正文
BBC news 2009-09-10 加文本
BBC 2009-09-10
Download Audio
BBC News with Ian Perdon.
In what's seen as the most crucial test of leadership he's faced since taking office, President Barack Obama is preparing to address the United States Congress on his plans for healthcare reform. Debate on how to improve healthcare for 46 million uninsured Americans has raged for months. As Paul Adams reports.
This is a big moment for the President, healthcare reform is a central component of his change agenda and it’s dividing the nation’s people and politicians alike. Mr. Obama, having left it to Congress to make the running on reform legislation, has lost momentum. Tonight is a chance for him to claw it back. The trouble is the debate over what to do about healthcare is so complex that most Americans admit they don’t really understand the various proposals on offer. Mr. Obama’s job tonight, to explain what he really wants and put an end to the bitter partisan battles of recent weeks.
All the passengers and crew on board a hijacked Mexican passenger plane that arrived in Mexico City from the resort city of Cancun have been released unharmed. Security forces at the international airport managed to free more than a hundred hostages without a single shot being fired. At least six men were placed under arrest and led down the stairs of the aircraft. The hijackers demanded to speak to the Mexican president or else they would detonate bombs. However, a senior government official said there were no explosives on board. Some local media reports suggested the hijackers might be Bolivian nationals.
A senior Israeli figure close to the intelligence services has told the BBC Israel was linked to the interception of a cargo ship last month which Russia says was hijacked. He said Israel had told the Russian government it knew that the vessel, the Arctic Sea, was secretly carrying a Russian air defense system bound for Iran and had given Moscow time to stop the shipment. Israeli media reports say the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a secret visit to Moscow on Monday. But Kremlin has said it had no information on such a visit.
Iran has submitted a package of proposals to the six countries dealing with its controversial nuclear program. The proposals were formally handed over in Tehran by the Iranian foreign minister. Speaking to reporters in Vienna, the Iranian ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said he hoped that the proposals would be the starting point for new multi-lateral discussions.
The bases of negotiation would be this package and during the process of negotiation, all parties, in an open-minded pragmatic manner, have to deal with the issue and every parties of any negotiation has the right to reflect their viewpoints and comments on it.
Speaking before the handover of the proposals, the US ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency warned that Tehran might now have enough low enriched uranium to produce at least one unclear weapon if it chose to enrich it further.
World News from the BBC.
Guatemala has declared a national disaster over a food shortage that has killed more than 400 people since the start of the year. James Reed reports.
President Colom said Guatemala’s food crisis have now reached historic proportions. He said thousands of families in the rural highlands were suffering hunger because of prolonged drought and high food prices. The emergency decree would make it easier for his government to raise funds to help those who need it most. But President Colom also recognized that chronic hunger was the result of deep-seated inequality that successive governments have failed to address. Guatemala is a middle-income country but UNICEF says nearly half its children are chronically malnourished, the sixth worst level in the world.
The Uruguayan Senate has approved legislation to allow same-sex couples to adopt children. The proposal which is strongly opposed by the Roman Catholic Church and part of the opposition will make Uruguay the first Latin American country to accept gay adoptions. Uruguay’s left wing president Tabare Vazquez is expected to sign the proposal into law in the next few days.
A new survey by the United States Central Bank, the Federal Reserve, says almost all the nation’s regions are showing signs of recovery after the country’s worst economic crisis since the 1930s. Only one of the 12 district survey reported continued economic decline. All the others showed signs of stability or improvement. The FED's survey offers a snapshot of business sentiment. It's limited to the months of July and August.
The American space agency NASA has released the first images captured by the Hubble space telescope since it was fitted with a new high definition camera earlier this year. Pictures revealed distant galaxies colliding and dying stars wreathed in multicolored clouds of gas that were too dim for the orbiting telescope to capture before. NASA says the new camera will increase understanding of how galaxies are formed.
BBC News.
手机网站