BBC News:俄罗斯军队袭击乌克兰军事基地
Russian troops have used armoured vehicles to force their way into a large military airbasenear the Crimean city of Sevastopol. Ukrainian servicemen of the Belbek base have beenrefusing to surrender. The BBC’s Ian Pannell was there.
There’ve been extraordinary scenes at what was Ukraine’s largest airbase here in the Crimea.At about 4:30 local time, two armoured Russian carriers burst through the perimeter wall,smashing it down, and special forces then fanned out brandishing machine guns. There wereloud explosions which we believe were distraction grenades. Automatic gunfire was heard and atleast one of the troops who was stationed here was believed to be injured. Russian troops arenow in control of this base as the Ukrainian troops must decide whether to switch allegianceor to leave for good.
Earlier, Russian troops took control of an airbase at Novofedorovka north of Sevastopol after itwas stormed by their supporters who smashed windows and tore down Ukrainian symbols.
Scientists in France have identified the Ebola virus as the source of an outbreak ofhaemorrhagic fever in Guinea, which is believed to have killed nearly 60 people. A Guineanofficial said about 80 cases had been identified mainly in the south of the country. Here’s ourAfrica editor Mary Harper.
The disease broke out six weeks ago but scientists in Guinea were unable to identify what itwas. It’s highly contagious with horrific symptoms. These include high fever, vomiting andbleeding from the eyes, ears, nose and other orifices. There have in recent years beenoutbreaks of Ebola in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
African Union forces and government troops in Somalia have taken the strategic town ofQoryoley, which has been held by the Islamist group al-Shabab for the past five years. Therewas heavy fighting which caused both civilian and military casualties. Many civilians have fled. ABBC correspondent in Qoryoley, which is about 90km south-west of the capital Mogadishu,says it’s significant because it was a base for foreign fighters.
Pope Francis has named the first members of a commission of experts to advise him on howto tackle the child sex abuse scandal that’s rocked the Catholic Church. The pope’sspokesman said the protection of children had now been made one of the church’s highestpriorities. From Rome, David Willie reports.
Among the experts is Marie Collins from the Irish Republic, who was a child in the 1960s withherself the victim of a paedophile priest. Pope Francis has been criticised for dragging his feeton remedying the damage done to the Catholic Church by clerical abuse and failing to exposealleged extensive cover-ups by bishops protecting some predator priests at the expense oftheir victims. Today’s announcement is the first tentative step towards establishing betterprotection for children against priest molesters.
World News from the BBC
Turkey’s finance minister has acknowledged that the ban imposed by the government onTwitter does not reflect well on the country. The minister Mehmet Simsek told the BBC hehoped full access to the social network could be restored, but insisted that Twitter had toobey Turkish court orders to remove links to alleged recordings of the prime minister’s privateconversations.
“I’m not saying a complete ban on any social media platform reflects well. It doesn’t reflectwell. A full stop. But at the same time I don’t think any global company, whether it’s a mediacompany, whether it’s an industrial company, it shouldn’t see itself above the law.”
The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan imposed the ban after Twitter was used tospread allegations of corruption against him.
There’s still no firm sign of the Malaysian airliner that went missing two weeks ago despite anintensified search operation in the southern Indian Ocean. Australian officials say there were nosightings of an object about 22 metres long seen on newly-released Chinese satellite pictures.Our correspondent Jonathan Head is on board one of the search planes.
Well, I’m sitting on board the New Zealand Air Force, P-3, a rare aircraft. The crew is settlingdown for the long four-hour journey out to the search site, some sitting in front of a bank oflarge computer screens, which will show what their sophisticated surveillance equipment candetect. And as you watch the vastness of the southern Indian Ocean sleeping beneath theplane, you are struck by the battling question as to why the Malaysian airliner could possiblyhave ended up in this lonely spot.
Tens of thousands of protesters from all over Spain have converged on the capital Madrid toprotest against austerity measures. Carrying banners with the slogan “marching for dignity”,the demonstrators urged the government to tackle unemployment, homelessness anddeepening poverty.
