BBC news 2012-01-19 加文本 讲解翻译

音频与PDF文档打包下载

BBC news 2012-01-19

BBC News with Marion Marshall

The International Monetary Fund says it needs to raise hundreds of billions of dollars so it can give out new loans to countries in urgent need of financial support. The IMF said it was exploring options for raising the extra money. From Brussels, Chris Morris reports.

The IMF estimates that it needs about $500bn in additional funding to try to ensure that the instability swirling around the eurozone doesn't create further problems for the global economy. Countries which use the euro have pinned their hopes for some time on a build-up in IMF resources. They want it to help create a much larger financial firewall to prevent the eurozone debt crisis engulfing larger economies, such as Italy and Spain. EU countries - not including Britain - have already agreed to contribute about 200 billion US dollars to the IMF, but that leaves a considerable gap to be filled.

A protest by leading Internet sites has prompted senior members of the US Congress to withdraw their support for proposed laws against online piracy. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, argues that the proposals would damage Internet freedom, and it closed its English language pages for 24 hours in protest. From Washington, Jonny Dymond reports.

US legislators sought to curb the distribution of pirated and counterfeit products by giving the courts the power to force search engines to delist pirate sites. But in the Senate, a bill that looked close to passage now appears to be in trouble. Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a rising star in the Republican Party and one of the bill's sponsors, has withdrawn his support. Texas Senator John Cornyn has also indicated concerns. And in the House of Representatives, the Speaker John Boehner has said that there is now a lack of consensus about the proposed law.

The British Prime Minister David Cameron has accused Argentina of colonialism over the Falkland Islands. The two countries fought a war in 1982 over the British territory in the South Atlantic, which Argentina calls the Malvinas. Our political correspondent James Landale reports from Westminster.

Almost 30 years on from the Falklands conflict, tensions are once again rising in the South Atlantic. British energy companies are discovering oil near the islands. Argentina has persuaded neighbouring countries to close their ports to ships flying the Falklands flag, and the rhetoric out of Buenos Aires is heating up. So today David Cameron pushed back, sending what he called a clear message.

"The key point is we support the Falkland Islanders' right to self-determination, and what the Argentinians have been saying recently, I would argue, is actually far more like colonialism because these people want to remain British and the Argentinians want them to do something else."

Argentina's Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo described Mr Cameron's remarks as totally offensive.

World News from the BBC

President Obama has rejected a proposal by a Canadian company to build a huge oil pipeline from Canada to Texas. He's blaming his Republican opponents in Congress, saying they set an arbitrary deadline for the decision and didn't allow the government enough time to check the safety of the project, known as the Key Stone Excel Pipeline.

Nigerian police are facing criticism after the escape of the main suspect in the bombing of a church on Christmas Day. A spokesman for the governor of Borno state told the BBC he was mystified over how the suspect managed to escape while being escorted by the police. Mark Doyle reports from Nigeria.

The escape of a key suspect in the Christmas bombings is deeply embarrassing for the Nigerian police, who've been accused of incompetence. But the whole affair is also worrying for the government on another deeper level. Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, is roughly split between a Christian south and a Muslim north. The suspected Islamic militant from the Boko Haram sect was arrested last weekend while he was staying in a government guesthouse in the capital Abuja. There have long been suspicions that Boko Haram have infiltrated parts of the establishment here and that some politicians from the Muslim north have secret contacts with the sect.

The Mexican army said it's rescued three children who were being held by a criminal gang. Officials said the children had been chained and locked up in a private home in the central city of Temixco. Inside the apartment, soldiers also found a decapitated body of a man whose head had been dumped nearby on Tuesday. Ten men and three women were arrested.

The Italian government says there's a serious risk that rough seas could cause the capsized cruise ship Costa Concordia to sink completely. The vessel is resting on an undersea ledge off the island of Giglio. Rescuers suspended their search of the ship after it shifted slightly. Italy's environment minister told parliament that salvage teams had only a few days to siphon off the ship's fuel.

BBC News