BBC news 2010-08-23 加文本

BBC news 2010-08-23

……has breached the makeshift mud embankments thrown up to protect the city of Shahdadkot. The wall built hastily by the army and volunteers has been overrun in several places. Earlier, our correspondent Jill McGivering witnessed the frantic efforts to leave the city.

I’ve just reached the outskirts of the city and it’s a crazy, chaotic scene. There are people pushing in all directions, mostly trying to leave the area. Many of them are laden in carts with family members and all their belongings on, trying to get away from this area. It’s a small strip of land that is still above ground and on both sides of the road it's nothing but floodwater that’s rising quite quickly.

The president of Chile, Sebastian Pinera, says that 33 miners who’ve been trapped in a copper and gold mine for the last 17 days are all still alive. The men were cut off at a depth of 700 metres when the main access tunnel in the mine in the Atacama Desert collapsed. Vanessa Buschschluter reports.

It has been an agonizing wait for the relatives of the 33 men who were trapped in the San Jose mine more than two weeks ago, but now they have finally received the news they’ve been praying for. The miners managed to send a message to the surface by tying a piece of paper to a probe, which had been lowered down. All along, the miners’ families had clung to the hope that the men may have reached one of the safety shelters equipped with food, oxygen and water, but their wait is far from over. Experts say it could take months to dig a tunnel big enough to rescue the men.

A survey published in a Venezuelan newspaper suggests kidnappings in the country rose to uNPRecedented levels last year. The figures compiled by the National Institute for Statistics show almost 1,700 people were kidnapped between July 2008 and July 2009. Most of them were so-called “express kidnappings”, where the victim was released after less than a day once a ransom had been paid.

American researchers funded by the defence budget say they’ve made significant progress in devising a drug to treat the deadly virus Ebola, which is seen as a potential biological weapon. Publishing their findings in the journal Nature Medicine, they say a new treatment, which was given to rhesus monkeys within an hour of being infected with Ebola, proved to be 60% effective. This report from Peter Nettleship.

Scientists never like to use the word “breakthrough”, but these American researchers do believe their approach is a significant step forward in finding ways to treat Ebola, a spectacularly unpleasant virus which has no current possible treatment and a 90% death rate. Their idea to target specific viral genes has had good results in mice, guinea pigs and monkeys, if administered quickly enough. The scientists have now been given permission for the first limited trials on humans.

World News from the BBC.

The brother of an exiled Rwandan general has apparently disappeared following his arrest by the military on Friday. His wife says she fears for his life. Peace Rugiganatold the BBC that she visited two military prisons in the capital Kigali, but could not find her husband’s name registered at either of them. The Rwandan army said on Saturday that the arrested man, Lieutenant-Colonel Rugigana Ngabo, had been involved in activities that threatened the country’s security.

The high court in Bangladesh has ruled that no man or woman can be forced to wear religious clothing at work or in educational institutions. The case was brought after reports that a state-run college in northern Bangladesh was refusing entry to women who were not fully veiled. Here's Anbarasan Ethirajan in Dhaka.

The court’s ruling says that wearing any form of religious clothing, for students and employees, should be a personal choice. No headmaster or official can force students to wear religious attire in educational institutions across the country. The court has also asked the authorities to explain why it should not be made illegal to prevent girls from taking part in sports and cultural activities. The recent court rulings follow reports of religious-minded officials and head teachers, forcing students and colleagues to adhere to a strict Islamic dress code.

Egyptian officials investigating the theft of a painting by Vincent van Gogh from a museum in Cairo say none of the alarms was working when the thieves struck on Saturday, and only seven of its 43 security cameras were operational. The 30-centimetre-square painting called “Poppy Flowers” is valued at more than $50 million. It was cut out of its frame.

The golfer Arjun Atwal has become the first player from India to win a tournament on the US professional tour. He took the Wyndham Championship in North Carolina by a single shot. Arjun Atwal is ranked NO.450 in the world.

BBC News.