BBC news 2009-09-29 加文本

BBC 2009-09-29


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BBC World News with Debora MacKenzie.

Many people have been killed in Guinea during an opposition protest in the capital Conakry. A doctor said at least 58 bodies have been brought to hospital, many with bullet wounds. This report from our West Africa correspondent Caspar Leighton.

Apart from a drone of military vehicles, the streets of Conakry have now fallen quiet as a population cowed by gunfire and bloodshed hides at home. One source described the scene he saw as a morgue’s butchery. Many Guineans are concerned that the military ruler, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, might run for president. When he took power last December after the death of Guinea’s long-time leader Lansana Conte, he was hailed as a hero. Now people fear Captain Camara has acquired a taste for power.

France has strongly condemned what it described as “the violent repression of a peaceful opposition rally” in its former colony Guinea. It called for the immediate release without any conditions of all those arrested during the demonstration in Conakry.

The United States has sharply criticized the ousted President of Honduras Manuel Zelayer who’s been sheltered in the Brazilian embassy following his return to Honduras last week. Police and troops had earlier shut down two broadcasting stations. Andy Gallagher reports.

The two media outlets that were closed down were critical of the interim government in Honduras and it's a sign of just how tense this situation has become. Radio Globo and Channel 36 have both been closed down before, but the interim government have now declared a state of emergency and removed some civil rights. The stations were closed just before a planed march by Mr. Zelaya’s supporters, something the deposed president called “the final offensive”. It’s language like that's led to criticism from a senior US official. Speaking at a session of the Organization of American States in Washington, Ambassador Lewis Amselem called the interim government’s actions “deplorable and foolish”.

The United States, Britain and France have all condemned as provocative the testing by Iran of missiles capable of hitting Israeli and American bases in the Gulf. The White House stressed that Iran should allow immediate unfettered access to its newly disclosed second uranium enrichment facility. Tehran said the missile tests were for defensive purposes. Kevin Connolly reports from Washington.

Iran says that the timing of its missile test was dictated not by American criticism but by Sacred Defence Week, an annual round of drills and tests which commemorates its war with Iraq in the 1980s. Nonetheless, Tehran’s decision to demonstrate two different types of missile, each of which is thought to be capable of hitting targets in Israel and the US bases in the Gulf will concentrate minds. The White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the tests were provocative. Iran continues to insist in the face of strong international scepticism that its nuclear program is aimed at delivering cheap electricity rather than missile warheads.

World News from the BBC

The Hamas leader Khalid Mashaal has said he and his Palestinian rivals are close to reaching a reconciliation agreement. Mr. Mashaal was speaking after talks in Cairo on Egyptian proposals to end the bitter two-year feud between Hamas and Fatah. He said the Egyptian initiative was a good one although Hamas has suggested some changes.

The United States has said it wants its planned dialogue with the Burmese military government to be a sustained process of engagement. The State Department said the Burmese leadership had for the first time shown an interest in engaging with the US and Washington intended to pursue that interest. However, it said sanctions would remain until there was progress on human rights.

The former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori has pleaded guilty to charges of bribery and illegal phone-tapping. The 71-year-old was on trial for the fourth time just months after starting a lengthy sentence for ordering an army death squad to carry out killings. From the court in Lima, Dan Collyns reports.

Mr. Fujimori’s lawyer Cesar Nakazaki said his client pleaded guilty to the multiple charges of bribery and phone-tapping. It’s the first time Mr. Fujimori has fully accepted the charges against him. Speaking outside the courtroom, Mr. fujimori’s spokesman Carlos Raffo said he'd pleaded guilty simply to expedite what he said was “a politically-motivated judicial process” and avoid a lengthy hearing with more than 60 witnesses. Mr. Fujimori, who has suffered from ill health during the last two years of court hearings, has already been sentenced to 25 years in jail for human rights abuses.

The lawyer for the film director Roman Polanski has said his client was shocked and upset by his arrest in Switzerland but he’s determined to fight against his detention and possible extradition to the United States. The legal authorities in Los Angeles want Mr. Polanski returned to the US to be sentenced for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

BBC News.