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BBC news 2009-06-24 加文本
BBC 2009-06-24
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BBC News with Joe Macintosh
In his strongest comments so far on the situation in Iran, President Obama has said the world is mourning for the loss of innocent lives and is appalled by the threats, beatings and imprisonments it’s seen. He called actions by the Iranian authorities unjust and forcefully rejected their accusations of outside interference. Kim Ghattas in Washington reports on President Obama’s condemnation of Iran.
In his comments, he seems to have heeded the advice from Democrats and Iran experts who’ve been advising the White House, Start to using more forceful language against the violence they’ve been saying, but avoid taking sides in Iran’s internal power struggle. So President Obama said he strongly condemned the unjust violence; that he was appalled and outraged by it; that he was struck by the courage of the demonstrators. He didn’t mention the name of a single Iranian leader and was careful to insist again that Washington respected Iran’s sovereignty and would not be used as a foil by the authorities there.
Iranian state media says the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has agreed to extend the deadline for receiving complaints about the presidential election by five days. The Guardian Council, the powerful constitutional oversight body, had said that this would help remove any remaining ambiguities. It had previously acknowledged some shortcomings, but said these didn’t alter Mr. Ahmadinejad’s victory. In another development, Britain has ordered two Iranian diplomats to leave the country following Iran’s expulsion of two British envoys. The Prime Minster Gordon Brown said the accusations of interference by Britain were without foundation. He made a statement to Members of Parliament.
I’m disappointed that Iran has placed us in this position, but we will continue to seek good relations with Iran and to call for the regime to respect the human rights and democratic freedoms of the Iranian people.
The British government has proposed / new legislation to clean up Parliament following the scandal over MP’s expenses, the Parliamentary Standards Bill creates new criminal offences to be policed by a full-time Parliamentary investigator. MPs who have knowingly made false expenses claims could face up to a year in prison, those who have failed to declare an interest could also face prosecution. A new body will be set up to regulate the expenses system.
Leading member countries of the OECD club of rich nations have backed to proposal to put pressure on countries that break their laws on tax havens. The plan threatens sanctions against those who flout the group’s rules. Roger Smith reports.
Germany and France have been leading an initiative to tackle tax havens backsliders. The aim is to pressure countries which offer foreigners favorable tax treatment into abiding by OECD rules. A meeting in Germany of twenty OECD members has backed a fresh Franco-German proposal that countries that drag their heels should face sanctions. These could include withholding payments and in extreme cases, treaties might be terminated.
World News from the BBC
The President of the Russian Republic of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov
says he’s been ordered by Moscow to help fight insurgents in the neighboring Republic of Ingushetia. Speaking to the Reuters News Agency, Mr. Bek Yevkurov said the Russian leadership had told him to intensify operations in both Chechnya and Ingushetia. The president of Ingushetia was severely wounded in an apparent assassination attempt on Monday.
An Indian court has issued arrest warrants for 22 Pakistani citizens suspected of organizing the attack on the Indian city of Mumbai last November that killed 166 people. Three of the warrants are for the founder and two leaders of the Pakistan-based Islamist movement. Lashkar-e-Taiba blamed by India for carrying out the attack. Pakistan has said that no one suspected of involvement would be extradited to India, but could be tried in Pakistani courts. The sole Pakistani gunman to survive the Mumbai attacks is on trial in India.
The French government has expressed disappointment of Mexico’s decision to make a French woman convicted of kidnapping serve a 60-year sentence in a Mexican jail. The Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he was very upset at Mexico’s refusal to allow the woman Florence Cassez to serve the sentence in France. Stephen Gibbs reports from Mexico City.
The case of Florence Cassez has long been controversial in both Mexico and France. She was arrested in 2005 at a ranch near Mexico City where three kidnapping victims, including an eight-year-old child, had been held for over two months. It later emerged that the arrest as seen by the public was in fact a reenactment staged by the police for the news media. Ms. Cassez has always said her only connection with the case was that she was the girlfriend of the man who’s understood to have been the lead kidnaper. But her victims identified her, and said she took an active role in their abductions.
BBC News.
(文本来源:普特论坛)
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