BBC news 2009-02-12 加文本

BBC 2009-02-12

BBC News with Marian Marshall.

Congressional negotiators in the United States have reached agreement on a bill to stimulate the American economy with almost 790 billion dollars. They hope to vote on the plan in the next few days. From Washington, Richard Lister reports.

This is one of the most expensive pieces of legislation ever to come before the US Congress, and it's caused bitter partisan divisions. Republicans wanted something half the size comprising mostly tax cuts, while many Democrats wanted more money spent on America's infrastructure. The Democrats needed at least two Republican votes to get this stimulus through, and three have now come out in favor of this compromise bill. It's smaller than both of versions which preceded it, and it has seen both tax and spending provisions cut. But it's still a vast amount of money, and Democrats say it should create three to four million jobs.

Leading bankers in the United States have been told by members of Congress that they need to understand the widespread anger against Wall Street and work to rebuild public trust. Chief executives of eight banks which received huge amounts of taxpayers’ money as part of a government rescue plan have been appearing before a congressional committee. Among them was Vikram Pandit of Citigroup which was recently forced by the US Treasury to cancel a 50-million-dollar order for a new corporate jet.

"We understand that the old model no longer works and the old rules no longer apply. I would also like to say something about the airplane that was in the news. We did not adjust quickly enough to this new world, and I take personal responsibility for that mistake. In the end, I cancelled delivery. We need to do a better job of acknowledging and embracing the new realities. Let me be clear with the committee: I get the new reality."

The new Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, has promised there will be an end to human rights abuses and political violence in the country. Speaking after being sworn in, Mr. Tsvangirai, the former opposition leader, said there could be no turning back on the deal with President Mugabe. Peter Biles reports.

Addressing a large crowd at a rally in Harare, Morgan Tsvangirai delivered an upbeat and captivating speech. His promises were just what Zimbabweans wanted to hear. He said they had to get the country working again. Schools and hospitals needed to reopen. Mr. Tsvangirai promised that from the end of this month, civil servants, health workers, teachers, soldiers and the police would all be paid in foreign currency until the Zimbabwean economy had been stabilized. However, he didn't spell out where the money for this would come from.

A day after Israel's general election, the leaders of the two largest parties have opened talks with potential coalition partners. The leader of the Kadima party, Tzipi Livni, has said she wants to lead a national unity government. The Likud leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, hopes to be part of a right-wing coalition.

You are listening to the latest world news from the BBC World Service in London.

Russia says it's open to the possibility of allowing NATO and American forces to send weaponry across its territory to Afghanistan. The Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, was speaking in Moscow after talks with American diplomats about non-military supplies crossing Russia for NATO-led forces in Afghanistan. But Mr. Lavrov added that broader cooperation on Afghanistan depended on an improvement in Russia-NATO ties which was strained by Russia's military action in Georgia last August.

Iraqi police say at least 16 people have been killed and about 40 others injured in two bomb attacks in Baghdad. The bombs were planted in two cars parked at a bus station in a mainly Shiite part of the city. They exploded within minutes of each other. Jim Muir reports from Baghdad.

While levels of violence have fallen greatly over the past year and more, this double bombing was a reminder that the situation is still far from normal. The target was a busy bus station and Iraqi police believe the attack was connected with the current al-Arbaeen Pilgrimage marking 40 days since the anniversary of the death of the Imam Hussein. Many Shia pilgrims are making their way to Karbala for the occasion. And some of them, police said, were renting buses from the depot that was attacked. (WWw.hxen.net)

The President of Chile, Michelle Bachlet, has arrived in Cuba on the first visit there by a Chilean leader in almost four decades. She is due to meet the President Raul Castro later today. It's expected that she and several of her senior ministers will work on improving trade links and increasing cooperation on science and technology.

Scientists in the United States say they have identified a molecule that may help to distinguish the slow growing form of prostate cancer from the aggressive kind. They hope this could eventually help to stop thousands of men having unnecessary surgery or radiation treatment. The discovery could lead to the development of a reliable urine test. In many men, prostate cancer develops so slowly that no treatment is needed.

BBC News.