BBC News with Nick Kelly
The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has accused the security forces of a massacre after more than 50 people were killed and hundreds injured in clashes with its supporters. It urged Egyptians to rise up against the military which ousted its leader, President Mohamed Morsi, last week. The security forces say they acted in self-defence. Huge crowds of Morsi supporters remain on the streets of Cairo close to the site of the killings. Aleem Maqbool is with the protesters.
It’s a very emotionally charged crowd here. You can hear some of the speeches going on right now. They’ve been praying, offering prayers for those who died. And some of them down there have been silent because they are deciding whether tonight is going to be another night of peace or whether it’s going to be a night of revenge. They are very upset that the army has not expressed regret for what happened, only issued more warnings, and in turn, of course, the Muslim Brotherhood has called for an uprising, an intifada, so the likelihood of more violence, I’d have to say, is very high.
A leaked version of a Pakistani government report has strongly criticised the country’s military and civilian leaders for failing to detect the presence in the country of Osama Bin Laden, who was killed two years ago by US Special Forces. The government has held onto the report for six months, but now it has been published on the website of the broadcaster al-Jazeera. It accused top Pakistani officials of gross incompetence in allowing Osama Bin Laden to escape detection for nine years.
The Bangladeshi government has agreed to an initiative proposed by the European Union to improve labour rights and factory safety in Bangladesh. The joint initiative follows the collapse of a garment factory building near Dhaka, which killed more than 1,100 people in April.
The Bolivian government has summoned the ambassadors of France, Spain, Portugal and Italy to demand an explanation of their refusal to permit the Bolivian presidential plane to enter their air space last week. Eric Camara reports.
The Bolivian government wants to establish the source of the alleged information that the American whistle-blower Edward Snowden was on President Evo Morales’ jet. The authorities are calling the episode an act of state terrorism and said that relations with the European Union and the United States must be reconsidered. Bolivia said some diplomats have already presented their official versions for the incident, which has caused anger in Bolivia. Outside the US embassy in La Paz, hundreds of protesters demanded its closure.
Eurozone finance ministers have agreed to lend more money to Greece as part of its continuing bailout, but only in staggered payments. Officials in Brussels say 2.5bn euros will be released this month. Correspondents say the German government, which is open to be re-elected in September, had been under pressure not to appear too generous.
World News from the BBC
A court in France has cleared the oil giant Total, its chief executive and a former French interior minister of corruption connected to the United Nations oil-for-food programme for Iraq. Hugh Schofield reports from Paris.
The UN’s oil-for-food programme was designed to ease some of the humanitarian side effects of the international sanctions that were then in force against Iraq. Under Saddam Hussein’s leadership, the country was allowed to sell limited quantities of oil in order to buy in some food and medicines. But it’s known that the system was mired in corruption. Iraqi officials selected preferred foreign partners, who then used a variety of dodges to channel money either to their own accounts or back to Iraq. It was claimed that the oil group Total was involved in the scam as well as the 86-year-old former Interior Minister Charles Pasqua. But in its judgement, the court ruled that the evidence was unconvincing.
Fertility doctors in Belgium say they’ve devised a simplified form of IVF that could make the treatment affordable for childless couples around the world. Researchers in the city of Genk say 12 children have already been born using the technique costing less than $300. James Gallagher reports.
One of the main barriers to fertility treatment is the price. The Genk Institute for Fertility Technology tried to simplify the process to make it cheaper. They used bicarbonate of soda to replace expensive ways of controlling carbon dioxide levels around the embryo. The researchers’ aim is to bring IVF to the developing world. Fertility doctors said the findings needed to be tested further, but that the implications of the study could be truly enormous.
And the Brazilian government has announced plans to attract about 10,000 doctors to poorly served areas of the country. Foreign doctors will be hired for the first time from September. Last month thousands of Brazilians took to the streets to protest against poor public services, corruption and other problems.