BBC news 2009-12-04 加文本

BBC 2009-12-04

BBC News with Ally Macue.

In Washington, President Obama has told a forum on job creation that only the private sector can solve the problem of American unemployment. He said the economy was growing faster than at any time of the last two years but one in ten Americans was still unemployed. He called for fresh perspectives from unions, universities and business leaders on how to tackle the situation. Adam Brooks reports.

The unemployment rate in America in October was 10.2%, the highest in a quarter of a century. The shortage of jobs is becoming a feature of Mr. Obama’s first term in office and is a serious drag on his presidency. The president’s summoned business leaders and trade’s union leaders to the White House for what’s been called a job summit. Some in the president’s own party want the federal government to implement big job creation schemes. But that sort of action by governments to create jobs will mean more spending by government. And that’s politically very difficult because the US government is already terribly heavily in debt.

The prime minister of Somalia’s transitional government, Omar Sharmarke, has condemned the suicide bomb attack on a graduation ceremony in Mogadishu which killed at least 19 people as a vicious and calculated outrage. Among the dead were four government ministers, three journalists and some of only the second class of medical students to graduate in Somalia for 20 years. The Somali president’s spokesman, Hassan Haile, told the BBC that he thought the militant group Al-Shabab was behind the bombing.

“It is interesting that Al-Shabab had not yet commented, but the indications are that Al-Shabab did this as they have committed such acts more than once in Mogadishu and other parts of the country. But this time it’s different because they are targeting everybody, hotels and public places where ordinary people meet. Today’s event was a civil gathering. There were no African forces, neither were Somali security forces there.”

India, regarded as the world’s fourth largest polluter, has announced plans that may slow the rate of growth in its carbon dioxide emissions over the next decade. India has pledged to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that’s emitted per unit of GDP by between 20% and 25%. Sanjoy Majumder reports.

Speaking in parliament, India’s Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said, regardless of the summit’s outcome, his country would reduce its carbon emissions intensity by 20% to 25% by the year 2020, but he said India would not accept any legally binding emission cuts. Last week, China revealed that it would reduce its carbon intensity by 40% to 45%. Along with China, Brazil and South Africa, India’s presenting a counter-proposal at Copenhagen which is aimed at ensuring that the responsibility for reducing global emissions is shared equitably by rich and poor countries.

World News from the BBC.

There are reports of gunfire in the Guinean capital, Conakry. One news agency has quoted the communication minister as saying that renegade soldiers had opened fire at the president, Moussa Dadis Camara. The president took power 11 months ago in a military-led coup.

US senators have expressed doubts about President Obama’s troop buildup in Afghanistan during a second day of hearings by the Senate Foreign Committee. One Democratic senator said the dates at which US troops might start withdrawing followed by Afghan troops’ taking over were as reliable as quicksand. Laura Trevelyan reports.

President Obama’s plan to deploy 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan only five months after sending an extra 21,000 is worrying both Republicans and Democrats. Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee wanted to know how adding more troops would address the Taliban and al-Qaeda presence across the border in Pakistan and expressed fears that the overall US strategy is still unclear. The strongest criticism came from members of the president’s own party. The US Congress is ultimately expected to approve the extra funding for the troop increase. But these hearings have shown that lawmakers have serious doubts about the plan, reflecting the public’s unease.

The Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says he will think about returning to the presidency in 2012 when the next elections are due. Mr. Putin is widely believed to wield the real political power in Russia despite nominally being second in command to his handpicked successor, President Dmitry Medvedev. Responding to the remarks, Mr. Medvedev told reporters that if Mr. Putin wouldn’t rule out running again, neither would he.

An order of nuns in Ireland has offered to pay more than 190 million dollars in compensation for allowing decades of abuse in its schools and orphanages. The Sisters of Mercy were among 18 orders exposed by a government report in May for covering up systematic rape and beatings in the institutions.

BBC News.