[日期：2008-01-01]

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BBC 2007-12-21


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BBC news, I'm Marian Marshall.

Thousands of people across Europe have begun celebrating the move by the European Union to lift border controls with 9 of its newest member states. Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania were the first in a wave of new member states to dismantle their border barriers. Waneron Jescon reports:

The Chancellor of Austria and the Slovak Prime Minister started the celebrations by sawing through a red and white boarder barrier and in the next 48 hours EU leaders will crisscross eastern Europe, symbolically opening more land and sea borders as they go. Passport controls at airports will be abolished next March. Security has been strengthened on the EU's new boarders with the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia. But many fear that illegal immigrants and organized crime will now be given free rein from the Baltics to the English Channel.

The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has urged countries with inmates in the Guantanamo Bay Detention Centre to help in its closure by guaranteeing that they will not be a danger if released. In an interview with the BBC, Dr. Rice repeated the Bush administration's wish to close Guantanamo, but said it mustn't be at the expense of the safety of Americans and other people around the world. This report from Jonathan Beale in Washington:

Condoleezza Rice said there was a problem: what to do with what she called the bad people being held there? She said they were men caught on the battlefield in Afghanistan and plotting against the United States and European capitals. She asked the question, 'are we going to release them on an unsuspecting public? with a reply 'I don't think so, ' she added that one way to help bring about the closure of Guantanamo was for countries to take back their own nationals. But she said that there would have to be guarantees that any detainees released would not be a danger to security.

The British authorities say that they are bringing forward a new legislation to allow a major Russian art exhibition to go ahead as planned next month in London. Russia said the artworks cannot travel due to insufficient guarantees that they would be returned afterwards. Some of the pieces in the exhibition have disputed provenance. The British Culture Secretary James Purnell hopes the legislation will allow the exhibition to go ahead:

We have given them, you know, numerous guarantees over the , the last few weeks and months. I have written to them twice and if the concern is about the issue around the pictures, we believe this is a belt-and-braces approach which gives them every guarantee that they, that they require.

The only man accused so far of being involved in the most deadly single attack in the thirty years of conflict in Northern Ireland has been cleared of all the charges against him. The man Sean Hoey was accused of murdering the 29 people killed in the bombing in the town of Omagh in August, 1998. Hundreds of people were also injured in the attack which was blamed on a break-away faction of the IRA.

World news from the BBC

United States has strongly criticized parliamentary elections in Kyrgyzstan, in which the party of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev won more than three quarters of the seats. A spokesman for the US State Department said the polls had been marred by widespread irregularities during vote counting, exaggerations of voter turnout and significant obstacles for opposition parties.

US military officials in Iraq say they've found a torture chamber used by suspected al-Qaeda militants in the Iraqi province of Diala, north of Baghdad. The officials said they also found the remains of 26 people in several mass graves near the site. A senior US commander said the torture chamber had chains on the ceilings and an iron bed that was connected to a live battery. He said they also found knives and swords covered in blood.

Seven Palestinian militants have been killed in fierce clashes during Israeli raid east of a refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. Bethany Bell reports from Jerusalem:

There have been fierce clashes around the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, among the dead are militants from Hamas's military wing and Islamic Jihad. Several other Palestinians were wounded including a soundman from Reuters Television and a Hamas cameraman. The Israeli army said 3 Israeli soldiers were injured. The army has described the operation as routine to prevent the firing of rockets into Israel.

European Union countries have aGREed to introduce pollution limits for airlines as part of efforts to tackle climate change. The measure, due to come into effect in 2012, will apply to all flights between EU countries, as well as in and out of the EU. Under the deal, operators who use less fuel or more environment-friendly technology will be allowed to sell some of their allowance, but those using more fuel will incur financial penalties.

Glossary

crisscross
n. 互相交叉；交叉往来
adj. 互相交叉的；交叉往来的
adv. 互相交叉地；交叉往来地
vt., vi. 互相交叉；交叉往来

provenance

n.（名词） Place of origin; derivation. 起源：起源的地方；出处
Proof of authenticity or of past ownership. Used of art works and antiques. 真实性或过去所有者的证明用于艺术品和古董