BBC News with Jerry Smit
The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres says that it’s quite clear from the evidence Syrian doctors have seen that people were exposed to a neurotoxin in a Damascus suburb last Wednesday. Christopher Stokes, the charity's director in Brussels told the BBC the medical staff treating the victims had also succumbed to the effects, one doctor had died. MSF said 350 patients had died, one in ten of those treated. Mr. Stokes also said MSF can't say who was responsible for the attack.
“Independent inspectors would have to go into establishing both the agent was used and also who would be responsible. Something for which MSF is not confident to determine but it’s quite clear that a major event did take place using neurotoxic agents from all the evidence that we’ve been able to collect so far.”
Syrian state television has made new allegations saying that government soldiers have found chemical agents in tunnels used by the rebels to the east of Damascus. Syrian TV showed images of gas masks and plastic containers with the words made in Saudi Arabia stamped on them.
Tens of thousands of people in Washington have been commemorating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's ‘I have a dream’ speech, a key moment in America's civil rights campaign. Doctor King’s son, Martin Luther King III told the rally that his dream of equality has still not come true. He highlighted the case of an unarmed black teenager who was shot to dead by a neighborhood watch volunteer as he walked home last year.
“The vision preached by my father a half century ago was that his four little children would one day live on a nation where they would not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. However, sadly, the tears of Trayvon Martin's mother and father remind us that far too frequently the color of one's skin remains a license to profile, to arrest and to even murder with no regard for the content of one's character.”
Thousands of anti-riot officers have been deployed across Colombia as protest by farm and agricultural workers spread further. Some 200,000 farmers have blocked dozens of roads leaving the central province of Boyaca cut off. Our Latin America editor Vanessa Buschschluter reports.
The strike entered the sixth day on Saturday, sparking fears that the residence of the capital Bogotá could face shortages of basic goods. Hundreds of thousands of coffee and potato growers, dairy farmers and lorry drivers have been barricading major highways across the country. The protesters accused the government of President Juan Manuel Santos of failing to put in place concrete action to help the farming and agricultural sectors. The Interior Minister said that many of the demands were just but that violent protests would not bring about solutions.
World News from the BBC
Hundreds of people have taken to the streets of Goma in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo to protest against ongoing fighting between United Nations forces and M23 rebels. At least three people were killed when a residential neighborhood of the city was hit by shelling which the UN has blamed on the rebels. On Friday, UN troops launched an offensive against the M23.
Gunmen have kidnapped a prominent human rights lawyer in southern Nigeria. Chief Mike Ozekhome was abducted on Friday in Edo state. He's been a staunch critic on government corruption in the country. Colleagues have appealed for his release.
More than 2,500 US firefighters are battling to gain control of a fast moving wildfire on the edge of California's Yosemite National Park. Forestry and Fire Protection officials say mountainous terrain is hampering efforts to control the blaze which is burning largely on check to over an area of 50,000 hectares. From Los Angeles Alistair Leithead reports.
The so-called Rim Fire has burnt an area almost the same size as San Francisco. The city now under a state of emergency because threats to electricity transmission lines, hydroelectric power stations and water supplies. The fire is closing in on a reservoir which provides drinking water to millions of people. The blaze has spread over the boundary of the Yosemite National Park where millions of tourists visit each year. Thousands of people have been warned to leave their homes as firefighters and aircrafts dropping flame resistance powder are trying to create lines that the blaze can't cross.
The government in Egypt has shortened a widely imposed night curfew in response to demands from citizens. The month-long curfew imposed in the wake of the unrest that followed the ousting of President Mohammed Morsi will now begin two hours later at 9pm local time, although on Fridays when protests usually take place, it will start at seven.
And that's the BBC News