BBC在线收听下载:伊拉克继续对伊斯兰国发动袭击

BBC news 2015-03-07

BBC news with Marion Marshall.

The US central intelligence agency is lauching one of the biggest reorganisation in its hitory. The aim is to sharpen the focus on intelligence gathering and cyber operations. Our world affair's reporter * has more.

As part of this plans, the CIA will set up new so-called mission centres. These are units which will focus on specific areas of the world like Africa and on key chanllenges the agency say it faces like the spread of weapons. But the main aim will beat increase the CIA's focus on what's happening in the cyber world and keep up with the pace of change. So, a brand-new directorate of digital innovation is being set up. The agency says it will track on and take advantage of the advances in cyber technology.

The authorities in the US have charged 3 foreign citizens with hacking a number of e-mail service providers in one of the largest data breaches ever reported there. Our Washington correspondent Naomi Grimley reports.

US prosecutors have charged a Canadian man and 2 Vietnamese nationals, one of whom remains at large. It's claimed that together they hacked into at least 8 major e-mail providers, stealing nearly a billion e-mail addresses. There were then used for various spam and marketing schemes. The authroties say the episode was particularly unnerving because of its sheer scope with most of America's e-mail distribution companies been infiltrated. It's thought in total, the scams may have netted over 2 million dollars.

Iraqi forces have been continuing their assault against IS in a further attempt to retake Tikrit, one of the militants' key stronghold in the country. They've been joined by Shia militia which were receving support from Iraq's former enermy Iran. Our correspondent Ahmed * travled with the Iraqi army to the ouskirts of Tikrit.

This is the new frontline against the IS. Through sniper holes and in bunkers, fighters taken aim at positions around Tikrit's surburbs. Most of the residents have fled this area, anyone left walks in fear. As we drive, we see countless homes that have been destroyed, those that are left have been taken by the military. This is the third attempt to retake Tikrit. It is a battle it will can't afford to lose.

The UN's cultural agency UNESCO has described the destruction by IS militants of the ancient Syrian city of Nimrud as a war cime. Iraqi officials say bulldozers have been flatting walls and statues that are 3,000 years old. The IS militants have yet to explain that action in Nimrud which was the capital of the Syrian empire. But after the smashing statues recently in a museum in Mosul, they said historical artifacts were the false idols that had to be destroyed.

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The former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has completed his final day of a community service sentence for tax fraud. He was spared jailed because of his age, but he's instead being working at a carehome for elderly people with dementia. Allen Johnston reports.

If having to do this community service order with the humiliation, Silvio Berlusconi, he never showed it. He was typically cheery as the arrive of his last day at the care-home and he said that working with the staff there have been a moving experience. The irrepressible Mr. Berlusconi is a born entertainer that he reportedly used to sing for the home's elderdly residents. But if even this sentences ended, soon there will be a reveal of his acquittal in a case in which he was accused of paying for sex with an underage prostitute.

Russia and Ukraine have agreed to more than double the number of OSCE obersers monitoring the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. The agreement came as EU foreign ministers were meeting in Latvia. Gavin Lee is there.

The intensifying crisis in Libya and a fragile ceasefire in Ukraine have dominated the first day of talks here. The EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini says reports of violation of Ukraine's peace deal shows the ceasefire isn't perfect and confiremed that the number of international monitors in the east of the country will be doubled to a thousand to get better access on the ground. The Latvia and Lithuanian minister say they are also using the opportunity of the talks to raise the issue of the perceived threats of the Russia's information war, anti-EU television and media propaganda they say is targeting the minority Russian speakers in the Baltic states.

Edward Snowden，the whistleblower who exposed massive surveillance by the US national security agency has made a public appear for Switzerland to grant his asylum. Mr. Snowden who's in exile in Moscow prays Switzerland for its history of neutrality.

BBC world service news.