BBC news 2011-11-23 加文本

BBC news 2011-11-23

BBC News with Mike Cooper

The leader of Egypt's ruling military council has promised to bring forward presidential elections to next year. In a live television address, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi said next week's parliamentary elections will not be cancelled. He also offered condolences to the families of protesters killed over the past few days, but said the military had not fired a single shot on Egyptian citizens. From Cairo, here's Yolande Knell.

The head of the armed forces council insisted that the military didn't aspire to power. He said it was committed to holding parliamentary elections on schedule from next Monday and that a new president would be elected sooner than expected by the end of June. He added that the resignation of the current interim cabinet had been accepted but that it would continue working until a new government was formed.

Despite the pledges made by Field Marshal Tantawi, thousands of protesters in Cairo and other major cities are still demanding that the military leadership give up all attempts to hold on to power, and clashes with security forces are continuing around Tahrir Square, as Hugh Sykes now reports.

This is just a constant to-and-fro of the crowds moving towards the police, some of them prepared with petrol bombs, many of them holding rocks and throwing them at the police. And when they get too close, the police loose off a tear gas canister or two or three. Most of the people here are in fact just watching, but they are here and they are here to say, and they don't think the concessions are nearly enough. They want total change; they want an end to the regime of the man they describe as Mubarak mark II - Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi - they want him to resign.

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, has said Libya can put Colonel Gaddafi's son Saif on trial there, but said the ICC's own judges would have to be involved. Reporting from Tripoli, Caroline Hawley.

Three months since Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown, Libya is struggling to build new institutions and doesn't yet have a functioning court system. Saif al-Islam is being held not behind bars but secretly under guard at a private home in the mountain town of Zintan. The authorities say he is secure there and will be given a fair trial. This evening in Tripoli, a new government is being unveiled, and it will face a host of challenges. But it knows that it will be on trial itself over how it handles Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi.

The UN human rights committee has voted overwhelmingly to condemn rights violations by the Syrian government against pro-democracy protesters. It comes after previous attempts to get a similar resolution passed by the Security Council were vetoed by Russia and China. The BBC United Nations correspondent says the committee vote does not have the legal power of one in the Security Council but does reinforce Syria's international isolation.

World News from the BBC

The Pakistani ambassador to the United States has resigned over allegations that he wrote a memo asking for Washington's help to restrain Pakistan's military. Husain Haqqani denied any involvement in the memo forwarded to America's most senior military officer Admiral Mike Mullen. Aleem Maqbool reports from Islamabad.

Though he denies it, the accusation is that earlier this year, as ambassador to Washington, Mr Haqqani drew up a memo to America's most senior military officer Admiral Mike Mullen. In it, it's alleged the Pakistani government asked for American help to weaken the Pakistani army, which it was feared might stage a coup. That for many Pakistanis amounted to nothing less than treason, and so there has been a clamour for Mr Haqqani to go.

A Nigerian senator has appeared in court accused of having links with the militant Islamist group Boko Haram. Senator Ali Ndume faced a number of charges, including intimidation and felony, all of which he denied. His detention follows the arrest of a man claiming to be a spokesman for Boko Haram, who alleged that the senator had ties with the movement.

Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has appeared in court on tax evasion charges. Mr Berlusconi attended a hearing in Milan investigating allegations that he managed a media deal to illegally reduce his tax liabilities. The former Italian leader is involved in three legal cases, and it's the first time he's appeared in court since he was forced to resign as prime minister earlier this month.

The American pharmaceuticals giant Merck has agreed to pay nearly $1bn and plead guilty to a criminal charge over the mis-marketing of the painkiller Vioxx. The drug was withdrawn in 2004 after it was found to increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes. The criminal charge arose out of the fact that Vioxx had also been promoted as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis before being officially approved.

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