英国新闻听力 俄罗斯人权活动家在车臣被杀害（在线收听）

A prominent Russian human rights campaigner who documented abuses in Chechnya has been murdered. The body of the activist Natalya Estemirova was found in the neighboring region of Ingushetia with gunshot wounds to her head and chest. Witnesses said she’d been kidnapped outside her home in the Chechen capital Grozny on Wednesday morning. The Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he was outraged at the murder. From Moscow, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes.

The body of Natalya Estemirova was found dumped in the forest near the border between the Russian republics of Chechnya and Ingushetia. In recent months, she’d been gathering evidence of a campaign of house burnings by government-backed militias. Natalya Estemirova was a close friend of the murdered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Together they had investigated kidnappings, torture and extra-judicial killings by Russian forces fighting the Islamic insurgency in Chechnya.

The American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said America’s offer to engage with Iran is not open-ended. In a major foreign policy speech in Washington, Mrs. Clinton warned that Iran could face greater isolation over its nuclear program.

"Iran can become a constructive actor in the region if it stops threatening its neighbors and supporting terrorism. It can assume a responsible position in the international community if it fulfills its obligations on human rights. The choice is clear. We remain ready to engage with Iran, but the time for action is now. The opportunity will not remain open indefinitely."

Mrs. Clinton also said the US has admired the energy of Iran’s recent presidential election, but was appalled by the way the Iranian government had quelled protests over the disputed ballots.

Almost 170 people have died in a plane crash in Iran. The Russian-made jet operated by Caspian Airlines crashed shortly after taking off on a flight to Armenia. Jon Leyne reports.

The plane was a Tupolev aircraft on its way from the capital Tehran to Yerevan in Armenia. Sixteen minutes into the flight, it disappeared from the radar. One witness described how it plummeted from the sky, possibly after engine problems or a fire on board. State TV has been showing pictures of a huge crater gouged in the earth, the scattered ruins still smoldering. It’s clear no one could have survived. Iran has a notoriously bad air-safety record. Because of sanctions imposed by the United States, Iran relies on an increasingly aging fleet of airliners and has trouble buying spare parts.

The government of Nigeria has welcomed a 60-day ceasefire, declared by the main militant group in the country’s oil-rich Niger Delta region. But the Minister of Defense General Godwin Abbe said that the group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta or MEND, have no right to demand that the military withdraw from parts of the region. MEND, which is fighting for oil revenues to be distributed more widely, said it hoped the ceasefire would lead to talks with the government.

Reports are coming in from the United States of a shooting incident in Washington. Police are said to have shot a suspect to try to flee after his car had been pulled over a few blocks from the Capitol building which houses the US Congress. The suspect was taken to hospital, but there’s no word on the person’s condition. Some of the entrances to the Capitol building were sealed off. Details are still coming in.

General Motors’ offshoot in Brazil is to spend more than a billion dollars to develop two new models for the Brazilian market. GM in Brazil says it’s funding half the development costs from its own resources and half will be lent by state banks. From Sao Paulo, Gary Duffy reports.

GM in Brazil is financially independent of the company in the United States, and at the moment, its fortunes seem to be in a much healthier state as well. Last year the company sold a record number of cars in South America’s largest country, and executives say they hope to exceed that target in 2009. Now in a further sign of confidence in future sales, the company is to spend around one billion dollars, developing two new models which it says will be based on Brazilian engineering and design. GM in Brazil has also been keen to stress that there will be no dependence on products from the United States.

A smoker in the United States has accidentally bought the world’s most expensive packet of cigarettes at a cost of 23 quadrillion dollars. The man, Josh Muszynski told the BBC he was alarmed to discover his debit card bill for the cigarettes bought at a petrol station in New Hampshire was more than the US national debt. His bank eventually accepted that the 17-digit purchase had been a mistake and refunded his money the next day.

The US Defense Department says it won’t ban troops from smoking in war zones despite of a report recommending a tobacco-free military. A Pentagon spokesman said the troops were already under enough stress fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the department didn’t want to take away one of the few outlets they had to relieve it.

记录车臣恶行的俄罗斯著名人权活动家被谋杀。人权积极分子纳塔利娅·埃斯蒂米洛娃的尸体在临近的印古什被发现，头部和胸部中枪。目击者称周三早上她在车臣首都格罗兹尼的家外被绑架。俄罗斯总统梅德韦杰夫称对谋杀事件非常愤怒。莫斯科，Rupert Wingfield-Hayes报道。

纳塔利娅·埃斯蒂米洛娃的尸体被丢弃在俄罗斯车臣共和国和印古什共和国边境附近的森林里。最近几个月，她一直在搜集政府支持的好战分子纵火案的证据。纳塔利娅·埃斯蒂米洛娃是被谋杀的俄罗斯记者安娜?波里科夫斯卡娅的好友。他们曾一起调查过俄罗斯军队在车臣境内抗击伊斯兰叛乱分子时代绑架，虐待和残杀事件。

美国国务卿希拉里称，美国邀请伊朗进行对话的举动并不是不可动摇的。在华盛顿发表外交政策讲话时，希拉里警告说，由于核计划，伊朗会面临更严重的孤立。

“如果伊朗停止其对邻国的威胁，停止对恐怖主义的支持，它可以在该地区发挥建设性的作用。如果它能够完成人权方面的任务，它就可以恢复在国际社会的位置。我们随时准备与伊朗进行接洽，但是行动的时间就是现在。机会不是无限期存在的。”

克林顿说，美国钦佩伊朗最近总统选举的表现，但是为伊朗政府镇压对选票持有异议的抗议者感到非常惊骇。

伊朗一架飞机坠毁，大约170人死亡。这家俄罗斯制造的客机由伊朗里海航空公司运营，在飞往亚美尼亚的途中起飞后不久即坠毁。Jon Leyne报道。

这架飞机是图波列夫式飞机，由首都德黑兰飞往亚美尼亚首都埃里温。起飞16分钟后飞机在雷达系统中消失。一位目击者描述，飞机从空中垂直落下，可能是由于引擎问题或飞机上起火。国家电视台播放了地面上撞击产生的大坑，分散的碎片仍然在冒烟。非常明显，不可能有人生还。伊朗的空中安全记录臭名昭著。由于美国对其进行制裁，伊朗依赖越来越老化的飞机，没有能力购买零部件。

尼日利亚尼日尔三角洲地区主要的好战组织宣布停战60天，尼日利亚政府对此表示欢迎。但是尼日利亚国防部长戈德温·阿贝表示，尼日尔三角洲解放运动组织（MEND）无权要求政府军队从部分地区撤退。MEND一直要求获得更多石油收益份额，他们说，希望停火能够换来和政府的谈判。

来自美国的报道称华盛顿发生枪击事件。据称，警察在国会山附近做例行交通检查时截停一名35岁男子，但该男子迅速跳入其车内开车逃逸，被警方击中。嫌疑人被送往医院，但是没有透漏任何伤势状况。国会山部分入口被封闭。我们还会继续报道详细信息。

通用汽车巴西分公司将投资10亿多美元为巴西市场开发两个新的车型。通用汽车巴西公司称，开发费用一半来自自有资源，一部分来自国有银行贷款。圣保罗，Gary Duffy报道。

通用汽车巴西公司在财政方面独立于美国公司，目前，其财政状况似乎要更加健康。去年，该公司在南美最大的国家销量创历史记录，管理人员称，他们希望2009年能够超过这一目标。现在，该公司对未来的销量更有信心，决定投资10亿美元左右开发两种新车型，将基于巴西队工程和设计。通用汽车巴西公司还急切强调，他们不会以来来自美国的产品。

美国一位吸烟者意外地以17位数的价格购得世界上最昂贵的一包烟。这位名叫Josh Muszynski的男子告诉BBC，他意外的发现他购买这包香烟的借记卡账单比美国的债务还要高。银行最终接受，这笔高达17位数的交易是一个错误，第二天将资金返还。

美国国防部称，尽管有报告建议建造无烟军队，他们不会禁止军队在战区吸烟。五角大楼一位发言人称，军队在伊拉克和阿富汗进行战争已经承受了很大压力，国防部不会剥夺他们放松的方式。