BBC news 2010-02-14 加文本

2010-02-14 BBC

BBC News with Zoe Diamond.

The Afghan commander involved in a major NATO-led offensive in southern Afghanistan says at least 20 Taliban fighters have been killed. General Sher Mohammad Zazai says insurgents died in a major assault on the town of Marjah, a Taliban stronghold in Helmand province. Two coalition soldiers have also been killed in the offensive which involves thousands of American, British and Afghan troops and a massive air support operation. A spokesman of British Ministry of Defense Maj-Gen Gordon Messenger said so far coalition troops have met with little resistance.

In terms of why it's gone well, the initial objectives have all been secured with minimal Taliban interference. The engagement has been made in a number of areas with the local population and they are,  they seem pleased and atmospheres are good in that area. So, you know, I think the commanders on the ground are pleased with what's been happening so far but there's no complacency.

Eight people have been killed in a bomb attack in a cafe in Pune in western India. Eyewitnesses said the bomb went off as a waiter was checking an unattended bag. The cafe was close to a meditation centre popular with foreign tourists. And foreigners are among the dead and the injured. It's the first bomb blast in the major Indian city since the attacks in Mumbai in 2008, and an Indian government official has linked the two attacks.

The defeated candidate in Ukraine's presidential election Yulia Tymoshenko says she will challenge the results through the courts. Mrs.Tymoshenko said that she had evidence of widespread cheating by her opponent Viktor Yanukovych. From Kiev, Daria Merkusheva reports.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko addressed the nation in a televised statement. She said her rival and their apparent winner of the elections Viktor Yanukovych is not Ukraine's new president. Mrs. Tymoshenko said she is planning to challenge the election results in court. She also called on Ukrainian people to stay defiant but not to protest on the streets unlike five years ago during the Orange Revolution. She went on to say that Mr. Yanukovych will never be Ukraine's legitimately elected president.

Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki has suspended eight senior officials, following corruption scandals in the Education Ministry, and in a program to sell subsidized maize to the poor. Will Ross has more.

President Mwai Kibaki has asked eight senior ministry officials to step down, including four permanent secretaries. President Kibaki has asked the officials to vacate their offices for three months to allow for investigations into the allocation of public funds. Just hours earlier, two of the officials who are both senior aides of Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga announced they were stepping down to allow investigations into a maize scandal to be carried out. Last week, an independent audit revealed that over 26 million dollars had been lost in a scam as money intended to give struggling Kenyans' access to subsidized maize was diverted.

World News from the BBC.

Opposition politicians in Ivory Coast have called for street protests after condemning the decision by President Laurent Gbagbo to dissolve the government and Electoral Commission. The opposition R.H.D.P Party said it no longer recognised Mr.Gbagbo was President. Another Party, the R.D.R, accused him of turning the country into a dictatorship and disillusion of the government throws into doubt the electoral reconciliation process in a divided country where elections have been delayed six times since 2005.

The military government in Burma has released a leading pro-democracy campaigner Tin Oo, after almost seven years in detention. Tin Oo, who is 82 years old, is the Deputy Head of the National League for Democracy in Burma, the organization led by Aung San Suu Kyi. She remains under house arrest. Tin Oo said he is confident she will be released soon as well.

I believed Aung San Suu Kyi will be released soon as it happened in the past a couple of times. I will continue my duty as the vice chairman of the NLD and I will work as before by discussing matters with the chairman of the party.

Ten bus passengers were electrocuted in Nigeria when an electric cable fell on their bus during a heavy rainstorm. People who tried to help the victims themselves suffered severe burns. The accident happened in Port Harcourt in southern Nigeria. Police don't know how many people were on the bus, nor how many survived the accident.

A Swiss ski jumper has won the first gold medal at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Simon Ammann, a previous Olympic gold medal winner in 2002 beat Adam Malysz of Poland and Gregor Schlierenzauer of Austria into second and third place. Preparations for the games were marred by a series of setbacks. The man's downhill skiing was postponed after rain and warm temperatures turned the course into slush. On Friday, a Georgian luge competitor crashed and died on a training run.

BBC News.