BBC在线收听下载:苹果超微软成最大市值公司

BBC news 2012-08-21

BBC news with Julie Candler.

Somalia has a new parliament, the first to be selected inside the country since the overthrow of the last defective government in 1991. Peter Biles reports.

Somalia has made some progress this year but the political transition isn't going entirely according to plan. It had been hopped that 275 MPs would be sworn in at the police training academy in Mogadishu. In the event, the number of parliamentarians fell short, only 211. And for security reasons, the ceremony had to be moved to the safety of Mogadishu airport where there was protection from thousands of African Union peacekeepers. There has also been a deadline stipulating that a new president should be elected by August 20th. That hasn't happened. So the oldest MP, Muse Hansen, a 72-year-old retired general will lead the country until parliament chooses its president.

President Obama has warned Syria that if it were to move or use chemical weapons, this would change his view on the United states response to the conflict. He said that he had not ordered military intervention in Syria at this point but that the US had put together the contingency plans. Kim Ghattas reports from Washington.

President Barack Obama has warned that the use or movement of biological and chemical weapons in Syria would change his calculation when it comes to military intervention. Mr. Obama said that, although he had not ordered military engagement at the present time on Syria, the US had put together a range of contingency plans. He added that Washington had made clear to President Assad's government and players on the ground that WMDs were an absolute red line. He said it would be enormous consequences if the weapons were used or moved.

The technology giant Apple has become the biggest company ever valued at more than $620bn on the Dow Jones share index in New York. A rise in its share price took the maker of Iphones, Ipids and Ipods, through the mark set by Microsoft in 1999. Russell Padmore reports.

Apple shares have enjoyed significant gains since last week rising to more than $664bn at the Nasdaq market amid speculation it will shortly unveil  new versions of its iconic iphone and iPad, as well as a TV device. Apple is now worth 50% more than the oil company ExxonMobil, the second most valuable corporation with share listed in New York. The surge in Apple's stock underlines investors' belief that the next generation of its products will keep ahead of the competition, as well as the hopes they will be in the shops by Christmas.

A Pakistani minister has said that he is gravely concerned for the life of a young Christian girl who has been arrested on charges of desecrating pages of the Koran. The girl, said to be aged between 11 and 13, is being held in prison. There are reports that she has a mental disability.

World news from the BBC.

Reports from Turkey say that at least 8 people were  killed when a car bomb exploded in the town of Gaziantep. Dozens were wounded in the blast which occurred near a police station. Gaziantep is in Turkish southeastern region where rebels from the outlawed Kurdish Worker's Party or PKK are active. The PKK seeks autonomy for the Kurds.

A retired Colombian police general, who served as security chief for the then president Alvaro Uribe, has pleaded guilty of having links with right wing paramilitaries. Gen Mauricio Santoyo said he had supported the United South Defense Forces of Colombia which is listed as a terrorist organization in the United States.

The hope of the master’s golf tournament, Augusta National in the American state of Georgia, has admitted women members for the first time in its 80-year history. The former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the South Carolina financer Darla Moore have accepted the invitation to join. Augusta has come under increasing criticism for its failure to admit women. Tony Diamond reports from Washington.

This is, said Augusta National  chairman Billy Payne, a joyous occasion. The campaigns to have women joined the club kicked off a decade ago. The former chairman responded that one day the club might have women but not, he said, at the point of a bayonet. The club only has around 300 members, all by invitation only. The first black member was admitted in 1990. For many years all the golf caddies were black. Female caddies were however allowed well before women members.

Phyllis Diller, one of the America's first female stand-up comedy stars, has died in Los Angeles. She was 95. Diller's career spent half a century after she rose to fame in the mid 1950s and survived a heart attack in 1999. Known for her distinctive cackling laugh, Diller aimed many of her harshest jokes at herself and a fictional husband named Fang.

BBC news.