BBC 2007-04-24 加文本

BBC 2007-04-24



【电信用户1】在线播放和下载

Download mp3

BBC world with Sue Montgomery.

International leaders have been paying tribute to the former Russian president Boris Yeltsin who's died of heart failure at the age of seventy six. He presided over the demise of the Soviet Union and Russia’s turbulent transition to democracy and capitalism. His funeral will be held on Wednesday which has been declared a day of national mourning. Reacting to the news of Mr. Yeltsin’s death, the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said he had done many important things but had made many mistakes as well.

During the putsch, during his hour of glory, Yeltsin courageously and boldly defended democracy and democratic changes. Subsequently his lust for power undermined the joint efforts to overcome the deep crisis at a time when there was hope that this could be done. A charismatic figure Boris Yeltsin was elected the first president of the Russian Federation in 1991, but reached the peak of his popularity even before then when he stood on a tank to defend parliament after a hardliner's attempted coup. James Rogers reports from Moscow.

Boris Yeltsin changed Russia forever. His death was announced from the Kremlin, the seat of power, which he fell out with then later occupied as Russia’s first post-Soviet Head of State. He did ensure that the country would never return to the stifling authoritarianism of Soviet Communism. But he also presided over the disastrous military campaign to crush Chechenia’s drive for independence and it was during his administration that some entrepreneurs were able to amass fortunes often in legally-questionable circumstances from the sale of state property.

The outgoing president of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo has defended the way the presidential election on Saturday was carried out in the face of criticism from the main opposition parties and international observers. In the BBC interview, Mr. Obasanjo said the election was flawed, but not so imperfect that it would have to be run again. The electoral commission declared that the candidate of the governing People’s Democratic Party Umaru Yar'Adua had received 24 million votes, four times as many as his nearest rival Muhammadu Buhari. But Mr. Buhari said another election was needed as soon as possible. “We are not going to accept this result, now the question of swearing in the alleged winner of the election. You have to be patient and see what there to happen on the 29th of next month, but I very much doubt it.”

The top court in Ecuador has reinstated the group of fifty seven sacked congress men and women who were fired last month over the opposition to a recent referendum on rewriting the constitution. The constitutional court made the ruling after the group of dismissed congressmen appealed against an earlier ruling by the country’s electoral court.

This is the world news from the BBC.

The second round of the campaign for the French presidency has begun with major speeches by both candidates. Speaking in Dijon and Burgundy, the center-right from Nicolas Sarkozy appealed to voters who did not back him in Sunday's first ballot. Our correspondent Daniel Sunford watched Nikolas Sarkozy’s appearance.

This has been a clear attempt by Nicolas Sarkozy to dispel the image of a hardline right-winger who divides France and instead portray a presidential contender who can unite the country. He has talked a lot about the values and themes that helped him getting through the first round: national identity and pride, integration, respect for hard work. But there has been no direct mention of his socialist opponent Segolene Royal. But Nicoler Sarkozy knows he won't have any sights as both now engage in the battle for the political center ground.

The Unite States says that it expects Sudan to prove its commitment to align / a strengthened UN’s peacekeeping force into the troubled province of Darfur within a matter of weeks. The Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who has recently been to the region said that time was running out for Sudan to allow a strengthened international force into the province.

The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for an end to the continuing heavy fighting in Somalia which has left more than 250 people dead in the past week. Mr. Ban called on all parties to immediately cease hostilities. He said he deployed the reported indiscriminate use of heavy weapons against centers of civilian population and urged the resumption of talks between the warring factions.

Performers from the Scala Opera house in Milan have staged to concert in sub-Saharan Africa for the first time as part of celebrations to mark fifty years of independence in Ghana. The 160 strong orchestra and chorus performed Beethoven’s ninth symphony in the Ghanaian capital Accra.
BBC world news.