BBC news 2011-02-16 加文本

BBC news 2011-02-16

BBC News with Jim Lee.

The United States government is giving $25 million this year to help political dissidents get around repression of the internet in autocratic countries. The American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, gave voice to people’s aspirations, and there was no turning back from an increasingly networked society.

“The United States continues to help people in oppressive internet environments get around filters, stay one step ahead of the censors, the hackers and the thugs who beat them up or imprison them for what they say online. While the rights we seek to protect and support are clear, the various ways that these rights are violated are increasingly complex.”

In the past few weeks, anti-government protests organised via the Internet and mobile phones have swept the Middle East and forced the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt from power.

President Obama has sharply criticised Iran, saying that while the authorities there celebrated the fall of the Mubarak government in Egypt, they’d attacked and beaten their own citizens who’d held peaceful demonstrations. Mr Obama said he hoped protesters there would have the courage to continue expressing their yearning for greater freedom. From Washington, here’s Kim Ghattas.

President Barrack Obama came out in strong support of anti-government protesters in Tehran. Mr Obama also issued a direct appeal to autocratic rulers in the Arab world to look at Egypt’s example and listen to the needs of their people. “The world is changing”, said the American president, and leaders have to “get out ahead of the change”. They can’t be “behind the curve”. It was a warning to Arab rulers that if they don’t bring about credible reforms fast, they might meet the same fate as the former presidents of Egypt and Tunisia.

Security forces in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, have used tear gas and batons to disperse thousands of anti-government protesters calling for the president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to step down. It was the fifth consecutive day of demonstrations inspired by the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. President Saleh who’s been in power for almost 32 years has said he does not intend to continue beyond 2013, but his critics have demanded immediate political change.

The World Bank says rising food prices have pushed an extra 44 million people into poverty since last June. The Bank’s food price index has shot up by 15% in the last four months alone. Mark Doyle reports.

The World Bank figures show sharp price increases in wheat, maize, sugar, and edible oils over the past six months, with prices almost reaching the peaks of the year 2008 when there were food riots in a number of countries in the developing world. Wheat and maize are the basis of many poorer people’s diets. But the poor suffer a double whammy because they also spend a larger proportion of their income on food than those in richer countries.

World News from the BBC.

The authorities in South Sudan say about 200 people were killed during clashes last week with rebels, doubling the previous estimate. Officials and aid workers said most of those who died were civilians, including women, children and priests. Many of them drowned as they tried to cross a river.

A group of six Nigerian men and one Zambian have appeared in court in South  Africa, accused of impersonating doctors and also charged with fraud, corruption and indecent assault. A local healthcare group said it’s concerned that thousands of patients may have been misdiagnosed. The men did not enter a plea.

A judge in the Italian city of Milan has ordered the Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to stand trial on charges that he paid an underage girl for sex. Mr Berlusconi is alleged to have paid for sex with a 17-year-old girl. In Italian law that’s underage to be a prostitute. Duncan Kennedy reports from Rome.

A judge in Milan says there’s enough evidence to indict Silvio Berlusconi on two counts. The first is that he paid a 17-year-old prostitute for sex. The second is that he used the power of his office to get her release from police custody after she was picked up on an unrelated theft charge. Both Mr Berlusconi and the teenager, known as Ruby, denied they had sex. Mr Berlusconi admits he did call the police on her behalf, but only because he was told Ruby was the niece of the then president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, and that he was helping a fellow leader. The head of Italy’s main opposition party has tonight called for Mr Berlusconi to resign.

The Spanish Cycling Federation has cleared the reigning Tour de France champion, Alberto Contador, of using performance-enhancing drugs and reversed its one-year ban. It means the Spaniard can compete again immediately. He’s expected to start the Tour of Algarve in Portugal on Wednesday. Contador who’s won the Tour de France three times has insisted he’d taken the prohibited drug, clenbuterol, accidentally by eating a contaminated steak.

BBC News.