欧盟委员会１８日宣布，批准微软并购雅虎网络搜索引擎业务以及相关广告业务的计划。欧盟委员会认为，此项兼并不会对欧洲地区的竞争局面产生重大负面影响。

欧盟委员会声明表示，微软和雅虎认为，双方合作将可加强微软对抗谷歌的能力。欧盟委员会指出，这项交易不会对欧洲市场上的竞争活动造成严重阻碍。
美国司法部和欧盟委员会批准这笔交易部分是由于谷歌在互联网搜索市场处于绝对领先的地位。美国司法部在一份声明中表示，允许微软和雅虎合作将带来“市场中更大的竞争压力”。

BBC News with Michael Powles.

A coup attempt appears to be underway in Niger. Soldiers were forced their way into the Presidential Palace and taken the Head of the State, Mamadou Tandja to a military balance. Jonny Hogg reports.

Latest information says the President Tandja has now been separated from his ministers and taken to a unknown military camp. French diplomats have confirmed that he is indeed in the hands of a mutinous faction of the army after soldiers stormed the Presidential offices where cabinet meeting was underway. The heavy exchanges are fired which broke out on Thursday afternoon, have left at least 3 people dead and 10 injured, exactly which part of the military carried out the operation remains unclear. Niger has been locked by month of political crisis after the president changed the constitution to remain in power.

The West Africa regional group in Ecowas has told the BBC it's closely following developments in Niger. The organization's political director Abdel-Fatau Musah said that if needed, Ecowas would be in the country as quickly as it could to ensure order was maintained.

President Obama has offered support to the Tibetan spiritual leader, the DaLai LaMa during a low-keyed meeting at the White House. His spokesman said the President had commended the DaLai LaMa's commitment to non-violence and he has pursued a dialogue with China. The meeting went to ahead, despite objections from China. Richard Lister is in Washington.

The calculation from the United States is simply that they are doing all they can to make this. Visit as low-key as possible, there is no televise, pictures of the two men meeting for example and that has been a very brief statement by the White House. But they are really trying to ensure that this doesn't have any of the trappings overfull blown political visit. They know that the Chinese are frustrating about this, but I think the calculation is that this won't actually impact relations between the two countries severely.

The European Commission in Brussels has told the internet companies Microsoft and Yahoo that they can bill ahead with a 44-billion-dollar merge of their internet search business. The tie-up were also said been approved in the United States. Here is our Euro business reporter, Nigel Cassidy.

The deal is significant because companies that control the search engines that computer users use to browse the web, following the best position to earn revenue as people click through to commercial sites. This arrangement which would last for ten years should help Microsoft in its aim of challenging the long permanents of Google. Yahoo had a region plan to work with Google itself, but that idea was ruled out by the authorities. For Yahoo, the ten year arrangement will save the cost of running its own search engines.

The International Police Agency Interpol says it's put on its most wanted list, 11 people suspected of killing a senior member of the militant group Hamas in Dubai last month. The Head of Dubai police says he is 99% certain the Israeli Secret Service Mossad was behind the murder of the man Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Israel says there is no proof.

You're listening to the World News from the BBC.

United Nations' Head of Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes has criticized the performance of aid agencies, following last month's earthquake which killed more than 200,000 people in Haiti. In a leaked e-mail to agencies, Mr. Holmes who visited Haiti after the earthquake, said that much have been achieved, but that many of their efforts have been poorly co-ordinated and resourced.

The Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has sacked 2 Deputy Ministers and 16 senior police officers despite of drive to reform long enforcement agencies. President Medvedev also called for tough punishment against officers who will abuse their position. From Moscow, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports.

This was a tough speech by President Medvedev, he lashed out Russia's bloated police force to solving barely half the crimes that it investigates. He said 2,000 murders and attempted murders go on solved in Russia each year. He called the figure frightening. He also alluded to the extraordinary number of crimes committed by the police themselves. But analysts say chastising Russia's 1.4 million officers in public and firing a few top generals will do little to change the culture of abuse and corruption.

The Afghan Interior Ministry says a NATO air strike aimed at insurgents missed its target and instead hit a police vehicle, killing 7 policemen. A spokesman for the Ministry said the air strike followed Taliban insurgents all a joint to NATO and Afghan military convoy in Kunduz in Northern Afghanistan. He said an investigation was taken in place.

A small plane has crashed into a building in a Austin, in the US State of Texas. And officials are investigating whether it was deliberate. The plane hit the second floor of the building which contains federal tax offices and burst into flames. Officials were quoted saying the pilot to set his own house on fire before the crash and it would investigate whether he has deliberately targeted the tax offices.

And that's the latest BBC News.