BBC在线收听下载:尼日利亚发生两起爆炸事件

BBC news 2014-05-21

BBC News with David Austin.

Two explosions in the Nigerian city of Jos have caused a large number of casualties. The BBC has been told scores have died while an official of the Nigerian National Emergency Management Agency told the French news agency there were at least 118 victims. President Goodluck Jonathan condemned the attack and said he remained committed to fighting terrorism. Will Ross reports.

The area that was targeted was a busy market. When the victims of the first blast were being taken to the nearby hospital, the second bomb was detonated. Both had been concealed in vehicles. There were scenes of chaos as people tried to help the injured. Body parts were strewn across the area. Although it's not known who carried out the attack the Islamist extremist group known as Boko Haram has targeted Jos City before, bombing several churches in what was then seen as efforts to ferment religious violence.

Thailand's caretaker prime minister Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan has called for fresh elections, following a declaration of martial law by the army. There are troops on the streets, but a senior opposition leader has promised to keep up the fight. Michael Bristle reports.

In the early hours of the morning, and without informing the caretaker government, soldiers moved onto the streets of the Thai capital Bangkok. The army said it wasn't a coup - just martial law that would give rival political groups the space to resolve their differences. But by the end of the day, not much seem to have changed. The caretaker prime minister was still as before calling for earlier elections and the opposition said martial law would not stop its six-month campaign to oust the government.

A jury in Moscow has found all five defendants guilty of organizing and carrying out the murder of Anna Politkovskaya in 2006. Mrs. Politkovskaya was a Russian investigative reporter and vocal critic of the Kremlin. From Moscow, Richard Cameron reports.

Anna Politkovskaya was a fearless investigative journalist whose reports on human rights violations in Chechnya brought applauses and prizes from across the world. But she was also a fierce critic of President Putin, and her powerful enemies were not just in Chechnya but in Moscow. When she was shot dead in 2006, there was an international outcry. Four of the five guilty men come from one Chechen family, three brothers and an uncle. The fifth is a former policeman who tracked her and provided the weapon.

The White House says the CIA will no longer use vaccination programs as a cover for spying operations. The decision comes after complaints from American medical professionals about the agency's use of a public health program in Pakistan in its hunt for Osama bin Laden. In 2011, the CIA attempted to obtain DNA samples of children that they believed to be related to bin Laden through a hepatitis vaccination program. Since then, the Pakistani Taliban have targeted polio vaccination campaigns.

World News from the BBC.

Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are observing a period of national mourning for the more than 40 people killed in the worst flooding for more than a century. Emergency teams are waiting for flood waters to recede in many towns and villages to assess the full extent of the casualties. From a Serbian town of Obrenovac, Guardian Nornet reports.

Despite good weather over the past three days, the flood waters still haven't receded. In Bosnia, bloated animal carcasses are floating in inundated fields. The government says it needs mobile incinerators to prevent disease as temperatures rise. But the main challenge may start when the towns dry out and the size of the reconstruction job could be enormous. And there's still a possibility of fresh floods. Authorities in Serbia are bracing themselves for searchers on the Danube and Sava rivers.

The United States has imposed sanctions on 12 Russians accusing them of human rights abuses. The 12 include prison officials that the US says withheld medical care from a man who uncovered a tax fraud in Russia. In a statement, the US Treasury Department said the sanctions would freeze any US assets held by the individuals and bar Americans from doing business with them.

An international organization working for better medical care says it's opened discussions with several unnamed oil producing African countries about introducing a special levy on oil to create a pan-African health fund. UNITAID said the idea was to raise a small 10% levy on every barrel of the oil produced to be taken from government revenues.

Cuba's best known dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez says she will launch an online newspaper on Wednesday with daily news about the communist-run country. But Sanchez said the website will not be a platform against the government, it's aim is to provide essential information to Cubans. The paper, which will be called Catorce y Medio, will be produced in Cuba.

BBC NEWS