BBC news 2011-08-20
BBC News with David Austin
The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has visited the Somali capital Mogadishu, promising to open an embassy to help distribute aid to the victims of severe drought in the Horn of Africa. Mr Erdogan also announced that Turkey would rebuild the road to Mogadishu airport, restore a hospital, build schools and drill water wells. And he expressed regret that despite the suffering of the people of Somalia, no other country appeared to have a visible presence there.
"We were deeply saddened by the situation of the children in the two camps we visited. We are here to hear your voice more closely. We are here with our ministers, deputies, businessmen, businesswomen, artists and NGOs. We want to let the world know about your situation with this visit. Actually this is not a problem of Turkey; this is a problem of humanity."
Mr Erdogan's visit was the first by a leader from outside Africa in almost 20 years.
The International Organisation for Migration says it's planning an operation to evacuate thousands of foreigners from the Libyan capital Tripoli as fighting gets closer to the city. The rebels say they've launched a new assault on the town of Zlitan, east of Tripoli. Imogen Foulkes reports.
The IOM said it is working on an evacuation plan from Tripoli, but it will be an extremely challenging operation politically as well as logistically. The most likely option is an evacuation by sea, but to get evacuees safely onto ships will almost certainly require the agreement of all those fighting around the city, and that may be difficult.
A Colombian peace campaigner and former senator, Piedad Cordoba, has left the country after receiving death threats. Ms Cordoba has negotiated the release of a number of hostages held by the left-wing rebel group, the Farc, but the Colombian government accused her of helping the rebels. Vanessa Buschschluter reports.
Piedad Cordoba is a controversial figure in Colombia, an outspoken advocate for peace talks with the country's left-wing rebel groups. She has in the past managed to convince the Farc to unilaterally release some of its hostages. But her negotiations with the rebels have also earned her sharp criticism, especially when she conducted some of them without the government's blessing, a move for which she was banned from public office for 18 years. It's not the first time she's been threatened, but her lawyer said this time she received information about an imminent plan to kill her.
The government of Zimbabwe has given foreign companies a 14-day ultimatum to submit plans for the transfer of majority stakes to local owners or risk losing their operating licences. State media said 13 companies - including the mining group Rio Tinto, British American Tobacco and foreign banks, such as Barclays and Standard Chartered - have been told to transfer 51% of their operations to local people.
World News from the BBC
Police in northern Nigeria say suspected members of a radical Islamist group have killed three policemen and a civilian. The men were watching television at the home of one of them when the gunmen burst in and opened fire. Police blame the attack on Boko Haram, a group responsible for killing security officers, local leaders and clerics in northern Nigeria.
Activists in Syria say the security forces have killed at least 20 people as thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets, despite President Assad's assurance that military operations had stopped. They said most of the deaths were in Deraa province. Jim Muir reports from Beirut.
This was one of several suburbs of the capital Damascus where demonstrations broke out after Friday prayers and were met with gunfire from security forces. At least two people were reported killed in the suburbs, more in Homs - the country's third biggest city. But the majority of the killings, according to activists, were in three towns close to the city of Deraa, in the far south, where the uprising began five long months ago. The government had a different version of events. It said that gunmen opened fire in several places both on worshippers and on security forces, killing at least two policemen.
Egypt has made a formal protest to Israel over the deaths of five Egyptian security personnel on Thursday. They were killed as Israeli forces pursued militants who'd carried out attacks near the Egyptian border leaving eight Israelis dead. Cairo has urged Israel to investigate the deaths. The Egyptian army is leading its own inquiry into the incident, which has sparked anti-Israeli protests in Cairo.
The start of the Spanish football season this weekend will be delayed after negotiations to prevent a strike by players failed. Many players, mostly in the second division, haven't been paid for months as clubs face severe financial difficulties. They are demanding greater protection for their wages.
That's the BBC News.