和谐英语

您现在的位置是:首页 > 英语听力 > BBC world news

正文

BBC news 2009-04-30 加文本

2009-04-30来源:和谐英语
BBC 2009-04-30


Download Audio


BBC News with John Jason.

Less than a week after the World Health Organization first warned of an outbreak of swine flu in Mexico, the agency has raised the international level of alert, indicating that a pandemic is imminent. After an emergency meeting in Geneva, the head of the WHO, Margaret Chan announced that the outbreak had reached Level 5. The virus is believed to have killed 159 people in Mexico. The United States has recorded its first fatality from the virus, which has spread to Europe, the Middle East and New Zealand. Imogen Foulkes reports from Geneva.

To declare phase 5, the World Health Organization had to make sure that there is sustained human to human transmission of the swine flu virus in at least two countries in the one region of the world. That stage has clearly been reached in Mexico and the United States. The WHO's advice to all countries now is to prepare stockpiling drugs, preparing hospitals and continuing to stay on high alert for any sign of swine flu. Such measures, the WHO says, may at least ensure that the coming pandemic is mild rather than severe.

The Egyptian authorities have ordered a
cull of all pigs in their country as a precaution against swine flu. No cases have been reported in Egypt, but there have been several in neighboring Israel. A number of countries have banned imports of pork from the United States, but experts say although the virus may have evolved within pigs, it has not been found in them, and slaughtering pigs or banning pork has no scientific basis.

President Obama's marked his 100th day in office with the warning of hard work ahead to revive the economy. As he addressed a meeting in the mid-western state of Missouri, new figures showed that the U. S. was still in deep recession although the economy was shrinking more slowly than before. Mr. Obama said the task of rebuilding America had begun.

"Today on my 100th day in office I've come back to report to you, the American people, that we have begun to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off, and we've begun the work of remaking America.”

The New York-based organization, Human Rights Watch has accused the Mexican army of killings, torture and rape in its campaign against a wave of drug-related crime. It's said the abuses were continuing because of the failure of the military justice system to investigate or convict offenders. Charles Scanlon reports.

President Philippe Calderon has mobilized tens of thousands of troops in a desperate battle against the country's powerful drug gangs. He says they’ve succeeded in reestablishing government control, but Human Rights Watch says the campaign is being undermined by widespread abuses and the failure of the military to prosecute those responsible. In a major report, it investigated 70 victims who were allegedly killed, raped or tortured by the military. It says the cases are all well documented, but no one has been held responsible.

You're listening to the latest world news from the BBC.

At least 20 people have been killed in clashes in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi. A local government minister blamed the violence on what he said were "criminal elements" intent on fanning ethnic tensions in the city. In the past, there has been friction between Karachi's Pashtun speakers and members of the Urdu speaking Muttahida community, who originally migrated from India.

Three car bombs have killed at least 41 people in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Iraqi security forces say there were a total of six car bombs in Sadr City, a poor Shiite area of the capital. Three of the devices were defused before they could explode. Jim Muir reports.

The Iraqi police said the bombs went off one after the other in three adjacent markets in Sadr City. At least one of the markets selling clothes and household goods would have been particularly crowded at that time in the late afternoon. Iraqi security forces cordoned off the whole area as emergency services rushed the casualties to a nearby hospital. One eyewitness said that angry residents threw stones at Iraqi army units stationed in the area. They accused them of doing nothing to stop the bombings.

The British government has suffered a surprised defeat in Parliament over the rights of former Gurkha soldiers to settle in Britain. Gurkhas who come from Nepal have been recruited to serve in the British army for more than 150 years, but they’ve never been given the same rights and conditions of service as native British troops and there has been a growing campaign to reverse this. (www.hxen.net)

New scientific research says there needs to be an absolute cap on greenhouse gas emissions if humanity is to avoid the likely consequences of global warming, chronic water shortages, crop failures and devastating sea level increases. The findings, published in the
journal Nature say the world cannot afford emissions of more than a trillion tons by 2050, but that a third of that amount has already been pumped out in the first nine years of this century.

BBC News.