BBC News with David Austin.
Ukrainian security forces have started moving in against opposition parties and anti-government protesters, there have been reports of cyber attacks on media outlets. The US Vice President Joe Biden has called President Viktor Yanukovych to express his deep concern about the growing potential for violence. Mr. Yanukovych earlier said he was ready to start talks with the pro-European opposition. Steve Rosenberg is in Kiev.
According to a spokesperson for the Fatherland Party, armed men in masks broke into the organization's headquarters; they reportedly ceased computer service before leaving the building. Fatherland is the party of the jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko, and it's been at the forefront of the anti-government protests. There were far more police in the city center, a sign that Ukrainian authorities are trying to restore their control.
Reports from Moscow say a number of high-profile detainees could be included in an amnesty that will coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution. Daniel Sanford reports from Moscow.
The amnesty under which over 20,000 people could be cleared of minor crimes has been announced to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution. President Putin has put drafted proposals before the Duma, the parliament and they are expected to be passed before the end of the year. Izvestia, a newspaper with strong links to the Kremlin now claims the announce as a yet unconfirmed report that among those who will be freed are the two women from the punk group Pussy Riot who were controversially jailed last year for dancing and singing a political protest song in a Moscow Cathedral.
The US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has announced that America will provide logistical support to the French-led operation to stop the spread of the sectarian violence in the Central African Republic. He's approved a request from France to use US military transport planes to take troops from Burundi to work alongside African peacekeepers. The French force and the Central African Republic has begun to summon in militia groups and it briefly came under fire in the capital Bangui.
South African government has released the list of who will speak on Tuesday's memorial service for Nelson Mandela. From Johannesburg Mike Wooldridge has this report.
President Obama will give the first of the leaders' tributes to Nelson Mandela; other tributes will be given by the presidents of Brazil, Namibia, India and Cuba, and Vice President Li Yuanchao of China. The list will seem to be designed to represent along the line of foreign policy stance of the new South Africa, and the gratitude for Cuba's historic support of liberation movements in Africa. Nelson Mandela's grandchildren will also pay public tribute to him as well as fellow Robin Island prisoner Andrew Mlangeni, one of his closest friends and most faithful visitors until the end of his life. Mike Wooldridge reporting.
World News from the BBC.
The Iranian Foreign Minister has warned that the recent breakthrough deal on his country's nuclear program would be at risk if the US Congress imposes new sanctions. In an interview with Time Magazine, Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran didn't like to negotiate under duress and the entire deal would be dead even if any new sanctions were not put into effect for six months.
Inspectors from the United Nations nuclear agency had visited in Libya this month to check its stockpile of uranium amid concerns about the deteriorating security situation. The UN special representative to Libya Tarek Mitri told the Security Council that 6,400 barrels of processed uranium ore, known as 'yellow cake' were stored at a former military base in the south of the country under the control of an army battalion. Mr. Mitri said inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency would verify the stockpiles and the conditions of the storage.
A collection of native American masks has been sold at an auction house in France, despite protests from activists and an appeal from the United States. The Hopi tribes say the masks which were taken illegally from a reservation in Arizona represent their ancestors' spirits and should not be sold as merchandise. A French lawyer for the Hopi tribe, Pierre Servan-Schreiber said the sale was yet another act against Native Americans.
I'm convinced that eventually the people of France, including the auctioneers and collectors will realize that they simply can't do that to our people; you cannot after having massacred them two centuries ago, after having parted them in reservations one century ago, after having pretty much deprived them of the right to work normally last century, denied to have deprived them of what is at the heart of their culture. At some point, this is gotta stop. The auction which is the second this year raised $1.6m.