BBC在线收听下载:美英总统会晤商讨以色列问题

BBC news 2015-01-17

BBC News with Jonathan Izard

The US president Barack Obama and the British prime minister David Cameron have announced the creation of a joint group to work together on tackling Islamic radicalization. They were speaking after wide ranging talks on mutual security. Gary O'Donoghue reports from Washington.

The new trans-Atlantic group on radicalization is due to report back for London and Washington in 6 months' time. It has some notable names on it, including the former secretary of state Collin Powell. It will look at some difficult issues such as what to do with foreign fighters when they return from conflict zones like Syria to their own countries. They will hold other announcements. The difficulties for both men is that they vowed to tackle some very difficult problems and solutions would not be easy to come by.

Earlier the two leaders have agreed to conduct joint cyber security war games and established a cyber cell to enable security agencies for both countries to pool intelligence on malicious hacking. The first round of war games due to take place later this year will simulate a cyber attack on financial institutions in London and NewYork.

Police in Belgium have charged 5 people with participating in the activities of a terrorist group. As charge for among more than 2 dozens people arrested since Thursday in the series of anti-terror raids carried out by police in Belgium, France and Germany. The raids targeted possible accomplices in the attacks that killed 17 people in Paris last week.

Scientists monitoring global temperature says last year was the hottest in modern times. Parts of the United States were a notable exception. The figures mean 14 of the 15 warmest years on record have occurred since the turn of the century. John Tucker as a scientist from the US space agency NASA which helped compile the data.

2014, the year just ended, was the warmest year on record going back when the record started in the 1880s. 2014 was about one and a quarter Fahrenheit degrees firm high warmer than the average temperature of the earth during the 20th century. Increasing surface temperature means rising sea levels that increased the possibility of storm surges and coastal flooding.

The Saudi authority has postponed the next scheduled public lashing of political activist Rafi Badawi quoting medical ground. A doctor reportedly recommended the delay because his wounds had not healed adequately from a first batch of lashes.

Rafi Badawi's wife told the BBC that his case has been referred by the officers of Saudi king to the country's supreme court, then she said this has given him hope that officials wanted end his punishment as the supreme court has the power to overturn his conviction. His sentence for publishing a liberal website which discusses religion, politics and free speech has sparked an international outcry. Human right groups have condemned it as brutal and several governments have asked the Saudis to review the case.

BBC news.

The Russian authority has launched a new investigation into president Putin's most high profile opponent, the anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny. Mr. Navalny was taken in for questioning and his office raided over allegations that money raised for his foundation had been spent on staff salaries instead of what the authority said were the aims of the organization. Mr. Navalny has rejected the allegations.

At least 170 people are known to have died in flash floods that hit Malawi over the last month. More than 100,000 people have been displaced. Earlier this week, president Peter Mutharika declared a third of the country's disaster zone and appealed for international help. More than 50,000 people have also fled their homes in neighboring Mozambique.

Prince Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth will appear in the public next week for the first time since a woman alleged that she had been forced to have sex with him as an under-aged teenager 10 years ago. The prince who denies the allegations will host a reception promoting British entrepreneurship at the world economic forum in Davos in Switzerland. Peter Hunt reports.

Prince Andrew has decided to press ahead and fly on a private jet to Switzerland next week and host a reception of Davos. To a pull-out at this late stage after the invitations to the reception had been sent would have been a very concrete side of the damage, this allegations had been afflicted to the queen's son, allegations which had been denied in 2 statements. The claims have focused the attention again on the prince's failure of judgement when he chose to stay friends with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. There are risks attached to the decision not to keep a low profile, not least the considerable attention prince Andrew will now attract with the gathering of world leaders.

Teams from all over Africa have arrived in Equatorial Guinea for the start of African Cup of Nations, just 2 months after the country stepped in as a host. Morocco was originally intended to hold the event but asked to postpone it because of concerns about the possible spread of the Ebola virus.

BBC world service news.