BBC news 2010-12-16 加文本

BBC news 2010-12-16

BBC News with Marion Marshall

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, has asked judges to charge six top Kenyans he believes were responsible for the deaths of more than 1,200 people in post-election violence three years ago. Mr Ocampo says he'll seek arrest warrants if the six fail to surrender to answer allegations of crimes against humanity, including murder, torture and rape. From Nairobi, here's Will Ross.

The most significant name on the ICC prosecutor's list is Uhuru Kenyatta, who is Kenya's finance minister, deputy prime minister and the son of the country's first president. He's accused of mobilising a vigilante group during the post-election violence. In reaction, he said he was innocent and his conscience was clear. Another suspect is William Ruto, who was until recently a cabinet minister. The ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he planned organised attacks against supporters of a rival political party. Also named was another member of the cabinet, Henry Kosgey, as well as the former head of the police force, Hussein Ali.

The US Justice Department has filed a civil lawsuit against BP and eight other companies involved in the huge Gulf of Mexico oil spill in April. The suit alleges that the companies violated federal safety regulations. The Attorney General Eric Holder said he held them fully accountable for billions of dollars in damages.

"We intend to prove that these violations caused or contributed to the massive oil spill and that the defendants are therefore responsible - under the Oil Pollution Act - for government removal costs, economic losses as well as environmental damages."

Eleven workers were killed in the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig, and millions of barrels of oil spilled into the sea over several months.

The United States Senate has voted to begin consideration of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia. The American and Russian presidents signed the treaty in April, but its ratification by the US Senate has been stalled because of disagreements between Democrats and Republicans.

Police in Moscow say they've made about 1,000 arrests to prevent further violence between Russian nationalists and migrants from the North Caucasus region. Most of the arrests were made at a railway station in the city centre, where riot police were deployed. Tensions have risen since the killing of a Spartak Moscow football fan earlier this month during a fight with migrants from the Caucasus. The mayor of Moscow, Sergey Sobyanin, said the police would deal firmly with those involved in the clashes.

"At the moment, law enforcement agencies are taking preventative measures to stop unauthorised rallies in the city. I would call on hotheads not to submit to provocation and appeals to violence. The police will continue to toughly suppress any attempts at provocation and violence."

The mayor of Moscow.

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Prosecutors in Ukraine say the opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is under investigation for abuse of power. She's been ordered not to leave the capital Kiev. Ms Tymoshenko told journalists she had been accused of embezzling state funds, a claim she described as another example of government terror against the opposition.

The World Bank's fund to help the poorest countries has received new pledges of nearly $50bn, the highest figure ever promised. Most of the money is likely to come from rich nations at a time when budgets are under extreme pressure following the financial crisis. A European official said EU states were providing almost half of the total. The fund is replenished every three years.

The United Nations Security Council has lifted a series of international sanctions imposed on Iraq in the 1990s during the rule of Saddam Hussein. The move is intended to help Iraq re-establish full sovereignty over its affairs. Barbara Plett reports from UN headquarters in New York.

In a statement, the Security Council said it recognised that the situation in Iraq now is significantly different than it was in the aftermath of Baghdad's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, so it voted to end UN sanctions on the import of chemicals and nuclear technology imposed to prevent the former President Saddam Hussein from building weapons of mass destruction. This gives Baghdad the green light to develop a civilian nuclear programme. The council also adopted a resolution terminating the residual activities of the oil-for-food programme, which helped Iraqis cope with an economic embargo.

A prominent Cuban dissident who was refused permission to collect a human rights prize in Europe says nothing has changed in Cuba despite the release of some political prisoners. Guillermo Farinas addressed the European Parliament in a recorded message after it presented the Sakharov Prize to an empty chair draped with a Cuban flag. He said the EU shouldn't be fooled into thinking Cuba's communist government had changed its attitude to human rights.

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