BBC在线收听下载:奥巴马对以巴冲突造成平民伤亡表示遗憾

BBC news 2012-11-18

BBC News with Jonathan Izard.

The Israeli armed forces say there are still hundreds of targets they want to attack inside Gaza on the fourth day of their operation against the Palestinian group Hamas, the Israeli said militants launched more than 160 rockets in 24 hours. Forty Palestinians including several children have been killed since the fighting began. Richard Galpin reports from Jerusalem.

Israeli air force insists it has now destroyed at least 90% of the long-range missiles stockpiled in Gaza. But officials here would not say how long the operation will last, nor whether there will also be a ground offensive by troops which have been moving close to the Gaza border with tanks and artillery. An Israeli army spokesman told the BBC, the troops were ready to invade, but so far there has been no decision by the government.

The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been holding talks on the Gaza crisis with the Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi. In a speech at Cairo University, Mr Erdogan said Israel would be held to account for the children it had killed in Gaza. Before travelling to Egypt, Mr Erdogan spoke on the phone with the American President Barack Obama, but the White House said it wanted to de-escalate the fighting. From Washington here's Kim Ghattas.

The Obama administration has deplored the loss of civilian life on both sides, but repeatedly said it supports Israel's right to self-defense. In private, American officials are urging against an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza. But Israel's ambassador to Washington Michael Oren said he believed the US has given Israel full backing to take whatever measures were needed. Palestinian officials have complained Washinton's position is too one-sided and doesn't take into account with they say as Israel's disproportional response.

Polls have closed in presidential and parliamentary elections in Sierra Leone. There have been no reported incidents of violence, and the turnout seems to have been high. Julius Maada Bio is the main challenger to the incumbent Ernest Bai Koroma.

The United Nations Security Council is holding an emergency session to discuss the escalating conflict in the eastern Democratic Republica of Congo. Earlier UN helicopter gunships hit rebel positions as fighting continued between the Congolese army and the M23 rebel group. From the UN in New York, here's Barbara Plett.

It was France that called the emergency meeting. The French ambassador Gerard Araud told journalists he hoped the council would send a clear signal to M23 rebels to stop their attacks. The UN mission in eastern Congo said its helicopters bombarded M23 positions in the town of Kibumba on Saturday, after the rebels launched an offensive there with heavy weapons. According to the local governor, the Congolese army retreated because the insurgences were backed by Rwandan troops that something Kigali has denied. But UN experts say they do have evidence of Rwandan support for the rebels. And this week, they asked the Security Council to sanction senior Rwandan officials as a result.

World News from the BBC

Fifty young children have been killed in Egypt in a collision between a nursery school bus and train, the bus driver also died. The accident happened at a railway level crossing in the province of Assiut. Reports said the crossing barriers were left open, and the man in charge of them was also asleep. The transport minister and the head of the state railway authority have resigned.

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Restaurants shops and businesses have been closed in the Indian city of Mumbai following the death affair of the Hindu nationalist politician Bal Thackeray. The founder and leader of the right-wing Shiv Sena Party was 86, his funeral will be held on Sunday. Known for his fiery rhetoric, Bal Thackeray gained national and international notoriety when he was blamed for inciting tensions between Hindu and Muslims communities during the 1993 Mumbai riots.

The Sri Lanka army has added more than 100 Tamil women to its ranks in an apparent move to promote ethnic reconciliation. The soldiers were inducted in a ceremony at a former stronghold of the rebel Tamil Tigers in northern Kilinochchi. Correspondents say it's the first time the country's overwhelmingly similar army has recruited such a large group of female Temil soldiers.

BBC World Service News