BBC 2007-04-04 加文本

BBC 2007-04-04



【电信用户1】在线播放和下载

Download mp3

The speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has become the highest ranking US politician to visit Syria in recent years. She is to hold talks with President Bashar al-Assad later today. Mrs. Pelosi has said she wants to discuss the role of Damascus in the Middle East and build confidence between American and Syrian officials. But President Bush condemned Mrs. Pelosi's visit, describing Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism. However, the deputy Foreign Minister of Syria, Faisal al-Miqdad, told the BBC that Nancy Pelosi's visit was good for the Middle East.

"Of course we have no illusion that in the first visit of this type with such an administration in the United States, we can reach the expected results. But as we are seeing all the time, dialogue is the only way for solving the very grave problems in the region. "

The United Nations Security Council was meeting behind closed doors to hear the UN's chief envoy to Kosovo, Martti Ahtisaari, outlined his controversial plan to grant supervised independence to the Serbian province of Kosovo. Earlier, the Security Council heard from a representative of the Kosovo president, who reiterated the independence demands of the ethnic Albanian majority, and from the Serbian Prime Minister, Vojislav Kostunica, who vehemently opposed the plan. Jenny Brown reports from New York.

"The Security Council could reach a decision on the future of Kosovo within a matter of weeks. If it endorses Mr. Ahtisaari's plan, NATO peacekeepers will remain, and a large European Union mission will supervise the process towards full independence. But Serbia has condemned the move and wants fresh negotiations. The Serbian Prime Minister, Vojislav Kostunica, says Mr. Ahtisaari offered no compromise and should be replaced. He has also called on Russia to use its Security Council Veto. "

The President of Ukraine, Victor Yushchenko, says he will not use force to put into effect his decision to suspend Parliament and hold early elections. Mr. Yushchenko was speaking at talks with his political rival, the Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Supporters of the prime minister hold a majority in Parliament and MPs met during the day in defiance of the presidential decree. Mr. Yanukovych condemned the dissolution during an address to Parliament.

"Unfortunately, our country is facing a threat. The only way to avoid this and to correct the president's fatal mistake is to wait until the constitutional court establishes that his decree is in keeping with the existing basic law. "

With just three weeks to go before the Nigerian elections, there is still confusion about whether the Vice President Atiku Abubakar will be allowed to stand as an opposition presidential candidate. Earlier in the day, Mr. Abubakar suffered a blow when the Court of Appeal said the country's Election Commission was right to bar him because of outstanding corruption charges.

World News from the BBC.

A call by Zimbabwe's trade union movement for people to stay away from work for two days was poorly observed on the first day of the strike on Tuesday. Reports from the Capital Harare say that extra troops were on patrol and the streets were quieter than usual. Our BBC correspondent in the region says many workers complain that they could not afford to lose two days pay and would carry on working. The Congress of trades unions says the government has failed to deal with the worsening economic crisis.

The British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has cautioned against expecting a swift end to the crisis involving 15 British naval personnel being held in Iran. The British Prime Minister Tony Blair had said that Britain was prepared to take a tougher stance if the dispute is not settled diplomatically. Mrs. Beckett said this was not intended to imply that Britain was considering military action.

Weather specialists in the United States are predicting a very active hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean this year. They have put the probability of Hurricane making landfall in the United States at 74%. Our America's editor Well Ground reports from Miami.

"Since Hurricane Katrina brought such devastation to the southern United States in 2005, any reputable prediction for the upcoming hurricane season is taken seriously, particularly one which says there will be 17 tropical storms with a high probability that one will make landfall on the US mainland. The Tropical Meteorology Unit of Colorado State University, led by its head researcher William Gray, has predicted that there could be as many as nine full hurricanes, of which five are expected to be category three or higher, that means winds of over 180 kilometres per hour. "

A French high-speed train has broken the world's bid record for a train on rails. The black-and-chrome, TGV with three double-decker carriages reached the speed of almost 575 kilometres an hour on a new line between Paris and Strasbourg. It beat the previous record for train on rails also set by a French TGV, but fell short of the ultimate record of 581 kilometres an hour.

BBC News.