BBC news 2009-08-29 加文本

BBC 2009-08-29


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BBC news with Ally Macue.

Police in California have admitted that three years ago they missed an opportunity to rescue a woman who had been kidnapped and held captive for 18 years. A police spokesman said that in 2006 following an emergency call, officers had gone to the house where the woman Jaycee Dugard had been hidden but hadn’t gone to the area where she was being held. The local sheriff Warren Rupf said he took personal responsibility for what had happened.

“I am first in line to offer organizational criticism, offer my apologies to the victims and accept the responsibility for having missed an earlier opportunity to rescue Jaycee.”

And we've just heard that the husband and wife accused of abducting Jaycee Dugard have pleaded not guilty to 28 charges including kidnap.

The Los Angeles Coroner has formally announced a verdict of homicide in the death of Michael Jackson. A brief statement put the cause of death as acute intoxication caused by drugs. The Coroner statement says that full details of the autopsy report will remain private while police continue their investigation. Michael Jackson died in June at his rented home in Beverly Hills. David Willey reports from Los Angeles.

The coroner has concluded that two drugs, both of them normally used only in a hospital environment were responsible for Michael Jackson’s death. They are Lorazepam which is used as a preliminary anesthetic and Propofol. Michael Jackson’s personal physician, Dr Conrad Murray had been injecting the singer with Propofol on a daily basis as a treatment for insomnia. The coroner’s verdict heightens the chance of charges being brought against Conrad Murray and nearly half a dozen other doctors who either prescribed or administered Propofol and Lorazepam to Michael Jackson. David Willey reporting from Los Angeles.

At an emergency summit in Argentina, left-wing South American presidents have condemned plans by the United States to increase its military presence in Columbia. However, the Columbian president strongly defended the plan which would give US forces access to seven military bases and said it was needed to combat drug traffickers. Candy Spear reports from the Summit at Bariloche.

The Columbian President Alvaro Uribe said he would not accept any interference in Columbia’s right to protect its own territory. Generations of Columbians had not had one day of peace from conflict he said. He criticized the region’s presidents for not supporting him as the United States was doing in its struggle against the drug trade. In response, his main critic the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said the US had a strategy of global domination and he quoted from documents which he said show the Columbia base of Palankay would be used for US military plans to reach across the continent as far as southern Chili. Candy Spear reporting from Argentina.

World News from the BBC.

United Nation’s officials say Uganda rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army appear to have intensified the attacks on civilians in the far northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The UNHCR spokesman in Congo told the BBC that more than 125,000 people in Orientale province had been displaced by gunmen since the beginning of this month.

An American soldier has been killed in Afghanistan bringing US military fatalities there to their highest monthly level since combat operations began 8 years ago. The army said the soldier was killed when his vehicle struck a roadside bomb in the east of the country. Forty-five US soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan this month.

The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is taking legal action against a number of media outlets for their coverage of his private life. Mr. Berlusconi has been at the centre of a number of alleged scandals in the past few months. His lawyer says he’s been subjected to an intolerable campaign of slander and is now fighting back. From Rome, Duncun Kennedy reports.

Silvio Berlusconi has in his sights publications in Spain, France, Britain and here in Italy. His lawyer, Niccolo Ghedini, says they are suing for libel over a series of stories that involved teenage models and paid escorts. Mr. Ghedini said among those being targeted were the French weekly, Nouvel Observateur for publishing a story called Sex, Power and Lies, and the Spanish newspaper El Pais, for showing photos of naked guests at Mr. Berlusconi’s villa in Sardinia.

The chief executive of the media group News Cooperation James Murdoch has attacked broadcasting policy in Britain, saying it allows the BBC to dominate. At the Edinburgh International Festival, Mr. Murdoch described the scale of the BBC’s operations as a threat to independent journalism. He said the boundary between television, radio, newspapers and publishing have broken down and broadcasting was still government-regulated.

BBC New.