BBC News with David Austin.
Almost 200 nations at UN climate talks in Qatar have agreed to extend until 2020 the only legally-binding agreement for combating global warming, the Kyoto Protocol. The treaty had been due to expire at the end of this month. Roger Harabin reports.
There were cheers from delegates for the Qatari chairmen, a former head of the oil cartel OPEC. He emerged as an unlikely hero when he ruthlessly crushed a Russian attempt to delay the conference in a wrangle for better terms. It's been a long fortnight with diplomats tiding up remnants of the existing Kyoto Climate Protocol to clear the path for negotiations on a new deal binding rich and poor nations alike in tackling climate change that's due to be signed by 2015. One landmark move was an agreement acknowledging the need to recompense poor nations for irreparable damage.
The former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has confirmed he will attempt to return to power at the general election to be held next year. Allen Johnston reports.
Over the last few days, it became clear that Mr. Berlusconi would be attempting a comeback and now he's confirmed it. Speaking to reporters in Milan, he said he was returning to the frontline of party politics out of a sense of responsibility to the country. However, Mr. Berlusconi's many opponents will see his effort to return to power in a cynical light. They will argue that he is simply intent on staying in the political game in order to be able to defend his personal business and other interests.
The Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti says he plans to resign. He's told President Giorgio Napolitano he no longer feels he has the confidence of parliament after Silvio Berlusconi’s Freedom People Party withdrew its support from his government earlier this week. Mr. Monti has been heading a non-partisan and technocratic government for a year.
The Egyptian military has warned of disastrous consequences if the rival political forces there fail to resolve their differences through dialogue. Military sources later stressed that this did not mean that the army would intervene to take power.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have given a rapturous reception to the leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, at a celebratory rally in Gaza to mark its 25th anniversary. Yoland Knell was there.
Khaled Meshaal has just appeared on the stage in front, is accompanied by the Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh and other members of the senior leadership. It's an unprecedented sight in the Gaza Strip, almost a who's who of Hamas.
And the speeches to mark the 25th anniversary of Hamas were an uncompromising restatement of its founding goals, a denial of Israel's right to exist and a commitment to armed struggle. But Mr. Meshaal also called for an end to the damaging division between Hamas and its political rivals in the Fatah faction headed by the moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
That is the BBC.
The Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has called a Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai a remarkable girl and a credit to his country. He's speaking during a visit to a hospital in Britain where she's been receiving specialist medical care since October. Malala Yousufzai was shot in the head by the Taliban in an attempt to silence her campaign to promote women's education in northwest Pakistan.
The former South African President Nielson Mandela has been admitted to hospital in Pretoria. The office of the current President Jacob Zuma said Mr. Mandela was doing well and there was no cause for alarm. Andrew Harding reports from Johannesburg.
The 94-year-old veteran of South Africa's struggle against Apartheid is undergoing tests at a hospital in Pretoria. There is no information yet about what prompted his admission today. The presidency said only that Mr. Mandela would receive medical attention from time to time consistent with his age. It's almost two years since Mr. Mandela's unexpected hospitalization with a respiratory infection triggered a major health scare. In February of this year, the presidency warned public in advance that Mr. Mandela was undergoing abdominal surgery.
North Korea says it might reconsider the schedule for a planned rocket launch. Earlier this week Pyongyang said it would carry out a long-range rocket test between the 10th and 22nd of December after a similar test failed in April. No specific reasons for a possible postponement have been given, but experts say preparations for the launch may have been delayed by a heavy snowfall.
Polls have finally closed in Ghana after voting was extended into a second day because of technical problems. A new biometric system based on electronic fingerprints suffered breakdowns and caused delays. President John Dramani Mahama, who replaced the late John Evans Atta Mills after his death in July, is competing against his main rival Nana Akufo-Addo. Opinion polls have predicted a tight race.
That's the BBC News.