BBC news 2009-02-25 加文本

BBC News with Roy Lamar.

The British government says it's vetoing the publication of Cabinet minutes on the legality of the Iraq war. Last month, a Freedom of Information tribunal ordered the release of papers from two Cabinet sessions held in March 2003, at which the invasion of Iraq war was discussed. As Nick Childs reports, the government's veto decision has sparked controversy.

Britain's Justice Secretary Jack Straw said publication of the Cabinet minutes when advice on the legality of the Iraq war was discussed would risk serious damage to an important principle of British democracy. But there was an angry response from MPs, some of whom cried shame. The main opposition Conservative Party supports the decision but says there should be a full public inquiry into the war. The Liberal Democrat Party says ministers are covering up their own embarrassment. The decision to go to war in 2003 still stirs emotions. Mr. Straw insisted British government was very open and this was the first time that it had used its veto under the Freedom of Information Act.

President Barack Obama and the Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso have agreed to resist economic protectionism at a meeting in Washington. Mr. Aso is the first world leader to visit President Obama at the White House. From Washington, James Coomarasamy reports

The message from this meeting was that the world's two largest economies are working in tandem to help solve the global financial crisis. In a statement, the White House said that President Obama and Prime Minister Aso had pledged to work closely and urgently to stimulate demand and had agreed on the need to resist protectionism. The Japanese leader told reporters they'd also spoken of the importance of maintaining confidence in the U.S. dollar. Later in the day, Mr. Obama will attempt to send his own message of confidence, if a sober one, when he lays out his economic vision to a joint session of Congress.

The head of the U.S. central bank, Ben Bernanke, says that the American economy is in a severe contraction and may remain in recession until 2010. But he said there was a reasonable prospect of the recession ending this year if the government managed to stabilize the financial system. Andrew Walker reports.

In testimony to a Senate committee, Mr. Bernanke painted a bleak picture of the U.S. economy. The sharp contraction in economic activity at the end of last year appears to have continued, he said. and he warned there are further risks to the outlook. One is the global nature of the economic problem, which he said could affect U.S. exports even more than already expected. Nonetheless, he said there is a reasonable chance that the recession will end this year, and that 2010 will be a year of recovery.

The Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos says his country is prepared in principle to take in some prisoners released from the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay. He said his American counterpart Hillary Clinton had asked him, in his words, for help in solving this drama during a meeting in Washington.

This is World News from the BBC.

The U.S. military in Iraq says several soldiers have been wounded and an interpreter has been killed in an attack by Iraqi policemen in the northern city of Mosul. Earlier, reports said four U.S. soldiers were killed in the incident but a military spokesman has since denied this. From Baghdad, Mike Sergeant. (www.hXen.com)

The incident took place at a police checkpoint under a bridge in the center of Mosul. Police intelligence sources said the U.S. patrols were invited to lunch at the checkpoint. When they arrived, two Iraqi policemen, a corporal and a private, opened fire on them. The U.S. military said one interpreter was killed and a number of soldiers were wounded in the attack. The two policemen then ran up some stairs onto the bridge where a car was waiting for them. It's not the first time U.S. soldiers have been targeted in Mosul. The city is regarded by the U.S. as one of the last places where there is a significant al-Qaeda presence.

Investigators in Peru say that they've identified 23 bodies from the country's largest mass grave. They used DNA sampling to identify the victims at a site in a remote mountain valley, which was a flashpoint in a war against the left-wing Shining Path rebels. More than 100 people including young children were killed during the massacre in 1984.

A Catholic bishop who caused outrage by denying the scale of the Nazi Holocaust has left Argentina for London two days after being ordered to leave the country. The British Bishop, Richard Williamson, came to world attention last month when Pope Benedict lifted his excommunication in an effort to mend a rift with ultra-traditionalist clerics.

A multi-million dollar NASA satellite which was supposed to map global sources of carbon dioxide from space has crashed into the ocean near Antarctica. The American space agency said the craft plummeted into the sea after the satellite failed to separate from the casing which covered it as it travelled through the atmosphere.