BBC news 2009-06-08 加文本

BBC 2009-06-08


Download Audio


BBC News with Fiona McDonald.

Votes are being counted in all 27 member states of the European Union at the end of four days of elections to the European Parliament. Earlier results and exit polls suggested that in most countries, center-right parties have done much better than left-leaning parties. The turnout was the lowest in the history of the elections. Johnny Diamond reports.

There are no official results out yet, but exit polls streaming out of countries across the EU are indicating two clear trends. One is that the parties of the center-right that hold power in most of the biggest continental countries, France, Germany, Italy and Poland have done very well. The left appears to be in disarray in many of the biggest EU countries despite the recession. The second trend is falling turnout. In the 2004 elections just over 45% of the electorate voted, this time around 43% have voted. Meanwhile, the center-right looks like it will again hold power in the European Parliament itself.

In Lebanon counting is under way after a crucial parliamentary election, in which large numbers of people took part. The result is expected to be close with the government coalition, supported by Saudi Arabia and the United States, taking on the opposition alliance headed by the militant group Hezbollah which is backed by Syria and Iran.

The former United States President Jimmy Carter who's leading a team of international observers, urged Lebanese parties and their foreign backers to accept the result.

All of the international observers hope and encourage all the parties to accept the results of the election whether they win or lose. And we also hope that the United States and Iran and Saudi Arabia and other countries will also accept the result of the election and not try to interfere in the process.

A news just in. Africa's longest-serving ruler President Omar Bongo of Gabon has died. He was 73 and was being treated for an illness at a hospital in Spain. And //// looks back at his life.

Omar Bongo remained in power for so long mainly by co-opting his opponents and giving them government positions. He's even believed to have used his vast wealth, thanks to oil revenues to finance politicians in the former colonial power France. At the time of his death, French magistrates were investigating allegations of corruption which were made against Mr. Bongo and two other African leaders, but critics also argue that his power wasn't just sustained by cash, but also by violence. In the 1970s, several opposition members were killed.

As tension continues in northern Peru after some of the worst political violence seen in the country for ten years, the public ombudswoman Beatriz Merino has gone to one of the main towns in the region, Bagua Chica to investigate the protest at the centre of the trouble. She said injured people were continuing to arrive at the main hospital there, which was running out of medical supplies.

World News from the BBC.

A two-hour gun battle in one of Mexico's most popular tourist resorts, the costal city of Acapulco has left at least 16 gunmen and 2 soldiers dead. A number of Mexican soldiers and by-standers were wounded. The gun battle erupted on Saturday night when soldiers, after receiving a tip-off, went to a large house in the city's downtown tourist district.

The French navy says it recovered a body from the Atlantic off Brazil, believed to be that of a victim of the mysterious disappearance of a French airliner a week ago. The discovery brings the number of bodies found so far to six. Earlier the Brazilian military authorities said the remains of more people have been spotted along with the debris from the plane, including seats and oxygen masks.

The President of South Africa Jacob Zuma has warned that the situation in the country will explode if the government fails to bridge the growing gap between rich and poor. Mr. Zuma said that when the economy grew that had to benefit ordinary people. Ignoring poverty, he said, would lead to problems.

Roger Federer of Switzerland has won the French Open Tennis Championship for the first time in his career. He beat the Swede Robin Soderling in straight sets. Federer has now won a record equaling 14 Grand Slam titles. Russell Fuller reports.

The first set was Federer's best of the tournament, a 23-minute greatest hits collection with the shaken Soderling managing only 9 points. It was tighter through the second until the tie-break when Federer again produced brilliants, only four serves hit, four aces. And even though Soderling battled hard, Federer was always in control, barring perhaps the final game, when understandable nerves forced a few errors en route to victory. Then the tears inevitably flowed not once but twice, at the moment of his historic triumph, a record equaling fourteenth major, and then during the Swiss national anthem - a moment of reflection for Ferderer as he considered the enormity of becoming only the sixth man to win all four major titles.

BBC News.