Latest reports from the besieged Syrian rebel-held city of Aleppo suggest that only a small number of civilians and fighters have made use of humanitarian corridors set up by Russian and Syrian forces. About 300,000 people are still in the city. Russia says that 169 civilians have left, among them, this woman who criticised the rebels' actions. We left without our remaining children. May God punish them. They did not allow us to leave. They deprived us of gas, water, electricity and bread. There were no medicines. They used to tell us, you live with us or die with us. But the Syrian opposition said the crossing points in the divided city remained closed. Zuhair, an activist, told the BBC the government was just putting on a show. Many people, I can tell you, though, they were assembling around these corridors. But I can assure you that none of them have left yet. It's just a show from the regime that people are leaving and these members are preventing, you know, people from leaving. But it's totally wrong.
All 16 people on board a hot air balloon when it caught fire and crashed in the American state of Texas are confirmed dead. It's not clear what caused the crash. But several witnesses say they saw it collide with a powerline before catching fire. David Wallace reports. It's thought the balloon struck powerlines before bursting into flames in a rural area about 30 miles south of the city of Austin. One eyewitness described how, having hit the ground, the balloon then turned into a fire ball. Accident investigators have been working to establish the identity of those on board, and to pinpoint precisely what caused the disaster. It's one of the worst tragedies in hot air balloon in history. Only a crash in the Egyptian city of Luxor three years ago, in which 19 people died, claimed more lives.
The International Olympic Committee has announced that it's setting up a three-member panel that will have the final say on which Russians can take part in the Rio Olympics, which start on Friday. Last week, the IOC was widely criticised when it declined to impose blanket ban on Russia, despite revelations of state-backed doping. Its Director of Communications Mark Adams said the executive board would rule on each case. This review panel will look at every single decision of every single athlete to make sure that the IOC is happy with the decision that's been taken, that they've made all of these different levels of steps and that the decision by the ICAS arbitrator is also putting that forward. Then it's up to the panel to decide if they accept or not for each individual athlete.
Saudi-led forces say they killed dozens of Houthi rebels in airstrikes in Yemen, after they attempted to force their way across the nearby border with Saudi Arabia on Saturday. The coaliation said it repulsed the incursion near the Saudi city of Najran, but that seven Saudi soldiers have been killed in the fighting. BBC News.
The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he wants to bring the country's spy agency and the head of the armed forces directly under his own control, following the failed military coup two weeks ago. In a television interview, Mr.Erdogan said his government would bring the necessary changes before Parliament.
The Tunisian government is expected to fall after the prime minister Habib Essid suffered an overwhelming vote of no-confidence in the national parliament. Rana Jawad is in Tunis. The confidence vote on the government came after a month of wrangling over the fate of the prime minister, following pressure on him from the country's president to resign. Prime Minister Habib Essid refused to step down, citing respect for the constitutional process, and instead, called on the Tunisian parliament to decide his fate. In the end, an overwhelming majority of MPs voted to oust him from office. Most lawmakers accused him of failing to deliver on economic reforms needed to ease the country's high unemployment rates.
Several hundred people have attended a rally in the Canadian capital, Ottawa, to protest about the death of a Somali man while in police custody. Abdirahman Abdi died on Monday, a day after being arrestd by Ottawa police. They were responding to reports over disturbance.
The Olympic man's doubles tennis champions Mike and Bob Bryan have pulled out of the Rio Games, citing health concerns. The brothers, from the United States, posted on their Facebook page that their family health was their top priority. Many athletes have withdrawn from the Games over concerns about the mosquito-borne Zika virus.
And Pope Francis has urged young people not to become lazy couch potatoes, and instead, engage in social activism and politics to create a more just world. The Pope made his appeal on the penultimate day of his visit to Poland at an open-air vigil attended by about 1.5 million people in a field near Krakow. He expressed his dismay over how the time and energies of many young people were swallowed up by their use of computers, smart phones and video games. BBC News.