BBC 2008-04-23
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BBC News with Michael Poles.
Democratic Party supporters in Pennsylvania are choosing who they want to run for the White House in the latest stage of the increasingly bitter campaign between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Senator Clinton needs a clear win in Pennsylvania to sustain her hopes of winning the party’s nomination. In the national contest, she’s still trailing behind Mr. Barack Obama. Here is James Coomarasamy.
Whatever the result here in Pennsylvania, the Illinois Senator will still have more delegates and more primaries in caucuses under his belt than the former First Lady, and almost certainly a lead in the popular vote. A convincing victory for Senator Clinton though will reinforce her message that she is best placed to beat the Republican candidate John McCain in states that are likely to matter in November’s general election, and that her opponent’s promises of hope and change only resonates so far. (Www.hxen.net)
An 85-year-old American citizen has appeared in court in New York, accused of spying for Israeli government and passing on military secrets including information about the US nuclear weapons. Jenny Brown reports.
Ben-Ami Kadish was arrested in March some 25 years after he allegedly gave Israel up to a hundred classified documents. They were taken from an army facility in New Jersey where he was working as an engineer during the 1980s. It’s claimed that the material was photographed at his home by a man known only as CC1, but whom US authorities say was employed by the Israeli consulate. Some of the documents included information about nuclear weapons, fighter jets sold to another country and America’ key patriot missile defense system.
United Nations’ head of humanitarian affairs John Holmes says he believes the number of people who have died as a result of conflict in Darfur could be as high as 300,000, 50% more than the UN’s previous estimate. Mr. Holmes told the Security Council that his revised figure was not based on a new study but was a conservative assessment based on rising death rates.
Church leaders in Zimbabwe have warned that the country could face violence of genocidal proportions unless international forces intervene to solve the election crisis. In a joint statement, the leadership in Zimbabwe’s main church said people would have been abducted, tortured and murdered, in a campaign of political retribution following last month’s poll which the opposition says it won. A senior Roman Catholic priest of Zimbabwe Father Frendric Turunber told the BBC it was important that the world knew what is going on in Zimbabwe.
“At the moment, what we are witnessing in Zimbabwe is to organized violence targeted against individual, families and communities who are accused of campaigning or voting for the wrong political party. People are being abducted, tortured, humiliated in different ways. Because they alleged there also have some people who have been murdered. Into what we see, the situation that is deteriorating on a daily bases, everything is going in the wrong direction. “
World News from the BBC. (Www.hxen.net)
Western military sources say American and British special forces along with the Iraqi army have been carrying out operations against Shiite militiamen in the Iraqi city of Basra. They said the aim was to detain senior figures in the Mehdi Army and other Shiite militias, and members of a local tribe.
A former Colombian senator Mario Uribe who is the cousin of the President Alvaro Uribe is seeking political asylum at the Costa Rican embassy in Bogota after a chief prosecutor ordered his arrest. He is accused of criminal conspiracy as part of investigation into alleged links between politicians and right-wing paramilitary groups. Jeremy McDermott reports from Colombia.
The scandal known as the para-politics has claimed that political lives of more than 30 serving or former congressmen. Yet, despite the fact that almost all those indicted supporters of President Alvaro Uribe, the Colombian leader, a close ally of Washington has managed to remain aloof from the scandal. That may be about to change as his cousin Mario Uribe has now wanted to face charges that he worked with paramilitaries of the demobilized United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, not just for the political lens but take over some choice tracks of land.
The managing editor of the American Business Newspaper, the Wall Street Journal has resigned. Marcus Brauchli is stepping down four months after the media tycoon Rupert Murdoch bought the Paper. In a resignation letter, Mr. Brauchli said he wanted the Journal’s new owners to be able to choose their top editor.
An investigation by archeologist has suggested that the world’s first oil paintings were made in Afghanistan, not as previously thought in Europe. The evidence comes from the samples of cave paintings in Bamiya, the site of two giant Buddha’s statues blown up by the Taliban seven years ago. Scientists say the cave paintings contain oils which could have come from poppy or walnut, and they date from the 7th century that is about 600 years before oil was first used by European painters.
And that’s the BBC News.
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