BBC news 2007-05-22 加文本

BBC 2007-05-22


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BBC World News with Fiona McDonald.

As heavy fighting continued for a second day in northern Lebanon, President Bush has backed the government, saying the extremists there needed to be reined in. Mr. Bush criticized outside forces but stopped short of blaming Syria for the conflict. Our correspondent James Westhead reports from Washington.

President Bush speaking aboard his plane Air Force One, said he appalled the violence in Lebanon, the worst for two decades. So far, dozens have died in fighting between government forces and an Islamist militia group in and around a crowded refugee camp. But despite concerns about civilian casualties, the President said the extremists needed to be reined in, saying they were trying to topple a young democracy. He added that he was sad that Lebanon was being pressured by what he called outside forces. However, the President said he was not going to accuse Syria of being involved in this particular conflict until he had better information.

In Lebanon itself, the fighting has continued despite calls from the Red Cross for a humanitarian truce. Hoda Summerose is an aid worker with the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.
“People are running out of food, water. There is no electricity. They are running out of all the basic commodities. And they are being shelled continuously. We have managed to agree for a cease fire to take place at around four this afternoon. But unfortunately, it only lasted a few minutes, and then the fighting resumed. There are many injured, many killed. We still don't know the exact numbers because our staff who are inside the camp do not have real mobility. They are hiding with their families inside their shelters.”

An Israeli woman has been killed by rocket fire from Gaza, the first Israeli fatality since Palestinian militants resumed their cross-border attacks last week. At least eighteen rockets were launched against the Israel town of Sderot, some landing just as the foreign minister Tzipi Livni met the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana there. Ms. Livni blamed the Hamas-led Palestinian government for the violence. Angry Sderot residents, many of whom have left their homes to avoid the rockets, held a protest around the burning wreckage of the woman's car.

The most prestigious institution in Sunny Islam, al-Azhar University, in Egypt is taking disciplinary action against one of the theologians, who issued a religious opinion, or fatwa, suggesting a controversial way around segregation of the sexes in the work place. The fatwa, which has since been withdrawn, stated that male and female workers could be alone together if the male had sucked on the female colleague’s breast in a symbolic act of breast feeding. The fatwa suggested that such an act could make the man symbolically related to the woman and therefore preclude any possibility of sexual relations between them.

World News from the BBC.

Radical Islamic students in the Pakistani capital Islamabad have released three policemen they kidnapped early on Monday. Two others who were abducted last week are still being held at the seminary attached to the city's red mosque. From Islamabad, Barbra Plett reports.

The students stopped a patrol car and dragged three of the policemen into their seminary building. They freed the captives a few hours later following negotiations. The students told the BBC they took action because police patrols have been arresting young men from the seminary. The abductions began over the weekend. The seminary is associated with the radical red mosque which still holds two policemen kidnapped on Friday.

The United States senate has begun to debate a draft bill on immigration agreed last week by key congressional leaders and the White House. Supporters of the bill say it offers a solution to the estimated twelve million illegal immigrants in the United States. James Comarasamy reports from Washington.

Under the agreement, all undocumented workers who entered the United States before January 1 this year would have the chance to gain legal status and could become American citizens if they pay a fine and first return to their country of origin. For many on the right, this amounts to an amnesty which rewards those who've broken the law. While on the left, many object to the deal's proposed point system that would make citizenship more dependent on skills and education, and less on family ties.

New medical research has linked a widely prescribed diabetes drug Avandia with a possibility of an increased risk of heart attack. The New England Journal of Medicine analysed results from dozens of clinical trials involving nearly 30,000 patients with type-II diabetes. The drug maker GlaxoSmithKline has strongly disagreed with the report’s conclusions.

And the British music group EMI says it has agreed to a takeover bid by a private equity firm Terra Firma. EMI says the offer of more than six billion dollars was the best it got.