BBC news 2009-04-17 加文本

BBC news with John Jason.

President Obama has said urgent and coordinated action between the United States and Mexico is needed in the ongoing battle against the drug cartels. At a press conference in Mexico City, President Obama said he would push the US Senate to ratify a small arms trafficking treaty to stem the flow of weapons crossing the border into Mexico that is fueling the bloodshed. Mr. Obama who held talks with his Mexican counterpart Felipe Calderon acknowledged that America as a consumer of cocaine shares responsibility for the violence which has killed more than 6, 000 people in Mexico over the last year.

You know, this is my first trip to Mexico as President. And I see this visit, as I know President Calderon does, as an opportunity to launch a new era, cooperation and partnership between our two countries. An era built on even firmer foundation of mutual responsibility and mutual respect and mutual interest.

President Barack Obama says CIA officials who used harsh interrogation tactics on terrorism suspects during the Bush administration are unlikely to face criminal prosecutions, provided their actions were in line with the legal advice at the time. The President said it was a time for reflection not retribution. The US government released four memos in which lawyers are approved in graphic detail, interrogation methods that included water-boarding and shackling and hooding prisoners.

The latest analysis from the International Monetary Fund says the current global recession is likely to be unusually long and severe. The IMF says recovery will be particularly difficult because of a major financial crisis coincided with a deterioration in so many economies. Mark Gregory reports.

The IMF’s analysis makes for sober reading after a few days in which economic headlines are being dominated by predictions that recovery could be on the way. The organization points to the combination of two factors which make this recession unique. There's a major financial crisis rooted in reckless lending in the US. At the same time, it’s a synchronized downturn in all leading economies. Recessions linked to financial crisis, the IMF says, are unusually hard to shake off because they're associated with weak demand.

Initiatives have been announced on both sides of the Atlantic to promote new forms of transport to help the environment and boost flagging economies. In the United States, President Obama has urged the country to move quickly to a system of high speed rail travel. In Britain the government has announced plans to pay people grants up to $8, 000 to switch to driving electric cars. The Business Secretary Peter Mandelson said such vehicles were good for business as well as the economy.

We in Britain need to lead this green motoring revolution, we need not just to drive them but to produce them. There is a real industrial and employment opportunity and here for us is one of the green opportunities as well.

You’re listening to world news from the BBC.

President Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell has told Israeli officials in Jerusalem that the United States remains committed to the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a peace settlement. He’s been holding talks with a new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who reportedly expressed his misgivings about such a move.

Earlier, the Israeli Foreign Minister, the far-right leader Avigdor Lieberman, said his country's peace talks with the Palestinians had reached a dead end and a new approach was needed. (www.hXen.com)

China says it wants to build a bigger and more powerful navy. In a rare interview with the head of the navy, Admiral Wu Shengli told the state news agency that China will be developing a state of the art ocean-going fleet including large new warships, ultra-silent submarines and more sophisticated aircrafts and missiles. Rob Watson reports.

Admiral Wu Shengli was short on specifics, but the overall message from the interview was clear. China wants to build a bigger and more powerful navy with a greater reach. His comments have been interpreted as a further hint that China would soon began to get a first aircraft carrier, often considered as the most vital elements in any navy seeking to project the power over long distances. China is already engaged in extensive modernization of its navy and is in the process of building many more surface ships and submarines and the weapon systems that go with them.

A representative of the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is in Sri Lanka in an attempt to resolve the crisis created by fighting between the Sri Lankan army and the Tamil Tiger rebels. An estimated 100, 000 civilians remained in the strip of land along Sri Lanka's northeast coast, an area still held by the rebels but surrounded by government forces. The UN envoy is thought to be trying to make contact with the Tamil Tigers, who've been accused of preventing civilians from escaping from the war zone.

That's the latest BBC News.