BBC News with Sue Montgomery
Russia has urged Syria to put its chemical weapons under international control and have them destroyed to avert US-led military strikes. Bridget Kendall reports on the international reaction.
Russia’s diplomatic initiative to put Syria’s chemical weapons beyond reach seems to have taken the world by surprise. It was instantly welcomed by the Syrian foreign minister, though he did not confirm that Damascus would accept. The French foreign minister said it worth scrutinising. The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was considering asking the UN Security Council to call for Syria’s chemical arms stocks to be moved to sites where they could be destroyed. And the Obama administration said though it remained sceptical, it was prepared to give the idea a hard look. It said the campaign to try to persuade Congress to vote for military action would continue.
A commission of lawyers looking into the death of the former United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold has recommended that the UN reopen its investigation. Mr Hammarskjold’s plane was travelling to Congo on a peace mission in 1961 when it crashed in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia. A UN investigation in 1962 failed to find the cause of his death. Some experts believed the plane was shot down. The commission said there was significant new evidence to merit the inquiry being reopened.
Voting in parliamentary elections has just finished in Norway. Exit polls indicate the centre-right opposition led by Erna Solberg’s Conservative Party is on course to win. She may need the support of the anti-immigration and anti-tax Progress Party in order to form a government. Lars Bevanger reports from Oslo.
These have been the first parliamentary elections since the 2011 terror attacks on Norway’s Labour government and a Labour Party youth camp. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was praised for the way he led the country through that crisis. Helped by Norway’s vast oil and gas revenues, his government has also overseen strong growth. Yet these polls suggest Mr Stoltenberg is being pushed out by a centre-right coalition. After eight years of Labour rule, voters here say they want change.
The deputy president of Kenya, William Ruto, has arrived in The Hague to stand trial of the International Criminal Court. Mr Ruto and President Uhuru Kenyatta are accused of orchestrating violence which followed the presidential election of 2007, charges they deny. Mr Ruto’s lawyer, Karim Khan, denounced the case brought by the ICC.
“You’ll hear tomorrow at the opening of this case what a lamentable shambles the prosecution’s investigation has been-- a parody of justice, and unfortunately it can only be described as a whole-scale duping of an office that has been put in place to protect the rights of victims.”
BBC News
The Chilean opposition leader and former president, Michelle Bachelet, has called for a full investigation into human rights abuses committed during Gen Pinochet’s government. Mr Bachelet, who was tortured and forced into exile during the military rule, led an opposition ceremony to mark the 40th anniversary of the coup which brought the general to power. An official ceremony was boycotted by the opposition.
Emergency workers in central Guatemala say at least 30 people died when a bus plunged 200m down a hillside and into a river. More than 40 people were injured. The accident happened in the mountainous municipality of San Martín Jilotepeque, which mainly has dirt roads that wind through steep mountains.
A previously unknown landscape painting by Vincent van Gogh has been identified by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Sunset at Montmajour had spent years in a Norwegian private collector’s attic after he’d been told the work was not by the Dutch master. After using new research tools, a team of experts worked for two years to authenticate it. Teio Meedendorp was one of the team.
“There wasn’t one Eureka moment. It’s a succession of moments. You are ticking all the boxes. You work methodically. You check the paint, the canvas, try to get the origin right. And it turned out all those pieced together very well. A succession of moments and the puzzle gets more complete.”
Several thousand supporters of the anti-government campaigner Alexei Navalny have held a rally in Moscow to protest against the outcome of the city’s mayor election. Official result showed the pro-Kremlin incumbent Sergei Sobyanin won with 51% of the vote. Mr Navalny polled 27%. He’s alleged the election was rigged. Moscow’s electoral commission has rejected his demand for a recount.