BBC news 2008-10-06 加文本

BBC News with Debary Kansy.

The German finance ministry has agreed a new rescue package for one of the country’s biggest mortgage lenders Hypo Real Estate. The deal reached with private banks is worth around 70 billion dollars.

In a bid to restore confidence in the troubled German banking sector, the government earlier announced an unlimited guarantee for all private savings accounts. Tristana Moore reports.

After a day of high drama, the German government has finally come up with a new rescue package for the troubled lender Hypo Real Estate. Under the plan, private banks and other financial institutions have pledged to give an extra line of credit of 15 billion Euros to Hypo Real Estate on top of the 35 billion Euros which the government and banks have originally promised.

A spokesman at the finance ministry said there would be no extra burden for the taxpayer. Earlier on Sunday, as crisis talks were held in Berlin， the Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck launched a stinging attack on the managers of Hypo Real Estate, accusing them of misinforming the government by failing to review the true scale of the lender’s problems.

Meanwhile, the French bank, BNP Paribas has agreed to buy 75 percent of the Belgian and Luxemburg operations of the ailing European financial group Fortis. The deal will create one of the continent’s biggest savings banks. The governments of Belgium and Luxemburg will in return take a minority stake in BNP Paribas.

The Democratic Party candidate in the United States presidential election, Barack Obama has accused his rival the Republican John McCain of wanting to concentrate on personal smears rather than talking about substance. He was speaking a day after the Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin accused Mr. Obama of association with terrorists. Mr. Obama said Senator McCain’s team was becoming desperate.

“Senator McCain and his operatives are gambling that they can distract you with smears, rather than talk to you about substance. They’d rather tear our campaign down, than lift this country up. That’s what you do when you are out of touch, out of ideas, and running out of time.”

The Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari's has expressed unorthodox views about his country’s relationship with India. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, he suggested that India posed no threat to Pakistan. He also called Islamist militants fighting in India administered Kashmir terrorists. From Islamabad , Barbara Plett reports.

Both views run counter to those long-held by Pakistan’s powerful military. It defines India as an existential threat, and in the past, it has given covert backing to the militants in Kashmir. The two regional rivals did take part in the faltering peace process under the former president General Pervez Musharraf. But suspicions always ran deep. And relations have soured recently. Mr. Zardari's comment does mark a radical break with the past. World News from the BBC.

The leader of European Union monitors in Georgia says he’s confident that Russian forces will meet a deadline to withdraw from what they call their security zones around the Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The head of the EU Mission Hans Joerg Haber confirmed that Russian troops had removed one checkpoint near the town of Gori, and he said negotiations were under way to remove more than 20 others.

We are in constant technical talks with the Russians. And we are consulting about the process of withdrawal, but this is the first time we’ve actually, that our monitors have actually been able to see the fact that the checkpoint has been dismantled. (Www.hXen.com)

A suicide bombing in Northern Iraq has killed at least 11 people. The bomber blew himself up inside a house in the city of Mosul. A spokesman for the United States military said they’d been carrying out an operation at the house to detain a wanted man. In a separate incident in Mosul, four people were killed when gunmen opened fire on mourners at a funeral. US forces have carried out numerous raids in Mosul in recent months. They described the city as al-Qaeda’s last stronghold in Iraq.

At least 30 people have been killed in the past two days in the northeast Indian state of Assam in clashes between local tribal people and migrants from Bangladesh. Several villages were set ablaze. And there have been reports of the two sides fighting each other with bows and arrows, machetes, and guns. Police have been given permission to open fire to control rampaging mobs and a curfew has been imposed in three districts.

Pope Benedict has begun a week long reading of the Bible to coincide with the opening of a gathering of hundreds of senior clergymen of the Vatican. He read the beginning of the book Genesis live on Italian television. Over the next seven days, more than a thousand people, among them politicians, celebrities and members of the public will complete the entire Bible.

BBC news.