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BBC news 2012-05-01

BBC News with Jerry Smit

President Obama's top counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan has given the most detailed explanation so far of America's use of drone attacks to kill suspected terrorists. In a speech in Washington, Mr Brennan said the strikes by unmanned aircraft were helping to win the war against al-Qaeda. Paul Adams reports.

This is not the first time the Obama administration has confirmed the use of drone strikes, but John Brennan has gone further than anyone so far in laying out the rationale for a policy that remains controversial. He said he'd been told by the president to be more open with the American people. He said drone strikes were legal, ethical, necessary and proportional, overseen with what he called extraordinary care and thoughtfulness especially when the target was an American citizen. Al-Qaeda was, he said, losing badly. For the first time since America's war on the organisation began, Mr Brennan said it was possible to envision a world in which the core of al-Qaeda was no longer relevant.

Ukraine is coming under growing pressure from Europe over the treatment of the jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Five European presidents have said they won't attend a summit in Ukraine next month. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she might boycott football matches staged there during Euro 2012. Ms Tymoshenko, a political rival of the current Ukrainian president, is serving seven years in prison after being convicted of abuse of office.

A ferry in India carrying about 350 people has capsized in the northeastern state of Assam. A police spokesman said at least 100 bodies had been recovered. More than 100 people are still missing. From Delhi, Sanjoy Majumder reports.

The double-decked ferry which was packed to capacity is said to have capsized following strong winds and rain on the Brahmaputra river in the northeastern state of Assam. Eyewitnesses say many of the victims were swept away by the river's strong currents. Boats are a common mode of transport in the area, which is dotted with small islands and villages along the banks of the river. Many of the boats are overcrowded with poor or minimal safety features.

Fighting has broken out between rival groups of soldiers in the capital of Mali a month after the president was toppled in a coup. Witnesses said members of the presidential guard had clashed with troops loyal to the coup leaders. Gunfire was heard at a bridge in Bamako and near the building that houses the Malian state broadcaster. A spokesman for the coup leaders said the presidential guard was trying to reverse their takeover.

A suicide attack on a police convoy in northeastern Nigeria has killed at least 10 people and wounded more than a dozen others. Witnesses said a bomber on a motorbike rammed into a police vehicle in the town of Jalingo. A nearby market and a government building were badly damaged. The Islamist militant group Boko Haram has been blamed for a wave of killings across Nigeria.

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The President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, has said he'll sue a news website over allegations he asked the then Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi to fund his 2007 election campaign. The Mediapart website has published a letter, apparently signed by the former head of Libyan intelligence, offering up to $66m towards the campaign. Mr Sarkozy was furious.

"This is a slur, a slur. When I think that there are journalists who dare give any credit to this, to Gaddafi's son, to the secret services of Mr Gaddafi, it's a forgery."

Thousands of people in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo have fled renewed clashes between the army and troops loyal to Bosco Ntaganda, a renegade general who's wanted by the International Criminal Court. Hundreds of troops who support the general seized two towns in the region on Sunday.

A Peruvian policeman who survived for 17 days in the jungle after escaping from clashes with left-wing rebels has been reunited with his family. Luis Astuquillca had been searching for a group of hostages. From the Peruvian capital, Mattia Cabitza reports.

Luis Astuquillca is only 22 years old, but already a hero in Peru. With a bandaged hand, he got off a military plane and embraced his mother, sister and grandmother. The young officer suffered bullet wounds during a mission to rescue 36 people who were kidnapped by the Shining Path rebels. No details are yet known about how he survived for 17 days in the Peruvian jungle.

One of the biggest matches of the English football season, the top-of-the-table clash between Manchester City and Manchester United, has ended in a 1-0 win for City. The result keeps alive their hopes of a first league championship since 1968.

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