...to shape their next government after Saturday’s closely-fought general election left no party with an outright majority. With most votes counted, neither the Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard nor her conservative Liberal National Coalition opponent, Tony Abbott, is expected to be able to declare an outright victory. Nick Bryant in Sydney.
An election that’s being compared to a national soap opera has not yet produced its concluding installment because the likelihood there was a hung parliament with a handful of independents of one Green MP holding the balance of power. Election night itself was full of twists. Exit polls suggested the Labor government might scrape home. The opposition started winning marginal seats after marginal seats.
As floodwaters continue to inundate much of Pakistan, tens of thousands more people are being moved to safety. The southern province of Sindh is now described as the worst-affected area with up to four million displaced people. Jill McGivering is there in the town of Sukkur.
Families are visible everywhere—on riverbanks, open ground and along the roadside. About a tenth of the homeless have been placed in relief camps; the rest are trying to survive alone without shelter or any assurance of food. Aid is being provided, but it’s limited, and there’s enormous demand. Inside some camps, the distribution of aid is tightly controlled, supervised by armed police. Organizers are wary because fighting has broken out in recent days when desperate people mobbed aid trucks.The International Monetary Fund says the floods will present a massive economic challenge to the government and people of Pakistan. It’s announced that talks with Pakistani officials will start on Monday.
A Van Gogh painting valued at $50 million that was stolen from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo earlier on Saturday has now been recovered. The Egyptian cultural minister said two Italians were arrested at Cairo Airport, trying to smuggle the painting out of the country. Yolande Knell reports from Cairo.
Airports and ports in Egypt had been told to look out for this painting of a Vase of Poppies to make sure it wasn’t smuggled abroad. In the end, the picture estimated to be worth $50 million was discovered at Cairo Airport just hours after it was snatched. According to Egyptian officials, the painting had been cut out of its frame shortly after the Mahmoud Khalil Museum opened early in the day. The museum has one of the most impressive collections of 19th and 20th century paintings in the region.
The South African government has been granted an injunction prohibiting workers in essential services from continuing their national strike. The ruling also prevents nurses and teachers from intimidating workers who refuse to participate.
BBC News.
There’s been a mixed international reaction to Iran’s start of an operation to load fuel into its first nuclear power station at Bushehr. An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman called the move “totally unacceptable” and urged world powers to increase pressure on Iran to comply with international decisions and stop its uranium enrichment and heavy water reactor programs.
The authorities in the Somali capital Mogadishu say that a powerful explosion, which was heard across the city earlier on Saturday, killed at least ten people, most of them Islamist fighters attempting to overthrow the government. They say the blast may have been caused when preparations for a car bomb went wrong and the bomb went off prematurely. The authorities say that three Pakistanis, two Indians, two Somalis and an Afghan and an Algerian were among the dead.
Police in Sweden have withdrawn an arrest warrant for the founder of the Wikileaks whistleblowing website, Julian Assange. Mr Assange had been briefly wanted for questioning by Swedish police over allegations of rape and molestation. Stuart Hughes reports.
Swedish prosecutors confirmed on Saturday that they charged Julian Assange in his absence over allegations of rape and molestation. But just hours later, Sweden’s chief prosecutor issued a brief statement, saying that Mr Assange was not suspected of rape and was no longer wanted by police. Last month, Wikileaks was responsible for one of the biggest security breaches in US military history, when it published tens of thousands of documents about American operations in Afghanistan. Mr Assange’s supporters claim the allegations are proof of a smear campaign to try to undermine his credibility.
The Colombian intelligence service says it has captured five people it believes are part of the inner circle of a top Marxist rebel. The five are accused of providing security, logistics and medical care to the top military commander of the FARC guerrilla group.
BBC News.
周六,澳大利亚举行了大选,结果非常接近,没有任何党派取得彻底的大多数,要组成下届政府非常困难。现在,大部分选票已经经过统计,工党总理吉拉德(Julia Gillard)和保守派自由-国民联盟对手Tony Abbott都不能宣布取得完全的胜利。Nick Bryant在悉尼报道。
这场被比喻为“全民肥皂剧”的选举没有产生任何决定性的结果,可能要产生没有党派占大多数的议会,由议会的绿党和少数独立分子来保持权利平衡。大选之夜本身也充满了曲折。选后测验表明,工党政府可能要垮台。反对派开始获得一个又一个席位。
随着洪水继续淹没巴基斯坦大范围地区,又有数万民众被转移到安全地带。南部信德省现在已经成为受灾最严重的地区,被转移人口已经高达400万。Jill McGivering在小镇苏库尔(Sukkur)报道。
到处都可以看到流离失所的家庭——河堤上,野地上和路边。大约十分之一的无家可归者已经被安置在救济营中。其他人则在没有庇护所,没有食物保障的情况下独自求生。目前已经提供了救助,但是非常有限,对救助的需求量非常大。在营地内,援助的分配受到严格限制,由武装警察监督。组织者非常谨慎,因为近几天,绝望的灾民围攻了运送救济物资的卡车,导致冲突爆发。国际货币基金组织表示,这次洪水将为巴基斯坦政府和民众造成巨大的经济挑战。该组织已经宣布,他们将于周一开始与巴基斯坦进行对话。
周六早些时候,一幅价值5000万美元的梵高油画在开罗马穆德卡里尔博物馆(Mahmoud Khalil Museum)失窃,现在已经找回。埃及文化部长表示,两名意大利人企图将该油画偷运出国,在开罗机场被捕。Yolande Knell从开罗报道。
埃及机场和港口均接到命令,严密查找这幅名为《罂粟花》的油画,确保不能走私出国。最后,失窃几个小时之后,这幅估价为5000万美元的油画在开罗机场被寻回。据埃及官员所说,马穆德卡里尔博物馆开馆后不久,这幅油画就被从框架中切割下来。该博物馆拥有19世纪和20世纪该地区给人印象最深刻的油画藏品。
南非政府收到禁令,禁止必要的服务部门的工作人员继续进行罢工。该裁决还禁止护士和教师恐吓那些拒绝参加罢工的工人。
伊朗开始向布什尔首座核电站运输燃料,引起不同的国际反应。以色列外交部一名发言人称此举是“完全不能接受的”,敦促世界大国向伊朗施压,要求他们遵守国际社会的决定,停止铀浓缩和重水反应炉项目。
索马里首都摩加迪沙当局表示,周六早些时候该市听到的强力爆炸造成至少10人死亡,其中大部分是企图推翻政府的伊斯兰战士。政府表示,爆炸可能是由于汽车炸弹的准备工作出现差错,炸弹提前爆炸。当局表示,死者中包括3名巴基斯坦人,2名印度人,2名索马里人,1名阿富汗人和1名阿尔及利亚人。
瑞典警方撤销了泄密网站维基解密网的创始人朱利安-阿桑奇(Julian Assange)的逮捕令。阿桑奇因强奸和调戏的指控短暂地受到瑞典警方的通缉,进行盘问。Stuart Hughes报道。
瑞典检控官周六表示,他们在阿桑奇缺席的情况下对他的强奸和调戏指控进行了指控。但是几个小时之后,瑞典检察长发表了一份简短的声明,称阿桑奇并没有强奸嫌疑,不再受警方通缉。上月,维基解密网发表了关于美国在阿富汗行动的数万份资料,为美国军事历史上最大的一次安全资料泄露事件负责。阿桑奇的支持者声称,这些指控证明有些人发起了试图毁坏他的声誉的诽谤运动。
哥伦比亚情报部门表示,他们逮捕了5名嫌疑人,他们相信这些人是马克思主义叛军内部高级圈子的一部分。这5人被指控向哥伦比亚武装力量高级军事指挥官提供安全,后勤和医疗方面的服务。