BBC news 2009-11-18 加文本

BBC 2009-11-18

BBC News with David Legg.

The Israeli government has approved plans for the construction of 900 new houses in occupied East Jerusalem. An Israeli official said the expansion of the Gilo settlements would probably start in several years' time. The Obama administration has expressed dismay at the move which comes despite its efforts to get Israel to halt settlement building. Paul Adams reports from Washington.
For the second time in two months, the Obama administration has spoken out on settlements. Early in September, the White House said it regretted reports that Israel planned to approve new construction in the West Bank. This time both the White House and State Department said they were dismayed by the news about Gilo. Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, said the decision to expand Gilo would make it more difficult for the administration to re-launch peace talks. He added that the US objects to other Israeli practices in Jerusalem, including what he called a continuing pattern of evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes.

The leaders of a Rwandan militia have been arrested in Germany for crimes allegedly committed in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ignace Murwanashyaka, the president of the FDLR, and his deputy were held on suspicion of terrorism and crimes against humanity. The FDLR fled to Congo after the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Rwanda's Foreign Minister, Rose Museminali, told the BBC that her government would seek the men's extradition.
"Murwanashyaka and his colleague are the ones now fueling the war that has been in the eastern Congo. They continue to cause war and cause all the suffering. And indeed all this insecurity that we have been seeing around has its basis in the work of people like Murwanashyaka and his colleague. So yes we welcome the fact that they have been arrested. We urge that these people are transferred to Rwanda they're tried."

A Spanish trawler hijacked by pirates last month off the Somali coast has been released. Spain's Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, said the boat, the Alakrana, had now sailed and its crew were safe. Reports quote the Somali pirates as saying they were paid a ransom of several million dollars. But Mr. Zapatero refused to confirm a ransom payment.
"We did what we had to do. The government worked and is working and will work within the law, of course, and in cooperation with the ship owner and with all the families who were in a very difficult situation. Let's be cautious. Let's be responsible.” Two more ships have been attacked near Somalia.

President Obama has set up a new task force to investigate financial crimes. The US attorney general said the task force would be relentless in its aim of preventing another financial meltdown. Regulators have been severely criticized for missing one of the biggest frauds in history, the 65-billion-dollar investment scheme run by Bernard Madoff.

World News from the BBC.

The head of the Taliban in Pakistan's northwestern Swat district, who was reported to have died following an air strike in July, has told the BBC that he's now in Afghanistan. Maulana Fazlullah made a phone call to Abdul Hai Kakar of the BBC Urdu service in Karachi, who says he's sure that the man he talked to was the Taliban commander.
"I have talked to him so many times, eight, nine times. Then I met him two times. So I know he is alive. So that's why I say he is Maulana Fazlullah."
Maulana Fazlullah has led the Taliban attempt to impose a former Shariah law in Swat before the Pakistani army retook the area in a major offensive. He warned that the Taliban would soon launch reprise of attacks against the army in Swat.

The head of the armed forces of Iran has accused Saudi Arabia of killing Shiite Muslims in Yemen. General Hassan Firouzabadi said the Saudi action amounted to state terrorism and was very dangerous for Islam in the region. Last week Shiite rebels based in northern Yemen said Saudi forces hit a Yemeni village in bombing raids against the rebels. Saudi Arabia blames Iran a Shiite state for supporting the rebels.

African leaders meeting in Ethiopia said they've agreed on how much money to demand as compensation for the impact of climate change. But they say they're keeping the figure a secret ahead of next month's international talks in Copenhagen. Meles Zenawi is Ethiopia's Prime Minister.
"The key point for Africa is adaptation. That is compensation for the damage caused by the developed countries to the prospects of growth in Africa and other poor countries. Here again, we have identified a number of the key points with regards to institutional mechanism of delivery of this money, with regards to the quantity of that money and the quality of that money."
A BBC correspondent in Addis Ababa says the amount is expected to be tens of billions of dollars. Studies show that African nations are the least responsible for carbon emissions. But they will suffer the most.

BBC News.