There have been extraodinary scenes in the US Congress where Democratic Party politicians are stating a sitting to demand tighter gun laws. They've occupied the floor of the the House of Representatives late into the night. The Republican speaker Paul Ryan was shouted down when he attempted to resume normal proceedings. Mr Ryan has dismissed the sitting as a publicity stunt. More from Laura Becca in Washington. It started out quiet quietly, it started out with the Congressman John Louis going to the front and trying to make a speech for five minutes and asked his colleagues to join him on the floor. And now, we have hundreds, I think over two hundred Democratic representatives sitting, singing, clasping hands, holding aloft pictures of victims of mass shootings. We have hundreds of protesters outside the Congress. They are in sympathy with those who are taking part in the sitting, this is unprecedented.
The North Korean leader Kim Jong-un says missile tests carried out on Wednesday proved his country is capable of attacking US interests in the Pacific. State media in Pyongyang said he personally supervised the testing of two medium-range missiles. A UN spokesman Farhan Haq said the tests were a violation of international sanctions against North Korea. Yet another launch of ballastic missile by the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, in defiance of the unanimous will of the international community, is a brazen and irresponsible act. This is a delibrate and grave violation of international obligations. The continued breaches by the DPRK of nuclear weapons and ballastic missiles, will only undermine the security and fail to improve the lives of its citizens.
The medical charity MSF said nearly 200 people in northeast Neigeria who fled the militant Islamist Boko Haram have died of starvation and dehydration in the past month at a makeshift camp. Katty Winner has the details. MSF staff are warning that a catastrophic humanitarian emergency is unfolding at the camp in the city of Bama in Borno State, where more than 20,000 people have taken shelter. In a statement they said around a fifth of the children they screened were suffering from acute malnutrition. The head of the MSF mission in Neigeria said new graves were being dug on daily basis as at least 60 people per day succumb to hunger and disease.
A new study indicates that the number of women in Latin America seeking to terminate their pregnancies rose sharply following warnings about the effect of the Zika virus on unborn children. Researchers find online requests for abortion pills doubled in Brazil and Equador after the first Zika alerts were issued last November. Their wills by about a third in El Salvador, Costa Rica and Columbia. Zika has been linked to microcephaly in babies which can lead to severe birth defects. World news from the BBC.
The Columbian government and FARC rebels have agreed a joint ceasefire, the details will be made public later on Thursday. The Columbia president Juan Manuel Santos has said the final peace deal could be signed next month. Will Grand reports. The war in Columbia has lasted more than five decades. It has claimed more than 22,000 lives and left millions displaced. At its heart was a bitter disputer over land redistribution and peasant rights. But it has evolved over the years into a brutal global war founded by the illegal drugs trade on the one side and Washington's military might on the other. Now finally, peace is in sight. The Columbia president will be in Havana for the announcement of the ceasefire and will meet the leader of FARC Timoleon Jimenez, alias "Timochenko".
Brazil's Supreme Court has ruled there is enough evidence to file new corruption charges against the suspended leader of the Lower House of the Congress, Eduardo Cunha. Mr Cunha led the impeachment process against the suspended president Dilma Rousseff. He is charged with receiving bribes and hiding the money in secret accounts abroad. Mr Cunha has denied any wrong doing and says he won't resign.
Russia's national weightlifing team could face a one year ban from international competition for doping violations, excluding it from the Olympic Games in August. The threatened suspention announced by the International Weightlifting Federation follows the retesting of samples from the Olympics in 2008 and 2012.
A former president of the UN General Assembly who was facing corruption charges in the US has died at the age of 61. John Ash was UN ambassador for Antigua and Barbuda. His lawyer said that he suffered a heart attack. Mr Ash was indicted by a grand jury in October, all accusations said that he accepted 1.3 million dollars of bribes from Chinese businessmen. BBC news.