BBC news 2011-06-26 加文本

BBC news 2011-06-26

BBC News with Julie Candler

A new study has found that the number of adults with diabetes worldwide has more than doubled since 1980 and now stands at nearly 350 million, many more than previously thought. The authors of the research published in The Lancet say diabetes rates are climbing almost everywhere in the world, with grave consequences for healthcare budgets. James Read reports.

This study is the largest ever conducted into the global diabetes epidemic. Blood samples were taken from nearly three million people over a period of three years. Advanced statistical methods were then used to estimate the global prevalence of the disease. The new figure of nearly 350 million is 65 million more than the last estimate in 2009. The researchers say diabetes has ceased to be a disease of rich countries and will soon become the largest single burden on healthcare systems around the world. The main causes for the increase: an aging population and rising obesity rates.

The Taliban have strongly denied that they were responsible for a suicide car bomb attack that destroyed a hospital in eastern Afghanistan. At least 27 people were killed in the blast in Logar province, most of them in the clinic's maternity ward. Afghan intelligence sources said the bomber detonated his device after being stopped by police. From Kabul, Paul Wood reports.

With Afghan soldiers and local people still frantically digging through the rubble, a row broke out over who was responsible for the bombing and over the more general issue of civilian casualties. The Taliban denied that they were to blame, saying they didn't attack civilians. Whoever is behind this is trying to defame the Taliban, said a spokesman. The Afghan Ministry of Health expressed disgust and hatred towards the perpetrators and said the insurgents had reached new depths in targeting a clinic.

Syrian tanks and troops have been in action again in the northwest of the country, moving into a village near the border with Turkey and a town near the border with Lebanon. Activists said many people were detained. Thousands of Syrians have fled into Turkey and Lebanon in recent weeks to escape the military campaign against anti-government protests.

The French authorities say an outbreak of E. coli in the city of Bordeaux appears to be linked to a charity event two weeks ago, at which soups were served sprinkled with rocket and mustard seed sprouts. Christian Fraser reports from Paris.

This latest outbreak has been linked to one leisure centre in the suburbs of Bordeaux. Eight people who've fallen ill had attended a charity event there two weeks ago, at which they'd been served soups including a gazpacho that was sprinkled with rocket and mustard sprouts grown in pots. Five of the patients admitted to hospital are now suffering severe kidney problems, two of them infected with a highly virulent strain, similar to the one that killed 40 people in Germany, though as yet, there's no evidence of a direct link between the two outbreaks.

World News from the BBC

An official in Sri Lanka has appealed to families in the north to protect underage girls from sex traffickers. Earlier this week, nine women including two underage girls were rescued from a brothel in the capital Colombo. Jill McGivering reports.

The rapid changes in Sri Lanka since the end of the civil war two years ago are raising concerns that sex trafficking there could increase. Poor families are particularly at risk. Ms Dissanayake of the National Child Protection Authority is urging parents to guard against strangers who offer their daughters' jobs, for example, as house maids. Some may be traffickers who sell these girls into the sex trade. Greater freedom of movement, she says, is making it easier for traffickers to gain access to the north, where many families lack education and are desperate for extra income.

The party of a government minister in Zimbabwe who was arrested on Friday says it fears for his safety and has called on the authorities to release him. The minister Jameson Timba was detained on suspicion of undermining the authority of President Robert Mugabe. His MDC party, which is part of Zimbabwe's power-sharing government, says it fears he's being tortured. The Zimbabwean police say they have no knowledge of his whereabouts.

The Venezuelan foreign minister has said President Hugo Chavez is in what he called a "great battle" for his health after an operation in Cuba. From Caracas, Sarah Grainger reports.

Without giving further details of the president's condition, the Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro told local journalists the battle President Chavez is fighting for his health has to be "the battle of everyone, the battle for life, for the immediate future of our country". President Chavez left Venezuela on 5 June for a tour of Brazil, Ecuador and Cuba. But while he was in Havana, officials said he needed emergency surgery for a pelvic abscess and subsequently time to recover. There's been no further information on the surgery.

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