BBC news 2011-05-18 加文本

BBC news 2011-05-18

BBC News with Sue Montgomery

The British monarch Queen Elizabeth has made a symbolic visit to a memorial in the Republic of Ireland dedicated to the many Irish people who fought for an end to British rule. She stood alongside the Irish President Mary McAleese as they laid wreaths. The visit to Ireland is the first by a British monarch since Irish independence 90 years ago. Daniela Relph reports from Dublin.

Inside the Garden of Remembrance, the British national anthem was played, the sound of God Save the Queen in this place dedicated to those who died fighting against the British crown. There will be few more poignant moments during the Queen's visit to Ireland. With a huge security cordon keeping both protesters and any curious members of the public well away, the Queen laid a wreath, her head bowed in tribute to those who fought for Irish independence. It is diplomatic protocol for all visiting heads of state to lay a wreath here. But the British monarch doing so comes with added significance - such is a troubled history between Britain and Ireland.

The Libyan Oil Minister Shukri Ghanem appears to have defected according to security sources in Tunisia. Mr Ghanem, who's also a former prime minister, was said to be on the island of Djerba. A UK-based spokesman for the Libyan opposition group, the Transitional National Council, says Mr Ghanem is on his way to a European country. This will be the second high-level defection after the former Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa defected to the United Kingdom. Here's Andrew North in Tripoli.

If this is confirmed that the oil minister has gone, it's going to raise those concerns again that more of Colonel Gaddafi's supporters might desert him and of course that is something we've seen a lot of during the course of this uprising. I mean, if you remember in the opening weeks, a whole raft of Libyan diplomats around the world defected. And I think that's certainly the hope that Nato and Western governments have that, if they can increase the pressure, they can persuade more to go. And they are also now putting more pressure on Colonel Gaddafi's military.

Police in southeastern Mexico have discovered at least 500 men, women and children crammed into the trailers of two trucks in one of the country's biggest cases of people smuggling. From Mexico City, Ignacio de los Reyes.

The group were discovered at the Mexican border with Guatemala, one of the busiest transit areas for illegal immigration. Mexican officials told the BBC that they were travelling in two lorries in what they described as "inhuman conditions" when they were detained. Although thousands of people cross Mexico in trains and trucks in an attempt to reach the United States each year, it is unusual for so many to be found in a single vehicle.

World News from the BBC

The departing chief of the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti has expressed deep frustration at the lack of progress there. Edmond Mulet criticised both the international community and the Haitian authorities, as Greg Morsbach reports.

The UN and other agencies face the task of rebuilding Haiti, a country badly affected by earthquakes, floods and disease. The man who is in charge of those efforts has taken stock on his last day in office. Edmond Mulet said the international community had been going round and round in circles for the past 30 years. He said donor nations hadn't done enough to strengthen Haiti's institutions.

Two of the most senior men responsible for the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 have been convicted for their crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The country's former army chief Augustin Bizimungu was sent to prison for 30 years for his role in the killing of about 800,000 people during the genocide. The head of the paramilitary police was also convicted for genocide crimes.

The authorities in the United States have closed part of the swollen Mississippi River to shipping in an effort to reduce pressure on flood defences. The US Coast Guard closed the stretch of the river near the town of Natchez. It's unclear when it might reopen. The move could cost exporters and shipping companies millions of dollars as the Mississippi is a vital route for grain shipments.

Denmark says it's planning to lay claim to a large area of the Arctic seabed including the North Pole, a region thought to be rich in oil and gas. The Danish foreign ministry said it was preparing documents to submit to the United Nations in support of its claim and would publish them next month. Denmark's territory includes the Faeroe Islands and Greenland in the Arctic Circle. For other countries, the United States, Canada, Norway and Russia also claim large areas of the Arctic.

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