BBC news 2009-02-28 加文本

BBC 2009-02-28


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BBC News with Blerry Gogan.

President Barack Obama has said all American combat forces will leave Iraq by August next year. The withdrawal was one of his campaign promises. Announcing the plan, Mr. Obama said that up to 50,000 US troops of more than 140,000 currently in Iraq would remain there to train and advise the Iraqi security forces. But all American forces he said will pull out by the end of 2011.

"The United States will pursue a new strategy to end the war in Iraq through a transition to full Iraqi responsibility. This strategy is grounded in a clear and achievable goal shared by the Iraqi people and the American people: an Iraq that is sovereign, stable and self-reliant."

An American court has indicted the last terrorism suspect who’d been held without charges at a military prison in the United States. The man, Ali al-Marri, was arrested in the United States in 2001, and later designated an enemy combatant by the Bush administration. / / has more.

Ali al-Marri will now be transferred from a prison in South Carolina where he’s been held for more than five years to Illinois to face trial in a civilian court. He's been charged with conspiracy to provide material support and providing material support to Al-Qaeda. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. The decision by the Obama administration to try Mr. al-Marri in the US court system marks a significant policy shift from the administration of his predecessor.

The United States says its economy contracted more sharply at the end of last year than initially estimated. The Commerce Department says gross domestic product fell at an annual rate of 6.2% during the last three months of 2008, the steepest slide in 25 years. Its initial estimate had been 3.8%. The department said a major element in the decline had been businesses and consumers cutting back on spending.

The head of Bangladesh’s armed forces, General Moeen U Ahmed, has promised the military support for the government after a mutiny by border guards in which 140 army officers were killed. The assurances came after he met the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. There have been reports of discontent within the army at the way that the crisis was dealt with. From Dhaka, Mark Dummett reports.

Several army officers serving in Dhaka have told the BBC that many within the Bangladeshi military are unhappy at the way the mutiny was handled by the government, and are upset that as many as 140 of their fellow officers have been killed. They complained that the government should have given the army the order to quell the mutiny by Bangladesh Rifles border guards by force. The officers are also angry that the government initially offered the mutineers an amnesty, though it has since said that those responsible for the killings would be punished.

World News from the BBC.

The leader of Israel’s Kadima party, Tzipi Livni, says she will not join a government led by her right-wing rival, the Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu. She said her latest talks with Mr. Netanyahu had ended without agreement on key issues and that her party would form what she called a responsible opposition. Mr. Netanyahu was asked by the Israeli President Shimon Peres to form a coalition government following elections earlier this month.

A prosecutor in Turkey has ordered the authorities to excavate several sites in the southeast of the country following reports of the bodies of Kurdish civilians killed during fighting in the region were buried there. Sarah Rainsford reports from Istanbul.

Hundreds of Kurdish civilians are still missing, presumed dead, since the height of the Kurdish conflict in the region in the mid 1990s. Human rights lawyers say most were last seen with members of the Turkish security forces. Lawyers began pushing for permission to dig certain sites, after a former security officer now in hiding abroad,  gave information about the torture and execution of Kurdish civilians.

The United Nations Refugee Agency says 40,000 Somalis have returned to their homes in the capital Mogadishu in the past six weeks. The UN said many families arrived to find their homes and belongings there had been completely destroyed. The agency said most of those returning to the city had come from southern and central parts of Somalia that are experiencing renewed conflict and severe drought.

An American government official has said the United States will not participate in a United Nations conference on racism in April. The State Department is expected to announce the decision officially very soon. Canada and Israel have already said they will boycott the meeting. At a similar conference in South Africa eight years ago, the American and Israeli delegations walked out in protest against a draft resolution singling out Israel for criticism and likening Zionism to racism.

BBC News.

Glossary:(www.hXen.com)

ground: If an argument, belief, or opinion is grounded in something, that thing is used to justify it. =base

self-reliant: If you are self-reliant, you are able to do things and make decisions by yourself, without needing other people to help you. =independent

single out: If you single something out from a group, you choose them and give them special attention or treatment.