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US President Barack Obama says he sees “the right signals” in Egypt, citing meetings between the military council and opposition leaders.
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Three-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador is cleared to compete after winning his appeal against a one-year doping ban.
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The protests, which have now claimed two lives, are the latest in the wave of unrest to sweep the Middle East The king of Bahrain has gone on television to announce an investigation into the deaths of two protesters killed in clashes with security forces.
On Tuesday, a mourner was shot dead at the funeral of a protester killed when police fired a barrage of tear gas and rubber bullets in the capital, Manama.
Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa offered his condolences to the men’s families.
But soon after, thousands of protesters gathered in Manama’s main square. The security forces have so far held back.
The disturbances in Bahrain – where the Shia majority has been ruled by a Sunni Muslim royal family since the 18th Century – are the latest in the wave of anti-government unrest that has swept the Middle East.
In a rare national TV address on Tuesday, Sheikh Hamad expressed regret about the recent fatalities and announced a ministerial probe.
“There have sadly been two deaths. I express my deep condolences to their families,” he said.
“Everyone should know that I have assigned Deputy Prime Minister Jawad al-Urayyid to form a special committee to find out the reasons that led to such regrettable events,” he added.
Mr Urayyid is a long-serving Shia member of Bahrain’s government, which is dominated by members of the king’s family.
Sheikh Hamad also promised to continue the reforms he has instigated since the emirate became a constitutional monarchy in 2002.
“Reform is going ahead. It will not stop,” he said.
Following the address, thousands of protesters gathered in Pearl Square in the centre of the capital, but they were not confronted by security forces. Dozens of police cars were parked about 500m (550yds) away.
Thousands of people later gathered in Pearl Square in the centre of Manama Many in the crowd waved Bahraini flags and chanted: “No Sunnis, no Shia. We are all Bahrainis”.
Earlier, 31-year-old Fadel Salman Matrouk died after being shot with a “hollow-point bullet” in front of the Salmaniya Medical Complex in Manama, Shia opposition MP Khalil al-Marzuq told the AFP news agency.
“All our demands are legitimate. The people want to participate in the decision making process through an elected council and a constitution”
Abu Jalil Ibrahim Al-Wifaq
However, officials at the hospital told the Associated Press that he had been hit by buckshot fired during the funeral.
He was among a crowd of more than 2,000 mainly Shia mourners at the funeral of Ali Abdulhadi Mushaima, 21, who was killed in clashes on Monday between protesters and security forces in the village of Daih, east of Manama.
The demonstrators had been marching to Manama to demand for greater political rights. At least 25 people were reportedly hurt by rubber bullets, buckshot and tear gas fired by the security forces, witnesses said.
Following Mr Matrouk’s death, a leader of the country’s main Shia Islamist opposition bloc, the Islamic National Accord Society, also known as al-Wifaq, told BBC Arabic that it had decided to boycott parliament in protest at “the brutal practices” of the security forces.
“I have participated in many demonstrations. All of them were peaceful and their slogans were peaceful. I’m now walking in the funeral of the first martyr and the second one is still in the morgue,” Abu Jalil Ibrahim said.
“All our demands are legitimate. The people want to participate in the decision making process through an elected council and a constitution.”
“So, why do they use banned weapons and kill innocent people?”
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Opposition leaders including Mr Mousavi and Mr Karroubi have been placed under house arrest Members of Iran’s parliament have called for opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi to be tried and executed.
Some 50 conservative MPs marched through parliament’s main hall on Tuesday, chanting “Death to Mousavi, death to Karroubi”, shown on state TV.
Thousands of opposition supporters had protested in Iran’s capital on Monday.
One person was reportedly shot dead in the violent clashes between protesters and security forces in central Tehran.
The BBC received reports of banned demonstrations in other Iranian cities, including Isfahan, Mashhad and Shiraz.
In the capital, dozens were detained, and opposition leaders including Mr Mousavi and Mr Karroubi were placed under house arrest.
Police blocked access to Mr Mousavi’s home in what the former prime minister’s website said was intended to prevent him attending the Tehran rally, which was lauded by the US administration.
Both he and Mr Karroubi – a former speaker of parliament and a senior cleric – disputed the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June 2009, which triggered protests that drew the largest crowds in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
The authorities responded by launching a brutal crackdown.
In a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency, conservative parliamentarians said: “Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi are corrupts on earth and should be tried.”
The charge “corrupt on earth” has been levelled at political dissidents in the past and carries the death penalty in Iran.
Footage of the protests in Tehran was captured on mobile phones
Earlier, thousands of opposition supporters had gathered at Tehran’s Azadi Square in solidarity with the popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, in their first major show of dissent December 2009, when eight people were killed.
They chanted: “Death to dictators.”
But the BBC’s Mohsen Asgari, who was at the rally, says it was not long before riot police fired tear gas, while men on motorbikes charged the crowd with batons.
At least three protesters were wounded by bullets, with dozens of others taken to hospital as a result of the beatings, witnesses said.
“We think that there needs to be a commitment to open up the political system in Iran”
Hillary Clinton US Secretary of StateIn pictures: Mid-East protestsWill Iran import Arab uprisings?
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported that one person was shot dead by protesters and several others wounded.
Tehran’s police chief, Ahmad Reza Radan, blamed the opposition leaders for instigating the protests.
“In one spot of the town in the western part of Tehran, about 150 people rallied and set some rubbish bins on fire,” he said. “They were confronted by police and security forces and some of them were arrested.
“Unfortunately, some police and security personnel were shot by them and nine security forces men and some other people were wounded in this incident.”
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US “very clearly and directly” supported the protesters.
She said they deserved to have “the same rights that they saw being played out in Egypt” and that Iran had to “open up” its political system.
Mrs Clinton said the US had the same message for the Iranian authorities as it did for those in Egypt, where President Hosni Mubarak was forced to step down after 29 years in power by nationwide mass protests.
The opposition says more than 80 of its supporters were killed over the following six months, a figure the government disputes. Several have been sentenced to death, and dozens jailed.
Although Iran’s establishment supported the Egyptian and Tunisian protests, describing them as an “Islamic awakening” inspired by the Islamic Revolution, it said the opposition rallies were a “political move”.
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The Bank of England will now have to explain how it aims to tackle inflation The UK Consumer Prices Index (CPI) annual inflation rate rose to 4% in January, up from 3.7% in December, as the effects of the VAT rise were felt.
Higher oil prices also meant inflation remained well above the 2% target.
Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation – which includes mortgage interest payments – rose to 5.1% from 4.8%.
The CPI figure is the highest since November 2008, and will put pressure on the Bank of England to lift interest rates to curb accelerating inflation.
The CPI measure has now been one percentage point or more above target for 14 months.
The price of petrol as measured by the CPI was £1.27 a litre in January 2011, which the Office for National Statistics said was a record high.
Other contributing factors included rising costs of transport, restaurants and hotels, furniture and alcohol.
The monthly figures are the first to include the effects of the rise in VAT from 17.5% to 20%, which took place on 4 January.
“Two of the main factors that had an impact on the January data are the increase in the standard rate of Value Added Tax (VAT) to 20% and the continued increase in the price of crude oil,” the ONS said in a statement.
The British Chambers of Commerce believes that inflation will rise to 4.5% before it stabilises.
And it warns that although interest rates will probably have to rise later this year, the MPC should wait until the impact of the government’s cost-cutting austerity measures fully in place.
“Considering an increase in interest rates before the middle of the year would be a mistake,” said BCC chief economist David Kern.
But Alan Clarke, economist at BNP Paribas, says the base rate may now rise in the coming months.
“My own view is that it will be just after the summer, but increasingly it’s looking more likely it could happen sooner rather than later – maybe as soon as May,” he said.
The CPI rate rose 0.1% on a monthly basis between December and January – the first time since records began in 1997 that inflation has risen between those two months.
The CPI figure usually falls in January in the wake of prices being slashed in the January sales.
Bank of England governor Mervyn King will now be forced to write another letter to the government, after sending three last year, explaining what action will be taken to tackle inflation.
Until now, the Bank has been confident that the pick-up in the inflation rate would be temporary, with no need for an interest rate increase in the near term.
Last week, the Bank held interest rates at a historic low of 0.5% for the 23rd consecutive month.
The last set of UK growth figures showed that the economy contracted by 0.5% in the final quarter of 2010, and business groups have argued that a rate rise would stifle any recovery.
More economic data being released this week, including the Bank’s inflation report on Wednesday, jobs figures the same day, and retail sales figures on Friday, will be closely watched.
“The [inflation] numbers are broadly in line with market expectations, but the issue for the MPC is that inflation has overshot its target for much of the last 5 years and many are doubting its commitment to the inflation target,” said Amit Kara, at UBS.
“Under these circumstances the committee has no choice but to sound hawkish at tomorrow’s inflation report.
“We’re looking for a [third quarter] rate hike but if the economic growth surveys remain good, that could be brought forward.”
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The poll is due to be held on 5 May Replacing the system used to elect MPs will be “costly and complex”, opponents of change will say as they launch their campaign for the 5 May referendum.
The cost of staging the poll and ditching first-past-the-post in favour of Alternative Vote (AV) will be £250m, the No to AV campaign will claim.
It will argue the issue is “obscure” and a low priority for the public.
The Yes to Fairer Votes group said it was “gaining momentum” and named actor Colin Firth among its supporters.
The developments come as the protracted battle to get Parliamentary approval for the referendum to take place in May comes to a head.
At its launch on Tuesday, the cross-party No campaign is expected to spell out what it says will be the cost of changing the Westminster voting system at a time when it believes many people believe the country’s focus should be on economic recovery rather than constitutional change.
It will say the referendum will cost about £90m and that, should voters back a switch to the AV system, £130m would have to be spent on electronic vote counting machines and £26m on informing the public how the new system works in time for the next general election.
“We have got a very clear message”
Matthew Elliott Director, No to AV campaign
Setting out the arguments for a No vote, it is likely to question claims that AV is fairer than the current system and highlight cases of “broken promises” by the coalition which it says could be a harbinger of what will happen if AV forces parties to share power on a regular basis.
“We have got a very clear message. A move towards AV would be costly to the taxpayer, would also bring greater complexity to our electoral system and produce less accountable government,” campaign director Matthew Elliott told the BBC ahead of the launch.
He doubted whether the public are interested in voting change: “Because at the moment this is such an obscure issue for people, it is not very high on their list of priorities.”
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who supports a switch to AV, has said staging the poll on the same day as devolved elections in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will save the taxpayer about £17m.
Both sides will also unveil a number of new supporters on Tuesday as the campaign steps up.
The Yes campaign will say it has been endorsed by the comedian Eddie Izzard and the former BBC director general Greg Dyke as well as actors Helena Bonham-Carter and Colin Firth.
“The referendum is a once in a generation opportunity to change our clapped out politics for good,” Mr Firth, Bafta winning star of the film The King’s Speech, said in a statement.
The actor had been a prominent supporter of the Lib Dems – which are campaigning in favour of AV – but said recently that the coalition’s spending cuts meant he could no longer give them his backing.
The Yes campaign argues AV will help boost trust in Parliament by requiring candidates to get more than 50% of votes cast before being elected and forcing them to appeal to a broader base of support.
Its chair Katie Ghose said: “There is a mood for change in the way we do politics in this country. People want their MPs to have to work harder and be more responsive to their real concerns.”
The referendum campaign will only officially begin when the bill authorising the poll becomes law – which is expected to happen on Thursday.
Under the AV system, voters rank candidates in their constituency in order of preference.
Anyone getting more than 50% of first-preference votes is elected.
If no-one gets 50% of votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their backers’ second choices allocated to those remaining.
This process continues until one candidate has at least 50% of all votes in that round.
Vote change: Where parties stand Q&A: Alternative Vote referendum
MPs will resume debating the bill – which also includes measures to redraw parliamentary boundaries and cut the number of MPs by 50 – on Tuesday after it was finally approved by the House of Lords following weeks of lengthy and often acrimonious debate.
Among issues to be considered by MPs is a proposal – backed recently by peers – for the referendum to be legally binding only if 40% of the electorate take part.
Prime Minister David Cameron is due to set out his case for retaining the existing system – a position backed by most of his MPs – in a speech on Friday. Labour leader Ed Miliband supports a switch to AV although opinion within his party is divided.
Under first-past-the-post, voters are allowed to vote for one candidate and the individual obtaining the most votes is elected.
Under the AV system, voters rank candidates in their constituency in order of preference.
Anyone getting more than 50% of first-preference votes is elected and if no-one gets 50% of votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their backers’ second choices allocated to those remaining. This process continues until one candidate has at least 50% of all votes in that round.
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There have been a series of party funding controversies over the years Conservative, Labour, Lib Dem, Green and union figures are addressing the final session of an inquiry into political party funding.
Tory co-chairman Lord Feldman, union chief Bob Crow, Lib Dem chief executive Chris Fox and Labour general secretary Ray Collins will give evidence.
The Committee on Standards in Public Life is investigating options to reform party funding.
But the issue has proved contentious – cross-party talks broke down in 2007.
All the main parties pledged to do something about party funding before the election and all said they agreed with moves to cap funding, as part of a reform package.
The standards’ watchdog’s final day of the public hearings in Westminster will also hear from Green Party deputy leader Adrian Ramsay, Labour MP Graham Allen and the Liberal Democrats’ head of compliance David Allworthy. The committee aims to produce a report in the spring.
A previous committee’s recommendations helped set the current party funding framework 10 years ago.
But opening the hearings last November chairman Sir Christopher Kelly said times had moved on and there had been a “number of unintended consequences” – including the “big donor culture”.
Political parties are funded from a combination of membership subscriptions, donations, union money, loans, and public funds.
There have been a series of controversies over the years – from donations made to Labour by a property developer under other people’s names and the tax status of one of the Conservatives’ biggest donors – Lord Ashcroft.
There has already been an effort to reach an agreement on reforming party funding – in 2006 another review was launched, in the wake of the cash-for-honours row and the revelation that parties received large undisclosed loans in the run-up to the 2005 election.
But talks were abandoned in October 2007 as parties clashed over Labour’s trade union funding and Lord Ashcroft’s funding of Tory candidates in marginal seats.
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Man City travel to Aris Salonika in the Europa League ahead of the AC Milan-Tottenham Champions League clash and Birmingham-Newcastle Premier League tie on a busy Tuesday night of football.
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William Hague has warned it will “take time” for relations with Russia to improve after the “serious disagreements” of recent years.
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Steven McKee attempted to kill Lisa Whyte at their home in July 2010 A man who stabbed the mother of his children in the neck after she called off their wedding has been convicted of attempted murder.
Steven McKee was found guilty by a majority verdict of trying to kill his ex-fiancee at their home in Slamannan, Falkirk, on 24 July last year.
Lisa Whyte, 32, was treated for serious injuries to her neck following the struggle.
Father-of-two McKee will be sentenced next month.
During the trial at the High Court in Glasgow, jurors heard McKee was left devastated when Ms Whyte called off their wedding after her hen night in Newcastle, a week before the ceremony was due to take place.
The day after they were supposed to be married, the court heard that McKee had plunged a knife into her neck after attacking her with two other knives.
McKee claimed that he was trying to kill himself and Ms Whyte had got in the way.
But prosecutor Stephen O’Rourke said it had been a deliberate and vicious attack on an already seriously injured woman.
With the knife sticking out of her neck, Ms Whyte subsequently tried to get help from a neighbour who described her head as “looking like it had been dipped head first in blood”.
In a statement, Ms Whyte said her family had been “devastated by this horrendous ordeal” and were relieved that justice had been done.
She added: “I would like to thank all the medical professionals for saving my life. I would also like to thank my friends and family for their continued support, and my thanks to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
“Under the circumstances I would like to try and put this horrendous ordeal behind me and concentrate on my children and therefore would appreciate my privacy.”
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George Athor did not attend the January signing ceremony Some 200 people were killed in a “massacre” in south Sudan last week, officials say.
Most of the dead were civilians, including children and others chased into a river by rebels, a minister said.
Previous estimates said that about 100 people had died when fighters loyal to rebel leader George Athor attacked.
The deaths come as the region prepares for independence from the north after last month’s referendum.
Some 99% of people voted to secede from the north.
A senior official of south Sudan’s ruling party accused the north of backing the rebel attacks.
The north has denied previous similar accusations.
The referendum on independence for the oil-rich south was part of a deal to end decades of north-south conflict.
Mr Athor took up arms last year, alleging fraud in state elections, but agreed to a ceasefire last month just before the historic vote.
The south’s Humanitarian Affairs Minister James Kok, who has just returned from the area, told the AP news agency that 201 people, had been killed in what he termed a “massacre”.
“They were chased into the river. I was the one who put them into a mass grave,” he said.
He said nearly 160 of the dead were civilians, such as children, the elderly and refugees.
Another senior official said 197 people had died.
Jonglei is the south’s most populous state.
The BBC’s Peter Martell in the southern capital, Juba, says the fighting is another sign of the challenges the south faces in bringing its people together and improving security.
The week-long referendum vote itself passed off peacefully, but tension remains high in parts of the oil-rich area which straddles the north and south.
Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has promised to accept the outcome of the referendum.
Southern Sudan is to become the world’s newest independent state on 9 July.
The great divide across Sudan is visible even from space, as this Nasa satellite image shows. The northern states are a blanket of desert, broken only by the fertile Nile corridor. Southern Sudan is covered by green swathes of grassland, swamps and tropical forest.
Sudan’s arid northern regions are home mainly to Arabic-speaking Muslims. But in Southern Sudan there is no dominant culture. The Dinkas and the Nuers are the largest of more than 200 ethnic groups, each with its own traditional beliefs and languages.
The health inequalities in Sudan are illustrated by infant mortality rates. In Southern Sudan, one in 10 children die before their first birthday. Whereas in the more developed northern states, such as Gezira and White Nile, half of those children would be expected to survive.
The gulf in water resources between north and south is stark. In Khartoum, River Nile, and Gezira states, two-thirds of people have access to piped drinking water and pit latrines. In the south, boreholes and unprotected wells are the main drinking sources. More than 80% of southerners have no toilet facilities whatsoever.
Throughout Sudan, access to primary school education is strongly linked to household earnings. In the poorest parts of the south, less than 1% of children finish primary school. Whereas in the wealthier north, up to 50% of children complete primary level education.
Conflict and poverty are the main causes of food insecurity in Sudan. The residents of war-affected Darfur and Southern Sudan are still greatly dependent on food aid. Far more than in northern states, which tend to be wealthier, more urbanised and less reliant on agriculture.
Sudan exports billions of dollars of oil per year. Southern states produce more than 80% of it, but receive only 50% of the revenue, exacerbating tensions with the north. The oil-rich border region of Abyei is to hold a separate vote on whether to join the north or the south.
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