http://192.168.2.6/english/20061227VOA.mp3

It is 15:00 Universal Time and here is the news from the Voice of America. From the VOA News Center in Washington I’m F/.

Red Cross officials in Nigeria say hundreds of people have been killed in an oil pipeline explosion in the commercial capital Lagos. Officials say the blast occurred early today in a heavily populated neighborhood. Red Cross officials say the victims were apparently schooping fuel from the pipeline after thieves / it overnight. The exact casualty figure is unclear but witnesses before seen hundreds of badly burned bodies. Rescue efforts have been hampered by the fire from the blast.

Now we turn to Somalia where Islamist forces there / retreat today as Somalian government and Ethiopian troops advanced for the Islamic held capital. Somalia’s ambassador to Ethiopia said today that Ethiopian troops are / 100 kilometers of Mogadishu. A top Islamist official said any attemp to take the Islamic held capital will end in disaster brought the attackers. The spokesman, however, did not specify the threat but said Islamists would fight Ethiopia everywhere for a long time.

And now to Iraq where a senior official there says in a appeals court has upheld the death sentence against the ousted leader Saddam Hussein for the 1982 killing of 140 Shiite villagers. The country’s national security advisor made the announcement in Baghdad today. Under Iraqi law the death sentence is to be carried out within 30 days. Meanwhile President Bush has / today for a week-long holiday, / VOA’s // it will be very much a working vacation.

President Bush is expected to announce a revised strategy for Iraq early in 2007. And over the course of the next week, he will have a chance to continue consultations and review his options in the informal setting of his family home. The fate of American troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan was very much on his mind as he gathered with his family for a Christmas celebration at Camp David, the US presidential / in the mountains outside Washington. It was a quiet holiday observance including services of the rustic chapel on the Camp David grounds and the turkey dinner with all the trimmings. On Christmas Eve, the President placed calls from Camp David to ten members of the US military, two from each branch of the armed forces. Most are spending this holiday season in Iraq or Afghanistan. And Mr. Bush told them he is proud of their service. P Wasion, VOA news, Washington.

South Korea has almost finished / the country’s first astronaut whoes work is to make scientific / over the International Soace Station. The VOA’s / for the report from Seoul.

In a gala of Christmas day ceremony broadcast live on South Korea’s SBS Television network, South Korean authorities award the honor to //, a 30-year-old male expert in artificial intelligence and //, a 20-year-old female / candidate in biosystems research. The two passed a rigeral set, physical, professional and interlectural tests on the / lection. / in a final round of live TV questioning in which the South Korean public could vote electronically to their favourite. The two are scheduled to start a year-long training program next March at Russia’s / Space Institute near Moscow. It is not yet decided which of the two will board on Russian / rocket scheduled to take off in April 2008 for the International Space Station and who will stay on the ground as a reserved astronaut. C A, VOA news, Seoul.

Seismologists say a 7.1 magnitude earthquake has struck off the southern coast of Taiwan. Japanese seismologists have issued the local tsunami warning and say a one-meter / tsunami now be heading for the Philippine. Scientists say the quake did not appear to be / to trigger Pacific wide tsunami but its smaller tsunami could damage shoreline near the / center. There have been no immediate reports of damage or casualties, however local residents the first tremor was felt to / island.

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