BBC news 2007-09-05 加文本

BBC 2007-09-05


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BBC News I am Roy Lamar.

The most senior American commander in Iraq General David Petraeus has suggested he may recommend a reduction in US troop numbers to avoid placing a strain on the army. Justin Webb reports from Washington.

Earlier in the week, President Bush was talking coyly about the possibility of some troops coming home, they are only he said, when conditions allowed, but in an interview with Marth Radils of ABC Television, General Petraeus seemed to acknowledge the troop reductions might begin next year and be driven not just by conditions on the ground, but by the strain on the US army. The general's massage that the surge may soon come to an end will be welcomed on Capitol Hill but the focus of the debate here is likely to turn next would passed continue US troops can serve in Iraq.

President Bush's strongly defended his Iraq policy on the first day of his visit to Australia. Earlier a non-partisan US congressional report said the Iraqi government was failing to reach most of the targets set for it by congress such as reducing sectarian violence. But Mr. Bush said the security situation was changing and there were clear signs of reconciliation.

The United Nation says it's backing Congolese government troops in their intensifying fight against rebels in the east. The UN's military spokesman in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Major Gabriel de Brosses, told the BBC it was airlifting government troops to the eastern province of North Kivu, where the government is battling rebels loyal to a dissident general.

"We are providing logistical support to refound these troops and yes, it includes transportation of infantry companies to the locations where they can protect the population, and we are also providing them air transportation capacities for ammunition so that they can protect the population."

The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says the Peace Agreement in southern Sudan is a blueprint for long-term peace in the country including Darfur, but it must be fully implemented. Mr. Ban is traveling from southern Sudan to Darfur to meet people who fled the fighting there.

An extensive search is under way in the United States for the pilot and adventurer Steve Fossett who went missing on Monday in a light aero plane. Steve Fossett took off in a single-engine plane from a private airstrip in western Nevada, but failed to return. Chuck Allen from the Nevada highway patrol says rescuers are combing a vast area, encompassing deserts and mountains.

"Six CAP aircraft have been launched with highly trained and well equipped crews of three each in order to do sophisticated grid researches of hundreds of square miles of terrain in areas that the pilot may have seen. Since low altitude airborne search and rescue is inherently risky, the emphasis is always on safety, particularly in regard to winds aloft near mountainous terrain." Over a lengthy career, Steve Fossett has set more than a hundred records in aviation and sailing.

This is BBC World News.

Reports from Kazakhstan said the government wants more than ten billion dollars in compensation from the Italian energy company ENI which heads a consortium in developing the giant Kashagan oilfield in the Caspian Sea. The Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh told Reuters News Agency that Astana wanted compensation for delays in the planned start of oil production at Kashagan which has been put back to 2010.

The world's biggest toy maker, Mattel, has announced its third major recall of Chinese-made products in just over a month. The company says around three quarters of a million toys are being recalled because they are decorated with paint containing excessive quantities of lead. Steve Jackson reports.

Mattel says it is recalling ten different products including Barbie doll accessories and toy trains. All of them exceed safety limits for the amount of lead allowed in paint. Lead can cause brain damage when ingested by young children. The chairman of Mattel Bob Eckert apologized again for the situation, but stressed that the faults come to light because the company had recently stepped up product testing. Chinese-made tooth paste, pet food, car tires, and sea food products, as well as toys, have all been the subjects of safety scares around the world this year.

The authorities in Mexico have sentenced Benjamin Arellano-Felix, one of the imprisoned leaders of the Tijuana drugs cartel, to a further 22 years in jail for drug-smuggling crimes. Mr. Arellano-Felix who was arrested in 2002 was sentenced to five years in prison on weapons charges earlier this year. He is currently serving his sentence in a maximum security prison in Mexico.

Police in Brazil have raided the offices of the Sao Paulo based football club Corinthians as part of an investigation into allegations of illegal financial dealings. Officers from the country's anti-organized crime department entered the club and confiscated papers and computer equipments.

BBC News.