BBC news 2009-08-11 加文本

BBC 2009-08-11

BBC News with Fiona MacDonald.

A summit in South America has ended with leaders still deeply divided over Colombian plans to grant American troops access to its military bases. Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez who called for a joint statement condemning the Colombian proposal said the bases could destabilize the region. Our South America correspondent Candace Piette reports.

Venezuela and Bolivia had wanted to issue a statement of condemnation to Colombia. President Alvaro Uribe had not attended the meeting in Quito, but spent last week in a whirlwind tour around Latin America to talk to heads of state about his plans. On Sunday, President Hugo Chavez said that President Uribe was a traitor. He’s issued near daily warnings that Washington could use the bases in Colombia to destabilize the region. Others have been more moderate, President Cristina Fernandez of Argentina acknowledged that these were serious tensions and said she would invite the Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to talks in Buenos Aires . And President Lula of Brazil called for talks with Barack Obama about the tensions.

President Obama has described Mexico’s fight against drugs cartels as courageous and says he is confident the country will uphold human rights and be accountable for its actions. President Obama was speaking after talks with the leaders of Mexico and Canada at the North American Summit NAFTA in the Mexican city of Guadalajara. Stephen Gibbs reports.
President Obama reaffirmed his support for President Calderon’s hard-line strategy against drug cartel. In reference to the criticism on human rights grounds which Mexico has faced in that battle, Mr. Obama said the real rights abusers are the drug runners. Of all the threats facing this region, swine flu seems to be the common enemy against which the three leaders are able to present the most united front. All three countries will share information on the virus’s development.

A strong earthquake has struck central and eastern Japan including the capital Tokyo. The cape quake whose preliminary magnitude is measured at 6.6 is reported to have rattled houses and to have caused the partial closure of a nuclear power station for safety checks. Japan’s Meteorological Agency said the quake had prompted a tsunami warning for parts of the Pacific coast.

Taliban militants in Afghanistan have attacked government buildings south of the capital Kabul, just ten days before nationwide elections. At least five people were killed. Four of the attackers were also reported to have died. Martin Patience reports from Kabul.
According to locals, insurgents took up positions on an unfinished tower block, overlooking the provincial capital Pul-i-Alam. From the building they fired rockets into the nearby compounds of the police chief and the provincial governor. Locals fled from the market close to where gun battles broke out. One eyewitness told the BBC that US Apache attack helicopters were scrambled and fired at the insurgents’ sheltering in the tower block.

World News from the BBC.

The American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged the student community in the Democratic Republic of Congo to speak out against corruption and conflict which she says have marred the central African country for too long. Speaking in the capital Kinshasa, Mrs. Clinton said students could write a new chapter of Congolese history. Mrs. Clinton arrived in Congo from Angola.

Fresh talks on a new treaty on climate change have begun in the German city of Bonn with negotiators struggling to find ways to tackle the problem. Developing nations accuse richer countries of failing to make enough cuts in their emissions of greenhouse gases. Chandrashekhar Dasgupta is a senior Indian negotiator.

Their emissions should have peaked long ago. In fact in the year 2000, that’s what the Framework Convention requires. And these steps that are currently contemplated are really far below what’s required.

In turn the industrialized nations say China and India must also reduce their pollution. The deadline for the end of negotiations is December. But the BBC correspondent at the Bonn talks says progress is slow.

The environmental group Greenpeace says it has started dropping boulders onto the sea floor of Sweden southwestern coast to prevent fishing boats from dragging nets along the sea bed. The group argues this type of fishing destroys the sea bed and the marine environment, but the Swedish authorities say the project is a publicity stunt that will do little to protect cod stocks.

A baby who was found alive hours after being declared dead at a hospital in Paraguay has lost its fight for life. Angel Salvador weighed only half a kilo when he was born four months premature last week. He was declared dead by medical staff who could not detect any signs of life. But his father said he later discovered his son was alive. The medical staff confirming his death said some of his vital organs had not developed enough to survive.

BBC News.