BBC在线收听下载:相隔半世纪 《杀死一只知更鸟》作者再出新书《设立守望者》

BBC news 2015-02-04

BBC News with Jonathon Izard

Jordanian State television has confirmed that the country’s air force pilot who was captured by Islamic State militants has been killed. The group released a video that purported to show Moaz al-Kasasbeh being held in a metal cage surrounded by oil then the fuel is lit and the pilot is pictured burned alive. He was captured after he crashed near IS strong-hold while taking part in US-led operations over northern Syria. King Abdullah of Jordan called the pilot a hero who died defending his country.

Brilliant pilot Moaz died defending his beliefs, homeland and nation. He joins all the martyrs who made ultimate sacrifice before him, for dear Jordan. Today, we stand shoulder to shoulder with the family of the martyr hero Moaz, with our people and our armed forces in this tragedy.

Speaking in Washington, President Obama said a different video of the murder was authentic and was a further indication of barbarity of IS. He added that the killing would re-double the determination of the US-led coalition to defeat the militants.

Members of Parliament in Britain have voted overwhelmingly in favor of controversial scientific technique that would allow the creation of babies using DNA from three people. If the measures were approved by the House of Lords, Britain would become the first country to legalize the procedure. Scientists say it could prevent children inheriting certain life threatening diseases. Here’s our health correspondent James Gallagher explains:

Doctors want to create babies from two women and one man in order to prevent deadly genetic diseases. The aim is to correct defects in a tiny shortage in the body that convert food to usable energy. These mitochondria are passed only from mother to child. The scientist's solution is to combine the parents’ DNA with a healthy mitochondria from a donor woman. Evidence suggests the technique would be safe but nobody can be certain. It also raises ethical questions.

The Ratings agency Standrad & Poor’s has to paid nearly 1.4 billion dollars to the US authorities to settle a legal claim that it knowingly inflated its ratings of mortgage investments. The ratings were issued over several years on the Subprime mortgage bonds that triggered the financial crisis of 2008. The US attorney general Eric Holder said the agency’s actions have been a factor in the crisis.

“On more than one occasion, the company's leadership ignored senior analysts who warned that the company had given top ratings to financial products that were failing to perform as advertised. As S&P admits under this settlement, company executives complained that the company declined to downgrade underperforming assets, because it was worried that doing so would hurt the company's business. This strategy did major harm, major harm to the larger economy, contributing to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. US attorney general Eric Holder.

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Argentina authorities investigating the mysterious death of a special prosecutor Alberto Nisman last month have revealed that he had considered to question the arrest of President Christina Fernandez de Kirchner. The prosecutor investigating Mr. Nisman's death said that a draft arrest warrant from Mr. Fernandez was retrieved from a rubbish bin in his apartment.

Reports from northeast Nigeria say Chadian troops have taken control of a border town that being in the hands of Boko Haram militants. A French news agency reported there said the Chadian soldiers moved into Gamboru on Tuesday after pounding Boko Haram oppositions for several days using fighter planes and helicopters.

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has accused south Sudan's leaders putting their own interests above those of their people. President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar signed yet another ceasefire agreement on Sunday but failed to address use of power sharing. Mr. Ban called for a comprehensive agreement and said that no peace would be found unless the leaders place the interests of the population above their own.

The author of one of the best selling books of all time To Kill a Mockingbird is to published a second novel more than half a century after the first. The new work Go Set a Watchman was completed in the 1950th, before To kill a Mockingbird and also features Scout the main character in her best selling book. Bill Silito has more:

To Kill a Mockingbird won the Pulitzer Price, sold more than 40 million copies and was turned into an Oscar winning movie. But its author Harper Lee never published another novel. However, a novel has been re-discovered. Go Set a Watchman features Scout as an adult. He was thought a pretty good effort at the time by her and it was this that led her editor to encourage her to go on to explore Scout's childhood and what will become her masterpiece. Harper Lee issued a statement saying the book had been rediscovered by one of her friends.She thought it had been lost forever.

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