BBC在线收听下载:美泰公司推出不同体型的芭比娃娃

BBC news 2016-02-05

Hello, I'm Ally Micue with the BBC News.

The international Olympic authorities say that everything possible is being done to protect this year's Games in Brazil from the Zika outbreak. The mosquito-borne virus is strongly suspected to have caused a big increase in birth defects. Julia Kamari reports from Rio.

Brazil is at the epicentre of the recent Zika virus spread. But the President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, said advice would be issued this week on how to keep athletes and visitors safe. The IOC has been demanding daily updates from the local organisers to ensure everything is being done to protect sports delegations, fans and volunteers from the virus, according to local reports. Brazil expects almost half a million visitors during the Games. And there is concern that these numbers may drop, with several countries advising pregnant women to delay travel plans to areas with the virus.

Germany's governing coalition has given details of plans to tighten asylum rules, following the arrival of more than a million migrants last year. The Vice Chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, said those with restricted asylum status would be unable to bring relatives into Germany for two years. Imiam Migainis has sent this report from Berlin.

Germany's government wants to declare Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia safe countries of origin. Most requests for asylum from people from this region are already knocked back. But the new law would speed up the decision-making process and make it easier to send rejected asylum-seekers back to their countries of origin. A similar decision was made last year about asylum-seekers from the Balkans. Berlin declared these countries safe, and numbers dropped overnight.

The human rights group, Amnesty International, says it's seen compelling new satellite images, indicating that dozens of people in Burundi were killed and later buried in mass graves. Amnesty said the footage showed five possible mass graves in an area on the outskirts of the capital, Bujumbura.

The French President, Francois Hollande, has called for swift negotiations to establish a political transition in Syria and for humanitarian measures to be urgently put into place. He was speaking at a joint news conference in Paris with Iran's President, Hassan Rouhani, who said Syria's main problem was defeating terrorism, not who was running the country.

The problem today in Syria and the region is not a question of this person or that person. The main problem is terrorism, is the problem of Islamic State. It's those who are buying oil from these terrorist groups, those who are giving weapons and those who are providing political support.

Earlier, during a landmark trade mission to Paris, Iran agreed to buy 118 Airbus planes from France in a deal worth 25 billion dollars.

This is the world news from the BBC.

As Republican presidential hopefuls prepare for their final debate, before the first electoral contest on Monday, the magnate frontrunner, Donald Trump, again, criticised the debate's female moderator. In a new tweet, Mr. Trump referred to the journalist, Megyn Kelly, as a bimbo. Mr. Trump said he would boycott the debate and instead, hold a veterans charity rally. His spokeswoman, Katrina Pearson, said he wanted to show where his priorities lay.

Mr. Trump has always been consistent about wanting to support veterans' organisations. He's been the most outspoken on the veteran scandal, particularly on the campaign trail. So this is an opportunity for him to do just that. While he is skipping the debate, he wanted to do something else, and veterans it is.

New research suggests that humans used complex geometry more than a thousand years earlier than previously thought. A German study shows that ancient Babylonians used geometry, the branch of mathematics that deals with shapes, to track the planet, Jupiter, across the night sky in the Fourth Century B.C.

The toy firm, Mattel, has launched its Barbie doll in three new body shapes, which it calls Tall, Petit and Curvy, in response to falling sales and criticism. Barbie dolls, with their tiny waists and large butts, have long been accused by feminists and parents of sending the wrong message to young girls. These were the views of a couple of female shoppers in New York.

Sometimes it is a tiny bit of boring to have toys with long thighs and perfect, so maybe they put these just normal. For many many years, they only have one kind of doll. And she is very skinny and tall, and too skinny, really. And women don't look like that. So it makes sense.

A rare musical instrument worth half a million dollars has been returned to its owner, nine months after it was stolen in the Czech Republic. The violone, which looks like a cello, was stolen from a car when its owner was in Prague for a music festival.

BBC News.