BBC News:奥巴马称尚未就是否向叙利亚动武做最终决定
President Obama has said that he has not yet made a final decision on the response to lastweek’s suspected chemical attack in Syria, but he said it will be a limited action. He said theattack was a challenge to the world that threatens US national security interests and its allieslike Israel and Jordan.
“We are not considering any open-ended commitment. We are not considering any boots-on-the-ground approach. What we will do is consider options that meet the narrow concernaround chemical weapons, understanding that there is not going to be a solely militarysolution to the underlying conflict and tragedy that’s taking place in Syria.”
Mr Obama was speaking shortly after his Secretary of State John Kerry made the strongestcase so far for limited military action against the Syrian government.
“We know where the rockets were launched from and at what time. We know where they landedand when. We know rockets came only from regime-controlled areas and went only toopposition-controlled or contested neighbourhoods. And we know, as does the world, thatjust 90 minutes later all hell broke loose in the social media.”
Mr Kerry said at least 1,429 Syrians were killed in the attack, including 426 children. He called ita crime against humanity and explained why it mattered to the United States to take action.
“It matters because if we choose to live in a world where a thug and murderer like Bashar al-Assad can gas thousands of his own people with impunity even after the United States andour allies said no, and then the world does nothing about it, there will be no end to the test ofour resolve and the dangers that will flow from those others who believe that they can do asthey will.”
The poet and Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney has died. He was 74 and he’d suffered from illhealth recently. Seamus Heaney was born in Northern Ireland but later lived in the Republic ofIreland, who was a teacher and then had a distinguished career in poetry, winning the NobelPrize for literature in 1995. A BBC correspondent says that it was the political troubles inNorthern Ireland that helped make Heaney famous.
Supporters of Egypt’s ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi have protested across thecountry in their biggest demonstration for two weeks. Six people have been killed and dozensinjured in clashes. In Cairo, the demonstrators opted for several scattered protests avoidingthe capital’s bigger squares. On Thursday, another leader of Mr Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood,Mohammed Beltagi, was arrested by the military-backed government.
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At least 12 people are reported to have been killed and ten injured in a bomb attack in northernIraq. Reports from the town of Tuz Khurmato, north of the capital Baghdad, say that the bombexploded in a largely Kurdish part of the ethnically mixed town. The police chief in the town saidthe explosion was preceded by a loud bang, which he believed was designed to attract acrowd.
A senior British intelligence advisor has said in a court statement that 58,000 secretdocuments seized under anti-terrorism laws from a Brazilian man at a London airport earlier thismonth would harm British national security if disclosed. The Brazilian, David Miranda, is thepartner of the journalist who helped fugitive contractor Edward Snowden leak American andBritish intelligence documents. Jane Peel was in court.
A witness statement said Mr Miranda’s computer hard-drive contained 58,000 highly classifiedUK intelligence documents. The statement said the material included personal information thatcould identify intelligence officers overseas and it was possible it was already in the hands offoreign states. David Miranda’s solicitor described the government’s assessment as sweepingand vague and claimed the assertions were unfounded.
Demonstrations organised by national unions in Brazil have left millions of people without publictransport in several cities across the country. The workers are demanding changes in labourlegislation and improvements in public services. In Sao Paulo, school teachers, steel workersand students have been demanding better working conditions.
And the Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has ordered troops to patrol the capitalBogota after overnight protests in the city turned violent. On Thursday, tens of thousands ofpeople took part in protests in Bogota in support of farmers who say the government’sagricultural policies are driving them to bankruptcy.
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