BBC News with John Jason
At least 10 people have been killed in the Egyptian capital Cairo during pitched battles between supporters and opponents of the deposed President Mohamed Morsi. Gavin Lee sent this report a short time ago.
The situation has calmed slightly. What happened a short while ago was the both sides converged. The supporters of Mohamed Morsi were waving Egyptian flags, coming down the 6th of October Bridge here. Then all of a sudden a small group of anti-Morsi supporters ran towards them and suddenly threw stones, bricks and had makeshift barricades with them. They were prepared for something to come. And then the number spiralled and basically there were just running pitched battles here, people picking up whatever they could find-- bricks, bottles, broken bits of paving slabs and bits of wooden sticks as well. This went on for half an hour. It didn’t quite get towards Tahrir Square and a short while ago, the army and five tanks just came through October 6th Bridge split the both sides of supporters and it got (a) huge rapturous cheers here by all of the supporters of the army against former President Mohamed Morsi.
Earlier at least three people were killed near a military base in Cairo where the army fired on demonstrators. Shooting by protesters was also reported. There’ve also been clashes in several other cities including Alexandria.
The Malian army says its troops have reached the rebel-held northern town of Kidal to secure it for a presidential election due to be held at the end of this month. Alex Duval Smith reports from Bamako.
A spokesman for the United Nations mission in Mali confirmed that about 200 Malian soldiers and police had reached Kidal. Earlier in the day, Tuareg rebels occupying the town had returned to barracks. They’ll be banned from patrolling there in the lead-up to elections on the 28th of July. The Malian army was chased out of Kidal by rebels last year. Their advance backed by Islamist militants prompted France to send troops to its former colony earlier this year.
The anti-secret website Wikileaks says the fugitive American intelligence analyst Edward Snowden has applied to a further six countries for asylum. Mr Snowden, who’s believed to have taken temporary refuge in the transit areas of Moscow airport, has already asked 21 other countries for asylum.
Portugal’s coalition government appears to have survived a political crisis that threatened it with collapse as the country struggles to fulfil its tough international bailout conditions. A government spokesman says the Prime Minister Passos Coelho has reached an agreement with his centre-right coalition partner and Foreign Minister Paulo Portas, who earlier this week handed in his resignation. Details will be released on Saturday when the coalition partners meet. The deal has to be approved by President Cavaco Silva.
Reports are coming in of a bomb attack at a Shiite mosque in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Officials say 15 people have been killed and more than 30 injured. The attack occurred on Friday evening during prayers. Earlier a car bomb exploded in Samarra, killing four people.
World News from the BBC
Several thousand people have taken to the streets of the Chadian capital N'Djamena to celebrate the arrest of their former President Hissene Habre. Demonstrators waved placards with pictures of those who were killed when he led the country in the 1980s. On Tuesday a special tribunal in Senegal charged him with war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture.
The Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has launched his campaign for re-election. Zimbabweans are due to vote at the end of the month, five years after the last elections ended in bloodshed. Andrew Harding reports.
"This is a do-or-die struggle.” Mr Mugabe told a crowd of supporters in Harare today. “Go into battle well-armed.” And “battle” may be the right word. Despite his rivals’ attempts to delay it, the election seems set for the 31st of July. Mr Mugabe and his Zanu PF party are forging ahead without agreeing to any of the key security, media and electoral reforms demanded by regional mediators. There are also allegations that the electoral role has been badly compromised with analysts warning the vote may not be free or fair or peaceful.
Morocco’s Islamist-led government has presented a new plan to promote women’s rights. Richard Hamilton has more details.
Morocco’s minister for women, Bassima Hakkaoui, is a prime mover behind these new proposals. Originally her party, the Islamist PJD, rejected the plan when in opposition, but then changed it to exclude legalising abortions when it came to power two years ago. Morocco’s new constitution also guarantees equality between men and women, but there’s still only one female government minister.
In tennis, Britain’s Andy Murray has reached the men’s singles final at Wimbledon for a second consecutive year. He beat Jerzy Janowicz from Poland in four sets in the semi-final. Murray will play the No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic in the final on Sunday.