BBC在线收听下载:叙利亚军重新夺回战略重镇

Hello, I'm Elieen McKue with the BBC news.

The Syrian Army says it has recaptured a strategically important town in Idlib, Syria's last rebel-held province. The fall of Maaret al-Numan was announced on state television. Alan Johnston reports. According to the Syrian Army, it approached Maaret al-Numan from three sides. The military says it clashed heavily with Jihadi fighters who withdrew to the north, ceding control of the town to the government. It straddles a major highway that's been an objective for the army as it's pushed slowly up through Idlib province in recent weeks. Ahead of the advance, hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled the fighting and airstrikes.

Bulgaria center-right coalition government has survived a confidence vote over its handling of a water crisis. It had earlier secured approval from the city council in the capital Sofia to divert water to Pernik, a city to the west that has faced severe water restrictions. Mike Sanders has more. The water shortage and air pollution in Pernik has been so severe that protesters have taken to the streets. One resident called it an existential crisis. We have no water, and we have no air, she said. Three officials including the former Environment Minister Neno Dimov have been arrested. Prosecutors alleged that they let industries drain water from Pernik's reservoir to the extent that it is run dry. They deny wrongdoing. Mr. Dimov is also accused of colluding with the Italian mafia to burn Italian garbage in Bulgarian power plants, worsening air quality, which he also denies.

A court in the Netherlands has said it does not have jurisdiction to hear a case brought by a Dutch citizen of Palestinian origin against the former Israeli armed force's chief Benny Gantz. Ismail Zeyada had sought damages for the killing of six relatives in airstrikes on Gaza in 2014. He filed the case in the Netherlands under universal jurisdiction laws, arguing that Palestinians have no access to justice in Israeli courts. But the judges said Mr. Gantz and his co-accused were immune from prosecution.

A major field study has uncovered the origins of weapons used in intercommunal violence in northern Nigeria. Clashes over land between semi-nomadic herders and settled farmers have plagued Nigeria central and northern states for decades. Here is Manny Jones. Conflict armament research examined hundreds of weapons and ammunition in the northern Nigerian state of Kaduna, Katsina and Zamfara. They found weapons manufactured in Turkey and linked to an unnamed trafficking network. They also discovered assault rifles from Iraq, similar to those used by Islamic groups operating in the Sahel. The similarity in the weapons suggests a common source, but organization is keen to stress this doesn't mean herding communities in Nigeria are linked to terror groups.

Russian prosecutors are questioning five former drug squad police officers over allegations that they planted narcotics on an investigative journalist to discredit him.

BBC news.