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BBC news 2013-11-20

BBC News with David Austin

The United States has offered to send a letter to Afghan tribal elders admitting to past US mistakes in Afghanistan. The offer was made by the US Secretary of State John Kerry in a last minute effort to try to save his key security deal with Afghanistan. David Loyn reports from Kabul.

Months of negotiations were nearly derailed by a late proposal from the Afghan side demanding that the future security deal should prevent US forces from entering Afghan homes. After a direct intervention on the phone from John Kerry, Mr. Karzai has accepted an offer that President Obama should write a letter acknowledging past mistakes and requesting US forces should have the right to enter Afghan homes in the case only of urgent risk to the life of US soldiers. If that letter comes then the deal will be presented for approval to a Loya Jirga, a gathering of Afghan elders convenes on Thursday.

The American bank JP Morgan has agreed a record settlement of 13 billion dollars with US regulators for misleading investors during the housing crisis. It's the largest settlement ever between the US government and the cooperation. The bank has acknowledged that it had made serious misrepresentations to the public. JP Morgan was under investigation for selling risky mortgage securities to investors who were unaware for the securities often contained flawed mortgages. The US government says this helped pave the way for the financial crisis five years ago.

A double suicide bombing at Iranian embassy in the Lebanese capital Beirut has killed more than 20 people and wounded almost 150. A Lebanese Sunnite group linked to al-Qaeda said it was behind the attacks. Jeremy Bowen has more.

The attack in Beirut is the latest sign that Syria's war continues to seep across its borders. The most dangerous force in the Middle East of the moment is religious sectarianism and extremism. The attack on the embassy is being seen in that contacts to cross the region. Syria's ruling family the Assads are Alawite's members of a Shiah Muslim sect, most the armed rebels and all the al-Qaeda link groups fighting the regimes are Sunnis. Lebanon has many religious and family connections with Syria and similar sectarian divisions. It's becoming another front in the civil war.

The roof of a shopping mall in South Africa has collapsed killing one person about 50 others are trapped under the rubble. Rescue operators are using sniffer dogs to look for survivors. Richard Hamilton has this report.

The shopping mall was under construction and those still trapped inside are building workers. Cheap labour in South African mean its not on comments to say hundreds of construction works on building sites. Some of those who have been rushed to hospital have been described as suffering from massive traumatic injuries. Photos taken of the scene show large slab of concrete and twisted metal lying on the ground almost as if the building had been hit by an earthquake. Richard Hamilton.

World News from the BBC

A war crimes court in Bosnia says it has freed 10 convicted Bosnian served war criminals following a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that their legal right has been violated. They will all be retried. Relatives of the Srebrenica victims said the decision to release the men was shameful.

The Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif says he believes the row over his country's nuclear program can be resolved and world powers should seize the current opportunity to do so. He was speaking in a video message posted on YouTube.

“This past summer, our people chose constructive engagement through the ballot box and through this they gave the world a historic opportunity to change course. To seize this unique opportunity, we need to accept equal footing and choose a path based on mutual respect and recognition of the dignity of all people's.”

Meanwhile the British Prime Minister David Cameron has telephoned Iran's President Hassan Rouhani ahead of a new round of talks in Geneva over Iran's nuclear program. In a statement, Mr. Cameron's office said he was the first British Prime Minister to contact Iranian leader in more than a decade.

Russian aviation experts have blamed the pilots of a Boeing 737 jet for a crash in the city of Kazan on Sunday that killed all 50 people on board. Investigators say after rebooting their first attempt to land, the pilots carried out a maneuver that caused the plane to lose speed and go into a dive. The aircraft operated by Tatarstan Airlines was arriving from Kazan from Moscow.

India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has opened the country's first bank for women in the city of Mumbai. The Bharatiya Mahila Bank will employ women and most of its customers will be women. The bank aims to open branches all over India in the coming years including in villages. The aim is to educate women financially and help them start their own businesses.

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