BBC News with Marion Marshall

One of Pakistan's most prominent policemen Chaudhry Aslam has been killed by a Taliban suicide attack in Karachi. Chaudhry Aslam was renowned for taking on the Taliban in some of the most dangerous neighbourhoods of the city with police raids that frequently ended in gun battles. He's survived several previous attempts on his life. At least two other officers were killed when a car carrying explosives smashed into his convoy. The BBC's Aleem Maqbool is in Islamabad. “He was accused on many occasions of killing militants instead of taking them into custody. And while publicly, he said he’d never carried out any extrajudicial killings. In privately, he said why should I hand over these people to a judicial system which releases militants a lot of time, so he was saying as a hero to many who oppose the Pakistani Taliban and to all in sense of opposers that he had been a fairly successful.”

The governor of the US state of New Jersey Chris Christie says he's fired an aide for allegedly orchestrating traffic jams to spite a political rival. Mr.Christie said he felt embarrassed and humiliated by the scandal over gridlock on the George Washington bridge between New Jersey and New York. He said emails and texts revealed that his deputy chief of staff Bridget Kelly had ordered the lane closures. “I terminated her appointment because she lied to me. There's no justification for that behavior. There's no justification for ever lying to a governor or a person in authority in this government.” Mr. Christie is a leading republican and considered a possible contender for the 2016 presidential nomination.

Germany says it's accepted a request by the United Nations to help destroy Syria's chemical weapons. The Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Germany wouldn't shirk its responsibility. Germany has, until now, refused to accept chemical weapons. President Assad of Syria agreed to surrender his chemical arsenal last year after hundreds of people were killed in a poison gas attack.

The French government has prevented a performance tonight by a controversial comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala who's accused of anti-Semitism. France's highest administrative court banned the show following a request for a ruling by the Interior Minister. A regional court had earlier said the comedian's tour opening performance could go ahead. Hugh Schofield reports from Paris. “First of all, a court in the western city of Nants created something of sensation when it overturned an earlier order from a government representative there, the prefect banning Dieudonne's performance on public order grounds. The court said that the right to free expression was paramount. But within minutes of that decision, the French government which's gone into high gear on this affair took the case to the State Council in Paris and with thousands gathering at the venue at the last minute, the ban was restored.”

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The United States has expressed concern about a plan by the Afghan government to release scores of prisoners,considered to be dangerous by the US. Afghanistan says it doesn't have enough evidence to prosecute them. The US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the 72 suspected Taliban fighters were, as she put it, dangerous criminals.

Medical staffs in Israel say the health of the former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who's been in a coma for 8 years has deteriorated further. Officials at the hospital where he's been treated say he's now in a grave condition and his family is by his bedside. Mr.Sharon played a major part in Israeli history as an army general and later as a politician. But his legacy is divisive both there and abroad. He was incapacitated by a stroke in 2006 just as he seemed likely to win a second term as prime minister.

The technology company IBM is planning to invest a billion dollars in finding commercial uses for a computer system known as Watson, it's designed to think like a human. Our technology correspondent Mark Gregory has more. “What special about Watson is he or should that be it is designed to have an ability to analyze and learn from past mistakes. IBM sees commercial applications for Watson in areas like health care and financial services. But progress has been slower than anticipated because of the amount and complexity of the data Watson needs to absorb to make sensible decisions.”

The former Cuban President Fidel Castro has appeared in public for the first time in 9 months. Fidel Castro, who's 87, attended the opening of an art studio in Havana on Wednesday night. Photos showed a grey-hair and frail-looking Castro walking with a stick and looking at works of art. Fidel Castro led Cuba for nearly half a century before handing power to his brother Raul in 2006 because he was seriously ill.

BBC News.