BBC News with Neil Nunes
The United Nations says that both sides in the Syrian city of Homs have agreed to a three-day extension of a ceasefire as the further 300 residents were evacuated today. The UN aid chief Valerie Amos said that she was deeply disappointed that the warring parties had fails to fully abide by the previous humanitarian pause. Jim Muir has this report.
The three-day humanitarian pause initially agreed by both sides for the relief operation at Homs expired on Sunday. There hasn't been an official announcement that it has been extended for another three days. But the UN Humanitarian Affairs chief Valerie Amos has welcomed the reports that it has been. And on the ground, efforts are going ahead on that assumption, with the governor of Homs announcing the evacuation of hundreds more women, children and elderly. Valerie Amos said that many of those them who left earlier, appeared traumatized and weak after enduring many months of siege, under bombardment and with little food or medical care.
With more details of the humanitarian operation, here's our chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet in the Damascus.
Today, a tide of people continue to flee the ruins of the old city of Homs. Elderly men and women on stretchers or crutches, exhausted mothers in tears. Children who went straight into the arms of waiting aid officials from the UN and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent Society. Water, bread even polio vaccinations were provided on the spot. The old city is controlled by rebel forces and it's been cut off by Syrian government troops. Many residents who finally escaped speak of having only grass and olives to eat.
The UN special representative to the Central African Republic General Babacar Gaye has called for urgent action to stop the spiraling violence which he says is tearing the country apart. General Gaye told the BBC that everyone was living in fear due to the lack of state authority and security.
“You have several type of violence entail country into violence, you have bounded to them, you have politically related violence. We cannot wait anymore, so is the need to take action because today aid venue is leaving under fear, and not so under dire needs. So, this is the situation.”
The former Congolese rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda has appeared at the International Criminal Court in the Hague after 7 years on the run and one year in custody. Prosecutors told the court that he ordered troops to kill and rape civilians in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo a decade ago. General Ntaganda has denied the charges.
The Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has ordered an investigation into the case of a cameraman who received catastrophic head injuries during an anti-government protest on Thursday in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Santiago Andrade was declared brain dead today.
BBC News
The French President Francois Hollande has arrived in the United States at he start of the first full state visit there by a French president in nearly 20 years. From Washington, Jane O'Brien.
President Hollande will begin his visit with the relaxing trip to Monticello, the historic homes of Thomas Jefferson, America's third president. He will meet there with President Obama informally before tomorrow's state dinner at the White House. The conflict in Syria, Iran's nuclear ambitions and climate change are all expected to feature in talks. But the focus for Mr. Hollande is business. On Wednesday, he will travel to California Silicon Valley for discussions with top executives from Google, Facebook, Twitter and other internet giants. But although France wants to create new partnerships, it also also wants such companies to pay tax on French soil.
Hundreds of homes along the River Thames in southern England are being evacuated after the river burst its banks and swept into villages and towns, west of London. More details in this report from Rob Broomby.
The normally steady flowing Thames has become in places a swirling, brown lake, engulfing gardens, fields and gulf courses alike. The Prime Minister David Cameron has said everything that can be done is being done. But his government and the agency responsible for flood protection have been treated in punches over who was most to blame for the lack of preparedness. The police have already called this a major incident. And with more rain expected, the flooding could get worse before it gets better.
The British parliament has voted overwhelmingly in favor of a ban on people smoking in cars when children are present. The vote gives the government the power to introduce such a ban in England and Whales. Ministers are expected now to decide whether to do so. Bans on smoking in cars carrying children already exist in some countries including Australia, South Africa and in the United States.