BBC news 2010-10-07 加文本

BBC news 2010-10-07

BBC News with Iain Purdon

The United States has apologised for the Nato helicopter attack inside Pakistan last week that killed at least two Pakistani soldiers and provoked the fury of the government in Islamabad. From Washington, Adam Brooks reports.

The American Ambassador in Islamabad Anne Patterson called the killings a terrible accident. An investigation found that US helicopters mistook Pakistani soldiers for militants and fired on them, killing two and injuring four. In response to the attack, Pakistan closed an important border crossing, and hundreds of trucks loaded with supplies for the military effort in Afghanistan are now held up inside Pakistan. The Americans will be hoping that this apology will reopen the border crossing.

In the latest incident, police in northwestern Pakistan say militants have attacked and destroyed a parked convoy of Nato fuel tankers bound for Afghanistan. The raid near Peshawar comes hours after the Pakistani Taliban said they carried out a similar attack further south on the outskirts of Quetta. A Nato spokesman has said military operations in Afghanistan were not being affected because there were already plenty of supplies inside the country.

United States federal agents have arrested more than 60 Puerto Rican police officers on drugs-related charges after what's been described as the biggest police corruption investigation the FBI has ever mounted. Andy Gallacher reports from Miami.

In a series of predawn raids, over 100 people including members of the US military, prison guards and civilians were arrested in a huge operation coordinated from the US mainland. Almost 90 of those taken into custody were police officers accused of providing security for drug deals on the island in exchange for cash. Amongst the other charges are allegations that officers supplied and sold cocaine. The police force in Puerto Rico already has a tarnished reputation, but nothing has ever happened on this scale before.

The US government has suffered a serious setback in its first attempt to try a Guantanamo Bay detainee in a civilian court because of the way the defendant was treated while in CIA custody. The judge at the court in New York barred the prosecution's key witness from testifying, saying he'd only been located because of statements the defendant had made under cruel interrogation at a secret CIA jail. The witness was expected to testify that he'd sold explosives to the accused Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, which were later used in the bomb attacks on two US embassies in East Africa in 2008.

The British Prime Minister David Cameron facing criticism over wide-ranging budget cuts has told his Conservative Party conference that he can promise prosperity in the future if difficult decisions are taken now. Mr Cameron said he wished there were an easier way but warned of job losses and spending cuts to come. He also laid out his vision for what he called a smaller and more nimble state.

World News from the BBC

The Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has urged the European Union not to add to the pressure for China to increase the value of its currency, the yuan. The EU has recently added its voice to long-standing complaints by the United States that the value of the yuan was artificially low, giving an unfair boost to China's exports. Speaking in Brussels, Mr Wen said a sharp revaluation could seriously damage the Chinese economy.

"If China raises its exchange rate by 20% to 40%, then many of our export companies will have to close down, and those enterprises' employees will lose jobs, and migrants will have to return back to their villages, and that will give rise to social turmoil. Should China's economy run into a crisis, that would not be good news for the world."

The World Wide Fund for Nature says researchers working in the Mekong River basin which stretches down South East Asia from China to the sea in Vietnam have discovered previously unknown life forms at a staggering speed. Our South East Asia correspondent Rachel Harvey reports from Bangkok.

A fish with curving teeth that make it look like an aquatic vampire and a carnivorous plant that grows up to seven metres high, they are among the stars of a report designed to raise awareness of the rich biodiversity of the Greater Mekong. The World Wide Fund for Nature says on average three new species were identified every week last year, a rate the fund describes as staggering. But WWF says new discoveries imply a new level of responsibility, a responsibility to protect these life forms.

Military sources in Tajikistan say at least 25 soldiers have been killed in a helicopter crash although officials confirmed only four deaths. The Tajik national guard helicopter crashed in the Rasht region about 200km east of the capital Dushanbe. It's not clear whether it was shot down by a missile or whether the crash was accidental.

BBC News