BBC News with Sue Montgomery
Tokyo has been chosen to host the 2020 Olympic Games, beating bids from Istanbul and Madrid. The decision was announced in Argentina after secret ballot of members of the International Olympic Committee. The head of the committee, Jacques Rogge, made the announcement.
“The International Olympic Committee has the honour of announcing that the games of the 32nd Olympiad in 2020 are awarded to the city of Tokyo.”
The final vote was 60 to Tokyo and 36 to Istanbul. The BBC’s Alex Capstick was in Argentina to hear the result.
Tokyo have won the right to stage the games in 2020. They were considered the favourites in the build-up to this vote and they put in a very strong performance their presentation today. They dispelled those doubts about Fukushima-- the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe certainly helped with that. The Princess Takamado must have also been a factor in that victory. But the Tokyo delegation leaping to their feet, giving each other hugs. It was-- they are in tears, some of them. It was a passionate, passionate performance from them today.
The Australian Liberal National Coalition has swept victory in the country’s general election. In his victory speech, its leader Tony Abbott told supporters he would deliver a competent new government.
“A government that says what it means, and means what it says; a government of no surprises and no excuses; a government that understands the limits of power as well as its potential; and a government that accepts, that will be judged more by its deeds than by its mere words.”
Conceding defeat, the Labor leader Kevin Rudd announced he would be resigning as party leader.
The US Secretary of State John Kerry and the French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius have spoken of their determination to respond to the use of chemical weapons in Syria last month. Mr Kerry said the United States and France were not talking about going to war, but discussing limited military action aimed at degrading the Syrian authorities’ ability to use chemical weapons. He said the world mustn’t make the mistakes it did in the run-up to the Second World War.
“This really is the Munich of our generation. It is time to hold people accountable, not to appease them. We cannot stay indifferent in the face of this massacre.”
Tens of thousands of people have gathered in the Vatican to pray for peace in Syria. Pope Francis called for reconciliation and peace in Syria, saying that war was always a defeat for humanity.
World News from the BBC
The Italian coastguard says it’s rescued more than 700 people in the last two days from boats carrying migrants and refugees. Here’s Alan Johnston.
This is the time of year when Italians expect to see migrants landing on their southern shores. In the summer months, the seas are calmer and more people attempted to take their chance in rickety boats setting out from North Africa in search of better lives in Europe. Vessels land in Italy almost every day, but the numbers coming over the past 48 hours have been particularly high. Many of these people were from Nigeria, Ghana and Eritrea.
Protests in Brazil have disrupted Independence Day celebrations in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The protesters were demanding better public services.
The Indian opposition party, the BJP, has asked the government in the southern city of Pondicherry to provide schoolgirls with overcoats to prevent them from being sexually harassed. It’s the latest suggestion about how to combat sexual violence against women in India. As Joanna Jolly reports:
In a statement, a local party secretary of the BJP said sexual harassment was a particular problem in government schools and that all teenage girls should be given overcoats for protection. He also suggested that students should be given the chance to make anonymous complaints if they felt threatened. The brutal rape and murder of a Delhi student last year and a rise in the number of reported sex crimes in India has (have) led to the introduction of new laws. But some leaders have been criticised for focusing on women’s behaviour rather than changing the attitudes of men.
The Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has begun handing out compensation to those living in camps for the internally displaced. Hundreds of thousands of Kenyans were displaced by violence that followed elections in 2007.