BBC在线收听下载:沙特阿美将登陆资本市场

Hello, I'm David Harper with the BBC News.

The financial authority in Saudi Arabia has given the go-ahead for the flotation of part of the state-owned oil company Aramco. It could be the world's biggest ever initial public offering for an enterprise thought to be worth more than one and a half trillion dollars. Katie Prescott has more detail. The flotation has been in the pipeline for three years. It's all part of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman's plans to diversify the Saudi economy so it's less dependent on oil. Some investors are skeptical about the way that the firms run. Others are choosing to avoid putting their money into fossil fuels in favor of investments considered to be more environmentally-friendly. And recent drone strikes on Iran coast facilities by pro-Iranian groups have shown its vulnerability in a volatile region. Nevertheless, there's much excitement among institutions that they'll finally be able to buy a small stake in the Saudi oil giant.

The company that allows people to rent property online and through its app Airbnb says it's banning bookings by guests who use the accommodation for raucous parties. The Airbnb chief executive Brian Chesky made the announcement in a Tweet. Chris Buckler reports from Washington. Airbnb has long struggled to find policies that protect properties promoted on its website. There have been a series of stories of people throwing big parties and large amounts of damage being caused to homes. But the company has now been forced to act after a shooting in an affluent suburb outside San Francisco. The house was rented by a woman who claimed she needed a place for her asthmatic family to escape from the smoke from the California wildfires. However, the location was then advertised online as a Halloween mansion party. More than one hundred people showed up and it turned violent.

A senior aide to the acting White House Chief of Staff has refused to testify in the impeachment inquiry against President Trump. Robert Blair was due to make a deposition on Monday, but his lawyer said the White House had directed him not to appear. A statement said Mr. Blair was caught between the legal obligations owed to two co-equal branches of government.

President Trump has brushed off a report in the Washington Post newspaper that smugglers are cutting through the wall on the Mexican border, saying it was a powerful barrier. But he went on to add that no matter how powerful you can cut through anything in all fairness. In its report on Saturday, the Washington Post quoted unnamed US officials as saying that smuggling gangs have used readily available power tools to create gaps in the wall.

The government of El Salvador has announced it is expelling all of Venezuela's diplomats stating that the rule of president Nicolas Maduro is illegitimate. It said that it now recognizes the Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the interim president until Caracas hold free elections. El Salvador has given the Venezuelan diplomats forty eight hours to leave its territory.