BBC news 2011-12-22 加文本

BBC news 2011-12-22

BBC News with Iain Purdon

In one of its strongest statements on Syria, the United States has said President Bashar al-Assad has lost all legitimacy and credibility. The White House called for the immediate implementation of the Arab League peace plan, warning that failure to do so would result in new sanctions against Syria. But our correspondent Jim Muir, who's monitoring events from neighbouring Lebanon, says the message from Washington is likely to be ignored in Damascus.

It's pretty hard at this stage to see it having much impact at all though the regime is embattled; it has its back to the wall. Some believe it is planning to fight to the last gasp to keep power. But by accepting the Arab peace plan in theory, it's committed itself to a course of action which could, well, spell its demise. Because under the plan, it's supposed to withdraw forces from all the towns, cities, villages, etc where they've been confronting people. As soon as they do that, those towns go back over to the opposition.

A spokesman for the main Sunni political grouping in Iraq has called for the Shia Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to be replaced. The spokesman for Iraqiya said it would submit a formal request for a no-confidence vote in the prime minister. Mr al-Maliki earlier urged the Kurdish authorities in the north of Iraq to hand over the Sunni Vice-President Tariq al-Hashimi, who's accused of links to terrorism.

Hundreds of European banks have applied to borrow money from the European Central Bank in its first ever offer of unlimited three-year loans at low cost. The take-up for the $0.5tn offer was far higher than anticipated. It's hoped the size of the take-up will ease fears that Europe is heading for a credit crunch. But George Magnus, an economist at the Swiss bank UBS, says problems in the eurozone remain.

"It's not a solution to the crisis and the real causes of the crisis, which is the insolvency of sovereign states and the economic austerity throughout what is now a depression zone in Europe. These things are going to continue to plague the euro system. But what the ECB's money is going to do is it's going to relieve a lot of the pressure on banks for a period of time."

The captain of Chelsea football club and the England national team, John Terry, is facing charges of racially abusing an opponent during a match in October. The Crown Prosecution Service said it was satisfied it had enough evidence to convict the defender for comments he allegedly made to a black player, Anton Ferdinand, of Queens Park Rangers. John Terry said he was disappointed by the charges and would clear his name. He faces a fine if found guilty. His manager at Chelsea, Andre Villas-Boas, is standing by his player.

"He has my full support; he has the club's full support. He represents this club to a maximum level, and we are very grateful to have a player of his quality in our team. We know exactly his human values and his personality. For me, they are never in doubt, so I'll fully support him whatever the outcome."

World News from the BBC

The British government has warned Argentina not to doubt its determination to protect the Falkland Islands after the South American trading bloc Mercosur banned ships flying the Falklands flag from using its ports. Argentina claims sovereignty over the Falklands, which it calls the Malvinas. And 30 years ago, it was defeated in a war for control of the South Atlantic territory.

The authorities in Mexico have disbanded an entire municipal police force as part of a campaign to root out corruption and improve security in the face of drug-related violence. More than 900 officers are losing their jobs. The move comes months after 35 bodies were found dumped on a main road in the municipality, which includes part of the city of Veracruz.

Facebook has agreed to improve privacy arrangements for millions of its users following an audit of the company's operations in Ireland. The site has 800 million users worldwide, but Facebook Ireland is responsible for the data of all users beyond the United States and Canada. Here's Mark Gregory.

Facebook has agreed to what's described as a wide range of "best practice" improvements. It'll overhaul its European services, which are run from Ireland, over the next six months. The changes include giving users information about how Facebook and third party application developers use personal data, deleting some details about people from the site more quickly and giving clear warnings about the use of facial recognition technology that identifies people in photographs.

Indigenous Maya communities in southern Mexico have begun a year-long countdown to 21 December 2012, which will mark the end of a 5,000-year cycle in the ancient Mayan calendar. Some people have interpreted the millennial prophecy as predicting the apocalypse. But Mayan scholars say it signifies the end of an era, not the end of the world.

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