BBC news 2010-06-16 加文本

2010-06-16 BBC

BBC News with David Austin

An inquiry into the events, known as Bloody Sunday when 13 civilians were shot dead by British soldiers in Londonderry in Northern Ireland in 1972, has found that what happened was "unjustified and unjustifiable". Addressing parliament, the British Prime Minister David Cameron apologized on behalf of the government and the country. He said he hoped the inquiry's findings would help the process of reconciliation.

"Bloody Sunday was a tragedy for the bereaved and the wounded, and a catastrophe for the people of Northern Ireland. Those are words we cannot and must not ignore. But I hope what this report can also do is mark the moment when we come together in this House and in the communities we represent. Come together to acknowledge our shared history, even where it divides us, and come together to close this painful chapter on Northern Ireland's troubled past."

The Saville inquiry, named after the man who headed it, was set up in 1998 after an earlier investigation largely exonerated the army. It's the longest and most expensive inquiry in British legal history. Norman Smith assesses its main findings.
Lord Saville's report paints a damning picture of the actions of British paratroopers on the streets of Londonderry. Orders, he says, were disobeyed; shots were fired without warning. Civilians were fired at or they lay on the ground over just yards away. And this, despite the fact there was no threat to the paratroopers from the civil rights protesters. The casualties, said Lord Saville, were the victims of unjustified firing by the soldiers. None of them were armed. Lord Saville also accuses some of the paratroopers of giving knowingly untrue and false accounts to the inquiry, opening up the possibility of prosecution for perjury.

Members of the US Congress have accused major oil companies of being no better prepared than BP to prevent environmental disasters. They had called oil executives to testify on Capitol Hill and expressed frustration at BP's failure to prevent oil leaking from its stricken rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile, BP has had more problems with its recovery operation, as Andy Gallacher reports.

BP has temporarily suspended its operation after a fire reportedly broke out on the deck of one of its containment vessels. The fire on the Discovery Enterprise has since been put out, and the company says it may have been started following a lightning strike. Nobody was injured during the fire, and BP says the containment procedure will restart later on Tuesday. The Discovery Enterprise has been collecting about 15,000 barrels of oil a day, and BP plans to drastically increase that amount in the next few weeks.

The United Nations refugee agency says it believes that more than a quarter of a million people have now fled fierce ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan. It's launching an emergency airlift of supplies to try to help ease the crisis.

This is the World News from the BBC in London.

The United Nations is to distribute the aid seized by the Israeli navy from a flotilla of ships that tried to break the Gaza blockade. A UN official said Israel had now agreed to release the entire cargo from three Turkish ships, provided it was used only for humanitarian purposes. Israel seized the vessels last month after its commandos raided the aid ships. Nine activists were killed in the operation.

A train crash in northwestern Mexico has killed at least 10 people. Officials said a train carrying corn crashed into another that was being repaired on the track at a station in Sinaloa state. Some of the dead are reported to be illegal migrants.

North Korea's ambassador of the United Nations has warned the UN Security Council that his country would declare war if it were to be punished over the sinking of a South Korean warship. Ambassador Sin Son-ho was speaking at a news conference in New York where he insisted that Pyongyang had nothing to do with the torpedo attack. He said South Korea had refused North Korea's offer of cooperation in investigating the sinking and accused it of preferring instead to falsified evidence.
"The South Korea side has so far refused to accept our regional proposal, but brought the case to the Security Council with its unilateral, fabricated investigation result."

North Korea's international footballers have made their first appearance at the World Cup since 1966, but they lost two-one to the five-time winners Brazil. Earlier, New Zealand drew one-all with Slovakia, and/when Ivory Coast and Portugal also drew nil-nil.

A giant statue of Jesus Christ in Ohio in the United States has been destroyed by lightning. The 19-metre-high sculpture on a highway outside Cincinnati caught fire and burnt to the ground after being struck during a thunderstorm. Insurance companies have described the incident as "an act of God".

And that's the latest BBC News.