BBC news 2010-02-26 加文本

2010-02-26 BBC

BBC News with Zoe Diamond.

President Obama has been hosting a televised political summit to try to rescue his plans to reform America's health care system. Mr Obama said health care was an urgent issue that affected all Americans. This report from Mark Mardell in Washington begins with the president urging Republicans and Democrats to set aside their party differences.

"I hope that this isn't a political theater, where we are just playing to the cameras and criticizing each other, but instead we’re actually trying to solve the problem."

That's perhaps a vain hope for a televised gathering of 41 politicians from opposing parties, all with moving stories. This could end up as a blame game. The Republicans are calling for the president to tear up his plans and start from scratch. He keeps trying to drag them back to concrete proposals.

One of the most powerful security officials in Algeria has been shot dead in his office in central Algiers. The Algerian Interior Ministry said the officer, Colonel Ali Tounsi, had devoted many years to fighting terrorism in Algeria, but suggested there was no link between his death and an insurgency involving al-Qaeda militants. Bob Trevelyan reports.

The Algerian Interior Ministry says Colonel Tounsi was holding a meeting in his office in central Algiers, when a police colleague there was seized by what it called a fit of madness. It said the colleague shot Colonel Tounsi, and then turned the weapon on himself. The attacker is said to be seriously injured and has been taken to hospital. One report said he'd been facing disciplinary action and had argued with Colonel Tounsi shortly before the incident, but this hasn't been confirmed.

The French President Nicolas Sarkozy has admitted that France and other western countries made mistakes during the 1994 Rwandan genocide that led to their failure to stop the mass killings. Speaking in the Rwandan capital Kigali, Mr Sarkozy said his visit signaled the start of a better relationship with the African country.

"An extremely painful page. And I would like to mention enclosing my admiration for all the Rwandan men and women for their ability to rebuild their country. And if reconciliation has taken place in Rwanda, how could reconciliation not have taken place between Rwanda and France?"

Men seen as likely to be violent towards their estranged wives could be forced to wear an electronic tag under a law being debated in the French parliament. The proposal is part of a draft law on conjugal violence which has cross-party support. Parliament is also considering outlawing psychological violence in the home because it's seen as a precursor to physical violence.

The Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has called for a jihad against Switzerland. He criticized a recent Swiss vote against the building of minarets and described the Alpine nation as an infidel obscene state.

This is Zoe Diamond with the latest World News from the BBC.

A court in Moscow has jailed nine people for up to 23 years for a series of racist attacks, including several murders. The nine, who were members of a neo-Nazi gang calling themselves the White Wolves, were convicted earlier this month. Artyom Liss reports from Moscow.

They clubbed some of their victims to death with wooden planks. They killed others by repeatedly stabbing them with knives and screwdrivers. In one case, a glazier from Kyrgyzstan was stabbed 73 times as the gang members shouted "Russia for the Russians" and filmed the murder on their mobile phones. Human rights activists have welcomed these sentences. They admit that the police are now cracking down on skinhead gangs. But even so, last year alone, dozens were killed in Russia and hundreds injured, simply for not looking Slavic and for speaking with a foreign accent.

A fire at a garment factory in Bangladesh has killed at least 18 people and injured more than 50 others. Fire crews said they had rescued dozens of workers from the fire. Some were in a critical condition.

The European Court of Justice has ruled that Israeli goods made in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank cannot benefit from a trade deal giving Israel preferential access to European markets. The decision is a victory for pro-Palestinian campaigners who argue that because the settlements are not part of Israel and are regarded as illegal under international law, they should not receive trade privileges.

The BBC has been criticized rather for going over budget by nearly 180 million dollars while redeveloping two of its main broadcasting centers. The National Audit Office, which oversees public spending in Britain, said the BBC fails to deliver value for money on the London and Glasgow projects. The BBC said it accepted that mistakes were made, but added that it had learned lessons and applied them to later building work. The BBC Trust, which commissioned the report, said the British public had been let down.

BBC News.