BBC news 2009-03-15 加文本

BBC 2009-03-15

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BBC News with Lopaco Tary.

Finance ministers preparing for next month’s G20 summit on dealing with the global financial crisis say they’ll do whatever it takes to restore economic growth. After the meeting in southern England, the ministers agreed to a number of broad principles without specifying details. In a joint statement, they said their top priority was to get lending going again. They also agreed to increase the International Monetary Fund's reserves significantly and to tighten regulation of the global financial system. The U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the United States was committed to reforming its banking system.

“Risk does not respect national borders. We must establish a much stronger form of oversight and clear rules of the game more evenly enforced across the international financial system. This will require comprehensive changes at both the national and the international level.”

The President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has spoken of his concern about protectionism during his talks with President Obama at the White House. He called on the United States to push for the resumption of the Doha round of free trade talks. President Obama said he wanted to use good ties with Brazil to strengthen relations with Latin America. From Sao Paulo, Gary Duffy reports.

Against the backdrop of the financial crisis, a priority for the Brazilian president was to voice his concerns about the dangers of protectionist policies. Brazil is keen to see a tariff on its ethanol exports to the United States removed, and President Obama said he was sure tensions over this issue could be resolved over time. The two sides also agreed to work on proposals for the G20 meeting next month.

Three foreign aid workers kidnapped in Darfur earlier this week have been freed and are now safely back to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. A Sudanese colleague was also released. All four were working for the medical charity, Medecins Sans Frontiers, which said they were in good health and that no ransom had been paid. The MSF Belgium’s General Director Christopher Stokes said that because of the worsening security in Darfur, the future of MSF’s medical projects there were uncertain.

“The abduction of humanitarian aid workers is a gross violation of all the principles underlying the work of Medecins Sans Frontiers. And at this stage, we are not in a position to confirm what level of assistance we will be able to provide and continue to provide in Darfur.”

The political crisis in Madagascar is continuing with a standoff in the capital Antananarivo. An ultimatum from the leader of the opposition Andry Rajoelina for President Marc Ravalomanana to leave office has expired, but the president has refused to step down. The BBC correspondent in the capital says there has been no violence between rival supporters, but it’s still not clear how the army will react since some sections of the military have supported calls for the president to resign.

BBC News.

Police in Northern Ireland have arrested three men in connection with the killing a week ago of two unarmed British soldiers. From the arrest of one of the men, gangs went on the streets of Lurgan, throwing petrol bombs and stones at police who are carrying out searches in the area.

A senior Sri Lankan health official says that the last hospital inside the area held by the Tamil Tigers in the northeast of the country has almost stopped functioning. The warning comes at a time when there’s been increasing international concern over civilian casualties in the fighting between Sri Lankan security forces and Tamil Tiger rebels in the northeast. Our Sri Lanka correspondent Anbarasan Ethirajan reports.

It is estimated that between 70,000 and 200, 000 civilians are caught up in the conflict zone in northeastern Sri Lanka. The health official in the area, Doctor T Varatharaja says there has been a severe shortage of essential medicine which is forcing the hospital to shut down most of its operations. However, a senior Sri Lankan government official has said that some of the medicine requested by the hospital has already been sent to the nearest major town and will be delivered once the defence ministry had given its permission.

President Obama has used his weekly radio and video address to announce an overhaul of the United States food safety laws. Mr. Obama said the rules were written over a century ago and haven’t changed. Announcing a billion dollar investment, Mr. Obama said that outbreaks of food poisoning had more than tripled since the early 1990s.

And police in Mexico have found at least five bodies in an unmarked grave on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez, close to the border with the United States. Investigators are searching the site for more bodies. The Mexican government, which has declared a war on the country’s drug cartels, is in the process of sending thousands of extra troops and police to Ciudad Juarez .(www.hXen.com)

And that's the latest BBC News.

Glossary:

backdrop: The backdrop to an event is the general situation in which it happens. =background

underlie: If one thing underlies another, it draws attention to it and emphasizes its importance.