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The man, who President Barack Obama wants to become the next head of the CIA, is facing a confirmation hearing from the Senate Intelligence Committee. In his opening remarks, Mr Brennan said the need for strong intelligence and analysis had never been greater.

“We remain at war with al-Qaeda and its associated forces, which, despite the substantial progress we have made against them, still seek to carry out deadly strikes against our homeland and our citizens, and against our friends and allies. US computer networks and databases are under daily cyber-attack by nation states, international criminal organisations, sub-national groups and individual hackers. And regimes in Tehran and Pyongyang remain bent on pursuing nuclear weapons and inter-continental ballistic missile delivery systems rather than fulfilling their international obligations or even meeting the basic needs of their people.”

John Brennan, who’s currently the White House counter-terrorism chief, is known for his role in the CIA’s controversial interrogation programme and for promoting the use of drones to kill militants. The hearing was temporarily halted after several protesters shouted out against drone attacks.

The governing Ennahda party in Tunisia has rejected the decision by the prime minister to dissolve the government following Wednesday’s assassination of an opposition leader. An Ennahda spokesman said the prime minister didn’t consult the party. A general strike will be held on Friday to coincide with the funeral of the opposition leader Chokri Belaid. Wyre Davies in Tunis says it’s unclear who is in charge of the country.

There were series of meetings today at the National Assembly and the government tries to enact its promise to step down. And the point is a government of technocrats is easier said than done. There was a whole series of committee meetings and the press were excluded. The government has promised early elections, but we don’t know when those are going to take place. And it’s disastrous really to think that this was such positively received revolution two years ago. Many people, not just in the Arab world but in the West, thought that Tunisia was a model for a new Arab democracy and here it is imploding before our very eyes.

EU leaders are meeting in Brussels to try to bridge deep divisions over the union’s budget for the next seven years. Britain and several other countries want the EU to cut its budget with the Prime Minister David Cameron warning that there would be no deal unless spending was reduced.

“What we are talking about here is what the European Union is allowed to spend over the next seven years. And frankly the European Union should not be immune from the sort of pressures that we’ve had to reduce spending, find efficiencies and make sure that we spend money wisely, that we are all having to do right across Europe. And when we were last here in November the numbers that were put forward were much too high. They need to come down. And if they don’t come down, there won’t be a deal.”

David Cameron

But some other members, including France, say cuts would prevent creation of new jobs.

World News from the BBC

Egyptian police are to provide security outside the homes of opposition leaders after a radical cleric called for them to be killed. The call was issued as a religious fatwa by the cleric Mahmoud Shaaban on an Islamic satellite channel. The call has been condemned by Islamic and secular leaders while the Prime Minister Hisham Kandil said the possibility of taking legal action against anyone issuing a fatwas inciting violence was being studied.

Police in the United States have launched one of the biggest-ever man-hunts to find a sacked Los Angeles police officer suspected of killing three people, including a former colleague. Christopher Dorner posted threats online to target former colleagues and their families to avenge his sacking. Thousands of officers are trying to track him down and protection teams are guarding 40 individuals.

Scientists in the United States may have solved the mystery of how salmon are able to migrate from the Pacific Ocean back to their home rivers to breed. Each year millions of the fish make the journey home in one of the world’s toughest migrations. Helen Briggs has the story.

Scientists in the US say they’ve found the first direct evidence that salmon can navigate using the Earth’s magnetic field. A study of salmon returning to the Fraser River in British Columbia suggests the memory of the magnetic field near where they were born guides the fish back across the ocean as they migrate home as mature adults to breed. From there they use another sense, perhaps smell, to complete their quest and return to their birth place to spawn, then die.

Helen Briggs reporting

The Zimbabwean minister of education has deplored the fact that nearly 82 per cent of students have failed their basic school leavers’ exams, the Ordinary Level. The minister, David Coltart, told the BBC that the results were sobering but inevitable when there are so few teachers and textbooks in the country.

And those are the latest stories from BBC News.