BBC news 2009-10-08 加文本

BBC 2009-10-08

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BBC News with Michael Poles.

Italy's most senior court has overturned an immunity law which protects the Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi from prosecution while in office. The ruling means Mr. Berlusconi could stand trial in at least three court cases. From Rome, here is Duncan Kennedy.

In its ruling, Italy's highest court decided that immunity for the prime minister was against the constitution. Mr. Berlusconi reacted by saying the court was a tool of the left. He told reporters that he would carry on in office. The court's decision means that a number of trials against the prime minister will probably now resume. Opposition parties have called on him to step down. Crucially he’s won the backing of his main coalition partner the Northern League. It’s backed him through his recent sex scandals and says it will now carry on with its support.

The former Secretary General of United Nations Kofi Annan has said the leaders of last year's post election violence in Kenya should face trials before the International Criminal Court as well as local tribunals. He also said Kenya should speed up reform. Will Ross reports from Nairobi.

Kofi Annan said he was leaving Kenya with a feeling that there was a renewed sense of urgency and seriousness around the reform program. But after three days of meetings with key politicians and civil society groups, he also had a long list of concerns. He said there was a crisis of confidence in Kenya’s political leadership, and people were beginning to doubt if the leaders could deliver. As a consequence, Mr. Annan said healing and reconciliation could suffer. More than a year and a half since Kenya’s implosion into conflict, many Kenyans feel very little has been done to ensure the country stays on a peaceful path, especially as no one has yet been brought to justice for the killings.

Customs officers in Nigeria have seized a container full of arms and ammunition being shipped into Lagos Harbour. The weapons came from the United States. Two people have been arrested and officials are searching for the owner of the arms. The BBC correspondent in Lagos says politicians keen to win elections, armed young men to harass rivals and rig elections.

President Obama is meeting his leading diplomats, generals and advisors today to review his country’s involvement in Afghanistan. On the eighth anniversary of the start of the US military operation in Afghanistan, the President and his war council are discussing whether to send more soldiers into an increasingly unpopular war. Paul Adams reports from Washington.

The focus of the latest meeting is actually Pakistan, a reminder that this administration's strategy is regional and not just limited to Afghanistan. But it’s the Afghan War that's dominating the airwaves here, as everyone waits for the outcome with the President's strategy review. Mr. Obama is weighing up the bleak conclusions of his top general in the field, Stanley McChrystal as well as the general’s request for additional resources. Some kind of troop increase seems inevitable. The White House says the President now has the request and that it'll be discussed at another meeting on Friday.

BBC News.

The NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has suggested that Russia could provide equipment and training for the Afghan National Army. Mr. Rasmussen also said there could be a joint effort to explore further Russian engagement in Afghanistan, where NATO forces are fighting Taliban insurgents.

The brutal beating to death of a teenager in Chicago two weeks ago which was recorded on a mobile phone has been described as a stark wakeup call by the US Attorney General Eric Holder. He was speaking in Chicago, where he and President Obama's Education Secretary Arne Duncan have been meeting officials to discuss the high levels of violence against young people in the city. Mr. Holder said the video of the killing of the 16-year-old Derrion Albert who was kicked and battered with wooden planks by other teenagers have left an indelible mark on every American who's seen it.

The French navy has captured a number of Somali pirates after they attacked a French naval vessel, the Somme, apparently by mistake. Alex Stanford in Paris has the details.

The French Defense Ministry says the pirates probably thought they were attacking a harmless cargo ship. Two small boats homed in overnight about 450 kilometres off the Somali coast. The pirates opened fire with Kalashnikovs and tried to come on board. But in the dark they failed to notice that their supposedly easy target was in fact a French navy fuel supply ship. The sailors quickly repelled the attack and the tables were turned as the warship gave chase. One of the boats got away but after about an hour, the other was seized. Five pirates were captured and held on board the Somme.

Talks have begun in Honduras to try to resolve the confrontation between the interim government that seized power in a coup in June and the ousted president Manuel Zelaya. A regional foreign minister said officials from the Organization of American States are in Honduras to mediate in the talks between the two camps. They say they want to see the resumption of democracy and the return to office of Mr. Zelaya, who’s besieged inside the Brazilian embassy.

BBC News.