BBC News:敘利亞政府同意婦女兒童離開被困城市胡姆斯

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After a second day of peace talks in Geneva, theSyrian government delegation has agreed thatwomen and children may leave the besieged centre ofthe city of Homs, but said that a list of names wouldbe needed of men who want to leave. Syrian deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad also saidthe government would let an aid convoy into the city. The United Nations mediator on theSyrian conflict Lakhdar Brahimi welcomed the moves as the first tangible outcome of thetalks. Here's Bridget Kendall in Geneva.

This is a significant if limited development from the peace talks in Geneva. Permission from theSyrian government to lift the siege on parts of the old city of Homs, which for months has lefthundreds of people trapped including the very ill and very vulnerable. But though Damascussaid women and children could leave immediately, it seems there is a caveat that other civilians,in other words men could leave only if the Syrian government had a list of their names first, it'sa condition that the opposition points out could be ominous as information contained in listscould be used to detain or even torture people later.

A brain-dead woman kept live in a hospital in the southern United States because she waspregnant has now been removed from life support. Beth McLeod has more from Washington.

Marlise Munoz was 14 weeks pregnant when she collapsed in November from a suspected bloodclot. She was considered brain-dead but was kept life by doctors in a hospital in Fort Worth.Hospital officials argued that state law prohibited them from withdrawing treatment from apregnant patient. But a state district judge said on Friday that this law was being misappliedand ordered that all life sustaining treatments be removed. The hospital has now followed thecourt order. The families of Marlise Munoz had argued that she won't want to be on life supportand the medical record showed the fetus was severely damaged from oxygen deprivation.

Protesters against the Ukrainian government has continued to spread across the country withadministrative headquarters besieged in more than a half of the country's regions. In Kievhere's David Stern.

The demonstrations are spreading these demonstrations where protesters are besieging and insome cases taking over government buildings. So it's not exactly the entire city is protestingbut there are significant demonstrations and the fact, they are taking place in what is PresidentViktor Yanukovych's base of popularity show a sign something is happening in the east andthe protesters are taking on a new character.

The President of the World Bank has announced a $2bn development program for Myanmar,the country also known as Burma. Speaking at the start of the first visit to the country by aWorld Bank President Jim Yong Kim said half the money will be used to extend the electricitysupply while $200m would be made available to improve health services.

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The Tunisian Prime Minister-designate says he's formed new government. The cabinet consistsmainly of independents and technocrats and it's suspected to run the country until newelections. Mehdi Joma was appointed as Prime Minister in December.

The former intelligence agency contractor Edward Snowden has said that the United States'National Security Agency was engaged in industrial espionage as well as spying on people toprevent terrorism. Stephen Evans reports from Berlin.

Edward Snowden has given an interview to Germany's public broadcaster ARD. In it, he saysthat the National Security Agency wasn't just engaged in spying to prevent violent attacks onthe Untied States, but also engaged in what he called economics spying. Referring to theGerman engineering company Siemens, Mr. Snowden said if there is information at Siemens thatthey think would be beneficial to the national interests not the national security of the UnitedStates, they will go after that information.

The United States has expressed concern that the sentencing of a Chinese human rightsactivist Xu Zhiyong to four years in jail is a retribution for his public campaign to exposeofficial corruption. Mr.Xu convicted for gathering crowds to disturb public order has called forcommunist party officials to disclose their assets.

New research suggests the Grand Canyon in the western United States may be much youngerthan previously thought. Scientists said earlier estimated it to be 70 million years old. Here'sour science correspondent Jonathan Amos.

Running for almost 450km and to a depth of 1,800m, it's almost too vast to take it in. Now anew study in the Nature Geoscience journal finds the Grand Canyon has some very goodsegments, but full system was only cut into the form we know today by Colorado River justover five million years ago.

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