BBC news 2010-05-06 加文本

2010-05-06 BBC

BBC News with David Austin.

The President of Greece Karolos Papoulias has said his country is on the edge of the abyss after violent protests left three people dead. The president said it was the responsibility of all Greeks not to take a step into the void. The three died inside a bank in Athens which were set on fire by a petrol bomb. Several other buildings were also set ablaze. Milchal Brabon reports from Athens.

The three victims were among twenty people working in the bank when the petrol bomb was thrown. Most of the employees managed to escape the fumes as the flames took hold. But the two women and one man found their way blocked as they tried to escape to the roof and they suffocated. Arsonists also attacked other government buildings after an attempt to storm the parliament failed. Critical questions are now being asked of the

police's tactics. A police stood by as rioters smashed up the banks. It’s not clear whether shock over the deaths will have the effect of diminishing the protests.

The political leaders of the eurozone have spoken out to defend for stability of their common currency the euro amid the problems in Greece. As the euro hit a one-year low against the dollar, the French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said it was being targeted by financial speculators but warned them they would fail.

The White House in Washington has said it would back the idea of significantly raising the existing 75-million-dollar limit that oil companies must pay to clean up oil slicks like the one in the Gulf of Mexico. Here is Emilio San Pedro of our America's desk.

The focus in the Gulf of Mexico may be on cleaning up the massive oil slick caused by the sunken drilling oil rig. But the attention in Washington has already turned to who will pay for the clean-up. The White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Obama favored a significant increase in the amount oil companies are liable to pay for clean-up operations, but he wouldn't say if he backed plans in Congress to raise the limit to ten billion dollars. Emilio San Pedro reporting.

The American authorities have tightened the security procedures for airline passengers after the leading suspect in last week's failed car bomb plot in New York was able to board a flight for Dubai. The man Faisal Shahzard, an American citizen of Pakistani origin, was eventually arrested as the plane was about to take off. Laura Trevelyan reports from New York .

Questions are being asked about how Shahzard managed to board a plane to Dubai on Monday evening despite being on a no-fly list. The US government has now ordered the airlines to step up their efforts to prevent people on the list from boarding flights. The New York Times is reporting that back in 2004 detectives interviewed a man who’d bought a house from Shahzard, wanting more information about the Pakistani-American. They suggest that for some reason six years ago Shahzard had attracted the attention of the US government’s Joining Terrorism Task Force. Laura Trevelyan reporting from New York.

This is the world news from the BBC.

The leaders of the three main parties in Britain are making their last minute bids to win votes before the general election on Thursday. Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats said only his party could deliver real change. The opposition Conservative Leader David Cameron said the election was the most important in a generation. The Labor Prime Minister Gordon Brown has warned of a 1930s style recession should the Conservatives win. Rob Watson

reports.

It's been one of the most uNPRedictable and close-fought campaigns in years. Just a few months ago most were expecting the elections to be a referendum on thirteen years of Labor government, a referendum Labor seemed likely to lose, leaving the Conservatives the winners. But that script was dramatically altered by the first ever televised debates. They boost the fortunes of the Liberal Democrats. In many ways the biggest loser has been the Conservatives whose pre-campaign poll lead has been reduced, though they still lead. But it’s been a predictably tough campaign for Labor too, with many voters clearly unhappy with Gordon Brown personally and the huge debts run up by his government.

Volcanic ash from Iceland has again been disrupting air traffic in parts of Europe. Hundreds of flights were cancelled as the authorities grounded aircraft in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. Forecasters say the wind carrying the ash from Iceland is changing direction and should bring cleaner air in the next 24 hours.

The American carmaker General Motors has announced the recall of more than 160,000 four-wheel-drive vehicles worldwide because of / problems with their bonnets. The recall of the Harmer H3 comes at a time when General Motors is shutting down the production of Harmers.

Officials of the Commonwealth Games Federation have expressed concern about India's readiness for the games in October this year. The chief executive officer for the Games Mike Cooper told the BBC that a lot of progress had been made but there was still a lot of work to do.

That's the latest BBC News.