BBC News with David Austin.
Egypt's main opposition coalition, the National Salvation Front, has called for renewed mass protests on Tuesday against the draft constitution put forward by President Mohammed Mursi. It also strongly reiterated its rejection of the referendum on the draft, planned in less than a week's time. Jon Leyne in Cairo has more.
In a statement, the opposition National Salvation Front said that holding a referendum now in the absence of security reflected haste and the absence of responsibility, and it risked pushing the country towards a violent confrontation. The president himself has ordered the military to maintain security and to protect state institutions in the run-up to the referendum. That's a move that will raise fears that the country is moving back towards a military rule not long after the handover to a civilian government.
The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has denied that Russia is holding talks on the fate of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad or that his country's position on the situation in Syria has altered. He was speaking ahead of a new round of discussions on Syria in Geneva. Mike Wooldridge reports.
Mr. Lavrov said the Americans have begun to suggest that Russia was softening its position. No such thing, he said, Russia was not conducting any negotiations on the fate of President Assad, and all attempt to portray things differently were unscrupulous. He said the priority was to end fighting, not discuss the fate of one man. Despite this, Mr. Brahimi said that at today's official-level talks, there was an agreement that it was still possible to find a political solution to the crisis. He also said the situation in Syria is bad and getting worse.
Fighting is continuing in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli between supporters and opponents of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Six people have been killed and at least 40 wounded in clashes today. Since last Tuesday, 19 people have died in the fighting. The violence is putting Alawis, to which the Assad family belongs, against Sunni Muslims.
Riot police in Ghana have fired teargas at more than 200 opposition supporters protesting outside the headquarters of the Election Commission in the capital, Accra. The incumbent John Dramani Mahama is reported to have a slim lead over the opposition candidate Nana Akufo-Addo. Here is our Africa editor Richard Hamilton.
Police and soldiers have cordoned off the headquarters of the Electoral Commission to prevent any further protests. Inside the building, the Commission has been holding an emergency session to decide how to deal with the allegations of frauds. The opposition accuses the ruling party of massaging the voting figures, all of this increasing the pressure on the electoral body to announce the results. Since the 1990s, Ghana has been considered a model of democracy. No other West African country has had so many elections deemed free and fair. But now that reputation seems to be hanging in the balance.
World news from the BBC.
Exit polls from the Romanian general election are indicating a landslide victory for the governing center-left coalition led by the Prime Minister Victor Ponta. His alliance, looked set to have secured well over 50% of the vote, with the center-right opposition trailing with about 20%. The prime minister and the center-right President Traian Basescu have been locked in conflict since the attempted impeachment of the president in July. But analysts say that even with Mr. Ponta's strengthened mandate from voters, the confrontation looked set to continue.
The British astronomer, writer and broadcaster, Patrick Moore, has died at the age of 89. Sir Patrick, who introduced millions to the study of the universe, presented the monthly BBC program, The Sky at Night. It was first broadcast in 1957, making him the longest-running presenter of the same television show in the world. The second man to walk on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, says Sir Patrick was an inspiration.
Astronomy has just grown through leaps and bounds, and it's people like Patrick who've been able to put it into prospective, (that) help ordinary people understand the enormity of the universe. Buzz Aldrin.
A private jet carrying the Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera is missing. The Mexican authorities said Mrs. Rivera's Lear jet had disappeared from radar screens about 100 kilometres from Monterrey, where she had been performing. Six other people were also on the plane. Mrs. Rivera was born in California to Mexican parents. She's sold more than 15 million records of Norteno music.
The Argentine footballer Lionel Messi has broken a 40-year-old record for the greatest number of goals scored in a calendar year in all competitions. Messi, who plays for Barcelona, scored twice in a Spanish League game against Real Betis, to beat the German Gerd Muller's record of 85 goals, which was set in 1972.
BBC News.