BBC News with Jonathan Izard.
President Obama is calling for a big increase in the use of body cameras for police officers in the United States, following the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson. Mr. Obama says he wants 75 million dollars spent on providing tiny lapel cameras for 50,000 more officers to wear when they are on patrol. Our North America correspondent, x, says the aim is to build trust.
I was in Ferguson for much of last week, and it's absolutely clear that you have a police force presiding over a community where there is little trust between the two, and what President Obama is saying is these funds will be spent over three years and go towards the cost of these body cameras, so that the public would think Right, okay, well, this is being recorded, this interaction, and then people would be able to make a proper judgement. Because of course, in the whole case of Michael Brown, there were such conflicting accounts of what actually unfolded.
The International Criminal Court in the Hague has rejected an appeal by the Congolese militia leader, Thomas Lubanga, against his conviction for using child soldiers. The judges also dismissed a challenge against his 14-year sentence. At his original trial, Mr. Lubanga was found to have recruited children under the age of 15 to fight during the conflict more than a decade ago in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Some of them were used as his personal body guards. Mr. Lubanga is the first person to have been convicted by the ICC.
The World Food Program says that for the first time in four years, it will supply no food aid in December to 1.6 million Syrian refugees because of a lack of funding. Until now, refugees had been assumed with food vouchers to use in shops in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. The WFP said the move would have devastating consequences for refugees already struggling to cope with the cold weather.
Speaking at an unofficial camp in Lebanon, x from the WFP said people were clearly in need. Many of the refugees are not prepared for this winter. They are living in informal settlements, like this one. Plastic sheetings, you know, they are taking cover. They are trying to burn whatever they can, so that they have fire at night to warm their kids. It's a very difficult situation.
The former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has decided to stand down next year after more than three decades as a Labour member of Parliament. He made the announcement to party activists in Scotland.
I'm not going back to Westminster, not to the House of the Commons after the general election, and not to the House of Lords. It is faith where our home Mrs and where we will where our children Shawn and Frieze who hear tonight at * school. And it's strong faith where I will do the new and extended work as the UN's special convoy on global education.
Mr. Brown spent ten years as Chancellor of the Exchequer and three as Prime Minister before his party lost power in 2010.
World news from the BBC.
The Colombian President, Juan Manuel Santos, has demanded explanations from the armed forces on the circumstances of the kidnapping of a General by the FARC two weeks ago. General Ruben Dario Alzate and two companions were abducted while traveling by boat in a remote jungle area where the rebels were known to operate. The hostages were freed on Sunday. The kidnapping led the government to suspend peace talks with the rebels.
The Iraqi Prime Minister, Haidar al-Abadi, appears to have forced more than 20 officials at his Interior Ministry to take early retirement. He said this was part of his effort to restructure the security forces.
The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has said that Moscow is being forced to withdraw from the construction of a gas pipeline which would have supplied gas to southern Europe via Bulgaria, by passing Ukraine, due to the E.U.'s reluctance to support the project. He was speaking after talks with his Turkish counterpart. Our Turkey correspondent, x, reports.
It was planned to pump Russian gas across the Black Sea into Bulgaria and then into Europe, called South Stream. But challenged by the European Commission for breaking competition laws, it was also hit by the West's conflict with Russia over Ukraine. Now Vladimir Putin says it will be halted because of the E.U.'s opposition. He told journalists in Ankara that Russia would increase gas supplies to Turkey and lower prices.
And this year's BBC African Footballer of the Year has been named after hundreds of thousands of votes, Algeria and Porto star, Yacine Brahimi, has been declared the winner. From Portugal, here is x.
Never before in the 23-year history of the competition has an Algerian won this award, but Brahimi won the prize after an unforgettable 2014. He scored a match-winning goal against Spanish giant, Barcelona, a hat-trick in the Champions League, and played a lead role as Algeria reached the World Cup knockout stages for the first time in their history. This was good enough for the BBC audience to vote him Africa's Best.