2010-03-29 BBC
BBC News with David Austin
President Obama has made a sudden and unannounced visit to Afghanistan where he's held a series of talks and addressed cheering American troops. At the huge Bagram air base, north of Kabul, Mr Obama thanked the soldiers for their sacrifices and said they would defeat al-Qaeda.
"We're gonna deny al-Qaeda safe haven. We're gonna reverse the Taliban's momentum. We're gonna strengthen the capacity of the Afghan security forces and the Afghan government so that they can begin taking responsibility and gain confidence of the Afghan people. Our strategy includes a military effort that takes the fight to the Taliban while creating the conditions for greater security and a transition to the Afghans; but also a civilian effort that improves the daily lives of the Afghan people."
The American president also held talks with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai. Mr Obama said he wanted the Afghan government to improve good governance and fight corruption.
The head of the United Nations peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo Alan Doss has said a change in strategy is needed to prevent further massacres by the rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army. His comments in a BBC interview came after evidence emerged of a five-day rampage last December in which the LRA killed more than 300 people. Mr Doss said the rebels were difficult to track down.
"We have to look at this as a problem dealing with the small groups that move around a great deal. This requires better intelligence gathering, it requires particularly air mobility and of course cooperation with the local people."
The first talks between the Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and the red shirt anti-government demonstrators who've been paralyzing Bangkok have ended inconclusively, although they will continue on Monday. Rachel Harvey reports from the Thai capital.
There were handshakes and smiles and a good deal of respectful listening, but ultimately no change in well-entrenched positions. The anti-government protest leaders, dressed in their trademark red shirts, repeated their demand for new elections. This, they said, was the only way to solve the problems created by the military coup of 2006. But the prime minister countered that in his view an early poll could inflame an already volatile situation.
There have been reports that the United States might abstain if the question of illegal Jewish settlements in occupied East Jerusalem is condemned by the UN Security Council. An Arab diplomat said that the Qatari foreign minister had been told this by a senior American official. There was no confirmation of this in Washington. Until now, the United States has always vetoed any attempt by the UN Security Council to condemn Israel. But the BBC state department correspondent says this could be a way for Washington to maintain pressure over the settlement issue. So far, the UN Security Council has not officially taken up the question of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.
World News from the BBC
The Colombian rebel group, the Farc, has released a soldier it had held hostage for more than a year. Josue Daniel Calvo was released to a humanitarian commission headed by the left-wing Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba. From Medellin, Jeremy McDermott reports.
Private Calvo kidnapped in April last year is among 24 hostages the Farc hold who may want to swap for hundreds of guerrillas held in prison - something President Alvaro Uribe has refused to consider. The rebels are using the liberations and an escalation in their military operations to try to discredit the tough US-backed security policy of Mr Uribe and influence May's presidential elections.
The President of Switzerland Doris Leuthard has called for a national register of priests implicated in sexually abusing children. In a newspaper interview, she said it was important that such priests should no longer have any contact with children and be subjected to criminal law. A member of the church commission investigating abuses in Switzerland said recently that 60 individuals there had reported been victims.
The first of two days of voting has been taking place in many of Italy's 20 regions with indications of low turnout so far. The vote has been seen as a test for the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi who has been at the centre of a series of political and personal controversies.
And that's the latest BBC News.