BBC news 2011-07-13 加文本

BBC news 2011-07-13

BBC News with David Austin

After days of uNPRecedented pressure on Rupert Murdoch over alleged malpractices by some of his journalists, the British parliament is to discuss a call for him to withdraw his News Corporation's bid for the major satellite broadcaster BSkyB. The British government has already said it'll back a motion demanding an end to Mr Murdoch's bid. The motion has been put forward by the opposition Labour Party, whose leader is Ed Miliband.

"The public would not think it credible that Rupert Murdoch's bid for BSkyB could go ahead while a criminal investigation is going on. That's why we are tabling a motion to call on Mr Murdoch to withdraw his bid for BSkyB."

A BBC political correspondent says government support for the motion will make it very hard for Mr Murdoch to continue with his plan to take over BSkyB, which is Britain's richest broadcaster.

It's been a volatile day on Europe's financial markets. They were reacting to fears that the economic problems in Greece could spread to larger economies. From Brussels, Chris Morris reports.

The risk of contagion - the eurozone debt crisis spreading to a large economy like Italy - was described by one official here as the doomsday scenario. Italy is too big to bail out. So as Italian borrowing costs have risen and Italian stocks have fallen over the last few days, pressure for decisive action on a second financial bailout for Greece has increased dramatically. And that means ideas which had been rejected as politically untenable are now up for discussion again. One of them is a selective default in Greece, meaning some bond holders, including banks and other private institutions, wouldn't get all their money back.

The Nigerian authorities have closed a university in the northern city of Maiduguri because of continued attacks in the region by the Islamist sect Boko Haram. There are reports that the sect, which is opposed to Western education, threatened to attack the university, but the sect has denied this. Students are packing up and joining thousands of other people fleeing the area, as Jonah Fisher reports.

Motorbikes have been banned; the university has closed, and each day in Maiduguri brings reports of new clashes between the military and Islamists from Boko Haram. Tuesday was no different; at least three people died after an improvised bomb targeted a patrol and a shoot-out followed. But there's no need to panic, the military force sent to restore order says. In a statement, they assured people of their security, told them to stay and said there would be no hiding place for Boko Haram militants.

The United States has promised to work with the authorities in Afghanistan as they investigate the murder of a half-brother of President Hamid Karzai. A White House spokesman said Washington condemned the killing of Ahmad Wali Karzai, who was shot dead by his long-serving head of security. He was regarded as one of the country's most powerful men.

World News from the BBC

The United Nations Security Council has condemned in the strongest terms Monday's attacks by Syrian government supporters on the French and American embassies in Damascus. The council said Syria was under an obligation to protect diplomatic property and staff. The attacks followed visits last Friday by the two countries' ambassadors to the city of Hama, a major centre of protests against President Bashar al-Assad.

Thousands of people have held further protests in Cairo despite a warning from Egypt's governing military council against harming public interests. Activists are demanding faster political reform, but the military has said parliamentary elections may have to be postponed. More from Jon Leyne in Cairo.

The situation in Egypt appears to be building towards a new confrontation, this time between protesters and the military. During the day, demonstrators in Tahrir Square fought off an attack by plain-clothes thugs, an ominous echo of events during the revolution earlier this year. The military have conceded for the first time that parliamentary elections due to be held in September might be delayed. They now say only that the election procedures will begin in September without explaining further. That in turn means the timetable for the presidential election and full handover to civilian rule could also be delayed.

Thousands of Greek Cypriots have marched on the presidential palace in Nicosia to protest over the deaths of 12 people in an explosion at a munitions dump. Police fired tear gas to disperse the demonstrators. They blame government negligence for the blast at a naval base in southern Cyprus on Monday.

Police in Guatemala have arrested two men in connection with the killing of the Argentine singer Facundo Cabral on Saturday. Facundo Cabral, one of Latin America's most respected folk singers, was being driven to the airport in Guatemala City when his car was ambushed.

And that's the latest BBC News.