BBC在线收听下载:意大利前总理贝卢斯科尼或面临牢狱之灾

BBC news 2013-08-02

BBC news with Sue Montgomery.

Italy's highest court has upheld the prison sentence handed down to the former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for tax fraud. However, because of his age, Mr Berlusconi is unlikely to go to jail and instead faces house arrest or community service. Alan Johnston reports from Rome. "For nearly 20 years, Silvio Berlusconi has been the single most influential figure in Italian politics, he has been Prime Minister three times and yet judges have now decided that he is guilty of tax fraud and should go to jail. It's the first time in all his many court cases that he has been definitively convicted. There can be no appeal. Mr Berlusconi will surely see this as one of the darkest moments in his extraordinary political life."

The United States says it's extremely disappointed by Russia's decision to grant the fugitive American whistle blower Edward Snowden temporary asylum. Mr Snowden, a former U.S. intelligence analyst, has been charged by the U.S. with espionage for leaking details of secret government surveillance programs. Mark Mardell reports from Washington. "The White House says granting Edward Snowden asylum undermines cooperation between the U.S. and Russia. And they insist he is not a whistle blower, not a dissident. He's been charged with criminal offenses. They openly admit that the relationship with Russia is already difficult with many points of conflict. Up until now, a most serious was over the approach to Syria which makes some very uncomfortable body language between President Obama and President Putin at the recent G8 meeting. Now, the White House spokesman Jay Carney says they are considering pulling out of a planned summit between the two leaders."

Share prices in the U.S. reached all time highs, the Dow Jones index set a new record while the wider index of the U.S. market the S&P 500 went over 1700 points for the first time. Here's Andrew Walker. "The share price gains partly reflect some upbeat news about the U.S economy, the survey of manufactures showed stronger activity last month. There has also been a decline in the number of people applying for unemployment benefits, but the exceptional policies of the Federal Reserve are also an important and persistent factor driving the stock market. The statement from the FED on Thursday has been interpreted that suggesting its efforts to stimulate stronger economic growth will not be cut back very soon.

The electoral commission in Zimbabwe has started releasing results hours after President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party said it had won an emphatic victory. Mr Mugabe's main rival Morgan Tsvangirai has described the poll as a huge farce. He said intimidation and ballot rigging by ZANU-PF meant the election was null and void. The largest group of election observers in Zimbabwe says the polling was seriously compromised with up to a million people unable to cast their votes.

World news from the BBC.

The U.S. judge has given a sentence of life in prison plus 1,000 years to Ariel Castro, the man who held three women captive in his house in the city of Cleveland for almost a decade. The judge said Castro was too dangerous ever to be released because he saw himself as a victim. Earlier in the hearing, one of the women Michelle Knight addressed Castro directly. "You took eleven years of my life away, and now I have got it back, I spent eleven years in the hell, now your hell is just beginning, I'll overcome all that has happened, but you'll face hell for eternity." Ariel Castro told the court that he was not a monster, he was ill and addicted to sex.

There has been a huge explosion at an ammunition depot in the central Syrian city of Homs, opposition activists said at least 40 people were killed and more than a hundred wounded in the blast in a government-controlled area of the city. Unverified videos posted on the internet show a vast fire ball rising high into the sky.

The Chilean official investigating the accident that left 33 miners trapped under ground for 70 days has failed to find anyone responsible, the official said he was closing the case because after three years, he could not find enough evidence to press charges against either the owners of the mine or government regulators over the mine's collapse.

Archaeologists in Mexico have uncovered a tomb containing the body of a presumed warrior who was beheaded more than 1400 years ago. The body was buried in a site in Teotihuacan to the north of Mexico city with a rich green stone necklace, ear pieces and other stone objects. Scientists believed the man would have been a noble warrior as the skull had a healed weapon injury. They say the find will help them to better understand the ancient society in the region.

BBC news.