BBC news 2009-08-18 加文本

BBC 2009-08-18


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BBC News with Ally Macue.

A Russian merchant ship that vanished nearly three weeks ago in mysterious circumstances has been found in the Atlantic. The vessel, the Arctic Sea, was sailing from Finland to Algeria with a cargo of timber. Its crew said that it was boarded by armed men in the Baltic and the ship then disappeared in the English Channel. Adam Mynott reports.

According to the Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, the ship was found last night near to the Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa. It is where the Russians denied locating the ship three days ago. Moscow dispatched a number of warships to find the vessel because it had a 15-man Russian crew on board. They are all said to be well, and have been transferred to another ship. They were not apparently being held against their will. So many questions remained about what’s been going on on board the Arctic Sea during the past 18 days.

Prosecutors in the United States have charged a man with carrying out what they say is the largest ever case of hacking and identity theft. The suspect, Albert Gonzalez, is accused of stealing more than 130 million credit and debit card details by hacking into the payment systems of national retailers. Greg Wood reports from New York.

The U.S. Department of Justice has charged a 28-year-old Florida man Albert Gonzalez with conspiracy and fraud. It says at the beginning in October, 2006, he and two other unnamed Russian co-conspirators hacked into the computer systems of a card payment company, the convenience store chain 7-Eleven and a group of supermarkets. They are alleged to have found a way around the security firewalls of the companies' computer networks, removing data relating to 130 million debit and credit cards. There are no details about how much money may have been stolen or who the victims were.

The former president of Zambia, Frederick Chiluba, has been cleared of corruption charges after a 6-year trial. Mr. Chiluba was accused of stealing half a million dollars of public money during his 10-year presidency which ended in 2002. The case was brought by his successor President Levy Mwanawasa. Here is Jonah Fisher.

After seven years of investigation and several delays in the announcement of the verdict, Zambia's former president was cleared. Judge John Chinyama told the court that the funds Frederick Chiluba had received could not be traced to government money. The six charges against Mr. Chiluba related to a secret government bank account in London which it was alleged should've been used to embezzle funds and buy luxury clothes.

The Ethiopian runner Kenenisa Bekele has confirmed his position as the world's best middle distance runner winning his fourth consecutive World Championship gold in the 10,000 meters. He is now matched fellow Ethiopian Haile Gabrselassie for the most world championship titles won. Bekele, who also won two times' Olympic champion has never been beaten in the 10,000 meters on the world stage.

World News from the BBC.

A senior United States commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, has proposed plans for Iraqi government and Kurdish forces to work together in the volatile north of the country backed by American troops. He said that al-Qaeda had been able to exploit divisions between Arabs and Kurds in Iraq and that bringing their forces together would reduce the militants' scope for attacks.

The Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has sacked the Interior Minister in the autonomous southern Republic of Ingushetia, following a suicide truck bombing which killed at least 20 people. Mr. Medvedev said the attack in the main city of Ingushetia, Nazran, could have been averted.

Ten people have been killed and 40 more wounded in an accident at Russia's largest hydroelectric plant. Rescue efforts are still under way in southern Siberia. Gabriel Gatehouse reports from Moscow.

The accident happened as workers were carrying out repairs to one of the plant's transformers. It is thought that an explosion caused the roof of the turbine hole to cave in, flooding this place with water. Rescue workers are now searching for more than 50 people who are still missing. The Soviet-era Sayano-Shushenskaya power station is the largest in Russia. Its stand is 245 meters high and it stretches a kilometer across the Yenisei River in southern Siberia. The authorities say there is no danger to the damage itself, but the accident has caused an oil spill which is now floating downstream, adding an environmental dimension to the disaster. Gabriel Gatehouse reporting there from Moscow.

Britain's Ministry of Defense has released 14 official files on alleged sightings of unidentified flying objects or UFOs. The files cover a period from 1981 to 1996, and include an account given by two boys who said they were spoken to by an alien with a lemon-shaped head. The files show increase in the number of sightings in 1996 when the Hollywood alien blockbuster Independence Day was released.

BBC News.