BBC news 2010-06-02 加文本

2010-06-02 BBC

BBC News with David Legge.

There is growing diplomatic pressure on Israel after its commandos storm ships trying to break its blockade of Gaza. NATO condemned the loss of lives in the assault in which at least nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed and demanded the immediate release of ships and civilians. And these four of the dead were from Turkey which called the assault of bloody massacre. And in Washington, the U.S Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has given her response. As David Willis reports.

Mrs.Clinton reiterated the sentiments of carefully crafted United Nations Security Council statement which deeply regretted the loss of nine lives and called for an investigation into the action of the Israeli commandos. Mrs.Clinton said she supported an Israeli investigation which was credible and transparent. A statement which is unlikely to appease the America's critics. Among them, former allies like Turkey who believed the U.S response to this incident has been too muted.

And some news just in. A spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says all foreign nationals arrested on board the flotilla will be released. The spokesman said they would start deporting people in earnest and hope to have them all out within 48 hours.

United States Government has opened a criminal investigation into the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S Attorney General Eric Holder didn't name any companies or individuals, but promised that anyone who had violated the law would be prosecuted. Richard Lister reports from Washington.

Mr.Holder said prosecutors now have sufficient evidence to begin a criminal enquiry and he would not rest until justice was done. The companies involved had already been ordered to preserve their records. Remote-control robots on the sea bed are now cutting the damaged well riser in order to cap it and pipe the leaking oil to the service. BP says the procedure will take all week and it doesn't expect that cutting the riser will allow significantly more oil to escape. But government scientists suggest the procedure could release up to 20% more oil initially and the White House says it does not believe BP has been forthcoming about the risks.

A new blood test for lung cancer which the makers hope for vast improved diagnoses of the disease has become commercially available across the United States for the first time this week. The test identifies defences released by the human body in response to the earlier stages of the cancer. As Professor John Robertson who led the research explains.

"The body when it is making a cancer with cancer cells have destroyed different proteins and people are exquisite or sensitive to what is not themselves. And they make immune responses to those cancer antigens and is that antibody response will be able to detect." Scientists hope that in the future the tests can be adapted to diagnose other types of cancer.

World News from the BBC.

An American army officer accused of murdering 13 of his colleagues at Fort Hood in Texas last November has appeared in court for the first time. Maj Nidal who was left paralyzed when security guard shot him, sat in court in a wheelchair, wearing his army uniform. A judge must decide whether he is fit to stand trial.

Pakistan's arm forces say they have driven the Taliban out of the strategically important Orakzai region, close to the border with Afghanistan. The offensive in Orakzaiwas was launched ten weeks ago. Almost every day there were reports of clashes and airstrikes. The government says most targeted militants who have been displaced by early offensives have taken refugee in Orakzai.

The British Insurance joint Prudential has failed in its attempt to buy the American old insurer AIA after the Pru shareholders threaten to vote against the deal. Investors in the British firm said the 35-billion-dollar purchase price for AIA was too high. Our business editor Robert Peston reports.

"The collapse of the Pro's attempt to buy AIA of Asia is an important event in the history of British stock market capitalism. In this rare case, it was the Pro's own shareholders who frustrated the takeover by making it clear that they thought the purchase price was too steep and by telling the Pro's directors that they would vote down the deal. The implications are significant. The Pro's chief executive and chairman may have to resign, but perhaps more importantly, it shows that investors have become much less supportive than they were of companies that what become global giant through takeovers."

The Mayor of the Mexican resort city of Cancun has been formally charged with drug-trafficking, money laundering and organised crime. The charges mean Gregorio Sanchez Martinez must give up his campaign to be governor of the state of Quintana Roo. Prosecutors say there is evidence he protected two of Mexico's biggest drugs gangs and lived well beyond his means.

BBC News.