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BBC news 2012-04-29

BBC News with Kathy Clugston

The Lebanese navy have intercepted a ship with three containers full of weapons and ammunition intended to supply Syrian rebels. The vessel was stopped off the Lebanese port of Tripoli. Jim Muir is in Beirut.

The ship, the Lutfullah II, is reported to have begun its voyage from Libya, stopped off in Alexandria in Egypt and then headed for the port of Tripoli in northern Lebanon. But it was intercepted and diverted by the Lebanese navy. It found and confiscated three containers full of arms and ammunition. It's believed the consignment was destined for the rebels in Syria, with whom the new Libyan regime strongly sympathises. Tripoli in north Lebanon is a hotbed of support for the Syrian opposition, and the authorities in Damascus have frequently complained about arms being smuggled from that area into the country.

Saudi Arabia has recalled its ambassador from Egypt and closed all its missions there after angry protests about the arrest of an Egyptian human rights lawyer by the Saudi authorities. The Saudis say the lawyer, Ahmed al-Gizawi, had been trying to smuggle in illegal substances, but activists believe the arrest is linked to a complaint he had filed against the treatment of Egyptian prisoners in Saudi Arabia.

The former head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, has announced the creation of a new political party in Egypt. Mr ElBaradei told a packed news conference in Cairo that the new movement, called the Constitution Party, would promote the goals of the revolution that overthrew the former President Hosni Mubarak.

"The time has come to start a comprehensive political process to achieve the goals of the revolution, the goals that we, the people of Egypt and its majority, had started to achieve, to live freely in our country, independent and in dignity."

Mr ElBaradei's party has been formed too late to take part in next month's presidential election.

Sudan says it's arrested four foreigners for illegally entering the Heglig oil field area - the scene of recent clashes between Sudanese and South Sudanese forces. The UN mission in South Sudan says one of them is a UN staff member. James Copnall reports from Khartoum.

The four men were flown to Khartoum and paraded in front of the press. They weren't allowed to talk. But the Sudanese military say one is British, one Norwegian, one South African and one South Sudanese. A Sudanese military spokesman said they had been caught in an armoured vehicle in the sensitive Heglig area. He said they had been brought to Khartoum for further investigations. Sudanese TV said the men were suspected of helping the South Sudanese military.

At least three people, including a police officer, have been killed in armed clashes in Pakistan's biggest city Karachi. It comes on the second day of a security operation which officials say is aimed at clearing the area of drug dealers and criminal gangs.

World News from the BBC

The South African government is releasing more than 14,000 prisoners to mark the anniversary of Nelson Mandela winning the country's first democratic elections in 1994. It represents about 9% of the prison population. Another 20,000 offenders on probation or parole will not return to prison, but those jailed for serious offences will not be freed.

Police have fired tear gas and water cannon at one of Malaysia's biggest demonstrations in years. Protesters are demanding an overhaul of voter lists and other electoral policies which they say are unfair ahead of national polls in Malaysia expected within months. They say the current system favours the ruling party. Police opened fire when some of the protesters tried to break through barriers in the centre of the capital Kuala Lumpur. Police said more than 200 people were arrested. This man said demonstrators were attacked without provocation.

"They fired a shot at us. Instead of saying sorry - we knew it was an accidental shot - they shot some more. OK, we were supposed to talk and make peace, and they shot at us."

Bomb disposal experts have defused what police described as a huge bomb close to the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The device was discovered fully assembled in an abandoned van near the Northern Irish town of Newry. A smaller bomb and a weapons cache were also found in Belfast on Friday night. Dissident republicans opposed to the peace process are suspected of being behind both devices.

Two Cuban actors who starred in a film about defectors have themselves defected to the United States. Javier Nunez Florian and Anailin de la Rua emerged from hiding a week after they had gone missing at Miami airport during a stopover to a film festival in New York. Speaking on a Spanish-language television station in Miami, they said they would seek political asylum in the US.

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