BBC 2007-04-30 加文本

BBC 2007-04-30


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The American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has not ruled out the possibility of talks with her Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki. Both are due to attend an international conference on the future of Iraq which will take place this coming Thursday in Egypt. From Washington, Sarah Morris reports.

If Condoleezza Rice does speak to Iranian officials next week, she has made it clear we'll only be on the subject of Iraq, and not on US-Iranian relations, or about the American objections to Iran's nuclear industry. The Bush administration believes that Iran is funding and arming the Shiite militias that are responsible for much of Iraq's violence. Dr. Rice said she thought the meeting is an opportunity for all of Iraq's neighbors to talk about how to stabilize the country.

Ethiopian rebels have released seven Chinese oil workers who were captured in an attack on a Chinese owned oil field in the eastern Ethiopia last week. Those freed included two Ethiopians. All were handed over to the Red Cross according to the rebel group the Ogaden National Liberation Front or ONLP. Our Africa editor Martin Plaut has this report.

Abdirahman Mahdi, a spokesman for the ONLF said the seven Chinese were handed over to the international committee of the Red Cross. He said all were well and had been given new clothes by his movement. Mr. Abdirahman said the ceasefire with the Ethiopians have been arranged to facilitate the transfer. The men were seized during a rebel attack on a Chinese oil installation in eastern Ethiopia on Tuesday the 24th, in which nine Chinese and sixty-five Ethiopians were killed.

An international conference on the Darfur crisis in Sudan has agreed that the priority is political talks. Speaking in the Liberian capital Tripoli, the special African Union envoy for Darfur Salim Ahmed Salim said the issue was whether the parties to the conflict could find a peaceful settlement. The conference ended as demonstrations were held in cities around the world to demand international intervention.

The chairman of /Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum Joseph Lapid said concrete steps were needed. “We think that what's happening in south Sudan and in Darfur is a terrible genocide and the United Nations should not be satisfied with sending some medicine and food. The United Nations or NATO should interfere with force just as NATO did in Bosnia.”

Hundreds of thousands of people have demonstrated in Istanbul in support of keeping religion and politics separate in Turkey. Many people waved Turkish flags and chanted slogans. The demonstrators fear that the man most likely to become the new president, the Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, has a hidden Islamist Agenda.

It's 22:04 GMT and you're listening to World News from the BBC.

Researchers in the United States say experiments carried out on mice suggest that new treatment can be devised to restore the memories of people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. The scientists say the experiments support the theory that those suffering such conditions lose long-term memories, because they become unable to access them, not because the part of brain where such memories are stored dies.

The Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says Fidel Castro is in charge of Cuba again. Mr. Chavez was commenting on speculation that the Cuban leader would attend a May Day parade in Havana. Fidel Castro handed over power temporarily to his brother Raul after undergoing intestinal surgery nine months ago. Steven Gibbs reports from Havana.

The Venezuelan leader has made several visits to Mr. Castro's bedside in Cuba. Afterwards he has delivered generally upbeat assessments of the President's recuperation. On Sunday, speaking at a regional summit in Venezuela, President Chavez said that Fidel Castro is back running Cuba. His comments are similar to those of the Bolivian leader Evo Morales. On Friday, President Morales said that he was sure that Fidel Castro would return to power on May 1st.

Egypt says it has asked western museums to lend it some of ancient Egypt's most precious artifacts. The chief archeologist said Britain, France, Germany and the United States are being asked to send back five treasures to go on display at two museums due to open in 2010 and 2011. It’s been campaigning for the permanent return of these objects, but he said that Egypt would borrow them this time.

Journalists are preparing to mark seven weeks since the BBC correspondent Alan Johnston went missing in Gaza City. Nothing has been heard of him since it is presumed he has been kidnapped. Palestinian officials say his disappearance has been damaging for the Palestinian cause as foreign journalists now refuse to go to Gaza.