BBC News:美国承诺不会继续刺探联合国
Congolese refugees have become returning home tothe strategic border town of Bunagana aftergovernment troops backed by United Nations forcesdrove out rebels from the M23 group. Residentscheered as government troops entered the town, the last remaining stronghold of the rebelswho appealed to have fled to the hills. Here is Gabriel Gatehouse.
It’s a remarkable turnaround in this year and a half long rebellion. In November UnitedNations troops had stood by powerless as rebel fighters briefly captured the regional capitalGoma. The UN had pledged to protect the city and blamed the defeat on what they said wasmilitary backing from Rwanda. But for the UN force 18,000 strong it was embarrassingdemonstration of their ineffectiveness. But injection of fresh peacekeepers earlier this yearwith a stronger mandate to actively take the fight to the rebels appears to have turned thetide.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Fatou Bensouda says she does notobject delaying the trial of the Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta until February. Lawyers fromMr. Kenyatta have asked the ICC to postpone his trial for crimes against humanity sayingthat he’s needed at home to deal with the aftermath of last month militant attack on a Nairobishopping center. The hearing is due to begin next month.
The United States has promised that it’ll not spy on the United Nation. The pledge follows areport that the US national security agency had cracked UN encryption codes last year intosetting confidential communications. Nick Bryant reports.
The United Nations first contact to the United States after reports appeal in the Germanmagazine Der Spiegel in August claiming that the national security agency has beeneavesdropping on its secret communications. Reaching back to the days of the Cold War, theUN headquarters in New York has long being the target of American surveillance partly toidentify possible foreign spies who may be posing as diplomats. But President Obama recentlyordered the NSA to curtail its electronic surveillance on the organization itself as part of a widerreview of its spy activities.
The president elected of Georgia has told the BBC he will work to improve relations with Russiadespite the legacy of his country’s disastrous war with its neighbor five years ago. Diplomaticrelations between the two states have been none existence ever since. Bidzina Ivanishvili whowas elected Georgia president last weekend said that he was ready to draw up a roadmaptowards reconciliation with Russia.
“We want to stabilize our relationship with Russia to decrease the tension that we have since2008 and even before. We want to enhance our bilateral relationship with them butfurthermore we want to stabilize Georgia’s new Atlantic environment.”
However analysts say his plan to sign a trade agreement with the European Union next monthis unlikely to help relations.
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The Pakistani government has said that civilians made up only 3% of the total number of peoplekilled in US drone strikes in the country since 2008. The figure provided by the defenseministry is much lower than estimates by independent organizations. According to the officials,in over 300 drone strikes more than 2,000 militants were killed but only 67 civilians.
A court in London where two former editors of a British tabloid newspaper are facing chargesrelated to phone hacking has been told that three journalists on the News of the World havepleaded guilty to similar charges. Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson deny charges ofconspiring to access voice mail messages illegally. Ruben Brent reports.
The prosecutions said it will be a long and slow trial but in his opening statements, Andrew EdisQC told the jury there was phone hacking during both periods referring to when RebekahBrooks and then Andy Coulson was editor that the now defunct News of the World. AndyCoulson also approved payments for illegally obtained royal phone directories as the courtheard. The jury was also informed that three former News of the World journalist and theconvicted private investigator Glenn Mulcaire have already pleaded guilty to hacking relatedcharges.
Wine levels are facing the threat of a global shortage of the drink according to new research.Last year production dropped to its lowest level in 40 years according to analysts leavingdemand outstripping supply by some 300 million cases. Global production has been decliningsince 2004 while consumption has risen.
A five-meter high bronze statue commemorating the French footballer Zinedine Zidane’sinfamous head butt in the 2006 World Cup final has been removed from a prominent positionin the Qatari capital. It’d only been on displaying in Doha for a few weeks but it had promptedaccusations of idolatry from conservative Muslims.
Those are the latest stories from BBC News
