BBC news 2008-02-21 加文本

BBC 2008-02-21


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BBC news with Neil Nunes.

A report by the think tank the International Crisis Group into the Kenyan election crisis has warned of severe consequences for East Africa unless a solution is found quickly. The ICG report comes as talks are continuing in the Kenyan capital Nairobi under the mediation of the former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. From there, here is Adam Mynott.

The ICG report says way should be found to end the violence and the humanitarian crisis affecting hundreds of thousands of people in Kenya. The report says donor aid from other governments should be conditional on a satisfactory outcome to negotiations. It also says that targeted sanctions should be directed at those responsible for violence and for blocking a successful outcome of talks going on in Nairobi.

The United Nations has expressed serious concern at the plight of thousands of Sudanese refugees trapped by fighting on the border between Darfur and Chad. A UN spokeswoman in Sudan said the refugees were being prevented from crossing into Chad by the fighting which began when the Sudanese army launched an offensive against rebels two weeks ago. A local rebel commander of the army and its militia allies were preventing the refugees escaping into Chad.

An internal report at the French bank Societe Generale which lost 7 billion dollars through fraudulent trading last month says fraud can be traced back as far as 2005. The internal report found the bank had followed its anti-fraud procedures correctly but that they did not go deep enough. Here is our Europe business reporter Dominique Lorry.

Societe Generale has been criticized by financial analysts, by the central bank, even by France's top politicians. But this may stain the hardest. An independent committee sheds some light on why the trades weren't stopped until January this year. Although there were procedures that could've detected them, they chose not to take them up. The bank's management has to deliver its annual results on Thursday morning that’ll announce a huge drop in profits. This further criticism may prove too much to allow them to survive much longer.

The head of the new European Union mission to Kosovo Pieter Feith has said the minority Serb population has nothing to fear from it. The mission, which formally began on Wednesday, comprises almost 2,000 officials and will deploy around Kosovo including the Serb dominated north. Speaking after talks with Kosovo's president, Mr. Feith said the EU would help develop the country's police force and economy.

"Let me say how much of a priority I attach to helping you in reviving the economy. I think with enhancing security for all citizens here including for the Serb community, the economy, job creation, growth, investments, is what counts and what will make people stay where they are and feel closer to the European institutions."

World news from the BBC.

The authorities in Iraq have confirmed that the security forces are detaining beggars and mentally-ill people on the streets of Baghdad because it's feared they could be vulnerable to exploitation by militants. The new policy stems from a belief that militants may have used vulnerable people to carry out suicide attacks. It's thought that 2 bombings in Baghdad this month involved women who were mentally ill.

The Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says moderate forces in his country have been strengthened by the general election and he's called for reconciliation. The two main opposition parties, the Pakistan People's Party and the PML, triumph in the poll and have begun intense negotiations on a new government. The leader of the PML, the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has demanded that Mr. Musharraf step down, but the president said he had no intention of quitting.

The British government has proposed changes to the rules for foreign nationals seeking British citizenship. The draft changes include an English language test, a new probationary period for would-be citizens and a financial levy to help fund extra public services in areas affected by an influx of migrants. An opposition legal spokesman Dominic Grieve criticized the proposals.

"We've made the point repeatedly that the major problem with immigration is its scale. The scale is more than infrastructure can bear in local communities and creates the substantial demographic problems for our country, which none of these proposals are intended to address at all."

A woman in Argentina whose parents were arrested and disappeared during the country’s years of military rule is suing the couple who adopted her. The woman, Maria Eugenia Sampallo Barragan, was born in a clandestine torture centre 30 years ago, the daughter of political prisoners. She accuses her adopted parents of kidnapping.

BBC news.