BBC news 2009-06-19 加文本

BBC 2009-06-19


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BBC News with Gaenor Howells.

Opposition supporters in the Iranian capital Tehran are holding another massive rally against the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Government supporters have also held a rally in the city. From Tehran, Jon Leyne reports.

Eyewitnesses including a reporter for the state-run press TV station say a huge opposition rally has gathered in north Tehran. It’s not organized and it’s not clear if any opposition leaders will attend. New restrictions imposed by the government mean that foreign reporters are not allowed to attend opposition rallies. But one eyewitness told me that he believed there were more people even than yesterday’s huge rally, which was attended by hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of opposition supporters. Another rally of government supporters was held in central Tehran. From the television pictures the size was not clear, but it does not appear to be on the scale of the opposition gatherings.

Earlier, Iran’s Powerful Guardian Council said it was willing to recount votes queried by the opposition after Friday’s presidential election. The main opposition challenger Mir-Hossein Moussavi has called for the entire election to be rerun, and his supporters say a recount would be meaningless because they suspect that millions of ballots have disappeared.

The UN World Food Program is warning that it’s run out of food to provide for nine million Ethiopians who rely on its assistance. The WFP says the port of Djibouti is seriously congested and there’s little prospect of fresh supplies arriving for the next five or six months. Martin Plaut reports.

The Ethiopian government has prioritized the delivery of fertilizer to try to increase the next harvest. But even when the grain gets through, the WFP says there’s acute shortage of trucks for the Ethiopian authorities preventing the WFP from bringing its own trucks in from Sudan. The border conflict with neighboring Eritrea means Ethiopia’s unable to use the natural ports of Asab and Massawa. Meanwhile, millions of breastfeeding mothers, children refugees will go desperately short of food.

The Swedish carmaker Saab is to be sold by its American parent company General Motors. The buyers are a consortium led by the Swedish sports car manufacturer Koenigsegg. GM has been trying to sell off some of its international subsidiaries as it faces severe financial problems in the US. Rodney Smith reports.

This is a solution to a 20-year-old problem that’s likely to please Scandinavians. Saab was losing money before GM bought 50% of it in 1989. GM was accused regularly of failing to invest sufficiently in its new and ultimately wholly owned brand while trying to force Saab’s quirky vehicles into the pattern of its own European models. Koenigsegg's reputation is built on high-tech innovation. It’s reported in Sweden to be planning an innovative electric car called the Quant and for which the Saab plant could be ideal.

You are listening to the World News from the BBC.

Officials in Indonesia say they fear there is little hope for more than 30 miners who remain buried underground after a gas explosion in a coal mine in West Sumatra. Nine people are known to have died in the blast and 32 others remained trapped deep below the surface without access to ventilation or safety equipment.

Yemen is offering a reward for information that could lead to the capture of kidnappers believed to have killed at least 3 foreign hostages. The governor of the region in north Yemen where the hostages were seized on Friday has offered 25,000 dollars. There is still uncertainty about the fate of 6 other foreigners including 3 children.

The British government has announced plans to upgrade the country’s digital infrastructure to make sure all sections of society benefit from it. The cost will be met by a monthly levy on fixed telephone lines. The government also confirmed that the license fee paid by people in Britain to finance the BBC might be shared with other broadcasters to pay for local news services and possibly children’s programs. Torin Douglas has more detail.

The report sets out far-reaching plans to upgrade Britain’s digital infrastructure and ensure all sections of society share in the benefits. A basic broadband service able to show video online will be extended to all areas and a much faster broadband made widely available. Unlawful file sharing of music and videos will be curbed first with written warnings, and then by reducing or suspending internet access for repeat infringers.

The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has met the head of the country’s army amid reports of an alleged military plot to destabilize his party. Details of the alleged plot were contained in a document published in the Teraf newspaper suggesting the military had drew up secret plans to discredit Mr. Erdogan’s AK party which has Islamic roots, along with an influential religious movement.

Words:

query   n.问题，疑问 v.对…表示疑问；询问

ballot  n.投票；投票总数；选票  v.投票表决

UN World Food Program   联合国世界粮食计划署

congested   v.充血，使拥挤

prioritize    v. 把...区分优先次序

consortium  n.  联合; 金融财团; 财团

quirky    adj. 狡诈的(离奇的,古怪的)

broadband  宽带

destabilize  vt. 使...不稳定(使...动摇)

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