BBC在线收听下载:新西兰前总理克拉克宣布参选联合国秘书长

BBC news 2016-04-06

Hello, I'm Sue Montgomery with the BBC news.

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A special Indian court has sentenced 47 police officers to life in prison for killing ten Sikh pilgrims 25 years ago and then lying in an attempt to justify the shootings. Jill McGivering reports. “This high profile case dates back to1991. A group of Sikh families including women and children was traveling by bus through Uttar Pradesh in northern India after visiting holy sites. Police officers stopped the bus and forced some of the men to get out. Later joined by more policemen, they divided the Sikh men into group and let them into jungle and shot them dead. Afterwards, police lied about what happened. They claimed that the men were militants and armed.”

Two Libyans held for years in the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay have been flown to Senegal for resettlement. They would be the first of a new group about a dozen prisoners scheduled to be transferred. Here's Gary O'Donoghue. “Senegalis the second western African country to accept detainees from Guantanamo Bay.In January, two Yemenis were taken in by Ghana. It leaves 89 prisoners still being held with 35 of them cleared for release and expected to leave the detention center by the summer. President Obama originally vowed to close Guantanamo within a year of coming to office and he has proposed bringing several dozen detainees back to the continental United States.” BBC news.

The former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has ended months of speculation by announcing her candidacy to become the next secretary general of the United Nations when Ban Ki-moon retires in December. If elected, she'll be the first woman to hold the position. “I'm seeking election on the basis of the skills that I have and I would expect in the 21st century to be given equal consideration to any male applicant.” Ms. Clark who's currently head of the UN's development program said the UN needed a new set of tools to face modern peace and security issues.

The government in Switzerland has criticized the decision by a school in the north of the country to exempt male Muslim students from shaking hands with their female teachers. Two teenage male students from Therwil in the canton of Basel argued that Islam does not permit physical contact with the person of the opposite sex other than certain immediate family members. The justice minister Simonetta Sommaruga told Swiss television that shaking hands is part of Swiss culture. The Federation of Islamic Organizations in Switzerland has said handshakes between unrelated man and woman were permissible and were common in some Muslim countries.

Air France has backed down in a row with female aircrew over how they should dress on flights to Iran. Hugh Schofield reports. “From April 17, Air France will be flying three times a week to Tehran and as a part of its preparations, it issued instructions to staff about dress code. Female personnel, it said, must wear trousers, a long jacket and as soon as they're on the ground in Tehran, a headscarf to cover their hair. But unions said this was an affront to French values. Eager to avoid a row, Air France has met the unions halfway. Any employee scheduled on a Tehran flight now has the right to take herself off the roster.” BBC news.