BBC World News with Julie Candler.
A day after President Musharraf of Pakistan imposed an emergency rule, the government says it still has to decide when it wants to hold the parliamentary elections, originally scheduled for January. The announcement came from the Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who also confirmed that between 400 and 500 people had been arrested, among those Hamid Gul, a former head of Pakistan's Intelligence Service; the cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan and Javed Hashmi, the acting head of the party led by the exiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. From Islamabad, Barbara Plett reports.
Security forces detained hundreds across the country, not Islamist militants, but lawyers, opposition and human rights activists. The president also sacked some Supreme Court judges and clamped down on the media. The Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said none of these meant the government had turned its back on democracy, but he admitted elections could be late. So the country is in limbo as the sense of crisis grows. Analysts say these emergency measures could buy General Musharraf more time in power, but they may further destabilize the country.
A group of seven Europeans arrested in Chad on suspicion of child kidnapping have been flown home in the plane of the French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The release of the three French journalists and four Spanish air crew coincided with the brief visit to Chad by Mr. Sarkozy, who held talks with the President Idriss Déby. Ten westerners remain in custody. All are employees of a charity that attempted to fly more than 100 children to Europe. They argued the children were orphans, but the Chadian government and the United Nations have dismissed the claims. Speaking after his meeting with President Déby, Mr. Sarkozy said he hoped the ten Europeans still in custody would be treated fairly.
I impressed upon President Déby that these compatriots have the right to respect for the presumption of innocence, that there have been an agreement between Chad and France, some judicial cooperation since 1976, that I have confidence in Chadian justice, that I respected it.
The President of Georgian Mikhei Saakashvili has rejected demands to hold an earlier election, saying he will not give in to blackmail. His statement came on the third day of protests in the Capital Tbilisi, where thousands opposition supporters have been calling for his resignation. From Tbilisi, Matthew Colin reports.
The Georgian opposition accuses Mr. Saakashvili of leading an authoritarian government, which has failed to tackle widespread deprivation in the country. Mr. Saakashvili promised to address the issues of poverty and unemployment. But as he spoke, thousands of protesters blocked the main street of the capital for a third consecutive day, maintaining their pressure for the Georgian president to step down.
World News from the BBC.
Reports from New York say that Charles Prince, the chairman and chief executive of the world's largest bank Citigroup, has resigned. The Wall Street Journal said he would be replaced by the former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. The bank has been badly hit by the collapse of the market in subprime mortgages, which are loans to people with bad credit histories.
Three leading players in the search for peace in the Middle East say now it's the time to make progress. The American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a forum in Jerusalem that a two-state solution was now more urgent than ever. The Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he hoped for progress before President Bush left office. But there was no Palestinian leader at the forum. Katya Adler reports.
Israel's Prime Minister said the time had come for Israeli and Palestinian leaders to take brave and difficult steps. Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, said progress towards creating a Palestinian state was urgently needed. Otherwise, she warned, young Palestinians, who grow up only knowing what she described as the deprivation and humiliation of Israeli occupation, risked being radicalized by Muslim extremists. The former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, now an international envoy on Palestinian affairs, said Israeli and Palestinian thinking had to change.
The publisher of a new translation of the Koran has been arrested in Afghanistan while trying to leave the country. Religious scholars have complained the new translation into Dari, or Afghan Persian, is un-Islamic. They said it did not include the original Arabic text for comparison as required and that it misinterpreted verses about alcohol, adultery and homosexuality.
For the first time visitors have been allowed to see the face of the Boy King Tutankhamun, whose mummified remains have gone on public display in a climate-controlled case. Linen bandages were pulled back to reveal a Tut blackened head with high cheekbones and slightly projecting upper teeth.
BBC News.
Glossary
limbo: n.
1. 地狱边缘的一地区；监狱
2. 遗忘；被忽视的状态
Management kept her promotion in limbo for months.
3. 有好几个月领导将她的升迁之事放置一边。
4. 中间的状态或位置
5. 放置丢弃物的场所
6. 林勃舞（西印度群岛一种特技舞蹈）
blackmail
vt.
勒索；敲诈
The strange man tried to blackmail the clerk into helping him draw the money, but he failed. 陌生人想讹诈职员迫使他帮他取出钱，但未能得逞。
n.
勒索，敲诈，讹诈
nuclear blackmail 核讹诈
adultery
n. pl. adulteries
1. 通奸，通奸罪
commit adultery
2. 犯通奸
That is a case of adultery.
3. 那是一件通奸案。