BBC news 2010-08-17 加文本

BBC news 2010-08-17

(BBC News with David Austin.)

(The humanitarian catastrophe in Pakistan, where a fifth of) the country is flooded, has led to renewed calls for help from the government in Islamabad. The Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told the BBC the disaster was too great for Pakistan to handle alone, and an international failure to get immediate aid to those in need could leave millions to starve. He also warned of the activities of charities linked to militant groups who were trying to exploit the situation.

“When people are suffering, they do not differentiate from where help is coming. If a person is hungry, if a person is thirsty, and you provide water, he will not ask you whether you are a moderate or an extremist. He will grab that water from you and save himself and his children who are starving. So we have to be aware of this challenge.”

The United Nations has warned that up to 3.5 million children are at risk from waterborne diseases. It says a boost in funding is urgently needed to get safe drinking water to 6 million children.

With American forces just weeks away from ending their combat operations in Iraq, there’s been another blow to the protracted negotiations to try to form a stable coalition government. Five months after Iraqis went to the polls, the alliance that won the most seats, the al-Iraqiya bloc, has suspended its talks with the second-placed Shiite-led bloc of the Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. This was in response to Mr al-Maliki describing al-Iraqiya as a “Sunni group” rather than cross-sectarian. A member of the al-Iraqiya bloc, Adnan al-Danbus, said the prime minister’s remarks were not healthful.

“The prime minister’s words reflect his personal opinion and, perhaps, his true beliefs, but we were not expecting such statements from the prime minister. On the contrary, we were hoping to forge an alliance and a partnership in forming the next government. However, such remarks will put distance between our party lists and inflame the political scene.”

The former prime minister of Britain, Tony Blair, is to donate the profits from his forthcoming memoirs to a charity that helps British injured soldiers. With the details, here’s our reporter, Rajini Vaidyanathan.

Tony Blair’s autobiography is called A Journey. It’ll certainly be a money-making one. The book’s publishers, Random House, paid an estimated $7.5 million as an advance for it. But that, plus all the profits, are to be donated to the Royal British Legion which provides rehabilitation for injured soldiers. The spokesman for the former prime minister said this was Mr Blair’s way of recognizing the courage the armed forces demonstrate, day in, day out. But the families of some of those who lost their lives in Iraq have criticised the donation. The father of one soldier who died in a conflict described it as "blood money."

Rajini Vaidyanathan reporting.

World News from the BBC.

The American Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said the United States would definitely start reducing the number of its soldiers in Afghanistan next July. His comments to the Los Angeles Times newspaper come after the new commander of international forces in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, said he might advise President Obama to delay the withdrawal.

The United States Senator leading an investigation into the release of a Lockerbie bomber, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, has called for “whistle-blowers” to come forward with inside information. Robert Menendez is looking at whether the Libyan’s release from a Scottish prison nearly a year ago was linked to a BP oil deal with Libya.

Officials from the United States have been allowed to visit an American serving hard labor in North Korea for entering the country illegally at the start of the year. A State Department spokesman said two doctors and a consular official visited Aijalon Gomes in hospital in the capital Pyongyang. US officials were concerned about Mr Gomes’s health and welfare after North Korea said last month he’d attempted suicide.

A Colombian passenger plane has crashed and broken up into three pieces after reportedly being hit by lightning as it was coming into land on the Caribbean island of San Andres. All but one of the more than 120 people on board survived. The Island’s governor said it was a miracle that only one person died in the crash. Jeremy McDermott has this report from Colombia.

The Aires Boeing 737 was coming from Bogota, carrying holidaymakers looking for some Caribbean sun during the long weekend. It seems the plane encountered an electrical storm as it came into land, and was hit by lightning during its final approach to San Andres Airport. The crash-landing broke the plane into several pieces, killing one elderly passenger who had a heart attack and seriously injuring another five. The remainder of the 121 passengers and 6 crew suffered mainly minor injuries.

That was Jeremy McDermott reporting.

That’s the BBC News.