BBC news 2009-04-20 加文本

BBC news with Victoria Meakin

The summit of the Americas has ended without a final declaration. The host Trinidad's Prime Minister Patrick Manning said the 34 countries taking part could not reach a consensus. Several leaders refused to sign a final document mainly because there was no firm move towards lifting the United States' trade embargo on Cuba. However, President Barack Obama said afterwards that he felt many countries in the Americas wanted a better and more constructive relationship with the United States.

“I do not see eye to eye with every regional leader on every regional issue and I do not agree with everything that was said at the summit by leaders from other nations. But what we showed here is that we can make progress when we were willing to break free from some of the stale old debates and old ideologists that have dominated and distorted the debate in this hemisphere for far too long."

The top 500 companies in the United States saw their profits plunge 85% in 2008 according to the annual list prepared by the financial magazine Fortune. It was the worst performance by the big firms recorded in the magazine's 55-year history.

Pope Benedict has expressed his support for United Nation's conference on racism which Israel, the United States and several other countries have already said they will boycott. There’s been concern that the meeting will be used to make unfair attacks on Israel and restrict freedom of speech. From Rome, Duncan Kennedy reports.

Speaking at his papal retreat outside Rome, Pope Benedict, a long time critic of racism, urged countries to join together at the conference to eliminate intolerance. He said he hoped delegates would work to put an end to every form of racism and discrimination. The Pope made no reference to the boycott of the conference by the United States, Canada, Italy and other countries over their fears that it will be used by Iran and others to criticize Israel. The Pope is currently trying to improve relations with the Jewish people ahead of his visit to Israel next month.

The acclaimed British author J.G. Ballard has died at the age of 78 after a long struggle with cancer. He was best known for his novel "Empire of the Sun" based on his childhood in a Japanese internment camp in China during the Second World War. It was made into a film by Steven Spielberg in 1987. In the 1960s he began writing the stories that would become the Atrocity Exhibition, a work that prompted an obscenity trial. Fellow author J.P. Taylor says the loss of J.G. Ballard to the literary world is beyond comprehension.

"The man was so fantastic. He wrote some fantastic literature, going from Empire of the Sun to Crash, Cocaine Nights, Kingdom Come. It was dystopian fiction at its best; they influenced everybody from Radiohead to Gary Numan, Joy Division and it certainly influenced many other writer."

This is the world news from the BBC.

The former South African President Nelson Mandela has made a surprise appearance at the final rally of the governing African National Congress before Wednesday's general election. Mr. Mandela arrived in a golf cart alongside the party's leader Jacob Zuma and was greeted by rapturous cheers from tens of thousands of supporters. A breakaway party Cope or the Congress of the People has also held its final rally. Jonah Fisher was there.

It basically made up of people who broke away from the National, African National Congress people who were upset the way Thabo Mbeki was ousted as president of South Africa, in terms of policies if any similar to the African National Congress on the issues of service delivery on the question of how to reduce unemployment in this country. The key questions for South Africa, they say what's different about them so they will crack down on corruption; they will bring in constitutional change and there will be an increase in transparency.

A Canadian aid worker who's been kidnapped in Darfur says a French colleague snatched along with her is ill. The Canadian, Stephenie Joudial was allowed by her abductors to speak to journalists by satellite phone. She said the French woman Claire Dubois was suffering from diarrhea and had not been given medical treatment. The pair who worked for a French Agency was snatched from their compound more than 2 weeks ago.(www.hXen.com)

Parliamentary elections in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus have resulted in a substantial victory for the right-wing National Unity Party which favors closer links with Turkey over European Union Membership. It won 44% of the vote, leaving the Republican Turkish Party of Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat with only 29%. Our BBC correspondent in Cyprus said the result reflects frustration of the slow progress of talks aimed at reuniting Cyprus, a process which would result in automatic EU membership for the unified country.

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