BBC News with Marion Marshall

Cardinals taking part in the conclave at the Vatican have cast their first votes of election of a new Pope and as expected black smoke has risen from the chimney over the Sistine Chapel. Alan Johnston was in Saint Peter’s Square in Rome.

On a cold, wet evening here, a sense of expectation built and built. As more of more people gathered under umbrellas in Saint Peter’s Square, all eyes are on the little chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel and eventually the smoke came but it was black smoke. It’s signaled that as was very widely expected the first ballot had been inconclusive, no Pope had been elected and there will need to be more rounds of voting.

Scientists from the American space agency NASA say the Mars rover Curiosity has found the basic chemicals which could have supported primitive life in the distant past. The robot was analyzing a sample of rocket drilled out last month in a former riverbed. It identified sulphur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon. Researchers say these elements could have combined to provide an energy source for microorganism. Michael Meyer is Curiosity’s lead scientist.

“I guess one way to look at this is with Curiosity we have been able to take this to the next level of understanding whether or not Mars has had them all. We actually know there’s particular environment that water was there for significant amount of time, that it was neutral, wasn’t too salty. So as we look into the details it looks better.”

The United Nations is warning of a loss generation of children in Syria. In a report issued to mark the second anniversary of the start of the conflict, the UN children’s organization UNICEF says millions of young people in Syria are growing up knowing nothing but violence. Imogen Foulkes has more details.

“Syria’s children cannot afford another year of war,” UNICEF says. Of the four million people inside Syria in need of humanitarian relief, two million are under 18; over half a million are under the age of 5. In areas where the fighting is intense UNICEF’s report reviews children are been subjected to incessant shelling and to the sight of family members being killed. They are going short of food, water, medical attention and education. In Aleppo, just 6% are still in school.”

Police in Serbia have recovered a painting by the Dutch master Rembrandt that was stolen seven years ago. The portrait of the artist’s farther was one of the four works taken by armed robbers from a museum in the city of Novi Sad. It’s been valued at almost four million dollars.

The president of Bulgaria has named the current ambassador to France, Marin Raykov as his new caretaker prime minister until elections in May. The center-right government of Boiko Borisov was forced to step down last month following regular street protests against high energy bills and corruption.

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A court in Argentina has sentenced the former military ruler Reynaldo Bignone to life in jail for crimes against humanity committed in the 80s. The 85-year-old former general is already serving three other jail sentences for similar crimes. He was the last of Argentina’s military rulers. Mr. Bignone’s victims included seven pregnant women who disappeared.

Police in Brazil say a nightclub that burnt down in the southern city of Santa Maria at the end of January was hosting far more people that it was licensed to admit. They say there were more than 1,000 people inside at the time although it was allowed to let in fewer than 700. The fire and toxic fumes killed 241 people and more than ten remain in hospital with severe injuries. A lawyer for one of the owners said he would dispute the figures in court.

The last surviving member of a plot to kill the German leader Adolf Hitler in 1944 has died in Munich. Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist who was 90 was a member of a group led by Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg who tried to blow up Hitler on July 20, 1944. Though many of the plotters were captured and executed. Von Kleist was sent to a concentration camp and later, freed.

A jury in New York has convicted a policeman Gilberto Valle of conspiring to kidnap and kill women before eating them. The officer was said to have discussed cooking his potential victims in online chats and emails. Jonny Dymond reports from Washington.

Mr. Valle planned to kill six women, one of them his wife and mother of his child. And either torture and eat them himself or procure them for others who would do the same. The court heard how Mr. Valle discussed with one potential diner whether his wife’s feet would be edible. With the same man he discussed building something akin to a torture chamber. Valle said the prosecution left the world of fantasy and entered the world of reality. After two days deliberation, the jury agreed.

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