BBC news 2010-05-28 加文本

2010-05-28 BBC

BBC News with Michael Polls.

President Obama has announced a shake-up of the offshore oil industry after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. He's halted exploratory deep water drilling for another six months, and suspended test drilling on 33 rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. He’s also dismissed the head of the government agency monitoring offshore drilling, as Mark Mardell reports from Washington.

President Obama has sacked the head of the government body that oversees the safety of rigs and ordered to stop the plans for new deep water drilling in the seas around the United States for six months, while a presidential commission prepares its report into the accident. Shell had planed to start drilling in shallow water of Alaska in the summer; that’s been stopped temporarily, too. Proposals to drill off Virginia had been cancelled for good, partly because of objections by the Defence Department which has a big naval base in the area.

The oil company responsible for the Gulf of Mexico spillage, BP, is still pumping mud to try to plug the hole in the damaged well. Government scientists say that up to three million liters of oil a day are being gushing out of the broken pipe, at least three times more than BP’s original estimate. Eleven workers were killed in the initial explosion five weeks ago on the rig.

United States has unveiled its long-term security strategy. In the new document, President Obama’s administration pledges more diplomatic efforts to reverse the spread of nuclear arms. It says that it will work with China in matters of mutual interest but will also monitor Beijing's military development. Madeleine Morris has more from Washington.

Diplomacy and development as tools for security find a new prominence in President Obama’s first National Security Strategy. Out is the phrase “war on terror”, instead the strategy refers explicitly to combating al-Qaeda and its affiliates. And for the first time fighting the threat of home-grown terrorism receives serious attention, following a number of attempted unsuccessful attacks by American citizens on American soil. The strategy also focuses on Iran and North Korea, saying the US will use multiple means to isolate the two countries over their nuclear ambitions.

The Jamaican government says that at least 73 civilians are now known to have been killed in clashes in the capital Kingston. The Security Forces have been going from house to house in the Tivoli Gardens area of Kingston, searching for Christopher “Dudus” Coke who’s wanted in the US on drug and gun-running charges. Nick Davis has been in Tivoli Gardens.

During a walk-around of the area, I spoke to people in the community. They claimed the military had killed and arrested a large number of innocent people. There were hardly any men. Some 560 people have been arrested in the last few days. There were bullet holes in some of the buildings and trucks have been used to remove the last of the barriers erected by gunmen to stop the Security Forces. The police say they’ve recovered the bodies of 73 civilians and found nearly 8,000 rounds of ammunition.

This is the World News from the BBC.

Members of an indigenous community in Bolivia say they’ve lynched four policemen in the province of Potosi. They accused the policemen. who belonged to a unit tackling car theft. of extortion. The area is a well-known smuggling route for cars from neighboring Chile. A local police chief said the group had threatened to lynch anyone trying to retrieve the bodies.

A video has been posted on the internet showing members of the Russian Parliament rushing around the chamber, voting on behalf of absent colleagues. The footage shows the chamber was rows and rows of empty seats with only a few deputies present, some of them reading newspapers. But when voting time comes, the deputies dash from empty desk to empty desk, pressing the electronic voting buttons.

The European football authorities have approved new financial rules designed to stop clubs spending more than they earn. UEFA which governs the sport in Europe will monitor clubs’ finances over a three-year period to make sure they comply. Our sports correspondent Alex Capstick reports.

UEFA is determined to limit the lavish spending which has become such a feature of the game. A recent report found that half of Europe's leading clubs were losing money, and 20% faced huge deficits. Under the new rules, they will have to break-even. Clubs will not be allowed to spend more money than they generate. Rich benefactors will no longer be allowed to subsidize expensive transfers and salaries. Those clubs which consistently operate outside the parameters will be barred from European competitions.

South Africa's trade union federation has threatened to strike during the Football World Cup. The unions want recent electricity price rises reversed.  The Secretary General of the Congress of South Africa Trade Unions, Zwelinzima Vavi, said key talks were due on June 14th during the first week of the World Cup. In the separate development, the country’s Transport Union, Transnet, said it had accepted a new wage deal and would end the three-week strike which has affected ports on the rail network.

And that’s the BBC News.