BBC news 2010-08-01
BBC News with Julie Candler
The United Nations says floods in Pakistan caused by heavy monsoon rains are affecting at least a million people. It says many communities are still cut off by the water. A government official said that at least 800 people have been killed in the past week. Lyse Doucet has been travelling through the affected region.
Two days after large parts of northwest Pakistan were hit by heavy monsoon rains, relief teams are still struggling to respond to this major disaster. The head of the UN's coordination office in Pakistan, Manuel Bessler, told the BBC he still could not describe with certainty the full scale of this emergency. He is still having trouble reaching his own offices in some of the worst-affected areas where electricity, telephone lines and roads remain cut. He said 45 bridges have been washed away in the Swat Valley alone.
A leading Russian opposition politician, Boris Nemtsov, has been arrested in Moscow at a rally to demand freedom of assembly. Dozens of other activists were also detained. The protest had barely begun when Mr Nemtsov, a vocal critic of the Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, was bundled into a police car and driven away. Richard Galpin was at the rally.
The means by which the authorities here in Moscow prevent the opposition from even gathering for protests are becoming ever more bizarre. This time, the square in the city centre where the activists had planned to meet was sealed off so a group of rally-car drivers and quad-bikers could show off their skills. Even so, a handful of activists did sneak into the square, but as soon as they started shouting their slogans for freedom of assembly, they were tackled by the police who dragged them away using overwhelming force.
Russia has sent in troops to help hundreds of thousands of people battling forest fires in which at least 30 people have died. More than 200 aircraft and thousands of fire engines are being used in the operation. The Prime Minister Vladimir Putin admitted that mistakes were made in handling the emergency situation, but added that now was not the time to blame anyone.
"I want to note that not everything was done on time or in full. However, it is not a good time now to settle scores. We need something different now. We need to consolidate our efforts in order to prevent fires from spreading, and efficiently and competently organize reconstruction."
The Greek government says it's making good progress in restoring fuel supplies hit by a lorry drivers' strike that's lasted nearly a week. A government spokesman claimed the country would be back to normal by Sunday night after the army was mobilized to provide fuel to key sites. But many drivers are refusing to give up. There were angry scenes at some toll stations where the riot police needed to help trucks get through picket lines.
World News from the BBC
At least two people have been killed in Indian-administered Kashmir in clashes between anti-India protesters and the security forces. Indian police fired live ammunition and tear gas, and protesters threw stones. The demonstrators had gathered in several locations, despite the Indian authorities imposing an indefinite curfew in all major towns across the Kashmir valley. The curfew was imposed after four people were killed on Friday.
The Sudanese authorities have instructed the United Nations peacekeepers in Darfur to inform them of all their travel plans, a day after the UN Security Council extended their mission in Darfur. A Sudanese government spokesman said the UN had failed to keep the peace in Darfur's giant refugee camps. James Copnall reports from Khartoum.
The Sudanese authorities in South Darfur say they asked the international peacekeepers, UNAMID, to coordinate all their movements with the Sudanese security forces. It's not immediately clear if this amounts to a complete restriction on how the peacekeepers are able to operate. A spokesman for UNAMID said he was not aware of an official request along these lines. Relationship between Sudan and UNAMID has never been very good, but it seems particularly tense at the moment.
A four-man team has broken the record for rowing across the Atlantic. The rowers arrived in Britain 43 days and 21 hours after leaving New York. They braved 10-metre high waves, food poisoning and near crashes with fishing boats. The previous record for rowing the more than 5,000 kilometres across the Atlantic was set by two Norwegian fishermen in 1896.
A no-fly zone is in place along the Hudson Valley in upstate New York in preparation for the wedding later today of Chelsea Clinton. The only child of the former President Bill Clinton and the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is marrying her long-term boyfriend Marc Mezvinsky, an investment banker. Roads around Rhinebeck where the wedding is taking place are also closed.
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