BBC news 2008-06-20 加文本

BBC 2008-06-20

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BBC News with Mike Cooper.

Prosecutors in New York have opened the first criminal case linked to the collapse of the subprime mortgage market which led to the current global credit crisis. They've charged with fraud two former managers of the Bear Stearns Investment Bank which almost went bankrupt a year ago. The men oversaw multibillion-dollar hedge funds which collapsed in June. Our business reporter Mark Gregory reports.

The two men, Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, were highly regarded by the Wall Street investment community. They specialized in repackaging subprime mortgage debt, home loans to Americans with poor credit histories as supposedly safe securities sold to investors. Essentially, they are accused of telling investors that things were fine while swapping messages with each other, suggesting they knew the market was about to crash.

The European Union has agreed to scrap sanctions against Cuba which were imposed after a crackdown on dissent in 2003 and includes a freeze on visits by senior officials. The EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the aim was to encourage change in Cuba. Correspondents say Cuba was angered when sanctions were suspended rather than lifted in 2005.

The Secretary General of the opposition MDC in Zimbabwe Tendai Biti has been formally charged with treason and election rigging. If convicted, he could face the death penalty. Mr. Biti was arrested when he returned to Zimbabwe from South Africa to take part in a campaign against Robert Mugabe in next week's presidential run-off election. Peter Biles reports.

After a week in custody, Tendai Biti, the opposition's second-in-command, has finally been charged. But the party leader Morgan Tsvangirai dismissed the charges against Mr. Biti as frivolous. Zimbabwe's opposition will see the case as simply a further move by the state to destroy the MDC's election campaign. The presidential election run-off next week has been thrown into doubt because of increasing violence. A senior western diplomat has said the government is no longer waging a campaign of violence. He said it was now terror plain and simple.

The American Democratic contender for the presidency, Barack Obama, has decided to opt out of public funding for his election campaign, freeing himself to spend more than is allowed under the public system. His action reverses an earlier pledge made jointly with his Republican opponent to use federal money. James Coomarasamy reports from Washington.

Barack Obama continues to make history. The first African-American with a real shot at the White House has become the first major party presidential candidate to opt out of the three-decade-old public financing system for the general election. Last year, Senator Obama said that if he became the Democratic nominee, he would work with the Republican candidate to preserve a public finance general election. So the McCain campaign has accused him of breaking his word, adding that they don't need to spend as much as their opponent to win in November.

World News from the BBC.

The Anglo-Dutch Oil company Shell has shut down production at its main offshore oilfield in Nigeria after an overnight raid by militants. Gunmen in speedboats traveled about 100 kilometers out to sea to attack the Bonga Oilfield, the first time it's been targeted. An American worker on a supply vessel was also kidnapped by gunmen as they returned to shore, but he was released some hours later.

The United Nations Security Council has voted unanimously in favor of the resolution classifying rape as a weapon of war. It describes that the liberal use of rape as a tactic in war as a threat to international security. Laura Trevelyan reports from New York.(www.hxen.net)

In conflicts from Darfur in the west of Sudan to the Democratic Republic of Congo, women are raped by those who are trying to conquer and intimidate. Sometimes women are even raped by the peacekeepers who were supposed to protect them. For the first time, the UN Security Council has recognized that rape when used as a tactic in war can actually threaten international peace. The US pushes for this resolution which has been hailed by women's rights groups as historic.

The Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has insisted that his government's peace talks with the Palestinian authority are making progress. In an interview with the BBC Arabic Service, Mr. Olmert said serious progress had been achieved on issues including the borders of a future Palestinian state. He said Israel was prepared to compromise dramatically on territorial issues and that the Palestinians would have to compromise too.

And football, Germany has won the first quarter-final of the European Championship with a 3-2 victory over Portugal in the Swiss city of Basel. The Portuguese went into the match as one of the favorites for the title, but the Germans quickly took control of the game with the powerful performance by midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger during the German attack. Germany now face either Croatia or Turkey in the first semi-final.

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