BBC news 2008-11-08 加文本

BBC 2008-11-08


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BBC News with Charles Caro.

The President-elect of the United States Barack Obama has said that he will confront the economic crisis head-on when he takes office in January. He said a stimulus package to boost the economy was long overdue and would be his first priority. From Chicago, Jamie Coomarasamy reports.

On another day of sobering economic news, the president-elect struck a somber tone as he sought to reassure the public he was focused firmly on the economy. Flanked by an economic team which includes heavy weights from the worlds of business and finance, Barack Obama's first appearance since being elected was short on detail although he made it clear that passing a new economic stimulus package would be his priority. And he was careful not to step on President Bush's toes, twice repeating that the country only had one president at a time. As for his cabinet appointment, he said he would be making them with what he called deliberate haste.

A school with hundreds of children inside has collapsed on the outskirts of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince. At least 30 people are reported to have been killed, many more have been injured. The charity, Medecins Sans Frontieres, says that it's pulled out more than 80 people, many with life-threatening injuries. Children and teachers are still trapped in the rubble. A BBC journalist in Haiti Joseph Guyla Delva had described the rescue operation.

As of now, about 30 people have been killed and I’ve seen people still under the debris, calling for help, like a boy asking for the firefighters to cut his legs so that he could get out of, from down there. So it is a very sad situation, and, and a lot of parents are trying to rush to [the] place, to try to see whether their loved ones have been killed or still alive. So, soldiers are trying to do their best to try to cope with that situation right now.

The authorities on the Cayman Islands have ordered the evacuation of all low-lying areas ahead of the imminent arrival of Hurricane Paloma. US forecasters say the storm has now become a major Category-3 hurricane. It's later expected to make landfall in Cuba which has already been hit by four other storms this hurricane season.

A summit in Kenya on the crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has been dismissed as of little use by a spokesman for the Congolese rebel group led by Laurent Nkunda. The spokesman insisted the crisis would be settled only by direct talks with the government, a demand that has been rejected. At the Nairobi meeting, African leaders said that they would send troops to eastern Congo if necessary to enforce peace. They also urged all sides to allow humanitarian corridors to be set up as soon as possible.

An international health agency in Zimbabwe's Central Bank has returned more than seven million dollars in aid money which it'd confiscated last year. The Global Fund for AIDS said that Zimbabwe had also agreed that it could now use foreign currency in all its transactions in Zimbabwe.

World News from the BBC.

China's state news agency says that thousands of people have attacked police in the southern city of Shenzhen on the border with Hong Kong. The agency said that the crowd were protesting about the death of a motorcyclist. Police has set up a checkpoint to catch illegal motorists and when the motorcyclist didn't stop, the police threw his radio at the man, making him crash, and one police car was set on fire in the protest.

New Zealanders are voting in the general election that could end nearly a decade of government under the Labor leader Helen Clark. Mrs. Clark, who's had three terms as prime minister, has presided over strong economic growth. However, this year, New Zealand has been hit by recession. And polls suggest that the centre-right National Party could make significant gains.

The UN General Assembly has voted to end smoking at UN headquarters in New York in line with the ban on smoking in public places throughout the rest of the city. It's now up to the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to actually enforce the measure, which, as our UN correspondent Laura Trevelyan reports, may not be easy.

Welcome to the Barney's cafe in the basement of the United Nations, haunt of smoking diplomats. Because the United Nations is international territory, New York City's ban on smoking in public places has never applied here. But now this safe haven for smokers is threatened. The UN General Assembly has voted to ban smoking at UN headquarters, and ban the sale of cigarettes, and that could be tricky. Diplomats from all 192 countries at the UN love to come here and puff away. (WWw.hxen.net)

A suspected member of the Mafia who went into a clinic in Italy for liposuction surgery has ended up losing more than his excess weight. Domenico Magnoli also lost his freedom, because when he recovered consciousness, he was greeted by nurses and visitors bearing flowers who were, in fact, police officers in disguise. A Police spokesman said we performed a little operation of our own.

BBC News.