BBC news 2011-02-07 加文本

BBC news 2011-02-07

BBC News with Marion Marshall

Tens of thousands of Egyptian anti-government protesters are continuing to occupy Tahrir Square in central Cairo, despite the first substantive talks between the authorities and the opposition. In the negotiations, the Vice President Omar Suleiman offered to set up committees to review and amend the constitution, but opposition figures, instead, proposed immediate confidence-building measures, including a lifting of the national state of emergency. Most of the protesters maintain they won't settle for anything less than the removal of President Hosni Mubarak.

"Now, people are putting up tents. They're bringing in food to last them a week. Every tent or every area represents people from outside Cairo, and they're saying "We are not leaving till this guy leaves."

"Hosni Mubarak has underestimated the country, has underestimated the people. I used to say I'm proud of Egypt, but today I'm really proud of Egyptians, so proud of them."

Despite the occupation of Tahrir Square, a BBC correspondent in Cairo says there are signs of normal life resuming elsewhere in the city centre with the streets full of traffic for the first time in a week. Banks in Egypt have also opened for the first time in more than seven days, but the stock exchange will remain closed until further notice. The Egyptian economy has been damaged by the nearly two weeks of protests against President Mubarak.

In Tunisia, where the government was recently overthrown by people power, the interior ministry has announced the suspension of the former governing party from all political activity. Maddy Savage has the latest.

In the three weeks since President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was ousted, protesters have continued their campaign to get all officials linked to the old regime to step down. Tunisia's interior minister has now announced that offices linked to the RCD will be closed, and that future meetings of the former ruling party will be banned. There's been further unrest in the country since a nationwide night-time curfew was shortened. At least two people were killed on Saturday during a protest in the town of Kef, and there are reports that a man died after he was hit by a tear gas canister during riots in the south of the country.

Reports from southern Sudan say up to 50 people have been killed during three days of internal fighting among troops of the national army. The violence started near the border town of Malakal on Thursday and spread to two other places after soldiers from the south refused to be disarmed and move to the north.

The Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has appealed to the United Nations Security Council to convene an urgent meeting to stop what he says is Thailand's aggression against his country. Cambodia says an 11th century temple at the heart of a long-running border dispute with Thailand was damaged in a third day of clashes between troops from the two countries. The Cambodian government quoted a military commander as saying a wing of the Preah Vihear temple, a United Nations World Heritage site, had collapsed under Thai artillery fire.

World News from the BBC

Prison officials in Colombia say they've caught an 11-year-old girl trying to smuggle dozens of mobile phones and a gun into a jail. The guards became suspicious when they saw what they described as irregular shapes underneath the girl's jumper. When they investigated, they found 74 mobile phones and a revolver taped to her back.

A group of about 70 Belgian students is still stranded on the Spanish island of Lanzarote after they were forced off an Ryanair flight to Brussels following a dispute with cabin staff. Ryanair says police were called after the university students became disruptive. Sarah Rainsford in Madrid has more.

The budget airline says the altercation began after some of the students were charged a fee for excess hand luggage. Spanish police ordered all passengers off the plane. When the dispute continued on the ground, none of the students were allowed back on board. Stranded at the airport, they are now trying to book alternative flights home. But the Belgian council told the BBC most routes were already full or too expensive for the mutinous students to afford.

Six thousand people had to be moved from their homes in a suburb of Paris so that an unexploded Second World War British bomb could be defused. Allied bombers attacked the area in 1942.

The legendary blues and rock guitarist Gary Moore has died suddenly in Spain. He was 58. Born in Belfast in Northern Ireland, Moore featured in the line-ups of a number of notable rock bands including Thin Lizzy. One of their most recognisable songs was The Boys are Back in Town and Moore's guitar riff. Gary Moore went on to pursue a prolific solo career.

BBC News