BBC news 2010-11-23 加文本

BBC news 2010-11-23

BBC News with David Austin

More than 330 people have died in Cambodia during a stampede at a festival in the capital Phnom Penh. This report from our Cambodia correspondent Guy De Launey.

The Water Festival is usually Phnom Penh's biggest party. Hundreds of thousands of people come in from the rural provinces for three days of boat racing, music and dancing. This time, it's gone terribly wrong. The incident apparently started when a crush on a small island in the river turned into a panic. A stampede onto the bridge connecting the island to the city centre followed. Reports from the scene say that some people jumped from the bridge while others were caught in the crowd. Phnom Penh's limited emergency services have been struggling to take the injured to hospital.

The Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen says he'll call a general election in the new year once the government has passed an austerity budget and concluded negotiations on a big euro bailout package. He was speaking after a day of political turmoil in Dublin that included a call by a junior partner in the coalition for an early election. Mr Cowen said Ireland's interest would not be served by going to the polls before a budget was approved.

"The government will publish its four-year plan next Wednesday; it will continue the negotiations with the European Union, the ECB and with the IMF; and it will present a budget on 7 December. It is my intention at the conclusion of this budgetary process with the enactment of the necessary legislation in the new year, then seek a dissolution to enable the people to determine who should undertake the responsibilities of government in the challenging period ahead thereafter."

Prosecutors at the war crimes trial of Jean-Pierre Bemba, the former vice president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, have said he gave licence to his rebel forces to attack civilians eight years ago. The chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told the International Criminal Court in The Hague that Mr Bemba failed to stop his troops from using mass rape as a weapon during the suppression of a coup in the neighbouring Central African Republic. The defence said he was not responsible for his soldiers' crimes.

Politicians in northern Nigeria have chosen the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to challenge President Goodluck Jonathan in party primaries ahead of next year's election. Mr Abubakar, who's from the north, hopes to become the presidential candidate of the governing party rather than Mr Jonathan, who's a southerner. Caroline Duffield has this report.

It is a stunning political comeback for one of the big beasts of Nigerian politics - Atiku Abubakar. He's a deep and intense personality. He was one of the founders of the People's Democratic Party, which has won every election since the end of military rule, and he served as vice president under Olusegun Obasanjo for eight years. But he left the PDP in a fury after falling out with Obasanjo.

World News from the BBC

Environmental activists in Uganda say they'll take legal action to prevent the construction of a golf course in the country's largest and most popular wildlife park. The Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni last week ordered the country's Wildlife Authority to allow a local company to build the facility in the Murchison Falls National Park.

The British government has lost a legal bid to force an inquest into the 2005 London bombings to hear secret evidence behind closed doors. The High Court upheld a ruling at the inquest that the families of the 52 people killed in the 7 July suicide attacks should be allowed to hear evidence given by agents from the domestic spy agency MI5.

A team of experts from the European Union has called for immediate action to deal with mounts of uncollected rubbish covering the streets of Naples in southern Italy. From Rome, here is Duncan Kennedy.

There is now nearly 3,000 tonnes of uncollected rubbish on the streets of Naples, Italy's third biggest city. A team of experts from the European Union says it poses a serious risk to health. They say immediate action is needed because Naples was in what they called a grave condition with rats, cockroaches and insects. Residents say a nearby dump is full and battle with riot police, who've been trying to clear access for rubbish trucks. The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi promised to end the crisis, which has been blamed on a combination of underinvestment, poor management and mafia control of some of the dump sites.

Duncan Kennedy

The Mexican government has advised migrants driving home from the United States for the winter holidays to form convoys for their own protection as they pass through Mexico. He said they should also travel only during daylight hours. Mexico's northern border states are experiencing high levels of drug-related violence, making it dangerous to travel on some major highways.

That's the BBC News.