BBC news 2011-12-09 加文本

BBC news 2011-12-09

BBC News with Fiona MacDonald

A key European Union summit on saving the euro currency is underway in Brussels. Shortly before it began, the leaders of France and Germany made dramatic appeals for support. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France warned that the risk of disintegration in Europe had never been greater. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel said changes to the European constitution were necessary to tighten fiscal discipline. The president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, said if a deal on much stricter rules to govern the eurozone was to emerge, then everyone had to play a part.

"What I expect from all heads of state and government is that they don't come saying what they cannot do but what they will do for Europe. All the world is watching us, and what the world attains from us is not more national problems but European solutions."

Our correspondent in Brussels Chris Morris says reaching agreement at the summit will not be easy.

The trouble is the European Union is much bigger than it was. Every country - all 27 of them - has a red line somewhere, and that's why reaching an agreement is going to be so difficult. But Angela Merkel has made it clear that she wants a treaty change of some kind. She'd prefer all member states to be involved, but at the very least, the 17 countries in the eurozone have to act.

The European Central Bank has cut its key interest rate by 0.25% to 1%. The move was widely expected. The bank last cut rates only five weeks ago. The ECB has also taken fresh steps to help those banks that are struggling to get the funds they need to operate by making it easier for them to borrow.

Iran has shown video footage of what it says is an unmanned American spy plane brought down recently by its military. State television showed what appeared to be a largely undamaged drone. Iran says the aircraft was forced to land by what it called an electronic ambush and has accused the US of violating its territory. The Nato-led military force in Afghanistan acknowledged that it could have been lost over Iran.

Officials at Virginia Tech University in the United States say that two people, including a police officer, have been shot dead on campus and the gunman is still at large. Reports say the policeman was shot dead when he stopped the suspect during a routine check. Juliet Fielding is a student at Virginia Tech.

"I saw the police car sitting there, the unmarked one, and I thought it was responding to a call here because I heard a bunch of sirens coming from the distance. So I kept walking towards his car, thinking like I'll get around it before the rest of the police get here. And then the police pulled up, and they opened his car door, and when they opened it, he just fell out towards the ground. And I could see his face, and he was covered in blood. I don't know if the blood was coming from his head or his face exactly. And then they immediately started reviving him."

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The government of Malawi has announced that it's to review a series of controversial laws, including a ban on homosexual acts. The justice minister said the move was in response to public opinion. On Tuesday, the United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US would use foreign aid to encourage countries to decriminalise homosexuality.

The President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has called for elections next year as he attempts to win another term in office. Mr Mugabe made the announcement during a speech to the conference of his Zanu-PF party. A BBC correspondent at the conference says the speech was a familiar attack on foreign imperialism. He described Nato as terrorists who had turned Libya into rubble. Mr Mugabe is 87 and reportedly in poor health. But though the party is divided about his ability to lead them, dissent rarely surfaces in public.

The European Union has joined forces with the world's poorest countries to call for a strong agreement at the UN climate talks in Durban in South Africa. From there, Richard Black reports.

The world order is changing. Once the climate negotiations were all about rich versus poor; now they are about countries that want a strong deal soon and those that don't. Ministers from Bangladesh, Gambia, Mozambique and Nepal stood alongside European counterparts calling on China, India, the US and Brazil to move forwards. The US and China have both said they do not object to such a deal provided certain conditions are met, but other delegations say there's a difference between what the two biggest carbon emitters say in public and how they behave during negotiations.

Scotland, the north of England, Wales and Northern Ireland have been battered by storm-force winds. (There winds) In Scotland, winds exceeded more than 250km/h, close to the fastest wind speed ever recorded in Britain. Fifty thousand people have been left without power; most schools have closed; and trains, ferries and flights have been cancelled.

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