BBC news 2008-05-27 加文本

BBC News with Zoe Diamond.

The International Atomic Energy Agency says it believes Iran is still withholding information on its nuclear program. In a report prepared for the UN Security Council, the IAEA says Iran is continuing to enrich uranium in defiance of the agreements that it has reached. Bethany Bell reports from Vienna.

In its latest report, the IAEA said Iran needs to provide much more explanation and information to the agency’s inspectors. It said the alleged weapons development studies remained a matter of serious concern. Iran earlier dismissed the allegations as baseless or fabricated. The IAEA report says Iran is continuing to defy the UN Security Council by enriching uranium. It said Iran is operating 3, 500 centrifuges, the machines used to enrich uranium at its plant at Natanz.

The South African government says more than 30, 000 people have fled their homes to escape a wave of attacks on foreigners over the past two weeks. The figure was given to the BBC by the Minister of Safety and Security, Charles Nqakula. He said 56 people have died in the violence and the security forces were reasonably in control of the situation.

At the moment, the level of violence has subsided. The area that was mostly hit by the violence was the Gauteng Province. The security services of the country have been able to bring that down quite dramatically.

Non-governmental organizations say the authorities have seriously underestimated the number of displaced people. One group said its research showed the true figure was at least 80, 000 and possibly as high as 100, 000.

There’s been an attack in Somalia on a base of the African Union peacekeeping force just south of Mogadishu. Reports from the capital say at least 11 people were killed, most of them civilians. African Union officials said Ugandan peacekeepers returned fire when their base came under attack from dozens of insurgents.

A judge in Chile has ordered the detention of nearly 100 former soldiers and secret police who served under the late military leader Augusto Pinochet. There've been, They have been detained rather as part of an investigation into alleged human rights abuses committed during Operation Colombo, a campaign against opponents of the General Pinochet after he seized power in 1973. Guy De Launey reports from Santiago.

Most of the arrest orders issued on Monday were for former members of the DINA, Pinochet’s fierce secret police force. Others were for soldiers and civilians who collaborated with the DINA. (Www.hxen.net)

It is displaced. At least 13 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in an attack by insurgents on African Union peacekeepers in Somalia. A spokesman for the AU mission in Somalia said dozens of fighters had stormed the base manned by Ugandan soldiers in the capital Mogadishu. The spokesman said Ugandans had repulsed the attack, killing two insurgents and suffering no casualties themselves. Eyewitnesses said civilians had been killed in the exchange of fire.

World News from the BBC.

A judge in Chile has ordered the detention of nearly 100 former soldiers and secret police who served under the late military leader Augusto Pinochet. They’ve been detained as part of an investigation into alleged human rights abuses committed during a campaign against opponents of General Pinochet shortly after he seized power in 1976.

The World Wide Fund for Nature, the WWF, has called on Brazil to set up a new network of protected areas to prevent environmental damage from the expansion of sugar cane plantations that are used for bio-fuel production. In a new report, the WWF says that careful planning is needed to safeguard sensitive ecosystems of the local level, particularly Brazil’s large savannah areas.

Military officials in Sri Lanka say at least eight people have been killed and more than 70 wounded in a bomb blast on a train near the capital Colombo. Government officials have blamed the Tamil Tiger rebels. There has been no comment so far from the Tigers. A man who was onboard the train, described the explosion.

The train exploded when it was pulling out of the station. When the explosion happened, I was in the back of the train. I ran to the place where the explosion happened. I saw people fall on the platform. People with minor injuries ran towards us. I attended to the injured people. We put them in a bus and sent them to hospital.

The Canadian firm which makes the popular BlackBerry hand-held computers has rejected demands by the Indian government to help them decrypt suspicious messages sent between the devices. The company, Research In Motion, says the technology it uses does not allow any third party including the company itself to read information transferred over its network. The Indian authorities have been reluctant to allow the widespread use of BlackBerries because they fear insurgent and militant groups may take advantage of its secure communication system.

BBC News.