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听力文稿 ( Transcript )
The Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja has said that Syria has threatened to close its border with Lebanon if United Nations peacekeepers are deployed there. He was speaking after meeting his Syrian counterpart in Helsinki. Earlier, the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said the stationing of UN troops in the border area of Lebanon would be a hostile move against Syria. Our correspondent Michael Voss reports from the Syrian capital Damascus.
Syria's President Bashar al-Assad says that he supposed to have UN peacekeepers deployed along the Lebanese-Syrian border. In an interview on Dubai television, Mr. al-Assad called such a move an infringement of Lebanese sovereignty. He also urged the Lebanese government not to embark on anything that could sabotage relations between the two countries. Syria ended its occupation of its smaller neighbour Lebanon last year.
Scientists in the United States say they've developed a new method of creating embryonic stem cells which doesn't require the destruction of human embryos. Researchers at an American company Advanced Cell Technology say they've grown stem cells from a single cell extracted from early stage embryos. The new method leaves the original embryo still potentially able to grow into a human being. The current method which many people object to destroys the embryo. But the chief Scientist of Advanced Cell Technology Dr. Robert Lancer said the new method would remove such objections.
We now have a capacity to create as many stem cell lines as the scientific community need without harming any embryo whatsoever. So hopefully, this takes away the president's last excuse to oppose stem cell research.
The United States has given its first official response to Iran's offer of serious talks over its nuclear programme. The US State Department said the offer fell short of United Nations demands. It added that the United States was still consulting its allies about what to do next. The BBC State Department correspondent Jonathan Beale says it's clear that Iran is still refusing to suspend uranium enrichment.
Most details of the Iranian proposals have still not been made public, but it's clear that Iran wants what it calls serious talks without any precondition that it should first give up its enrichment and reprocessing activities, that is not what Washington wanted to hear. It says Iran has not done enough. But the State Department issued carefully worded statements that clearly try to reassure allies that the Bush administration was keeping an open mind. America's promise to review Iran's offer is a sign of how sensitive those discussions of the UN Security Council will be. Both China and Russia have proved very reluctant to go down that path. And China has already reacted positively to Iran's latest offer.
Palestinian doctors say Israeli troops have shot and seriously wounded a senior member of the militant group, Islamic Jihad in the West Bank. The man Hossam Jaradat who was shot in the head by what was reported to be an Israeli undercover unit operating out of a car in the G refugee camp. There's been no confirmation from the Israeli army.
You are listening to World News from the BBC.
The United States has rejected demands from a Palestinian group which says it was behind the kidnapping of two foreign journalists in the Gaza strip earlier this month. A spokesman for the State Department called for the unconditional release of the journalists and said it didn't make concessions to terrorists. From Jerusalem, Nick Thorpe reports.
Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig were kidnapped by masked gunmen in Gaza City on August 14th. Nothing had been heard from them or their abductors since until a video was received by Arab TV stations on Wednesday showing the men reassuring their families and pleading for their governments to work to secure their release. One is a New Zealander, the other an American national. Their captors are demanding the release of all Muslims in US jails approximately nine thousand according to official figures within three days.
The port of Mogadishu in Somalia once one of the East Africa's busiest harbours has reopened for the first time in over ten years. At a news conference, the Union of Islamic Courts whose militias seized control of the capital in June from rival militias said the port was now ready for use by shipping. A formal opening ceremony is due to be held on Thursday.
Dutch police have arrested 12 passengers from an American Northwest Airlines plane bound for India after it was forced to turn back to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport because of a security alert. The pilots have been alerted by his crew that some passengers were behaving suspiciously. The plane was escorted back by two Dutch fighter jets. Police have given no further details and are still questioning other passengers.
Finally one of Venezuela's most popular comedians Benjamin Rausseo has registered to run for the presidency in December. Mr. Rausseo who was known as Count of Guacharo went to the offices of the election board accompanied by a donkey and goats. Mr. Rausseo said Venezuelans wanted peace, joy and potatoes.
BBC World News.
Words and Expressions: embark - If you embark on something new, difficult, or exciting, you start doing it.
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