BBC news with Marion Marshall.
Egypt's top judges have called an immediate strike against President Mohamed Mursi's decision to assume sweeping new powers, accusing him of mounting an unprecedented attack on their independence. Courts and prosecutors had to suspend their work in protest. Egypt’s ousted attorney general, Abdel Maguid Mahmoud, appeared at a packed meeting of judges and lawyers, his first public appearance since President Mursi's decree.
Leaving aside the legitimacy of the constitutional declaration that the present issued on November 21, this declaration aims to disable the judicial system.
As the judges were meeting, riot police used tear gas to disperse crowds gathered on the streets outside. There were also demonstrations by supporters of President Morsi. The opposition leader Mohamed elBaradei has called for peaceful protests until the president rescinds the decree.
African regional leaders have urged rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to stop hostilities. At the end of a summit in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, they called on the M23 rebels to withdraw from the regional capital Goma. Rebel leaders also met the Congolese President Joseph Kabila in order, they said, to open negotiations on Sunday. Richard Hamilton Reports.
A spokesman for the M23 rebel said they had met President Kabila and would hold peace talks on Sunday. The African heads of state attending the summit had urged Mr. Kabila to address the rebel's grievances. These are thought to include issues such as tackling the Hutu militia in DR Congo and repatriating Congolese Tutsis from Rwanda. Rwanda is considered to be the key player in the region and has been accused of backing the rebels, a charge it denies.
The president of Mauritania, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who was shot and wounded by one of his own soldiers six weeks ago, has returned to the country for the first time since the incident. Thousands of supporters lined the road between Nouakchott airport and the presidential palace to welcome him back. The president, who has been receiving medical treatment in France, has described the shooting as an accident.
The British government has described as indefensible a local council’s decision to remove three children from the care of their foster parents because of their political views. The Education Secretary Michael Gove said the Rotherham Council had taken the wrong decision in the wrong way for the wrong reasons. Here is Daniel Boettcher.
The three children were placed in foster care with the unnamed couple by Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council. It is now looking into why within eight weeks that placement was stopped. The foster parents with almost seven years’ experience say a social worker came to tell them the children were being removed because the couple were members of the UK Independence Party. The council said there was no issue about the quality of care but UKIP's views on immigration have to be taken into account.
You’re listening to the latest world news from the BBC.
The Lebanese army says it has arrested five Syrians after they were found with explosives in the southern town of Nabatiyeh. As suspected of plotting an attack on Shiites Muslims during a religious procession on Sunday, it’s the latest sign that the civil war in Syria is spilling across the border into Lebanon. Correspondents say many of Lebanon Sunni Muslims sympathize with the Syrian rebels while the Shiites turn to back President al-Assad.
The former world champion boxer Hector 'Macho' Camacho has been pronounced dead days after he was shot in the head in his hometown in Puerto Rico. James Read reports.
In a career spanning three decades, Hector 'Macho' Camacho fought some of the biggest stars of world boxing, including Oscar De La Hoya and Sugar Ray Leonard, a left-hander known for his flamboyant skill and aggressive style. He won world titles in three different weight classes. He was also known for his troubled life outside the ring which included drug problems and a conviction for burglary. His death in a drive-by shooting has shocked Puerto Rico where boxers are venerated as national heroes.
Negotiators from Columbia’s largest rebel group, the FARC, say they are highly optimistic about peace talks currently underway in the Cuban capital, Havana. The rebels denied the reports that the atmosphere between them and Colombian government negotiators was tense. But they did accuse the Colombian Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon of trying to sabotage the talks. They also repeated their call for the release of one of their commanders who is in jail in the United States.
The editor of an Irish newspaper has resigned following its publication of photographs showing Prince William’s wife Catherine sunbathing topless. Mike O'Kane was suspended from his post at the Irish Daily Star in September. Its co-owner, Richard Desmond, has threatened to close down the paper after it published the pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge sunbathing on a holiday in France.
BBC News.