BBC News with Julie Candler

The American intelligence contractor Edward Snowden who leaked details of a massive secret surveillance programme by the United States has disappeared from his hotel in Hong Kong. His current whereabouts are not known. But the London Guardian newspaper which published the story said during the day he was still in Hong Kong. Mr Snowden has said he expects the US authorities to try to punish him. Damian Grammaticas reports from Hong Kong.

Mr Snowden said he chose to flee to the territory as it has independent courts and a tradition of free speech, so he would get a fair hearing. Tim Parker, a local immigration lawyer, says because this is a part of China, Beijing could veto any extradition, but that's never happened before. China's President Xi Jinping spent last weekend in summit talks with President Obama in California. Both sides want to reduce frictions and build a more cooperative relationship. So it’s unlikely China would block any extradition attempt.

The Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to a meeting on Wednesday with leaders of some of the groups involved in widespread anti-government protests. The move was announced by the Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc. Protests against the redevelopment of a park in Istanbul have spiralled into 11 days of mass demonstrations across the country. Earlier, an opposition party leader urged Mr Erdogan to calm escalating tensions.

A court in Kuwait has sentenced a woman to 11 years in jail for insulting the emir of the country on the social media website Twitter. She has also been convicted of trying to overthrow the regime. Ahmed Maier reports.

Just three tweets have led Huda al-Ajmi to be sentenced by the criminal court in Kuwait to 11 years in prison. The 37-year-old teacher has denied that she had anything to do with the Twitter account on which they appeared, but prosecutors said she had used a false name on the social media website. Ms Ajmi can appeal the verdict which Kuwaiti rights activists say is the toughest yet handed down by the emirate’s courts.

Nelson Mandela's former wife Winnie has visited the hospital in South Africa where it's believed the former president is being treated for a recurring lung infection. Andrew Harding reports.  

After two and half days of official silence and growing public unease, South Africa's presidency issued an update on Nelson Mandela's health this afternoon. Spokesman Mac Maharaj said the 94-year-old's condition was unchanged. In other words, he remains in a serious but stable condition, battling a lung infection. Mr Maharaj urged South Africans to pray for Mr Mandela and said only a handful of people were being allowed access to his bedside.

"The normal procedures when a patient is under intensive care are applying from the medical side. When a person is in intensive care, the doctors only allow some very close people to be there.”

World News from the BBC

Many car bombs and suicide attacks in Iraq have killed more than 70 people and injured dozens more in mostly Sunni areas of the country. The deadliest attack was in the northern city of Mozul where five car bombs and rockets killed at least 24 people-- most of them security officers. Earlier, attackers targeted market-goers outside Baquba, north of Baghdad and on the northern edge of the capital, leaving many dead.

The Venezuelan government says it has arrested nine Colombian right-wing paramilitaries who were plotting to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro.  The Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez said the nine Colombians had been instructed to go to the Venezuelan capital Caracas to meet another group and carry out the plot.

A German court has ruled that a bank supervisor was unfairly dismissed from missing a multimillion-euro error by a colleague who fell asleep during a financial transaction. His supervisor was sacked. But a court in the German state of Hesse said she should only have been reprimanded. From Berlin, here is Steve Evans.

You can imagine the mistake. On April 2nd, last year, a very tired bank clerk was typing into the bank's computer the sum of 64.20 euros. Somehow though, he dozed off with his finger pressed on the key for the number 2. The entry then somehow turned into 222,222,222.22 euros-- a decent sum even for a bank.

Scientists in the United States say they've discovered why pests are becoming more resistant to some genetically modified insect-repellent crops. Writing in the journal Nature Biotechnology, a team from the University of Arizona found that insects can develop stronger resistance to types of GM corn and cotton if there are no organic fields nearby. The study's lead author Bruce Tabashnik warned against planting only GM crops.

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