BBC news 2010-12-18 加文本

BBC news 2010-12-18

BBC News with Marion Marshall

President Obama is about to sign into law an extension of his predecessor's tax cuts, including those for the wealthiest Americans. Mr Obama is opposed to the extension along with many of his party, but he agreed to it in order to get approval for his own plans to extend unemployment benefits from his Republican opponents. Mark Mardell reports from Washington.

If this hadn't passed, taxes would have gone up for all Americans in the New Year. The deal, cobbled together by President Obama and the Republican opposition, pleases almost no one in its entirety. But that means the president can portray himself as a compromiser, rising above petty party politics. The deal means tax cuts introduced by President Bush will be extended for another two years, including those for Americans earning more than $250,000 a year, tax cuts for the rich, say the Democrats, something President Obama has always opposed and in principle still does.

The trustee appointed to recover money stolen by the New York financier Bernard Madoff has reached a multibillion-dollar settlement with the estate of a man identified as the biggest single beneficiary of the fraud. It means about half the money lost in the swindle will ultimately be recouped. Theo Leggett reports.

The settlement represents something of a coup for the trustee Irving Picard. After the collapse of Bernard Madoff's investment firm in 2008, he was given the task of recovering money lost by investors, who'd unwittingly put their cash into the giant Ponzi scheme. Since then he's launched a wave of litigation against people and businesses deemed to have profited from the fraud. Chief among them was Jeffry Picower, who was a long-term investor in Bernard Madoff's funds. Over the course of three and a half decades, he withdrew some $7bn, substantially more than his initial investment. His widow has now pledged to return every penny he received.

The President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has said the power-sharing deal with the former opposition Movement for Democratic Change, led by the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, has run its course. The 86-year-old president told members of his Zanu-PF party that elections should be held early next year. Correspondents say the president's comments suggest that the unity government is virtually dead.

The American State Department says the US is preparing a series of sanctions to be imposed on the President of Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo, unless he steps down and allows his rival Alassane Ouattara to take over. William Fitzgerald, the State Department official in charge of West African affairs, told the BBC that a travel ban and financial measures against Mr Gbagbo were being organised.

"We are going to work with a regional bank to close off the stake it has, as it were, of his money. And we are going to continue to ratchet up the pressure until he does give up power. It is absolutely unacceptable that Laurent Gbagbo remain in power."

Mr Fitzgerald said he knew at least one African state that had offered to resettle Mr Gbagbo, although he wouldn't say which.

World News from the BBC

A court in France has given long prison sentences to 13 associates of the late Chilean military ruler Augusto Pinochet for their role in the murder of four French citizens in the 1970s. The 13 men were all military or intelligence officers involved in a campaign of violence against left-wing activists. They have refused to leave Chile to attend the trial.

Reports from Mexico say there's been a mass breakout from a prison near the border with the United States. Mexican media said more than 140 prisoners escaped. Many are thought to have been serving sentences for drug trafficking. From Mexico City, Julian Miglierini reports.

Mexican media have reported that the jailbreak happened early on Friday morning and that authorities had launched a massive search to try to recapture the fugitives. It is not clear how the prisoners managed to escape, and there has not yet been any comment by authorities. The prison is located in the city of Nuevo Laredo, just across the border from Texas in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The region has been engulfed by Mexico's violent drug conflict in which more than 30,000 people have been killed since late 2006.

The High Court in London has ruled that a temporary limit on the number of skilled migrant workers entering Britain from non-European Union countries was introduced unlawfully. The court found that the Home Secretary Theresa May had tried to avoid parliamentary scrutiny when she implemented the cap earlier this year. The government has been given permission to appeal.

The Ghanaian striker Asamoah Gyan has been voted BBC African Footballer of the Year. Gyan received well over half the votes in a public ballot conducted by text and email. The 25-year-old led Ghana at the World Cup in South Africa, missing a penalty, which denied his country a place in the semi-finals. Gyan thanked the whole of Africa for voting for him. He's the third Ghanaian to win the title, Africa's only major football prize awarded exclusively by fans.

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