BBC news 2009-10-15 加文本

BBC 2009-10-15


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BBC News with Mary Small.

The BBC has been told by reliable sources that the Obama administration has informed the British government that it will shortly announce its substantial increase in its military forces in Afghanistan. Although a review of US strategy in Afghanistan is still continuing, a BBC diplomatic editor says an announcement on the reinforcement might come in time for next week’s meeting of NATO defence ministers in Slovakia. The US State Department says no decision has been made. Earlier the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown confirmed that 500 extra British troops will be sent to Afghanistan bringing the total of British forces there to 9,500. He told Parliament in London the new deployment will be subject to a number of conditions including a commitment by the Afghan government to recruit, train and deploy more local soldiers.

"A combination of force levels, equipment levels and tasks that I am setting out today follows the clear military advice from our chiefs of staff and from our commanders on ground on implementing our strategy and reducing the risk to our forces. And it's on this basis that I've agreed in principle to a new British force level of 9,500 which will be put into effect once these conditions are met."

The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has given an upbeat assessment of her talks in Moscow this week which she’d hoped to persuade Russia to support American policy on Iran. Mrs. Clinton said Russia was now much more aware of the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear program even though the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after the talks that further sanctions against Tehran would be counter-productive.

"There has been a tremendous move on the part of the Russians to recognize this threat, because that’s where it starts. In my conversations, I know that they have done an assessment. They’ve looked the same evidence we've seen, and they are looking for the same outcome, they just want to be sure what we are doing in their view is going to achieve it."

Mrs. Clinton said that in private talks the Russians made clear there would be action against Iran if it didn’t cooperate over its uranium enrichment program.

The Iraqi government says at least 85,000 people were killed in the country between 2004 and 2008, almost twice as many people were wounded. Gabriel Gatehouse reports from Baghdad.

The figure is based on death certificates issued by the Ministry of Health and makes no distinction between military and civilian casualties. It includes 50,000 unidentified bodies that have never been claimed. The numbers may be staggering but they are in fact relatively conservative. Past reports have used a number of different methods to produce estimates ranging from over 100,000 to well over 5,000,000 since 2003. The reality is that amid the chaos and violence that follow the evasion, the true number may never be known.

World News from the BBC.

At least eight people have been killed in Baghdad and a number of others wounded during a robbery of gold and jewellery shops. Police said the thieves started shooting randomly and throwing grenades as they tried to escape. Officials say armed crime is on the rise in Iraq. In southern Iraq, a series of bombings killed at least one person and wounded 30 others in the city of Kabala.

A court in Zimbabwe has ordered the detention of Roy Bennet, a senior member of the MDC and ruled that he should stand trial on charges of terrorism. The MDC says the charges are fabricated. Andrew Harding reports.

This is the latest twist in a long and revealing legal power struggle. Roy Bennet is a former opposition politician who was due to become a deputy minister in Zimbabwe’s new unity government. But he was arrested in February on terrorism charges and has been in and out of jail ever since. Now he is back inside after prosecutors successful argued that his long-awaited trial should be moved to a higher court. His party, the MDC, says the charges against Mr. Bennet are trumped up and that this new move is simply a delaying tactic.

Just days after Turkey and Armenia agreed a timetable to end decades of diplomatic enmity, President Serzh Sargsyan has made the first ever trip to Turkey by an Armenian leader to watch a football match. He joined his Turkish counterpart in a stadium in Bursa to watch their two countries play a World Cup qualifier. Tensions and security were tight with Turkish fans booing the Armenian national anthem at the start of the match. Turkish won two nail.

The New York stock exchange has continued its dramatic recovery from last year’s financial crisis with the Dow Jones Index closing above 10,000 for the first time in a year. The Dow is now up  more than 50% from its lowest level in March. Analysts say the 10,000 mark is symbolically important but many feel doubts remain about the recovery's sustainability.

BBC News.