Deadly clashes as police besiege Bangkok protesters
Thai forces in Bangkok have fired live rounds after surrounding a fortified protesters’ camp amid clashes that left at least five people dead.
Embassies were closed as protesters set fire to a police bus and shot fireworks at troops, who also responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.
A BBC correspondent says the area is like a war zone with troops firing into a park as a helicopter circled above.
The demonstrators want the prime minister to resign and call elections.
Many of the so-called red-shirt protesters support former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup.
BBC UK on Facebook’s bid to rule the web as it goes social
Facebook set out its stall to unseat Google and be at the heart of the web experience as it becomes more social.
The world’s largest social network unveiled a series of products at its developer conference F8 aimed at helping the company achieve that goal.
These tools will make it easier for users to take their friends with them as they browse the web.
“We are building toward a web where the default is social,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder.
“If you look back a few years ago and even as recently as today, in most cases the web isn’t designed to use your friends. They don’t assume you have a real identity but we are seeing that seep in more and more.
IMF chief Strauss-Kahn tries to ease Greece fears
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, says the Greek people should not fear the IMF.
He was responding to a Greek journalist who said Greeks are demonising the IMF and fear the country’s economic crisis will be worse with its involvement.
He replied that the IMF was there to help Greece, but deflected questions about negotiations with its government.
Ministers deny torture collusion
Two cabinet ministers have strongly denied allegations of collusion in the abuse of terrorist suspects overseas.
But Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Home Secretary Alan Johnson said it was impossible to remove all risk when using intelligence obtained overseas.
This came as a committee of MPs urged a probe into the transfer of terror suspects through UK territories.
Last week a committee of MPs and peers called for an independent inquiry into claims of UK complicity in torture.
Detained Nigeria sect leader dies
The leader of an Islamic sect blamed for days of deadly violence in Nigeria has been killed in police custody, police officials have said.
Officials said Mohammed Yusuf was shot while trying to escape. They had announced his capture hours earlier.
Mr Yusuf led Boko Haram, which wants to overthrow the government and impose a strict version of Islamic law.
Hundreds of people have died in five days of clashes between his followers and security forces.
Mr Yusuf was held and later shot in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri.
“Mohammed Yusuf was killed by security forces in a shootout while trying to escape,” the regional police assistant inspector-general, Moses Anegbode, told Nigerian television.
A spokesman for the state governor told the Associated Press news agency: “I saw his body at police headquarters. I believe he was shot while he was trying to escape.”
State television showed jubilant police celebrating round his body, AFP news agency reported.
Troops had stormed Boko Haram’s stronghold on Wednesday night, killing many of the militants and forcing others to flee.
Mr Yusuf was arrested earlier on Thursday, after reportedly being found hiding in a goat pen at his parents-in-law’s house.
BBC News website Africa editor Joseph Winter says Nigeria’s security forces have a terrible reputation for brutality and human rights groups accuse them of frequent extra-judicial killings.
Fatal blasts hit Jakarta hotels
At least nine people including some foreigners have been killed in two bomb blasts at luxury hotels in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, police say.
One explosion hit the Ritz-Carlton, ripping off its facade, and the other the Marriott Hotel. At least 48 people were injured.
A third blast went off almost three hours later in the north of the city – no injuries have yet been reported.
It is not yet known who carried out the bomb attacks.
The BBC’s Karishma Vaswani says security is extremely tight around the hotels.
The blasts occurred at about 0730 local time (0030 GMT).
“I heard two sounds like ‘boom, boom’ coming from the Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton. Then I saw people running out,” security guard Eko Susanto told AFP.
Myra Junor, who witnessed the blasts from a nearby building, told Reuters windows on the lower floors of the Ritz-Carlton had shattered.
Ambulances are on the scene and there is a heavy police presence, says our correspondent.