2010-04-10 BBC
BBC News with David Austin.
The President of Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiyev who is in hiding in the south of the country says he fears he will be killed if he returns to the capital Bishkek. Mr.Bakiyev fled the city after an uprising earlier this week and was speaking to a BBC correspondent at a secret location in the city of Jalalabad.
If I were to turn up in Bishkek today, I would not be safe. I would be killed or they would throw me into the crowd, saying this is the man who ordered the police to open fire. He is responsible for the bloodshed.
Iran says it's developed a new type of centrifuge which it says will be six times more efficient at enriching uranium than those currently in use. Unveiling one of the new machines at a ceremony celebrating what Iran calls a nuclear day, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said no one could stop his country from producing peaceful nuclear energy. The BBC's Tehran correspondent says the new technology will worry the west as it could speed up Iran's ability to make a nuclear bomb.
The Islamist group in Somalia al-Shabab has closed down BBC radio relay stations in five cities in southern Somalia, including the capital Mogadishu. In addition, they have ordered the BBC partner station in Mogadishu ... not to broadcast BBC programmes. Here is our east Africa correspondent Peter Greste.
In a statement, al-Shabab said the BBC had been broadcasting the agenda of crusaders and colonialists against Muslims and ordered all the organization' transmitters to be shut down. The BBC has been broadcasting its services in Somali, Arabic and English across the country on a series of FM frequencies for at least a decade, and surveys suggest it is one of the most widely listened to news services in Somalia. In response, the head of the BBC Africa service Jerry Timmins said the organization speaks to all sides in the conflict, including al-Shabab and rejected any suggestion otherwise.
President Obama has ordered a report into an explosion at a coal mine in West Virginia which killed at least 25 miners. Mr. Obama says he is praying for a miracle as rescuers continue to search for four miners still missing. Rising levels of methane gas have hindered rescue operation. Madeleine Morris reports.
Monday's accident has brought to light a history of safety violation at the Upper Big Branch coal mine in West Virginia. Records show that in the last 18 months, it was evacuated 64 times because of safety violations. It also received more safety warnings from the national average, but it was allowed to continue to operate. Massey, the company which owns and operates the mine has defended its safety record.
The oldest and longest serving member of the United States Supreme Court has announced his retire. John Paul Stevens who is nearly 90 is considered the leader of the liberal judges on the court. President Obama is expected to nominate a liberal leading judge to replace him.
World News from the BBC.
Pope Benedict is facing new allegations about his handling of cases of child abuse by pedophile priests. The Associated Press News Agency says it obtains a letter signed by the future pope in 1985 when he was a senior Vatican official in which he resisted the dismissal of an American priest who'd sexually abused children. The letter speaks of concerns including what it calls the "good of the universal Church", that it says should be considered when deciding the matter. The Vatican hasn't commented on the contents of the letter, but the Vatican spokesman said it wasn't strange that there were documents with the future pope's signature on them.
Russia is considering suspending the adoption of Russian children by people in the United States until the two countries conclude an International agreement on the conditions governing such adoptions. The proposed move follows the case of a seven-year-old Russian boy who were sent back unaccompanied from the United States after his adopted family rejected him. Steve Kingstone reports.
The US State Department says it's very troubled by the case of the seven-year-old Artyom Savelyev who arrived unaccompanied in Moscow on a flight from Washington. The Russian authorities say the boy was carrying a letter from his adoptive mother back in Tennessee, Torry Hansen. She reportedly wrote that the child had become violent and mentally unstable and that she no longer wished to parent him. It is understood she took custody of Artyom last September. The US authorities are investigating whether she committed crime by sending her son back to his homeland.
Officials in Indian-Administered Kashmir say they will for the first time allow foreigners to climb more than 100 high altitude peaks later this year. That Peaks that will be opened for tracking and mountaineering are situated at an altitude ranging from 3000 meters to nearly 8000 meters. Mostly in the eastern Karakoram Range in the Ladak region. The officials say that the move is an attempt to boost the province's tourism industry.
And that's the latest BBC News.