BBC news 2007-07-27 加文本

BBC 2007-07-27


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Aid workers being held hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan has pleaded for help to be set free. In the telephone interview obtained by the BBC, the woman said the captive situation was dangerous and getting worse by the day. The Taliban has killed one of the captives they abducted last week in the southern Afghan province of Ghazni. The hostages' families are getting increasingly worried about their safety. One family member made this appeal. "Members of the Taliban, please think of the sorrow of our families, you probably have families too. I think the love for family transcends one's country, ethnicity and religion. Please, I beg you. We hope you will help us get our families return to us safely."

The top national security advisor to the South Korean president is on his way to Afghanistan to negotiate the release of the hostages.

The acting Cuban leader Raul Castro has renewed an offer to hold talks of the next government in the United States. Speaking at the Cuba's annual Revolution Day rally in the absence of his brother Fidel, Raul Castro said he was willing to extend an olive branch provided Washington abandoned what he called "its hostile policy towards the island". Raul Castro told the large crowd that his brother's illness was a heavy blow but Cuban socialism had not collapsed. "In reality, these have been difficult months, although with an effect that is diametrically opposed to the war our enemies expected. They dreamt that chaos would be unleashed and Cuban socialism would end in collapse."

The NASA Space Agency says it's discovered a deliberate act of sabotage by a contractor working on the space shuttle Endeavour before its flight in two weeks' time. NASA said the man cut wires on non-essential computer equipment before it was loaded onto the shuttle to be taken into the International Space Station. The agency stressed that the astronauts' lives had not been put into risk. A NASA official Bill Gerstenmaier said an internal unit was found to have been damaged but it could be repaired before take-off. "Within expected the flight unit and determined that some wires were cut on the inside of that unit, it's currently being investigated by the inspector general's office. It's a subcontractor on the space station side. We will fix the hardware. We will get ready to go fly."

A federal judge in the United States has ruled as unconstitutional a tough anti illegal immigration law in the town of Hazleton in Pennsylvania. Under the law, businesses which employ illegal workers would have had their trading licenses suspended and landlords renting to undocumented immigrants would have faced big fines. The judge said the legislation denied the constitutional rights granted to everyone in the US whether legally resident or not. Correspondents say the ruling could affect dozens of similar local laws still awaiting approval across the US.

World News from the BBC.

An American football star has appeared in court in the state of Virginia charged with extreme cruelty to animals following allegations that he sponsored an illegal dog fighting ring. The Atlanta Falcon's quarterback Michael Vick is accused of sponsoring the ring which allegedly shot dead and electrocuted dogs that didn't perform well. Vick and three other defendants all pleaded not guilty. The case has caused outrage in the United States, where some senior politicians and American footballers have condemned the star.

A judge in the United States has ordered the government to pay more than 100 million dollars' compensation in the case of four men who spent decades in jail for the crime they didn't commit. Peter Limone and Joseph Salvati are the only ones still alive of the four who were convicted in 1965 of killing a gangster, Edward Deegan, during a robbery in Boston. Kim Ghattas reports.

Lawyers for Mr. Salvati and Mr. Limone and the families of the two others argued that Boston FBI agents knew that mob hit man Joseph Barboza had laid when he named the four men as Mr. Deegan's killers. Mr. Barboza, they said, was trying to protect a fellow FBI informant, Vincent Flemmi, who was involved in the Deegan murder. And the lawyer said the four men were seen at a time as acceptable collateral damage while the FBI was trying to take the Mafia down through the use of criminal informants.

An investigation by the BBC has uncovered what appears to be evidence of a criminal gang believed to be smuggling babies and young children off Bulgaria. A BBC team secretly interviewed a man claiming to be an established people trafficker in the Black Sea port of Varna. He said he smuggled children to Germany and Norway.

There have been sharp falls on stock markets across Europe and in the United States. In London, shares fell by more than 3% while on Wall Street the Dow Jones was down by 2.2%. Analysts say that investors were reacting to figures highlighting a slump in the American housing market.

And that's the latest BBC World News.