BBC news 2008-10-28 加文本

BBC News with David Legg.

More details are emerging about the American helicopter attack into Syria on Sunday in which eight people were killed. American officials, who declined to be identified, said the target of the attack was Abu Ghadiya, the leader of a network that helps to smuggle foreign fighters from Syria into Iraq. The reports say that he was killed in the raid. Kim Ghattas reports from Washington.

The White House and the State Department have refused so far to comment publicly about the military strike. But they've also not denied the reports. Military officials in Washington speaking on condition of anonymity said the operation was successful. U. S. troops have been taking a more aggressive approach to tackling militants, launching cross-border attacks into Pakistan, for example, from Afghanistan. But the attack across the border into Syria is unlikely to be more than a one-off.

 The authorities in the United States say they have charged two men with threatening to kill the Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as part of a plan to kill as many black people as possible. A number of guns including a sonar shotgun were seized during last week’s arrest in the state of Tennessee. Rachel Havey reports from Washington.

Federal agents say the two defendants aged 18 and 20 first met a month ago on the internet. Before long, they were discussing plans to kill 88 black people and behead 14 more. The alleged plot involved stealing from houses to finance a killing spree. The plan would have culminated in an attempted assassination of Barack Obama. In court documents, the two men are reported of saying that they would dress up in white tuxedos and top hats then drive their car as fast as possible towards Senator Obama, shooting at him from the windows.

The commander of the United Nations peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of Congo has resigned after being in the post for just four weeks. His resignation comes as some 20, 000 people are fleeing heavy fighting between government troops and rebels loyal to the renegade General Laurent Nkunda. Laura Trevelyan reports.

Senior UN officials expressed surprise that the general had left so quickly at a time when the situation on the ground is so precarious. A peace deal between the government and rebel groups collapsed in August, and now rebels loyal to Laurent Nkunda are advancing towards the key-strategic city of Goma in the east. U. N. peacekeepers have been firing on the advancing rebel forces. Local people accusing the U. N. of failing to protect them have rioted outside the U. N. base in Goma. One person was killed.

The longest-serving Republican senator in the United States, Ted Stevens, has been found guilty of corruption. Mr. Stevens who has been senator of Alaska for 40 years was convicted of failing to report more than a quarter of a million dollars in gifts and home improvements from an oil company. During the trial, Mr. Stevens insisted he was innocent, saying he believed he’d paid for the home improvements. 

World News from the BBC.

Share prices in the United States and Europe have ended lower after a day of volatile trading but markets avoided the sharp falls experienced earlier in the Fast East. The main Tokyo index lost nearly 6.5% to close at its lowest in 26 years. Hong Kong fell 12%. Shares on Wall Street closed down more than 2% while European markets also fell amid the growing belief that main developed countries are heading into recession.

Prosecutors in Mexico have revealed that employees of an elite crime-fighting unit were at the same time working for one of the country's drug cartels. They said police agents had passed sensitive information to the Beltran Leyva cartel. Warren Bull of our America’s desk reports. 

Mexico’s Assistant Attorney General Marisela Morales said some of those involved had allegedly received up to 450,000 dollars a month from the cartel in return for information on potential anti-drug raids and surveillance targets.

The revelation that the elite crime fighting unit may have been compromised for several years will be an embarrassment for President Felipe Calderon who came into office in 2006, promising to tackle the drug cartels and to reduce corruption by officials.

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry says that five of nine Chinese oil workers kidnapped more than a week ago have been killed. The ministry says two of the surviving men were wounded but managed to escape. It says that the remaining two are still being held. The Sudanese government says the oil workers were kidnapped by the Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement. (Www.hxen.net)

A woman has been stoned to death in Somalia after an Islamic Court found her guilty of committing adultery. The woman Aisho Ibrahim Dhuhulow was killed in front of a large crowd in the southern port of Kismayo. It was the first such execution in Kismayo since Islamist insurgents captured the city from government-allied forces in August.

BBC News.