BBC news 2009-07-14 加文本

BBC 2009-07-14


Download Audio

BBC News with Roy Lamar.

World oil prices have fallen below 60 dollars a barrel. It’s seen as an indication that investors are worried that the recovery of the global economy may not be as strong as hoped and it comes as the recession in the US hit a new low with this year's budget deficit now more than $1 trillion. Rodney Smith reports.

For all the signs of optimism from international think tanks, there're still many conflicting signals about the state of the global economy and the prospects for long-term recovery. The drop of more than a tenth in oil prices in recent days reinforces this uncertainty as both cause and effect. The oil price shot up 40% from March to June, hitting 73 dollars a barrel. Now oil analysts are forecasting the price to fall back to 55 dollars and to stay there until there're better signs of recovery in the global economy. Rodney Smith.

President Obama said that the allegations of allies of the US military in Afghanistan killed as many as 2,000 Taliban prisoners had not been properly investigated. The killings took place in 2001 and are said to have been overseen by the Afghan warlord, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, who fought alongside US troops. John Donaldson reports from Washington.

In 2001, General Dostum was a commander with the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, working with American forces in the fight against the Taliban. The allegations against him say he oversaw the suffocating of up to 2,000 Taliban prisoners who have been transported in Northern Alliance container trucks. They were then apparently buried in mass graves. When asked about it in a television interview, President Obama stopped short of calling for a formal investigation, but said he’d asked his security advisers to gather a pool of the facts.

Five people have been killed in an attack by Nigerian militants on an oil depot in the main city Lagos. It's the first such incident outside the Niger Delta where militants say they're fighting for a greater share, share of oil revenues. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said it carried out the attack. Henry Okah thought to be the leader of MEND has been released from jail after the government dropped treason charges against him. With more details, here is Caroline Delphi.

Henry Okah has been in jail for months, facing charges that carry the death penalty here in Nigeria. His lawyers have done a deal with the Nigerian government and he accepted an offer of amnesty. What he now says may sway the minds of other militants in the Delta. The government wants all of the armed groups in the Niger Delta to accept an amnesty and to disarm. MEND say they’ll now enter a new phase, a campaign of violence alongside political negotiations. And to prove their point, they’ve attacked the primary oil depot serving Lagos, blowing up its supply channels. Caroline Delphi.

This is World News from the BBC.

The President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe and his Prime Minister and former rival Morgan Tsvangirai have jointly addressed the media, calling for unity and condemning disturbances at a meeting to discuss a new constitution. Mr. Mugabe said the government wouldn't accept further disturbances, adding it was necessary to complete the update of the charter. Earlier the opening session of discussions about the new constitution had to be abandoned after supporters of President Mugabe disrupted it, dancing and singing revolutionary songs.

Israeli Arab politicians have criticized the plan by the Israeli government to remove traditional Arabic and English place names from road signs and replace them with transliterations from Hebrew. Under the new system, Jerusalem will be identified only as "Yerushalaim" in stead of "Jerusalem" in English, and "al-Quds" in Arabic. The Israeli authorities said the aim was to end confusion over spelling variations.

The Burmese ambassador to the United Nations Than Shwe has told the UN Security Council that his government will release political prisoners to allow them to take part in elections next year. The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the move as “encouraging". From New York, Laura Trevelyan.

Using careful, bureaucratic language, Burma's ambassador Than Shwe announced that following Ban Ki-moon's request, the Burmese government was processing the granting of an amnesty to political prisoners so they could take part in the 2010 elections. The ambassador didn't say how many of the estimated 2,100 prisoners would be released and nor did he say whether the most famous of them, the jailed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, would be included. That seems unlikely. The ambassador warned that only appropriate recommendations from Mr. Ban would be implemented. Laura Trevelyan reporting from the UN in New York.

BBC World News.

shoot up   迅速上升，猛增

stop short of  vt. 未到达(缺乏,不采取行动)