BBC News with Sue Montgomery
The leaders of the United States and Cuba have held their first formal talks in more than a half century. President Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro met face to face on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas in Panama. The meeting clears the way for a normolization of relations after decades of hostility between the U.S. and the Communist-ruled island. President Obama said he wanted to see Cubans prosper, and it was time for a change in relations.
“After 50 years of a policy that had not changed on the part of the United States, it was my belief that it was time to try something new, that was important for us to engage more directly with the Cuban government and the Cuban people.”
President Castro said Cuba was open to building a friendship with the U.S., but he said the 2 countries had many differences.
Kenya's deputy president William Ruto has given the Untied Nations 3 months to move about hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees back to Somalia. The ultimatum comes after the Somali-based Islamist group al-Shabab killed 148 people at a Kenya University. Karen Allen is in Northeasten Kenya.
“Investigations continue, but only one of the 4 gunmen has been identified so far. He was a Kaynan law student who had been recuited by Al-shabab. It comes at a time with increasing concern that the armed group is not only recuiting in Somalia, but inside Kanya as well. It's revived calls by the Kanyan government for hundreds of thousands of Somali refugees at the Dadaab Camp on the Kenya side of the border to be sent back into Somalia. But the U.N. points out that Kenya signed International Conventions preventing the expulsion of refugees.”
The authorities in Bangaladesh have executed a senior Islamist leader for war crimes, committed during the War of Independence from Pakistan. Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, the third most senior figure in the Islamist top potision Jamaat-i-Islami party, resigned after the country's supreme court rejected the final appeal. He was sentenced to death in May 2013 for torture, abduction and murder.
The Islamic State has posted a video online that shows its militants destroying artifacts in the ancient Iraqi city of Nimrud. Here's Sebastian Usher.
“In this new video, the militants are shown hacking at wall curvings and scuptures in what was once the capital of the Assyrian Empire. They use bulldozers and explosives to blow up its walls. The video culminates in a montage of explosions. Many of the treasures of Nimrud are safe elsewhere in museums around the world, but enough remains onsite to make the latest destruction wreaked by IS in its self-declared war against false idols, a new stage in its attampted annihilation, not only of Iraq that extraordinary rich past, but of the world's earliest civilizations.”
BBC news.
The Saudi Defence Ministry says 3 Saudi army officers have been killed by mortar round, fired across the border by Houthi rebels in Yemen. An official stateman said the blast hit an army post in Najran in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi News Agency also reported that 502 Houthis have been killed since the start of Saudi-led air strikes in Yemen last month.
Hundreds of mourners have attended the funeral in the Untied States of Walter Scott. A black man who was shot in the back while running away from a white police officer. The pastor at the service in South Carolina said the shooting was an act motivated by over-racism. While his family said the death could act as the catalyst to change, a policeman has been charged with murder. Mr. Scott's death was the latest case of plice in the U.S. shooting dead an unarmed black man.
The authories in China are introducing new measures to discipline Chinese tourists who misbehave in holiday, here's Jill McGivering.
“With more freedom to travel and more cash, the Chinese are heading overseas in growing numbers. As a nation, they now make tens of millions of foreign trips every year. But the leaders in Beijing are increasingly worried about the bad behavior of some tourists harming the country's image. Accusations include damaging property and historical artifacts, spitting and jumping queues, and living on instant noodles instead of trying local food. So they are taking action, from now on, anyone who's antisocial or causes damage faces being blacklisted for 2 years.”
Women rowers have made history by taking part in the Oxford and Cambridge University boat race on the Thames on the same day and with same course as the men. The woman's event dates back to 1927, but it was the first time the rowing authorities have dropped the oppostiion to making it a joint occasion. Oxford won both races.