BBC news 2008-08-03
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BBC News with Victoria Meakin.
United States health officials say the number of Americans infected with HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS, is significantly higher than previously thought. Figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate there were more than 56,000 new HIV infections in 2006, 40% more than previous calculation showed. From Los Angeles, here's Peter Bowes.
While the figures are higher than previous estimates, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is stressing the actual infection rates have not risen. The new statistics are the result of better methods of measuring newly diagnosed infections and extrapolating those figures to the general population. A spokesman for the American Foundation for AIDS Research said the number showed the United States was doing too little to control the HIV epidemic.
The Israeli authorities say nearly 200 members of a clan supporting the Fatah faction of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have been allowed to enter Israel after an outbreak of heavy fighting with their bitter rivals Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Each group blames the other for starting the fighting in which nine people were killed. Abdullah Abdullah, a Fatah lawmaker in the West Bank, accused Hamas of wanting to perpetuate division among Palestinians.
We know that this way of Hamas from interference is really wanting us to, to slip into a civil conflict, that is destructive to Palestinian national movement and that is not the plan of, of Fatah.
Turkey says it has arrested most of those involved in the double bomb attack which killed 17 people in Istanbul last week. Turkey's interior minister has blamed Kurdish rebels for the bombing. From Istanbul, Sarah Rainsford reports.
At least eight suspects are now in custody, accused of planning and carrying out last week's bomb attack. Speaking next to a display of weapons, computer hard drives and other items collected from the suspects' homes, Turkey's interior minister cited strong evidence against them. He said officials believed the bombing was the work of the Kurdish separatist group, the PKK. He described it as inhuman acts. Anatolia, the Semi-Official News Agency here, says eight of those detained have been charged with membership of the PKK, the group previously denied any involvement in the attack.
The Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni says that Africa can't ignore allegations of genocide against Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir. He said the continent should hold its own hearings into the conflict in Darfur and not dismiss the rights of the victims. Correspondents say the relations between the two countries have long been strained. The African Union has called for the International Criminal Court to delay a decision on charging the Sudanese president for atrocities in Darfur.
World News from the BBC.
The President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has told his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Asad that Tehran will not retreat by one inch on its right to have a nuclear program. The two presidents were meeting in Tehran as the deadline for Iran to respond to a diplomatic initiative on its nuclear ambitions expired. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany have offered to stop pushing for further sanctions in return for a halt in the expansion of Iran's nuclear program. (Www.hxen.net)
Speculation continues here in Britain over the position of the Prime Minister Gordon Brown in the aftermath of a series of by-election setbacks. Three cabinet ministers have issued a public vote of confidence in Mr. Brown's leadership despite his Labor Party's lowest poll ratings in a generation. Ian Watson reports.
The three cabinet ministers effectively issued a public vote of confidence in the Prime Minister. Harriet Harman says that the current economic problems should not be allowed to turn into a political crisis. Alistair Darling praises Gordon Brown's determination and strong purpose. And John Denham calls for an end to a summer of leadership speculation, but critics were pointing out that many other ministers are staying silent and will question whether the need of declarations of public support might highlight the Prime Minister's weakness rather than his strength.
A former Chinese transport official has been sentenced to death for taking more than three million dollars worth of bribes. The corruption came to light as a result of a leaky toilet in the man's flat which dripped into an apartment below, prompting police and maintenance workers to break in. They discovered eight boxes of cash in the bathroom.
A girl is recovering in hospital in the United States after falling 14 floors down a chimney from a New York rooftop. The 12-year-old girl survived her plunge with only an injured hip. Rescuers found her in a deep pile of ash in the basement furnace. She'd been showing a cousin the views of the city from the roof when she lost her footing.
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