BBC news 2010-05-22 加文本

2010-05-22 BBC

BBC News with Iain Purdon.

European Union finance ministers have accepted the need for sanctions against EU countries which run up too much debt. At a meeting in Brussels on how to tackle the current financial crisis caused by large state debts and falling confidence in the euro, the ministers agreed to a German call for budget deficits to be brought under control. From Brussels, here is Ben Shore.

Europe's finance ministers have finally indicated how they will try to avoid the debt crisis that Greece has dragged much of the continent into. Amongst other measures, ministers will create a crisis mechanism designed to deal with another EU country that finds itself unable to pay its debts. Stronger economic governance will also ensure countries are honest about their budget numbers. In presenting the results of his first task force meeting, the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy emphasized that although the process had only just begun, there was a strong political will to improve the management of the European economy.

A car bomb in Iraq has killed at least 20 people at a market in a town north of Baghdad. And police said more than 50 people were wounded in the attack. Jim Muir reports from Baghdad.

The bomb went off in the early evening in the mainly Shia town of Khalis, about 80 kilometres north of Baghdad. The car containing the explosives had been parked in front of a cafe in a busy street market. It was detonated at the time when the area was sure to be crowded with people taking advantage of the evening cool after the heat of the day. Such indiscriminate attacks against Shia areas have been a feature of the recent violence apparently aimed at provoking a sectarian reaction against Sunnis.

The education board in the US state of Texas is due to vote on proposed changes to the school curriculum which critics say will politicize teaching. Religious Republicans on the board had been accused of trying to force their right-wing views into textbooks. But they say they are trying to correct an existing liberal bias. James Read reports.

The Texas Education Board has become the latest battleground in the ideological struggle between liberals and conservatives. The proposals being debated include teaching that the United Nations could be a threat to American freedom and that the Founding Fathers may not have intended a complete separation of church and state. They could also revise the way slavery and the civil rights movement that covered. The board's decisions won't just affect how nearly five million students in Texas are taught, they'll also set a template for textbooks that could be used across the entire United States.

The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in China where she is expected to try to persuade the government to take a more critical approach to North Korea for the sinking of a South Korean warship. Earlier, she said the evidence that the ship had been struck by a North Korean torpedo was overwhelming and scientific. Any action against North Korea at the UN will require China's backing.

World News from the BBC.

The Obama administration has defended itself against accusations that it hasn't done enough to deal with the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. At a news conference, President Obama's spokesman Robert Gibbs said they had applied the utmost pressure on BP, which is struggling to contain the spill.

"We have taken every step. We have pushed relentlessly for BP to do what is necessary to contain what is leaking, to deal with both the environmental and the economic impacts of what, as the president said today, is unquestionably a disaster."

Morocco has defended its decision to expel a number of westerners over the past few months. The government accused them of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity. Our religious affairs correspondent Christopher Landau reports.

The Moroccan constitution defends freedom of worship for non-Muslim citizens, but attempting to convert Muslims to other faiths is against the law. Ahmed Toufiq, the Moroccan Minister for Islamic Affairs, told the Reuters news agency that expelled foreigners had been undermining public order. He said that some hide their proselytism and religious activism under the guise of other activities.

Prosecutors at a trial in France arising from the crash of an Air France Concorde in Paris 10 years ago have asked for a suspended prison term for the former head of the plane's development programme Henri Perrier. Mr Perrier has said he would not accept being held responsible.

Leaders of the Olympic and World Anti-Doping organizations have challenged the American cyclist Floyd Landis to produce hard evidence to back up his claim that the seven-time winner of Tour de France Lance Armstrong took performance-enhancing drugs. The President of the International Olympic Committee Jacques Rogge said Landis couldn't condemn Armstrong without proof.

BBC News.