BBC在线收听下载:加纳总统米尔斯因癌症逝世

BBC news 2012-07-25

BBC News with Jerry Smit

The President of Ghana, John Atta Mills, had died. He was 68. According to a statement issued by the president's office in the Ghanaian capital Accra, the president was taken ill earlier today, and died a few hours later at a military hospital. He'd been suffering from throat cancer. Here's our West Africa correspondent Thomas Fessy.

This is the first time that a president has died while in office in Ghana. In a country hailed as a solid democracy, John Atta Mills' sudden death should not spark a political crisis but will certainly test the country's democratic institutions. As Vice-President John Dramani Mahama steps in as interim head of state, the question people are asking in the Ghanaian capital Accra is "Who is going to run for president with the ruling party in December?" Mr Atta Mills had just been nominated by the National Democratic Congress to stand for a second term.

In a significant escalation of the conflict in Syria, the government has used fighter jets to bomb parts of the city of Aleppo. The BBC's Ian Pannell witnessed the attacks.

Helicopter gunships spun through the skies throughout the day firing bullets and rockets to the ground. But it was what happened late this afternoon that underlined the grave risk to the government of losing ground in what is Syria's largest city and its economic capital. First came an unmistakable sound that's so far been absent from this conflict: the roar of fighter jets. We watched as they dropped in, bombing and strafing rebel positions. Dead and wounded civilians and fighters were taken to hospitals and makeshift clinics as the human cost of this conflict continues to grow.

Prosecutors in Britain have said they will charge the prime minister's former media spokesman Andy Coulson in relation to a phone-hacking scandal that forced the closure of a tabloid newspaper, the News of the World. The paper's former chief executive Rebekah Brooks and six other people will also face charges as the Crown Prosecution Service legal advisor Alison Levitt explained.

"The communications in question are the voicemail messages of well-known people and those associated with them. There is a schedule containing the names of more than 600 people who in the prosecution will say are the victims of these offence. In addition, each will face a number of further charges of conspiracy unlawfully to intercept communications."

At least 12 government soldiers have been killed in Tajikistan during a major military operation against the former opposition warlord. State media says 30 rebel fighters were also killed in the clashes – the biggest outburst of violence in the country for several years. The attack in the eastern region of Gorno-Badakhshan follows the murder on Saturday of a top security official. The former warlord, Tolib Ayombekov, denies his supporters were responsible for the deaths, insisting the general fell during an argument in a bar.

World News from the BBC

Pope Benedict's former butler, who was arrested two months ago on charges of stealing confidential Vatican documents, has written to the Pope to ask for forgiveness. Paolo Gabriele was detained in May after Vatican police discovered a stash of secret and confidential papal correspondence in his house. Observers say Pope Benedict is likely grant a formal pardon to Mr Gabriele to bring the case to a swift conclusion after a summary trial.

The Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has announced that a sophisticated group of conspirators was behind the suicide bus bomb attack that killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver last week. Our central Europe correspondent Nick Thorpe has more.

Six days after the bomb blast which killed five Israeli tourists, the Bulgarian bus driver and the attacker, the identity of the bomber is still not known. But the Bulgarian prime minister has now given some clues about the progress of the investigation. The date and place of entry into the country have been uncovered. He was part of an extremely sophisticated group, he said, whose members arrived in the country a month in advance , leased vehicles and travelled to different cities in order to avoid being seen together.

Cuban police have arrested at least seven dissidents at the funeral of the prominent activist Oswaldo Paya, who died in a car crash on Sunday. Among those detained is (are) a leading human rights campaigner, Guillermo Farinas. According to reports, dissidents were picked up for questioning by plain-clothes police.

The Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has unveiled a 3-D reconstruction of the face of Simon Bolivar, who died in 1830 after leading the fight against Spanish colonial rule in the region. The computer-generated image was created by artists studying Bolivar's remains, and looks remarkably like known prints and paintings of the South American liberation hero. Simon Bolivar appears to have a strong chin, a large nose, bushy eyebrows and sideburns.

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