BBC在线收听下载:南非支持安乐死活动的领头人被判刑

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

Dutch prosecutors are to put four separatist paramilitaries on trial for shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine nearly five years ago. Three of them are Russians and one a Ukrainian separatist. Nearly three hundred people died in the crash. Moscow denies any involvement. Our Europe correspondent Damian Grammaticas has more.

For the families of some of the almost three hundred people killed when flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, it's a hugely significant moment. The investigation team said the four suspects will be charged with murder because although they didn't fire the Russian BUK-TELAR missile that brought down the aircraft, they bore equal criminal responsibility under Dutch law. Three are Russians who had served in Russia's FSB intelligence service, its GRU military intelligence and Russian special forces. They were in eastern Ukraine commanding separatists and it's claimed organized the transport of the missile from Russia hoping to shoot down Ukrainian fighter plane.

The Ukrainian MP and military analyst Dmytro Tymchuk has been found dead from a gunshot wound at his home in Kiev. Initial reports say he appears to have shot himself while cleaning a pistol. Dmytro Tymchuk was the former military officer who came to prominence as one of the coordinators of the Information Resistance blog during the escalation of the conflict with Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

The former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has lost his final bid to halt his prosecution on charges of corruption and abuse of power. France's highest court rejected his appeal, ruling that he must stand trial in Paris in the coming months. Mr. Sarkozy is accused of trying to bribe an investigating magistrate by offering him a prestigious job in Monaco in return for information about a criminal inquiry into illegal funding of his party. He denies wrongdoing. The former magistrate Gilbert Azibert and Mr. Sarkozy's lawyer Thierry Herzog also face trial.

The US military says one of the oil tankers attacked last week in the Gulf of Oman was damaged by a mine that resembles those used by the Iranian security forces. Commander Sean Kido also said the fingerprints of those who targeted the ship had been gathered.

South Africa's leading pro-euthanasia activist has been sentenced to three years' house arrest after a court in Cape Town found him guilty of helping three people kill themselves. Sean Davison who was born in New Zealand was arrested last year in connection with the 2013 death of a friend who had become quadriplegic following a car accident. The founder of the Right to Die organization, Dignity SA also pleaded guilty to helping two other people end their lives.

World news from the BBC.