BBC news 2009-08-25 加文本

BBC 2009-08-25


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BBC News with Mary Small.

The United States Attorney General Eric Holder has picked a special prosecutor to investigate the alleged CIA mistreatment of terror suspects. He is John Darren who's already investigating the destruction of video tapes of CIA interrogations. The move comes as the first details emerged of a newly declassified CIA report on the CIA's treatment of detainees, following the September 11th attacks on the United States in 2001. Daniel Sandford reports from Washington.

According to the report, one of those threatened was Khalid Sheikh Mohammed who’s accused of planning the 9/11 attacks on the United States. One interrogator claimed that a colleague had said to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that “if there was another attack on America, we are going to kill your children.” Another detainee was allegedly told his mother would be sexually assaulted though the interrogator in question denies this. The president has set up a new interrogation team for important al-Qaeda suspects based at the FBI, not the CIA.

One of the youngest detainees to be held by the Americans at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility has been released and sent back to his family in Afghanistan. Muhammad Jowahd was captured in 2002 and accused of throwing a grenade that injured two US soldiers. The US said it believed him to be 16 or 17, but human rights campaigners think he may have been as young as 12. The release is the latest departure from the controversial detention facility.

The Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has said his decision to free the Libyan man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing was based on Scottish law and values not on diplomatic, political or economic factors. Naomi Grimley reports on the continuing international outcry over the release.

Kenny MacAskill's decision to release Abdelbasat al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds has drawn criticism from many quarters, particularly in America. But he told the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh that he made up his mind based on the medical evidence put before him about Mr. Megrahi's terminal cancer. Some critics have speculated whether Mr. MacAskill was put under political pressure while making his judgment. But he insisted “it was my decision and my decision alone.”
       
Some newly released details attributed to the Los Angeles coroner’s office indicate that lethal levels of a powerful anesthetic propofol were found in the blood of the pop star Michael Jackson after his death in June. From Los Angeles, Rajesh Mirchandani reports.

Propofol which in this country in the US goes by the name of Diprivan is more commonly used by anesthetists in hospitals to give to patients before surgery. It's not something that is readily available. So serious questions have been asked about Michael Jackson's use of this sleep-aid, he was using it for insomnia. And also very serious questions have been asked about the role of doctors around him.

World News from the BBC.

There have been bomb attacks on two buses in southeast Iraq in a mainly Shiite area near Kut. At least 20 people have been killed. From Baghdad, Andrew North reports.

Police say women and children were among the casualties in the two bombings, which happened on the road between Baghdad and the southern city of Kut. Both attacks are believed to have been caused by what are known as sticky or magnetic bombs attached to the minibuses. These latest incidents come less than a week after nearly 100 people were killed in Baghdad in two massive truck bombings, leaving many Iraqis questioning their government's claims to be getting on top of the security situation.

Russian prosecutors say troops from Ukraine fought alongside Georgian forces in the brief conflict last August between Georgia and Russia. An investigator of a committee said regular Ukrainian armed forces as well as members of a Ukrainian nationalist organization joined Georgian forces in their attempts to reassert control over the breakaway region of South Ossetia. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Konstantin Sadilov said the allegations which Ukraine has strongly denied were a slur on his country.

No one was on Georgian territory apart from the servicemen taking part in scheduled training. This was stopped right after the start of the hostilities and the soldiers were sent back immediately to Ukraine. This can be viewed as yet another campaign to slur Ukraine and its armed forces.

Social workers in the Netherlands are trying to stop a 13-year-old girl from pursuing her dream to sail around the world on her own. They want the girl Lora Decca to be made a ward of court so that her parents who support her temporarily lose their right to make decisions about her. Lora's father Dick Decca had already had a request for her to miss school for two years turned down. The court will make a ruling this week. Lora who was given her first yacht at the age of six has spent seven weeks sailing solo when she was 10.

BBC News.