BBC news 2010-02-19 加文本

[日期：2008-03-11]

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BBC 2008-02-19

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BBC News with Fiona McDonald

Serbia has called on the United Nations to annul Kosovo’s declaration of independence. The Serbian President Boris Tadic told an emergency meeting of the Security Council that the move was a violation of international law. He was speaking after the United States and several major European powers had given formal recognition to Kosovo. Jane Little reports from New York.

President Tadic made an impassioned appeal to the Security Council to reject what he called a flagrant violation of international law. He said that the Serbian state was born in Kosovo and that it would remain forever a part of Serbia. He warned that the council risked losing its authority if it failed to defend the rights of a democratic member state. And he called on the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to annul the declaration of independence and to dissolve the Kosovo Assembly.

The European Union has aGREed to set aside differences over recognition of Kosovo. Spain was among several EU countries opposed to recognition. However it accepted a compromise statement that the Kosovo issue was unique and did not set a precedent for separatists elsewhere. This paved the way for the immediate recognition of Prishtina by the four largest EU countries: France, Germany, Britain and Italy.

Votes are being counted in Pakistan after a general election intended to complete the transition from military to civilian rule. Early unofficial return shows some leading allies of President Pervez Musharraf losing their seats but it is expected to be some time before a clear trend emerges. Jill McGivering reports from Karachi.

By the early hours of Tuesday morning in Pakistan, the first results were coming in. But it was still too soon to see meaningful trends. That didn’t stop some opposition supporters in Rawalpindi from celebrating saying they hoped for victory. In Sindh province the main battle is between the PPP—the party of the Bhutto family and the regional party MQM. In Karachi, supporters from both sides celebrated with dancing in the streets late into the night.

A judge in Colombia has convicted the dismissed army colonel and 14 soldiers of murdering 10 anti-drugs agents who were ambushed while investigating reports of cocaine trafficking. All 15 men face prison terms of up to 60 years when they are sentenced. Paul Keller reports.

Witnesses in the case said that the anti-drugs police agents were gunned down by the soldiers as they followed up a tip-off that a large cache of cocaine was hidden at a rural psychiatric unit in the western town of Jamundi. Reports say the agents were hit with hundreds of rounds of bullets at close range. The soldiers, none of whom were wounded claimed the deaths were the result of a friendly fire accident in which they had mistaken the agents for left wing rebels. But the prosecutors accused them of being bribed by drug traffickers to carry out the massacre.

Would news from the BBC

One of Italy’s most wanted Mafia criminals Pasquale Condello has been arrested in the southern city of Reggio Calabria. Mr. Condello who had been a fugitive from justice for 11 years was found at a house with his son in law and a nephew. Mr. Condello was described by the Italian government as the No. 1 boss of the Calabria Mafia—the Ndrangheta.

Israel has criticized the visiting United Nations humanitarian chief John Holmes who recently urged Israelis and Palestinians to end the cycle of violence between them. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said his comments equated terrorists with those who were defending themselves against terror. Mr. Holmes said he had seen the suffering of civilians in both Gaza and Israel and the current crisis could be solved only through diplomacy.

The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has defended his government’s decision to nationalize the stricken Northern Rock Bank after rejecting two takeover bids. Mr. Brown said the action was in the best interests of British taxpayers and would help achieve financial stability.

We’ve got downturn in America. We’ve got difficulties facing financial institutions of the rest of Europe. And we have this particular problem with Northern Rock as a result of what was a business plan that didn’t work, couldn’t raise the money in the market place that was necessary to continue to finance it. We have to intervene on grounds of financial stability.

The main opposition Conservative Party said nationalization was a catastrophic return to the failed policies of the 1970s. Northern Rock was forced to ask for billions of dollars of emergency funding from the government after a credit crisis last year.

An interim report into the crash of a British Airways jet at Heathrow last month, says damage had been found to the plane’s fuel pumps. A BBC correspondent says the damage may have been the result of bubbles in the fuel, suggesting the supply had been restricted or had contained air. The report said the aircraft had enough fuel and the sample showed no signs of contamination.

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