BBC news 2011-02-15 加文本

BBC news 2011-02-15

BBC News with David Legge

There have been violent clashes between protesters and the police in the Iranian capital Tehran as anti-government rallies were held in several different locations across the city. An Iranian news agency is reporting that one person was shot dead. Thousands of demonstrators took part in the protests, which were in part held to show solidarity with recent demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt. Dozens of opposition supporters have been arrested, and electricity and mobile phone services have been cut off in central Tehran. Mohsen Asgari is a BBC employee in Tehran.

We can see hundreds of anti-riot police and security forces, and then they started to disperse the people by force, but people started to chanting slogans against the police. I could see a lot of clashes, severe clashes. Police started to launch tear gases and pepper gases. I myself was affected seriously.

Egypt has been hit by a wave of strikes and renewed protests, despite calls by the military authorities for a return to normality. In Tahrir Square in Cairo, crowds of new protesters thwarted attempts to remove the remaining anti-government demonstrators. Wyre Davies reports from Cairo.

Political reform may be coming in Egypt with the promise of free and fair elections, but there's realisation that economic reform may take much longer. In another televised address, the interim ruling military council appealed to all Egyptians to go back to work and warned that strikes and industrial disputes would damage the country. But across Egypt, thousands of largely working class state employees have been demonstrating for more pay.

A court in Ecuador has fined the American oil giant Chevron a reported $8bn for polluting a large part of the country's Amazon region. A lawyer for the plaintiffs said they'd been awarded the sum after accusing the Texaco oil company, which was bought by Chevron in 2001, of damaging swathes of the northern jungle. Chevron said it intended to appeal. Vanessa Buschschluter reports.

In 1993, lawyers representing 30,000 residents of the Amazon region argued that the Texaco oil company was responsible for dumping chemical-laden oil drilling waste in hundreds of small ponds in the Amazon river basin. The plaintiffs say the resulting pollution caused $27bn in damages from illness, deaths and economic loss. Now a judge has ruled in their favour, reportedly awarding them $8bn.

An assistant to the Russian judge who handled the recent trial of the dissident tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has said the verdict and sentence were not his own, but were dictated to him. Natalya Vasilyeva, a spokeswoman for the court, made the claim in media interviews. The judge denied the allegation.

World News from the BBC

President Obama has laid out his annual budget, saying he's making tough choices to tackle the country's spiralling budget deficit, but there's already been a dismissive response from the Republicans. Adam Brooks reports from Washington.

The president said that under his new budget, government spending would be lower as a share of the economy than at any time in 50 years, and he said it would shrink the American government's enormous deficit. But Mr Obama's Republican opponents in Congress have already challenged these plans, saying they don't go nearly far enough to reduce government spending, and it's those Republicans, who now control the House of Representatives and hold the real power when it comes to spending. The budget always prompts a battle, but this one, which comes as America struggles out of recession and heads into a presidential election, will be more vicious than most.

The United States has accused the military-backed government in Burma of threatening the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and says this shows things haven't changed despite last year's election. A State Department spokesman said Burma claimed there was a new era but it was up to its old tricks. A commentary in Burma's state media said on Sunday that Aung San Suu Kyi and her party would meet what it called a "tragic end" if they stuck to policies including support for Western sanctions.

The United Nations Security Council has called for a permanent ceasefire between Cambodia and Thailand after clashes in their disputed border area killed at least eight people earlier this month. The council also expressed support for mediation efforts by Asean, the regional grouping of Southeast Asian nations.

Colombia says it's in talks with China to build an alternative to the Panama Canal, a rail link between Colombia's Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos told the Financial Times newspaper that the proposal was quite advanced. China has been increasing its investment and lending in Latin America.

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