BBC news 2008-11-01 加文本

BBC 2008-11-01

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BBC News with Marian Marshal.

As reports emerged of increasing human rights violations by government and rebel forces in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a regional summit is to take place shortly to try to resolve the crisis. The Congolese President Joseph Kabila is to meet his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame under the auspices of the United Nations and the African Union. Congo’s charges d'affaires at the United Nations ZanAmu Congo blamed Rwanda for backing the rebel forces of General Laurent Nkunda.

"Rwanda did not want peace in Congo because they think peace in Congo will not allow them to have the mineral resources they are having now. The rebel leader Nkunda is getting support from Rwanda. Nkunda by himself can not do what he is doing now. He is getting support from Rwanda and Rwanda is getting support from some other countries in term of arm supplies and the material."

International aid organizations say they are struggling to get help to the fleeing populations in eastern Congo because of the fighting. The head of the U.N. Refugee Agency, Antonio Guterres, said there was widespread rape and violence against civilians. Imogen Foulkes reports from Geneva.

U.N. aid agencies described a situation of confusion and chaos in North Kivu. The U.N. Refugee Agency says it has received what it calls credible and highly disturbing reports that several camps for long-term displaced people have been emptied, looted and burned. But with no access to the region which has been the scene of fierce fighting, it's impossible to confirm what really happened and no one knows where the camp's 50,000 occupants are now.

The United States government says it's received the entire 1.5 billion dollars required under a compensation deal for the victims of terrorist attacks linked to Libya. The two governments agreed to create the fund earlier this year as part of wider moves to restore full diplomatic ties. The U.S. will pay 300 million dollars into the fund to compensate Libyan victims of American air attacks. Here is our State Department correspondent, Kim Ghattas.

The amount covers all claims from relatives by the victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing including non-Americans and those from the 1986 La Belle disco bombing in Berlin. President George W. Bush has already issued an executive order to carry out the agreement and distribute the money to the families. This now also restores sovereign immunity to Libya in U.S. courts. It's unclear why it took so long for the money to be paid out. The fund was also open for anyone to make a deposit in it so the origin of the money is not clear.

The Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has begun his first visit to Russia in more than 20 years. During the three-day trip, he is expected to hold talks with President Medvedev about possible arms purchases and move to improve energy cooperation.

This is the latest World News from the BBC.

The United Nations says the number of people affected by Wednesday's earthquake in southwestern Pakistan is much higher than previously thought. The U.N. Children’s Fund says up to 70,000 people have been made homeless and that many are suffering from potentially life-threatening illnesses. People are facing a third night sleeping out in the open in freezing conditions.

Two Austrian hostages who were kidnapped by al-Qaeda in February have been freed. They were abducted while on a tour of the Tunisian Sahara and were believed to have been held in a remote part of Mali. The BBC Security correspondent Frank Gardener reports.

It's almost unheard of the kidnappers so closely linked to al-Qaeda to release western hostages unharmed, but last night, in a remote corner of northern Mali, the two Austrian hostages Wolfgang Ebner and Andrea Kloiber were handed over to the Malian army after an ordeal lasting 252 days. So the big question now is what did the kidnappers get in return? The Austrian Foreign Ministry in Vienna has declined to comment. But in a similar kidnapping five years ago, of European tourists in Algeria, a ransom of several million dollars is believed to have been paid.(WWw.hxen.net)

The rival candidates in the American Presidential Election are into their last weekend of campaigning. The Republican John McCain is in Ohio while his Democratic rival Barack Obama is in Iowa. Correspondents say Mr. McCain who is behind in the polls by between five to eight points is trying to play on his position as the underdog.

Archaeologists say they found traces of the camp built by a maroon sailor Alexander Selkirk who was the inspiration for the fictional castaway Robinson Crusoe. The 18th-century classic written by Daniel Defoe is widely thought to have been based on Selkirk's experiences. In 1704, he was stranded on a Pacific island, 800 kilometers west of Chile for more than four years. Excavations also unearthed a fragment from a navigational instrument thought to belong to Selkirk.

BBC News.