BBC news 2008-06-01 加文本

BBC News with Neil Nunes.

The American space shuttle Discovery is on its way to deliver new equipments to the International Space Station. It's carrying a one-billion-dollar Japanese laboratory which will become the station's largest single room. From Miami, here's Andy Gallagher.(Www.hxen.net)

NASA couldn't have asked for a more perfect launch. The sky was blue over Cape Canaveral and the Discovery made an almost textbook launch. At one point a piece of foam broke off, striking the shuttle's body, but NASA managers say it doesn't pose a threat. Over the next fourteen days, the seven astronauts will install the Kibo lab, establishing the Japanese Space Agency at the forefront of space exploration. They’ll also be delivering a new toilet pump after the only one on board the space station broke down. The pump was specially flown in from Moscow before being delivered to NASA. The Space Agency plans a further two missions this year.

Senator Hillary Clinton has taken her fight for the Democratic Party presidential nomination to a committee of the party leadership. During an all day meeting of the rules committee, the Clinton campaign has been pressing for votes cast in Florida and Michigan primary elections to be counted in her total. The party has agreed to punish Florida and Michigan Democrats for breaking party rules by not recognizing their primaries. Hillary Clinton wants the Florida and Michigan votes counted because it will help her narrow the gap (between her) and Barack Obama who remains the clear frontrunner. From Washington, our North America editor Justin Webb reports.

Hillary Clinton wants all the votes she received in both primaries to be counted and all the delegates to be seated at the convention in August, even though no candidates campaigned in Florida and Barack Obama's name was not even on the Michigan ballot. A motion proposing that outcome has been defeated, leading to shouts of outrage from Clinton's supporters in the meeting and shouts of "Denver", a threat to carry on this fight to the party convention which meets in that city at the end of August.

The United Nations’ Children's Fund has made an appeal for extra resources to deal with thousands of children with cases of severe malnutrition in Ethiopia. UNCF says more than 126,000 children are affected.

Tens of thousands of South Koreans have demonstrated against the government's decision to lift an embargo on American beef, the biggest daily protest so far in three weeks. South Korea's new conservative President Lee Myung-bak struck a deal earlier this year to allow US beef imports, previously banned over fears of BSE or mad-cow disease. These two protesters said food quality was an issue the government must consider.

"It's about what I feed to my family and children. I come out here because I want to provide clean healthy beef to my children." "I urge the governments to listen to the people. The president should not ignore us, but come to the candle-lit vigil to listen to us carefully."

World News from the BBC.

An official from the city of Hit, west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, has said at least nine people have been killed by a suicide bomb attack at a police checkpoint. Hit is in Anbar Province, a former insurgent stronghold that has seen a steep drop in violence over the past year as Sunni tribal leaders joined forces with United States troops against al-Qaeda in Iraq.

A mudslide caused by weeks of heavy rain in Colombia has killed at least six people, an estimated fourteen others are still missing after mud and rocks engulfed a poor neighborhood outside the city of Medellin. Dozens of homes were destroyed. The Colombian authorities say more than 100,000 people across the country have abandoned their homes since the rains began in March.

Hundreds of people have held a party on the London underground or tube on the last day before drinking alcohol on its trains becomes illegal. The new mayor of London, Boris Johnson, says banning alcohol will improve the safety of passengers and public transport, although unions say enforcing the ban will put staff in danger. Police closed one station,

All the passengers have been told to leave the train, that's because hundreds of people have been holding a party to mark the final day that they were allowed to have an alcoholic drink on the tube. The new Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has banned alcohol on the tube. These people have been partying in protest.

Across 24 time zones, tens of thousands of people are joining in a mass rally to raise money and awareness over the soaring cost of food. The United Nations’ World Food Program has organized the 24-hour Walk of the World rally which begins in East Asia and finishes on the west coast of the United States. The WFP hopes to raise money to feed school children.

BBC News.