BBC news 2007-06-23 加文本

BBC 2007-06-23


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BBC World news with Jonathan Weekley.

Reports from the European Union summit in Brussels say a deal is close that would accommodate Polish objections to a proposed new voting system. The agreement would envisage that after ten years, a double majority voting system would be introduced. This would require not just 55% of EU countries to vote for change, but also at least 65% of the bloc's population. Oana Lungescu reports from Brussels.

It's been a roller coaster of a summit and it's still not over. After a dramatic threat to veto a deal, Poland was warned that its partners could push ahead with negotiations on the new treaty despite its objections. Now Polish diplomats say things are going into a good direction, the voting system Poland thinks would dilute its influence could be delayed for another ten years. In the new draft outline for the treaty, Germany has also made major concessions to Britain and the Netherlands to get them on board. But that's angered Italy and many other countries that have ratified the European Constitution and want to keep as much as they can.

The former French president, Jacques Chirac, has refused to be questioned by judges, investigating an alleged plot to discredit his successor Nicholas Sarkozy. Mr. Chirac's office said he had written to the judges, saying he had judicial immunity, regarding events that took place when he was in power. Hugh Schofield reports from Paris.

The so called Clearstream affair which transfixed France a year ago, centers on claims that a number of prominent political and business figures benefited from illegal commissions paid as part of a big arms sales contract to Taiwan. The claims have since been shown to be completely false but the interest lies in the fact that among the names on the faked account list at the Clearstream Bank of Luxembourg was that of France's president - then interior minister - Nicolas Sarkozy. The allegation concerning Jacques Chirac is not that he was in any way involved within the scam, but having learned it if he may have set up an intelligence inquiry to see if the claims against Mr. Sarkozy were true.

United Stated intelligence Agency, the CIA, is to release more than 10,000 pages of documents, detailing its illegal activities and secret operations during the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. The agency's director, Michael Hayden, said the documents were unflattering, but part of the CIA's history. Many of the details have already come into light over the years. Consequently the director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University, Thomas Blanton, said the CIA had no reason to keep the records secret any longer.

“This has been one of the most secret documents in the CIA since it was created back in 1973, and I think, because the real need to keep it secret, just really no longer was there, so much of it has been aired out, and they couldn't hold the line any more, and keep a straight faith, and it's still to their credit, I give them credit for. It took some guts to push their mistakes out for, everybody will say.”

You are listening to world news, from the BBC.

Russia has regained control of another big part of its energy reserves, after the British company BP agreed to sell its stake in a Siberian gas field to the state-owned energy giant Gazprom. BP said it would be paid up to $900m for its stake in the Kovykta field and form a long term partnership with Gazprom to explore other investment opportunities. Our BBC correspondent says the announcement fits a pattern of take-overs by Gazprom.

An American command in Iraq had admitted that the most of Al-Qaeda leaders who were the target of a major US lead offensive north of Bagdad have fled. Thousands of US and Iraqi troops have been engaging in heavy fighting in the city of Baquba for the last four days. But lieutenant general Rey Odyanno said he believed only lower level Al-Qaeda fighters were now there. From Bagdad, Andrew North reports.

Lieutenant general Rey Odyanno said 80% of what he called the upper level Al-Qaeda leaders in the city had already fled. He went on to say that 80% of its lower level figures were still there. But it is a surprised admission. US military build this offensive involving 10,000 American and Iraqi troops as a major effort to eliminate Al-Qaeda from Baquba.

United Nations nuclear inspectors will arrive in North Korea on Tuesday to begin planning the shutdown of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. The announcement was made by the head of International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei. It comes after the US envoy, Christopher Hill, said Pyongyang was ready to disable the nuclear reactor at Yongbyon within weeks.

It's emerged that Spain's most famous cathedral, the unfinished Sagrada Familia in Barcelona doesn't have planning permission. A Spanish daily newspaper has discovered that the local council didn't reply to request for updating planning permission in 1916. However, town hall officials have found such a reply could be taken as acquiescence.

That's the latest BBC World News.