World News from the BBC

The French authority have evacuated hundreds of

pilgrims

visiting the Roman Catholic shrine in the southwestern town of Lourdes after a local river burst its banks. Water a meter deep has forced the closure of most of the shrine which attracts about six million visitors a year.

A court in Bangladesh has jailed 723 bodyguards for their role in a mutiny">mutiny in 2009. The verdict was the final one of a series of mass trials conducted by the military. Jannat Jalil has more.

Nearly 6,000 soldiers have now been jailed for the

mutiny

, which took place when lower ranking soldiers from the Bangladeshi rifles in Dhaka

rose up against

their commanders. In the violence of followed, 57 senior officers were killed and the mutiny spread across the country. This verdict was the last in a series of trials conducted by the military, the campaign group Human Rights Watch has criticized the judicial process, saying a number of suspects died in custody while others were beaten and tortured.

The United States has sailed an aircraft carrier and its support ships through the South China Sea in a show support of Vietnam which is engaged in territorial disputes with China in the region. The Vietnamese officials were invited aboard for a tour of the USS George Washington as a cruise of the coast. The ship's captain told the Associated Press that the mission was aimed to improving relations with Vietnam.