BBC News with Jerry Smit

Turkey’s governing AK party says it’s open to holding a referendum in Istanbul about the plans to redevelop Gezi Park-- the issue that sparked nationwide anti-government protests. From Istanbul, here is James Reynolds.

Turkey’s ruling AK party has come up with an offer and a warning. Its Deputy Chairman Huseyin Celik told a news conference that the party may put the redevelopment of Gezi Park to a referendum. This is the first time that the party has openly discussed letting voters decide what happens to the park. Those who seek to provoke and remain in the park will face the police, he added. Earlier a Turkish TV station reported that the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a meeting of business leaders in Ankara that he expected everything to end in 24 hours.

There’s been sharp criticism in Europe of Turkey’s handling of the unrest. Italy’s Foreign Minister Emma Bonino said the police had used excessive force against the demonstrators. She called it the first serious test of Turkey’s democratic structure in its bid for membership of the European Union.

A former intelligence analyst, who leaked information about secret surveillance operations by America’s National Security Agency (NSA), says he intends to fight any effort to extradite him from Hong Kong. Edward Snowden was speaking in an interview with the South ChinaMorning Post. Paul Adams reports from Washington.

Edward Snowden had been promising further revelations. His interview with the South ChinaMorning Post contains several. He says the NSA has used its prison programme to target people and institutions in Hong Kong and mainland China. Among the targets, he says, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, public officials and students. Globally, he says, there had been over 61,000 NSA hacking operations and he accused the United States of bullying Hong Kong into extraditing him.

The South African President Jacob Zuma says Nelson Mandela is responding to treatment for a lung infection. Mr Zuma told parliament he was happy with the progress after what he called a difficult few days. Mr Mandela’s grandson Mandla told reporters the family had been deeplytouched by messages of support.

"We are particularly honoured to have received many prayers and messages from South Africans at large as well as the global community. We want to say thank you and weappreciate all the support that you show towards our grandfather.”

Mr Mandela, who is 94, was admitted to hospital on Saturday. He remains in intensive care.

The Barcelona football star, Lionel Messi, is facing a lawsuit in Spain over allegations of taxfraud. The state prosecutor for Catalonia says the Argentine striker and his father owe more than $5m in unpaid taxes. In a statement, Lionel Messi denied committing any tax infringement.

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Rebel fighters in Syria have been accused of carrying out a sectarian massacre in the east of the country, killing up to 60 people. Opposition activists say most of those who died in the Shia village of Hatla were pro-government militiamen. But Syrian state media said the dead included women and children. The Lebanese Shia militant group, Hezbollah, which fights alongside the Syrian government, accused the rebels of sectarian cleansing.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin has been installed as leader of a movement designed tobroaden his power base. Steve Rosenberg has this report from Moscow.

"Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.”

In a hall near the Kremlin, the audience cheered as Vladimir Putin took the stage. Live on TV, this was the founding congress of the Popular Front. It’s a pro-Putin movement, but it’s set to dominate the political landscape here. The Popular Front has been created because the party of power, United Russia, has grown increasingly unpopular. Critics have labelled it the party of villains and thieves.

A court in Tunisia has sentenced three European feminists to four months in prison for staging a topless protest in solidarity with a detained Tunisian activist. The women, two French and one German, were convicted of public indecency. They were arrested last month after displaying messages on their bare chests, saying support to the Tunisian feminist Amina Sboui, who is herself on trial for allegedly writing graffiti on a cemetery wall.

A Kenyan government commission says MPs have agreed to take an annual pay cut of almost 40 per cent after a public outcry over their salaries. On Tuesday, demonstrators held protests outside parliament, condemning the politicians as pigs. The commission said they would in future get around $75,000 a year plus a luxury car allowance.

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