BBC news 2007-10-18 加文本

BBC 2007-10-18


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BBC news with Fiona McDonald.

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A nationwide strike by public transport workers has begun in France, leaving the country with almost no train, bus or metro services. The industrial action is the first test of President Nicolas Sarkozy's resolve to push through his public sector reform agenda which includes plans to scrap pension privileges. Arnaud Morvan, the Secretary General for railway workers at the CFDT union said the strike sent a clear message to the government.

"Sometimes, you know, we have to be tough, you know, in order to be heard, and the 18th of October will be very, very strong, and I hope that the message will be heard."

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has strongly condemned the detention of a UN official in Somalia, responsible for the distribution of food aid. In a statement, Mr. Ban demanded the immediate and unconditional release of the local head of the World Food Program, Idris Osman. UN officials say he was seized by troops of the interim government at his compound in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and taken to the headquarters of the National Security Service. There has been no explanation for the raid; the UN says it is now stopping distributing food.

The Pakistani government decided it would provide what it called foolproof security for the former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, ahead of her planned return from exile later today. Around 20,000 troops and police will be deployed on the streets of Karachi where thousands of her supporters have already begun gathering. An interior ministry official said pro-Taliban militants had threatened to mount suicide attacks.

Hundreds of civil and military police officers in Brazil have raided a shantytown in Rio de Janeiro sparking a gun fight in which 12 people were killed, among them a four-year-old boy. Around 400 police officers entered the vast Coreia slum searching for weapons and drugs. Television pictures show dozens of heavily armed police exchanging fire with suspected gang members in the neighborhood.

World news from the BBC.

The American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has ended four days of talks in the Middle East without firm commitments to a US-sponsored conference on the Israel-Palestine conflict. But Dr. Rice said the conference could still succeed.

"If we work hard throughout this process, if we work hard to resolve these issues, I think we have a reasonable chance of success in moving forward on the vision of two states living side by side, in peace and freedom."

Earlier the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of hampering the preparation of a joint document with the Palestinians. He said that time was running out before the proposed November date, and the Palestinians would not attend the conference at any price.

Astronomers in the United States say they found the biggest black hole yet created from the collapse of a single star. The black hole is some 2.7 million light years from Earth and was discovered by scientists at San Diego State University. Here's our science reporter Neil Boudler.

This black hole has a mass 16 times that of our sun and sits in what's called the Messier 33 spiral galaxy. It's not the biggest black hole ever found. Supermassive black holes, such as the one that is thought to settle in the middle of our own Milky Way, are much, much larger. But it's the biggest so far discovered to have been created out of the collapse of a single star. The black hole was formed from one of two large stars which once helmed at the same solar system. The other star lives on, although its outer surface is now slowly being sucked into its dark neighbor.

The American government's Weather Agency has given a bleak report on the climate changes happening in the Arctic. The annual Arctic Report Card highlighted a new wind circulation pattern that's blowing more warm air towards the North Pole than in the 20th century. It also said more shrubs are growing further north.

BBC news.