BBC在线收听下载:深陷经济危机 津巴布韦向南非贷款遭拒

Hello, I'm Eileen McKue with the BBC News.

South Africa has disclosed that it turned down a request from Zimbabwe for an emergency loan of 1.2 billion dollars in December. Soon after the request was rejected, the Zimbabwean government was forced to announce a steep increase in the price of fuel, sparking angry protest. Perm Zufanany reports from Johannesburg.

Asked whether loan was turned down, Treasury spokesperson Jabulani Sikhakhane told the BBC Zimbabwe is in a dire financial situation, but South Africa does not have that kind of money. It is believed that Zimbabwe had hoped to use the cash injection to stabilize the ailing economy and resolve fuel shortages in the country. President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced a drastic fuel hike last week, leading to widespread and violent protest which saw at least 12 people killed in clashes with security forces.

Israel has announced that it struck a number of sites inside Syria as part of its increasingly open effort to dislodge Iranian forces there. The Russian Defense Ministry says four Syrian soldiers were killed, but monitors based in Britain say eleven people died in the attack. Israel said it was responding to Iranian rocket fire which intercepted on Sunday.

European Foreign Ministers are expected to impose sanctions today on two Russian military intelligence officers blamed by the West for a nerve agent attack in the British city of Salisbury last year. They're among nine people facing new EU penalties for using chemical weapons in breach of international treaties.

EU Foreign Ministers meeting in Brussels have said it's up to Britain to decide what it wants to do next about Brexit, as the British Prime Minister Theresa May prepares to address parliament again. The Spanish Foreign Minister said she needed to come up with something substantially different to secure the backing of the British parliament. But our correspondent Rob Watson says Mrs. May's plan appears not to have deviated.

I think people would say rather cynically that her hope is what it has been all along, but essentially those on the hard right of the Conservative Party enthusiastic about Brexit will be incredibly frightened about all this talk of efforts to stop Brexit or put a delay on it or have some other option and that those who are on the remain side of the Conservative Party will be utterly terrified at the prospect of a no-deal Brexit all together. So I think in many ways her plan hasn't changed very much and I don't think her tactics have changed very much. Now whether they'll work is an entirely different matter. Rob Watson reporting.

That's the latest BBC news.