BBC在线收听下载:迪士尼将收购《星球大战》制作商

BBC news 2012-10-31

BBC News with Marion Marshall.

The northeast coast of the United States is beginning a massive clear-up after being hit by the biggest storm for years. At least 30 people have been killed. The mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg said bridges and roads were being reopened, but would take days to restore power and public transport.

In addition to the lives we lost, the damage we suffered across the city is clearly extensive and it will not be repaired overnight. The two biggest challenges facing our city going forward are getting our mass transit system up and running and restoring power. So clearly the challenges our city faces in the coming days are enormous.

New Jersey where the storm made landfall was also badly hit. Houses were torn from their foundations and towns flooded after levees broke. The storm is now move(-ing) northwest and it mixes to the cold weather system causing blizzards. The White House says President Obama has cancelled a third day of campaigning for next week's presidential election, so he can supervise the clean-up operation. He spoke to reporters of the Red Cross in Washington.

My message to the governors and mayors and, through them, to the communities that have been hit so hard is that we are going to do everything we can to get resources to you and make sure that any unmet need that is identified, we are responding to it as quickly as possible. And I told the mayors and governors if they're getting no for an answer somewhere in the federal government, they can call me personally at the White House.

Disney has agreed to buy Lucasfilm, the maker of the Star Wars franchise in a deal worth more than $4bn. With details here's our Los Angeles correspondent Alastair Leithead.

Disney's deal to buy Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise was just over $4bn, will see a whole new series of Star Wars films being made, with its founder George Lucas being kept on as a creative consultant. In a statement he said: It's time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of film makers. The first Star War film came out in 1977, the most recent in 2005. Disney's chief executive said there were substantial pant up demand for new movies. The first film under

Disney ownership, Episode Seven is planned for 2015 with Episodes Eight and Nine to follow along with new film every 2-3 years.

Syrian state television says an air force General, Abdullah Mahmud al-Khalidi has been assassinated by rebel forces in the capital Damascus. The report said General al-Khalidi was one of the Syria's foremost aviation experts. The Free Syrian Army has said it carried out the attack.

The leader of the opposition in Rwanda Victoire Ingabire has been sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of terrorism and genocide denial. Mrs Ingabire, a Hutu, was quitted on two other charges, she boycotted the hearing. She's been held in prison since October 2010.

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The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the Polish teenager who was raped and became pregnant should have been given

unhindered access to an abortion. Staff of three hospitals in Poland denied the 14-year-old girl a termination, even though

abortion is legal in case of rape. She eventually had the procedure in secret at a hospital 100km from her home.

Thousands of Kurdish demonstrators have clashed with riot police in towns and cities in eastern Turkey. The protests were aimed to draw attention to more than 650 Kurdish prisoners who were on hunger strike.

Police in Jamaica say they've detained about 100 men in an operation aimed at preventing a gang feud from escalating. The men were detained in a Spanish town which is notorious for gang violence.

Afghanistan's first professional boxing match has won by a local fighter, Hamid Rahimi. He beat Said Mbelwa of Tanzanian in the seventh round. Rahimi's supporters invaded the ring after his victory which was held in a specially constructed tent normally used for Lawyer Jirgas, national gatherings of tribal elders. Our correspondent in Kabul, Bilal Sarwary said security was tight for the match.

You had heavy machine gun, you had rocket propelled grenades, you had elite Afghan forces, and you had M4 and M16s inside the tent right around the ring, and Afghan riot and armed police were called when the mob, as the police of Kabul called it, tried to get to the ring. So it was a very very different

boxing game than what people around the world see or hear about.

Serbian police have charged 12 people over a brawl at an Under-21 football game against England earlier this month. Five of those charged are Serbian players and two of them England players, they haven't been named. Players and officials from both teams clashed at the end of the game after alleged racist chanting by Serbian fans.

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