Hello, I’m Jerry Smit with the BBC News.
The Afghan Taliban have appointed a successor to Mullah Omar, whose death the militant group has now acknowledged. The new leader is Mullah Akhtar Mansour, who was the second in command. Shaimaa Khalil reports from Islamabad.
Despite being second in command, Mullah Akhtar Mansour is not a unifying name. Other senior figures including the Taliban’s military commander do not approve of his appointment. At least one faction in the Taliban would have preferred Mullah Omar’s son to succeed him. Senior Taliban members have accused pro-Pakistani circles of imposing Mansour on them. Pakistan says a second round of peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban have now been postponed.
A piece of aircraft debris washed up on a French island in the Indian Ocean is due to be flown to mainland France later today to be examined by investigators. Experts say it appears to be a wing component from a Boeing 777 and could be the first part of a missing Malaysian airliner to be recovered. Malaysia has sent investigators to the island of Reunion where the wreckage was found and to the French city of Toulouse where it would be taken for inspection.
Israeli police have arrested an ultra orthodox Jew who stabbed 6 people taking part in the annual gay pride march in Jerusalem. Witnesses said a man had launched himself into the crowd apparently from a supermarket. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack.
A despicable hat crime was committed this evening in Jerusalem. In Israel, everyone including the gay community has the right to live in peace, and we will defend that right. In the name of all Israelis, I wish the wounded a full and speedy recovery. Police said the attacker Yishai Shlissel was the same man who stabbed 4 gay pride marchers in 2005. He was recently released from prison.
Prosecutors in Germany are investigating whether 2 journalists committed an act of treason by reporting on plans to expand surveillance of the country’s online communications. The website Netzpolitik. org said one of its journalists and the website editor were being investigated. The German press association says it’s an attack on the freedom of the press.
The government in El Salvador has ordered military and police escorts for bus drivers who went on strike on the order of powerful criminal gangs. Some drivers who defied the strike have been killed. Katy Watson reports.
This week’s strike shows just how much power El Salvador’s gangs have or at least the government’s inability to contain them. Gangs stepped up violence over the weekend to try and put pressure on the government to ease a crackdown on their operations. The government has so far refused to enter into dialogue with gang members. Authorities are now trying to get buses running again, but by Thursday many commuters were struggling to get to work with some routes still not running.
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Parliament in Chad has voted to reinstate the death penalty for acts of terrorism after it was abolished 6 months ago. The move follows recent attacks by Boho Haram militants from neighboring Nigeria. The opposition and civil liberties’ groups have criticized the anti-terror legislation, saying it will be used to curb civil rights. Chad has deployed thousands of soldiers alongside troops from Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger to fight Boko Haram.
A US special envoy has warned South Sudan’s warring parties that their failure to reach a peace deal has exhausted the world’s patience. Donald Booth told a news conference in Cuba the talks to end more than 18 months of fighting could not go on indefinitely. He said too many people had already died.
European scientists say photographs taken by the Philae space probe show the surface of the comet on which it landed is much harder than expected. Our science editor David Shukman has the details.
The landing was one of the boldest in space exploration with the tiny Philae craft bouncing on the surface before settling beside a cliff. But despite all that, the instruments were gathering information. 2 of them analyzed the dust, and found it contained water and oxygen which were expected, but also more complex compounds which are rich in carbon. On their own, these are inert. But given the right conditions, they could conceivably help form what are called the building blocks for life, such as the amino acids found in DNA, and this supports the theory that comets brought what was needed to get life started on the early earth.
A report by the US Department of Justice says the FBI is struggling to attract computer scientists to its cyber security programme mainly due to low pay. The report says the FBI’s inability to match private sector salaries has been hampering a major initiative launched in 2012 to tackle the growing threat from computer hackers.