World News from the BBC.
Pakistan has announced it’s to increase defence spending by 17% in the coming year, with analysts saying much of it will be used to combat Islamic militants. In his budget speech to parliament, the Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said the security forces who were prepared to
lay down
their lives should know they had the support of parliament. Defence spending will rise to more than $5 billion a year from next month.
The environmental organisation, the Blacksmith Institute, has warned that hundreds of Nigerian children could die from lead poisoning in the northern state of Zamfara, where residents have been digging illegally for gold. The warning comes a day after Nigerian officials confirmed that lead
contamination
had killed 163 people, mostly children, in the region this year. Jonny Hogg reports.
The Blacksmith Institute has tested children in the affected villages. Its president, Richard Fuller, told the BBC that hundreds of them have such high levels of lead in their blood that they are likely to die in the near future. Health workers in the Nigerian government providing treatment to the victims and some parts of the affected villages have already been
evacuate
d. Mr Fuller says the poisoning occurred after women brought metal ore back to their houses to process into gold.
A storm that's hit Oman over the past 2 days has killed 16 people and left 4 others missing. Tropical Cyclone Phet produced winds of more than 150 kilometres an hour, as well as heavy rain that