Tuesday, 19 August, 2003, 18:34 GMT 19:34 UK
Bus blast rocks Jerusalem
An explosion has torn through a bus in Jerusalem, reportedly killing a number of people.
At least six people were injured in the blast.
The BBC's James Reynolds in Jerusalem says the front part of the bus seems to have exploded.
He says that 20 to 30 ambulances have arrived on the scene, and that police with machine guns are holding back crowds.
Rescue workers on the scene say a child is among the injured, Reuters news agency reports.
A bus bombing killed at least 17 people in Jerusalem in mid-June, but the pace of Israeli-Palestinian violence had slowed significantly since three leading Palestinian militant groups declared a cease-fire at the end of June.
Israeli soldiers are sealing off roads linking to the West Bank
Israel blast suspends talks
Israel has cut off contacts with Palestinian officials following a suicide bus blast in the heart of Jerusalem which killed 20 Israelis and injured up to 100.
Israeli Foreign Ministry official, Yonatan Peled, announced the suspension of talks on the handover of West Bank towns to Palestinian control after Tuesday's bombing.
The ministry said Israel would also re-impose a total military closure on West Bank towns - allowing no-one in or out.
According to Israeli radio reports, police have arrested 17 Palestinians, suspected of being Hamas activists, including several of the bomber's relatives.
Palestinian security forces have also been ordered to arrest others linked to the bombing, Palestinian Minister of Information, Nabil Amr said.
Both Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, have called urgent meetings to discuss what action to take next.
A spokesman for Mr Abbas strongly condemned the attack and said contact with Islamic militants had been cut and security measures would be taken against them.
"It was decided after meetings that the Palestinian Authority would stop all forms of dialogue with Hamas and Islamic Jihad," a senior Palestinian security official told the Reuters news agency.
"It holds them responsible for harming the higher national interest of the Palestinian people."
Trips cancelled
Meanwhile, the Pope condemned what he described as a "woeful spiral of hatred and violence" following Tuesday's bombings in Baghdad and Jerusalem.
A Vatican spokesman told BBC News Online Mr Abbas had postponed a visit to meet the Pope, scheduled for next week.
"There is no indication when it will be re-scheduled," the spokesman said.
Mr Abbas had been expected in Rome on Monday for a meeting with the Italian President, Silvio Berlusconi, who is president of the European Union.
He was also scheduled to travel on to Oslo for the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Oslo peace accords.
Responsibility
Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad have said they carried out the bombing.
But a senior Hamas official reportedly said the bombing did not mean the end of a temporary ceasefire by the militants.
"I can't say the ceasefire is finished. We are still committed to a ceasefire as Palestinian organisations, national and Islamic, but all Palestinian organisations said clearly we will react for each aggression from the side of Israelis," Reuters quoted the official as saying.
Hamas distributed fliers in Hebron after the attack, saying the Jerusalem bombing was carried out by Raed Abdel-Hamed Mesk, 29, a mosque preacher from Hebron, the Associated Press reported.
The blast took place on Tuesday at about 2100 (1800GMT) in an ultra-Orthodox area - Shmuel Hanavi - near the old dividing line between east and west Jerusalem.
First Islamic Jihad said it was behind the attack. It had vowed revenge last week after Israeli troops killed one of its leaders in the West Bank town of Hebron.
But later, a videotape released in Hebron showed a man who identified himself as a member of Hamas, and announced he would carry out the suicide bombing.
Abu Mazen - denounced the bombing as "a horrible act which does not serve the interest of the Palestinian people at all".
He was meeting Islamic Jihad leaders in the Gaza Strip at the time of the explosion, in a new effort to persuade them to halt attacks.
Top UN envoy killed in Baghdad blast
A huge bomb has devastated the Iraq headquarters of the United Nations in Baghdad killing at least 15 people, including top UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.
Scores of people were injured in the blast, which brought down three floors of the concrete building.
A US military spokeswoman said the blast was caused by a truck or car bomb - possibly in a suicide attack.
The rescue work to find survivors under the rubble was still going on as darkness fell.
The attack came shortly after the UN increased security measures around its Baghdad building.
It took place at about 1640 local time (1240GMT).
In New York, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's spokesman Fred Eckhard described the attack as "a tragedy, I think, not only personally but also a setback politically for the UN mission".
De Mello, 55, died after being trapped under rubble for several hours.
A UN spokesman in Baghdad, Salim Lone, called the explosion "an unspeakable crime against people from all over the world who have come here to help the people of Iraq".
He told the BBC the blast took place "right below" de Mello's window. "I guess it was targeted for that.
"His office and the offices around him no longer exist - it is all rubble," he said.
Undeterred
However, the Syrian diplomat who currently chairs the UN Security Council said the world body would not be dissuaded from its work.
"Such terrorist incidents cannot break the will of the international community to further intensify its efforts to help the people of Iraq," Fayssal Mekdad said on behalf of the Security Council.
US President George W Bush, speaking from his ranch in Texas, blamed the attack on "terrorists" who he called "the enemies of the Iraqi people".
He said the attack on the UN building would not intimidate the civilised world from assisting the Iraqi people to reclaim their future.
The blast came only hours after Mr Bush welcomed the capture of a former Iraqi vice-president known as "Saddam's knuckles".
Taha Yassin Ramadan was seized in the northern city of Mosul on Monday and has now been handed over to the US Army.
The BBC's Middle East analyst Roger Hardy, says the attackers may have targeted the UN building because they considered the world body to be America's junior partner in the occupation of Iraq.
But most Iraqis do not agree, and seem to want a bigger a role for the UN, he says.
They tend to focus their hostility and resentment on the Americans, he adds.
Injured
The BBC's Valerie Jones in Baghdad says the blast was heard over a wide area of the Iraqi capital.
A plume of black smoke was seen pouring out of the building - some of which was on fire - and injured people were seen being carried away by stretcher.
Some were taken to waiting medical helicopters.
Hundreds of people work in the building, a converted hotel.
It would have been especially busy at the time of the blast because a press conference was taking place.
Our correspondent says the blast was even larger than one at the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad, which killed 11 people on 7 August.
Now, on the 22nd of August, 2003 (HKT) The Death Toll has been increased to at least 24....
"He was the best of the best"
~ Hedayat Abdel-Nabi, Geneva UN correspondents association
>>August 20, 2003 at 5:00:36 PM GMT+8
2003 年 8 月 16 日 星期六 【晴】
Saboteurs blamed for Iraq disruption
Attacks on a vital oil pipeline in northern Iraq and a major water pipeline in Baghdad disrupt the country.
The water pipeline breach flooded a main Baghdad underpass
In other developments:
Six Iraqis have been killed and 59 injured in a mortar attack on Abu Gharib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad
A Danish soldier has been killed after a truck carrying armed Iraqis was stopped during a routine patrol near Basra - two Iraqis also died
Two US soldiers were shot and wounded as they left a restaurant in the capital, Baghdad, on Saturday
The Iraqi police chief of northern city of Mosul was wounded and two officers killed in an ambush
A fire at a sewage treatment plant in the south is also suspected sabotage
Vatican 'ordered abuse cover-up'
A secret Vatican document, outlining procedures for handling allegations of sex abuse by priests, has been published in the US and UK.
Israel arrests militant leader
Israeli soldiers have arrested a suspected militant leader in the West Bank town of Qalqilya - one of four towns due to be returned to Palestinian control. Akif Nazal, 38, of the Islamic Jihad group, was arrested overnight along with another suspected militant, Palestinian sources said.
Many Palestinians are sceptical about Israeli plans to withdraw
1977: Singing legend Presley is dead Elvis Presley, whose singing and style revolutionized popular music in the 1950s, has died.
Presley, 42, was discovered slumped in a bathroom at his mansion in Memphis, Tennessee on Tuesday.
He was rushed to the Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis but was pronounced dead on arrival.
The Tennessee state pathologist, Dr. Jerry Francisco, said a post mortem on the singer's body had revealed he died of cardiac arrhythmia - a form of heart attack.
"The precise cause has not yet been determined for the cardiac arrhythmia," Dr Francisco said.
"It may take several days to several weeks to determine that specific cause and in some cases it never is determined."
The three-hour post mortem uncovered no sign of any other diseases or any drug abuse, Dr Francisco added.
Declining health
Presley was divorced from his wife Priscilla in 1973 but it was rumoured that he had recently become engaged to Ginger Alden, 20.
She was reportedly spotted wearing a $50,000 (£20,315) diamond engagement ring from Presley.
Ms Alden and other members of his entourage were at Graceland when he collapsed.
There had been indications of Elvis Presley's declining health for some time.
In Context
Thousands gathered to file past Elvis Presley's body which lay in state at his mansion, Graceland, the day after his death.
Although it was officially stated that he died of heart failure there has always been speculation that an overdose of cocaine and barbiturates also played a part.
Since his divorce from Priscilla in 1973 he had relied heavily on prescription drugs and was known to be a junk-food addict, gaining a considerable amount of weight.
During his lifetime he sold over 300 million albums and made 33 films.
His death has been lucrative for the "Elvis industry".
In 2001 he came top in US magazine Forbes' poll of "Richest Deceased Celebrities".
It put Elvis estate's earnings in 2000 at $35m (£23m) - $15m (£10m) of it from Graceland admission fees.
Richest Dead Celebrities
1 Elvis Presley: $35 million
2 Charles Schulz: $20 million
3 John Lennon: $20 million
4 Theodor Geisel: $17 million
5 Jimi Hendrix: $10 million
6 Bob Marley: $10 million
7 Andy Warhol: $8 million
8 J.R.R. Tolkien: $7 million
9 Frank Sinatra $6 million
10 Jerry Garcia : $5 million
Source: Forbes magazine 2001
1952: Flood devastates Devon village
Twelve bodies have been recovered and 24 people are missing feared dead in the flood which has swept through Lynmouth in north Devon.
The normally picturesque holiday village was evacuated early today as troops and council workers were brought in to begin clearing the devastation.
Hundreds of people have been left homeless. There is no water, gas or electricity supply. All the boats in the harbour have been washed out to sea. Four main road bridges have been swept away.
The flood followed yesterday's torrential rain. In the 24 hours before, some nine inches (22.9cm) of rain had fallen on Exmoor, just four miles (6.4km) away.
"We watched a row of cottages fold up like a pack of cards" ~ Ken Oxenholme
The water flowed off the moors and into the rivers East and West Lyn which came together as a raging torrent in the steep, narrow valley leading into Lynmouth.
Tom Denham, owner of the Lyndale Hotel, said his cellars had flooded before so he was not too worried at first.
He said: "About half-past nine there was a tremendous roar. The West Lyn had broken its banks and pushed against the side of the hotel, bringing with it thousands of tons of rocks and debris in its course.
"It carried away the chapel opposite and a fruit shop. Three people in the fruit shop were swept against the lounge windows of the hotel. We managed to pull them through in the nick of time.
"I then ordered everyone to go to the second floor, where they huddled in the corridors for safety. In all we had 60 people in the hotel all night."
A fisherman, Ken Oxenholme, said the high street was impassable so he had to run through the woods to reach his wife and child, who were staying in a caravan at the top end of Lynmouth.
He said: "As we watched, we saw a row of cottages near the river, in the flashes of lightning because it was dark by this time, fold up like a pack of cards and swept out with the river with the agonising screams of some of the local inhabitants who I knew very well."
The Queen has sent a message of sympathy, which was read out at a meeting in the town hall this evening. A telegram of sympathy was also received from Queen Mary.
The full extent of the damage is not yet clear. Early estimates say it will cost between £3 and £5m to repair.
In Context
The eventual death toll was 34.
A flood relief fund set up for the victims of the disaster had raised more than £300,000 by the end of August.
The local policeman, Derek Harper, who had only recently completed his training, was awarded the George Medal for the part he played in rescuing people from the flood. Thirteen other local people received lesser awards for bravery.
There was some speculation the flash flooding could have been caused by Ministry of Defence experiments in rain-making. By dropping dry ice into clouds, the idea was to start a heavy storm which would bog down enemy movements.
Survivors of the disaster called for - but never got - an inquiry. The MoD denied it was to blame.
On the 50th anniversary of the disaster a special memorial service was held. A wooden cross - made by one of the survivors - was erected in the town in memory of the victims.
>>August 17, 2003 at 4:14:58 PM GMT+8
2003 年 8 月 14 日 星期四 【晴】
1971: 'V-sign' costs rider victory Controversial horse rider Harvey Smith has been stripped of his 2000 Pounds winnings and a major show jumping title for allegedly making a rude gesture.
1985: Virgin voyage ends in disaster The speedboat Virgin Atlantic Challenger capsizes off the south-west of England scuppering Richard Branson's attempt at the fastest-ever Atlantic crossing.
1950: Princess gives birth to second child The King's eldest daughter and heir to the throne, Princess Elizabeth, gives birth to a daughter at Clarence House in London.
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Israeli soldiers are sealing off roads linking to the West Bank
Top UN envoy killed in Baghdad blast
"He was the best of the best"
Saboteurs blamed for Iraq disruption
The water pipeline breach flooded a main Baghdad underpass
Vatican 'ordered abuse cover-up'
Many Palestinians are sceptical about Israeli plans to withdraw
1978: US balloonists' record Atlantic crossing
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