BBC News with Fiona MacDonald
Ukrainian police have used teargas, smoke bombs and water cannons against tens of thousands of anti-government protesters in Kiev. Demonstrators gathered earlier to hear opposition leaders denouncing a new anti-protest law. Daniel Standford is in central Kiev.
What started as one of the regular Sunday protests in Kiev has descended into clashes since chaos. The weekly rallies against the government's decision to halt its progress towards the European Union took on a new twist this week, when President Yanukovych signed into law a series of new measures. This made many of the pro-European demonstrators' actions illegal. This evening, the frustration boiled over,part of the protesters are throwing rocks and molotov cocktails at police. The officers are throwing * and choking gas back.
A day before the planned election of an interim president, the Central African Republic has been hit by more violence. The international committee of the Red Cross says at least 50 people have been killed in the northwest over the last two days. Thomas Fessy has more from Bangui.
The violence is daily here, and today was no exception. The attacks are also ongoing elsewhere in the country, we've heard reports of violence in several remote towns. It's obviously very hard to know exactly what's happening in those places because information doesn't reach the capital very easily. But everybody here is now waiting for the election of a new interim president, the hope is that it will ease the ongoing tension, but there are huge fears that it might actually trigger more violence.
The leader of a powerful al-Qaeda linked group in Syria appears to have called for reconciliation with rival rebel groups that had been fighting against it for several weeks. An audio message purportedly from the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, known as ISIS urged Sunni Islamist rebels to focus instead on fighting President Assad's regime. Sebastian Usher reports.
The battle between Islamist extremists extensively fighting on the same side against President Assad has been fierce. More than 1,000 fighters and civilians have been killed in the past 2 weeks. On one level, it's a specific show down between rebel Jahadists with ISIS and its leaders seem by other militant is needed to be taken down after getting too greedy of territory and influence.But it's also threatened to derail the wider course of the rebels and opposition against Syrian government which is urged at this week's long-awaited talks to focus on fighting terrorism rather than arranging a transition from President Assad's rule.
Jordan says it will allow the United States to train Iraqi soldiers on its soils so that it can fight al-Qaeda militants more effectively. The Iraqi government has been trying to regain control of two cities west of Baghdad after they were taken over by al-Qaeda linked militants earlier this month.
World News from the BBC
Afghanistan National Security Council has accused foreign intelligence services of being behind in an attack on a restaurant in Kabul. It killed 20 people on Friday. The council which is cheered by President Hamid Karzai said the attack had been too sophisticated to have been carried out by the Taliban as was widely believed. Correspondents say the term foreign intelligence is an apparent reference to the security services of neighboring Pakistan.
Here in Britain, the right-wing UK Independence Party ha suspended one of its local councilors who has blamed recent flooding on the government's decision to legalize gay marriage. David Silvester, a devout Christian said the floods were God's retribution for a Christian nation in abandoning its faith. UK initially said it backed to his right to express his views, but asked him not to repeat them which he subsequently has in a BBC interview. Mr.Silvester left the governing Conservative Party last year because of his opposition to same-sex marriage.
The Russian President Vladimir Putin has told the BBC that he isn't prejudiced against gay people in anyway. In an interview ahead of next month's Olympics in Sochi, Mr.Putin was asked about his own views after the Russian parliament passed laws that fine anyone passing information on homosexuality to children under the age of 18.
“If you want my personal attitude, I would tell you that I don't care about the person's orientation,and I myself know some people who are gay. We are on friendly terms, I'm not prejudiced in anyway ,and I've honored several members of the gay community in this country but for their personal achievements regardless of their sexual orientation.”
A fire in South Norway has ripped through a village which is famous for its historic wooden buildings. The fire began overnight in a house in Laerdalsoyri village, more than 20 buildings were completely destroyed.