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BBC news 2009-11-03 加文本
BBC 2009-11-03
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BBC News with David Austin.
President Obama has congratulated Hamid Karzai on his re-election as president of Afghanistan, but he’s called for a new chapter there, including greater efforts to eradicate corruption. His remarks came after Afghanistan’s Election Commission cancelled the second round of the presidential poll and declared Mr. Karzai the winner, following the withdrawal of his only opponent, Abdullah Abdullah. Paul Adams reports from Washington.
President Obama has been quick to put his administration’s weight behind Hamid Karzai, but with qualifications. He called the election messy and outlined the need for what he termed a new chapter of improved governance, including efforts to combat corruption. The proof of the Karzai government, he said, would be in its deeds, not its words. As for how the apparent end to Afghanistan’s election crisis will affect the administration’s deliberations, already weeks long, over whether or not to send more troops to Afghanistan, the White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, in what has become a familiar refrain, said that decision was still some weeks away.
A suicide bombing in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi has killed 35 people. Two bombers on a motorbike blew themselves up near the army’s headquarters. In Lahore, a car blew up injuring about 15 people.
Human Rights Watch has accused the United Nations of being complicit in human rights atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Earlier, the UN suspended support for some Congolese army units saying they had deliberately killed civilians. Mary Harper reports.
Human Rights Watch said it was accusing the United Nations of complicity because it continued to support the Congolese army despite knowing that it had been accused of war crimes. The campaign group said government troops had massacred more than 500 civilians since March. Many had been shot at close range or hacked to death with machetes. Human Rights Watch said the UN’s decision to suspend support for some army units did not go far enough. It needed to stop helping altogether until abusive commanders were removed and civilians fully protected.
The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, has added his voice to calls for Iran to respond speedily to his latest proposal aimed at defusing tensions over its nuclear programme. He was giving his final report to the UN General Assembly before stepping down. Here’s Barbara Plett.
Mohamed ElBaradei spoke of lessons learned during his ten years. He said he continued to lament that Iraq had been invaded on what he called a false pretext despite the lack of evidence it was making weapons of mass destruction. And he urged member states to let diplomacy and verification take their course when dealing with Iran, which is also suspected of trying to build a nuclear bomb, something it denies. But he called on Tehran to respond quickly to his proposal aimed at defusing the tensions over its nuclear programme, that is, to ship most of its stock of nuclear fuel outside the country for further enrichment.
That report from Barbara Plett.
World News from the BBC.
The prosecutor of The Hague has accused the former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic of having direct responsibility for the massacre at Srebrenica in 1995, in which 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed. He said Mr. Karadzic’s only regret was that some Muslims had got away. Mr. Karadzic again boycotted the trial, but said he would attend on Tuesday.
A scientific report has found that snow and ice on Africa’s highest mountain Kilimanjaro is melting rapidly and could vanish within 20 years. The US study, which the researchers say is the first to calculate the volume of ice lost on the mountain, found that the main ice sheet had shrunk by 85% since 1912. Another glacier has shrunk by as much as 50% in the past nine years.
An American warship, whose hull contains steel salvaged from the debris of the World Trade Center in New York, has paid an inaugural visit to the scene of the 2001 attacks. The ship, named the USS New York, sailed up the Hudson River to approach the site of the twin towers. Matthew Price was watching.
The USS New York glided into the city’s harbour, its bow cutting through the grey chilly waters, a bow made in part with 7.5 tons of steel reclaimed from the wreckage of the World Trade Center towers. A symbol of this country‘s vulnerability now forged into a military symbol of strength. In the Hudson River close to where those towers stood and fell, the warship fired a 21-gun salute. Along the riverside, the families of those killed on 9/11 and those who tried to rescue them watched in quiet contemplation.
The Italian football club AC Milan has confirmed that the England star David Beckham is to rejoin the team on loan from the American side LA Galaxy. Beckham says he’s keen to play for Milan again to maximize his chances of making the England squad for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
And that’s the latest BBC News.