BBC news 2009-10-23 加文本

BBC 2009-10-23


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BBC News with Julie Candler.

The US government says it’s arrested more than 300 members of a powerful Mexican drug gang in a major operation across the country. The Attorney General Eric Holder said the arrest took place in 19 states and dealt a significant blow to the group’s supply chain of drugs, weapons and cash into the United States.

In the last 2 days alone, we have seized 3.4 million dollars in US currency and nearly 730 pounds of methamphetamine as well as other narcotics. We’ve also seized close to 400 weapons.

He said the gang known as the Michoacan family had shown an incredible level of sophistication and ruthlessness.

President Obama has welcomed plans by the US Treasury to cut the salaries of top executives at companies that the government bailed out last year. Twenty-five top managers are expected to have their salaries cut by 90% at companies including General Motors and Citi Group. The Federal Reserve has proposed measures discouraging excessive risk as Richard Lister reports from Washington

President Obama said it offended American values when the top executives of firms being kept afloat by taxpayers awarded themselves huge bonuses. AIG, the company which helped trigger the financial meltdown, is this year preparing to pay its trading division executives almost 200 million dollars in bonuses, despite having to rely on 180 billion dollars of bailout money. The Fed says it will review pay structures at 6000 US financial institutions and veto those which appear to encourage the kind of risk-taking which brought the financial sector to the brink of collapse.

The world's biggest mobile phone maker, Nokia, is suing its American rival Apple for patent infringement. The legal action covers 10 patents which it says Apple has breached with its massively popular Iphone. Duncan Butter reports.

The Apple Iphone has been a huge success, selling over 34 million units since it was launched 2 years ago. Most users prize it for its innovative technology. But now Nokia is claiming that much of that technology was devised by its research scientists and wants Apple to compensate it financially, hence the lawsuit filed in the United States. Nokia says patents relating to wireless data, speech coding, security and encryption have all been infringed. So far there’s been no response from Apple and it’s not clear how much money Nokia is seeking in compensation

Hundreds of people have demonstrated outside the BBC’s television studios in London to protest against the appearance on a political debate program of the leader of the far-right British National Party Nick Griffin. At one stage, protestors forced their way inside the BBC building and police said they had made 6 arrests. On the program which is due for broadcast shortly, the BNP leader defended his party’s far-right views but his opinions were repeatedly challenged.

World News from the BBC.

For the first time the Sri Lankan government has begun resettling displaced people to areas formerly controlled by the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels. More than 5,500 people left the Vavuniya camp on Thursday for resettlement in former rebel strongholds in Northern Sri Lanka. They are part of a larger group of about 40,000. The government says it aims to complete the process in the next few days. More than a quarter of a million civilians are housed in military-run camps.

The former military ruler of Uruguay, Gregorio Alvarez, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison on human rights charges. He was found guilty of 37 homicides during his time as head of the armed forces in 1970s and then as president between 1981 and 1985. The former general was arrested in 2007 on charges of ordering the death of political prisoners.

Scientists say they’ve found a significant flaw in the counting of carbon dioxide emissions which could encourage massive deforestation. Professor, Timothy Searchinger, from Princeton University said if the loophole is not closed, more forests could be cleared in the mistaken belief that bioenergy always helps to reduce emissions.

"Even if we create biofuels or use virtual electricity in a way that's both burning down the world’s forests, we count that as a 100% carbon reduction, rather than what it really is, which is a source of emissions of carbon dioxide. As utilities and oil companies, factories have to reduce their greenhouse gas emission, it gives them a perverse incentive to clear the world’s forests for bioenergy."

The 23-year-old son of the French president Nicolas Sarkozy has said he will give up his attempt to become the head of the body overseeing La Defense, a major business district of Paris. The nomination of Jean Sarkozy had been strongly criticized as nepotistic.

BBC News.