BBC News with David Legge
An American report investigating the decision by the Scottish government to release the Libyan man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing says he was freed for political reasons and under what it calls the "threat of commercial warfare". Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was freed from prison in August last year after the Scottish government said his cancer meant he only had three months to live. One of the US senators who commissioned the report, Robert Menendez, flatly disputed that.
"The Lockerbie bomber was released without medical justification. Two, al-Megrahi was released because of a combination of commercial and political pressures exerted by the Libyans and private commercial interests on the Scottish and British governments. The United Kingdom responded to the threat of Libyan commercial warfare and lobbying by BP with pressure on Scotland. The Scottish government engaged Libya and the United Kingdom in the matter of releasing al-Megrahi."
The Scottish government has wholly rejected the US report.
The man who, most international observers said, lost the recent presidential election in Ivory Coast, the incumbent Laurent Gbagbo, has appeared on state television, saying that he is the country's legitimate president. It's the first time he's spoken on national TV, which he controls, since the political crisis erupted. Mr Gbagbo offered to let an international panel examine the crisis. He said his rival Alassane Ouattara should leave the hotel where he is based, protected by United Nations peacekeepers.
The authorities in El Salvador have asked the Mexican government to investigate the disappearance of scores of Salvadoran migrants. The Salvadoran foreign ministry said unidentified gunmen stopped a cargo train in the state of Oaxaca, in the south of Mexico, on Thursday. It said the men kidnapped around 50 migrants who'd stowed away on the train. This report from Vanessa Buschschluter.
Eyewitnesses say gunmen forced the train to stop in Chahuites by blocking the rails with logs and stones. They reportedly boarded the train, robbed and hit the stowaways with machetes, and took a group of them away at gunpoint. The Salvadoran consulate, which interviewed the migrants who escaped, believes 50 were kidnapped. Migrants are increasingly being targeted by drug gangs looking for new recruits.
The British Prime Minister David Cameron has said his Business Secretary Vince Cable will play no further part in deciding whether Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate, News Corporation, will be allowed to take over the satellite TV company BSkyB.
Mr Cameron said remarks about Mr Murdoch by Mr Cable recorded by an undercover reporter were totally unacceptable and inappropriate. Mr Cable was recorded as saying he'd declared war on Mr Murdoch and was going to win. News Corporation said it was shocked and dismayed.
World News from the BBC
The European Union Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas has described as "unacceptable" the severe disruption experienced by thousands of people in northern Europe trying to travel in the current wintry conditions. Heavy snowfalls have forced several European airports to close, as Maddy Savage now reports.
Dublin airport in Ireland is the latest to shut down because of the weather. All flights are currently suspended. At Europe's busiest airport, London Heathrow, more than 700 flights have been cancelled. It's also been revealed that the British government offered to send in the army to help clear the snow, but that the company that operates the airport, BAA, said no.
Travellers are being told not to turn up at Heathrow, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt or Amsterdam airports unless their flights have been confirmed.
The accounting firm Ernst & Young is being sued for $150m by New York state prosecutors for its role in the collapse of Lehman Brothers. From New York, here's Caroline Hepker.
New York's Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has accused one of America's leading accounting firms of helping to hide massive accounting fraud at Lehman Brothers in the years before the bank collapsed in September 2008. Mr Cuomo says the accounting giant advised Lehman Brothers on obscuring $50bn. Ernst & Young has made no comment on the case, but the attorney general wants the firm to repay fees it received, totalling $150m plus damages to investors.
An online campaign to spread Christmas cheer has resulted in thousands of people being evacuated from a shopping centre in California. About 5,000 singers hoping to take part in an impromptu performance of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus filled a shopping mall in Sacramento. But there were so many of them the building started to shake. The singers performed outside without bringing the house down.
BBC News
调查苏格兰政府释放洛克比空难主犯决定的一份美国报告称,苏格兰政府是由于政治原因释放此人,是迫于“商业冲突的威胁”。去年8月份,迈格拉希从苏格兰监狱获释,因为苏格兰政府称他的癌症意味着他只剩下三个月的生命。委托进行这份报告的一名美国参议员Robert Menendez断然对此提出异议。
“洛克比空难主犯在没有任何医疗方面的正当理由的情况下获释。第二点,迈格拉希获释是由于利比亚人施加的商业和政治压力,以及苏格兰和英国政府承受的私营商业利益的压力。英国将利比亚商业冲突和英国议员的游说的压力转嫁给了苏格兰。苏格兰政府也参与了利比亚和英国释放迈格拉希的行为。”苏格兰政府完全否认了美国的这份报告。
大部分国际观察员认为输掉科特迪瓦最近的总统选举的现任总统巴波出现在国家电视台,声称他是该国合法的总统。这是自政治危机爆发以来他首次在自己控制的国家电视台讲话。巴波同意允许国际调查小组对这场危机进行审查。他说,他的竞争对手瓦塔拉应该离开现在逗留的酒店。瓦塔拉现在受到联合国维和人员的保护。
萨尔瓦多当局要求墨西哥政府对数十名萨尔瓦多移民失踪事件进行调查。萨尔瓦多外交部表示,不明身份的持枪分子周四在墨西哥南部的瓦哈卡劫持了一辆货运火车。这些持枪分子劫持了藏身在火车上的大约50名移民。Vanessa Buschschluter报道。
目击者称,持枪分子在轨道上铺设了原木和石头,迫使火车在Chahuites附近停止。据报道,他们登上火车,抢劫并用砍刀袭击了偷渡者,然后用枪将他们劫持走。萨尔瓦多领事馆对侥幸逃脱的移民进行调查后确信大约50人被劫持。现在,移民已经成为贩毒团伙招募用来补充人员的新目标。
英国首相卡梅伦表示,商务大臣文斯-凯布尔(Vince Cable)将无权继续决定鲁珀特·默多克(Rupert Murdoch)的新闻集团是否能够接管电视运营商BSkyB。
卡梅伦表示,一名秘密工作的记者录制下来的默多克关于凯布尔的评价是完全不恰当,不能接受的。记者录到,凯布尔说,他已经对默多克宣战,并且一定会取得胜利。新闻集团表示,他们非常震惊,非常失望。
BBC世界新闻。
欧盟交通专员卡拉斯(Siim Kallas)表示,试图在严冬中旅行的数千人在北欧遭遇的严重扰乱是不可接受的。严重的降雪已经迫使几个欧洲机场关闭。Maddy Savage报道。
爱尔兰的都柏林机场是由于恶劣的天气状况关闭的最新一家机场。现在所有的航班都已经被取消。在欧洲最繁忙的伦敦希思罗机场,700多个航班被取消。据披露,英国政府提出派遣军队来清扫积雪,但是负责希思罗机场的管理公司BAA拒绝了政府的好意。旅客已被告知不要前往希思罗,杜塞尔多夫,法兰克福或阿姆斯特丹机场,除非确认他们的航班已经恢复正常。
Ernst & Young会计公司由于在雷曼兄弟公司破产事件中发挥的作用而被纽约州检控官控以1.5亿美元的罚款。纽约,Caroline Hepker报道。
纽约首席检察官Andrew Cuomo指控美国一家主要的会计公司在雷曼兄弟公司2008年9月破产之前的几年帮助他们隐藏巨额的虚假帐目。Cuomo表示,该会计公司巨头建议雷曼兄弟公司隐藏500亿美元的账目。Ernst & Young会计公司对该案件没有给出任何评论,但是检察官要求他们交出因此收到的总额大约1.5亿美元的费用以及投资者的损失。
用于传播圣诞祝福的网上活动导致数千人被从加州的购物中心疏散。希望参加亨德尔Hallelujah Chorus乐团即兴演出的大约5,000名歌手挤满了萨克拉曼多的购物中心。但是由于人口拥挤,建筑开始摇晃。最后,歌手们只能在外面进行演出。