英国新闻听力 奥巴马公布撤军计划（在线收听）

President Barack Obama has said all American combat forces will leave Iraq by August next year. The withdrawal was one of his campaign promises. Announcing the plan, Mr. Obama said that up to 50,000 US troops of more than 140,000 currently in Iraq would remain there to train and advise the Iraqi security forces. But all American forces he said will pull out by the end of 2011.

"The United States will pursue a new strategy to end the war in Iraq through a transition to full Iraqi responsibility. This strategy is grounded in a clear and achievable goal shared by the Iraqi people and the American people: an Iraq that is sovereign, stable and self-reliant."

An American court has indicted the last terrorism suspect who’d been held without charges at a military prison in the United States. The man, Ali al-Marri, was arrested in the United States in 2001, and later designated an enemy combatant by the Bush administration. / / has more.

Ali al-Marri will now be transferred from a prison in South Carolina where he’s been held for more than five years to Illinois to face trial in a civilian court. He's been charged with conspiracy to provide material support and providing material support to Al-Qaeda. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. The decision by the Obama administration to try Mr. al-Marri in the US court system marks a significant policy shift from the administration of his predecessor.

The United States says its economy contracted more sharply at the end of last year than initially estimated. The Commerce Department says gross domestic product fell at an annual rate of 6.2% during the last three months of 2008, the steepest slide in 25 years. Its initial estimate had been 3.8%. The department said a major element in the decline had been businesses and consumers cutting back on spending.

The head of Bangladesh’s armed forces, General Moeen U Ahmed, has promised the military support for the government after a mutiny by border guards in which 140 army officers were killed. The assurances came after he met the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. There have been reports of discontent within the army at the way that the crisis was dealt with. From Dhaka, Mark Dummett reports.

Several army officers serving in Dhaka have told the BBC that many within the Bangladeshi military are unhappy at the way the mutiny was handled by the government, and are upset that as many as 140 of their fellow officers have been killed. They complained that the government should have given the army the order to quell the mutiny by Bangladesh Rifles border guards by force. The officers are also angry that the government initially offered the mutineers an amnesty, though it has since said that those responsible for the killings would be punished.

The leader of Israel’s Kadima party, Tzipi Livni, says she will not join a government led by her right-wing rival, the Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu. She said her latest talks with Mr. Netanyahu had ended without agreement on key issues and that her party would form what she called a responsible opposition. Mr. Netanyahu was asked by the Israeli President Shimon Peres to form a coalition government following elections earlier this month.

A prosecutor in Turkey has ordered the authorities to excavate several sites in the southeast of the country following reports of the bodies of Kurdish civilians killed during fighting in the region were buried there. Sarah Rainsford reports from Istanbul.

Hundreds of Kurdish civilians are still missing, presumed dead, since the height of the Kurdish conflict in the region in the mid 1990s. Human rights lawyers say most were last seen with members of the Turkish security forces. Lawyers began pushing for permission to dig certain sites, after a former security officer now in hiding abroad, gave information about the torture and execution of Kurdish civilians.

The United Nations Refugee Agency says 40,000 Somalis have returned to their homes in the capital Mogadishu in the past six weeks. The UN said many families arrived to find their homes and belongings there had been completely destroyed. The agency said most of those returning to the city had come from southern and central parts of Somalia that are experiencing renewed conflict and severe drought.

An American government official has said the United States will not participate in a United Nations conference on racism in April. The State Department is expected to announce the decision officially very soon. Canada and Israel have already said they will boycott the meeting. At a similar conference in South Africa eight years ago, the American and Israeli delegations walked out in protest against a draft resolution singling out Israel for criticism and likening Zionism to racism.

奥巴马总统声称，明年八月份之前美国所有的军事力量将撤离伊拉克，这是他竞选的承诺之一。奥巴马公布了这项计划，声称目前在伊拉克的14万士兵中，将保留五万名训练人员和顾问。但是2011年底撤回所有剩余部队。

“美国将采取一项新策略，以负责任地结束伊拉克战争，将安全责任完全过渡给伊拉克人该策略基于一个为伊拉克和美国人民共同认可的清晰、切实可行的目标：伊拉克是一个稳定、自力更生的主权国。”

美国一个法院起诉在美国一军事监狱无指控拘留的最后一个恐怖主义嫌疑犯，这位名叫Ali al-Marri的男子2001年在美国被拘留，后来被布什政府认定为敌军。

Ali al-Marri已在南卡莱罗那州被关押5年多，他将被转移到伊利诺斯州的一个民事法庭受审，他被指控犯有同谋罪，被认为向基地组织提供物资支持。每条罪状最多可以判他15年监禁。奥巴马政府对Ali al-Marri案件的判决，与布什政府的作法大相径庭，这标志着政府在政策上的极大改变。

美国声称去年年底其经济紧缩程度比先前预期的还要严重，商务部声称，2008年后三个月，国民生产总值以6.2%的速度锐减，是25来最快的下滑，先前估计的下滑速度是3.8%。商务部声称企业和消费者缩减开支是这次下滑的主要因素。

140名军队官员在一起边防军叛变中被杀，对此，孟加拉国武装力量领导人Moeen U Ahmed将军已向政府承诺提供军事支持。这是他与总理Sheikh Hasina会晤后作出的承诺，据报道，军方对此次事件的处理方式大为不满。

几名在达卡服役的军队官员告诉BBC，孟加拉国军方很多人对政府处理此次叛乱的方式不满意，并对140位同僚被杀感到不安。他们抱怨说，政府应该下令部队用武力平定这场由孟加拉国步枪兵发动的叛乱，政府最初表示对叛乱人员进行赦免，后来声称要处置展开杀戮的人，但是这些军官仍对此愤懑不满。

以色列前进党领导人利夫尼声称，她不会加入其右翼对手利库德领导人内塔尼亚胡组建的政府，她说在她与内塔尼亚胡的最后一次谈话中，双方未能在主要的问题上达成一致，她的政党将组建一个“负责的反对派”。应以色列总统佩雷斯的要求，内塔尼亚胡在本月早期的选举后组建联合政府。

土耳其一名检察官要求官方对本国东南部的几处地点进行挖掘，据报道说，在该地区发生的战乱中，被杀害的库尔德人的尸体被埋藏于此。

从上世纪九十年代中期库尔德危机高潮至今，仍有成百上千的库尔德平民下落不明，据推测已经死亡。人权律师们说，大多数下落不明的人最后一次露面是和土耳其安全部队成员在一起，一位现藏身国外的前安全部队军官提供了有关拷问和处决库尔德平民的消息，律师们开始加紧争取得到批准对几处地点进行挖掘。

联合国难民机构表示，在过去的六周当中已有四万名索马里人返回了他们在首都摩加迪沙的家园。联合国方面说，很多百姓返回家园后发现他们的房屋和财产均遭到彻底破坏。该机构还说那些大多数平民都是从索马里中部和南部返回该市的，这些人如今正面临新的矛盾冲突以和极为严重的旱情。

美国一位政府官员表示，美国将不会参加联合国将于四月召开的关于种族歧视问题的大会。国务院不久将正式公布该决定。加拿大和以色列均已表示他们将联合抵制此次会议。八年前在南非召开的一次类似会议中，美国和以色列代表团中途离场，以此抗议其决议草案中单挑出以色列对其批评并且还把犹太复国主义运动比作种族主义。