BBC News with Marion Marshall
The ceasefire in South Sudan signed on Friday between President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar has come into effect. The spokesman for President Kiir has told the BBC that the government troops reserve the right to return fire in self-defense if rebels breach the agreement. However, Ateny Wek Ateny said the South Sudanese government was not planning for any problems. He went on to say that it was down to the rebel leader Riek Machar to rebuild the trust lost during the five-month conflict.
Whether the government that is going to be formed in South Sudan, the fact is that you know the gap now between the leaders, especially the rebel leader and his commanders. And the people are so right, so this is something that the rebel the rebellion will have to build, they have to build the trust if they had, to remain in the political as a spectral means in South Sudan.
Residents of Northeastern Nigeria say suspected members of the Islamist group Boko Haram have blown up a bridge near the area where more than 200 schoolgirls were abducted almost a month ago. Mark Doyle reports from Abuja.
The latest bridge to be blown up is on a key highway between two of Nigeria's northeastern states worst hit by the insurgency. A man who lived near this bridge said most of the buildings around it had also been burnt down. Two days before this, another bridge on the edge of the area where the girls were taken was also destroyed, reliable sources said Boko Haram fighters arrived in the area where a busy market was being held and opened fire indiscriminately before destroying the bridge. A total of nearly 300 people were killed in this single incident.
The First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, has described the abduction as an Unconscionable act.
Thousands of unidentified remains of those killed in the 9/11 attacks have been returned to the World Trade Center site in New York. The remains draped with the American flag were transferred to a repository 20m below the building. A relative of one of the victims, Jim Caffrey said the families should have been consulted.
I think the decision to put the human remains of the 9/11 dead in the basement of the 9/11 Museum is just inheritedly disrespectful and totally offensive. Equally disgraceful is the fact that family members through this whole process have had virtually no input as the hall, the remains of their loved ones would be interred
For a second day, Syrians have been returning to the devastated old city of Homs after rebel fighters withdrew from districts that held for two years. Syrian television showed thousands of people walking through the ruins with many trying to retrieve any belongings that might remain in their houses. But an opposition activist told the BBC that the people were from one mainly Christian district.
World News from the BBC
Government supporters in Thailand have warned of a civil war if their opponents impose an unelected government on the country. The warning came during a mass rally on the outskirt of Bangkok to protest against the dismissal of the Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and nine of her ministers. The protesters' leaders also called for a restraint.
The government of Mexico has started to swear in vigilantes for its newly created rural police force. The move is designed to bring under official control the self-defense groups fighting a Knights Templar drugs cartel. Our America's editor E C has more.
The Mexican government has set its deadline for Saturday and says those who've not registered their weapons by then will be arrested, but many vigilantes are refusing to join, preferring to keep their autonomy and their illegal guns. The self-defense groups claimed they have been more successful than the security forces in fighting the Knights Templars, effectively pushing them out of some areas. The government says some of the groups have turned to crime. It also remains to be seen how the new rural force will work alongside regular police officers, some of whom seek bribes from the cartels.
The South African Electoral Commission has announced the final results of Wednesday's general election. It said the governing African National Congress won just over 62% of the vote, the Democratic Alliance came second with a little over 22%. The country's President Jacob Zuma said the result was a clear vote of confidence in the ANC.
Singers from 26 countries have taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest in the Danish capital, Copenhagen. A bearded drag queen, the Austrian singer Conchita Wurst has become one of the favorites, despite a petition against her in her own country. The current crisis in Ukraine is expected to feature, the Russian participants, the Tolmachevy Sisters were jeered on Tuesday when they made it to the final.