BBC news 2010-12-07 加文本

BBC news 2010-12-07

BBC News with Marion Marshall

Legal authorities have stepped up the pressure on the founder of the website Wikileaks, Julian Assange, whose publication of secret diplomatic cables has angered Washington and other governments. In the United States, officials are searching the law books for ways of bringing prosecutions over the leaks. And in Britain, where Mr Assange has been in hiding, the authorities have received a European arrest warrant for him in connection with allegations of sexual assault in Sweden, which he denies. Mr Assange's lawyer Mark Stephens said his client was making arrangements to meet British police voluntarily.

"Late this afternoon after close of business, I got a call from the police who said that they had received an extradition request from Sweden. Their request is to interview Julian Assange. He's not been charged with anything. And we're in the process of making arrangements to meet with the police by consent in order to facilitate the taking of that question and answer that's needed."

The United Nations is temporarily moving non-essential staff out of Ivory Coast following disputed presidential elections. Barbara Plett reports from New York.

The UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said some 460 non-essential staff members would be temporarily relocated to nearby Gambia and work from there. He said the bulk of the mission would continue to carry out its core tasks in Ivory Coast. The UN has nearly 10,000 peacekeepers in the country. The mission also had a specific mandate to certify the outcome of the recent presidential vote. It endorsed provisional results which showed the incumbent Laurent Gbagbo had lost. But Mr Gbagbo refuses to step down, and his adviser has warned that the UN representative could be expelled. However, Mr Nesirky said staff members were being relocated because of the generally volatile security situation and not because of any specific threats.

The American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is meeting the foreign ministers of Japan and South Korea to discuss North Korea. The talks come after the North fired artillery shells at a South Korean island last month, killing four people. Mrs Clinton accused the North of provocation.

"This meeting takes place at a time of grave concern in Northeast Asia amid the provocative attacks from North Korea. We are committed to our partners, and we are committed to the preservation of peace and stability in Korean peninsula."

In the past few minutes, the meeting about North Korea has ended. Hillary Clinton said China had a special role to play. She also repeated that for North Korea to enter negotiations, it must first cease what she called its provocative and belligerent behaviour.

The director of a high-security prison in Sierra Leone, Moses Showers, has been sacked after 26 inmates escaped in broad daylight. Announcing his dismissal, the vice president described him as a disgrace.

World News from the BBC

Officials in Haiti say more than 2,000 people are now known to have died in the cholera epidemic sweeping through the country. About 90,000 are reported to have contracted the waterborne disease. On Friday, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, warned that the number of infections and deaths could be twice as high.

Unidentified attackers have set fire to a children's nursery school in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez apparently after its owners refused to pay extortion money. A message was sprayed on the walls of the kindergarten, urging the owners to pay up. Some teachers in the city have been threatened with attacks unless they hand over half their Christmas bonuses.

A high society family feud that's captivated France is apparently over. The row involving France's richest woman, the L'Oreal billionaire Liliane Bettencourt, grew into a political scandal when secret tapes led to allegations that she had made illegal donations to Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential campaign. Sam Wilson reports.

Liliane Bettencourt's daughter feared her mother was gradually handing control of the $20bn family estate to the society photographer Francois-Marie Banier. Among her extravagant gifts to him was an island in the Seychelles. The daughter Francoise took him to court, accusing him of exploiting her elderly mother's mental fragility. Secret tape recordings appeared to reveal tax evasion, political influence and illegal donations to the party of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The scandal dominated the front pages in France for weeks. But now they say it's over - the photographer has been written out of the will; the court case has been dropped; and mother and daughter say they are united again.

The South African tourism ministry has said people who visited the country for the football World Cup this year spent more than $500m on hotels, food and clothing. The figure is a fraction of the cost of staging the games. South Africa spent at least $4.5bn preparing for the tournament.

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