BBC在线收听下载:世卫组织称应对埃博拉至少需要6亿美元

BBC news 2014-09-04

BBC News with Jonathan Izard

France has suspended the delivery of a warship to Russia despite the prospect of a ceasefire in Ukraine. French officials blamed Moscow's recent actions in Ukraine for the decision. Lucy Williamson reports from Paris.

The president's office said that despite the prospect of a ceasefire conditions in Ukraine were not right for France to continue with its first delivery of a mistral warship to Russia. It's a dramatic change of heart for a government which had pressed ahead with the deal in the face of American pressure. Even EU sanctions against Moscow weren't enough to derail the plans completely, but today's statement on the eve of a Nato summit marked a clear line in the sand. Russia's actions, it said, undermined the basic security of Europe.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on rebels in eastern Ukraine to stop their military advance amid reports that a possible ceasefire deal is getting closer. Mr Putin also said the Ukrainian army must withdraw well away from population centres. The measure is a part of a seven-point plan for a ceasefire he has put forward. Mr Putin said his views and those of his Ukrainian counterpart were very close, but the Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that no plan from Mr Putin should be trusted.

Poland has given details of US-led military exercises later this month in Ukraine, which is not a member of Nato. The Polish Defence Ministry said the annual exercises will involve hundreds of soldiers from countries including the United States, Britain and Germany. President Obama has urged Nato members to send an unmistakable message backing Ukraine in the face of what he called "brazen aggression" by Russia.

"It's a brazen assault on the territorial integrity of Ukraine, a sovereign and independent European nation. It challenges that most basic of principles of our international system - that borders cannot be redrawn at the barrel of a gun, that nations have the right to determine their own future. It undermines an international order where the rights of peoples and nations are upheld and can't simply be taken away by brute force."

The head of the World Health Organisation says more than 1,900 people are now known to have died in the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The organisation says 40% of the deaths have occurred in the past three weeks. The WHO says at least $600m will be needed to fight the outbreak. Richard Hamilton reports.

While a few lucky foreigners have been evacuated and treated with the latest experimental drugs the plight of those in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia is becoming increasingly desperate. Last week the WHO warned that there could be 20,000 cases of Ebola within the next nine months. The spread of the disease seems to be escalating rapidly, confirming a warning by Medecins Sans Frontieres on Tuesday that the battle against the disease is being lost. With health systems in the state of collapse and doctors and nurses dying, the medical charity said treatment centres have become places where patients went to die.

World News from the BBC

A judge in the United States has sentenced a man to 17 years in jail for shooting dead an unarmed woman who pounded on his door in early hours of the morning. Theodore Wafer said he feared for his life when he opened fire on 19-year-old Renisha McBride on the front porch of his home in suburban Detroit. She was apparently seeking help after a car crash. An autopsy showed that she had been drinking heavily.

A team of investigators paid for by the British government is gathering evidence to use against the leaders of the Islamic State if they are ever tried for war crimes. The BBC has been told that investigators are piecing together evidence on the militant group's most senior members. Frank Gardner has more.

It has no known address and until now it's avoided all publicity, but this team of highly experienced war crimes investigators is piecing together files on up to 400 of the most senior members of Islamic State, known as IS. The team has sources both inside Syria and in neighbouring countries, some operating at extreme personal risk. They smuggled documents, memory sticks, witness testimonies; they built up an intricate picture of how IS is run. But getting suspects out of a war zone will not be easy, and as yet there is no court ready to try them.

The head of Guatemala's prison service, Edgar Camargo, has been arrested and charged with involvement in a scheme of extortion and corruption in the country's jails. Prosecutors say the scheme was run by a high-profile convicted criminal, Byron Oliva Lima, who paid millions in bribes to Mr Camargo. Mr Oliva, a former army captain, took money from other inmates in exchange for allowing mobile phones, take-away food and sexual encounters in prison.

A British soldier is being investigated for apparently breaching military discipline by trying to entertain tourists while on guard duty outside Buckingham Palace. A video posted on YouTube shows the Grenadier Guardsman in full ceremonial uniform pirouetting and marching in a comical fashion.

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