BBC news 2009-12-01 加文本

BBC 2009-12-01

BBC News with Mary Small.

President Obama has signed an executive order implementing his new strategy on Afghanistan. Mr. Obama has been briefing western allies as well as Russia and China on his plans which he will make public on Tuesday. Paul Adams reports from Washington.

President Obama held one last meeting with his military chiefs on Sunday night and according to White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, signed the order implementing his new strategy. The President immediately informed his ambassador in Kabul Karl Eikenberry and his top general on the ground Stanley McChrystal. On Tuesday night, Mr. Obama speaks directly to the American public. It’s expected he’ll announce the deployment of more than 30,000 additional US troops. He’ll also explain once again just why he believes the war in Afghanistan is necessary and it’s thought he’ll outline just how long he expects America’s military mission to last.

Earlier, Britain confirmed it’s sending another 500 troops to Afghanistan. The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown also publicly announced that hundreds of British special forces were active there. British officials said eight other countries had also pledged to reinforce the NATO operation in Afghanistan by some 5,000 soldiers. That’s thought to include Turkey, Slovakia, Georgia and Portugal.

The United States Senate has begun what’s expected to be a lengthy, fierce and contentious debate on its version of the health care bill that is President Obama’s main domestic priority. The legislation is aimed at extending health care to tens of millions of uninsured Americans. Charles Scanlon reports.

Health care reform is making its torturous way through Congress, but it’s meeting entrenched opposition from Republicans and support from some Democrats is also wavering. The House of Representatives managed to pass its version earlier this month. Now it’s the Senate’s turn. But this time, the draft is even more contentious. Conservatives have condemned the proposal for a government-run insurance plan to compete with private providers as part of a plot to introduce socialism. The debate is about more than health insurance. It’s about two different visions of America and it’s seen as a decisive test for the Obama administration.

The British Government says later this week Rwanda will become the first country to be declared totally cleared of land mines. It means it will officially meet its obligations under the 1997 Ottawa Treaty, as Madeline Morris explains.

According to the international convention to be land mine free, a country must remove all the mines from its soil and destroy any mines stockpile. With funding from the British government, the Rwanda army has cleared 9,000 antipersonnel mines, mostly from the north and northwest of the country. Because Rwanda is the most densely populated country in the world, the 1.3-million-square meters now cleared of land mines can be turned into much needed farming land as well as eliminating the threat of death and maiming.

World News from the BBC.

Iraqi officials say the number of civilians killed in November has fallen to the lowest level since the US-led invasion in 2003. Figures supplied by the Health Ministry said 88 civilians have been killed this month, the first time the monthly figure has fallen below 100.

The Foreign Office in London says a racing yacht with five Britons on board was intercepted by the Iranian navy early this week. Our diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall reports.

According to the Foreign Office, the yacht was on its way from Bahrain to Dubai to start the race and apparently strayed into Iranian waters. A Foreign Office spokeswoman said they tried to keep the incident quiet until now, in the hope this would help negotiations. But so far, the crew members are still being held, with no indication from Tehran of what might happen next.

Israeli settler leaders in the occupied West Bank have said they won’t allow inspectors in to check their complying with a limited halt on new residential construction. They said they wouldn’t cooperate on any level with Israeli officials administering the freeze. A settler leader’s met has inspectors accompanied by security forces begun the task of enforcing the Israeli government’s ten-month suspension of new residential building in the West Bank. The Palestinians rejected the move as insufficient because it doesn’t include occupied East Jerusalem.

The Cervantes Prize, the highest literary honor in the Spanish speaking world has been awarded to the Mexican writer Hose Emilio Pacheco. A jury member in Madrid said the 70-year-old was an exceptional poet of daily life with an impeccable use of language.

The American golfer Tiger Woods has announced he will not take part in this week’s Chevron World Challenge tournament in California. He said the injuries he’s sustained in a car accident last Friday were preventing him from playing at the charity event which he’s hosted for the past nine years.

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