BBC news 2010-01-28 加文本

2010-01-28 BBC

BBC News with David Austin.

The British Attorney General at the time of the invasion of Iraq, Lord Goldsmith, has denied that he changed his legal opinion of the war as a result of pressure from close allies of Tony Blair. He told an official inquiry that his initial view had been that the use of force would need a second United Nations resolution. But after discussions with Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary at the time, Britain's Ambassador to the UN Jeremy Greenstock and others, he reached a different conclusion.

"In the light of the further inquiries I had made following my visit to the United States, following discussions with Jeremy Greenstock, following my investigations of the negotiating history, it was a reasonable case that a second resolution was not necessary and that was, on past precedent, sufficient to constitute a green light."

President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan has defended his government's plan to offer talks to the Taliban against criticism that it could undermine freedoms won by the Afghan people. President Karzai and the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown were answering questions from Afghan and British students in a BBC debate on the eve of a conference on Afghanistan in London. Both leaders said the offer of talks were open only to those Taliban members who were not wedded to extremism. Mike Wooldridge watched the debate.

It was an Afghan female student who questioned what assurance there was that talking to the Taliban would result in more security for Afghans and who expressed concern that it risked undermining the freedoms of women in particular. President Karzai stressed that it was an offer open only to those Taliban who were not part of al-Qaeda and who would accept the Afghan constitution. Therefore, he suggested social reform would not be affected. Gordon Brown described it as a move to divide the Taliban and offer them a way out.

The American Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has been severely criticized for his role in the multi-billion-dollar bail-out of the insurance giant AIG. Democrats and Republicans on a congressional panel accused Mr. Geithner of concealing details of the deal and of being beholden to the banks. But Mr. Geithner defended the bail-out, saying he acted solely in the public interest.

"We did not act because AIG asked for help. We did not act to protect individual institutions. We acted because the consequences of AIG failing would have been catastrophic for our economy and for American families and businesses."

An international conference intended to help stabilize Yemen has ended in London with a strong commitment to the country's future and promises from Yemen's government to enact reforms. Foreign ministers from some 20 countries agreed that Yemen's many problems needed a comprehensive approach. The American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said military action alone would not be enough. She said the international community would work with Yemen to promote development, build democratic institutions and combat corruption.

World News from the BBC .

A conservative businessman Porfirio Lobo has been sworn in as the new president of Honduras after a prolonged political crisis following a coup in June. Mr. Lobo has agreed to allow his ousted predecessor Manuel Zelaya to leave the country. Charles Scanlon reports.

The new president is promising national reconciliation after the conflicts of the last seven months. He's approved an amnesty for all those involved in the coup, and will personally escort the ousted President Manuel Zelaya from the Brazilian embassy where he's been under siege since September. Mr. Zelaya has agreed to leave quietly after failing in his attempt to serve out the final months of his single term in office. He is going to the Dominican Republic as a guest of the president there, but says he intends to continue his struggle against the new government.

The authorities in Bangladesh have executed five former soldiers convicted of the murder of the country's founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975. The Supreme Court had rejected their final appeal. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was killed together with most of his family during a military coup.

The technology company Apple has unveiled a much-anticipated new minicomputer which it hopes will repeat the success of the big-selling iPhone. The touch-screen tablet computer is aimed at an anticipated gap in the market between the phone and the notebook computer.

Scientists say they now know the true colors of a dinosaur. Researchers say they've identified cells from a small dinosaur that showed it probably had reddish brown feathers and a striped orange and white tail. Professor Mike Benton of Bristol University described what the creature looked like.

"There were repeat cycles of dark-light, dark-light, sort of rings. And people had assumed that the light band probably was in live white because it has no coloring agent in it. The darker ones nobody knew. They could have been blue black, anything. But now of course you know that they were russet so that this thing had a tail, something like a barber's pole more or less."

And that's the latest BBC News.