13 March 2015 Last updated at 09:16
Julian Assange case: Sweden u-turn on questioning
Swedish prosecutors have offered to travel to London to question Wikileaks founder Julian Assange over sex assault allegations.
Sweden sought Mr Assange's arrest in 2010. Prosecutors had previously insisted on questioning him in Sweden.
Mr Assange denies the assault claims and has been living at the Ecuadorean embassy in London since 2012.
He fears that if he is sent to Sweden he could then be extradited to the US to face charges over leaking material.
A lawyer for Mr Assange, Per Samuelson, welcomed the move. "This is something we've demanded for over four years," he told the Associated Press news agency.
A Swedish prosecutor explained the change of strategy by saying potential charges against Mr Assange would expire under the statute of limitations in August.
Russians offer North Korea a new alliance
Moscow’s support for rogue state likely to fill US and Britain with alarm
Justin McCurry
Russia and North Korea have announced that they will deepen economic and political ties under the banner of a “year of friendship” – a development that could further complicate the West’s attempts to deal with an increasingly belligerent Vladimir Putinand Kim Jong-un’s recalcitrant regime in Pyongyang.
The prospect of closer co-operation between Mr Putin’s Kremlin and a pariah state with realistic nuclear ambitions will dismay the US, Britain and other countries hoping to pressure Pyongyang into ditching its ambitions to become a nuclear power and to dissuade Russia from fuelling the war in Ukraine.
North Korean state media said the two countries had agreed to make 2015 a “year of friendship” to mark the 70th anniversary of “Korea’s liberation and the victory in the great Patriotic War in Russia” – references to the defeats of Japan and Nazi Germany in 1945.
Kidnapped in Mozambique: In the Clutches of Rhino Poachers
By Bartholomäus GrillWe traveled to Mozambique to report a story about the region's destructive and illegal TRADE
in rhinoceros horns. But when photographer Toby Selander and I were taken captive by poachers, we found ourselves staring death in the face.Just a short time ago, I was taken hostage in a small Mozambique village. Now I'm speeding through the bush in a pick-up truck driven by the boss of a criminal gang, his underlings hooting and hollering in the back. They are going to "finish" me, they had told me earlier, and I am convinced that they will stop at the next clearing and beat me to death like a dog. For the first time in my almost 30 years as a correspondent in Africa, I am afraid for my life.
I had arrived in Mozambique with Swedish photographer Toby Selander a few days earlier to report on rhinoceros poaching and the illegal rhinoceros-horn TRADE
. We were hoping to follow the supply chain from the slaughter of the rhinos in South Africa through middlemen in Mozambique to the horns' ultimate buyers in Vietnam.
The South African savannah is home to 21,000 of the world's remaining 28,500 rhinoceroses.
Nigeria is using South African mercenaries in the fight against Boko Haram
Adam Nossiter
Dakar, Senegal: Hundreds of South African mercenaries are taking part in Nigeria's military campaign against Boko Haram, operating attack helicopters, armoured personnel carriers and fighting to retake towns and villages captured by the Islamist group, a senior government official in northern Nigeria said.
The Nigerian government has not acknowledged the presence of the mercenaries, and the official said the South Africans - camped out in a remote portion of the airport in Maiduguri, the city at the heart of Boko Haram's uprising - conduct most of their operations at night because "they really don't want to let people know what is going on".
He said the mercenaries' role was crucial, part of a new offensive against Boko Haram after a nearly six-year insurrection. The Nigerian military, under pressure because of a presidential election to be held this month, has recently claimed a string of successes against Boko Haram, boasting about the recapture of a number of towns.
Pakistan court orders release of Mumbai attacks plotter
Islamabad High Court declares detention of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi under Maintenance of Public Order void.
Islamabad, PAKISTAN - A Pakistani court has declared the continued detention of Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the operational chief of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, void.
The Islamabad High Court accepted an appeal from Lakhvi that challenged his detention under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Act during a hearing on Friday.
The Islamabad High Court accepted an appeal from Lakhvi that challenged his detention under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Act during a hearing on Friday.
It is unclear if Lakhvi, who has been in prison since 2009, will be released, as the government has challenged similar judgments in the past. He is currently in custody at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail.
In China, Only Leaders Are Allowed To Battle Corruption
TIANMU VILLAGE, Tianjin, China -- Since his rise to power, Chinese President Xi Jinping has waged a sweeping anti-corruption campaign that has targeted both decadent high officials and small-time tyrants -- in his words, both “ tigers and flies.” For over two years, Xi has wielded the cudgel of corruption charges to decimate his political enemies and dethrone powerful leaders once thought untouchable.
But what happens when ordinary Chinese citizens join the anti-corruption fight?
Here in Tianmu Village outside the northern metropolis of Tianjin, hundreds of villagers are staging daily protests demanding that anti-corruption investigators swat at a man they accuse of being one of Xi’s “flies”: Communist Party Secretary Mu Xiangyou. For weeks, citizens in the predominantly Muslim village have gathered in front of the local government headquarters, holding up banners and making speeches accusing Mu of selling off village land and pocketing the profits.
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