BBC在线收听下载:奥运旗帜已抵达巴西城市里约热内卢

BBC news 2012-08-14

BBC News with Marion Marshall

Rebel fighters in Syria say they've shot down a government fighter plane near the border with Iraq. Footage of the attack posted online shows a jet burst into flames amid the sound of heavy gunfire. The rebels say they've captured the pilot. Another video shows rebels questioning a man who identifies himself as the pilot. Syrian state television has confirmed the crash, but said it was due to technical problems. Kevin Connolly has more.

The plane appeared to be a Russian-built MiG-23, and experts say it's decked out in the distinctive markings of a Syrian air force. A few seconds into the footage, a bright, yellowy orange point of flame appears on the fuselage , and then, almost immediately, blossoms into a huge ball of light. There's no independent verification of the images. Planes like the MiG-23 have given the Syrian government a huge advantage over the rebels; and if one has been shot down, then it is a significant moment in this conflict.

In Norway, an official inquiry into the way police responded to the attacks by Anders Behring Breivik last year has found they could have been avoided. The commission said certain security measures were not heeded , meaning that Breivik was able to plant a bomb close to government buildings unnoticed. Caroline Hawley reports.

It's just over a year since Anders Breivik set off a bomb at a government building in Oslo, and then drove to the picturesque island of Utoeya, where, dressed in police uniform, he calmly picked off his victims. The police themselves arrived on the island more than an hour after the killings began. Today, the inquiry found that the bomb could have been prevented. The inquiry also found there'd been communication failures. It took the police too long to issue a description of Breivik and his vehicle; and it took the police too long to get onto the island.

The Vatican has ordered that Pope Benedict's former butler should stand trial for stealing secret documents from the Pope's private office. Paolo Gabriele and another Vatican employee are also accused of stealing a check worth $100,000. David Willey reports from Rome.

The Pope's private apartment on the top floor of the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican is supposed to be one of the most secure locations in the world. Yet, Paolo Gabriele managed to spirit away a stack of correspondents which he took home and photocopied, according to Vatican investigators. The Vatican spokesman said inquiries are continuing, and other people working inside the Vatican may be implicated . The theft has been a deeply embarrassing episode for the Roman Catholic Church.

The Olympic flag has arrived in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, which will host the 2016 Summer Games. The flag arrived with the city Mayor Eduardo Paes who received it from his London counterpart on Sunday. It marks the official start of Rio's Olympic preparations which include the building of several sports venues in the next four years. Rio will be the first South American city to host the Olympics.

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Nearly 1,000 people have fled from wild fires on one of the Spanish Canary Islands. Fanned by warm winds, the fires on La Gomera have engulfed scrubland and dry valleys, and sent residents fleeing from the western town of Valle Gran Rey. The fires have damaged part of La Gomera's Garajonay National Park.

Police in the United States say three people have been killed in a shooting incident near a Texas university campus. One of the dead was a police officer who first arrived on the scene. The gunman, who was wounded during exchange of gunfire, has also died. The shooting was close to A&M University northwest of Houston.

Conservationists in South Africa say they've succeeded in reducing the elephant population after a five-year contraception program. The number of cubs being born at a park in northern KwaZulu-Natal has now halved. Darts carrying contraceptives are fired from the air, avoiding the distressing process of hunting and culling the animals. Controlling the elephant population is vital as they often rampage through farms to find the vast quantities of vegetation they need. A district ecologist, Catharine Hanekom, said the results were encouraging.

"The really* a * is that * remote application. So we were flying in helicopter. We jostled animals from the *. The * were for us, and that's basically the impact that * have on the hood."

The owners of Cosmopolitan magazine say its long-time editor, Helen Gurley Brown, has died in New York at the age of 90. Helen Gurley Brown became famous in 1962 after writing the bestseller Sex and the Single Girl – a book of advice and anecdotes on why being single shouldn't mean being sexless. Widely credited with helping to encourage the female sexual revolution, she was hired by Hearst which owns Cosmopolitan in 1965 to improve the magazine's fortunes. For the next 32 years, she developed a style which encouraged readers to get everything out of life.

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