BBC在线收听下载:马里临时总统将宣誓就职

BBC news 2012-04-11

BBC News with Neil Nunes

One of the Republican party candidates for the US presidential nomination, Rick Santorum, says he will drop out of the race, making Mitt Romney the most likely challenger for President Obama in November. Mr Santorum made the announcement in his home state of Pennsylvania with his family at his side. Peter Bowes reports from Washington.

Rick Santorum was barely known around America when he launched his presidential campaign a year ago. The Republican from Pennsylvania positioned himself as the only true conservative in the race. He attacked his opponent and the front-runner Mitt Romney for being out of touch with the needs of ordinary people. But Rick Santorum, who rose quickly in the polls, could not sustain his initial popularity. In suspending his campaign, he said he would continue to fight for, as he put it, American greatness and the defeat of Barack Obama.

Sudan says its largest oil field Heglig is under the control of the South Sudanese military. South Sudan has acknowledged that its military has advanced to the oil field, but both sides deny starting the fighting. James Copnall is in Khartoum.

Colonel Khalid Sawarmi admitted the Sudanese army had been defeated outside Heglig and had retreated to the north. He said his men had not started the battle. A spokesman for South Sudan's armed forces acknowledged his troops advanced to Heglig, but stopped short of claiming control of the oil fields. Colonel Philip Aguer told the BBC his troops were responding to air and ground attacks by the Sudanese armed forces. Heglig is generally considered to be part of Sudan, but South Sudan disputes this.

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The international envoy Kofi Annan says Syria has failed to send any signal of peace, and told the UN Security Council its army is continuing rolling military operations against civilian targets despite its promise to stop. In a letter to the council, Mr Annan said Syria must implement significant and visible change if a ceasefire is to be implemented before Thursday's deadline.

World News from the BBC

The Prime Minister of Denmark, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, has called on Bahrain to release a jailed human rights campaigner who's been refusing food for two months. Mrs Thorning-Schmidt told journalists in Copenhagen that Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who has Danish citizenship, was now in a very critical condition. Earlier, the Bahraini authorities said Mr al-Khawaja was in good health.

The constitutional court in Mali has paved the way for an interim civilian president to take over from military leaders who recently staged a coup in the country. The court ruled that the post of president was vacant, leaving the speaker of parliament, Dioncounda Traore, to take over as head of state. On Sunday, the deposed President Amadou Toumani Toure stepped down. Tiebile Drame is head of Mali's political party Parena. He told the BBC he welcomed the ruling.

"First of all, the 1992 constitution has been restored; and the second step should be the implementation of the article 36 of the constitution. This means we're swearing in of the interim president, which is going to happen on Thursday morning."

The American ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, says the Security Council will have to respond swiftly and credibly if North Korea goes ahead with its plan to launch a long-range rocket in the next few days. Earlier, North Korea said it was completing preparations to launch a satellite to commemorate the centenary of the birth of its founding leader Kim Il-sung.

The manager of the Miami Marlins baseball team, Ozzie Guillen, has been suspended for five games after he praised the former Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Mr Guillen provoked outrage among Miami's large Cuban exile community when he told Time magazine he loved Mr Castro and respected the way he had stayed in power for nearly half a century.

BBC World News