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The governor of the besieged 1 Syrian city of Homs says around 200 people were evacuatedduring the day. Earlier, the Syrian Red Crescent managed to get trucks of food into the old city.Lyse Doucet is in Homs.

Three large buses pulled up, most of the passengers were young men. They were brought intothe abandoned ballroom 2 being used as a reception centre along with a small number of womenand children. But the men will now be questioned separately about their involvement in thewar. An operation the UN says, it's watching closely to ensure they are not mistreated. Somemen told us, they were fearful of their future. But everyone we spoke 3 to was relieved that atlast, their long ordeal 4 inside the besieged old city was now over.

At the peace talks taking place in Geneva, the opposition 5 delegation 6 laid out its transitionplan, but the government representatives refused to discuss it.

The governor of Borno state in northeast Nigeria says 39 people, including women and childrenhave been killed in an attack on the town of Konduga. The attack has been blamed on theIslamist militants 7. From Lagos Will Ross reports.

What’re we hearing is that a large number of very-well armed fighters went into this town ofKonduga late on Tuesday. They were in pickup 8 vehicles, a quite number of them dozens, aresident said. According to the people who survived the attack, they said that they saw thesoldiers there simply flee. They were outnumbered and outgunned, and then the armedIslamist militants presumably from the group known as Boko Haram, they then shot deadmany, many people, it's difficult to know the exact numbers. The governor of the state who'sbeen into the area said he counted 39 bodies.

One stumbling block in the South Sudanese peace talks has been removed. Seven prominentpoliticians have been allowed to travel to the talks in Ethiopia. They were detained at thebeginning of the crisis, but subsequently conditionally 9 released. The rebels had insisted theymust take part in the negotiations 10.

Much of Britain is continuing to experience some of its worst weather for years with gusts 11 ofwind reaching over 160km/hr. Thousands of homes are flooded. One of the most seniormembers of the military had described conditions as an almost unparalleled natural crisis.Angus Crawford has been watching developments on the River Thames.

A steady stream of sandbags has now been offloaded from lorries and been made ready forlocal distribution. There are still 14 severe flood warnings along the Thames, and with morebad weather forecast, the environment agency is warning the water levels could rise furtherlater in the week, possibly equalling 1947 which were the worst British floods of the 20thcentury.

World News from the BBC

At least 15,000 protesters wearing the red shirts, the Brazil's landless movement, havegathered around the Congress in the country's capital Brasilia. The protesters say they intendto deliver a letter demanding land reform to President Dilma Rousseff. There have been somescuffles with reports of teargas being fired by the police. The movement is known foroccupying farms it considers unproductive, and offering them to landless workers.

A judge in the American state of Kentucky has ruled that the state must recognize same-sexmarriages performed in other states. This removes the clause in Kentucky's ban on same-sexmarriages. The judge, John G. Heyburn II, said the existing law was demeaning to gay andlesbian people, he said the clause violated the US constitution's guarantee of equalprotection under the law.

The American scholar Wendy Doniger says she's very disappointed that all copies of her bookon Hinduism will be pulped 12 in India over a legal row. The Penguin 13 publishing company withdrewThe Hindus: An Alternative History after Hindu campaign group alleged 14 that the book offendedHindu sentiments. Ms. Doniger said the Indian law which was used against the publisher mustbe changed.

“The law is very cruel and it criminalizes a publisher for publishing a book that offends Hindu.So, it is the law that must be changed. Publishers, all publishers in India are subjected to thislaw, and many of them simply dropped the books as mainly there is any trouble. It waswonderful for Penguin to fight as long as they did.”

State media in China say the country's first moon rover has died on the Lunar surface. Thecraft known as Jade 15 Rabbit landed on December 15th, but began experiencing technicalproblems last month. The state-owned news agency Xinhua said the rover could not berestored to full function. Correspondents say this failure was likely to be seen as a majorsetback to China's ambitious space program.