BBC news 2007-07-15 加文本

BBC 2007-07-15


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BBC World News with Blerry Gogan.

The United States says that North Korea has informed it that it has closed down its main nuclear plant at Yongbyon. Washington has welcomed the shutdown which is yet to be confirmed by UN inspectors who arrived in North Korea on Saturday. James Westhead reports from Washington.

The announcement by the state department came hours after a ship arrived in North Korea loaded with thousands of tons of oil. It's the first installment of an aid package promised to North Korea in exchange for shutting down its nuclear reactor in a deal with the US and other regional powers. A team of UN inspectors also arrived in North Korea and is traveling to the reactor site in Yongbyon to verify the shutdown. They may also install monitoring equipment. The developments are significant progress after a five-year nuclear standoff which culminated in the secretive and isolated regime testing a nuclear device last October.

NATO has criticized Russia's decision to suspend its participation in a key arms control treaty. A NATO spokesman described President Putin's decision to stop complying with the conventional forces in Europe Treaty as a step in the wrong direction. Poland's deputy foreign minister Witold Waszczykowski said the CFE Treaty should not be scrapped.
"The CFE is a, one of the foundation of the situation which was created after the end of the Cold War, and we of course would like to keep it, this treaty. Of course we have some amendment, some modification which were discussed and was implemented some years ago, but of course we wouldn't like to pull out from the treaty, we wouldn't like Russia to pull out from this treaty."
Explaining its decision, the Kremlin said it could not accept a situation where Russia was complying with the arms control treaty while western nations were not.

The Pakistani military says at least 24 soldiers have been killed by a suicide attacker who rammed a car filled with explosives into their convoy. It's the first such attack since Pakistani troops stormed a mosque in the capital Islamabad, which was being used as a base by radical Islamists. A military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said their attacks could be linked to the operation at the mosque.
"There has been some reaction of course, could be some incidents are linked because the people, the militants wouldn't say the ** some mosque complex had links to the trouble areas. So there could be some connection but such actions have taken place, and it is also because the army hasn't been deployed, since, five years or six years. "

The worst typhoon to hit Japan since records began in 1951 has struck the southern island of Kyushu, forcing more than 8,000 people to flee their homes. The Japanese news agency says two people were killed and about 60 others were injured in the rain and winds which gusted at more than 200km/h. Rail services were halted, highways were closed and hundreds of flights were canceled. The storm typhoon Man-Yi is expected to approach Tokyo in the coming hours.

World News from the BBC.

The British Foreign Secretary Daivd Miliband has sought to play down suggestions that the new government of Gordon Brown might be reviewing its close relationship with the United States. Writing in a newspaper Mr. Miliband said the US remained Britain's single most important ally. Here is our political correspondent Norman Smith.

The foreign secretary writing in the news of the world strongly refutes any suggestion of a rift with America. With the new Brown government he writes, people are looking for evidence such an alliance is breaking up. There isn't any evidence and there won't be. The US, he argues, is the most powerful country in the world and is driven forward by the values of optimism and entrepreneurship, values Britain shares.

Security has been stepped up across the Somali capital Mogadishu ahead of a national reconciliation conference on Sunday. Hundreds of government troops backed by Ethiopian forces have been deployed to secure the city. In the latest violence, at least two people were killed and several injured in grenade attacks targeting Ethiopian soldiers.

The president of Tanzania and leaders of the opposition have publicly taken test for HIV&AIDS, encouraging people to follow their lead. The United Nations estimates that more than two million Tanzanians are living with AIDS. But president Kikwete said only 15% of his compatriots have been tested. He said no Tanzanian with HIV should feel victimized.

The aim of this campaign is to raise awareness among the public, and to assure those already affected that we will support them and protect them from abuses. We will also ensure they have the information and appropriate treatment to enable them to live longer.

In France, a convicted murderer has for the third time organized an escape from prison by helicopter. Pascal Payet escaped from Grasse prison in southeast France using a helicopter which had landed on the roof of the prison after having been hijacked by four masked men.

BBC World News.