BBC news 2009-11-27 加文本

BBC 2009-11-27

BBC News with David Austin.

The Irish government has revealed how the Roman Catholic Church in Dublin covered up for decades the widespread sexual abuse of children by priests. A government inquiry found that the abuse continued until 2004 and accused government officials of helping with the cover-up. Ruth McDonald reports from Dublin.

The Dublin diocese report spares neither the Catholic Church nor the Irish state. The report focuses on a representative sample of complaints made by 320 children against 46 priests over a 30-year period. It found that the church plays its own reputation above the protection of children in its care and said the state authorities facilitated the cover-up by allowing the church to operate outside the law. The current Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin offered his sorrow and shame for what had happened to the victims and said no words would ever be sufficient.

The outgoing head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei has expressed his frustration with Iran over what he said was its failure to cooperate with his investigation into whether it'd tried to make a nuclear weapon. He told the agency’s board meeting that a year of negotiation with Tehran had gotten nowhere.

That has been no movement on remaining issues of concern, which need to be clarified for the agency to verify the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program. It is now well over a year, since the agency was last able to engage Iran in discussions about these outstanding issues. We have effectively reached a dead end unless Iran engages fully with us.

European shares have tumbled with the news that Dubai may be unable to pay its multi-billion dollar debts. The main share index in London suffered its biggest one day drop since March. There were similar falls in France and Germany. Stephanie Flanders reports.

The tallest tower in the world, the biggest manmade island, the largest snow dome in the middle of a desert, no scheme was too over the top, if it helped put the tiny Arab Emirate on the map. Visitors would’ve been forgiven for thinking it’s built on oil, but international investors knew that Dubai didn’t have much oil. The fancy projects were largely funded by debt. When boom turned to bust, they also knew the lead company Dubai World was finding it difficult to pay that debt back. Bank stocks fell sharply in response to the news between them they could have millions of dollars at stake in Dubai World.

A High Court in London has ruled the two Caribbean registered investment funds are entitled to claim payment of a large debt owed by Liberia. The judgment could enable them to have Liberian assets in Britain seized. The debt dates back more than 30 years when Liberia borrowed 6.5 billion dollars from an American bank, but it’s now thought to be many times its original value.

This is the World News from the BBC.

The British Home Secretary Allen Johnson has refused to block the extradition to the United States of a British man who hacked into American military computer networks. The man, Gary Mckinon has Asperger syndrome but Mr. Johnson said he did not consider Mr. Mckinon’s rights were being breached. Mr. Mckinon’s lawyers argued that sending him to the US would have disastrous consequences for his health.

The authorities in Saudi Arabia say that more than 70 people have died as a result of floods following the heaviest rainfall in years. Most of those killed were in or around the city of Jeddah where water swamped roads and caused a number of buildings to collapse. Critics have accused the Saudi government of negligence.

Officials in Nigeria say President Umaru Yar'Adua who’s in hospital in Saudi Arabia is suffering from a heart problem but he’s responding well to treatment. A government spokesman said the vice president Goodluck Jonathan was handling some of the president’s responsibilities in his absence.

Investigations are underway in Washington to find out how a couple managed to fool White House security and gatecrash President Obama’s first state dinner. 300 guests attended the event on Tuesday in honor of the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. They included Michaele and Tareq Salahi. Paul Adams takes up the story.

They certainly look the part, he in tuxedo, she in dazzling red sari. And the photos posted on her Face Book page testified to an evening spent rubbing shoulders with the great and the good. Michaele with 3 marine guards, Michaele with the president’s famously savvy chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, and Michaele in a clinch with an obviously delighted Vice President Joe Biden. I was honored, Michaele writes, to be invited to attend the first day dinner hosted by President Obama. The only problem was she wasn’t. And embarrassed secret service is now scrambling to figure out just how she and her husband got in. Paul Adams reporting.

And that’s the BBC News.