BBC 2007-05-04 加文本

BBC 2007-05-04


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Security issues are expected to dominate the second day of international talks on the future of Iraq. After an informal meeting with Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem on margins of the talks in Egypt, the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she had urged Syria to stop foreign fighters entering Iraq. She described the meeting as professional and business like while Mr. Moualem said the talks were frank and constructive. More than $30 billion in aid and debt relief for Iraq were pledged at the conference on Thursday. The United States ambassador Ryan Crocker said economic aid had an important part to play in bringing stability to Iraq. while debt relief may have no immediate linkage for the day after tomorrow on violence, it's still very important to do because it helps chart a long term potential for prosperity in Iraq. So, I think what happen today with compact was important for Iraq's future.

Voting has ended in regional and local elections in England, Scotland and Wales. As counting begins, the elections has been seen as the last electoral test for the British Prime Minister Tony Blair as he prepares to leave office after ten years in power. Our political correspondent John David reports.

These elections are a test of opinion amongst most of the British Electorate, the elections of local councils across the country, except in London, and also for the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament. Overnight, most attention will be on Scotland's semi-autonomous Parliament. Polls suggest that the Nationalist SNP could become the largest party pushing Labor into second place in Scotland for the first time in fifty years. This would be an embarrassing result for the Prime Minister Tony Blair, but also for the man most likely to take over from him in the next few weeks, Gordon Brown.

Tens of thousands of Israelis have staged demonstration in the central square of Televiv to demand the resignation of the Prime Minister Ehud Olmert over his management of the war in Lebanon last year. The protest increases the pressure on Mr. Olmert following a special session of the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset. It was called after a damning report into the war against Hezbollah pined much of the blame for its perceived failure on the Prime Minister.

Ten Republican contenders for the presidency of the United States are due to take part shortly in their party's first debate of the 2008 race for the White House. Most attention on the event will focus on the early front runners, the former New York mayor Rudolf Giuliani and Senator John McCain. Like the Democrat's first debate of the race last week, this one is expected to be dominated by American policy in Iraq.

The Cuban authorities say that a military officer was killed during an attempted highjacking at Havana international airport on Thursday. The Interior Ministry in Cuba says an army lieutenant was killed on board the plane as it was hijacked by two army recruits. The two men had commandeered a bus earlier on Thursday to reach the airport.

World News from the BBC.

A report from United Nations office on drugs and crime has said that high rates of violent crime in the Caribbean are affecting the region's development. The report says the trade in illegal drugs has contributed significantly to the high levels of violence. Bethaney Bell repots.

The report says murder rates in the Caribbean are higher than any other region in the world and that assault rates are significantly higher than average. It said drug trafficking was at the core of the problem. The report said young people were particularly affected both as victims and perpetrators of crime and violence. It said death and injuries among young people were a major threat to public health and to economic progress across the Caribbean.

The only man to fly all three of NASA's early space missions Walter Schirra has died at his home in California. He was eighty four. Andy Gallagher reports from Florida.

When Walter Schirra went into orbit aboard the mercury space craft in 1962, his message back to Cape Canaveral was simple: I'm having a ball up here drifting. That mission made him the third American to orbit the Earth, and marked the beginning of a successful career with the Space Agency. Although he never set foot on the Moon, Walter Schirra did lay much of the groundwork that made future missions possible. His family says he died of natural causes at his home in California.

The authorities in Mexico City have made the teaching of an ancient Aztecan indigenous language a required part of the curriculum in the capital state schools. The mayor of Mexico City said that the teaching of Nahuatl, the official language of the Aztec empire, would help rescue the identity of the people who found at the Mexican Capital.

And Queen Elizabeth has arrived in Virginia at the start of her official visit to the United States, her first in sixteen years. The Queen began the trip by addressing the states legislature which is America's oldest representative body. She commemorated the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown in Virginia.