BBC News with Marion Marshall
Demonstrators have been making their way to Tahrir Square in Cairo after the Egyptian constitutional court ruled that last year's elections breached the constitution and should be rerun. Jon Leyne reports from Cairo.
With the Supreme Constitutional Court surrounded by barricades and with soldiers and police keeping out protesters, the judges gave what may be the most important ruling in their history. First they confirmed that Ahmed Shafik can stand in this weekend's presidential election despite a law banning former Mubarak regime officials. Then the real bombshell - the court ruled that the parliamentary elections last year were unconstitutional. The chief judge then made it clear he believed parliament should be dissolved and the whole election rerun. The Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate Mohamed Morsi said that the decision had to be respected though another senior Muslim Brotherhood figure condemned it as a full-fledged coup and vowed to fight it whatever the cost.
UN monitors in Syria say there was a strong stench of dead bodies in the air as they finally managed to enter al-Haffa, the mountain town where both sides have predicted a massacre. After days of heavy fighting between government forces and opposition fighters, the observers said the town appeared deserted. Most government institutions have been set on fire, shops have been looted and private homes ransacked. They said the number of casualties in the town remained unclear.
A former Texas billionaire has been sentenced to 110 years in prison for swindling thousands of investors. The financier, Allen Stanford, had been found guilty in March of defrauding investors from more than 100 countries of $7bn. From Washington, Jonny Dymond.
"I did not run a Ponzi scheme." Allen Stanford told the court. "I did not defraud anyone." But the judge did not agree. The prosecution had asked for a 230-year sentence. In the end, it got just under half that, but Mr Stanford can now expect to die in prison. He was convicted in early March on 13 counts of wire and mail fraud, obstruction and money laundering. His knighthood has already been stripped from him. His victims have little hope of recovering their money.
President Obama has announced a new US strategy for sub-Saharan Africa, seeking to boost trade while strengthening democratic institutions. Kim Ghattas reports.
The White House said the strategy would focus on strengthening democratic institutions, encourage economic growth and trade. It'll also prioritise peace and security, and promote development. The administration is reaching out to African entrepreneurs through exchange programmes. It will try to match American and African companies for business opportunities, and it's already heavily involved in issues like South Sudan and the capture of the Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony. But beyond that, the plan is short on detail for now. And although the announcement indicates a renewed focus on Africa, it's unclear how the strategy differs from what the administration has been doing so far.
World News from the BBC
The United States has said it's deeply disappointed by the decision of a court in Bahrain to uphold the convictions of some of the medics arrested after last year's anti-government protests. A group of Bahraini doctors and nurses were sentenced in September to up to 15 years in prison for helping demonstrators. Nine of them have been acquitted on appeal, but nine others have seen their sentences reduced to between one month and five years.
The Libyan Supreme Court has revoked a controversial law that made it a crime to glorify the country's former leader Muammar Gaddafi. The law, which was introduced last month, also criminalised what were called attacks against Islam. Rana Jawad in Tripoli has more.
Though some Libyans welcomed the law, many condemned it, including international human rights watchdogs, who described it as draconian and reminiscent of old ways. Much of the controversy surrounded articles that also criminalised any attack against the 17 February revolution that toppled Colonel Gaddafi, the state and its institutions or Islam. The head of Libya's Human Rights Council told the BBC Thursday's ruling would instil more trust in the judiciary.
Reports from Russia say several regional police chiefs have been sacked after a group of traffic policemen in the Ural mountains apparently took a biplane for a joyride last Monday night. They've not been seen since. Fishermen, foresters and hunters have all been called in to search for the missing aircraft, but no trace has been found.
An official dinner in Switzerland for the Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been cancelled after she complained of jet lag and exhaustion. A spokesman for the Swiss foreign ministry said she was simply tired. Ms Suu Kyi is on her first visit to Europe for 24 years. On Friday, she's due to travel to Norway to receive a Nobel peace prize she was awarded in 1991.
BBC World Service News
瘋狂英語(yǔ) 英語(yǔ)語(yǔ)法 新概念英語(yǔ) 走遍美國(guó) 四級(jí)聽(tīng)力 英語(yǔ)音標(biāo) 英語(yǔ)入門 發(fā)音 美語(yǔ) 四級(jí) 新東方 七年級(jí) 賴世雄 zero是什么意思漳州市馬灶新村陸鋒樓英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)交流群