BBC news 2009-04-02 加文本

BBC News with John Jason

The world's leading industrial nations together with some of the most influential developing countries going to their crucial G20 meeting in London on Thursday , with marked differences about the best way of tackling the global financial crisis. After a day of intense meetings, President Barack Obama stressed that the world leaders were not going to agree on every point. He said he had come to London to put forward ideas but also to listen. At the same time, the French President Nicolas Sarkozy said there were goals on which there could be no compromise.

"France and Germany both want the result of the summit to include the principle of new regulation as a major objective. Without new regulation, there can be no confidence, and without confidence there can be no recovery. It's a major objective that's non-negotiable."

Ahead of the G20 summit, scuffles have taken place in London where thousands of protestors against capitalism, climate change and war have been demonstrating. At least 19 people have been arrested. Jean Peel was at the scene.

A hardcore of a few hundred protestors turned on the Royal Bank of Scotland Building next to the Bank of England. They breached police lines and used golf clubs and other weapons to break the windows. A few got into the offices which had been closed for the day, and smashed the equipments. Two people had to be removed from the roof. Overall around 4000 people were involved in the protest at its height. The vast majority were peaceful.

President Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev also meeting in London have agreed to reopen negotiations about reducing nuclear warheads. That will be the first such talks for more than a decade. In a joint statement, they said they hope to complete a new deal before the current treaty expires in December. Justin Webb reports.

It is an extraordinary fact that a major development in American-Russian relations may have come in the margins of the G20 economic summit, not exactly unnoticed but not much heralded either. A senior White House official told reporters travelling with the president that there had been a very significant breakthrough in the field of arms control. The presidents had agreed to give instructions to negotiators to begin talks on a new strategic arms treaty which could see big reductions in nuclear weapons held on both sides. Speaking after the meeting, Mr. Obama said it had been the beginning of a new process in US-Russian relations.

Albania and Croatia have officially become the newest members of NATO. They joined at a ceremony hosted by US State Department in Washington during which representatives from both countries presented their accession documents. Albania and Croatia delegates will take their seats alongside the 26 existing NATO members at their summit in the French and German cities of Strasbourg and Kehl on Friday and Saturday. The gathering will mark the alliance's 60th anniversary.

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The former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori has taken the stand in his own defense at the end of his 15-month-long trial for alleged human rights abuses during his time in power in the 1990s. He's accused of having authorized two massacres in which 25 people were killed at the height of the conflict with the Maoist Shining Path movement. If found guilty, Mr. Fujimori faces up to 30 years in prison. The former president argued in court that he pulled Peru back from the brink during his time in office.

A helicopter carrying 16 people from an offshore oil rigs crashed into the North Sea off the coast of Scotland. Police say rescue teams have recovered eight bodies. James Cook reports.

The Bond Super Puma was heading to Aberdeen when it came down fast and hard. A support vessel saw the crash and immediately put a boat in the water, but could only find wreckage. Eight bodies were recovered and a search for the remaining eight on board is continuing through the night, although it has been scaled back. This is the second Super Puma operated by BP to crash in the North Sea in just six weeks.

The Chinese authorities are allowing limited access to most of the southwestern county of BeiChuan for the first time since it was devastated by an earthquake last May, in which more than 80,000 people died. Former residents can enter the area in China's Sichuan province for just four days for the annual Tomb Sweeping Festival to honour and mourn the dead. Correspondents say there is still widespread public anger over the collapse of many schools during the quake and the authorities have still not listed the number of child victims.(www.hXen.com)

Missiles fired by what's thought to have been a pilotless American aircraft have killed at least 14 people in northwestern Pakistan. It's thought to be the first time the US military has attacked targets in the Orakzai tribal area near the Afghan border. A local resident said the missile has hit a house used by the Taliban.

And that's the latest, BBC News.