With most votes counted in the first round of the French regional elections, the far-right National Front Party has topped the polls with nearly 30 percent of votes. The elections are the first since IS militants killed 130 people at Paris last month. The leader of the National Front Marie Le Pen said her party was the strongest in the country. The people have expressed themselves and with the people France raises its head. This vote confirms what former balance had announced and what official observers did not want to admit yet and national movement is without context the first party in France. The governing Socialist Party which trailed third in the overall vote says it will contest two regions in the second round in a bid to thwart the National Front there.
BBC current affairs program Panorama has seen evidence that suspended president of FIFA Sepp Blatter, already under a criminal investigation in Switzerland, is also being investigated by the FBI. The probe relates to alleged bribes a sports marketing company paid to FIFA officials including Blatter's predecessor Joao Havelange in the 1990s. Our sports correspondent Don Row has the details. Sepp Blatter denied knowing about the bribes and took no action. Now the Panorama program has seen a letter attained by the FBI which suggests he knew about the bribes all along. Apparently signed by Joao Havelange, it talks the payment that he and Havelange received. It says that Mr Blatter had full knowledge of all activities and was always appraised of them. Sepp Blatter declined to comment.
Venezuelans have been casting votes in congressional elections that could see the opposition gain control of the national assembly for the first time since the Socialist came to power under the late Hugo Chavez. Voters in many pro-government districts were woken before dawn by fireworks and music. Queues formed at some polling stations before they opened. Will Davis reports from Caracas. While the electronic voting system used in these elections appears to have been largely fair and transparent, there has been clear pro-government media coverage and what opponents claim is the bending of election rules. President Nicolas Maduro has said he will not let the socialist revolution of his predecessor Hug Chavez to be, in his words, stolen. But the opposition alliance thinks it will have won enough support from those affected by Venezuela’s deep economic crisis.
The German vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has urged Saudi Arabia to stop supporting IS radicals by financing fundamentalist mosques. Mr Gabriel said many dangerous Islamists in Germany were coming from Saudi-funded mosques which preached the ultra-conservative Wahhabi version of Islam. World news from the BBC.
Clashes have broken out in the Greek capital Athens between police and left-wing protestors on the 7th anniversary of the death of a 15-year-old boy who was shot dead by police. Petrol bombs and bricks have been thrown and cars were smashed. The police have fired large amounts of tear gas.
Turkey has told Iraq that it won't send more troops to an area near the city of Mosul controlled by Islamic State militants. On Saturday, the Iraqi government said Turkish forces had entered Iraqi territory there without its knowledge and insisted that the troops be withdrawn. The Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has now written to his Iraqi counterpart Haider al-Abadi, assuring him that there will be no further deployment until Iraq's concerns are addressed.
President Barack Obama is to deliver a rare oval office address in a few hours on last week's mass shooting in California. The White House said he would discuss the threat of terrorism and what steps his administration was taking to defeat it. David willis reports. A massive FBI investigation is currently underway. The US Attorney General Loretta Lynch says they have already interviewed more than 300 people. She went on to say that the key aim of President Obama's address to the American people tonight will be to reassure a nervous nation that the threat posed by Islamic State and other terrorist groups can be overcome.
The former US president Jimmy Carter was reported to have said that his brain cancer has gone. Doctors have been treating four small melanoma lesions on his brain.
An unmanned rocket has blasted off from Cape Canaveral in Florida on its way to the International Space Station, with shipment of much needed groceries and other supplies. It's the first American supply rocket to go into space since June when a Space X Falcon9 rocket exploded shortly after liftoff. The International Space Station has been relying on Russian and Japanese supplies ever since. BBC News.