republicans have criticised president biden over the amount of time it took to shoot down a chinese observation balloon that flew across the united states. china has said shooting down the balloon was an obvious over reaction. the diplomatic fall out is continuing, as warships try to recover the debris. secretary of state antony blinken was due to be in beijing this week, but he cancelled the trip after the balloon was discovered. barbara plett usher reports from beijing. for days, this solitary object floated serenely through us airspace, putting a diplomatic crisis onto television screens in real time. was it a harmless weather balloon, as the chinese claimed, or a spy in the sky? moments after it arrived over the atlantic, the us brought an explosive end to the drama. that trail of white vapour you see on the left of the screen is an american fighterjet heading for the balloon. the second vapour trail is from a heat seeking missile fired from the jet, easily finding its ta
we start this hour with breaking news. reports are coming in of a strong earthquake that has hit turkey near the border with syria. the epicentre was in gaziantep and the tremor has been felt across the region. the united states geological survey said it was of 7.8 magnitude and at a depth of 10 kilometres, considered to be shallow. gaziantep has a local population of around two million people and is also hosting almost 500,000 syrian refugees. azadeh moshiri is our reporter. what can you tell us? this is what we know so far. the quaker s epicentre was in gaziantep, the southern part of turkey with a population of 2 million people. it is an industrial hub is lots of buildings chair. it s on the border of syria, so that s why it hosts about half a million syrian refugees will stop so it is an industrial hub, hosting many refugees, and the epicentre of this earthquake right now. when you look at the buildings, it is clear in the area that the damage is fairly significant. we ha
we start this hour with breaking news there has been a major earthquake in turkey near the border with syria. the epicentre was in gaziantep close to the border of syria. strong tremors were felt across the region. the quake was recorded at a magnitude of of 7.8 and at a relatively shallow depth of ten kilometres. reports have been coming in of many collapsed buildings. azadeh moshiri is our reporter. sketchy details but a lot of reports and people across the region have felt this? the governor region have felt this? the governor of region have felt this? the governor of malaysia, - region have felt this? tue: governor of malaysia, close region have felt this? tte: governor of malaysia, close to gaziantep and he has reported 130 buildings collapsed. when you look at the pictures, the pictures we re showing you now. . this hit local time at around a quarter past four and since the early hours of the morning. you re seeing people bewildered and search and rescue teams doi
very real and present. thanks very real and present. thanks very much. very real and present. thanks very much, azadeh very real and present. thanks very much, azadeh moshiri. l stay with us on bbc news. still to come bouncing back trying to boost koala numbers, following australia s devastating bushfires. there s mr mandela, mr nelson mandela, a free man taking his first steps into a new south africa. iran s spiritual leader, ayatollah ali khamenei, has said he has passed the death sentence on salman rushdie, the british author of a book which many muslims say is blasphemous. the people of haiti have flocked church to give thanks for the ousting of their former president, baby doc duvalier. because of his considerable value as a stallion, shergar was kept in a special secure box in the stud
two reasons. one, obviously 24 february, the other is they know that a lot more help is on the way, like the leopard tanks, british aircraft and maybe even french aircraft. i do think that they want to do it before, it will take a couple of months for all of that to be there. but i think reznikov is correct, that doesn t mean the russians are going to be able to score some big victories. they are being tied down, they have lost about 500 people in the last week. thank you forjoining us, appreciate your time. thank you for having me. stay with us on bbc news still to come. bouncing back trying to boost koala numbers following australia s devastating bushfires. there s mr mandela, mr nelson mandela, a free man