BBC在线收听下载:奥巴马与东盟国家领导人举行峰会

BBC news 2016-02-17

I'm Illy McKue with the BBC News.

Syria's president Bashar al-Assad has cast doubt on whether a ceasefire proposed for later this week can be implemented. The cessation of hostilities was agreed by world powers at a security meeting in Munich last week. But president Assad said a ceasefire did not mean that each party would stop using weapons. In televised remarks, he said any cessation of hostilities should aim to create stability, and stop those he called terrorist from strengthening their positions.

We have been hearing them talking about ceasefire within a week. From a practical perspective, that is difficlut to implement. Any cessation of operations must be done with the aim of improving the security situation and reaching a reconciliation or settlement.

The UN's special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura has arrived in Damascus to try to help to achieve a ceasefire.

The UN has condemned Monday's airstrikes on several hospitals and schools in northern Syria which it says killed almost 50 people including children. Three hospitals were destroyed in the attacks. The airstrikes have been widely blamed on Russia. A spokesman for the medical charity MSF, Sam Tailor said one of its field hospitals in Idlib province was deliberately targeted.

The hospital was attacked by four missiles in two seperate attacks within minutes of each other this morning, which made us to believe that it was a deliberate attack. And it was not an accidental attack, it was deliberate. So the level of sufferings to these people who have been deprived of health care in this war-torn region, it is extremely worrying for us.

A Syrian diplomat said the hospital was hit by a US airstrike.

Reports from Syria say Kurdish-lead forces have captured the town of T from Islamists rebels. Observers said the Syrian Democratic forces and the alliance of Kurdish YPG militia men and Arab fighters brought the town under their control after days of intense fighting and Russian airstrikes.

The President of the European Council Donald Tusk has warned that there is a real risk that the EU could break up if the UK decides to leave. Speaking in Romania, Mr. Tusk said talks with Britain were at critical moment. The British prime minister David Cameron has been demanding concessions before a referendum is held on whether the UK should leave the EU. Mr. Cameron has been meeting French persident Francois Hollande ahead of Thursday's summit in Brussels. Cartie Adler reports.

France is extremely concerned about the prime minister's push to protect non-Euro countries from Euro zone regulations. Fair enough, you might say, most EU countries use the Euro, why should they be allowed to gang up to the disadvantage of non-Euro countries like Britain. But France thinks David Cameron is being sneaky, that what he wants is a special deal for the city of London, that what he wants is a back door veto on wider Euro zone legislation.

World news from the BBC.

Pope Francis has asked Mexican indigenous people for forgiveness over the way they have been exclused from society. He was speaking as he celebrated Mass in three native languages after a new Vatican decree approved their use in M. He told the congregation of indigenous Mexicans that with their deeper appreciation for nature they had much to teach the rest of the world.

Leaders of the Southeast Asian Regional Organisation, known as ASEAN, are meeting for their first summit to be hosted by the United States. President Obama has championed the refocusing of US trade and foreign policy towards Asia during his term of office. And the meeting is expected to concentrate on economic and trade issues for the first day.

More than 150,000 penguins from a single colony have died over the past five years in the Commonwealth Bay area in East Antarctica, after a giant iceberg got stuck there. There are now only 10,000 Adelie penguins left in the area. The iceberg is blocking the access to their natural feeding waters, and they now have to walk 60 kilometers to feed. Scientists from the University of New South Wales say this is impeding the penguins' breeding attempts. They have seen thousands of freezing carcasses and abandoned eggs.

The winners of this year's Grammy awards will be announced during a televised music gala in Los Angeles. Several artists are with the chance to pick up multiple awards but the front runner is the US hiphop artist Kendrick Lamar, as Peter Bowes explains.

He has 11 nonimations which are just one shorter of the record number of nominations for a single artist set by Michael Jackson a few years ago. His lyrics have been impressed by the black lives in Martin movement. and we understand that he would perform quite a politically-charged performance on the Grammys tonight. This is of course, in the wake of the controversy over the lack of racial diversity of the Oscars. Tailor Swift and the Weekend have both been nominated 7 times.

BBC news.