BBC 2007-04-13 加文本

BBC 2007-04-13



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BBC World News with Jonathan Weekley.

The Iraqi parliament is due to hold an extraordinary session later today to discuss the suicide bombing there on Thursday, which killed 8 people. Three members of parliament were among those who died when a bomber managed to get through a tight security cordon and blow himself up in the staff cafeteria. Our correspondent in Baghdad Jim Muir says one theory is that the bomber was a member of an MP's security staff.
Some of the MPs have objected to being searched in the stringent security measures that are imposed both to get into the Green Zone and into the building of parliament itself. They regard it as an infringement of their sovereignty and so on. So, it could be with that loophole that the bomber managed to slip through. But certainly it is an extraordinary, if you like, achievement on the part of the bombers as they've managed to penetrate into this inner sanctum.

The chief American nuclear negotiator on North Korea, Christopher Hill, is due to hold talks in Beijing today. The meeting comes as the deadline approaches for North Korea to shut down its main nuclear reactor. Steve Jackson has the details.

Under the deal agreed in February, North Korea is meant to shut down its Yongbyon nuclear plant by this Saturday and invite in international nuclear inspectors. But Christopher Hill has already acknowledged that meeting this deadline could be difficult. He's been talking to Japanese and South Korean officials. And he's now in Beijing trying to nudge the deal forward. Progress has been delayed by problems in transferring $25 million worth of North Korean funds that have been frozen at a bank in Macao following money-laundering accusations. Pyongyang has refused to make any further move until it gets the money back.

The Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao is wrapping up a trip to Japan with a visit to the ancient capital Kyoto. His program on the final day is informal and comes at the end of the visit that Japanese officials have called a great success.

The directors of the World Bank have been meeting to discuss an admission by the bank's president Paul Wolfowitz that he helped his girlfriend get promotion to a high-paying job in the organization. The directors are considering how to respond after staff representatives called for Mr. Wolfowitz to resign for allegedly showing favoritism to his girlfriend.

Fresh efforts are underway to ease the crisis in the Sudanese region of Darfur. Britain's United Nations ambassador has said there are signs that Sudan might accept a plan to strengthen the existing African Union peacekeeping mission with a UN contingent using attack helicopters. The new Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that the Sudanese government needn't feel threatened by a UN peacekeeping force.
"There seems to be some misunderstandings on the part of Sudanese government on this equipment. This is not for any offensive purpose. This peacekeeping is itself by definition is peacekeeping operations. It's not for any offensive." Ban Ki-moon.

You are listening to the World News from the BBC.

The missing BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston is now into the second month of what's believed to be a kidnapping after disappearing in the Gaza Strip on the afternoon of the 12th of March. Thursday saw a call by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for Alan Johnston's immediate and unconditional release.

The American Civil Liberties Union says the US Army has paid more than $32 million to civilian victims of actions by the American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. On its website, the organization has posted copies of the actual claim forms obtained under Freedom of Information legislation. They were filed by the families of people mistakenly killed by US soldiers.

The British aid agency Oxfam has called on the European Union to resume sending aid to the Palestinian government or risk turning the Palestinian territories into a failed state. Oxfam warns in a report that the yearlong international boycott of the Hamas-led government has caused a big increase in poverty in Gaza and the West Bank. An Oxfam spokesperson, Jennifer Abrahamson, told the BBC that the resumption of aid would improve the situation both financially and politically for all Palestinians.
"People are really facing hardship more than ever have before because of this boycott. And that has also created a number of problems in terms of security there in the Palestinian territories. We have seen a surge in factional violence over the last year. And we believe that people can get back to their ordinary lives, can support their families, and that would be a positive step towards resolving other political issues that was in the country."

Conservationists in Russia say the world's biggest wild cat species, the Amur tiger, has come back from the brink of extinction to reach its highest population level for more than a century. Scientists from the conservation group WWF say they believe up to 520 Amur tigers now live in remote parts of eastern Siberia.

And that is the latest BBC World News.