BBC news 2010-06-19 加文本

2010-06-19 BBC

BBC News with Fiona MacDonald.

United Nations says as many as a million people may now be in need of basic aid in Kyrgyzstan and neighbouring Uzbekistan after last week's ethnic violence, most of it in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh. After visiting the city, the interim leader of Kyrgyzstan Roza Otunbayeva said 2,000 people may have died in the violence. Rupert Wingfield-Hayes has been to southern Kyrgyzstan and sent this report.

As a helicopter landed in the city's main square, Roza Otunbayeva emerged wearing a bullet-proof vest and surrounded by bodyguards with automatic weapons. Even so, she made no attempt to enter the Uzbek neighbourhoods of the city. It is there that the worst of the damage was done in four days of ethnic bloodletting last weekend. The Kyrgyz government now faces the difficult task of persuading tens of thousands of refugees that it is safe for them to return home.

President Obama sent a letter to the G20 group of industrialized countries, calling on them not to move away too quickly from using public money to stimulate flagging economies. Mr Obama said mistakes were made in the past when stimulus was withdrawn too quickly. Andrew Walker reports.

There has been a marked change in emphasis in the G20 in the last few weeks. For many of the group's member countries, especially in Europe, the case for stimulating economic recovery using the public finances has been overtaken by concerns about stabilizing government debt. The US administration has reservations about that change, and they are apparent in President Obama's letter. He warns of past mistakes when he says stimulus was withdrawn too quickly, resulting in renewed hardship and recession. He does, however, acknowledge that action will be needed to strengthen governments' finances.

A former Roman Catholic priest admired in Italy for his high-profile work against drug and alcohol addition has been indicted on charges of sexual abuse. Pierino Gelmini, who's 85, had been under investigation since 2007 when nine young men alleged he had abused them while they were living at a drug centre he founded.  Mr Gelmini denies the charges.

There has been a warning that resistance to artemisinin, one of the most important new anti-malarial medications, is spreading beyond the area of western Cambodia where it was first spotted in 2007. Vivien Marsh reports.

Drugs containing artemisinin are used to treat strains of malaria that don't respond to other medication. They have been credited with helping boost recovery rates from a disease that kills a million people a year. But now the US government's coordinator on malaria, Timothy Ziemer, has delivered a warning no one wanted to hear that resistance to artemisinin itself is spreading. He said there were now indications of malaria parasite resistance to artemisinin in southern Burma, on Burma's border with China and on the Vietnam-Cambodia border.

World News from the BBC.

Rescue workers are continuing to search for more than 50 people trapped in a mine shaft in Colombia. The miners were cut off when an explosion tore through the coal mine in the northwest of the country on Wednesday night. Vanessa Buschschluter reports.

Eighteen bodies have already been recovered from the San Fernando mine in Antioquia province. Fifty three miners are still missing. Methane gas and debris from the explosion is slowing down the search for survivors which had to be interrupted a number of times while workers tried to disperse the buildup of poisonous gas. The governor of Antioquia, Luis Alfredo Ramos, said the chances of finding anyone alive now were almost non-existent.

The Foreign Minister of Argentina Jorge Taiana has unexpectedly resigned after more than four years in the post. Mr Taiana said he had handed in his resignation after a telephone call to the President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. He cited personal reasons for stepping down, but analysts say he has recently clashed with the president over foreign policy.

Much of Zambia and large parts of Zimbabwe suffered blackouts on Friday after a fault crippled the hydro-electric dam that supplies most of the two countries' power. A breakdown at the Kariba Dam disrupted the electro grid serving the region. Most of Harare was plunged into darkness, and there was gridlock as traffic lights stopped working. Copper mines in Zambia had to halt production, leading to millions of dollars of losses.

In the World Cup in South Africa, lackluster England have been held to a goalless draw by Algeria. England have yet to win a match in the tournament. In other matches on Friday, the three-time winners of the World Cup, Germany, were beaten by Serbia, the first time in 16 years that the Germans have lost a game in the group stage, and the United States came back from two goals down against Slovenia to draw two-all.

BBC News.