BBC News with Marion Marshall
Exit polls suggest that Israel’s governing coalition has lost ground in a general election that’d seen an unusually high turnout across the country. The polls indicate return to power for the right-wing alliance led by the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but with a substantially reduced majority. They show an unexpected surge of support for the new centrist party Yesh Atid led by a former television presenter Yair Lapid. Kevin Connolly reports from Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud Party headquarters in Tel Aviv.
As news of the television exit polls flashed on the giant screen at Likud headquarters, partying activists cheered and celebrated it. It was more relief than real jubilation. The polls suggest that the combined list led by Mr. Netanyahu has lost 1/4 of its seats. But that should still leave him in the position to form a coalition. At one point the headquarters was crackling with rumors that he’d done even worse. Parties of left and right both picked up seats. The result of the picture is of a fragmented parliament. The likely outcome, Mr. Netanyahu, a great survivor, has survived again.
The French President Francois Hollande and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel have marked 50 years of friendship between their two countries. There was a joint cabinet meeting in Berlin and a joint session of both parliaments to celebrate half a century of the Elysee Treaty. This sealed the two countries’ reconciliation after the World WarⅡ. At a joint news conference, Angela Merkel explained that she and Mr. Hollande were urging closer economic and financial ties between Euro zone countries to help them avoid a repeat of Europe’s current debt crisis.
“That’s why we, France and Germany want by May to put forward proposals for the stabilization and deepening of the economic and monetary union. It’s about a deeper cooperation in economic policy.”
The European Union has allowed 11 of its member states to introduce a new tax designed to discourage financial speculation. It’s expected the tax will be levied on every trade in bonds, shares and other financial products. Supporters think the tax will raise billions of Euros, but critics think trading will simply move elsewhere.
About two million people in the Chilean capital Santiago have been left without drinking water after sanitation plants were contaminated by muddy flood waters. From there, is Gideon Long.
The flood sent tons of mud flowing down rivers forcing the closure of the plants. As a result, some 600,000 families in Santiago, around a third of the city’s population have been left without water. The authorities have been distributing emergency supplies from tankers. People rushed out to buy bottled water and restaurants have been forced to close. Santiago citizens have been told only to use hospitals if they really need to. The problem could hardly have come at a worse time. This is the middle of the Chilean summer when temperatures regularly top 30℃.
BBC News
Prosecutors have urged a UN-backed tribunal at The Hague to increase a prison term handed down to Liberia’s former President Charles Taylor from 50 to 80 years. Mr. Taylor is appealing against his conviction for aiding and abetting rebels who committed atrocities during the civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone. But the prosecution told judges that Mr. Taylor’s sentence should instead be increased to reflect his culpability.
The United Nations Security Council has voted unanimously to condemn North Korea’s recent launch of a long-range rocket and to impose new sanctions on the North Korean space agency. Diplomats speaking on condition of unanimity said that Chinese support for the resolution was a significant diplomatic blow for Pyongyang.
The remains of the last king of Yugoslavia PeterⅡ Karadjordjevic have been flown back to Serbian from the United States where he died in exile 42 years ago. Diane Rodjordrjevic reports.
Young King PeterⅡ fled in 1941, days after Nazi aerial bombardment flattened many parts of Belgrade ahead of a ground invasion. He never returned because by the end of the conflict Yugoslavia was no longer a kingdom but a Communist Republic led by Marshall Tito. King Peter lived in London. The British royal family were his cousins but his son says he never got all but the fact that he couldn’t go back. He died in the United States where he was buried in a Serbian monastery. His son Prince Alexander who now lives in Belgrade wanted the remains to be laid to rest alongside his ancestors in the royal crypt in central Serbia.
One of the favorites to win football’s Africa Cup of Nations Ivory Coast has beaten Togo 2-1 in their opening match in South Africa. The Arsenal striker Gervinho scored the winning goal in the dying minutes of the game. In the other group D match Tunisia beat their North African rivals Algeria 1-0.
BBC News