BBC news 2008-12-14 加文本

The American Defense Secretary Robert Gates has told American troops in Iraq that their mission there is now, as he put it, in its endgame. He said the American military presence remained vitally important during what would be a crucial transition period. But American combat troops would leave Iraqi cities within the next six months. Mr. Gates was speaking at a US air base north of Baghdad.

 “We are gonna have to be out of the cities, out of populated areas by the 30th of June. That represents a really significant change of mission. The fact is that the June 30th date was the date we gave them, not / vice versa, because we believe, our commanders here believe, that that’s the point at which we will have turned over all 18 provinces to provincial Iraqi control. ”

Thousands of people have fled the disputed Sudanese oil town of Abyei after fresh fighting on Friday. One soldier was killed and an overnight curfew is now in place. Correspondents say the fighting was the most significant outbreak of violence in the town since May, when fighting between northern and southern forces prompted fears of a renewed civil war.

The British Defense Secretary John Hutton says piracy off the Horn of Africa is the price the world is paying for having ignored the situation in Somalia until it got out of hand. With over 120 ships attacked this year and around 300 crew members still being held hostage in Somalia, Mr. Hutton said that the international community should have reacted more quickly to the problem.

 “We haven’t been as involved in Somalia as we should have been. This is the consequence. It could get worse unless we try and resolve this problem with our regional partners and friends, and allies around the world. The piracy is a manifestation of failed states. It could take other manifestations: terrorism, drugs, people trafficking, and so on. We cannot allow these remote parts of the world to descend into this type of chaos.”

An independent report in Colombia has described government figures on the number of rebels killed or captured by the security forces as vastly exaggerated. However, it acknowledged that there had been bigger advances in tackling the guerrilla threat. Here is Jeremy McDermott.

The report entitled “The Numbers Don’t Add Up” reveals that government statistics list over 114,000 members of the illegal armies killed, captured or surrendered over the last 6 years. Yet, those armies, according to previous government estimates, did not exceed 30,000 members. Even allowing for recruiting to replenish depleted ranks, the government figures suggest that 8 members of the warring factions are killed every single day in Colombia, something not substantiated by any other sources.

There has been a new wave of violent protests in the Greek capital Athens a week after the killing by police of a 15-year-old boy. Rioters threw petrol bombs and stones at a government building, a police station, shops and banks. Police fired teargas in reply. The violence broke out after hundreds of young people had staged peaceful demonstrations over the boy’s death.

World News from the BBC.

The ousted former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra has accused the army of interfering in the formation of a new government. In a video address recorded in exile and shown to tens of thousands of his supporters at a stadium in Bangkok. Mr. Thaksin said the army had used the courts to undermine the elected government. Here is Jonathan Head.

Mr. Thaksin’s address, when it came, not live on the phone as promised, but in a recorded video message, seemed to muted by comparison with other speakers. He demanded that those forces which he said had been meddling to undermine the government led by his allies, should stop, a thinly veiled reference to the senior military and royalist figures who’ve been backing Mr. Thaksin’s opponents. But there was little in his speech that seems likely to sway the defectors. After months of turmoil, Thailand is now just days away from a new government that just might be able to cool the political atmosphere.

China, Japan and South Korea have ended their first summit since the Second World War with a promise to work together to counter the global economic crisis. A statement after the meeting in Japan also expressed the hope that the Asian countries would lead the way to a global recovery. Japan and South Korea have been hit hard by the economic slowdown. There are signs that it is having an impact in China too.(Www.hxen.net)

Burma’s military government has freed the daughter of the country’s late leader Ne Win who had been under house arrest for more than 6 years. The woman Sandar Win was detained with her father in 2002 over an alleged plot to overthrow the government. Her husband and three sons were sentenced to death, although they haven’t yet been executed.

The President of Cuba Raul Castro is in Venezuela on his first official trip abroad since taking over from his ailing brother Fidel earlier this year. At the start of his visit, he was met and embraced by the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the airport. The visit is seen as largely symbolic. But Venezuela is a key political and economic ally of Cuba. Fidel Castro also made his first foreign trip there….