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BBC news 2014-04-20

BBC News with Sue Montgomery

Divers searching the shipwrecked South Korean ferry have for the first time recovered bodies from inside the vessel. Officials said they broke through at last to retrieve three bodies bringing the number of confirmed dead to 36, more than 250 people are still missing, many of them children. Strong currents, poor visibility and high waves have been hampering the operation. Our correspondent Jonathan Head reports from nearby Jindo.

The divers were saying they attempted 40 times to get to the main parts of the submerged hull where they believe the most the passengers have trapped but could not get in because the currents and poor visibility. It's a very, very big operation, a lot of ships out there, also a lot of divers. And the relatives find it very hard to believe they can't make progress because these are very, very strong currents out there. The ship is lying between 10 and 37 meters below the surface and there are very treacherous conditions for the divers to operate.

Dozens of people have been killed in a cattle raid in Warrap state in South Sudan, a local official has said. The official told South Sudanese media that 28 civilians have been killed. He said police had killed three times as many attackers. Our Africa editor James Copnall reports.

The full picture about this attack has not yet emerged. However, this sort of incident is depressingly common in South Sudan. Every year, thousands of people die in inter-ethnic clashes and cattle raids, often as part of a deadly cycle revenge attacks. Many civilians are armed and cattle are vital in part because young men need them as dowries to get married. It's not yet clear whether the Warrap state incident has any links to South Sudan's civil war. Troops loyal to the former vice president have been fighting the government since December.

One of Pakistan's best known journalists Hamid Mir has been injured in an attack in Karachi. A police investigator, Ratta Alma-Ata said Mr. Mir was on his way to his office when he was shot.

“According to initial reports, Hamid Mir arrived at the airport using a rental car with a guard, he was going to his Karachi office. There was a new bridge near the airport where traffic jam was, the attacker walked up to his car and opened fire. Mir received three, four bullets. The attacker then used a motorcycle to flee the scene.”

It's not known who carried out the attack but Mr. Mir's brother says the journalist who’d recently told his family he'd received threats from Pakistan's main intelligence agency, the ISI, because of his views.

The headmistress of the Nigerian school from which over 100 school girls were abducted on Monday is asking the Nigerian authorities to do more to secure their release. She also pleaded with the group holding the girls to have mercy on them. Officials say 44 of the girls have escaped their captors and 85 are still missing.

World News from the BBC

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Four French journalists who were kidnapped in Syria by Islamist militants last June have been freed. They were found blindfolded and with their hands bound by Turkish soldiers on the border with Syria. One of the four, Didier Francois, said it was very nice to see the sky again after long months in captivity. The brother of hostage Nicolas Henin Sheron told the BBC they'd not suffered physical ill treatment.

“There were certainly moments of great loneliness and despair. But you know, despite that, I think the moment of the release seems to overcome all of these and finally there is enough resilience that it seems to like again go back to normal hopefully.”

Two people have died in Saudi Arabia of the severe respiratory virus known as MERS. The deaths bring to 76 the overall number of people who've died the at virus. The new deaths took place in the Kingdom second largest city of Jeddah the west raising fears that the virus started spreading from its concentration point in the east.

Colombia will pay tribute to the man many considered to be the country's greatest son, the author Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In a ceremony at the National Cathedral in Bogotá on Tuesday. President Juan Manuel Santos will attend. But it's not clear whether Gabriel Garcia Marquez's relatives will be present. His family will attend a memorial ceremony in Mexico City on Monday.

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