BBC News with Marion Marshall
The exiled Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky has been found dead at his home near London. He was 67. Mr. Berezovsky made a vast fortune in the 1990s after the breakup of the Soviet Union. From Moscow, Steve Rosenberg
He was by training a mathematician. And as the Soviet Union lurched towards disintegration, Boris Berezovsky moved fast to make money and gain influence in the new Russia. He sold cars; he bought a stake in Russia’s main TV channel, in the national airline too and in oil company. Crucially he became a member of the close in a circle of the ailing Russian President Boris Yeltsin and there he was able to exercise considerable power in Yeltsin’s Russia. But in Putin’s Russia there was no room for oligarchs with political muscle. Boris Berezovsky fell foul of the Kremlin and fled to London.
Rebels in the Central African Republic are reported to be fighting running battles with government troops in the northern suburbs of the capital Bangui, days after resuming their uprising against President Francois Bozize. A spokesman for the rebel Seleka coalition said its forces were heading for the presidential palace. Richard Hamilton reports.
The rebels say they’ve shot down an attack helicopter which had been supporting the government forces. People are said to be sheltering in their homes, many in the darkness since the rebels reportedly took out a power station providing electricity to parts of the city. A local United Nations official in southern Bangui said people were in the state of panic. Earlier some UN staff who were trying to leave were stopped at the airport. South Africa has sent 400 soldiers to support President Bozize who returned to Pretoria on Friday where he was meeting President Jacob Zuma.
The president of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades has said he hopes a deal to secure an international rescue package for the country’s banks would be made soon. Negotiations with European Union, IMF and European Central Bank officials have continued throughout the day with the main sticking point being the size of a levy to be imposed on Cypriot savers. Andrew Walker reports from Brussels.
In the statement the European commissioner Olli Rehn says there are only hard choices left but help from the EU he said can help minimize the economic damage. The Euro Zone is offering a ten-billion euro loan while insisting on extra cash from Cyprus itself. It’s struggling to agree how to raise that money but appears to be moving towards some sort of contribution from bank’s customers. Exactly what form that will take is still undecided. But it’s likely to put more of the burden on customers with balances over 100,000 euro.
France says it can confirm the death of one of the most senior commanders of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Abou Zeid. He was reported to have been killed last month by French-led troops in northern Mali. And the French presidency says DNA tests have now made it possible to identify Abou Zeid formally.
World News from the BBC
The American Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following talks with the Palestinian president in a bid to revive the stalled peace process. The meetings follow President Obama’s four-day visit to the region during which he urged the two sides to return to the negotiating table.
Syrian officials have attended the funeral of the country’s most prominent Sunni cleric Shepherd Mohammed al-Bouti who was assassinated in a bombing on a mosque on Thursday. Mourners carried his coffin draped in white to the Umayyad Mosque, a site near the grave of one of the Islam’s most revered leaders Shaykh Adi. The decision has provoked angry response from opposition activists.
The former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says he isn’t worried by Taliban’s threats to kill him when as planned he returns to Pakistan from self-imposed exile on Sunday. Speaking in Dubai, General Musharraf said the Taliban had long tried and failed to kill him but added that he was taking appropriate precautions because his safety couldn’t always be guaranteed. From Dubai, Orla Guerin reports.
On the eve of his planned homecoming, the Pakistan Taliban had a message for General Pervez Musharraf. They said a squad of suicide bombers and snipers had been assembled to send him to hell. The threat came from a militant who tried to assassinate him in the past. The threat from militants is just one risk facing General Musharraf who seized power in a coup in 1999. He is wanted in several legal cases.
Archaeologists in Mexico say they’ve uncovered three ancient playing fields at a pre-Hispanic site in the eastern state of Veracruz. They believe the fields which date back around 1,000 years would have been used to play pelota, a ball game in which players use their hips to propel a rubber ball through stone hoops.