[03:41.67]President Obama has formally nominated James Comey as the new director of the FBI.
[03:46.89]Mr Comey, a 52-year-old Republican, was deputy attorney general in President George W Bush’s administration.
[03:53.65]Katy Watson reports from Washington.
[03:56.01]Mr Comey’s time working under the George W Bush administration is seen as a good thing,
[04:01.39] a bipartisan gesture by President Obama at a time when he is facing tough criticism by Republicans in Congress.
[04:08.09]Mr Comey’s shown himself to be tough on government surveillance
[04:11.46]and he’s perhaps best-known for successfully opposing a controversial programme allowing government wiretaps to be used without warrants.
[04:19.06]If the Senate accepts the nomination, James Comey will replace director Robert Mueller
[04:23.49]who’s been in charge of the FBI since the 9/11 attacks and is retiring this coming September.
[04:29.03]And the wife of China’s Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo is preparing a legal challenge against the authorities
[04:35.72]for holding her under unofficial house arrest for nearly three years.
[04:39.40]Liu Xia has been able to leave her Beijing flat on only a few occasions since her husband who’s in prison won the peace prize in 2010 for advocating political reform.
[04:50.99]She has limited contact with the outside world and visitors are prevented from seeing her.