BBC在线收听下载:法国总统敦促各方对中非问题采取行动

BBC news 2013-08-28

BBC News with Charles Carroll

The White House says if President Obama authorizes military intervention against Syria it will be solely in response to last week's apparent chemical weapons attack on the outskirts of Damascus. Earlier, the US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said US armed forces were ready for military action. From Washington here's David Willis.

There is a growing sense that the United States is preparing for the possibility of a military strike against Syria. A White House spokesman said the Obama administration was firmly of the view not only that chemical weapons had been used in Syria but that it was the Syrian government that had used them. The US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told the BBC that armed forces were ready to go should the president give the order. But Mr. Obama is still said to be weighing his options.

The British Prime Minister also stressed that any military action would aim specifically at deterring the future use of such weapons. Meanwhile, Syria's key allies, Russia, Iran and C** have stepped up their warnings against intervention. The Syrian Foreign Minister, Walid Muallem, said that his country would defend itself by all possible means if attacked. He described the allegations about chemical weapons as lies.

Police in Spain have arrested a former investment banker wanted by the US over a 2012 fraud scandal which led to senior resignations at JP Morgan and several government probes into bank practices. Here's Tom Burridge.

Javier Martin-Artajo, a former investment banker at JP Morgan Chase, handed himself in to police in Madrid. He is wanted in the United States on charges that he and a former colleague fixed bank records on a portfolio of investments to high losses amounting to more than six billion dollars. After his arrest, Javier Martin-Artajo was released on bail and his case is now being considered by Spain's High Court which will decide whether he should be extradited to the United States.

A former bank executive in the United States has admitted using nearly 400,000 dollars of government bailout money to buy a luxury holiday home in Florida. Darryl Layne Woods who was chairman of a bank in Missouri has pleaded guilty to misleading investigators over the use of the funds. Andrew Walker reports.

In late 2008, the global financial system was reeling from the collapse of the American investment bank Lehman’s and the US government set up a program using taxpayers' money to restore stability. The owners of Mainstreet Bank in Ashton of Missouri sought help, but the bank's chairman Darryl Woods now admits that he used 380,000 dollars of the funds to buy a luxury waterside home in Florida. The US prosecutor described him as a disgraced business leader who took advantage of the situation to benefit himself and other executives. He has not been sentenced yet, but could face up to a year in prison.

World News from the BBC

Colombia's second largest rebel group, the ELN has freed a Canadian hostage seized seven months ago. The Vice President of a Toronto-based mining company Gernot Wober was handed over to the international committee of the Red Cross at an undisclosed location in the north of the country. Mr. Wober was taken hostage by the left-wing rebels in January alongside five other workers who were released shortly after. The Colombian government has said that the ELN would only be allowed to take part in peace talks if they release all their hostages.

The Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned the killings by the Taliban of 12 Afghan civilians while he held two days of talks in Pakistan with the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Karen Allen reports on Mr. Karzai's comments.

He's condemned attacks in Herat, in the west of the country, and also attacks in the east of the country. And he basically said that there were some countries that wanted to keep Afghanistan underdeveloped now, that was a fairly, clearly pointed dig at neighboring Pakistan which Afghanistan has long accused of having links to the insurgency here in Afghanistan. Interesting because it comes just as he was leaving two-day talks in Islamabad, of course, he's been meeting Nawaz Sharif, the new Prime Minister in Pakistan.

Both sides are saying that they had not ruled out the possibility of further discussion to put stalled negotiations with the Taliban back on track.

The French President Francois Hollande has urged the United Nations and the African Union to take immediate action to bring stability to the Central African Republic which he said was at risk of going the way of Somalia. The country has become increasingly lawless since a successful rebel coup in March with accusations of widespread recruitment of child soldiers, weapons proliferation, rape and population displacement. UN officials have warned the country on the verge of collapse, saying the crisis could affect neighboring countries.

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