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BBC news 2012-02-18

BBC News with Nick Kelly

The United Nations says the number of Malian refugees fleeing the fighting between Tuareg rebels and the military has doubled over the past 10 days. It says more than 44,000 have crossed into neighbouring countries. Martin Plaut reports.

People have been crossing in their thousands into Mauritania, Niger and Burkina Faso, where the UNHCR has been registering them. The conflict has been fierce with government forces using helicopter gunships in an attempt to retake towns seized by the rebels. Amnesty International described the fighting, which erupted in January, as the worst human rights crisis in northern Mali for 20 years.

Italian police have arrested eight people in connection with a seizure of fake US treasury bonds. Police said the alleged crime posed a serious danger to the stability of the international credit system. Alan Johnston reports.

This is a case of attempted international fraud on the most extraordinary scale. The police say that the $6tn worth of counterfeit US bonds were seized in Switzerland. They were found in fake American Federal Reserve security boxes in a raid in January. And now several arrests have been made in different parts of Italy. Investigators say the gang may have been planning to sell the bogus bonds to investors in emerging economies or to more mainstream brokers.

The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton say they are cautiously optimistic that talks with Iran about its nuclear programme might resume. The assessment comes after Iran's nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili sent a letter to Baroness Ashton saying Tehran was ready to restart discussions.

Police in the United States have arrested a man who they say was planning a suicide bomb attack near the US Congress in Washington. American security officials say the man, who's of Moroccan descent, had entered the United States with a family member and had overstayed his visa. From Washington, here's Adam Brookes.

The man was arrested close to the Capitol building, allegedly wearing a vest he thought contained explosives. In reality, the man had been monitored by the FBI for a year, and the explosives, supplied by undercover FBI agents, were fake. Officials said the man believed the undercover FBI officers he was dealing with were al-Qaeda operatives. They said there was never any danger to the public.

The head of News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch, has told staff at the biggest-selling British tabloid, The Sun, that he's lifting the suspension of 10 journalists arrested over alleged bribery. Announcing that the paper would bring out an edition on Sundays, he said the staff had his unwavering support, but added that illegal activities would not be tolerated. Journalists were angry that information passed to the police by News Corporation had led to the arrest of colleagues suspected of paying police to divulge confidential information.

World News from the BBC

The Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Zhai Jun has arrived in the Syrian capital Damascus in an effort to mediate a day after China voted against a second UN resolution condemning violence by the Syrian government. Anti-government activists say 40 people were killed on Friday, some by security forces who opened fire on protesters after Friday prayers.

The World Health Organisation says new research into the H5N1, or bird flu virus, should not be published in full until further analysis of the risks is carried out. The researchers have modified the H5N1 virus so that it might be passed from human to human. Imogen Foulkes reports from Geneva.

Many scientists believe research into bird flu is essential to develop vaccines and treatments, but public health officials fear a mutant virus created in the laboratory could become a weapon in the hands of terrorists. The meeting in Geneva agreed only that publishing research in full was preferable to developing a way to partially censor it, but no date has been set for publication. In the meantime, a moratorium on research into bird flu has been extended indefinitely.

Police in Colombia have arrested five suspected left-wing rebels they believe were involved in the bombing of a police station two weeks ago. Eleven people died when a motorcycle packed with explosives went off outside the police station in Tumaco on the Pacific coast. Four of the suspects are accused of handling the explosives, a fifth with providing a safe house. Police accused all five of belonging to the country's largest rebel group, the Farc.

And a member of the Dutch royal family, Prince Johan Friso, has been seriously injured after being buried under an avalanche in the Austrian Alps. Prince Friso, who's a son of Queen Beatrix, was on a skiing holiday near the resort of Lech when the accident happened. He's reported to be in a critical condition. The Alps have experienced heavy snow in recent weeks.

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