BBC news 2007-07-31 加文本

BBC 2007-07-31


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Billions of dollars on new arms supplies to Israel and its Arab allies in the Middle East. From Washington, Duncan Kennedy reports.

The sums involved are huge, thirteen billion dollars to Egypt, thirty billion dollars to Israel. On top of that, the Saudis and other gulf states could get another 20 billion dollars in aid. It's been offered by the Americans as part of a wider plan to support what they call "the forces of moderation in the region". Washington is particularly concerned by Iran's nuclear program and support of groups like Hezbollah. US officials also want Sunni Arab governments in the region, especially the Saudis, to do more to support the Iraqi government of Nuri al-Maliki.

President Bush and the British leader Gordon Brown have held their first full day of talks since Mr. Brown took over as Prime Minister. At a joint news conference, President Bush said success in Afghanistan and Iraq was essential. Mr. Bush and Mr. Brown also agreed to step up pressure to end the violence in the Sudanese region of Darfur. Mr. Brown says Britain and the United States were pressing for early peace talks and an end to both violence on the ground and aerial bombardments.
"We agreed on expediting the UN resolution for a joint UN African Union peace force. We agreed on encouragement for early peace talks, a call to cease violence on the ground, an end to aerial bombing of civilians and support for economic development if this happens and further sanctions if this does not happen." The BBC's political editor who is at the news conference at Camp David says there was a marked difference in style between the two men. Mr. Bush, he says, heaped praise on Mr. Brown while Mr. Brown was keen to maintain a distance between himself and the president.

A major Pan-European study has found new evidence which links alcohol consumption with bowel cancer. The finding suggests that people who drink one or two glasses of wine or beer a day increase their risk of developing the disease by about 10%. Jill McGivering reports on the European Perspective Investigation into Cancer Nutrition or EPIC as the study is known.
"This is the latest finding from the EPIC study which involves more than half a million people across ten European countries. It suggests that people who drink 15 grams of alcohol a day increase their risk of developing bowel cancer by about 10%, people who drink about twice as much as that increase their risk by about 25%. That's still not as high risk of smoking, for example, but it is significant."

The House of Representatives in the United States has approved a resolution calling on Japan to make a formal apology for forcing hundreds of thousands of women to work as sex slaves known as "comfort women" for the military before and during World War II. There has been no official response so far from Tokyo.

World News from the BBC.

The European Commission is trying to prevent Poland from restarting work on a major road link through a protected wildlife area. It's asked the European Court of Justice to issue an injunction to prevent what was described as irreversible damage to a delicate eco-system. The new road would run through the Rospuda Valley, an area of peat bogs that is home to rare plants and animals. Poland says environmental damage will be minimal because it plans to build a viaduct not a road at ground level.

The world of film has been paying tribute to the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman who's died at the age of 89. Widely acknowledged as one of the outstanding figures of world cinema, Ingmar Bergman won three Academy Awards for his films, including one for 'Fanny and Alexander'. The American film-maker Wooden Allen said Bergman had been a true artist. "He really was one of the few people that utilized film as a genuine art form like a great writer. He was not interested in the commercial world of film. He was interested strictly in its possibilities as, as a high art."

A local Communist Party chief in China has been suspended for carrying on with his lavish leaving party after two guests were killed in an explosion. State media said the accident happened at a ceremony in the town of Heshang, marking the departure of Zhang Zhifang to a new job. Officials say Mr. Zhang failed to stop the event when a van full of firecrackers that was part of his motorcade exploded.

A co-defendant in the case involving the American football star Michael Vick has pleaded guilty to charge his running an illegal dog fighting ring and agreed to testify against the other men behind, the other men being tried. The defendant, Teddy Taylor, has pleaded guilty to crossing state lines to organize and attend illegal dog fights.

BBC News.

glossary

viaduct: long bridge, usu with many arches, carrying a road or railway across a valley or dip in the ground.

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