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BBC news 2007-12-03 加文本
2007-12-03来源:和谐英语
BBC 2007-12-03
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BBC news with David Leg.
With more than a third of the votes counted in Russia's parliamentary elections, the United Russia Party appears assured of a decisive victory. The party whose list is headed by President Putin is on course to take more than 60 percent of the vote. Three other parties are likely to join it in/ the Duma, the main opposition party the Communists and two pro-Kremlin groups. Turnout was more than 60 percent. James Rodgers reports from Moscow.
Russia's electorate looks to have delivered a sound endorsement for what the United Russia Party called Putin's plan. United Russia seems to have secured the sort of majority that could give Mr. Putin a mandate to retain great influence if not over power after he's due to leave office in the spring. Following counters' opposition allegations of unfairness, the leadership of United Russia has admitted there were irregularities in the election, they insist though that the fact they came to light shows that the system is transparent and deny that they were significant enough to alter the result.
Polling stations have closed in Venezuela after a referendum on a series of far-reaching constitutional changes proposed by President Hugo Chavez. Opponents of Mr. Chavez say the reforms would concentrate too much power in his hands. From Caracas, Will Grand reports.
By and large the vote seems to have been problem-free and characterized by tight security and close scrutiny by both local and international groups. The turnout seemed large in the traditionally pro-President Chavez neighborhoods with some people forming queues from the early hours of the morning in order to vote. Elsewhere the no campaign is also hoping it has managed to mobilize his supporters, something it has failed to do in recent years.
Officials from nearly 200 countries are meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali on Monday to begin talks on a new framework agreement on climate change to replace the Kyoto Protocol. The man leading the discussions of the United Nations Yvo de Boer has said the role of the United States which refused to ratify Kyoto will be crucial. Washington says it is approaching the Bali talks with an open mind. Mr. Boer also said he thought it was much too soon to draw up a long-term target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
In my own language, there is a saying don't sell the skin before you've shot the bear. To set a long-term target to me is a bit like discussing now around the fire inside before you've gone outside, what the price of the bear skin needs to be and there isn't even a bear in sight.
Palestinian health officials say Israel's decision to restrict fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip is having a drastic effect on the territory's hospitals. They say supplies for the generators at several hospitals are now at critically low levels. Israel began reducing fuel supplies to Gaza last month in response to rocket attacks by Palestinian militants. Fuel companies say about 90 percent of Gaza's petrol pumps are now dry.
World news from the BBC.
Witnesses in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo say the town of Ginsalee has been captured by fighters loyal to the renegade general Laurent Nkunda. Congolese military base there has been abandoned. Most of the town's 40,000 population have fled the town. United Nations monitory force in the region also conformed that three other villages had been attacked.
A Sudanese Presidential spokesman has confirmed that President Omar al-Bashir will meet two British parliamentarians Lord Ahmed and Baroness Warsi who've traveled to Khartoum to press for the early release of the jailed schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons. Mrs. Gibbons was jailed for 15 days for insulting Islam after allowing her pupils to name a Teddy bear Mohammed. Amber Henshaw reports.
Diplomats have high hopes that this meeting between the British Muslim peers and the Sudanese President could lead to Gillian Gibbons' early release. Lord Ahmed and Baroness Warsi have spent two days negotiating with Sudanese officials, but this is the meeting where the real deal could be done. President Omar al-Bashir is under pressure internally to ensure that Ms. Gibbons completes the full 15-day jail term she was given for blasphemy on Thursday. Some hardliners here believe the sentence was too lenient and want a retrial. The British ambassador said she was optimistic that the meeting would result in Mrs. Gibbons' early release.
The Cuban President Fidel Castro has been nominated as a candidate for a seat in the next National Assembly. The President who handed over power to his brother Raul 16 months ago due to ill health must be reelected to the Assembly, if he is to remain president to the Council of State.
The pro-democracy candidate and former colonial official, Anson Chan, has won a key by-election in Hong Kong. Ms. Chan came out of retirement to campaign for full democracy in an election that was being seen as a test of political mode. Demonstrators have called for the territory's Chief-Executive to be elected by universal suffrage.
BBC news.
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