World News from the BBC
Officials in Haiti say more than 2,000 people are now known to have died in the cholera epidemic sweeping through the country. About 90,000 are reported to have contracted the waterborne disease. On Friday, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, warned that the number of infections and deaths could be twice as high.
Unidentified attackers have set fire to a children's nursery school in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez apparently after its owners refused to pay
extortion
money. A message was sprayed on the walls of the kindergarten, urging the owners to
pay up
. Some teachers in the city have been threatened with attacks unless they hand over half their Christmas bonuses.
A high society family feud that's captivated France is apparently over. The row involving France's richest woman, the L'Oreal billionaire Liliane Bettencourt, grew into a political scandal when secret tapes led to allegations that she had made illegal donations to Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential campaign. Sam Wilson reports.
Liliane Bettencourt's daughter feared her mother was gradually handing control of the $20bn family estate to the society photographer Francois-Marie Banier. Among her
extravagant
gifts to him was an island in the Seychelles. The daughter Francoise took him to court, accusing him of exploiting her elderly mother's mental fragility. Secret tape recordings appeared to reveal tax evasion, political influence and illegal donations to the party of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The scandal dominated the front pages in France for weeks. But now they say it's over - the photographer has been written out of the will; the court case has been dropped; and mother and daughter say they are united again.