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BBC news 2012-10-24

BBC News with Stewart Macintosh.

The director general of the BBC George Entwistle has rejected suggestions that a television report into allegations of extensive sexual abuse by one of its former stars was suppressed by senior management. He's been speaking at the parliamentary committee hearing how into the late presenter Jimmy Savile abused children over several decades and why the BBC dropped the report into the claims against him. Rob Warson has more details.

George Entwistle denied the charge of a cover-up against the BBC, he said believed the investigation into Jimmy Savile should not have been dropped, but effectively blamed the editor of the Newsnight program for poor judgement and stopping the investigation. He said he'd seen no evidence there had been pressure from senior managers to do so. The MPs seem frustrated and even angered by much of Mr Entwistle's testimony , frequently criticising the BBC's management style and processes.

The head of Italy's main risk assessment agency has resigned after seven of his colleague were given prison sentences for underestimating the chances of a major earthquake just days before one struck the city of L'Aquila in 2009. Luciano Maiani said there was now a danger that scientists would refrain from giving advice to the Italian government.

The scientific committee has to give in its own judgement the advice, the advice may be wrong or may be imprecise, but if you have such heavy punishment to this, the committee will not act properly, the committee will tend to be always on the very very very conservative side.

The six scientists and a former government official were sentenced to six years each for manslaughter for giving a falsely reassuring statement. The earthquake killed more 300 people.

The lower house of Russian parliament has voted to widen the definition of high treason, it would be redefine to including giving financial, technical or other help to those seeking to damage Russia security. Tom Esomen reports.

Under current Russian law, high treason largely refers to passing secret information to foreign governments. The new bill will apply to international organizations too. Critics say the bill might make it easier to criminalise the sharing of information with human rights groups or to brand someone a traitor .

Three people have been charged with plotting to poison the president of Benin and current chairman of the African Union Thomas Boni Yayi. Prosecutors accused the president's doctor, his niece and a former cabinet minister of planning to swap his medication for poison during a trip last week to Belgium. A businessman from Benin allegedly offered them $2m to carry out the attempted murder after his companies lost big government contracts. The businessman is said to be on the run .

This is the World News from the BBC

Residents of one of main areas held by Islamists rebels in northern Mali say truckloads of foreign fighters have arrived in recent days as international concern grows about the instability in the region. The mayor of the town of Gao who has fled to the capital Bamako, said the new arrivals included about a hundred Jihadists thought to be from Western Sahara and Algeria.

The Nigerian Navy has detained a foreign flagged ship and its 15 crew members most of them Russian on suspicion of illegally carrying weapons. Naval spokesman said dozens of automatic weapons and more than 8,000 rounds of ammunition were seized when the vessel was boarded near Lagos. The ship belongs to the Moran security firm. Will Ross reports from Lagos.

Arms smuggling is fairly common in West Africa, so is piracy, private security firms are increasingly being hired to protect cargo ships, some of the pirate attacks not in international waters but in Nigerian waters where security firms are not allowed to carry weapons. Some firms are paying the Nigerian Navy for armed protection.

Tens of thousands of Hungarians have taken part in rival pro and anti-government rallies in the capital Budapest as the country marked the 56th anniversary of its uprising against Soviet rule. Addressing his supporters, the Prime Minister Viktor Orban criticised the European Union for putting pressure on Hungry to cut spending, saying he would not be dictated to by foreigners. At the other really, a former Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai announced the creation of a new alliance to try to oust Mr Orban's government.

A court in Cambodia has ordered the deportation of a Chinese factory manager for ripping up photographs of the former King Norodom Sihanouk, who died last week. The woman was given a one-year suspended jail sentence and ordered to pay a fine for intentionally damaging the photographs after becoming annoyed that staff stopped to work to look at them.

And that is the latest BBC's news