This is the BBC news. Hello, I am Nick Kelly.
A grand jury in American state of Texas has cleared the reproductive health organization, Planned Parenthood, of misconduct after it was accused of selling fetal body parts for profit. The panel, instead, charged the anti-abortion activists who made the allegation with tampering with governmental records. The activists had secretly filmed directors of Planned Parenthood discussing the supply of body parts from aborted fetuses for medical research. But the organization said the footage was heavily edited to misrepresent its position. In November, three people were shot dead at a clinic run by Planned Parenthood.
Police in Sweden have arrested a 15-year-old asylum-seeker over the murder of a female worker at a refugee center. The 22-year-old was stabbed to death at the center for unaccompanied young migrants in the town of Molndal near X. Visiting the scene, the Swedish prime minster Stefan Losfven described the killing as a terrible crime and said many Swedes feared further such attacks. Mardi in Stockholm has more.
This comes amid growing concerns about violence in refugee centers across Sweden. The Swedish migration agency recently said that the number of threats or attacks at these centers doubled between 2014 and 2015 to a total of more than 300. And at least two dozen different refugee accommodation buildings have been set on fire over the past year or so.
The United Nations Security Council has approved the creation of an unarmed UN mission in Columbia to monitor a bilateral ceasefire if FARC rebels and the government reach a peace agreement. Natalia is in Bogota.
They've been negotiating for three years in Havana, Cuba, and very little remains to be agreed. But that very little might prove very hard. They need to agree on how the rebels will lay down the arms, how they would receive protection, how they will start to reintegrate into society and demobilized. So the idea that UN will take part in this very fight and accompanying the process is hugely important.
A spokesman for the Russian president Vladimir Putin has dismissed as pure fiction an allegation made by the US Treasury that he is corrupt. The American government has already imposed sanctions on Mr. Putin's aids, but it's thought to be the first time it has directly accused him of corruption. American Treasury official, Adam Szubin, says Mr. Putin has committed financial wrongdoing.
We've seen him enriching his friends and marginalizing those who he doesn't view as friends, using state assets, whether that's Russia's energy wealth, whether it's other state contracts. He directs those to whom he believes will serve him and excludes those who don't. To me, that is a picture of corruption.
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Iran has signed about 17 billion dollars’ worth of energy and infrastructure deals with Italian firms on the first day president Hassan Rouhani 's visit to Rome. Mr. Rouhani is heading a delegation of 120 business leaders and ministers, during a visit that is aimed at rebuilding ties with the west after sanctions on Iran were lifted.
The United Nations mission in the Darfur region of Sudan says that more than 10,000 people have been displaced amid a flare-up in fighting between government forces and armed rebels. The mission said it's trying to verify reports of other people trapped by the fighting in the mountainous X area at central Darfur.
The United Nations has announced it will offer practical support to El Salvador to fight corruption. The UN said it would be working with existing institutions within the country and would not investigate corruption cases itself.
Pope Francis has asked Protestants for forgiveness for historic prosecution by the Catholic Church in his latest attempt to foster Christian unity. The Pope also urged Catholics to forgive those who have prosecuted them.
As Bishop of Rome and Pastor of the Catholic Church, I want to plea for mercy and forgiveness for the un-gospel-like behavior by Catholics towards Christians of other churches. At the same time, I invite all Catholic brothers and sisters to forgive, if they have been offended by other Christians, be it today or in the past.
And the authorities in Israel are reported to have given an approval for the construction of more than 150 new homes in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. The decision would mark the end of an informal 18 months’ freeze on construction. The United States and the UN opposed the extension of Jewish settlements on Palestinian territory, saying it undermines the peace process.