BBC News with David Austin.

Congolese refugees have become returning home to the strategic border town of Bunagana after government troops backed by United Nations forces drove out rebels from the M23 group. Residents cheered as government troops entered the town, the last remaining stronghold of the rebels who appealed to have fled to the hills. Here is Gabriel Gatehouse.

It’s a remarkable turnaround in this year and a half long rebellion. In November United Nations troops had stood by powerless as rebel fighters briefly captured the regional capital Goma. The UN had pledged to protect the city and blamed the defeat on what they said was military backing from Rwanda. But for the UN force 18,000 strong it was embarrassing demonstration of their ineffectiveness. But injection of fresh peacekeepers earlier this year with a stronger mandate to actively take the fight to the rebels appeared to have turned the tide.

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Fatou Bensouda says she does not object delaying the trial of the Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta until February. Lawyers from Mr. Kenyatta have asked the ICC to postpone his trial for crimes against humanity saying that he’s needed at home to deal with the aftermath of last month militant attack on a Nairobi shopping center. The hearing is due to begin next month.

The United States has promised that it’ll not spy on the United Nations. The pledge follows a report that the US national security agency had cracked UN encryption codes last year intercepting confidential communications. Nick Bryant reports.