BBC news 2010-08-02
BBC News with Nick Kelly.
Officials in Pakistan say more than 1,100 people have died in the country’s worst flooding for a generation. Tens of thousands of people are still trapped by floodwater. Pakistan’s military is helping with the rescue effort, and the United States has announced $10 million in emergency aid. Muhammad Ateeb Siddiqui, who’s director of operations for the Red Crescent in Pakistan, says the situation will be catastrophic for many survivors.
“The livelihoods of all these people have also been disturbing, and thousands of thousands of acres of crops or vegetables which have been totally destroyed. We don’t know what the impact of that’s going to be on the livelihoods of the people are out there after once they’ve survived and gone through this after a phase of relief, then our next concern is going to be rehabilitation and getting their lives back in order.”
Lorry drivers in Greece say they’ve ended their week-long strike after the government agreed to talks. The head of the main drivers’ union said the decision had been approved by a narrow margin. Malcolm Brabant reports from Athens.
The drivers voted by a narrow majority to end the strike that had paralyzed Greece for a week and posed the most serious challenge yet to the government’s attempt to impose austerity measures and liberalize the economy. They weren't left with much alternative after the government decided to use the army to break the strike and deliver fuel to strategic locations. The drivers now want the government to rescind last week’s emergency decree which ordered them to return to work, subjected them to martial law and left them liable to arrest, imprisonment and the loss of their operating licenses.
Hundreds of people have rallied in defence of the Cantonese dialect in the neighboring Chinese cities of Guangzhou and Hong Kong. The protests follow reported plans on the mainland to replace prime-time broadcasting in Cantonese, the regional dialect, with mainstream Mandarin. It was the second such unauthorised demonstration in Guangzhou and the first in Hong Kong. Correspondents say there are fears Cantonese could be phased out on the mainland. Something feared by this protester in Hong Kong.
“This is unusual. Not only young people are concerned with, I believe all the people in Guangzhou, all the people in Hong Kong who speak Cantonese, who believe that Cantonese is a good, and rich, colorful language, should come out and protest against the proposed policy.”
The communist government in Cuba says it has no plans for market reforms to revive its struggling economy, but intends to reduce the role of the state in some areas. The Economy Minister Marino Murillo said an experiment allowing hairdressers to work for themselves would be extended to some other services, but he said the government wanted to update, rather than reform the socialist system and would maintain centralised economic control. There was no intention to copy the market reforms of China or Vietnam. Cuba is in the grips of an economic crisis.
This is the World News from the BBC.
Firefighters in Russia are battling a number of new wildfires as temperatures in parts of the country have approached 40 degrees Celsius. A spokeswoman for the emergencies ministry said some 2/3 of 300 new fires had successfully been put out. At least 30 people have died in the fires in recent days. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, has urged Russians to pray for rain.
The United Arab Emirates has announced that it is to suspend the Internet services of the BlackBerry smartphone from October. Ben Thompson reports from Dubai.
The UAE says it wants access to the security software that would allow it to intercept or monitor messages and emails, but the firm’s refusal has led the government to issue a stronger statement yet. It calls the devices "a threat to national security." The move has already sparked widespread criticism. Many suggest it’s another move by the government to censor information and restrict free speech, but the regulators here are quick to deny that claim. They say the phone simply doesn’t comply with domestic security laws.
At least eight people died in Indian-administered Kashmir on Sunday in violent clashes between local people and security forces. Four were killed and twenty injured when a police station was set on fire near the summer capital of Srinagar, and its explosives dump blew up. Police said local residents started the fire. They were angry because earlier police opened fire on an anti-India demonstration, killing two people.
And an international treaty on cluster bombs has come into force, banning the use, production and storage of the weapons which scatter small explosives over a wide area. Pope Benedict has joined the campaign and is calling on all countries to sign up to the ban. The United States, Russia, China and Israel are among those that rejected the convention. The International Committee of the Red Cross said the treaty would stigmatise the use of the munitions. Campaigners said the bomblets frequently fail to explode and lie dormant for years.
BBC News.