BBC news 2009-03-17 加文本

BBC News with Michael Poles.

Soldiers in Madagascar have stormed and occupied one of the palaces of the embattled President Marc Ravalomanana. Around 100 troops backed by tanks set off explosions and rounds of gunfire once inside the compound. They also seized the central bank. The president was said to be in another palace some distance away where hundreds of his supporters have formed a human shield to prevent any further military move against him. The opposition leader Andry Rajoelina has called for the president's arrest. He's denied the action amounts to a coup.

It's not a military coup, but the life of the country doesn't stop. You can't have a vacuum of power. What we want is to put in place a transitional government which will organize free and fair elections in the next 18 to 24 months at the very latest. I have the mandate of more than 60 political parties in Madagascar to lead this transition. So it isn't a coup at all.

President Barack Obama has described as an outrage the payment of large bonuses to some senior employees of the insurance company, AIG. The group has had up to 180 billion dollars in government bailouts. From Washington, James Coomarasamy.

President Obama didn't mince his words. Tapping into the growing sense of public anger here, he said it was hard to understand how a corporation in financial distress due to recklessness and greed could offer its derivatives traders any bonuses, let alone 165 million dollars which AIG is due to pay out. He said he'd asked his Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to pursue every legal avenue to block the bonuses, describing them as an outrage to taxpayers who were keeping the huge insurance company afloat.

Leaders from Africa have warned that parts of the continent could be plunged back into conflict if they don't get help to recover from the global economic downturn. The warning came as African leaders gathered in London to pass on their concerns to the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the host for the G20 summit in April. The Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said funding the poorest now would cost much less than peacekeeping operations later.

The British government is taking what is a highly unusual step in restoring direct rule in the Caribbean territory of Turks and Caicos. It also suspended the constitution. Turks and Caicos have built a reputation as an offshore financial center. Paul Adams reports.

The British government clearly believes the Turks and Caicos Islands were in a mess and need to be taken over. Today's foreign ministry statement speaks of abundant evidence pointing to a high probability of systemic corruption or serious dishonesty as well as general administrative incompetence on the islands. A Commission of Inquiry set up last year has recommended sacking the government of Prime Minister Michael Misick and the House of Assembly, handing power to the governor. It could happen within weeks.

World News from the BBC.

Israel has accused the Palestinian movement Hamas of hardening its position on a possible exchange of prisoners. It said two days of talks on the issue in the Egypt failed to reach any agreement. The Israeli prime minister's office said a special cabinet meeting will be held on Tuesday to discuss the outcome. Israel said Hamas had withdrawn from understandings reached over the past year and raised what it called extreme demands.

Kidnappers in Somalia have released four United Nations aid workers after holding them for several hours on Monday. The group, three foreign nationals and a Somali translator, had been on their way to a local airport for a flight to Nairobi when they were seized by a group of armed men in the district of Waajid in southern Somalia. The area has been controlled by an Islamist militant group for the past three months. (www.hXen.com)

The authorities in Spain say they are taking action to save the country's vultures from starvation. At present, European Union laws aimed at halting the spread of mad cow disease require dead livestock to be removed, robbing the vultures of an important food source. Danny Wood reports from Madrid.

These birds of prey are so famished, farmers say they've seen vultures attack and kill cows and pigs to satisfy their hunger. To help the birds, the head of Madrid regional government, Esperanza Aguirre, says she is legally modifying the rules to allow some animals that die of natural causes to be left in the countryside to rot. The change in the legislation will restore a traditional source of vulture food. Before 2002, farmers could legally dump the carcasses of cows and sheep in designated areas.

The American space agency NASA is tracking a piece of debris from an old Russian satellite which it believes could get very close to the shuttle Discovery as it docks with the International Space Station. Computer predictions suggest a piece of junk which is only the size of a mobile phone may come within 750 meters of the space station. Last week, the crew of the station had to leave it temporarily when another smaller piece of debris passed about 4.5 kilometers away. 

birds of prey: A bird of prey is a bird such as an eagle or a hawk that kills and eats other birds and animals.

carcass: a carcass is the body of a dead animal.

dock with: When one spacecraft docks or is docked with another, the two crafts join together in space.