BBC news 2009-12-06 加文本

BBC 2009-12-06

BBC News with Michael Poles.

President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia has called for the maximum punishment for those found liable for the fire in a nightclub in the city of Perm, where 109 people died. He called it a criminal act. More than 100 other people were injured in the blaze. Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports from Moscow.

President Dmitry Medvedev didn't mince his words in describing Friday night's nightclub disaster. He said those responsible had neither brains, nor conscience. It's now increasingly clear what happened inside the Lame Horse nightclub in the city of Perm. Fireworks were set off inside a room with a low and highly flammable ceiling. The ceiling caught fire and started to produce thick black smoke. Hundreds of revelers then tried to flee, but there was only one exit. In the ensuing panic, nearly half of them were overcome by fumes or trampled under foot.

The joint United Nations-African Union mission in the Sudanese region of Darfur says five of its peacekeepers have been killed in the past two days. Two peacekeepers were killed on Saturday in a camp for the displaced. James Copnall reports from Sudan.

Gunmen in civilian clothes opened fire on peacekeepers distributing water to internally displaced people. The attack took place 65km to the south of the regional capital El Fasher. The attackers stole a vehicle which they later abandoned according to UNAMID. On Friday three peacekeepers died in an ambush in the North Darfur settlement of Saraf Omra, about 200km to the west of El Fasher. The UNAMID spokesman said it was too early to tell if the two attacks were linked. Twenty-two peacekeepers have now been killed since the mission was set up nearly two years ago.

Ahead of the opening of next week's summit in Copenhagen, the joint chairman of the United Nations Panel on Climate Change have issued a robust defence of the science behind the current consensus on global warming. The chairman said they're confident because it's based on a transparent and unbiased assessment of the work of hundreds of scientists worldwide. Roger Harrabin reports.

Climate skeptics who’ve been saying that leaked e-mails from climate scientists proved that essential data have been altered to exaggerate the case for human influence on global warming. Today their claims were rejected by the UN's official panel on climate change. A statement from the joint chairs of the science working group of the panel avoids judgment on the content of the e-mails, which appear to show the research is trying to quieten the voice of rival scientists with a different point of view. These e-mails are subject to an inquiry.

Demonstrators calling for an effective agreement at next week's climate summit in Denmark have taken to the streets of several European cities. The largest protest was in London, where police estimated 20,000 joined this Stop Climate Chaos march.

This is Michael Poles with the latest World News from the BBC.

The spokesman for the authorities in Guinea has said the country's military leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara is out of danger after what he said would’ve been a successful operation in a Moroccan hospital. Captain Camara was shot on Thursday, and the military aide accused of that attack has spoken for the first time since the incident. Major Aboubacar Diakite, known as Toumba, said he was hiding in a safe place somewhere in Guinea and that he was in contact with other soldiers.

Police in Italy have confiscated art estimated to be worth more than 150 million dollars, which they believe was owned by the former head of a multi-national company Parmalat. Nineteen works of art including pieces by Van Gogh, Picasso, Cezanne and Modigliani were seized at homes of the relatives of Calisto Tanzi.

At the Chilean capital Santiago several thousand people have been accompanying the coffin of the Chilean singer Victor Jara, who has been re-buried 36 years after he was killed by troops in the aftermath of a military coup. From Santiago, Gideon Long reports.

Mr. Jara's widow, Joan, now a white hair woman in her 80s, led the funeral cortege as it wound through the streets of Santiago to the cemetery. The coffin was draped in the singer's trademark red-and-black woolen poncho. And well-wishers scattered red carnations over the hearse as it passed. Some brought guitars and many sang the songs that made Victor Jara a national icon. For much of this week Chileans have been filing past Mr. Jara's coffin to pay their last respects. Among them was Chile's President Michelle Bachelet, who was also persecuted by the Pinochet government and spent years in exile.

The Iranian Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, has telephoned his Swiss counterpart to complain about the recent referendum vote in Switzerland to ban the building of new minarets on mosques. Mr. Mottaki told the Swiss minister, Micheline Calmy-Rey, that the vote had damaged the image of Switzerland in the eyes of Muslims. The Swiss ambassador in Tehran was summoned to the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

BBC News.