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BBC News with John Jason.

The United States has now formally accused North Korea of assisting Syria in its efforts to build a covert nuclear reactor which could be used to produce plutonium. The White House statement came after Intelligence official said that four members of Congress in the day of private briefings on the matter. Syria has dismissed the claim as ridiculous. Kevin Connolly reports.

All day in the closed sessions, American Intelligence officials have been placing before Congress, the evidence which they say proves North Korea is assisting Syria in its quest to build in nuclear bomb. Some of the photographs they’ve used would be published when the briefing is concluded. But the timing of the intelligence operation after a month in which the US, Syria and Israel had said little about the raid on Alkiba, who’s raised eyebrows on Capitol Hill. Some said it is a straight-forward attempt to pressure North Korea into doing more to cooperate at the Six-Party Talks aimed at reducing its own nuclear capacity.

The United States Senate has unanimously passed a legislation forbidding employers, unions or health insurance companies from discriminating against people on the basis of their genetic details. The proposal which still needs approval from the House of Representatives would allow only patients and their doctors to access data obtained through genetic testing. Insurance companies will be barred for instance from setting higher premium for people with a genetic pre-disposition to develop illnesses such as cancer and diabetes.

After two days of talks, all ministers from four countries in South and Central Asia have signed an agreement to build a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and India. Work is scheduled to start in 2010. E John in Basarin reports.

Landlocked Turkmenistan has huge gas reserves and wants to capitalize on them. India and Pakistan are desperate to secure energy supplies to satisfy their fast growing economies. The pipeline will start in Turkmenistan’, pass through the Afghan cities of Heart and Kandahar and then across Pakistan’s * province before reaching India. Under present conditions, it is difficult to visualize that gas pipeline through the Taliban areas of Afghanistan.

The Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has appealed for a peace reconciliation during a visit to the griff Bali, the area worst effected by the violence which followed last year’s disputed presidential election. Mr. Kibaki was accompanied by his former rival, Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Mr. Kibaki said that the forgiveness was the only way forward.

“I’m appealing to you Kenyans to love each other, please learn to forgive each other, for that there is nobody who does not make a mistake, and that is the only way out of this problem.”

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The Palestinian group Hamas has handed over to Egyptian mediators proposals for informal truth with Israel in the Gaza Strip. The move comes as Israel’s fuel blockade of the territory seriously effects humanitarian operations there. David Banfer has the details.

Officials in Cairo say Hamas has suggested what he calls as “a staged period of calm”, first in Gaza and later in the Westbank if Israel lifts its economic blockade of Gaza and hold its military attacks. Egypt says it’s passing the proposals onto Israel. Israeli officials say they are ready for a period of calm. They say Israel would have no reason to carry out military operations in Gaza if Palestinian rocket-attacks into Israel stopped. The United Nations says Israel’s fuel blockade at Gaza has brought humanitarian work there to a halt.

The United States envoy to Africa Jendayi Frazer has said that the Zimbabwean Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai achieved a clear victory in the presidential elections last month. Mr. Frazer told a news conference in South Africa that it was perhaps an even outright win in the first round of voting over President Mugabe. She called on leaders in Zimbabwe to accept the election outcome. A BBC correspondent says that in the absence of any official results, it’s unclear on what the America envoy base a conclusion.

Brazil’s air force has called off a search for a Roman Catholic priest who went missing while trying to break a world flying record using a thousand party balloons filled with helium. Father Adelir de Carli disappeared on Sunday when he took off from the southern ports city of Paranagua, and wind unexpectedly carried him out to sea. Some of the balloons have been found a hundred kilometers south of the point of his last contact by a mobile phone. Father Adelir who is an experienced skydiver wanted to break the current 90-hour world record for this type of flight to raise money for his ministry to truck drivers in Brazil.

BBC News.