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BBC news 2013-08-20

BBC News with Julie Candler

Brazil’s Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota has spoken to his British counterpart about the detention of a Brazilian national at a London airport. David Miranda was held under anti-terrorism legislation for nine hours on his way to Rio de Janeiro and had electronic equipment seized. Mr Miranda is the partner of Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who published documents on a US surveillance programme he obtained from the fugitive intelligence agency contractor Edward Snowden. Earlier Mr Patriota denounced the incident.

“We consider this nine-hour detention based on a law that applies to terror suspects unjustifiable. We hope it won’t happen again and I shall speak today to the British Foreign Minister William Hague to send him this message.”

The United States authorities said they knew that Mr Miranda’s questioning was likely to happen, but had not requested it. As David Willis reports:

The White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the decision to detain David Miranda was one the British authorities had taken on their own. He denied suggestions that the detention had been requested by the United States, although he said the US had been, as he put it, kept in the loop about the move. The US has repeatedly called for Edward Snowden to be extradited to the United States to face charges of espionage.

State prosecutors in Egypt have brought new charges against the deposed Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, saying that he’s to be investigated on allegations of inciting violence. The charges relate to the deaths of several people during protests against Mr Morsi outside the presidential palace last December. Mr Morsi has not been seen since he was deposed and detained by the army seven weeks ago. The announcement came hours after 24 police officers were killed in an attack by suspected Islamist militants in the Sinai Peninsula, further deepening the political crisis in Egypt. Masha MacAlea reports.

They were riding in two different buses in the Rafah area in northern Sinai when they were stopped, pulled out of the buses and gunned down, according to security reports. This just goes to show how vulnerable Sinai is and really what a hotbed it has become for these regular attacks on security forces, again another security challenge, another security front for the army to have to deal with.

The Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has called for a dialogue with extremists to end the violence that has left thousands of people dead. In his first televised address to the nation as prime minister, Mr Sharif said he wanted to end terrorism either through dialogue, reconciliation or through full use of force. He said the state institutions and intelligence agencies had been incompetent in tackling violence. He also offered an olive branch to arch-rival India, saying instead of wasting energy and resources on wars, the two countries should wage battles against poverty, ignorance and disease.

World News from the BBC

Police in New York have arrested 19 people in what authorities are calling the city’s largest-ever gun bust. The smuggled weapons were brought to New York from North and South Carolina by traffickers travelling on buses. The alleged smugglers Walter Walker and Earl Campbell were among those arrested. New York’s police commissioner is Raymond Kelly:

“Two hundred and fifty-four illegal guns were recovered in this investigation. This is the biggest firearms take-down in the department’s history. Detectives discovered that Walker easily obtained guns from individuals in North Carolina who knew of the brisk business he could do in Brooklyn.”

The city’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, said those states were a major source for the guns used in crime in New York. Police said the seized firearms included high-capacity assault weapons, a fully automatic machine gun and handguns.

Police in southern Germany have arrested a gunman who had taken three people hostage at the town hall in Ingolstadt. Following a raid by armed officers, two captives were freed unharmed. A third hostage, deputy mayor Sepp Misslbeck, had been released before the police arrived. The hostage taker emerged from the building injured but alive. German media say the 24-year-old man had been stalking a woman employed at the town hall. She’s believed to be one of the two hostages. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel cancelled a planned visit to the town for an election rally after the incident.

Swedish women of various faiths have been posting pictures of themselves online wearing hijabs in a campaign to show solidarity with a woman in Stockholm who was attacked apparently for wearing her traditional Muslim headscarf. The woman was hospitalised with concussion after an unknown man tore off her hijab, shouted racist insults at her and hit her head against a parked car. Two women MPs are among those taking part in the campaign to raise awareness against such attacks.

BBC News