BBC news 2011-11-22 加文本

BBC news 2011-11-22

BBC News with Mike Cooper

Egyptian state television says the cabinet has submitted its resignation to the ruling military council. It said the military leadership was considering whether to accept the resignations. This report from our correspondent in Cairo Jon Leyne.

After three days of tumultuous clashes in Cairo and other cities, it emerged that the cabinet had submitted its resignation. The ministers are clearly uneasy about the violent reaction to the protests, and they were already unhappy with being increasingly sidelined by the ruling military council. The move is bound to add momentum to the protests, but it also poses a huge political dilemma for the military. Any new ministers are bound to demand more power from the military - something the army is fighting to resist. But an even more dangerous scenario for the ruling military council would be if they have to assume open control of the government, that would make them even more directly responsible for everything that's now going wrong in Egypt - exactly what they have been trying to avoid.

The government in Bahrain has admitted that its troops used excessive force during pro-democracy protests earlier this year. With more details, here's Frank Gardner.

Bahrain's cabinet is anticipating heavy criticism from the independent human rights report due out on Wednesday. But instead of waiting for international condemnation, it's issued a humbling statement, taking partial blame. Regrettably, it says, there have been instances of excessive force and mistreatment of detainees. It goes on to say that all those responsible for abuses will be held accountable, adding there will be no impunity. Human Rights Watch describes the situation in Bahrain as dire and puts the number of deaths following protests this year at 43, most of them civilians.

The British Finance Minister George Osborne has announced the new financial sanctions against Iran in the wake of the latest UN assessment of Tehran's nuclear capability.

"We are ceasing all contact between the UK financial system and the Iranian banking system. We're doing this because of international evidence that Iran's banks are involved in the development of Iran's weaponised military nuclear weapon programme. We're doing this to improve the security not just of the whole world, but the national security of the United Kingdom."

The British statement comes after the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, passed a resolution last week expressing growing concern over Iran's nuclear programme.

Nigeria's State Security Service says the Boko Haram Islamic militant group is receiving funding and patronage from certain politicians in the north. Nigeria's intelligence agency said it had arrested a spokesman for the group, who told them he was sponsored by a politician in Borno state to send threats to judges and rival politicians. Boko Haram is blamed for a growing number of deadly attacks, especially in northern Nigeria. They also include the bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Abuja in August, which killed 24 people.

World News from the BBC

The UN agency dealing with the fight against Aids says HIV infections have fallen to their lowest level since the peak of the epidemic 14 years ago. UNAids says the global response of the past decade has forced the disease into decline with new infections down by more than 20% since its peak in 1997. Peter Ghys of UNAids said the data was encouraging even in Africa, where HIV infection still remains at very high levels.

"The picture in Africa largely determines the global picture because most of the global epidemic is actually situated in Africa. So the trends that we highlight - the reduction in new infections is present in Africa, and also the trend in the reduction of the deaths due to Aids is also present in Africa."

In the latest of a series of economic reforms, Cuba has announced it's going to allow farmers to sell their goods directly to tourist hotels and restaurants. For the first time in decades, Cubans won't have to go through government middlemen to sell agricultural produce. Vanessa Buschschluter reports.

As part of its limited free-market reforms, Cuba has already liberalised the housing market and eased rules on buying and selling cars. Now it has turned its attention to the agricultural sector, allowing direct sales of farm products. The reform is meant to cut down on transportation costs and speed up food delivery to the tourism industry. Tourism is a key source of revenue for Cuba, but visitors often complain about the poor quality of food. The government is hoping this reform will help provide fresher and more varied products.

The film star Hugh Grant has given evidence to a public inquiry into press standards in Britain, which was sparked by a phone-hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch's best-selling newspaper, the News of the World. Mr Grant told the inquiry he believed another paper, the Mail on Sunday, may have hacked his phone. The paper swiftly issued a denial.

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