BBC News with Julie Candler

The Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has spoken publicly for the first time about the abduction of more than 200 school girls in the northeast of the country three weeks ago. Mr.Jonathan promised to secure the release of those still held. From Abuja the head of the BBC's Hausa Service Mansur Liman has this assessment.

The president hasn't been given any detail on what the government is doing, he said the government is doing its best and will continue to do its best. He said that the government has used aircraft and helicopters in order to locate where these girls are, but they have doing not able to locate where they are. So, this is a problem now, I think the Nigerians while looking before the broadcast to hear something in news, whether there is a new operation or anything else but there isn't anything in the broadcast to suggest that the government is going to do something even more than what it has been done before.

South Sudanese government forces say they've captured the important rebel base of Nasir and fighting for control of am oil town of Bentiu in a big operation launched on Sunday. The offense comes two days after the South Sudan's President Salva Kiir told the American Secretary of State that he was prepared to hold direct peace talks with the rebel leader Riek Machar. Alastair Leithead reports from Bentiu.

The government troops fired into the bush to protect from ambush they drove past an entrance of the UN compound on the northern outskirts of Bentiu city. At front came armed vehicles, then four by four carry heavy weapons. Then hundreds of men marched towards the city, which be held by the rebels for two weeks. With rebels took the town, hundreds of people were massacred, many of them civilians because which tribe they were from. The fear is the government troops and the militias supporting them will now want to revenge.

At least 3 people have been killed and more than 60 wounded in 2 bomb attacks on buses in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. This report by Gladys Andrew Roggy.

One of the explosions occurred on a public service bus, the second explosion took place near the largest shopping mall in the area. Television images are showing a large red passenger bus with a large hole ripped out of its side. And a green bus with its roof and sided buckles by the explosion. It's one month since the Kenyan government launched a security opeartion following a series of attacks and threats from Al-Shabaab militants, who claimed responsibility for the Westgate shopping mall attack which claimed over 60 lives in September last year.

Ukrainian prosecutors say they did not authorize the release of more than 60 detainees freed in the city of Odessa after hundred of pro-Russian activists attacked a police station.

The prosecutors said the police have shown a blatant disregard for their duties. The city has been held since Friday when more than 40 people died in clashes between rival demonstrators and an ensuing fire with the trade union building.

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In Northern Ireland, the leader of the National Sinn Fein Party Gerry Adams has been released from custody after several days of questioning in connection with a murder committed more than 40 years ago. He told a news conference in Belfast that he was innocent of any involvement in the abduction and murder of Jean McConville.

Let me be very clear, I'm innocent of any involvement and any conspiracy to abduct, kill or bury Mrs. McConville. I have worked hard with others to have this injustice redressed and for the return of the bodies of others killed during the conflict and secretly buried by the IRA, I will continue to do so.

The arrest of Mr. Adams has strained sectarian relations in the province 17 years after a peace deal brought to an end to most of the violence between the Protestant and Roman Catholic communities.

Syrian activists say clashes are continuing in the north of the country between two Islamist rebel factions. More than 60,000 people have fled their homes in recent days to escape fighting between the northern front and the second al-qaeda linked group ISIS, which has been forced out of some parts of the city of Dayr az-Zawr.

Police in Belgium have used water cannon to disperse a crowd which have gathered in the capital of Brussels in defiance of a ban on the anti-semitic rally. The event organized by a small rightwing group opposed to the address by the controversial French comedian Dieudonné who trademark gesture of "quenelle" has been likened to a reverse Nazi salute. Several hundred people gathered in the suburb of Anderlecht in defiance of the ban.

Nine performers have been seriously injured during an act of the circus in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. An eyewitness said 8 acrobats fell from the height of about 8 meters from the aerial platform supporting them suddenly collapsed. A dancer on the ground was also hurt. A spokesman said 11 people in total had been taken to hospital.

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