BBC news 2010-02-04 加文本

2010-02-04 BBC

BBC News with David Austin.

A ban preventing hundreds of candidates from standing in Iraq's parliamentary elections in March has been overturned, in a move that could help defuse tensions before the vote. An appeals panel dismissed the decision by the electoral commission which had excluded around 500 people because of their alleged links to Saddam Hussein's Baath party. Gabriel Gatehouse reports from Baghdad.

Although the list included candidates from across the sectarian divide, this decision will be seen primarily as a victory for Sunni politicians who had felt disproportionately targeted by the ban. One of the most prominent among those is Saleh al-Mutlaq. A spokesman told the BBC that he welcomed the ruling. But there are those in Iraq who believe passionately that there's no place in public life for people with ties to the now-outlawed Baath party, through which Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq for so many years.

A US trained Pakistani scientist has been found guilty of trying to kill American soldiers while she was detained in Afghanistan in 2008. A jury in New York found 37-year-old Aafia Siddiqui guilty of attempted murder. From Washington, Kevin Connolly reports.

Aafia Siddiqui was arrested in Afghanistan in 2008. American officials say she was carrying bomb-making instructions and a list of potential targets including the Statue of Liberty when she was detained. American prosecutors say when soldiers and officials from the FBI went to interrogate her at a provincial police station. She snatched up a rifle, which had been left unattended, and opened fire on them, shouting "Death to Americans" and "God is great" in Arabic. Siddiqui's defence lawyer said there was no ballistic or fingerprint evidence to establish she'd ever fired the gun, and Siddiqui herself described the charges against her as ridiculous.

A Taliban bomb attack outside a girls’ school in Pakistan has killed three American military personnel. Three school girls and a Pakistani soldier also died in the blast which happened close to the Afghan border. The US Embassy in Pakistan said its servicemen were part of a training unit working with the Frontier Corp. The BBC security correspondent says the incident may lead to more questions in Pakistan over just how many US troops are in the country.

The United Nations has started a campaign against sexual violence in the southern Democratic Republic of Congo where many of the attacks are linked to supernatural beliefs. The UN will be training police and judges in Katanga province to try to end impunity for sex offenders. Thomas Fessy reports from the provincial capital Lubumbashi.

Sexual violence is the most prevalent crime in Katanga, a province famous for its big copper and cobalt mines. Perpetrators and other military uniform here appeal are mostly civilians, small-town miners who haven't benefited much from the corporate mining profits. They are being told that they would get rich if they have sex with young girls. More than half direct victims are teenagers. Despite national laws against sexual violence, many crimes go unpunished.

World News from the BBC.

Appeal judges have told the International Criminal Court to look again at whether the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir should face charges of genocide over the conflict in Darfur. The judges reversed an earlier ruling which said prosecutors had not provided enough evidence for such charges to be brought. The court has already charged President Bashir with war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. But he refuses to recognize its jurisdiction.

President Obama has said the United States will step up pressure on China and other countries to ensure they open their markets to trade with the US. Speaking to Senate Democrats, Mr Obama said he would be much tougher with China on enforcing trade rules, but said he wasn't in favor of revoking relations with Beijing.

"The approach that we’re taking is to try to get much tougher about enforcement of existing rules, putting constant pressure on China and other countries to open up their markets in reciprocal ways. But what I don't wanna do is for us as a country or as a party to shy away from the prospects of international competition." President Obama.

The chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, has been sworn in for a second term in office and urged reform to prevent a repeat of the recent financial crisis. During the ceremony, Mr. Bernanke expressed concern about the strength of the US economic recovery. He said the Fed, America's Central Bank, must protect its independence in order to maintain financial stability.

A man in Germany who got into trouble when he ventured out onto the frozen sea has been rescued after the alarm was raised by a woman 500 kilometers away who spotted him on her computer. The amateur photographer lost his way in the dark at St Peter-Ording in the northern tip of Germany and flashed a distress signal on his torch which showed up on a live webcam. A woman in southern Germany, who was online, noticed the light and alerted the police.

And those are the latest stories from BBC News.