BBC news 2009-10-11 加文本

BBC 2009-10-11


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BBC World News with Deborah Mackenzie.

After decades of hostility and a last-minute delay, Armenia and Turkey have taken a huge step towards reconciliation by signing accords at a ceremony in Switzerland attended by the foreign ministers of Russia, France and the United States. It’d been delayed by three hours after objections about the planned wording of the statements. In the end, no statements were made. Turkish-Armenian relations have been bitter since the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman forces during the First World War. Kim Ghattas reports from Zurich.

The Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian signed two protocols to establish diplomatic ties and to reopen the borders. The agreement was mediated by Switzerland but both President Barack Obama and the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had been quietly pressing the parties to take this historic step forward. But the agreement must still be ratified by the Turkish and Armenian parliaments amidst continued fierce opposition from nationalist parties in both countries.

Suspected Taliban militants in Pakistan are holding up to 15 army officers hostage after an attack on the military’s main headquarters in Rawalpindi. Four attackers and six soldiers were killed as the militants approached the compound. The army says four or five gunmen managed to get through. Our Islamabad correspondent Aleem Maqbool reports.

To attack one of the most heavily secured places in Pakistan in the middle of a day and then to take hostages shows a new level of audacity on the part of the militants here. The army says the attackers wearing military uniform approached its main headquarters opening fire and throwing hand grenades triggering an hour long battle with security guards. As night fell on Rawalpindi, sporadic gunfire resumed. The military now has the delicate task of trying to rescue its personnel inside its own compound.

The Pakistani government and its military leadership have agreed to present their concerns to Washington over a proposed aid package which requires Pakistan civilian authorities to demonstrate their control over the army. The army has already expressed serious concern over clauses in the multi-billion-dollar aid package which it says could have a negative impact on Pakistani security.

The French military has confirmed that troops on French fishing vessels in the Indian Ocean have for the first time shot at suspected pirates. The French military began operations to protect the country’s fishermen off the coast of Somalia more than three months ago. Marcus Air reports.

A French military spokesman said soldiers on board two French fishing boats opened fire when they were approached by suspected pirates. The spokesman said there were no casualties but he alleged assailants were forced to flee. The incident occurred about 350km north of the Seychelles. Reports say a Seychelles coastguard vessel later captured what is believed to be the pirates’ mother ship and the smaller boat involved in the attempted attack.

World News from the BBC.

A news agency in Iran says three people detained after June’s disputed presidential election have been sentenced to death. One of those sentenced to death was said to be a member of a pro-monarchist group. Sarah Rainsford reports.

Thousands of opposition supporters were arrested and more than a hundred put on trial after the demonstrations this June. They were protesting the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president in a vote they believe was rigged. Iranian analysts and activists do point out that any death sentence in the country has to be confirmed by a higher court before it’s carried out. And they say harsh penalties are often handed down to intimidate detainees and are not necessarily enacted. Amnesty International though calls even the trial of opposition supporters a mockery of justice.

China, Japan and South Korea have declared their commitment to developing an East Asia community and seeking an early resumption of international talks with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program. At a summit in Beijing, the Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said that while his country’s alliance with the United States was important, he wanted to devise more Asia-focused policies.

Around 3,000 people have held a rally in the Russian city of St Petersburg to protest about plans to build a skyscraper there. The proposals for a 77--storey glass tower were given the go-ahead by city officials earlier this month. The protesters say the 400-metre tall structure would spoil the historic skyline in Russia’s former imperial capital.

The Argentine singer-songwriter Luis Aguille, who wrote more than 400 songs in his long career, has died of cancer at the age of 73 in a hospital near the Spanish capital Madrid. Luis Aguille had lived in Spain since 1963. He was best known for his international hits including Juanita Banana and Cuando Sali de Cuba that means when I left Cuba.

BBC News.