BBC news 2009-03-16 加文本

BBC 2009-03-16

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BBC News with Marian Marshall.

The main opposition leader in Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, has left his home city of Lahore, and joined thousands of supporters on a protest march to the capital Islamabad. Mr. Sharif, a former Prime Minister, and a long-term opponent to the President Asif Zardari defied what he said had been an illegal house arrest order. Barbara Plett reports from Islamabad.

Police tried to stop activists from gathering in Lahore for their long march on Islamabad. They fired tear gas at protestors who pelted them with stones. They also surrounded the house of Nawaz Sharif who was supposed to lead the demonstration demanding restoration of the deposed chief justice. The government said it was only protecting him against security threats. But Mr. Sharif emerged defiant. Police pulled back in a tactical retreat as he left the house, rallying supporters into a jubilant display of force. It's not clear how far he will get. The government has sealed the capital to foil protestors' plans to reach parliament.

Two Israeli traffic police officers have been shot dead in the West Bank. Their car was fired on from another vehicle. Israeli security forces are looking for the gunmen who they said were Palestinians. The shooting happened near an Israeli settlement in the Jordan Valley. Two checkpoints in the area had been removed in the last week to ease travel for local Palestinians. A group named after an assassinated Hezbollah commander has said it killed the officers.

NATO forces in Afghanistan say four of their soldiers have died in an attack in the eastern province of Nangarhar. The American troops were in a convoy that was hit by a roadside bomb. In a separate attack in Kabul, two bystanders were killed and 14 injured by a suicide bomber.

The former vice President of the United States Dick Cheney has said that Americans are less safe now that President Obama has overturned anti-terrorism policies introduced during the Bush administration. In his first television interview since leaving office, Mr. Cheney speaking on cnn criticized Mr. Obama's decision to close Guantanamo Bay and secret CIA detention sites abroad.(www.hXen.com)

"I think those programs were absolutely essential to the success we enjoyed of being able to collect the intelligence that let us defeat all further attempts to launch attacks against the United States since 9/11. I think it’s a great success story. It was done legally and it was done in accordance with our constitutional practices and principles. President Obama campaigned against it all across the country, and now he is making some choices that in my mind will in fact raise the risk to the American people of another attack. "

An explosion at a world heritage site in Yemen has killed four South Korean tourists and a local man. Security officials believed that it was a terrorist attack, but didn't rule out other possibilities. The blast happened as the tourists were taking pictures of the sunset from a hill overlooking the historic city of Sheba which is known for its mud-brick skyscrapers in southwest Yemen.

World News from the BBC.

Oil ministers from the 12 OPEC countries have agreed they won't reduce the amount of oil they are currently producing. However, they will strictly enforce cuts they'd announced earlier of more than four million barrels a day. The ministers, meeting in the Austrian capital Vienna, will try to establish how to respond to the recent big falls in the price of oil. It's now trading at about a third of the price it reached last year.

The President of Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana, says a referendum will be held as soon as possible to resolve a stand-off with the opposition that’s led to months of unrest. Jonah Fisher reports from the capital, Antananarivo.

Both Madagascar's main political factions say they represent true democracy. Supporters of President Marc Ravalomanana pointed out that their man has won the last two general elections. The opposition shrugged that off and say he's since become a dictator, forgetting the poor and curbing press freedom. Now the President has challenged his opponents to put their claims to the test. It's not clear what question will be posed, but the president said the vote would be held in the shortest time possible and called on international partners to assist. The opposition has not decided whether to take part.

Reports from El Salvador say voting has been going peacefully in the country's presidential election. The candidate of the former left-wing FMLN rebel movement, Mauricio Funes, is challenging the right-wing government that's held power for more than two decades since the end of the civil war. Mr. Funes’ conservative opponent Rodrigo Ávila is having to deal with disillusionment with the ruling party at a time when economic hardship has been increasing. Thousands of Salvadorans living in the United States, most of whom support Mr. Ávila, have flown home so they can vote. The FMLN won the country's first ever congressional elections in January. There are about 4,000 observers in El Salvador to monitor the vote.

BBC World Service News.

Glossary:

pelt sb. with sth.: If you pelt someone with something, you throw things at them.

rally: When people rally to something or when something rallies them, they unite to support it.

foil: If you foil someone's plan or attempt to do something, for example, to commit a crime, you succeed in stopping them from doing what they want. (JOURNALISM)

in accordance with: If something is done in accordance with a particular rule or system, it is done in the way that the rule or system says that it should be done.

skyscraper: A skyscraper is a very tall building in a city.

shrug off: If you shrug something off, you ignore it or treat it as if it is not really important or serious.

curb: If you curb something, you control it and keep it within limits.

disillusionment: Disillusionment is the disappointment that you feel when you discover that something is not as good as you had expected or thought.