BBC news 2008-06-12 加文本

BBC News with Marian Marshall.

The British government has narrowly won a vote on a bill to extend from four to six weeks -- the maximum period a terrorism suspect can be held without charge. The measure passed by nine votes. Thirty-six members of the governing Labor Party voted against. The issue had been seen as a test of the authority of the Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He told MPs that complexity and scale of al-Qaeda-inspired plots meant that sooner or later, police were bound to need more time to detain suspects. US State De...

"Taking into account the advice of the police and security services, but also looking at the weight, complexity and sophistication of evidence that has got to be examined, it seems to me that in a moment of calm, we should put in place this legislation, and I do not want in a moment of panic for people to have to come to the house and bring in emergency legislation."(www.hxen.net)

Opponents said, however, that the government hadn't made the case for such a drastic curtailment to people's liberty. The measure will still pass the Upper House of Parliament.

The Police in Britain are investigating how secret government documents about al-Qaeda in Iraq ended up being left on a train. A passenger on the train found the documents and handed them to the BBC.

The United States says it is saddened by the loss of life in an attack it made on the Pakistani border with Afghanistan on Wednesday, in which eleven Pakistani soldiers were killed. The Americans have admitted carrying out an air and artillery attack. The spokesman said it showed that better communications with Pakistani military were vital. Pakistan has accused the United States of carrying out an uNPRovoked attack. Kim Ghattas reports from Washington.

The US State Department has described the incident as regrettable and said it was sad to see the loss of life in the ranks of the Pakistani military, which's described as an ally in fighting terror. But a Pentagon's spokesperson would not confirm the Pakistani soldiers' deaths, and said the US military were still determining the details of the operation, though he did add that this had been a legitimate strike in defense of coalition forces in Afghanistan. The US had advised the new government in Islamabad against striking a peace agreement with pro-Taliban groups. Pakistan is trying to end violence in the rest of border area.

Afghan officials have made, what they believe, is the biggest ever seizure of illegal drugs in terms of weight in an operation with British forces in Kandahar Province. Afghan police uncovered 236 tons of hashish hidden in trenches. Martin Patience reports from Kabul.

The 236 tons of cannabis were hidden in the trenches the length of a football field. Because the haul was so big, two British Harrier Jumbo Jets were called in to bomb the area. The drugs were discovered on Monday by Afghan Special Narcotics Force, who were supported by British Special Forces during an operation in Kandahar Province. When processed, the cannabis would have had a straight value of over 400 million dollars.

This is the latest World News from the BBC.

The American space agency NASA has successfully launched a new telescope that could rewrite our understanding of the universe. The Glast telescope will capture Gamma-Rays, powerful burst of radiation that can't be seen by the naked eye. The data will enable scientists to answer questions about the origin of cosmic rays and mysterious substance known as dark matter. Paul Rincon reports.

Astronomers say the Glast satellite will give them a completely new view of the universe, because it will be looking at the sky in Gamma rays. These rays carry billions of times more energy than the light we see with our eyes. Because of this, the telescope has no lenses and instead uses its layers of metal foil to capture the powerful beams through from outer space. The mission will explore some of the most violent events in the universe, such as huge explosions that release as much energy in a second as the sun sends out in its ten-billion-year lifetime.

After an extensive air and ground search, rescue teams in Chile have found the wreckage of a light aircraft that had been missing for the past four days, along with a number of survivors. The plane had crashed in a remote and heavily wooded area in the south of the country, but the Chilean authorities say all nine passengers on board had survived, and only the pilot had been killed. The cause of the accident is being investigated.

The head coach of the Portuguese national football team, Luiz Felipe Scolari, has been appointed as the new manager of the English Premier League side Chelsea. The club's Russian owner, Roman Abramovich abruptly sacked the previous manager Avron Grant after Chelsea narrowly lost the European Champions League final.

One of the co-hosts of Europe 2008, Switzerland, have been knocked out of the competition. Turkey beat the Swiss 2-1 in Balse to leave them bottom of their group with no points so far. Result also meant that Portugal became the first team to reach the quarter-finals. It defeated the Czech Republic 3-1 in Geneva.