BBC News with John Jason
The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says he expects the report by UN weapons inspectors will confirm overwhelmingly that chemical weapons were used in an attack in the Syrian capital Damascus last month. From New York, here’s Nick Bryant.
Ban Ki-moon was speaking at a women’s forum at the United Nations and appears not have realised his comments were being broadcast. Referring to the much anticipated report from the UN weapons inspectors investigating the August 21st attack, he indicated it showed overwhelmingly that chemical weapons were used, though he didn't apportion guilt. Shortly before when talking more generally about the Syrian conflict, he said that President Bashar al-Assad had committed many crimes against humanity and that there’ll be a process of accountability when this is over. Afterwards, his spokesman said the comments may have been off the cuff and that the UN secretary general hadn’t yet received the final report of his inspectors.
In Geneva talks between the American Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on eliminating Syria’s chemical weapons are continuing through the night. The BBC’s Paul Adams is outside the hotel where the talks are taking place.
There had been quite a heightened sense of expectation that we might get some kind of a press conference tonight if they are still deep in trying to reach an agreement on the outlines of this whole process of dealing with Syria’s chemical weapons. And it may well be that they need a little bit more time. We know that Sergei Lavrov went off to the Russian mission a little earlier possibly to talk directly to Moscow. And so clearly the business is not done yet, that there had been some thought earlier on that the Russians were keen to leave, possibly tonight, but that the Americans were determined to stay on and get the job done.
India’s main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has named one of the country’s most controversial politicians as its prime ministerial candidate in next year’s election. The hardline Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi is the long-standing chief minister of Gujarat. Critics accuse him of failing to stop communal riots in 2002, which left more than 1,000 people dead—most of them Muslims.
Talks between the oil company Shell and Nigerian villagers affected by two oil spills in 2008 appear to have broken down. A lawyer representing about 15,000 residents of the Bodo community in the Niger Delta said a compensation offer had been rejected, describing the figures as insulting. From Lagos, Tomi Oladipo:
Shell had said it would present a generous offer of compensation to the affected people and seek progress on a clean-up of the area. The fishing community in Bodo has threatened to take the case back to court. Oil companies and local communities have had a history of dispute in the Niger Delta. The people say the oil pollutes the environment, while the petroleum companies say oil theft and illegal refineries are responsible for the damage. The Niger Delta is the source of Nigeria’s oil wealth, but it’s also home to some of the country’s poorest people.
World News from the BBC
A Roman Catholic priest in Zanzibar has received treatment in hospital after attackers threw acid at him on a street in the island’s capital. It follows a similar attack on two young British women there last month. Police said it was unclear who carried out the latest assault. There’ve been growing tensions between the Muslim and Christian populations on the island as on mainland Tanzania.
Police in Argentina have arrested a 19-year-old man accused of heading a gang of computer hackers who targeted international money transfer and gambling websites. The teenager was allegedly making $50,000 a month working from his bedroom in Buenos Aires. Our America’s editor Eric Camara reports.
It took the federal police in Argentina about a year to close in on the teenager. When they finally did, the operation even shut down the power in the neighbourhood to prevent the hacker from deleting sensitive data. The young man lived with his father, a computer expert, in Buenos Aires. In his room officials found high-capacity computers and other specialised equipment. The hacker allegedly used malware attacks to build up a network of thousands of zombie computers which were then used to illegally divert money from accounts, leaving next to no trace behind.
The President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro has created a special committee to tackle shortages of food and other goods, which have been causing growing problems. The move came as some regional newspapers stopped their presses, blaming a lack of paper. The country’s been hit with frequent shortages of products such as milk, toilet paper and sugar.
The austerity drive in Greece in the wake of the euro crisis has claimed another victim. Public sector workers will lose six extra days of leave a year they were entitled to if they use a computer. The privilege was granted in 1989 to all who worked on a computer for more than five hours a day. The Greek minister for reform, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said it belonged to a different era.