BBC在线收听下载:朝鲜全国断网 疑似美国所为

BBC news 2014-12-29

BBC News with Johnathan Izard.

Thousands of people have attended the funeral in New York of Rafael Ramos, one of the two policemen shot dead in their patrol car a week ago. Vice President Joe Biden told mourners that the deaths had touched the soul of an entire nation. In his address, the Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo touched on the subject of racial and ethnic divisions. “New York knows these topics too well. New York has long been the entry point for our country welcoming people from across the globe. The Statue of Liberty stands in our harbor lighting the path. We know the difficulties of dealing with different races and ethnicities. But we also know the joy and the success, and the richness that it has brought to New York.” When the Mayor of New York Bill de Blasio rose to speak, many officers watching on screen outside turned their backs on him. They accuse him of fostering anti-police sentiment by supporting protest against them.

Chinese state media are reporting that North Korea has suffered a further Internet failure amid an escalating war of words with the United States over a cyberattack on Sony Pictures. The country's Internet and 3G mobile networks were reportedly paralyzed for at least two hours. Charles Scanlon from our Asia-Pacific desk has more. “The information is coming from the Xinhua News Agency, which maintains a bureau in Pyongyang. And they are saying that there had been Internet outages, been very unstable, basically, for most of the day. At 7:30 evening local time, the Internet was a total blackout and on the 3G networks. It seems to be exactly what happened last Tuesday, when the Internet also went down, that time for nine hours. We don't know who is behind this. But what we do know is that the North Koreans believe it's the United States.”

Officials in Somalia say a senior member of the Islamic group Al-Shabab has been captured in a town near the Kenyan border. They say the man Zakariya Ismail Ahmed Hersi was hiding in a house. There has been no independent confirmation. More details from our Africa editor Mary Harper. “The district commissioner of the town of EL Wag told the BBC Somali forces doomed the house after receiving a tip-off that Mr. Hersi had been hiding there for six days. He said that although Mr. Hersi had a pistol, he didn't put up a fight. In 2012, the U.S. government offered a three-million-dollar reward for information leading to the location of Mr. Hersi, a leader of Al-Shabab's much feared intelligence wing. Earlier this year, he fell out with the group's then leader Ahmed Abdi Godane, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in September.”

The Turkish man who shot and almost killed Pope Paul II in 1981 has laid flowers on the late Pontiff's tomb in the Vatican. Italian media quoted Mehmet Ali Agca as telling police he felt he needed to make the gesture. His visit to the Vatican came thirty-one years to the day since the Pope visited him in prison and forgave him for the attempt on his life.

World news from the BBC.

The Liberian former football star George Weah has won a landslide victory in Senate elections held last week despite the Ebola outbreak. Mr. Weah won 78% of the vote for the important Montserrado county seat, which includes the capital Morovia. He beat Robert Sirleaf, the son of the Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Low voter turnout was blamed on concerns about Ebola.

Sweden's center-left government has announced a deal with the mainstream opposition in order to avoid holding a snap election. The agreement sidelines the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, who helped vote down the government's budget earlier this month. The party had been demanding a reversal in Sweden's liberal immigration laws in return for its support. Argon Brevent reports. “On the surface, the purpose of this deal was to establish stability in Sweden, which is facing its most severe political crisis in sixty years. But the subplot was to neuter the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats, the third biggest party which provides a voice to those opposed to the nation's generous open-door policy. Some political commentators believe the new deal will intensify the debate over immigration, rather than suppress it. Sweden anticipates that next year, it will grant asylum to more than 100,000 refugees from Syria and Iraq.

Former Ukrainian soldiers have been released by Russia-backed rebels as part of the biggest prisoner swaps since the start of the conflict in Ukraine ten months ago. This brings the number of government troops to be freed to 150. So far, 220 pro-Russia fighters have been released.

An ice-cream parlor in Venezuela, famous for its 863 different flavors, has become the latest victim of the country's economic crisis. Coromoto based in Venezuelan Andes told customers it had to close for the time being because of the shortage of milk. The stall, listed in the Guinness Book of Records, is hugely popular with tourists for its exotic tasting ice-creams, which range from beer to beans.

BBC News.