BBC news 2008-09-21 加文本

A huge truck bomb has devastated the Marriott Hotel in the center of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, killing at least 40 people and injuring about 250. The explosion blew out the lower floors of the building, carving a deep crater in front of it and sending people fleeing from restaurants at the back where they were breaking their Ramadan fast. The explosion came hours after Pakistan’s new President Asif Ali Zardari addressed parliament for the first time and demanded an end to Islamist militancy. The BBC’s Shoaib Hasan reports.

Mr. Zardari condemned what he said was a horrific and cowardly act targeting Pakistani citizens. He said his heart with tears of blood for those killed. Calling the attack part of an epidemic, Mr. Zardari emphasized Pakistan stood committed to eliminate it, come what may. A suicide bomber struck the Marriott Hotel in capital Islamabad within hours of his inaugural address to parliament earlier on Saturday. The subsequent explosion was the most devastating in the capital’s history. Emergency workers had great difficulty removing the dead and injured from the scene. Rescue workers say many people could still be trapped under the debris.

President Bush says the United States will help Pakistan bring the perpetrators of the Islamabad bombing to justice. No group has yet said it carried out the attack. But Mr. Bush said now was the time to refocus efforts on defeating al-Qaeda.

A spokesman for the South African President Thabo Mbeki has said the President will resign following demands from his own party, the African National Congress. ANC leaders made the call over allegations that Mr. Mbeki interfered in a corruption case against his rival, the party leader Jacob Zuma. The President of the opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, Helen Zille told the BBC that Mr. Mbeki’s resignation have been orchestrated to protect Mr. Zuma from corruption allegations.

The ANC has made its own internal problems of crisis for the country. This is exactly the political solution that Jacob Zuma has always wanted. It's about revenge. It's about settling political scores. And that is quite predictable that Jacob Zuma and his allies are going to use their new position to ensure that he does not have to face the 783 allegations of corruption against him in court.

The Large Hadron Collider where scientists were trying to simulate the conditions that existed just after the Big Bang when the Universe came into existence will have to be shut down for at least two months. Dr. David Evans is leading one of the experiments being conducted.

All of us are enormously disappointed. We, we were there ready to analyze the first data. After the success of the switch-on a week and half ago, everything was going so well. You know, this is, this is probably the most complicated machine in the world. So these things happen.

World News from the BBC.

The 700-billion-dollar government rescue plan for financial institutions in the United States could be ready for President Bush to sign by Friday. The Chairman of Congress' Joint Economic Committee Senator Charles Schumer, said legislators were working with the US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on a number of options, including a supervisory authority. From Washington, Jonathan Beale reports.

The rescue package now being discussed would amount to the biggest bailout by the US government since the Great Depression of the 1920s. The cost of it has already rocketed from 500 to 700 billion dollars. And that’s on top of the hundreds of billions of taxpayers’ money already used to save the mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the insurer AIG, and Bear Stearns Bank.

The military government in Mauritania has declared three days of mourning following the discovery of decapitated bodies of 12 soldiers. Their bodies were dumped in the desert outside a northern town where the soldiers were captured on Monday. The authorities have called for international support in the fight against terrorism, describing it as a very grave threat to the stability of the region. A group calling itself al-Qaeda’s North Africa wing has said it had abducted the soldiers during an ambush on an army patrol.

A Spanish plane repatriating more than 100 illegal migrants to Gambia has been forced to return to Spain after the Gambian authorities refused to let them disembark. Gambian officials said Spain had not given them enough time to prepare to receive the deportees. Spanish officials expressed surprise, saying Gambia had approved the repatriation. (Www.hxen.net)

The authorities in Southern Croatia have ordered the partial evacuation of the town of Makarska, which is threatened by a forest fire. Winds with gust of up to 100 kilometers an hour are driving the blaze towards the coastal resort. Planes and helicopters have been brought in to help the 300 firefighters tackling the fire. 

BBC News.