A row has broken out in Kenya over whether spoiled ballots should be included in the presidential vote. The coalition led by Uhuru Kenyatta says rejected ballots should not be included in the final tally, something which would help his chances of winning the presidency. Correspondents say Kenyans are becoming anxious about the delay in finalising the results.
The UN has agreed to lift temporarily the embargo on light weapons in Somalia, the world’s oldest weapons blockade. The new government had been lobbying to have the sanctions lifted. Barbara Plett reports.
The resolution eases a UN arms embargo imposed in 1992 as warlords battling for control of Somalia began a long civil war. Now Somalia is trying to establish its first functioning government after two decades of chaos and says that security forces need more weapons to consolidate gains in the fight against Islamist militants. So the Security Council has partially lifted the arms embargo for one year, allowing the authorities to buy light weapons. But recognising that the country is still very fragile, it kept a ban on heavy weapons and added new measures to monitor arms purchases.
BBC News
The US House of Representatives has passed a stop-gap bill that will keep the government operating as the White House grapples with spending cuts due to come into force automatically at the end of the month. The bill approved by the Republican-controlled House is designed to ease deep cuts across the defence department that came into effect last week. But Democrats hope to expand it to cover other departments when the bill goes to the Senate.