BBC News with David Austin
The United States has offered to send a letter to Afghan tribal elders admitting to past US mistakes in Afghanistan. The offer was made by the US Secretary of State John Kerry in a last minute effort to try to save a key security deal with Afghanistan. David Loyn reports from Kabul.
Months of negotiations will nearly derail by a late proposal from the Afghan side demanding that the future security deal should prevent US forces from entering Afghan homes. After a direct intervention on the phone from John Kerry, Mr. Karzai has accepted an offer that President Obama should write a letter acknowledging past mistakes in a requesting US forces should have the right to enter Afghan homes in the case only of urgent risk to the life of US soldiers. If it lets comes and the deal will be presented for approval to a Loya Jirga, a gathering of Afghan elders convenes on Thursday.
The American bank JP Morgan has agreed a record settlement of $13bn with US regulators for misleading investors during the housing crisis. It's the largest settlement ever between the US government and cooperation. The bank has acknowledged that it had made serious misrepresentations to the public. JP Morgan was under investigation for selling risky mortgage securities to investors who were unaware for the securities often contained flawed mortgages. The US government has helped it pave the way for the financial crisis five years ago.
A double suicide bombing of Iranian embassy in the Lebanese capital Beirut has killed more than 20 people and wounded almost 150. A Lebanese Sunni group linked to al-Qaeda said it was behind the attacks. Jeremy Bowen has more.
The attack in Beirut is the latest sign that Syria's war continues to seep across its borders. The most dangerous force in the Middle East of the moment is religious sectarianism and extremism. The attack on the embassy is being seen that contacts to cross the region. Syria's ruling family the Assads are Alawite's members of a Shia Muslim sect, most the armed rebels and all the al-Qaeda link groups fighting the regimes are Sunnis. Lebanon has many religious and family connections with Syria and similar sectarian divisions. It's becoming another front in the civil war.
The roof of a shopping mall in South Africa has collapsed killing one person about 50 others are trapped under the rubble. Rescue operators are using sniffer dogs to local survivors. Richard Hamilton has this report.
The shopping mall was under construction and those still trapped inside are building workers, cheap labor in South Africa means it is not uncommon to see hundreds of construction workers on building sites. Some of those have been rushed to hospital and have been described as suffering from massive traumatic injuries. Photos taken of the scene show large slaps of concretes, and twisted metal line on the grounds, almost as if the building had been hit by an earthquake.
World News from the BBC
A war crimes court in Bosnia says it has freed 10 convicted Bosnian served war criminals following a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that their legal right have been violated. They will all be retried. Relatives of the Srebrenica victims said the decision to release the men was shameful.
The Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says he believes the row over his country's nuclear program can be resolved, and world powers should seize the current opportunity to do so. He was speaking in a video message posted on YouTube.
This past summer, our people chose constructive engagement through the ballot box, and through this, they gave the world a historic opportunity to change course. To seize this unique opportunity, we need to accept an equal footing and choose a path based on mutual respect and recognition of the dignity of all people's.
Meanwhile, the British Prime Minister David Cameron has telephoned Iran's President Hassan Rouhani ahead of a new round of talks in Geneva over Iran's nuclear program. In a statement, Mr. Cameron's office said he was the first British Prime Minister to contact in Iranian leader in more than a decade.
Russian aviation experts have explained the pilot of a Boeing 737 jet for a crash in the city of Kazan on Sunday that killed all 50 people on board. Investigators say after rebooting their first attempt to land, the pilots carried out a manoeuvre that caused the plane to lose speed and going into a dive. The aircraft operated by Tatarstan Airlines was arriving from Kazan from Moscow.
India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has opened the country's first state-owned bank for women in the city of Mumbai. The Bharatiya Mahila Bank will employ women and almost of its customers will be women. The bank aims to open branches all over India in the coming years including in villages. The aim is to educate woman financially and help them start their own businesses.