BBC news 2009-02-26 加文本

BBC 2009-02-26

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BBC News with Jonathan Weekley.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur for human rights, Phillip Alston, has accused the police in Kenya of being involved in widespread, continuing and systematic extra-judicial killings. Mr. Alston said the police commissioner and the attorney general should be dismissed. The Kenyan government has rejected his findings, saying they appeared to be made in bad faith. But Mr. Alston said police officers appeared to have free rein to shoot virtually anyone were unable to produce any statistical information.

"When I asked them, for example, how many people had been killed in Kenya in the last year, the last two years, three years, by police using lethal force, suspected criminals, they said 'Oh, we don't have those statistics'. Now that's astonishing, because in most countries, admittedly the use of bullets needs to be recorded by police."

Dutch investigators have removed the bodies of three crew members from the cockpit of a Turkish Airlines plane that crashed at Schipol airport in Amsterdam. 125 people survived when the Boeing 737 hit the ground shortly before landing, but nine people were killed. From Amsterdam, Geraldine Coughlin reports.

Airport officials told a news conference that the Turkish Airlines Boeing 737 crashed into a muddy field, trying to land on a runway at Amsterdam's Schipol airport. It broke into pieces but did not catch fire. The injured, some in critical condition, were taken to nearby hospitals. Relatives flew immediately from Istanbul to Amsterdam. A forensic team is searching for clues as to what caused the crash.

The Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says that although President Robert Mugabe has ordered the release on bail of the political prisoners, the process has been wilfully obstructed by the attorney general. Mr. Tsvangirai said the continued detentions were a threat to the new unity government. About 30 activists are being held including a senior member of Mr. Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change.

The World Health Organization has warned that a new strain of drug-resistant malaria could threaten global efforts to contain the disease. It says researchers on the Thai-Cambodian border have found parasites that are resistant to artemisinin, a key ingredient to the most effective malaria treatments. Our science correspondent, Matt Mcgrath, now reports.

Artemisinin is the world's most powerful weapon in the battle against malaria. But studies carried out by the World Health Organization on the border between Thailand and Cambodia show worrying signs of the falciparum parasite, the root cause of the illness, is becoming more resistant to the effects of artemisinin. Normally, the treatment flushes the parasite out of the body in 24 hours. But in the Thai-Cambodia border, the WHO have found cases where the parasite persists in the bloodstream for 120 hours. This means that people stay sick for longer and the disease has a far greater chance of being spread by mosquitoes.

Matt Mcgrath. World News from the BBC.

President Barack Obama has said his administration intends to lay down clear rules for the troubled financial industry in the years ahead. The President, who's been meeting his top financial advisers, said clear rules were needed to protect consumers and investors. The aim, he said, was not to stifle, but to advance competition, growth and prosperity.

The Defence Ministry in Sri Lanka says its troops have been engaged in fierce battles with Tamil Tiger rebels in the northeast of the country. It said at least 14 rebels had been killed in separate clashes. A pro-rebel website said the Sri Lankan army had suffered its heavy casualties during intense fighting. More from our correspondent in Colombo, Anbarasan Ethirajan. (www.hXen.com)

The Sri Lankan military says its troops have launched a multi-pronged offensive to capture the last remaining town of PTK, Puthukkudiyiruppu from the rebels. Some army units, it said, had already entered the outskirts of the town and that fierce clashes were continuing in the area. There has been no comment yet from Tamil Tigers. But pro-rebel websites said there had been intense fighting going on in the region and the army had suffered heavy casualties in the past three days.

The United States has criticized the Chinese government for stepping up what it called religious repression against Tibet's predominantly Buddhist population and Muslim population in Xinjiang in northwest China. The State Department said in a report that the authorities in China had committed extra-judicial killings and torture.

President Sarkozy of France has sent a special envoy to Cuba to improve relations as the Communist-ruled island emerges from its diplomatic isolation. Officials said he had appointed the former Socialist Culture Minister Jack Lang to discuss resumption of political contact at a time when the United States was also reconsidering its policy towards Cuba. The European Union last year lifted sanctions on Cuba which were imposed in 2003 after Cuba imprisoned more than 70 dissidents.

BBC News.

Glossary:

 give sb (a) free rein：
to give someone complete freedom to do a job in whatever way they choose

give free rein to: If you give free rein to someone, you give them a lot of freedom to do what they want.
 

rapporteur: A rapporteur is a person who is officially appointed by an organization to investigate a problem or attend a meeting and to report on it. (FORMAL)

admittedly: You use admittedly when you are saying something which weakens the importance or force of your statement.

cockpit: In an aeroplane or racing car, the cockpit is the part where the pilot or driver sits.

forensic: Forensic is used to describe the work of scientists who examine evidence in order to help the police solve crimes.

Artemisinin: Artemisinin is a drug used to treat multi-drug resistant strains of falciparum malaria.

falciparum malaria: extremely severe malaria caused by a sporozoan parasite

flush ... out of: If you flush dirt or a harmful substance out of a place, you get rid of it by using a large amount of liquid.

lay down: If rules or people in authority lay down what people should do or must do, they officially state what they should or must do. = set down

stifle: If someone stifles something you consider to be a good thing, they prevent it from continuing.

-pronged: A two-pronged or three-pronged attack, plan, or approach has two or three parts.