BBC news 2011-02-19 加文本

BBC news 2011-02-19

BBC News with David Austin

The king of Bahrain has asked the crown prince to start a national dialogue to resolve the political crisis there. A statement said the prince had been asked to talk to all parties. Earlier, the capital Manama was gripped by panic and chaos as thousands of anti-government protesters again clashed with the security forces. The BBC's Caroline Hawley is in Manama.

When it looked like demonstrators were moving towards Pearl Square, the security forces opened fire with live rounds we believe. And as you heard, there are dozens of people in hospital, and there are a few who are said to be in very, very serious condition. There has been a continuing protest at the hospital that has been going on for some time now. I was there earlier in the day, and there was an ambulance worker with bandages on his head who said he'd been beaten when he'd been trying to collect the wounded from Pearl Square.

The Libyan authorities have issued a stark warning to anti-government protesters, saying they'll meet a violent and thunderous response. Reports from Libya's second city Benghazi say tens of thousands of protesters have returned to the streets. From Tripoli, Rana Jawad has more.

It's a mass of crowds that have come out to the streets. Most of them have converged in front of the courthouse in Benghazi. It's largely been peaceful there, but they say thousands upon thousands of people are in front of the courthouse. There have been other protests across the city of Benghazi. Reports are coming out that they've turned violent in an area called el-Kish. Three people have been shot dead.

At least five anti-government demonstrators have been killed in Yemen during protests demanding the immediate resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. In the southern city of Aden, four people were killed when police fired to disperse protesters. A fifth person died in Yemen's second city Taiz when a hand grenade was thrown into a crowd from a car. More than 20 others were wounded.

The United Nations Security Council has begun discussing a resolution condemning Israel's expansion onto occupied Palestinian land. The resolution has been pursued by the Palestinian leadership, despite pressure from President Obama to abandon it. A vote is expected shortly. Barbara Plett reports from New York.

The decision to go ahead with the Friday vote puts America in a difficult position here. The Arab resolution condemning Israeli settlements by and large reflects the opinion of the world as well as the United States. However, Washington is under pressure to veto it, from Israel and also crucially from Congress, where the pro-Israel lobby is very strong. But a veto would anger Arab peoples at a time as street protests often directed at regional leaders allied to America. So the Obama administration placed enormous pressure on the Palestinians to withdraw the resolution and accept alternatives, which were ultimately rejected.

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The United States government says it's imposing sanctions against 16 groups and individuals in Afghanistan for allegedly laundering money for drug traffickers there. They include the New Ansari Exchange, which is thought to be the biggest of Afghanistan's money transfer firms. Steve Kingstone reports from Washington.

The US Treasury says billions of dollars moved by New Ansari to Dubai included the drug money of two major traffickers - one supplying heroin in southwest Asia and the Middle East; the other smuggling heroin, opium and morphine in the border regions of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran by designating New Ansari a major money laundering vehicle. The US is trying to chip away at its financial foundations. Americans are now banned from doing business with the company and with 15 individuals and firms with links to it.

The BBC has learnt that the British intelligence service MI5 was monitoring two of the men who were responsible for the 7 July London bombings over a year before the event. They were filmed meeting a group who were planning to bomb a nightclub and shopping centre. MI5 then followed the two men, Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, to their homes in northern England. MI5 did not inform the British police force in West Yorkshire, where the two bombers lived, but they did share the information with the American FBI.

Three prisoners in Britain have been found guilty of stabbing the Bosnian Serb war criminal and fellow inmate, Radislav Krstic. All young Muslims, they'd sought revenge for Krstic's role in the killings of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995.

A judge in Florida has frozen the assets of the deceased former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez. The judge is trying to end a legal battle between Mr Perez's mistress and his estranged wife. The women can't agree on whether to bury his remains in Venezuela or the United States.

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