BBC在线收听下载:美韩缩短联合军演时间

BBC news 2018-04-02

BBC News, I’m John Shane.

South Korea and the United States have started their annual joint military exercises which have been shortened this year due to a thaw in ties with North Korea. The drills will involve the same number of troops but will not include nuclear submarines. North Korean criticism of the exercises has been muted as the country’s leader Kim Jung-un prepares for talks with its US and South Korean counterparts.

Two major South Korean music acts are about to perform historical concerts in the North as a gesture of peace. 160 people including performers and support crews have travelled to Pyongyang for the event.

The governor of the Russian region of Kemerovo Aman Tuleyev has resigned. He said it was morally impossible for him to continue following last week’s devastating fire which killed more than 60 people at a shopping center. Investigators have found that fire exits were blocked and alarming systems were broken.

The first of two aircrafts carrying expelled Russia diplomats home from the United States has arrived in Moscow. 60 Russians were sent home by Washington in response to the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain.

The Syrian army says more than 150,000 civilians have been now evacuated from the rebel enclave of eastern Ghouta near Damascus. The army said it had retaken the whole street, apart from the town of Duma, ending the threats to the capital.

The Israeli Defensive Minister Avigdor Lieberman has rejected calls for an independent inquiry into the killing of at least 50 Palestinian protesters in Gaza. He said Israeli soldiers have done what was necessary. The UN and the European Union have called an investigation.

And Pope Francis is celebrating the traditional Easter Mass at the Vatican. Later on Saturday, he led an Easter vigil attended by ten thousand pilgrims in which he urged believers to break out their routines and renew their lives.

BBC News.