BBC在线收听下载:国际货币基金组织警告美国的削减开支措施

BBC news 2013-03-01

BBC News with Marion Marshall.

The papacy of Benedict XVI has now formally come to an end. In the first papal resignation for 600 years, Benedict handed his authority over to his deputy. Benedict will reside at the palace south of Rome while a group of Cardinals chooses the next head of the Roman Catholic Church. James Robbins reports.

A bell chimed the hour of the Castel Gandolfo, the Papal summer residence, the Swiss Guards swung shut and bolted the massive outer doors, they saluted and hung up their halberts. Inside, out of sight, Benedict has ceased to be head of the Catholic Church. There will be no pontiff to protect until the Cardinal electors chose his successor in a few weeks time. Earlier, Benedict XVI used the last few hours as Pope to greet each of the Cardinals in turn. He acknowledged that his eight years in power had seen both radiant light and clouds darkening the sky over the Church.

The US soldier accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of documents to the Wikileaks website has pleaded not guilty to the charge of aiding the enemy. But Bradley Manning ended a guilty plea to lesser charges. Here's Paul Adams.

Bradley Manning doesn't deny providing Wikileaks with around half a million classified documents, but he does dispute the charge that he did this to aid America's enemies. As expected he said he was pleading guilty to 10 of the 22 charges against him. If the judge accepts his plea, Private Manning could still face up to 20 years in prison, but not the life sentence the government is seeking. He said he had wanted to start a public debate about the role of the military and about foreign policy in general. The classified documents represented, what he called, the underground realities of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

At least 30 people have been killed and hundreds injured in protests across Bangladesh after an Islamist leader was sentenced to death for his role in the war of independence against Pakistan. Delwar Hossain Sayeedi of the Jamaat-e-Islami party was found guilty of crimes including murder and torture. This report from Anbarasan Ethirajan in Dhaka.

Protesters damaged cars and fought pitched battles with police in the southern city of Chittagong soon after the Islamist leader was sentenced to death. In the northern Gaibandha district, around 2,000 supporters of the Jamaat-e-Islami went on a rampage in protest of the verdict. Three policemen were beaten to death, there are reports of intense clashes between security forces and protesters in many districts resulting in the death of dozens of people. In the southern region, houses and temples of minority Hindu community were burnt down.

The former president of Haiti Jean-Claude Duvalier has appeared in court for hearing about human rights abuses during his rule in the 1970s and 80s. The court will decide whether Mr Duvalier, known as Baby Doc, should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. He denies the charges.

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The International Monetary Fund is warning that billions of dollars of government spending cuts in the Untied States will have an impact on global economic growth. The measures are due to take effect automatically on Friday unless President Obama can reach a deal with Republicans in Congress. The IMF says that if the cuts are fully implemented, the impact on the America's economic growth this year would be 0.6 percentage points.

The US Secretary of State John Kerry has, for the first time, pledged direct American assistance to the armed opposition in Syria. In a move which's been seen as a major policy shift, the American aid will include food and medical supplies, but not weapons.

The Deputy Prime Minister of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta has told the BBC that the pressure of waiting trial at the International Criminal Court has been hard for him and his family, but he maintains his innocence. He is one of the front-runners for the post of president in Monday's elections, but he is facing trial at the ICC for allegedly orchestrating violence after the disputed 2007 election. However, Mr Kenyatta said it was important to focus on the country's future.

We are very clear as to what we need to do for this country to move forward. And what I'm doing is not just for myself, it's actually for this whole nation to be able, first and foremost, to heal and to move forward, in order for us to able to ensure that this kind of scenario never occurs in Kenya again, and no other individual has to go through what I have gone through.

The health ministry in Israel is setting up a committee to investigate why contraceptive injections were widely given to Ethiopian immigrated women. It will look into allegations the steps were a deliberate attempt to reduce births in the Ethiopian-Israeli community. The move follows an Israeli television documentary that claimed a number of Ethiopian women had been given the injections against their will.

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