BBC在线收听下载:奥巴马出席马丁-路德-金梦想演说50周年纪念

BBC news 2013-08-29

BBC News with Charles Carroll

The United States says it cannot allow diplomatic paralysis to serve as a shield for the Syrian leadership. The State Department criticized Russia after it used a meeting of the five permanent members of the Security Council to block a resolution which would have authorized measures to protect civilians in Syria. From the United Nations, here is Nick Bryant.

Britain convened a meeting of the permanent five members of the Security Council to discuss a possible resolution authorizing the use of forces in Syria. But it failed to break the diplomatic deadlock between the UK, US and France who favor a military response to last week's chemical attack and Russia and C** which have repeatedly blocked punitive measures against the Assad regime. America said afterwards they heard nothing different from the Russians during the closed-door meeting and also that the Syrian government couldn't continue to hide behind what it called Moscow's intransigence.

The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the UN can not consider any draft resolution or proposed action in Syria before the UN weapons inspectors there finish their investigation into last week's alleged chemical attack. Syria's ambassador to the UN Bashar Jaafari has at meanwhile called for UN inspectors to be allowed to complete their work without military or political pressure.

Syrians in Damascus are preparing for possible air strikes with people stocking up on basic supplies or trying to find somewhere to stay away from the likeliest targets. The BBC's Jeremy Bowen sent this report from the city.

Damascus seems quiet among trips I made here earlier this year. The city is waiting decisions that are been taken elsewhere. The Syrian war is about to move into a new phase. Army roadblocks stop traffic every few miles down the highway in-and-from the Lebanese border as they had since the war started. I saw some activities around military bases, men moving about the entrances. News agencies quoting residents and opponents of the Assad regime have reported that some heavy weaponry has been moved out of bases and staff are partially vacated some headquarters’ buildings.

President Obama has been addressing crowds in Washington commemorating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's landmark I Have A Dream speech. President Obama praised what he called Dr. King's soaring oratory. He also hailed other civil rights demonstrators of the time.

“Because they marched, the civil rights law was passed. Because they marched, a voting rights law was signed. Because they marched, doors of opportunity and education swung open so their daughters and sons could finally imagine a life for themselves beyond washing somebody else's laundry or shining somebody else's shoes. Because they marched, city councils changed and state legislators changed and Congress changed, and yes, eventually the White House changed.”

World News from the BBC

Israeli authorities have completed once said to be the last major airlift of an ancient community of Ethiopian Jews seeking a new home in Israel. Two flights carrying 450 people have arrived in Tel Aviv. The Falash Mura, a community whose ancestors converted from Judaism to Christianity under duress a century ago, but who've retained some Jewish customs. Thousands of Ethiopian Jews have resettled in Israel, but many complain of discrimination in their new homeland.

In the United States, a military court has sentenced a former US army psychiatrist to death after finding him guilty of shooting dead 13 soldiers in 2009. Prosecutors say that Nidal Hasan, a convert to Islam, targeted soldiers at the Fort Hood base in Texas in revenge for civilian death in Afghanistan and Iraq. Alistair Leithead reports.

Major Nidal Hasan sat in a wheelchair as the panel of the military juries delivered their ruling. He was paralyzed by the shots that finally stopped his killing spray on the same base four years ago. His beard now unkempt and greying. The 42-year-old listened carefully as the prosecutor went through the personal stories of each life he took, the loss suffered by parents, widows and children. He looked at each photograph of the 13 he killed, one a pregnant woman, her unborn child also died, but he showed little sign of emotion.

Scientists in California say a slowdown in the rate of global warming can be explained by a natural cooling in part of the Pacific Ocean. Their research published in the journal Nature, explains why there has been no significant global warming in the past 15 years. The scientists say that the colder waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean have counteracted the increased levels of man-made carbon dioxide. But they warn that the Pacific will enter a warmer phase at some point at which the global average temperatures will accelerate upwards.

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