BBC在线收听下载:伊斯兰国公布日本记者被斩首视频

BBC news 2015-02-01

BBC News with Jerry Smit

The militant group Islamic State has released video footage that appears to show the beheading of the Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, who was kidnapped in Syria in October. From Jordan Kevin Connolly has the latest.

The Japanese government says it's working to verify the grim video which purports to show the murder of the journalist Kenji Goto. But the picture has very strong resemblance to images released when other hostages held by Islamic State were beheaded. The group had set a deadline of sunset on Thursday for a deal in which it said it would release Mr Goto in return for the freedom of Sajida al-Rishawi, an al-Qaeda bomber in a Jordanian jail. The militants are known to have communicated directly with Mr Goto's wife by e-mail, and she had pleaded publicly for his life to be spared. But now it seems that those pleas were ignored.

The leader of Spain's left-wing party Podemos has addressed tens of thousands of supporters at a rally in central Madrid. Pablo Iglesias praised the ally Greek party Syriza, which won power on a promise to end economic austerity. Mr Iglesias declared that the wind of change was starting to blow through Europe.

"Today we have the dream of a better country, but we haven't filled the square to keeping dreaming. We're here to make our dreams come true in 2015. Dreams have to be pushed, and this year we're going to fight to make the political change arrive. This year we're starting on something new. This is the year of change. And this year we're going to beat the Partido Popular in the elections."

The march was the biggest show of public support so far for a movement that is less than a year old. Podemos leads some opinion polls ahead of an election due this year.

Rival European politicians have been outlining their different positions on how to bring Greece's debt situation under control. The Greek finance minister is travelling to France, where he'll be seeking a sympathetic ear from the centre-left government in his attempts to renegotiate the terms of Greece's bailout. But the European Parliament president described as "irresponsible" the Greek decision to shun the current team of debt negotiators.

The former head of Columbia's secret police, Maria del Pilar Hurtado, has been detained in Panama after turning herself over to the authorities. She's been flown to Bogota and is due to appear in court. Leonardo Rocha reports. Maria del Pilar Hurtado gave herself up to the Columbian authorities in Panama hours after Interpol issued an arrest warrant for her on Friday. She had been on the run for more than four years. Ms Hurtado has been accused of illegally spying on opponents of the former Columbian President Alvaro Uribe. Those allegedly targeted include politicians, judges and even the head of Columbia's Supreme Court. Columbia's intelligence agency is directly answerable to the president, but Mr Uribe, who's now a senator, has denied any involvement.

News from the BBC

As heavy fighting continues in eastern Ukraine the latest efforts to end the violence have failed. The representative for Ukraine at the talks in Belarus told journalists that there had been no agreement because the pro-Russian separatists refused to discuss a ceasefire. Earlier the Russian government said President Putin had discussed the crisis in a phone call with his French counterpart Francois Hollande and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

An online campaign in Britain aimed at raising a few hundred dollars for a disabled pensioner who was mugged in front of his home has raised more than 100,000 pounds or 200,000 dollars in donations. Jonathan Blake reports.

Alan Barnes suffered a broken collarbone when he was attacked and had since been afraid to return home. When local beautician Katie Cutler read about what had happened she set up an online fund to help him find somewhere new to live. The target was 500 pounds. By this morning the total was 55,000 pounds. Now that has more than doubled to 120,000 and counting. More than 9,000 people have donated money. Mr Barnes has described the response as "unbelievable".

An Egyptian court has banned the armed wing of the Palestinian group Hamas and listed it as a terrorist organisation. Hamas is the dominant force in Gaza. And Egyptian officials allege that weapons are smuggled from the territory into northern Sinai, where Cairo is battling an insurgency. The banning order came days after Islamist militants killed more than 30 people in coordinated attacks on military and police targets in the peninsula.

In the first quarterfinal of football's Africa Cup of Nations, the Democratic Republic of Congo have beaten their smaller neighbours Congo 4-2. All six goals came in the second half that was as thrilling as the first half was dull. Congo seemed to have the game wrapped up at 2-0 only for the DRC to mount a storming comeback.

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