BBC news 2009-02-07 加文本

BBC News with Michael Poles.

President Barack Obama has described the latest unemployment figures in the United States as devastating. They show that nearly 600,000 jobs disappeared in January, boosting the monthly unemployment rate to 7.6%. It's the thirteenth month in a row that jobs have been lost. Here's our economics correspondent Andrew Walker.

Over the last year, the number of people unemployed has risen by four million and the unemployment rate by 2.7%, half of the decline in the number who do have jobs occurred in the last three months, they appeared when the credit crisis intensified following the failure of the investment bank Lehman Brothers. In January, there were heavy job losses in manufacturing, construction and private sector services. President Obama sees the figures as indicating the need for Congress to approve his economic stimulus proposals quickly.

The United Nations has stopped all of its aid shipments into Gaza following two occasions when food and supplies were taken by Hamas which controls the territory. The UN says it'll not import any more aid until all the seized supplies are given back and Hamas gives credible assurances that such incidents won't happen again. Aleem Maqbool reports from Gaza City.

In the latest incident, the United Nations says ten truckloads of rice and flour were taken shortly after they crossed into Gaza. Earlier in the week, it says thousands of blankets were confiscated at gunpoint. Hamas has issued a statement, saying the goods were taken by mistake and they will be returned. But recently, it has expressed anger at the fact that aid agencies don't coordinate with Hamas, and it's previously said it wants all financial donations to be distributed through its administration.

Prosecutors in Turkey say they are investigating whether the leaders of Israel could be prosecuted for alleged crimes against humanity over the recent Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip. The chief prosecutor's office in Ankara said it was acting on a complaint filed by a Turkish human rights organization. The group has accused Israeli political and military leaders of committing genocide, torture and crimes against humanity, and demanded that they may be detained if they enter Turkey.

The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has issued an emergency decree to prevent the family of a woman who's been in a vegetative state for 17 years from having her feeding tubes disconnected. The move came after the father of the woman, Elunana Englaro, won a protracted court battle giving him the right to instruct an Italian hospital to allow her to die. The Italian President, Georgio Napolitano, has refused to sign the decree, saying it's unconstitutional. But Mr. Berlusconi said he will summon Parliament to force the measure through.

Should the head of state take on the responsibility for this life? Decide and persevere in his decision not to sign this decree. We will immediately invite the Parliament to meet in an emergency session to approve within two or three days, a law that contains this decree.

This is Michael Poles with the latest world news from the BBC World Service.

The United Nations says at least 30, 000 people in southern Darfur have fled their homes over the past few days because of a fighting near two localities, Muhajaria and Shearia. The joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission has described the recent clashes as the most violent in Darfur in more than two years.

A magistrate in Zimbabwe has thrown out a case against a key opposition figure after state lawyers failed to provide a trial date. The magistrate cast doubt on the treason charges brought against Tendai Biti, the Secretary General of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, and ruled that he'd been improperly arrested. Mr. Biti welcomed the ruling, saying that the upcoming inauguration of an MDC prime minister would spell the end for President Mugabe. (www.hXen.com)

"We are entering into a new phase in our history as a political party, next week on Wednesday is the inauguration of the prime minister. We'll go in there and use this government to change the suffering of our people, and to make sure that we finish the unfinished business of our struggle which is to the remove the dictatorship, to remove Robert Mugabe. "

There have been sharp exchanges between the leaders of Russia and European Union after their first high-level talks since relations were strained over the interruptions to Russian gas supplies to Europe. The European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, said he'd raised concerns over a spate of recent killings of journalists and human rights activists in Russia. In response, an angry Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, accused the EU of what he called human rights abuses within its own territory.

Reports from Russia say that a large part of the country's fleet of fighter planes remained grounded two months after a MiG-29 crashed in Siberia, killing its pilot. A military panel is looking into the cause of the crash and an air force spokesman said the ban on MiG-29 flights would remain until the investigation was complete. Russia is thought to have nearly 300 of the planes which represent just under half its fighter strength.