BBC News:美俄兩國就銷毀敘利亞化武達成協(xié)議
The United States and Russia have agreed a plan to remove and destroy Syria's chemicalweapons as soon and safely as possible. The US Secretary of State John Kerry and RussianForeign Minister Sergei Lavrov also said they want to reopen wider peace talks. Mr. Lavrov saidpropose deal didn't mention any potential use of force if Syria fail to comply. Our diplomaticcorrespondent James Robbins reports.
The US-Russia agreement allows President Assad just seven days to declare a complete list ofSyria’s entire chemical weapon stockpile. International inspectors are to be on the ground inSyria by November. All stockpiles are to be removed or destroyed by mid-2014. And that will bea new UN resolution to enforce all this. Although the two sides differ about what that couldmean in practice.
President Obama has welcomed the deal agreed in Geneva. But he has warned that ifdiplomacy fails United States remains preparing to act. In a statement, he said the threats ofUS military force has helped to create opportunity to end the Syrian chemical weapon threatthrough diplomacy.
The commander, one of Syria’s main rebel armies, General Salim Idriss of the Free SyrianArmy, has said the deal would not resolve the crisis and but allow President Assad to escapebeing held accountable for the deaths of hundreds of civilians. The BBC’s Middle East editorJeremy Bowen is in the Syrian capital Damascus.
The Free Syrian Army, the loose coalition of armed rebels that has been hoping for western helpto fight the Assad regime, has rejected the agreement. Less than a week ago, the FSA believedthat the Americans were about to launching military attack which it helped would tip thebalance of the war its way. Now the FSA believes that the Americans have been sidetracked.Whether or not the chemical weapons were destroyed is not the point. The FSA wantsAmericans to destroy the regime’s military power. And the US agreement with Russia meansthe chances of that happening are receding.
Police in Iraq says a suicide bomber near the northern city of Mosul has killed more than 20people at a funeral of a number of minority Shabak people. Here is Danny Eberhard.
It is not yet clear who carried out the attack or why. The Shabak are separate ethniccommunity number in tens of thousands and have their own language. Most of them are ShiaMuslims. And they have been targeted in the past by Sunni extremists. Iraq has of late seen aweave of sectarian attacks. According to United Nations figures, some 5,000 civilians have beenkilled there this year, the worst level of violence since 2008.
A Russian politician from President Putin’s Ruling party has sparked a storm of criticism afterposting in apparently racist image of President Obama on Twitter. Irina Rodnina twitted aphoto-collage showing an unidentified hand offering the US President a banana. The imageevoked the brandishing of bananas at black players by Russian football fans.
BBC News.
The Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta has appealed for political stability ahead of vote onwhether to expel Silvio Berlusconi from parliament, a move which could threaten the coalitiongovernment. A senate panel will vote on Wednesday on whether to punish the former primeminister following his conviction for tax fraud. Mr. Berlusconi says that if the Mr. Letta’s partyexpels him, he might put his own party out of the government and bring it down. Mr. Lettasays he is convinced that Mr. Berlusconi would not do this as he would then have to answerfor jeopardizing the Italian economic recovery.。
The US National Guard has been deployed in state of Colorado to supply food and water topeople awaiting rescue following severe flooding. As a huge operation continues to help peopletrapped on the eastern edge of Rocky Mountain, National Guard troops have taken supplies tothe town of Lyons which has been cut off. Four people are known to have died in Colorado.Alastair Leithead reports.
The rain surged down from the Rocky Mountains, flooding homes and famer land cutting offcommunity as dozens of roads were blocked or swept away. The flood waters are subsiding asa big push to restore transport links as quickly as possible, but hundreds of people are stillunaccounted for and are in need of help. While the cleanups have started and the weather ischanging, rain is still forecasted for the Rocky Mountains and officials are warning people thatthere could be more flash flooding to come.
A ship that has been built as China’s first cruise liner has been detained in a port of SouthKorean island of Jeju because of a legal dispute. A local court ordered the vessel, the Hennanot to leave after a Chinese shipping company asked for to be seized. The ship’s operator isproviding free entertainment and around the clock food on the liner which has more than2,300 passengers and crew members on board. The Henna was due to leave Jeju on Friday.
BBC World Service News.
