BBC News with Marion Marshall
Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by the Taliban in Pakistan after campaigning for girls’ education, said she would be willing to sacrifice her life for her cause. Now 15, she’s been receiving medical treatment in the English city of Birmingham since the attack last October. Here’s Allan Little.
The bullet that struck Malala in the head shattered a large segment of her skull, but did not penetrate her brain. Malala’s doctors say she has suffered no long-term brain injury or cognitive impairment. They fitted a titanium plate to replace the section of her skull that the bullet destroyed. They also placed a cochlear implant in her left ear to try to restore her lost hearing. Even from her hospital bed, Malala expressed her determination to turn her experience to positive advantage, launching the Malala Fund to campaign for education for girls.
"God has given me this new life and I want to serve, I want to serve the people. And I want every girl and every child to be educated.”
Stock markets in Europe have fallen because of concerns about political instability in Italy and Spain-- both are heavily indebted eurozone countries which narrowly avoided a full-blow crisis last year. Analysts say there are concerns about the rising popularity of the former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi ahead of elections later this month. While in Spain, the governing party has been shaken by corruption allegations.
Europe’s police agency says it’s uncovered evidence of large-scale match-fixing in football both in Europe and around the world. Europol said the joint investigation by police from dozens of countries had identified hundreds of suspicious matches. reports.
For 18 months Europol has been trailing the money. They’ve arrested the men who carried the bribes. They raided illegal betting offices and they’ve trawled through 13,000 emails. It’s a global problem, but Europe is the major market. There are now 425 players, match officials and club owners under suspicion. Most of the arrests were made in Germany and Turkey. Among almost 700 matches under investigation are some of the highest-profile games we pay to watch-- internationals, World Cup qualifies, two Champions League games.
The Argentine government has announced a temporary price freeze on all products sold in the country’s main supermarket chains in an attempt to fight rising inflation. A group representing 2/3 of Argentina’s supermarkets agreed to keep prices steady until April. Argentina says its inflation rate is below 11 per cent, but economists say it’s double that.
Supporters of the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have been marching in the capital Caracas to commemorate a failed coup attempt he led in 1992. It was the first time Mr Chavez, who was eventually pardoned and elected president, had been absent from the commemoration. He hasn’t been seen or heard in public since having cancer surgery in Cuba eight weeks ago. World News from the BBC
A court in Chile has sentenced 19 former police officers to prison for crimes committed during the rule of General Augusto Pinochet. The former officers were found guilty of kidnapping and murdering at least 10 people opposed to the coup led by General Pinochet.
One of Rwanda’s most senior legal officials has condemned the decision of a United Nations-backed appeal court to overturn the convictions for genocide of two former Rwandan government ministers. The prosecutor general, Martin Ngoga, described the ruling as disappointing and dangerous. He told the BBC the trend of the court’s decisions was to convict the rank-and-file participants in the 1994 genocide but to acquit the political leadership. In its latest ruling, the tribunal ordered the release of the former ministers Justin Mugenzi and Prosper Mugiraneza.
The American Vice President Joe Biden says the United States and France have agreed that military operations in Mali should be handed over to a United Nations mission as soon as possible. Speaking after a meeting in Paris with President Francois Hollande, Mr Biden called for an African-led effort that would later be transferred to the United Nations. But Mali’s foreign minister questioned the need for a peacekeeping force. He said there was no civil war in Mali; rather a group of what he called narco-dealer jihadists who’d tried to destroy the state.
A law banning Parisian women from wearing trousers has been formally repealed in France more than two centuries after it came into force. Dayan Radosevich has more.
The law making it a criminal offence was passed in 1800, just over a decade after the French Revolution. The justification for the ban was that women had to be prevented from impersonating men. Ladies wishing to wear trousers were required to ask police for permission. Amendments were adopted around the turn of the 20th century allowing women to wear trousers but only while cycling or riding a horse. BBC