BBC在线收听下载:美国两名感染埃博拉病毒病人出院

BBC news 2014-08-22

BBC News with Jerry Smit.

Top US defense military official has said that the Islamic State group presented a long term threat greater than any other so far, and needed to be defeated in Syria, as well as Iraq. Both US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and his Chief of Staff Martin Dempsey were speaking after the grisly murder of an American hostage by the group. From Washington, here is Barbara Plett Usher. “General Dempsey said it was possible to contain the Islamic State militants for a time, but they would eventually have to be defeated. That couldn't be done without addressing their base in Syria and without the help of a regional coalition, he said. Neither he nor Secretary Hagel announced new military steps beyond the limited air strikes authorized by President Obama.  But both described the threat in stark language. Short term, from westerners fighting with the Islamists, who might return home. Long term, said Mr. Hagel,  Islamic State demonstrated a combination of sophistication, money, resources  and tactical ability beyond any terrorist threat so far seen. 'We need to prepare for anything,' he said.”

A hospital in the United States has discharged two American missionaries who has been treating the Ebola virus, saying they pose no risk to public health. They were both given an experimental drug which has not been tested on humans before. The doctor in charge of the US Care said his hospital had learned helpful lessons from the treatment.

Bank of America has agreed to pay almost 17 billion dollars for selling toxic mortgage loans that helped trigger the financial crisis in 2008. The bank was accused of misleading investors into buying mortgage-backed securities that the soldiers saved for investments and led to billions of dollars of losses. The US Attorney General Eric Holder said it was the largest deal the Justice Department has ever reached with a bank. “I want to be very clear, the size and the scope of this multi-billion-dollar agreement goes far beyond the cost of doing business. This outcome does not preclude any criminal charges against the bank or its employees, nor was it inevitable. Over these last few weeks, this case would be resolved out of court.”

Turkey's governing AK Party has nominated the Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as the country's next Prime Minister. The decision was announced by the outgoing prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who takes over as President later this month. Sallen Garage reports. “Mr. Davutoglu was not the obvious choice for the post of Prime Minister.  Initially the strongest candidate for the position was thought to be the outgoing President Abdullah Gul, but his name was soon discounted. Mr. Davutoglu has been loyal to Mr. Erdogan first as an adviser and then as Foreign Minister. He will become Prime Minister after his election as the governing party's new leader at its Congress next week. The opposition suspects he will run the government at the bidding of Mr. Erdogan and says Turkey is heading to a new era of puppet Prime Ministers.”

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The Governor of the US State of Missouri has ordered National Guard troops to withdraw from the town of Ferguson where there's been nearly two weeks of unrest sparked by a police shooting of a black teenager. Governor Jay Nixon said the soldiers were no longer needed because tensions were easing. The guards were deployed on Monday after hundreds of people took to the streets to protest against the killing of the unarmed teenager Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson.

The BBC has obtained audio recordings suggesting that the daughter of the authoritarian Uzbek President Gulnara Karimova has been under house arrest for nearly six months. In the recordings which were smuggled out of Uzbekistan, Ms. Karimova says that she and her daughter need urgent medical help. Ms. Karimova was one of the most powerful figures in central Asia until she fell out with her father early this year.

The Red Cross says that customs checks have begun on trucks of a Russian convoy carrying aid for civilians in rebel-held eastern Ukraine. The regional head for the Red Cross Lawrence Corbett said the aid delivery would start by Friday.  Several of the convoy trucks have reported to be in the area between Russian and Ukrainian checkpoints.

Helen Bamber, the British psychotherapist, who helped survivors of the holocaust, has died at the age of 89. As a young woman, she went to help care for survivors of the German concentration camp where she saw her mission as listening and burying witness. Daniel Bircher reports. “In 1945, Helen Bamber went to help care for survivors of the German concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen. She was 20 years old. It was an experience that was to shape the rest of her life. For almost seven decades, she helped victims of human rights abuses, torture and trafficking. In the early 70s she worked with Amnesty International and later founded the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. In 2005, she set up her own charity the Helen Bamber Foundation.”

And that's the BBC News.