BBC news 2009-03-04 加文本

BBC 2009-03-04

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BBC News with David Austin.

The International Monetary Fund says the global financial crisis is having a big impact on poor countries, and that it’s essential the donor countries scale up support and not cut it back. It said poor countries were more exposed than in previous crises because they were far more integrated into the global economy than before. The fund said it had identified 26 countries that were particularly vulnerable because of the collapse in commodity prices. Our economics correspondent Andrew Walker reports.

The IMF’s Managing Director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said it is essential that aid donor countries should scale up support and not cut back. He said that at a time when they are spending hundreds of billions of dollars on stimulus and financial rescues, there must be more help for low-income countries. He said the crisis puts at risk recent hard-won gains in faster economic growth, lower poverty and greater political stability. He said the IMF has already increased its support to low-income countries in the last year, and is ready to provide more.

The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has become the first European leader to hold talks with President Barack Obama at the White House since his inauguration. Their half-hour meeting was dominated by the global economic crisis with both men backing tighter regulation of the international banking system. Nick Robinson reports.

Gordon Brown heard the words he came here to hear, that America and Britain share the same world view that they agree on the need for an economic stimulus, better regulation and avoiding protectionism. What was lacking though was any detail. Not surprising perhaps after just a half-hour meeting, and when the president is under huge pressure here in Washington to demonstrate that his focus is not abroad but at home.

The US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said the country is facing the worst fiscal situation in its history but needs additional government spending to help rescue the economy. Speaking to a Congressional committee to promote the administration’s budget proposals, Mr. Geithner said more spending was needed on healthcare, energy and education despite a budget deficit of 1.3 trillion dollars.

The European Commission has joined forces with police, credit card companies and internet providers in an effort to tackle child pornography online. The EU will provide more than half a million dollars to fund the group called the European Financial Coalition. Oana Lungescu reports.

The new coalition against child sex abuse online includes major organizations, such as MasterCard, Microsoft and Europol. Its aim is to support pan-European police operations using credit card slips, bank statements and internet service contracts, to identify victims of abuse, arrest paedophiles and seize the profits made from the sale of child pornography on the internet. It’s estimated there are some 3,000 child abuse websites.

Oana Lungescu reporting.

World News from the BBC.

The American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced that the US is sending two envoys to Syria in a latest sign that the Obama administration's willingness to engage with Damascus. Speaking in Jerusalem on her first visit to the Middle East since becoming Secretary of State, Mrs. Clinton also pledged to push hard for a Palestinian state, saying it was in Israel’s best interests.(www.hXen.com)

The Sri Lankan cricket team has flown out of Pakistan after masked gunmen opened fire on their bus and its police escort in the streets of Lahore, forcing the curtailment of the tour. Six policemen and a driver were killed and eight people wounded including six of the Sri Lankan cricketers. Police are now hunting for the gunmen who were equipped with rocket launchers and grenades.

The former Cuban leader Fidel Castro has said two of the country’s top politicians dismissed from office yesterday were unworthy and gave comfort to the enemy. In an article published on the internet, Fidel Castro said his brother, the current President Raul Castro, had consulted him before ordering a major shake-up of the government. Michael Voss reports from Havana.

Amongst the most prominent casualties were the Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and the de facto Prime Minister Carlos Lage. Without naming anyone, Fidel Castro wrote on a government website that two of the most affected had been seduced by the honey of power which awoke in them ambitions that led to an undignified role. The older Castor also denied that this was about a shift from what he called Fidel’s men to Raul’s men, and described the changes as sound.

The video-sharing internet website YouTube has put together a symphony orchestra made up of musicians from around the world who were auditioned entirely online. The players from 30 countries have been booked for a concert at New York’s prestigious Carnegie Hall next month under the conductor Michael Tilson Thomas.

That’s the latest BBC News.

Glossary:

paedophile: A paedophile is a person, usually a man, who is sexually attracted to children.

curtailment: The curtailment of something is the act of reducing or limiting it. (FORMAL)

de facto: De facto is used to indicate that something is a particular thing, even though it was not planned or intended to be that thing. (FORMAL)