BBC News with Jerry Smit
In parts of East Ukraine people have been casting their ballots in unofficial referendums organized by pro-Russian groups. The militants thus swear the residence supported self-determination. One polling station organizer told the BBC this meant independence from Kiev. A L has more.
If you believe people who were organizing this referendum then they are saying the turnout has been spectacular. Figures were well above 70% if this were they are saying. Whether or not, it actually means that as many people as they say turned out to vote I think they will find out fairly shortly within the next few days. One of the main people who organized that, leader of the self-styled electoral commission of the Donetsk republic said this vote, whatever it is, does not mean that was still being parts of Ukraine, neither does it mean that we suddenly become a part of Russia. Is this going to be a process? What process exactly where will it lead? I think these are all the things which nobody knows the answer to.
The South Sudan rebel leader, Riek Machar, says he is still committed to the peace agreement signed on Friday with the government, even though he says the government violated the ceasefire. The Sudanese Information Minister has accused the rebels of violations of the agreement but said the government would not break it. Stephen Sackur who's been speaking to the rebel leader, says the situation seems confused.
There are something very strange going on here, because Riek Machar said that the South Sudanese president were responsible for the death about the 20,000 Dinka people, he accused the president of inciting ethnic hatred and he said that the president was not even in control of the some of the forces fighting in his name, he said the Uganda troops and troops that fighted, they were coming from Darfur inside Sudan will continue to fight on behalf of president Kiir, and have no intention ever expecting of cease fire.
The French President Fracois Hollande has offered to host a summit on the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, Mr. Hollande said he has spoken to the Nigerian president Goodluck Johnathan and would invite leaders of neighboring countries affected by the group activities. The profile of Boko Haram has risen considerably since it abducted more than 200 school girls last month.
The Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and East African leaders have formally signed an agreement for the construction of a new railway which would link the Kenyan port city of Mombasa to the capital Nairobi and on to landlocked Rwanda and South Sudan. W W reports from Nairobi.
The Chinese premier Li Keqiang told reporters the first phase of the railway from the Kenyan port of Mombasa to the capital Nairobi would cost the equivalent of $3.6bn. The master plan, he said, was to link all seven East African states by a rail, cutting freight costs significantly. At the moment, the original lines on X and the narrow gate lines were built in the 19th Century.
World News from the BBC
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has reiterated Tehran's rejection of any international move to curb its missile production. Ahead of the latest round of negotiations on Iran's nuclear ambitions, the Ayatollah said any expectation that Tehran would limit to its missile program was stupid and idiotic. He called on Iran's Revolutionary Guards to mass produce missiles.
Scientists in Germany have found a way to make dreams more powerful. They have discovered that by sending a very weak electrical signal across the brain of a sleeping patient, they can change how the individual dreams. Julian Bedford has more.
To sleep, the chance to dream, but researchers at the Goethe University in Frankfurt say they can make those dreams more vivid by the application of low frequency electric signals. The stimulate, the gamma ray activity in the brain that in the conscious state is typical self-awareness. And it does the same to the unconscious mind,allowing the dreamers not just to dream,but to be aware that he or she is dreaming,and to some extent,control the plot.The scientists hope that the discovery will allow them to treat mental illnesses.
Manchester City football club has won the English Premier League for the second time in three years, sealing their trial with an emphatic 2-0 victory of West Ham. The home win was enough to guarantee the title despite the victory for their closest rivals, Liverpool.
The Queen's baton for this year's Commonwealth Game in Glasgow has returned to British soil after travelling most of the way around the world. It's arrived in the Channel Island of Jersey, where to be received by the Olympic diver Tom Daley. For the next 32 days, the baton will be carried across the X, Britain and Northern Ireland before being welcomed into the Stadium in Glasgow on July the 23rd.