BBC News with Ian Purdon.
A group calling itself al-Qaeda in the Maghreb says it carried out the double car bomb attack which killed dozens of people in the Algerian capital early on Tuesday. Hospital officials say at least 60 people died in the explosions. But the Algerian Interior Ministry has confirmed only 26 deaths. The first attack badly damaged the two main United Nations' buildings in Algiers. The U.N. says it fears at least ten of its employees are among the dead. Astrid van Genderen Stort, a spokeswoman for the U.N. Refugee Agency said Algeria wasn't the only country where U.N. employees were now at risk. "It seems like this particular group wanted to make a very clear statement and we've seen over the years that the U.N. is not an innocent humanitarian organization anymore that can just work wherever. We have also become target of this kind of groups. We've seen it in the Iraq. We have to be very careful when we work in Afghanistan, for example. And now we see we weren't at all prepared for this to happen in Algeria, but we see that it has now happened here as well.”
The main party in southern Sudan says it will rejoin the government of National Unity, appearing to bring to an end the country's political crisis. The party of the former rebels, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, pulled out of the government in October, jeopardizing a peace deal signed in 2005. Now as Amber Hanshow reports it looks as though talks between the SPLM and the dominant National Congress Party are back on track.
Many had feared that the country could slide back into civil war if the SPLM and NCP could not resolve their differences. Now it seems both sides have been able to compromise on most issues, including a timetable for the withdrawal of troops to either side of Sudan's north-south border and funding for a national census. The only matter left is that of the disputed oil rich region of Arbiay. But that is the one that's been causing most of the problems.
High-level delegates, including environment ministers and heads of state are gathering at the United Nations climate change talks in Bali. They are hoping to finalize the agenda for talks on a new climate change agreement which will replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012. Lucy Williamson reports from the conference center.
The broad building blocks of that agenda have already been agreed, but much of the detail remains contentious. In particular how much weight to give to the heavy emissions cuts recommended by the U.N.'s panel of scientists. The U.S. among others has remained firmly against binding targets for cuts in emissions. But the E.U. and main developing countries say they are necessary for industrialized countries.
The former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori has been accused of abuse of, has been convicted, I should say, of abuse of authority and sentenced to six years in prison. The charges relate to the removal of sensitive video and audio tapes from an apartment linked to his intelligence chief Flademero Motersenos. In a separate ongoing trial beginning on Monday, Mr. Fujimori faces charges of human rights violations.
World News from the BBC.
The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Michael Hayden has faced questions from a US congressional committee over the destruction of video tapes apparently showing controversial interrogation techniques being used on terrorism suspects. Appearing at a close-door session General Hayden said the filming of interrogations and later destruction of tapes took place under previous CIA directors but he promised to make available for questioning those people who knew more about the affair. Here is our Washington correspondent Rogers Muchindarny.
The interrogation technique waterboarding that is under the spotlight in Washington right now gives the suspects the sensation of drowning. U.S. military personnel are banned from using it, but the C.I.A. is exempt from that rule and is thought to have waterboarded a number of detainees, including al-Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaida. Videotapes of his interrogation were destroyed by the C.I.A. because its boss Michael Hayden said if the tapes leaked out his agents would be at risk of identification.
Police in the American city of Las Vegas say six school pupils were injured in a shooting as they were getting off a school bus. A local police officer said the six children were taken to hospitals in the area. Two of them were in a critical condition. He said at least two people were believed to have taken part in the shootings.
Rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo have taken over hills around the small town of Sukey close to the eastern regional capital Goama. A BBC correspondent in the area says rebels loyal to the dissident General Loronon Kunda are now threatening Sukey having taken over other villages in the area. Sukey has been defended by U.N. peacekeepers who say they are ready to use force to protect it. Tens of thousands of local people are fleeing the area and some have told the BBC they have seen dozens of dead government soldiers on the hillsides. Civilians are also reported to have been killed. The BBC correspondent says that the army is now in retreat and soldiers' morale is low.
BBC News.