BBC news 2010-03-24 加文本

2010-03-24 BBC

BBC News. This is Mike Cooper.

Britain has announced the expulsion of an Israeli diplomat following the use of forged British passports by the killers of a Palestinian Hamas commander in Dubai in January. The Foreign Secretary David Miliband told parliament there was strong evidence that Israel was responsible for the misuse of the passports, the originals of which belong to people with dual British and Israeli citizenship.

Given that this was a very sophisticated operation in which high quality forgeries were made. The government judges it is highly likely that the forgeries were made by a state intelligence service. Taking this, together with other inquiries, we have concluded that there're compelling reasons to believe that Israel was responsible for the misuse of the British passports.

The American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is leading a delegation to Mexico to discuss collaboration in the fight against drug trafficking. Her visit follows the recent murder of three people connected to the United States' Consulate in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez.

Four pensioners in Germany have been found guilty of kidnapping and an extraordinary case of hostage taking. The four lost savings worth around three million dollars through bad investments in the US property market. They blamed their financial adviser. Steve Rosenberg was in court.

In court, they looked the most unlikely group of criminals. A 74-year-old architect, his 80-year-old wife, a retired doctor and their accomplice,  a 61-year-old businessman. But the court found them guilty of crimes ranging from grievous bodily harm to kidnapping. The man they'd abducted wasn't in court to hear the verdict. James Amburn was the pensioners' financial adviser. The investment's specialist was kidnapped, gagged, stuffed into a crate, dumped to a car boot and driven to a lakeside hideaway.

The World Trade Organization has made a ruling on a complaint about European government subsidies to the planemaker Airbus. Although the ruling has not been made public, reports say it does find that some aspects of the financial aid broke WTO rules. Andrew Walker reports.

This is not the end of this long running and acrimonious dispute, but it is an important stage. Several EU governments provided financing for Airbus in the form of grants and loans. The US complained that the arrangement broke the rules in some respects a WTO panel has upheld an allegation. Although according to Airbus, 70% of this specific complaints were rejected. Under the ruling, France, Germany, Britain and Spain should cease those subsidies found to be illegal although much of the money has already been paid.

President Obama has signed his groundbreaking health care bill at a ceremony in the White House. The new law will gradually extend health insurance cover to more than 30 million Americans who currently don't have any. Mr.Obama hailed the legislation as historic, saying it came after a century of struggle for reform.

World News from the BBC.

Officials in Pakistan say four militants who have been killed by missiles fired by US drones or pilotless aircraft in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan,.The officials say the missiles hit an area near the main town in North Waziristan, Miramshah. The identities of those killed are not yet known.

The acting President of Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan has sent the names of his proposed cabinet to the upper house of parliament, the Senate. The move follows Mr.Jonathan's dissolution last week of the cabinet appointed by his predecessor, the ailing president Umaru Yar'Adua.

The German car company Daimler has been accused of paying bribes to a large number of foreign governments. The allegations are made in court papers filed in the United States. Daimler which produces Mercedes-Benz cars and trucks, is said to have made payments in order to secure a contract. Here is our business reporter Duncan Bartlett.

The US Justice Department has accused Daimler of paying tens of millions of dollars in bribes to officials of at least 22 foreign governments. American law prohibits companies which operate in the US from making improper payments to officials of other countries. The Reuters News Agency says it's learned from a source close to Daimler that it is preparing to make an out of court settlement. However, a Daimler spokesperson contacted by the BBC would only say that the matter is scheduled to be heard in court next month and declining to say whether the company was set to enter a guilty plea or will deny the charges.

The army in Bolivia has begun using a controversial new motto introduced by President Evo Morales as part of his effort to turn the armed forces into guarantors of his socialist revolution. At a ceremony in La paz, troops chanted," Fatherland or death, we will conquer." A slogan borrowed from Communist Cuba. The new mottos angered some former Bolivian generals who helped defeat the Argentine-born Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara when he launched a guerrilla campaign in Bolivia in the 1960s.

BBC News.