BBC news with Jerry Smit.
A Yemeni government website says that the deputy leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has been killed. The Ministry of Defense website said the army killed Said Ali al-Shihri in southern Yemen when government forces have been fighting Islamic extremists for months. Frank Gardner reports.
According to the Yemeni government, the second most senior al-Qaeda operative in the country was killed last Wednesday in a government operation to target militants in the eastern region of Hadramawt. Other unconfirmed reports, though, suggested that Said al-Shihri was killed along with six other militants by a missile fired from a non-man CIA drone. Al-Shihri was a Saudi national who was released by the US from Guantanamo Bay prison five years ago into a Saudi government deradicalization programme. But he later crossed into Yemen to join al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
The most high-profile defector from Syria, so far, has told the BBC that France helped him escape from his homeland. When speaking in Paris where he has taken refuge, Manaf Tlas warned that the Syrian government would not hesitate to use chemical weapons if it felt it had to.
If Syrian regime is subjected to more pressure, it could resort to using chemical weapons. But in limited areas, said that it wouldn't backfire . But the regime can use chemical weapons. Surely, they can use them. This is a strategy of someone who does not see how is killing his people and how is reacting to the crisis. The regime can use anything if they use tanks and war planes against civilians. What would keep them from using anything else? I did not join the military establishment to kill my people in this way. Mr. Tlas, so, has said he was against foreign intervention.
Officials in Northwest Pakistan say 12 people have been killed in a car bomb attack. The bomb exploded close to a busy market in the town of Parachinar in Kurram in Pakistan's tribal areas. A local official said 45 other people were injured in the blast. Pakistan's military has also carried out a series of operations against militant groups in the region.
The Somali parliament has elected Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as the country's new president.Mr. Mohamud, who is immediately sworn into office, is a moderate Islamist university lecturer.He won the majority votes in the second round run-off against the incumbent. Here is Mary Harper.
There was celebratory gunfire in the Somali capital Mogadishu as the news broke that the country had a new president. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud represents something different for Somalia. He is relatively new to politics and isn't associated with the violence and corruption of the past. But he faces massive challenges. First, he will have to deal with the powerful politicians who lost.Then he has to try to reunite the country torn apart by two decades of civil conflict, much of which is controlled by a militia linked to al-Qaeda.
World news from the BBC.
There is growing speculation about the whereabouts of China's leader in waiting Xi Jinping after he cancelled another meeting with the foreign visitor, the fourth such cancellation in a week. Foreign ministry official said last week that Mr. Xi would meet the visiting Danish Prime Minister but now denied the meeting / ever scheduled. Mr. Xi is expected to be appointed China's new leader at the Communist party congress next month. No explanation was given for his failure to meet the American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and delegations from Russia and Singapore last week.
Police in Mexico say they have found the bodies of 16 men inside an abandoned van by a roadside in the western state of Guerrero. A local prosecutor said all the bodies had multiple bullet wounds. Police believed the 16 men who are yet to be identified could be the victims of an ongoing turf war between two drug cartels, the Michoacan Family and the Knights Templar.
The Canadian government says it has begun the process of revoking citizenship from more than 3,000 people who it says obtained it fraudulently. The government action follows a three-year investigation into immigration fraud. From Toronto, here is Lee Carter.
Canada's immigration minister Jason Kenney told the reporters at a news conference that immigration cheats will be stripped of Canadian citizenship or residential status. Mr. Kenney said that in most cases the applicants had paid dishonest brokers up to $25,000 to fraudulently obtain their citizenship. And that most did not actually live in Canada. Most of those caught in the sweep were wealthy individuals who, he said, sought Canadian citizenship to have access to free healthcare, subsidized university education for their children and to use the country as a safe haven if necessary. Mr. Kenney said a total of 11,000 individuals may have obtained the Canadian citizenship improperly.
BBC news.