BBC News with Jerry Smit
Nato foreign ministers have unanimously agreed a set of measures in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, including the formal suspension of all practical civilian and military cooperation with Moscow. Jonathan Marcus is at the meeting in Brussels.
The view here at Nato is that the seizure of the Crimea by Russian troops has changed the whole security landscape in Europe. The alliance’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen described Russia’s annexation of Crimea as the gravest threat to European security for a generation. Accordingly, Nato is set to reinforce its defences. In the coming days and weeks, we could see existing operations like the air patrols over the Baltic countries reinforced and in some cases entirely new deployments to reassure worried allies.
Parliament in Ukraine has meanwhile agreed a series of bilateral and multi-lateral military exercises with Nato countries. But the Russian foreign ministry has warned Ukraine against any further integration with the alliance, saying previous attempts to do say have produced what it called unwelcome consequences.
President Obama has announced that more than seven million people have signed up to his affordable healthcare plan. Enrollment for wage ended on Monday. He said the changes have also benefited those not on the plan.
“The bottom-line is this: under this law, the share of Americans with insurance is up, and the growth of healthcare costs is down. And that’s good for our middle class and that’s good for our fiscal future.”
Mr Obama admitted that his controversial scheme had not solved all the problems and that millions more remained uncovered.
The Lebanese parliament has approved a law intended to curb domestic violence, but activists say it doesn’t go far enough. The law was originally more clearly aimed at giving women greater rights against sexual abuse. Sebastian Usher reports.
Just three weeks ago, protesters took to the streets of Beirut to demand a comprehensive law protecting women against violence in the home. What intensified the anger and urgency of the rally was the deaths of two women earlier this year in suspected acts of domestic violence. But though some activists have greeted this new law as historic, they see it as a positive step rather than the culmination of their campaign. The original draft of the law, they say, was much stronger, outlawing marital rape and forced marriage. But they say it was watered down to satisfy the most traditional elements in parliament.
The Sri Lankan government says it’s banning 16 Tamil groups based overseas as what it describes as foreign terrorist organisations. The groups include the Tamil Tigers, the defeated rebel group, and also a series of Tamil organisations that say they do not believe in violence. The ban forbids Sri Lankan citizens to maintain links with the groups. A spokesman for one of the Tamil groups said the ban showed that President Mahinda Rajapaksa was not interested in solving the root causes of Sri Lanka’s ethnic problem.
World News from the BBC
The Peruvian author and Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa has said that he will travel to Venezuela in two weeks’ time to lend his support to groups engaged in three months of protest against the left-wing government of Nicolas Maduro. Mr Vargas Llosa, who once ran for president in Peru, said that all Latin American countries would be under threat if Maduro succeeded in consolidating what he called a Cuban-inspired dictatorship in Venezuela.
The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has signed a request to join several UN agencies. Speaking on television in Romala, President Abbas said the Palestinian leadership had unanimously approved the decision to seek membership of 15 agencies and treaties beginning with the fourth Geneva Convention which protects civilians in times of war.
Human Rights Watch says Nepal has imposed increasing restrictions on Tibetans living in the country following pressure from China. It’s said Tibetan refugee communities were facing a defective ban on political protests, sharp restrictions on organising cultural programmes and routine abuses by Nepalese security forces. The Nepalese government rejected the allegations.
Vatican Radio has unveiled an online digital archive allowing users to listen to the voices of popes from as long ago as the 19th century. The archive was started in 1931. Here’s David Willey.
The earliest scratchy recording of a pope was that of Leo XIII on a wax cylinder. Pope Pius XII’s impassioned speech on the eve of the Second World War, in which he vainly pleaded for peace, can be downloaded as well as the anguished words of Pope Paul VI when he deplored the murder of the former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro. The audio archive has been transferred to digital format as part of the celebrations later this month for the canonisation of two former popes, John XXII and John Paul II.