2010-03-02 BBC
BBC News with Kathy Clugston
Officials in Washington say President Barack Obama is planning dramatic reductions in America's nuclear arsenal as part of a sweeping review aimed at reversing the spread of nuclear weapons. Mr. Obama is meeting his Defense Secretary Robert Gates shortly to discuss the new strategy which he outlined in Prague 11 months ago. Our diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus reports.
The review will be read closely to see what it might say about the potential circumstances in which nuclear weapons would be used, the role if any of tactical nuclear weapons and so on. Getting this document right matters. Along with the so far allusive treaty with Moscow, it will set the tone for the review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT agreement this May. Mr. Obama wants to prevent the weakening NPT regime from unraveling. To do so, he needs to have powerful evidence that the US is taking its disarmament responsibilities seriously.
The Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says negotiations with the United States on cutting their nuclear arsenals are close to a deal. He said they had reached the stage of agreeing the nuances of the text, and he hoped the talks could be concluded soon. The negotiations on a replacement for the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty have dragged on for months. Mr. Medvedev's comments came in Paris where he held talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy.
More details are emerging of the extent of the destruction caused by Saturday's earthquake in Chile. A BBC correspondent, who has reached the town of Curico, south of Santiago, says 90% of the mud and wooden buildings there were destroyed, but he says food and water are being distributed and the town appears quiet. The town's mayor Hugo Rey Martinez said that one of the main problems was the hospital.
"The pillars of the main hospital have collapsed. The structure won't stay up much longer. What we believe and what the technical teams have confirmed is that we'll have to build a new hospital in the town, and that's gonna take several years."
A former Bosnian Muslim leader Ejup Ganic has been arrested in Britain for war crimes under an extradition warrant issued by Serbia. He was detained at London's Heathrow Airport and later appeared in court where he was remanded in custody. Bridget Kendall reports.
The Serbian government has up to 45 days to deliver full papers to the British judge who will then decide whether to go ahead and extradite him. It seems Serbia wants to try him and several other former high-ranking Bosnian officials for alleged war crimes committed back in 1992 at the start of the Bosnian war that accompanied Yugoslavia's break-up. He's accused of being involved in an attack on a Yugoslav army convoy in the city of Sarajevo. The extradition warrant alleges the killing of wounded soldiers.
World News from the BBC
The Vice President of Afghanistan Abdul Khalili has visited the town of Marjah in Helmand province days after it was declared free of Taliban influence. Marjah has been the main focus of Operation Moshtarak, the largest military operation carried out by NATO and its Afghan allies since 2001. The vice president was accompanied by the NATO Commander General Stanley McChrystal.
Human rights groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo have lodged a formal complaint against a senior army officer based in North Kivu province. The organizations accused troops under the command of Colonel Innocent Zimurinda of a series of abuses. Will Ross reports.
The 50 human rights groups and civil society organizations have written to the commander of the government forces in the North Kivu region, asking for Colonel Innocent Zimurinda to be suspended and investigated. It's not been possible to get a response from Colonel Zimurinda to this long list of allegations. The organizations, which include Human Rights Watch, said he had been in charge of a group of CNDP rebels that killed at least 150 civilians in North Kivu's Kiwanja town in late 2008.
Spain has demanded an explanation from Venezuela over allegations that Caracas has been collaborating with the Basque separatist group Eta and the Colombian rebel group the Farc in a plot to attack senior Colombian officials in Spain. A Spanish judge said the potential targets included the current Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and his predecessor. An ally of President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela's National Assembly denied that his country had collaborated with Eta or the Farc.
A former left-wing rebel in Uruguay Jose Mujica has been sworn in as the country's new president at a ceremony in Montevideo. Mr Mujica, who was elected in November, said his priorities would be to improve education, guarantee energy supplies and maintain security. He also expressed support for the regional economic bloc Mercosur.
BBC News.