BBC News with Jerry Smit
The closing ceremony of the 2012 Paralympics is taking place in London. Based on the theme of the four seasons, acrobats and dancers have been performing to live music from the band Coldplay. In a spectacular 'festival of fire' at the Olympic Stadium, the organizers say the ceremony is an emotional farewell to what has been the most successful contest in the history of the Games. Angus Crawford reports.
Drummers and acrobats, flame-throwers and motorbikes – all performing to the sound of Coldplay; thousands of competitors seated on the infield – what a close-up view of an extraordinary closing ceremony. Dancers and musicians from Brazil will perform later to look ahead to the arrival of the Games in Rio in four years time.
France's Socialist President Francois Hollande has announced what he called a two-year recovery plan for the ailing French economy.Facing criticism from both left and right, and hemorrhaging support in the opinion polls, Mr Hollande said his government was lowering its growth forecast for the coming year and tightening up on spending.Hugh Schofield reports from Paris.
President Hollande has come under growing criticism in France that he's a ditherer. He used his interview to try to refute the charge. Two years is the timescale he set himself to, in his words, 'put France back on its feet'. He promised that reforms to the labor and social security systems would be agreed by the end of this year; and on the key question of the yawning budget deficit, he announced what he said was the biggest program of tax rises and spending cuts in half a century – a third will come in lower public spending, a third in corporate tax increases, and a third will by born by households, especially those at the top end of the income scale.
A court in Iraq has sentenced the fugitive vice-president Tariq al-Hashemi to be hanged after finding him guilty of murder. The case has sparked a crisis in the power-sharing government. From Baghdad, Nahed Abouzeid.
Baghdad's central criminal court condemned Mr Tariq al-Hashemi in absentia when it was in proceedings after a break for the Islamic Eid holiday. The victims included a female lawyer and an army intelligence officer. They were all killed in execution-style shootings using guns with silencers and in broad daylight.Mr al-Hashemi refuses to return to Baghdad to stand trial , claiming the entire affair as a political ploy to eliminate him from the political equation.
A day of violence across Iraq has left more than 90 people dead and at least 100 others wounded. The worst violence was in the capital Baghdad where mainly Shia suburbs were hit by a series of car bombs. Many the attacks have been sectarian .
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At least ten people have been killed in a car bomb explosion in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. Syrian state television showed pictures of destroyed buildings and rescue workers pulling people from the rubble. It's thought that the number of casualties could rise.
The army in Mali says it has shot dead 16 people in the central region of Segou after their vehicle failed to stop at a checkpoint. Mali has been divided in two following a military coup in March with the north controlled by Islamists. Mary Harper reports.
Officials say the vehicle continued to move even after warning shots were fired by Malian troops. Some of the dead are reported to be Islamic preachers from Mauritania who're on their way to a religious conference in Mali. It's possible that the Malian soldiers mistook the occupants of the vehicle for Islamist fighters who control vast west of the north. But the incident happened in Segou – far away from the areas controlled by the Islamists.
Hong Kong citizens have voted in an election that could help boost plans to introduce full democracy in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory. The election followed weeks of protest that pushed the government to abandon its plans to introduce mandatory classes on Chinese patriotism in schools. For the first time, more than half the seats in the legislature are being directly elected with the rest chosen by different economic interest groups.
The runner-up in Mexico's presidential election, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has said he will not recognize Enrique Pena Nieto as the country's legitimate president. Speaking to thousands of his supporters in Mexico City, he called for a civil disobedience movement and said the campaign must be peaceful. Mr Lopez Obrador accused Mr Pena Nieto of buying millions of votes in the July poll. The Mexico's Electoral Court said there was no evidence of irregularities.
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