BBC News with Jerry Smit.
Top level talks between the United States and Russia to try to ease the crisis over Ukraine have ended in stalemate. After hours of discussions in London, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said there had been no common vision with his US counterpart John Kerry. Speaking through an interpreter, Mr. Lavrov said a referendum on Sunday in Crimea on whether to join Russia should go ahead on schedule.
We have repeated our position that was expressed by the President of the Russian Federation. We will respect the will of people of Crimea. That would be expressed at the referendum on the 16th of March.
Mr. Kerry warned that if the vote went ahead, there will be sanctions. The two men agreed to stay in touch. But the BBC diplomatic correspondent says the tone of their meeting suggests the crisis is deepening, raising tension to levels not seen since end of the Cold War.
The governor of the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk says Russians were behind the violence that broke out between rival demonstrators on Thursday leaving one man dead. He dismissed as a distortion of Russian government's statement blaming the clashes on Ukraine. From Donetsk, here is Steve Rosenberg.
Russia's foreign ministry claimed that pro-Moscow demonstrators had been set upon by far-right activists backed by the government in Kiev. But the governor of Donetsk region Sergei Taruta told me that none of that corresponded to reality. He accused Russians of aggressive rhetoric. It is a war of words which erupted in violence yesterday, and there is concern here, that there could be more unrest in the coming days.
Information is emerging that the Malaysian Airlines plane missing since Saturday continued to send routine alternative signals at least 5 hours after it was reported lost. The BBC has learned that the signals were received by a satellite company based in London. A BBC correspondent says there is no way they could have been sent unless the plane was intact and had power. He said the information should make it possible to calculate an approximate position for the aircraft.
The competence of South Africa's police has come under the spotlight at the murder trial of the athlete Oscar Pristorius.Andrew Harding reports from Pretoria.
Under cross examination, the first officer to arrive at Oscar Pristorius' home was obliged to acknowledge a series of basic errors. The athlete's gun was handled without protective gloves. At least one of his expensive watches were stolen from his bedroom before the forensic teams had even finished their work. Evidence was moved around, it was even alleged the police had lied in their statements about the time a key detective had arrived. The athlete's lawyers have raised some serious questions today about the police's handling of the crime scene, but the judge will have to decide whether the prosecution's case has been undermined.
World News from the BBC.
Venezuela's Foreign Minister Elias Jaua has accused the American Secretary of State John Kerry of inciting violence in his country, calling him a murderer. Mr. Jaua was responding to comments Mr. Kerry made on Thursday when he accused the Venezuelan government of waging a terror campaign against its own people in response to opposition protests. Twenty-eight people have died since the unrest began over a month ago.
An Indian diplomat has again been indicted in the United States on charges of visa fraud and lying about how much she paid a domestic worker. The move reopens a case that has sparked a bitter diplomatic row. Nick Bryant reports.
Just 2 days after a judge dismissed her case on the grounds that she enjoyed diplomatic immunity. Devyani Khobragade has been re-indicted on the same charges as before. India's deputy consul in New York at the time of her arrest last year, her case caused uproar back home, particularly because she was strip searched after being apprehended. She has pleaded not guilty to lying to the American government to get her Indian housekeeper a work visa and also to underpaying her. Her diplomatic immunity no longer applies because she's back in India.
The Panama Canal authority has approved a deal to settle a dispute over cost overruns that delayed a project to widen the water way. The Spanish-led construction consortium and the canal authority will each invest an extra 100 million dollars in the scheme which is due to be completed next year.
The French footballer, Nicolas Anelka has announced that he is leaving his English club West Bromwich Albion with immediate effect. Anelka was suspended for 5 matches for what was deemed a racially aggravated goal celebration. He performed the quenelle salute which many considered to be anti-Semitic. In a post on Twitter, Anelka said the club had imposed conditions he couldn't accept.
And that's the latest BBC World News.