BBC news 2009-10-14 加文本

BBC 2009-10-14


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BBC News with Mike Cooper.

The Senate Finance Committee in Washington has passed its version of President Obama’s healthcare bill, the centerpiece of his entire domestic programme. The 800-billion-dollar bill would extend health coverage to millions of uninsured Americans. Paul Adams reports from Washington.

On the long torturous road towards reform of America’s healthcare system, this was a decisive moment. Several members of the Senate Finance Committee called it historic. After months of detailed often highly partisan debate, the committee's chairman Max Baucus looked delighted and relieved. Members voted along party lines with the exception of Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, the first Republican to back any of the reform bills proposed this year. But this is not the end of the process. There are many more hurdles to overcome before President Obama can sign a healthcare reform bill into law.

The American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says that after talks in Moscow with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov they have agreed to pursue a diplomatic course against Iran over its nuclear programme, but there was no agreement made on new sanctions. Here’s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Moscow.

A month ago in New York, Russia’s president Dmitry Medvedev appeared to suggest his country might support new sanctions against Iran. Today in Moscow, Hillary Clinton was looking for a more solid commitment. She didn’t get one. The Secretary of State and the Russian Foreign Minister talked a great deal about the wonderful new relationship between Washington and Moscow. “Nuclear arms talks are,” they said, “on track for an agreement in December”. Mrs. Clinton said the US is ready to develop a new missile defence shield in partnership with Russia. But when it came to the nitty-gritty of sanctions against Iran, there was nothing.

A suicide bomber in Iraq has killed at least eight people and wounded several others near Baquba, north of Baghdad. One of the victims was the local head of the Iraqi Awakening Council. Our correspondent Gabriel Gatehouse sent this report from the Iraqi capital.

The bomber detonated an explosive vest at a tea shop near the market. Among the dead was Laith Misha'an, the leader of the local pro-government Sunni militia. After Iraq descended into vicious sectarian violence between 2006 and 2007, the American military persuaded many of these local Sunni tribal groups to abandon their support for the insurgent and back the Iraqi government. The result has been a significant decrease in the level of violence over the past two years, but tensions remain and prominent members of the Awakening Council have been increasingly targeted in the past few months.

South African police have used rubber bullets and tear gas to break up crowds of protesters as violence continues in several townships around Johannesburg. Thousands of residents have barricaded streets to vent their anger at poor municipal services. Several were wounded during the clashes. There’s been a wave of unrest across South African townships with residents complaining about corruption and local government and the failure to provide electricity and water.

World News from the BBC.

A judge in the United States has reduced the jail term imposed on a man convicted of spying for Cuba in a high-profile case that led to heightened tensions between the two countries. The Federal judge in Miami sentenced Antonio Guerrero to 22 years in prison after an appeal court ruled that a life term imposed in 2001 was too harsh.

Two American financiers have appeared in court in New York at the start of one of the first trials arising out of the global financial meltdown of the last two years. Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, former hedge fund managers at the investment bank Bear Stearns, are accused of lying to investors about the health of their fund shortly before it collapsed. Here is Michelle Fleury.

Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin are among the first financial executives to face criminal charges since the global financial crisis began. Juries will decide if the pair lied to investors about the health of two hedge funds they managed. If convicted, they could face 20 years in jail. Both men denied charges of fraud and conspiracy. Their defence lawyers may claim they are being made scapegoat for a whole era of corporate greed.

Here in London, the Guardian newspaper says it’s won a victory for free speech after an injunction was lifted that had prevented it from exercising the centuries-old right to report on British parliamentary business without fear of legal action. The injunction was granted to a Dutch company, Trafigura, which is at the center of allegations about the dumping of toxic waste in Ivory Coast. The Guardian had complained that the injunction prevented it from reporting on a question tabled in parliament about the allegations. Trafigura has now withdrawn its injunction.

The Spanish operatic tenor Placido Domingo has received the inaugural 1 million dollar Birgit Nilsson Prize at a ceremony in the Swedish capital Stockholm. The award was in recognition of his 50-year career as a world class singer.

BBC News.