BBC News with Sue Montgomery
The United States says it will accelerate sales of military equipment to Iraq to help the country fight militants linked to al-Qaeda. The move came as fighting continued in the city of Fallujah which was taken over last week by the militants. But the White House Spokesman Jay Carney stressed that the Iraqi government would take the lead role and provide it its own security.
“We are accelerating our foreign military sales deliveries and are looking to provide an additional shipment of Hellfire missiles as early as this spring. These missiles are one small element of that holistic strategy. So this is I think representative of the comprehensive package of assistance that we're providing to Iraq, in this effort which obviously ,they are leading and government is responsible for carrying out.”
The Islamists who have taken over Fallujah say they will target tribal fighters who've joined forces with the army in the nearby city of Ramadi. In a statement obtained by the BBC, the self-styled Military and Political Council of Revolutionaries in Fallujah called on all Sunni tribes in the western province of Anbar to rally behind them in their fight against the Shia-led government. The insurgents also urged thousands of families who've fled Fallujah fearing a major army assault to return to their homes.
The government of South Sudan is holding its first direct talks with rebels who've broken away from the national army causing three weeks of deadly violence. The talks began in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. * reports.
After several force attacks, the tonic negotiating teams today finally sat down together and discussed how the talks would proceed. But the real work starts on Tuesday when the attack of mock tissues issues that are preventing the talks how to implement a ceasefire and the release of political detainees. Both teams have publicly announced support for a ceasefire and access to humanitarian assistance for the thousands displaced by the fighting. But there has been at odds of the release of senior position figures who are arrested when fighting broke out in mid-December.
The Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has insisted her country will deliver a successful football World Cup later this year. Her comments on Twitter follow criticism from the head of football's world governing body FIFA, Sepp Blatter who said Brazil was further behind in preparations than any previous World Cup host. Wyre Davies reports.
Mr.Blatter's comments have angered many Brazilians including the President Dilma Rousseff. She talked to social media sites insisting that Brazil will deliver the the Cup of Cups and the tournament will make the country proud. For many Brazilians ,the World Cup is already a lost opportunity. Millions of dollars of public money have been spent to build the new stadiums,and many of the promised infrastructure projects that were meant to accompany the tournament were also be late and wouldn't be delivered at all.
BBC News
The United Nations and its chemical weapons watchdog have ordered all non-operational staff including journalists to leave the international mission collecting key parts of Syria's chemical arsenal. Journalists including a BBC correspondent were given one hour to pack their bags before being transported by a Norwegian navy speedboat to the port of Limassol in Cyprus. The watchdog said an immediate blackout would be enforced for a few weeks due to the sensitivity of the operation.
A court in France has awarded 45,000 euros in damages to a Guinea-born man who has wrongly jailed for 5 months because he has the same name as a convicted child rapist. Mohamed Camara was arrested in 2001 under an international arrest warrant issued against his namesake who has been sentence to 20 years in prison in his absence.
An American woman who called herself “Jihad Jane”has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for a failed plot to kill a Swedish artist. Colleen LaRose is a convert to Islam admitted planning to murder the artist because he had depicted the Prophet Mohammed's head on a dog. Nada Tawfik reports
Colleen LaRose told the judge she had been in a trance thinking about she had from mourning to night but that she did not want to be that way any more. She admitted to associating with the suspected al-Qaeda operatives online and recruiting others to wage violent attacks in the name of Jihad.Colleen LaRose faced the life in prison for that and her plot to kill Swedish artist Lars Vilks. But the judge accepted a government request to reduce her sentence because she gave an information that was instrumental in multiple criminal investigations including two significant terrorism cases.
An American team of archaeologists in Egypt has identified the tomb of Pharaoh Sobekhotep I which believed to have found the 13th dynasty 3,800 years ago. The team discovered this sarcophagus a year ago,but it's only now managed to identify it.