BBC news 2011-04-14 加文本

BBC news 2011-04-14

BBC News with Mike Cooper

President Obama has outlined his plans to tackle the huge American budget deficit. In a speech in Washington, Mr Obama proposed what he called a balanced approach for cutting the nation's budget deficit by $4tn over the next 12 years. He said he wanted to restore fiscal responsibility.

"We have to live with our means. We have to reduce our deficit. We have to get back on a path that will allow us to pay down our debt. And we have to do it in a way that protects the recovery, protects the investments we need to grow, creates jobs and helps us win the future."

Mr Obama's plans rely significantly on tax increases for the wealthy, as well as on cuts in healthcare costs and the defence budget. The Republicans have said any increase in taxes was a "non-starter".

Members of the group of nations opposing Colonel Gaddafi's rule in Libya have agreed to look at setting up a mechanism for getting financial aid to the rebels. A statement issued after a meeting in Qatar said the aid would be used to help with short-term financial requirements and structural needs. It made no mention of whether the money might be used to buy weapons. Meanwhile, Nato says it's carried out an air strike against Libyan munitions bunkers near Tripoli. Jeremy Bowen is in the city.

Perhaps the two explosions that echoed around Tripoli this afternoon were backing up the message from Doha that Colonel Gaddafi must go. Destroying targets within earshot of the colonel could be part of the strategy to increase the pressure on him. The British and the French have avoided using the phrase "regime change", which has toxic associations with the invasion of Iraq, but that's what they'd like to happen. Britain talks about letting the Libyans decide, but the two countries, unlike some of their Nato partners, want to deepen their involvement in Libya's civil war.

Britain has now announced that it will be supplying the rebels with 1,000 sets of body armour.

State media in Egypt say the health of the former President Hosni Mubarak is unstable. Mr Mubarak has been ordered to be detained for alleged corruption and abuse of power during his 30 years in power. On Tuesday, he was hospitalised after being taken ill with a heart complaint during questioning. Mr Mubarak was overthrown by a popular uprising two months ago.

A commission set up by the Roman Catholic Church in Austria to investigate allegations of sexual and physical abuse says it's registered nearly 840 cases since it was set up a year ago. Many went back decades. Three quarters of the victims were male. The head of the commission, former provincial governor Waltraud Klasnic, said over 250 cases had been settled. A compensation fund was established last June.

Forensic experts in Mexico have found at least 12 bodies buried in shallow graves in the northwestern state of Sinaloa. That find comes shortly after the Mexican government announced it would deploy extra security forces to Tamaulipas in the northeast, where more than 100 bodies have been found.

World News from the BBC

The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, says two men have confessed to Monday's bomb attack on the Minsk metro, which killed 12 people and wounded more than 200. Both men are from Belarus but have not been named. In a televised address, Mr Lukashenko praised the speed of the investigation.

"It has taken the security agency and the police only 24 hours to conduct a brilliant operation after following up leads. The perpetrators were detained without noise, chatter or shots being fired. The main thing is that we know who committed this attack and how. At the moment, we do not know why, but we will know this soon. This is our main objective."

A group of American weapons experts has arrived in Russia to carry out the first inspections under the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between Moscow and Washington that was inaugurated in February. The treaty requires both countries to cut their deployed nuclear warheads to no more than 1,550 over the next seven years.

Shares in one of America's largest corporations, General Electric, fell sharply for a brief period as investors reacted to what turned out to be a hoax press release. The hoax was work of activists wanting to draw attention to GE's use of tax avoidance measures. Here's our business reporter Mark Gregory.

General Electric shares slumped after the Associated Press news agency reported a statement apparently from the company saying it planned to repay in full a $3.2bn tax refund received from the US government. Minutes later, the share price started to recover after GE said the release was a fake and it had no plans to repay the money. The firm routinely pays little or no tax in the US, despite having annual revenues in excess of $150bn and profits last year of $11bn.

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