BBC news 2010-09-26 加文本

BBC news 2010-09-26

BBC News with John Jason

The opposition Labour Party in Britain has elected the former climate change minister Ed Miliband to be its next leader. Mr Miliband, who is 40 years old, said a new generation was stepping forward. He narrowly beat his elder brother, the former Foreign Secretary David Miliband. Rob Watson reports.

This was a moment of true political drama, a close contest and one pitting two brothers against each other. In the end, it was Ed Miliband who triumphed by a little more than 1%. In private, no doubt, there is some family healing to be done. More publicly, he must unite the party after his narrow victory and work to reinvigorate Labour after its heavy defeat in last May's election. Most importantly of all, he will have to restore Labour's credibility to govern, given the huge budget deficit left by the last Labour government.

The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said that Israel must choose between settlements and peace. Mr Abbas was speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, the day before Israel's partial freeze on settlement building in the West Bank is due to expire. As Barbara Plett reports, it's not clear if Mr Abbas will carry out his threat to abandon the peace process if the Israelis do not extend the freeze.

He is under intense pressure from the Americans who I think are generally arguing to him it's much better for the Palestinians if they stay in the talks, even if settlement building continues in some way alongside because we will aim to have an independent Palestinian state within a year. But on the other side, Mr Abbas has very little support for that position. At home, there are divisions within his own Fatah movement. There are polls which show the Palestinians do not want talks to continue as long as settlement building continues. So he is caught between those two difficult forces, but I think from the tone of his speech, it's possible that he may be leaning towards a compromise.

The Indian government has announced measures to try and calm the conflict in Indian-administered Kashmir. Since June, more than 100 civilians have been killed in protests against the presence of Indian security forces in the region. The Home Minister P Chidambaram announced some details at a news conference in Delhi.

"We will advise the state government to immediately release all students and youths detained or arrested for stone pelting or similar violations of law and to withdraw the charges against such students and youths."

The minister said the aim was to begin a sustained dialogue with Kashmiris. He said attempts would be made to reduce the number of checkpoints and bunkers for the security forces.

Police in Sweden say they've released a man detained at Stockholm airport over security scare on an airliner from Canada. Police said they were tipped off that a passenger, described as a Canadian of Pakistani origin, was carrying explosives, but searches revealed nothing.

World News from the BBC

China has renewed its demand for a formal apology and compensation from Japan for the detention of a Chinese fishing boat skipper. The call came in a Chinese foreign ministry statement just hours after Japan described the first demand as totally unacceptable. China also called on Japan to take practical steps to resolve the issue which is the biggest diplomatic row between them for several years.

A senior official in one of China's most populous areas, Guangdong, has said the province will begin to relax the one-child policy within 10 years to help tackle the burden of an aging population. Nkem Ifejika reports.

When China began its one-child policy, its population was just about nudging one billion. Now 30 years on, there are 1.3 billion Chinese. China says it's prevented 400 million births as a result of the policy. It introduced the measure because it felt the country's huge population was a tremendous drag. Its fragile economy was recovering after years of political turmoil in the 1960s and 70s. It appears economics are once again dictating China's family-planning policy. The rapidly aging population means more people are needed to look after the growing number of elderly, who themselves won't be working.

Experts in Colombia are trying to crack the codes to 15 computers and almost 100 memory sticks seized from the Farc rebel group in a big raid on one of its jungle camps. They are hoping to find information which could reveal the whereabouts of 13 policemen and 7 soldiers being held captive by the Farc.

The highest Islamic authority in Egypt has condemned comments by a Coptic Christian bishop who's questioned the authenticity of some verses in the Koran. The Grand Imam of al-Azhar Mosque, Ahmed al-Tayeb, said the bishop's remarks threatened national unity. The imam was speaking after chairing a special meeting to discuss remarks by Bishop Bishoy, who suggested that several verses in the Koran were inserted after the Prophet Mohammed's death.

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