BBC news 2011-02-08 加文本

BBC news 2011-02-08

BBC News with David Austin

The new Egyptian cabinet has announced a 15% pay rise for government workers at its first full meeting since protests erupted two weeks ago. The government has also agreed to set up a compensation fund for those affected by looting and vandalism. But the protesters who've occupied Tahrir Square say they won't disband until President Hosni Mubarak leaves office, and Shadi el-Ghazali Harb, a member of the youth coalition, says their demands still haven't been met.

"We can't find that the government is serious about any of our demands yet, the first of which is the resignation of the president, the second is the dissolution of the parliament, the third is the cancellation of that emergency law, and the fourth of which is asking for a coalition government that forms up ex-political forces to be formed."

The Secretary General of Nato, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, says the unrest affecting Arab countries such as Egypt and Tunisia could harm local economies and prompt an increase in illegal migration to Europe. Mr Rasmussen said the events in North Africa were a timely reminder that Nato could not take security for granted.

Official results from last month's referendum on the independence of south Sudan have confirmed that almost 99% of people voted for separation from the north. Peter Martell reports on the celebrations in Juba, the main southern city, as the results were announced.

There was incredible, there was amazing atmosphere. There were almost 1,000 maybe even more people gathered at the grave of the first president to the south, the former rebel leader, and it's the focal point in the town. People gathered there, and there was an open-air cinema screen, so the results in Khartoum were screened here live in Juba. When the results came out, every time there was an announcement, people stood up, they waved flags, they cheered. It was an incredible mood, a real feeling of history as what one of them said to me just after the announcement came out.

An official report into the release from a Scottish jail of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a Libyan man convicted of blowing up an airliner over the town of Lockerbie in 1988, has concluded that Britain's last Labour government wanted him freed before he died and did all it could to secure his release. With more details on the report, here's Rob Watson.

Although the report says the then Labour government didn't lobby or pressure the Scottish authorities into releasing Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, it does conclude it did want to see him freed and decided to help bring that about. That help amounted to British officials advising the Libyans on how to proceed legally. The current Prime Minister David Cameron said while there clearly wasn't some conspiracy involving the previous government, British oil interests and the Libyans, he did accuse former Labour ministers of misleading the country about their role in supporting al-Megrahi's release.

World News from the BBC

A judge in Britain has ruled that a failed asylum seeker from Uganda who says she is a lesbian can stay in the UK while a judicial review of her case takes place. The woman, who fears persecution in Uganda because of her sexuality, had already boarded a plane for Uganda last month when an emergency injunction against her deportation was granted.

The authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo say they've seized a plane with 435kg of gold and more than $6m notes on board. Reports say the gold and bank notes, some of which are fake, are thought to have come from the former rebel commander Gen Bosco Ntaganda, who's wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

The Hungarian authorities have agreed to amend a media law which has provoked protests at home and clouded its current presidency of the European Union. Critics say the law threatens media freedom in Hungary. With more details, here's Nick Thorpe.

The European Union commissioner for the media, Neelie Kroes, raised three main concerns in her contacts with the Hungarian authorities - the registration of media, the rules on the provision of balanced information and the fact that the legislation appears to apply to foreign media as well. The Hungarian government says these are technical issues, which can be easily and quickly rectified. Hungary's critics, at home and abroad, say these are issues directly related to Article 11 of the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights, which guarantees freedom of expression.

Nick Thorpe reporting

More than 8,000 costumes for the Rio de Janeiro carnival have been destroyed in a fire. Television pictures show large plumes of smoke rising above warehouses where samba groups prepare and store their props. The samba parade is the highlight of the Brazilian carnival which takes place next month. There have been no reports of casualties.

Those are the latest stories from BBC News.