BBC news 2010-03-14 加文本

2010-03-14 BBC

BBC News with Michael Powles

A series of suicide bombings in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar has killed at least 30 people. More than 40 others were injured. Quentin Sommerville reports from Kabul.
There were four explosions in Kandahar city just after the nightfall. Local authorities say that suicide bombers were responsible. Ahmad Wali Karzai, the Afghan president's half-brother and head of Kandahar's provincial council, told the BBC that the attack was centered on the city's prison, the scene of a Taliban assault when the mass break out in 2008. But the prison walls weren't breached, he said, although buildings in the area were destroyed by the force of the explosion. Kandahar, one of Afghanistan's largest cities, seen as a spiritual home of the Taliban is expected to be the next target of NATO-led forces have the battle to end the insurgency in the country.

The Sri Lankan political party closest to the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels has for the first time clearly stated its support for power-sharing within a federal structure. The Tamil National Alliance, which is the biggest political grouping of the ethnic minority, says it wants the two Tamil-majority provinces to be merged back into one and is demanding significant devolution of powers on issues like land and taxes. Its manifesto for next month's parliamentary elections speaks of shared sovereignty. The Tigers were defeated last year by government forces after a 25-year long battle for a separate homeland.

The latest partial results from Iraq's parliamentary election show the incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ahead of his rivals in the capital Baghdad and three other mainly Shiite provinces. Baghdad is his biggest prize so far because it accounts for 1/5 of all the seats. Andrew North reports from there.
A week since Iraqis went to the polls, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki appears to be on course for a second term. And these results put his main rival Ayad Allawi in third place. Mr Maliki's representatives have already begun talks with other parties on forming a new coalition government. There's been frustration at the time it's taking to get first these partial results out. The Americans are watching closely, knowing that their plans to bring the bulk of their forces home later this year depend on a credible result.

Tens of thousands of Italians have been taking part in a demonstration in Rome's main square against the government of the Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The protesters called out by the opposition and trade unions accused Mr Berlusconi of changing laws for his personal benefit.
"We've fed up. We protest every day in every square in Italy, every day in front of ministries, every day in front of courthouses because every day something happens that is not good. So we deserve respect as Italian citizens, and that's what we ask for."
The protest organizers also called for employment, education and health to be at the center of campaigning for this month's regional elections. A recent opinion poll suggests only low levels of support for Mr Berlusconi.

BBC News

The British government has rejected calls for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised from 10 to 12. The children's commissioner has said in Britain the age was one of the lowest in Europe and that the country was in danger of criminalizing too many children. But the Ministry of Justice said it believed children aged 10 or over knew the difference between bad behavior and serious wrongdoing.

A 3,000-year-old wooden sarcophagus stolen from Egypt over 100 years ago has been returned to Cairo. The sarcophagus was confiscated at Miami airport by customs officials after it arrived in a shipment from Spain in 2008. Magdi Abdelhadi reports.
The brightly-painted sarcophagus dates back to the 21st Dynasty which showed ancient Egypt between the 10th and 11th century BC. Investigation had found that the coffin was stolen more than 100 years ago, taken to Spain before it was shipped to the United States in recent years. Thousands of antiquities were smuggled out of Egypt mainly during the colonial period. Over the past few years, Egyptian authorities have stepped up their efforts to recover stolen artifacts.

Hadrian's Wall, the Roman wall spanning the width of northern England has been lit in entirety for the first time in 1,600 years. It took about an hour for the whole wall which is more than 100 kilometers long to be lit with gas-powered beacons.

The death has been announced to the left-wing French singer songwriter Jean Ferrat. He was 79. Ferrat was known for his lyrical love songs and political chansons, some of which were banned from broadcast in the 1960s. Jean Ferrat was born Jean Tenenbaum in a Paris suburb in 1930. When he was 11 his father was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. President Sarkozy paid tribute to Ferrat, describing him as one of the great names of the French chansons.

And with that story, we come to the end of this bulletin of BBC News.