2010-06-15 BBC
BBC News with David Austin
The International Red Cross says there are about 15,000 ethnic Uzbeks fleeing violence in Kyrgyzstan massed at the Uzbek border. Some 80,000 have already fled to Uzbekistan since last week when ethnic clashes erupted in southern Kyrgyzstan. Rupert Wingfield-Hayes sent this report from the city of Osh.
Nearly four days after the killing and burning began, bright orange flames are still consuming houses in the Uzbek neighbourhoods of Osh. The women and children have all fled. Only the men remain roaming the streets in gangs armed with clubs and knives. People here say the violence that has killed more than 120 people was absolutely not spontaneous. What happened here has the appearance of an ethnic pogrom. The large parts of the Kyrgyz half of the city have also been destroyed. Only a handful of troops are on the streets. Locals told us they are now desperate for the old colonial power Russia to send its troops to end the violence.
President Obama is making his fourth visit to the region worst affected by the BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. He's compared the impact to the 9/11 attacks, saying it would profoundly change the way America thought about the environment and energy just as the attacks on 9/11 had shaped foreign policy. After visiting Mississippi, he travelled to Alabama where he said America's largest environmental disaster was being met with the largest ever environmental response. And he said although it would take time, he was confident it would be effective.
"It's going to be painful for a lot of folks. Folks are going to be frustrated, and some folks are going to be angry. But I promise you this: that things are going to return to normal. This region that's known a lot of hardship will bounce back just like it's bounced back before. We are going to do everything we can to make sure that communities get back on their feet. And in the end, I'm confident that we're going to be able to leave the Gulf Coast in better shape than it was before."
The value of BP shares have fallen sharply again, dropping more than 9% in London, as directors of the oil company met to discuss whether to suspend dividends to shareholders. There has been no announcement yet, but it's thought that BP will suspend the payments.
The federal police in Mexico say at least ten officers have been killed in an ambush in the western state of Michoacan. James Read has more details.
A federal police convoy of four vehicles was returning to Mexico City when it was trapped at a roadblock in the town of Zitacuaro and sprayed with machine-guns. Police returned fire and say they killed some of the attackers who withdrew taking their casualties with them. Soldiers and police are searching the area, and there are reports of further clashes. The gunmen haven't been identified, but this looks like another incident in Mexico's escalating drugs war. Michoacan is the headquarters of La Familia, one of the country's most violent drugs gangs.
World News from the BBC
President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has accused the Obama administration in the United States of having imperialist pretensions in Latin America. In a BBC interview, Mr Chavez said a deal giving US forces access to seven military bases in Colombia to fight drug trafficking and rebels had sent very negative signals to the region.
A Colombian police officer seized 12 years ago by left-wing rebels has been found alive in a jungle, hours after three fellow captives were rescued. Lieutenant Colonel William Donato had fled in the confusion when troops attacked the FARC rebel camp where he was being held. The four captives, all members of the security forces, have been re-united with their families in Bogota after 12 years in rebel hands.
The German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that stricter rules are needed for countries using the euro, what she called "treaties with teeth". Speaking after a meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, she said they'd agreed on measures to help prevent a repeat of the financial crisis. Steve Rosenberg reports from Berlin.
At the G20 summit later this month, the two countries will jointly promote the idea of a tax on banks and on financial transactions. Though both push for stricter punishments for eurozone members, they'd failed to meet their financial commitments. President Sarkozy appeared to backtrack on his demand for an economic government of the eurozone and its own structures in secretariat. That was a victory for Chancellor Merkel who favours greater economic governance for all 27 EU countries.
Steve Rosenberg
At the World Cup in South Africa, about 1,000 trainee police had to be drafted in to replace stewards who went on strike ahead of the match between the champions Italy and Paraguay. The game in Cape Town went ahead as scheduled, but the final result: a one-all draw. Earlier, Japan beat Cameroon one-nil, and the Netherlands beat Denmark two-nil.
That's the latest BBC News.