BBC News with Iain Purdon
The outgoing Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, appointed last year to prevent Italy coming to the Eurozone debt crisis will head an alliance of centrist parties in the country's upcoming elections. At a news conference, Mr Monti said he would prepare to lead a coalition supporting his reform agenda. David Willey reports from Rome.
Mr Monti who resigned earlier this month after 13 months in office, as head of the government of technocrats has now clearly thrown his head into the political ring in the general election due to be held at the end of February. After talks with leaders of the Center parties, Italy's former European commissioner made it clear that he will seek a second term. The election will be a three-way race between the Democratic Party, leading the polls at the moment, Silvio Berlusconi's Freedom Party which is trailing for other hand, and Mr Monti's center grouping which observers say could attract up to 15% of the vote.
President Obama has begun meeting Congressional leaders at the White House to try to reach a last minute deal to prevent the US falling off what's been dubbed the fiscal cliff. But there is growing doubts that the trigger for hundreds of billions of dollars in automatic tax rises and spending cuts can be avoided before the deadline of new year's day. From Washington here's is Zoe Conway.
There is increasing pessimism in Washington that the American can be safed from going over the fiscal cliff. Many people believed that Democrats and Republicans are too far apart on taxes and spending to reach a deal. And there is concern that apparent lack of urgency. The House of the Representatives is not backing session until Sunday night. The senate is open for business but it's not debating the fiscal cliff.
The Burmese government has announced that the private newspapers are to be allowed for the first time in decades, it follows the abolition of direct government media censorship in August. Our Southeast Asia correspondent Jonathan Head reports.
In a country with a rich intellectual past where electronic entertainment is still very basic, there is a great deal of printed material for sale in Burma. There are around 180 weekly magazines now filled with disgraced comment on Burma's political changes, but daily newspapers are still a state monopoly, that would change, according to a statement from the Information Ministry. From Februray next year, any Burme citizen can apply to publish a daily paper in any language.
Washington says it deeply regrets Russia's passing over a controversial law which bans Americans from adopting Russian children. The State Department said it was a political motivated decision which would reduce adoption possibilities for orphans. The measure signed into a law via President Putin, is a part of Moscow's retaliation against the American legislation that impose sanctions on Russian officials accused of human rights violations.
World News from the BBC
Doctors treating an Indian woman who was gang raped in Dehli earlier this month say her vital signs are deteriorating. The doctors at a hospital in Singapore where she's been treated at the Indian government's expense said there were signs of severe organ failure. They say her families are by her side.
The Main opposition party in Ghana has filed a petition at the Supreme Court challenging the results of this month's presidential election which was won by incumbent John Mahama. Our African editor Mary Harper has this report.
The opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo said he had gone to court because of what he described as a mind-blowing evidence of electoral fraud. His party says there were problems with some 1.3 million votes enough to affect the overall outcome of the poll. The election observers, however, describe the poll as free and fair. The last time Mr. Akufo-Addo fought presidential election in 2008, he conceded defeat even though he lost by just one percentage point. Ghana is considered as one of the most stable democracies in Africa.
A judge in Chile has ordered the arrests of eight former army officers over the murder of a well-known left-wing singer Victor Jara, who was brutally killed days after the 1973 coup led by General Pinochet. The folk singer and political activist was arrested hours after the coup and taken to a stadium in Santiago where he was tortured and killed. Victor Jara's body was found days later in the streets of the Chilean capital with 44 bullet wounds.
Elderly parents in China are being given the right to sue their children if they don't visit often enough. The national legislature has amended laws to try to give some protection to old people who feel they are being neglected in a country with a rapidly aging population. Chinese children could face legal action if they don't visit often enough, although there's no guidance as to how often that should be.
BBC News.