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BBC news 2014-03-28

BBC News with Jonathan Izard.

The United Nations General Assembly has passed a resolution declaring that the Russian-backed referendum in Crimea was illegal and supporting Ukraine's territorial integrity. One hundred nations in the UN chamber approved the resolution with 11 against and 58 abstentions. The BBC correspondent at the UN Nick Bryant says the resolution will have little practical effect. “It's a non-binding resolution, so really, it's a symbolic value more than anything meaningful, there is nothing in it that can be enforced legally. It's a really key decision making body of the United Nations Security Council and Russian always uses its veto to protect itself and some its allies from punitive measures from the UN and stand already in assistance of Ukraine.” An angry crowd about 2,000 far-right protesters has marched on the Ukrainian parliament demanding the resignation of the Interior Minister Arsen Avakov. The protesters from the nationalist group Right Sector blame Mr. Avakov for the death of one of their senior members earlier this week. A BBC correspondent at the scene says the crowd's mood is aggressive which shouts of Shame, shame.

Turkey has blocked access to the video-sharing website YouTube after the posting of an alleged audio recording of senior ministers discussing a possible military operation in Syria. The Turkish Foreign Ministry described the video as an attack on national security and said some sections of it have been manipulated. James Reynolds reports from Istanbul. “In recent months in Turkey, an anonymous internet user with apparent high level access has posted online a series of wiretapped recordings. The recordings include private phone calls made by this country's most senior officials. This afternoon, the user posted on YouTube are recordings which appear to show national security officials recently discussing their options in the neighbouring Syria. Almost as soon as the recording was posted, the Turkish government won a court order to block YouTube.” And reports are coming in that the ban on YouTube has just been removed.

The United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva has voted in favour of a resolution to launch an international inquiry into alleged war crimes committed during the Sri Lankan civil war. The Sri Lankan president rejected the resolution saying it would hurt the government's own reconciliation efforts. Charles Haviland reports. “The document expresses serious concern as things alleged to be still going on in Sri Lanka, including the intimidation of civil society, disappearances and torture. But the call for concrete action comes in a request to the office of Navi Pillay, the UN's human rights chief. The resolution asked it to conduct an investigation into what it calls alleged serious violations and abuses of human rights by both the government and the Tamil Tigers in the seven years that led up to the end of the war. It also refers to related crimes and apparent reference to alleged war crimes. The Sri Lankan representative called the resolution biased.”

World news from the BBC

A British court has recalled an open verdict to the inquest into the death of the former Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky. The coroner said that the contradictory evidence meant he was unable to conclude whether the businessman took his own life or was killed. Mr. Berezovsky was found dead near London a year ago. A forensic expert hired by Mr. Berezovsky's family said marks on his neck and face suggested he was murdered.

The main opposition party in El Salvador has said it accepted defeat in the tightly fought Presidential election held earlier this month after losing several appeals to get vote recount. The opposition candidate, Norman Quijanom, narrowly lost the vote by less than 1%. He alleged that votes to his rival, the former Marxist rebel Salvador Sanchez Ceren, had been counted twice.

The health authorities in Guinea have for the first time confirmed four cases of the deadly Ebola virus in the capital Conakry. Until now, the 62 confirmed deaths from Ebola have only been in rural areas, there have also been suspected cases in neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone. Thomas Fessy reports from the region. “These latest cases mean the deadly virus has reached Conakry for the first time. The news comes a day after health authorities in Guinea suggested that the deadly fever had been confined to a southern region, but this spread to Conakry highlight how difficulty can be to find such a virus when there is so much human movement around the country. Neighbouring states have all put their health services on high alert and say they reinforced health checks at border points.”

A new study of data from Europe and North America has linked the banning of smoking in public places with a 10 % fall in premature birth. The number of children admitted to hospital with asthma also dropped by the same amount in places with the smoking ban, according to scientists from Scotland. Anti-smoking legislation currently affects less than a sixth of the world's populations.

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