BBC news 2009-09-03 加文本

BBC 2009-09-03


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BBC News with Mary Small.

The pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer has agreed to pay a record 2.3 billion dollars to settle charges related to improper marketing of drugs in the United States. The company was accused of repeatedly trying to sell drugs for uses not approved by regulators. The settlement includes a criminal fine of more than one billion dollars. The US Associate Attorney General, Thomas Perrelli, announcing the settlement, said the Obama administration was determined to put an end to health care abuses.

Combating health care fraud is one of this Administration's top law enforcement priorities. By all accounts, every year we lose billions of dollars to Medicare and Medicaid funds from fraud. Those billions represent health care dollars that could be spent on medicine, on elder care, on emergency room visits or simply lowering the cost of care.

The deputy head of Afghanistan’s National Intelligence Agency Abdullah Laghmani has been killed in a bomb attack outside a mosque in the east of the country. A total of 22 people were killed and at least 35 wounded. From Kabul, Chris Morris reports.

The Taliban say one of their suicide bombers carried out this devastating attack in the centre of the city of Mehtar Lam, east of Kabul. Among the dead was their main target, Abdullah Laghmani, the deputy head of Afghanistan’s intelligence service. His car was completely destroyed. The attack on such a powerful and high-profile official shows just how strong the Taliban insurgency is becoming. Despite the pressure they’re under from international military forces, the Taliban have been extending their areas of operation.

The election commission in Afghanistan says that with the votes from more than 60% of polling stations counted, President Hamid Karzai has slightly increased his lead in the presidential election. The commission says President Karzai has just over 47% of the vote while Abdullah Abdullah has 33%. Mr. Abdullah has alleged a massive fraud in the poll.

The number of victims of the powerful earthquake that struck Java in the Indonesia has continued to climb. More than 30 people are now confirmed dead, crushed by collapsing buildings or falling rocks. Hundreds more have been injured. The quake of magnitude 7 or more shook office towers in the capital Jakarta. From there, Karishma Vaswani reports.

There were scenes of panic in Indonesia’s capital as office workers rushed out of towering skyscrapers after a powerful earthquake hit the island of Java. Eyewitnesses spoke of seeing buildings swaying. Many people traumatized by what they had experienced. Jakarta is about five hours away from the town which is nearest to the epicenter of the earthquake. Tasikmalaya in West Java is a small city in a densely populated area with a population of over a million people.

World News from the BBC.

The BBC has found that millions of dollars worth of minerals from conflict zones in the Democratic Republic of Congo continue to be exported by firms blacklisted by the United Nations. The minerals are used in the manufacture of mobile phones. Both the Congolese army and rebel groups operating in the east of the country tax miners and use the funds to buy weapons. Our Africa correspondent, Karen Allen reports.

A BBC investigation in South Kivu has revealed that a subsidiary of the British metals giant AMC continues to purchase coltan and cassiterite from an exporter, named in a UN report as sourcing minerals from militarized mines. Official government documents obtained by the BBC reveal that millions of dollars worth of minerals continue to be exported by AMC’s Thailand-based subsidiary. In a statement, AMC said it was accelerating its due diligence procedures and had received verbal assurances from its exporter that its purchases didn’t benefit the militia.

The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has insisted that no deal was struck with Libya to secure the release of the Libyan man convicted of the Lockerbie airliner bombing. The man, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was released from prison in Scotland two weeks ago on compassionate grounds. He has cancer. Mr. Brown said there’d been no deal on oil and that no private assurances were offered to the Libyan leader.

Israeli archaeologists say they’ve discovered a huge wall in the East Jerusalem built to protect the city’s water supply more than 3,700 years ago. The director of the dig, Ronny Reich said they were the earliest fortifications found in the region and showed that the Canaanite people who built them were a sophisticated civilization. Archaeological digs in the East Jerusalem are highly controversial. Critics say Israel uses them as a political tool in an attempt to bolster Jewish claims to occupied Palestinian land.

BBC News.