BBC news 2009-12-30 加文本

2009-12-30 BBC

BBC News with Neil Nunes.

Iran has accused western powers of stirring up Sunday’s violent protest in Tehran that left at least eight people dead. The Iranian authorities have summoned the British ambassador in Iran following comments by the Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who said that the protesters had courage and urged Tehran to respect their rights. Marcus George has this report.
In comments published by the state news agency, the Iranian president vented his anger at the United States, which he said had staged a nauseating performance on Iranian streets. The message from the Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was even bolder. Britain, he said, would get a slap in the face if it didn’t stop playing games. With large pro-government rallies expected in the capital on Wednesday, Iranian leadership is trying to present
a country united against what it views as foreign meddling.

The US State Department has rejected calls by the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for the US to share detailed data about its plans for a missile shield in the region as the two countries negotiate an arms reduction treaty. Imtiaz Tyab has this report from Washington.
The US State Department has told the BBC that the United States does not believe that the nuclear disarmament negotiations taking place between the two countries in Geneva are the appropriate vehicle for addressing Russia’s concerns over Washington’s plans for a missile defense shield. The two largest global nuclear powers are currently trying to come up with a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expired in December. Speaking to Russian media, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the main obstacle to reaching a new deal was the lack of information provided by the US on its missile shield plans, adding that if the information was not shared, Russia would develop its own offensive weapon system.

The European Union has strongly condemned the execution by China of a British man, Akmal Shaikh, for drug smuggling. The EU said it’s deeply regretted that China had not heeded repeated calls by Britain and the EU for clemency because of reports that Mr. Shaikh was mentally ill. In London, a British Foreign Office minister, Ivan Lewis, said he summoned the Chinese ambassador to complain that China had failed in its basic human right responsibilities. But China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu denied that Mr Shaikh had a record of mental illness and rejected the British criticism.
“I want to stress that China is a country ruled by law. The Chinese judiciary department deal with cases strictly according to law. The independence of the Chinese judiciary department can’t be interfered with. No one has the right to interfere with the judicial sovereignty of China.”
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu.

This is the latest World News from the BBC in London.

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit has warned that peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians can’t restart as long as Israel continues its settlement activity. He was speaking after talks in Cairo between the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The foreign minister said the talks had been positive, but that there would be no negotiations while settlement went on.

The Red Cross in Nigeria says many of those killed during clashes on Monday between the security forces and members of an Islamist sect in the northern city of Bauchi were children. The Red Cross representative in the city said 39 people had died, most of them children aged between 9 and 15.

A German computer scientist says he has cracked and has published details of the code which keeps most mobile phone conversations private. Karsten Nohl said he and other experts had spent the past five months working out the code used to encrypt calls that use GSM technology.
“If you’re just using your normal gaming computer, it’ll take you a few minutes to decrypt the call. It is clearly legal to do so. It is not illegal to say that this is already happening. What we are trying to do is make information accessible to much audience, perhaps to many more of the victims of such attacks that are already going on every day.”

The World Health Organization has warned that the swine flu pandemic may not be over. Despite signs that the disease has peaked in North America and some European countries, WHO’s head, Dr Margaret Chan, said it was important to guard against complacency as the virus could still mutate into a more dangerous strain. At least 11,000 people are believed to have died as a result of swine flu, which has now reached more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.

And that’s the latest BBC News.