BBC在线收听下载:欧盟坚持征收碳排放税

音频与PDF文档打包下载

BBC news 2012-03-13

BBC News with David Austin

The White House says the killing of 16 Afghans by an American soldier on Sunday won't change its strategy or objectives in the country. It said the plan was still for Afghans to take over security operations by 2014. The Afghan parliament has demanded to put the suspect on trial in an Afghan court. From Kabul, here's Quentin Sommerville.

The identity of the gunman still hasn't been revealed, but more is known. He's in his late 30s and has children of his own. A staff sergeant, he's been in the army 11 years. This is his first tour of Afghanistan, but he served three tours in Iraq. The Pentagon insists he acted alone. Fully armed, he was wearing night-vision goggles as he carried out the killings. He was working with special forces in the area protecting their combat outpost. That, said one officer, would have allowed him to come and go as he pleased. But his motivation for the attacks remains a mystery.

The American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has told United Nations Security Council foreign ministers gathered to discuss Syria that the council shouldn't remain silent when governments massacre their own people. Mrs Clinton accused the Syrian forces of premeditated murder and urged the council to stand up for the Syrian people.

"The Syrian people deserve the same opportunity to shape their future that the Tunisians, Egyptians, Libyans and Yemenis now enjoy. And our work here at the Security Council is just one part of what the international community must do to assist democratic transitions all across the Middle East and North Africa."

Earlier, opposition activists in Syria accused the government of President Bashar al-Assad of slaughtering women and children in Homs and other cities. The opposition Syrian National Council called for urgent foreign military intervention in Syria. SNC representatives are due to meet the international envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, in Turkey on Tuesday.

Hundreds of mourners have paid their respects to one of the world's most celebrated war correspondents, Marie Colvin. She was killed last month in the Syrian city of Homs. The funeral was held in her home town of Oyster Bay in New York state. The eulogy paid tribute to a fearless woman who had a passion for her work. Marie Colvin was covering the uprising in Syria for the British Sunday Times newspaper when the house she and other journalists were reporting from was shelled by Syrian government forces. A French photo journalist, Remi Ochlik, was also killed in the attack.

The authorities in South Sudan say that more than 200 people are now known to have been killed in an outbreak of ethnic violence. Hundreds more are missing after attackers from the Murle ethnic group carried out raids in Upper Nile state on Friday. Violence sparked by cattle raids and revenge attacks between the Murle and Lou Nuer peoples have left thousands dead since South Sudan became independent last July.

World News from the BBC

The head of Brazil's football federation, Ricardo Teixeira, has stepped down. He also resigned from the 2014 World Cup organising committee amid corruption allegations, which he's denied. Here's Alex Capstick.

Ricardo Teixeira has been at the helm of Brazilian football, the CBF, for the past 23 years. But his stint in charge of the most successful nation in World Cup history has often been contentious. Over the past few years, he's been forced to defend himself amid allegations of corruption both in his role as president of the CBF and as a senior member of Fifa's ruling executive committee. In a parting statement, Mr Teixeira said he had sacrificed his health to do his job. He said he had been criticised in the losses and undervalued in the victories.

The European Union has insisted it'll press ahead with plans to charge foreign airlines for the carbon emissions they produce during European flights. Nine of Europe's leading aviation groups have written a joint letter calling for a compromise to avert what they say would be a damaging trade conflict.

A controversial art historian, Maurizio Seracini, says he's on the trail of a lost masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci, The Battle of Anghiari. Professor Seracini says samples from a hidden wall in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence contain traces of paint that was only used by the Renaissance master. The work is hidden behind another masterpiece of the period by Giorgio Vasari. The discovery has been hailed by Terry Garcia of the US National Geographic Society, which sponsored the research.

"I'm quite convinced that something has been found, and yes, it is a very historic day. And you know, I mean, this is a combination of a number of factors: one, as Doctor Seracini pointed out, there is overwhelming historical documentation that indicates that the Leonardo was painted, that it was behind the wall and that it was in existence at the time that Vasari painted his fresco."

And those are the latest stories from BBC News.