BBC News with Julie Candler
Security officials say at least 60 people have been killed across Egypt as supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood clashed with security forces. In Ramses Square in Cairo the military opened fire on demonstrators holding what they called a “day of anger”. From Cairo, James Reynolds reports.
Tonight a curfew keeps Egypt’s capital largely silent. The armed forces control this city. During the day, soldiers in armoured personnel carriers confronted supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood. My colleague and I saw one group of soldiers shoot at a crowd of demonstrators at the end of a main road. We watched the protesters drag away their wounded. In a statement, the Muslim Brotherhood accuses what it calls the “coup makers” of losing their minds, norms and principles. The Movement has promised further protest.
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has issued a message of support for the military leadership in Egypt. He went on television to urge Arabs to stand together against what he described as attempts to destabilise the country. Elsewhere protests have been taking place to show sympathy for the people who’ve died in Egypt. Hamas supporters protested at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque after Friday prayers, and protesters also rallied in Turkey, Indonesia and Sudan.
The leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah has accused radical Sunni groups of planting a car bomb which killed at least 22 people in southern Beirut on Thursday evening. More details from Jim Muir in Beirut.
Hassan Nasrallah said all the signs were that the deadly explosion was carried out by the same extremist Sunni groups that he said were responsible for a string of earlier attacks on areas where Hezbollah holds sway. He said there was no specific target for the bomb, which involved more than 100 kilos of TNT. The aim, he said, was to cause the heaviest possible casualties among the people in order to provoke a reaction that could plunge the country into civil war. Urging awareness and restraint, he said “we will not be pushed into the trap”.
Zimbabwe’s main opposition party has withdrawn its legal challenge against the re-election of Robert Mugabe last month. The Movement for Democratic Change had filed a separate legal case seeking access to full details of the results from the electoral commission. But the high court has delayed judgement. Richard Hamilton reports.
This withdrawal clears the way for Robert Mugabe to continue in power unchallenged for another five years on top of the 33 years in which he’s overseen Zimbabwe since independence. It’s not clear if Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC genuinely felt they were being obstructed or had simply lost heart. Having challenged President Mugabe in three separate elections and failed, Mr Tsvangirai’s position as leader of the MDC looks increasingly fragile.
World News from the BBC
The chief executive of South African mining company Lonmin has apologised to the families of 34 miners who were killed by police at the Marikana platinum mine a year ago. He was addressing thousands of South Africans who gathered at the mine to mark the anniversary. The governing African National Congress is boycotting the commemorations, accusing the miners union of hijacking the event.
At least 17 people have died and hundreds have been rescued after a ferry carrying almost 700 passengers sank off the coast of the Philippines. The accident happened when the ferry collided with a cargo ship off the island of Cebu.
For the first time the CIA has officially acknowledged the existence of a top secret base known as Area 51. Until now the site in Nevada has never appeared on official maps or satellite images. Newly unclassified documents detail how it was acquired in 1955 to carry out secret tests. David Willis reports.
For years the US government denied the existence of the sprawling military facility in a Nevada desert, whipping to fever pitch the rumors about what went on there and making the place a veritable holy grail for the conspiracy theorists. This was where the Pentagon reverse engineered flying saucers, so one urban legend had it, where extraterrestrials were kept stored in freezers. Now the existence of Area 51 has been officially acknowledged and its precise location revealed in a declassified history of the U-2 spy plane.
The Somali-born British athlete Mo Farah has won his second gold medal of the World Championships in Moscow. He took the 5,000m’s title within a week of winning the 10,000m race. He becomes only the second man ever to win what’s known as the double-double, both long-distance titles at the Olympics and the World Championships, matching the achievement of the Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele.