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BBC news 2013-11-02

BBC News with Fiona McDonald.

A high-ranking Taliban officials has told the BBC that the leader of the Pakistani Taliban Hakimullah Mehsud, has been killed in a suspected US drone strike in North Waziristan. The Pakistani government has condemned the drone strike as a violation of its sovereignty. Richard Galpin reports.

Several missiles were fire at the house and car of Hakimullah Mehsud just outside Miranshah, the main city of North Waziristan, killing 6 people, including, it seems, Mr. Mehsud himself. One Pakistan intelligence official has said the funeral would take place tomorrow afternoon. Just hours before the attack, the government had announced it was sending a delegation to North Waziristan to try to get peace negotiations underway with the Pakistan Taliban. The Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif believes this is the best way to end the Taliban's campaign of violence which has left thousands dead in bombings and shootings across the country.

Police in the United States say they believe only one gunman was involved in a shooting at Los Angeles International Airport in which at least 1 man died, and several other people were injured. The Los Angeles Coroner's office told the BBC a 40-year-old man died but gave no further details. Earlier police said the suspected gunman was apparently shot in an exchange of fire with officers, and had been taken into custody.

Green Peace says the protesters who were arrested seven weeks ago by the Russian authorities in the Arctic will be moved to a Saint Petersburg prison. Daniel Sandford reports.

The Green Peace activists have been in jail since September 24th. Until now, they have been held in the Arctic fort of Murmansk on charges of piracy and then hooliganism. Some activists had complained of being cold and of poor conditions. The legal system in Murmank was also struggling to cope with the sheer number of interpreters involved. Lawyers for Green Peace said they understood the detainees would be moved by train and could be in Saint Petersburg by Saturday night.

The Dutch government has agreed to contribute about 380 peacekeeping troops to Mali. They will be part of a United Nations led mission that has taken over from French forces who drove out Islamist and Tuareg insurgents earlier this year. Anna Holligan reports.

The Dutch troops will include paratroopers, intelligence experts, analysts and trainers, but they're sending equipment, too, including 4 Apache helicopters. In a statement, the Dutch Ministry of Defence described northern Mali as a breeding ground for extremism and a safe haven for training terrorists. It also knows Mali's strategic position as a crossroads for drugs, weapons and people traveling to the Mediterranean. The Dutch mission will focus on training police officers, strengthening government structures and improving the security situation.

World News from the BBC.

The Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Obama have been holding talks at the White House. President Obama said they had discussed how to work together to counter the surging violence in Iraq which both men blame on al-Qaeda. The US President also said he wanted Iraq to pass an election law so Iraqis can discuss their differences politically instead of using violence.

Police in Greece say 2 men have been killed in a drive-by shooting outside the offices of the far right Golden Dawn party in Athens. A third man was injured. The attack comes just weeks after the leader of Golden Dawn and several other senior party members were arrested on suspicion of forming a criminal organization.

Brazil and Germany have made public the contents of a draft resolution to be submitted to the United Nations General Assembly, calling for the right to privacy in the digital era. The move follows allegations that the US National Security Agency carried out large-scale surveillance in both countries including the monitoring of their leaders' mobile phones.

The best selling French spy thriller writer Gerard De Villiers has died in Paris at the age of 83. He wrote 200 books in his SAS series which sold over 100 million copies. The hero of the books Austrian aristocrat Malko Linge is often seen as the French literary equivalent of James Bond. Gerard De Villiers once told the BBC that he was sometimes in the interest of intelligence agencies to give information for his books.

Sometimes you know they like to leak some information.

And you don't mind being used if you..

No, if I knew I am used. I don't care. I was journalists for 20 years and all journalists have their source and if you want information you must have sources. And you know, that the sources help you, but sometimes you have to help them. That's life.

BBC News.