BBC news 2010-06-09 加文本

2010-06-09 BBC

BBC News with David Austin.

The authorities in the West African state of Gambia have seized cocaine which could have been sold for more than a billion dollars in Europe. Up to two and a half tons of cocaine were discovered in a warehouse near the capital Banjul. The arrests come as Latin American drug cartels continue to use West Africa as a transit route for trafficking cocaine into Europe. More from Mark Doyle.

In addition to the huge haul of drugs, the Gambian authorities have arrested a dozen suspected traffickers, seized large quantities of cash, some arms and numerous revealing computer records. Gambian anti-drug investigators made the first arrests then called in the British Serious Organised Crime Agency, the rough equivalent of the American FBI, to help in gathering forensic evidence. One thing led to another, and finally with British help the haul of highly concentrated cocaine was discovered behind a false wall in a basement.

The United Nations Security Council has announced it will vote on Wednesday on whether to impose fresh sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme. Earlier, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran would not agree to further talks on its nuclear programme if the UN imposed new sanctions. Barbara Plett reports from New York.

The resolution was watered down during negotiations with Russia and China, but it does tighten existing restrictions on areas like shipping and finance. It also increases the number of individuals and companies targeted with asset freezes and travel bans. According to reports, a very senior nuclear official has been added to the list, but other council members, Brazil and Turkey, say sanctions will kill attempts to revive negotiations with Iran. They've been urging the security council to give a chance to a confidence-building deal they brokered with Iran and have now organised a special session to explain their position to all UN member states.

The United States has charged six people with conspiring to provide Iran with satellite surveillance equipment in defiance of an American trade embargo in place since 1995. The charges alleged that the six had created a network of front companies to disguise the involvement of the Iranian government in the purchase of high-tech equipment which allegedly enabled Iran to launch a surveillance satellite five years ago.

Police in Britain have raided offices and homes linked to three companies selling suspected fake bomb detectors abroad. The raids follow the arrest in January of the head of a British firm who sold large quantities of the supposed bomb detectors to Iraq. Police say tests have shown they can't detect explosives or anything else. The head of the investigation is Detective Superintendent Colin Cowan.

"Concern about these devices is that they've been deliberately manufactured and sold globally in the knowledge that they actually don't work, and that the people have been purchasing them and distributing them to people in their own countries, that there is overseas corruption in the middle of those exchanges."

Detective Superintendent Colin Cowan.

World News from the BBC.

The United Nations refugee agency says it's been ordered to leave Libya where it cares for thousands of migrants every year. A UN spokeswoman says the Libyan government didn't give any explanation for the decision. Tens of thousands of migrants from across Africa arrive in Libya each year, many hoping to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. Libya has no national asylum system of its own, so the UN assesses asylum claims.

The American carmaker General Motors says it's recalling about 1.5 million vehicles worldwide because of an electrical fault that could cause fire. GM conducted a similar recall in 2008 but says it's come across new reports of fires in vehicles that have been fixed. Most of the vehicles affected are in the United States, along with Mexico and Canada. It follows a much bigger recall by the Japanese carmaker Toyota earlier this year.

A new law has taken effect in Poland which can force some rapists and pedophiles to undergo chemical castration. Such a procedure to control the criminal sex drive would apply in cases involving sex offences against children or incest. Here is Sean Fanning.

The law was passed last year with strong backing from the Prime Minister Donald Tusk after the case of a man in his 40s convicted of repeatedly raping his daughter and fathering two children by her. Anyone guilty of raping a child under the age of 15 can be forced to submit to chemical and psychological therapy to reduce sex drive at the end of a prison term. A court decides on the appropriate therapy after consulting experts. Chemical castration has been tried elsewhere, but normally on a voluntary basis, such as in France or Canada.

Nelson Mandela's grandson Nkosi says his grandfather is likely to greet fans and players for the first few minutes of the Football World Cup opening game on Friday, but he said that at 91, Mr Mandela was unlikely to sit through the whole match.

That's the latest BBC News.