BBC news 2007-07-17 加文本

BBC 2007-07-17


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Moscow has described Britain's decision to expel four Russian diplomats as unfortunate and reminiscent of the old way of thinking. The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says he has no apologies for the move taken in response to Russia's refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoi. Mr. Lugovoi is the main suspect in the murder of the former Russian Intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko in London last year. This report is from Steve Rosenberg.

Gordon Brown made it clear that Britain sought the best possible relationship with Russia. But when (a) murder has been committed on British soil, and lives of hundreds of innocent civilians put at risk, Britain, he said, expected authorities elsewhere to cooperate in bringing those responsible to justice. The Prime Minister said he was sad that Russia had failed to cooperate and refused Britain's request to extradite Andrei Lugovoi. Mr. Brown made it clear he would make no apology for expelling the Russian diplomats. Britain, he said, was showing that it wasn't prepared to allow form of lawlessness to develop in London as results of a failure to act.

In a move to bolster support for the government of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, President Bush says he's giving its almost 200 million dollars in aid and convening an international peace conference. The meeting later this year would involve the United States, Israel, the Palestinians and some Arab countries. President Bush said Palestinians could follow the vision of Mr. Abbas and establish a state of their own or they could choose the extremist vision of the rival Hamas movement and crush the possibility of independence.

"The Palestinian people must decide that they want a future of decency and hope, not a future of terror and death. They must match their words denouncing terror with action to combat terror."

The BBC investigation in Iraq by local journalists has reviewed how Iraqi's deal with the constant presence of deaths in the town of Suweira, south of Baghdad where hundreds of mutilated bodies dumped in the river Tigris wash up. The head of the forensic department in the region's main hospital said more than five hundred bodies so far had drifted downstream to Suweira, about 100 kilometers from Baghdad. At least two or three bodies arrive each day, many beheaded or showing signs of torture. Police and hospital staff published photos and physical details of the corpses but many have to be buried with a number but no name.

In South Africa, two senior security officials from the apartheid era are to stand trial next month for their attempted murder of the anti-apartheid campaigner Frank Chikane. The former Police Minister Adriaan Vlok, the ex-police chief Johan van der Merwe and three police officers are accused of poisoning Mr. Chikane in 1989 by lacing his clothes nerve toxin. Mr. Chikane survived and he is now an advisor to the president.

World news from the BBC.

Surgeons in the United States have announced they have succeeded in partially reanimating the faces of patients with severe long-term facial paralysis using a new surgical technique. The procedure which involves the transfer of tendons within the face has so far been performed on fifteen patients. Our science reporter Neil Boulder has this report.

Facial paralysis can have many causes from accident trauma to tumors to strokes. The result is not only deformity but also often severe speech problems. When tackled early, various operative techniques such as nerve grafts for example, can now be used to restore movement, however, surgery has been less successful on those with long-term paralysis, and in this area, the surgeons of John Hopkins University School of Medicine in the United States, say they have made significant progress.

The Economy Minister in Argentina Felisa Miceli has handed in her resignation after an investigation was ordered into the discovery in her office of 64 thousand dollars in cash. There has been pressure on Ms. Miceli to resign since she accepted that a bag containing the money was found in the toilets in her office.

Two earthquakes have hit Japan within hours of each other. The first damage, one of the world's largest nuclear power plants causing a reactor to leak water containing radioactive material into the sea, at least seven people were killed and hundreds injured when the first quake struck the coastal city of Kashiwazaki, causing extensive damage.

A British TV production company at the center of a row about claims that Queen Elizabeth stormed out of a photographic session has made an unreserved apology to the BBC. The Chief Executive of the company RDF Media said there had been a serious error of judgment in the trailer for a documentary to be aired on BBC television. The footage appeared to show the Queen walking out of the seating with the American photographer Annie Leibovitz after being asked to remove her crown.

BBC news.