BBC news 2008-10-13 加文本

BBC News with Nick Kelly.

European leaders meeting in Paris have agreed a joint plan to confront panic on stock markets and threats to the global financial system. The French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the 15 countries of the Eurozone had reached an agreement that would address all aspects of the problem. The joint plan will guarantee loans between banks and provide government capital to protect ailing financial institutions. President Sarkozy said governments will take uNPRecedented steps to deal with the crisis, but insisted that the financial sector had to play its part in restoring economic stability.

The banks, the market operators，must realize the scale of the challenge. We expect them to show a sense of responsibility, at least equal to that shown by the leaders of the Eurozone who have made an uNPRecedented effort to throttle the crisis. Our unity, our determination is complete. And I would say to our fellow citizens throughout Europe, that they can, indeed they must, have trust in us.

The leaders are expected to reveal their national plans on Monday.

World Bank has agreed to help developing countries strengthen their economies and bolster their financial systems. The bank’s President, Robert Zoellick, called the current financial turmoil a man-made catastrophe, but he said the flow of aid to the world’s poor countries would be maintained.

The World Bank will join with the IMF and others to draw on the full range of our resources, finance, analysis, and advice to help developing countries strengthen their economies, and bolster their financial systems, maintain growth and protect the most vulnerable groups against the impact of the current crisis.  Mr. Zoellic called for more contributions to a billion-dollar fund to help countries cope with high food prices.(Www.hXen.com)

In the United States, the Federal Reserve says it has approved a 12-billion-dollar takeover of the troubled bank Wachovia and its banking subsidiaries by Wells Fargo. The decision formally makes Wells Fargo the winner in what’s been a bitter battle for America's sixth largest bank.

Justice ministers from the Arab League say there is no sound legal basis for the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for the Sudanese President Olmar al Bashir. The Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, had requested a warrant for Mr. Bashir’s arrest in July on charges of genocide and war crimes in Darfur. Jeff Bell reports.

At a special meeting in Cairo to discuss the charges, the justice ministers suggested that the chief prosecutor’s request was politically motivated. But Mr. Moreno-Ocampo has pressed on with his case for an arrest warrant, saying he can not ignore evidence that President Bashir personally controlled attacks in Darfur during which villages were bombed and civilians raped or killed. The justice ministers said they would support efforts to halt the prosecution. A team of judges at the International Court has not yet ruled on whether to grant the warrant.

World News from the BBC.

The Turkish military says its warplanes have bombed a group of Kurdish rebels including senior leaders in northern Iraq. The Turkish army said the attack on a PKK rebel base took place in the mountainous Zap region, gave no details about casualties. This is the seventh Turkish air strike in northern Iraq since the rebels attacked a border outpost nine days ago, killing 17 Turkish soldiers.

The Spanish golfer Seve Ballesteros, for two decades one of the world’s leading players, has revealed he has a brain tumor. He said a biopsy on Tuesday would confirm if it was malignant. From Madrid, here is Steve Kingston.

Seve Ballesteros gave details of his condition in a letter to the media, released by the La Paz Hospital in Madrid. He said exhaustive test had confirmed the existence of a brain tumor and the doctors would carry out a biopsy on Tuesday before deciding how to proceed. The biopsy should confirm whether the tumor is malignant or benign. The 51-year-old five times major champion was rushed to hospital last Monday after collapsing and losing consciousness at Madrid airport.

The former Cuban President Fidel Castro has said he doubts that Barack Obama can win the US presidential election because of what he called profound racism in the United States. In an article published on an official Cuban website, Mr. Castro wrote that it was a miracle that Democratic Party candidate had not suffered the same fate as the assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King. Fidel Castro also said the measures taken by the American government to tackle the financial crisis would bring higher inflation and lower commodity prices.

And a Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal says he plans to build the world’s tallest building in the Saudi city of Jidda. His company said the project Kingdom City would have a tower more than a kilometer high. The whole scheme would cost more than $26 billion.

BBC News.