BBC在线收听下载:强台风逼近印度东海岸 官方协助人员撤离

BBC news 2014-10-12

BBC News with Sue Montgomery.

More than 30 people have been killed by a series of car bombs in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Many others were wounded in the explosions which targeted mainly Shiah areas of the city. M. A. reports.

The first suicide bomber targeted a police checkpoint in western Baghdad, killing at least 10 people including several policemen. A second bomb exploded in a busy high street in the S. neighborhood, then a third close by. It is not known who's responsible for the violence. And there have been repeated attacks in Baghdad even before Islamic State forces began their takeover of large parts of Iraq. Officials have now said the government's grip on the western province of Anbar is tenuous.

Syrian Opposition activists say more than 500 people have been killed since the Islamic State militants attacked Kobani in northern Syria last month. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 300 of the dead were IS fighters. The United States has conducted six more airstrikes against the group since Friday.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has arrived in the Libyan capital Tripoli to support political dialogue between warring factions there. Reporting from Tripoli, R. J.

This is the UN Secretary General's second visit to Libya since 2011. Today he says he visits the country with a heavier heart. Libya's politicians and armed groups are more divided than ever and in his speech Mr. Ban Ki-moon said there was no alternative to dialogue. The speech was addressing rival members of Libya's parliament as they met for a second time in the past two weeks. The country has largely been run by competing militias since 2011.

Aid agencies are urging western governments to focus the efforts in tackling Ebola in West Africa instead of screening people at their own borders. A medical expert advising the British government described health checks at UK airports as a political gesture. Screening has also got under way in New York as Nick Bryant reports.

John F. Kennedy International Airport is one of the main entry points into America. It's the first of five US airports to start enhanced screening of passengers from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, on connecting flights from Europe, mainly Brussels and Paris. This day it's thought about 75% people will have their temperature taken to detect any symptoms of Ebola. By the end of next week, screening will cover 94% of West Africans entering America. New York has always been America's great gateway, but the welcome is traditionally given to immigrants from impoverished nations, also makes it more vulnerable to Ebola.

Twenty-seven hostages who were seized by the militant group Boko Haram in Cameroon earlier this year have been released, among them were 10 Chinese construction workers who were abducted in May and the wife of the Cameroonian Deputy Prime Minister who was kidnapped in July.

BBC News.

Five opposition groups in Bahrain have said they will boycott parliamentary elections scheduled for November. The groups including the largest Al Wefaq said that any election without a peaceful transition of power will be based on an unfair electoral system. Al Wefaq draws its supports from the Shiah majority.

After 16 years of renovation, one of the oldest churches in Egypt St. Virgin Mary's Church in Cairo has reopened. Many Coptic churches were targeted last year after the ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi. More details from Fahana Dawoud.

The hanging church owes its nickname to the fact that it rests above a gatehouse of a second century Roman fortress. It's located in a compound close to Cairo's first mosque and one of the oldest Synagogues. Christians account for estimated 10% of Egypt's population and have long been victims of harassment. They support the ousting of the Islamist President Mohamed Morsi last year and paid dearly. Scores of churches were destroyed in the unrest that followed. Egypt's current President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has a good relationship with Pope Tawadros II. The president has said he wants Christians and Muslims to be united.

Hundreds of people in Haiti have attended the funeral of the country's infamous former president Jean-Claude Duvalier who died of a heart attack last Saturday, aged 63. He was denied a state funeral but the Haitian government sent representatives to the private ceremony. Duvalier was accused of corruption and widespread human rights abuses during his 15-year rule.

Officials in India are evacuating hundreds of thousands of people as a severe cyclone approaches the country's eastern coast. Cyclone Hudhud is steadily increasing its speed. It's expected to reach land on Sunday. In Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, hundreds of police centers have been opened to shelter and feed evacuees.

BBC News.