BBC news 2011-06-23 加文本

BBC news 2011-06-23

BBC News with David Austin

China's best-known contemporary artist Ai Weiwei has been released after more than two months in police detention. Chinese state media said he had confessed to tax evasion and had promised to repay what he owed. Contacted by the BBC, Mr Ai said he was at home on bail and was well but couldn't talk any further to the media. Ai Weiwei, a vocal critic of the Chinese Communist Party, was seized by police at Beijing airport in April. Martin Patience reports from Beijing.

State media reported that Ai Weiwei had been released after showing what it called a "good attitude in confessing to his crimes" and also because he was suffering from a chronic illness. Ai Weiwei's detention came during the biggest crackdown against dissidents in China for over 20 years following calls for Middle East-style protests. Western leaders have said that his arrest was a sign of the deteriorating human rights situation in the country. Now he's been released, and it comes just days before China's Premier Wen Jiabao begins an official visit to Britain.

In a speech this evening, President Barack Obama is expected to announce a gradual withdrawal of thousands of American troops from Afghanistan. Early reports suggest they'll be withdrawn in phases with around 5,000 troops leaving within months. Jonny Dymond in Washington has more.

The enormous cost of the military deployment, currently more than $2bn a week, is attracting high-profile criticism from Republicans and Democrats whilst the public, battered by hard economic times, are weary of a war that seems to have no end and appears punctuated only by the deaths of young Americans. But the president cannot cut too deep or too fast. His military commanders are wary of throwing away hard-fought gains by withdrawing troops too soon.

The head of the US Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, has warned that the Greek debt crisis could threaten the global financial system if a solution is not found. He described it as a very difficult situation and said Washington had been in close contact with its European colleagues. Mr Bernanke also told journalists the US economic recovery was proceeding more slowly than expected. He highlighted the main reasons.

"In particular, consumers' purchasing power has been damaged by higher food and energy prices, and the aftermath of the tragic earthquake and tsunami in Japan has been associated with disruptions in global supply chains, especially in the auto sector. However, some moderation in gasoline prices is now in prospect, and the effects of the Japanese disaster on manufacturing output are likely to dissipate in coming months."

A military court in Bahrain has sentenced eight opposition activists to life in prison after convicting them of plotting to overthrow the government during protests earlier this year. Thirteen other defendants received lesser sentences. After the verdicts, the defendants defiantly chanted slogans.

World News from the BBC

The British ambassador to Syria has told the BBC that he has reason to believe that there was indeed an attack on a Syrian military post in the northern town of Jisr al-Shughour this month as Syria says. The ambassador Simon Collis said that embassy officials had visited the town on Monday at the invitation of the Syrian authorities. He didn't say whether he thought the attack involved mutineers as the opposition says or the armed gangs that the government blames.

The United Nations has condemned the arrests of six of its employees in northern Sudan and called for their immediate release. The six were part of a group being evacuated by air from the town of Kadugli in Southern Kordofan region, where there's been heavy fighting between government troops and Nuba rebels. UN peacekeepers say they were arrested at the airport by Sudanese government forces.

A report seen by the BBC alleges that the evidence about corruption against two senior members of world football's governing body Fifa is stronger than previously thought. Here's our sports correspondent Alex Capstick.

Mohamed Bin Hammam and Jack Warner, two of the most powerful men in world football, were provisionally suspended from Fifa last month. Fifa's ethics commission said there were enough grounds to launch a full inquiry. But according to a detailed report which has now been seen by the BBC, its conclusions were much more damning. A 17-page document claimed its decision was based on compelling evidence that Mohamed Bin Hammam had tried to bribe Caribbean football officials during his presidential campaign and that Jack Warner had facilitated it.

At the start of his trial on charges of racial abuse, the British fashion designer John Galliano has told a French court that he's addicted to alcohol, sleeping tablets and valium. Mr Galliano is accused of using anti-Semitic language against a woman in a Paris bar and then hurling racial insults at her Asian partner. He denies the charges against him, but has apologised for his behaviour.

That's the BBC News.