BBC News, I am John Shay.
At least 60 people have been killed and many more (injured) in a crush after a New Year Eve fireworks display in Ivory Coast. Officials say most of the victims were aged between 13 and 18. The incident happened near a stadium in the main city Abidjan. Our international development correspondent Mark Doyle who was based in Abidjan for many years has this report.
There was a (surge) of people near the national football stadium where the fireworks were being let off. Men, women and many children fell. Some were crushed, others suffocated. The battered bodies of survivors were taken to several hospitals, but there are critically injured people among them. Politicians were quickly on the scene of the tragedy offering sympathy and promising to pay the medical bills of the injured. The people of Ivory Coast all want to know why the (security) forces failed to control the crowds.
Police in Pakistan say five teachers and two health workers have been shot dead by unidentified gunmen. A police chief in Swabi in northwest Pakistan said the staffs were attacked as they drove away from the community center where they worked. The head of the organization running the center told the BBC's News Hour its staff provided health services including (vaccinations) and education for women. Aleem Maqbool reports from Islamabad.
They just finished work for the day at community center, five teachers all women in their early 20s and two health workers. They were being driven home when gunmen pulled up alongside on a motorbike and (sprayed) the vehicle with bullets until all seven were dead. No group has yet said they carried out this horrific attack or given any reason why charity workers have been killed in this way. But the head of the group with which they worked suspects that because of the vaccination program the center ran. Two weeks ago, nine people involved in polio (immunization) in Pakistan were shot dead in different parts of the country. Militants have long (denounced) the vaccination drive as a western plot.
UN health workers in Pakistan say a record number of children died from (measles) related causes in 2012. The World Health Organization said just over 300 children died. Malnourishment of infected children contributed to the high death rate, officials said. Pakistani health authorities have started a measles inoculation program in the worst affected areas.
President Obama has urged the House of Representatives to pass without delay a deal approved by the Senate to avert steep tax rises and budget cuts. The house has (reconvened) for a special Holiday Session, but it's unclear when a vote might take place. The measures were due to come into effect automatically at the start of the New Year and analysts had warned that they could tip America back into recession. The BBC Washington correspondent says the tax and spending measures are only designed to (avert) the immediate American economic crisis and fall well short of the grand bargain on deficit reduction that President Obama wanted.
World News from the BBC
Egyptian prosecutors have launched an investigation against a well-known television political (satirist) Bassem Youssef, accusing him of insulting President Mohammed Morsi. In one program, Bassem Youssef portrayed the President as a Pharaoh, calling him Super Morsi for the way he held onto both executive and (legislative) powers. The case comes amid increasing worries in Egypt about press freedoms under the new constitution which was controversially pushed through by Mr Morsi and his group the Muslim Brotherhood. Shaimaa Khalil reports.
Bassem Youssef rose to fame after the January 25 (uprising) in 2011 which led to the toppling of the former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarack. His satirical program which started online from his own living room soon reached an audience of millions. In less than two years, Mr. Youssef has become a household name in Egyptian media. In the second season of his program Al Bernameg, Bassem Youssef has (sparked) more controversy than any other media personality in the country, poking fun at everyone from fellow TV presenters to well-known Muslim scholars and most recently President Mohammed Morsi himself.
The authorities in the Iranian city of Isfahan say air pollution there has reached emergency levels. Schools have been shut and Isfahan's 1.5 million citizens have been advised to leave if it was possible. High air pollution levels are also been recorded in the Iranian capital Tehran. Some analysts say the pollution has been worsened significantly by the low quality of petrol and (diesel) fuel now being used in Iran as Western sanctions prevent it from importing refined (fuel).
Pope Benedict has highlighted unregulated financial capitalism as a major source of tension and (confrontation) in the world. In his New Year message, the Pope said other threats included the growing (gap) between rich and poor, as well as terrorism and crime. He celebrated a mass in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome using a mobile platform to conserve his strength.BBC News.
