BBC news 2010-10-21 加文本

BBC news 2010-10-21

BBC News with Sue Montgomery

The British government has announced what it says is the biggest cut in state spending since the Second World War. The Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne told parliament the savings were essential to drag Britain back from what he called the economic brink. A hundred and thirty billion dollars will be cut over four years. The government says that it expects nearly half a million public sector jobs to be lost. Here is our economics correspondent Andrew Walker.

Mr Osborne's aim is to get the government's rising debt under control. As expected, he protected health, schools and overseas aid from cuts, but there will be reductions in spending in most areas, including defence and especially welfare. The background to the cuts is a sharp increase in government borrowing, mainly due to the decline in tax revenue that followed the financial crisis. Most of the deficit reduction will come from spending cuts, but Mr Osborne also has plans to increase taxes.

Mr Osborne told a packed House of Commons the spending review was fair to the taxpayer and fair to future generations.

"Fairness means creating a welfare system that helps the vulnerable, supports people into work and is affordable for the working families who pay for it from their taxes. Fairness also means that across the entire deficit reduction plan, those with the broadest shoulders will bear the greatest burden."

But the opposition Labour Party has described the government's plans as a reckless gamble. Labour's finance spokesman Alan Johnson told the Commons that the cuts were being made for ideological rather than economic reasons. The general secretary of Britain's trade union federation, Brendan Barber, said the government had gone too far.

"This is going to have a devastating social impact as well as an impact on jobs and unemployment. We're going to take that message to the communities across the country and bring back from those communities to the government the case that they really, really need to rethink this whole strategy."

The United States has confirmed plans to sell military aircraft to Saudi Arabia in a deal worth up to $60 billion. An American government official said he was confident the sale would not undermine the security of Israel, which is traditionally wary of arms sales to Arab states. Here is our Washington correspondent Paul Adams.

The United States and Saudi Arabia have been in negotiations for months. This announcement represents the fruits of those discussions, a deal to unfold over 15 or 20 years and include 84 new F-15 fighter jets and around 140 Apache and Black Hawk helicopters. A State Department official told reporters he did not anticipate any objections from Israel. In truth, the administration is unlikely to encounter much opposition to the sale of weaponry to a traditional ally at a time when the US economy needs all the help it can get.

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The United Nations has issued a damning report, condemning conditions facing prisoners and detainees in Greece. The report by the UN special envoy for torture and degrading treatment, Manfred Nowak, is particularly critical of the treatment of asylum seekers in Greece, which is the main entry point for illegal migrants into Europe. Professor Nowak describes as appalling and overcrowded police stations in Athens where migrants are detained. He said that they were forced to sleep in dark, suffocating cells and unable to take showers.

Football's world governing body Fifa has provisionally suspended two members of its executive committee over vote-selling allegations. With the details, Alex Capstick.

Amos Adamu and Reynald Temarii have been suspended for a minimum of 30 days. During that time, Fifa will continue its investigation. In a secret recording, the two men seemed prepared to sell their votes in the election for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups in exchange for money to build football-related projects in their countries. Fifa would also consider allegations of collusion between two of the bidding nations. But the vote on 2 December is still expected to go ahead.

A Belgian skydiver has been found guilty of murdering her love rival by cutting the cords of her parachute. The victim was sent plummeting to her death as both women took part in a parachute jump with the man of their affections. A jury in the Belgian town of Tongeren was showing film from the camera helmet of the victim, Els Van Doren, in which she was seen frantically scanning for signs that her chute would open.

An American Muslim convert, Zachary Chesser, has pleaded guilty to making threats on the Internet against the creators of the satirical cartoon series South Park. The charge relates to an edition of the show in which the Prophet Muhammad is depicted wearing a bear suit concealing his likeness.

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