BBC news 2009-09-01 加文本

BBC 2009-09-01


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BBC News with Jonathan Weekley.

The anti-corruption commission in Nigeria has filed criminal charges against four former executives of banks that had to be rescued to prevent the country’s financial system collapsing. From Lagos, here is Caroline Duffield.

A sight Nigerians never thought they’d see--top bankers on their way to court. The four sacked CEOs, Cecelia Ibru, Bartholomew Ebong, Okey Nwosu and Sebastian Adigwe all pleaded not guilty. They and their teams are accused of fraud, giving loans to fake companies, lending to businesses they had personal interest in, conspiring with stock brokers to drive up share prices. There are many charges. The authorities here say that deals nearly destroyed five major banks.

A former trader at the French bank Societe Generale is to be put on trial charged with forgery, breach of trust and unauthorized computer use. The bank announced losses of almost seven billion dollars in January of last year which it blamed entirely on Jerome Kerviel, a junior trader. He said his superiors were aware of his unauthorized trading.

America’s top general in Afghanistan has said the situation there is serious, but success is achievable with a revised strategy. General Stanley McChrystal has sent his review of the strategy against the Taliban to NATO secretary general and to the US defense secretary. Our Defense and Security correspondent Rob Watson reports.

General McChrystal’s prescriptions for turning things round smack of evolution rather than revolution. Senior Commanders have long understood that providing security and better government for most Afghans rather than waging war on the Taliban is the key to defeating the insurgency. Indeed General McChrystal has already begun to pursue a strategy that puts Afghan civilians at the heart of NATO operations. More difficult is the notion of talking to the Taliban. Though most agree it’s a good idea, it's not clear who would do the talking and why the Taliban would listen given their belief they are winning.

Almost 7,000 South African soldiers who took part in an illegal demonstration have been sent letters sacking them. Some 2,000 soldiers demanding a pay increase took part in the violent protest last week in the country’s administrative capital Pretoria. Karen Allan now reports.

The image of demonstrating soldiers clashing with the police in the heart of South Africa’s administrative capital sent shockwaves throughout the country. The defense minister, Lindiwe Sisulu has condemned their protest as disgraceful and a threat to national security. A spokesman for the South African National Defense Union says its members who receive letters have ten days to defend their actions. It’s seeking an urgent injunction in the High Court to stop soldiers from losing their jobs. It said the actions of the Defense Department will simply inflame tensions.

World News from the BBC

After almost a hundred years of hostility, Turkey and Armenia have agreed to begin six weeks of consultations aimed at re-establishing diplomatic ties. The mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One has been a highly sensitive issue with Turkey resisting widespread calls that it recognize the killings as genocide. Marcus George has more.

In a joint statement, Turkey and Armenia said the agreement would contribute to regional peace and stability. Consultations will take place over the next six weeks after which their respective parliaments would then be asked to ratify the protocols. This is the latest stage of a road map agreed in April to normalize their troubled relations, but there is still no resolution to the issue of mass killings between 1915 and 1917. Turkey admits that many Armenians died at the time of upheaval but argues that large numbers of Ottoman Turks also lost their lives.

A news agency in Iran has reported that the son of an advisor to the defeated presidential candidate， arrested during the post selection protest died in a Tehran prison after being beaten. Officials had said Mohsen Ruholamini whose father advised the conservative candidate Mohsen Rezaie died of meningitis but the Mehr agency says a coroner’s report gives the main course of death as physical stress, frequent beatings and repeated blows.

The Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva has announced plans that will give the state greater control over huge recently discovered oil fields. President Lula has described the offshore reserves as Brazil’s passport to the future and wants the profits from them used to help tackle poverty.

And reports from Israel say a dispute over the refuse of three Jewish religious schools to admit a hundred pupils of Ethiopian origin has been resolved. Under a compromise agreed by the Education Ministry, the religious schools will take about half of the pupils while the rest will be placed in other institutions.

BBC News.