BBC news 2008-12-19 加文本

BBC News with Mike Cooper.

The United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who is to carry on in his post when the new administration of Barack Obama takes over, has ordered plans to be drawn up for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba. It was opened in 2002 and currently holds about 250 inmates without charge on suspicion of being involved in terrorism. The Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Mr. Gates had instructed his staff to investigate the best way to go about it.

He has asked his team for a proposal on how to shut it down, what would be required specifically to close it and move the detainees from that facility, while at the same time, of course, ensuring that we protect the American people with some very dangerous characters. "

The Cuban President Raul Castro has proposed a swap of prisoners between Cuba and the United States as a goodwill gesture that could pave the way for talks with the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama. Mr. Castro said Cuba would be prepared to release an unspecified number of political dissidents if the US agreed to release five Cuban nationals serving prison-terms there on spying convictions.

A court in Argentina has ordered the release from prison of some of the most notorious figures accused of human rights abuses during the country’s years of military rule. Tens of thousands of people were kidnapped, tortured and killed between 1976 and 1983. The 14 men who worked at the Naval Mechanics School, or Esma, the largest clandestine detention centre in Buenos Aires will be released on a technicality. Daniel Schweimler reports.

A judge declared that the men would not be released immediately that each case would have to be looked at and assessed, but the ruling is a setback to victims' families and human rights campaigners in Argentina who have battled for years to put behind bars some of those responsible for a period that became known as the Dirty War. In recent years, some high-profile torturers and killers have been convicted and imprisoned. Many were hoping that the trials of the men just released would reveal the truth and some of the horror of what went on in the Esma.

The United States government says it’s considering managed bankruptcy as one of the options for ailing American carmakers. US bankruptcy laws allow companies to reorganize their business to try to become profitable again. Mark Gregory has this report.

The White House Press Secretary told reporters there is an orderly way to do bankruptcies that provides for more of a soft landing. Arguably, the discipline of formal bankruptcy would force the car firms, creditors and labor unions to accept the tough compromises needed to ensure long-term survival, while giving the firms government loans will simply let them off the hook. In separate comments, President Bush himself said he hadn't made up his mind what to do yet.

World News from the BBC.

The Palestinian Hamas Movement which controls the Gaza Strip says a six-month cease-fire with Israel won’t be renewed when it expires on Friday. Hamas blamed the breakdown of the truce on Israel which it said had not met its commitment to lift the blockade of Gaza. Israel denies it made such a commitment and has said the blockade was tightened only in response to Palestinian rocket attacks.

A court in Italy has sentenced the founder of the dairy conglomerate, Parmalat to ten years in prison for market rigging in one of Europe’s biggest financial scandals. Calisto Tanzi was convicted in connection with the collapse of the company five years ago with losses of nearly 20 billion dollars. From Rome, here is David Willey.

This is the first major sentence to be handed down by Italian justice in several trials which were attempting to assign responsibility for one of Italy’s and Europe’s biggest ever cases of corporate and banking fraud. Private investors and banks on both sides of the Atlantic lost billions of dollars in the collapse of the Italian Dairy Multinational which began in the northern Italian city of Parma as a small family business after the Second World War.

Thousands of demonstrators in Greece have hurled fire bombs and stones at riot police during renewed anti-government protests in Athens. The protestors also tried to burn down the city’s new Christmas tree but were driven back by police firing tear gas. There have been frequent demonstrations across Greece since police shot dead a 15-year-old boy nearly two weeks ago. (www.hXen.com)

The American Space Agency, NASA, says it’s discovered rocks on Mars that suggest the planet would have been a much more hospitable place for life than previously thought. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has detected carbonate materials which mean at least some of Mars was not covered in highly acidic waters. A BBC science correspondent says previous data from [the] orbiting spacecraft and surface rovers had painted a picture of the planet’s past that would have been very hostile to life.