BBC news 2010-06-07 加文本

2010-06-07 BBC

BBC News with Marian Marshall.

Israel has rejected a proposal by the United Nations to set up an international investigation into Israeli commando raid on aid ships bound for Gaza last week. Nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed in the operation. Israel ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, said his country should be allowed to investigate itself.

“Israel’s a democracy, Israel has the ability and the right to investigate itself, not to be investigated by any international board. I don’t think the United States would want an international inquiry into its military activities in Afghanistan, for example. We are rejecting the idea of international commission.”

Israeli officials say the proposal for an international inquiry came from the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon who said it should be led by a former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer.

Two men arrested at an airport in New York have been charged with conspiring to commit an act of international terrorism. American officials say they were on their way to join the jihadis group in Somalia with the intention of killing Americans abroad. From Washington, David Willis reports.

Mohamed Mahmood Alessa and Carlos Eduardo Almonte were arrested at New York’s busy JFK Airport as they were about to board separate flights to Somalia. According to the New York Police Department, the men who are both in their 20s and American citizens are members of a violent extremist group called al-Shabab which is based in Somalia and has links to Al-Qaeda. The men have both been the subject of a four-year undercover investigation in which they were recorded talking about planning a jihad, or holy war, against American troops.

Health officials in Nigeria say that all children under five have been taken to hospital for check-ups in areas of the northern state of Zamfara where more than 160 people died from lead poisoning this year. Most of the victims were children. The health commissioner for the state also said the government would begin removing the top soil on Monday which was contaminated when locals dug illegally for gold. He said the operation was expected to last a month.

Just days before the Football World Cup begins in South Africa, 15 people have been treated in hospital after being hurt at a friendly match between two of the tournament teams Nigeria and North Korea. Several fans were knocked down and fell out of the rush of people. The second crush took place when the gates were reopened. The stadium isn’t a World Cup venue. Piers Edwards reports from Johannesburg.

The most seriously injured as fans forced their way into the stadium in Tembisa Township in northeast Johannesburg was a policeman who were squashed between a gate and fence by the stampeding fans. Police spokesperson Eugene Opperman said the incident won’t affect the World Cup with this game effectively organized by the two teams here rather than FIFA, as it won’t happen during the World Cup finals.

World News from the BBC.

Sudan has reacted angrily to a decision by Uganda not to invite the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to an African Union conference in Kampala next month. Mr al-Bashir is wanted by the international criminal court for alleged war crimes, and Uganda as party to the treaty that established the international court is obliged to arrest the Sudanese leader if he enters its territory. The government spokesman in Khartoum told the BBC that if Uganda’s decision was confirmed, Sudan would ask the AU to move its conference to another country. 

A national referendum in Slovenia has narrowly approved the government’s decision to accept binding international arbitration in a dispute over the sea-border with Croatia. The decision should remove a major hurdle to Croatia’s membership negotiations with the European Union which had been blocked by Slovenia over the row. Mark Lowen reports.

Just under 52% voted in favor of international arbitration, a slim but highly significant victory for Slovenia’s government. Ownership of the Bay of Piran which's severely damaged relations between Slovenia and Croatia for 19 years will now be decided by a binding arbitration panel. The row over the bay had led Slovenia to block Croatia’s EU membership negotiations. That has been now cleared, giving Zagreb the hope that it can soon complete talks to join the block in 2012 which the Slovenian government supports.

Tornados and thunderstorm have swept through the mid-west of the United States, killing at least 4 people and destroying dozens of homes. All the deaths were in the state of Ohio, where a tornado tours way of the destruction through Lake Township, flattening buildings and tossing cars and buses to the air.

The Spanish tennis player Rafeal Nadal has won his fifth French Open title in Paris, defeating Ruben Sodlin of Sweden in three sets. The victory gives Nadal the No.1 spot in the world rankings - a position he lost last year to Roger Federe of Switzerland.

BBC News.