BBC news 2009-04-23 加文本

BBC News with Joe Macintosh.

The American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the situation in Pakistan poses what she described as a mortal threat to the security of the United States and the world. She also criticized Pakistan's judicial system, saying it was corrupt and didn't extend its power into the countryside. Richard Lister reports from Washington.

These were strong words from the Secretary of State. She accused the Pakistani government of abdicating its responsibility in the Swat Valley region by conceding to demands from the Taliban. The government allowed Sharia law to be imposed there earlier this year after failing to suppress a two-year offensive by armed extremists in the region. The Swat Valley is only about 100 kilometers from Islamabad. A report suggests the Taliban are trying to expand the area under their control.

The United Nations Security Council has called on the Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka to lay down their arms immediately and allow the UN to help evacuate civilians caught in the conflict. Speaking on behalf of the council, after an informal meeting in New York, its president, the Mexican ambassador, Claude Heller, branded the Tigers a terrorist movement and said they should join a political process to end the conflict.

"The Security Council members strongly condemn the LTTE, a terrorist organization, for the use of civilians as human shields and for not allowing them to leave the area of conflict. We demand that the LTTE immediately lay down arms, allow a UN assisted evacuation of the remaining civilians in the conflict area, and join the political process in order to put an end to the conflict.”

The International Monetary Fund has again downgraded its forecast for the world economy. It’s predicted a decline of 1.3% this year and a continued rising unemployment. The IMF's chief economist Olivier Blanchard said things were very bad, but said without recent government action to boost spending and tackle the banking crisis, they could’ve been catastrophic.

"Fiscal policies have made a gigantic difference. Our estimate is that if there had been no fiscal stimulus across the world, world growth in 2009 would be somewhere between 1.5% and 2% less than what we predicted. Therefore we would be in the middle of something very close to depression."

The American technology company Apple has reported a rise in its quarterly profit of 15% despite the global economic downturn. Apple's net income from January to March exceeded market expectations at more than 1.2 billion dollars. Sales were up nearly 9% with the iPhone selling twice as well as a year ago. Although sales of the Macintosh computer range were down.

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

Votes are now being counted in South Africa's general election where a high turnout and a shortage of ballot papers and boxes in some areas meant polling stations have to stay open well into the evening. Election passed off peacefully with no reports of political violence or intimidation. Peter Biles reports from Pretoria.

The Independent Electoral Commission said people have flocked to the polls. This caused long queues and in places there was a shortage of ballot papers and ballot boxes. It caught officials by surprise. The Electoral Commission announced that anyone still standing in the queue when polling stations having been due to closed in mid-evening would be allowed to vote. The first results were announced before midnight. But it will be some time yet before a clear trend emerges. The Electoral Commission is still predicting a high turnout, perhaps in the region of 80%.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said it's too dangerous to send UN peacekeepers to Somalia and that it could exacerbate the armed conflict there. Mr. Ban advised the UN Security Council to reject an immediate deployment of UN troops. Instead, he called for more support for African Union peacekeepers who're already in the capital Mogadishu. Mr. Ban said the UN should aim eventually to send its own peacekeepers to Somalia.

The Turkish's Foreign Ministry says Turkey and Armenia have made solid progress towards reconciliation and have agreed a roadmap on normalizing ties. The mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during Word War I remains a highly sensitive issue with Turkey resisting widespread calls for it to recognize the killings as genocide. The issue has held up Turkey's attempt to join the European Union.

Scientists in Canada say a fossil they found helps to understand how seals developed from land-based mammals. The animal which they've named Pujilla darwini lived about twenty million years ago. It appears to have been able to move easily on land and in water, so the scientists call it a walking seal.

And that' the latest BBC news.