2010-04-13 BBC
BBC News with David Austin.
As leaders from nearly 50 countries meet in Washington for a major summit on Nuclear Security, Ukraine has pledged to eliminate stockpile of highly enriched uranium by 2012. Ukraine will also convert its several nuclear research facilities to use low enriched uranium. The summit, the biggest international meeting hosted by the US since 1945, has been called by president Obama. Our diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus reports from Washington.
The timing may have been choreographed for the decision by the Ukraine authorities is just the sort of news president Barack Obama wants to hear. This summit is all about securing stocks of fissile material, highly enriched uranium and plutonium could potentially be used by terrorists to build a nuclear bomb. US officials said that Ukraine has sufficient highly enriched uranium for several nuclear weapons. This will be removed with some help from the United States. This is a precedent Obama would like other countries to follow and just to underscore the gravity of the potential threat. John Briton, a senior US counter-terrorism official, has warned that al-Qaeda has been seeking material for a nuclear bomb for over 15 years and that interest remains strong.
The body of the Polish president’s wife has now been identified following Saturday’s plane crash in Russia, in which she, her husband Lech Kaczynski, and dozens of senior Polish political and military officials were killed. The remains of most of the 96 people have now been recovered from the crash site in Western Russia. Richard Galpin reports from Moscow.
Investigators say the body of Maria Kaczynski was identified by her brother who flew to Moscow to carry out the distressing task. So far, they’ve identified 17 bodies. It’s thought DNA testing would be needed in some cases because of the impact of the crash and the fire that followed. Investigators are now reported to have almost finished reading the information on the plane’s data recorders or black boxes. A senior minister told the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev that the crew of the Polish president’s plane had received the warnings from the control tower that they should not land there because of the bad weather conditions.
The Vatican has clarified its position on a reporting of sex abuse cases involving members of the Roman Catholic clergy. For the first time it’s posted on its website a guideline, spelling out that bishops and other high ranking clergy should report sex abuse by priests to the police. The Vatican says this has been its policy for some time.
A former prime minister and the governor of the central bank in Iceland are among senior officials accused of gross negligence for the banking collapse in 2008 which crippled the country’s economy. And an official investigation of the financial crisis said seven political and financial leaders including the former Prime Minister Geir Haarde did have the necessary information to prevent the melt-down but they failed to act on it.
This is the World News from the BBC.
Senior officials from the American State Department today visited Moscow to urge Russia to continue allowing the adoption of Russian children by US families. On Friday, Russia said it was considering suspending all such adoptions after a 7-year-old Russian boy was sent back to Moscow unaccompanied when his adoptive American family rejected him. The Russian president Dmitry Medvedev called the return of the boy a monstrous act.
In Sudan, the national election commission has announced its extending voting for 2 days after logistical problems affected the start of the polls. The election will now end on Thursday. Here is James Copnall in Khartoum.
Electoral commission had previously acknowledged some technical mistakes on the first day of the vote. Many polling centers did not open on time after electoral material arrived late was wrong. The decision to extend was taken to make sure everyone would be able to vote according to electoral commission. The body’s been heavily criticized in particular by the northern opposition parties and the former southern rebels, the SPLM, many of them have totally or partially boycotted the polls because they believe electoral commission has rigged the polls for president Omar al-Bashir.
South Korea has arrested one of its citizens on suspicion of kidnapping North Korean fugitives in neighboring China and then taking them back to the north where they face harsh punishment. Prosecutors say the man identified only as Kim was recruited years ago by a female North Korean agent. Almost all those fleeing North Korea travel secretly via China.
The captain of Togo’s football team Emmanuel Adebayor says he’s retiring from the game at the international level because he’s still traumatized by the attack on his team’s bus at the African Cup of nations in January. Gunmen shot dead an assistant coach and the team’s spokesman in the attack in Angola. 26-year-old Adebayor plays for the English Premier League Club, Manchester city.
That’s the latest BBC News.