BBC News with Jerry Smit
Russia's internal security services, the FSB, says it has detained 25 Ukrainians accusing them of planning terrorist attacks last month. The Ukraine security service has denied it was involved. Steve Rosenberg reports from Moscow.
Among those detained are reportedly three members of the nationalist group, Right Sector. The Ukrainians have been accused of taking photographs of Russian troop movements and trying to make contact with extremist elements in Russia. Earlier, government officials in Kiev leveled their own accusations against Moscow, they claimed that more than 30 FSB agents have been stationed in Kiev in December and January and had taken part in planning and implementing measures against anti-government protesters.
Israel has cancelled the release of the Palestinian prisoners in response to a Palestinian decision to sign up to a number of United Nations conventions to get international recognition for an independent state. The Israeli Justice Minister, Tzipi Livni, told the BBC that the agreement to release a new batch of Palestinian prisoners was conditional on the Palestinian obligation not to appeal to the United Nations.
The White House has confirmed the existence of a Twitter-like social network that was set up in Cuba by a US government aid agency. The allegations were made by the Associated Press News Agency, which said the operation was set up in secret to undermine Cuba's Communist authorities. Jane O'Brien reports from Washington.
In 2009, tens of thousands of Cubans enrolled in a new Twitter-style text service called ZunZuneo, the Cuban for hummingbird. The cell phone messages are able them to chat freely, but they didn't know the site had been set up by a US government aid agency, which also reportedly collected users' data. White House spokesman Jay Carney denied that the program was a part of a covert operation, but he admitted that the government had taken steps to be discreet about its involvement.
A senior military official in the United States has said a serving soldier, who shot dead three colleagues at the Fort Hood army base on Wednesday, had shown no recent risks of violence. The assailant, who injured 16 others before killing himself had served in Iraq and was being treated for anxiety and depression. In a press conference, Lieutenant-General Mark Milley gave more details on the shooter.
We have positively identified and we are able to release is his next of kin have been notified. The alleged shooter is Specialist Ivan A. Lopez, he is 34 years old, originally from Puerto Rico. Specialist Lopez was assigned to the 49th Transportation Movement Control Battalion of the 13th Sustainment Brigade. And again, his next of kin notification has been complete.
World News from the BBC
The White House has objected to the twitting of selfies snapped by a member of a leading baseball team which included President Obama in the photograph. The picture taken by David Ortiz on his Samsung mobile phone during the Boston Red Sox visited to the White House, was then tweeted by Samsung to millions of the phone makers' followers.
Chad has decided to withdraw its troops from the Central African Republic in the protests, said allegations that they supported Muslim rebels. The Foreign Minister of Chad, Moussa Faki,denied this, telling the BBC that the Chadian troops were professional and impartial. He said Chad would help the CAR in other ways once they pulled out.
We have to decide to pull out from a mandate under the United Nations, our community that lives in the CAR were particularly badly hit. Hundreds are dead and now there is an anti-Balaka army there. Our troops in Bangui run into trouble. Anti-Balaka forces started shooting at them and they had to react. The situation escalated. But when we first start the mission, we had the best of intentions.
The World Health Organization says 86 people have died in the Ebola outbreak in Guinea. It said six others have died in neighboring Liberia. Suspected cases have been reported in Sierra Leone and Gambia. One man from Guinea told the BBC that he'd lost ten members of his family to the virus. He said his sister was the first to contract the disease and after she died, people in the village were contaminated when they took her body away for burial.
The Colombian author and Nobel laureate, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, has been admitted to hospital in Mexico, where he's lived for more than 30 years. Garcia Marquez, who is 87, has been treated for a lung and urinary tract infection. Known for masterpiece like Love in the Time of Cholera and A Hundred Years of Solitude, last year Marquez is considered one of the greatest Spanish-language authors of all time.