BBC news 2012-01-04 加文本 讲解翻译

BBC news 2012-01-04

BBC News with Iain Purdon

A court in London has found two men guilty of killing a black teenager, Stephen Lawrence, nearly two decades ago. The men, David Norris and Gary Dobson, were both convicted of murder. Stephen Lawrence was stabbed to death at a London bus stop in 1993 in a racist attack. The case became a defining moment for race relations in Britain. Zoe Conway reports.

The murder, on the face of it, was not an especially hard case for the police to solve. Within hours of the attack, members of the local community were blaming local white youths. Yet, it took weeks for arrests to be made. The case fell apart. The police failed. Years later, a public inquiry would conclude that failure was a result of the Metropolitan police's "institutional racism". They were two words that would rock the British establishment. Sweeping changes to the way Britain's criminal justice system dealt with race would follow. Throughout it all, Stephen Lawrence's parents, Doreen and Neville, refused to give up on justice for their son: an 18-year campaign that would win the support of Nelson Mandela amongst others.

The United States has said it'll carry on sending aircraft carriers into the Gulf despite a warning from Iran to stay away. Earlier, the Iranian military threatened to take action if an American aircraft carrier that recently left the Gulf returned. Our defence correspondent Jonathan Marcus reports.

The USS John C Stennis, a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, exited the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz about a week ago just as Iranian naval exercises were getting underway. Today as the exercises ended, Iran's army chief warned the Americans to keep their carrier out of Gulf waters for good. The Pentagon, not surprisingly, has issued a swift riposte, a spokesman insisting that the existing pattern of US naval deployments will continue unchanged.

The price of crude oil has risen sharply on international markets because of concerns that Iran might seek to close the Strait of Hormuz - the main route for oil exports from the Gulf. In addition, the United States has passed a law tightening financial sanctions on Iran, and France is calling for an embargo on the country's oil.

There have been clashes between rival militias in the Libyan capital Tripoli. Four fighters were killed. Mark Lowen in Tripoli has the details.

Abdelhakim Belhadj of the Tripoli Military Council told assembled reporters that the clash centred on an old intelligence building bombed by Nato during the uprising, part of which contains a prison. A brigade from the city of Misrata came there to try to free prisoners held inside, leading to a confrontation with another armed group from Tripoli. Those killed and injured were from both brigades. It is yet another sign of the continuing security threat posed by the desperate militias comprising former rebels.

World News from the BBC

The United Nations in South Sudan says thousands of armed youths from a tribe responsible for violent attacks in the state of Jonglei have returned home. A UN spokeswoman said members of the Lou Nuer tribe left the town of Pibor after they were repelled by government troops. The South Sudan authorities say more than 150 people have been killed over the past few days in clashes between the Lou Nuer and its rival Murle tribe.

The first major test of opinion in this year's American presidential election campaign starts in a few hours' time. The Republicans will begin the process of choosing their candidate to fight President Obama at meetings known as caucuses in the Midwestern state of Iowa. Opinion polls suggest a close contest between the three front-runners: the former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney; Ron Paul, a Texas congressman; and Rick Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania. From Iowa, here's Jonny Dymond.

In school gyms and town halls across the state of Iowa, the race for the Republican Party's presidential nomination will start tonight. Iowa remains important. It can boost a struggling candidate or send one hurtling from the race. From here, the surviving candidates will be sent on a gruelling journey hopping from one state to another, their aim - to go to the Republican convention in August with the votes of half of the convention delegates in the bag. Only then will the party declare a candidate to face Barack Obama in the autumn.

The English Football Association says Liverpool will not appeal against the eight-match ban on Luis Suarez for racially abusing an opponent during a match. The suspension begins immediately. The Uruguayan striker was also fined $62,000 for repeatedly calling the Senegalese-born Manchester United defender Patrice Evra "negro" or "negrito" during a match. Suarez denies the words were racist.

BBC News