BBC News with John Jason
Thousands of South Sudanese youths loyal to the rebel leader Riek Machar are reportedly marching on its strategic town of Bor. Government troops in control of Bor have retaken it from the rebels. The youths are part of an ethnic Nuer militia, known as the White Army, because the white ash they put on their skin to protect them from insects. James Copnall reports from Juba.
The government believes the White Army is supporting their fellow Nuer, the rebel leader Riek Machar. Army deserters loyal to Machar,took and then lost Bor earlier this month. The UN Spokesman told the BBC he couldn't independently confirm the government's claim. However the UN peacekeepers will be carrying out aerial reconnaissance missions and hope that to clear a picture by the end of the weekend. At the time when there was concerted international call for the fighting to stop when new clashes or the rumour of them can have wide-reaching consequences.
Student supporters of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to have fought with the police on the campus of the prestigious al-Azhar university in Cairo. One student was killed. Police made 100 arrests and confiscated makeshift weapons including patrol bombs. From Cairo, here's Bethany Bell
The standoff between the Egyptian authorities and the Muslim Brotherhood is deepening. On Christmas Day, the military-backed interim government raised the stakes when it declared the group a terrorist organization. The move gives the security forces greater powers to crackdown on the Brotherhood. But the violence and the protest continue. Today,clashes broke out at al-Azhar university. State-run media say security forces fired teargas to disperse pro-Brotherhood students who were stopping their classmates from sitting their exams.
The authorities in Croatia have charged a pharmaceutical company and 364 people, most of them reportedly doctors with rigging the drugs market. They've been charged with bribery, abuse of power and corruption. Here's Piers V
In a statement, the national Croatian anti-corruption agency Uskok said there was clear evidence that senior managers at the pharmaceutical company of Farmal have bribed a network of doctors and pharmacies across Croatia to prescribe the company's drugs. Reports from Croatia suggest that the bribery was so extensive that the country's health system would have collapsed if all of the doctors allegedly implicated in the scandal had been sacked.
The main Shiite opposition movement in Bahrain,al-Wefaq says its leader Ali Salman has been arrested. It's not clear he's been charged with any offence. al-Wefaq won 18 seats in the last election in 2010. But its members resigned from the 40-seat parliament the following year in protest of a crackdown by the Sunni authorities on pro-democracy demonstrators from Bahrain's Shiite majority.
World News from the BBC
Iraqi security forces have killed 6 people in a violent confrontation during the arrest of a Sunni member of parliament who's backed anti-government protests. Fighting broke out at the home of Ahmed al-Alwani in the western city of Ramali reportedly when his bodyguards and relatives tried to protect him. Hundreds of armed supporters are said to have rallied outside his house after he was taken away.
The Norwegian warship involved in a mission to collect Syria's chemical weapons has left the Cyprus's port of Limassol. A representative from the International Chemical Weapons watchdog,the OPCW indicated that the 31st of December deadline to remove the most dangerous chemicals is unlikely to be met. The BBC's Anna Holligan is on board the Norwegian frigate.
Shifting battle-lines and road-closures caused by bad weather appeared to be the main causes of the delay. The 630 ton cargo must be delivered to the Syrian port of Latakia for collection. It's a 300 km drive north of Damascus. Opposition forces are known to be active along key parts of that routes. Over the next few days, the Norwegian crew will conduct training exercises at the sea as they've prepared to protect the cargo ships when they do receive that order to proceed to port.
Prosecutors in western Mexico say they found 5 decapitated bodies on the outskirts of Morelia. Three corpses were found near a bridge with their heads placed next to them. The bodies of two more them recovered at a plaza. The authorities in the region say they suspect criminals from the Jalisco Nueva Generacion drug cartel.
Hundreds of people are trying to board emergency flights out of the Central Africa Republic to neighboring Chad. Fighting in the Central African Republic has intensified in recent weeks between Christians and Muslims despite the presence of 1,600 French peacekeepers and nearly 4,000 African Union troops deployed to protect civilians.