BBC在线收听下载:伊拉克首都巴格达发生系列爆炸案

BBC news 2014-11-03

BBC News with Sue Montgomery.

Police in Pakistan say a suicide bomber has killed at least 50 people and wounded more than 70 close to the border with India. The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has condemned what he described as a dastardly act of terrorism. Shahzeb Jillani reports.

The suicide bomber struck at the end of a parade at the Wagah Border Crossing. It's the only crossing between Pakistan and India, and hundreds gathered there daily to watch soldiers conduct a flag lowering ceremony as the border closes. Among those killed are women and children. A militant group linked to a fraction of the Taliban Jundullah said the bombing was the retaliation against the Pakistani military's offensive in the North Waziristan tribal region.

A number of other militant groups have also said they carried out the attack. India says the daily flag-lowering ceremony will be called off for three days at Pakistan's request.

Voting has ended in eastern Ukraine for the elections of the regional assemblies and heads of government in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk Republics. The election is seen as illegal by Kiev and by the international community. David Stern who is in Kiev has more details.

We have the first exit polls in fact from the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic. As expected, the current acting leader Alexander Zakharchenko is well in the lead with 81% of the vote, that's the exit poll. The outcome of this election was really not in doubt. The question really is what is going to happen next, given the very strong denunciation of these elections by the western governments, by in fact the United Nations who said that it is not going to contribute to the peace process and the fear is, of course, that this will in fact lead to a further escalation.

A series of bombings in the Iraqi capital Baghdad has killed more than 30 pilgrims on the eve of the Shiah's religious festival Ashura. One of those explosions killed 14 people who'd gathered at a refreshment tent in the Sadr City district. Ashura ceremonies have been targeted in the past by Sunni militants as Sebastian Usher reports.

Ashura is always a tense time in Iraq, but never more so than this year. The fear is that Sunni militants belonging to or linked to IS will launch attacks on the hundreds of thousands of Shiah pilgrims gathering in Karbala for the religious festival. The latest bombings in Baghdad targeted pilgrims preparing to go to the city. But Sunnis who fight back against IS have also been suffered. In the past few days, the Jihadists have lined up and shot at least 200 members of the Albu Nimr tribe in Anbar Province, including women and children.

A prominent politician in Yemen has been killed in the capital a day after political parties agreed to allow a new technocratic government be formed. Mohammed Abdulmalik Mutawakkil was shot dead by a gunman on a motor cycle.

BBC News.

The UN's panel of experts on climate change has released what its leaders calls its most robust report yet challenging policy makers to eradicate greenhouse emissions or face irreversible damage. The report says global warming is unequivocal, and that it's mainly being caused by human activity rather than by other factors. It says electricity generation must be almost totally carbon-free by the mid of the century if dangers to be avoided.

The army in Burkina Faso has fired shots into the air to disperse protestors at the headquarters of the State Broadcaster in the capital Ouagadougou. Opposition parties are demanding that the civilian-led transitional government take charge until the next presidential elections. Earlier a UN envoy in the city Mohammed Ibn Chambas warned of a possible sanction if the military kept power.

The Africa Union, the Economic Community of West African States, and the United Nations are ready to work with all parties for a rapid return to constitutional rule. The missions encourage all parties taking part to respect human rights, so that the transition is managed in a way that respects the will of the people.

Police in southern Indian have taken 30 people into preventive custody as a number of young people gathered in a beach in the southern city of K. to hold hands and kiss in public. A group of social activists had called for the 'kiss of love' demonstration. They were protesting against what they said was excessive moral policing after a group of hard-line Hindus launched a violent raid in a cafe to prevent public displays of affection between men and women.

The British clarinetist donned blandly the 'Acker Bilk,' who helped shape the Trad Jazz Revival of the 1950s and 60s, has died at the age of 85. He shot to international fame with his fluted signature tune 'Stranger on the Shore.'

BBC News.