatar is a shareholder," he said, according to Reuters.

He has also indicated he will take only a fraction of the salary the new position would normally attract.

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Canada MPs to loosen penalties for drunks in kayaks

Image copyright swissmediavision Image caption Canadians have a pasion for recreational boating

In Canada, you may soon be able to paddle a canoe while cracking open a cold one.

Kayaking while drunk is currently subject to tough punishments which means offenders can lose their driving licences or get driving bans.

Now, parliamentarians are weighing legislation that would exclude any vessel "propelled exclusively by means of muscular power".

Drinking while flying a hovercraft would remain an offence.

Under the current criminal code, operating a vessel while impaired by drugs or alcohol is illegal, but the law does not define the term "vessel".

The proposed changes add a definition to include hovercrafts but not vessels "propelled exclusively by means of muscular power" - human-powered boats like canoes, kayaks, paddleboats and rowing boats.

Boating is a popular summer activity and about 12.4m Canadians go recreational boating each year.

Police do give fines for impaired boating and often bolster their presence on the water on busy summer weekends.

People caught face potential fines, losing their driver's licence and even imprisonment.

In 2011, a 57-year-old man made news after being arrested in Ontario for paddling a boat while impaired.

The National Post, which first reported on the legal changes, raised the case of an Ontario man who tipped a canoe, sending an eight-year old passenger into the water.

He was swept over a nearby waterfall and died. The man was allegedly drunk and goes on trial this year.

An estimated 40% of the boating-related accidents in Canada involve alcohol consumption as a factor.

The Canadian Safe Boating Council opposes the legislative changes and told MPs studying the bill that, between 1991 and 2010, alcohol was either the cause or suspected cause in 375 deaths in human-powered boats in Canada.

Canada's Liberal government tabled the new impaired driving legislation mainly to deal with the use of drugs while driving.

The country is expected to legalise recreational marijuana next summer.

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Stirring speech to US Air Force cadets over racist slurs

"If you can't treat someone with dignity and respect, then get out," air force cadets are told.

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Sweary anniversary

Image copyright ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP/GETTY IMAGES Image caption A defaced billboard of Mykhaylo Dobkin in Kiev in 2014

You've probably heard of Ed Balls Day.

Back in 2011, the former Labour MP inadvertently inserted his name into the calendar by tweeting two famous words: Ed Balls.

You might be less familiar with Mykhaylo Dobkin, unless you're reading in Ukraine. But Mr Dobkin became a social media sensation long before Ed Balls.

A decade on, Ukrainians are celebrating his sweary contribution to the pantheon of politicians who have come unstuck online.

Back in 2007, Twitter was just a year old, Facebook had only recently opened its borders beyond the student population of its birth, and Mykhaylo Dobkin was the mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second most-populous city.

When a video documenting his attempts to film a campaign advert was leaked, his place in the realms of internet ignominy was assured.

Image copyright YouTube Image caption The video was reportedly filmed prior to Mykhaylo Dobkin's successful 2006 election campaign

Starring alongside Mr Dobkin was his close ally Hennadiy Kernes.

Like many double acts, it's the back and forth between the two which helped the video to spread far and wide. Much of their exchange is somewhat less than safe for work but, as Mr Dobkin struggles to get to grips with his lines, there are a few, choice, printable morsels.

"This text has been written by a moron," Mr Dobkin exclaims, as he attempts to get his words out.

"Your face is dull. Nobody will give you money," Mr Kernes retorts, in an apparent attempt to liven up Mr Dobkin's performance. Both have become often heard catchphrases in Ukraine.

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Mr Dobkin is currently a member of the Ukrainian parliament who unsuccessfully ran for President in 2014.

He is under criminal investigation for alleged abuse of office, charges he denies, while Mr Kernes, the current mayor of Kharkiv, has been confined to a wheelchair since 2014 following an unsuccessful assassination attempt.

Mr Kernes is charged with alleged abduction and death threats linked to the 2014 revolution which saw President Viktor Yanukovych, then the leader of Dobkins and Kernes' political party, forced into exile in Russia.

'Epic video'

Marking the 10-year anniversary, the video has once again been widely watched and shared.

One posting of the video from a Ukrainian satirical Facebook page (warning: contains swearing in Ukrainian) has been watched more than 150,000 times.

Ukrainian blogger Sergey Naumovich described it as the "most epic video of Ukrainian politics".

"This video is epic not only because of the catchphrases but also because the candidate is not even remotely aware of what is said in his campaign speech and because he can't put two words together even with a cue," Naumovich wrote.

Social media user Aleksey Moroz reflected the sentiment of many comments on posts sharing the video when he asked: "How can you vote for this? I can't even wrap my head around it."

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