BBC news 2009-07-24 加文本

BBC 2009-07-24


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BBC News with David Legg.

The German car giant Volkswagen has unveiled plans to take control of the German sports car firm Porsche. The move follows an abortive bid by Porsche to take over its lager rival who left it crippled with debts. The specialist high-performance Porsche brand will retain its separate identity but under the overall control of Volkswagen. The chief executive officer of Volkswagen Martin Winterkon said the combination of the two firms will be a strong one.

 "The industrial logic is of course that both company fit together in an excellent way. They complement one another with individual products in an excellent way and more important of course is our common know-how of people of engineering who takes us further forward, so that we can be more successful in the global markets than today".

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation has arrested 44 people including rabbis and city mayors as part of a massive corruption case in the state of New Jersey. The arrests were part of a ten-year investigation which uncovered illegal activity ranging from money laundering to kidney trafficking, in the US, Israel and Switzerland. A special agent in charge of the Newark FBI office Weysan Dun described those who he said use politics and religion to hide their criminal activity.

 "The people that we have arrested today include mayors, deputy mayors, New Jersey State assemblymen, city councilmen, city council candidates, and a variety of other public officials ranging from commissioners to regulatory inspectors and of course a number of rabbis from the Jewish community.

Share prices in the United States have closed at their highest level for eight months. The Dow Jones index in New York closed up nearly 200 points at 9069. Carryland Hevcurf has more from New York.

Despite a deep US recession, some companies are holding up, boosting investor confidence and the value of shares. Earning results from auction website Ebay, Ford Motor Company, telecoms firm AT&T and manufacturing giant 3M showed /that/ the companies fared better than expected in the last three months, even if revenues were mainly lower. But the situation remains precarious. After the market closed, Microsoft announced a slumping profits and demand for PCs with Amazon suffering similarly difficult times.

The first televised debate between candidates for the presidency has been broadcast in Afghanistan. The broadcast began 20 minutes late and with the leading candidate missing. The incumbent Hamid Karzai declined to take part. The spokesman for him said the debate on the private station Tolo TV would be biased. President Karzai's two main opponents Abdullah Abullah, Ashraf Ghani took part and the broadcast showed an empty lectern where Mr. Karzai would have stood.

World News from the BBC.

A US intelligence official has said that one of the Osama Bin Laden's sons was probably killed by an American missile strike in Pakistan earlier this year. The official who spoke on condition of anonymity said agents were 85% certain that Sa'ad Bin Laden was killed by chance in an attack by a drone, although he had not been specifically targeted and was not a senior al-Qaeda figure.

The American Vice President Joe Biden has renewed Washington’s support for Georgia and its aspiration to join the NATO alliance. Addressing the Georgian Parliament in Tbilisi, Mr. Biden said the improved ties with Russia sought by the Obama administration would not be at Georgia's expense. Before Mr. Biden's address, Russian warned it would take concrete steps to stop Georgia rearming.

The Netherlands has returned to Ghana the bottled head of the king who was executed by Dutch colonists in 1838 and kept in the museum for many years. The head was presented to members of King Badu Bonsu II’s tribe who traveled to the Netherlands from Ghana. Dutch author Arther Japin came across it while researching a book. He told the BBC how the deal of return of the head was made.

"Ghana asked for the head back from the Dutch government and still Leiden University wasn't willing to give it up so it was a bit of struggle to get it. But finally our Minister of Culture said no, it has to go back. So yesterday 10 African Kings came to the Netherlands and today they were given the head then tomorrow they will, they will bring him back home."

The French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has criticized the army after tracer bullets fired in the military base set off a huge fire in the countryside near Marseilles of southeast. Hundreds of people had to leave their homes. Mr. Fillon said the use of such ammunition was forbidden in wildlife-prone regions and the incident was blamed to an unforgivable professional error.

BBC News.