BBC在线收听下载:乌克兰政府与亲俄叛军同意停火

BBC news 2014-09-06

BBC News, I'm John Shea.

The Ukrainian government and pro-Russian rebels have agreed a ceasefire designed to end months of fighting in the east of the country. The Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko said it was important that a political dialogue now took place. From Moscow here's Steve Rosenberg.

The talks in the Belarusian capital Minsk Kiev and the pro-Moscow militants agreed a ceasefire. There was talk of a wide deal too. President Poroshenko said there would be an exchange of prisoners. Kiev, he said, had agreed to give more powers to the east. Russia is a key player in all of these, and the Kremlin welcomed the deal. But one key issue wasn't discussed - the future status of Ukraine's eastern regions. President Poroshenko maintains that territorial integrity of his country is not in doubt, but the leader of self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic said the ceasefire did not mean a change in the separatists' long-term goal to secede from Kiev.

Both Russia and Western countries have welcomed the ceasefire, but speaking at a Nato summit in Wales, President Obama said that based on past experience he remained sceptical that Moscow and the rebels would follow through on the agreement. The United States and the European Union say they will go ahead with the imposition of further sanctions against Russia. They also agreed to set up a rapid reaction force.

The United States has confirmed that a missile strike in Somalia has killed the leader of the Islamist militant group al-Shabab, Ahmed Abdi Godane. The attack, which involved US special forces, took place in southern Somalia on Monday. Barbara Plett Usher reports from Washington.

The Pentagon called the death of Ahmed Abdi Godane a major symbolic and operational loss to al-Shabab. Somalia's government expelled the Islamist militants from Mogadishu in 2011 with the help of African troops and Western intelligence. But under Mr Godane's leadership al-Shabab continued to mount frequent attacks in the capital. He also shifted the group's focus from a nationalist agenda to international jihad, pledging allegiance to al-Qaeda and masterminding the attack on a Kenyan shopping mall last year.

The World Health Organisation says blood from people who have recovered from the Ebola virus should be used to treat other patients. The idea is that antibodies in the blood can help people fight off the infection. It was one of several measures agreed at a meeting of experts in Geneva. Tulip Mazumdar reports.

Around 150 experts have spent the past two days looking at how they can fast track promising experimental drugs to make them available in West Africa as soon as possible. They have agreed that the quickest and safest fix for now is using so-called convalescent plasma therapy, taking blood from people who have recovered from the virus. The idea is that the antibodies in the blood can help those still fighting it. The method has been used on a very small scale in past outbreaks, and some people have recovered, but there still no clinical evidence of its effectiveness.

World News from the BBC

The United States says it has no plans for military cooperation with Iran to fight Islamic State militants operating in Iraq and Syria. The US State Department's statement came after Iranian sources told BBC that the country's supreme leader had authorised one of the top commanders of the Revolutionary Guard to help coordinate operations against the Islamic State in northern Iraq with the US, Iraq and Kurdish forces.

A private aircraft from United States has crashed into the Caribbean Sea after the pilot repeatedly failed to respond to air traffic controllers. The small aircraft ignored its intended flight path from New York to Florida. Tom Esslemont in Washington has more details.

US air defence officials said two fighter jets have tracked the plane after the pilot stopped responding to the radio. The jets broke off when the plane, a single-engine private aircraft, entered Cuban airspace. At the time Aerospace Defence Command said its crew had not been able to assess whether the pilot was conscious or not. It said the windows to the cockpit appeared to have been frosted or foggy with condensation. In the end after a journey of more than 2,000km the plane came down just off the coast of Jamaica.

The former President of El Salvador, Francisco Flores, who's been on the run from police for months, has handed himself in to a judge in the capital San Salvador. Mr Flores has been accused of misappropriating millions of dollars given to the country by Taiwan for public projects.

One of the football fans caught on camera at a match in Brazil shouting racist words at the opposing team's goalkeeper has apologised. Patricia Moreira, a 23-year-old fan of Gremio, a team based in the southern city of Porto Alegre, said she used the words in the heat of the moment when her team is losing. The video showing her shouting monkey at the goalkeeper of the opposing team Santos has gone viral.

And that's the latest BBC World News.