BBC news 2008-07-30 加文本

BBC News with Nick Kelly.

The European Union’s Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has described the collapse of international trade liberalization negotiations as a very painful failure, and will set back for the global economy. The talks in Geneva broke down after nine days because of a dispute between the United States and emerging economies of India and China. As Theo Leggett reports from Geneva.

For several grueling days, ministers have been trying to reach a compromise on one key issue without success. It was about the ways in which developing countries could be allowed to protect their farmers from being driven out of business by imports of cheap produce from abroad. The row put the United States against India and China, and ultimately neither side was prepared to back down. As each blamed the other, the Director General of the World Trade Organization, Pascal Lamy, said both parties had taken a collective responsibility for undermining the Doha Round.

An estimated 15,000 supporters of the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic have demonstrated in Belgrade to protest at his arrest and impending transfer to The Hague, where he is wanted on war crimes charges relating to the Bosnian conflict in the 1990s. Paul Adams has just sent this report from Belgrade.

With Radovan Karadzic still waiting to be extradited, supporters brought their anger and their passion to the center of Belgrade. The rally organized by the nationalist radical party attracted at least 10,000 demonstrators, all condemning what they see as the government’s willingness to cave in to international pressure. Briefly, the situation seems threatening, but for all the tear gas and the broken windows, this was not a repeat of the rampant violence that followed Kosovo’s declaration of independence in February.

The latest United Nation’s report from HIV and AIDS says there’s been a drop in the annual number of deaths from the disease. It says two million people died from AIDS last year, down from 2.2 million three years ago. There was also a drop in the number of new HIV infections. But the report warns that rates of infection are still rising in a number of big countries. As Laura Trevelyan reports from the UN.

The report's authors say that although worldwide efforts to treat and prevent AIDS are saving lives, rates of HIV infection are rising in many countries, including China, Indonesia, Kenya, Russia and Mozambique, and increases are being seen in some of the older epidemics. AIDS continues to be the leading cause of death in Africa, but the report says the HIV epidemic has stabilized across much of the Sub-Saharan Africa.

South Africa has said that an increasing number of countries want the International Criminal Court to suspend its moves to indict the President of Sudan, Omer Hassan Al-Bashir, for alleged war crimes in the troubled western region of Darfur, the South African ambassadors to the United Nations, Dumisani Kumalo, said that such a delay would, as he put it, give peace a chance. (www.hXen.com)

World News from the BBC.

Iraq will be allowed to take part in the Beijing Olympics in two weeks’ time after the International Olympic Committee overturned an earlier decision to ban it. The new move came after last minute talks in Switzerland, during which Iraq promised to hold free elections for its National Olympic Committee under international observation. The original ban had been imposed because of political interference in the country’s Olympic organization.

The London-based human rights organization Amnesty International says that the Iranian government is failing in its duty to prevent discrimination and human rights abuses against its ethnic Kurdish minority, particularly women. Amnesty says it fears that the repression of Kurdish Iranians, particularly those who defend human rights, is intensifying. Amnesty says 12 million ethnic Kurds living in Iran suffer from repression of their social political and cultural rights, economic neglect of their regions and discrimination in employment.

British scientists have presented an experimental drug that shows promise for halting the progression of Alzheimer's disease, the Alzheimer’s Society describes the findings as a major development in the fight against dementia. More from our health correspondent Jane Hughes.

Patients with Alzheimer’s disease develop tiny structures called tangles deep inside their brains which destroyed the nerve cells linked to memory and then other parts of the brain. This drug, Rember, acts on the tangles and appears to slow or possibly even stop progression about Alzheimer's in early-stage patients. Over the course of a year, people on the drug saw their declining in brain functions slowed by as much as 81%, compared with those taking a placebo.

And an earthquake has struck Southern California, making tall buildings sway and forcing office workers to be evacuated. Residents reported cracks in the walls of their homes, and mobile phone services were put out of action for a short time. But there have been no reports of serious damage or injuries.

BBC News.