BBC news 2010-06-08 加文本

BBC news 2010-06-08

BBC News with Marian Marshall.

Germany is making the biggest cuts in government spending for more than half a century to reduce the country's debts. The Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany needed to set a good example to other European countries as sound finances were the best way to avert another crisis. Steve Rosenberg reports.

The government wants to save more than $95 billion over the next four years. To do that, there will be cuts to social welfare payments. The cost of health insurance will rise, and the armed forces will be reorganised to save money. There will be new taxes, including a bank levy, a tax on the nuclear power industry and a travel tax on air passengers. Meanwhile, plans to rebuild from scratch a famous Prussian palace in Berlin have been postponed. That's a luxury the German budget can't afford right now.

The British Prime Minister David Cameron has also been talking about spending cuts. He warned that the reductions needed would affect everyone in Britain for years.

NATO forces in Afghanistan say ten soldiers from the allies have been killed in different areas of the country. The deaths came in several separate attacks, as Martin Patience reports from Kabul.

In the deadliest attack, five soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in the east of the country. Another soldier also died in eastern Afghanistan, this time killed by small arms fire. The rest of the casualties were in the south of the country, all in separate incidents. The deaths come as the last of the 35,000 additional troops ordered by President Obama arrive in the country to tackle the strengthening insurgency.

United States said it's seeking new ways to address the problems in the Gaza Strip which is under blockade by Israel. The comments came from the American Vice President Joe Biden after talks with the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Sharm el-Sheikh. Yolande Knell has the details.

This 90-minute meeting took place at a time of heightened regional tension, following Israel's raid on aid ships heading for Gaza one week ago which killed nine activists. Although the action drew international criticism, Mr Biden had previously defended what he said was Israel's absolute right to deal with its security interest. In Sharm el-Sheikh, however, he stated that the US was looking for new ways to address the humanitarian, economic, security and political aspects of the situation in Gaza.

A spokesman for the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon says no party has responded officially to his proposal for an investigation into the Gaza flotilla raid. He didn't confirm reports that the UN is proposing an inquiry with international elements, but said his office was exploring a number of options. Unofficially, Israel has rejected the idea of an international inquiry while Turkey has warned Israelis that diplomatic relations cannot be normalized until they agreed to such a move.

World News from the BBC.

The Mexican authorities say they have recovered a total of 77 bodies from an abandoned mine shaft that appears to have been used as a mass grave by drugs gangs. Only six of the bodies found at the silver mine in Guerrero State have so far been identified. One was the director of a local prison. Police believe drugs traffickers conceal their victims in the mine over an extended period.

A US army intelligence analyst has been arrested on suspicion of leaking classified military videos and documents to a website that campaigns for freedom of information. From Washington, here is David Willis.

Army Specialist Bradley Manning was arrested after allegedly boasting to a former computer hacker in an online conversation that he'd leaked video over US military helicopter strike to the website WikiLeaks. The website says the video shows an Apache Helicopter attack in Baghdad in 2007 which claimed the lives of several innocent civilians. WikiLeaks describes itself as a noNPRofit organisation funded by human rights campaigners, investigative journalists and the general public.

Reports are coming of an explosion in a gas pipeline in Texas. At least six people are thought to have been hurt in the blast which happened in Hood County near the city of Dallas. Details are still coming in.

The veteran White House journalist Helen Thomas has retired after remarks she made about Israel and the Jewish people were met with the torrent of outrage from Jewish groups, her fellow journalists and politicians. Ms Thomas said Israelis should "get the hell out of Palestine" and go "home" to Poland and Germany. The White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the remarks were reprehensible and offensive. Ms Thomas, who's 89, had reported on every US President since John F. Kennedy. Her latest job was as a columnist for Hearst newspapers.

BBC World Service News.