BBC news 2009-05-13 加文本

BBC 2009-05-13


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BBC News with Sue Montgomery.

The Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir who's been indicted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Darfur says the number of people killed there has been fabricated. In his first interview with Western media since his indictment, Mr. Bashir told the BBC that figures of more than 300,000 dead in Darfur were part of a propaganda war against him. He said his government was fighting an insurgency in Darfur, but was not responsible for civilian deaths.

"The number of casualties in Darfur is not even one tenth of any figure mentioned. All the figures doing the rounds are fabricated, totally made-up numbers. We dare anyone to prove them. All events in Darfur are monitored. Be there fighting between the armed forces and the rebels or fighting between tribes. There are tribal conflicts. But we challenge anyone to prove that the national army carried out any operations against the civilian population. "

The United Nations' humanitarian coordinator John Holmes has described as absolutely awful, the plight of civilians in northeastern Sri Lanka. He said the Sri Lankan government was intent to continuing its military offensive. The civilians were caught in the middle, and many of them were being forced to remain there by the rebels.

"This is an absolutely awful situation where the fighting is continuing, the government wants to continue its offensive against the LTTE to the end. The LTTE shows no willingness to surrender. And the civilian population is caught in the middle of that. The LTTE are clearly still holding onto that population against their will, using them as human shields.”

The United States has been elected to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations, ending a boycott by the former Bush administration. Other countries elected to the 18 seats available included China, Cuba and Saudi Arabia. The Bush administration had regarded the UN body as biased against Israel and dominated by human rights abusers. The new UN ambassador Susan Rice said the aim now was to reform the Human Rights Council from within.

"Obviously there will always be some countries whose respect and record on the human rights is sub-par. We have not been perfect ourselves, but we intend to lead based on the strong, principled vision that the American people have about respecting human rights, supporting democracy. We look forward to the review that is coming up in 2011 as an important opportunity to strengthen and reform the council."

The Mexican Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova has rejected allegations by the former Cuban leaders Fidel Castro that his government deliberately failed to reveal the existence of swine flu to avoid missing out on a visit by President Obama last month. Mr. Cordova said Mexico had been extremely forthcoming in dealing with the swine flu outbreak.

BBC News.

The leaders of the main British political parties have tried to tackle the continuing row over expense claims made by Members of Parliament. In a statement, the Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he wanted all expenses claimed in the last four years to be re-examined by an independent committee. The government measures come after the leader of the opposition David Cameron said Conservative Members of Parliament would repay substantial amounts in taxpayers' money.

"With these arrangements, what I've set out about being able to claim for the rent, the mortgage, the overnights' stay, the basic utility bills. No more furniture, no more bath plugs, no more barbecues, no more patio heaters, no more of the things that had caused so much unease. There isn’t some precise science about this. Part of it is just about understanding what we should be asking people to pay for, and what actually is unreasonable."

Five men have been convicted in Miami of plotting attacks against several US targets, including the Sears Tower in Chicago. Prosecutors say the men, mostly US nationals, had conspired to provide material support to Al-Qaeda with aim of blowing up the tower and several federal government offices.

The Italian motor racing team Ferrari has threatened to withdraw from Formula One at the end of the season because of a dispute over new regulations for next year. Two weeks ago, a motor sports governing body decided on changes that would include a budget cap of 60 million dollars for Formula One teams. The president of Ferrari said it wouldn’t register for the 2010 World Championship unless the rules were changed. Because he believed the budget cap would create a two-tier system in the sport.

A rare blue diamond has sold for more than 8.4 million dollars at an auction in Geneva. The diamond found in South Africa last year is one of the only a few blue diamonds ever found.

BBC News.