BBC news 2009-10-18 加文本

BBC 2009-10-18

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BBC News with Marian Marshall.

Hundreds of thousands of people are taking part in a protest in central Madrid against plans to liberalize Spain’s abortion law. Several dozen legislators from the main centre-right opposition party join the demonstration, which is backed by Roman Catholic bishops. The socialist government is proposing allowing abortion on demand in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. Girls from the age of 16 would also be able to terminate pregnancies without parental consent. One of the organizers of demonstration, Liana Marso, said abortion wasn’t in women’s best interests.

“The government is trying to sell us the idea of abortion being a right for women. But killing babies can never be a right. I would like all women to realize that they are lying to us when they say we are going to be more free if we can have an abortion. We are just going to be prisoners of our own consciences.”

Tens of thousands of Pakistani soldiers backed by tanks and artillery have begun an offensive against al-Qaeda and Taliban strongholds in South Waziristan, close to the Afghan border. They are reported to be meeting fierce resistance. Shoaib Hasan sent this report from South Waziristan.

The screw’s upturning in what appears to be the toughest deaths yet faced by the Pakistan military in its war against the Taliban. Dozens have been killed in the first day of fighting so far. Local officials say the Taliban have entrenched themselves and are defending every inch of their territory. But the army is also pushing hard and air power is likely to play a decisive role. The fighting has made it almost impossible for locals to flee South Waziristan. Those who managed to escape say they walked for over 24 hours to get out.

Two Brazilian policemen were killed when their helicopter came under fire as they responded to an outbreak of violence in a shanty town in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The pilot managed to land, but the helicopter then exploded in flames, trapping the two policemen. Jerry Duffield reports.

The police helicopter is believed to have crashed after the pilot was struck in the leg by a bullet and attempted to make an emergency landing on a football ground. The helicopter burst into flames and television pictures from the scene show the smoldering remains of the wreckage. The authorities in Rio were not able to confirm if this was the first time that one of their helicopters had been brought down by gunfire. The attack followed an outbreak of fighting between rival gangs in a shanty town in the north of the city, in which at least three alleged drug traffickers were reported to have been killed.

The West African regional group ECOWAS has agreed to impose an arms embargo on Guinea because of what is described as atrocities committed by the military government. The correspondents say Guineans had hoped for tougher sanctions and the embargo was the weakest measure ECOWAS could agree on. A communique issued at the summit in Nigeria condemned an incident last month in which Guinean troops opened fire on an opposition rally.

World News from the BBC.

Reports from Iran say the authorities have released on bail an Iranian Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, who was arrested after the disputed presidential election. The news was announced by the semi-official Iranian news agency ILNA, but hasn’t been confirmed. Mr. Bahari, a film maker and reporter who worked for the American magazine Newsweek, was detained in June in the capital Tehran. Canada has repeatedly asked for his release.

The chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry has said that with the political crisis in Afghanistan getting worse, it would be irresponsible to send more US troops. From Washington, Imtiaz Tyab reports.

Speaking from the Afghan capital to an American broadcaster, Senator John Kerry cautioned President Obama against raising troop levels in Afghanistan. Mr. Kerry said it would be entirely irresponsible to commit more troops to the country until its election crisis was resolved and the US knew exactly what kind of Afghan government it was working with. The Massachusetts Senator’s comments come at a time when the Afghan President Hamid Karzai resisted international pressure to accept fraud rulings that could force him into a runoff with his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah.

The Iraqi government spokesman has accused Britain of trying to deport failed asylum seekers to Iraq without verifying their identities. The spokesman said Iraq had refused to admit all but ten of the 44 people flown to Baghdad on Friday because of doubts that they were Iraqi. Those rejected were returned to Britain, where they’re being held in a detention centre.

The United States Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern has warned that, in his words, it is certainly possible there won’t be a deal at the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit in December. In a television interview in Britain, Mr. Stern said progress towards a deal had been far too slow, and emerging economies such as India, China and Brazil needed to do more.

BBC News.