BBC news 2011-03-29 加文本

BBC news 2011-03-29

BBC News with Jonathan Wheatley

Libyan rebels who have been advancing west along the coast towards Colonel Gaddafi’s strongholds have been stopped by gunfire from government forces. Ben Brown sent this report from the oil town of Ras Lanuf which some of the rebels have fallen back to.

It’s been a bad day for the rebels. It began with them claiming that they had taken Sirte, Colonel Gaddafi’s birthplace and hometown. That claim turned out to be wildly premature. In fact, the rebels have been stopped just beyond the town of Bin Jawad, many miles from Sirte. Rebels told us they have been ambushed by Gaddafi loyalists from the desert and from the beach. The great rebel advance of the weekend appears to have been halted in its track, for now at least.

A senior American military official has denied that the United States is directly supporting Libyan rebels. Speaking at a news conference in the Pentagon, Vice Admiral William Goldoni gave this assessment of the conflict.

Opposition forces are in control of Ajdabiya and have pushed west to within eighty miles of Sirte. We believe the regime is preparing to dig in at Sirte, setting up a number of check points and placing tanks throughout the city. Likewise for Zintan, where we assessed the regime is preparing to reinforce existing positions. Reporting from Misrata indicates heavy fighting, particularly near the city centre.

Earlier the leaders of France and Britain called on Libyans to begin preparing for a new era without Colonel Gaddafi. In a joint statement, Nicola Sarkozy and David Cameron said Colonel Gaddafi must go immediately. They urged his supporters to drop him before it was too late. The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the international air strikes against Libyan government forces had gone beyond protecting civilians and amounted to interference in a civil war.

Forces loyal to the internationally recognised President of Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara, have taken the western town of Duekoue after heavy fighting there. The strategically important town is the fifth Mr Ouattara’s forces have taken in their fight against forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, who refuses to give up the presidency. John James reports.

Officials in the pro-Ouattara forces say their fighters have started moving south over a former ceasefire line after being attacked by militia groups and mercenaries loyal to President Gbagbo. These claims are difficult to verify, but what is clear is that the former rebels are themselves on the offensive on two additional fronts. In public at least, the state army has remained loyal to President Gbagbo, but the majority of the army voted for his rival Alassane Ouattara and outside of key battalions like the Republican Guard, there is little enthusiasm for a fight.

John James reporting.

Russian officials say the air force has bombed an Islamist training base in the Russian Republic of Ingushetia, killing 17 rebels. They said the base was used to train suicide bombers.

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A massive explosion at an ammunition factory in Yemen has killed at least 78 people. The blast near the southern town of Jaar injured dozens of others and could be heard up to 15 kilometres away. The explosion occurred as local people looted the factory a day after it had briefly been taken over in a raid by a group of armed men.

The President of football’s governing body, FIFA, has criticised Brasil, saying it needs to accelerate preparations for the next World Cup Finals in 2014. Sepp Blatter said Brasil was behind where the previous host South Africa were at a similar stage. Work on many of the stadiums is behind schedule and political squabbles have delayed the decision about which Brasilian city will host the draw for the qualify rounds.

The former American President Jimmy Carter has arrived in Cuba at the start of a three-day private visit. He is expected to meet the Cuban President Raul Castro and discuss the case of an imprisoned US contractor that strained relations between the two countries. Michael Voss reports from Havana.

Jimmy Carter flew into Havana aboard a private executive jet. It’s widely expected that he will try to use his influence to help secure the release of the imprisoned American contractor, Alan Gross. Earlier this month, Mr Gross was sentenced to 15 years in jail for supplying illegal satellite and other communications equipment to the island's small Jewish community. The Obama administration has made it clear that there can be no further major US initiatives to ease relations as long as he remains behind the bars.

The European Commission has proposed that petrol and diesel cars be banned from European city centres by 2050. The Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas said there needs to be a profound shift in travel patterns to reduce emissions and reliance on oil. He said travel was a basic right and the European Union must not curb people’s mobility but should instead pursue cleaner technologies.

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