BBC在线收听下载:印度一所大学发生骚乱

Hello, I'm Neil Nunes with the BBC news.

Three top Christian leaders have issued an extraordinary Christmas appeal to the leaders of South Sudan to keep their promises on peace six years after civil war broke out. Mark Lowen in Rome has more details.

Pope Francis has made peace in South Sudan a focus of his foreign policy, and this unusual message not carried in his "Urbi et Orbi" address, but in a separate appeal shows the prominence which he still places on the issue. The Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the former moderator of the Church of Scotland, offer wishes to South Sudan's leaders, urging them to form a transitional unity government which could bring an end to years of civil war since independence in 2011. This year, the Pope hosted the country's rival leaders at the Vatican and kissed their feet in a dramatic gesture of devotion. Meanwhile, Pope Francis will deliver his traditional Christmas message shortly, in which he is expected to extend his blessing on Rome and the world from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Thousands of people are expected to fill the piazza.

President Roch Christian Kabore of Burkina Faso has declared two days of national mourning after dozens of people were killed in two Islamic insurgent attacks on Tuesday. The government said the militants first attacked a military outpost in northern Soum province. Hugh Morgan has more.

The militants arrived at the military outpost of Arbinda town in northern Soum province on motorbikes. After attacking the soldiers there, they turned their guns on civilians. Once relatively stable, Burkina Faso has descended into serious unrest since 2015 when violence began spilling over from Mali. Hundreds of people have been killed or internally displaced this year. No group has claimed responsibility for this attack, but Jihadist violence in Burkina Faso has been blamed on militants linked to both Al Qaida and Islamic State groups.

An independent fact-finding team set up to investigate recent unrest at a prestigious Indian university has concluded that security forces committed unbridled human rights violations. The team comprising lawyers, rights activists and academics said the Aligarh Muslim University administration and the authorities had failed to protect the students against what they called the brutality of the Uttar Pradesh State police. The police have denied the allegations.

India says it's withdrawing more than 7000 paramilitary troops from Indian-administered Kashmir more than four months after they were deployed to tackle unrest in the disputed region. Delhi rushed in tens of thousands of additional troops after it revoked Kashmir's special status in August that sparked massive unrest, and the Kashmir valley was put on the security lockdown.

BBC world news.