BBC news 2010-08-31 加文本

BBC news 2010-08-31

BBC News with Jerry Smit

The United States is imposing fresh financial sanctions against North Korea. The new measures target five companies and organizations and three individuals, all linked to the country's weapons of mass destruction programme. From Washington, Laura Trevelyan reports.

The US government is widening the scope of sanctions against North Korea in an effort to cut off all income that may be used for the country's nuclear programme. Now companies involved in North Korea's trade in arms, luxury goods, drug trafficking and money counterfeiting that have financial assets in America can be targeted. This latest move underlines the poor state of relations between the US and North Korea. The current American policy is to ratchet up economic sanctions against the North and carry out joint American-South Korean naval exercises.

A report into the controversy surrounding the UN's climate change panel, the IPCC, says the organization needs fundamental change and stronger leadership. But it concluded the panel's overall work had been successful. The report was commissioned after critics began highlighting mistakes in IPCC documents in the run-up to the Copenhagen conference on climate change. Barbara Plett is at the UN.

The review board broadly endorsed the work of the UN's climate change panel, but it made extensive recommendations for changing the body's largely part-time management structure. It suggested setting up an executive committee, limiting the terms of the chairman and implementing checks on potential conflicts of interest among the leadership. It also recommended tightening procedures to prevent the kind of errors found in the panel's most recent study. Officials said the reforms were necessary to restore the credibility of the panel, which puts together the main documents used by governments to formulate responses to global warming.

The federal police force in Mexico says it has sacked almost 10% of its officers this year in a wide-ranging effort to combat corruption. The police commissioner said the 3,200 officers fired had either failed to do their job properly or been linked to corruption or organized crime. With more, here is Julian Miglierini in Mexico City.

Among them are federal police commanders who had been deployed to Ciudad Juarez, the border city with the US which has been ravaged by drug-related violence. Last month, their junior officers publicly accused them of having links with organized crime. Another 1,200 officers, the statement said, face disciplinary procedures. Polygraphs and background checks have become regular procedures in Mexican police forces since it is feared that the corruption of police is a key element in the drug cartels' power.

The first of more than 500 military personnel are starting to patrol the US border with Mexico in the state of Arizona. The authorities say they will provide extra eyes and ears for existing border agents. The National Guard troops are part of a deployment of nearly 1,200 being sent by President Obama to border states to reinforce security.

World News from the BBC

A gunman has killed seven people in a suburb of the Slovak capital Bratislava before turning the gun on himself. Police say six of the victims were members of the same family. The seventh was apparently killed by a stray bullet. Slovak media has reported that the family were members of the Roma community. The gunman has been described as a white man armed with a submachine gun.

The French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has defended President Sarkozy's decision to deport thousands of Roma people, saying the majority of French people support the policy. Mr Fillon said France was a violent society, made all the more so because of the intermingling of people with different cultural origins and traditions. The deportation policy has drawn widespread criticism.

Talks have resumed between the South African government and trade unions to end an increasingly bitter public sector strike. President Zuma instructed his ministers to reopen negotiations with the unions representing more than a million workers. Karen Allen reports from Johannesburg.

More than a fortnight after strikes have seen state hospitals thrown into turmoil and high school exams cancelled, an end could be in sight. Negotiations have resumed between ministers and South Africa's powerful trade unions after President Jacob Zuma ordered fresh attempts at reconciliation. The unions have been demanding an 8.6% pay rise; the government's maintained that it can't go above 7%. But President Zuma's intervention signals a softening of this hard-line stance.

A new effort is underway in Japan to end links between organized crime and the ancient sport of sumo wrestling. The Japan Sumo Association has announced that known members of criminal gangs will be excluded from all its events, and says new surveillance cameras will be installed at Tokyo's largest sumo venue to improve security. The reputation of sumo wrestling has been badly hit by a series of scandals this year.

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