28 January 2013 Last updated at 07:21 GMT
Brazil mourns Santa Maria nightclub fire victims
Brazil has declared three days of national mourning for 231 people killed in a nightclub fire in the southern city of Santa Maria.
The fire reportedly started after a member of a band playing at the Kiss nightclub lit a flare on stage.
Authorities say most of the victims were students who died of smoke inhalation. The first funerals are expected on Monday morning.
It is the deadliest fire in Brazil in five decades.
The BBC's Gary Duffy reports from Sao Paulo that the national sense of loss is profound.
Eyewitness - Fernanda Bona
"I am the official photographer at the club and I was taking photos of people. I was watching a band on stage and the fireworks.
I was in the VIP area and I could see the whole club. The area was close to the exit. I saw the fire going through the club.
People were screaming 'fire, fire' and to run. People were scared and were running everywhere.
I ran as quickly as I could to the door of the street. But it was hard to get out because there were so many people.
It took a few minutes for me to get out of the club. I know people who are in hospital or who are missing. A lot of people died from not so much the fire but the toxic smoke."
Bo Xilai corruption trial not likely until after March
State-run newspaper says claims the trial of the disgraced Chinese politician would begin on Monday are false
The trial of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai is not likely to begin until after annual political meetings in March, a state-run newspaper has said.
The report, which cited a source close to the country's top judicial body, came in response to claims that the case would open in the southwestern city of Guiyang on Monday.
A court official there told Reuters that news of an imminent trial was "fake information", adding: "It is definitely not happening today."
Bo, 63, was a charismatic but divisive leader who some had tipped for a spot on the country's highest political body in last year's leadership transition.
'I've died a hundred deaths'
January 28, 2013
Amrit Dhillon
Every day, Indian women face the real prospect of being raped any time, anywhere. But many are also attacked by vengeful men throwing acid.
MAHATMA Gandhi's 1921 statement is about men generally, but if you inserted the word ''Indian'' before ''man'' it would be a highly apt description of the state of India today.
Ever since the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old female physiotherapy student on a bus in Delhi last month, the country has been writhing in introspection over the question: why do so many Indian men treat women as objects to be humiliated, groped, killed in the womb, married off in childhood, sold into slavery, lynched, trafficked, raped, or set alight?
Many are also asking why so many women are horrifically disfigured or even killed by having acid thrown on them.
State of emergency declared after violent protests in Egypt
28 JAN 2013 07:18 - YASMINE SALEH, EDMUND BLAIR
Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi has declared a state of emergency in three of the country's cities after dozens of people were in killed in protests.
Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi has declared a month-long state of emergency in three cities along the Suez Canal where dozens of people have been killed over the past four days in protests that his allies say are designed to overthrow him.
Seven people were shot dead and hundreds were injured in Port Said on Sunday during the funerals of 33 people killed there when locals angered by a court decision went on the rampage as anti-government protests spread around the country.
A total of 49 people have been killed since Thursday and Morsi's opponents, who accuse his Islamist Muslim Brotherhood of betraying the revolution that ousted long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak, have called for more demonstrations on Monday.
In reversal, Spain woos investment from Latin America
European leaders spent the weekend in Chile meeting their Latin American counterparts - and talking up possibilities for investment on the old continent.
By Steven Bodzin, Correspondent
European leaders, smarting from high unemployment and dismal approval ratings at home, spent the weekend meeting their Latin American counterparts in Santiago, Chile. One item on the agenda: urging their newly wealthy cousins in South America to invest in the old continent.
“There’s an enormous potential to intensify the investment flow from the region to Europe,” Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told an audience of hundreds of business leaders from the European Union, Latin America, and the Caribbean. “Spain can play an important role as a natural entry point for Latin American companies to the European market.”
Rajoy addressed the suit-and-tie crowd a day before heads of state and government gathered for the first summit of the European Union with CELAC, a year-old grouping of Latin American and Caribbean states. The summit attracted over 40 national leaders, from Raúl Castro of Cuba to Germany’s Angela Merkel.
28 January 2013 Last updated at 00:37 GMT
Flipping heck: Is pinball about to stage a recovery?
Twenty years ago it was almost impossible to avoid the sounds and flashing lights of pinball machines in pubs, student bars and amusement arcades.
Competition from electronic arcade machines and fruit machines helped drive them close to the brink of extinction. But now these giant mechanical tables could be set to enjoy a renaissance.
New pinball companies are springing up to reintroduce the world to the physical pleasure of flipping "the silver ball."
What's behind the apparent resurgence? Ironically it's computer games, according to Andrew Heighway, managing director of Heighway Pinball, a UK-based company that plans to release its first machine shortly.
"There's been a huge boom in pinball smartphone and console games over the last few years," he explains.
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