BBC news 2011-09-16 加文本

BBC news 2011-09-16

BBC News with Stewart Macintosh

Financial markets around the world have responded positively after five leading central banks said they are taking new steps to tackle the financial crisis. The banks will provide extra loans in US dollars to commercial banks to make sure they have enough funds to repay debts on time. More from our economics correspondent Andrew Walker.

Shares in New York have gained for the fourth consecutive day, and earlier European markets also rose. The euro has made gains as well. A series of developments have given investors some reassurance about Europe. Leading central banks have indicated they'll supply extra dollars to the commercial banks. Investors also took some comfort earlier from the French and German leaders insisting that Greece is an integral part of the euro area. But there's still the risk of serious losses, if there were a wave of government defaults. The challenge of dealing with Europe's sovereign debt and banking crisis remains a daunting one.

Syrians campaigning against President Bashar al-Assad say they've formed a single body to represent the opposition. It was announced at a meeting in Turkey exactly six months after the start of the protests. Jonathan Head reports from Istanbul.

After several failed attempts, President Assad's opponents have finally created a single body, the Syrian National Council. Organisers say they've mapped out every relevant political group or personality, drawing up a list of 700 people from which they've selected 140 to sit on the council. Around half are expected to come from groups operating inside Syria. The council will set up committees to handle tasks like foreign relations. It will inevitably draw comparisons with the transitional council in Libya, but the challenge confronting Syrian dissidents is much greater.

The US State Department has repeated its warning to all American citizens to leave Syria immediately while it's still possible to travel out of the country. It says the Syrian government's violent suppression of peaceful protests has left the country in a state of uncertainty and volatility. The authorities are preparing for more demonstrations on Friday.

Washington has stepped up efforts to dissuade the Palestinians from applying for full membership of the United Nations at the UN General Assembly next week. The American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said there was a growing recognition among the parties that [the] only real answer was negotiations. And in a BBC interview, the US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said a unilateral bid for statehood would set back prospects for real talks.

"There's no shortcut. There's no magic wand. If there were, we would have waved it by now; we'd be there. So this is, as a practical matter, a diversion, and it's worse than a diversion; it actually is going to set back prospects for the two parties to come to the table."

The BBC's UN correspondent says Washington wants to avoid being forced to veto such a bid for fear of tarnishing relations with the Muslim world.

This is the World News from the BBC.

Denmark's first female prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, has claimed victory in a general election with the centre-left taking power after a decade in opposition. Thomas Buch-Andersen reports.

Helle Thorning-Schmidt declared victory, telling her supporters "Today we've written history." She's set to become Denmark's first woman prime minister after a closely-fought campaign dominated by the economy. The defeated Prime Minister Lokke Rasmussen was seen to have done well to steer Denmark through the financial crisis, but the country's economic rebound is considered to have been sluggish. Mrs Thorning-Schmidt campaigned on a platform of tax rises and increased public spending and a plan to make everyone work 12 minutes more per day to kick-start economic growth.

Gunmen in northern Mexico have shot dead three relatives of a police officer who's being held in connection with a deadly arson attack on a casino last month. Police believe it was an act of revenge by the Zetas drug cartel after the officer named gang members involved in the casino attack.

Researchers in Canada have discovered dinosaur feathers perfectly preserved in amber, suggesting that many species of dinosaur may have been covered in rich plumage. Researchers say the discovery will help them understand how feathers evolved into the wide variety found on modern birds. Here's Pallab Ghosh.

The popular view of meat-eating dinosaurs is that they were big, fearsome and scaly, but there's been growing fossil evidence that many of them were feathery, and now researchers have obtained actual dinosaur feathers frozen in amber. They are of dinosaurs living 70 to 85 million years ago. The feathers are incredibly well preserved. Scientists can see details of their structure even their colours. Many of the feathers seem to be small, brown and fluffy - probably for warmth rather than flight.

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