BBC在线收听下载:奥巴马视察飓风受灾地区

BBC news 2012-11-01

BBC News with Marion Marshall.

President Obama has told Americans recovering from a huge storm that his administration would be with them for the long haul. He made the comment while on a visit to inspect some of the devastation in New Jersey cause by storm Sandy which has battered the northeastern United States.

For those people I just said that a chance to meet on this block, throughout New Jersey, and throughout the region whose lives have been abandoned, We are here for you, and we will not forget, we will follow up to make sure that you get all the help that you need until you rebuilt.

More than 50 people have died and millions are still without electricity. In New York city, trading resumed on the financial markets, and two airports have reopened. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has promised that his administration would continue to work hard and fast to get New York back on its feet.

Many people's lives were turned upside down by the storm, and you have my word that everyone in city government at every level is working 24 hours a day to get the city back on track, including working with the MTA and Con Ed, to meet the two biggest challenges that we face: mass transit and electric power.

Libya's parliament has approved a new cabinet put forward by the Prime Minister Ali Zidan after weeks of political wrangling which led the dismiss of his predecessor. The session was cut short but the security forces firing into the air to disperse protesters outside the building. The BBC Tripoli correspondent says the new cabinet is widely viewed as a broad coalition bringing together liberals, Islamists and independence.

In Britain, the government had suffered an embarrassing defeat over EU funding. A rebellion by MPs from the governing conservatives saw parliament vote for a cut to the EU's budget. The government had wanted parliament to approve a freeze in the budget ahead negotiations between Britain and other member states later this month. Here is our political correspondent Rob Watson.

This is not a binding vote on the government and doesn't tie its hands in its negotiations with other EU states. But it is ,nonetheless,a humiliating defeat for the Prime Minister David Cameron. Critics say it suggests  he's not in full control of his own Conservative Party, and doesn't command  the respects of all his MPs. Beyond that, it's a reminder of the decades-long divisions within the Conservative Party over Europe, and the parties increasingly sceptical approach to the EU. Worryingly, for Mr Cameron it may also be a sign of further rebellions to come over Europe.

South African police say two striking mine workers have been shot dead by security guards as they tried to break into an armoury at a mine in the province of KwaZulu Natal. The two men were part of a group of miners who have gathered to demand better pay. Police say they are investigating two charges of murder. The mine owner the Canadian firm Forbes & Manhattan have temporarily suspended operations there. South Africa's mining sector has been rocked by a series of strikes this year.

World news from the BBC.

The US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has called for major changes to the leadership of the Syrian opposition. Mrs Clinton said talks planned for next week in Qatar should ensure that those who were inside Syria fighting against President Assad's government were represented. She said many other leaders at the Syrian National Council hadn't been inside Syria for decades.

This cannot be an opposition represented by people who have many good attributes, but have in many instances not been inside Syria for 20, 30 or 40 years. There has to be a representation of those who are on the front lines fighting and dying today to obtain their freedom.

A group of Ecuadorians say they'll sue the oil company Chevron in Argentina in an attempt to seize Chevron's assets there. The Ecuadorian plaintiffs accused Chevron of polluting land in the Amazon region for almost three decades. Last year, an Ecuadoran court ordered Chevron to pay $19 billion in damages.

Archaeologists in eastern Bulgaria say they've unearthed the oldest prehistoric town ever found in Europe. Our central Europe correspondent Nick Thorpe reports.

A dome of rock-salt descents almost 4,000 meters beneath the deep Karst gorge of Provadia, above it, Archaeologists have uncovered a fortified town with massive stone walls dated to between 4700 and 4200 BC. The settlement was home to about 350 people, who boiled salt water from springs nearby into salt bricks. The salt was used to preserve meat which began to be traded in large quantities in the late stone age. The discovery almost certainly explains the wealth found exactly 40 years ago at a cemetery on the outskirts of Varna 35Km away, the oldest hoard of gold objects found anywhere in the world.

BBC News