BBC在线收听下载:萨科奇与奥朗德的选战

BBC news 2012-04-21

BBC News with Nick Kelly

A passenger plane has crashed in Pakistan, close to the capital Islamabad, killing all 127 people on board. It was attempting to land in a thunderstorm. Reporting from Islamabad, here's Aleem Maqbool.

Pakistani officials say the plane was minutes away from landing at Islamabad's airport when it came down in a violent thunderstorm. It crashed around 10km from the runway, and eyewitnesses talked of it bursting into flames on impact though Pakistan's interior minister says there's a possibility there was a fire on board in mid-flight. There are reports of damage to residential buildings though mercifully the crash site appears to have been sparsely populated. The flight was operated by Bhoja Air, a small newly reopened commercial domestic airline.

South Sudan has ordered its troops to pull out of the disputed border region of Heglig, which it seized last week from Sudan, prompting fears of a return to full-scale war. The South has dismissed assertions by the Sudanese government in Khartoum that its soldiers had been forced out. James Copnall is in Khartoum.

Cheering crowds took to the streets in several towns in Sudan after the country's defence minister announced Heglig was back in Sudanese hands. He said the area had been won back by the Sudanese armed forces and their enemies had suffered heavy losses. Juba still considers Heglig, or Panthou as it's called in South Sudan, belongs to it and wants the region's future decided by international arbitration. It is not yet clear if Sudan will order its soldiers to stop in Heglig or look to continue the offensive.

The group of 20 leading economies, the G20, has pledged more than $430bn to boost the emergency resources of the International Monetary Fund, effectively doubling its lending capacity. Europe and Japan earlier offered to contribute more than $300bn for the intervention fund. As the G20 finance ministers meeting in Washington, Russia and China also promised to make money available. Andrew Walker reports.

The statement said the resources will not be earmarked to any particular region; they'll be available for any member country of the IMF; they're intended to safeguard global financial stability. But in practice, the reason for this initiative is the crisis in the eurozone. The aim is to ensure that the IMF has the resources to deal with a substantial deterioration in the European financial situation. The IMF could, in most circumstances, be called on to help countries in the eurozone or those outside if they were severely affected as a result.

Reports from Bahrain say there have been clashes between police and protesters who are angry that Sunday's controversial Formula 1 Grand Prix is going ahead in the country. Eyewitnesses in the capital Manama said demonstrators hurled petrol bombs at the police, who responded with tear gas. The daughter of Bahrain's best-known opposition activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who's on hunger strike, said her father had now stopped drinking as well and wanted a lawyer to write his will.

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Tens of thousands of Egyptians have demonstrated in Tahrir Square in Cairo, demanding that the military government hand over power to civilian rule. The demonstration, one of the largest in recent months, follows the disqualification of several leading presidential candidates for the elections next month.

Anders Behring Breivik, who's on trial in Norway for killing 77 people last July, has given a chilling account to the court of how he killed 69 people on the island of Utoya. Matthew Price reports from Oslo.

Today he talked us through his killing spree as if he were describing a day at work. "Under normal circumstances I'm a nice person," he said. As he reached the island and prepared for the massacre, "I was thinking I don't want to do this. Then I thought this is now or never." At one point, he said, people were paralysed with fear in front of him. "I put new ammunition in while they just stood there. Then I shot them in the head." And he tricked people, asking if they had seen the terrorist. "Some looked sceptical while some moved towards me. When they got closer, I lifted the gun and shot the first one in the head."

The French President Nicolas Sarkozy has held his final rally on the last day of campaigning for Sunday's first round of voting in the presidential elections. He urged his supporters to choose what he called a "strong France". Opinion polls suggest a close race between Mr Sarkozy and his Socialist rival Francois Hollande, who is expected to win a second round run-off vote. Economic issues have dominated the campaign with Mr Hollande emphasising the need for growth rather than austerity to solve France's financial woes.

And a volcano outside of Mexico City has been spewing glowing rock fragments. Columns of ash have been shooting from more than 60 openings in the crust of the Popocatepetl volcano. Residents of surrounding villages said they were awoken by a low-pitched roar coming from the mountain.

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