BBC news 2008-11-17 加文本

BBC 2008-11-17

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BBC News with John Jason.

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund says the organization is likely to need more funding as the number of countries asking for financial support increases. Dominique Strauss-Kahn told the BBC that the IMF resources were being stretched by the global financial crisis. Our economics correspondent Andrew Walker reports.

The IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said there has been a dramatic increase in the number of countries seeking help. He welcomed Japan’s decision to make another 100 billion dollars available to the IMF to lend to countries affected but he said more is likely to be needed. He’s also called for countries that can to cut interest rates and he said the European Central Bank has room to do so. It was not an explicit call for action but he suggested he’d be glad if the bank were to cut again soon. Critics have said the ECB has been too slow to reduce interest rates, in sharp contrast to, for example, the US Federal Reserve.

The government of Iraq says a new military pact with the United States sets a specific deadline of 2011 for a complete withdrawal of US troops from the country. A government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said the Iraqi cabinet had overwhelmingly approved the new draft pact which would also place US troops under the authority of the Iraqi government. From Baghdad, here’s Andrew North.

Just over three years from now, all US forces could be out of Iraq. The first stage would be for US troops to pull back to bases outside Iraqi cities by the middle of next year. In effect, this is a deadline for both sides, for the Americans to get out, and the Iraqis to take full responsibility for their security. The agreement has been controversial here though amid criticism from some quarters, it’s simply entrenching the US occupation. Almost a third of the Iraqi cabinet was absent for the vote but in private many politicians support the pact as it will give much greater control over US troops.

The President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai has offered to provide protection for the Taliban leader Mullah Omar if he proves he’s committed to peace talks. President Karzai made the offer despite a multi-million dollar reward being offered by the United States for Mullah Omar’s capture. Dodd Kadilasa reports from Kabul.

This is the strongest offer yet from President Karzai to the Taliban leader, and it comes at a time when the insurgency has almost paralyzed the southern part of Afghanistan. He said if the United States and his other western allies disagreed with this offer, they had two choices, to remove him, or leave the country. The president, however, reiterated that he would accept no preconditions from the Taliban.

The rebel leader in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo Laurent Nkunda has told a visiting United Nations envoy he is willing to take part in peace talks with the Congolese government. He agreed to a ceasefire if government forces also stop fighting. The UN envoy, the former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, said any talks would probably take place in Kenya.

World News from the BBC.

The space shuttle Endeavour has docked with the orbiting International Space Station on a mission that its commander has described as home improvement. The shuttle is delivering items including ovens, a refrigerator and a new toilet. The aim is to expand living quarters on the space station.

In California, three wildfires north and west of Los Angeles have devastated an area of around 88 square kilometers. At one complex in Sylmar, a northern suburb of Los Angeles, 500 mobile homes were destroyed. It’s not yet clear whether all the mostly elderly residents managed to escape. The Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger paid tribute to the emergency services.

To our fire crew and to everyone involved in those fires, thank you, thank you, thank you for the extraordinary work that they have been doing here. I mean it is an extraordinary coordination between the federal government, the state and the locals, because when you deal with the evacuations like that, where 10,000 people have to be evacuated, we are talking about, you know, a lot of effort that goes into, a lot of law enforcement people to keep these homes safe, to keep the people safe to find the shelters. And they have really done an extraordinary job in the coordination.

A media blackout has been imposed in Cairo on the trial of an Egyptian tycoon and politician Hisham Talaat Mustafa, who is charged with the murder of the Lebanese pop singer Suzanne Tamim. Mr. Mustafa, who is said to have had a relationship with the singer, is accused of paying a former policeman two million dollars to stab her to death at her apartment in Dubai. Both men have denied the charges.

Italian news reports say doctors in Sicily have been claiming state money for some 50,000 people who’ve remained on their medical lists despite being dead. An investigation by Italy’s financial police is said to have found that in some cases, payments were claimed for people who have been dead 20 years.

That’s the latest BBC News(www.hxen.net)