BBC news 2010-08-13 加文本

2010-08-13 BBC

It will block all emails and messages from BlackBerry smartphones unless the manufacturers give it access to secure data by the end of this month. As Mark Gregory reports, India is the latest country to express security concerns about BlackBerry's Secure Data Systems.

The ultimatum came after what was described as an "inconclusive meeting" between India's interior minister and the Canadian company that makes BlackBerries. The company, Research in Motion, is now under intense pressure to give Indian security services unencrypted access to its secure messaging system. India is worried that BlackBerries are being used by terrorists and criminals to swap secret messages. Other countries, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Algeria, have expressed similar concerns.

The President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari has sought to fend off a public outcry over his response to the country's catastrophic floods by visiting flood-affected areas for the first time. He visited Sukkur in Sindh province where he handed out aid while being briefed about the damage. The first US helicopters have arrived in Pakistan to join the relief operation, but many people are still waiting for help.

The oil company BP has agreed to pay a record fine in the United States for failing to improve safety at a Texas refinery where 15 people were killed in an explosion in 2005. Here is Iain Mackenzie.

The company was originally fined $21 million - that was increased to 50 million after it was found BP failed to implement safety recommendations made after the explosion. The company is still contesting a further $30 million in fines over an even more recent round of safety violations. Families of those killed in the blast have said BP should’ve been forced to pay out much more. The settlement comes as the company faces far greater payouts over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. For that, BP has agreed to set aside $20 billion.

A suspected Israeli secret agent has been extradited to Germany in connection with the killing of a leading Hamas figure in Dubai. The man, Uri Brodsky, was sent to Germany from Poland. German prosecutors accuse him of illegally obtaining a German passport. Here's Tristana Moore.

German prosecutors say they believe the passport was used in connection with the assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai in January, and they ask the Polish authorities to hand over the alleged Mossad agent. The last week, a Polish court ruled the suspect could only be extradited on charges of forgery related to the false passport application in the German city of Cologne. So German prosecutors can now only charge him with this offense which carries a lesser penalty - a fine or a maximum sentence of three years in prison.

World News from the BBC.

A judge in the American State of California has ruled that same-sex marriages can resume from next Wednesday. The decision follows last week's ruling that California's ban on gay and lesbian marriages was unconstitutional. Many religious and conservative groups have already begun appeals against the lifting of the ban.

The chief executive of the car manufacturer General Motors has announced he’s to leave the company after a year in the job. Ed Whitacre has been overseeing the firm's affairs since it emerged from bankruptcy protection last summer. Here is Duncan Bartlett.

Ed Whitacre admitted he knew little about cars when he joined the firm, but his focus was on cost cutting and the sale of uNPRofitable divisions. General Motors has now started making a profit again, and is expected to sell shares on the stock market soon, raising money to repay its debts. Mr Whitacre had made it clear he expected to be an interim leader, but the timing of his departure has still caught many people outside the firm by surprise. He'll be replaced by Dan Akerson, who was appointed to the board of GM by the Obama administration a year ago.

A special session of the United States Senate has passed new legislation to toughen security along the border with Mexico. The $600-million bill will pay for hundreds of new border patrol and customs agents as well as communications equipment and unmanned surveillance drones. It'll be funded by increasing the fees paid by companies that bring large numbers of employees into the US on "skilled worker" visas.

A huge global project to use the untapped potential of people's home computers has helped to discover a rare star 17,000 light-years from earth. The star was found with the help of hundreds of thousands of volunteers who, using a special piece of software, allowed researchers to process data on their computers when they weren't being used.

BBC News.