BBC news 2010-12-31 加文本

BBC news 2010-12-31

BBC News with Jim Lee

There has been international criticism of the decision by a Russian court to keep the former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky in prison for an extra six years. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it seemed that political motives played a role. Britain said it was deeply concerned, and the US also expressed condemnation. Adam Brooks reports.

A State Department spokesman said the Khodorkovsky trial appeared to be an abusive use of the legal system for improper ends. He said the US remained concerned at allegations of serious due process violations. A Russian judge sentenced Mikhail Khodorkovsky to 14 years in prison including time already served that would see him released in 2017. Mr Khodorkovsky, formerly a hugely wealthy oil tycoon, fell out with the Russian leadership and was arrested in 2003 on tax evasion charges.

The Iraqi authorities say two people have been killed in a series of bomb attacks in Baghdad on the homes of members of the minority Christian community. Twelve other people were injured. From Baghdad, Jim Muir reports.

These were not big bombs by Baghdad standards, but they carried a clear message. They all directly targeted the homes of Christian families in six different areas. All the casualties are believed to have been Christians. The Islamic militant group affiliated to al-Qaeda, which said it carried out the deadly attacks in October and November, had warned that there would be more to come. Since then, many members of Iraq's ancient Christian communities have left their homes to seek safety either in the Kurdish north of the country or abroad.

A court in Spain has jailed four civil guard police officers for torturing two members of the Basque militant group Eta. They have been given sentences ranging from two to four and a half years. The court was told the two Eta suspects were arrested in 2008, and subsequently beaten and threatened. They have been awarded a total of $32,000 in compensation. Sam Wilson has more.

Fifteen civil guards went on trial in San Sebastian, accused of torturing Igor Portu and Mattin Sarasola after their arrest in 2008. Four of those have now been jailed, the first such convictions for nearly 10 years. They were investigating the infamous bombing at Madrid's Barajas airport, which killed two Ecuadorian immigrants and injured dozens of other people. The attack brought an abrupt end to a ceasefire Eta had put in place six months earlier. The tortured bombers Portu and Sarasola were jailed for the attack earlier this year.

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned supporters of Ivory Coast's incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo against attacking the headquarters of his rival Alassane Ouattara. Mr Ouattara, who's been internationally recognised as the winner of November's presidential election, is being protected by UN peacekeepers at a hotel in Abidjan. Mr Ban said the UN mission would use all necessary means to protect him.

World News from the BBC

Police in Nigeria say suspected Islamists have killed eight people in five separate attacks in the northern city of Maiduguri. The incidents happened late on Wednesday, and in one of them three policemen died while on patrol. Political tensions have been worsening in Nigeria in the run-up to party primaries next month and elections in April.

The authorities in Yemen have begun releasing hundreds of jailed insurgents. Officials say at least 400 Shia rebels from north Yemen are being freed on the orders of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Ann Busby reports.

The release of prisoners is part of a peace deal between the Yemeni government and northern rebels known as Houthis. The rebels from a minority Shia sect have been fighting the government intermittently for six years, complaining that they are victims of discrimination and calling for more autonomy. Mediators from Qatar arrived in Yemen earlier this week to consolidate an agreement reached between the two sides several months ago. Officials say that in return for the prisoner release, the rebels have agreed to hand over weapons seized during clashes with the government.

The Colombian government says it will relocate thousands of people left homeless by torrential rain and floods on properties seized from drug dealers. The minister of the interior said the government had prepared a decree which would allow flood victims to temporarily live on land confiscated from drug lords. More than two million people have been affected by the worst floods in the country in four decades.

It's the end of the road for the world's first successful colour film for still photography as the last remaining company processing the product, Kodachrome, has stopped accepting film. The small family business in Kansas in the United States said it was no longer economically viable to keep their processing lab going. The film was introduced by the photo company Eastman Kodak in 1935, and production only stopped last year after demand dropped due to the spread of digital cameras.

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