BBC在线收听下载:黎巴嫩总统宣布沙特将提供30亿美元援助

BBC news 2013-12-30

BBC News with David Austin

The President of Lebanon Michel Sleiman says Saudi Arabia is giving the Lebanese army $3 billion in aid. President Hollande of France who is in Saudi Arabia said his country would supply weapons if it asked. More details from our Middle East editor Sebastian Usher.

President Sleiman said the Saudi aid would finally allow the Lebanese army to in his words confront the threat from Israel, protect democracy, face terrorism and put an end to the proliferation of arms. That last phrase may sound innocuous but it indirectly touches on a dangerous taboo in Lebanon, the unchecked power of the Shia movement, Hezbollah. That issue is coming to the boil due to the conflict in neighbouring Syria where Hezobola's fighting for President Assad. The Saudis back the other side, the mostly Sunni rebels. It also supports the pro-Western March 14 alliance in Lebanon, a leading member of which Mohamad Chatah was buried today amid rising sectarian tension.

The German former Moto Racing champion Michael Schumacher is having a medical test after a suffering a head injury while skiing in the French Alps. One of the France's leading trauma specialist who is also a close friend has flown to the hospital in Grenoble where the former racing driver is being treated. From Paris here's Hugh Schofield.

Michael Schumacher who is an experienced skier with his 14-year-old son when he had the accident this morning. His head hit a rock but he was wearing a helmet and emergency services were quickly at the scene, he was taken by helicopter to hospital at a nearby town of Moutiers. But then later, he was transferred to the larger regional hospital in Grenoble. There is no official word about his condition.

The government of South Sudan says it ready to defend the strategic town of Bor at all cost against the approaching youth militia loyal to the rebel leader Riek Machar. A presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateng told the BBC that the army was well entrenched in Bor and ready to use its machine guns if the militia arrived as it expected on Monday.

They are still moving as we know this afternoon X kilometers from Bor, they seem to be adamant because they think that if they don't come and fight, then the pride of their tribe has been put in great insolence. The majority are still moving, the few attendees even they were X I gave X coward. And they are still a number of about 20,000 is still moving.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in two weeks of ethnic and factional violence in South Sudan.

The charity Medecins Sans Frontieres says more than 100,000 people displaced by fighting in the Central African Republic are now sheltering in a makeshift camp at the main airport near the capital Bangui. Attacks by Muslim Seleka rebels who seized power in March and Christian militias have killed more than 1,000 and displaced an estimated 400,000 people in Bangui alone this month.

World News from the BBC

The Russian government has ordered extra security at airports and railway stations after a suicide bomb attack at the central station in the southern city of Volgograd. At least 16 people were killed and many others were wounded. The station was busy with travellers heading home for the new year holidays.

Ten of thousands of Ukrainians have again demonstrated in central Kiev, the latest gathering of a-month-long campaign against President Viktor Yanukovych's decision to abandon an agreement with the European Union in favour of closer ties with Russia. A protest was also held for the first time in front of the president's official residence outside the capital seen as a symbol of alleged government corruption.

The Polish classical and film music composer Wojciech Kilar has died at the age of 81. He wrote many symphonies and concertos but was best known as the author of dozens of film soundtracks. J B looks back his life.

Wojciech Kilar's film for the Oscar winning film The Pianist directed by Roman Polanski. Film critics say: his use of simple evocative melodies was perfect for illustrating the movie he worked on. He wrote the scores for more than 130 films in Poland and abroad including Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula. He insisted though he is a real love with the music of the concert hall, classical symphonies and concertos while he drew inspiration from Polish folk music and the church hymns and prayers he'd learn as a boy.

The French football star Nicolas Anelka has denied that he is an anti-Semite or a racist after he was criticised for making a controversial gesture during a match in England. Anelka said the salute known as the quenelle while he made after the scoring in a premier league on Saturday was an anti - system but had nothing to do with religion. Jewish groups say it's a disguise Nazi-salute. The France Sport Minister described his action as sickening.

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