18 People Dead in China After Wall Collapses Due to Heavy Rains

18 people are reported dead after a wall collapsed on a house.

Eighteen people are reported to be dead and three injured after a wall collapsed onto a house full of Chinese workers.

According to the Xinhua news agency, the workers from the recycling plant in Qingdao, eastern China, had reportedly taken shelter in the house from heavy rain during a storm.

However, the grounds surrounding the house became waterlogged, causing a nearby wall to collapse on top of it.

At least 40 people were in the house at the time of the incident.

The Qingdao government information office said that authorities are now investigating the collapse.

China's eastern coastal and southern regions have been affected by heavy rains, flooding and landslides in recent days, with two earlier deaths reported in Hunan province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

At Least 40 African Migrants Dead After Boat Capsizes Off Libyan Coast

Body bags containing African migrants, who drowned trying to reach Italian shores (Reuters)

At least 40 people have died after a boat carrying mostly sub-Saharan African migrants sank off the coast of Libya.

Rami Kaal, a spokesman for the Libyan ministry of interior, said on Sunday that 51 other migrants were rescued from the vessel after it got into difficulty around 37 miles (60km) east of Tripoli, Reuters reported.

The disaster is the latest in a series of migrant boat tragedies that have claimed the lives of several hundred people in search of better lives in Europe.

Libya's porous borders with several neighbouring sub-Saharan countries and its proximity to Italy and Malta across the Mediterranean Sea have made the North African country a popular transit route for African migrants attempting to reach Europe.

Many migrants pay more than $1,000 (£593) to criminal gangs to pay their sea fare from Libya.

With an ill-equipped coastguard, navy and armed forces, the Libyan government struggles to deal with the problem, and has appealed for more help from western partners to try and stem the flow of migrants from Libya to Europe.

President of Sicily region Rosario Crocetta stands in front of body bags containing African migrants, who drowned trying to reach Italian shores, lying in a hangar at Lampedusa airport - (Reuters)

Libya's interim interior minister Salah Mazek warned that Tripoli could "facilitate" the passage of illegal migrants from North Africa to Europe unless the European Union helps the Libyan government combat the problem.

"With regards to illegal immigration, I am warning the world and the European Union in particular, that if they do not shoulder the responsibility with us, the state of Libya will take a position on this matter that could facilitate the quick passage of this flood of people through Libya since God has made us a transit point for this flood," he told a news conference on Saturday

"Libya has paid the price, now it's Europe's turn to pay," Mazek added.

More than 22,000 migrants have arrived in Italy since the start of the year – 10 times more than the number that arrived during the same period in 2013.

In March, Italy's navy rescued more than 4,000 migrants from overcrowded boats in the Mediterranean Sea south of Sicily in just four days.

In October last year, over 300 African migrants died when a boat carrying them from Libya to Italy sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa.

The deaths prompted European Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström to call for major search and rescue patrols by the EU's Frontex border agency to intercept migrant boats.

Israeli Archaeologists Discover Lost 'Citadel of King David'

Archaeologists in Jerusalem are competing to unearth artefacts pointing to the ancient city's pastReuters

The true-life story of Raiders of the Lost Ark has been revealed by a new archaeological find, thought to be the citadel captured by King David in his conquest of Jerusalem.

A set of caves beneath Jerusalem, first mapped by British treasure-hunters, has led Israeli archaeologists to an ancient site they say is the citadel captured by King David more than 3,000 years ago.

The British dig was the inspiration for the film Raiders of the Lost Ark, starring Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones.

Eli Shukron, who led the present-day dig, claims he has discovered the site of the citadel at Silwan, just outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is now in Palestinian territory.

The citadel plays a vital part in Jewish history. According to the second book of Samuel, King David captured the walled city through an entrance in a water shaft.

"We can compare the whole site to the Bible perfectly," Shukron told the Sunday Times.

"I found the real treasure! The citadel of David, the citadel of Zion."

Israeli archaeologist Eli Shukron claims to have found King David's citadelGetty

The Israeli archaeologist's dig was sponsored by Elad, a controversial Israeli organisation. The Israeli settlement organisation was accused of "indirectly paying the salary of a Tel Aviv University researcher heading an archaeological dig in East Jerusalem," according to Haaretz Hebrew newspaper.

Shukron says he was following the lead of two British adventurers, Charles Warren and Captain Monty Parker, who illegally excavated beneath Temple Mount. Their quest focused on the lost Ark, a chest described in the Book of Exodus as containing the stone tablets on which the 10 commandments were carved.

Parker was inspired by a spiritualist who was convinced the biblical Book of Ezekiel contained information about the Ark's location.

In Easter 1911, Parker was on the brink of discovery but was forced to flee for his life, chased by a baying mob, incensed at the foreigners attempting to steal their country's treasures.

The British pair "found the shaft system, they found some stone, but no one understood that they're in the Citadel of Zion, Citadel of King David," said Zeev Orenstein from the City of David Foundation.

Shukron's team traced the maps made by Parker of the watercourse that led to the site of what the Israeli archaeologists believe is the lost citadel.

The dig uncovered a massive fortification of five-ton stones stacked six yards wide. Pottery shards helped date the fortification walls to 3,800 years old.

However, there is doubt from scholars about whether the site, which opened to the public this month, is in fact the Citadel of King David. "The days of a Bible in one hand and a spade in the other are over," said Professor Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University.

Watch the trailer for Raiders of the Lost Ark

Iran Will Not Accept 'Nuclear Apartheid', Says Hassan Rohani

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani.Reuters

Iranian president Hassan Rohani has once again declared that his country will not allow western powers to dictate Tehran's nuclear agenda.

Addressing a ceremony to mark Iran's accomplishments in the field of medicine, the Iranian leader said Tehran would not accept nuclear discrimination or apartheid.

Rohani told the gathering: "Their [west's] claim that Iran has secret activities is a blatant lie. If we wanted to be secretive, we wouldn't attempt to purchase centrifuges at global markets. Neither would we negotiate with international companies during the process of fuel production and uranium enrichment.

"We have nothing to put on the table and offer to them but transparency. That's it. Our nuclear technology is not up for negotiation. Iran will not retreat one step in the field of nuclear technology... we will not accept nuclear apartheid."

The moderate cleric said the country would not push for the production of nuclear weapons.

"At the present time that Tehran is able to enrich uranium even up to 20% degree and can meet demands of its nuclear facilities, it will not retreat from its peaceful nuclear activities," he said.

Iran is set to hold fresh negotiations with the world's major powers over its contentious nuclear activities from 13 May in Vienna. The next round of talks is aimed at bringing about a permanent solution to the standoff.

Rohani also took the opportunity to condemn the western nations for supplying chemical and biological weapons to the previous Iraqi administration in support of the war against Iran.

Nigerian Girls Mass Abduction: Boko Haram May Have Laid Mines to Stop Rescue

Boko Haram's leader in Nigeria Abubakar ShekauYoutube

Islamist militant group Boko Haram is likely to have laid land mines and booby traps to prevent the schoolgirls it kidnapped last month from being found.

Darlington Abdullahi, a former air commodore in the Nigerian military told Sky News: "They may have made land mines, one cannot rule that out."

Abdullahi said one way of rescuing the missing girls could be to starve Boko Haram members, who kidnapped almost 300 schoolgirls from their school in the north-eastern Nigerian village of Chibok on 14 April.

"One thing for sure is, even as they go along abducting children, they will also go after food; grabbing food from various angles," Abdullahi told Sky News.

"That is why it's important that if the military from various countries close up on them, the issue of starvation might come in and might even force them to find [exits], and most likely abandon the girls that are still with them within the forest."

Of the 276 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram, 53 managed to escape, leaving 223 still missing. US intelligence sources believe the girls have been split up into smaller groups to make it more difficult to find them.

Rescue efforts have been further complicated after Boko Haram reportedly blew up a second strategic bridge near the location where the girls were first abducted.

Residents said the bridge, which links the states of Borno and Adamawa, was destroyed on Friday. A bridge to Chad was blown up on Monday. Boko Haram also killed an unspecified number of people and abducted the wife and two children of a retired police officer.

International efforts to rescue the girls have stepped up in recent days, with British and US military experts arriving in Nigeria on Friday to assist in the search.

The US said it would also send FBI agents to help trace the missing schoolgirls, while UK ministers are reportedly reviewing the possibility of deploying a Sentinel surveillance aircraft which would operate out of the French military base at N'Djamena in Chad.

Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the UN's special envoy for global education, also said air and satellite surveillance will be extended beyond Nigeria to neighbouring Cameroon and Niger and Chad in an effort to locate the missing girls.

French President Francois Hollande's office in Paris said a team of French experts arrived in Nigeria on Saturday to assist in collecting intelligence from technical sources and informers, and offer expertise in image analysis.