2010-01-25 BBC
BBC News with Jonathan Wheatley.
The government of Haiti says more than 150,000 bodies have been recovered in the capital Port-au-Prince alone since the earthquake that struck 12 days ago. Many of them have been buried in mass graves. Greg Morsbach reports.
Haiti's communications minister said the figure was based on the amount of bodies collected by the authorities from the capital city and its outskirts and then buried in mass graves. She said nobody knew precisely how many more were still under the rubble of collapsed buildings across the country. With many of the dead buried quickly in mass graves, there haven't been proper funeral ceremonies for them. As for any possible survivors trapped under the remains of houses, there is still a small but fading glimmer of hope that a miracle rescue could happen again.
The United States government says it cannot yet confirm the authenticity of an audio message purporting to be by Osama bin Laden. In the tape, the speaker praises the attempted bombing of a US airliner over Detroit last month and warns of further al-Qaeda attacks. Richard Barrett is the coordinator of the United Nations al-Qaeda Taliban Monitoring Team. He thought the tape was genuine.
"It's rare that other people claim to be speaking as Osama bin Laden when they are not. But also of course it’s… There’s other previous tapes that it can be compared with. And I think it's quite straightforward on sort of basic voice analysis to decide whether indeed it is Osama bin Laden. And I would imagine in this case that it will be."
After international pressure, the authorities in Afghanistan have postponed parliamentary elections due in May. The Electoral Commission said the polls would now be held in September mainly because of a lack of funding. President Karzai had faced demands for a delay to allow time to improve security and guard against fraud.
The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has attended symbolic tree-planting ceremonies in Jewish settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank and declared that Israel would never leave those areas. He was speaking hours after talks with the US envoy, George Mitchell, who's been pressing Israel to stop settlement activity. Bob Trevelyan reports.
Mr. Netanyahu's visit seems to have been aimed at mollifying Jewish settlers, who have been angered by his agreement under US pressure to freeze some building work in the settlements for ten months. Palestinians, however, will view his declaration that Israel will never leave the settlement blocs as provocative. A spokesman for the Palestinian president said Mr. Netanyahu's act was unacceptable and undermined efforts to restart peace talks.
The White House says it's confident that the chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, will be reappointed for a second term. President Obama's senior adviser, David Axelrod, told CNN that Mr. Obama believed the Senate would confirm Mr. Bernanke in office this week. Senate opposition to his reappointment has grown in recent days. Critics blame him for not doing enough to prevent the world financial crisis.
World News from the BBC.
The former Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaranatunga has pledged support for the main opposition candidate in Tuesday's fiercely contested presidential election. Ms Kumaranatunga, a member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, said she was deeply concerned about violence during the campaign and urged her supporters to vote for the former army general, Sarath Fonseka. Elettra Neysmith has more.
The endorsement of Chandrika Kumaranatunga is seen as a big boost for General Fonseka. Her comment that she's deeply concerned about violence, intimidation and corruption during the election campaign combined with her urging her supporters to vote for the opposition implies that the government is responsible. It's unclear whether her endorsement will be translated into votes. But her family does have loyal support among the Sri Lankan Freedom Party, which her father, a former prime minister, founded.
Life is slowly returning to normal in the central Nigerian city of Jos with people emerging from their homes a week after clashes between Christians and Muslims left hundreds dead. The authorities in Plateau State have refused to be drawn on how many people were killed, but some reports say the number could be in excess of 300. Jos has been a focus of religious violence.
A US airliner on a flight to Las Vegas had to be diverted when a passenger tried to open an emergency exit in mid-flight. Police said he'd been drinking large amounts of alcohol and taking pills. Reports say the man made his way towards one of the emergency exits carrying a brown paper bag. Fellow passengers then wrestled him to the ground and kept him pinned there until he was arrested by the police on arrival at Denver.
Ghana have reached the semi-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations. They beat the host country Angola one nil in Luanda in the first of the quarter-finals. Asamoah Gyan scored in the 16th minute. Ivory Coast are currently playing Algeria in Cabinda. The latest score is 1-1. Salomon Kalou opened the scoring for Ivory Coast. Karim Matmour equalized.
BBC News.