BBC news 2009-11-01 加文本

BBC 2009-11-01


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BBC News with David Austin.

The American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been holding a day of separate talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, but there's been no sign of any progress on resuming Middle East peace negotiations. Both sides refused to give any ground on the contentious issue of Israeli settlement building in the occupied territories. Our State Department correspondent Kim Ghattas is traveling with Mrs. Clinton.

A flying visit for Hillary Clinton to the Middle East but an essential one. She held talks first with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Abu Dhabi, and then came to Jerusalem to meet Israeli official here. Her visit comes after several weeks of political turmoil. Mrs. Clinton was probably not looking for a breakthrough, but she did want to make sure that the progress keeps moving forward even at a snail's pace instead of sliding backwards. But there is no sign for now that either the Palestinians or the Israelis are ready to compromise on their position.

President Hamid Karzai's challenger in the Afghan presidential elections Doctor Abdullah Abdullah is expected to announce on Sunday whether he will take part in a run-off vote. There's been persistent speculation that Doctor Abdullah is planning to pull out of the contest next weekend because of a row over electoral fraud. President Karzai has rejected Doctor Abdullah's demand that a number of election officials who presided over the first round be dismissed following widespread allegations of corruption.

Three of the politicians who played key roles in the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and the transformation of Europe two decades ago have met at a ceremony in Berlin to mark the occasion. The former American President George Bush Senior, now 85, praised his former Soviet counterpart Mikhail Gorbachev for what he called his steadfastness in the face of immense challenges.

"Today we have a fuller appreciation of tremendous pressure Mikhail faced in that pivotal time. And through it all he stood firm which is why he'll also stand tall when the history of our time in office is finally written."

The Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has addressed his ruling National Democratic Party as speculation grows that his son Gamal is being groomed to succeed him, but the president gave no hint about any plans he may have for the succession. Yolande Knell reports from Cairo.

"Just for you" is the slogan of this year's NDP conference. And President Mubarak laid out his party's plans for much needed improvements to health care, education and transportation, hoping to please ordinary Egyptians. His party is sensitive to opposition claims it is elitist and that the success of its recent economic reforms have failed to help the poor. Still though this hour-long speech contained no clue to the answer of the biggest question dominating the Egyptian political scene, who will succeed Mr. Mubarak in office.

Yolande Knell reporting.

World News from the BBC.

The diplomat who will lead a United Nations inquiry into last month's violence in Guinea says he hopes to turn over a new page in the country's history. In a BBC interview Mohamed Bedjaoui, an Algerian former judge of the International Court of Justice, said he hoped to shed light on a shooting of protesters in the capital Conakry and ensured that those responsible were brought to justice. Human rights groups say that more than 150 people were killed when troops fired on the anti-government demonstration. Guinea's military government says only 57 people died.

Scientists in Britain say one of the oldest known examples of a spider web has been discovered in amber deposits found on the southern coast of England. Writing in the Journal of the Geological Society, the researchers say the amber dates back 140 million years. Jason Caffrey reports.

The amber containing the ancient spider's web was unearthed near Britain's southcoast by 2 enthusiasts hunting for dinosaur fossils. Scientists from Oxford University say it's the earliest known example of a spider's silk web. The spider that spun the preserved threads which are just 1 millimeter long was closely related to the modern garden spider. Researchers say it left small sticky droplets along the thread to catch pray, but it was the droplets themselves which became trapped inside amber resin which oozed out of a prehistoric tree along with insect droppings and microbes which date from the age of dinosaurs.

Dozens of police officers are being deployed in the American city of Boulder, Colorado, to stop an unusual Halloween party. The annual event, which is known as the Naked Pumpkin Run, involves people stripping off, putting a hollowed pumpkin over their heads and running naked through the city centre. Last time some 150 people turned out. However this year the police have vowed to arrest them for indecent exposure. Civil rights groups say many of those arrested could end up on the register of sexual predators, normally reserved for convicted child molesters and rapists.

BBC News.