Eight dead California

*Eight dead California heavy rains 🌧 and mudslides*

At least eight people are dead amid mudslides in Southern California, where heavy rains triggered flooding and massive run-off, US media report.

"Waist-deep" mudslides in areas scorched by wildfires last month shut down more than 30 miles (48km) of the main coastal highway, officials say.

A source at the Santa Barbara Sheriff's office tells BBC News that the death toll is expected to climb.

At least 25 people were injured and thousands fled amid the deluge.

More than 50 rescues have so far been performed.

The hardest hit homes were those that were not in the evacuation zone, official say.

Heavy rain run-off caused waist-deep mudflow in the Montecito, where some homes were knocked from their foundations, said Santa Barbara County Fire Department spokesman Mike Eliason.

Boulders the size of small cars were rolling down hillsides, and blocking roads, reports BBC News Los Angeles correspondent James Cook.

Among those taken to safety was a 14-year-old girl who had been trapped for hours in the ruins of her home.

The fire department published a picture of the girl encased in mud as she was led to safety.

*Democrats decry 'cruel' El Salvador migrants order *

*Democrats decry 'cruel' El Salvador migrants order *

Democratic lawmakers have slammed the White House's decision to withdraw El Salvador migrants' right to remain in the US after nearly three decades.

The Trump administration said on Monday the Central American migrants must leave or seek lawful residency, giving them an 18-month grace period.

Salvadoreans, who have had the legal right to live and work in the US under TPS since the quake, will now be forced to leave, or risk arrest and deportation.

Additionally, around 700,000 people who came to the US illegally as children - a group known in US immigration parlance as "Dreamers" - could also face deportation unless Congress acts by March to legitimise their status.

President Donald Trump met on Tuesday with a bipartisan group of senators to discuss a deal to allow these Dreamers to remain in the country in return for a bill to fund his proposed southern border wall.

*Julian Assange: Ecuador seeks mediator in 'unsustainable' standoff*

*Julian Assange: Ecuador seeks mediator in 'unsustainable' standoff*

Ecuador says it is considering inviting a third-party mediator to tackle its long-standing disagreement with Britain over the fate of Julian Assange. The foreign minister said the situation was "unsustainable". The Wikileaks founder has been confined to the Ecuadorean embassy in London since 2012, claiming political asylum. He was originally wanted on sexual assault allegations in Sweden, which have since been dropped, but says he now fears extradition to the US.

"We're considering and exploring the possibility of a mediation," Ecuador's foreign minister, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, said on Tuesday, adding that they could involve a "third country or personality". "A person cannot live in those conditions forever," she said. Mr Assange, an Australian citizen, made headlines in 2010 when his organisation leaked US military helicopter footage, which showed the killing of civilians in Iraq.

London's Metropolitan Police says he will still be arrested if he leaves the embassy building, on the charge of failing to surrender to the court back in 2012 - and the UK refuses to guarantee he will not be extradited to the US. Ms Espinosa said: "No solution will be achieved without international cooperation and the cooperation of the United Kingdom, which has also shown interest in seeking a way out."

*NECO Releases 2017 November/December SSCE Results*

*NECO Releases 2017 November/December SSCE Results*

The National Examination Council (NECO) has released the 2017 November/December Senior School Certificate Examination results. According to the examination body, 24,098 candidates, representing 56.79%, scored five credits and above in various subjects, including English Language and mathematics.

Statistics released by the council also show that a staggering 4,425 malpractice cases were recorded the candidates had one of their subjects or more cancelled. The registrar and Chief Executive Officer of NECO, Professor Charles Uwakwe, announced the results in Niger state.

He said although the rate of examination malpractice dropped from 16.34% recorded in 2016 to 10.43% in 2017, the council’s goal is to completely eradicate the menace of examination malpractice. The release of the results comes barely 38 days after the examination, an achievement which Uwakwe says the council hopes to sustain in its future examinations

*Trump's border wall may be shorter than first advertised

*Trump's border wall may be shorter than first advertised*

Trump met with several lawmakers for a bipartisan meeting on immigration reform on Tuesday, where he said natural barriers, like mountains, already on the border, could make a wall there unnecessary. "We don't need a wall where you have rivers and mountains and everything else protecting it," the President said. "But we do need a wall for a fairly good portion."

Following the meeting Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, reiterated Trump's specifics about not needing a wall across the entirety of the US' southern border. "A lot of people have envisioned a 2,000-mile, you know, structure, and frankly a lot of what the President said during the campaign lent itself to that kind of vision," Flake told CNN's Jake Tapper on "The Lead."

"The President noted that there are rivers, there are mountains that prohibit any kind of wall, the need for any kind of wall. There won't be a 2,000-mile wall," Flake added. Sen. James Lankford, R-Oklahoma, also said Trump "backed off any kind of description that he's looking for any sea to shining sea fence or wall." "What he agreed to is, it's not a 2,000-mile wall itself, but he very certainly said there has to be a wall as a part of it," Lankford said. 
 

Residents Of Edo Community Protest Herdsmen Attacks*

*Residents Of Edo Community Protest Herdsmen Attacks*

The People of Ojah community in Akoko Edo Local Government Area of Edo State have protested what they have described as incessant attacks on them and their farmlands by alleged herdsmen and have, therefore, called on relevant authorities to urgently address the situation.

The protest is coming on the heels of an attack on a member of the community at his farm on January 4, by five persons, alleged to be herdsmen. The people lamented over the fact that despite reporting initial attacks on their community, nothing was done about it and the onslaught has continued.

They, however, pleaded with the government to come to their aid to prevent a recurrence. This follows news of similar attacks in other states such as Rivers and Benue which left many dead.