BBC news 2008-03-21 加文本

BBC News with Victoria Meakin.

The Bank of England is considering a request by Britain’s biggest banks for an emergency funds to be set up to protect them from the effects of financial turmoil which has resulted from the current world credit crunch. The Governor of the Bank Mervyn King is understood for the first time to be sympathetic to the bank’s request. Our business editor Robert Peston reports.

Until very recently, Mervyn King was reluctant to provide the kind of financial support demanded by banks, for fear he be seen to bailing them out for their own foolish lending and borrowing practices. But the current crisis in money markets is making it difficult even for well-managed banks to raise money, and that's made their share prices vulnerable to malicious rumors of the sort that led to the 20% fall in HBOS shares on Wednesday. So the Bank of England is now examining whether it can provide supports similar to what the US Federal Reserve provides the banks to its so-called discount window.(www.Hxen.com)

The prices of oil and gold have fallen sharply for a second day; both commodities have been increasing rapidly in value as investors sought a haven against rising inflation and the weakening dollar. But with the dollar making a slight comeback on currency markets, oil and gold prices fell by more than 8% in 36 hours.

The Russian security service, the FSB, has charged two Russian-American brothers with industrial espionage. It’s reported to have accused them of stealing commercial secrets for sale to foreign companies. One of the two, Ilya Zaslavsky, works for the biggest foreign-owned oil company in Russia TNKBP. From Moscow, here is Rupert Winfield-Hayes.

A manager at TNKBP along with his brother are accused of stealing classified information to sell to foreign oil companies. But oil industry analysts here in Moscow say the objective of this case is much broader. They say the aim is to put pressure on TNKBP to sell a controlling stake in the company to the Russian government. TNKBP is the last large oil company in Russia that is still beyond the Kremlin’s control, but perhaps not for much longer.

Saudi Arabia is to retrain its 40,000 prayer leaders in an attempt to counter militant Islam. The plan was revealed in the Saudi newspaper Al- Sharq al-Awsat. Magdi Abdlehadi reports.(Www.hxen.net)

The plan is part of a wider program launched by the Saudi monarch a few years ago to encourage moderation and tolerance in Saudi society. The newspaper said retraining the imams would be carried out jointly by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and a new center for national dialogue, a body created five years ago to disseminate a moderate interpretation of Islamic tradition. There is a growing awareness in Saudi society that security measures alone are not enough to counter the threat of Islamic militancy.

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Production of one of the Italy’s favorite foods Mozzarella Cheese is being threatened after 80 buffalo herds were quarantined on suspicion that their milk might be contaminated by toxins. David Willis is in Rome.

The dioxin entered the food chain because animals grazed on land where large quantities of toxic industrial waste had been illegally dumped by criminals. The local Mafia in Naples, called the Camorra, have been making huge profits by trucking toxic waste from factories in northern Italy and secretly dumping it in the Naples area. Government laboratories are analyzing milk samples taken from some 2,000 herds of buffalo, and sales of Neapolitan Mozzarella cheese have declined by nearly 50 percent in recent weeks.

The United Nations Security Council has agreed to give the UN a greater role in Afghanistan to combat, what it called, the increased violent and terrorist activities of the Taliban. The Security Council voted to extend the UN mission for another year.

Police on Australia’s Gold Coast are investigating report that an elderly man committed suicide by programming a robot to shoot him. 81-year-old Francis Tovey apparently connected an electric sword to a semi-automatic pistol. It's believed he was unhappy after relatives demanded him leave his home and go into care.

BBC News.