BBC News with Stewart Macintosh

The United States has announced it’s suspending another charge of military aid to Egypt until it’s seized more progress towards democracy. The State Department spokeswoman said a review directed by President Obama had concluded that the US needed to recalibrate its assistance. Katy Watson reports from Washington.

The US has been under pressure to respond to the ousting of President Morsi but this announcement is more a slap on the wrist than severe punishment. In August, the US delayed a delivery of F16 jets and canceled a joint military exercise. Now the State Department says it will withhold the further delivery of aircraft, tanks, missiles and helicopters as well as 260 million dollars in cash. But it will continue to provide funding for education, health, military training and assistance for counter-terrorism and security in the Sinai Peninsula.

President Obama has nominated Janet Yellen as the new head of the US Federal Reserve. Ms. Yellen is currently vice chair of the bank and will take over from Ben Bernanke, its current head in January. President Obama urged the Senate to confirm Ms. Yellen straight away. In her acceptance speech, she said more work needed to be done to pull the economy away from the recession.

“While we have made progress, we have farther to go. The mandate of the Federal Reserve is to serve all the American people and too many Americans still can’t find a job and worry how they will pay their bills and provide for their families. The Federal Reserve can help if it does its job effectively.”

The leader of the Pakistan Taliban Hakimullah Mehsud has told the BBC he wants to hold talks with the government. In a rare interview, the militant leader who’s been blamed for thousands of killings in Pakistan and Afghanistan said the authorities had made no formal approach to his group. He said an end to American drone strikes would be necessary as part of any ceasefire. From Islamabad, Aleem Maqbool has more.

The backdrop is of this huge debate in Pakistan about whether or not the government should talk to the Taliban. They came out four or five weeks ago and Nawaz Sharif the prime minister said ‘yes, we are going to pursue a strategy after talking to the Taliban.’ It was the government that made that first move. And you know it’s caused huge debate in this country and so him coming out now and making the statement is interesting. He felt he was in a position of strength because he was saying to the government if you want those talks you have to come to me.

The governor of the US state of California has signed into law a bill that will allow nurses and midwives to perform some types of earlier abortions. The legislation was put forward by the Democrats Assembly majority leader Toni Atkins who said it would extend abortion services in the state. More than half the counties in California currently have no abortion providers.

World News from the BBC

The Cuban Communist Party has replaced the editors of the country’s two main newspapers, Granma and Juventud Rebelde. The new editor of Granma, Pelayo Terry is seen as less of a hardliner than his predecessor who has been in this job for eight years. Sarah Rainsford reports from Havana.

Forty-seven-year-old Pelayo Terry has an account on Twitter and a blog where he enthuses about the role of social media in promoting dialogue between the press and the public. His appointment and that of a new woman director at Cuba’s second paper is a shakeup that the Party described as a renewal. It’s the first significant step since the Congress this summer where senior politicians called for a new type of journalism in Cuba in tune with the demand of the time and the society. Cuba has always seen critical reporting as playing into the hands of its enemies.

A six-year-old child in Argentina has become the first underage person in the country to benefit from a new gender law. Her mother said the child was born with male genitals and christened man will but began to identify herself as a girl as soon as she began to speak. The legislation allows children and teenagers to have their gender officially changed without the need of authorization by a doctor or judge.

A gunman who fired more than 20 shots at a federal court building in the US state of West Virginia has died after police returned fire. The local mayor said he’d been identified as a former police officer. Witnesses said he was armed with an assault rifle. Police say they are trying to establish a motive for the shooting.

A newly appointed football coach in Bulgaria has resigned after fans who didn’t want him to have the job stormed into his inaugurate news conference and stripped him off the team shirt. Ivaylo Petev called the incident extremely ugly and said he didn’t want to work with the team, Levski Sofia in such an environment.

Fans accused him of being a supporter of their big rivals CSKA Sofia.

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