BBC在线收听下载:委内瑞拉总统查韦斯谋求第三次连任

BBC news 2012-10-05

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The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he has no intention of starting a war with Syria, but he warned nobody should test Turkey's determination to defend its citizens. He was speaking after a vote in parliament following a cross-border mortar attack on Wednesday. James Robbins reports.

Turkish MPs voted to authorize their troops to attack targets across the border inside Syria. But Turkish Deputy Prime Minister insisted this was a deterrent not a mandate for war. Turkey has already been firing at targets inside Syria since yesterday's Syrian shelling of the town of Akcakale which killed two women and three children. Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister said Syria had accepted responsibility for the deaths and apologized. Neither country seems to want a war and there is no appetite among Turkey's Nato allies for military conflict, but still the situation remains dangerous.

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has expressed alarm about escalating tensions along the Syrian-Turkish border. Reporting from the UN Babra Plett.

The Secretary General said the risks of regional conflict were increasing as the situation inside Syria deteriorated. As with the threat to international peace and security, he called on all concern to exercise maximum restraint. A draft security council statement also expressed alarm about the Syrian crisis spilling over into neighboring states. But Russia had blocked its adoption and proposed a weaker text that takes other reference to violation of the international law.

On the eve of a major opposition rally, King of Abdullah of Jordan has dissolved parliament and called early elections. Friday's protests have been called by the main opposition party, the Islamic Action Front. Sebastian Usher reports.

Tens of thousands of protesters are expected to rally in the capital Amman urging faster reform. A counter-demonstration by supporters of King Abdullah has been cancelled for fear it would provoke clashes. The King has prided himself on the fact which Jordan had avoided the unrest unleashed elsewhere in the Middle East by the Arab s spring, but economic problems are fueling calls for change. The king has dissolved the parliaments and sacked prime ministers before to show he's responsive to public dissatisfaction, but it was exactly the wielding of that kind of power for the opposition beliefs should be reformed.

Efforts to form a new government in Libya has suffered a setback with proposed list of ministers failing to get parliamentary approval. The Prime Minister-elect Mustafa Abu Shagur has been reported saying he's withdrawn the plans but some deputies said they had rejected the cabinet line-up.

The World't biggest online social networking site Facebook says it now has more than one billion active users. Its chief executives Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement by updating his online status. He also said around 600 million people access the service through mobile phones. Analysts say sustained growth in emerging markets is crucial if Facebook is to maintain its value.

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The Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has promised to carry on with his program of social reforms and eradicate poverty in Venezuela, if he is voted in for a third-term in Sunday's election. Tens of thousands of people gathered under heavy rain in the Venezuelan capital Caracas for his final rally in a tightly contested presidential election. The main opposition candidate Henrique Capriles is expected to match or exceed those crowds as he speaks in the western city Barquisimeto.

Beekeepers in northeastern France have been left with an unusually multi-colored harvest this year after their bees were found to have been making green and blue honey. The Beekeepers found the insects have been avoiding the pleasant values of Alsace in favor of a sticky residue found in waste from discarded sweet containers. The waste had originated at the factory where the chocolate maker Mars makes its sugar-coated sweets M&Ms. Andrew Frey, the President of the local beekeepers' federation, says the color was rather a surprise.

We realized something was up because we had different colours of cells in their honeycombs It started with blue ones, then brown, red, green, we had all kinds of color in our hives. And the colleague who are extracting the honey had multi-colored honeys, blue honey and so on.

The plant responsible for waste says it's now moved the containers indoors. The honey has now been poured away.

The Veteran South African anti-apartheid campaigner Archbishop Desmond Tutu has received a special prize worth $1m from a foundation which promotes good governance in Africa. The Mo Ibrahim Foundation said the Nobel peace laureate has spent a lifetime promoting justice freedom and democracy. The founder of the London based foundation, the Sudanese born billionaire Mo Ibrahim said that South Africa's heroic past was in danger been eclipsed by muddled violent present.

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