BBC news 2009-10-07 加文本

BBC 2009-10-07


Download Audio

BBC News with David Austin.

One of the most wanted suspects in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide has arrived at the International Tribunal for Rwanda in Tanzania. The man, Idelphonse Nizeyimana, who is described by the tribunal as a prime target, was arrested in neighbouring Uganda. Here is our East Africa correspondent Will Ross.

For 15 years, Idelphonse Nizeyimana had been on the run. In 1994, he was a captain in the Rwandan army, and the lengthy indictment against him says he executed a plan to wipe out the minority Tutsi ethnic population. He’s accused of setting up special military units, one of which killed the Rwandan queen. The Rwandan government has welcomed to Mr. Idelphonse Nizeyimana’s arrest, describing him as a mastermind of the genocide. It says he later joined a rebel group across the border in Congo, the FDLR, which has been wreaking havoc on the civilian population.

The price of gold has reached an all-time record of 1,038 dollars an ounce in London. Its rise is partly because of a decline in the value of the US dollar amid speculation that it might lose its role as the world’s reserve currency, as Robeny Smith reports.

A report in the British newspaper said some oil-producing Middle Eastern states backed by China, Russia and one EU country France were contemplating buying oil in a basket of currencies instead of the dollar. Middle Eastern countries have since denied the story, others have ignored it. But a weak dollar does cost oil producers as the price of their product falls in other currencies. The US has been under pressure for some time to recognize this when forming a domestic economic policy that often appears to ignore the international role of the dollar.

Britain says it plans to cut funding for camps in Sri Lanka housing a quarter of a million ethnic Tamils displaced during the war against the Tamil Tiger rebels. The British Development Minister Mike Foster on a visit to the biggest camp Menik Farm said he was disappointed with Sri Lanka’s progress in allowing civilians to return to their homes. Accompanying him was our correspondent, Charles Haviland.

Mr. Foster said that once the imminent monsoon is over, Britain will only fund lifesaving emergency interventions in the camps which he described as closed as their inhabitants cannot freely leave. Sri Lanka’s government says it’s installing adequate drainage to ward off any flooding, but the UK, the UN and others disagree. Visiting Menik Farm, the British minister said he feared heavy rainfall might cause devastation and spread disease. He said some 70% of the camp dwellers could leave and stay with host families.

Charles Haviland.

The British author Hilary Mantel has just won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction for her novel Wolf Hall about the life and times of the Tudor statesman Thomas Cromwell. Miss Mantel had been the strong favourite to win the award which is open to works in English by authors from the Commonwealth and Ireland.

This is the World News from the BBC.

A judge in Brazil has ordered the arrest of a former host of a TV crime show and politician Wallace Souza who’s suspected of commissioning killings to boost ratings for his popular crime show. Mr. Souza faces charges of drug trafficking and the possession of firearms. From Sao Paulo, Gary Duffel.

As well as being a former TV presenter, Wallace Souza was a popular politician. However, his expulsion following a vote last week meant he lost his parliamentary immunity, and now it appears he is on the run after a warrant was issued for his arrest. The authorities in Amazonas claim he ordered several killings in order to get rid of his rivals while afterwards TV crews from his program would mysteriously arrive at the crime scenes before the police. Mr. Souza, who’s not being charged in connection with any killings, denies the accusations and says they are part of a smear campaign by his political opponents.

A car bomb has exploded in a busy marketplace in western Iraq, killing at least nine people and wounding many others. The blast happened outside the city of Fallujia. It’s the second deadly bombing in Anbar province in as many days. On Monday, a suicide bomber killed six people at a funeral in the city of Haditha.

Opposition parties in Guinea have said they won’t join talks aimed at resolving the country’s political crisis until the head of the military government Captain Moussa Dadis Camara steps down. The crisis erupted last month after government troops opened fire on opposition demonstrators in the capital Conakry, killing more than 150 people. A coalition of opposition parties said in a statement that they want the soldiers responsible for the killings to be arrested.

The Justice Ministry in Switzerland has refused a request for the release on bail of the film director Roman Polanski. The ministry said there was a high risk he might flee. He was arrested in Zurich last month on a US warrant for sentencing for having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977.

And that’s the latest BBC News.