BBC news 2011-02-09 加文本

BBC news 2011-02-09

BBC News with Marion Marshall.

Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians have turned out to demonstrate in Cairo’s central Tahrir Square for the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak and an end to his political system. It’s the biggest protest so far, as Jim Muir reports from the square.

“Go, go, go!” they chanted, and they chanted it in their tens of thousands. Already densely packed in the huge square, the crowds kept coming, backed up over the Nile Bridge leading to Tahrir from one direction and along the riverside from another. It ended up being the biggest turnout the protesters have seen so far. It was entirely peaceful. Many families joined in. The army guarding the square could only stand aside and let them pass.

The United States Vice President Joe Biden has told the Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman he should ensure an orderly transition of power in Egypt that is prompt, meaningful, peaceful and legitimate. From Washington, Kim Ghattas reports.

It’s the first time since the beginning of protests in Cairo that Washington has made such specific demands in public. The American Vice President Joe Biden has now spelled out what the White House expects from this transition: immediately lift the emergency law and include a broad range of opposition groups as partners in the talks about the transition. Mr Biden also said the Egyptian interior ministry should immediately stop arresting and beating journalists or activists.

The French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has admitted that Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak lent him and his family a plane during a holiday in Egypt last Christmas. France’s Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie had already been criticised for using a plane belonging to a Tunisian tycoon while on holiday in that country during the unrest. Sam Wilson reports on Mr Fillon’s case.

This admission would be acutely embarrassing for Francois Fillon. As Nicolas Sarkozy’s Prime Minister, he’s been seen as a safe pair of hands, a calming influence on the impetuous president. But now, his judgement will be called into question. With Mr Mubarak facing uNPRecedented popular protests, western leaders have tried to distance themselves from him. But this affair demonstrates how he’s long been treated as a friend and ally by western politicians.

A US government investigation into safety in Toyota cars has found no problems as with the electronics in the company’s vehicles. The US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood spelled out the inquiry’s findings.

“So let’s be clear. The jury is back. The verdict is in. There is no electronic-based cause for unintended high-speed acceleration in Toyotas. Period.”

Since 2009, the Japanese company had recalled more than 12 million cars and vans across the world to deal with problems such as sticking accelerator pedals.

BBC News.

Amnesty International has said it believes torture and ill-treatment in Iraqi prisons will remain widespread. The human rights group said that when the United States handed full control of prisons to the Iraqi government last year, it did so without any guarantees that inmates would be protected. The Iraqi parliament voted in 2008 to join the UN Convention against Torture, but Amnesty said there was no indication that the Baghdad government actually intended to sign it.

Fire fighters have put out a fire at the treasury in Abidjan, the main city in Ivory Coast, which destroyed many financial records. It happened as Laurent Gbagbo is facing increasing pressure to step down as president. Last month, the regional central bank cut his government off from the state treasury in favour of Alassane Ouattara, the man who the international community says won November’s poll.

Russia has abolished the clock change to winter time. The measure was announced by President Medvedev who said the switch caused stress. From Moscow, here’s Steve Rosenberg.

This autumn, clocks in the world’s biggest country will not go back one hour but remain on summer time for the rest of time. President Medvedev has decreed it. According to the president, switching back and forth between summer and winter time is causing Russians stress and illness. When the clocks go back, President Medvedev said today, human bio-rhythms are disrupted. Everyone either oversleeps or wakes up early. And then the president explained there were the cows. They get all confused. They just can’ t understand why the milkmaids suddenly turn up at a different hour.

Hundreds of indigenous Brazilians are protesting in the capital Brasilia against the construction of what will be the world’s third biggest hydroelectric dam. An indigenous leader delivered a petition opposing the project signed by more than half a million people. Environmentalists and celebrities say the dam in the Amazon River Basin will harm the world’s biggest virgin forest.

BBC World Service News.