BBC news 2007-06-05 加文本

BBC 2007-06-05


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BBC World News, I'm David Leg.

The United States President George Bush is in Europe on his way to a potentially difficult meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at Wednesday's summit of the G8 economies in Germany. Mr. Bush has arrived in the Czech Republic where he is to give a speech on Tuesday that is expected to criticize what he sees of Mr. Putin's growing authoritarianism. Mr. Putin has threatened to train nuclear weapons on Mr. Bush's European allies if a planned American missile deployment in Europe goes ahead. Our correspondent Jonathan Bill is travelling with President Bush and sent this report.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, the president's national security advisor Stephen Hedley acknowledged that there had been an escalation in the rhetoric from Moscow. He added that was not helpful. Officials with the president are trying to play down tensions over the United States controversial Missile Defense Shield by once again offering to cooperate with Russia and insisting that the system to be based in Europe is just for protection against rogue states, but so far it's a strategy that has not worked.

The government of Nigeria has filed charges against the world's largest pharmaceutical company Pfizer, accusing it of carrying out improper drugs trials on Nigerian children. The government is seeking 7 billion dollars in general damages and as compensation for the families of children who allegedly died after taking part in trials for a new anti-meningitis drug in 1996. From Lagos, Alex Lax has the background.
At the time, thousands were dying, thousands more were being paralyzed by the disease. Families were urged to take their sick children to the infectious diseases hospital to receive treatment. It was there that Pfizer was also conducting a trial of a new anti-biotic called Trovan which was given to some of the sick children. The Nigerian federal government alleges that Pfizer did not get the proper approval from the regulatory authorities to carry out the trial and says it acted unethically. Pfizer denies the claims and says it acted ethically throughout the tests.

Gunmen in Iraq have shot dead a catholic priest and three of his assistants in northern city of Mosul. Pope Benedict expressed his sorrow of what he called the senseless killings. The BBC correspondent in Iraq says there is growing concern over the fate of Iraq's Christians.

The United States and Venezuela have clashed publicly at the latest meeting of the organization of American states. The American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described Venezuela's decision to shut down a private television network Radio Caracas television as undemocratic. She urged the OAS to investigate. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro accused Washington of meddling.

Some news just in. The judicial authorities in the United States have charged 9 people with plotting a coup in Laos. Reports quote officials in California are as saying there was a conspiracy to murder thousands of people.

World News from the BBC.

American efforts to establish a new system of hearings at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp have suffered a big setback after a military judge ordered charges against the Canadian man Omar Khadr to be dismissed. Mr. Khadr was 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan and was accused of killing an American soldier in Afghanistan in 2002. Justin Webb reports from Washington.
Minutes into the hearing, the judge ordered the charges against this defendant be dismissed because the court did not have the jurisdiction to try him. The new rule stipulated that detainees facing trial must have been determined to be unlawful enemy combatants, but Khadr had been described only as an enemy combatant, the word "unlawful" had not been used in the legal documents for this case. That word has not been used in any of the other pending cases either, so it looks as if the whole tribunal system will once again come to a juddering halt.

Israeli military court has ordered that two Palestinian government ministers and a member of parliament be detained without charge for 6 months. The three are members of Hamas which Israel considers to be a terrorist organization. Ali Magbu reports from Ramallah.
A military court has placed the Palestinian cabinet ministers N and Wasfi Qabha and the third parliamentarian A in what Israel calls administrative detention until December. It means they will be held without charge. Their arrests were part of a roundup of prominent Hamas officials in the West Bank in the last two weeks. Many more politicians were arrested last year and over a third of the Palestinian parliament is now in Israeli custody.

The BBC correspondent Alan Johnston who was abducted in Gaza 12 weeks ago has been shortlisted for a media award by Amnesty International. Amnesty says it gives the award as a recognition of excellence to those who raise public awareness about human rights. On Friday, a video appeared on the Internet showing the first pictures of him since his abduction.
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general damages:one payment intended to compensate for all damages, compensation which was not determined by the parties in a contract 【法】 一般损害赔偿费
meningitis：(名) 髓膜炎
judder：v. shake violently and quickly, vibrate violently and rapidly, shudder