BBC news 2009-08-15 加文本

BBC 2009-08-15


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BBC News with David Austin.

 Fighting in the Gaza Strip between forces of the Hamas movement and an Islamist radical group is reported to have left at least 13 people dead and up to 100 injured. Eyewitnesses in the town of Rafah say the two sides have engaged in a running gun battle following the takeover of a mosque by the militants. The entire neighborhood has been sealed off and eyewitnesses say hundreds of Hamas fighters have been firing on the mosque with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns. Katya Adler has more.

It’s thought around two dozen supporters of the Jihadi group, Warriors of God, are inside. Earlier during Friday prayers, hundreds of worshippers declared Gaza an Islamic emirate. The imam and armed supporters swore to fight to the death rather than hand over authority of the mosque to Hamas. Warriors of God gained some prominence two months ago when it staged a failed attack on the border crossing between Gaza and Israel. The group is very critical of Hamas which governs Gaza, accusing the Islamist group of not being Islamist enough.

The Taiwanese authorities say Typhoon Morakot has cost 3.5 billion dollars in agricultural losses alone without taking into account the destruction of homes, roads and bridges. The Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou said about 500 people have been killed. 40,000 soldiers are trekking through forests and over mountains to reach stranded communities. Supplies are also being dropped by air.

The governor of the Nigerian Central Bank has dismissed the top executives of five banks accused of giving too many bad loans and overinvesting in the capital markets. In an attempt to preempt a financial crisis, Lamido Sanusi announced that more than 2.5 billion dollars would be injected into the affected banks. From Lagos, Caroline Duffield reports.

Since last year, there have been serious concerns over the health of Nigeria’s banks. Economists and bankers have used words like “putrid” and “worm-eaten” in private. The new governor Lamido Sanusi is now carrying out a forensic investigation of what has gone wrong. Ten more banks are still being probed. But speaking to the BBC, Mr. Sanusi said he was very confident that the worst of the bad debt had now been uncovered. He said that he was committed to strengthening Nigeria's banks. He also told the BBC that he would love to see people go to jail. Caroline Duffield reporting.
About 200 Iraqi journalists, writers and publishers have demonstrated in Baghdad against what they say is growing state interference in their work. The protest follows the introduction of new rules for censoring books and a proposal to ban certain websites. Some journalists say there has been a dramatic increase in lawsuits against media workers, especially those trying to investigate security or government corruption. The Iraqi authorities say they will only block websites that are pornographic or incite violence or criminal behavior.

World News from the BBC.

Britain has imposed direct rule on the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean after an inquiry found evidence of corruption. A British minister Chris Bryant described the decision as essential to restore good governance.

There is a very strong likelihood that there has been sale of Crown lands for kickbacks that there’s been a corruption of the system and that can only be dealt with unfortunately by this process of suspending the governments in Turks and Caicos, and taking the power into the hands of the governor and making sure that we can move forward prosecution as soon as possible.

A Russian ship reported missing on a voyage from Finland to Algeria is said to have been spotted off the coast of West Africa. The last reported sighting of the ship was off the north coast of France over two weeks ago. Gense Lemarly reports.

Coastguards of the Cape Verde islands are quoted as saying the cargo ship was some 400 nautical miles off one of the Archipelago's islands. They said they were in contact with international agencies keeping track of the ship’s movement. A French defense spokesman confirmed the reports on the ship’s sighting. But the French defense ministry later said it wasn’t sure. Russia, which has dispatched its navy in search of the missing vessel, says the ship is still missing. The vessel has a Russian crew and is carrying timber worth about a million and a half dollars. Gense Lemarly.

The remains of more than 2000 people believed to be German civilians killed at the end of the Second World War have been reburied in Poland. They were found in a mass grave in the northern Polish city of Malbork last year by workers building a hotel.

A reward of a million pounds is being offered in Britain for information leading to the capture of the armed men who carried out what’s thought to be the country’s biggest ever jewelry robbery. The reward equivalent to more than 1.5 million dollars is being offered by the insurers of an exclusive jewelry shop in London.

And those are the latest stories from BBC News.