BBC news 2010-01-12 加文本

2010-01-12 BBC

BBC News with Marian Marshall

Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson is stepping aside temporarily. He's faced criticism over his conduct and that of his wife, who secured funds for her teenage lover to set up in business. Mr Robinson said he needed time to deal with what he called family matters. The Enterprise Minister will take over his duties. Rob Broomby reports.

The interim First Minister Arlene Foster told the Northern Ireland Assembly that Peter Robinson would clear his name and that the investigations currently underway would show that he had behaved entirely properly over his wife's financial affairs. Sitting grim-faced and hands pressed together listening was the Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness. He shares power with Peter Robinson's party despite them being arch opponents. How he plays his hand in the weeks to come could determine whether the peace process goes off the rails or not. For months now, the two sides have been wrangling over how and when to bring justice and policing powers back to Belfast.

The first football match to be played at the Angolan enclave of Cabinda as part of the African Cup of Nations tournament has passed off without incident three days after the Togolese team came under attack in the province. The match between Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast ended in a goalless draw. The tournament was thrown into confusion when the Togolese government ordered its team home.

A federal court in the American state of California has begun hearing a challenge to a ban on gay marriages. Opponents of the ban argue that it violates the US constitution. Rajesh Mirchandani reports.

This case challenges the highest law of the land, the US constitution and could end up being decided at the highest level, the US Supreme Court. Groups supporting same-sex unions argue that the US constitution enshrines the right to marry, but by limiting it to heterosexual couples,it discriminates against gays. Those oppose to gay marriage led by Christian groups said the constitution has always been in interpreted as meaning only the right of a man and a woman to marry and that should not change.

The Supreme Court in Honduras has agreed to hear a case against the commanders of the armed forces over their role in the overthrow of President Manuel Zelaya last year. Mr Zelaya was removed from office last June after the Supreme Court ruled that his plans to change the constitution were illegal. James Read reports.

Six months after Manuel Zelaya was bundled onto a plane at gunpoint and thrown into exile, the controversy over his overthrow shows no sign of abating. The attorney general's office has accused the military high command of abusing their authority and violating Mr Zelaya's right by expelling him from Honduras instead of detaining him. It says it's illegal to remove any Honduran citizen from the country by force. For his part, Mr Zelaya says the charges amount to a cover-up. The generals, he insists, should instead face trial for leading a coup against him.

BBC News

The Turkish Prime Minister Rejep Tayyip Erdogan has issued another outspoken attack on Israel, describing its actions as a threat to world peace. Mr Erdogan accused Israel of using disproportionate force against the Palestinian group Hamas. Mr Erdogan has spoken out several times against Israel in recent days.

The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has returned to work a month after an attack by a member of the public left him with a broken nose. He held a meeting to discuss proposed legal reforms. Mr Berlusconi himself faces two trials for corruption and tax fraud. Mr Berlusconi denied any wrongdoing.

The French film maker Eric Rohmer who was an important figure in the post-warNew Wave cinema in France has died aged 89. Rohmer first gained critical acclaim in the 1960s with his series of Six Moral Tales including the collector which won a prize at the Venice film festival. Of his later work. Eric Rohmer is perhaps best known for his Tales of Four Seasons series which was released in the 1990s.

New research has found that a seabird, the Arctic tern, flies more than 70,000 kilometers each year, the longest migration by any creature. Using special devices, scientists tracked the birds as they left their breeding grounds in Greenland to escape the harsh northern winter and flew to warmer waters in Antarctica. The birds repeat the journey home but make a long detour as Carsten Egevang of the Greenland institute of natural resources explained.

The birds will choose a path that will give them wind from the side or may be even tailwind, so they will avoid headwind all the way.And even though they have to fly several thousand kilometers longer,this will allow them to use less energy to get all the way up to their breeding grounds again.

Arctic terns can live up to 34 years which means they can travel the equivalent of going to the moon and back three times in their life time.

BBC News.