BBC news 2008-09-14 加文本

A huge rescue and relief operation is underway in the American state of Texas, after its battering by hurricane Ike. Specialist rescue teams using boats, high-wheeled trucks and helicopters have been bringing to safety hundreds of people in the coastal city of Galveston, much of which is being flooded by the heavy rains that accompany the ferocious winds. Rajesh Mirchandani now reports from Houston. (Www.hXen.com)

After ten hours of howling winds and drumming rain, there now hangs an eerie calm over part of the Texas coast. In low-lying suburbs of Houston, entire streets are knee-deep under water, pleasure boats have been tossed aside like toys, one even landing on a motorway. Much of the island city of Galveston is flooded and it remains closed off. It bore the brunt of the storm and there is great concern for the thousands who chose not to evacuate.

The worst train crash in the United States for more than a decade is now known to have killed at least 23 people. But the authorities say the number is bound to rise as some bodies remain in the wreckage. The crash occurred when a busy commuter train collided with a freight train on Friday on the outskirts of Los Angeles. More than a hundred people were injured. Denise Tyrrell, spokesperson for the commuter rail service Metrolink said human error was to blame for the crash.

Our preliminary investigation has shown that it was a Metrolink engineer that failed to stop at red signal, and is the probable cause of the accident yesterday that has caused so much pain to the Metrolink family.

The President of Chile Michelle Bachelet has called an emergency meeting in Santiago of the Union of South American nations to try to defuse a political crisis in Bolivia. Ms. Bachelet said the meeting on Monday might help promote a democratic solution. The Bolivian crisis has arisen over a plan by President Evo Morales to hold a referendum in December on a new constitution which would help him centralize power and run for a second consecutive term. It has resulted in a week of violence between pro and anti-government protestors in which at least ten people were killed.

A series of explosions has targeted busy shopping areas in the Indian capital Delhi. Officials say at least 20 people have been killed. More than 80 others have been injured. This report from Chris Morris in Delhi.

At least five bombs exploded in quick succession in crowded areas of Delhi in the early evening. Ordinary people in shops, cafes and markets seem to be the target. Cars and auto rickshaws were damaged. There were pools of blood on the street. The injured and the dead were taken to hospitals and mortuaries. A statement email to local media a few minutes before the bombs exploded said the attacks were carried out by the “Indian Mujahedeen”. The same group said it bombed the city of Ahmadabad in July, killing more than 40 people.

Chris Morris reporting from Delhi.

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The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has summoned trade union leaders to his office in a bid to save the struggling national airline Alitalia. Earlier the bankruptcy commissioner for Alitalia Augusto Fantozzi said that difficulties in paying for fuel could put some flights at risk. Alitalia is facing collapse in the absence of an agreed rescue plan. Its workers have rejected a 1.4 billion dollar package put together by Alitalia investors, fearing it could mean the loss of thousands of jobs.

Opposition supporters in Malaysia have held a candlelit vigil in the capital Kuala Lumpur in protest against a wave of arrests under the Internal Security Act which allows indefinite detention without trial. Those arrested included politicians and journalists, one of whom, an opposition member of parliament Teresa Kok had been accused of stoking racial tension.

A pleasure boat carrying tourists has sunk in the River Seine in central Paris. Two passengers, one of them a six-year-old child, are critically ill after being rescued by divers. Hugh Schofield there reports.

The accident happened shortly before ten o’clock at a time when the River Seine on the late summer’s evening, is busy with pleasure craft. A small boat carrying twelve passengers sank at the point just beside Notre-Dame Cathedral. Report suggests that it hit the pillar of a bridge perhaps after first colliding with a much bigger tourist boat, one of the famous Bateaux-Mouches which take tourists up and down the Seine. Emergency workers were quickly on the scene and rescued ten people who jumped into the water.

French authorities say that almost 4,000 police and security officers are on duty in the town of Lourdes, where Pope Benedict will celebrate an outdoor mass on Sunday. The pontiff joined pilgrims at the Lourdes shrine on Saturday to mark the 150th anniversary of a peasant girl's vision of the Virgin Maria, the mother of Jesus. Earlier in Paris, tens of thousands of people heard the Pope condemn what he called a pagan passion for material possessions.

BBC News.