BBC news 2010-02-24 加文本

2010-02-24 BBC

BBC News with David Legge.

Demonstrators have gathered in Spain to protest against government’s spending cuts. The two main trade unions say they hope tens of thousands will rally in several cities including Madrid, from where Sarah Rainsford reports.

Usually sympathetic to the ruling Socialist Party, they are now bitterly opposed to its plan to raise the retirement age by two years to 67. So despite driving rain here, a stream of demonstrators has been making its way into central Madrid, where huge red banners declare the unions the protectors of Spanish pensions. The government argues the current system is unsustainable. In 40 years’ time, it's predicted there will be almost as many pensioners here as workers, but the unions insist later retirement should be an option only, not an obligation.

The chairman of the US congressional panel investigating safety problems of the car giant Toyota has accused the company of misleading the American people. Representative Bart Stupak told a hearing in Washington that Toyota had a lot of explaining to do after it recalled eight million vehicles worldwide because of problems with accelerators. Here is Mark Mardell in Washington.

In a written statement, the president of Toyota's US operations, James Lentz, has said the company has not lived up to the high standards the public expects, and has taken too long to come to grips with a series of safety issues. The first to give evidence was a woman from Tennessee, Rhonda Smith. She told them in October 2006, she was driving her new Lexus, and it suddenly began to accelerate. It reached 100 miles an hour. She hit the brakes, changed into every gear, but nothing worked. She concluded that even when she had stopped the engine kept trying to turn itself on and accused Toyota of ignoring a deadly problem.

Toyota executives have publicly apologized over the affair.

The Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has signed a peace deal with one of the main rebel factions in Darfur. The signing happened in the Qatari capital, Doha, where negotiations on Darfur have been taking place. The United Nations says 300,000 people have been killed in the Darfur civil war, but President Bashir disputes this. From the Sudanese capital Khartoum, James Copnall reports.

The Justice and Equality Movement is perhaps the strongest military force among the Darfur rebel groups. Two years ago, it attacked Omdurman, the city just over the Nile River from the capital Khartoum. Now it has agreed to a ceasefire and signed a framework agreement for future talks. According to an early version of the deal seen by the BBC, the Sudanese authorities have agreed that JEM should participate in government at every level. Both sides have agreed to sign a final agreement by March 15th.

Iran says it's captured a top Sunni militant Abdolmalek Rigi, whose group Jundullah is blamed for a string of deadly attacks. He’s said to have been on a flight from Dubai to Central Asia when his plane was ordered to land in Iran. Television pictures showed him being escorted off an aircraft by masked security men.

World News from the BBC.

The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said Israel's stated intention to include sites in the occupied West Bank in an Israeli national heritage plan is a dangerous provocation. Addressing the Belgian parliament in Brussels, he said the move could lead to a religious war between Jews and Muslims. On Sunday the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he intended to add several sites in the Palestinian territory to an Israeli development plan for what he called “the glory of the Jewish people”.

Latin American and Caribbean leaders have agreed to set up a new regional grouping that excludes the United States and Canada. The accord was announced at a summit in Mexico by the host President Felipe Calderon. He said the new alliance would represent an alternative to the Organization of American States, which for the past half century has been the main international forum for the Americas. An Argentine MP Agustin Rossi expressed satisfaction with the backing the new group gave his country in its latest row with Britain over the Falkland Islands, which Argentina calls the Malvinas.

"It was a really good day's work for us yesterday, not only for the unanimity of the support, but also for the forcefulness of the declaration, which is a more forceful declaration than we could have obtained at the Organization of American States."

The most senior officer in the United States Army, General George Casey, says he has serious concerns over efforts to lift a ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military. President Obama is in favor of ending the ban and a review has been ordered. But General Casey said that while he supported the review, he was concerned about the effect overturning the ban would have on troops currently engaged in two wars.

Ethiopian Airlines say all the bodies have been recovered of 90 people killed when one of its airliners crashed into the sea off Beirut last month. The company said all victims had been identified.

BBC News.