BBC news with Lopaco Tary.
The Turkish military says its aircrafts have again bombed Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq. A statement warned / rebels of the PKK that Iraq was not a safe place for them. A rebel spokesman said the group had suffered no casualties. Here is our Arab regional editor Andrew Bolton.
Turkey says its aircraft attacked what is described as major positions of the PKK. The air-assault was followed by a Turkish artillery bombardment. Ankara says the rebels are using bases in northern Iraq as a springboard for their own attacks inside Turkey. But Turkey's operations inside northern Iraq have caused considerable tension, particularly with the largely autonomous Iraqi Kurdish authorities. Ankara has accused the Iraqi Kurds of tolerating or even supporting the guerrillas.
A leaked report from the now disbanded 9. 11 commission in the United States says it made repeatedly request to the CIA for information about on the interrogation of al Qaeda suspects, but never received any material. The agency destroyed the tapes which reportedly contained images of interrogation techniques regarded by some as torture. Vincent Dowd reports.
This internal review of the commission's dealings with the CIA says it requested documents, records and information. The CIA has said it would willingly have supplied the interrogation tapes had there been a request for them. A spokesman said the videotapes were destroyed only after the commission closed down. The commission's chairmen have indicated they would have requested the tapes had they known they existed. The memorandum doesn't express an opinion as to whether the CIA acted illegally; it says further investigation is needed.
The Indian government has outlined new plans to help widows. According to official figures there are about 33 million widows in India with the majority under 50 years of age. The country's dominant religion Hinduism has traditionally disapproved of widows' remarrying. The Minister for Women Renuka Chowdhury said encouraging widows to remarry was the most important step.
In this day and age because of natural calamities and other such things, we have many young widows so it is essential that we first try to rehabilitate these young widows. We give them the training and the support to enable them to live meaningful, independent lives and then we will see how we can organize forums where eligible young men will come forward to meet these ladies.
Police in Afghanistan are searching for a man in the southern province of Zabul who has severely beaten his 17-year-old wife. The woman is in hospital after her husband smashed most of her teeth with a stone, cut her nose and ears and scolded her. The provincial office responsible for women's affairs has called for the husband to be severely published. Violence against women is common in Afghanistan, but correspondents say local people have been shocked by the severity of the attack.
BBC news.
The French President and the new Prime Minister of Australia have both made visits to Afghanistan and spoken of the importance of NATO and its allies winning the fight against Taliban insurgents. The French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the west could not afford to lose what he said was a war against terrorism. The Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said his troops were in Afghanistan for the long haul.
Ceremonies have taken place in Ivory Coast to launch a disarmament process between the former rebels and the government militia. President Laurent Gbagbo and the former rebel leader, Guillaume Soro, who's now Prime Minister, appeared together to watch government troops withdrawn from the ceasefire line that splits the rebel-held north from the government-controlled south. Here is our Ivory Coast correspondent John James.
Although the first of two disarmament ceremonies got under way several hours later than expected, but its happening at all is something of a success. A previous disarmament process failed last year. The timetable for the peace process in Ivory Coast is set out in the latest peace accord signed in March. And additional accords which gave today as the last possible date for the start of disarmament. The government says the process will last three months.
The former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has converted to Roman Catholicism. It's been reviewed that Mr. Blair, previously an Anglican, was welcomed into the church on Friday. In a service conducted by the leader of the Catholic Church in Britain Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'connor. Mr. Blair has acknowledged that his religious faith played an important role during his ten-year Premiership which ended in June.
And rescue workers in Tajikistan have been trying to reach people trapped by an avalanche that killed at least 16 people. The avalanche hit the main highway linking the two biggest cities in Tajikistan. A Tajik government spokesman said those killed had ignored warnings about the danger of possible avalanches.
And that's the latest BBC news.