BBC News with Jonathan Izard.
A government official in Tanzania has told the BBC that President of Burundi Pierre Nkurunziza has not been able to return to his country and appears to have been
ousted by the military. The plane taking him back after the army seized power was told it could not land and then returned to Tanzania. Mr. Nkurunziza had been in Dar
es Salaam for a regional summit when news of the coup broke. From Bujumbura here’s more to Julian.
Hours after an attempted coup, it’s still unclear who’s in control of Burundi. Thousands flooded to the streets to celebrate after General Niyombare announced Pierre
Nkurunziza was no longer President, calling it a victory of the people. In the capital Bujumbura, there had been two weeks of protests against the president’s bid for
a third term, which opponents say is illegal. But the situation is far from stabilized. Now the army appears to be divided between loyalists and supporters of the
coup. And there’s been gunfire in the city center overnight.
The US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the US was monitoring the situation. “We are watching the situation in Burundi up
to now very closely. And we’re very concerned about the reports that we’re getting. And our main concern now is to call on all the parties to end violence and to
exercise restraint.We made it very clear that we’re prepared to take targeted measures including imposing visa bans to those who are involved in the violence.”
The United States Embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul says an American citizen has been killed in an attack by gunmen on a guesthouse in the city. Shots are heard as
armed men stormed the Park Palace Hotel. Details about the number of people caught up in the attack remain unclear. Police say three gunmen had been killed and the
situation is now under control.
America’s National Transportation Safety Board says the Amtrak train that crashed in Philadelphia on Tuesday night was traveling at more than twice the speed limit.
An engine on the train braked moments before it left the tracks. At least seven people died. Robert Sumwalt is from the NTSB.
Maximum authorized speed through this curve was 50 miles per hour. When the engine-induced brake application was applied, the train was traveling at approximately 106
miles per hour.
In the United States, the jury in the trial of the Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has begun deliberating whether he should be sentenced to life in prison or
be given the death penalty. Tsarnaev has already been found guilty on 30 separate charges relating to the attack in 2013.
Suspected Boko Haram militants have attacked the outskirts of a state capital in the northeast of the country. Residents of Maiduguri reported two hours of intense
gunfire around the military barracks. Army officers said they have fought off an attack by several hundred militants.
World News from the BBC.
There have been conflicting reports about whether the deputy leader of Islamic State has been killed in an airstrike on a mosque in Iraq. The Iraqi Defense Ministry
said Abu Alaa al-Afari was killed while meeting with other IS members near the northern city of Tal Afar. But the US military has denied bombing on mosque and says it
cannot confirm reports of al-Afari’s death. Here’s our Arab Affairs Editor Sebastian Usher.
The Iraqi Defense Ministry has posted a video showing a devastating strike on a building. It says it’s the bombing that killed Abu Alaa al-Afari. But there’s no
other supporting evidence so far. An Interior Ministry spokesman said it’s unclear if al-Afari was even there. If he is dead and it is a big if for now, it would be a
blow for IS.
Al-Afari had been a contender for leadership of the group in 2010 and he’s believed to have stepped up to that role in recent weeks, with rumors that Abu Bakr Al-
Baghdadi, the self-declared Caliph has been greatly wounded.
A Brazilian television station is developing a series that will reveal the largely unknown history of the huge number of Brazilians descended from African slaves. The
program will use DNA tests to shed light on the origins in Africa of five people. The participants will travel to Africa to establish contact with their homeland.
A series of private letters written by Prince Charles to British government ministers a decade ago have been published after a lengthy legal battle by a newspaper to
have them released. They show the heir to the throne raising concerns about a wide range of issues including farming, education and the armed forces. Catherine Mayer
is writing a biography of the Prince.
I think the people who like Prince Charles like Prince Charles because he does this stuff, and the people who don’t like him don’t like him because he does this
stuff, so in a sense, where we are is that we have more flesh on the bones of what this stuff is. But it is not something that I think is mercifully going to shift
public opinion.