BBC News with Charles Carroll

The United States has welcomed an announcement by North Korea that it will halt its uranium enrichment programme and suspend nuclear and long-range (missile tests). Washington described the measures as a positive first step towards the complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula. Steve Kingstone reports.

This announcement follows talks between American and North Korean officials in Beijing. In a written statement, Victoria Nuland of the US State Department said the North Koreans had agreed to suspend uranium enrichment at the Yongbyon nuclear plant and to allow UN inspectors to return to the site. In return, the US is offering 240,000 tonnes of food aid. It's come two months after the death of North Korea's long-standing leader Kim Jong-il. The question now is whether his son and (successor) Kim Jong-un will engage in broader talks about disarmament.

The South African youth leader Julius Malema has been (expelled) from the governing African National Congress. Mr Malema says he's been persecuted for advocating that the party should adopt a policy to (nationalize) mines and replace his former ally President Jacob Zuma as ANC leader. Milton Nkosi reports from South Africa.

In a statement, the chairman of the party's disciplinary committee, Derek Hanekom, said the 30-year-old youth league leader violated the ANC's constitution. The (controversial) youth leader was sentenced to a five-year suspended sentence in November last year, but he appealed against the sentence. The ANC's appeals committee led by veteran leader and businessman Cyril Ramaphosa looked into his plea and still found him guilty on the charges of sowing divisions within the party and for bringing the ANC into (disrepute).

Syrian government forces are reported to have tried to advance into the district of Baba Amr in Homs as they (unleash) their heaviest bombardment so far on the area. Government officials said they would clear out opposition fighters in a matter of hours. Jim Muir reports from neighbouring Lebanon.

Explosions echoed around all parts of Homs as the attack on Baba Amr quarter got underway. Sources on both sides said government troops tried to advance into the embattled quarter on several fronts after weeks of heavy bombardment. Regime officials in Damascus told reporters that clearing out the rebels would only take a few hours and that it had already become a (mopping-up) operation. But activist postings on the Internet said the Free Syrian Army fighters had repelled repeated attacks by army forces and inflicted heavy losses.

A date has been announced for a presidential election in Egypt a year after Hosni Mubarak was ousted by street protests. The election will be held on 23 and 24 May. The military council that's been governing Egypt since the fall of President Mubarak has come under increasing pressure to honour its promise to (hand over) power to civilian authorities.