World News from the BBC

Tens of thousands of women have been demonstrating across Italy to protest against the conduct of the Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Some women carried banners reading "Italy is not a brothel" in response to several recent sex scandals in which Mr Berlusconi is accused of attending sex parties and consorting with prostitutes.

He's denied any wrongdoing.

Some 17,000 people have formed a human chain in the German city of Dresden to mark the anniversary of the 1945 Allied bombing campaign that flattened the city centre. The participants said they wanted to remember not only the more than 20,000 victims of the bombing, but also those who perished in German bombing raids. They were also opposing and vastly

outnumber

ed a far-right rally, as Steve Evans reports.

Outside Dresden's main station, extreme-right and extreme-left gathered, both dressed in black and separated by riot police with dogs. The left waved the flags of the United States and Britain, the flags of the victors. The right had slogans "Kraft für Deutschland", power for Germany. The right says the bombing was a war crime and Churchill was the criminal. Their view is not shared by the people in the human chain.

The latest figures from Bangladesh show there's been a marked drop in the number of women who die as a result of being pregnant. From Dhaka, Anbarasan Ethirajan.

The report says that in less than a decade, the number of women dying during pregnancy or childbirth has reduced by 40%. The sharp fall is due to better healthcare facilities, education and the widespread use of mobile phones. The study also shows Bangladeshi women are having fewer babies. Only one fifth of them have four or more children. Now experts say the country needs to achieve a UN goal of reducing the rate even further in the next four years.