BBC news 2009-11-14 加文本

BBC 2009-11-14


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BBC News with David Austin.

The alleged mastermind of the September 11th attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, is to be put on trial at a civilian court in New York. Four of his alleged co-conspirators will also be transferred there. The US Attorney General, Eric Holder, outlined plans to seek the maximum possible penalty. Paul Adams reports from Washington.

Eric Holder said he was confident that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other alleged 9/11 conspirators would be convicted of the attacks and said that prosecutors would seek the death penalty for all five. Due to a law passed by Congress it will be at least 45 days before the five are transferred to the United States. But when they finally arrive, they'll be tried in a Manhattan courthouse close to the scene of their alleged offense. Attorney General Holder said he was confident they would receive a fair trial, and said that transfer was an important step towards closing the military prison at Guantanamo Bay.

The chief prosecutor in Afghanistan, Ishaq Aluko, says he has a list of senior officials including current and former ministers who are suspected of taking bribes for government contracts. Mr. Aluko told the BBC he had asked the President Hamid Karzai and the Supreme Court to set up a special court to deal with the cases. Mr. Karzai has faced growing international pressure to deal with corruption since his re-election.

The government in Turkey has announced plans to extend the rights of its Kurdish minority which for decades has complained of discrimination. From Istanbul, Jonathan Head reports.

The speech to Parliament by Interior Minister Besir Atalay, the architect of this plan, started with some big aspirations. He listed reforms the government wants to implement soon -- full freedom to use languages other than Turkish, fewer military checkpoints in the southeast, new human rights bodies and bringing back people driven from their homes by fighting. But throughout his half-hour speech, Mr. Atalay refused to refer specifically to the Kurds. He also deferred discussion on the most difficult parts of the plan. The ferocious criticism the government has received recently over its initiative has clearly made it nervous.

The economy of the countries using the euro have emerged from recession. Across the 16 European Union countries, output grew by 0.4% in the third quarter of this year. Figures showed that Italy and the Netherlands were no longer in recession, but the economies of Greece and Spain were still contracting. Nigel Cassidy reports from Brussels.

It's proving to be a recovery led by exports and that’s surprising given that the euro remains so strong against the dollar, making European goods expensive overseas. Companies in Germany seem to be among the best performers. High-end specialist goods are starting to sell again, while cheaper goods from Southern Europe often can't compete against lower-cost Asian imports. In the shops, retail sales have risen slightly, but unemployment is still rising and will do for many months to come.

World News from the BBC.

Shiah rebels in northern Yemen say Saudi Arabia has carried out bombing raids targeting several villages along the border. The rebels say Saudi planes also struck a mountainous area more than ten kilometers inside Yemeni territory. There has been no word on any casualties. Earlier this week the Saudi authorities said they would keep bombing northern Yemen until the rebels have pulled back tens of kilometers from the border.

A senior military commander in Iran has criticized Russia for failing to deliver a missile defense system that the United States and Israel don't want Tehran to have. The commander, General Hassan Firouzabadi, said the air defense missiles should have been delivered more than six months ago. He suggested that Moscow should take account of what he called Iran's geopolitical importance to Russian security.

The American space agency NASA says it’s found additional evidence that the moon holds a significant amount of water. The findings come from the experiment NASA carried out last month when it intentionally crashed a spacecraft into a large crater of the lunar south pole. Here's our science reporter Matt Mcgrath.

These findings will confirm the rebirth of the moon as the planetary object of greatest interests to scientists around the world. The water that exists there is likely to have been frozen for billions of years and could yield important information about the early history of the Earth and Solar System. But the water could also be used to support a manned base, providing fuel and sustenance for long-term human exploration. Several countries are now planning lunar missions including China, Russia, India and Japan.

Our science correspondent Matt Mcgrath.

The Chinese embassy in Angola has advised its nationals not to go out alone at night after reports of the big increase in attacks on Chinese people in the country. Tens of thousands of Chinese people work in Angola, mostly on construction sites. And correspondents say that their presence is resented by many Angolans.

Those are the latest stories from BBC News.