BBC news 2009-01-24 加文本

BBC News with Jonathan Weekley.

In a further break with the Bush administration, officials in Washington say President Obama is about to sign an order lifting the ban on US funding of foreign family planning organizations that promote or provide information about abortion. The blanket prohibition was imposed by President Bush when he came to power eight years ago. Jill McGivering reports.

The United States is one of the biggest supporters of family planning programs worldwide, so its funding policy makes a huge difference, especially across the developing world. The new president's decision to lift this ban will dismay anti-abortion groups in the United States. They say taxpayers' dollars shouldn't be used to pay for abortion or its promotion. But the move will be warmly welcomed by many big international family planning networks, like Marie Stopes International and the International Planned Parenthood Federation. Both groups say they had to cut health services as a result of the ban.

And President Obama has also indicated that he will reverse George Bush's ban on federal funding for research into the use of embryonic stem cells. The move comes as a Californian bio-tech company, Geron Corp, said it's received official permission to start the world's first chemical trial using embryonic stem cells in humans. The company wants to inject cells into patients with spinal injuries to test if it's safe and to see if damaged nerves can receive signals again. Matt McGrath has the details.

There're other clinical trials going on in the world involving adult or fetal stem cells. But scientists believe that embryonic cells have greater ability to turn themselves into the types of tissue found throughout the body. However, their use is contentious, as an embryo has to be destroyed to extract them. The science has been opposed by pro-life groups, and President Bush withdrew federal funding for embryonic stem cell research in 2001. While President Obama says he will change that ruling, the federal agency and the company involved with this trial have denied that the change of political leadership has had anything to do with the decision to proceed.

The President of the International Committee the Red Cross, Jakob Kellenberger, says the conditions he witnessed during his recent visit to Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital during the Israeli military assault were the most shocking he's ever seen. Mr. Kellenberger was the first head of a humanitarian agency to get into Gaza, and he said the suffering at Al-Shifa Hospital was worse even than what he'd witnessed in Afghanistan or Darfur.

A lot of wounded with very heavy wounds, I mean, coming from heavy weaponry. I didn't see gunshots or this type of things. It's Israeli selects blown away, children with brain injuries for their life, and if really you have in such a highly densely populated area very heavy weaponry, it is really extremely difficult, if not impossible, to make a necessary distinction between civilians and those taking part in hostilities.

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Pakistani security officials say at least 12 people have been killed in two suspected American missile strikes in northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border. Such American attacks have been frequent, but these are the first since President Obama took office in Washington.

The unemployment rate in Spain has risen to almost 14%, the highest it's been for nearly nine years. Steve Kingstone reports from Madrid.

These figures make uncomfortable reading for Spain's Socialist government, which, by its own admission, underestimated the scale and speed of the economic downturn. The concern for the government is that a trend which began in the faltering construction industry has spread to other vital sectors of the economy, such as tourism and car manufacturing. Unemployment has strained the traditional ties between the governing Socialist Party and trade unions. Some commentators predict that social tensions might emerge during the course of this year.

Earlier today, official figures released here in Britain confirmed that the country is in recession for the first time in more than 15 years.

The Bolivian government has seized control of a foreign-owned oil company just two days before a vote on the new Constitution designed to consolidate state control of the economy. President Evo Morales announced the nationalization after going personally to the office of the Chaco oil company, accompanied by a unit of soldiers. He said he was recovering Bolivia's control of its natural resources bit by bit.

A new photograph has appeared of the former Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, following weeks of speculation that he's close to death. He's shown standing arm in arm with the Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who visited Cuba earlier this week. He appears rather less gaunt than in the last photograph published two months ago. Mr. Castro broke his silence this week with two Internet articles following rumors that his condition had worsened.

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It's Israeli selects blown away,

It's not correct English as the man speaking is not a native speaker. He says "It's Israeli selects blown away..." which means that the Israelis choose who to kill and, in this case, it's random, anybody, they don't really care whether it's children.