BBC News:美军事基地枪击案主犯被判死刑
The United States says it cannot allow diplomaticparalysis to serve as a shield for the Syrianleadership. The State Department criticized Russiaafter it used a meeting of the five permanentmembers of the Security Council to block a resolution which would have authorized measuresto protect civilians in Syria. From the United Nations, here is Nick Bryant.
Britain convened a meeting of the permanent five members of the Security Council to discuss apossible resolution authorizing the use of forces in Syria. But it failed to break the diplomaticdeadlock between the UK, US and France who favor a military response to last week'schemical attack and Russia and China which have repeatedly blocked punitive measures againstthe Assad regime. America said afterwards they heard nothing different from the Russiansduring the closed-door meeting and also that the Syrian government couldn't continue to hidebehind what it called Moscow's intransigence.
The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the UN can not consider any draftresolution or proposed action in Syria before the UN weapons inspectors there finish theirinvestigation into last week's alleged chemical attack. Syria's ambassador to the UN BasharJaafari has at meanwhile called for UN inspectors to be allowed to complete their work withoutmilitary or political pressure.
Syrians in Damascus are preparing for possible air strikes with people stocking up on basicsupplies or trying to find somewhere to stay away from the likeliest targets. The BBC's JeremyBowen sent this report from the city.
Damascus seems quiet among trips I made here earlier this year. The city is waiting decisionsthat are been taken elsewhere. The Syrian war is about to move into a new phase. Armyroadblocks stop traffic every few miles down the highway in-and-from the Lebanese border asthey had since the war started. I saw some activities around military bases, men moving aboutthe entrances. News agencies quoting residents and opponents of the Assad regime havereported that some heavy weaponry has been moved out of bases and staff are partiallyvacated some headquarters’ buildings.
President Obama has been addressing crowds in Washington commemorating the 50thanniversary of Martin Luther King's landmark I Have A Dream speech. President Obama praisedwhat he called Dr. King's soaring oratory. He also hailed other civil rights demonstrators of thetime.
“Because they marched, the civil rights law was passed. Because they marched, a voting rightslaw was signed. Because they marched, doors of opportunity and education swung open sotheir daughters and sons could finally imagine a life for themselves beyond washing somebodyelse's laundry or shining somebody else's shoes. Because they marched, city councils changedand state legislators changed and Congress changed, and yes, eventually the White Housechanged.”
World News from the BBC.
Israeli authorities have completed once said to be the last major airlift of an ancient communityof Ethiopian Jews seeking a new home in Israel. Two flights carrying 450 people have arrived inTel Aviv. The Falash Mura, a community whose ancestors converted from Judaism toChristianity under duress a century ago, but who've retained some Jewish customs. Thousandsof Ethiopian Jews have resettled in Israel, but many complain of discrimination in their newhomeland.
In the United States, a military court has sentenced a former US army psychiatrist to deathafter finding him guilty of shooting dead 13 soldiers in 2009. Prosecutors say that Nidal Hasan,a convert to Islam, targeted soldiers at the Fort Hood base in Texas in revenge for civiliandeath in Afghanistan and Iraq. Alistair Leithead reports.
Major Nidal Hasan sat in a wheelchair as the panel of the military juries delivered their ruling. Hewas paralyzed by the shots that finally stopped his killing spray on the same base four yearsago. His beard now unkempt and greying. The 42-year -old listened carefully as the prosecutorwent through the personal stories of each life he took, the loss suffered by parents, widowsand children. He looked at each photograph of the 13 he killed, one a pregnant woman, herunborn child also died, but he showed little sign of emotion.
Scientists in California say a slowdown in the rate of global warming can be explained by anatural cooling in part of the Pacific Ocean. Their research published in the journal Nature,explains why there has been no significant global warming in the past 15 years. The scientistssay that the colder waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean have counteracted the increased levels ofman-made carbon dioxide. But they warn that the Pacific will enter a warmer phase at somepoint at which the global average temperatures will accelerate upwards.
BBC News.
