Blackfire

Three people were killed in Zimbabwe's capital Harare after troops opened fire on rioting opposition supporters, police say. The government says the army was deployed in central Harare to help police restore order. The opposition MDC Alliance condemned the crackdown, saying it was a reminder of the "dark days" of Robert Mugabe's rule. It alleges that the governing Zanu-PF party has rigged Monday's elections. Zimbabwe violence: As it happened Harare chaos in pictures Parliamentary results show Zanu-PF heading for a big majority in the first elections since long-serving ruler Mr Mugabe was ousted from power. The presidential result has yet to be declared. However, the MDC Alliance insists that its presidential candidate, Nelson Chamisa, won Monday's election. European Union monitors have expressed concern over the length of time it is taking to declare the presidential result. What are the two sides saying? President Emmerson Mnangagwa was quoted by state broadcaster ZBC as saying: "We hold the opposition MDC Alliance and its whole leadership responsible for this disturbance of national peace, which was meant to disrupt the electoral process." He later took to Twitter to urge peace Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said the army had been deployed in Harare to disperse a violent crowd and to restore "peace and tranquillity". He added: "The presence of the army is not to intimidate people but to ensure that law and order is maintained. They are there to assist the police." A spokesman for Mr Chamisa condemned the deployment of soldiers and the subsequent loss of life. "Soldiers are trained to kill during war. Are civilians enemies of the state?" he asked. "There is no explanation whatsoever for the brutality that we saw today." Correspondents say the violence was confined to the centre of Harare - an opposition stronghold - while other parts of the country remain calm. Latest reports from the capital suggest the security forces are in control of the streets. Chaotic scene of burning tyres' By Pumza Fihlani, BBC News, Harare Army vehicles and police trucks rolled into Zimbabwe's main city on Wednesday after the wait for the election results took an ugly turn. MDC Alliance supporters had been gathering in various parts of Harare since the morning, but when news came that Zanu-PF had won the majority of seats in parliament and that the presidential results were not ready, the previously upbeat mood changed. Opposition supporters went on the rampage down Harare's busy streets, heading towards an old Zanu-PF office and carrying large stones, sticks and anything else they could grab along the way. The crowd chanted: "We want Chamisa." They believe the election has been stolen, and are demanding the MDC be announced as the winner. Riot police using water cannon and tear gas arrived to a chaotic scene of burning tyres and an unrelenting crowd. There were hundreds of them. They jeered and pelted the police vans with stones. In another part of the city where more opposition protesters had gathered, the army used whips to disperse them. Today's clashes may not have been on the scale of the "days of old", where intimidation by security police was the order of the day, but it's certainly not the peace many had been praising until now. Something has changed here. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) has announced 132 seats for Zanu-PF so far, and 59 for the MDC Alliance, ZBC state media reported. There are 210 seats in the National Assembly's lower house. More than five million people were registered to vote, and there was a high turnout of 70%. ZBC had reported that the electoral commission would announce the presidential results at 12:30 local time (10:30 GMT) on Wednesday, but only parliamentary results were read out. The BBC's Shingai Nyoka reports that the announcement on the presidential poll was not made because representatives of some of the 23 candidates had failed to turn up to verify the results. A presidential candidate needs more than 50% of the vote to win outright. Otherwise, a run-off election will be held on 8 September. What are election observers saying? The EU mission has criticised the delay in announcing the presidential results. Zec has until Saturday to do so. It said it had observed several problems, including media bias, voter intimidation and mistrust in the electoral commission, adding that there was an "improved political climate, but un-level playing field and lack of trust". This is the first time in 16 years that the government has allowed EU and US election monitors into the country. The African Union mission has said the elections "took place in a very peaceful environment" and "were highly competitive". It added that it could not confirm opposition parties' complaints of vote-buying, intimidation by the state and bias by traditional leaders. A preliminary report by the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) observers said the elections were largely peaceful and conducted in accordance with the law.

Facebook says it has removed 32 accounts and pages believed to have been set up to influence the mid-term US elections in November. It said it was in the "very early" stages of the investigation and did not yet know who was behind the pages. It said the account creators had gone to greater lengths to hide their identities than a Russia-based campaign to disrupt the US presidential vote. It described attempts to erase election interference as an "arms race." What did Facebook discover? The social network said in a blog that it had identified 17 suspect profiles on Facebook and seven Instagram accounts. It said that there were more than 9,500 Facebook posts created by the accounts and one piece of content on Instagram. In total more than 290,000 accounts followed at least one of the pages involved, it added. Facebook said the suspect accounts had also run about 150 ads on Facebook and Instagram, costing a total of $11,000 (£8,300). The most po[CENSORED]r fake accounts were: Aztlan Warriors Black Elevation Mindful Being Resisters Why can't Facebook be sure who is responsible? The "bad actors" went to far greater lengths to cover their tracks than the Russian-based Internet Research Agency (IRA) had in the past, Facebook said. This included using virtual private networks (VPNs) to hide their location, and using third parties to run ads on their behalf. Furthermore, the social network said it had not found evidence of Russian IP (internet protocol) addresses. But it did find one link between the IRA and the new accounts. One of disabled IRA accounts shared a Facebook event hosted by the Resisters page. The page also briefly listed an IRA account as one of its administrators. It added that it "may never be able to identify the source" for the fake accounts. "The set of actors we see now might be the IRA with improved capabilities, or it could be a separate group," explained Facebook's chief security officer Alex Stamos. "This is one of the fundamental limitations of attribution: offensive organisations improve their techniques once they have been uncovered, and it is wishful thinking to believe that we will always be able to identify persistent actors with high confidence." Fake news 'crowding out' real news, MPs say Facebook halts InfoWars founder's posts Facebook is in 'arms race' with Russia What is the company doing about it? Facebook has removed the suspect accounts, but says other legitimate page administrators unwittingly interacted with them. For example, after the Resisters account created a Facebook event for a protest on 10 to 12 August called "No Unite the Right 2", five other page owners offered to co-host the demonstration and posted details about transportation and locations. Facebook said it had contacted the admins involved and would alert the 2,600 users who had expressed interest in the event. How have US politicians reacted? Democratic congressman Adam Schiff said: "Today's announcement from Facebook demonstrates what we've long feared: that malicious foreign actors bearing the hallmarks of previously-identified Russian influence campaigns continue to abuse and weaponise social media platforms to influence the US electorate." "Foreign influence actors remain readily capable of mani[CENSORED]ting raw emotion and societal divisions to prey on unsuspecting Americans who use these same social media tools for legitimate political expression, organisation, and advocacy." The Democratic Senator Mark Warner, who is vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, also pointed his finger at Moscow. "Today's disclosure is further evidence that the Kremlin continues to exploit platforms like Facebook to sow division and spread disinformation, and I am glad that Facebook is taking some steps to pinpoint and address this activity," he said. "I also expect Facebook, along with other platform companies, will continue to identify Russian troll activity and to work with Congress on updating our laws to better protect our democracy in the future." Republican Senator Lindsey Graham added that he intended to pursue retaliatory measures. "I will be introducing Thursday a sanctions bill against Russia that has everything but the kitchen sink in it," he declared. "It'll be the sanctions bill from hell. And any other country that is trying to interfere with our election should suffer the same fate."

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Two children and their great-grandmother are among five people to have died in a raging wildfire in northern California, reports say. Two firefighters died on Thursday, 17 people are missing and tens of thousands have fled their homes. The fires in Shasta county are being sucked up by strong winds to form "fire tornados" that are uprooting trees and overturning cars, fire officials say. Firefighters are battling the blaze, which is only 5% contained so far. The blazes, known as the Carr fire, have destroyed at least 500 structures and are threatening thousands of homes. The wildfire began on Monday after a car malfunctioned. It has scorched over 48,000 acres (194 sq km) of land - an area larger than the city of San Francisco. The photos that explain the world's wildfires Reality Check: Mapping the global heatwave Why wildfires are breaking out in the 'wrong' countries Sherry Bledsoe has confirmed that her grandmother Melody Bledsoe, 70, and her two children Emily Roberts, five, and James Roberts, four, died in the fire, reports say. They were caught in the path of the fire as they were about to evacuate their home in the town of Redding, NBC reported. Melody Bledsoe's husband, Ed, earlier described how she had called him while he was out shopping and told him to return home because the fire was getting close to the house. When he reached home he found it destroyed and surrounded by police tape, he said. Another relative told Two firefighters - fire inspector Jeremy Stoke, and a bulldozer operator who has not yet been named, died trying contain the blaze. More than 3,400 firefighters have been deployed - but the local fire department has warned that hot, dry weather is forecast for the rest of the week, and could make the blaze worse. "We are seeing fire whirls - literally what can be described as a tornado," California department of forestry and fire protection (CalFire) chief Ken Pimlott told reporters. "This fire was whipped up into a whirlwind of activity" by gale-force winds, he said, "uprooting trees, moving vehicles, moving parts of roadways." "These are extreme conditions... we need to take heed and evacuate, evacuate, evacuate." Fire whirls, also known as fire "tornadoes", are spinning vortexes of air, ash and fire They form when rising hot air begins to rotate and forms a vortex that picks up flammable gases and burning debris vegetation Fire whirls typically only last a few minutes but can be very dangerous because they can move quickly They can reach dozens of metres in height, with core temperatures as high as 1,090C. About 37,000 residents have been forced to leave the area. One local, Liz Williams, found herself and her two children stuck in traffic as people rushed to evacuate. She eventually fled by foot. "I've never experienced something so terrifying in my life," she told AP news agency. "I didn't know if the fire was just going to jump out behind a bush and grab me and suck me in." The Carr fire is one of almost 90 active large fires in the US, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. In California, the Ferguson fire has killed one firefighter and led to the closure of much of Yosemite National Park, while the Cranston fire in Riverside County in the south has burned 11,500 acres (46 sq km) of land. Wildfires are a common occurrence in California during the state's long, hot, dry summers. However, experts say this has been the worst start to the fire season in 10 years - partly due to the 2012-2017 drought that killed off large amounts of vegetation. In December, Governor Jerry Brown said devastating wildfires fuelled by climate change had become "the new normal", and that large fires "could happen every year or every few years".

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The UK's opposition to the death penalty has not changed, the security minister has said - after a government letter about two IS suspects emerged. Ben Wallace said the message from Home Secretary Sajid Javid to the US attorney general - that the UK would not "require assurances" over the death penalty - was a "rare decision". But Labour said the UK was abandoning a "principled opposition". The IS suspects were captured in Syria and could be sent to the US for trial. Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheik, from London, are accused of being the last two members of an IS cell dubbed "The Beatles", which killed Western hostages. After the pair were caught in January by US-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters they complained they would not get a fair trial because the UK government had stripped them of their British citizenship. Who were the Islamic State group 'Beatles' cell? Families of IS victims say 'Beatles' pair 'should face trial' Where should the IS 'Beatles' be tried? The UK could provide intelligence as part of the men's prosecution in the US. For years, Britain sought assurances from foreign governments that the death penalty would not be used in cases where the UK provided information or extradited suspects. But, in a letter leaked to the Telegraph, Mr Javid said he would seek no assurances about Kotey and Elsheik's sentences. Asking an urgent question in the Commons, shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said it was not possible to be a "little bit in favour" of the death penalty. Describing the UK stance as "abhorrent and shameful", she called on ministers "even at this late stage to reverse this decision". But Mr Wallace maintained ministers had complied with the European Convention on Human Rights and international law in relation to the cases. He said: "The crimes that we are talking about involve the beheading and videoing of those beheadings of dozens of innocent people by one of the most abhorrent organisations walking this Earth. "And simply to say if we were unable to prosecute them in this country, that we should simply let them free to roam around the United Kingdom... is simply bizarre and not justice to the victims." Mr Wallace was challenged by MPs from all parties to explain the decision. Former Tory attorney general Dominic Grieve said it represented a "major departure from normal policy" and the "issue is going to continue to haunt the government". Labour's Yvette Cooper, who chairs the Commons Home Affairs Committee, said the home secretary had "unilaterally ripped up" the UK's principles, adding: "What the minister [Mr Wallace] has said today is a contradiction of the longstanding abolition of the death penalty strategy." All part of a deal? By James Landale, BBC diplomatic correspondent Why might Mr Javid take this decision, in apparent breach of long-standing British policy? Perhaps the real motivation is the government's desperation to avoid having to try these two men in Britain. Cases like these are extremely difficult to prosecute because of the difficulty in obtaining evidence, finding witnesses, and establishing what crimes have been committed in which jurisdiction. And in his letter, Mr Javid argues that a more successful prosecution is more likely in the US where laws are different to the UK. What ministers and MPs believe is that Mr Javid is attempting to smooth the way for the Americans to take the cases by letting them know that the UK will not, for once, kick up a fuss about the death penalty. In other words, this is all part of a deal. Read more from James Where does the UK stand on the death penalty? Normally, Britain seeks assurances from foreign governments that the death penalty would not be used when the UK provided information or extradited suspects. Number 10 said it was "a long-standing position of the government to oppose the death penalty in all circumstances as a matter of principle". But it added that - in the case of "the Beatles" - it was "a priority to make sure that these men face criminal prosecution". The BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner said a senior British government official says this was not the first time that the UK had dropped its request for assurances that the death penalty would not be used - although they did not go into details. But our correspondent said if the pair were sent to the controversial US military prison Guantanamo Bay - where some suspects have been detained for years without trial - the UK would withhold intelligence. Amnesty International said the UK was "leaving the door wide open to charges of hypocrisy and double standards". Who are the suspects? Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheik were members of an IS cell known as the Beatles, because of their British accents. The group - which included two others from west London, Mohammed Emwazi, nicknamed "Jihadi John", and Aine Davis - were radicalised in the UK before travelling to Syria. US officials believe they beheaded more than 27 Western hostages and tortured many more. Each was known to their hostages by their respective Beatles moniker - Paul, Ringo, John and George. Emwazi, who was the alleged ringleader and appeared in videos showing hostages being beheaded, was killed by a drone strike in 2015. Davis was convicted of being a senior IS member and was jailed in Turkey last year. UK-born Kotey is of Ghanaian and Greek Cypriot background, while Sudan-born Elsheikh came to London as a child and later became a British citizen.