BBC news 2008-09-01 加文本

BBC 2008-09-01


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BBC News with Marian Marshall.

The Republican Party in the United States has announced that it's greatly scaling down its activities on the opening day of the party's national convention because of Hurricane Gustav. The storm is approaching the southern coast to the US and is expected to make landfall on Monday. From St. Paul, Adam Brooks reports.

Campaign officials said that the convention will for now be greatly scaled down with just a minimum of official business to be conducted on Monday. There will be none of the highly charged campaign speeches usual at these events. Earlier, President Bush said he would skip the convention altogether. He will now travel to Texas and monitor the storm's progress from there. This is a very difficult moment for the Republican Party. Hurricane Gustav brings painful memories of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina exactly three years ago.

Officials in the Indian state of Bihar say half a million people remain stranded in hundreds of remote villages which have been devastated by massive flooding. A BBC correspondent in the affected area says the authorities are struggling to cope with the scale of disaster as the flood waters are spreading to new areas and conditions in the temporary relief camps are overcrowded and insanitary.

The founder of a Russian website that reported on alleged police brutality in the Caucasus has been shot dead while in police custody. The journalist, Magomed Yevloyev, was arrested at the airport in Magas, the capital of Ingushetia, and put into a police vehicle. Russian officials say he grappled with a policeman's pistol and was accidentally shot in the head. But his supporters say he was shot by police and then dumped by the roadside. Magomed Yevloyev's website, ingushetiya.ru, has strongly criticized the Ingush President Murat Zyazikov, who arrived at the airport on the same flight as Mr. Yevloyev.(Www.hxen.net)

On the eve of an emergency European Union summit on Georgia, the Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, has warned that Moscow is ready to retaliate against any sanctions the EU might impose. And he said that Russia would not go back on its decision to recognize the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Our position is not going to change in any way because of this. We have made our decision. It's irrevocable. Our duty is to ensure peace and calm in the region. This is the assumption from which we are going to proceed.

The Palestinian leadership has said they won't sign a partial peace agreement with the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert before he leaves office. Mr.Olmert, who is facing corruption allegations, has said he will stand down after his Kadima party chooses a new leader. But Israeli officials say he wants a Document of Understanding to take to Washington based on what is agreed so far with President Mahmoud Abbas. The Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat says there must be an agreement on all issues or there will be no agreement on anything.

This is the latest world news from the BBC.

The Red Cross has warned of an impending food crisis in Zimbabwe after the worst maize crop on record. During a tour of one of the badly affected areas, a Red Cross spokesman told the BBC that the situation was increasingly desperate. The Red Cross has issued an urgent appeal for funds to feed a quarter of a million of the most vulnerable people, but warned that by the end of the year, more than five million people, almost half of the population, will need food aid.

An international group of scientists says global warming is so serious that urgent consideration should be given to large-scale schemes to modify the environment, known as geo-engineering. One such scheme would increase the blanketing effect of clouds, so reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the earth. That would counteract the effects of global warming. Matt McGrath reports.

The field of geo-engineering needs serious consideration and serious cash. That's the view of authors writing in the Journal of the Royal Society, who say that emissions of carbon dioxide are continuing to rise, and by focusing on long-term targets for their reduction, we are ignoring the critical importance of current trends. One scheme mentioned is the idea of increasing the reflectivity of ocean clouds by spraying into them seawater particles. It's low cost and unlike other plans, the effects only last as long as you keep adding the seawater spray.

The Pakistani military says it's suspending its major operation against Taliban militants in the Bajur tribal area near the Afghan frontier. The ceasefire is expected to take effect during the night in honor of Ramadan-- the Islamic month of fasting. One report quoted a Taliban leader as saying that the army's gesture was welcome. In another development, local people in one district of Bajur are reported to have acted to drive the militants out of their area. An armed crowd set ablaze the homes of several figures associated with the Taliban.

BBC News.