BBC news 2011-10-04 加文本

BBC news 2011-10-04

BBC News with Gaenor Howells

A former senior Rwandan official who was a close confidant of the current President Paul Kagame has accused the Rwandan leader of ordering the shooting down of a plane in April 1994 carrying the then head of state, Juvenal Habyarimana. The former official, Theogene Rudasingwa, who became ambassador to the US, said Mr Kagame had boasted to him that he was responsible for the plane's destruction.

"By committing that kind of crime, Kagame has the responsibility in the crime of genocide as well because he fully understood that an action like that one might trigger consequences which, as we know, in our country and the Great Lakes region actually produced that crime of genocide."

President Kagame has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attack.

A court in Italy has overturned the convictions of two people who'd appealed against their sentences for the murder of the British student Meredith Kercher in Italy four years ago. An American student, Amanda Knox, and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito had professed their innocence in the death of Meredith Kercher, who was found with her throat slit after what prosecutors contend was a violent drug-fuelled sex game. The appeals judge read out the jury's verdict.

"Both the defendants for A, B, C and D are acquitted because they have not committed the crime. And therefore, the request made by the parties is not accepted. Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are being freed."

The Nobel Committee in Sweden says it won't change its decision to include the Canadian Ralph Steinman among the winners of this year's Nobel prize for medicine despite the fact they now know he died three days ago. Mr Steinman suffered from pancreatic cancer and had used the immunology research for which he won the award to prolong his life. The committee secretary Goran Hansson said they were aware that Professor Steinman was ill but had hoped to make the award before his death.

"We knew that he had cancer, but we don't exclude anyone because of illness when we look at candidates for the Nobel prize. The last information about him was that he was OK but struggling with his illness, and we had hoped that this message would have pleased him. But sadly it didn't reach him in time."

Forces of the National Transitional Council in Libya have begun what a front-line commander says is their final assault on the city of Sirte, one of Colonel Gaddafi's last strongholds. After a two-day ceasefire, during which thousands of civilians fled the city, mortar and rockets were fired towards the city centre.

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Residents of the small Colombian town of Fortul, near the Venezuelan border, have taken to the streets to demand the release of Nohora Valentina Munoz , a 10-year-old girl who was kidnapped on Thursday. The girl, whose father is the town's mayor, was abducted along with her mother on her way back from school. The mother was released shortly afterwards.

The world's most powerful radio telescope has begun operating 5km above sea level in Chile. Scientists using the telescope known as Alma believe it'll help explain why the universe looks the way it does. Pallab Ghosh has been taking a look round.

A 28-wheel, 20-metre-long transporter vehicle begins taking a giant antenna up to one of the highest places in the Atacama desert in northern Chile. It ends up here, a plateau 5,000 metres high, nestling among even higher snow-peaked volcanoes. Alma will be able to see the formation of the very first stars more than 13 billion years ago, a moment known as the Cosmic Dawn.

The president of Cyprus has rejected the results of an independent investigation into a huge explosion at an ammunition depot in July, which killed 13 people and destroyed the island's main power station. The report said President Dimitris Christofias bore heavy personal responsibility for the blast through his failure to order elementary safety measures. Mr Christofias said the report's conclusion was not substantiated by evidence.

British police say they've broken up a sophisticated international online fraud that attacked the heart of the UK banking industry. Thirteen East Europeans - mostly from Latvia, Belarus or Ukraine - have been jailed for terms of up to five years. Police say they netted the equivalent of about $4.5m.

BBC World Service News