BBC在线收听下载:普京公布了俄罗斯新一代核武器

Hello, I'm Mary Marshall with the BBC News.

President Putin has unveiled plans for a new generation of Russian nuclear weapons, including a misille which could travel at five times the speed of sound to evade US defenses. In the state of the nation's speech, President Putin also pledged to half the number of Russians living below the poverty line. Richard Galpin reports. Mr. Putin's state of the nation speech comes less than 3 weeks ahead of the presidential election. With large display screens beside him, the president described how array of new nuclear weapons was being developed. These he claimed included a nuclear-powered supersonic misille which would carry a small nuclear warhead. He said it could strike almost anywhere in the world and could not be intercepted by anti-misille systems. How real these claims are is open to question, but there is no doubt that will go down well with the electorate.

French prosecutors have put the far-right leader Marine Le Pen under formal investigation for posting three violent images of Islamic State atrocities on Twitter in 2015. If the case goes to trial, she could face three years in jail. She told French radio that in any other country, she'd got a metal for exposing IS.

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa said he would soon start talks to address the issue of land redistribution. Colonial wars and legislation have left the black majority with a small fraction of the country's fertile land. Earlier this week, parliament voted to make it legal for land to be transferred without any compensation being paid. Our Africa editor Will Ross reports. President Cyril Ramaphosa said he wants to fix the historical injustice that has left so many black South Africans landless and it seems likely the constitution will be amended to allow for land distribution without compensation. But president Ramaphosa knows there is a risk of stocking racial tension. There are also lessons to be learned from neighboring Zimbabwe where violent land grabs led to food shortages and economic problems. With some politicians sounding impatience for land reform, president Ramaphosa has told people not to panic or to beat any war drums. Resolving this difficult issue will be a major task for the new South Africa president.

World news from the BBC.