BBC news with Fiona Mcdonald



The commander of US forces in Iraq, General David Patraeus, has called for a halt in the withdrawal of troops after July. Some twenty thousand US soldiers are due to leave by then. General Patraeus recommended the six-week freeze to further withdrawals, while the security situation in Iraq was assessed. Testifying before a congressional committee, he said conditions had improved since the surge in troop levels but remained fragile. The US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker told the senators that the US and Iraqi government had begun negotiating a long-term framework for their relations. Jacky S. Row reports from Washington.



The picture painted by General Patraeus and Ambassador Crocker is of an Iraq making halting and fragile progress. The General said America should continue its plan to gradually reduce the number of US troops in Iraq to about 140,000 by July; he said this should be followed by a forty-five day evaluation period, before deciding what to do next. The ambassador said the recent violence in Basra showed there is still a long way to go before the Iraqi government can take full control of the city.



Crowds of demonstrators in Haiti have tried to storm the presidential palace in the capital Port-au-Prince during another wave of protest over rising food prices. Witnesses say United Nation’s troops fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse them. Paul Keller reports.



The demonstrators outside the presidential palace said the rising cost of living in Haiti meant they were struggling to feed themselves. “We are hungry!” they shouted before attempting to smash open the palace gates, some using metal rubbish bins as improvised battering rams. Rising food prices are causing unrest around the globe, but in Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world, the protests threaten to destabilize an already fragile democracy.



The FARC Rebel group in Colombia has refused to allow a French humanitarian mission to meet the Colombia politician Ingrid Betancourt, who was captured by the rebels six years ago. From Colombia, here is Jeremy MacDonald.



The guerrilla said they have released six hostages unilaterally this year. It was up to the government of president Álvaro Uribe to make some concessions. The key concession the rebels are after is the demilitarized zone in the south-west of the country. The FARC message indicates two things: Firstly that the pressure is back on president Vélez to make concessions even though he has ruled out granting any safe haven to the guerillas. The second is that the reports of Ms Betancourt’s deteriorating health might not be accurate, as, if she was on the point of death as some rumors have suggested, the guerillas might be less intransigent.



The Nigerian government has filed corruption charges against twelve senior health officials including Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, the daughter of the former Nigerian president. The charges referred to the alleged embezzlement of more than two million dollars.

World News from the BBC



The national assembly in Senegal has amended the constitution to allow its courts to try the former Chadian president Hissein Habre. Human rights activists hold Mr. Habre responsible for the killing and torture of thousands of people during his time in power. He has been living in exile in Senegal since fleeing Chad in 1990.



The International Monetary Fund said the total losses arising from the world-wide squeeze on credit could reach nearly one trillion dollars as its impact spreads through the global economy. Our business reporter, Mick Gregory, reports.



Estimates of losses suffered by financial institutions have risen steadily since the credit crisis began last August. This latest figure ever-approaching(不断接近) a million million dollars from the IMF is the biggest number yet. The IMF says a little more than half the losses are linked to the residential mortgage market; it puts the figure for banks at nearly $300 billion dollars. IMF officials also pointed to substantial losses by other types of financial institutions, such as hedge funds and pension funds.



The Roman Catholic Church in Germany has issued a new report admitting the extent of its involvement in the use of forced labor during the Nazi era of the World War II. The report says nearly six thousand people, mostly deported from Poland and the Soviet Union, were forced to work in hundreds of Roman Catholic institutions. Germany senior Roman Catholic prelate said the church had been blind for too long.



The Libyan government has released ninety Islamic militants from jail following talks between their movement and the organization headed by the son of Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi. The militants are members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group which had vowed to overthrow colonel Qaddafi’ government. They have been involved in various unrest inside Libya.