BBC News:美国务卿与俄外长的涉叙对话继续进行
The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moonsays he expects the report by UN weaponsinspectors will confirm overwhelmingly thatchemical weapons were used in an attack in theSyrian capital Damascus last month. From New York, here’s Nick Bryant.
Ban Ki-moon was speaking at a women’s forum at the United Nations and appears not haverealised his comments were being broadcast. Referring to the much anticipated report fromthe UN weapons inspectors investigating the August 21st attack, he indicated it showedoverwhelmingly that chemical weapons were used, though he didn't apportion guilt. Shortlybefore when talking more generally about the Syrian conflict, he said that President Bashar al-Assad had committed many crimes against humanity and that there’ll be a process ofaccountability when this is over. Afterwards, his spokesman said the comments may havebeen off the cuff and that the UN secretary general hadn’t yet received the final report of hisinspectors.
In Geneva talks between the American Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russiancounterpart Sergei Lavrov on eliminating Syria’s chemical weapons are continuing through thenight. The BBC’s Paul Adams is outside the hotel where the talks are taking place.
There had been quite a heightened sense of expectation that we might get some kind of apress conference tonight if they are still deep in trying to reach an agreement on the outlinesof this whole process of dealing with Syria’s chemical weapons. And it may well be that theyneed a little bit more time. We know that Sergei Lavrov went off to the Russian mission a littleearlier possibly to talk directly to Moscow. And so clearly the business is not done yet, thatthere had been some thought earlier on that the Russians were keen to leave, possibly tonight,but that the Americans were determined to stay on and get the job done.
India’s main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has named one of the country’smost controversial politicians as its prime ministerial candidate in next year’s election. Thehardline Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi is the long-standing chief minister of Gujarat. Criticsaccuse him of failing to stop communal riots in 2002, which left more than 1,000 peopledead—most of them Muslims.
Talks between the oil company Shell and Nigerian villagers affected by two oil spills in 2008appear to have broken down. A lawyer representing about 15,000 residents of the Bodocommunity in the Niger Delta said a compensation offer had been rejected, describing thefigures as insulting. From Lagos, Tomi Oladipo:
Shell had said it would present a generous offer of compensation to the affected people andseek progress on a clean-up of the area. The fishing community in Bodo has threatened totake the case back to court. Oil companies and local communities have had a history of disputein the Niger Delta. The people say the oil pollutes the environment, while the petroleumcompanies say oil theft and illegal refineries are responsible for the damage. The Niger Delta isthe source of Nigeria’s oil wealth, but it’s also home to some of the country’s poorest people.
World News from the BBC
A Roman Catholic priest in Zanzibar has received treatment in hospital after attackers threw acidat him on a street in the island’s capital. It follows a similar attack on two young British womenthere last month. Police said it was unclear who carried out the latest assault. There’ve beengrowing tensions between the Muslim and Christian populations on the island as on mainlandTanzania.
Police in Argentina have arrested a 19-year-old man accused of heading a gang of computerhackers who targeted international money transfer and gambling websites. The teenager wasallegedly making $50,000 a month working from his bedroom in Buenos Aires. Our America’seditor Eric Camara reports.
It took the federal police in Argentina about a year to close in on the teenager. When theyfinally did, the operation even shut down the power in the neighbourhood to prevent thehacker from deleting sensitive data. The young man lived with his father, a computer expert, inBuenos Aires. In his room officials found high-capacity computers and other specialisedequipment. The hacker allegedly used malware attacks to build up a network of thousands ofzombie computers which were then used to illegally divert money from accounts, leaving nextto no trace behind.
The President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro has created a special committee to tackle shortagesof food and other goods, which have been causing growing problems. The move came as someregional newspapers stopped their presses, blaming a lack of paper. The country’s been hit withfrequent shortages of products such as milk, toilet paper and sugar.
The austerity drive in Greece in the wake of the euro crisis has claimed another victim. Publicsector workers will lose six extra days of leave a year they were entitled to if they use acomputer. The privilege was granted in 1989 to all who worked on a computer for more thanfive hours a day. The Greek minister for reform, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said it belonged to adifferent era.
That's the latest BBC World News.
