BBC在线收听下载:英国皇家海军调查潜艇事故

BBC news 2012-04-24

BBC News with Julie Candler

The government in the Netherlands has collapsed with the prime minister and his cabinet resigning in a row over European budget rules. The outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte now has to tell parliament whether his caretaker administration can amend the budget within the next week to conform with European demands on debt reduction. The Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager said he was confident the government could resolve the crisis.

"The Netherlands has shown it has a strong reputation for budgetary discipline. I'm convinced that the Netherlands, because it's in the best interests of everyone, can find the support to adopt the measures needed to have solid public finances."

The former prime minister of Iceland who was put on trial accused of negligence over his country's economic collapse in 2008 has been cleared of the major charges. Geir Haarde was found guilty of failing to inform or consult cabinet colleagues at the time, but was acquitted on three other counts and told he would not be punished. The leader of Mr Haarde's Icelandic Independence Party, Bjarni Benediktsson, said the charges should never have been brought.

"I've always been of the opinion that this was a political procedure from the beginning, from the outset. And I believe that we need to make sure in Iceland that we never again have criminal proceedings against politicians which stem from political opponents like we have in this case."

The Iranian government says computers running key parts of its oil industry have been targeted in a cyber-attack. It said Iran's oil ministry and the main oil-export terminal had been disconnected from the Internet as a precaution. The government said no serious damage was done, and the production and export of oil were unaffected. A special committee has been set up to deal with cyber-attacks.

A Jordanian relief agency Kitab and Sunnah says Syrian troops attacked a group of about 900 refugees trying to flee from Syria into Jordan on Saturday and Sunday. A spokesman said dozens of Syrians were taken to hospital after arriving across the border with burns and gunshot wounds. Dale Gavlak in Oman has spoken to the agency.

Kitab and Sunnah spokesman Mohammed Ahmed Iyad said about 195 Syrians were injured by Syrian troops, who shot at the group as they tried to flee to the Jordanian border town of Ramtha early on Sunday. He said local hospitals are treating the wounded. The refugees told him that Syrian forces arrested dozens among their group, including around 50 women. Relief workers say that Ramtha has seen an influx of unaccompanied Syrian children entering Jordan, sparking fears that their parents and relatives had either been arrested or killed in the attack.

World News from the BBC

President Obama is introducing new American measures intended to prevent the authorities in Iran and Syria using sophisticated communications equipment against dissidents. Mr Obama said the two countries were conducting violent campaigns against their own people assisted by what he called the "malign use of technology".

"I've signed an executive order that authorises new sanctions against the Syrian government and Iran and those that abet them for using technologies to monitor and track and target citizens for violence. These technologies should be in place to empower citizens, not to repress them."

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the bombing by Sudanese warplanes of a market in South Sudan and called on the government in Khartoum to stop the fighting. Earlier, the UN special representative in South Sudan said observers were needed urgently to monitor fighting on the frontier between the two countries. But the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has ruled out negotiations with South Sudan. He was speaking during a visit to the oil field and border town of Heglig, which was occupied by South Sudanese troops nearly two weeks ago.

A Royal Navy inquiry has found that a British nuclear-powered submarine ran aground off the coast of Scotland because of a series of errors. HMS Astute, one of the most expensive and advanced vessels in the service, was marooned for 10 hours near the Isle of Skye. Jonathan Beale reports.

The official inquiry into the incident in October 2010 highlights a catalogue of errors: there was no dedicated plan or briefing before the manoeuvre; navigation charts had not been properly plotted; there were also faults with the equipment on board. As she was left with more than ￡80,000 of damage to its steering mechanism, more damage was caused when it was hit by a tug that came to its rescue. The Royal Navy says it's now made a number of recommendations to make sure it doesn't happen again.

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