United Nations' military observer mission in Syria major general Robert Mood has confirmed more than 90 people have been killed in the town of Houla. It's one of the bloodiest attacks since ceasefire was declared across the Syria last month. General Mood describes what the observers have seen.
We can verify that 32 children under the age of 10 and approximately additional 62 others were counted as dead. The observers also confirmed from the residential area where they saw the impact but they could verify the use of small arms, machine gun, artillery and tanks. Such indiscriminate and disproportional use of forces unacceptable and I would also say unforgivable.
The UN Secretary General Ban Kim Moon and the international envoy Kofi Annan have condemned the killings in Houla as a flagrant violation of international law. They demanded the Syrian government immediately cease the use of heavy weapons in populated areas.
House authorities in Chile have begun evacuation of nearly half a million alive pigs from the country's biggest processing plant. It follows a dispute with local people who complained about the smell. Gideon Long in Santiago has more.
The pigs entered the plant in the town of Freirina in Northern Chile. Local say the stench is unbearable, and last week they successfully blocked the entrance to the site. Workers couldn't get in for five days. Some of the pigs died and the government has ordered the plant to be shut. The company that owns it is burying the corpse of dead animals in specially prepared pits. The surviving pigs are being taken to alternative plants while the site is disinfected.
Vatican police has formally charged Pope Benedict’s butler in a case concerning the theft of secret documents. The authorities are investigating how Italian newspapers have obtained documents that describe power struggles within the Church. David Willey reports.
Two days after being detained by Vatican security, Paolo Gabriele, the Pope's private butler and vile has been formally charged with unlawful possession of secret documents taking from the Pope's apartment. A Vatican magistrate will now decide whether there is sufficient evidence to put Mr. Gabriele on trial. If convicted, he could face up to 30 years in jail. If the Vatican Penal code follows Italian law in imposing heavy penalties for the theft of state papers from the head of state.
At least five people have been wounded by two grenade attacks in Kenya close to the border with Somalia. Kenyan police said the explosions were entered a hotel used by government workers in the town of Wajer and the school of the IFO refuge camp. There have been a series of attacks in Kenya since the government sent soldiers into Somalia to combat the Islamist group al-Shabab.
BBC news.
One of the unsuccessful candidates in the first round of Egypt's presidential election has called for a partial recount, saying the revolting irregularities. A spokesman for the leftist Hamdin Sabbohi, who came in third according to preliminary results, said that an appeal would be filed on Sunday to try to suspend the election run-off. As the result now stand , the second round will be contested for the former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq and Mohammed Mursi, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate.
Sixty members of parliament in Algeria, most from a Madrid Islamist coalition, have walked out the inaugural session. They claimed the recent election was fixed in favor of the governing FLN and its coalition partner. From Algeria's Chloe Arnold.
49 members of the Green Algeria Alliance and 11 members of smaller parties walked out of parliament's first sitting since election earlier this month. The election had been built as no alternative to the unrest that’s gripped to many parts of the Arab world over the last 18 months, but the turnout was low and made lack of interest and the feeling among many Algerians that the election will do little to ease unemployment and housing shortages.
The prime minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina has officially launched their country's first online tax system. The government hopes it will encourage more people to pay income tax.
This year's Eurovision Song contest is taking place in the former Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan. Among the 26 contenders, there are six Russian grandmothers and the 76-year-old British vocalist Engelbert Humperdinck. On Friday, police detained dozens of anti-government protesters close to the venue in this area's capital Baku. Activist has criticized the human rights record of President Ilham Aliyev, his wife lied Azerbaijan's Eurovision organizing committee, his daughter is the host of the contest and his son in law is due to sing in the interval.
BBC news.