BBC News, I'm John Shea.
Russia has issued its strongest response yet to the ousting of President Yanukovych in Ukraine, calling it a threat to Russian citizens and Russian interests. Ukraine's interim authorities are seeking the arrest of Viktor Yanukovych over what they called the mass murder of peaceful protesters. From Kiev, Steve Rosenberg reports.
Ukraine's new leaders are already under intense pressure from Russia. Today, Moscow accused them of an armed mutiny. Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that Moscow had withdrawn its ambassador from Kiev because there was a real threat to Russia's interests, to our citizens' lives and health. That's why attention is now focused on the Crimean, the peninsula is a part of Ukraine, but 60% of the population is ethnically Russian.
The United States says it's ready to provide financial support to Ukraine to help it return to economic stability. A White House spokesman said the American support would help Ukraine make reforms and invest more in health and education.
A BBC correspondent in Syria has described harrowing scenes of distress in the besieged Damascus suburb of Yarmouk after being given rare access to the area. More than 20,000 Palestinian refugees are living in a camp in Yarmouk. Here is our correspondent Lyse Doucet.
The faces of women and men in tears and terrified children told the story of Yarmouk. A camp which once gave refuge to Palestinians is now a prison. They are all desperate to escape. But only a few people were able to leave today and only about 60 food parcels were handed out. A fragile deal between the warring parties has allowed a very limited amount of aid to enter the camp since January 18th, but some days, no food comes in at all.
The American Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has proposed a substantial cut in the size of the US army which would make it the smallest since the WII. In a speech at the Pentagon, Mr. Hagel suggested a reduction to no more than 450,000 active soldiers together with the closure of military bases and fewer military planes and ships. From Washington, here is David Willis.
In his speech, Mr. Hagel said that the world was growing more volatile, more unpredictable and more threatening to the United States, but the army nevertheless had to adjust to the reality of shrinking budgets. His proposals include cutting the number of active duty soldiers by around 80,000, eliminating the A10 aircraft and U2 spy planes and closing some military bases. Mr. Hagel said that after more than a decade of war, the US military no longer intended to conduct the kind of long and expensive operations that it had mounted in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This is the latest World News from the BBC.
Anti-government demonstrators in Venezuela have blocked the main access roads to Caracas in continuing protests against high inflation, rampant crime and food shortages. In many parts of the capital, protesters erected improvised barricades, dumping rubbish and furniture on highways. President Nicolas Maduro says the crisis is a coup plot by right-wing groups backed by the United States.
A Turkish prosecutor has denied allegations that he orderes the wiretapping of 7,000 prominent figures including government ministers and business leaders. The allegations are part of a long-running argument between the government and members of the judiciary. James Reynolds reports from Istanbul.
The prosecutor at the center of the allegations, Adem Ozcan has denied wiretapping any of the thousands named. In a statement, Mr. Ozcan said that separately, he tapped a limited number of phones as part of a legitimate criminal investigation. The dramatic allegations are part of a two month long public battle between the government and supporters of the Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen who lives in the United States. The government accuses a network of prosecutors and police officers of taking instructions from Mr. Gulen. Mr. Gulen's movement denies the charge.
Scientists say they found the oldest known piece of the planet on a sheep farm in Western Australia. The researchers estimate the zircon crystal to be 4.4 billion years old. The fragment of rock is extremely small, measuring just twice the diameter of a human hair.
The American actor and film director Harold Ramis who was best known for Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day has died. The 69-year-old has been suffering from a rare disease of the blood vessels. He first found widespread fame as the bespectacled ghost hunter Egon Spengler in the Ghostbusters films in the 1980s. His credits as a writer and director included Caddyshack and Analyze This.