正文
BBC news 2010-12-15 加文本
BBC news 2010-12-15
BBC News with David Austin
A judge in London has granted conditional bail to the founder of the Wikileaks website, Julian Assange, who's angered the American government by publishing leaked diplomatic papers. Mr Assange remains in custody, however, pending an appeal by Swedish prosecutors who wish to extradite him for alleged sexual assault. He denies wrongdoing. Maddy Savage reports.
Some of Julian Assange's supporters cheered and hugged one another as they found out he'd been granted bail. The court was told he planned to stay at a friend's luxury mansion in countryside in the east of England. But just a few hours later, the Swedish authorities announced that they were planning to appeal against the bail decision. That process could take up to 48 hours, and Julian Assange must remain in prison in the meantime. Outside the court, his lawyer Mark Stephens said that he was angry that the Swedes hadn't accepted what he called the "umpire's decision".
The authorities in Italy say at least 50 police have been injured in violent protests in Rome, which broke out after the Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi narrowly won a confidence vote in parliament. At least 40 demonstrators were injured. From Rome, David Willey reports.
Cars were set alight, shop windows smashed and cobble stones torn up and thrown at police in some of the worst violence seen in the Italian capital for years. Mr Berlusconi himself speaking after surviving two confidence votes in parliament said he intends to reshuffle his coalition government during the coming days, bringing in members of centre parties. He also said after consultations with President Giorgio Napolitano, the Italian head of state, that he had agreed with him that there should be no fresh elections.
The World Health Organisation has hailed what it called the best results for years in the fight against malaria. The agency said malaria deaths in 11 of the worst-affected countries in Africa had halved over the past decade. But the WHO says only 35% of vulnerable children received the protection they need. From Geneva, Imogen Foulkes reports.
Last year, deaths from malaria fell, and the most significant decreases were in Africa, where 11 of the worst-affected countries have seen deaths fall by over 50% in the last decade. The WHO says this is proof that the massive scale-up in malaria control programmes is actually working. Five hundred and seventy-eight million people now benefit from insecticide-treated bed nets.
The Mexican President Felipe Calderon says plans by a notorious drug cartel for an extravagant party led to the killing of its leader. Nazario Moreno of the La Familia Michoacana cartel was killed in a gun battle with police last week. Mr Calderon says the police had learned of the cartel's plan to hold a party for hundreds of people, and the gunfight happened when officers arrived to investigate.
World News from the BBC
A draft report prepared by the Council of Europe has accused the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, of heading an organised criminal group that's engaged in human rights abuses and trafficked weapons, drugs and human organs. The report by the council's human rights rapporteur Dick Marty says the crime ring, known as the Drenica group, includes many former commanders from the Kosovo Liberation Army and came to prominence in the late 1990s when the guerrilla group led an insurgency against Serbian control of Kosovo. Mr Thaci was the guerrillas' political leader at the time. The report says there's evidence that the group's involvement in criminal activities has continued to the present day. The Kosovan government has denounced its findings as "baseless and defamatory".
The Venezuelan parliament is discussing a law which would allow the President Hugo Chavez to rule by decree. If the delegates approve the move, Mr Chavez will be able to pass certain laws without the need to go through parliament. From Caracas, Will Grant reports.
What's known as the "enabling law" will give the president the right to rule by decree for, as he said on state television, at least six months and a maximum of 18. Mr Chavez says he needs the powers in order to fast-track decisions to help the tens of thousands of people made homeless by recent floods, the worst in Venezuela in 40 years. But opposition leaders say the president is using the flooding as an excuse. In the new session of parliament in early January, the opposition will have sufficient numbers to block new laws and projects. They say Mr Chavez is trying to bypass parliament and impose authoritarian rule.
Will Grant in Caracas.
Washington says it believes that North Korea is operating at least one more uranium enrichment site than Pyongyang has so far acknowledged. The South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan also said that he suspected that there were additional nuclear facilities in North Korea.
That's the BBC News.