Egypt changes Mubarak trial venue

31 July 2011 Last updated at 01:50 GMT Hosni Mubarak is currently in a hospital in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh Egyptian authorities say the trial of deposed President Hosni Mubarak's trial will be moved from a Cairo convention centre, for security reasons.

The trial, due to open on Wednesday, will now be held at a police academy further from the city centre.

Mr Mubarak, 83, has been under arrest at a hospital in the coastal resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh since April.

He is charged with corruption and ordering the killing of protesters before he was toppled in February.

Appeals court president Abdel Aziz Omar said Mr Mubarak's trial was being moved "because it is difficult to guarantee the protection of the other place".

The police academy auditorium where the trial will now be held can hold 600 people, Assistant Justice Minister Mohammed Munie told Egypt's Mena news agency.

A cage for the defendants has already been prepared, he said.

Protesters still demonstrating in Egypt have made swift prosecution of officials from the former regime a key demand.

Family trial

Doctors have said Mr Mubarak's condition is poor, that he has lost weight from refusing food and is suffering from depression. But the government has said he is well enough to be moved to Cairo for trial.

Mr Mubarak is expected to be tried alongside his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, and former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly, as well as six senior police officials.

Adly has already been sentenced to 12 years in jail for corruption.

The justice minister has said Mr Mubarak could face the death penalty if found guilty of murder.

Mr Mubarak was deposed on 11 February, after 18 days of mass demonstrations in which some 850 people were killed.

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Nigeria police in Islamist trial

13 July 2011 Last updated at 11:39 GMT Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf was alive when captured by the army Four Nigerian policemen have appeared in court in the first public hearing over the killing of radical Islamist leader Mohammed Yusuf in 2009.

The Boko Haram leader was captured alive in Maiduguri and paraded in front of video cameras, but his body was later displayed riddled with bullets.

Legal proceedings began earlier this year but the hearings were kept secret.

There has been an increased frequency of attacks, blamed on Boko Haram, targeting the police.

There was tight security around the Abuja court house as the hearing opened with the four police officers in court, says the BBC's Habiba Adamu at the scene in the capital.

The trial has now been adjourned until next Tuesday when a fifth officer will be included in the trial and formal charges will be made against the men.

The Nigerian government is often accused of failing to prosecute police accused of brutality and extra-judicial killings.

Fight for Islamic rule

Two years ago, Nigeria's security forces brutally suppressed an uprising by Boko Haram, destroying their compound and then capturing Mr Yusuf.

Instead of disappearing, the group, which opposes Western education and fights for Islamic rule, re-emerged last September and vowed to avenge its leader's death.

Last month, the group said it had carried out an attack on the headquarters of the Nigerian police in Abuja, which killed at least six people.

Most of its attacks take place in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, in Borno state, where thousands of people have been fleeing in recent days.

Continue reading the main story 2002: Founded2009: Hundreds killed when Maiduguri police stations stormed2009: Boko Haram leader Mohammed Yusuf captured by army, handed to police, later found deadSept: 2010: Freed hundreds of prisoners from Maiduguri jailDecember 2010: Bombed Jos, killing 80 people and blamed for New Year's Eve attack on Abuja barracks2010-2011: Dozens killed in Maiduguri shootingsMay 2011: Bombed several states after president's inaugurationJune 2011: Police HQ bombedJune 2011: 25 people killed in attack on barOn Tuesday, the university in Maiduguri was closed because of the growing insecurity.

The security forces in the city have also been accused of firing indiscriminately and killing civilians after the raids.

Legislators from Borno state held a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday to condemn the military strategy in Borno and called for an amicable solution to the conflict with Boko Haram.

Last week, Maiduguri banned all motorbikes to prevent drive-by shootings by Boko Haram.

Its gunmen often use motorbikes to assassinate security officers and politicians.

The group's official name is Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad, which in Arabic means "People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad".

But residents of Maiduguri, where it was formed in 2002, dubbed it Boko Haram.

Loosely translated from the local Hausa language, this means Western education is forbidden.

Residents gave it the name because of its strong opposition to Western education, which it sees as corrupting Muslims.

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Police trial on Katrina shooting

28 June 2011 Last updated at 04:57 GMT Defence lawyers say officers did the best they could in the chaos after the storm Five police officers charged over a fatal shooting in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 have gone on trial in New Orleans.

Two unarmed residents were killed and four others wounded in the incident on the Danziger Bridge.

Prosecutors say the officers decided to "shoot first and ask questions later" and then tried to cover up the crimes.

Defence lawyers say their clients feared for their lives and were justified in using deadly force.

Most of New Orleans was flooded by the hurricane and there was widespread looting and violence in the storm's aftermath.

Prosecutor Bobbi Bernstein said police plotted to plant a gun, fabricate witnesses and falsify reports to cover up what they had done.

He said they tried to use the chaotic conditions created by the hurricane as an excuse for gaps in their investigation.

"They lied because they knew they committed a crime," Mr Bernstein said.

"They lied because they knew police officers were not allowed to shoot first and ask questions later."

Charges 'fiction'

Former officer Robert Faulcon, Sgt Robert Gisevius, Sgt Kenneth Bowen and officer Anthony Villavaso are charged with the shootings that killed James Brissette, 17, and Ronald Madison, 40.

Retired Sgt Arthur Kaufman is charged with the alleged cover-up.

Paul Fleming, lawyer for Mr Faulcon, said the officers "did the best they could".

"These men are innocent," he said. "These five had one thing in common - they stayed."

Frank DeSalvo, lawyer for Mr Bowen, called the government's case a work of "fiction"

The shootings happened on the morning of 4 September 2005, less than a week after Katrina made landfall.

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US mother in child death trial

24 May 2011 Last updated at 14:26 GMT Ms Anthony says a babysitter kidnapped her daughter The trial has opened in Florida of a young US woman accused of murdering her two-year-old daughter in 2008.

Prosecutors base their case on forensic evidence they say shows Casey Anthony, 25, kept Caylee Anthony's dead body in the boot of her car.

But they have no witnesses or confession linking Ms Anthony to the 2008 death, and forensic experts are unable to say how the child died.

Ms Anthony has pleaded not guilty, and says a babysitter kidnapped the child.

The trial is being held in Orlando in the US state of Florida, though jurors are being selected elsewhere due to the intense media scrutiny the case has garnered there.

Weeks to report

Her lawyers are expected to argue she was in jail when the child's body was left in a wood.

If she is found guilty of first-degree murder, she could face the death penalty.

Ms Anthony is also charged with aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child and providing false information to law enforcement.

Ms Anthony drew investigators' attention when it was learned she waited weeks to tell her mother the child was missing.

Caylee's decomposed body was found in December 2008 in a patch of woods near her house.

Ms Anthony's mother reported smelling something like a dead body emanating from the boot of Ms Anthony's car. And there, prosecutors say forensic experts found traces of chloroform.

Ms Anthony's lawyers will say the foul smell came from a bag of rotting rubbish, but prosecutors plan to offer a novel form of forensic science they say shows chemical compounds from decomposition were present in the boot.

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