BBC在线收听下载:土耳其十年来第一次经济衰退

Hello, I'm Chris Barrow with the BBC News.

An Indonesian woman accused of killing the half-brother of the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been freed by a court in Malaysia after prosecutors dropped charges against her. The Malaysian Attorney General said this was at Indonesia's request. Siti Aisyah was one of two women accused of murdering Kim Jong Nam by smearing nerve agent on his face at Kuala Lumpur International Airport two years ago. Her lawyer Gooi Soon Seng said the court had made the right decision.

We still truly believe that she is merely a scapegoat and she's innocent as we have already submitted much earlier in the day was the fact that there was no direct evidence that she applied anything on Kim Jong Nam.

South Korea has asked the United States to lift sanctions on camera equipment for North Korea that it says could be used to conduct video reunions for family separated by the Korean War. The United Nations has already waived its sanctions on the equipment. Video conferencing has been used in the past to connect elderly relatives separated by the conflict on the Korean Peninsula, which began in the early 1950s.

The Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has been greeted by his Iraqi counterpart Barham Salih at the presidential palace in Baghdad. It marks the start of Mr. Hassan's first visit to Iran's neighbor since he took office five years ago. Iraq is under pressure by the United States to limit its ties with the Iranian government. Before he left Tehran, Mr. Rouhani criticized American intervention in the Middle East.

Turkey has gone into recession for the first time in ten years. New figures show the economy contracted by 2.4 percent in the last quarter of 2018 following a fall in the previous quarter. While the economy grew overall last year, the rate was sharply down on the year before.

The office of the British Prime Minister Theresa May says talks with the European Union are deadlocked a day before the British Parliament is due to vote again on her deal for leaving the EU. The week on the negotiations between officials ended with no breakthrough, Mrs. May's deal is still substantially the same as the one that was overwhelmingly rejected by MPs in January. The BBC's Iain Watson says that's caused concern in the Prime Minister's Conservative Party.

Some of her own members of parliament think perhaps she shouldn't have the vote at allif she just could get the same result as last time that she tried this. However if it does go ahead tomorrow and she is defeated, then members of parliament will have to further vote when or whether to leave the European Union without a deal at all and then when or whether to extend Article 50, the process of leaving the European Union. In other words, asking for a delay in the UK's departure.

BBC News.