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BBC news 2012-08-30

BBC News with Jerry Smit

The opening ceremony is underway for the London Paralympic Games, which will be the biggest since the event was founded 64 years ago. The performance features more than 3,000 singers and dancers, and was launched with a dramatic fly parts by a disabled former British soldier piloting a light plane. Angus Crawford reports from the Olympic Stadium.
"Three, two, one."
Enlightenment is its title, and organizers have called it a 'journey of discovery'. It began with Professor Stephen Hawking describing the mysteries of the universe. Then, in a burst of fireworks, the stadium was transformed into a nebula of gases in deep space – the big bang coming to Stratford. With the help of thousands of umbrellas, it changed again into the image of an enormous eye, staring out into the night.

The authorities in New Orleans have ordered a dusk-till-dawn curfew as a powerful storm pounds the American city seven years after it was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. The governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, said more than 8,000 members of the National Guard were being deployed across the state to help with flood defense, search and rescue work and to guard against looting. Mr Jindal said Isaac, which has been downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm, will (would) affect Louisiana for some time.
"This is a very strong moving storm. That means there are gonna be sustained periods of heavy wind and heavy rain. The storm is almost stationary overnight, making landfalls twice along our coast. The eye of the storm is drifting towards the west, northwest. We will continue to be affected in the southern part of our state by this storm throughout much of the day."

A gunman dressed in Afghan army uniform has shot dead three Nato soldiers in the southern Afghanistan. A US military official said the attacker was a member of the Afghan security forces. There's been a growing number of such attacks. More than 40 Nato soldiers have been killed by the Afghan colleagues so far this year, compared with 35 in the whole of last year. President Obama said last week that he was deeply concerned.

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who's in the Iranian capital Tehran for the conference of non-aligned developing nations, has criticized Iran's record on human rights. Mr Ban was speaking after meeting the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mr Ban also called on Tehran to reassure the international community that Iran's nuclear program was peaceful.

Turkey, which is hosting tens of thousands of Syrian refugees, says it will press ahead with its call for the United Nations to set up a safe zone inside Syria. The Turkish foreign minister says he'll pursue the issue at the UN Security Council on Thursday. The Syrian President Bashar al Assad has dismissed the idea as neither practical nor realistic.

World News from the BBC

Russian plans to develop a major Arctic offshore gas field have been delayed indefinitely. The Gazprom energy giants have been planning to pump gas from the Shtokman field in the Barents Sea off Russia's north coast in a joint venture with Statoil of Norway and Total of France. This report from Andrew Walker.
Gazprom described the Shtokman field as a strategic significance for the company. It says on its website that it will become a pivotal point to form a new gas-producing region on the Russian Arctic shelf. That prospect has receded further into the future. A Gazprom executive says the development of Shtokman is being delayed indefinitely. It's too costly – a reflection of the difficult conditions of operating offshore in the Arctic. The rapid recent development of shale gas in the United States has also raised new questions about the prospects for selling Shtokman's gas and about the outlook for prices.
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The Senegalese President Macky Sall has promised to scrap the country's upper house, or the Senate to raise money for flood relief. At least 13 people have died in severe flooding over the past few weeks. A presidential spokesman said that more than $15m could be raised for flood defenses each year if the Senate was scrapped. The proposal was welcomed by these residents of the capital Dakar.
"Close the Senate, because for me, the Senate is not useful."
"It is something which take(s) much money from the country, and I think that it is not a good thing to keep this institution." "Because you think it is a waste of money?" "Yes, I think that it is the waste of money to keep on this institution."

State television in Egypt says the runner-up in this year's presidential election, Ahmed Shafiq, has been put on a watch list of the country's border points in connection with allegations of corruption. This means Mr Shafiq could be arrested on his return to Egypt. He faces allegations of selling state land to the two sons of the former President Hosni Mubarak.

BBC News.