BBC在线收听下载:奥巴马访问枪击案受害者家属

BBC news 2012-12-17

BBC news with Gaenor Howells.

President Obama, here shortly due in the small Connecticut community of Newtown, the scene of one of the worst mass killings in U.S. history, he'll meet families of the victims and address a multi-faith vigil. 20 children and six adults died when a gunman stalked through a primary school, firing a semi-automatic rifle before killing himself. Jonny Dymond reports. For the third time in his four-year presidency, Barack Obama will travel to comfort those bereft in the mass shooting. He'll come to a town of vigils and memorials that is still learning of what happened on Friday morning at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Various state and local officials have added their voices to a growing demand for tighter gun controls. A senior Democratic senator has said she would introduce a bill banning the sale of assault weapons when Congress reconvenes in January.

The Syrian vice president has been quoted as saying neither the government nor the opposition can win the war in the country. Farouq al-Sharaa told a Lebanese newspaper that Syria needed a historic settlement involving a government of national unity. Correspondents say the government hasn't acknowledged that it can't win the conflict, but they add that there have been false reports about Mr. al-Sharaa before. Earlier, activists said government warplanes, for the first time, fired rockets at a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, killing at least 15 people.

France has said it expects the Syrian government to fall in the near future. The Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius described the assessment as controversial, but added that even Russia, one of Syria's strongest allies, saw President Assad being ousted as a possibility.

The Libyan parliament, the General National Congress, has ordered the closure of Libya's borders with Sudan, Niger, Chad and Algeria, and declared seven provinces in the south of the country are restricted military area governed under emergency law. A spokesman for the Congress said the move was intended to stem the flow of illegal immigrant send goods across Libya's borders.

The man who will become Japan's next prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has wasted no time in restating Tokyo's territorial claims over disputed islands in the East China Sea, after his party's convincing win in the general election. The U.S. President has congratulated Mr. Abe. From Tokyo, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes. Cheer as well they might. Tonight, the old boys of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan are back in control in Tokyo. Just three years ago, Japanese voters booted the party out after half a century in power. The first issue Mr. Abe must confront is China. For months, Tokyo and Beijing have been locked in a bitter dispute over islands in the East China Sea. Mr. Abe has promised it's time to get tough with Beijing.

World news from the BBC.

Several people are reported to have been injured after an explosion in a predominantly Somali district of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Witnesses told local television that a number of explosions were heard near a bar close to a mosque in the eastleigh district, and that grenades have been thrown from a speeding vehicle.

The South African President Jacob Zuma has put the case for his reelection as the head of the governing African National Congress on the opening day of the party's national conference. Mr. Zuma, who faces allegations of misusing public funds, said the ANC must tackle the culture of corruption pervading the party.

Prosecutors in Paraguay have filed charges against a group of peasants allegedly involved in a land dispute which resulted in the killing of 17 people. Six police officers and 11 landless peasants were killed in June, in an operation to evict the peasants from the land they’d occupied. The president at the time, Fernando Lugo was ousted over his handling of the clash.

One of the most hotly contested sports award ceremonies ever to be held in Britain is taking place this evening in London. Members of the public have been  voting for who is to be the BBC’s sports personality of the year. Favorites include Andy Murray, winner of the US open tennis championship, and also an Olympic Champion, long-distance runner Mo Farah and Bradley Wiggins, the Tour de France and Olympic cycling champion, who said he couldn't have won on his own.

Cycling is a team sport and I couldn’t have done it without the team that I had behind me. The team of riders and the personnel behind the team's role, I mean, all the athletes will know here tonight that we’re not alone in what we do, it’s the people behind us that make it happen, and I’m no different to them .

The man seen as responsible for the success of this year’s Olympic, Sebastian Coe is to receive a lifetime Achievement Award.

BBC News