BBC News with Michael Powles.
A coup attempt appears to be underway in Niger. Soldiers have fought their way into the presidential palace and taken the head of state, Mamadou Tandja, to a military barracks. Jonny Hogg reports.
Latest information says that President Tandja has now been separated from his ministers and taken to an unknown military camp. French diplomats have confirmed that he is indeed in the hands of a mutinous faction of the army after soldiers stormed the presidential offices, where a cabinet meeting was underway. The heavy exchanges of fire, which broke out on Thursday afternoon, have left at least three people dead and ten injured. Exactly which part of the military carried out the operation remains unclear. Niger has been rocked by months of political crisis after the president changed the constitution to remain in power.
The West African regional grouping, ECOWAS, has told the BBC it's closely following developments in Niger. The organization's Political Director Abdel-Fatau Musah said that if needed, ECOWAS would be in the country as quickly as it could to ensure order was maintained.
President Obama has offered support to the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, during a low-key meeting at the White House. His spokesman said the president had commended the Dalai Lama's commitment to non-violence and his pursuit of dialogue with China. The meeting went ahead despite objections from China. Richard Lister is in Washington.
The calculation from the United States is simply that they are doing all they can to make this visit as low-key as possible. There were no televised pictures of the two men meeting, for example, and there has been a very brief statement by the White House. But they are really trying to ensure that this does not have any of the trappings of a full-blown political visit. They know that the Chinese are blustering about this, but I think the calculation is this won't actually impact relations between the two countries severely.
The European Commission in Brussels has told the Internet companies Microsoft and Yahoo that they can go ahead with a 44-billion-dollar merger of their Internet search business. The tie-up was also being approved in the United States. Here is our Europe business reporter Nigel Cassidy.
The deal is significant because companies that control the search engines that computer users use to browse the web are in the best position to earn revenue as people click through to commercial sites. This arrangement, which will last for ten years, should help Microsoft in its aim of challenging the long preeminence of Google. Yahoo had originally planned to work with Google itself, but that idea was ruled out by the authorities. For Yahoo, the 10-year arrangement will save it the cost of running its own search engines.
The international police agency, Interpol, says it's put on its most wanted list - 11 people suspected of killing a senior member of the militant group Hamas in Dubai last month. The head of the Dubai police says he's 99% certain the Israeli secret service, Mossad, was behind the murder of the man, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Israel says there's no proof.
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The United Nations head of Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes, has criticized the performance of aid agencies following last month's earthquake, which killed more than 200,000 people in Haiti. In a leaked email to agencies, Mr Holmes, who visited Haiti after the earthquake, said that much had been achieved, but that many of their efforts had been poorly coordinated and resourced.
The Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has sacked two deputy ministers and 16 senior police officers as part of a drive to reform law enforcement agencies. President Medvedev also called for tough punishment against officers who abused their position. From Moscow, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports.
This was a tough speech by President Medvedev. He lashed out at Russia's bloated police force for solving barely half the crimes it investigates. He said 2,000 murders and attempted murders go unsolved in Russia each year, and he called the figure "frightening". He also alluded to the extraordinary number of crimes committed by the police themselves. But analysts say chastising Russia's 1.4 million officers in public and firing a few top generals will do little to change the culture of abuse and corruption.
The Afghan Interior Ministry says a NATO air strike aimed at insurgents missed its target and instead hit a police vehicle, killing seven policemen. A spokesman for the ministry said the air strike followed an attack by insurgents on a joint NATO and Afghan military convoy in Kunduz in northern Afghanistan. He said an investigation was taking place.
A small plane has crashed into a building in Austin in the US state of Texas, and officials are investigating whether it was deliberate. The plane hit the second floor of the building, which contained federal tax offices, and burst into flames. Officials were quoted as saying that the pilot has set his own house on fire before the crash, and they were investigating whether he had deliberately targeted the tax offices.
And that's the latest BBC News.
尼日尔似乎正在发生军事政变。士兵冲入总统府，擒获国家元首马马杜·坦贾，将其关押在一座军营。Jonny Hogg报道。
最新消息称，坦贾总统与他的内阁部长们隔离开来，被关押在一座未知的军营。法国外交官已经证实，在召开内阁会议之时，士兵突袭了总统府，总统现在确实在军方暴动分子手中。周四下午发生激烈的交火，造成至少3人死亡，10人受伤。目前还不清楚具体哪一部分军事力量实施了该行动。总统更改宪法以便继续执政之后引发几个月的政治危机，尼日尔已经动荡不安。
西非区域性组织西非国家经济共同体(ECOWAS)告诉BBC，他们现在正密切关注尼日尔的事态发展。该组织政治事务负责人Abdel-Fatau Musah表示，如果需要，ECOWAS将尽快进入尼日尔，确保维持秩序。
美国总统奥巴马与西藏精神领袖达赖喇嘛在白宫举行低调会晤，期间，奥巴马表示了对达赖的支持。奥巴马的发言人表示，总统对达赖喇嘛的非暴力承诺以及追求与中国政府进行对话表示赞赏。尽管来自中国的抗议，会晤还是继续进行。Richard Lister在华盛顿报道。
华盛顿方面认为，他们已经尽最大努力使这次会晤尽可能的低调。例如，没有发布任何关于两者会晤的电视画面，白宫发表的声明也非常简短。但是他们也确实努力确保没有任何全面政治访问的迹象。他们知道，中国人民对此表现出了强烈的愤慨。但是我认为，他们知道，这不会真正对两国关系产生严重影响。
布鲁塞尔欧洲委员会告知互联网公司微软和雅虎，他们高达440亿美元的互联网搜索业务合并可以继续进行。该合并事宜在美国也已通过。以下是我们的欧洲商务记者Nigel Cassidy的报道。
这项交易有着重要的意义，因为电脑用户通过浏览网页点击进入商业网址时，控制搜索引擎的公司很容易获取收益。这项协议将持续十年的时间，将会帮助微软挑战谷歌的长期统治地位。雅虎原本计划与谷歌合作，但是该想法被官方拒绝。对于雅虎来说，这项长达十年的协议将为他们节省自主经营搜索引擎的成本。
国际警察机构Interpol(国际刑事警察组织)表示已经出台通缉令，缉拿上月在迪拜杀害好战组织哈马斯高级领袖的11名嫌疑人。迪拜警察局长表示，他99%的确定以色列秘密组织莫沙德策划了对Mahmoud al-Mabhouh的谋杀行动。以色列则表示没有任何证据表明这一点。
您现在收听的是BBC世界新闻。
联合国人道主义事务负责人霍姆斯(John Holmes)批评了上月海地地震后救助机构的表现。这次地震海地超过20,000人遇难。霍姆斯在地震后出访了海地，在泄露的致救援机构的信件中，他说，救援工作取得了很大成果，但是许多努力没有进行充分的协调和管理。
俄罗斯总统梅德韦杰夫解雇了两名副部长，16名高级警官，作为推动执法机构改革的一部分。梅德韦杰夫还要求对滥用职权的警察实行严厉的惩罚。莫斯科，Rupert Wingfield-Hayes报道。
这是梅德韦杰夫总统发表的严厉讲话。他强烈批评俄罗斯警力众多，却只解决了所调查犯罪行为的一半。他表示，俄罗斯每年有2,000宗谋杀案和谋杀未遂案件悬而未决。他称该数字非常触目惊心。他还影射警察自身犯罪的数量之高。但是分析家称，公开惩罚俄罗斯140万警察，解雇几名高级将军对于滥用职权和腐败的文化影响微乎其微。
阿富汗内务部长表示，北约意在打击反叛分子的空袭偏离目标，反而击中一辆警车，7名警察遇难。内务部一名发言人表示，反叛分子对阿富汗北部昆都士北约和阿富汗联合军事护卫队发动袭击中，北约发起了这次空袭。他说，调查现在正在进行中。
一架小型飞机撞上德克萨斯州奥斯汀一座建筑，相关官员正在调查是否是蓄意行为。飞机撞上这座建筑的第二层，随后迅速燃烧起来，在该建筑第二层办公的是联邦税务官员。官员表示，在撞击之前，飞行员先把自己的房子点燃。他们正在调查，他是不是故意袭击税务官员。
以上就是最新的BBC新闻。