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BBC news 2009-01-22 加文本
2009-01-22来源:和谐英语
BBC 2009-01-22
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BBC News with Julie Candler.
On his first day in office, President Obama has issued executive orders which he says usher in a new era of openness and transparency in government. Attending a swearing-in ceremony for the White House staff, Mr. Obama promised his administration would be accountable and would disclose as much information as possible to the public.
The executive orders and directives I'm issuing today will not by themselves make government as honest and transparent as it needs to be. And they do not go as far as we need to go towards restoring accountability and fiscal restraint in Washington. But these historic measures do mark the beginning of a new era of openness in our country. And I will, I hope do something to make government trustworthy in the eyes of the American people in the days and weeks, months and years to come.
Judges involved in the US military tribunals at the Guantanamo Bay detention center have suspended two trials in response to President Barack Obama's request for current hearings to be halted for 120 days. Nearly 250 detainees remain at Guantanamo, and some including the alleged mastermind of the 9. 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, have objected to the delay in their trials. Jonathan Beale reports.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said he wanted to go forwards not backwards. He said he wanted to confess. The prosecution had argued that it was a prerogative of the Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama to order the halt of the trials. After the court went into recess, the US military judge issued a written order that the trial would be suspended. There was a sense of relief among the detainees' lawyers who'd always questioned the proceedings calling them show trials.
The United States Senate has confirmed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State in President Barack Obama's administration. The Senate overwhelmingly approved Mrs. Clinton's nomination despite renewed Republican questions about potential conflicts of interest created by foreign fundraising by her husband -- the former President Bill Clinton. From Washington, Kim Ghattas reports.
She had to wait one extra day but Hillary Clinton is now America's top diplomat. The former first lady was confirmed in her new role by her former colleagues. 94 senators voted in favor, only two against. Even Republican John McCain, her rival on the presidential campaign, had said it was time to drop partisan demands and allow the new president to get to work by confirming his cabinet appointments. Mrs. Clinton said foreign policy was about pragmatism not rigid ideology, a combination of diplomacy, defense and development work.
China says that it will pour huge sums of money into revamping its health care system. More than 120 billion dollars is to be spent over the next three years. Correspondents say the availability of health care in China has been greatly reduced in rural areas in the last two decades while costs have soared beyond the means of many.
World News from the BBC.
President Obama has spoken by telephone to the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, as well as those of Egypt and Jordan. A spokesman for the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Mr. Obama had promised to make every effort to achieve peace while the Israeli prime minister said he had briefed the US president on the situation in Gaza. The Palestinian Hamas movement which Mr. Obama did not speak to urged President Obama to learn from the mistakes of his predecessor.
A court in the Netherlands has ordered that a controversial right-wing politician should stand trial for inciting hatred against Muslims. Geert Wilders made a film juxtaposing verses from the Koran with clips of violent attacks by radical Islamists. The ruling overturned a decision last year by Dutch prosecutors not to take action. Mr. Wilders' film provoked an outcry in the Islamic world, but he said he stood by it and deplored the decision to prosecute him.(www.hxen.net)
"It's an assault on the freedom of speech. I'm an elected parliamentarian, more than half a million people voted on me, and I just speak out what a lot of people think that the Islamization of the Netherlands is something to be concerned of at least, and probably the prosecutor also was of that opinion. But unfortunately today, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal decided that I should be prosecuted."
Scientists say the effect of global warming on Antarctica is worse than previously thought. They say its temperature has risen by half a degree Celsius in the last fifty years across the continent, and not just on the edges as earlier research indicated. In an article published in the journal Nature, American scientists warn that if the trend continues, it may lead to a significant melting in western Antarctica.
A new study suggests there're fewer mountain gorillas left than previously thought in one of the last two refuges on earth. The scientists, who used a new method and counted the animals by analyzing the DNA from their dung, say 302 gorillas living in Uganda's Bwindi national park, 34 less than previously thought.
BBC News.
Download Audio
BBC News with Julie Candler.
On his first day in office, President Obama has issued executive orders which he says usher in a new era of openness and transparency in government. Attending a swearing-in ceremony for the White House staff, Mr. Obama promised his administration would be accountable and would disclose as much information as possible to the public.
The executive orders and directives I'm issuing today will not by themselves make government as honest and transparent as it needs to be. And they do not go as far as we need to go towards restoring accountability and fiscal restraint in Washington. But these historic measures do mark the beginning of a new era of openness in our country. And I will, I hope do something to make government trustworthy in the eyes of the American people in the days and weeks, months and years to come.
Judges involved in the US military tribunals at the Guantanamo Bay detention center have suspended two trials in response to President Barack Obama's request for current hearings to be halted for 120 days. Nearly 250 detainees remain at Guantanamo, and some including the alleged mastermind of the 9. 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, have objected to the delay in their trials. Jonathan Beale reports.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said he wanted to go forwards not backwards. He said he wanted to confess. The prosecution had argued that it was a prerogative of the Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama to order the halt of the trials. After the court went into recess, the US military judge issued a written order that the trial would be suspended. There was a sense of relief among the detainees' lawyers who'd always questioned the proceedings calling them show trials.
The United States Senate has confirmed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State in President Barack Obama's administration. The Senate overwhelmingly approved Mrs. Clinton's nomination despite renewed Republican questions about potential conflicts of interest created by foreign fundraising by her husband -- the former President Bill Clinton. From Washington, Kim Ghattas reports.
She had to wait one extra day but Hillary Clinton is now America's top diplomat. The former first lady was confirmed in her new role by her former colleagues. 94 senators voted in favor, only two against. Even Republican John McCain, her rival on the presidential campaign, had said it was time to drop partisan demands and allow the new president to get to work by confirming his cabinet appointments. Mrs. Clinton said foreign policy was about pragmatism not rigid ideology, a combination of diplomacy, defense and development work.
China says that it will pour huge sums of money into revamping its health care system. More than 120 billion dollars is to be spent over the next three years. Correspondents say the availability of health care in China has been greatly reduced in rural areas in the last two decades while costs have soared beyond the means of many.
World News from the BBC.
President Obama has spoken by telephone to the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, as well as those of Egypt and Jordan. A spokesman for the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Mr. Obama had promised to make every effort to achieve peace while the Israeli prime minister said he had briefed the US president on the situation in Gaza. The Palestinian Hamas movement which Mr. Obama did not speak to urged President Obama to learn from the mistakes of his predecessor.
A court in the Netherlands has ordered that a controversial right-wing politician should stand trial for inciting hatred against Muslims. Geert Wilders made a film juxtaposing verses from the Koran with clips of violent attacks by radical Islamists. The ruling overturned a decision last year by Dutch prosecutors not to take action. Mr. Wilders' film provoked an outcry in the Islamic world, but he said he stood by it and deplored the decision to prosecute him.(www.hxen.net)
"It's an assault on the freedom of speech. I'm an elected parliamentarian, more than half a million people voted on me, and I just speak out what a lot of people think that the Islamization of the Netherlands is something to be concerned of at least, and probably the prosecutor also was of that opinion. But unfortunately today, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal decided that I should be prosecuted."
Scientists say the effect of global warming on Antarctica is worse than previously thought. They say its temperature has risen by half a degree Celsius in the last fifty years across the continent, and not just on the edges as earlier research indicated. In an article published in the journal Nature, American scientists warn that if the trend continues, it may lead to a significant melting in western Antarctica.
A new study suggests there're fewer mountain gorillas left than previously thought in one of the last two refuges on earth. The scientists, who used a new method and counted the animals by analyzing the DNA from their dung, say 302 gorillas living in Uganda's Bwindi national park, 34 less than previously thought.
BBC News.
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