BBC news 2010-08-07 加文本

BBC news 2010-08-07

(BBC News) with David Austin

Disaster officials in Pakistan say the number of people affected by the severe flooding in the country has increased dramatically to 12 million. They said the figure was for just two of Pakistan's four provinces - Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. A United Nations official, Manuel Bessler, told the BBC that there was now a strong risk of disease.

"All over this polluted water, we have temperatures between 35 and 45C. We have civilians exposed to these elements, mosquitoes all over the place. This is an ideal environment for them to spread these waterborne diseases."

A week after the British Prime Minister David Cameron ignited a diplomatic row with Pakistan by accusing it of not doing enough to fight terrorism, Mr Cameron has held talks near London with the visiting Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari. The two agreed to intensify their cooperation on fighting Islamist militancy. Here is Reeta Chakrabarti.

There was no apparent tension between the two leaders after their meeting, although President Zardari's comments that "storms will come and storms will go" did hint at the turbulent backdrop. Downing Street sources said the meeting was very warm and emphasized progress made on counter-terrorism strategy with an annual summit between the two countries' leaders and formal meetings between military and security staff. But they declined to comment on whether they broached David Cameron's comments on Pakistani elements exporting terror which had so angered the Pakistani government.

Russian health officials are warning people in Moscow to stay inside and avoid physical exertion as a noxious choking fog from the worst wildfires in the country's history have smothered the city. People are struggling to deal with the haze and smoke that's spread through Moscow's streets and even seeped underground to the Metro network. The smog is so thick that the city's famous landmarks are disappearing from view. Many residents are wearing face masks.

President Obama has welcomed the latest United States employment figures despite them fueling fears among markets that the country's economic recovery may be stalling. The US Labor Department says the economy shed more than 130,000 jobs in July, although the unemployment rate remains at 9.5%. Laura Trevelyan has this report.

Unemployment in America is remaining stubbornly high. Almost 15 million people are looking for work. The US needs to be creating 200,000 posts a month for the jobless total to fall, and it isn't. The feeble rate at which the private sector is hiring has led a number of economists to ask if the US could be headed for a double-dip recession. That's when the economy slips back into recession after a weak recovery. Many of the factors that were driving economic growth are now fading. But President Obama said climbing out of the recession would take time.

Laura Trevelyan reporting.

World News from the BBC

Police in France have cleared a Roma Gypsy camp in the central city of Saint-Etienne. About 100 people have been moved on. It's the first such clearance since the French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced plans to dismantle hundreds of unauthorized campsites in the country. Hugh Schofield reports from Paris.

The camp of tents and makeshift homes had been set up on council-owned land in Saint-Etienne and had been occupied since May. Police sealed off the area at dawn and spent the morning moving the people out. A Romanian police officer was present, a sign that these members of the Roma community were recent immigrants from Eastern Europe. The government of President Sarkozy has recently struck a hard line towards what he defined as "certain elements" in the Roma and traveller communities. This followed last month's attack on a rural police station by a group of young men after the shooting to death of a suspected burglar.

The head of the Colombian army says the number of left-wing Farc guerrillas has diminished considerably since President Alvaro Uribe came to power eight years ago. General Oscar Gonzalez said numbers had dwindled from about 20,000 to an estimated 7,000. He said the Marxist rebel group had no unified command, no control and that its atomized groups didn't communicate with each other.

Police in Mexico say at least 14 inmates have died in a prison riot in Matamoros on the border with the United States. Local media say rival gangs fighting for control of the prison attacked each other with knives and other sharp weapons. Soldiers and police eventually regained control of the jail.

Rescue workers in Chile are trying to free 34 miners who've been trapped in a copper mine for almost a day. Officials at the mine in Atacama in the north of the country say the men were cut off after the main access tunnel collapsed. They are believed to be near a shelter with oxygen, food and water, considerably improving their chances of survival.

And those are the latest stories from BBC News.