BBC news 2011-05-14 加文本

BBC news 2011-05-14

BBC News with Julie Candler

Pakistan's intelligence chief General Ahmed Shuja Pasha has offered to resign after facing tough questioning about the US special forces raid that killed the al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. General Pasha, who appeared before parliament with his military counterparts, said the offer was refused. Aleem Maqbool reports from Islamabad.

It is unheard of in Pakistan for the head of the intelligence services to be humiliated in this way. Not only was he hauled in front of parliament to explain himself and the failings of his agency in the Bin Laden affair, but according to some MPs who briefed the BBC he faced such hostility that at one point he told them they were treating him like an enemy. When asked about specifics on how Osama Bin Laden had been in Pakistan for so long without being detected, he said it wasn't time to answer questions like that. But that's not going to be enough for many Pakistanis, who feel a massive sense of embarrassment that the al-Qaeda leader was found here and killed in an American operation.

President Barack Obama has announced the resignation of the US special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell. Seventy-seven-year-old Mr Mitchell has led the administration's efforts to kick start the failed peace talks in the Middle East for the past two years. President Obama said Mr Mitchell had always insisted he would only serve that amount of time in the position.

The wife of Egypt's ousted President Hosni Mubarak has been taken ill with a suspected heart attack. Suzanne Mubarak was admitted to hospital in the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh just hours after anti-corruption officials ordered her to be detained for 15 days while fraud allegations against her are investigated. She was questioned by the authorities for the first time on Thursday. At the same time, Mr Mubarak's ongoing detention was extended for a further two weeks.

Libyan officials say Nato has hit a boarding house in Brega, an eastern town under government control, killing 11 imams and injuring 45 other people. Christian Fraser reports from Tripoli.

In the courtyard of a mosque in Tripoli, government officials called a press conference to show journalists horrific footage of the dead. The bodies were badly burnt and disfigured. Officials say these were men who the previous night had been involved in a live broadcast from Brega, a town still under loyalist control in the east. The group had prayed on state television for national unity and reconciliation. After those prayers, we are told they retired to a guest house in Brega to prepare for the journey next day to Benghazi. At face value, it looks like a terrible mistake on the part of Nato. The alliance said it is checking its intelligence before it responds.

Thousands of people have again taken part in anti-government protests across Syria following Friday prayers. Human rights activists said three people were killed during demonstrations in the central city of Homs. However, a BBC correspondent monitoring the situation from neighbouring Lebanon said security forces appeared to have used less force than on previous occasions and seemed to be employing a new strategy.

World News from the BBC

A 62-year-old British woman has been beheaded in an apparently random attack in a supermarket on the Spanish holiday island of Tenerife. Peter Biles reports.

The victim hasn't yet been named, but according to the authorities in Tenerife, she was a 62-year-old Briton. She was in a supermarket at the time of the attack. Local reports say the suspect, who's believed to be a Bulgarian man, seized a knife from inside the store and beheaded the woman. He was chased and detained by security guards as he tried to escape. The Foreign Office in London says it's aware of the reports from Tenerife and is urgently investigating what happened.

The US State Department has apologised to thousands of would-be immigrants who thought they had been successful in the annual lottery permitting them to apply to live legally in the United States. Officials said the results had to be invalidated because a computer error meant the selection wasn't random. All 22,000 names will have to take their chance again with about 15 million other hopeful applicants.

A man dressed as a snail has completed the London Marathon 26 days after the race began. Lloyd Scott, a former professional footballer, inched his way along the 42km course face-down on a metal sled for up to eight hours a day. His costume, a children's TV character called Brian, was equipped with a periscopic camera to see where he was going. Mr Lloyd, who once ran the same marathon in antique diving suit, is attempting to raise money for a charity for disabled children. Crossing the finish line, Mr Lloyd admitted it was a relief to finish.

"Yeah, it's very difficult. I mean I had consistent nose bleeds. I had to go to hospital to have my nose cauterised and treated. [I] kept being sick in the snail. I even slept in the snail as well. Oh really for such a fantastic charity, I mean, it's the children that are here today. That's really been foremost on my mind and have been driving me forward."

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