BBC news 2011-01-25 加文本

BBC news 2011-01-25

BBC News with Michael Powles

Thirty-five people have been killed and many more injured in a bomb attack at the busiest airport in Moscow. Russian investigators say the blast in the arrivals hall at Domodedovo airport was caused by a suicide bomber. Daniel Sandford is at the scene.

The explosion happened just before 4:30 local time. Several international flights had just arrived. Eyewitnesses said the baggage hall was packed. There was a huge explosion, and the whole building shook. The site of what appears to have been a devastating bomb was in the area where relatives and drivers wait for people to come through customs. The pick-up and set-down area was soon crowded with ambulances and fire engines. The President Dmitry Medvedev immediately postponed his trip to Davos and promised those responsible would be tracked down.

Supporters of the Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri have taken to the streets in several towns and cities to protest against efforts by the militant Hezbollah movement to form the next government. They accuse Hezbollah of carrying out a coup. Hezbollah and its allies have moved closer to securing the nomination of an American-educated billionaire Najib Mikati as the next prime minister. From Beirut, here's Kevin Connolly.

Saad Hariri's supporters are furious at the prospect that he will emerge as the loser from the political manoeuvring which followed the collapse of his fragile coalition government. And their anger was intensified for the prospect that Hezbollah will emerge with its influence enhanced. The last government was brought to breaking point by the looming certainty that senior Hezbollah figures would be held responsible by UN investigators for the assassination of Mr Hariri's father in 2005.

The head of Tunisia's armed forces has warned that a power vacuum in the country could bring back dictatorship. General Rachid Ammar addressed anti-government protesters in the capital Tunis, from where Magdi Abdelhadi reports.

General Ammar's appearance took everyone by surprise. He addressed a crowd of protesters who've been occupying the government quarter and are refusing to leave until the interim administration has resigned because it is dominated by people who used to work for the ousted president. Speaking through a megaphone and surrounded by soldiers, the general told the crowd that their revolution was also the army's revolution. But in what appears to be a warning to the protesters, he urged them not to obstruct the work of the government; in other words, he wants them to go home.

Further leaked documents about Middle East peace negotiations have been published by the Qatar-based news channel al-Jazeera and the Guardian newspaper in Britain. The latest documents include allegations that Palestinian negotiators privately agreed to limit the number of refugees allowed to return to Israel as part of a settlement. According to the Guardian, the Palestinian side agreed that only 10,000 Palestinian refugee families would return out of a total population of some five million.

World News from the BBC

An appeals court in the American state of Illinois has ruled that the former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel cannot run for mayor of Chicago next month, an election he was tipped to win. From Washington, Paul Adams reports.

With less than a month to go before the people of Chicago go to the polls to select a new mayor, the Illinois appeals court says Rahm Emanuel's name cannot appear on the ballot because he won't have lived in the city for a year by the time the election takes place on 22 February. After a lower court ruled that his name could appear on the ballot, this is certainly a setback but not the end of the story. Reacting to the decision, Mr Emanuel confirmed that he would appeal to Illinois Supreme Court and said he had no doubt he would prevail. With lots of money and political backing and leading in the polls, Mr Emanuel remains the favourite to succeed Mayor Richard Daley, who's stepping down after 22 years in office.

The man accused of attempting to murder the Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords more than two weeks ago has pleaded not guilty. Twenty-two-year-old Jared Lee Loughner was arrested after the shooting outside a supermarket in Tucson, in which Ms Giffords was shot through the head.

One of the big companies that buys cocoa from Ivory Coast, Cargill, says it's suspending further purchases. It follows a call from the internationally recognised President of Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara, for a month-long ban on cocoa exports, which provide the main source of revenue for his rival Laurent Gbagbo, who's refusing to give up the presidency.

The head of the Catholic Church in Italy has criticised political leaders who behave immorally. The comments by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco come as the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi struggles with a scandal over his relationship with a teenage nightclub dancer. Cardinal Bagnasco said the young were being sold the idea that success came through moral compromise and selling yourself rather than hard work.

And that's the latest BBC News.