BBC news 2008-03-09 加文本

BBC 2008-03-09


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BBC news with Michael Poles.

The governing coalition in Malaysia has suffered its worst ever election results. It won the majority but failed to gain the 2/3 of seats, which it has always had up to now. In the last parliament, the Malay-dominated coalition had 90% of seats, but now the opposition has made a number of sweeping gains and it is claiming victory in five of Malaysia's 13 states. The Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has called for calm. David Bamford reports. Malaysia's ruling National Front Coalition has been accustomed to dominating the political scene for decades. That's no longer the case with the election commission figures confirming it has suffered its worst result since the Malaysian Federation became independent from Britain in 1957. It will win a simple majority but the politically vital 2/3 majority, which the coalition has held consistently since the late 1960's has been breached. This denies the government the right to change the constitutional will, and analysts say it means political trouble for the Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

President Bush has vetoed legislation that would have banned the use of waterboarding and other controversial interrogation techniques used by the Central Intelligence Agency. Last month the director of the CIA cast doubt on the legality of  waterboarding, a technique that simulates drowning and whose opponents say amounts to torture. From Washington, here is Andy Gallagher.

According to President Bush intelligence officials need what he called vital tools to prevent further terrorist attacks on U. S. soil, the legislation that was passed by both the House of Representatives and Congress would have banned waterboarding and other controversial techniques. But the White House said that it has made it clear that the president would veto the bill. The CIA released a statement saying that it would continue to work strictly within the law, but that its needs were different from those of the US Army. It's unlikely that the Democrats who are the majority party in Congress can muster enough votes to overturn the president's veto.

The President of Serbia Boris Tadic says he will call early elections following the announcement that the coalition government has been dissolved. Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said the coalition could no longer function because of differences over Kosovo's recent declaration of independence from Serbia. "The government of Serbia no longer has a single policy over a substantial and essential issue concerning the future of the country, namely Kosovo Metohija. A government which doesn't have a single policy is of course unable to function meaning the end of the government. This means we must return the mandate to the people.

Thousands of women have marched through towns in eastern Congo to mark International Women's day by protesting against sexual violence. In Bukavu, traffic was brought to a standstill as women converged on the town center carrying placards saying "we are tired of rape". More than 22, 000 cases of sexual violence against women were recorded last year. (www.hxen.net)

BBC news.

The governing People's Democratic Party in Nigeria has elected its former General Secretary Vincent Ogbulafor as its new chairman. Correspondents say the choice of Mr. Ogbulafor is a setback for the former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who'd been hoping to impose his own candidate as party chairman.

The Constitutional Court in Armenia has rejected a challenge to the results of last month's presidential elections, which the opposition had alleged, were falsified.  The ruling came a week after eight people died during clashes between riot police and opposition supporters, who were protesting about the results of the elections in the Armenian capital Yerevan. Mathew Collin reports. Court noted there had been some violations during the elections but not enough to affect the outcome. The main opposition candidate Levon Ter-Petrossian had alleged there was widespread fraud at the polls, but his legal appeal was rejected. A state of emergency remains in force in the Armenian capital after the violence last weekend. Despite international pressure for it be lifted. Armenia's outgoing President Robert Kocharyan has warned the authorities will not tolerate anymore mass demonstrations even after the state of emergency is over. (www.hxen.net)

The outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin has told the visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the West shouldn't expect to have things easier when his successor Dmitry Medvedev takes over in May. The Russian president said Mr. Medvedev was no loss of a Russian nationalist than himself, was no less one.

The authorities in Egypt say an 8-year-old boy has contracted bird flu after coming into contact with infected poultry. The boy from the town of Fayoum was taken into a hospital in Cairo. It's the 47th case in Egypt of human's contracting the H5N1 strain of bird flu. Earlier this month, a woman died of the disease in a town north of Cairo bringing the number of fatalities there to four in less than a week.

And that's the latest BBC news.