BBC News with Marion Marshall
The United Nations Children’s Fund, Unicef, has warned that the Central African Republic, which has been torn apart by violence since a coup last year, is heading for a humanitarian disaster. The UN says severely overcrowded camps and poor water and sanitation are a deadly combination for children. Paul Wood is at a refugee camp at Bangui international airport.
The stark evidence of the Central African Republic’s deepening crisis greets you as soon as you land. As many as 100,000 people are camped out by the airport; rows of plastic sheets and makeshift shelters pressed right up against the runway. A month ago, only a few thousand people were here, but then violence in the capital Bangui escalated. Almost half the city has now fled. The airport camp is entirely made up of Christians. People told us that the mainly Muslim Seleka militia had gone house to house killing young men. But the Christians have done their share of killing too and aid workers worry that Christian groups are gearing up for revenge attacks.
Thousands of people are fleeing from the rebel-held town of Bentiu in South Sudan ahead of an expected assault by government forces. From Bentiu, Alastair Leithead.
Along every road, people are on the move. Shops have been shut and boarded up, and entire families are walking south with whatever possessions they can carry as government troops are approaching Bentiu. Much of the fighting has been well away from the rebel-held city, but the frontline suddenly appears to be collapsing into the town. Troops, heavy weapons and at least one tank were seen withdrawing and there were reports that government troops were within 25km of Bentiu compared to 40 at the start of the day.
A young girl, who police in Afghanistan say was detained trying to carry out a suicide attack, has appealed to President Hamid Karzai to find her a new home. The girl, who according to officials is ten years old, says it was her brother who tried to use her as a suicide bomber and if she were to be sent home, the same would happen again.
An inquest in London has concluded that the fatal police shooting of a man, which sparked riots across England, was lawful. The jury reached its conclusion by a majority decision. Mark Duggan was shot in 2011 by police officers who said he was armed and dangerous. But outside the court, the Duggan family solicitor, Marcia Willis Stewart, criticised the verdict.
“The jurors found that he had no gun in his hand and yet he was gunned down. For us that’s an unlawful killing. As you can see the family are in a state of shock and we would ask that you respect, respect their shock.”
A police spokesman attempted to read a statement outside the court, but his words were drowned out by angry protesters.
BBC News
Prosecutors in Germany have charged an 88-year-old man over an infamous Nazi massacre in France during the Second World War. The man is accused of taking part in the murder of 25 people in a barn in the village of Oradour-sur-Glane as well as complicity in the killing of several hundred people including women and children in the village church. The man’s lawyer said he was in the village at the time, but had nothing to do with the killings.
Police and protesters have clashed in Tunisia for a second day in the country’s poorest region. Eyewitnesses said protesters angry at a new tax on vehicles tried to storm the offices of the governing Islamist party in the town of Kasserine. Police used teargas to drive them back.
The White House says President Obama has invited the German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Washington, offering the chance to mend relations following revelations that US intelligence had been monitoring her mobile phone. In a telephone conversation, Mr Obama also wished the chancellor a swift recovery after she fractured her pelvis skiing in Switzerland before the New Year.
Plans by the British government to make it illegal to be annoying in public have been defeated in the upper house of Parliament-- the House of Lords. Government ministers said the change was designed to help people tackle nuisance neighbours, but members of the House of Lords who voted against it argued that it could be used to stifle legitimate protest. Here’s James Landale.
The aim is to give the police and local authorities an alternative to anti-social behaviour orders that will be easier to impose. But many peers said the new injunction would undermine freedom of speech and association. They said the definition of annoying or nuisance behaviour was too wide and the burden of proof too low. They said as a result, the new powers could be used against buskers, nudists, noisy children, street preachers, trick-or-treaters, even church bell ringers. James Landale reporting