BBC在线收听下载:负责选择新一任教皇的枢机主教们抵达罗马

BBC news 2013-03-08

BBC news with Fiona MacDonald.

United Nation's Security Council has adopted new expanded sanctions on North Korea for carrying out a third nuclear test last month. The vote was unanimous after negotiations between the United States and China. Here is Barbara Plett. The resolution aims to impede the growth of North Korea's  nuclear and ballistic weapons programs. It strengthens measure to try and prevent Pyongyang from shipping and receiving banned cargo. And it puts new restrictions on financial dealings linked to North Korea's weapons activity including bulk cash transfers. China supported the measures, saying it was against the nuclear tests of its troublesome ally. The White House has rejected a threat from North Korea made before the UN resolution that it could launch a preemptive nuclear strike on America. The State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the US could deal with any missile threat.  The United States is fully capable of defending against a DPRK ballistic missile attack. Furthermore we are continuing to upgrade our ballistic missile defence capabilities. We remain firmly committed to the defence of the Republic of Korea and Japan and maintenance of the regional peace and security.

Tens of thousands of Venezuelan are queuing to pay their respects to the late President Hugo Chavez. The body of Mr. Chavez dressed in his trademark all of green uniform and red beret has lain in state at a military academy ahead of his funeral on Friday. Will Grant reports. They flocked down from their hill sites in Caracas, from towns and villages and states across Venezuelan. The queue of Chavez supporters waiting to say a final goodbye to the man who was so much more to them than just a president snakes back for several kilometers under a punishing sun. But no one seems to object to the wait. Keen as they are to offer  a  last kiss, a salute, or the sign of a cross to Mr. Chavez open casket. As the extraordinary outpouring of grief continues, the country especially Chavez supporters are still struggling to come to terms with his death.

The head of Kenya's electoral commission has attributed problems in counting votes from Monday's general election to a computer programming error. James Copnall reports. The head of the electoral commission Issack Hassan says a software bug in the commission's database multiplied every rejective vote by 8. Those great surprises of the high number of rejective votes announced among the early results. The percentage fell dramatically once the votes were tallied manually. The coalition of the two main presidential candidates has both complained about the vote tallying process raising the political temperature. Raila Odinga's running mate even called for the tallying to be stopped. The latest results released from the partial count gave the front runner Uhuru Kenyatta just under 50% of the vote raising the prospect of a run-off election.

World news from the BBC.

The former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been sentenced to a year in prison for leaking the transcript of police wiretap. Alan Johnston reports from Rome. This case has its roots in the inquiring into a banking scandal several years ago. The tape from the telephone wiretap went missing.  It was a record of a conversation involving  a leading left-wing politician and contents of this illegally obtained tape appeared in a newspaper run by the Berlusconi family.  The publication was seen as an attempt to inflict damage on a political rival. Mr. Berlusconi denied any wrongdoing and after the verdict he complained again of being persecuted by the judiciary. Mr. Berlusconi is unlikely to serve the sentence because his lawyers are appealing and the case is expected to run beyond its legal time limit.

The Judiciary Committee in the United States' senate has voted to back the first of President Obama's proposals to tighten gun control. In a very first congressional vote on the plan, the Democrat-controlled committee approved tougher sentences for firearm's traffickers. The panel is expected to approve three other bills which include a ban on the assault weapons and tougher background checks on people buying guns. The legislation then goes to the full senate and the House of Representatives will face strong opposition from Republicans.

The last of the Roman Catholic cardinals who choose the next Pope has arrived in Rome. It means that the date can now be set for the beginning of the conclave and the cardinals will vote in the 16th chapel until a candidate is elected by a 2/3 majority.

An attempt to ban the international trade in polar-bear parts has been narrowly rejected by delegates at an intergovernmental meeting on the endangered species. Canada's native Inuit people said they were proud that their vital economic interests had been preserved. A BBC correspondent said the vote was a political and economic battle.