BBC 2008-03-12
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The top US military commander for Iraq and Afghanistan, William Fallon has resigned from his post. Admiral Fallon was subject of a recent magazine article that said he disagreed with any use of military action against Iran over its nuclear program. The admiral said he was stepping aside because of perceived differences between him and President Bush. As our North America editor Justin Webb says, his position and that of the Bush administration became increasingly different.
“The problem is not fighting a war with Iran. He was perfectly confident that America could win such a war if it chose to fight it. The problem is what comes next. He was stressing something that the Bush administration, when it talks about picking all options on the table, doesn’t particularly want to get into. And he stressed it so much and so long and to so many journalists that his position whether he resigned or whether he was pushed, his position just became untenable. ”
President Bush has conceded that recent American military gains in Iraq are tenuous, reversible and fragile. Speaking in Tennessee, Mr. Bush said the troop increase introduced in Iraq in January 2007 had worked but there was still work to be done. (www.Hxen.com)
American European share prices have closed higher after the key central banks stepped in to tackle the worsening credit crisis. In New York, the Dow Jones was up more than 3%, one of its biggest gains in recent years. Here is our economics correspondent Andrew Walker.
“The news was well received in stock markets in the US and in Europe. The US Federal Reserve, at the heart of this intervention, is offering to lend up to $200 billion dollars worth of American government bonds to financial institutions. Its assets are often used as security for lending in financial markets. Supplying more of them is intended to make banks more willing to lend. Their reluctance to do so is one important reason why the US economy might now be in recession. The measures may help, but they won’t cure the underlying problems of borrowers in some markets, including housing, struggling to repay loans. ” (www.Hxen.com)
People have been voting in the American state of Mississippi in the latest primary election to choose the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate. Barack Obama is hoping to build on his victory over Hilary Clinton in Wyoming on Saturday. Earlier, opinion polls suggest Mr. Obama was ahead in Mississippi, which has a high proportion of African-American voters. The state only has a small influence on who will get the nominations sending just 33 delegates in the convention that will pick a candidate in August.
Conservationists say the earth’s tiger population may have halved in the past quarter of a century. Experts from the WWF told a conference in Stockholm that there might now be as few as 3,500 of the animals left, and that one subspecies—the South China Tiger could soon be extinct. Chinese demand for tiger body parts was described as one of the main threats to the big cats across Asia.
World News from the BBC. (www.hXen.com)
The American State Department has released its annual report on human rights in the world. Unlike previous years, China was not listed as one of the world’s most systemic human rights violators, but it’s described as an authoritarian regime that denies its people’s basic human rights and tortures prisoners. Countries described as the worst violators include North Korea, Burma, Iran, Zimbabwe and Cuba.
An American study says that more than one in four teenage girls in the United States has at least one sexually transmitted disease, or STD. The study by the US Centers for Disease Control says more than 3 million girls aged between 14 and 19 are affected. Mike Fox reports.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested more than 800 teenage girls to build up a national picture of how many are carrying sexually transmitted diseases. Of those who are sexily active, 40% were found to be carrying an STD. African-American girls were more at risk with nearly half carrying a disease compared to one in five white teenagers tested. The most common STD was the human papilloma virus or HPV with at least 18% infected. Although the disease often clears up naturally, it can cause genital warts and also cervical cancer if left untreated.”
For the first time in the history of the Champion’s League, Europe’s most important club football competition, half of the teams in the quarterfinals come from one country—England. Liverpool beat Inter Milan to join Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United in the last 8.
And plans to promote the London Olympics in 2012 by sailing a ship around the world to advertise Britain’s cultural riches have been abandoned. The ocean-going Clipper to have been called the Olympic Friendship was to have spent 4 years traveling from port to port crewed by students, philosophers and artists.
And that’s the latest BBC News.
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