BBC news 2009-04-22 加文本

BBC News with Jerry Schmitt

The International Monetary Fund has told governments across the world that further action is needed to help return the global financial system to stability. In a fresh estimate of the scale of the problem, the IMF says global losses on toxic assets could total four trillion dollars. Andrew Walker reports.

This report does identify what it calls some early signs of stabilization in financial systems, but there are not many of them. And the IMF says further action will be needed if they’re to be sustained. In two key areas, it says that progress by governments has been piecemeal and reactive, dealing with the problem assets held by financial institutions and how to handle banks that need extra capital. For that problem the report says temporary government ownership may sometime be necessary.

A Venezuelan opposition leader Manuel Rosales has fled to Peru to avoid corruption charges of what he calls political persecution at home. Peruvian officials said Mr. Rosales sent to the country with his family at the weekend on a tourist visa. This report from Dan Collyns in Peru

The lawyer representing the leading Venezuelan opposition leader Manuel Rosales has said he had formally sought political asylum in Peru. Mr. Rosales, who’s the mayor of Venezuela's second largest city Maracaibo, has been in hiding since last month when he was charged with amassing illicit wealth. The opposition leader, who stood against President Hugo Chavez in a 2006 presidential election, has said he is a victim of political persecution. Mr. Rosales's lawyer has said his government has two months to decide whether or not to grant asylum.

Police in Britain have released nine out of eleven men arrested earlier this month in what the authorities said at the time was an investigation into a major terrorist plot. The men are all Pakistani nationals and have now been transferred into the custody of the Immigration Service. A British government spokesman said the authorities intended to deport them on the grounds of national security. Two men are still being held as police continue their enquiries. A twelfth man was released a few days after the arrests in the northwest of England.

The International Committee of the Red Cross says both sides in the Sri Lankan conflict must take immediate action to prevent further civilian deaths. The Tamil Tigers must allow civilians to leave the combat zone while the government must allow access to aid workers. The ICRC's director of operations described the situation in northern Sri Lanka as uniquely catastrophic. But the Sri Lankan military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said there was no question of the Sri Lankan authorities calling for International assistance to resolve the conflict.

"This is our problem, and we will sort out our problem. Now that we have cornered them to this 20 square kilometers area, even less than that, we don't want anybody else to come in and rescue this separatist group including the leader to fight another day.

World News from the BBC

President Obama has invited the Egyptian, Israeli and Palestinian leaders to Washington for separate talks on the Middle East peace process. The White House said the talks would take place in the next few weeks, and the final date’s soon going to be finalized. Earlier President Obama said he expected Israeli and the Palestinians to show gestures of good faith to revive peace efforts.

A judge in New York has ruled that a young Somali pirate captured by the United States during the rescue of an American sea captain can be tried as an adult. There'd been debate about the age of the Somali Abdiwali Abdiqadir Muse. His mother has appealed to President Obama to release him. She says he is 16 years old. But the US authorities believe he is at least 18.

Scientists say water levels in some of the world's important rivers have fallen sharply in recent decades. The rivers provide fresh water for much of the world's population. And the researchers say the decline has serious implications as the human population grows. Here is Matt Mcgrath.

The researchers writing in the American Meteorological Society's Journal of climate analyzed water flows in more than 900 rivers over a 50-year period to 2004. They found that there was an overall decline in the amount of water flowing into the world's oceans. Much of the reduction has been caused by human activities, such as the building of dams and the diversion of water for agriculture. But the researchers highlighted the contribution of climate change, saying that rising temperatures were altering rainfall patterns and increasing rates of evaporation. (www.hXen.com)

A judge in France has ordered an exhibition of preserved human bodies to be closed. The exhibition in Paris shows parts from 17 bodies with their fluids replaced by plastic. The judge said the proper place for bodies was in cemeteries. The exhibition organizers said the ruling was absurd, saying that around 20 such exhibitions were currently on show around the world.  

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