The Russian President Vladimir Putin and his wife Lyudmila have announced on state television that they have separated and their marriage is over. Lyudmila Putin said it was a joint decision and described their parting as a civilized divorce. The couple had been married for 30 years and have two daughters.
The White House has defended a national intelligence program that collected the daily phone records of tens of millions of Americans, it follows a British newspaper report that one of America’s largest telephone providers, Verizon, is under the government orders to hand over data relating to all its subscribers. From Washington Paul Adams. A senior administration official, unnamed and choosing his words very carefully, didn't directly confirm the existence of the court order. However, he pointed out that it didn't include the contents of conversations or the names of any callers, and was limited only to metadata such as numbers and durations of calls. The Official went on to say that such information has been a critical tool in protecting American from terrorist threats. Civil rights organizations have long warned that this kind of widespread surveillance is going on.
This is the World News from the BBC.
The Mexican army says it has rescued 165 migrants kidnapped by criminal gangs at least two weeks ago. They've been held hostages in a property in northern Tamaulipas state waiting to cross illegally into the United States. Most of the victims were from Central American countries. An army spokesman said the migrants were probably betrayed by human trafficking gangs who were paid to get them into the US, but instead, handed them over to other criminal organizations.