英国新闻听力 智利开始接受国际援助（在线收听）

The President of Chile Michelle Bachelet says more than 700 people are confirmed dead following the devastating earthquake on Saturday. She said Chile would now accept offers of aid from around the world. Reports say more than 300 people were found dead in the small coastal town of Constitucion which was hit by a tsunami after the initial tremor. Mrs Bachelet said Chile needs field hospitals, temporary bridges and more rescue workers to search for survivors.

"We are facing an emergency without precedent in the history of Chile and one which requires deployments, which are both urgent and rapid. As regards public order, already this morning I have signed with the minister of interior and defence a decree of a state of emergency disaster in Maule and Concepcion for a period of 30 days."

The Chilean army is being sent to reinforce the police in the badly damaged city of Concepcion where looting has broken out. A curfew is to be imposed overnight.

Storms battering western Europe have left at least 50 people dead. The vast majority of the casualties were in France where many of the victims drowned on the Atlantic coast when strong winds added to a particularly high tide and breached flood defences.

The Spanish government says the alleged military leader of the Basque separatist group Eta has been arrested in northwestern France. He was detained along with two other suspected Eta members as Sarah Rainsford reports.

Spain's interior minister says the three men detained in northern France were being briefed to enter Spain with what he called the worst intentions. Ibon Gogeascotxea, who's described as the military head of Eta, had been on the run for over a decade following an attempt to attack the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao while the Spanish king was visiting. Another of the men arrested is accused of killing a Spanish politician and a businessman in 2008. The third, known as Pistols, has been linked to a failed plot to kill Spain's former prime minister. Eta has killed more than 800 people since it began fighting for an independent Basque homeland over four decades ago.

In the Netherlands, hundreds of gay activists have walked out of a Roman Catholic service where they gathered to protest against the Church's policy of refusing communion to homosexuals. Geraldine Coughlin reports.

Most Dutch people support gay rights, but the Catholic Church teaches that homosexual activity is sinful. The conflict began during Dutch carnival celebrations this month when the carnival prince, who is a gay man, was refused communion because of his open homosexuality. The refusal offended many in the local community. But the bishopdom of Den Bosch says it will stick to the standpoint of Rome, not to allow practising homosexuals to receive communion.

That was Geraldine Coughlin reporting.

The authorities in Iraq have begun reinstating thousands more military officers who served the ousted President Saddam Hussein. The latest batch should bring the total of such soldiers reintegrated into the new Iraqi armed forces to 20,000. A BBC Baghdad correspondent, however, says critics have questioned the government's timing with parliamentary elections only a week away. The wholesale disbanding of Saddam Hussein's army in 2003 is blamed by many for exacerbating the sectarian violence that followed the American-led invasion as large numbers of sacked officers helped the insurgency.

South Africa has called for the lifting of European Union sanctions against Zimbabwe's leaders. Ahead of a visit to Britain by the South African President Jacob Zuma, his senior adviser Lindiwe Zulu told the BBC that the sanctions were outdated and were damaging Zimbabwe's economy. She suggested that the sanctions were irrelevant and should go.

"In South Africa, we are committed first and foremost to assisting Zimbabweans find a lasting solution in Zimbabwe. We have to call for the lifting of the sanctions. It could be difficult but it's got to be done."

With the general election in Britain due within three months, the leader of the opposition Conservatives David Cameron has told supporters that the party faces a real fight if it's to win. The Prime Minister and leader of the governing Labour Party Gordon Brown insisted on Saturday that Labour could still win a vote which is likely to be dominated by argument over tackling Britain's huge budget deficit. Opinion polls suggest the gap between the two parties is narrowing.

A young British television presenter has completed a record-breaking trip down the Amazon River by canoe, paddling more than 3,000 kilometers to raise money for charity. Helen Skelton is the first woman to achieve the feat. She began her journey in Peru on January 20th and paddled about 100 kilometers a day to reach Almerim in Brazil, at the mouth of the river. She is 26 years old.

智利总统巴切莱特(Michelle Bachelet)表示，自周六灾难性的地震袭击之后，已有700多人确认死亡。她说，智利现在将接受来自世界各地的援助。报道称，智利海岸小镇Constitucion在最初的地震后再度遭遇海啸袭击，造成300多人死亡。巴切莱特表示，智利现在需要野战医院，临时桥梁和更多的救援人员来搜寻幸存者。

“我们现在面临智利历史上前所未有的紧急状况，需要紧急迅速的部署。在公共秩序方面，今天早上，我已经和内政部长，国防部长一起签署了Maule和Constitucion为期30天的紧急灾难状况。”

在遭遇严重破坏的康赛普西翁市已经发生了抢劫现象，智利军队已经出动，帮助警察维持秩序，他们还实施了宵禁。

袭击欧洲西部的暴风雨至少造成50人死亡。其中大部分伤亡发生在法国，狂风导致海浪突破防洪设施，许多受害者在大西洋海岸溺亡。

西班牙政府表示，巴斯克分裂主义组织埃塔军事领袖在法国西北部被捕。他和其他两名疑似埃塔成员一道被捕。Sarah Rainsford报道。

西班牙内政部长表示，这三名在法国北部被捕的男子试图入境西班牙，图谋不轨。西班牙国王参观时，埃塔组织军事领导人Ibon Gogeascotxea试图袭击毕尔巴鄂的古根海姆博物馆。自那时起，十多年来Ibon Gogeascotxea一直在逃。另外一名被捕者被控在2008年杀害一名西班牙政治家和一名商人。第三人Pistols图谋杀害西班牙前总理未遂。自40多年前开始为独立的巴斯克领土而奋斗以来，埃塔组织已经杀害了800多人。

在荷兰，数百名同性恋活动积极分子走出罗马天主教堂，抗议该教堂拒绝为同性恋人群提供圣餐的政策。Geraldine Coughlin报道。

许多荷兰人支持同性恋权利，但是天主教堂则声称同性恋行为是罪恶的。本月的荷兰狂欢节庆祝活动期间，狂欢节王子由于公开的同性恋行为被拒绝圣餐，由此引发冲突。这次拒绝行为激怒了当地社区许多人。但是Den Bosch主教表示，他们将会坚持罗马的立场，不允许公开的同性恋者接受圣餐。以上是Geraldine Coughlin的报道。

伊拉克当局开始启用数千名为被推翻的总统萨达姆·侯赛因服务过的军官。这次新的启用使重新被启用进入伊拉克军队的人数上升到20,000。

然而，BBC巴格达记者表示，由于距离议会选举仅有一周的时间，一些批评家质疑政府的时间安排。2003年大规模解散萨达姆·侯赛因的军队受到许多人的批评，他们表示自美国领导的入侵以来，大批被解雇的军官帮助实施反叛活动，加重了宗派暴力。

南非呼吁欧盟取消对津巴布韦领袖的制裁。南非总统前往英国访问之前，他的高级顾问Lindiwe Zulu告诉BBC，这些制裁已经过时，而且损害了津巴布韦的经济。她表示，这些制裁是不恰当的，应该予以取消。

“在南非，我们认为最重要是帮助津巴布韦人民寻找一个长期的解决方案。我们必须要求取消制裁。这可能比较困难，但是必须这样。”

英国大选将在三个月内进行，反对派保守党领袖David Cameron告诉支持者，保守党要获得成功面临着真正的挑战。周六，英国首相和执政党工党领袖戈登·布朗坚持称，工党仍然能够赢得选举，尽管会针对处理英国巨大的预算赤字问题充满争论。民意调查显示，两党之间的差距逐渐缩小。

英国电视台一名年轻的主持人打破纪录，乘独木舟沿亚马逊河行驶了3,000多千米，为慈善机构筹款。Helen Skelton是首位获得如此辉煌成绩的女性。1月20日，她在秘鲁开始了行程，每天大约前行100千米，到达位于亚马逊河口的巴西Almerim。她今年26岁。