BBC news 2010-04-05 加文本

2010-04-05 BBC

BBC News with Kathy Clugston 

Tribal elders in the Afghan city of Kandahar have sharply criticized the country's President Hamid Karzai over issues of security and corruption. On a rare visit to the region, Mr Karzai was told that few dared to join the Afghan National Army because they risked being killed by the Taliban. In what the BBC correspondent there described as heated exchanges, others accused the president of failing to deal with bribery and nepotism. Mr Karzai told the gathering the people of Kandahar had to take a strong stand against the militants.

"There will be no security in Kandahar, and you will not be able to build unless all the people of Kandahar stand with one voice and pursue their sons, telling them to join the police and the army and getting education in order to serve their country and serve Kandahar."

In the Vatican's latest response to the child abuse scandal involving priests, Pope Benedict's leading Cardinal Angelo Sodano has said believers will not be influenced by what he called "petty gossip". He made his remarks during the traditional Easter Mass in St Peter's Square in Rome. From there, David Willey reports.

Pope Benedict's Easter Mass celebrated in the rain-swept St Peter's Square began with a surprise speech in defence of the pontiff by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, a senior Vatican cardinal. It was the first official reaction in Rome to a chorus of international protest of revelations about pedophile priest scandals in a number of countries. He said the Catholic Church would not be intimidated. Pope Benedict himself chose not to mention the scandals, but what the Vatican terms "petty gossip" has in fact caused a serious crisis of credibility to the Roman Catholic Church.

State television in China says that nine miners have been rescued from a flooded coal mine in Shanxi province where 153 people have been trapped for a week. Sebastian Usher has more.

The last sign of life had been the sound of tapping on Friday. Nothing had been heard since. Three thousand people have been working around the clock to try to pump out the water in the flooded mine in northern China. Now, their efforts have at least partially paid off. TV pictures showed the nine rescued miners being rushed away in ambulances to hospitals. It's believed the remaining trapped miners may be in as many as nine different locations. A preliminary investigation suggested there had been safety breaches at the mine. China's mining industry is amongst the most dangerous in the world.

Two United Nations personnel have been killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo in an attack by militants in the northwest of the country. UN sources say heavily armed rebels attacked the town of Mbandaka and overran the airport. A Ghanaian peacekeeper and another UN employee were killed along with several civilians. The BBC correspondent in Congo says it's not yet clear which group was behind the attack.

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Voters are going to the polls in Bolivia's regional and local elections, widely seen as a key contest between President Evo Morales and the opposition. President Morales, who wants to redistribute natural resources and land in favor of Bolivia's indigenous people, needs to win in most of the nine states.

Thieves in France have tunneled into the basement of a Paris bank, but fled before they could steal anything. It's the latest of several similar bank raids in the city. A week ago, thieves raided dozens of safety deposit boxes at a branch of Credit Lyonnais after digging a tunnel into the vault. With more, here is Hugh Schofield.

Last weekend's underground raid on a branch of the Credit Lyonnais seems to have whetted the appetite of other would-be bank robbers in Paris. This time, it was a branch of BNP Paribas in the southeast of the capital. Once again, the gang dug a tunnel from the sewerage system to gain access to the basement of the bank. But on this occasion, after smashing a hole in the wall at about four in the morning, the robbers set off an alarm. Police were quickly on the scene, and there was a small explosion possibly caused by a ruptured gas main. In the confusion, the robbers escaped, but empty-handed.

The Iraqi capital Baghdad has been shaken by three powerful suicide car bombings, apparently aimed at foreign embassies. At least 40 people were killed and more than 200 injured in the blasts which happened within minutes of each other, near the Iranian, Egyptian and German embassies. A senior security official said the fourth car bomb attack had been prevented.

Israel has allowed ten truckloads of clothes and shoes for Palestinian traders into the Gaza Strip for the first time since Hamas seized control of the territory three years ago. Food and other humanitarian goods have been allowed into the territory in the past, but this is the first time privately-owned goods have been let in. Israel's under pressure to lift its blockade of Gaza.

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