BBC news 2009-09-15 加文本

BBC 2009-09-15

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BBC News with Jonathan Izzard.

President Obama has warned Wall Street bankers against returning to the sort of reckless behavior that brought the US financial system to the brink of collapse a year ago. In a speech in New York, Mr. Obama said some of them were ignoring the lessons of the crisis. He said there would be new rules to protect consumers and greater coordination between agencies regulating the financial system. He told Wall Street that his administration will be working for the aggressive reform of the global financial system.

We are proposing the most ambitious overhaul of the financial regulatory system since the Great Depression. But I want to emphasize that these reforms are rooted in a simple principle. We ought to set clear rules of the road that promote transparency and accountability. That’s how we will make certain that markets foster responsibility not recklessness. That’s how we will make certain that markets reward those who compete honestly and vigorously within the system instead of those who are trying to game the system.

A federal judge in the United States has rejected a settlement between regulators and Bank of America which is accused of making false statements over the payment of billions of dollars in bonuses. The judge said the agreement that the bank will pay a 33-million-dollar fine was too trivial a penalty.

President Obama has extended for another year the US economic embargo against Cuba which was imposed in 1963, Mr. Obama had already signaled that he thought the ban on economic contacts with Cuba remained in the best interests of the United States. His administration has eased travel restrictions on Cuban-Americans and restarted diplomatic contacts.

The United States has expressed concern about an arms build-up in Venezuela saying it poses a serious challenge to stability. The State Department's spokesman said Venezuela's arms purchases outpaced all other South American states and he urged the country to be very clear about its intentions. Charles Scanlon reports from Miami.

The warning comes after a tour by President Hugo Chavez last week to Europe and the Middle East which included major oil and weapons deals with Iran and Russia. Venezuela said on Sunday was taking a 2-billion-dollar loan from Russia to buy 92 battle tanks and missile systems. President Chavez has accused the United States of planning aggression through its increased military ties with neighboring Columbia. He says he has no hostile intentions but Venezuela must be able to defend itself. Brazil is also motorizing its arm forces and it’s close to a major deal to buy more planes from France adding to fears of a Latin American arms race.

Exit polls in Norway’s general elections suggest the Labor-led coalition has been re-elected. Official results will not be known until Tuesday with the polls indicate that the coalition headed by the Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has won 86 seats and the opposition parties are total of 83. Mr. Stoltenberg campaigned on his success in steering Norway through the economic downturn.

World News from the BBC.

American Security sources say US Special Forces believed they’ve killed a leading Islamist militant in a raid in Southern Somalia. With more details, here is Paul Adams.

This appears to be a major coup for the American military. In the last few minutes, US officials have confirmed that, as a result of an American operation, a Kenyan member of Al-Qaeda has probably been killed. The man Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan has been on an FBI-wanted list for 3 years due to his alleged connection with attacks on a hotel and an Israeli airliner in Mombasa in 2002. Eyewitness reports suggest this was a daring raid involving a number of helicopters. They seem to have attacked a car in an area 120 miles south of Mogadishu that's known as a stronghold of the Shabaab militia and al-Qaeda inspire the group fighting against the Somali government

The French President Nicola Sarkozy says he wants new factors such as happiness on the availability of health care to be included in measures of economic performance. He said France would modify its own system and urged other countries to follow suit. The idea was first put forward by the Nobel Prize winning economists Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz.

Three British Muslims have been sent to prison for life for plotting to blow up a transatlantic airliner with liquid explosives. The judge of the court in London told one of the men that he would probably die in prison or would've given minimum terms of more than 40 years. The judge said the men had conspired to commit an atrocity comparable with the 9/11 attacks

A government minister in Ukraine has said that the singer Elton John will not be allowed to adopt the 14-month-old child he met during a visit to an orphanage in the country. The minister said the adoption was not possible under Ukrainian law because Sir Elton, who is 62, is too old and not married. Sir Elton wants to adopt the boy who is HIV positive with his male partner. The couple's civil partnership is not legally recognized in Ukraine.

BBC News.