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BBC news 2012-09-14

BBC news with Julie Candler.

President Obama has promised to do whatever is necessary to protect Americans abroad as protests against a film seen as insulting to Muslims spread to US diplomatic missions across the Arab world. Speaking to supporters in Colorado, Mr. Obama said he was also urging foreign governments to meet their responsibilities to insure security.

I want people around the world to hear me to all those who will do us harm; no act of terror will go unpunished. It will not damn the light of the values that we probably present to the rest of the world. No act of violence shakes the resolve of the United States of America.

In the latest demonstrations, violence erupted at the US embassies in both Yemen and Egypt. There were also protests in Iraq, Tunis, Yemen, Morocco, Gaza, Sudan and Iran. James Robbins reports.

There was serious threat to American diplomats was in Yemen where thousands gathered outside the embassy compound in Sanaa. Security forces failed to prevent some of them getting over the outer perimter wall and setting fire to vehicles. But a reinforcement used tear gas, water cannon and shot in the air to drive them back. In Cairo, the American embassy has been besieged all day. There have been persistent clashes with the Egyptian security forces. President Mursi has said he will not allow attacks on foreign embassies but he has also denounced the video which has outraged so many Muslims.

The United States Federal Reserve says it is to resume pumping billions of dollars into the American economy to try to stimulate growth and bring down unemployment. The Fed says it will spend $40m a month buying mortgage backed securities. Here is Mark Gregory.

By buying up housing debt, the Fed hopes to persuade existing holders of that debt into investments that create more jobs. It says it will carry on buying bonds in this way until unemployment is substantially lowered so long as price rise is contained. A recent round of poor economic data had made this decision seem almost inevitable. But critics say unconventional polices of this type don't work and cause inflation.

The United Nations Nuclear Watchdog the IAEA has overwhelmingly approved the resolution rebuking Iran over its nuclear program. The resolution put forward by six leading world powers including Russia, China and United States expresses serious concern about Iran's uranium enrichment activities. Iranian ambassador to the IAEA Ali Asghar Soltanieh condemned the move as counterproductive.

Resolution is not a way for resolution of Iran's nuclear issue. It will only complicate the situation and jeopardize cooperative environment which we desperately need to continue our work.

World news from the BBC.

Guatemala is evacuating tens of thousands of people after the Fuego volcano started spewing ash and lava. Volcanologists said powerful eruptions were catapulting burning rocks as high as 1,000m above the crater. Soldiers and firefighters are moving about 30,000 people from the slopes of Fuego to shelters. Locals reported how the roaring from the volcano shook windows and roofs in nearby villages.

An official report into the sinking of cruise ship Costa Concordia off the coast of Italy early this year has put most of the blames on the captain Francesco Schettino. It accuses him of sailing too fast and too close to the land. It also says the senior officer at the cruise company's crisis management team failed to grasp what was happening. The ship's crew was poorly trained and struggled to understand instructions in Italian. More than 30 people were killed when the Costa Concordia sank in January.

Police in Pakistan's biggest city Karachi have registered the case of conspiracy to murder against the owners of the garment factory which caught fire on Tuesday killing more than 260 people. The factory owners are on the run and being sought by police.

New York city has formally banned the sale of large-size containers of sugary drinks in its latest attempt to tackle obesity. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it would help save lives. Here is Nada Torfique.

New Yorkers will no longer be able to supersize their soft drinks, now that city officials have regulated most sugary beverages they deem unhealthy. Restaurants, moving theatres and even street carts are now limited to serving at most 16 ounces, a bit less than half a liter of calorie packed drinks to customers. The city's Health Department said it believes 5800 New Yorkers died each year due to obesity. But representatives of the soft drink industry said they would challenge the ban, the first of this kind in the United States.

BBC news.