BBC news 2009-03-25 加文本

BBC 2009-03-25


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BBC news with David Legg

The Labor Party in Israel has voted to join a coalition led by the Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu. The decision should give Mr. Netanyahu the parliamentary majority he needs to form a government. Under the deal, it’s reported that the Labor leader Ehud Barack will remain defence minister. Mr. Netanyahu has already signed coalition agreements with two far-right parties. One Labor member of the Israel parliament, Matan Vilnai told reporters why he’d voted in favor of joining the coalition,

“it's better to be part of the government in order to shift from the deep right to the center , and the peace process that is very important for us, when we are there in the government , I’m sure that it will continue.”

The United States government has announced a 700-million-dollar plan to help combat the illegal drugs trade in Mexico. Washington will step up border’s security and provide the Mexican army with five helicopters on a surveillance plane. An estimated 8000 people have been killed in the last two years in Mexico's drug wars. The new plan was announced by the US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

Our goal is two-fold, to provide assistance to the government of Mexico, to break up these huge cartels, which are funneling tonnage quantities of illegal drugs into our country on a regular basis. The second is to guard against an increase in violence in the United States as a result of the actions undertaken in Mexico.

Opposition parties in Nigeria have agreed to unite to fight to the governing People’s Democratic Party in elections in two years time. The group which has yet to adopt an official name is now seeking to register with the authorities. Here is Mary Harper of our Africa desk.

Nineteen Nigerian opposition parties have decided that the best way to challenge the government of President Umaru Yar'Adua is to form what they describe as one big mega-party. Political heavyweights are involved including former presidential contenders Atiku Abubakar and Muhammadu Buhari, who also served as head of state. The opposition parties say they are uniting in order to save Nigeria. They accuse the governing People’s Democratic Party of running the country into the ground, and acting as if Nigeria was a one-party state.

The Indian cricket authorities have confirmed that the multi-million dollar tournament to the Indian Primer League will now be played in South Africa. It was moved for security reasons from India where it would have coincided with the general election. The organizers said the overwhelming reason for choosing South Africa over England was the changeable British spring weather. The IPO chairman Lalit Modi said the costs will now be much higher, but the game he said was more important.

World News from the BBC(www.hXen.com)

United States Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has defended the 180-billion-dollar bailout for the insurance company AIG. He told a congressional committee the company's failure could have brought about a catastrophic global economic meltdown, similar to that of the 1930s. AIG provoked widespread anger earlier this month when it paid millions of dollars in bonuses to staff after being rescued by the government.

The International Monetary Fund has announced reforms of its lending procedures. The changes are intended to make the IMF's provisional financial help to member countries more flexible and to help them weather the global financial crisis. Here is our economics correspondent Andrew Walker.

One of the key reforms could turn out to be the creation of a new flexible line of credit. It’s intended for countries with strong economic policies but are still potentially vulnerable to the financial crisis. The IMF says it will be especially useful for crisis prevention. It replaces of a facility that was created last October for a similar purpose, but has not been used. An IMF statement says the new arrangement is likely to be seen by member countries as more useful. The repayment period is longer, countries will be able to borrow larger amounts, and once that qualified, there will be none of the controversial conditions that the IMF usually requires of borrowers.

A second man has been charged with the murder of a policeman in Northern Ireland earlier this month. The 37-year-old is expected to in court on Wednesday. A 17-year-old has already appeared in court charged with the same murder. He was also accused of belonging to the dissident republican group Continuity IRA.

A judge in the US state of Pennsylvania has ordered an 11-year-old boy charged with homicide to stand trial as an adult. The boy Jordan Brown is accused of fatally shooting his father's pregnant fiancee as she slept. Prosecutors believe the killing was premeditated.

BBC News.