BBC news 2009-07-29 加文本

BBC 2009-07-29


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BBC News with Kathy Clugston.  

Troops in Nigeria have been shelling the headquarters of a radical Islamist group, which is accused of being behind three days of violence across five northern states, which has left at least 100 people dead. The army is concentrating its attacks on the town of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State. The Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua said the unrest would be brought under control.

"We are going to continue the security surveillance all over the northern states, to fish out any remnants of these elements and deal with them squarely and promptly, and I want to assure this nation that this type of things, this administration, and I am sure consequent administrations to come will not tolerate any armed insurrection."

The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad is reported to have ordered the release of all remaining detainees arrested during protests against the result of last month's presidential election. Earlier on Tuesday, officials announced the release of more than 140 protesters from Evin prison, after a visit by a committee of MPs. Our correspondent Jon Leyne has the details.

The issue of political detainees has become a focus of criticism of the Iranian government. Even MPs who normally support the president have strongly attacked the conditions on which they're held. For the first time since the disputed election, the Iranian government is giving some ground. The supreme leader has ordered the closure of the Kahrizak Detention Centre. Now President Ahmedinejad is reported to have ordered the swift release of all detainees. The opposition will be skeptical of the change of heart. Though there are many relatives of prisoners desperately anxious to be reunited with their loved ones.

President Obama's choice to fill the vacancy in the U.S. Supreme Court now seems certain to be confirmed after the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to approve Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination. Ms. Sotomayor would become the Supreme Court's first Hispanic justice, and only the third woman to serve in the role. Senator Lindsey Graham was the only Republican on the committee to support Sonia Sotomayor's nomination.

"This is the first Latino woman in the history of the United States to be selected for the Supreme Court. Now that is a big deal, I would not have chosen her but I understand why President Obama did."

Bank of America has agreed to pay nearly one hundred million dollars to the Italian food firm Parmalat to end a five-year legal dispute related to the company's collapse in 2003. The settlement still needs to be approved by a U.S. court. Parmalat's failure was one of Europe's biggest financial scandals. Bank of America is accused of having contributed to Parmalat's bankruptcy by helping the company conceal some of its debt.

World news from the BBC.

Police in South Africa have fired rubber bullets at demonstrators in an unofficial settlement outside Johannesburg amid another day of unrest in the country. The residents of the settlement Thokoza had barricaded a road with burning tyres during a protest against poor living conditions. Municipal workers have been on a second day of a strike that's brought out 150,000 union members in support of a pay claim.

Armed men have killed eight security guards during a bank robbery in central Baghdad. The robbers got away with several million dollars and police believe they were militants getting funds for their operations. Later, in a Shiite area of Baghdad, a bomb hidden on a motorbike killed at least eight people.

Justice officials in Italy have ordered the evacuation of a newly-built hospital in Sicily, after tests showed it could collapse in an earthquake. More than 20 local officials and managers of the company that built the complex in Agrigento, are being investigated for allegedly supplying substandard construction materials. David Willey reports.

The public hospital in Agrigento in Sicily took 20 years to build at a cost to the Italian taxpayer of over fifty million dollars. When it finally opened five years ago, rats had eaten through electric cables and there was a blackout including in operating theatres involving costly repairs. The stability of the structure is suspect, because concrete supplied by local contractors was mixed with too much sand and not enough cement in order to increase builders’ profits.

U.S. investigators have raided the home and office of Michael Jackson's personal doctor in Las Vegas. Police and drug enforcement officials searched the premises of Doctor Conrad Murray as part of a manslaughter investigation into the singer's death. Doctor Murray who was with Michael Jackson when he died, has not been named as a suspect by the authorities and police say he's cooperating with their inquiries.

BBC News.