2010-03-31 BBC
BBC News. This is Mike Cooper.
Scientists to the world's largest particle accelerator have successfully collided beams of protons at the highest energy levels ever seen. There was cheering in the control room at CERN, the European nuclear research center in Switzerland as one of the biggest and most complicated scientific experiments got fully underway. The experiment is seen as a major breakthrough in efforts to understand the fundamental nature of the universe. Doctor Martin White is a research fellow at CERN.
"One of the great mysteries of the universe is that most of the mass in the universe is some kind of dark matter. It's some kind of particle that doesn't match anything we've seen before. And if you look into space, you can see this because you can see its gravitational pull. So one of the things is that we hope to get, recent and earlier, an effective scene in next two years of some idea of what this dark matter is."
The Supreme Court in Pakistan has threatened to jail the head of the country's anti-corruption agency if it fails to reopen hundreds of corruption cases including those against President Asif Zardari. Elettra Neysmith reports from Islamabad.
The Supreme Court ruled in December that an amnesty protecting thousands of Pakistani politicians and bureaucrats from corruption charges be overturned, included among them one in which President Zardari is alleged to have stolen 60 million dollars and deposited it in Swiss bank accounts. But the government has responded slowly and that's angered the chief justice. He told the head of the National Accountability Bureau Naveed Ahsan that the delay was unsatisfactory and that it was his duty to chase the money. He's given him 24 hours to act or face jail.
The man who narrowly won the most seats in the recent general election in Iraq Ayad Allawi has accused neighboring Iran of trying to prevent him from becoming prime minister. Mr Allawi's party is supported by Iraq's Sunni minority, but the Shiite-backed party of his rival the Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has close ties with Iran. From Baghdad, here is Andrew North.
Dr Allawi accused the Iranian government of interfering by inviting all the major parties to Tehran for talks except his own Iraqiyya bloc because he says "Tehran doesn't like us". Asked if he was accusing Iran of trying to stop him becoming prime minister, he said "yes. They were not respecting the will of the Iraqi people," and warned of the risk of renewed instability. Some are likely to see Dr Allawi's comments as an excuse for the possibility - he may not be able to form a government.
There've been sharp exchanges in the Serbian parliament as members held a debate late into the evening on a resolution that would offer an apology for the massacre of thousands of Muslims by Serb forces at the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in 1995. Members clashed over what precisely happened, over how many people have been killed and why. The Serbian government says a declaration on Srebrenica would be a crucial step in its attempts to present itself as a changed society, democratic, multi-ethnic and with hopes of future European Union membership.
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The international Red Cross says the left-wing FARC rebels in Colombia have released their second kidnap victim in three days. He is a Colombian army sergeant, Pablo Emilio Moncayo who had been held by the rebels for more than 12 years. He was handed over to Red Cross officials at an undisclosed rendezvous deep in the southern jungle.
The authorities in China say that two hospital workers have been detained by police after the discovery of 21 fetuses and babies' bodies in a river in the east of the country. The two mortuary attendants at Jining University Hospital are alleged to have taken money from the babies' families to dispose of the bodies, but instead dumped them in the river.
The South African runner Caster Semenya has announced her return to competitive athletics. Semenya, who's not raced since winning the world 800m title last year, said she would prepare for a limited number of athletics meetings this season. From Johannesburg, here is Karen Allen.
In a statement released by her agent, Caster Semenya's irritation at the delays in getting the matter of the gender test result is clear. Although she's not been formally suspended or banned from competing, it's understood she'd agreed not to race until the sports governing body, the IAAF, released the results. Amid widespread criticism that Caster Semenya had been duped about the test, the IAAF have refused to confirm or deny reports that the athlete has both male and female sex organs. Seven months after her dramatic win at the Berlin World Championships, Semenya has argued that her athletic capabilities and earning potential are being severely compromised.
An Islamic court in northern Nigeria has issued a permanent ban on a local civil rights group holding an Internet discussion of the country's first amputation under Sharia law. This follows a temporary order last week preventing Facebook and Twitter being used to raise the case of Buba Bello Jangebe on the 10th anniversary of the amputation of his hand for theft.
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