BBC news 2010-08-18 加文本

BBC news 2010-08-18

...new pledges of aid totalling more than $300 million to deal with the disastrous floods that have swamped large parts of the country. But the UN said millions of flood victims hadn't yet received any aid whatsoever. The new pledges came after the UN's emergency relief operation said on Monday that it had still only received about 1/3 of the money it needed. Mike Wooldridge reports from Islamabad.

Aid officials here talk of some progress on the ground over this past week. They say access to flood victims has increased, as has their own capacity to respond. But the problem is that they are constantly trying to catch up with the disaster that's grown with every new area flooded and, they say, without the funds to enable them to get closer to bridging the gap. Pakistan's UN envoy in Geneva said he believed the international community still needed to understand how serious the situation is.

Police in Tanzania have arrested a Kenyan who was attempting to sell an albino man. The police had posed as businessmen interested in using albino body parts for witchcraft. They say the man had tricked the albino, who is also Kenyan, into believing he'd got a job in Tanzania. Instead, the police say, he secretly struck a deal with undercover officers to sell the man for more than a quarter of $1 million.

The Turkish authorities say security guards at their embassy in Israel have overpowered a Palestinian who'd forced his way into the building in an apparent bid for asylum. The Turkish foreign ministry said the man who, they say, was carrying a knife, a petrol can and a toy gun had tried to take their deputy consul hostage. The man is reported to have been injured. Wyre Davies reports from Jerusalem.

The Israeli foreign ministry which is in touch with Turkish authorities initially said the man had taken hostages, thought to be the Turkish consul general and his wife, although later reports said they'd managed to escape or had been released. The foreign ministry also named the suspected gunman as Nadim Injaz, a Palestinian from Ramallah in the West Bank, who tried to seek asylum at the British embassy in Tel Aviv in 2006, although his motives this time were unclear.

The Lebanese parliament has passed new legislation that for the first time grants Palestinian refugees living in the country the right to work legally. Jim Muir reports from Beirut.

The law in its final form had been heavily diluted to meet the concerns of Christians in particular, ever wary of any step that might lead to the permanent implantation of the Palestinians here. The law grants the Palestinians the right to work in the private sector. They will also be allowed to make social security payments into their own fund to cover work accidents and indemnities. But they won't be able to work in the public sector nor to practise professions which are governed by Lebanese syndicates such as doctors, lawyers, engineers and so on. Nor will they have the right to state educational or medical care.

World News from the BBC

Medical officials in Iraq say a suicide bombing at an army recruitment centre in Baghdad has killed more than 60 people; more than 120 were wounded. A lone bomber walked into a crowd of men waiting to apply for work. Hundreds had been there all night to get a good place in the queue. The United States has condemned the attack.

Taiwan's parliament has approved a wide-ranging trade pact with China. China regards it as having made the greater concessions and Taiwan will keep its borders closed to Chinese labour. But the deal has proved intensely divisive on the island.

Four French footballers have been suspended from the national team as punishment for their behaviour during the World Cup. The striker Nicolas Anelka whose expulsion from the tournament sparked a team-training boycott was banned from the national team for 18 games. The World Cup captain Patrice Evra was suspended for five matches. Midfielder Jeremy Toulalan was banned for one match. Alex Capstick reports.

France were eliminated from the World Cup at the first-round stage, but it was the players' refusal to train which was angrily condemned by the French public and the country's political leaders including the President Nicolas Sarkozy. None of the 23-man squad received their World Cup bonuses, and they were not considered for a friendly international against Norway. The new coach Laurent Blanc had hoped to move on, but he's now being forced to start the European Championship qualifying campaign without four of his best players.

The government in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro has set up a grammar hotline to help people who have difficulties using Portuguese which is the official language of Brazil. The hotline will be staffed by eight language professors who will field questions about topics such as spelling and also the use of accents in Portuguese. Correspondents say Brazilians are sensitive about making grammatical errors which are often associated with a lack of education.

That's the latest World News from the BBC in London.