BBC news 2009-11-26 加文本

BBC 2009-11-26

BBC News with Sue Montgomery.

President Obama is to go to Copenhagen early next month for the start of United Nations Climate Change Summit and will propose major cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. The White House said the targets would include a 30% emissions cut by 2025 rising to 83% by 2050. There’s been growing pessimism about the ability of the summit to produce any substantial deal. Imtiaz Tyab reports.

Up until now there was some speculation over whether President Barack Obama would attend the UN Climate Change Conference. According to a White House official, the president will arrive in Copenhagen for the start of the summit and will then travel to the Norwegian capital Oslo where he is due to collect the Nobel peace prize. At least 65 heads of state and government will attend the conference but unlike President Obama, most are expected to take part during its final days. The head of the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat Yvo de Boer said the world was looking to the US to offer a goal for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and to offer money to help developing nations cope with global warming.

President Obama is to make a long-awaited announcement on Tuesday on American strategy in Afghanistan. He will tell the American people how many extra troops he’s decided to send there to fight the Taliban. Paul Adams reports.

The president’s address on Tuesday will be one of the key moments of his first year in office. It’s thought he will commit in excess of 30,000 additional troops to the fight in Afghanistan and lay out how he intends in his words, to finish the job. Mr. Obama hopes to be in office for two four-year terms and he says he wants to complete the Afghan mission before he steps down. Today his spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said the US would not remain in Afghanistan for another 8 or 9 years, adding that speeding up the training of Afghan security forces was imperative.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has proposed a ten-month restriction on new residential building in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, in a move aimed to encourage the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians. However, the restrictions would not apply in East Jerusalem and the Palestinians have already made clear that limitation is not acceptable. The US Middle East envoy George Mitchell said while Washington didn’t accept the legitimacy of continued settlements, the Israeli move was a positive one.

While they fall short of a full freeze, we believe the steps announced by the prime minster are significant and could have substantial impact on the ground. For the first time ever, an Israeli government will stop housing approvals and all new construction of housing units.

Rare heavy rain storms have hampered the start of the annual Muslim pilgrimage the Hajj in the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca. The authorities warned the estimated three million pilgrims to take care in the rain which hasn’t fallen so hard during the hajj in years.

BBC News.

Diplomats at the United Nations have stressed the needs to protect civilians, caught up in the UN-backed military campaign against Rwandan Hutu rebels in Eastern Congo. They were speaking after a closed door session of the Security Council which was called to discuss a report suggesting that the UN-backed operation in Congo had failed.

The European chief of the American carmaker General Motors says most of the job losses planned for the company’s troubled European unit, Opel, will occur in Germany, Nick Reilly said about 9,000 jobs could go, but none of the four Opel factories in Germany will close. Mr. Reilly said the future of Opel’s plant in Belgium, was uncertain.

A court in Switzerland has approved a bail application from the film director Roman Polanski who is facing possible extradition to the United States. More than 30 years ago, he pleaded guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl but fled from America before being sentenced. He’s been held in a Swiss jail since September after being arrested in Switzerland at the request of the United States. Imogen Foulkes reports from the Swiss capital Bern.

It’s highly unusual for extradition subjects to be granted bail in Switzerland. Roman Polanski’s first application was refused. This time, the film director offered almost 4.5 million dollars in bail money and the surrender of his passport. He will also have an electronic tag and live under virtual house arrest at his chalet in the Swiss Alps. The court ruled these conditions should be enough to prevent him fleeing back to France.

Two of the ceremonial guards at the Tower of London best known as Beefeaters have been dismissed following an investigation into allegations that they bullied a female colleague. Moira Cameron who joined the guards two years ago was the first woman Beefeater since they were formed more than 500 years ago.

BBC News.