BBC 2007-05-05 加文本

BBC 2007-05-05


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The pro-independence Scottish National Party has defeated the Labor Party by one seat to become the biggest party in Scotland’s parliament for the first time in its history. It was the biggest loss for Labor among a string of defeats in regional and local elections in England, Scotland and Wales, the last before the Prime Minister Tony Blair leaves office. The chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown is expected to take over. John Peana has this assessment.
the loss of labour councilors in their hundreds was bad enough, but losing in Scotland, labor's strongest fortress adds up to a failure, no amount of positive gloss about mid-term protest can quite obscure. Tony Blair's party has been outvoted and beaten in Gordon Brown’s backyard. And anti-Iraq war, anti Blair, time for a protest, if not a change mood took hold, and now, hours, days behind the scenes, coalition building were ahead.

The survey of US troops in Iraq has found widespread tolerance for torture in certain circumstances. The study by an army mental health advisory team also found widespread problems with morale. Humphery Hawksley reports from Baghdad.

The Pentagon survey found that less than half the troops here thought Iraqi civilians should be treated with dignity and respect. And more than a third believed the torture was acceptable if it helped save the life of a fellow soldier or if it helped to get information about the insurgents. About 10% of those surveyed said they had actually mistreated Iraqi civilians by hitting or kicking them, or had damaged their property when it wasn't necessary to do so. Troops suffering from anxiety, dipressional stress were more likely to engage in unethical behavior to get with those who had a colleague wounded or killed in their unit.

With campaigning in the French presidential election drawing to its close before Sunday’s runoff, the two candidates have been making their final appeals to the voters. The socialist Segolene Royal used the radio interview to warn voters that her rival Nicolas Sarkozy was the candidate of the hard right and to choose him would be dangerous.

“It is my responsibility today to sound the alarm relating to the risk posed by this candidacy and relating to the violence and brutality which will be sparked in the country.” Mr. Sarkozy said he was offering a society where people wouldn't be afraid to be proud of their national identity and dismissed his rival’s comments as outrageous.

“I tell Madame Royal that politics should be about respects, openness, tolerance, unity. I feel she's just ending with violence, certain feverishness. France deserves something else.”

Police in Colombia have detained a woman traveling on an interstate bus with hundreds of small explosives strapped to her body. The woman was detained at a police checkpoint on an overnight bus traveling between two Colombian cities / and Kali. The police say that the bus was full and also that the explosives could have detonated at any moment.

World News from the BBC.

The Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva has announced that he will break the patent on the American made drug to treat people suffering from AIDS. It's the first time that Brazil has made good of its strength to bypass pharmaceutical patents in order to reduce the cost of anti-HIV AIDS treatment. Tim Hearsh reports from Brazil.

President Lula made the announcement to ceremony in Brasilia with representatives of some 200,000 AIDS patients in Brazil who receive free anti-retroviral drugs from the state. It follows the rejection of an offer by the US company Merck to reduce the price of its efavirenz drug by 30%. The Brazilian government will now import a generic version of the drug from India instead at a much lower cost.

At least twenty people have died in the Atlantic ocean when a boat carrying Haitian migrants capsized of the Turks and Caicos' islands. The United States' Coast Guard said it was searching for about sixty people still missing from the 150 on board. A police boat which has been trying to turnover the sinking vessel rescued another sixty three. The number of Haitian migrants attempting the dangerous crossings to the United States or to other Caribbean islands has increased in recent months.

The United States and Russia have agreed to top level discussions about US plans to install a missile shield in Poland and Czech Republic. The US assistant secretary of state Dan Fried told reporters in Washington that Bush administration had accepted a Russian offer for the two country’s foreign and defense ministers to meet, probably in September.

Two journalists in Azerbaijan have been jailed over an article comparing Islamic and Christian values. Rafiq Tagi, who wrote the article, and his editor Samir Sadaqatoglu were sentenced to three and four years in prison respectively. The piece which contained controversial statements about the prophet Mohamed and talked about Christian values having priority over Islam was published last November. In court, Mr.Sadaqatoglu demanded protections for both defendants saying they feared for their lives even in prison.