BBC News with Marion Marshall.
The exiled Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky has been found dead at his home near London. He was 67. Mr. Berezovsky made a vast fortune in the 1990s after the breakup of the Soviet Union. From Moscow, Steve Rosenberg.
He was by training a mathematician. And as the Soviet Union lurched towards
disintegration
, Boris Berezovsky moved fast to make money and gain influence in the new Russia. He sold cars; he bought a stake in Russia’s main TV channel, in the national airline too and in oil company. Crucially he became a member of the close in a circle of the ailing Russian President Boris Yeltsin and there he was able to exercise
considerable
power in Yeltsin’s Russia. But in Putin’s Russia there was no room for oligarchs with political muscle. Boris Berezovsky fell foul of the Kremlin and fled to London.
Rebels in the Central African Republic are reported to be fighting running battles with government troops in the northern suburbs of the capital Bangui, days after resuming their uprising against President Francois Bozize. A spokesman for the rebel Seleka coalition said its forces were heading for the presidential palace. Richard Hamilton reports.
The rebels say they’ve shot down an attack helicopter which had been supporting the government forces. People are said to be sheltering in their homes, many in the darkness since the rebels reportedly took out a power station providing electricity to parts of the city. A local United Nations official in southern Bangui said people were in the state of panic. Earlier some UN staff who were trying to leave were stopped at the airport. South Africa has sent 400 soldiers to support President Bozize who returned to Pretoria on Friday where he was meeting President Jacob Zuma.