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BBC News. Hello, I'm Gareth Barlow.
The Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has described as criminal sanctions imposed on the state owned oil company PDVSA by the United States. He accused Washington of setting out to steal the firm's US space of subsidiary Citgo and said PDVSA would take legal action to protect its asset. The sanctions were announced by the US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in Washington earlier. From where Barbara Plett-Usher reports.
This is a critical economic move because Venezuela's oil sales to the United States are a big source of cash revenue for the Maduro government. The sanctions bar Americans from doing business with the state oil company and freeze any assets it has in the US. This is also an attempt to boost Mr. Maduro's rival, the opposition leader Juan Guaido. The Trump administration recognized him last week as Venezuela's leader. The aim is to transfer the oil money to him and the country's national assembly. As the announcement was made, Mr. Guaido said he was taking control of Venezuela's assets abroad to prevent Mr. Maduro from seizing them if he left power.
Protesters have gathered outside the offices of the Brazilian mining company Vale as rescuers continue a desperate search for survivors from Friday's dam collapse. The firm's share price plunged by nearly twenty-five percent on Monday on the Brazilian stock market. Sixty-five people are so far confirmed dead.
The Supreme Court in Pakistan is due to hear a final legal challenge to the acquittal of a Christian woman who'd been sentenced to death for blasphemy. Secunder Kermani reports.
Asia Bibi was convicted of insulting the prophet Muhammad in 2010 following an argument with two Muslim women who refuse to drink water from the same cup as her was working in a field. Two politicians who spoke out in her defence were murdered by militants, and the decision to quash her sentence last year resulted in angry protests. But the leaders of that unrest are currently in jail and it's expected if her acquittal is upheld, that Asia Bibi will be granted asylum abroad.
Mexico's largest railway operator has warned that the country could face shortages of staple foods as a result of a two-week protest by teachers been blocking train tracks in the west of the country. Kyle Winer reports.
A spokeswoman for the Ferromex railroad company told local media that more than three hundred trains have been cancelled since the teachers started camping on the tracks in Michoacan state in a protest over pay and conditions. She said their actions were limiting the distribution of foods including potatoes and corn flour round the country and preventing the delivery of essential supplies to the steel and car industries. Mexico's largest seaport is in Michoacann and shipping industry associations say at least ten thousand containers have been held up at a cost of over seven hundred million dollars to the economy.
That's the BBC news.
