英国新闻听力 137（在线收听）

After weeks of wrangling, the Iraqi parliament has passed a law which allows a general election to be held as planned in January although the exact date has yet to be set. A decision had been delayed more than 10 times as MPs couldn't agree on issues including the distribution of seats in the oil-rich, ethnically divided city of Kirkuk. Sebastian Usher reports.

The vote was delayed so many times that there was serious concern that the law wouldn't be adopted in time for election to take place in January. The key sticking point was the northern city of Kirkuk. The city is in a region that sits on vast oil reserves. Its population is divided between Kurds and Arabs with both vying for control. The Kurds wanted its electoral roll modified to show them as the majority. In the end, the electoral law was a compromise but left a final decision over Kirkuk for later. Iraq should now be up to hold elections in January avoiding a postponement that would have endangered the country's faltering moves towards stability.

President Obama congratulated Iraq's leaders for reaching an agreement and said what he called, “their flexibility and commitment to their country sent an important signal to the world about the country's democracy and national unity.”

The head of the British armed forces Sir Jock Stirrup has told the BBC that al-Qaeda is not operating in Afghanistan at the moment and that the movement has been forced into a relatively small area of Pakistan, but Sir Jock stressed the Afghan campaign contributed to the wider fight against al-Qaeda. Humphrey Hawksley reports.

Air chief Marshall Sir Jock Stirrup was measured yet upbeat about the mission in Afghanistan describing it as painful, slow but going in the right direction. He predicted that it might be another five years until 2014 before the Afghan forces could take full control of security. Britain's deployments in Afghanistan depend very much on the decision due soon from President Obama on whether he will send extra troops to the conflict. In an interview, on American television, a head of the army, General George Casey said more troops would help cut into the Taliban successors while training of the Afghan forces continued.

More than 90 people have died in El Salvador after hurricane Ida swept past Central America bringing strong winds and torrential rainfall. The government in El Salvador said another 60 people were still missing. Charles Scanlon reports.

Hurricane Ida brought strong winds and torrential rains as it swept past the small mountainous countries of Central America. El Salvador was worst hit with mudslides and flash floods causing most of the damage and casualties. The storm then dealt a glancing blow to Mexico's Caribbean resorts before moving into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It's now picking up strength again with wind speeds of up to 160 kilometers an hour. A hurricane could threaten oil and gas production platforms in the Gulf. Coastal areas from Louisiana to Florida have been put on hurricane watch.

Turkish officials have said the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity will not attend a summit of Islamic nations in the Istanbul as planned. Jonathan Head reports.

Sudan's president has taken every opportunity to defy the arrest warrant issued against him in March by the International Criminal Court. Visiting a number of African countries since then where he's felt safe from the threat of extradition. Now Turkish officials are saying he won't be attending an Islamic summit in Istanbul on Monday despite an official invitation from the Turkish government to do so. This follows a tense few days during which Turkey defied international pressure to cancel the invitation to a leader accused of war crimes. On Friday, President Abdullah Gul brushed aside a private plea from the European Union saying it was not the EU's place to interfere.

A synagogue center of the eastern German city of Dresden has been defaced with swastikas ahead of the anniversary of an anti-Jewish program carried out under the Nazis. Police say the symbols were painted on the outer wall of synagogue and that an investigation was underway to discover who was responsible. 91 Jews were killed during the program known as Kristallnacht on the 9th and 10th of November, 1938.

A senior Iranian politician has said his country's relations with Russia could suffer if Moscow delayed a delivery of an anti-aircraft missile defense system to Tehran. In a report by the Esners state news agency, the head of the Iranian Parliament's Foreign Policy and National Security Committee, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, said that the avoiding delivery would be harmful to Russia. The contract to provide the system was signed two years ago.

Conservationists in Niger said the giraffe population there which was on the edge of extinction just 10 years ago is now on the rise and moving into new habitats. From a herd of 50 animals, careful conservation has numbers rise to around 200.