Image copyrightKCNAImage captionThis handout photo by KCNA shows Kim Jong-un, who appears to be supported by Ms Kim Yo-jong on his left and Mr Kim Yong-nam on his right
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has praised South Korea for its “impressive” efforts in hosting a delegation from the North during the Winter Olympics.
His comments came as the delegation, led by Mr Kim’s sister Kim Yo-jong, returned home from Pyeongchang.
State media outlet KCNA said Mr Kim had thanked the South for “prioritizing” their visit to the Games.
North Korea’s attendance has been seen as a significant warming in relations.
But there have also been concerns that it has allowed North Korea to win a propaganda victory.
“After receiving the delegation’s report, Kim Jong-un expressed satisfaction over it,” KCNA reported.
It said Mr Kim had been impressed by “the features of the south side, which specially prioritized the visit of the members of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea… and expressed thanks for them”.
Ms Kim and the North’s ceremonial head of state Kim Yong-nam made up the most senior delegation from the North to visit the South since the Korean War in the 1950s.
Mr Kim had on Saturday invited the South’s President Moon Jae-in to Pyongyang for talks. If the summit takes place, it will be the first meeting in more than a decade between Korean leaders.
The invitation came as ties between the two Koreas appear to be warming.
However Pyongyang’s continuing nuclear ambitions hang over any attempts to bring the countries closer together.
North Korea is subject to a raft of sanctions from the US, the UN and the EU, which were imposed in response to its ballistic missile launches and nuclear tests.
Image copyrightAFPImage captionPresident Zuma’s time in office has been overshadowed by corruption allegations
South Africa’s ruling ANC party will formally request that President Jacob Zuma step down after he refused to resign, media reports say.
The reported decision to “recall” Mr Zuma followed marathon talks by senior party officials that continued into the early hours of Tuesday.
If Mr Zuma, 75, still does not budge, he will face a vote of confidence in parliament that he is expected to lose.
He has been leader since 2009 but has been dogged by corruption allegations.
The ANC has not officially confirmed its plans, but party sources have described them to South African media outlets and Reuters news agency.
Mr Zuma has resisted increasing pressure to quit since December, when Cyril Ramaphosa replaced him as leader of the ANC.
It is unclear how Mr Zuma will respond to the formal request to step down, which is expected to be issued later on Tuesday.
Earlier, Mr Ramaphosa left the meeting of the ANC’s national executive committee to travel to Mr Zuma’s residence, where he is said to have told the president he would be recalled if he did not step down. He later returned to the ANC conclave.
What has Mr Zuma done wrong?
Mr Zuma’s presidency has been overshadowed by allegations of corruption which he has always vehemently denied.
Media captionThe Zuma presidency: Scandals and successes
In 2016, South Africa’s highest court ruled that Mr Zuma had violated the constitution when he failed to repay government money spent on his private home.
Last year the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that he must face 18 counts of corruption, fraud, racketeering and money laundering relating to a 1999 arms deal.
More recently, Mr Zuma’s links to the wealthy India-born Gupta family, who are alleged to have influenced the government, have caused his popularity to plummet.
Both Mr Zuma and the Guptas deny the allegations.
What could happen now?
Correspondents say it will be very difficult for him to resist a formal request to resign – known as a “recall”.
But Mr Zuma would not be legally obliged to step down and he could technically carry on as president of South Africa despite losing the faith of his party.
However, he would then be expected to face a confidence vote in parliament. The date for this has already been set – 22 February.
Mr Zuma has survived other such votes, but he would not be expected to pull it off again. A confidence vote would be considered a humiliating process for him and the party.
South African media is calling President Zuma’s seemingly inevitable exit “Zexit”.
South Africa’s previous president, Thabo Mbeki, resigned in 2008. He also had a power struggle with his deputy.
The deputy in question was Jacob Zuma, who took over the presidency the following year.
Image copyrightAFP/GETTYImage captionA Papuan couple accompany their child suffering from malnutrition at a hospital in Agats
A measles and malnutrition crisis has killed at least 72 people, mostly children, in Indonesia’s remote province of Papua, home to the world’s biggest gold mine.
As Rebecca Henschke and Hedyer Affan report, the crisis has put the spotlight on a region closed off to journalists for decades and revealed serious government failings.
Just two months old, Yulita Atap’s life has already been brutally hard. Her mother died in childbirth. Her father gave her up for dead.
“In the cloud of grief he wanted to hit her, to bury her with her mother,” says her uncle, Ruben Atap.
“I said, don’t do that, God will be angry, he became calm and was grateful that we wanted to take care of her, but we are now struggling to keep her alive.”
She lies limply on a bed in the only hospital in the Asmat regency, a jungle-covered area the size of Belgium. Her ribs exposed, nearly piercing through her skin, her stomach bloated, she floats in and out of sleep.
Her uncle stares constantly at her tiny body.
Image captionYulita Atap’s family travelled for two days to reach this hospital
Government health workers helped him make a two-day journey on a speedboat up a river to get here. The rivers are the highways, weaving like snakes through the thick jungle.
On the next hospital bed is Ofnea Yohanna’s family. Three of her children, aged four, three and two, are severely malnourished.
She married when she was just 12 years old. Still in her twenties, she has six children.
“We eat when there is food, when there isn’t we don’t. We don’t have a boat at the moment to go fishing in,” she says.
Image captionOfnea Yohanna’s daughter lies on a day bed in the Agats hospital
While we talk her daughter stares emptily off into the distance, her eyes hollow and lifeless. She picks at a packet of sweet biscuits, a pile of plain white rice on brown paper sits uneaten next to her.
A proud tribe
Traditionally, the Asmat tribe has lived on sago starch extracted from palms, and fish from the rivers and sea.
“Asmat is, in its way, a perfect place. Everything you could possibly need is here,” wrote Carl Hoffman in his 2014 book about the disappearance and presumed death of New York socialite, Michael Rockefeller, in Asmat in the 1960s.
“It’s teeming with shrimp and crabs and fish and clams and sago palm, whose pith can be pounded into a white starch and which hosts the larvae of the Capricorn beetle, both key sources of nutrition,” he wrote.
Image copyrightAFP/GETTYImage captionThe Asmat tribe from Papua perform their traditional dance
Michael Rockefeller, the child of a New York governor and from one of America’s richest families, came across the world to Asmat to collect the tribe’s elaborate and impressive art that includes stylised giant wood carvings.
The art of the Asmat people is found in top museums across the world and is prized by collectors.
Rockefeller’s black and white photos from his journey to visit the Asmat people, at the time cannibals and head-hunters, amazed the Western world.
Changing diets, fading traditions
The semi-nomadic Asmat tribes used to spend months in the forest to make sago and find enough food to live.
Cultural changes began happening in the 1950s with the arrival of Christian missionaries, and in recent years diets have dramatically changed with increasing number of migrants from other Indonesian islands coming here.
The nearest city of Timika, an hour’s flight away, serves as a centre for the US-owned Freeport mine, the world’s largest gold mine.
Image copyrightAFP/GETTYImage captionPossessing one of the most well-known and vibrant woodcarving traditions in the Pacific, Asmat art is sought by collectors worldwide
Timika has one of the fastest population growths in Indonesia.
“People increasingly buy imported food and because in some places the forests have been logged they have to go further to get sago,” says local health researcher, Willem Bobi.
“So now the quickest thing is to buy instant processed food; government money has come in and made our people dependent.”
A native Papuan, Willem Bobi travelled across the vast jungle-covered area and described the dire health situation in a book, The Asmat Medicine Man, which was published last year.
“I knew a crisis like this would come. I saw there was a lack of clean water and a serious lack of health facilitates. I saw health clinics where the only doctors had been on leave for months but were still being paid wages.
“The crisis we are seeing now has happened many times before but it has never been as bad as now,” he says.
“It’s happening because the health authorities have not dealt with this seriously enough.”
Aid brought in
As news spread about the measles outbreak, President Joko Widodo ordered military and medical teams to bring supplies to remote villages.
Image copyrightAFP/GETTYImage captionA member of the Indonesian military attends to a child at the local hospital in Agats
Health workers and paramedics vaccinated more than 17,300 children, and authorities now say the measles outbreak is under control.
The military says it is now running a year-old monitoring operation in the area to find out where problems are.
However, the head of the military medical teams acknowledged that Jakarta’s response was slow.
“Let’s be honest, maybe the local and national governments became aware of this [outbreak] late,” Asep Setia Gunawan, the military’s medical taskforce chief, told AFP.
Historical issues
Papua has been a sensitive region since it became part of Indonesia in the 1960s following what some historians allege was a flawed UN-supervised vote.
Just 1,063 people were selected to vote. The province is incredibly resource rich, home to the world’s biggest gold mine, which is one of Indonesia’s largest taxpayers.
The government says Papua is an integral part of Indonesia and that this has been recognised by the United Nations. But a low-level separatist movement, fighting for independence, continues to this day.
The military has been accused by rights groups of gross human rights abuses in its attempts to suppress any dissent.
Until recently foreign journalists were not allowed to report here. I had to get special permission from the police to travel here.
There was unrest while we visited; a women was shot dead. Police said she was among villagers who tried to help a man escape arrest.
He was accused of selling ore concentrate, which he had allegedly taken from the cargo dock of US mining company Freeport-McMoRan.
The women’s family say she was an innocent bystander. And now police are conducting an internal investigation.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, on a visit last week to Indonesia, said he was concerned “about increasing reports of the excessive use of force by security forces, harassment, arbitrary arrests and detentions in Papua”.
He said the Indonesian government had invited the United Nations to send a mission to the province, something it would do soon.
New funds, new problems
In an attempt to ease tensions, Papua was granted greater autonomy in 2001, and there has been a significant increase in government funds for the region, with Jakarta vowing to bring prosperity to the people of Papua.
But Ruben Atap, like many Papuans I met, suggests the wave of cash has mainly benefited a select few.
“Our local leaders take the money and use it for themselves. They don’t think of their people and fill their own bellies,” he said.
Image copyrightAFP/GETTYImage captionHealth workers say they desparately lack resources
In wake of the outbreaks, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said that special autonomy funding for the province would be re-evaluated to make sure it was being used for development.
“This is a lesson for us, because throughout this time the special autonomy funds have been disbursed as a block grant to the provincial government – even though special autonomy has specific purposes,” she said last week.
The Regent of Asmat, Elisa Kambu, said the problem had wider issues.
He said people in Jakarta “just talk about money, that lots of money comes to Papua; money alone cannot solve this problem”.
Wake-up call
“Asmat is a wake-up call for us all,” said presidential advisor, Yanuar Nugroho.
He said a number of other areas in Papua could face the same health crisis and Asmat was just the tip of the iceberg.
“The problem lies with the local government,” he said.
Image copyrightAFP/GETTYImage captionPapuan children play in the river in Agats. The government has vowed to invest more in services
Willem Bobi, the health researcher, thinks the solution lies perhaps in less government.
“Maybe then it will not be easy to get money anymore and people will go back to the old natural ways of finding food,” he says, laughing.
“But of course that’s going to be very hard, because now it’s easier [to] buy instant food.”
A proposal President Widodo to relocate Asmat people scattered throughout the jungle into a town, so they could be close to medical services, was immediately rejected by local leaders.
“Moving people is not as easy as that because we have culture, customs, land rights and connection to the land,” says the regent, Elisa Kambu.
Image copyrightAFP/GETTYImage captionPapuan women greet the motorcade of President Joko Widodo in Jayapura in 2015
President Widodo has visited Papua more than six times since his election in 2014, working hard to demonstrate Jakarta’s commitment to developing the province, prioritising infrastructure construction.
And in the wake of the crisis the government has vowed to invest more in health facilities across the remote area as well as schools.
Ruben Atap says he hopes one day his tiny niece will go to school.
“What do you hope she will do after that?” I ask.
He laughs nervously.
‘I don’t know what her future will be like, we are just trying our best to help her survive.”
Image copyrightJAMAL FAMILYImage captionMr Jamal has obtained two degrees and raised three children in the United States
A chemistry professor who has been in the US for more than 30 years is facing deportation for visa infringements, sparking a desperate battle waged by his family and his community in Kansas.
Almost every Sunday afternoon, 14-year-old Taseen Jamal and his two younger siblings would go to the local sports centre with their father, Syed Ahmed Jamal, to play basketball or soccer.
This Sunday, the three children spent their afternoon holding placards and marching in a rally to seek his release from a west Texas detention centre, where he is locked-up facing imminent deportation.
Mr Jamal, a 55-year-old Bangladeshi-born chemistry professor, was arrested on his front lawn nearly two weeks ago by immigration officials as he stepped out to drop his daughter to school in Lawrence, Kansas.
His wife and other two children rushed out but even before they could say goodbye, he was led away in handcuffs.
Image copyrightJAMAL FAMILYImage captionHis family fear he will be deported before they can say goodbye
An immigration court has temporarily halted his deportation in response to a motion to rescind and reopen the case but, according to his attorney, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has already filed its opposition to it and Mr Jamal’s future now hangs on the judge’s ruling that is expected any day.
“If it goes against him, Mr Jamal can be deported even before his family gets to know of it,” says his lawyer, Rekha Sharma-Crawford.
He has been moved from a detention centre in Missouri to a facility near El Paso, Texas, close to the border.
The attorney fears this has been done deliberately so that he can be moved out of the country within minutes, thereby depriving him of the chance to appeal any further.
“They have done it before and the families got to know of it only after they got a call from the home country,” says Ms Sharma-Crawford.
Now every night, the Jamal family goes to bed dreading this nightmarish scenario.
Image copyrightSHARMA-CRAWFORD
“I wonder whether he will be in the country when I wake up next morning,” says Taseen Jamal.
Syed Ahmed Jamal came to the United States in 1987 to attend Kansas University on a student visa and went on to obtain graduate degrees in molecular biosciences and pharmaceutical engineering.
Later, he worked on a H1B visa for highly skilled workers at the Children’s Mercy Hospital but transitioned again to a student visa to pursue a doctoral programme.
According to documents filed by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Mr Jamal overstayed his visa and was asked to leave voluntarily in 2011.
His failure to depart triggered an automatic deportation order.
Since 2012, the DHS had allowed Jamal to remain in the US on orders of supervision, meaning he had to report on a regular basis to ICE offices, where he was issued temporary work authorisation cards.
Image copyrightNICK KRUG/LAWRENCE JOURNAL WORLDImage captionWhile in the US Mr Jamal obtained degrees in molecular biosciences and pharmaceutical engineering
At the time of his arrest, he was on a temporary work permit, teaching chemistry as an adjunct professor at Park University in Kansas City and also conducting research at a few local hospitals.
His attorney says there are two legal issues which provide the court a way forward.
“The judge can agree that the underlying procedural defects undercut the validity of the order and he can also ensure that the protections given to those with a fear of return are honoured,” says Ms Sharma-Crawford.
“Under either scenario, the rule of law prevails,” she adds.
Mr Jamal belongs to the minority Bihari community in Bangladesh and his family fears that he could be targeted by extremists if he returns home.
President Donald Trump has advocated a sweeping overhaul of the immigration system emphasising a priority on removing immigrants who commit crimes in the US. But in the recent months, many undocumented immigrants without any criminal record have also been picked for deportation.
Mr Jamal has no criminal record beyond traffic violations, according to his lawyer.
“This is another American story turned into a nightmare by the current divisive climate regarding immigration. It sends a false message that immigrants are criminals and detrimental to America,” says Ms Sharma-Crawford.
Responding to a question on the reason for his arrest, an ICE official told OP’S News that they continue to focus on individuals who pose a threat to national security, public safety and border security but “ICE does not exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement”.
All three of Mr Jamal’s children – seven, 12 and 14 – are US citizens and his wife has a medical condition that limits her mobility, making him the sole provider for the family.
Image copyrightNICK KRUG/LAWRENCE JOURNAL WORLD
His deep ties to the local community has triggered a groundswell of support for him. A campaign to stop his deportation has now generated more than 90,000 signatures on petition website Change.org.
A community member, Mary Lingwall, left a comment on the petition site saying: “I am shocked and saddened.”
“Syed helped my elderly mother for many years. Syed is a great man, a very devoted family man and a valuable part of our community.
“I wish I knew what other things we can do to help.
“We have to pull together here. This cannot happen.”
Missouri Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II has written a letter to President Trump requesting him to release Mr Jamal from custody so that he can see his family and prepare for his court appearance.
Media captionJorge Garcia, brought to the US at age 10, says goodbye to his family.
“If Mr Jamal is deported, he will not only leave behind his US-based family but because of his faith and beliefs he could face persecution or death at the hands of extremists in his home country,” said Congressman Cleaver, who also went to see him at the Texas detention centre on Sunday.
Taseen Jamal spoke to his father on the phone on Saturday.
“He tried to make us feel better and asked us to stay strong,” he says.
“But he wasn’t able to hide from us what he is going through.”
More on US immigration
Media captionThe missing – consequences of Trump’s immigration crackdown
Image copyrightWEATHERFORD INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICTImage captionHeather Holland, 38, died from flu complications
A US school teacher has died from flu complications after deciding to forgo anti-viral medication because it “costs too much”, her husband tells US media.
Heather Holland, 38, had taught at a Texas school before her death last Sunday. She leaves behind a husband and two young children.
Her husband bought the Tamiflu medicine for $116 (£84) a day before she went to hospital, but it was too late.
Experts think the current flu outbreak may be one of the worst in US history.
“It just sounded like her throat was scratchy” at first, her husband Frank Holland, told the Wall Street Journal, before her symptoms worsened throughout the week.
Doctors prescribed medication, but she chose not to purchase it, according to her husband.
She was placed on dialysis on Saturday, but died on Sunday morning, he said.
“I have to be strong for the kids but it’s still surreal, it hasn’t all set in,” Mr Holland said.
“We’ve been together a long time, over half my life. She’s my best friend, my soulmate, my everything,” Mr Holland said.
A spokeswoman for the Weatherford Independent School District, where Mrs Holland worked, said that the school is mourning her loss and have been deep-cleaning school campuses since December.
Schools across the country have closed for decontamination as federal medical officials warn that this year’s flu strain is having a particularly deadly effect – especially on children.
Experts predict that the flu kills an average of 12,000 to 56,000 Americans every year, and expect the death toll to be in the upper end of that range this year.
All Americans are encouraged by officials to receive a flu vaccination, which remains the best method of prevention.
The family of a young Canadian indigenous man killed in 2016 are in Ottawa calling for justice system reform.
On Friday, a jury acquitted white farmer Gerald Stanley, 56, of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Colten Boushie, 22.
The case revealed underlying racial tensions in Canada.
“Justice for Colten” became a rallying cry for the protests that swept across Canada.
The verdict prompted condolences from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould.
Boushie was a Cree man from the Red Pheasant First Nation in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan.
The jury who delivered the verdict had no visible indigenous members.
His cousin, Jade Tootoosis, told journalists in Ottawa on Monday that representation on juries is among the issues the family is raising with members of Mr Trudeau’s Cabinet and other politicians.
“Some people state that race has nothing to do with this process, yet the defence felt threatened by an indigenous person being on the jury,” she said.
“I think that speaks volumes.”
Asked whether the lack of representation on the jury may have changed the outcome, she said: “It may have. But we’ll never know.”
In 2013, a former Supreme Court justice issued several recommendations to increase indigenous representation on juries in Canada.
On Monday, Mr Trudeau told parliamentarians that “we understand there are systemic issues in our criminal justice system we must address”.
GoFundMe campaigns have been launched in support of both Mr Stanley and Boushie’s family.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe met the family over the weekend and said there is a need for a “dialogue” on racism across Canada.
“We respect the decisions of the justice system and its independence, but as we move forward it’s incumbent on us as a government to have those very important, very challenging conversations with our aboriginal community here in the province,” he said.
He also said the province is taking steps to address concerns about an increase in rural crime.
What happened on 9 August, 2016?
Some of details as to what happened that night remain contested.
But around 5:30pm local time, Boushie and four friends drove onto Mr Stanley’s property near Biggar, a rural community about 100 km (62 miles) from Saskatoon.
Image copyrightCANADIAN PRESSImage captionGerald Stanley was acquitted by a jury in the shooting death of Colten Boushie
The friends had spent the day drinking and swimming in a nearby river.
After getting a flat tyre on their car, they drove on to a farm seeking help.
Mr Stanley and his son were working on a fence on the farm when they said they heard what they believed was one of their own vehicles starting up, and thought it was being stolen.
They both ran towards Boushie’s vehicle, an SUV. Mr Stanley kicked the taillight and his son hit the windshield with hammer.
The farmer said he also grabbed a handgun and fired off a couple of warning shots.
A third bullet hit Boushie in the back of the head, killing him.
After the shooting
The day after the shooting, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) released a brief media statement which said a gun was discharged following a verbal exchange.
The police noted that three of the people in the SUV were “taken into custody as part of a related theft investigation”.
The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, which represents 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan, criticised the RCMP release as providing “just enough prejudicial information for the average reader to draw their own conclusions that the shooting was somehow justified”.
Image copyrightREUTERSImage captionThe Boushie family will meet federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould
Racist vitriol and anti-indigenous sentiment bubbled up online in the wake of Boushie’s death.
A local councillor resigned after posting on Facebook that Mr Stanley’s “only mistake was leaving witnesses”.
The RCMP warned some of the online comments could be considered criminal.
Boushie’s family also said the RCMP mistreated them when they were informed of his death. They claimed the officers were insensitive and searched their home without permission.
Police also faced criticism they did not show due care in the investigation.
Critics pointed to, among other factors, the fact the door of the SUV was left open in the rain, leaving blood-spatter evidence exposed to the elements.
Meanwhile, farmers groups said they feel vulnerable due to a rise in thefts and property damage in recent years, and that police are not doing enough to protect them.
The trial
Mr Stanley’s trial began on 30 January.
Eric Meechance, who was in the SUV with Boushie, testified that one of the group tried to break into a truck on a nearby farm before they drove onto Mr Stanley’s property.
He said they were not there to steal but to fix the tyre.
Mr Meechance and another man fled the SUV during the altercation. He recalled hearing gunshots.
In his testimony, Mr Stanley says he grabbed the gun to scare off the group.
He said he removed the gun’s magazine after firing warning shots and that the gun just went off when he reached towards the SUV’s ignition.
He said his finger was not on the trigger.
Mr Stanley’s lawyer argued that the shot that killed Boushie was a “freak accident” caused by the gun’s malfunction.
The Crown dismissed the malfunction argument and maintained Mr Stanley carelessly handled the firearm.
The jury deliberated for about 13 hours before acquitting Mr Stanley.
Image copyrightYOUTUBEImage captionThe video shows hooded and armed men guarding two special agents
Two members of a special investigative police force who disappeared in Mexico a week ago have been shown in a video posted on YouTube.
The two agents from the Criminal Investigation Agency appear sitting in front of five masked men who force them at gunpoint to read a statement.
The armed men are believed to be members of the Jalisco New Generation cartel.
The cartel has been expanded rapidly and aggressively across Mexico.
Mexico’s Attorney General Raul Cervantes recently declared it the nation’s largest criminal organisation and it has been blamed for a series of attacks on Mexican security forces and public officials.
The two agents went missing on 5 February while they were on leave attending a family event in the western state of Nayarit.
There had been no trace of them until they were shown in the video uploaded onto YouTube on Sunday.
The statement they were forced to read out say that they are “in this situation because we don’t respect innocent families”.
The statement also alleges that since Pablo Navarrete become Mexican interior minister last month, the security forces were given the “green light” to torture, rape and kidnap women and children.
The statement is typical of a number of Mexican cartels which try to justify violent acts by alleging that they are protecting ordinary citizens from the actions of the security forces, which have been accused by human rights groups of carrying out extrajudicial killings, torture and forced disappearances.
The police said it would use all its resources to locate the two kidnapped agents.
Media captionBitcoin explained: How do cryptocurrencies work?
Three to four billion pounds of criminal money in Europe is being laundered through cryptocurrencies, according to Europol.
The agency’s director Rob Wainwright told the OP’S NEWS that regulators and industry leaders need to work together to tackle the problem.
The warning comes after Bitcoin’s value fell by half from record highs in December.
UK police have not commented to the programme.
Mr Wainwright said that Europol, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, estimates that about 3-4% of the £100bn in illicit proceeds in Europe are laundered through cryptocurrencies.
“It’s growing quite quickly and we’re quite concerned,” he said.
There many different types of cryptocurrencies but the best known is Bitcoin. They are intended to be a digital alternative to pounds, dollars or euros.
However, unlike traditional currencies, they are not printed by governments and traditional banks, nor controlled or regulated by them.
Image copyrightREUTERS
Instead, digital coins are created by computers running complex mathematical equations, a process known as “mining”. A network of computers across the world then keeps track of the transactions using virtual addresses, hiding individual identities.
The anonymous and unregulated nature of virtual currencies is attracting criminals, making it hard for police to track them as it is difficult to identify who is moving payments.
‘Money mules’
Mr Wainwright said: “They’re not banks and governed by a central authority so the police cannot monitor those transactions.
“And if they do identify them as criminal they have no way to freeze the assets unlike in the regular banking system.”
Another problem Europol has identified involves the method that criminals use to launder money.
Proceeds from criminal activity are being converted into bitcoins, split into smaller amounts and given to people who are seemingly not associated with the criminals but who are acting as “money mules”.
These money mules then convert the bitcoins back into hard cash before returning it to the criminals.
“It’s very difficult for the police in most cases to identify who is cashing this out,” Mr Wainwright said.
He said that police were also seeing a trend where money “in the billions” generated from street sales of drugs across Europe is being converted into bitcoins.
He called on those running the Bitcoin industries to work with enforcement agencies.
“They have to take a responsible action and collaborate with us when we are investigating very large-scale crime,” he said.
“I think they also have to develop a better sense of responsibility around how they’re running virtual currency.”
‘Too slow’
Although British police have yet to respond to requests from Panorama, Parliament is seeking to step up regulations.
The Treasury Select Committee is looking into cryptocurrencies and details of EU-wide regulations to force traders to disclose identities and any suspicious activity are expected later this year.
Alison McGovern, Labour MP for Wirral South who is serving on the committee, has been calling for an inquiry into cryptocurrencies.
“I think that will draw the attention of the Treasury and the Bank [of England] and others to how we put in place a regulatory system,” she said.
“I think probably hand on heart we have all been too slow, but the opportunity is not lost, and we should all get on with the job now.”
Image copyrightAFP/GETTY IMAGESImage captionMikheil Saakashvili led street protests against Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko
Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has been deported to Poland, Ukraine’s border service says.
It says the 50-year-old was in Ukraine illegally and therefore “was returned to the country from where he arrived”.
But his lawyer said the deportation was a “kidnapping”.
Mr Saakashvili was made a Ukrainian citizen in 2015, automatically losing his Georgian passport. He was stripped of his citizenship last July and officials now consider him stateless.
His Ukrainian citizenship was removed by his former ally, President Petro Poroshenko, after the two politicians fell out.
Mr Saakashvili is also wanted in Georgia on criminal charges, which he claims are politically motivated.
What does Ukraine’s border service say?
In a statement (in Ukrainian), it says Ukraine’s immigration officials and police on Monday informed Mr Saakashvili about a court decision to return him to Poland.
However, it says, unidentified supporters of Mr Saakashvili attacked the officials, who were forced “to defend themselves and use force”.
Mr Saakashvili was then – “in compliance with all legal procedures” – returned to Poland, the border service says.
Poland’s border service confirmed that Mr Saakashvili was now on Polish soil.
Earlier on Monday, Mr Saakashvili’s supporters posted a video which they said showed how unidentified men in camouflage detained the former Georgian president in a Kiev restaurant.
Mr Saakashvili’s lawyer Ruslan Chornolutsky said it was “a kidnapping and not a detention”, Reuters reports.
He said this was because any detention should be “based on either court decision or some other proceeding documents”.
This “was not the case”, he said.
What’s the background to Mr Saakashvili’s case?
Last September, a Ukrainian court convicted Mr Saakashvili of illegally crossing Ukraine’s border.
In January, another court rejected his plea to get refugee status.
Mr Saakashvili appealed against the decision – but lost the case earlier this month.
Is this a political case?
Ukraine’s authorities have repeatedly denied this, saying they have always acted in accordance with Ukrainian law.
But Mr Saakashvili and his supporters say the case is politically motivated.
Mr Saakashvili had led street protests in Ukraine, accusing President Poroshenko of failing to root out corruption and being corrupt himself. The president denies the allegations.
Media captionJonah Fisher watched as Mr Saakashvili’s car was surrounded by his supporters and Ukrainian police.
Mr Saakashvili, who also previously served as governor of Ukraine’s southern Odessa region, had been detained several times in recent months.
In December, he was memorably freed from a police van by his supporters, then re-arrested only to be released by a judge.
Image copyrightAFPImage captionMr Cassandri has admitted he took part in the robbery but denies money-laundering charges
A French gangster who wrote a book saying he masterminded the country’s “heist of the century” has gone on trial 42 years later.
It was carried out by a gang who spent months tunnelling from the sewers in Nice into a bank vault in 1976.
Jacques Cassandri, now 74, published his account eight years ago, when he could no longer be tried for robbery.
But he is being prosecuted for money-laundering – for which there is no statute of limitations in France.
The robbery at the Société Générale branch in Nice on the French Riviera has inspired several books and a major film.
Image copyrightAFPImage captionThe 1976 robbery is the stuff of legend in France
The gang used rubber rafts in the sewers, installing hundreds of metres of electrical cables for lighting, to reach the place where they dug an 8m (26ft) tunnel to the bank’s basement.
They broke into the vault during a weekend, went through almost 200 safety boxes and made off with 46 million francs – the equivalent of 29 million euros ($36m; £26m).
Pen name
Only one man was ever arrested for the robbery, Albert Spaggiari. He escaped in 1977, as he was about to be tried, and died in exile 12 years later.
While on the run, Spaggiari wrote a book confirming police claims that he was the mastermind.
But in 2010 when Mr Cassandri published his book under a pen name, investigators concluded that the author was in fact the leader of the gang.
They quickly identified Mr Cassandri – a well-known gangster in Marseille. He admitted to police that he took part in the robbery but has denied the money-laundering charges.
“This book is a novel, and a novel is not a piece of evidence,” a defence lawyer told AFP news agency.
Mr Cassandri says he only made the equivalent of 2m euros from the burglary and quickly spent it.
Prosecutors argue that he has continued to lead a lavish lifestyle on the proceeds.
KCNA
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