BBC news 2011-10-14 加文本

BBC news 2011-10-14

BBC News with Marion Marshall

Gunmen in Kenya have seized two foreign aid workers from the Dadaab refugee camp, near the border with Somalia. Police said two Spanish women from the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres were abducted. Their Kenyan driver was shot and wounded. The Dadaab camp is home to hundreds of thousands of Somalis who fled from fighting and famine in their home country. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, said he hoped the kidnappers would be found quickly.

"It is absolutely intolerable that those that are there to rescue lives became the victims of such a brutal attack. Now Kenya is a sovereign country of course; the Kenyan police is(应该是are) in charge of security in the camp. The Kenyan police acted very quickly today. They immediately responded to the appeal. They mobilised not only the local forces but two helicopters. As a matter of fact that the car has been recovered, but unfortunately the two colleagues have not yet been found."

A court in the United States has sentenced a New York-based financier to 11 years in prison for insider trading, the longest sentence in a generation for such an offence. Raj Rajaratnam had already been found guilty of trading on illegal tips supplied by insiders at some of America's leading companies. Caroline Hepker reports from New York.

Prosecutors calculated that Mr Rajaratnam made up to $75m by trading on illegal tips from a coterie of well-placed insiders. They added that Mr Rajaratnam has shown no remorse for his crimes. But Mr Rajaratnam's defence lawyers counted that the Sri Lankan-born businessman made only $7m from the scheme and that his health problems called for leniency. It is thought Mr Rajaratnam is likely to appeal against his sentence.

Prosecutors in France have dropped their investigation into an allegation of attempted rape by the former head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The allegations were made by a French writer, Tristane Banon. From Paris, Hugh Schofield reports.

Tristane Banon lodged her complaint against Dominique Strauss-Kahn shortly after his arrest in New York in May. She told a story of how in 2003 she'd gone to see him for an interview and had to fight off what she said was a rape attempt. Mr Strauss-Kahn returned to France last month after the American charges against him were dropped. Now French prosecutors have said that the Banon case, too, will be closed. The prosecutor's office said that there was evidence of a sexual assault on Tristane Banon but not of attempted rape. The lesser charge of sexual assault falls under a three-year statute of limitations and so cannot be pursued.

Initial results from Liberia's presidential election give the current head of state, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a clear lead over her closest challenger but not enough to avoid a run-off. The election commission said she had won more than 40% of votes so far compared with about 25% for the former diplomat Winston Tubman, although only a few ballots have been counted.

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President Obama has said the United States will apply the toughest possible sanctions against Iran over an alleged plot to kill the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Washington. Mr Obama said America had evidence to show the world that Iran had behaved dangerously and recklessly.

"One of the principles of international behaviour is that our diplomats - we send them around the world - that they are going to be protected, they are not targets for threats or physical violence. And for Iran to have been involved in a plot like this indicates the degree to which it has been outside of accepted norms of international behaviour for far too long."

Mr Obama said Washington was considering all options in deciding how to respond. Tehran has already dismissed the suggestions of an Iranian plot.

Two bombs have exploded in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, killing at least 15 people and injuring many others. Officials say the blasts happened in the early evening in the Shia district of Sadr City. Police say the first bomb went off near a house. A more powerful car bomb then exploded nearby, killing people gathered at the site of the first blast.

The head of the international environmental group Greenpeace has been banned from entering Indonesia, where it's been campaigning against deforestation. An Indonesian official said John Sauven wasn't allowed in because Greenpeace had portrayed Indonesia in a negative light. Mr Sauven had been due to meet high-ranking Indonesian government officials and visit rain forests in Sumatra.

Chile has been marking the first anniversary of the spectacular rescue of 33 miners, who were trapped underground for 69 days. Some of the men returned to the San Jose mine in the Atacama desert to attend a thanks-giving mass. Speaking at the event, the wife of the Chilean president, Cecilia Morel, said the government had worked to improve safety in the mining industry. The miners are still involved in a legal battle with the Chilean state for compensation.

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