BBC news 2011-11-14 加文本

BBC news 2011-11-14

BBC News with Sue Montgomery

The Italian economist and former European Commissioner Mario Monti has been asked to form a new technocratic government to try to tackle Italy's massive debt. Mr Monti was appointed caretaker prime minister after a day of talks between President Giorgio Napolitano and political leaders. Alan Johnston reports from Rome.

Italy's head of state, President Giorgio Napolitano, spent the day consulting party leaders. And when the talks ended, as expected, he turned to the former European Union Commissioner Mario Monti. He's been asked to form an interim technocrat-style administration. By no means everybody in Italian politics likes the idea of an unelected leader taking charge, but Mr Berlusconi's supporters are conditionally going along with the plan to install Mario Monti, and he has support, too, from many other quarters.

Mr Monti's challenge will be to enact a stringent austerity plan aimed at tackling Italy's massive debt. Speaking in a brief statement after his confirmation as prime minister, he said he would carry out the task with urgency.

"The country has to overcome this challenge. Italy must be an element of strength and not weakness within the European Union. We will aim at solving the financial situation, resume the path of growth and social fairness. We want to build a future of dignity and hope for our children."

The German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich has warned of a new form of far-right terrorism after police linked a neo-Nazi gang to the killing of nine entrepreneurs from Germany's Turkish and Greek communities. Victims included kebab stall owners and flower sellers. Amid criticism that it had taken more than 10 years to uncover the link, he said he'd set up a working group to improve the domestic intelligence agency's procedures.

The Taliban in Afghanistan say they've obtained the government's security plan for the upcoming grand assembly of leaders, or loya jirga, in Kabul this week. Officials from the Afghan police and intelligence agency denied the militants' claim, saying the document was a fake. From Kabul, Orla Guerin.

The documents supplied by the Taliban include what appears to be a detailed list of security arrangements for senior figures, including Afghan ministers and the President Hamid Karzai. But Kabul's police chief General Ayub and a senior intelligence official told the BBC this was not the government's plan. "It's a plot by those who want to derail the assembly," the general said. If the real security plan was in Taliban hands, it would be a huge embarrassment to the Afghan government and a major threat to the more than 2,000 people due to attend the jirga.

BBC News

Syria has called for an emergency Arab summit to address the Syrian crisis a day after the Arab League suspended it for failing to implement a peace initiative. Damascus said it was still committed to the plan. Tens of thousands of Syrians have staged demonstrations against the suspension. Here's our Middle East correspondent Jon Leyne.

Syria's response to the Arab League's suspension: just a sort of hard line everyone expected. On the streets of Damascus and other major cities, huge crowds went out to condemn the league and to pledge their support for the Syrian leader Bashar Assad. In one opposition stronghold, Hama, four opposition supporters were reportedly shot dead when they challenged a pro-government demonstration with chants against President Assad.

Police in Rio de Janeiro have taken control of one of Brazil's largest and most lawless slums. Officers raised the Brazilian flag atop the Rocinha favela after moving into the slum just before dawn. They say the operation was completed without a shot being fired.

A group of 20 countries at risk from climate change have called for faster disbursement of funds that have been allocated to help them cope with their changing environment. Speaking at a two-day conference in Dhaka, a Bangladeshi minister, Doctor Hasan Mahmud, said only 10% of the $30bn pledged to poor countries at the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009 had been disbursed. He told the BBC his country already felt the consequences of climate change.

"In Bangladesh, climate change is a reality. In other parts of the world, in some countries, climate change is, too, threat; but in Bangladesh, that is not threat. Sea level rise - we see the sea level rise and we feel the sea level rise in Bangladesh, more frequent natural calamities, more storm[s], more cyclone[s] and more flooding."

And that's the latest BBC News.