16 January 2014 Last updated at 09:16 GMT
Rafik Hariri murder trial begins at The Hague
The trial of four men accused of murdering former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri has begun at an unprecedented tribunal at The Hague.
The four - alleged associates of the Syria-backed militant Shia movement Hezbollah - have not been arrested and are being tried in absentia.
Hariri was killed by a massive car bomb in Beirut in 2005.
The killing polarised Lebanon and led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops. Hezbollah denies any involvement.
It instead says the assassination was part of an Israeli and US conspiracy.
Shortly before the trial was to start, a bomb blast was reported near a government building in the town of Hermel - a Hezbollah stronghold.
At least two people were killed and 15 wounded in the attack in the town, which is in the Bekaa Valley, near the northern border with Syria.
Kurdish protesters claim anti-terror police confiscated their cash
Group was stopped in Dover on their way to demonstration in Paris on first anniversary of deaths of three Kurdish women activists
Kurdish protesters detained overnight at Dover on their way to a demonstration in Paris have claimed that their wallets were all but emptied by Metropolitan police officers under controversial anti-terror laws.
The mass detention and confiscation of personal cash was carried out last Saturday under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which allows officers to stop and search people for up to nine hours and confiscate material even if there were no previous grounds for suspicion.
According to witnesses, some female passengers were subjected to intrusive strip searches and had their veils removed in front of male police officers. One is said to have fainted in shock. A number were allowed to keep around £30 each as spending money, others said they were left with nothing.
Ukraine court outlaws major demos in central Kyiv
A court in Kyiv has outlawed major public protests in the capital until March 8, a move government critics decried as the groundwork for a stronger police response to opposition demonstrations.
The temporary ban would affect any public demonstrations in central Kyiv involving stages, loudhailers, loudspeakers, banners or tents. The Kyiv court did not submit the reasoning for its decision.
The opposition Udar ("Punch") party of former heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko called Wednesday's verdict the groundwork for "repressive acts against peaceful protesters."
Ukraine's capital has played host to a string of opposition protests in recent months, stemming from a November 21 decision to suspend a planned Association Agreement with the European Union in favor of closer ties to Russia.
Most recently, an estimated 50,000 protesters converged on the Maidan, or Independence Square, on Sunday in the first major demonstration of 2014. On the largest demonstration thus far, on December 8, an estimated 800,000 had taken to Kyiv's streets, famously toppling a statue of Vladimir Lenin in the former Soviet satellite.
Tokyo subway gas attack: Trial of cult member begins
January 16, 2014 - 6:44PMJulian Ryall
Mitsuru Kono hopes that once the executions begin, the nightmares might start to fade.
On the morning of March 20, 1995, he was travelling to work in the rush hour when he fell victim to an attack that traumatised a nation as Aum Shinrikyo, an apocalyptic religious cult, released sarin nerve gas on the Tokyo subway.
Thirteen people died and as many as 6000 others, including Mr Kono, required hospital treatment.
On Thursday, the trial of Makoto Hirata - one of the last members of Aum Shinrikyo to face justice - began before the Tokyo District Court. The trial is expected to last about two months.16 January 2014 Last updated at 05:00 GMT
France 'underestimated' Central African Republic hatred
France underestimated the level of hatred between Christian and Muslim communities in the conflict-riven Central African Republic, its ambassador to the UN has said.
Gerard Araud told a UN meeting on Wednesday that African Union and French forces were confronting a "nearly impossible" situation.
They were between "two communities who want to kill each other", he said.
Mr Araud said that calls to end the fighting were being ignored.
France, the former colonial power, has deployed 1,600 troops to try to restore peace, along with an African Union force of some 5,000.
"We have to think in terms of tactics: What to do, in very practical terms, to be effective to prevent people from killing each other when they desperately want to kill each other," Mr Araud told an event organised to mark the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide.
Mexican vigilantes take on Knights Templar as government takes on vigilantes
The spread of vigilante groups in Mexico's Michoacán State, a response to the rise of a powerful drug cartel, has placed the government in a law and order Catch-22.
A small, nagging problem in Mexico developed into a full-blown security test for the national government this week after the military confronted armed vigilantes who had taken on organized crime in Michoacán State, ending in a deadly encounter Tuesday.
Vigilante groups have been popping up in communities across Michoacán, Guerrero, and Veracruz states over the past year, with Mexican newspaper Reforma reporting the presence of self defense groups in 13 states as of last March. Though the federal government has condemned the impromptu militias, it has done little to curb their spread.
Many vigilante groups claim local police have failed to protect their largely rural communities from drug cartel activity – violence, extortion, and a general sense of lawlessness – or in some cases are in cahoots with the criminals themselves. The groups also say the federal government's failures have left them little choice but to take up arms in self defense.
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