BBC news 2012-03-07 加文本

BBC news 2012-03-07

BBC News with Gaenor Howells

A court in the United States has found a disgraced financier, Allen Stanford, guilty of swindling $7bn from investors in a huge international fraud. The scheme centred on his bank in Antigua. Prosecutors alleged that Stanford used his investors' funds to fuel an extravagant lifestyle. This report from Peter Biles.

Allen Stanford had pleaded not guilty to defrauding 30,000 investors from more than 100 countries. It was one of the largest pyramid schemes in US history. The jury of eight men and four women found him guilty on all but one charge of wire fraud. He faces up to 20 years in jail for the most serious charges, but could be imprisoned for longer. Prosecutors said Mr Stanford issued fraudulent certificates of deposit through an offshore bank in Antigua. He was renowned for his lavish lifestyle and created a 20/20 cricket tournament in the West Indies in 2008.

Voting is well underway on the busiest day of the race to choose a Republican candidate to challenge Barack Obama for the US presidency. Candidates are competing in 10 states on what's known as Super Tuesday with Mitt Romney hoping he can pull away from his nearest rival Rick Santorum. This report from Paul Adams.

There have been bigger, more Super Tuesdays in the past, but with a quarter of the delegates needed to win up for grabs, it's a very important day indeed for the four Republican candidates still vying for a chance to take on Barack Obama in November. Mitt Romney has the most wins and delegates so far, and a sense of renewed momentum too after a string of recent wins. By the end of the day, he could be unassailable, particularly if he manages to beat Rick Santorum in the most closely watched race: the Midwestern state of Ohio.

Tribal and militia leaders in the eastern Libyan state of Benghazi have declared the region to be semi-autonomous. They said eastern Libya, known as Cyrenaica, would now be a state in a federal country. But a member of Libya's National Transitional Council, Suleiman Fortia, said the authors of the declaration were trying to hijack the Libyan revolution. Gabriel Gatehouse reports from Benghazi.

Hundreds of people crowded into a hangar on the outskirts of the city. They danced as they chanted slogans in support of federalism. A spokesman for the Congress of the People of Cyrenaica told the BBC that the tribes and the military were behind the declaration, which calls for autonomy in the eastern part of Libya. Cyrenaica is rich in oil reserves. This move will fuel fears in Tripoli and elsewhere of a battle for control for Libya's resources. But the people here say all they want is an equal share.

Activist groups in Syria have reported more atrocities by Syrian forces after they took over the district of Baba Amr in the city of Homs. The activists say an extended family of 16 people were massacred in their home with knives, but a television station close to the Syrian government said rebels did it.

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The opposition in Sweden has demanded an investigation into allegations that the Swedish government was secretly involved in a project to build a weapons factory in Saudi Arabia. Several former employees of a government defence agency said the project began in 2007. The head of the agency denied the allegations.

The FBI say expert computer hackers who attacked government and company websites have been arrested and charged. As well as American targets, the hackers are accused of attacking government agencies in Tunisia, Algeria and Zimbabwe. They allegedly belong to a network called Lulzsec. Laura Trevelyan reports from New York.

US media are reporting that a group of expert hackers who attacked governments and corporations around the globe have been arrested after the network's ringleader turned against his comrades and began working as an FBI informant. US prosecutors say the hackers have attacked the computers of Visa, the Fox Broadcasting Company, public television in the US and government agencies in Tunisia and Algeria. US authorities say over one million people have been affected by the hackers' alleged crimes.

A British cabinet minister, Vince Cable, has said the government lacks a compelling vision of how Britain will earn its living in future. In a leaked letter to the prime minister, Mr Cable says the government needs to show more support for new technologies and use its huge procurement budget to encourage growth in manufacturing, infrastructure and supply companies. Mr Cable also calls for the Royal Bank of Scotland to be broken up and used to create a new British business bank to support the government's industrial objectives.

The owners of the mine in Chile where 33 men were trapped for more than two months in 2010 will pay $5m towards the cost of their rescue. The sum was agreed in a deal between the Chilean government and the San Esteban mining company.

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