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BBC News with Joe Macintosh.
The United States economy is now in recession according to an authoritative body in Washington. The National Bureau of Economic Research says that the American economy has been in decline since December 2007. The committee’s judgment is generally accepted as an official verdict on whether a recession has begun. Andrew Walker reports.
The National Bureau’s Committee of senior academic economists says that a recession began in the US in December last year. They looked at a number of indicators and on this occasion, one of the key factors seems to have been the decline in the number of people with jobs, that number has fallen every month this year. The Committee’s decision is essentially a judgment based on a range of different economic figures, usually, though not always, a recession declared by the committee includes two consecutive quarters of declining total production, perhaps the most widely used definition of recession outside the US.
The Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has called an emergency meeting of the state legislature to discuss the state’s 11-billion-dollar deficit. He’s already declared a state of emergency which would allow the legislator to change the existing budget. Mr. Schwarzenegger has proposed a combination of tax increases and spending cuts that would face strong opposition from some Republican members.
The outgoing United States President George Bush has said that the biggest regret from his presidency was the intelligence failure over whether Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. In a wide-ranging television interview broadcast 50 days before he leaves office, Mr. Bush said he wished the intelligence information on Iraq had been different. He also said he had not been ready for the consequences of going to war.
Well, I think I was uNPRepared for war. In other words, I didn’t campaign and said, ‘Please vote for me, I’ll be able to handle an attack.’ In other words, I didn’t anticipate war. Presidents, one of the things about the modern presidency is that the unexpected will happen.
India has launched a formal protest with Pakistan over the attacks on Mumbai. The Indian Foreign Ministry summoned the Pakistani High Commissioner Shahid Malik to complain about Pakistan’s failure to control militant groups on its territory. Pakistan is playing down suggestions of a rift, insisting the meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere. Our South Asia correspondent Chris Morris reports.
As Mumbai begins to pick up the pieces and normal life resumes, the diplomatic fallout from last week’s attacks is increasing. Indian investigators believe the gunmen had months of training in Pakistan, and the government in Delhi is under political and popular pressure to respond. India believes the attackers are linked to the militant group Lashkar-e-Toiba, and it says it has compelling evidence. Links between the group and Pakistani intelligence have been well established in the past. The critical question now is whether those links still exist.
That report from Chris Morris. You are listening to the world news, coming to you from the BBC.
The Brazilian government has said it plans to reduce deforestation of the Amazon region, the world’s biggest rainforest by 70% over the next ten years. It’s the first time that Brazil has set a target to reduce levels of forest clearance caused by loggers and farmers. Deforestation is blamed for as much as three quarters of greenhouse gas emissions in Brazil which has one of the highest levels in the world. The announcement comes after it was revealed that this year the rate of Amazon deforestation increased after falling for the past four years.
Riot police in Zimbabwe have used teargas to break up a protest by soldiers in the center of the capital Harare. Around 40 soldiers began looting shops after they’d queued for hours outside a bank only to find their wages could not be paid. A number of civilians joined the protest before it was brought under control. James Rid reports.
The Zimbabwean army has always been a bedrock of support for President Robert Mugabe, but with Zimbabwe’s economy and public services close to total collapse, it seems that loyalty is beginning to waver. A similar demonstration involving more than 70 soldiers was reported last week. Unconfirmed reports say the army is no longer able to feed its rank and file, and soldiers are deserting in large numbers. The Zimbabwean army played a key role in ensuring Robert Mugabe who’s able to hang on to power after he lost the first round of presidential elections earlier this year.
The United Nations says about 9,000 Somalis are arriving in refugee camps in Eastern Kenya every month to escape fighting and insecurity. The UN’s Refugee Agency, the UNHCR, says more than 50,000 Somalis, mostly women and children, have fled across the border this year, many having walked for months.
The out-going American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice now on a brief farewell tour has played a piano recital at Buckingham Palace in London, attended by Queen Elisabeth. Dr. Rice is an accomplished concert pianist who began playing as a child. She was accompanied by Louise Miliband, the wife of Britain’s foreign secretary.
the rank and file: the ordinary members of an organization rather than the leaders
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