BBC news 2009-03-09 加文本

BBC News with Marian Marshall.

A dissident Irish Republican group, known as the Real IRA, has said it was behind an attack on Saturday night at an army base in Northern Ireland in which two British soldiers were shot dead. Politicians from across the political spectrum have condemned the shootings, the first fatal attack on soldiers in Northern Ireland for 12 years. Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein, the main republican party in the province which is now in the Northern Ireland power-sharing government, said the attack was wrong. Chris Buckler reports.

The police in Northern Ireland knew that dissident republicans posed a threat, and they were concerned. There have been several gun and bomb attacks in recent months. Their aim was to kill a member of the security forces. The Real IRA said it did kill two soldiers. Detectives believe the gunmen were experienced. After the first shots were fired, they then stood over their victims and shot them again.

The Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has threatened further action against aid agencies if, as he put it, they interfere in Sudan's affairs. He was addressing thousands of supporters in Darfur, his first visit to the troubled region since the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest on war crimes charges. President Bashir said he would expel anyone deemed to be harming the country's security and stability.

Anyone who’s residing with us here, first should respect himself, and should not be messing around with things here or there. He should not intervene in things that do not concern him. He should not do anything that’d affect national security and safety. Whoever refrains from doing these things, we should respect him, but whoever messes around, we should not tolerate him.

The authorities in Saudi Arabia say they've broken up four big drug smuggling operations. Officials said 35 drug dealers were arrested in the raids across the country. Bob Trevelyan reports.

The Saudi Interior Ministry says the security forces seized almost 2,000 kilograms of cannabis resin and more than three million amphetamine tablets in a series of raids. It said investigations showed that one of the alleged drugs networks had been involved in financial transactions worth more than 100 million dollars. No details were given about when the raids took place. Drugs smuggling carries the death penalty in Saudi Arabia, and those convicted are usually executed in public.

North Korea says that any attempt to shoot down a satellite, it says it plans to launch, will result in war. The BBC correspondent in Seoul says that South Korea and the United States believe the North is actually planning a long-range missile test. The warning from Pyongyang came as the South Koreans and Americans were beginning their annual joint military exercise. North Korea says the exercise is provocative. On Friday it said that the risk of conflict meant it could no longer guarantee the safety of commercial flights through airspace it controls. A number of airlines have re-routed their flights as a precaution.

World News from the BBC.(www.hXen.com)

Officials in Zimbabwe say the funeral will be held on Wednesday of the wife of the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai who was killed in a car crash on Friday. Susan Tsvangirai will be buried at her rural home in Buhera in the east of the country. Mr. Tsvangirai has been treated in a private clinic in Botswana, but he is expected to return to Zimbabwe on Monday.

Israel's attorney general has decided to indict the former President Moshe Katsav on charges of rape and sexual assault. The charges relate to accusations by a number of women who worked for Mr. Katsav when he was in office. Mr. Katsav stepped down from the presidency almost three years ago. Tim Franks reports.

Moshe Katsav will be charged with sexual offenses from his time as president and previously as a government minister. The attorney general’s office said that they’d come to the conclusion that the testimony from the women involved was reliable. This has been a tortuous legal tale, already lasting nearly three years. Last year, Moshe Katsav was due to sign a plea bargain which would have seen the rape charge dropped. That plea bargain was widely criticized in Israel for its leniency. His spokesman said Moshe Katsav now welcomes the opportunity, as he put it, to prove his innocence in court.

A pastor of a Baptist Church in the American state of Illinois has been shot dead during a service. Police say a man walked down the aisle of the church in the town of Maryville, exchanged a few words with the pastor and then drew a handgun and opened fire. Some members of the congregation who tried to restrain the gunman were slightly injured.

A 450-year-old painting has been stolen from a Lutheran Church in the town of Larvik in southern Norway. The police said the theft was discovered when firefighters responding to an alarm at the church saw a broken window and a ladder outside. The painting by the Renaissance German artist Lucas Cranach the Elder is estimated to be worth more than $2.5 million. It depicts Jesus surrounded by children.

BBC News.

Glossary:

spectrum: a complete range of opinions, people, situations etc, going from one extreme to its opposite

stand over: to stand very close behind someone

deem: If something is deemed to have a particular quality or to do a particular thing, it is considered to have that quality or do that thing. [FORMAL] =judge

reside: If someone resides somewhere, they live there or are staying there. (FORMAL)

be messing around with: If you say that some is messing around with or messing about with something, you mean that they are interfering with it in a harmful way.

tortuous: A tortuous process or piece of writing is very long and complicated.

plea bargain: In some legal systems, a plea bargain is an agreement that, if an accused man says they are guilty, they will be charged with a less serious crime or receive a less severe punishment.

renaissance: The Renaissance was the period in Europe, especially in Italy, in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, when there was a new interest in art, literature, science and learning.

leniency: not strict in the way you punish someone or in the standard you expect

congregation: The people who are attending a church service or who regularly attend a church service are referred to as the congregation.