BBC News with Jerry Smit
President Obama has asked the Pentagon to make plans to withdraw all the American troopsfrom Afghanistan by the end of this year, if no bilateral security deal is in place. The AfghanPresident Hamid Karzai has so far refused to sign an agreement to allow some US troops tostay on. From Washington Ian Pannell.
America has more than 30,000 troops in Afghanistan, other Nato countries have less than20,000 combined. By the end of this year, most of them will have left. Plans have been drawnout for a relatively small force to remain behind to help with training and to carry out what itdescribed as anti-terrorism operations. Though in a telephone call with his Afghan counterparton Tuesday, President Obama told Hamid Karzai that because he'd refused to sign anagreement covering such a mission, he's asked the Pentagon to plan for a completewithdrawal by the end of this year.
The American Secretary of State John Kerry says the crisis in Ukraine should not be seen as abattle between East and West. He was speaking alongside his British counterpart at a newsconference in Washington.
“This is not a zero-sum game, it is not a West versus East, it should not be. It is not theRussia or the United States or other choices, this is about the people of Ukraine, and Ukrainiansmaking their choice about their future.”
Russian-speaking residents have protested against Ukraine's interim authorities in the CrimeanPeninsula. Some replaced the Ukrainian flag on a local government building with a Russian flag.
Dozens of students have been killed in an attack on a school in northeastern Nigeria bysuspected members of the Islamist group Boko Haram. The authorities say 29 people werekilled, others put the figure at about 40. A local journalist told the BBC the gunmen enteredthe school at night, shooting, burning and slitting the throats of the students. The femalestudents were spared. He said every building in the school had been burned down.
The governor of Yobe state where the attack occurred said that five hours after the raid, not asingle member of the security forces had appeared.
Turkish riot police have fired teargas and water cannon at thousands of protesters in Istanbulwho were calling for the resignation of the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. JamesReynolds reports from Istanbul.
Several thousand protesters in Istanbul's Kadikoy district gathered and chanted TayyipErdogan 'the thief' . The police fired teargas and water cannon to disperse them. The protestsfollowed the posting online of recordings which claimed to show several of the prime minister'sprivate phone conversations. In one of the recordings, Mr. Erdogan is set to order his son tohide large sums of money. The prime minister insists that this particular recording wasshamelessly fabricated.
World News from the BBC
Saudi Arabia is setting up a training centre for judges to try to improve their performance,which is regularly criticized both at home and abroad. The Saudi judicial system empowersjudges to reach verdicts without reference to precedence. Human rights groups say thisleads to inconsistencies and questionable decisions.
The United States has expelled three Venezuelan diplomats in response to the expulsion ofthree of its own consular officials from Caracas just over a week ago. The Venezuelangovernment had accused the expelled Americans of having links with violent groups, anallegation they deny. At least 13 people have been killed during weeks of anti-governmentprotests in Venezuela.
A court in Britain has ruled that a man accused of killing four soldiers in an IRA bomb attack inLondon more than 30 years ago will not be prosecuted, because he was mistakenly given anofficial guarantee that he would not face trial. The man John Downey from the Irish Republicwas accused of leaving a car bomb in Hyde Park in 1982. Matt Prodger reports.
In 2007, the Northern Ireland Office sent John Downey a letter, telling him there is nooutstanding direction for prosecution in Northern Ireland. There were no warrants inexistence , nor are you be wanted in Northern Ireland for arrest, questioning or charged bythe police. Today's ruling says official's discovered the letter was mistaken. He was wanted inLondon. But he wasn't corrected. In the end the judge concluded that holding state officials topromises they've made was more important than putting the suspected bomber on trial. MattPridger.
The sportswear company Adidas says it's withdrawing from sales of some of its Football WorldCup T-shirts, following complaints from the Brazilian authorities that the products sexualizedthe country's image. One garment carried the question ,“ looking to score” next to ascantily-dressed woman.
BBC News.
