BBC news 2009-10-06 加文本

BBC 2009-10-06


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BBC News with Marian Marshall.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik has blamed a lapse in security for a deadly explosion detonated by a suicide bomber at a United Nations compound in the Pakistani capital Islamabad. Mr. Malik said the bomber had been dressed as a member of the security forces and was allowed into the World Food Program compound when he asked to use the toilet. Five WFP employees were killed in the blast and a number of people injured. No group has said it carried out the attack, but Mr. Malik blamed the Taliban. He said the Pakistani people had a message of defiance for them.

"I want to make it clear to the terrorists that the entire nation is united and the entire nation says no to the Taliban, no to oppressors, no to terrorists, no to extremists."

Iraqi police say a suicide bomber has attacked a group of mourners in the city of Haditha, northwest of Baghdad, killing at least six people. The bomber detonated a belt of explosives inside a funeral tent. Another 15 people were injured.

The interim government in Honduras has lifted the state of emergency, following protests against the decree from countries across the Americas and some of its own supporters. The interim President Roberto Micheletti said the decree was no longer necessary because peace had returned to the country. Charles Scanlon reports from Miami.

The interim government has used the emergency to close media outlets and arrest supporters of the ousted president who remains besieged inside the Brazilian embassy. But international protests and growing pressure from Mr. Zelaya have forced the government to back down. The interim President Roberto Micheletti said the emergency was no longer needed because peace was returning to the country. He’s agreed to talks with Mr. Zelaya and is now hinting at further concessions. Asked if Mr. Zelaya could serve out his single term as president, he said anything was possible, but only after a new president has been elected in polls scheduled for November.

President Obama has stepped up pressure on the United States Congress to back his plans for health insurance reform. After a meeting with doctors from all 50 states, Mr. Obama said many physicians agreed with his reforms because they knew firsthand what was broken about America’s health system. He dismissed claims by his critics that he wanted to impose panels of officials who would decide whether patients lived or died.

"We have listened to every charge and every counter-charge from the crazy claims about death panels to misleading warnings about a government takeover of our health care system. But when you cut through all the noise and all the distractions that are out there, I think what’s most telling is that some of the people who are most supportive of reform are the very medical professionals who know the health care system best -- the doctors and nurses of America."

Both Houses of Congress are due to debate health care reform in the coming weeks.

BBC News.

A Nobel Prize for Medicine has been awarded to three US-based scientists, Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak, for their work on chromosomes. The Karolinska Institute in Sweden said the three scientists have solved a major problem in biology: how chromosomes are protected against degradation during cell division. Keith Adams reports.

The work of the three Nobel laureates sheds light on the tiny building blocks of life -- cells. Our DNA is carrying chromosomes and at each end of these, a sort of protective caps called telomeres. The scientists found that these caps and the enzyme they are made of plays a crucial role in the life of the cell. If the telomeres are shortened, the cell ages. If too active, it can cause the rampant reproduction seen in cancer cells. The discoveries are already being applied in research into new therapies against the host of diseases and conditions.

The trial has opened of South Africa’s former chief of police Jackie Selebi, who’s charged with corruption. On the opening day of the case, Mr. Selebi said he was a victim of a conspiracy by state prosecutors. He said they themselves were corrupt and he was ready, as he put it, “to drop a few bombshells”.

The Sri Lankan government says it’s taking measures to ensure that the camps housing displaced people from the war with the Tamil Tigers can cope with the onset of monsoon rains. UN agencies have expressed concern that the camps will flood and the thousands of people in them will have no access to clean water. But the government says it’s rapidly installing drainage systems in the camps.

The computer giant Microsoft has confirmed that thousands of email accounts on its Hotmail service have been compromised. A list of over 10,000 email accounts and their passwords was posted online after fake websites were used to lure people into revealing their personal details. Hotmail is the world’s largest internet-based email service.

BBC News.