BBC news 2009-09-12 加文本

BBC 2009-09-12


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BBC News with Fiona MacDonald.

Troops have been deployed in the Ugandan capital Kampala following the deaths of three people in a second day of clashes. The violence involved police and supporters of the Kapaka of Buganda, the traditional king of the country's largest ethnic group. The trouble began on Thursday when the Ugandan government stopped the Kapaka from visiting an area of his kingdom containing an ethnic minority which has rejected his authority. Peter Greste reports.

With gunshots there going through parts of Kampala, rioting supporters of the king of Buganda fought running battles with police. They set up burning barricades, looted shops and threw stones at the security forces who responded with tear gas and live ammunition. The Buganda have long demanded more formal political powers for their king as well as control over their traditional land, territory that includes the capital Kampala and its surrounding districts.

Police in Britain say they’re investigating allegations that senior intelligence officers colluded in the torture of terrorism suspects. The British government says it condemns torture but it's impossible to eliminate the risk of detainees being mistreated when working with other countries. Here's Nick Childs.

According to the British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, the Secret Intelligence Service, the government’s foreign intelligence arm MI6, referred this latest case to one of the government's chief law officers, the Attorney General, on its own initiative. The issue of alleged British complicity to torture is dogging the government. It chiefly came to public attention earlier this year following charges made by the former Guantanamo detainee, the Ethiopian-born British resident Binyam Mohamed. That's the case the police are already investigating. This new case is said to be unrelated.

Two German merchant ships are attempting the first commercial voyage through the Arctic waters of Northern Russia, a route known as the Northeast Passage. The route is usually frozen, but rising temperatures caused by global warming have melted much of the ice. Here's Matt Mcgrath.

The Northeast Passage has tempted mariners for hundreds of years. But the once impenetrable ice that prevented ships travelling along the northern Russian coast has been retreating rapidly because of global warming in recent decades. The passage became passable without icebreakers in 2005, and now two German ships are making the first commercial voyage through the region. By avoiding the Suez Canal, the trip from Asia to Europe is shortened by almost 5,000 kilometers. The company behind the enterprise said they are saving about 300,000 dollars per vessel by using the northern route.

And news just in as being reported that the Director of Public Prosecutions, the official in charge of prosecutions in England and Wales, is asked for a third trial for three men who’re accused of taking part in a plot to blow up transatlantic airliners. Three other men were convicted of the plot on Monday, but the jury failed to reach verdicts on Ibrahim Savant, Arafat Waheed Khan, and Waheed Zaman on a charge of conspiracy to murder.

World News from the BBC.

An Israeli gunman has shot and wounded two Palestinians in east Jerusalem. Israeli police say the two victims, a 13-year-old boy and a 40-year-old man were lightly injured. The shooting happened near the old wall section of the city. The gunmen have been arrested. The Palestinians have protested by throwing stones at police and some Jewish homes in the nearby neighbourhood of Silwan.

Police in London have clashed with large crowds of Muslim youths outside a mosque, where right-wing demonstrators plan to gather to mark the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Some of the Muslim youths who are trying to prevent the demonstration by a group calling itself "Stop the Islamization of Europe" have been throwing bricks and bottles at the police. Tom Symonds has this report.

A large group of mainly Asian protesters from various parts of London gathered outside the mosque after calls went out for people to defend it against an anti-Muslim rally. The group, Stopped the Islamization of Europe, have planned to march in memory of those who died in the 9/11 attacks. This demonstration didn't happen because police stopped small numbers of white men from getting into the area. But angry supporters of the mosque then began throwing stones, bottles and a firework at the police. The anti-Muslim group claimed on its website one of the eight arrested was its leader Steven Gash.

The Spanish oil company Repsol says it has found a huge quantity of natural gas off the coast of Venezuela. President Hugo Chavez, who is visiting Spain, said he expected Venezuela to become one of the five biggest gas producers in the world given the rate of discoveries. Repsol estimates this is the largest discovery it's ever made.

Reports from the southern Russian republic of Ingushetia say a suicide bomber has blown himself up in a truck at a checkpoint in the capital Nazran. One report says two police officers were killed. It's the latest in a series of attacks in Russia's troubled North Caucasus region. The President, in June, was seriously injured in an attack.

BBC News.