BBC在线收听下载:克莱斯勒全球召回超过250万辆吉普车

BBC news 2013-06-19

BBC News with David Austin

The White House says the United States will open direct peace talks with the Taliban in the next few days. The meeting will take place in Qatar where the Afghan rebels have opened a long-awaited first official overseas office. However, President Obama sounded a note of caution about the talks.

“We don’t anticipate this process will be easy or quick but we must pursue it in parallel with our military approach and we in the meantime remain fully committed to our military efforts to defeat al-Qaeda and to support the Afghan national security forces.”

But a Taliban spokesman said it had met all the pre-conditions that the US set.

“The Islamic Emirate neither wants to pose harms to other countries from its soil nor will allow anyone to pose a threat to the security of countries from the soil of Afghanistan.”

Paul Adams now looks at the way ahead.

The Americans say they expect to hold their first formal meeting with the Taliban in a couple of days to be followed shortly afterwards by direct talks between the Taliban and members of President Hamid Karzai’s High Peace Council. “The talks will succeed”, the Americans say, “When and if the Taliban finally sever all ties with al-Qaeda, end violence and accept the Afghan constitution.” Senior administration officials are calling this an important moment but an urging caution, too. In the words of one, the road towards Afghan reconciliation will be complex and messy.

The government in Mali has finally signed a deal with Tuareg separatist rebels to take back control of a last major town they occupy in the north. Under the deal the Malian troops will regain control of Kidal ahead of next month’s presidential elections. Islamist militants together with Tuareg separatists took control of more than half of Mali’s territory last year before being ousted by French forces assisted by a West African force.

The British Prime Minister David Cameron says G8 leaders meeting in Northern Ireland have overcome a fundamental difference to agree on a way forward in Syria. He said all sides had pledged to step up their humanitarian response and maximize the diplomatic pressure through a negotiated solution.

“We have achieved a very strong and purposeful statement on Syria that includes things that I wouldn’t have expected two days ago, that includes, for instance, there should be a UN investigation into chemical weapons used in Syria and that should go ahead signed up by everyone including Vladimir Putin. So I didn’t believe any price has been paid, quite the opposite, I think we have a very strong statement about what needs to happen in Syria.” David Cameron

The agreement makes no mention of the divisive issue of what should happen to President Assad. The Russian President Vladimir Putin again warned against arming the opposition.

World News from the BBC

The US carmaker Chrysler has changed its mind in the face of pressure from government safety regulators and says it will recall more than 2.5million older motored jeeps. Some other vehicles date back to the early 90s. The regulators say they’ve identified some 50 deaths in the jeeps caused by fires when they were heat from behind.

Islamist militants in Nigeria had killed at least nine school children, the second targeted attack on students in recent days. Northeastern Nigeria is under a state of emergency as the government tries to defeat an Islamist insurgency. From Lagos, Will Ross

Suspected members of the Islamist militant group known as Boko Haram rounded up students on the outskirts of Maiduguri town and then opened fire. The bodies of at least nine children in their school uniforms were seen at the town’s morgue. A spokesman for Boko Haram passed a message to local journalists saying the attack was intended to punish young people for helping the army. Vigilante groups have been springing up in Maiduguri, young men armed with metal pipes, clubs and machetes have been handing suspected militants over to the army.

The Turkish medical association says almost 7,500 people have been wounded in almost three weeks of demonstrations and clashes in 13 cities across the country. The association says most of the injuries happened in Istanbul. The figures have been compiled from reports from public and private hospitals and clinics but cannot be independently verified.

The Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has said she is proud of the tens of thousands of people who’d taken to the streets in the last few weeks to demand better education, schools and transport. In her first comment since the mass demonstrations on Monday, Ms. Rousseff said her government was listening to the protesters’ demands. The movement began earlier this month with demands to revoke a hike in bus fares in several cities. But it’s now turned into protest against corruption and bad governance.

Those are the latest stories from BBC News.