BBC news 2009-03-28 加文本

BBC 2009-03-28


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BBC News with Mike Cooper.

President Obama has spelt out his new plans to tackle militancy in Afghanistan and Pakistan, describing the situation there as increasingly perilous. He said the United States was clear about what it had to achieve.

We are in Afghanistan to confront a common enemy that threatens the United States, our friends and our allies, and the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan who have suffered the most at the hands of violent extremists. So I want the American people to understand that we have a clear and focused goal, to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Mr. Obama proposed spending 1.5 billion dollars on Pakistan in each of the next five years to help build new schools, roads and other infrastructure. He confirmed that he would send an additional 4,000 US troops to help train Afghan security forces.

The Prime Minister of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari has welcomed President Obama’s new strategy, saying it would strengthen democracy in his country. The Afghan government said Mr. Obama had recognized that the al-Qaeda threat came mainly from Pakistan and that it was a regional problem.

The President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev has told the Russian armed forces to move towards ending their ten-year security operation against guerillas in Chechnya. But President Medvedev said the security forces should continue to monitor the situation there as well as in Russia’s other southern republics.

The situation surrounding the Chechen Republic has largely been brought to normal. I believe it is necessary to consider the issue of the legal regime of the counter-terrorist operation which is in place in the Chechen Republic at a session of the National Anti-terrorist Committee, and to make the necessary decision.

The Prime Minister of Zimbabwe’s power-sharing government Morgan Tsvangirai has warned people who invade the country’s commercial farms that they would be arrested and prosecuted. President Robert Mugabe has pursued a policy of land redistribution by encouraging black Zimbabweans to seize white-owned farms. Here’s Peter Biles.

Morgan Tsvangirai said most of the on-going disruption on the farms was occurring in the name of the land reform process. But in fact, these were acts of theft. He said those responsible would be arrested and face justice. For too long, a culture of entitlement and impunity has stained Zimbabwean society. Mr. Tsvangirai said it was important to restore the rule of law otherwise there would be no economic growth. This was the prime minister’s first major public speech since the death of his wife in a car accident three weeks ago.

The International Olympic Committee has decided to end worldwide relays of the Olympic torch after pro-Tibet protests disrupted the route to the Beijing Games, following chaotic scenes as protestors tried to snatch the flame last year, all future relays will take place within the host country.       

World News from the BBC.

The children’s charity Save the Children has asked the pop singer Madonna to reconsider her reported intention to adopt another child from Malawi. The charity said International Adoption fed a system which resulted in children being abducted from their homes or abandoned by their parents. A spokesman for Save the Children Dominic Nutt said international adoption should only be considered as a last resort. 

Should it be the case that the child really really really has no immediate family or extended family who can look after her or him. Then the thing to do is to support the community, to support local agencies and charities who can look after the child so that the child is at least cared for in a caring way in their community. You cannot literally take every poor child who may have only one parent living or no parents living across the world and transport them all into Kensington in London. It’s not a solution.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has asked the government of the Philippines to consider the demands made by Islamist militants who are holding three Red Cross staff hostage. Imogen Foulkes sent this report from Geneva.

The three ICRC workers were taken hostage in mid-January by the militant Islamic group Abu Sayyaf. It’s believed that Philippines’ troops now have Abu Sayyaf surrounded and the militants have threatened to behead one of the hostages if the troops don’t pull back. The ICRC is now very worried about its three staff members and the organization’s President Jakob Kellenberger has taken the very unusual step of appealing to the government of the Philippines to consider the abductor’s demands to reposition its troops.(www.hXen.com)

Police in Italy have arrested a 64-year-old man accused of keeping his daughter locked up as a sex slave for 25 years in a case that’s being likened to the Josef Fritzl affair in Austria. The woman’s brother has also been arrested on suspicion of raping both her and his own four daughters.

BBC News.