Tiger kills student at Delhi zoo

23 September 2014 Last updated at 11:51

A white tiger has attacked and killed an Indian student at Delhi zoo, officials and witnesses say.

Zoo manager Riaz Khan said the young man "leapt over the railing into the tiger enclosure". Initial reports described him as a schoolboy.

Television pictures showed the student crouching against a wall while the tiger stood near him.

An eyewitness said he was leaning over the barricade which was "very low" and may have fallen inside the enclosure.

"Around 1.30 pm, we were in the reptiles area when we heard loud screams," eyewitness Himanshu told CNN-IBN news channel.

"I ran to the tiger enclosure where we saw that a white tiger had caught the student by his neck and he was writhing in pain. Some children threw small sticks and stones at the tiger.

"He suffered for the next 10-15 minutes but nobody helped him."

Himanshu said the police "came very quickly", but could not save him.

White tigers are a rare variant of the customary orange Bengal sub-species and and owe their colour to a recessive gene.

Considered an endangered species, they are found in south and east Asia, particularly India.

Today, they are found exclusively in captive programmes where the limited numbers are interbred to maintain the distinctive fur colour.

A number of the white tigers found in zoos have health issues, such as eyesight problems and some deformities.

The last known free-ranging white tiger is known to have been shot in 1958, before which sporadic sightings in the wild were made in India.

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China jails Uighur academic for life

23 September 2014 Last updated at 10:40

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Damien Grammaticas says the severity of the sentence has shocked many

A court in China has found a prominent Uighur scholar guilty of separatism and jailed him for life, his lawyer says.

Ilham Tohti had spoken out on China's policies towards the Muslim Uighur minority in the restive Xinjiang region, but had denied being a separatist.

Correspondents say China is taking a tougher line amid rising Xinjiang-linked violence.

Amnesty International has called the verdict "deplorable".

The EU, US and the United Nations have all previously called for his release.

The Urumqi People's Intermediate Court found Tohti guilty after a two-day trial that ended last week. It also ordered all of Tohti's money and property seized.

His lawyer, Li Fangping, told BBC Chinese that he would be filing an appeal.

"He told us that no matter the verdict, he will not be angry nor seek revenge. No matter whether he is in jail or if he is freed in the future, he will still advocate for dialogue between Uighurs and Han Chinese," he said.

Carrie Gracie, China Editor, BBC News

"I won't give in." The last words Ilham Tohti uttered before police dragged him from a courtroom to start a life sentence for attempting to divide China.

Calling for independence is illegal and always punished severely when the offender belongs to China's minority Uighur community. But what is so extraordinary about the sentence is that Ilham Tohti was not an independence activist, far less a terrorist, but an outspoken advocate of building bridges between the two communities.

Until his arrest in January he was an academic at a university in the capital and a member of the Communist Party. In his academic essays and on the website he ran, he insisted that Xinjiang should remain part of China and frequently expressed revulsion against growing violence employed by Uighurs against the state.

But he likewise criticised the mounting police crackdown in Xinjiang, complaining that punitive policies were radicalising young Uighurs and convincing them that the battle was not between China and terrorists, but between China and Islam.

Today's life sentence is a message that amid the battle to contain Xinjiang's surging violence, there is no longer room in China for an outspoken moderate.

'Deplorable'

In recent years Xinjiang has seen rising tensions between Uighurs and Han Chinese migrants, and observers say the sentence could further stoke tensions.

Tohti was detained in January after he criticised Beijing's heavy response to a suicide car attack near Tiananmen Square carried out by Uighurs from Xinjiang.

Prosecutors at the trial alleged he was engaging in separatist activities including promoting independence on his website, according to his lawyers.

A spokesman for the exiled World Uyghur Congress said Tohti was being persecuted.

"China has sent a clear message...thoroughly disappointing all those who hope to use the legal process or reasonable proposals to change the status quo of Uighurs," said Dilxat Raxit in an emailed statement to Reuters news agency.

Uighurs and Xinjiang

• Uighurs are ethnically Turkic Muslims
• They make up about 45% of the region's population; 40% are Han Chinese
• China re-established control in 1949 after crushing short-lived state of East Turkestan
• Since then, there has been large-scale immigration of Han Chinese
• Uighurs fear erosion of traditional culture

Who are the Uighurs?

Human rights group Amnesty International said the verdict was an "affront to justice" and full of legal shortcomings.

"His legal team were refused access to evidence and they were unable to meet Tohti for six months. One of Tohti's lawyers was also forced to quit the case following political pressure," the group said.

Liu Xiaoyuan, a lawyer for Tohti, told the BBC that several foreign embassies were not allowed into the court to witness the proceedings.

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Israel murder suspects shot dead

23 September 2014 Last updated at 10:46

Two Palestinians suspected of the abduction and murder of three Israeli teenagers in June have been killed by Israeli forces, Israel's military says.

A spokesman said troops searching for Marwan Qawasmeh and Amer Abu Aisha surrounded a building in the West Bank city of Hebron where they were hiding.

"We opened fire, they returned fire and they were killed in the exchange," Lt Col Peter Lerner added.

The abduction of the teenagers was a trigger of the recent conflict in Gaza.

'Slight comfort'

Col Lerner said the search for Mr Qawasmeh and Mr Abu Aisha had led a special police counter-terrorism unit, Yamam, to a hideout in the Hebron area about a week ago, according to the Associated Press.

Early on Tuesday, Israeli forces entered the ground floor of the two-storey building and killed the two men after coming under fire, he added.

Initial reports said a rocket and a bulldozer were used in the assault.

The Israeli military initially said it had only confirmed that one of the suspects was killed. The other was also believed to be dead, it added, although confirmation would have to wait until his body was recovered.

Chief of Staff Lt Gen Benny Gantz said: "We promised the [teenagers'] families that we would find the murderers. This morning, we did just that."

"This isn't a consolation for the grieving families," he reiterated, "but I hope that knowing we reached their children's murderers may slightly comfort them."

One of Mr Qawasmeh's relatives has already been charged with planning the teenagers' abduction.

The militant Islamist group Hamas initially denied being behind the killings but later on its political leader Khaled Meshaal said members had carried them out.

"Hamas praises the role martyrs Abu Aisha and Qawasmeh played in chasing down Israeli settlers and we stress that their assassination will not weaken the resistance," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.

Israel identified Mr Qawasmeh and Mr Abu Aisha as key suspects in the abduction of Naftali Frenkel and Gilad Shaar, both aged 16, and 19-year-old Eyal Yifrach shortly after the went missing at a road junction between Jerusalem and Hebron as they hitchhiked home on 12 June.

But for the all the sophistication of Israel's extensive intelligence operations on the West Bank they managed to evade capture for several months, says the BBC's Kevin Connolly in Jerusalem.

While they were on the run a tragic pattern of consequences flowed from the abduction, our correspondent adds.

Israel launched a crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank following the abduction, detaining hundreds of members.

Then on 2 July, a Palestinian teenager from East Jerusalem was abducted and burned alive in an apparent revenge attack two days after the bodies of the Israeli teenagers were found. One Jewish man and two youths have been charged with the murder of Mohammed Abu Khdair, 16.

The killings set off an escalating cycle of violence, leading to a 50-day conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Hamas-dominated Gaza Strip that claimed more than 2,000 lives.

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US strikes Islamic State in Syria

23 September 2014 Last updated at 12:09

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Footage appears to show the aftermath of strikes, as Richard Lister reports

The US and five Arab allies have launched the first strikes against Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria.

The Pentagon said warplanes, drones and Tomahawk missiles were used in the attacks, which targeted several areas including IS stronghold Raqqa.

Syria's foreign ministry said its UN envoy was informed about the strikes against IS, which controls large swathes of Syria and Iraq.

The US has already launched about 190 air strikes in Iraq since August.

However, Monday's action expands the campaign against the militant group across the border into Syria.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm John Kirby confirmed the operation, saying "US military and partner nation forces" had undertaken military action in Syria.

US Central Command (Centcom) said Sunni Arab countries Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates "participated in or supported" the strikes.

It said a total of 14 strikes destroyed or damaged IS training compounds, command and control facilities, vehicles and storage sites.

The US military will continue to conduct air strikes against IS targets in Iraq and Syria, it added.

Separately, Centcom said US forces also attacked a network of al-Qaeda veterans named Khorasan who had established a safe haven west of Aleppo and were plotting imminent attacks against the West.

Analysis: Frank Gardner, BBC Security correspondent

These air strikes mark a major shift in operations against IS for two reasons.

Firstly, they now expand the fight across the border into the group's heartland in Syria.

IS knew they were coming and had already dispersed some of their key assets. But it will still be a shock to many that their de facto capital of Raqqa is no longer a safe haven.

Secondly, the participation of Arab states spreads the responsibility to some extent away from just the US.

Islamic State will be enraged by this - it has no effective military answers to US air power - so those Arab countries that supported or took part in the action may well now be bracing themselves for possible reprisals.

The strikes targeted Raqqa, an IS stronghold in eastern Syria the group captured in 2013, and the cities of Deir al-Zour, Hassakeh and Abu Kamal.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists on the ground, said more than 20 militants were killed in two strikes on IS positions in Raqqa.

Earlier, it said 30 al-Qaeda-linked fighters were also killed in strikes west of Aleppo, but it later raised the figure to 50. Eight civilians, including three children, were reported to have died.

'Bombing without consent'

Jordan said its "air force jets destroyed a number of targets that belong to some terrorist groups that sought to commit terror acts inside Jordan."

Analysts say it is significant that countries with a Sunni majority, like Jordan and Saudi Arabia, are among those supporting US efforts against IS.

IS members are jihadists who adhere to an extreme interpretation of Sunni Islam and consider themselves the only true believers.

Syria did not formally consent to the strikes on its territory, but its foreign minister said he was passed a letter from US Secretary of State John Kerry via his Iraqi counterpart hours before the raids started.

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Analysis from BBC correspondents in Washington, Amman and Baghdad

In other developments:

• IS militants release a second video showing the British hostage John Cantlie
• Israel shoots down a Syrian fighter jet in its airspace above the Golan Heights
• Algerian troops are searching for a Frenchman kidnapped by a group linked to IS
• UK Parliament expected to be recalled in "next few days" to discuss military action against IS

The US and allies including the UK have ruled out co-operating against IS with Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, whom they accuse of responsibility for huge numbers of civilian deaths during Syria's civil war.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said last month that any US action would be "considered aggression" unless it was co-ordinated with Syria.

Hadi al-Bahra, president of the National Coalition, Syria's main opposition alliance, welcomed the military action but said "strikes alone cannot defeat extremism for good."

"The long-term solution is moderate, inclusive Syrian governance that prevents the resurgence of extremism," he said in a statement.

Refugee crisis

Islamic State - also known as Isis, or Isil - has taken control of large areas of Syria and Iraq, imposed a harsh brand of Islam, and declared a caliphate.

The group, which the CIA says could have as many as 31,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria, has executed captive soldiers, aid workers and journalists, and threatened the mass killing of Iraqi religious minorities.

The IS advance in northern Syria has created a refugee crisis in neighbouring Turkey, with about 130,000 Kurdish refugees crossing the border at the weekend.

Most refugees are from Kobane, a Syrian town close to the Turkish border that is under siege by IS militants.

The UN refugee agency said it was making contingency plans to deal with the rest of Kobane's 400,000 inhabitants fleeing into Turkey.

Before the latest influx, there were already more than one million Syrian refugees in Turkey.

Who are Islamic State (IS)?

• Formed out of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) in 2013, IS first captured Raqqa in eastern Syria
• It captured broad swathes of Iraq in June, including Mosul, and declared a "caliphate" in areas it controls in Syria and Iraq
• Pursuing an extreme form of Sunni Islam, IS has persecuted non-Muslims such as Yazidis and Christians, as well as Shia Muslims, whom it regards as heretics
• Known for its brutal tactics, including beheadings of soldiers, Western journalists and aid workers
• The CIA says the group could have as many as 31,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria
• The US has been launching air strikes on IS targets in north-eastern Iraq since mid-August

Have you been affected by the issues raised in this story? You can email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk

Send your pictures and videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.

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Turkey clamps down on Syria border

22 September 2014 Last updated at 11:55

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On Sunday, Turkish troops fired tear gas at the Syrian border, as Mark Lowen reports

Turkey has begun to close some of its border crossings with Syria after about 130,000 Kurdish refugees entered the country over the weekend.

On Sunday Turkish security forces clashed with Kurds protesting in solidarity with the refugees. Some protesters were reportedly trying to go to Syria to fight Islamic State (IS).

Most refugees are from Kobane, a town threatened by the advancing militants.

IS has taken over large swathes of Iraq and Syria in recent months.

Before the latest influx, there were already more than one million Syrian refugees in Turkey. They have fled since the start of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad three years ago.

Some of the new arrivals are being sheltered in overcrowded schools, as Turkey struggles to cope with the influx.

'Huge numbers'

On Friday Turkey opened a 30km (19-mile) section of the border to Syrians fleeing the town of Kobane, also known as Ayn al-Arab.

But on Monday only two out of nine border posts in the area remained open, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said.

Mark Lowen, BBC News, southern Turkey

Turkey was already struggling to cope with over a million Syrian refugees - that was before 130,000 more fled across the border at the weekend. The sheer numbers would overwhelm any country.

Added to that, they are Kurds from Syria, many of them deeply hostile to Turkey. For 30 years, Turkish forces fought Kurdish rebels in a civil war that killed 40,000 people.

The fact that Turkey is accepting tens of thousands of Kurds is a sign of how allegiances are being forced to change with the onslaught of Islamic State. But deep-seated tension between Kurds and Turks have again come to the surface, leading to Sunday's border clashes.

Turkey fears that Kurds will cross into Syria to join the Kurdish militia. The worry is that, renewed by fresh recruits, it could ally with the outlawed PKK and launch attacks on Turkish soil. All the regional complexities, added to the refugee influx, make for a precarious situation here.

Clashes broke out on Sunday after a demonstration by Kurds on the Turkish side of the border.

Some protesters threw stones at security forces, who responded with tear gas and water cannon. There were no reports of serious injuries.

Turkish security forces were trying to stop Kurdish fighters from entering Syria to take part in the defence of Kobane, says the BBC's Mark Lowen at the scene.

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a banned militant group that fought a civil war for autonomy within Turkey for decades, has called on Kurds to join the fight against IS.

Our correspondent says the Syrian conflict has reawakened old hostilities and shaken a fragile peace between Kurds and Turkish authorities.

PKK-affiliated forces have been battling IS in northern Iraq for months.

In other developments:

• A Syrian government air strike killed at least 42 civilians in rebel-held territory in the north-western province of Idlib on Sunday, activists said
• IS issued a statement urging its supporters to kill "disbelievers" from the countries that have joined a international coalition against the group
• US Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif discussed the threat posed by IS during a meeting in New York on Sunday, a US official said

IS is closing in on the predominantly Kurdish town of Kobane, having seized dozens of villages in the area in recent days.

It began the assault on Tuesday, and by Sunday militants were about 10km (six miles) away, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Reports suggest that IS has used heavy weaponry, including tanks, in the attack.

The US has said it will attack the group in Syria as part of a strategy to destroy it, though so far it has carried out air strikes against IS only in Iraq.

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Tony Blair: " Isis... kill without mercy and they're prepared to die without regret"

Attacking IS in Syria is considered more complicated, partly because of the strength of the country's air defence system and because foreign strikes do not have the approval of President Assad.

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair told the BBC on Sunday that air strikes alone might not be enough to contain the group.

"If necessary, we shouldn't rule out the use of, particularly, special force capabilities," he said.

President Obama has previously ruled out the involvement of US ground troops, and has instead promised to provide arms and training to local forces fighting against IS.

Who are Islamic State (IS)?

• Formed out of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) in 2013, IS first captured Raqqa in eastern Syria
• It captured broad swathes of Iraq in June, including Mosul, and declared a "caliphate" in areas it controls in Syria and Iraq
• Pursuing an extreme form of Sunni Islam, IS has persecuted non-Muslims such as Yazidis and Christians, as well as Shia Muslims, whom it regards as heretics
• Known for its brutal tactics, including beheadings of soldiers, Western journalists and aid workers
• The CIA says the group could have as many as 31,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria
• The US has been launching air strikes on IS targets in north-eastern Iraq since mid-August

Have you been affected by closing borders? If you are in the region, send us your experiences to haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk

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Cosmic study 'underestimated' dust

22 September 2014 Last updated at 09:04 By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News

One of the biggest scientific claims of the year has received another set-back.

In March, the US BICEP team said it had found a pattern on the sky left by the rapid expansion of space just fractions of a second after the Big Bang.

The astonishing assertion was countered quickly by others who thought the group may have underestimated the confounding effects of dust in our own galaxy.

That explanation has now been boosted by a new analysis from the European Space Agency's (Esa) Planck satellite.

In a paper published on the arXiv pre-print server, Planck's researchers find that the part of the sky being observed by the BICEP team contained significantly more dust than it had assumed.

This new information does not mean the original claim is now dead. Not immediately, anyway.

Cosmic 'ripples'

The BICEP and Planck groups are currently working on a joint assessment of the implications, and this will probably be released towards the end of the year.

However, if the contention is eventually shown to be unsupportable with the available data, it will prove to be a major disappointment, especially after all the initial excitement and talk of Nobel Prizes.

What BICEP (also known as BICEP2) claimed to have done was find the long-sought evidence for "cosmic inflation".

This is the idea that the Universe experienced an exponential growth spurt in its first trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second.

The theory was developed to help explain why deep space looks the same on all sides of the sky - the notion being that a very rapid expansion in the earliest moments could have smoothed out any unevenness.

Inflation makes a very specific prediction - that it would have been accompanied by waves of gravitational energy, and that these ripples in the fabric of space-time would leave an indelible mark on the "oldest light" in the sky - the famous Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB).

The BICEP team said its telescope at the South Pole had detected just such a signal.

Cosmic 'ripples'

It is called B-mode polarisation and takes the form of a characteristic swirl in the directional properties of the CMB light.

But it is a fiendishly difficult observation to make, in part because the extremely faint B-mode polarisation from nearly 14 billion years ago has to be disentangled from the polarisation being generated today in our Milky Way Galaxy.

The main source of this inconvenient "noise" is spinning dust grains.

These countless particles become trapped and aligned in the magnetic fields that thread through our galaxy.

As a consequence, these grains also emit their light with a directional quality, and this is capable of swamping any primordial background signal.

The BICEP team's strategy was to target the cleanest part of the sky, over Antarctica, and it used every piece of dust information it could source to do the disentanglement.

What it lacked, however, was access to the dust data being compiled by Europe's Planck satellite, which has mapped the microwave sky at many more frequencies than the American team.

This allows it to more easily characterise the dust and discern its confounding effects.

The Planck report in the arXiv paper details dust polarisation properties across a great swathe of sky at intermediate and high galactic latitudes.

Only a very small portion of those fields is relevant to BICEP, but the results are not encouraging. There is significantly more dust in BICEP's "southern hole" than anticipated.

Indeed, most of the American signal - perhaps all of it - could have been attributed to dust.

"It's possible, but the error in our measurement is quite high," Planck scientist Dr Cécile Renault told BBC News.

"The conclusion really is that we need to analyse the data together - BICEP and Planck - to get the right cosmological [versus] galactic signal. It's really too early to say."

The American group had already downgraded confidence in its own result when it finally published a paper on the inflation claim in Physical Review Letters in June.

In the eyes of many commentators, the new Planck analysis will shake that confidence still further.

'Premature' announcement

The Planck researchers themselves promise to report back on their own search for a primordial polarisation signal very soon (probably at the same time as the joint paper with BICEP). Their approach is different to the American one

"Planck has wider spectral coverage, and has mapped the entire sky; BICEP2 is more sensitive, but works at only one frequency and covers only a relatively small field of view," explained Prof Peter Coles from Sussex University, who has been tracking the developing story on his blog, In The Dark.

"Between them they may be able to identify an excess source of polarisation over and above the foreground, so it is not impossible that a gravitational wave component may be isolated. That will be a tough job, however, and there's by no means any guarantee that it will work. We will just have to wait and see."

But what can be said now, adds Prof Coles, is that BICEP's March claim "was premature, to say the least".

Even if the American and European approaches turn out to be unsuccessful this time, these groups will have pointed the way for future observations that are planned with superior technology. Planck has actually now identified parts of the sky that have less dust than the area probed by BICEP.

"If you look at the maps we've produced, the more blue parts are where you should go look for the primordial signal," explained Dr Renault.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos

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Thousands of HK students at boycott

22 September 2014 Last updated at 10:47

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The BBC's Juliana Liu: "All the action is happening here at the Chinese University of Hong Kong"

Thousands of students in Hong Kong have converged on a university campus to begin a week-long boycott of classes.

They are protesting against China's stance on electoral reform in the territory. Students from more than two dozen institutions are taking part.

It is a prelude to a larger protest on 1 October planned by pro-democracy group Occupy Central.

Beijing has rejected open nominations for the city's leadership poll, dashing hopes of those seeking full democracy.

The boycott saw thousands of students gathering at 14:00 local time (07:00 BST) for a sit-in at the Chinese University of Hong Kong campus in Sha Tin, several kilometres north of the city centre.

Most are wearing white T-shirts with yellow ribbons - a colour adopted by pro-democracy activists.

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A guide to the Occupy Central movement

The boycott is being organised by groups such as the Hong Kong Federation of Students and Scholarism.

Student activists are also organising a series of rallies and public lectures in a park near government offices later in the week.

RTHK reported that teenage activists were standing outside secondary schools early on Monday morning distributing yellow ribbons to students arriving for class and urging them to join the boycott.

About 400 academics and non-teaching staff are also taking part in support of the students, according to the South China Morning Post.

Campaign ahead

A larger pro-democracy protest is due to take place next month. Occupy Central has pledged to stage a sit-in at Hong Kong's financial district, which critics have said may shut down the area.

The issue of how Hong Kong can choose its leader gripped the city in recent months, sparking protests from both the pro-democracy and pro-Beijing camps.

The Chinese government has promised direct elections for Hong Kong's leader, the chief executive, by 2017.

But in August, it ruled that voters would only have a choice from a list of two or three candidates selected by a nominating committee.

Democracy activists say China will use this committee to screen out candidates it disapproves of.

Pro-Beijing activists, meanwhile, believe the other camp is disrupting Hong Kong's peace and stability.

The protesting students say Beijing's decision does not amount to the greater democracy Hong Kong was promised when it was handed back from Britain to China in 1997.

But the BBC's China editor Carrie Gracie says the communist leadership in Beijing is turning firmly against ideas of political reform at home and has no interest in encouraging noisy critics.

Are you in Hong Kong? What is your reaction to the student boycott? Email your experience to haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk

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Ukraine to pull back artillery

22 September 2014 Last updated at 12:11

Ukraine is preparing to withdraw heavy weaponry away from separatist rebel lines in the east, the military says.

The two sides agreed on Saturday to set up a buffer zone in eastern Ukraine, more than a fortnight after a ceasefire came into force.

Although the truce is still in place, clashes have continued around the cities of Donetsk and Mariupol.

More than 3,000 people have died since fighting broke out in the two regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in April.

Under the terms of the nine-point deal agreed in Belarus, both the pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian forces are to pull back their heavy artillery 15km (9.5 miles) from the line of engagement, creating a 30km buffer zone.

Military aircraft are banned from flying over the conflict zone and "foreign mercenaries" are to be withdrawn on both sides.

Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council spokesman Col Andriy Lysenko said pro-Russian rebels had on their part begun pulling back their heavy artillery, but it was "not as massive as we expected".

He added that two servicemen had been killed in the past day.

Checkpoints manned by Ukrainian forces had come under heavy shelling at Donetsk airport and near Mariupol, Ukrainian media reported on Monday.

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Kenya marks Westgate mall attack

21 September 2014 Last updated at 07:55

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Background to the Westgate mall attack in 60 seconds

Kenya is marking a year since the attack on Nairobi's Westgate shopping centre, in which at least 67 people were killed.

A memorial plaque will be unveiled and a candle-lit vigil held.

The siege at Westgate lasted four days, with CCTV footage showing terrified shoppers fleeing the gunmen and cowering behind counters.

Somali Islamist group al-Shabab said it carried out the attack in response to Kenya's military operations in Somalia.

On high alert

Later on Sunday, relatives of the victims will lay wreaths at a garden in the forest where 67 trees were planted after the attack.

Interfaith prayers will also be held at the site.

"We expect the victims' families and friends to come out and be part of the healing process," event organiser Rajesh Shah was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

Ahead of the commemorations, Kenya was put on high alert amid fears of possible attacks by militants.

"We are prepared in case of anything. Specialised units are on the ground and we have intensified patrols during this period of the anniversary," Kenyan police chief David Kimaiyo said.

Leader assassinated

Last year's attack sparked a four-day siege in which large parts of the shopping centre were destroyed amid heavy fighting and a fire.

All four gunmen are believed to have died during the assault.

The Kenyan authorities have been criticised for what is seen by some analysts as their slow response to the attack and also lack of co-ordination between police and the army. Kenya rejects the claims.

Four Somalis are being held in prison in Kenya on terrorism charges linked to the attack.

Al-Shabab is fighting to create an Islamic state in Somalia and is banned as a terrorist group by both the US and the UK.

Earlier this month, al-Shabab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane was assassinated in US air strikes in southern Somalia.

The militants later chose a new chief and vowed revenge attacks.

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Afghan contenders sign unity deal

21 September 2014 Last updated at 10:17

A deal to form a government of national unity in Afghanistan has been signed at a ceremony in Kabul.

The signing - broadcast live on national TV - comes after months of wrangling following presidential elections in April and June.

Under the deal, Ashraf Ghani becomes president while runner-up Abdullah Abdullah nominates a CEO with powers similar to those of prime minister.

The final result of the bitterly contested poll is due to be announced.

Both sides had accused the other of fraud following the election.

Mr Ghani and Mr Abdullah signed the agreement at a ceremony inside the presidential palace in the capital, Kabul. They then stood and embraced each other.

Outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai congratulated the two men, saying that the agreement was "for the progress and development of this country".

"On behalf of the Afghan nation, I am congratulating them on this understanding and agreement," he said in his speech.

The US hailed the deal as an "important opportunity for unity".

"We support this agreement and stand ready to work with the next administration to ensure its success," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

The power-sharing deal was finally reached after a comprehensive audit of all eight million votes, brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

BBC Afghanistan correspondent David Loyn, who has seen a copy of the agreement, says it averts potential violence by supporters of Mr Abdullah.

The agreement says the new CEO will be answerable to Mr Ghani, although he has lost a battle to be sworn in after the announcement of the election result, our correspondent says.

Analysis: David Loyn, BBC News, Afghanistan

The creation of the government of national unity will now diminish the importance of the election result. I understand that after the audit the final gap between the two candidates was less than three points - a significant cut from Ashraf Ghani's lead after the first count of 13 points.

A president who has built an international reputation as an incorruptible technocrat is tarnished by the fact that most of the fraud in the election was discovered to be in his votes.

The new Afghan government will have a cabinet of ministers, including the CEO and two deputies, chaired by the president who will take strategic decisions. Day-to-day administration will be carried out by a new Council of Ministers, chaired by the CEO, and including all ministers.

One major issue that divided both camps was over appointments. Abdullah Abdullah won the fight to be able to appoint senior positions on terms of "parity" with Ashraf Ghani, and "the two teams will be equally represented at the leadership level".

But appointments further down will be "equitably" shared - so there will not be a one-for-one handout of jobs across the country. Ashraf Ghani is impatient to make major reforms, and has secured the wording he wants on the formation of a "merit-based" mechanism to appoint senior officials.

What the Afghan power-sharing deal means

Profile: Ashraf Ghani

Profile: Abdullah Abdullah

The new chief executive - nominated by Mr Abdullah - will be side-by-side with the president when he is inaugurated.

Mr Abdullah will be able to appoint senior positions on terms of "parity" with Mr Ghani. The agreement says "the two teams will be equally represented at the leadership level".

However, our correspondent says there will not be a one-for-one handout of jobs further down and that could lead to arguments.

The agreement calls for a spirit of partnership. But after a bitter election campaign and months of wrangling, the stability of this government cannot be guaranteed, he adds.

Earlier, Mr Abdullah told the BBC that he accepted Mr Ghani should be leader.

A spokesman for Mr Ghani said that there was no longer any dispute between the two sides.

One of the new president's first tasks is widely expected to be signing a bilateral security agreement with the US.

The deal will allow a small force of soldiers to remain beyond 2014 to train Afghan security forces.

President Karzai refused to sign the security agreement, which is linked to the continuation of aid needed to pay Afghan civil servants, teachers and soldiers.

Mr Ghani and Mr Abdullah have both promised to sign it.

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Ashraf Ghani	Abdullah Abdullah
Technocrat and former World Bank official. Open to talks with Taliban	Former anti-Soviet resistance member. Wary of Taliban talks
Leading in Pashtun-dominated southern provinces	Ahead in mainly Tajik northern areas
Backed by Rashid Dostum, an Uzbek ex-warlord accused of human rights abuses	Supported by wealthy Balkh governor Atta Mohammad, a bitter Dostum rival
Has support of Qayyum Karzai, brother of President Karzai	Also has backing of Mohamed Mohaqiq, powerful leader of ethnic Hazaras
Ahmed Zia Masood, whose brother was a famous resistance hero, helped balance ticket	Gul Agha Sherzai, an influential Pashtun, helped bring ethnic balance to ticket

Are you in Afghanistan? What is your reaction to the national unity deal? You can email your comments to haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

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