This is the BBC news. Hello, I'm Jonathan Izard.
The president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, has told the BBC that his military is close to defeating the Islamist group Boko Haram. Mr Buhari said the militants could
no longer mount conventional attacks against government forces or centers of population and have been reduced to suicide bombings. Jessica M reports.
"President Buhari was confident. In a BBC interview, he said that we can now say that technically, we have won the war. He credited efforts to retrain and resupply the
Nigeria army, saying that troops have almost expelled Boko Haram from Adamawa and Yobe state. The Jihadists, he said, are now strong only in their heartland of Borno
State. He also said that many of the 1.5 million prople displaced by the fighting are now returning home. However, over the past two months, Boko Haram is reported to
have mounted more than 100 attacks and killed more than 1,000 people."
A small detachment of Afghanistan government forces is reported to be held up in a military base in the south of the country surrounded by the Taliban. The militants
are said to have captured almost of all Sangin district in Helmand province, storming the main police base and the administrative headquarters on Wednesday. Some local officials are reported to have been executed. This man was driven from his home by the advance of the Taliban.
"We fled home with the clothes in our backs. We left our livestock behind. Yesterday I returned to Sangin, I went to the market and saw Taliban militants there. The
market was closed. People are stuck in their homes."
The former Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky has told the BBC that a Russian court's decision to issue an arrest warrant against him was politically motivated. Mr
Khodorkovsky, who now lives in exile, spent a decade in prison on fraud charges, which he says were brought to silence him. He has now accused President Putin of again moving against him because of his support for opposition movements. He said he wanted to help the new generation to become future leaders.
"I think my task, my objective, as I see it, is to help young political activists in Russia to gain political experiences and to present themselves to society as
alternatives to the existing regime."
Iraqi forces are continuing their offensive to try to drive the Islamic State fighters out of the center of Ramadi. Up to 300 Jihadist fighters are thought to be still
in the town and they have shown no sign of giving up. Thomas Fessy reports from Baghdad.
"Ground forces have been concentrating on the city center, the last district held by Islamic State militants. And there, Iraqi troops and Sunni tribal fighters have
faced sniper fire and have had to dodge roadside bombs and booby-traps planted by the Jihadists. Questions remain over the plight of thousands of people possibly
trapped in the area. Yet security officials are confident Ramadi will be retaken this week." Thomas Fessy.
You're listening to the world news from the BBC.
The UN Security Council has unanimously backed last week's agreement between rivals factions in Libya to form a government of national unity. Libya's ambassador
Ibrahim D praised the deal.
"This agreement is the only hope for our marching from chaos and putting an end to bloodshed, the holy hope we have to ensure reconciliation and understanding, to
ensure the justice and the rule of law prevails following years and years of atrocities, of fears and insecurity, both inside the country and outside, with Libyan
refugees and displaced individuals."
Over 3,000 prisoners in the US state of Washington have been released early because of a computer glitch. The bug miscalculated the sentence reductions they were
entitled to for good behavior.
Christmas lights in American household used up more electricity during the holy season than some small centuries consumed in an entire year. According to researchers from the Center of Global Development, that's more power than is used annually by Ethiopia, Tanzania or El Salvador. Laura B has the story.
"The study says that America burnt 6.63 billion kilowatt hours over the Christmas season, shining brightly-colored lights and trees cross roof tops and gardens. That's
enough power to run 14 million refrigerators. But it's still only a tiny fraction of what the US uses in a year. Compare that to El Salvador. Its annual electricity
consumption is 5.35 billion kilowatt hours. The researchers say they are not anti-Christmas and the lights, they say, are a beautiful scene. But they do want to show
the difference in energy use between rich and poorer countries."
An unemployed Senegalese migrant has won more than 400,000 dollars in Spain' Christmas lottery. The 35-year-old man and his wife had to be rescued by the Spanish
coastguard when they made the boat journey through Morocco eight years ago. Since then, they have lived from hand to mouth, sometimes working as agriculture laborers and surviving on about five dollars a day.