英国新闻听力 73（在线收听）

BBC News with Michael Poles.

A leader of the Islamist Movement Hamas who’d argued for suicide bombings against Israelis has been killed by an Israeli air strike against Gaza. Nizar Rayyan’s house was bombed in the first lead of attack on Hamas leader in nearly a week of Israeli air raids. At least 10 other people, including some of Nizar Rayyan’s wives and children were killed. Mushir al-Masri, a spokesman for Hamas condemned the action and warned of great consequences for Israel.

This is a serious development inside the violence, criminality and terrorism against the sons of the Palestinian people. Targeting an entire square and houses in a clear manner is a despicable crime.

The Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has ruled out the prospect of ceasefire to allow aid into Gaza. Speaking in Paris where she met the President Sarkozy, Mrs. Livni said there was no humanitarian crisis in Gaza. She said Israeli campaign was weakening Hamas by destroying its infrastructure. A spokeswoman for the Israeli military Major Avital Leibovitz said rocket attacks by Hamas were decreasing.

The average capability of Hamas is to launch something like 200 rockets a day. And currently the number has decreased to something between 40 and 80 a day. Now it’s not a complete crippling however. It’s weakening their capability. But this is only the sixth day, you know, these things take time and this is very premature to a sense of great success.

The governing party in Ghana has said it’d boycotted the vote on Friday in the one constituency which hasn’t yet voted in the presidential election. A party official said the atmosphere in the Tain constituency where voting has been delayed was not conducive to a free and fair election. The out coming Tain could decide who will be Ghana’s next president. Will Ross reports from Ghana’s capital Accra.

The governing party’s Nana Akufo-Addo cannot realistically win enough votes on Friday to overturn a narrow lead held by John Atta Mills of the Opposition. The governing NPP party is now boycotting the vote, saying it would not be free and fair. It’s headed to the courts to try to stop the election from going ahead. Both sides have alleged vote rigging during this keenly fought contest. Facing defeat by a narrow margin, senior NPP officials are meeting and observers of the election suggest the party is now split on whether Nana Akufo-Addo should accept the defeat.

The veteran South African politician Helen Suzman has died. She was 91. For many years, she was the only outspoken opponent of party in South Africa’s all-white parliament. She was only of the few politicians to visit and befriend Nelson Mandela while he was in jail and secured to improve conditions for political prisoners. The governing African National Congress said she had been a thorn in the fresh of apartheid. The leader of the official Opposition Helen Zille said Mrs. Suzman had been a giant in the history of South Africa’s march to democracy.

World News from the BBC.

Cuba has been marking the 50th anniversary of its revolution but without the presence of the man who led it Fidel Castro. Now 82, he has not appeared in public since undergoing a surgery more than two years ago. Fidel Castro who handed over the presidency to his younger brother Raul nearly a year ago sent a message of greeting to the Cuban people. Raul Castro said on state television that Cuban should feel pride of having endured American sanctions.

Russia has assured European Union countries that they have nothing to fear from its moved to cut off gas supplies to Ukraine over a payment dispute. The state energy company Gazprom said it had actually increased the volume of gas flowing to the EU. From Moscow // reports.

Russia’s latest shutdown of gas supplies to Ukraine has once again shown just how depend the whole of Europe now is on Russian energy. Three years ago, an almost identical cut-off led to gas shortages as far away as France. This year Europe is lucky. A mild winter means there are more gas supplies in reserve. And so far Ukraine has stuck to its promise, not to disrupt flows across its territory to Europe.

Britain has joined Portugal in pressing other European countries to take in prisoners from the American detention center at Guantánamo Bay to help President-elect Barak Obama close the camp after he takes office. Some of the 250 remaining inmates to been kid to release but there is concerns that they couldn’t face prosecution if they return to their home countries.

The Vatican says it will no longer automatically adopt Italian law as its own. The Pope has decided that from New Year’s Day, the Vatican authorities will first examine the Italian laws before deciding whether to adopt them. A leading Vatican lawyer said there were too many new laws and they were unstable and frequently at odds with principles of Catholic Church. Experts believe the Vatican is trying to assert its legal independence in areas such a civil union.