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BBC news 2012-11-12

BBC News with Marion Marshall

Syrian opposition factions meeting in Qatar have agreed to form a unified political coalition as they seek to topple President Bashar al-Assad. The coalition has named a president and two vice presidents. Jim Muir reports from Beirut.

The man named as the president of the new unified coalition is Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib. He is a moderate Islamist cleric, who left Damascus just three months ago and would therefore be considered an insider. The friends of the Syrian group led by the United States has pledged to recognize the new coalition officially as the sole legitimate representative of the Syrians. It may be allowed to take Syria's seat at the Arab League. It is expected to establish a compact interim government and a military council to try to coordinate the struggle on the ground.

The Israeli military says it's fired warning shots into Syria after a mortar round from Syria hit an Israeli outpost in the Occupied Golan Heights. It's the first time the two sides exchanged fire since 1973.

West African leaders have agreed to send more than 3,000 soldiers to Mali to try to recapture the north of the country from Islamist rebels. The Nigerian president warned of costly consequences if Africa failed to force rebel groups out of northern Mali. From Lagos here's Will Rose.

Even though peace talks with the hard line Islamist seem unlikely to succeed, politicians from the West Africa bloc known as Ecowas still hope to dialogue can rescue Mali. Ecowas says the use of force might be necessary in order to dismantle what it called terrorist and transnational criminal networks. Islamist militants took control of northern Mali following a coup in March. They've imposed strict sharia law and have destroyed tombs in ancient towns like Timbuktu, hundreds of thousands of people have fled the area.

The BBC chairman Chris Patten has said the corporation needs a thorough and a radical overhaul of its structure and management following the resignation of the director general. George Entwistle stepped down in the wake of a television report that wrongly implicated a former British political figure in child sex abuse. Here's our media correspondent Torren Douglas.

Lord Patten said it'd  been George Entwistle own decision to resign, but he hadn't tried to argue him out of it because he thought it was right. He said the new director general would be appointed in weeks throughout the month without the cumbersome process that had been used before, and the new leader would be expected to make fundamental changes to the management structure. He said the BBC's bureaucracy hadn't protected it to get the awful journalism of the Newsnight investigation into abuse at a North Wales care home.

An Afghan soldier has opened fire on foreign troops in the south killing a member of Nato's International Security Assistance Force. The Afghan soldier was shot wounded by Nato forces and has been detained. So far this year, more than 15 Nato soldiers have been killed by Afghan colleagues.

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Police in the Polish capital Warsaw have arrested more than 130 people following a violence that marched by nationalists to mark Independence Day. About 20,000 people took part in the march including students and families. From Warsaw, Adam Easton reports.

Gangs of young men, many wear scarves over their faces or balaclavas held the lumps of concrete and firecrackers at the lines of riot police. Officers have used truncheons, tear gas and rubber bullets to restore order. Several police officers were injured and arrests were made. Earlier three other marches marking the day in 1918 when Poland has gained its independence after more than a century occupation by foreign powers passed off peacefully.

Parliament in Greece is debating next year's budget with a crucial vote during the next few hours. It must approve huge spending cuts if Greece is to receive the next installment of bailout funds from international creditors. Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the parliament buildings in Athens ahead of the debate.

Police in the Egyptian capital Cairo say they've broken a ring of child traffickers who are believed to have sold 300 babies. Kevin Connolly has more.

Egyptian police have so far provided only sketchy details of the case they've built, but it seems that an extensive child trafficking ring has been disrupted. Two nurses and a doctor from the same clinic in Cario are among five people of arrested so far, and police say they are still looking for the hospital manager. It's claimed they performed Caesarean Operations on women carrying unwanted children and then sold the babies to childless couples. The price is said have been around $570.

The main opposition party in Sri Lanka has called for a parliamentary inquiry to examine the causes of the worst prison riot for almost 30 years. Twenty-seven prisoners were killed in clashes on Friday at high security prison in the capital Colombo.

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