BBC news 2008-05-30 加文本

BBC 2008-05-30

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BBC News with David Legg.

The World Bank has announced a 1.2-billion-dollar program to help poor countries struggling with soaring food and fuel prices. The World Bank President Robert Zoellick said Haiti, Djibouti and Liberia will be the first to benefit from the new facility which includes grants and loans. The Bank’s Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala explained how some of the money will be spent.

This 1.2 billion is designed for immediate needs to help farmers, for instance, meet the needs of the next planting season for seeds and fertilizer. To help with social safety net, a type of activities on the ground, school feeding programs, food for work programs, you know, making sure that, that malnourished children, mothers have nutritious and right type of food.

The Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has suggested that the Prime Minister Ehud Olmert should stand down because of the corruption allegations against him. She is the first senior member of Mr. Olmert's Kadima Party to do so in the current political crisis. Mr. Olmert denies any wrongdoing. From Jerusalem, ...

As each day passes, Ehud Olmert comes under increasing pressure to resign over allegations that he had accepted tens of thousands of dollars from an American businessman over a number of years. First came a call from his coalition partner Ehud Barak, now a senior figure from Mr. Olmert's own Kadima Party has effectively repeated that call. Tzipi Livni, the Foreign Minister said the party should prepare to replace its leader and the recent events could not be ignored. The Prime Minister has previously said he has done nothing illegal and that he will not quit unless he’s charged with corruption or bribery. (Www.hxen.net)

The Supreme Court of the American State of Texas has ruled that more than 450 children taken from their polygamous parents must be returned to them. The ruling was in line with an earlier lower court judgment. The children were removed from the compound of a polygamous Christian's sect in April. Rogersh Mergen Darney reports from Washington.

State authorities said young girls there will be enforced into polygamous marriages and underage child birth, and it sought permanent first care for the children. However, Appellate Court Rules state .. show the children face immediate risks which in Texas are the only grounds for taking children away from their families without prior court approval. The authorities have appealed to the Texas Supreme Court, but it has now upheld the previous ruling that children must be now returned to their parents.

Chile has declared three days of national mourning after its top policeman was killed in a helicopter crash in Panama. The Police Chief, his wife and four others died when their helicopter smashed into a three-storey building in Panama City, sparking a fire. Thick black smoke rose from the scene of the crash, the cause of the incident is not known.

World news from the BBC.

A court in Guatemala has sentenced 5 former members of a paramilitary group to 30 years in prison for the massacre of more than 150 indigenous people. The men were accused of carrying out the killings in the early 1980s when residents refused to move from the area which has been cleared to build a hydro-electric dam in the village of Rio Negro.

One of South America’s last indigenous tribes to shun contact with outside world has been spotted in a photograph on the border between Brazil and Peru. Members of the tribe were photographed from a plane that flew over the Amazon Forest. Via Ado Russia reports.

It took several attempts for the Brazilian authorities to locate the tribe in the remote area of the Amazon Jungle. The tribes in that region are nomadic, and have refused all contact with the outside world. The photos show tribe members with brown or red body paint outside the huts, surrounded by the dense jungle. They are seen pointing their bow and arrows up at the photographer. Many indigenous people who are contacted in the past died of diseases for which they have no defense. From chicken pox to a simple cold .

The court in Turkey has ordered the closure of the only Gay and Lesbian rights Association in Istanbul. The prosecutor argued that the organization violated the law on the protection of the family. Homosexuality is not illegal in Turkey and the group says it will appeal. Last week, Human Rights Watch said it had found extensive harassment and brutality against homosexuals in Turkey. A member of the association said it would continue its activities.

The doctor who has treated Barack Obama for the past two decades says the likely Democratic candidate in the US presidency is in excellent health, with good blood pressure, low cholesterol and no signs of heart problems. A letter released by the Obama campaign said the biggest obvious health risk for the 46-year-old Senator was that he is a smoker who failed to quit several times.

BBC News.