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BBC news 2013-01-26

BBC News with David Austin

Doctors in Egypt say four people have been shot dead in the city of Suez during clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces. The unrest broke out as mass rallies were held across the country to mark the second anniversary of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak. The demonstrators accused both the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamist President Mohamed Morsi of betraying the promises of the revolution. Shahira Amin, an Egyptian journalist, told the BBC about the demonstrations she’d seen in Tahrir Square.

Streets around Tahrir Square, in the vicinity, these have been turned into battlefield between the opposition activists and the security forces. It all started when the opposition activists tried to break down the barrier—a cement barrier that the security forces had put up-- and then that was rebuilt again and they started throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails and police fired tear canisters.

The Egyptian health ministry has reported that more than 186 people were injured in skirmishes in cities across Egypt.

In Mali government and French troops have retaken the town of Hombori from Islamist rebels. The town is about 160km from the Islamist stronghold of Gao. Earlier French warplanes bombed rebel positions and ammunition dumps in the region. Richard Hamilton has been following developments.

The retaking of Hombori is a significant incursion into previously rebel-held territory as French and Malian troops advanced towards the north and in particular the city of Gao. Rebels have blown up a bridge which lies along the road from Niger to Gao. This was intended to make it difficult for around 2,000 Chadian and 500 Nigerien troops to enter Mali from Niger.

The Russian parliament has almost unanimously given an initial approval to a controversial draft law which critics say would significantly restrict gay rights. The bill would make it illegal to provide information on homosexuality to minors and to hold events to promote gay rights. Steve Rosenberg has more from the Russian capital Moscow.

Ahead of the debates inside the Russian parliament, there was drama outside on the street. Anti-gay protesters chanted “Moscow is not Sodom”. In response gay-rights activists shouted “Fascism won’t succeed” and were duly pelted with eggs. Later the controversial bill passed its first hearing. If it eventually becomes law, it will prohibit the spread of what’s termed “homosexual propaganda” in the presence of children. The wording is vague, but it would probably mean that across Russia public events promoting gay rights would be broken up and the organisers fined.

World News from the BBC 

Portugal says more than two per cent of its population has emigrated in the past two years since the country entered the worst recession in decades. A secretary of state said most of the emigrants were young and highly-educated people who’d found jobs in Switzerland and Portugal’s oil-rich former colony Angola. He said the outflow of people would have been even greater if job prospects had been better in other EU countries, many of which have high unemployment.

One of Brazil’s most wanted drug traffickers has been sentenced to 12 years in prison. Antonio Francisco Bonfim Lopes, also known as Nem, headed a drug gang in Rocinha, a sprawling poor neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro. Police found Nem hiding in a car driving out of Rocinha.

Marine archaeologists working on a wreck off the coast Sicily have raised five large cannons dating back to the early 1700s. They are believed to be from a British ship sunk in 1718 at the Battle of Passaro. Alan Johnston reports.

The wreck is in clear waters off the town of Avola and photographs taken by divers show that the guns were lying barely covered by fine sand. They’ve been cleaned up and they are in such comparatively fine condition that in some places the barrels still gleam in the light. And the effort to identify the guns has been helped by part of an inscription on the handle of a piece of cutlery found nearby. Under what looks like an English rose, it’s possible to make out the letters L-O-N-D-O. The full word would surely read London.

South African police have appealed to people used to handling crocodiles to help find and recapture more than 10,000 of the reptiles that escaped from a breeding farm after heavy rain and floods. The owner of the crocodile farm opened the gates to prevent a storm surge. Farm workers have so far retrieved more than 2,000.

Those are the latest stories from BBC News.