BBC news 2007-06-19 加文本

BBC 2007-06-19


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BBC World News. I'm Victoria Meaken.

Several key players in the Middle East peace process have announced measures to support the new Palestinian government. The American secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, says Washington is lifting its financial and diplomatic embargo, now that the Palestinian government excludes the Islamist Hamas movement. Justin Webb reports from Washington.

The Bush administration says it's not abandoning Gaza. The secretary of state puts it like this, it's the position of United States, there is one Palestinian people and there should be one Palestinian state, extra humanitarian aid will be channeled through the UN to help all Palestinians including those in Gaza, but the wider economic and political embargo will now only apply to Hamas in Gaza. The new emergency Palestinian government, led by president Mahmoud Abbas and based in West Bank, will benefit now from what Condoleezza Rice called normal government-to-government contacts.

The European Union said it, too, would restore normal relations immediately and was ready to resume direct aid. Israel's indicated readiness to release the hundreds of millions of dollars in Palestinian tax revenues that it's withheld while Hamas was in power.

A spokesman for the Palestinian Hamas movement says it's set a deadline of Monday for the kidnappers of the BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston to release him. The spokesman (said that, he) told BBC that if Alan Johnston was not freed, it will be the role of Hamas, which now has control of the Gaza Strip, to work for his safe release. Vigils have been held in London to highlight demands for the Journalist to be freed more than three months after he was abducted.

Fierce fighting in a remote mountainous region in southern Afghanistan reported to have left more than a hundred people dead in the past three days, including many civilians. Our correspondent in Kabul Charles Haviland has this report.

There has clearly been a prolonged and bloody spell of fighting, in the Chora district of Uruzgan, the province that's the native place of the Taliban’s elusive leader Mullah Omar. The hostilities have putted Afghan and NATO forces against Taliban rebels, and civilians have been caught in the middle. Officials say the Taliban initiated the attacks in Chora. The head of the provincial council Mally Hudunla has visited the area, and told the BBC he believed 60 civilians had been killed, and a hundred more wounded, and that some thirty Taliban including a key commander had also died as had seventeen Afghan soldiers. Uruzgan's police chief gave much lower figures for civilians and army deaths, but estimated the number of Taliban killed at 65.

Talks have started in New York to try to resolve the long-running territorial dispute over the North African territory of western Sahara. The United Nations is sponsoring two days of discussions between delegates from Morocco and Polisario Front, which campaigns for the region's independence.

World News from the BBC.

An appeal court in the United States is hearing a case supported by a Vietnamese group against the makers of the chemical Agent Orange, which was used during the Vietnam War. The group is challenging a previous US court ruling against a case filed by a Vietnamese victims' group. From Washington, Jenner Bryon reports.

Vietnam says that up to three million people have birth defects or other health problems related to agent orange, a dioxin used by the Americans to kill foliage during the war to prevent North Vietnamese forces hiding in the jungle. America says more evidence is needed, and two years ago, a US court ruled that the Vietnamese victims had been unable to prove the link. That ruling is being challenged in New York this week, as Vietnam's president arrives for his historic talks with Mr. Bush. The two are expected to discuss help for those affected by agent orange, and for cleaning up contaminated areas.

Police in Britain say they have broken up a child abuse network, spanning 35 countries. The network was organized through an internet chat room based in Britain. Officers described finding tens of thousands of images of babies and children being abused on the computer of a British man, Timothy Cox, who was found guilty of running the website. Ian Robertson is the senior investigation officer in the case.

"We have identified up to seven hundred pedophiles from around the world, and in fact 35 different subject countries. We need to send a message to the pedophiles that, you know, the Internet is not a safe place any more, and it needed, we will make a hostile environment for you."

The chief executive of the Internet search engine Yahoo has resigned. Terry Semel had been in the post for six years, and he is credited with helping to stabilize the company's advertising and media businesses, but he is being criticized by investors for failing to meet the challenge of Yahoo's major rival Google in web search.

BBC World News.