BBC News:明鏡周刊稱美國國家安全局竊聽聯(lián)合國

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The American Secretary of State John Kerry hasbitterly condemned what he called the undeniableuse of chemical weapons by the Syrian government.Speaking in Washington, Mr Kerry said thatPresident Obama believed that Syria must be held accountable for the attack.

“What we saw in Syria last week should shock the conscience of the world. It defies any codeof morality. The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children andinnocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity. Moreover, we know that theSyrian regime maintains custody of these chemical weapons. We know that the Syrian regimehas the capacity to do this with rockets.”

Mr Kerry added that the president will be deciding in the days ahead about what steps to takenext. Mr Kerry said the world must stand up to ensure that chemical weapons must never beused again. The Russian President Vladimir Putin has, meanwhile, said there is no evidence achemical attack had taken place in Syria or who may be responsible if one had.

UN chemical weapons inspectors have left the scene of last week’s suspected poison gasattack on the outskirts of Damascus after spending nearly three hours there. The UN SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon praised the team for doing their job in very dangerous circumstancesafter snipers shot at their convoy on their first attempt to get to the site. Yolande Knellreports.

The weapons inspectors have taken the samples away for laboratory testing and we know fromother experts that could include blood and tissue samples from the people who wereaffected. They also have had the chance, we assume, to examine the scene where the attacktook place and what they’ve been looking for there is any sort of evidence of craters and anyevidence of the delivery systems that were used (for) some kinds of missiles. They’d beenlooking around for any debris that might give them a clue to what happened.

Health officials in Kyrgyzstan have confirmed that a teenager who died last week had bubonicplague. Doctors said the 15-year-old herder from a mountain village caught the disease throughbeing bitten by an infected flea possibly from a marmot, a type of ground squirrel that (is)sometimes cooked for food. More than 100 people who have had contact with the teenagerhave been quarantined. Although once killed about one third of the population of medievalEurope, bubonic plague can now be treated with antibiotics.

A United Nations official has responded to reports in the German magazine Der Spiegel that theAmerican national security agency has been spying on the UN. Citing secrete NSA documentsobtained by the fugitive former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, Der Spiegel said theNSA have bugged the UN headquarters in New York. A spokesman for the UN said it was amatter of international law that diplomatic missions must not be interfered with.

World News from the BBC

Bolivia has expressed profound concern over the escape to Brazil of an oppositionpolitician who’d been living in the Brazilian embassy in the capital for over a year. A Braziliandiplomat, Eduardo Saboia, has admitted to using his diplomatic immunity to drive theBolivian senator, Roger Pinto, across the border. Julia Carneiro reports.

Bolivian opposition leader Roger Pinto Molina had been living in the Brazilian embassy in La Pazfor almost 500 days. A Brazilian diplomat drove him for more than 20 hours across the borderwithout permission from either country. Mr Molina had been given asylum in the Brazilianembassy after being charged with a raft of offences, including corruption. He arrived in Brazilon Sunday and said the charges had been fabricated by the government. Mr Saboia said hetook a personal decision to help Mr Molina, who, he said, was suffering depression.

The Liberian education minister has expressed dismay that all of this year’s 25,000 candidateswanting places in the state-run university have failed their entrance exams. The minister,Etmonia David Tarpeh, told the BBC that she was doubtful that an entire group could fail andwanted to see the results for herself.

“I know there are a lot of weaknesses in the schools, but for a whole group of people to takeexams and every single one fail(ed), I have my doubts about that and I’m trying to meet withthe university to find out what actually happened.”

And the government of Zimbabwe has proposed plans for what it calls a “Disneyland in Africa”near the country’s top tourist attraction-- the Victoria Falls. The tourism minister said it wouldbe a resort with shopping malls, convention centres, banks and casinos. It’s expected to costabout $300m. Zimbabwe’s tourism sector is facing a struggle to recover from years of conflictand economic crisis.

BBC News