BBC news 2008-03-20 加文本

BBC 2008-03-20


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BBC news with Nick Kelly

In a speech to mark the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, President Bush has made his strongest claim in recent years that the war has been worthwhile and will be won. He said that last year’s increase in American troops known as the surge had opened the door to a major victory in Iraq.

"For the terrorists Iraq was supposed to be a place where al-Qaeda rallied and Arab masses to drive America out. Instead Iraq has become the place where Arabs joined with Americans to drive al-Qaeda out. In Iraq, we are witnessing the first large-scale Arab uprising against Osama Bin Laden."

The BBC North America editor says the speech is a direct challenge to the Democratic presidential candidates who both want a speedy withdrawal from Iraq. One of them, Barack Obama accused Mr. Bush’s administration of being unable to say America was safer as a result of the war. (wWw.hxen.net)

Financial regulators in Britain are investigating whether rumors have been deliberately spread to undermine the value of bank shares. An official at the Financial Service’s Authority, the FSA, said that there have been a series of completely unfounded rumors about British financial institutions. Shares in Britain’s biggest mortgage lender HBOSS, fell 17 percent bond point on Wednesday to a record low. Here’s our economics correspondent Andrew Walker.

It was a stern warning from the FSA. The statement from the agency said it would not tolerate people taking advantage of current conditions in the financial markets by spreading false rumors and then trading on the basis of them. Any suggestion that the bank might be in difficulty can lead to sudden falls in the share price. And it’s possible for someone to start a rumor and use it as a tactic called short selling, which is a way of making a profit from a falling share price. It’s more likely to work in the current difficult market climate.

An international group of astronomers have taken an important step towards finding life on other planets. Using the Hubble Space Telescopes, they found both methane and water on a planet outside our solar system for the first time. The researchers hoped to apply that technique to search for the gas on rocky earth-like planets where life might be supported. Our science correspondent Christine Mcgerty explains.(wwW.hxen.net)

The planet is 63 light years away from Earth in the constellation Vulpecula, or the little fox. It’s one of the several hundred planets that has been discovered in recent years outside our own solar system, they are called extra solar planets and is one of the Holy Grail of astronomy to find among them a planet like our own that might harbor life.

World News from the BBC.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says he's received guarantees from the United States that its proposed missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic will not be used against Russia. In an interview with Russian Newspaper, Mr. Lavrov said that Americans understood Russian concern and would let the Russians view all radar information collected by the new system. Mr. Lavrov had talks in Moscow earlier this week with the American Defense Secretary and Secretary of the State.

United Nation's police are again patrolling the streets of Mitrovica in Northern Kosovo two days after they were forced to leave the town during violent protests. Local Serb leaders in the region also met UN officials and invited UN civilian staff to return. A Ukrainian policeman died and nearly 150 people were injured in Monday’s riots. Meanwhile in a joint statement, Serbia’s neighbors Croatia and Hungary have recognized Kosovo’s independence with Bulgaria saying it will follow suits on Thursday.

The Middle East's first "women-only" hotel is opened in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. It will cater primarily for business women who work completely covered from head-to-toe in public. Here is Frances Harrison.

The Executive Director of the Luthan Hotel & Spa says the response to the idea of a women-only hotel has been overwhelming. The hotel has 25 rooms and offers round-the-clock(24小时不间断的) services to guests. There is a pool & spa with yoga and fitness classes which he  hopes will attract women on business trips as well as expatriates from the nearby diplomatic quarter and local women coming for fun. And in a country where women are required by law to cover themselves in Islamic dress when in public, it’s a huge bonus that inside the hotel, they can move around uncovered as if they were at home.

And a woman in France who lost a legal challenge seeking euthanasia has died at her home near Dijon at the age of 52.

BBC News.