BBC news 2011-04-25 加文本

BBC news 2011-04-25

BBC News with Jonathan Izard

Thousands of anti-government protesters in the Yemeni capital Sanaa say they don't trust President Ali Abdullah Saleh to keep his promise to step down. Mr Saleh agreed on Saturday to hand over power to his deputy within 30 days, but the protesters say he must go immediately. Earlier, the president told the BBC that al-Qaeda had infiltrated the opposition. From Sanaa, Lina Sinjab reports.

The opposition denied the president's allegation. Young Yemenis have been camping out in the country's capital, demanding democratic change for a month. They are not ready to accept any deal with a president they distrust and are demanding his immediate departure. Young Yemeni activists say they are already planning to increase the number of demonstrations. It doesn't look as if Yemen's political crisis will end soon.

Reports from Syria say security forces have once again opened fire on demonstrators, killing at least one person in the northwestern coastal town of Jabla. Syrian authorities are preventing international journalists from entering the country. Owen Bennett-Jones reports from neighbouring Lebanon.

The latest video footage to come out of Syria shows continuing violence but with fewer people on the streets, and sometimes there are armed men in civilian clothing, sometimes walking alongside uniformed security personnel. Today's violence follows the detention of people across Syria suspected of organising the protests. The official news agency has also been giving its account of what's been happening. It says five security personnel were killed by armed criminal gangs and 38 policemen injured in Saturday's violence.

There are reports of further fighting in the Libyan city of Misrata, which has been under siege from forces loyal to Colonel Gaddafi. A British newspaper journalist in the city told the BBC he had heard sporadic explosions and automatic gunfire during the day. He said it appeared that rebel forces had taken over three of the four locations that Colonel Gaddafi's troops had been holding inside the city.

A Libyan rebel leader says Kuwait has promised to give the rebels $180m in aid as they continue their fight against Colonel Gaddafi's forces. Peter Biles has more.

Kuwait has stopped short of officially recognising Libya's opposition, but this is a major financial contribution. The head of the Transitional National Council, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, said the money was needed in part to pay salaries in eastern Libya. The opposition has been trying to get access to foreign exchange reserves since the uprising began in February. Last week, the US Senator John McCain visited Benghazi and called for Colonel Gaddafi's frozen assets abroad to be released to the opposition.

A human rights group in Nigeria says more than 500 people died following the presidential elections earlier this month. The Civil Rights Congress said the violence happened mostly in Kaduna state, in the north of the country, and the number of victims could be even higher.

World News from the BBC

The former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is to be transferred to a prison hospital in Cairo after a doctor declared him well enough to travel. The order came from Egypt's public prosecutor. From Cairo, here's Jonathan Head.

For the past two weeks, Hosni Mubarak has been concealed in a private hospital wing in Sharm el-Sheikh, hoping to avoid the fate of his two sons, Gamal and Alaa. But the public prosecutor says the former president is now fit enough to be transferred to Tora prison in Cairo, where his sons are being held. There, Mr Mubarak will face questioning over allegations of corruption, including charges that his government supplied gas to Israel at below market prices. He will also be questioned about his role in ordering the violent response to anti-government protests this year, in which more than 800 people died.

French officials have sought to downplay reports that Paris is considering the suspension of the Schengen Agreement, which abolished border controls between participating European Union countries. A special adviser to President Sarkozy said what France was looking for was the revision of certain parts of the treaty and stressed that even that could take place only as part of an EU-wide deal. France has accused Italy of abusing the accord by granting temporary visas to North African migrants arriving on the Italian island of Lampedusa.

The Crown Prince of Bahrain has informed the British royal family that he won't attend the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton this week because of ongoing unrest in Bahrain. Peter Hunt has more.

Bahrain's Crown Prince clearly hoped things would quieten down in his backyard. They haven't. There's been an ongoing security clampdown, and doctors have been arrested. Despite this, only yesterday, the Crown Prince was definitely coming to the wedding. Twenty-four hours later and after who knows what sort of diplomatic pressure which might have been applied behind the scenes, Prince Salman has, with deep regret, now pulled out of Friday's celebrations in order clearly not to overshadow the occasion.

BBC World Service News