BBC News with Charles Carlo
Nelson Mandela’s wife Graca Machel is at his hospital bedside in South Africa where the former president has been treated for a recurring lung infection. She accompanied him as he was transferred to the unnamed medical facility in Pretoria in the early hours of Saturday morning. Mr. Mandela who is 94 years old is breathing unaided. He remains in the serious but stable condition. Karen Allen has more from Pretoria.
We understand having spoken to his spokesman Mac Maharaj, the spokesman for the president that he is still in a serious but stable condition. A lot of press gathered here, media gathered here as you can imagine. He’s had visits from members of his family. But as we understand at the moment, President Jacob Zuma who is been conducting business in the Eastern Cape will remain there. He’s been told people only come back on the instructions of doctors.
President Obama has completed a two-day meeting in California with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. The two men talked about finding common ground on a wide range of issues including the economy, cyber security and climate change. Our North America editor Mark Mardell is in Palm Springs where the meeting took place.
They ended with a relaxed stroll in the garden and they extend to the media comment that the word get from either the two men was shouted ‘terrific’ when President Obama was asked how it was going. I will get a briefing which we haven’t had yet on the details. But I don’t think that anybody expected a new accord, a new firm agreement or anything that may be advances in certain areas but I think it was about establishing the basis for a new relationship that may end up with a sort of agreements in the end. But I think it’s much more talking about how the issues might progress.
As some news just in, a spokesman for the Chinese President said the summit with President Obama was very wide ranging and candid including on the issues of cyber security and climate change. He said China emphasized the importance of maintaining world peace and said the two countries wanted to forge a new model relationship.
The army in the Libyan city of Benghazi says 11 people have been killed and more than 50 injured in clashes between protesters and a militia backed by the defense ministry.
State radio in Sudan says President Omar al-Bashar has ordered a halt to the transit of oil from South Sudan through his country. Mary Harper reports.
State radio said President al-Bashar would from Sunday completely close the pipeline. Oil only started flowing again from South Sudan a few weeks ago after the two countries agreed to withdraw troops from their troubled border area. Both countries suffered terribly during the stoppage which lasted more than a year. Ninety-eight percent of South Sudan’s revenues come from oil. Sudan’s economy also shrank. The two neighbours haven’t got on since South Sudan became independent two years ago at times coming close to all-out war.
World News from the BBC
A senior politician from the Turkish governing party has ruled out the possibility of holding early elections after nine days of anti-government protests. The deputy chairman of the Justice and Development Party Huseyin Celik said that a change in the schedule was out of the question. Mr. Celik was speaking after a meeting of the Party’s executive committee following nationwide protests. Fresh rallies have been held in Taksim Square in Istanbul and the capital Ankara.
Syrian government forces backed by Hezbollah fighters have retaken control of villages around the town of Qusair. Syrian state television showed images of shattered empty streets in Bouweida, the last village to be recaptured. Rebel fighters retreating from the area have taken refuge across the border in Lebanon. Jim Muir is monitoring events from Beirut.
The loss of the Qusair corridor is a major blow to the rebels, depriving them of an important supply route from the Lebanese border to opposition forces in central Syria. Its recapture is part of a broad government campaign to cut supply routes from all directions and drive the rebels back from the outskirts of Damascus where just a few months ago they seemed poised to a final push on the city’s center and the seat of the regime’s power. That now seems a distant prospect.
Prosecutors in Mexico say they think the disappearance of 12 youngsters from Mexico City bar two weeks ago was linked to gang rivalry. The twelve were reported missing after they failed to return home from a visit to the Heaven bar. Surveillance footage shows some of the missing being led to cars outside the bar two at a time. There is no obvious sign of force and the men do not seem to be carrying weapons. But a friend of the missing said that the motive was warfare between two rival drug dealing gangs in Mexico City’s Tepito neighbourhood.
Tennis and the American Serena Williams has won the French Open title beating Maria Sharapova 6-4, 6-4 in the women singles. It’s the world No.1's second success in the tournament and her 16th grand slam victory.