Simon Furness

Rescuers are using large mechanical diggers to try to reach up to 30 people trapped underground after an illegal gold mine collapsed in Colombia.
BBC News – Latin America & Caribbean

Rebels in Ukraine’s eastern city of Sloviansk shoot down two helicopters, killing two people, as government forces launch an operation.
BBC News – Europe

Barrister Constance Briscoe is given a 16-month sentence at the Old Bailey for lying to police over former cabinet minister Chris Huhne’s speeding case.
BBC News – UK

Rob Ford is starting a 30-day treatment course, as police investigate a new video that allegedly shows the mayor smoking crack cocaine.
BBC News – US & Canada

A car bomb attack in the Nigerian capital Abuja, the second in recent weeks, kills at least 19 people and injures dozens more.
BBC News – Africa

Struggling supermarket Morrisons announces it will cut prices by as much as 17% on some products, in a bid to win back customers.
BBC News – Business

Iraq holds its first parliamentary vote since the withdrawal of US troops three years ago, as at least 14 people are killed in sporadic violence.
BBC News – Middle East

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announces a raise in the minimum wage and pensions of 30% ahead of the May Day celebrations.
BBC News – Latin America & Caribbean

The International Monetary Fund approves a bailout for Ukraine, to help the country’s beleaguered economy.
BBC News – Europe

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams is arrested by Northern Ireland police in connection with the 1972 murder of widow and mother-of-10 Jean McConville.
BBC News – UK

Two people have died and two are injured after a former employee opened fire at a Vancouver-area lumber mill.
BBC News – US & Canada

Women in Nigeria march to demand that more be done to secure the release of 230 schoolgirls abducted by militants two weeks ago.
BBC News – Africa

UK economy grows 0.8% in first quarter of 2014, the fifth consecutive quarter of growth, according to the ONS.
BBC News – Business

At least 37 people are killed in explosions in the Syrian city of Homs, after at least 14 die in a mortar attack in Damascus, officials say.
BBC News – Middle East

Major Eliecer Otaiza, who served as the head of the Venezuelan intelligence service under President Hugo Chavez, has been killed, officials say.
BBC News – Latin America & Caribbean

A large crowd of pro-Russian activists storms the regional administration’s headquarters in the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk.
BBC News – Europe

A teacher stabbed to death in front of her pupils at a Leeds school is described by the head teacher as “inspirational”, as it emerges she was to retire this year.
BBC News – UK

Severe weather threatens as many as 73 million Americans, after two days of powerful storms and tornadoes killed up to 28 people.
BBC News – US & Canada

Some of the schoolgirls abducted by suspected militant Islamists in northern Nigeria are believed to have been taken to neighbouring states, a local leader tells the BBC.
BBC News – Africa

The economic outlook for the next three months is “exceptionally strong”, according to the employers’ organisation the CBI.
BBC News – Business