BBC news 2007-08-24 加文本

BBC 2007-08-24


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...on services committee said the United States needed to demonstrate that its commitment to Iraq was not open-ended. "I think no clearer form of that than if the president were to announce on the 15th, that in consultation with our senior military commanders, he's decided to initiate the first step in the withdrawal of our forces." Senator Warner was speaking after the release of a United States intelligence report which concluded that Iraqi leaders still can't govern effectively and warned that the government of the Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki would probably become more precarious in the coming months.

The former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif says he plans to return from exile to Pakistan as soon as possible after a Supreme Court ruling in his favor. Mr. Sharif said dictatorship had lost, democracy had won. He said it was the beginning of the end for Pakistan's military leader General Musharraf. Nigel Dorren reports.

Speaking to the BBC from his base in London, Nawaz Sharif was already in campaign mode. He said his return to Pakistan would augur well for democracy, that President Musharraf didn't believe in any rule of law and that his dictatorship had lost. Mr. Sharif has already said he intends to run in parliamentary elections due to take place sometime between November and March. His Supreme Court victory today has seemingly emboldened his political ambitions, constituting another threat to Mr. Musharraf who's facing growing pressure on his leadership.

The authorities in Bangladesh have carried out more raids in an attempt to prevent a resumption of the clashes between students and police of the past few days, in which a man was killed. In one raid, a leading academic from Dhaka University, Dr. Anwar Hussein, was arrested along with at least one other member of the university staff. Dr. Hussein's son told the BBC why he thought his father had been targeted. "He had expressed his sympathies alongside with the students and it was after he actually took sides with the students that he actually became part of the bad book of the government." A curfew has meanwhile been re-imposed in Dhaka and five other cities. It had been lifted temporarily.

The authorities in Brazil say 25 convicts have been killed in a fire at a prison following a fight between rival gangs of inmates. Reports indicate that a group of prisoners broke out of their cells and started the fire using mattresses to settle a score with a rival gang. The authorities say that around 170 prisoners were involved although the prison in the small town of Ponte Nova in Minas Gerais state was designed to hold no more than 90 inmates.

World News from the BBC.

Tropical Storm Dean is continuing to move steadily westwards across Mexico, bringing flooding, landslides and high winds which have caused the deaths of at least 8 people. The President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, has visited two of the most affected states, Veracruz and Hidalgo. He praised what he called the unity and coordination demonstrated by the authorities and citizens as they dealt with the storm.

The Supreme Court of Ecuador has asked congress to lift the immunity of the President Rafael Correa so that he can be prosecuted in a defamation case. The court case has been brought by a former aide King Tou Pasvanio who was dismissed after he leaked a secret video which triggered allegations of government corruption. And commentators say the bid to lift the president's immunity from prosecution is unlikely to succeed.

Funerals have been held in Italy for victims of a suspected Mafia feud who were shot dead outside an Italian restaurant in the German city of Duisburg last week. It's thought their murders were part of a feud between two rival clans of the Calabrian Mafia. David Willey reports from Rome.

Five bodies in all have been flown home from Germany for burial via Rome during the past 24 hours. There were dramatic scenes as close relatives threw themselves on the coffins after the customary funeral processions were banned by police on grounds of public order. Outside one church, there was applause by mourners, an Italian tradition, as the coffins of two brothers, aged 20 and 22, were rushed away under escort to the cemetery.

The White House has said it hopes the expulsion by Sudan of diplomats from Canada and Europe is not an attempt to sidetrack international efforts to stop the violence in Darfur. A spokesman said he hoped the Sudanese government was still planning to comply with its obligations to the United Nations Security Council.

BBC World News.

Glossary

augur well for
If something augurs well or badly for a person or a future situation, it is a sign that things will go well or badly.

settle a score with
If you settle a score or settle an old score with someone, you take revenge on them for something they have done in the past.