BBC News with Fiona MacDonald.

A high-ranking Taliban official has told the BBC that the leader of the Pakistani Taliban Hakimullah Mehsud has been killed in a suspected US drone strike in North Waziristan. The Pakistani government has condemned the drone strike as a violation of its sovereignty. Richard Galpin reports.

Several missiles were fired at the house and the car of Hakimullah Mehsud just outside Miranshah - the main city of North Waziristan - killing six people including it seems Mr. Mehsud himself. One Pakistan intelligence official has said the funeral will take place tomorrow afternoon. Just hours before the attack, the government had announced it will send a delegation to North Waziristan to try to get peace negotiations underway with the Pakistan Taliban. The Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif believes this is the best way to end the Taliban's campaign of violence which has left thousands dead in bombings and shootings across the country.

Police in the United States say they believe only one gunman was involved in a shooting at Los Angeles international airport in which at least one man died and several other people were injured. The Los Angeles coroner's office told the BBC a 40-year-old man died, but gave no further details. Earlier, police said suspected gunman was apparently shot in an exchange fire with officers and had been taken into custody.

Greenpeace says protesters arrested seven weeks ago by the Russian authorities in the Arctic will be moved to a St Petersburg prison. Daniel Sandford reports.

The Greenpeace activists have been in jail since September 24th until now they have been held in the Arctic port Murmansk gone charges of piracy and then hooliganism. Some activists have complained of being cold and of poor conditions. The legal system in Murmansk was also struggling to cope with the sheer number of interpreters involved. Lawyers for Greenpeace said they understood the detainees will be moved by train and could be in St Petersburg by Saturday night.

The Dutch government has agreed to contribute about 380 peacekeeping troops to Mali that will be part of the United Nations led mission that has taken over from French forces who drove out Islamist and Tuareg insurgence earlier this year. Anna Holligan reports.

The Dutch troops will include paratroopers, intelligence experts, analysts and trainers, but they are sending equipment too,including four Apache helicopters. In a statement, the Dutch Ministry of Defense described northern Mali as a breeding ground for extremism and safe haven for training terrorists. It also notes Mali strategic position as a crossroad for drugs, weapons and people travelling to the Mediterranean. The Dutch mission will focus on training police officers, strengthening government structures and improving the security situation.

World News from the BBC.

The Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki and President Obama have been holding talks at the White House. President Obama said they have discussed how to work together to counter the surge and violence in Iraq which both men blamed on al-Qaeda. The US president also said he wanted Iraq to pass an election law, so Iraqis can discuss their differences politically instead of using violence.

Police in Greece say two men have been killed in a drive-by shooting outside the offices of the far-right Golden Dawn party in Athens, a third man was injured. The attack has come just weeks after the leader of Golden Dawn and several other senior party members were arrested on suspicion of forming a criminal organization.

Brazil and Germany have made public the contents of the draft the revolution to be submitted to the United Nations General Assembly calling for the right to privacy in the digital era. The move follows allegations that the US National Security Agency carried out large scale of surveillance in both countries including the monitoring of their leaders' mobile phones.

The best-selling French spy thriller writer Gerard de Villiers has died in Paris at age 83. He wrote 200 books in his SAS series which sold over 100 million copies. The hero of the books Austrian aristocrat Malko Linge is often seen as the France's literary equivalent of James Bond. Gerard de Villiers once told the BBC it was sometimes in the interest of intelligence agencies to give him information for his books.

Some time you know, they like to leak some informations....

And you don't mind being used if you like...

No, if I know I was being used, I don't care. I was a journalist for two years. And all journalists had this source, if you want information, you must have sources, and you know, that theses sources help you but sometimes you have to happen. That's life.

BBC News.