President Obama is introducing new American measures intended to prevent the authorities in Iran and Syria using sophisticated communications equipment against dissidents. Mr Obama said the two countries were conducting violent campaigns against their own people assisted by what he called the "malign use of technology".

奥巴马总统推进一项新的措施，旨在阻止伊朗和叙利亚当局使用高科技的通讯设备控制对政府持有异议者。奥巴马称这两个国家利用他所称的“恶意使用高科技”对他们自己的人民行使暴力。

"I've signed an executive order that authorises new sanctions against the Syrian government and Iran and those that abet them for using technologies to monitor and track and target citizens for violence. These technologies should be in place to empower citizens, not to repress them."

“我已经签署了行政命令，对叙和伊朗政府及教唆他们为实施暴力而使用技术来监控，跟踪两国人民的行径，采取新的制裁措施，”

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the bombing by Sudanese warplanes of a market in South Sudan and called on the government in Khartoum to stop the fighting. Earlier, the UN special representative in South Sudan said observers were needed urgently to monitor fighting on the frontier between the two countries. But the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has ruled out negotiations with South Sudan. He was speaking during a visit to the oil field and border town of Heglig, which was occupied by South Sudanese troops nearly two weeks ago.