BBC news 2011-04-01 加文本

BBC news 2011-04-01

BBC News with Mike Cooper

Forces loyal to the internationally recognised President of Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara, are surrounding the main city Abidjan, where Laurent Gbagbo is refusing to give up power. A BBC reporter in Abidjan said there had been fierce clashes around the national TV station, near the presidential palace. Mr Ouattara says he's ordered the closure of land, air and sea borders. Earlier, he imposed an immediate overnight curfew on Abidjan. Mr Gbagbo's London spokesman Abdon Bayeto told the BBC that the president's forces would fight on against Mr Ouattara.

"Laurent Gbagbo is going nowhere. He's the president-elect of Cote d'Ivoire, and he is going to be, you know, a such president until the five years to come. That's what our constitution recognised."

The US Defence Department says the air campaign against Colonel Gaddafi's forces has knocked out much of his military capabilities, but rebel forces are still heavily outnumbered. They also insisted it was now up to countries other than America to train or support the rebels. Nick Childs reports.

The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen suggested that the coalition air campaign had reduced the Libyan government's overall military capabilities by up to a quarter, but he also acknowledged that they still had up to a 10-1 advantage over the rebels in some areas. Both he and the US Defence Secretary Robert Gates suggested that the rebels needed help in terms of, for example, training. President Obama says he hasn't ruled that out, but the Pentagon's two top leaders both made it clear that they think that should be a job for other countries.

Earlier, the head of Nato, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said he was strongly opposed to any supplying of weapons to rebel forces in Libya.

Reports from Tunisia say a number of close advisers to the Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi have left Libya and are awaiting flights out of Tunisia. It follows the arrival in Britain on Wednesday of the Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa. Earlier, the British government said Colonel Gaddafi's regime was crumbling from within.

The Italian authorities have launched a massive operation to move thousands of migrants fleeing the turmoil in Tunisia and Libya from the island of Lampedusa. Duncan Kennedy is in Rome.

More than 2,000 migrants have already been taken off Lampedusa, which has been overwhelmed by the relentless stream of arrivals. Aid agencies say sanitary and sleeping conditions have become appalling. Many migrants were living in the open, and there were few toilets. At least six naval and chartered ships are being used by the government to take the migrants to transit camps on the mainland.

The Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva has dissolved parliament and announced a snap election for 5 June. The move was widely expected. Last week, the opposition rejected the government's austerity plans for tackling Portugal's debt crisis. That move plunged the country into further financial uncertainty, raising the prospect of needing a bailout like Greece and Ireland. President Silva said the country faced a huge challenge.

World News from the BBC

The Irish authorities say four major banking groups will need a further $34bn to make sure they survive any future financial shocks. The figure emerged from stress tests carried out on the troubled Irish banking sector following the financial crisis. The head of Ireland's central bank, Patrick Honohan, acknowledged the scale of the operation.

"The overall increase in capital required is sizable. The main underlying reason for such a large increase is the need to restore market confidence. It is a prerequisite to the banks returning to normal functioning that they should have ample capital to meet even the market's gloomy prognostications."

The French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for the setting-up of clear international standards on nuclear safety in light of the ongoing crisis at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant. Mr Sarkozy, the first foreign leader to visit Japan since the earthquake and tsunami which damaged the plant earlier this month, proposed a meeting of the G20 countries to discuss the issue in May. Meanwhile, the company that operates the stricken nuclear plant says radioactive contamination in ground water beneath one reactor has been measured at 10,000 times standard norms.

Mexico's Attorney General Arturo Chavez has resigned after 18 months in the job. Mr Chavez had been leading efforts to tackle Mexico's violent drugs cartels and reform the justice system. The reason for his resignation is not yet clear. President Felipe Calderon has nominated the investigative prosecutor Marisela Morales to be his replacement.

The American author of a new biography of the father of independent India, Mahatma Gandhi, has spoken out against the banning of his book in the Indian state of Gujarat, where Gandhi was born. Joseph Lelyveld said it was a shame that people who'd not read his book had banned it on the basis of newspaper reviews, which he said had sensationalised his account of Gandhi's close friendship with a German man who may have been homosexual.

BBC News