BBC在线收听下载:联合国:食用昆虫可以对抗全球的饥饿问题

BBC news 2013-05-14

BBC News with Jim Lee

President Obama has said that the United States and Britain have agreed to increase pressure on Syria to accept a future without President Bashar al-Assad. Mr Obama said the two countries would work to bring together representatives of the Syrian government and opposition in the coming weeks. He was speaking in Washington after talks with the British Prime Minister David Cameron. Jonny Dymond reports.

"Syria's history is being written in the blood of her people”, said David Cameron, “and it's happening on our watch.” He welcomed the initiative to bring together different sides in the Syrian conflict to discuss a political end to the violence. But he said there would be no political progress unless the opposition can withstand what he called the onslaught from government forces. The prime minister said that Britain would call for greater flexibility in the EU arms embargo and would double non-lethal aid over the coming year. President Obama was less forthright, but said he looked forward to the planned political meeting in Geneva.

The man expected to be Pakistan's next Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, says that fixing the economy will be his main concern. In an interview with the BBC, Mr Sharif said that improving Pakistan's economy would go a long way towards solving the country's other problems.

"My first priority is the economy. When you ask what my second priority is, it's the economy. And if you ask my third priority, I would say the economy. If we can fix the economy, all of these issues will be solved. The violence inside Pakistan will be fixed, terrorism will finish, unemployment will finish, poverty will finish, illiteracy will finish. What else do you want? So, most of our attention will be on the economy.”

A doctor has been convicted in the United States of murdering three babies at an abortion clinic for poor women. Kermit Gosnell now faces a possible death sentence. He was accused of delivering live babies during late-term abortions at the clinic in Philadelphia. From Washington, Paul Adams reports.

Prosecutors said the three babies were all alive when Dr Gosnell delivered them, but their spines were subsequently cut with scissors. Gosnell was clear in the case of a fourth baby, but found guilty of causing the death of a 41-year-old refugee from Bhutan who received a lethal mix of painkillers and sedatives while waiting for an abortion at the doctor's west Philadelphia clinic. Over the course of two months of harrowing testimony, some of doctor's untrained staff, including his wife, pleaded guilty to their roles and testified against him. Some said they had seen a number of babies breathing before being killed.

Three Georgian soldiers serving with Nato-led forces have been killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan. The Georgian defence minister said the men had died when a truck bomb exploded at their base in Helmand province. Georgia has about 1,600 troops in Afghanistan.

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The former American football player and actor, OJ Simpson, who’s in prison for holding sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint, is seeking to get his conviction quashed. OJ Simpson is best-known for being acquitted of the murder of his ex-wife 18 years ago. Here is Peter Bowes.

The current case relates to a robbery in Las Vegas, during which Simpson says he was simply trying to retrieve some personal possessions-- sporting memorabilia, which had been stolen from him. He was convicted on armed robbery and kidnapping charges and sentenced to between 9 and 33 years. He served four and won't be eligible for parole for another five years. In court, Simpson, who is 65, will argue that his conviction should be set aside and a new trial ordered because his lawyer was ineffective and gave him bad advice.

A United Nations report has highlighted the important role that edible insects could play in the fight against global hunger. The Food and Agriculture Organisation says two billion people already supplement their diets with insects such as grasshoppers and ants. The report notes that consumer disgust, particularly in Western countries, remains a barrier to their wider consumption. But a spokesperson for the FAO, Eva Muller, said that in time, eating insects could be generally accepted.

"Tastes change. No? We have seen that with sushi. Twenty years ago nobody would have eaten sushi because it's raw fish and now everybody likes it. So tastes can change and we've already seen insects showing up in restaurants in some of the capitals in Europe, and they are offered there as something like a specialty.”

The self-styled professional revolutionary, Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, better-known as “Carlos the Jackal”, has dismissed his defence lawyers on the first day of his appeal in Paris. He is seeking to reverse a life sentence imposed for orchestrating bombings in France three decades ago. Eleven people were killed and more than 140 were injured in the attacks.

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