BBC news 2009-03-03 加文本

BBC 2009-03-03


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BBC News with Mary Small.

The Cuban President Raul Castro has announced a major cabinet reshuffle, removing 11 ministers from office including two of the country's most prominent politicians. State television said the cabinet chief Carlos Lage and the Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque would both step down in line with plans to make the island's government more compact and functional. Michael Voss reports from Havana.

This is the first major political shake-up since Raul Castro officially took over the presidency just over a year ago. More than ten top officials have been dropped or replaced and four ministries merged. President Raul Castro had announced last year that he intended to restructure the government, but such a large scale cabinet reshuffle has not been seen in Cuba since the revolution. All of those affected by the changes had originally been appointed by Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro.

The American Central Intelligence Agency has for the first time acknowledged destroying a large number of tapes of interrogations of terrorist suspects. It had previously said there were only two. The disclosure comes from government lawyers in a legal case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union which said the destruction of the tapes was a systematic attempt to hide evidence of illegal interrogations. Rajini Vaidyanathan reports.

A letter from the United States attorney has disclosed that the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA, destroyed 92 tapes, showing the interrogation of terror suspects. Prosecutors are currently investigating the destruction of these recordings. The American Civil Liberties Union claims they show CIA operatives using harsh interrogation methods. The letter also reveals that the CIA is currently gathering more information for this lawsuit, including a list of what tapes were destroyed and what they might have shown.

There have been sharp falls on major stock markets amid fears that the turmoil in the financial services industry is far from over. Earlier the American insurance giant AIG reported the biggest quarterly loss in US corporate history. Andrew Walker reports.

The American insurer AIG beat all previous records for a corporate loss, nearly 62 billion dollars in three months. Earlier the international bank HSBC announced that its profits fell by more than half last year. The markets also had to contend with some very downbeat comments from one of the world’s most respected professional investors, Warren Buffet. He said the economy would be in a shambles throughout 2009. Share prices around the world are down. The Dow Jones has now fallen by half from its highs in 2007.

President Obama has officially named the Governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius, as his new Health Secretary. She will oversee the president's ambitious plans to overhaul the country's healthcare system. Mr. Obama's original nominee for Health Secretary, Tom Daschle, withdrew over tax irregularities.

World News from the BBC.

Egypt says international donors at a conference in Sharm El-Sheikh have pledged 4.5 billion dollars for the Palestinians mainly to rebuild Gaza after Israel's offensive. The Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad thanked the donors but said reconstruction would be impossible unless Israel lifted its blockade. He said Israel should allow in concrete and steel which it's been blocking because of concerns that they could be used by Palestinian militant groups for military purposes.(www.hXen.com)

A study published in a leading medical journal says fire-related injuries are the leading cause of death in young women in urban India with many of the cases tied to domestic abuse. The research in the Lancet said more than 100,000 women were victims of fire-related death in a single year, three times as many as men. The researchers looked at hospital reports and death registrations, and found that the number of women who died from self-immolation, kitchen accidents and domestic abuse was six times higher than that recorded by police.

The Scottish government has outlined radical measures to tackle alcohol abuse by stopping cut-price offers. The government is imposing a minimum price on each unit of drink depending on its alcohol content. It's the first country in Europe to do so. Scotland has the eighth highest alcohol consumption in the world and the worst rates of death from liver disease in Europe. Colin Blaine reports from Glasgow.

Scotland has had a close relationship with alcohol for hundreds of years. Scotch whiskey generates vast export revenues and drink has long been a part of social occasions, dances, weddings and even funerals. But other northern European nations have also had a tradition of heavy-drinking. The trouble for Scotland is that our consumption now outstrips that of Norway, Finland and even Russia. The Scottish government says one of those reasons is that drink has become 70% more affordable here over the last 30 years.

BBC News.

Glossary

reshuffle: when the jobs of people who work in an organization are changed around, especially in a government. =reorganize

in line with: if something changes in line with something else, it changes in the same way and at the same rate as it.

shake-up: A shake-up is a major set of changes in an organization or a system. (JOURNALISM)

contend with: If you contend with a problem or difficulty, you have to deal with it or overcome it.

downbeat: If people or their opinions are downbeat, they are deliberately casual and not enthusiastic

be in a shambles: If a place, event, or situation is a shambles or is in a shambles, everything is in disorder. =mess

overhaul: If you overhaul a system or method, you examine it carefully and make many changes in it in order to improve it.

irregularities: not obeying the usually accepted legal or moral rules

Lancet: a British magazine for doctors and other people in the medical profession, produced by the British Medical Association. The Lancet provides reports on recent developments, new drugs and medical treatments etc.

self-immolation: a deliberate and willing sacrifice of oneself often by fire

cut-price: Cut-price goods or services are cheaper than usual (BRIT; in AM, use cut-rate)

outstrip: If one thing outstrips another, the first thing becomes larger in amount, or more successful or important, than the second thing.