BBC在线收听下载:索尼联合主席帕斯卡辞职

BBC news 2015-02-06

BBC News with Jonathan Izard.

Western leaders are launching a new diplomatic push to try to end fierce fighting in eastern Ukraine between government troops and pro-Russia rebels. The US Secretary of State John Kerry, who is in the capital Kiev, warned that Moscow must move its weapons and fighters out of the country and allow Ukraine to control its borders. Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Kiev would not consider any peace plan that cast doubt on the nation's territorial integrity.

The first and most important and crucial issue, we need to get peace. But we will never consider anything that undermines territorial integrity, sovereignty, independence of Ukraine and its European future.

The leaders of France and Germany are in Kiev to present a new peace plan to Ukrainian government before seeking Russia's approval on Friday. President Holland said supplying arms to Ukraine was one option, but everything must be done to find a political solution instead. Here is Mike Wooldrige.

The German and French leaders are engaged in what's been called the biggest peace push so far, driven by the intense and deadly clashes of the past few weeks, which have shattered a September ceasefire. Details are unclear yet, as to how they might be repackaging previous abortive peace proposals. But the speculation is that they want to head off the prospect of the US supplying Ukraine with lethal weapons, where it did any such move could widen the present conflict.

Russia has described the diplomatic mission as a positive step. A spokesman for President Vladimir Putin said he was ready to hold constructive talks with President Holland and Chancellor Merkel. Moscow warned it would see any decision by the United States to supply weapons to Ukraine as a threat to Russia's security.

A BBC correspondent in eastern Ukraine says that the strategic town of Debaltseve where government troops have been surrounded by rebels is like a ghost town. Reporting from the empty streets of the town, he said all he could see were some Ukrainian soldiers who are desperately trying to hold the town, a key railroad junction which will link two large rebel held areas.

The German Finance Minister Wolfgang Sch?uble has said that Greece must respect the existing agreements concerning its international bailout. Speaking after talks in Berlin with his Greece counterpart Yanis Varoufakis, Mr Sch?uble said that the reduction of Greece's debt is off the agenda, but the two sides have not reached an agreement.

Greece is part of the Euro zone. But despite a very intensive round of discussion, we do not agree on what we must do next. And since I have a trained diplomat as the spokesman, I'm told to say now, we agree to disagree.

Mr Varoufakis said his government was requesting more time to present proposals for tackling Greece's debt. He said Greece wanted to end the indignity of its debt crisis.

BBC News.

A huge corruption scandal over Brazil's state run oil giant Petrobrass has widened. Police say they've questioned the treasurer of the governing Workers' Party about cash donations linked to Petrobrass. Wyre Davies in Rio says the allegations involve millions of dollars in price fixing and kickbacks.

This investigation is going and now it's undergone many phases. And every time something more is uncovered, it seems to get closer and closer to the door of the President herself Dilma Rousseff. Remember she was chair of Petrobrass' board during that period 2003 to about 2009, when she appointed several senior figures, including the president of Petrobrass Gracas Foster. She had to resign yesterday, so did other five members of the board. We've heard some evidence today, some allegations that the Workers' Party benefited to the tune of 200 million dollars in bribes from Petrobrass. So it's a huge scandal in Brazil.

The co-chairman of Sony Pictures Amy Pascal has stepped down three months after the company suffered a damaging cyber attack. She will now launch a new production company funded by Sony. Theo Leggett has more details.

Amy Pascal has been co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment for the past eight years, overseeing the release of blockbuster films such as Da Vinci Code, American Hustle and the recent James Bond movie Skyfall. However, her public image was badly tarnished following the theft of large quantities of private information from Sony's computer systems by hackers in November. It included numerous email exchanges, in which she made deeply unflattering comments about stars such as Leonardo Dicaprio and Adam Sandler. This was subsequently passed on to media outlets and widely published, causing the studio considerable embarrassment. Her replacement has not yet been named.

The Chief Executive of the social networking site Twitter has said that the company sucks of dealing with abuse and trolls. In a memo to staff, Dick Costolo has said that the bullying behavior on Twitter was driving users away. He promises to bring in new controls.

BBC News.