BBC news 2010-07-28
BBC News with David Austin
The United Nations chief weapons inspector just before the Iraq conflict, Hans Blix, has said Britain was dragged along in a war that was not legally defensible. Mr Blix was speaking to the BBC after appearing at an inquiry in London where he questioned the judgment of President Bush and the Prime Minister Tony Blair in the run-up to the conflict. Mr Blix said the Americans were intoxicated with the idea of military action and thought they could get away with it.
"There was a big difference between the UK attitude and the US. The US did not really care for any international restrictions. They didn't feel a need for what they called a permission slip from the Security Council whilst the UK felt that yes, you would need to have a Security Council authorization. However, the clear simple fact was that in March 2003, three permanent members of the Security Council were against the use of force, but they could not have got a majority in the council for such a resolution."
President Obama has said the leaking of tens of thousands of classified documents on the war in Afghanistan did not reveal anything that had not already informed public debate on the situation there. The documents were revealed by the whistle-blowing organization Wikileaks.
A Bangladeshi government wage board has recommended a new legal minimum wage for its millions of garment factory workers. The wage is increased by about 80% to around 44 dollars a month. The announcement came after months of violent protests. Our correspondent Anbarasan Ethirajan reports from the capital Dhaka.
The new minimum wage deal is expected to benefit around 2.5 million garment workers in Bangladesh, most of them women. The current legal minimum pay is about 25 dollars a month, described by labour activists as the lowest in the world for this type of work. Following criticism, some western companies earlier this year asked the Bangladeshi government to raise the minimum wage for its workers. The garments industry is the backbone of Bangladesh's economy, amounting to nearly 80% of the country's total exports.
A court in Britain has rejected a Serbian request for the extradition of the former Bosnian President Ejup Ganic on war crimes charges, arising from the Bosnian conflict in the early 1990s. Serbia has said it will appeal. Mr Ganic was charged in Belgrade over the deaths of more than 40 Yugoslav soldiers and detained as he prepared to leave Britain in March. Adam Mynott has more details.
The district judge hearing the extradition case said the application to have Dr Ganic extradited to Belgrade was politically motivated and without foundation. He said "Dr Ganic, you are free to go." The former Bosnian acting president will return to Bosnia tomorrow. He said outside court that the case by Serbia against him was a disgrace, and he was happy to be going home completely exonerated and a free man.
Adam Mynott reporting.
World News from the BBC
An African Union summit in Uganda has agreed to send further troops to Somalia to counter al-Shabab insurgents. The chairman of the AU Commission Jean Ping said at the end of the summit that Guinea, Djibouti and the East African grouping IGAD had promised to send 4,000 more troops, bringing the number of AU soldiers in Somalia to 10,000.
The man due to become the new chief executive of BP says a smaller, wiser company will emerge from the crisis surrounding the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Bob Dudley, an American citizen who's currently BP's managing director, told US television that his top priority would be the clean-up operation.
"Sometimes events like this shake you to the core, the foundation, and you have two responses - one is to run away from it and hide; the other is to respond and really change the culture of the company and make sure all the checks and balances are there, just to make sure this does not happen again."
Cuba's former President Fidel Castro says he will release the first volume of his memoirs next month. The book will be called The Strategic Victory and will focus on the story of how a few hundred revolutionaries under his command defeated the Cuban army in 1958. It'll include reminiscences from his childhood and describe how he became a guerrilla fighter.
The mayor of the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro has launched a 10-year plan to renovate many of the city's favelas or slums. The mayor said the plan would benefit over 260,000 households and would cost around 4.5 billion dollars. It's part of the city's preparation for the 2016 Olympic Games.
Some news just in: within the past few minutes, the Argentine football authorities have confirmed that the iconic coach of the national side, Diego Maradona, will not continue in his job, and his contract will not be renewed. Argentina, tipped as one of the hot favourites to win the World Cup earlier this month, was instead knocked out in the quarter-finals by Germany.
And that's the latest BBC News.