BBC news 2008-07-29 加文本

BBC News with David Legg.

Ten days ahead of the opening of the Olympic Games in China, the human rights group, Amnesty International, has released a scathing assessment of Beijing’s human rights record since being awarded the Games back in 2001. The report says that far from improving, China’s human rights record had actually worsened. Vaudine England reports from Hong Kong.

When China was awarded the chance to host the Olympics, it promised to uphold the values of human dignity associated with the Olympian tradition. It said human rights would improve, the media would be free, and that all social conditions including health and education would be enhanced. Amnesty International says the opposite has occurred. The Amnesty report concludes that Chinese activists have been locked up, people have been made homeless, journalists have been detained, websites blocked, and the use of labor camps and prison beatings increased.

Talks have continued late into the night in Geneva in an attempt to avoid a breakdown in negotiations to liberalize world trade. A spokesman for the World Trade Organization said the talks had reached a very tense and uncertain stage. A BBC correspondent says the biggest obstacle to a deal is a dispute over how much developing countries can protect vulnerable industries from competition. United States trade negotiator Susan Schwab said China and India were demanding too much.

Those countries are advocating selectively reopening the package, and therefore there is a real threat to the delicate balance that we achieved on Friday night, and I’m very concerned that it would jeopardize the outcome of this round.

India said Washington was favoring rich countries at the expense of efforts to combat poverty.

President Bush has told the Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani that he still regards his country as a strong ally in the fight against terrorism. Mr. Bush said after talks at the White House that Mr. Gilani had made a very strong commitment to securing Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

Talks between the government of Zimbabwe and the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, have run into difficulties. The talks in the South African capital Pretoria aimed at trying to resolve the country’s political crisis began last week. Peter Bowes has the details.

According to unnamed sources in the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, a dispute may have arisen over the allocation of key posts in a new government. Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF Party had apparently suggested that the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai be appointed the third vice-president, even though Mr. Tsvangirai won a majority of the votes in the elections in March. Some reports indicate that the talks have broken off for the time being. But Mukoni Ratshitanga, the spokesman of the South African President Thabo Mbeki, who’s the chief facilitator, said he heard nothing about the talks being deadlocked.

World News from the BBC.

United Nations says its peacekeepers in Darfur can’t fulfill their mandate because member states have failed to supply them with enough equipment. The UN spokesman Nick Birnback said the UN forces desperately needed more helicopters and that the people of Darfur would suffer even further if the peacekeeping force was not bolstered. Mr. Birnback added that the shortage of equipment was preventing the commander of the joint African Union-UN force in Darfur, General Martin Luther Agwai, from fully carrying out his peacekeeping mission.

The bottom line is that from our perspective, we need to get the forces in and on the ground to General Agwai so that he can execute the mandate that he’s been, he's been asked to accomplish as quickly as possible. But it’s a very challenging mission. It’s an entirely unsatisfactory situation overall. It’s one that the United Nations wishes was different and is actively working to try to change.

The Palestinian human rights group has accused the rival factions Fatah and Hamas of widespread torture and mistreatment of each other’s supporters. The group said the use of torture had increased over the past year because of the fractured relations between the two factions, one of which controls the West Bank and the other the Gaza Strip. It added that mistreatment had led to the death of at least three detainees in Gaza and one in the West Bank since June last year.

Cambodia and Thailand say they’ve made progress over a border dispute that has threatened to escalate into armed conflict. After a day-long meeting, the foreign ministers of the two countries agreed to commit themselves to a peaceful and amicable solution and to withdraw their troops. Soldiers from the two sides have been facing each other close to an ancient Hindu temple Preah Vihear.(Www.hxen.net)

The United States government has estimated that its budget deficit will soar to a record $482 billion in the next fiscal year. The White House says the increase is partly a consequence of its measures to boost the slowing American economy.

BBC News.