BBC News with Sue Montgomery
The United Nations Security Council is holding an emergency session in New York to discuss the killing of more than 100 civilians in the Syrian town of Houla. Jane O'Brien reports from Washington.
The emergency Security Council meeting was called by Russia after officials objected to the wording of a press statement proposed by Britain and France. The statement was in response to the mass killing on Friday of civilians including dozens of children in Houla.
The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon joined the chorus of international condemnation directed at the Syrian government over the weekend. But the Assad's regime has denied responsibility; and Russia wants more information before agreeing to any Security Council statement. UN observers in Syria found tank shells at the scene and said many injuries were caused by shrapnel and gunfire at point-blank range .
Some news just in. Speaking to the BBC, a British diplomat said the head of the UN observer mission in Syria told the Security Council that a large number of casualties in Houla were a result of Syrian government shelling. The diplomat said a statement from the Security Council is expected to condemn the killing of civilians, and said the deaths occurred as a result of government shelling of residential neighborhoods.
Nepal's Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai has announced elections in six months' time. The country is in political crisis over the failure to agree a new constitution. Jill McGivering reports.
Nepal has been waiting for four years for its politicians to agree a new constitution. But a final deadline expired at midnight on Sunday without agreement, plunging the country into crisis. With the life of the current Assembly over, Nepal has entered a political vacuum . The prime minister addressed the nation to announce fresh elections in six months' time. For many in Nepal, frustrated with this lengthy stalemate , it's depressing news. Politicians still seem as divided as ever on a central issue whether states in a new federal system should or shouldn't be formed along ethnic lines.
Tens of thousands of Georgians have attended a rally in Tbilisi to launch a new opposition alliance led by a billionaire businessman Bidzina Ivanishvili. It comes ahead of parliamentary elections in October. From Tbilisi, Damien McGuinness.
This is the first time in years that so many government critics have taken to the streets in Georgia. Previous rallies have been undermined by a bickering and divided opposition, but Mr Ivanishvili has used his wealth to unite the opposition, and to bankroll a starting to look like a slick election campaign. His supporters accuse President Saakashvili of authoritarianism, and say he's not doing enough to tackle poverty and unemployment.
World News from the BBC
Officials in eastern Afghanistan say several member of the same family have been killed in a Nato airstrike. A spokesman for the governor of Paktia Province told the BBC that a mother and her children were amongst the dead. The village was bombed on Saturday night, he said. A spokesman for Nato-led forces said troops were involved in an operation in the area and called in air support.
Police in Bosnia have arrested a couple who were accused of keeping a teenage German girl as a slave. It's alleged that Milenko Marinkovic and his wife Slavojka subjected the girl to inhuman treatment for eight years. Neighbors told local television the pair had forced the girl to eat pig feed and pull them along in a horse cart. The 19-year-old has been placed in a safe house.
The left-wing Colombian rebel group Farc says it will release on Wednesday a French journalist it's been holding for a month. The group said it would hand over Romeo Langlois to a committee that's been negotiating for his release. Mr Langlois works for international broadcaster France 24. He was captured by rebels during an army anti-drugs operation.
The top prize of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in France, the Palme d'Or, has been awarded to the film Amour by the Austrian director Michael Haneke. More from Vincent Dowd.
Michael Haneke's Love, or Amour, takes place in the apartment of an old couple as their lives reach their ends. Despite the gloomy-sounding theme, it was very well received by critics in Cannes. The 81-year-old Male Lead is Jean-Louis Trintignant, a feature of French cinema for half a century. Michael Haneke won the Palme d'Or with The White Ribbon in 2009, and now joins the likes of Francis Ford Coppola as a two-time winner of the top prize.
BBC News
瘋狂英語 英語語法 新概念英語 走遍美國 四級聽力 英語音標(biāo) 英語入門 發(fā)音 美語 四級 新東方 七年級 賴世雄 zero是什么意思慶陽市老地委家屬樓英語學(xué)習(xí)交流群