BBC News with Nick Kelley
Activists in Syria have detailed what they are calling two massacres by government forces and Alawite militia. The Activists say they've documented the killing of nearly 150 people in Sunni Muslim areas of Baniyas and al-Bayda since Thursday. Unverified mobile phone footage posted on the internet shows the corpses of women and children. As BBC's Jim Muir now reports.
An activist records himself on the mobile phone as he searches through a house in the dark. He finds 20 bodies including nine of children. Oh, God, he says, a pregnant mother and her baby and her five children. The video shows the bodies of children and women huddled together in death. We can't independently verify this and a stream of other videos posted on the internet by activists. But they appear to boast of their claims that government forces and the allied, Alawite militia known as the Shabiha murdered many Sunni civilians including entire families at close range after overrunning the village of al-Bayda on Thursday and Sunni quarters of nearby Baniyas yesterday.
Results have been released from the first elections in Iraq since the departure of US troops in December 2011. The provincial polls put the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s State of Law coalition in first place in 7 of the 12 provinces that voted last month, notably in Baghdad and oil-rich Basra in the South. The Sunni dominated Iraqiya bloc suffered poor results picking up no more than three seats in any of the provinces.
A curfew has been imposed in part of the central Nigeria state of Taraba after 39 people were killed in clashes between Christian and Muslim youths. Tensions have been high in the town of Wukari since February when a dispute over a football pitch set off sectarian riots. From Lagos Will Ross reports.
The violence began as a funeral procession was underway for the burial of a traditional ruler. The mourners were from the Jukun ethnic group which is predominantly Christian. When they were passing through a largely Muslim part of the town, some eyewitnesses said they started chanting provocative slogans and young men fought each other. In Wukari, the Jukun and Hausa Fulani communities are in dispute over who are the original inhabitants of the town, and therefore who has the right to own the land.
At least two Malian soldiers have been killed and several people injured in a suicide bombing in northern Mali. A Malian army spokesman said a patrol was targeted near the city of Gao. One report said there as many as five suicide bombers were involved.
Police in Britain have arrested a senior member of the governing conservative party on suspicion of rape and sexual assault. Nigel Evans who is the deputy speaker of the Lower House of parliament is been questioned about alleged attacks on two men in their twenties.
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Officials with the US-led international force in Afghanistan say seven American soldiers have been killed in two separate incidents. Afghan officials say five of them were killed in the south of the country when their armed vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Kandahar Province. Earlier this week, three British troops were killed by a roadside bomb in the neighboring province of Helmand.
The Equal Opportunities Minister in the new Italian government has been removed from her post after criticizing homosexuals. David Willey in Rome has this story.
Only a day after she was sworn in, Michaela Biancofiore, the junior minister for equal opportunities and a member of Silvio Berlusconi's Freedom party is forced to step down from her new job. She'd made homophobic remarks which received widespread coverage in the Italian press. She accused gay associations of withdrawing into ghettos and protecting only their own interests. Ms. Biancofiore who says she is opposed to same sex marriage but supports civil unions was hastily reassigned to another ministry.
A top Brazilian football club has asked its supporters and players to abandon an internet campaign encouraging them to pose as Taliban fighters and to post the photos online. In an official statement, the Club, Fluminense said the campaign glorifies terrorism. Leonardo Rocha has more.
The campaign began soon after Fluminense's bitter defeat on Thursday. The Ecuadorian club Emelec were given a controversial penalty in the final minute of Copa Libertadores and won the match 2-1. Fluminense supporters went on Twitter to ask fans and players to show their warrior’s spirit for the second leg of the tie. Several players including Brazilian international Fred have joined the ‘Be a Taliban warrior’ campaign. The club has now issued the statement denouncing the campaign and telling the fans that Taliban are not warriors, they are terrorists.