2010-03-11 BBC
BBC News with David Austin.
A United Nations report says up to half the food aid in Somalia is routinely diverted to corrupt contractors, Islamist militants and local UN workers. Bob Replate in New York has more.
The report says up to half of the food aid to Somalia is diverted to a web of corrupt contractors, transporters and armed groups. It blames the problem on the distribution system run by the UN’s World Food Program, or WFP. The report notes that agency contracts for food transport are awarded to a few powerful individuals who operate cartels that sell the food illegally. Truck drivers and militants controlling different areas also get paid off. The report’s criticism of WFP is unusually strong, it even recommends an independent investigation into the agency’s Somali operation.
The Haitian President Rene Preval has met Barack Obama at the White House and he expressed his gratitude for America’s help to Haiti after the earthquake. Kim Ghattas reports from Washington.
President Rene Preval thanked Barack Obama and the American people for all the material aid that flow to Haiti after the earthquake as well as the moral support which he said helped Haitians realized they were not alone. President Preval also called for the creation of a body within the United Nations to help with fast global response to earthquakes. He said the red helmets would be the humanitarian equivalent of the blue helmets, the UN's peacekeeping force.
Police in central Nigeria have revised down to 109, the number of people they say were killed in recent ethnic violence near the city of Jos. The regional police chief said the previous official figure of about 500 dead had been fabricated. But a BBC correspondent in one of the villages says more than 100 people were killed in that village alone.
A traffic police commander in Moscow has been sacked after ordinary cars were used to blockade a road to prevent armed robbers escaping. Ten drivers were reportedly told to use their vehicles to form a barrier during the incident last week. Richard Galpin reports from Moscow.
One driver said they’d been forced to stay inside their cars and it’d been a terrifying experience as a criminal drove into them at high speed. We could’ve been killed, he said. His was one of the several cars which were damaged but no one was hurt. Initially the police denied the incident but were then forced to admit it was true. One driver posted a video about it on the Internet which’s already been watched by tens of thousands of people.
The American Vice President Joe Biden has spoken out strongly against Israeli plans to build 1,600 new homes in occupied East Jerusalem. At a news conference in Ramallah after talks with Palestinian leaders, Mr Biden said the Israeli’s decision undermined trust needed for profitable negotiations. The Vice President is visiting the region to spearhead American efforts to revive the peace process.
World News from the BBC.
The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has robustly defended climate change science in the wake of criticisms of the inter-governmental panel on climate change. Speaking in New York, Mr Ban said that none of the criticisms of the IPCC report affected the conclusion that human activities are changing the climate and that greenhouse gas emissions be cut urgently. Here is our environment reporter Mike Megrar.
Launching this review, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that the small amount of earth contained in the IPCC’s 2007 report haven’t altered the fundamental conclusions that global warming is real and man-made. But to ensure transparency, accountability and adoptability, he’s asked the InterAcademy Council, a body that represents leading scientific academies around the world to carry out a comprehensive evaluation. This independent panel will look how the IPCC handles data, what types of literature it should include in its reports and how to incorporate the full range of scientific views, a boost for researchers who disagree with the organization.
An Israeli supermarket chain is using the assassination of a commander from the Palestinian militant group Hamas as the basis for a television advertisement. The commercial for the Mahsaney Kimat Hinam shops shows actors carrying tennis rackets and wearing hats and wigs, the same disguise that used by the killers. The Israeli Secret Service Mossad is widely suspected of carrying out the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai in January. The advert ends with a slogan, we offer killer prices.
The Italian government has signed an agreement with Google to put contents of its two national libraries on the net. It means that up to a million antiquarian books including the works of Dante Machiavelli and Galileo will be scanned and made available free of charge. The Italian authorities welcome the scheme as budget pressures have cut the amount that can be spent on preserving the collections in Rome and Florence.
And that is the latest BBC News.