BBC news 2011-09-17 加文本

BBC news 2011-09-17

BBC News with Kathy Clugston

The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has confirmed that he'll ask for full membership of the United Nations next week. Mr Abbas said that he would apply to the Security Council for Palestinian statehood within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital. Jon Donnison reports from Ramallah.

President Abbas's speech was bold. To huge applause from the watching officials, he declared he will take his request for full membership of the United Nations to the UN Security Council. Having addressed his people, it will now be difficult, if not impossible, for him to back down despite immense diplomatic pressure and the threat of a veto from the United States. The president's speech also aimed to play down expectations. He said the UN bid would not end Israel's occupation. He challenged that occupation but not Israel's legitimacy.

Anti-Gaddafi forces in Libya have intensified their attacks on two of the colonel's last strongholds, Bani Walid and Sirte. They have been facing fierce resistance. The fighters reportedly entered the town, but Gaddafi loyalists kept them away from the centre. Peter Biles reports.

All day, armed pick-up trucks have been racing up and down the main road to the north of Bani Walid. Anti-Gaddafi forces appear to be in good spirits. They wave and shout as they drive past. But there's also been a regular flow of ambulances speeding in both directions, to and from the town. There's been no word on the number of casualties. We reached a point about a mile or two from the outskirts of Bani Walid. We could see buildings in the distance. Artillery or mortar shells landed a few hundred metres away, suggesting that pro-Gaddafi forces still have a capacity to respond.

The United Nations General Assembly has given Libya's UN seat to the country's interim administration, the National Transitional Council. The assembly voted 114 votes for and 17 votes against. Some left-wing governments in South America opposed the move while others in Africa wanted the decision delayed.

European Union finance ministers, who've been meeting in Poland, have delayed until October a decision on the payout of the second instalment of a bailout loan to Greece. But the ministers welcomed what they described as the commitment and determination of Greece to meet its obligations. The gathering was attended by the US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who called for the euro's rescue fund to be increased, a plea that was rejected. Chris Morris reports from Wroclaw.

Despite a series of warnings that further delays and disagreements could be fatal, finance ministers haven't made major progress at this meeting. The big decisions on Greece and on support for other countries which could run into difficulty over their sovereign debt will now be made next month. There has been agreement after a year of discussion on tougher budget rules for all 27 EU member states. That may help prevent future crises, but it doesn't do a lot to confront the immediate challenges.

World News from the BBC

The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Yousaf Raza Gillani, has said he'll take charge of the relief effort for millions of flood victims in the southern province of Sindh. Monsoon rains have submerged thousands of villages in a region that has not yet recovered from similar floods last year. Aleem Maqbool reports.

We started out from the city of Hyderabad and spent many hours on the roads that remain passable across rural Sindh. Vehicles now have to weave around the thousands of flood victims, who grabbed what they could and headed to the higher ground of the main highways, and for whom surrounded by water, the roads are now home. Very few of them told us they had seen anything of the aid effort. Some said they had been so desperate to quench their thirst they'd resorted to drinking stagnant floodwaters. It's little wonder that many also talked of children dying of disease.

An aluminium producer in Hungary fined about $650m this week for a giant spill of toxic red sludge has announced it will appeal against the verdict. The Hungarian government says it's doing everything possible to stop MAL alumina from going bankrupt, insisting the fine must be paid. The spill killed 10 people and caused huge environmental damage. The sludge escaped when a chemical waste reservoir was breached.

Reports are coming in of a security lockdown at an airbase in Tucson in the American state of Arizona. A spokeswoman told a local television station that no one was being allowed in or out of the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base due to an unspecified security situation. Details are still coming in.

The American space agency Nasa has warned that a six-tonne satellite is heading for Earth and could crash down in about a week. It's been in orbit since being launched 20 years ago. Nasa says the risk of the dead satellite hitting someone is higher than usual and it could land anywhere, but most of it will break or burn up on entering the atmosphere.

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