BBC news 2007-06-02 加文本

BBC 2007-06-02


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A day of fighting has left at least 14 people dead at a Palestinian refugee camp in Northern Lebanon. The deaths bring the total number to about 100 since the Lebanese army began besieging Islamist militants hold up in the Nahr el-Bared camp nearly two weeks ago. The Islamists are reported to have retreated deeper into the camp, in defiance of army demands that they give themselves up. Shaheen Chugati of the relief agency "Save the Children in Beirut" told the BBC that the situation within the camp was extremely dangerous. "There've been incidents where aid convoys have been fired upon and people who have been trying to receive aid from humanitarian personnel have actually been killed in the process. So the continuing fighting is not only a danger for the humanitarian personnel but also for the people who desperately need aid in the camp.

The European Union says it will resume talks with Serbia on closer ties following the arrest of one of the most wanted war crime suspects in the former Yugoslavia, Zdravko Tolimir. The European Commission said Belgrade had clearly shown it was prepared to cooperate with the war crimes tribunal in the Hague. A year ago, the talks on an association agreement were suspended because of lacking cooperation. From Belgrade,here is Nick Hawton.

The EU's Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said that talks on a stabilization and association agreement with Serbia could resume later this month. Mr. Rehn said Belgrade had now shown a clear commitment to fully cooperate with the Hague tribunal. He pointed to a number of recent developments, including the setting up of a national security council in Serbia to track down war crimes fugitives.

A military court in California has heard that US marines in Iraq seeking revenge for the killing of a colleague shot dead a number of unarmed Iraqi civilians at close range. The marine's commander is appearing before the military equivalent of a US grand jury to decide whether he will be court-martialed. Peter Bowes reports from Los Angeles.

Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Chessani is accused of dereliction of duty and failure to follow an order for not launching an investigation into the killings. Twenty-four Iraqi civilians including three women, seven children and several elderly men died in the incident. Three other officers are also charged with dereliction of duty, and three marines face murder charges.

The Austrian authorities have detained the son-in-law of the Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev after Kazakhstan issued an arrest warrant for him. The government in the Central Asian republic has also asked for Mr.Aliyev to be extradited. But correspondents say the process of handing him over could prove to be a lengthy and difficult one as Austria and Kazakhstan have no extradition treaty. Rakhat Aliyev is wanted in Kazakhstan on charges of kidnapping and running a criminal gang. Mr. Aliyev denies the charges, saying they are designed to stifle his ambitions for a run for president.

World News from the BBC.

At least 20 bodies have been found in the sea off the island of Malta. They were pulled out of the water by a French naval vessel. Alex Banwell reports.

A French frigate on a routine surveillance mission discovered the bodies floating in the water off the south coast of Malta in the Mediterranean. The French navy said there was no sign of a boat and it was not possible to identify where they came from. A spokesman said the bodies had already begun to decompose so they could have been in the sea for several days.

A Dutch reality TV show in which a woman was supposed to donate her kidneys to one of the three contestants has turned out to be a hoax. The Big Donor Show broadcast on Friday featured a supposedly terminally-ill woman who had to choose which of three kidney patients would receive her organs when she died. Jeroline Cockland reports.

It was just at the end of the Big Donor Show when Lisa, the kidney donor, had to choose between two patients that the presenter announced it was a hoax. The organizers said they had no intentions of giving away a kidney on TV and that Lisa, the donor, was really an actress. The three would-be recipients for her kidney were in on the hoax as well. The Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende criticized the program, saying it can damage the reputation of the Netherlands.

President Bush has strongly condemned Iran's detention of several United States citizens and called for their immediate and unconditional release. In the past few months, Iran has detained at least four Americans who have dual citizenship. Three of them have been charged with spying which can carry the death sentence.

The President of the Cuban National Assembly Ricardo Alarcon has said that the country's President Fidel Castro has almost completely recovered from the stomach surgery he had last year. Speaking in an American television interview, Mr. Alarcon gave no indication of when the Cuban leader might return to power.

BBC World News.
Vacabulary

Dereliction：n. neglecting of one's duty, negligence; abandonment, desertion：What you did was a grave dereliction of duty. 玩忽职守, 抛弃物【法】 抛弃, 遗弃, 放弃
Frigate: n. 装有大炮的快速帆船, 护卫舰