英国新闻听力 海地地震首都几成废墟（在线收听）

The President of Haiti Rene Preval says tens of thousands of people are feared dead following Tuesday's earthquake which destroyed much of the capital Port-au-Prince. Schools and hospitals were among the buildings that collapsed. Survivors have been roaming the rubble-strewn streets of the capital, injured and unable to comprehend the devastation. Paul Adams has more.

Almost 24 hours after the quake struck, it's still proving very difficult to assess the scale of this disaster. But the images, voices and Internet postings pouring out of Haiti all paint the grimmest of pictures. The capital of the poorest country in the western hemisphere has been devastated. Even its grandiose presidential palace built by the US army core of engineers has collapsed. As many as two million people live close to the epic center, many of them in teeming slums that cling precariously to steep unstable hillsides. The senior adviser to the Haitian prime minister told the BBC the focus would be on emergency assistance. She said she didn't know anyone in Port-au-Prince with a home now safe to live in.

The Haitian president says the head of the United Nations mission to the country Hedi Annabi was killed in the earthquake. He said Mr Annabi's body was found in the UN headquarters in Port-au-Prince which collapsed when the quake quick struck. However, the UN says it has no confirmation of his death.

President Obama has promised full American support for Haiti to help it recover from the earthquake. He said "We have to be there for them in their hour of need". Officials in Washington said US navy ships in the region had been told to be ready themselves. The UN's Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes said international rescue teams were already on the ground.

"The Chinese search and rescue team has already arrived at the airport at eastern Port-au-Prince. I believe two US teams will arrive this afternoon and perhaps two more, tomorrow hopefully with ,uh, heavy equipment as well as experts and dogs and so on. Others are on the way from many countries. So, that kind of help is beginning to arrive at the cottages desperately need it and as you all aware, every hour counts in this kind of situation when people are trapped under the rubble in desperate need of being rescued."

Scientists say the earthquake in Haiti has had a particularly severe effect because most people weren't expecting it. There has been no significant earthquake there for more than 200 years. Our science reporter Matt Mcgrath looks at the factors that have caused such devastation.

There are three elements to this earthquake that in combination explained its deadly nature. First is the power. A magnitude 7 is equivalent to the energy given off by half a million tons of high explosives. The second is the location, just 10 kilometers beneath the earth and very near the capital city. Closeness to the surface is a key factor contributing to the severity of the ground shaking caused by a tremor. The final factor is the lack of awareness among the population and the government about the possibility of an earthquake given that has been so long since the last major one.

The opposition in Guinea says it would be best if the military leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara stays out of politics for a while. An opposition spokesman told the BBC that what he described as agitators in Captain Camara's entourage who tried to use him to pursue their own interests. On Tuesday, Captain Camara flew to Burkina Faso from Morocco where he was being treated for injuries received in an assassination attempt last month.

A high court in Nigeria has ruled that the vice president has the right to perform all duties on behalf of the president without a formal transfer of power. President Umaru Yar'Adua has been receiving medical treatment in Saudi Arabia since November, a move which has caused unease in Nigeria. From Abuja, Caroline Duffield has this report.

When President Yar'Adua was rushed to hospital, he didn't formally hand presidential powers to his deputy. Now in the first of full-court cases, a judge has ruled that the current situation is legal. Justice Daniel Abutu said that the vice president is able to perform all duties on behalf of the president, and crucially he said that no formal transfer of presidential powers by letter was necessary for that to happen. He said a formal transfer was only at the president's discretion.

Israel has formally apologized to Turkey for a breach of diplomatic manners that threatened to open a serious rift between the two countries. The row started while Israeli angered at alleged anti-Semitism in a Turkish television series, but deepened when Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon publicly humiliated the Turkish ambassador when delivering a protest.

The heads of four of the biggest American banks have told public inquiry that they underestimated the severity of the financial crisis which started in 2008. At the congressional hearing, the chiefs said they regretted any risky behavior or poor decisions made by them. But they also said that they had done much to repair the damage by reining in pay and bonuses.

海地总统勒内·普列瓦尔(Rene Preval)表示，周二袭击首都太子港的地震后可能造成数万人死亡。学校和医院等诸多建筑倒塌。幸存者身负重伤，难以理解这次灾难，漫游在布满废墟的首都街道。Paul Adams报道详细情况。

地震过去已经24小时，仍然难以评估这次灾难的规模。但是从海地蜂拥而来的图片，报道和网络资料无不描绘出一幅最可怕的景象。这个西半球最贫穷国家的首都已经被摧毁。甚至连美国军队核心工程师建造的宏伟的总统府也在地震中倒塌。多达200万人居住在震中附近，其中许多人居住在依陡峭的山坡建筑的危险的贫民窟里。海地总理高级顾问告诉BBC，现在的焦点问题是紧急援助。她说，她认为太子港没有任何人有安全稳固的家可以居住。

海地总统表示，联合国维和任务特派团团长Hedi Annabi在地震中遇难。他说，联合国驻太子港总部在地震中倒塌，人们在总部附近发现了Annabi的尸体。然而，联合国还没有确认他的死亡。

奥巴马总统承诺美国将全力支持海地，帮助其从地震中恢复过来。他说，“他们需要帮助时，我们一定鼎力相助”。华盛顿官员表示，美国驻该地区海军船只已经准备好随时待命。联合国紧急救助协调员John Holmes表示，国际救援小组已经在现场。

“中国搜救小组已经抵达太子港东部机场。我相信今天下午两支美国搜救队伍也会到达。明天可能还会有两支携带重装备的队伍以及专家和搜救犬到达。许多国家的搜救队伍也正在途中。这种类型的帮助已经开始抵达亟需救援的村舍。你知道，对于被困在废墟中亟需救援的人来说，每一个小时都非常重要。”

科学家称，海地发生的这次地震造成非常严重的影响，因为大多数人都没有预料到。海地已经200多年的时间没有发生大地震。我们的科学记者Matt Mcgrath为我们分析了导致这场重大灾难的几个因素。

这次地震如此致命主要是由于三个方面的因素。首先是地震的威力。7.0级地震相当于50吨高性能炸药爆炸释放出的能量。第二就是地震发生的位置，仅仅在地表以下10千米，而且非常靠近首都。太靠近地表是地震引发地表振动如此严重的主要因素。最后一个因素是，民众和政府都没有意识到发生地震的可能性，因为上次发生大地震已经是很久以前了。Matt Mcgrath报道。

几内亚反对派称，军方领袖穆沙˙达迪斯˙卡马拉 (Moussa Dadis Camara) 最好暂时退出政坛一段时间。一名反对派发言人告诉BBC，卡马拉的随行人员中有一些鼓动者，他们希望利用卡马拉来达到自己的目的。周二，卡马拉上尉由摩洛哥飞往布基纳法索。上月，卡马拉在一次刺杀阴谋中受伤，一直在摩洛哥接受治疗。

尼日利亚高级法庭裁决，在没有正式的权利交接的情况下，副总统有权代表总统行使所有权里。自11月份以来，总统亚加杜瓦一直在沙特阿拉伯接受治疗，这引发了尼日利亚内部的不安。阿布贾，Caroline Duffield报道。

亚加杜瓦总统赶往医院时，并未正式将总统的职权移交给副总统。现在，一名法官裁决目前的形势是合法的。Daniel Abutu法官表示，副总统有权代表总统行使职权，而这并不需要由总统书面正式移交权力。他说，正式移交只是总统个人选择。

以色列正式因违反外交惯例，威胁两国关系分裂而向土耳其道歉。争吵始于以色列对土耳其播出的反犹太主义的电视节目不满，随后，以色列外交副部长Danny Ayalon表达抗议时公开侮辱土耳其大使，双方争吵加剧。

美国四家最大银行负责人告诉公众调查称，他们低估了始于2008年的金融危机的严重性。在国会听证会上，这些银行巨头表示，他们为自己的危险举动和不当决策表示遗憾。但是他们还说，他们已经在限制薪资和奖金方面做出诸多努力，弥补损失。