BBC news 2010-05-25 加文本

2010-05-25 BBC

BBC News with Jim Lee.

Police in Jamaica have begun an operation to take control of the headquarters of the alleged drug dealer Christopher "Dudus" Coke, at the centre of the recent unrest in the capital Kingston. As the violence continues, the US State Department has said its embassy in Kingston is suspending none-essential services. Nick Davis sent this report from Kingston.

The Jamaican Defence Force were in convoys as they headed out of their base in the centre of Kingston to go downtown to the west of the city where the security forces spent much of the night fighting gunmen. Heavily armed soldiers have sand bags attached to their vehicles as they moved in on Tivoli where it’s believed Christopher "Dudus" Coke is said to be hiding. It’s been reported that the operation which starts about three hours ago has seen heavy fighting. There’ve been reports on the number of casualties and bodies seen in the streets.

The oil giant BP has pledged up to $500 million to fund research into the long-term environmental effects of the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The company has faced stinging criticism over its handling of the spill. The offer came as a delegation of White House officials and Senators flew over the Louisiana coastline to assess the extent of the pollution. The US Interior Secretary said the government would continue, as he put it, to keep its foot on BP’s neck. BP has meanwhile said another method is to be tried to stop the oil leak, the pumping of mud into the blown-out wellhead.

Ethiopia’s election commission says provisional results from Sunday’s parliamentary election show that the governing party of the Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has a clear lead. The poll has been condemned by the human rights group, Human Rights Watch, as theatre. Will Ross reports from Addis Ababa.

Victory for Ethiopia’s governing party was widely expected, but few had predicted  such a landslide. Even in the capital Addis Ababa where the opposition swept the board in the last election, the governing party is said to win almost all the seats. Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi came to power in 1991. He puts the victory down to an impressive track record, especially in terms of economic growth. However, the governing party has been accused of using intimidation to suppress the opposition. Human Rights Watch described Ethiopia’s election as multi-party theatre staged by a single party state.

A Kenyan constitutional court has ruled that Islamic courts are illegal and discriminatory. A panel of three judges ruled that the courts favoured Islam over other faiths. Mary Harper reports.

A panel of three judges ruled that the provision for Islamic courts in the constitution favoured Islam over other faiths. The Christian church in Kenya which brought the case to court six years ago has long been opposed to the existence of Islamic courts, which mainly deal with matters of marriage and inheritance. The issue of Islamic courts and that of abortion have been a sticking point in the country’s new proposed constitution, which is due to go to a referendum in August.

World News from the BBC.

The International Monetary Fund has called on Spain to carry out urgent and far-reaching reforms to its economy, with growing concern about the country’s debt and signs of only a fragile economic recovery. The IMF said changes must be made to the labour market which it described as dysfunctional.

Police in Iraq say a newly elected Member of Parliament has been shot dead in the city of Mosul. Bashar al-Ageidi was elected in March and was part of the secular alliance headed by the former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. Officials said he was killed outside his house by two gunmen, one of whom has been captured. Jim Muir reports from Baghdad.

Mr al-Ageidi is the first of the new-elected deputies to be killed. In his mid-thirties with three young daughters, he was one of twenty Sunni leaders elected from Mosul in alliance with Iyad Allawi’s secular coalition, helping give him the narrow 2-seat lead with which he emerged from the polls. Although Mr Allawi has complained about harassment and victimisation of his followers by forces loyal to his chief rival – the incumbent Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. The most obvious suspects in an assassination like this are militant Sunni insurgents, bent on disrupting the political process and deterring people from taking part in it.

Left-wing rebels in Columbia have ambushed a military patrol killing at least nine marines. The troops were attacked as they approached the guerrilla camp in the Amazon rain forest in the southern region of Caqueta, a stronghold of the Farc rebel group. The bloodshed comes six days before elections to choose a successor to President Alvaro Uribe.

One of the world’s great opera houses, the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, is reopening after a 4-year restoration project costing about $100 million. The opening gala performance is one of the highlights of celebrations to mark Argentina’s bicentenary. President Cristina Fernandez has said she won’t be attending because of a dispute with the head of the Buenos Aires’s city government. 

BBC News.