BBC news 2007-08-05 加文本

BBC 2007-08-05


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Southern England is identical to...
... Less than six months since city officials announced a drive to tackle gang violence by arresting alleged leaders and preventing known gang members from congregating. David Willis was at the protest.

They came from across America, 10,000 protestors according to the organizers, chanting and waving placards which read "stop the violence". Many were themselves, former members of one of the roughly 30,000 street gangs that exist here. They heard calls for intervention in the inner cities to curb the spiral of gang violence. L.A. has six times as many gangs now as it had twenty years ago and twice the number of gang members.

President Bush has been visiting the bridge in Minneapolis which collapsed earlier this week. Thirteen people are believed to have been killed. The President flew by helicopter over the shattered remains of the bridge before talking to some of the survivors. The bridge is a vital link between the twin cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul and Mr. Bush said he was determined to have it rebuilt as soon as possible. "Out of these tragedies can come a better life. And I, having visited with the people here, believe that not only are they committed to a better life, not only are they committed to turning something ugly into something good, but it's going to happen."

The British government says the strain of the highly infectious foot and mouth disease found on a farm in southern England is identical to one used for research at a nearby government-funded laboratory. The scientists say that the strain detected in the farm outbreak is not one recently found in animals. David Shizan reports.

"The manufacture of vaccines has ceased at the government's pirbright livestock research laboratory which is only about four miles from the farm at the center of the outbreak. Since the announcement, scientists have been expressing cautious optimism that the virus has not spread far. It's also been confirmed that in addition to the 60 or so cattle slaughtered at the farm affected, a number of herds in surrounding areas have also been culled as a precautionary measure." Britain has banned all exports of animals and animal products followed the discovery of the outbreak.

Iran says it's to hold a third meeting with the United States on Monday to discuss the security situation in Iraq. Iranian television quoted the Iranian ambassador to Iraq as saying the meeting in Bagdad would focus on the composition and agenda of a tripartite security committee the three countries had agreed to set up.

Israel's carried out an air strike in the southern Gaza Strip killing one Palestinian and wounding fifteen others. Hospital sources say the dead man was a civilian who was struck by shrapnel when the Israeli aircraft hit a nearby car and pickup truck with missiles.

World news from the BBC.

The authorities in Burundi are questioning the head of the Central Bank Isaac Bizimana on charges of being embezzling millions of dollars of state funds. The attorney general said the governor Isaac Bizimana was detained following a probe on a petroleum firm. David Banfer reports.

"The authorities in Burundi are pursuing this case which surrounds the decision to reimburse an oil-importing company Interpetrol for losses it incurred prior to 2002 when Burundi was under an economic blockade because of a military coup. Prosecutors alleged the company received over 20 million dollars, several times the money it would have been due. The scandal comes as Burundi is awash with political disputes at senior level.

The state news agency in Brazil has reported that the head of the country's airports authority is to be replaced following the air crash at Sao Paulo last month. Jose Carlos Pereira will become the second official to lose his job as a consequence of the crash in which about two hundred people died. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has already replaced his defense minister. The Defense Ministry supervises civil aviation in Brazil.

Aid agencies have launched urgent appeals for help for the victims of the monsoon floods which have devastated Northern India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Damian Grammaticus has the latest on the situation in India.
"The Uttar Pradesh state reports emerging of people who had nothing to eat for several days. Their homes and livestock washed away, their fields under water. Helicopters have begun dropping food but state relief officers say two million people may be cut off in Uttar Pradesh. In neighboring Bihar, disaster management officials say a million people, forced to abandon flooded houses, are camping on raised roads and embankments. Families, children, cows and water buffalos all living in the mud."

BBC world news.