BBC news 2010-10-06 加文本

BBC news 2010-10-06

BBC News with Nick Kelly

The Hungarian government says it will take more than a year and cost tens of millions of dollars to clear up the damage caused by toxic sludge, which burst from a reservoir. Four people were killed and more than 100 injured after the mud from an industrial plant engulfed villages near the town of Ajkai. The Hungarian Environment Minister Zoltan Illes told the BBC that the spill covered an area 20km long by 10km wide. Mr Illes described the scale of the disaster.

"Unfortunately, never happened on this planet earth a similar accident of this magnitude and this size caused by red mud. So according to our estimation, minimum one and half years is needed and a really vast amount of money to clean up the area."

A Pakistani-American who tried to set off a bomb in Times Square in New York has been sentenced to life in prison. The man, Faisal Shahzad, told the court in the city that he was defending Islam. From New York, Laura Trevelyan reports.

Faisal Shahzad tried to set off a car bomb in the packed Times Square on a warm May evening. But his bomb didn't detonate, and he was dramatically arrested on the runway, trying to flee the country two days later. Shahzad had trained with the Pakistani Taliban in Pakistan and had received money from them to build his bomb. He said he wanted to attack the US because of the American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. US prosecutors say Shahzad showed no remorse for his attempted attack, only pride.

French police have detained 12 people in the south of the country suspected of links to Islamist extremism. Nine were detained in the cities of Marseille and Avignon on suspicion of arms and explosives trafficking. Weapons and ammunition were seized. The other three were arrested in an operation against a network alleged to be supplying forged papers to jihadists returning from Afghanistan. The police haven't said if the arrests are linked to warnings of an increased terror threat in parts of Europe.

Details have been emerging which suggest that Monday's missile strike by a pilotless American plane in northwest Pakistan may have been part of a US effort to disrupt the reported plans of al-Qaeda to attack targets in Europe. Missiles killed eight militants, including five German citizens. More from our security correspondent Gordon Corera.

There has been a steady flow of suspected terrorists heading out from Germany, including a dozen people who left in early 2009 from a mosque linked to the 9/11 attack. One person associated with that group, Ahmed Sidiqi, was arrested in Afghanistan this summer, and during his interrogation by US officials, he is believed to have spoken of a plot to carry out commando-style gun attacks in Europe. Additional intelligence heighten concerns over such a plot, but both British and German officials have suggested that they do not believe an attack is imminent.

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The United Nations says it has arrested the head of a Congolese rebel group suspected of leading attacks involving the mass rape of hundreds of civilians. The UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo says it captured the commander of the Mai Mai Cheka militia, Lt Col Mayele, during a military operation. Jonny Hogg reports.

Lt Col Mayele was arrested in Walikale in eastern Congo. The UN suspect that a little over two months ago in the same area, he and his men systematically raped civilians over a four-day period. Around 200 militia members from different groups are thought to have been responsible for the attacks, which are an extreme example of the sexual violence that has characterised the conflict in eastern Congo. The UN has been strongly criticised because its peacekeepers did not stop the atrocities.

The Nigerian government has denied allegations that it tried to get a rebel group from the Niger Delta to retract a statement claiming responsibility for deadly bomb attacks last week in Abuja. The allegations were made by Henry Okah, the former head of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, who was arrested on terror charges following the bombings. He said that a close associate of the Nigerian president asked him to persuade the movement to drop its claim in an attempt to pin the blame on another group.

There have been a number of explosions in the city of Kandahar in southeastern Afghanistan. Nine people are reported to have been killed, and more than 20 injured. Police officers are reported to be among the casualties.

And President Obama is to install solar panels on the White House roof. The solar panels will provide some of the electricity needed to power the White House and heat water for the president's family, they'll not be the first on the roof though. President Jimmy Carter had some put-in in 1979 to boost alternative energy during an oil crisis, but his successor, Ronald Reagan, had them removed during repairs to the roof.

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