BBC news 2009-04-16 加文本

BBC news with Joe Macintosh

The American Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has announced new measures to deal with pirates attacking ships off the coast of Somalia. Mrs. Clinton was speaking after the US navy foiled attacks on two American-flagged vessels in recent days. The killing of several Somali pirates by international forces has prompted the threat of reprisals against the American and French vessels. From Washington, Kim Ghattas reports.

The four-point plan is an attempt to deal comprehensively with the piracy problem by bringing in all the actors, the international community, Somalia and the shipping and insurance industries. Hillary Clinton called for an immediate meeting of an international counter-piracy task force to expand naval coordination against pirates but also crucially to track and freeze the assets of the pirates which Mrs. Clinton described as “armed gangs on the sea.”

The Obama administration has appointed a senior official to prevent drugs-related violence from Mexico crossing into the United States. The appointment comes ahead of a visit to Mexico by President Obama. Charles Scanlon reports.

On the day before he meets President Calderon of Mexico, Mr. Obama is showing support for his military offensive against the drug gangs. Three of the most violent Mexican cartels that are being targeted by the Treasury Department making their assets in United States liable to seizure. At the same time, the Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano went to the border opposite Mexico's most violent city Juarez to create a new post dubbed “the border Czar”. She said a former federal prosecutor Allen Burson would be responsible for keeping the border safe and promoting legitimate commerce.

A US army soldier has been convicted of the murder of the four Iraqi detainees who were shot when they were bound and blindfolded. The guilty verdict against Master Sergeant John Hatley was issued at a court martial in southern Germany. Hatley is the most senior of three American soldiers to be convicted of the murders which took place in Bagdad in 2007. Kevin Connolly reports from Washington.

The soldiers that Master Sgt John Hatley led were stationed at a highly-exposed combat post in West Rashid which in early 2007 was one of the most violent neighborhoods in Bagdad. When they found four Iraqi men not far from a cache of weapons, including sniper rifles, just a week after one of their own sergeants had been shot and killed, they took the law into their own hands. With no real evidence against them the detainees should have been released, instead they were bound, blindfolded and executed. It is thought their bodies were dumped in a canal but they have never been found. Because of that absence of physical evidence, Hatley was convicted on the strength of witness statements including those from the two other soldiers already convicted of the killings.

Official figures from the United States suggest industrial production has fallen to its lowest level in a decade. Output fell in March by 1. 5%. The fifth month in a row that production has declined.

This is the world news coming to you from the BBC.

The new chief executive of the giant Swiss bank UBS has warned shareholders that the company faces a long road back to success after losing 1.7 billion dollars in the first three months of this year. Oswald Gruebel said UBS would face more job cuts--nearly 9, 000 would go, in addition to the 11, 000 already lost over the past two years.

Dozens of Afghan women who try to protest against the new law they say legalizes rape within marriage have been attacked in Kabul. Police intervened after supporters of the law threw stones at the group which included members of parliament and tried to seize their banners. From Kabul, Martin Patience reports

The new law signed last month by President Karzai has provoked fierce controversy at home and abroad. It says that women from the country's Shiite minority must have sex with their husband once every four days unless they are ill and seek permission before leaving their homes. The American President Barack Obama has described the new law as “abhorrent”. But in Afghanistan the legislation has support particularly amongst conservative religious clerics who play a prominent role in public life.

A 90-strong orchestra brought together by the YouTube video sharing website is about to make its debut performance at New York's prestigious Carnegie Hall. The musicians from around the world-- the winners of a YouTube competition in which they uploaded a video of themselves playing their instruments. (www.hXen.com)

A new study of prehistoric coral reefs suggests that global warming could lead to a much more drastic rise in sea levels than previously estimated. Researchers in Mexico say coral from 120, 000 years ago shows a rise in sea level of around three meters in 50 years due to collapsing ice sheets. If such a rise in sea level was to happen today, cities like Shanghai, Calcutta, and Miami would be inundated.

That's the BBC news.