BBC news 2008-11-03 加文本

The United Nation says it plans to send its first humanitarian aid convoy in nearly a week into rebel-held areas in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the fighting in the region and are living in desperate conditions with very little food. The convoy with an escort of heavily armed U.N. peacekeepers will head north from the regional capital Goma, carrying urgently needed medical supplies and water. Our Africa correspondent Orla Guerin reports from inside the rebel territory.

For some of the displaced, hunger has overcome fear. They are leaving the relative safety of camps near Goma and going home to what is now rebel-held territory. We join them on the eerie journey along almost empty roads. Close to a rebel checkpoint, we met a mother of two called Francois. She said she was taking her children home because they’d had no food since Monday. “We are afraid,” she said, “but we have no choice.” Many of those on the road told us they would rather risk a bullet than risk starvation.

The new President of Zambia Rupiah Banda has been sworn in to office just hours after he was officially declared to have won a narrow victory in Thursday’s election. Mr. Banda had been acting head of state since August following the death of President Mwanawaswa. In his inaugural speech, he pledged to focus on fighting poverty and corruption.

“My priority will be to fight poverty. Poverty is demeaning and an unnecessary evil. I do not want people to think of Zambia as a Third World country with a begging bowl, because we are not. I want to move from hand outs to hand ups. I want to empower all Zambians."

The main opposition candidate Michael Sata has rejected the election results.

The Israeli government has said it will cut off all public funding and support for Jewish settlement outposts in the West Bank. Ministers said the move was in response to increasing violence and threats from some settlers directed toward the Israeli security forces. Tim Frank’s report from Jerusalem.

Under international law, all Israeli settlements on occupied territory are regarded as illegal except by Israel itself. However, even Israel says that the 100 or so smaller unauthorized settlements known as outposts break the country’s own law. Recently, there has been an increase in violence around outposts as the Israeli army and police have attempted to evict a few of the settlers living on some of the newer and smaller outposts.

A roadside bomb attack in Iraq has wounded the leader of an armed neighborhood group opposed to Al-Qaeda and killed three of his children. The explosion targeted the car of Abas al-Tami, a Sunni Muslim who heads the group known as the Awakening Council in the town of Buhuse, north of Baghdad.

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As the battle for the White House enters its final two days, the two contenders, the Democrat Barack Obama and the Republican John McCain are making desperate last-minute efforts to swing the vote in what they see as crucial regions. Mr. Obama, who’s ahead in the most opinion polls across the nation, is concentrating on the state of Ohio, which has voted for the winning candidate in every presidential election since 1964. Mr. McCain has been campaigning in the pivotal states of Pennsylvania and Florida.

In a dramatic end to the Formula-1 season, the British driver Louis Hamilton has become the youngest world champion in the history of Grand Prix Racing at the age of 23. Adam Parson sent this report from the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo.

This was sporting theatre at its most extraordinary. The Brazilian driver Felipe Massa crossed the line to win his home Grand Prix and so he thought to become world champion. Behind him, Lewis Hamilton needed to finish fifth to win the title and he was only six going to the final bend. And yet in the last corner of the last race, Hamilton somehow muscled past Timo Glock to move up that crucial position. And he won the title for himself.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have for the first time in nearly 15 years signed a joint agreement aimed at resolving their dispute over the territory of Nagorny Karabakh. The Azerbaijan leader Ilham Aliyev and his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sarkisian agreed to talks near Moscow to intensify their efforts to find a political settlement. Sporadic clashes have continued over Nagorno-Karabakh despite the signing of a cease-fire agreement in 1994.(WWw.hxen.net)

And the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said that negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban are unlikely while the militants continue to attack international forces in Afghanistan. Mr. Brown said President Karzai's government wanted to create a more inclusive Afghan society but that was very difficult whilst the insurgency continued.