BBC news 2011-12-19 加文本

BBC news 2011-12-19

BBC News with Sue Montgomery

The rivalries threatening Iraqi stability have intensified with the country's most senior Sunni politicians coming under pressure from the Shia-dominated government. The crisis occurred just hours after the final American troops left the country. Jim Muir reports from Baghdad.

Two of the country's vice-presidents, Tariq al-Hashimi and Khodair al-Khozaei, were reported to have found themselves stuck at Baghdad airport after being refused permission to fly to the Kurdish north to see President Talabani. Another leading Sunni figure Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq is the target of a move to have him impeached in parliament. The Iraqi parliamentary bloc led by Ayad Allawi, which represents most of the country's Sunnis, had earlier pulled out of parliament, accusing Prime Minister Maliki of monopolising power. It's a bitter political struggle with strong sectarian overtones. If it's not contained swiftly, there are fears it could plunge the country into an even deeper crisis.

Crowds of Palestinians waving flags are welcoming home 550 Palestinian prisoners being released by Israel. It's the second and final phase of a deal that ensured the freedom of the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit earlier this year. Here's Yolande Knell.

There are street parties taking place in Ramallah and the West Bank and Gaza City to celebrate this release. But it doesn't carry as much drama as the first stage two months ago: most of the prominent Palestinian prisoners included in this exchange were freed then, and the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was seen in public for the first time in five years before he returned home to his family. Many of the Palestinians now being released from Israeli jails were serving light sentences.

President Asif Ali Zardari has returned home to Pakistan nearly two weeks after he flew to Dubai for medical treatment. The reason for Mr Zardari's treatment has not been disclosed. The president's extended absence prompted speculation in Pakistan that he might resign.

Statesmen from around the world have led tributes to Vaclav Havel, the former Czech president who has died at the age of 75 after a long illness. Vaclav Havel led the peaceful uprising known as the Velvet Revolution, which brought an end to Soviet-style communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989. The Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt called him "one of the greatest Europeans of our age". One of Mr Havel's lifelong friends, the Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, described his qualities.

"He was a man who really fought for liberty. He was incredibly brave. Besides of that, he was a poet and a writer of distinction. And he was somebody [who] kept us principled, and that was important too. He was really an example [of] how a man should behave in the 20th century."

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The United Nations has warned that an impending humanitarian crisis in Yemen could turn it into another Somalia. The warning came as UN officials appealed for nearly $450m to help millions of Yemenis affected by food shortages. The country has been racked by months of protests against the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who's agreed to step down in February next year.

The defeated opposition leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Etienne Tshisekedi, says he will be sworn in as the country's president this week despite the Supreme Court upholding the election victory of the incumbent, Joseph Kabila. Last Friday, the court formally declared Joseph Kabila the winner with nearly 49% of the vote against just over 32% for Mr Tshisekedi.

An oil drilling platform that sank off Sakhalin island in the Russian far east was hit by such strong waves that its life rafts were ripped away. The rescue centre in Vladivostok said empty rafts and rescue suits had been seen floating near the spot where the Kolskaya platform capsised. Fourteen people were rescued; 49 others are missing.

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