BBC news 2011-05-20 加文本

BBC news 2011-05-20

BBC News with David Legge

President Obama has outlined US policy towards the Middle East in the wake of the momentous events in the region in the past few months. He spoke of peoples who'd risen up and brought about change through non-violence. From Washington, Paul Adams reports.

This was a speech of necessarily broad scope, an opportunity for the president to draw what he believes are the lessons of six months of turmoil in the Arab world and to say how the United States is responding.

"We have the chance to show that America values the dignity of the street vendor in Tunisia more than the raw power of the dictator. There must be no doubt that the United States of America welcomes change that advances self-determination and opportunity."

There were pledges of significant international economic support for countries undergoing democratic change, notably Egypt and Tunisia, and a stern warning to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, similar in language and tone to the one delivered to Egypt's Hosni Mubarak just before the White House cut him adrift.

President Obama devoted a significant portion of his speech to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He said any Palestinian state should be based on the 1967 borders. Correspondents say that appears to meet a key Palestinian demand and to mark a shift in US policy. Wyre Davies is in Jerusalem.

Palestinian leaders welcome Mr Obama's assertion that a future Palestinian state must be based on 1967 ceasefire lines. Equally, that will be roundly condemned by right-wing Israeli politicians. Abandoning settlements in the West Bank to make way for a Palestinian state is something they've vowed they will never do. Ultimately, as the president said, it is up to both sides themselves to restart peace talks, perhaps beginning with drawing up the size and shape of a future Palestinian state, with more difficult issues, like the future of Jerusalem and the right of return of Palestinian refugees, to be tackled later.

The judge hearing the case of the former head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who's facing trial for the alleged attempted rape of a New York hotel chamber maid, has granted him bail. He denies the charges. Steve Kingstone reports.

Five days after his arrest, Dominique Strauss-Kahn is to be freed on bail. His lawyers told the judge he was prepared to be placed under 24-hour home detention and wear an electronic tag which would monitor his movements. A bond of $1m was offered by the defendant's wife, who was in court for the hearing. After a brief recess, the judge approved that sum but also requested an insurance bond of $5m. Separately, a grand jury has indicted Mr Strauss-Kahn after deciding there is a case to answer. The former head of the IMF faces seven criminal counts. They include one charge of attempted rape and two allegations that he tried to force a 32-year-old hotel maid to perform oral sex.

World News from the BBC

The Federal Bureau of Investigation says it's investigating whether the convicted murderer Theodore Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, was involved in a series of poisonings involving Tylenol painkillers in Chicago 30 years ago. The Tylenol poisonings killed seven people in 1982 when packets of the medicine had potassium cyanide added to them.

The Danish film-maker Lars von Trier has described the comments that got him banned from the Cannes Film Festival as "thoughtless and stupid". In what correspondents described as rambling comments at a news conference in Cannes on Wednesday, Mr von Trier had said he understood and sympathised a little with Hitler. He told the BBC he'd forgotten he was addressing a worldwide audience rather than joking among friends who knew his sense of humour and was sorry.

"I was telling a lot of funny or less funny anecdotes, and then stupid things were said. And I can't take them back, but I can say that I'm sorry if people have been hurt by them."

A Bolivian pastor has been jailed in Mexico for seven years for hijacking a passenger plane. The preacher, Jose Marc Flores Pereira, said he was on a divine mission when he hijacked a Mexican plane two years ago.

New research into why early humans stood up millions of years ago suggests it may have improved their ability to punch each other. Here's Jon Stewart from our science team.

The move from four legs to two was a key moment in human evolution, and what drove that change has long been debated. Theories range from allowing us to pick food from trees to carry tools or to be able to run faster. Now Professor David Carrier from the University of Utah in the US has found that it improves fighting ability. Professor Carrier's report also provides an explanation for why women tend to find taller men more attractive. Being better at fighting might have provided an evolutionary advantage, meaning that tall men would have children with the best chance of surviving and passing on genes.

BBC News