BBC news 2011-01-30 加文本

BBC news 2011-01-30

BBC News with Iain Purdon

After five days of street protests against his leadership, President Mubarak of Egypt has appointed a deputy and started forming a new government. The holder of the new post of vice president is his intelligence chief Omar Suleiman while a former head of the air force, Ahmed Shafiq, takes over as prime minister. But thousands of protesters are still on the streets in Cairo, demanding Mr Mubarak's resignation. From there, Kevin Connolly reports.

At somewhere in government offices remote from the streets of Cairo, President Hosni Mubarak has been trying to strike some sort of balance between concession and repression. On the streets themselves, his plans to replace the old cabinet with a new one, widely seen as a reshuffling of a tired pack of allies, left demonstrators unimpressed.

"All people say to Mubarak: Mubarak, get out, get out, get out and get away. We want to change you, not. We don't want new ministers."

As a grey Cairo afternoon gave way to the greyer light of evening, smudges of dark smoke from burning buildings blackened the sky, and there were reports of looting in spite of an early curfew designed to clear the streets.

The number killed in unrest over the past two days is thought to be at least 62 nationwide. In the United States, President Obama has spent an hour discussing the Egyptian crisis with his top advisers.

The Dutch government has frozen all contacts with Iran in protest at the hanging of a 45-year-old Dutch woman of Iranian origin. Reports from Iran said that Sahra Bahrami had been convicted of drug smuggling. Her family say she was in fact detained for taking part in anti-government protests last year. The Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal declared himself shocked by the hanging.

"This is a barbaric act by the regime in Iran, and I'm also shocked because I was given confirmation only on Friday by the Iranian authorities, and the legal process had not yet run its course."

Russian investigators say they've identified the suicide bomber who attacked an airport in Moscow on Monday which killed 35 people, but the authorities had no information about which militant group the bomber may have belonged to. Steve Rosenberg reports from Moscow.

Five days after the explosion at Domodedovo airport, Russian investigators say they now know who carried out the suicide bombing. They claim it was a 20-year-old man from Russia's North Caucasus region, but they wouldn't reveal his name or from which Russian Republic he came from for fear of harming efforts to track down accomplices. Investigators say they now believe the blast in the arrivals hall was targeted primarily at foreigners.

World News from the BBC

At least four people have died in the latest violence in the central Nigerian city of Jos. Churches, mosques and petrol stations were set on fire. Soldiers shot at students following protests which erupted on Friday about the stabbing of three classmates. Witnesses said they saw market stores and houses being set alight as rioting spread.

Two of the most powerful rebel groups in the troubled Sudanese region of Darfur say they are prepared to hold serious peace talks with the government. However, the groups, the Justice and Equality Movement and the Liberation and Justice Movement, rejected proposals by Khartoum to move talks from the Qatari capital Doha to Sudan itself.

The US embassy in Pakistan has called for the release of one of its diplomats being held there on charges of murder. Raymond Davis admitted to shooting two local men on Thursday in the city of Lahore. The incident has raised anti-American sentiments in the country. Here's Shoaib Hasan.

The statement was released by the US embassy as protests continued in Lahore against the killing of the three young men. It said the US regretted the loss of life in the incident, but it also said Mr Davis was being pursued by robbers and acted in self-defence. Pakistani authorities have so far not responded to this latest request. Officials had earlier said Mr Davis would be tried according to the law. He has been charged with murder and remains in custody.

The upper house of parliament in the Irish Republic has passed a controversial finance bill, clearing the way for an early general election. The bill was needed to comply with the terms of a huge financial rescue package Ireland had to accept from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. It's expected that the Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen, who leads a minority government, will now dissolve parliament next Tuesday.

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