BBC在线收听下载:两名运动员因服用兴奋剂被逐出比赛

BBC news 2012-08-07

BBC News with Neil Nunes

The Syrian Prime Minister Riad Hijab has defected with his family. A man saying he's Mr Hijab's spokesman denounced President Assad's government as a 'terrorist regime' and said Mr Hijab had joined the revolution. Jim Muir reports from neighboring Lebanon.

State television had barely reported the bomb explosion at its own headquarters when it found itself announcing some even more startling news. There was no official explanation for the extraordinary decision to fire a prime minister who'd only been appointed two months earlier. In fact, President Assad was putting a brave face on the fact that Riad Hijab had already defected, slipping across the border with his family and coordination with the rebels. Mr Hijab is expected to move on to Qatar. He's the most senior figure so far to turn against the regime as the crisis deepens and the violence worsens.

Opposition activists say two other ministers have also defected, but they say the Finance Minister Mohammad Jalilati was arrested as he tried to escape. However, Syrian state television broadcast a phone interview it said was with Mr Jalilati, saying he was working as usual in his office.

American banking regulators have accused the British bank Standard Chartered of hiding over $250bn in illegal transactions with Iran. New York State Department of Financial Services said the transactions had left the US financial system vulnerable to terrorists. Andrew Walker reports.

Standard Chartered is accused of what the New York financial services regulator called 'apparent grave violations of law' over a period extending for nearly ten years and covering 60,000 transactions. The regulator described the bank as showing evident zeal to make hundreds of millions of dollars at almost any cost . Standard Chartered says that it's conducting a review of past compliance with US sanctions and discussing that review with the American authorities. The bank would not predict when it would be completed or what the outcome would be.

President Obama has said that Americans must do some soul searching following the killing of six worshippers at a Sikh temple in the state of Wisconsin on Sunday. He said multiple public shootings in the US were happening with too much regularity. Investigators say the man who shot dead the worshippers was a former soldier. Jonny Dymond reports from Washington.

The gunman was identified as Wade Michael Page, a 40-year-old military veteran. He served in the army for six years in the 1990s – first as a mechanic, then in psychological operations. While recently, he was a member of a band called End Apathy. The cover of one of their albums shows a white fist slamming into a black face. FBI special agent Teresa Carlson said that the investigation is looking at ties to white supremacist groups. Two people remain in a critical condition.

World News from the BBC

Hundreds of youths in northern Mali have clashed with the Islamist militia that controls the region in a protest against the imposition of sharia law. Demonstrations broke out in the city of Gao after the Islamists announced plans to amputate the hand of a suspected thief. Militiamen fired shots in the air to disperse crowds.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has issued a statement saying that the killing of 16 Egyptian guards near the Israeli border on Sunday evening can be attributed to the Israeli intelligence organization Mossad. The statement said it was imperative to review the terms of the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel. A spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry dismissed the claim as nonsense.

Divers searching off Italy's northeastern coast have discovered the wreck of a trade ship believed to have sunk there about 2,000 years ago. The divers say the vessel is remarkably well-preserved. Allan Johnston has this report.

For years, fishermen believe there was something extraordinary lying in the depth of the town of Varazze – they kept finding shards of pottery in their nets. Eventually, a unit of police divers launched a search, and they just announced the discovery of a cargo ship which may date back to the last century before Christ. The ship's reckoned to have been sailing a well-travelled route between Spain and the coast of what is now central Italy. She was loaded with more than 200 clay amphoras that are likely to contain wine, oil and grain.

The Caribbean island nation of Grenada has won its first ever Olympic medal in the men's 400m – Nineteen-year-old Kirani James to gold in a race dominated by runners from the Westerners. Cyprus also won its first Olympic medal – a silver – in sailing. Two athletes were expelled from the game for doping offenses – one testing positive for cannabis, the other admitted taking illegal drugs.

BBC World News

恒星网友供稿,仅供参考