Emily Taylor

Russia blocks a UN Security Council statement condemning the Syrian government’s use of air strikes against civilians in the city of Aleppo.
BBC News – Middle East

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro meets governors and mayors to co-ordinate action against violence, following the murder of ex-beauty queen Monica Spear.
BBC News – Latin America & Caribbean

Russian security forces launch an anti-terrorist operation just 300km from Sochi, venue for February’s Winter Olympics, after the discovery of five bodies in several cars.
BBC News – Europe

Mark Duggan’s aunt Carole says the family will fight the lawful killing decision “through the courts” and says there should be “no more violence”.
BBC News – UK

The deep freeze that has left people in North America shivering for days, shattering century-old temperature records, is set to loosen its icy grip.
BBC News – US & Canada

Central African Republic interim leader Michel Djotodia is expected to face pressure to step down when he attends a regional summit in Chad.
BBC News – Africa

JP Morgan Chase has agreed to pay $ 1.7bn to victims of the Bernard Madoff fraud.
BBC News – Business

The first consignment of chemical weapons materials leaves Syria on a Danish ship, as part of a UN-backed deal to destroy Syria’s chemical arms.
BBC News – Middle East

Actress Monica Spear, who won Miss Venezuela in 2004, has been killed along with her British husband during a roadside robbery in Venezuela.
BBC News – Latin America & Caribbean

Turkey dismisses 350 police officers and the top judiciary body says it will investigate officials overseeing an inquiry into government corruption.
BBC News – Europe

Four people are believed to have been killed in a US air force helicopter crash in north Norfolk, on the east coast of England.
BBC News – UK

A brutal blast of arctic air settles in eastern North America, bringing dangerously low temperatures not seen in two decades.
BBC News – US & Canada

At least 26 people have been killed in an eight-hour battle between government and rebel forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s second city Lubumbashi, police say.
BBC News – Africa

The Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority begins an investigation into the troubled Co-operative Bank and its former senior executives.
BBC News – Business

Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki urges residents of the city of Fallujah to force out insurgents linked to al-Qaeda who have taken control of the city.
BBC News – Middle East

The Brazilian government says it is considering allowing foreign airlines to operate internal flights during the World Cup to prevent abusive price hikes.
BBC News – Latin America & Caribbean

German Chancellor Angela Merkel suffers a partial fracture of her pelvis in a cross-country skiing accident, her spokesman says.
BBC News – Europe