BBC news 2009-09-07 加文本

BBC 2009-09-07


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BBC News with Jonathan Weekley.

Latest results in Afghanistan's presidential election show the incumbent Hamid Karzai has established a clear lead. With around 2/3 of the votes now counted, President Karzai has just under 49%. His nearest rival, the former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah has around 32%. The Afghan election authorities have annulled the results from 447 polling stations after fraud investigations. David Lowan reports from Kabul.

The decision to annul the votes from more than 400 polling stations rather than conducting individual investigations should make the final result quicker to calculate. But there are still hundreds of other complaints of fraud and it could still be several weeks before the protest is over. The main concern has been over villages where people were prevented from voting, and ballot papers were taken and filled in by corrupt party officials instead.

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown have called for an international conference on Afghanistan to be held before the end of the year. Speaking at a joint news conference in Berlin, Mr. Brown said the aim would be to encourage the Afghan police, army and general population to take more responsibility for the future of their country. He said other countries must also help in the time ahead.

Germany and Britain are major contributors to the 41-nation coalition on Afghanistan. We have shared the burden with many other countries, and one of the issues is, of course, that we need people to accept their responsibilities and share the burdens in the future.

In a rare visit to Egypt, the leader of the Palestinian faction Hamas Khaled Meshaal has been meeting Egyptian intelligence officials who are chairing reconciliation talks with his political rivals Fatah. The Palestinian President Mohmoud Abbas who leads Fatah was in Cairo on Saturday. From Cairo, Yolande Knell.

Khaled Meshaal came from Syria where he lives in exile to lead a top level Hamas delegation to Cairo. He's been meeting the Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman to discuss Palestinian reconciliation efforts with a new round of talks with the Fatah movement on forming a unity government due to begin late this month. The Palestinian President Mohmoud Abbas who leads Fatah was here on Saturday. This visit has also fueled speculation of possible progress in protracted talks between Hamas and Israel on a prisoner swap.

In the Philippines, the search is continuing into the night for dozens of people missing after a ferry went down. Almost a thousand people were on board when the ferry sank near the southern city of Zamboanga. More than 900 passengers and crew are confirmed to be safe and several bodies have been recovered. The Philippine defense minister said the rescue operation had been held because other vessels were nearby when the ship ran into trouble.

World News from the BBC.

Scientists in Britain and France say they've discovered three new genes they believe are linked to the onset of the brain-wasting disease Alzheimer's. It is the first new evidence of a genetic link for 16 years and could help in the development of tests and treatments for the illness. The study published in the Journal Nature Genetics has prompted scientists to rethink their theories on how the illness develops. Professor Julie Williams who led the research at Cardiff University in Wales says they now have crucial new information about the possible causes of Alzheimer's.

These genes are doing new things, we think, in the normal form they protect the brain, but in this changed form that we see associated with Alzheimer’s disease, they are either removing this protection or actually acting against the brain.

The Interior Minister in Gabon says Parliament will be asked to approve the imposition of a state of emergency in the main industrial city Port Gentil if acts of violence there continue. He made his comments during a visit to the city after days of violent protests against the election of Ali Ben Bongo as president succeeding his father. Hundreds of residents are reported fleeing Port Gentil.

A provocative AIDS awareness television advert, which features an Adolf Hitler look-alike having sex, has been criticized for stigmatizing people with AIDS. The German charity which commissioned the film says AIDS has killed 30 million people worldwide and it wants to shake people up by associating AIDS with mass murder. However, other organizations have said it could be people with AIDS rather than the condition itself who end up being associated with Hitler.

Sport now and Ghana has become the first African team to qualify for the World Cup Finals in South African next year. The Black Stars beat Sudan 2:0 in front of an enthusiastic crowd in the capital Accra. Ghana was the only African team to reach the last 16 of the 2006 World Cup Competition in Germany.

BBC News.