英国新闻听力 美国为对台军售辩护（在线收听）

The United States has defended plans for a six-billion-dollar arms deal with Taiwan despite a warning from China of serious consequences if the sales go ahead. China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province and says it will impose sanctions on American companies that sell weapons to the island. However, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Philip Crowley said the deal would contribute to maintaining stability across the Taiwan Strait.

"This is a clear demonstration of the commitment that this administration has to provide Taiwan the defensive weapons it needs and as provided for in the Taiwan Relations Act. And we think that this action is consistent with the US One-China policy, and contributes to maintaining security and stability across the Taiwan Strait."

The United Nations World Food Program says it has established fixed sites for food distribution in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, where only women will be allowed in to collect earthquake relief supplies. More from Hugh Williams in Haiti.

Over the past two weeks, the World Food Program has distributed millions of meals to hundreds of thousands of people in Port-au-Prince. But it says setting up a network of 16 distribution points and inviting eligible families to cash in vouchers to collect food should almost quadruple the number of people it can help. There has been criticism of the speed and limited scale of aid efforts so far, but the WFP denies it's changing strategy to answer those complaints. The vouchers and the food will only be given to women because the WFP says they are more likely than men to make sure supplies get to those who really need them.

Health authorities in Puerto Rico have launched an investigation into a group of Puerto Rican doctors in Haiti who posed for pictures with guns and earthquake victims. The health secretary said ethical guidelines prohibited the photographing of patients or operations other than for medical purposes. The pictures came to light when the doctors posted them on Facebook.

Togo says it will appeal against the decision by the Confederation of African Football, CAF, to ban its national team from the next two Africa Cup of Nations tournaments. The ban came after Togo withdrew from the current competition in Angola because of a gun attack by separatist rebels on its team bus earlier this month. Three people were killed. Alex Capstick reports.

The governing body of African football has said it's merely followed the rule which forbids political interference at the Cup of Nations. While renewing its condolences to the families of the victims, CAF has pointed out that Togo's players were willing to stay in Angola and complete their matches despite the gun attack on their team bus, but the Togolese government ordered them home. The regulations contain a loophole which allows the authorities to take into account exceptional circumstances. It appears CAF has so far chosen to ignore it.

The elections authority in Sudan has named the candidates who will stand in the country's presidential poll in April, the first genuine multi-party elections in more than 20 years. The BBC correspondent in Khartoum says the incumbent President Omar al-Bashir, who is considered the favourite, but will face tough competition from the former Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi. The former rebels, the SPLM who controls southern Sudan, have nominated Yasir Arman as their candidate.

Officials in northwestern Pakistan say a suicide bomber has killed at least 16 other people at a military checkpoint. They said two of the dead were Pakistani security officials. The attack took place in the Bajaur tribal region near the Afghan border.

Britain has temporarily suspended student visa applications from northern India, Nepal and Bangladesh because of concerns of a possible abuse of the system. British officials say in the last three months of last year, there were 13,500 applications from northern India alone, seven times as many as a year earlier. Chris Morris reports.

British officials say the system has been overwhelmed, and there is clearly concern about how many of the applications are genuine. Unscrupulous agents offering student visas as a way of settling in the UK are not uncommon. The British High Commissioner in Delhi Sir Richard Stagg said abuse of the system would not be allowed to happen. So while extra checks take place, visa applications have been temporarily suspended, a decision which will be reviewed at the end of February.

Shia rebels in northern Yemen have said they'll accept the government's conditions for a ceasefire once the Yemeni army has stopped its offensive against them. The rebels' leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said in an audio message posted on the Internet that further attacks against his groups wouldn't achieve any useful political result, and that it was now up to the Yemeni government to respond.

美国为自己向台湾出售价值60亿美元武器交易的计划进行辩护，尽管中国警告称如果美国执意对台军售将承担严重后果。中国将台湾视为脱离的省份，中国宣布将向对台湾岛出售武器的美国公司实施制裁。然而，美国公共事务助理国务卿Philip Crowley表示，武器交易有利于维持台湾海峡两岸的稳定。

“对台军售明确地遵守了政府向台湾提供防御性武器的协议，遵守了台湾关系法的规定。我认为，此举与一个中国的政策是一致的，有利于台湾海峡两岸的安全和稳定。”

联合国世界粮食计划表示，已在海地首都太子港建立了固定的食物分发点，只允许妇女进入分发点领取地震救灾补给物资。Hugh Williams在海地报道更详细情况。

过去两周，世界粮食计划向太子港数十万人分发了数百万餐饭。但是WFP表示，建立16个分发点的网络，邀请有资格的家庭持凭据来领取食物可以使获得帮助的人口数量扩大至四倍。目前为止，有人批评发放救助的速度和规模有限，但是面对这些投诉，WFP否认自己改变了策略。凭据和食物仅发放给妇女，因为WFP表示，女性比男性更有可能确保救济物品到达真正需要的人手中。

波多黎各卫生部门对驻海地一些波多黎各医生展开调查，他们持枪摆出姿势，与地震灾民合影。卫生部长表示，道德指导方针禁止对病人和手术进行拍摄，除非出于医疗目的。这些医生将照片上传到Facebook之后，这些照片曝光。

非洲足联禁止多哥国家足球队参加未来两届非洲杯的比赛，多哥表示自己将上诉。该禁令是由于上月初，分裂主义反叛分子袭击多哥队乘坐的巴士，三人遇难，随后多哥队退出了目前在安哥拉举行的比赛。Alex Capstick报道。

该非洲足球管理机构表示，他们这样做仅仅是遵守相关规定，禁止政治干涉非洲杯的比赛。再次向遇难者家人表示哀悼时，非洲足联指出，尽管乘坐的巴士遇袭，多哥队的球员仍然希望留在安哥拉，完成比赛，但是多哥政府命令他们回国。管理条例存在漏洞，使得相关政府可以考虑特殊情况。而似乎目前为止，非洲足联选择忽略特殊情况。

苏丹选举部门对候选人进行了提名，他们将参加4月份举行的总统选举，这是20多年来苏丹首次举行真正的多党选举。BBC驻喀土穆记者表示，现任总统巴希尔(Omar Hassan al-Bashir)是最受欢迎的候选人，但是他将面临来自前总理萨迪克·马赫迪(Sadiq al-Mahdi)的激烈竞争。控制苏丹南部的前叛军苏丹人民解放运动(SPLM)提名Yasir Arman为候选人。

巴基斯坦西北部官员表示，一个军事检查点发生自杀式爆炸，至少造成16人死亡。他们表示，其中两名遇难者是巴基斯坦安全官员。袭击发生在Bajaur部落地区，位于阿富汗边境附近。

由于入境人数猛增，英国宣布暂停来自印度北部，尼泊尔和孟加拉国的学生签证申请。英国官员表示，去年的最后三个月，仅来自印度北部的申请就多达13,500份，是一年前同期的七倍。Chris Morris报道。

英国官员表示，签证申请系统已经非常拥挤，而且担忧这些申请有多少是真实的。提供学生签证帮助别人入住英国的不法机构并不少见。英国驻德里高级专员Richard Stagg表示，决不允许滥用系统事件的发生。所以一旦出现这种情况，我们将暂停签证的申请工作，改决定将在2月末进行重审。

也门北部什叶派叛军表示，如果也门军队停止对他们的进攻，他们将接受政府的停火条件。在上传到网上的一段音频信息中，叛军领袖Abdul-Malik al-Houthi声称，对什叶派发动的任何进一步袭击都不会获得政治性的结果，现在的形势完全由爷们政府决定。