BBC在线收听下载:马其顿前总理逃亡匈牙利寻求庇护

BBC news with Sue Montgomery.

President Trump has said the United States will remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia whether or not Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman had knowledge of the planned murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Mr. Trump called the crime terrible and said the United States in no way condoned it. But he said in a dangerous world he intended to put US interests ahead of human rights concerns. Mr. Trump told reporters Saudi Arabia was a great ally in the fight against Iran. He said the kingdom was investing almost half a billion dollars in the US. It's America first to me. It's all about America first. We're not gonna give up hundreds of billions of dollars in orders and let Russia, China and everybody else have them. It's all about, for me very simple, it's America first. Saudi Arabia, if we broke with them, I think your oil prices would go through the roof. I've kept them down. They've helped me keep them down.

The head of the United Nation's Environment Programme Erik Solheim has resigned following months of controversy over his travel expenses. A UN order to find that Mr. Solheim had claimed almost half a million dollars in travel costs. He said that on deep reflection, he had decided to go.

The US Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke has partly attributed the deadly wildfires in California to what he called environmental radicals whose lawsuits had hampered good forestry management. He said such campaigners would rather see an entire forest burned down than cut down a single tree or clear out dead brushwood. He did acknowledge that other factors such as prolonged drought conditions also contributed to the wildfires.

Macedonia's former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski who's facing a jail sentence for corruption in his home country says Hungary has granted him asylum. He said he was seeking refuge from political persecution under Macedonia's new government. There's been no official confirmation from Budapest. Here's Guida Loney. In May, a court in Macedonia' s capitalSkopje found Mr. Gruevski guilty of corruption during his time as prime minister. The charge is related to his purchase and use of a Mercedes Benz car costing more than half a million euros. Mr. Gruevski and other members of his VMRO party are also facing other charges stemming from that decade in power. Macedonia's current government says it's submitting an extradition request to Hungary. The European Union has called on Budapest to treat Mr. Gruevski's asylum claim as a judicial process and not a political issue.

BBC News.