BBC news 2010-08-21 加文本

BBC news 2010-08-21

...peace talks in two weeks' time. The American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the leaders of both sides had been invited to meet in Washington with the aim of achieving lasting peace within a year. She urged both sides to be patient.

"The enemies of peace will keep trying to defeat us and to derail these talks. But I ask the parties to persevere, to keep moving forward even through difficult times and to continue working to achieve a just and lasting peace in the region."

Here with his assessment of the announcement is James Reynolds in Washington.

The ambition is simple, and to many it's also staggering. Hillary Clinton aims to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by September next year - not improve it, not get things back on track, but resolve it for good. So at the start of next month, the Israeli and the Palestinian leaders will fly to Washington. They will attend an eve of summit meeting along with President Obama, President Mubarak of Egypt and King Abdullah of Jordan.

The Pakistan government says the southern province of Sindh is now the worst-hit by devastating floods with 2.5 million people affected. New warnings have been issued, and villagers have been evacuated. The World Health Organization says health threats are increasing with cases of diarrhea and malaria up sharply. Altogether at least six million Pakistanis are homeless, and 1/5 of the country remains submerged.

Voting has started in the Australian general election. Opinion polls suggest the outcome will be the tightest in years with a hung parliament a distinct possibility. The governing Labor Party has been hoping to win a second term on the basis of its handling of the economy and faces a tough battle with opposition conservatives. Here is Nick Bryant on the leaders of the two parties.

Julia Gillard enjoyed a brief political honeymoon when she became Australia's first female prime minister two months ago. The thinking behind calling a snap election was that it would last until polling day. But that hasn't happened, and Australia has ended up with a photo-finish election. The leader of the conservative Liberal Party, Tony Abbott, claims he will bring back a grown-up government and end what he calls the "national soap opera". He is referring to the bloodletting in the ruling Labor Party that's given the campaign its main and sometimes bizarre narrative.

Afghan police say up to 30 people were killed in Helmand province when Taliban insurgents attacked a road construction gang. There are few details, but a spokesman for the construction company said a fierce battle had lasted several hours after the site was attacked with rockets and machine-gun fire.

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The White House has called for the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing to be returned to prison in Scotland. Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a Libyan, was freed on compassionate grounds and returned to Libya a year ago today. From Washington, here is Steve Kingstone.

John Brennan described the decision to free the Lockerbie bomber as "unfortunate, inappropriate and wrong". He said the Obama White House had emphatically disagreed with the Scottish government which released the terminally ill prisoner on compassionate grounds. Mr Brennan said Abdelbaset al-Megrahi had been rightly convicted of what he called a "reprehensible act of terrorism", and he said Megrahi should now be returned to Scotland to complete his 27-year prison sentence. That US position is not new, but it carries additional force coming from President Obama's counter-terrorism adviser on the anniversary of Megrahi's release.

Six police officers have been arrested in Mexico in connection with the murder earlier this week of the mayor of a northern town. The body of the local mayor Edelmiro Cavazos was found on Wednesday bound and dumped on a road three days after he was seized from his home in Santiago. It's believed Mr Cavazos may have been killed for his efforts in ridding local police of corrupt officials.

Public sector workers in South Africa have continued their strike for a third day with little signs of progress in pay talks with the government. Hospitals have been particularly badly affected, and volunteers have been called up to replace striking staff. The South African Health Minister Aaron Motosaledi said that those who interrupted vital medical care were guilty of murder.

And Britain has held commemorations to mark the 70th anniversary of the speech by its wartime leader, Winston Churchill, who thanked the young pilots of the Royal Air Force for what became known as the Battle of Britain.

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