BBC news 2011-12-18 加文本

BBC news 2011-12-18

BBC News with Sue Montgomery

An Iraqi delegation visiting Syria to try to broker an end to the violence there says it's had positive talks with President Bashar al-Assad. The Iraqis are trying to seek agreement based on peace proposals made by the Arab League. Jim Muir reports from Baghdad.

The Arab League has already suspended Syria's membership in the body and imposed economic sanctions. Now the foreign minister of Qatar has said that on Wednesday a full meeting of Arab foreign ministers will be asked to approve a resolution passing the issue to the UN Security Council. The idea would not be to ask for outside military intervention as happened in Libya, but to get the Security Council to adopt and pursue the Arab peace plan. It calls for an immediate halt to violence, the withdrawal of the military from the streets, the release of prisoners and the deployment of hundreds of outside observers to monitor the peace. For President Assad in Syria, it's an ominous development.

The Nato alliance has formally ended its seven-year mission to train the army in Iraq. The event was marked with a ceremony in Baghdad. Nato decided to end the mission after failing to agree terms with Iraq for its extension. The alliance wanted its trainers to be immune from prosecution under Iraqi laws, but the government wouldn't accept that.

There's been a second day of violence in Egypt with protesters and the security forces clashing in the centre of Cairo. State television says nine people have been killed since the trouble began on Friday. Yolande Knell reports from Cairo.

Smoke hangs over Tahrir Square in the city centre after earlier fires at government buildings close-by. In the surrounding streets around the cabinet office, running battles between protesters and troops and police have continued through the day. Demonstrators were beaten with batons, and the tents where they've been staying were set on fire. They responded by throwing stones. Television crews were also caught up in the clashes. Soldiers are reported to have thrown equipment belonging to al-Jazeera television from a balcony overlooking Tahrir Square.

Naval vessels with search lights are searching for survivors in an area of the southern Philippines where devastating overnight floods killed more than 400 people. An army spokesman said whole villages have been swept out to sea. Here's Viv Marsh.

A military spokesman said an entire army division of about 10,000 soldiers was involved in rescue work around the port of Cagayan de Oro. It's there and in Iligan - further along the coast - that most of the casualties have been reported so far. Many people were sleeping when floodwaters triggered by tropical storm Washi smashed into their homes. One survivor said the water reached the roof. Helicopters and boats have been searching the coast for people swept away. The Philippine Red Cross said it was preparing emergency supplies for thousands of people.

World News from the BBC

The British government has told Uruguay it's worried about a decision to ban ships flying the flag of the Falkland Islands - the British territory in the South Atlantic. This report from Vanessa Buschschluter.

The British Foreign Office did not mince its words in its response to Uruguay's move. It said neither it nor the Falklands would bend to those who sought to bully or blackmail the islands. Uruguay had announced the ban on Thursday after receiving a request from its neighbour Argentina. The Argentine government stepped up its campaign to gain sovereignty over the territory last year after Britain started to search for oil in Falklands waters.

An American woman who served 15 years in prison in Peru for aiding left-wing rebels says she was prevented by the Peruvian government from making her first trip home. A court ruled on Friday that Lori Berenson, who's on parole, should be allowed to travel to New York for Christmas.

Cesaria Evora, the popular singer from the remote islands of Cape Verde off the African coast, has died at the age of 70. She won several awards including a Grammy. Anna Borzello looks back at her life.

Born in the Cape Verdean city of Mindelo in 1941, Cesaria Evora began her singing career in the bars and streets of her town. A friend, another Cape Verdean singer called Bana, tried to help her career in the 1980s by taking her to Portugal for a series of concerts and studio recordings, but these went unnoticed. However, it was in the Portuguese capital that she met the musical producer Jose da Silva, who took her to Paris, where in 1988 she recorded the album Barefoot Diva. She was 47 and began touring worldwide. The track Sodade, describing the longing for the homeland, became her best-known hit.

The voice of the late Cesaria Evora

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