BBC在线收听下载:联合国警告称人类正在摧毁自然环境

BBC News. Hello, I'm Jerry Smit.

A landmark UN report is warning that humans are rapidly destroying the natural world upon which our health and economies depend. In the largest study of its kind, scientists found that a million species are facing extinction over the coming decades, mainly because of human activity. The chief UN scientist on biodiversity, Robert Watson, says halting the degradation of our ecosystems will require a fundamental reorganization in the way people produce and consume almost everything. He says decades of pillaging and poisoning forests, oceans, soil and air threaten society at least as much as climate change.

We're losing species at an uNPRecedented rate. We're losing our forests, our wetlands, our grasslands again at historic rate. And the problem is it not only threatens nature, it threatens food security, energy security, and water security. It threatens human well-being.

The authorities in Niger say fifty-five people have died in an oil tanker explosion. About thirty people were injured in the blast near the airport of the capital Niamey. Louise Devast is our West Africa correspondent.

The director general of Niger's civil protection Colonel Boubacar Bako says the accident happened overnight near the airport. A tank truck tipped over and people were trying to scoop up some of the fuel when the explosion occurred. The prime minister, along with several other ministers, went to the scene this morning before going to visit some of the injured that were rushed to hospital.

A French telecommunications giant and its former chief executive are going on trial in Paris, accused of moral harassment linked to a spate of suicides among employees. Six other former managers at France Telecom, now renamed Orange face the same charge. Investigators accused them of instigating corporate policies aimed at undermining employees and provoking anxiety as part of efforts to cut the workforce. The company said to dispute there was such a policy.

The Sri Lankan authorities have deployed additional troops to the city of Negombo following clashes between Muslims and the majority Sinhalese. The flare-up late on Sunday started out as a traffic incident before escalating into mob violence. Some houses were damaged.

Malaysia has extradited a former Goldman Sachs banker to the United States to face charges in relation to the disappearance of billions of dollars from the Malaysian state investment fund 1MDB. The Malaysian citizen Roger Ng is accused of laundering money diverted from the fund.

BBC news.